Kabbalists About Kabbalah – The Vessel to Save Humanity
“It’s been thoroughly clarified, that the Torah too has its internality and its externality, as does the whole world. Therefore, he who delves in the Torah also has those two degrees. And upon increasing his toil in the internality of the Torah and its secrets, to that extent he makes the virtue of the internality of the world, which is Israel; rise ever higher over the externality of it, meaning the Nations of the World. And all the nations will recognize and admit to the ascendancy of Israel over them”
(Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag: Introduction to The Book of Zohar, item 69)
“Indeed, if we aim our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am sure that all the doubts will vanish from the horizon, and you will look unto their place, and they will not be: it is the angry question, asked by all, being: What is the meaning of our lives? Meaning, these years of our lives, which cost us so heavily, and the plenitude of torments that we suffer in order to complete it to its fullest, who is it that enjoys them? Or to be precise, whom do I delight? In earnest, historians have already grown tired of contemplating it, and all the more so in our generation, not one person wishes to even consider it. However, the question still stands, as bitter and assertive as ever, for it sometimes meets us uninvited, pecks at our mind and humiliates us to the ground, before we find the famous scheme, and carry on with the currents of life as always”
(Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, item 2)
“While the orthodoxy continues to insist solely on Gmarah and Mishnah, rejecting the Agada, the Kabbalah and the research… it impoverishes itself, and all the means that it applies to defend itself, without adopting the real potion of life, i.e. the internal light of the Torah, will not help. It will be filled with anger… for the obvious and tangible that is apparent in Torah and Mitzvot alone, can never, under any circumstances bring one to one’s goal, in any generation, and all the more so in ours. It is possible only alongside the expansion of the many spiritual roots”
(Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak HaCohen Cook, Igrot 2)
“Upon studying this composition, one awakens the power of the souls and those righteous people, along with the force of Moses… for when they practice it, they renew the renewed light that was renewed upon writing this composition, and divinity shines and illuminates from that light as it did when it was innovated, and all who study it, reawaken the benefit and that former light that Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochay and his associates had uncovered upon making the composition.”
(Ohr Yakar, Gate 1, item 5)
“The study of the corrections of the holy Zohar… purifies the body and the soul, and has the virtue of bringing redemption soon in our days.”
(Matte Efraim)
“…When one delves in this wisdom, mentioning the names of the lights and the vessels, related to his soul, they right away illuminate him to a certain degree. However, they illuminate him without dressing in the internality of his soul, since he doesn’t have the vessels needed to receive them. Indeed, the illumination one receives time and again, when studying, draws to him grace from above, imparting him with a bounty of sanctity and purity, which greatly furthers one toward one’s perfection.”
(Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, item 155)
“When one as much as reads the words… what is it like? It is like a sick person who drinks a therapeutic potion that helps although one is not proficient in the wisdom of medicine.”
(Remez, part 3, page 2)
“Thus you see that in spiritual matters the authority of the collective is overturned, and the law of “Taking after the (developed) Individual” is applied. For it is plain to see, that the developed and the educated in every society, are always a small minority. It therefore turns out that the success and spiritual well-being of society is bottled and sealed in the hands of a few.
Therefore the collective is obliged to watch meticulously the opinion of the few that they will not perish from the world. For they must know for sure, with absolute certainty, that the more developed and true opinions, are never in the hands of the collective in authority, but rather in the hands of the weakest, that is to say, in the hands of an indistinguishable minority. For every wisdom and everything that is precious, comes into the world in small quantities. Therefore we are cautioned to preserve the opinions of each individual, because of the collective’s inability to tell wrong from right amongst them.”
(Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, The Freedom)
“All the great Kabbalists cry out unanimously, that as long as they remove the secrets from the Torah and do not practice its secrets, they destroy the world…”
(Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak HaCohen Cook, Igrot 2)
“Do have strength my soul-mate to shine the light of the wisdom of the hidden in the world. The time has come now, for every one to know that the salvation of Israel and the entire world depends but on the appearance of the wisdom of the hidden light of the Torah in a clear tone. And the hidden will also raise the revealed to its feet.”
(Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak HaCohen Cook, Igrot 2)
“I have seen it written that the prohibition from above to refrain from open study in the wisdom of truth, was only for a limited period, until the end of 1490, but from then on the prohibition has been lifted and permission was granted to study the Zohar. Since 1540 it has been a great Mitzva (very good deed) for the masses to study in public, old and young… and that is because the Messiah will come because of that and not because of any other reason. Therefore, we must not be negligent.”
(Introduction to Ohr HaChama)
“This revelation will not be, but through the study of the Torah. But the redemption depends primarily on the study of the Kabbalah.”
(The Ga’on from Vilna)
“Alas, these people, who make the spirit of Messiah vanish from the world, so as never to return, make the Torah dry, without the moist of mind and knowledge, for they confine themselves to the practical part of the Torah, and do not wish to try and understand the wisdom of the Kabbalah, to know and educate themselves in the secrets and the reason behind the Torah and the precepts. Alas, they cause by their deeds the poverty, the ruin and the robbery, the looting, the killings and destruction in the world.”
(Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag: Introduction to the book of Zohar, item 70)