Baal HaSulam

It is known that the desired purpose of the work in Torah and Mitzvot is to cleave unto the Creator, as it is written, "and to cleave unto Him." We should understand what Dvekut (adhesion) with the Creator means. After all, the thought has no perception of Him whatsoever. Indeed, our sages have discussed this question before me, asking about the verse, "and to cleave unto Him": "How can one cleave unto Him? After all, He is consuming fire."...

Before I clarify this exalted matter, it is important for me to note that although all the readers seem to consider it impossible to clarify and bring such a matter closer to the human mind, except by relying on abstract, philosophical concepts, as is usually the case in such scrutinies, since the day I have discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah and dedicated myself to it, I have distanced myself from abstract philosophy and all its branches as the east from the west. Everything that I will write henceforth will be from a purely scientific perspective, in utter precision, and by means of simple recognition of practical, useful things...

There is an allegory about friends who were lost in the desert, hungry and thirsty. One of them had found a settlement filled abundantly with every delight. He remembered his poor brothers, but he had already drawn far off from them and did not know their place. What did he do? He began to shout out loud and blow the horn; perhaps his poor hungry friends would hear his voice, approach and come to that abundant settlement filled with every delight...

The second concealment, which the books refer to as “concealment within concealment,” means that one cannot see even the back of the Creator. Instead, one says that the Creator has left him and no longer watches over him. He ascribes all the sufferings he feels to blind fate and to nature, since the ways of Providence become so complex in one’s eyes that they lead one to denial...

There is an idiom among great sages when they come to disclose a profound matter: they begin their words with, “I am disclosing a portion and covering two portions.” Our sages took great care not to utter words needlessly, as our sages instructed, “A word is a rock; silence is two.”...

The Creator will evidently show us that Israel cannot exist in exile, and will find no rest as the rest of the nations that mingled among the nations and found rest, and assimilated in them, until no trace was left of them. Not so is the house of Israel. This nation will find no rest among the nations until it realizes the verse, "And from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him for you will demand him with all your heart and all your soul"...

What is Baal HaSulam telling us here? To the extent that man controls nature, the laws of nature, by correctly using them for himself, to that extent he measures his life, his essence, and his status, both in our world, as well as in the spiritual world. Meaning, he has to know where he is, the kind of laws that operate on him, how he can operate them for his own benefit. Is it really for his own benefit? Maybe it just seems that way for a short term then he discovers that it’s the opposite...

Illustrations and References

In this introduction, I would like to clarify matters that are seemingly simple. Matters that everyone fumbles with, and for which much ink has been spilled, attempting to clarify. Yet we have not reached a concrete and sufficient knowledge of them. And here are the questions...

At the outset of my words, I find a great need to break an iron wall that has been separating us from the wisdom of Kabbalah, since the ruin of the Temple to this generation. It lies heavily on us and arouses fear of being forgotten from Israel...

It is known from books and from authors that the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah is an absolute must for any person from Israel. If one studies the entire Torah and knows the Mishnah and the Gemarah by heart; if one is also filled with virtues and good deeds more than all his contemporaries, but has not learned the wisdom of Kabbalah, he must incarnate once more into this world to study the secrets of Torah and wisdom of truth...

To interpret this article in its true meaning, we must go by a long way, for the heart of sayers is too deep to search. This means that all the issues of the Torah and the Mitzva bear revealed and concealed, as it is written, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”...

It is written at the end of the Mishnah (Okatzin), “The Creator did not find a receptacle that holds a blessing for Israel, but peace, as it is written, ‘The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.’”...

It is written in The Zohar, Vayikra, Parashat Tazria, p 40, “Come and see, all that exists in the world, exists for man, and everything exists for him, as it is written, ‘Then the Lord God formed man,’ with a full name, as we have established, that he is the whole of everything and contains everything, and all that is Above and below, etc., is included in that image.”...

