The Contemporary Generation of Kabbalah
Many Kabbalists have written throughout time about the importance of the circulation of the Kabbalah, starting with the most ancient books of Kabbalah (Raziel the Angel), written by the first man, Sefer haYetzira, written by Abraham the patriarch, and the book of Zohar, written by Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochay in the third century AC. Between Raziel the Angel and the Zohar, and after the Zohar, many books of Kabbalah were written, but they were published only among Kabbalists and were never opened to the general public. Kabbalah is the single most important science to man. But the Kabbalists are the ones who hid it in the past, and it is the Kabbalists who permit it today.
It is written in the Zohar that when we return from the last exile - meaning in our generation - we will come to a state called “the days of the Messiah”, and only then will we begin to actually need the Kabbalah and use it.
The reason for the exile
The reason for our exile among the nations and the settling of other nations here in our place, was that our spiritual degree did not match the spiritual degree called the Land of Israel. It is impossible to live in the land of Israel while having ambitions that belong elsewhere, in other words, worldly desires instead of spiritual ones.
Every part of the planet has a unique spiritual force acting on it. The spiritual force that acts on the land of Israel, necessitates the Jews, through its influence, to adapt their spiritual and moral degree to it. Otherwise, there is a discrepancy between Israel and the force, resulting in torments, wars, disease and concerns. If the discrepancy increases beyond a certain point, it will make us desert the place it works on, meaning it will drive us away from the land of Israel.
That is why each time there is a descent in the spiritual degree of Israel, the temple is ruined, meaning a spiritual decline brings with it and moral and social decline in the corporeal reality as well.
Today, we are at the end of the fourth exile, the last exile. And just like in all previous exiles and returns, we now too must return from it, and attain the spiritual return. We have to exit the spiritual exile and come to spiritual redemption, return to the spiritual world, and rise to the spiritual level where we are equal with the spiritual degree of the land of Israel, so that our spiritual vessel, our spiritual attributes will match those of the spiritual land of Israel. All the torments and our problems occur for the sole purpose of forcing us to correct ourselves and bring us to equality with the spiritual force that works on the land of Israel.
Thus the Zohar explains, thus the Kabbalists say, and they point to our generation as the generation when Kabbalah should be opened to all. Because it is only by the study of the Kabbalah and self-correction that we can live in peace and happiness. That is why Kabbalah is becoming more and more popular and fashionable.
Growing ambitions
In earlier generations, people had simpler desires, that have not yet developed. Man’s desires were mainly for corporeal-beastly desires. In more recent generations, desires for wealth, glory, power and knowledge begin to rise.
Those phases of development occur throughout. They occur in all nations and in every individual. The realization of these desires brings with it technological progress. But humanity will gradually understand that all the attempts at realizing its desires will bring it no satisfaction, happiness, or an answer to the question, “what is the meaning of our lives?” But that understanding will come only later on…
When humanity begins to ask about the meaning of life, it will begin to search, and then the turn of the wisdom of Kabbalah - the wisdom that was kept secret for thousands of years - will come. Today, as the Zohar writes, the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed, and it is precisely through the Kabbalah, through the spiritual forces concealed in the Zohar, that return from the spiritual exile will be made possible.
According to the Zohar, humanity undergoes four phases of development, which correspond to the four exiles that the people of Israel had to go through. The discovery of the Kabbalah will occur at the close of the fourth exile, which began at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the first settlers came to the land of Israel. In our time, at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the 21st, the settling will be completed, and that will be the end of our physical return from exile. It is then, that the study of the Kabbalah will become a necessity in order to return from the spiritual exile as well.
We only have ourselves to blame! There is no point blaming others, but only ourselves. How the world treats us, depends on us alone, and it has nothing to do with the way we relate to other peoples, but how we position ourselves vis-a-vie the spiritual forces.
We clearly see that all our attempts to befriend other nations, only bring disrespect toward us, because they subconsciously expect something different from us, and they despise us for our attempts to befriend them in other ways.
All people, even the greatest of them, are like marionettes. They are all activated from above. The Creator is the one who awakens the nations of the world to treat us like that. It is said in the Torah that “The heart of ministers and kings is at the hand of God”. It means that there is no other force that leads everyone, and we have no reason to blame our enemies for hating us (it doesn’t mean that we have to love them). We must understand that the reason for their behavior is their own destiny and the reason they treat us the way they do is within us.
There are no miracles, and no one can help a person but himself. In the thousands of years that humanity has existed, no wonder-drug has been found that could change our situation. The reason for the pain is that we live in this world like blind kittens. We do not understand what it is we must do, what will become of us tomorrow, what impact our actions have and what the world around us really wants from us when it presses us so.
