Walking in the Path of Kabbalists
Come and see how grateful we should be to our teachers, who impart us their sacred Lights and dedicate their souls to do good to our souls. They stand in the middle between the path of harsh torments and the path of repentance. They save us from the netherworld, which is harder than death, and accustom us to reach the heavenly pleasures, the sublime gentleness and the pleasantness that is our share, ready and waiting for us from the very beginning, as we have said above. Each of them operates in his generation, according to the power of the Light of his Torah and sanctity.
Our sages have already said, “You have not a generation without such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 8
All the matters, for we will be lost even in the literal without assistance from the Kabbalists. To them we will bow down, and all those matters will be revealed to us.
The Book of Education, Parashat Terumah
Maimonides has already given a true allegory about that: If a line of a thousand blind walk along the way, and there is at least one leader amongst them who can see, they are certain to take the right path and not fall in the pits and obstacles, since they are following the sighted one who leads them. But if that person is missing, they are certain to stumble over every hurdle on the way, and will all fall into the pit.
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 57
Hence, a person has the choice of going to a place where there are righteous. One can accept their authority, and then he will receive all the powers that he lacks by the nature of his own qualities. He will receive it from the righteous. This is the benefit in “planted them in each generation,” so that each generation would have someone to turn to, to cleave to, and from whom to receive the strength needed to rise to the degree of a righteous. Thus, they, too, subsequently become righteous.
Baal HaSulam, Shamati [I Heard], Article no. 99
The most successful way for one who wishes to learn the wisdom is to search for a genuine Kabbalist and follow all his instructions, until one is rewarded with understanding the wisdom in one’s own mind, meaning the first discernment. Afterwards, one will be rewarded with its conveyance mouth to mouth, which is the second discernment, and after that, understand in writing, which is the third discernment. Then, one will have inherited all the wisdom and its instruments from his teacher with ease, and will be left with all one’s time to develop and expand.
Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”
Through adhering to wise disciples, it is possible to receive some support. In other words, only a wise disciple can help him, and nothing else. Even if he is great in the Torah, he will still be called “a commoner,” if he has not been rewarded with learning from the Creator’s mouth.
Hence, one must surrender before a wise disciple and accept what the wise disciple places on him without any arguments, but by way of above reason.
Baal HaSulam, Shamati [I Heard], Article no. 105
Even though one has a soul, he is not ready to know Him, “Until the spirit be poured upon him from on high.” However, one must lend an ear and listen to the words of the sages, and believe in them wholeheartedly.
Baal HaSulam, Letter no. 19
Although our sages and their teachings gave to us in Kabbalah, by that, they are as trusted witnesses, eye-witnesses, and nothing more. However, they teach us the way they were rewarded with becoming eye-witnesses. When we understand, our wisdom will be as theirs and we will attain a true and real foundation, with an eternal, glorious building upon it.
Baal HaSulam, “The Remedy of Memory”
Since the more developed in the generation is certainly the individual, it follows that when the public wants to relieve themselves of the terrible agony and assume conscious and voluntary development, which is the path of Torah, they have no choice but to subjugate themselves and their physical freedom to the discipline of the individual, and obey the orders and remedies that he will offer them.
Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”
As far as spiritual life is concerned, there is no natural obligation on the individual to abide by the society in any way. On the contrary, here applies a natural law over the collective, to subjugate itself to the individual.
Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”
The depths of the Divine secrets simply cannot be comprehended by scrutinizing them with the human intellect, but rather by the Kabbalah, through wondrous people, whose soul has been imbued with the Divine Light. When we study their words, with the proper preparation, internal conjecture comes forth and settles the matters until they are similar to terms that are comprehended by the natural, simple intellect. We should always adjoin the force of the truth of Kabbalah to this science, and then things become illuminating and joyous as when they were given at Sinai—to each according to his degree.
Rav Raiah Kook, Orot HaKodesh (Lights of Sanctity) Vol. 1, 85
Since the mind of the world is one, divided among numerous carriers, it turns out that if two people are clothed with the same mind, they think about a single issue. If there is any difference between them, it is actually in its greatness or smallness. By nature, the small surrender before the great. Hence, those fools who think the exact same thought as the sages ponder the same topic as the sages, and unknowingly surrender and unite with the sages, according to the nature of Creation. In this way the entire world becomes corrected.
Baal HaSulam, A Sage’s Fruit, Talks, “Permanent Delight and Excellent Enslavement”
While most of humanity is undeveloped, and the developed ones are always a small minority, if you always determine according to the will of the collective, which are the undeveloped, and the reckless ones, the views and desires of the wise and the developed in society, which are always the minority, will never be heard taken and will not be taken into consideration. Thus, you seal off humanity’s fate to regression, for it will not be able to make even a single step forward.
Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”
Thus you see that in spiritual matters, the authority of the collective is overturned and the law of “Taking after the Individual” is applied, that is, the developed individual. For it is plain to see that the developed and the educated in every society are always a small minority. It follows that the success and spiritual well-being of society is bottled and sealed in the hands of the minority.
Therefore, the collective is obliged to meticulously guard all the views of the few, so they will not perish from the world. This is because they must know for certain, in complete confidence, that the truer and more developed views are never in the hands of the collective in authority, but rather in the hands of the weakest, that is, in the hands of the indistinguishable minority. This is because every wisdom and everything precious comes into the world in small quantities. Therefore, we are cautioned to preserve the views of all the individuals, due to the collective’s inability to tell wrong from right among them.
Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”