To my students,
We need to renew our work every day, that is to say we need to forget the past. If we have not succeeded in the past, we need to begin over again. Like the merchant who opens a shop that failed--he closes that one and immediately starts another, and he is full of hope that though the old business failed, the new one is sure to succeed...

This statement of our sages demands explanation. The word Klal (collective/rule) indicates a sum of details that, when put together, form the above collective. Thus, when he says about the Mitzva, "love thy friend as thyself," that it is a great Klal in the Torah, we must understand that the rest of the 612 Mitzvot (precepts) in the Torah, with all their interpretations, are no more and no less than the sum of the details inserted and contained in that single Mitzva (singular for Mitzvot), "love thy friend as thyself."...

As a whole, science is divided into two parts: one is called “material research” and the other, “formative research.” This means that matter and form are perceived in every element of the entire reality before us...

The Zohar, "With this composition, the children of Israel are redeemed from exile." This is because at that time there was hope for redemption, as the writing of The Zohar, which began in the days of Rashbi, was during the days when Bar-Kokheva appeared...

Everything in reality, good and bad, and even the most harmful in the world, has a right to exist and should not be eradicated from the world and destroyed. We must only mend and reform it because any observation of the work of Creation is enough to teach us about the greatness and perfection of its Operator and Creator. Therefore, we must understand and be very careful when casting a flaw in any item of Creation, saying it is redundant and superfluous, as that would be slander about its Operator...

The depth of wisdom in the holy Book of Zohar is enclosed and caged behind a thousand locks, and our human tongue too poor to provide us with sufficient, reliable expressions to interpret one thing in this book to its end. Also, the interpretation I have made is but a ladder to help the examiner rise to the height of the matters and examine the words of the book itself. Hence, I have found it necessary to prepare the reader and give him a route and an inlet in reliable definitions concerning how one should contemplate and study the book...

First, we must know the names of the ten Sefirot: KHB, HGT, NHYM. These are acronyms of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, Malchut. These are also the ten coverings of His Light, established so the lower ones can receive His Light...

Rabbi Hanania ben Akashia said, “The Creator wished to reward Israel, so He gave them the Torah and the Commandments...” In Hebrew “to award” (“ Lizkot”) is similar to the word “to purify” (“ Lezakot”). Midrash “Bereshit Rabbah” says, “The Commandments are given only to purify Israel with their help."

Among the books and manuscripts that my Rabbi would study from, there was one particular notebook titled Shamati (What I Heard). That notebook would go with him wherever he went and time after time he would delve into it. On his deathbed, in the wee hours of the night, he suddenly handed me that notebook and said: "Take this notebook and study it." Early next morning, with me by his side, his pure soul climbed into the heavens. The notebook holds a collection of essays written word for word from the mouth of Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), my Rabbi's father, immediately after they were spoken. Because of their uniqueness, we've kept them in their original style of language, which my Rabbi so eagerly absorbed and upon which he based his schoolings. For our English readers we've translated some of the essays and will continue to do so until the work is done. May these essays promote you on your spiritual path.

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD

Explains the issue of Tzimtzum Aleph, when Ohr Ein Sof became restricted in order to emanate the Ne’etzalim and create the creatures; containing five issues...

Every person is obliged to attain the root of his soul. This means that the aspired-for purpose of the created being is Dvekut (adhesion) with His qualities, “As He is merciful, etc.” His qualities are the Holy Sefirot, and this is the acting mind that guides His world and by which it allots them His benevolence and abundance...

This is to speak of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), when all of Israel became responsible for one another. Because the Torah was not given to them before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the Mitzva (precept) of loving others in the full measure, expressed in the words: "Love thy friend as thyself" (as explained in Items 2 and 3, examine it thoroughly there)...

The Book of Zohar is an age-old source of wisdom and the basis of much of Kabbalistic literature. Throughout the centuries it was the primary and often the only book used by Kabbalists and now it is accessible to contemporary man.