Only by intensifying our involvement with everything that happens in the universe, meaning in the upper world, we will learn how to control our fate. We must learn to see the upper world through our corporeal world. The reasons for the future of our existence are found in the upper world.
The same souls repeat and cloth the bodies of this world from generation to generation. Gradually, over thousands of years, those souls have come to a situation that it is necessary for their existence to discover the upper world. The Kabbalah is the ‘patent’ at our disposal to attain that goal.
What is that Kabbalistic 'patent'?
While Kabbalists write the books of Kabbalah in our physical world, they also feel the spiritual worlds. When we read their writings, although we do not feel what they felt when they wrote it, we awaken on ourselves an illumination from the spiritual degree the Kabbalist was at when he wrote the book. That upper light purifies us and helps us feel the upper world, like the Kabbalist did.
That special attribute is called “remedy”, or “virtue”, and it refers to the study of the Zohar in particular, and the books of Kabbalah in general. Nothing is hidden in those books, but the reading in the writings of the Kabbalists, connects one with the upper one and pulls him up. It is for that reason that we study the books that are intended for people like us, who still don’t feel anything but our own world, but want to come to feel the whole reality, the whole creation.
But not all the books of Kabbalah carry the same illumination. The primary books that carry the light are the Zohar, the writings of the ARI, and the writings of Baal HaSulam.
The revealed part of the Kabbalah, which the future of the world depends on, can be studied by anyone, including complete beginners, without any fear.
Prejudice
Even today many people think that Kabbalah is some secret wisdom that should not be touched or taught. Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes in the Introduction to Talmud Esser Sefirot, that Kabbalah is comprised of two parts: the first is called “the flavors of Torah”, which is the meaning of the Torah, life and creation, and the second is called “the secrets of Torah”.
The part of the “flavors of Torah” deals with the structure of the worlds, the structure of the soul, the ascent of man to the spiritual worlds, the discovery of the meaning of life to man, in past and future cycles, what he lives for and why he was born to his specific family, with this specific character, what he should do in this life and what he should do so that he doesn’t have to come back to this world. All these belong to the flavors of Torah.
The part of the secrets of Torah deals with what Kabbalists attain of the upper worlds. There isn’t any book that speaks of it, but only implications and hints in some writings.
All the books of Kabbalah deal with the flavors of Torah. Therefore, the book of Zohar can be taught, as well the Tree of Life, and all the other books written by Kabbalists, anywhere and in any bookstore. Every thing that is written in the Kabbalah books has nothing to do with the concealed part of the Kabbalah, but only with the revealed part, that we must all study, because it is that part, which allows a person to attain correction and attain the world outside of himself, the upper world, because there we find the reasons for everything that happens here, now and in the future. The Kabbalah teaches man how to determine his own future by himself for his and everyone else’s benefit.
The consequences of one’s actions rise to the upper world. I cannot see and feel what my actions do in the upper world, in my present state. How exactly does it react to what I do, what comes down to me and to the whole world as a result of them. I somehow affect myself and the whole world, but I don’t understand that closed circuit of information. For such a level of self-awareness one needs the kabbalah.
That is why the Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah”, a science, not a religion. It enables man to see the true shape of the world he lives in, including the whole of creation, meaning all the worlds. Only then does he begin to understand what works on him and in what way he should act.
That is why anything that has to do with the revealed part of the Kabbalah, is a must for everyone to know. We are living in a very special time; we have not yet returned from exile to the land of Israel through our own strength, meaning our return to Israel was not by will, but by the push of the upper force – the Creator delivered us and brought us here from exile.
But if we don’t rise to the spiritual level of the land of Israel, we will suffer more and more by our enemies, both external and internal, which are the forces by which the Creator will make us rise to the spiritual level called the “Land of Israel”.
The spreading of the Kabbalah
I’ve been dealing with Kabbalah for twenty seven years now, and there is a real revolution happening before my very eyes; a revolution in mankind’s outlook on life. People feel what is the most important thing in life, they feel that there are spiritual forces that work on them and that only if we contact those forces, we will be able to save ourselves.
It is getting clearer every day, closer to us all. That is why we are starting to teach Kabbalah in so many places, and we are happy with every one who comes to study. After all, the holy ARI, the greatest Kabbalist in the 15th century, and the founder of the Lurianic Kabbalah, wrote in his introduction to his book, “The Tree of Life”, that by every one studying Kabbalah, humanity will save itself from the evil in it, and attain the revelation of the benevolent giver.