The Bright One!

And from the Heavens He shines.

There—within curtain of the screen...

Double Concealment (concealment inside concealment)

In this state the person does not even feel the opposite side of the Creator, cannot perceive anything as coming from Him. He feels that the Creator abandoned him, disregards him completely. He attributes suffering to destiny and blind nature. Being confused by the Creator’s attitude to him, man loses faith.

In this article I would like to resolve three issues: A. What is the essence of religion? B. Is its essence attained in this world or in the next world? C. Is its purpose to benefit the Creator or the creatures?..

Before I go about elucidating the history of the wisdom of Kabbalah, conversed about by many, I find it necessary to begin with a thorough clarification of the essence of this wisdom, which I believe so few know. And naturally, it is impossible to speak of the history of something before we know the thing itself...

It is a general view that freedom is deemed a natural law, which applies to all of life. Thus, we see that animals that fall into captivity die when we rob them of their freedom. This is a true testimony that Providence does not accept the enslavement of any creature. It is with good reason that humanity has been struggling for the past several hundred years to obtain a certain measure of freedom of the individual...

The basis for all my explanations is the desire to receive, which is imprinted in every creature, which is the difference in form from the Creator. Therefore, the soul has been separated from it, like an organ which has been separated from a body. Since a difference in form in spirituality is like an ax which cuts things apart in corporeal life.

The above statement, although it is one of the most famous and cited sayings, it is still unexplained to everyone with all its vastness. That is because the word rule (or collective) indicates a sum of details that relates to the above rule, that each and every detail carries a part within it in a way that the gathering of all the details together creates that rule (or collective)...

In 1940, with his last pennies, Baal HaSulam published what he planned would be a by-weekly paper titled "The Nation." He had hoped that using it, he could draw attention to the resolution to life's problems. It has been sixty-six, going on seven, years since then, and our situation has not improved; it has worsened and become more ominous...

After having demonstrated in previous articles the general form of His work, whose essence is but the love of others, practically determined as "bestowal upon others," meaning that the actual manifestation of love of others is bestowal of goodness upon others, love of others should be determined as bestowal upon others, which is best suited for its content, aiming to ensure that we will not forget the aim...

And it came to pass in the days of the war, the days of the dreadful carnage, that I was praying, crying bitterly all through the night. And behold, at the break of dawn, it seemed as though all the people in the world have gathered in a group before my mind’s eye. And a man was hovering amongst them, with his sword over their heads, lashing their heads. The heads soared upward, and their bodies fell to a great basin and became a sea of bones...

What is the wisdom of Kabbalah? As a whole, the wisdom of Kabbalah concerns the revelation of Godliness, arranged on its path in all its aspects—those that have emerged in the worlds and those that are destined to be revealed, and in all the manners that can ever appear in the worlds, to the end of time...

Philosophy has gone through a great deal of trouble to prove that corporeality is the offspring of spirituality and that the soul begets the body. Still, their words are unacceptable to the heart in any manner. Their primary mistake is their erroneous perception of spirituality: they determined that spirituality fathered corporeality, which is certainly a fib...

That bread, which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. The Mitzva of eating Matza was given to the children of Israel even before they departed Egypt, relating to the future exodus, which was to be in haste. It follows that the Mitzva of eating a Matza was given to them while there were still enslaved, and the aim of the Mitzva was for the time of redemption, since then they departed in haste...

Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before, meaning the revelation and concealment of the face of the Creator, for indeed “His kingdom ruleth over all,” and everything will return to its root because there is no place vacant of him. But the difference is in present tense or future tense, because he who connects the two worlds, discovers in the present His clothing: that everything that is done is a clothing for the revelation of divinity...

For a long time now, my conscience has burdened me with a demand to come out and create a fundamental composition regarding the essence of Judaism, religion, and the wisdom of Kabbalah, and spread it among the nation, so people will come to know and properly understand these exalted matters in their true meaning...