Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam)

It is said that there are 600,000 souls, and each soul divides into several sparks. We must understand how it is possible for the spiritual to divide, since initially, only one soul was created, the soul of Adam ha Rishon. In my opinion, there is indeed only one soul in the world, as it is written, “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” The same soul exists in all the children of Israel, complete in each and every one, as in Adam ha Rishon, since the spiritual is indivisible and cannot be cut—which is rather a trait of corporeal things...

This requires a thorough explanation. To make it clear to all, I shall choose to interpret the matter by what appears to us for this reason and extends to us here in the conduct of this world...

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...

One concealment (depiction): His Face is not revealed; that is, the Creator does not behave towards a person according to His Name—The Good who Does Good. Rather, it is to the contrary—one is afflicted by Him or suffers from poor income, and many people wish to collect their debts from him and make his life bitter. His whole day is filled with troubles and worries. Or, one suffers from poor health and disrespect from people. Every plan he begins he fails to complete, and he is constantly frustrated...

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"...

It is impossible to sustain one’s body in the world without a certain amount of knowledge about the corporeal nature, such as knowing which drugs are lethal, and what things burn and do harm, as well as knowledge and assessment of what is in one’s friend’s heart, without which it is impossible to exist in the material world. Just so, man’s soul cannot exist in the next world until it has acquired a certain amount of the nature of the systems of the spiritual worlds, their changes, couplings, and generations...

There is no difference between this world and the next world, except that one is temporary and one is eternal. But there is no possession in this world, or in the next world, that is not a separate spiritual matter. Of course, the measure that one has acquired from this kind in the temporary one will remain his in the eternal one...

Our sages said, “There is not a blade of grass below that does not have an angel above that strikes it and tells it, ‘Grow!’” This seems very perplexing, for why would the Creator trouble an angel from Above with striking and nursing a tiny, insignificant blade of grass?..

Illustrations and References

Our sages said, “Israel will not be redeemed until they are all in one bundle.” We must understand how Israel’s unity relates to redemption...

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...

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...

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 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.” Thus, it explains that all the worlds, Upper and lower, are included in man. And also, the whole of reality within those worlds is only for man. And we should understand these words: Is this world and everything in it, which serves him and benefits him, too little for man, that he needs the Upper Worlds and everything within them, too? After all, they were created solely for his needs.

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...

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...

Know that this is what it means that the children of Israel are redeemed only after the wisdom of the hidden is revealed to a great extent, as it is written in 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...

Work, of any kind, should include thought, speech, and action...

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."

During the exile, considered “the female world,” the work is in keeping. And one who flaws one’s work might lose what he is given...

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

The principal, fundamental book that we study is called Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot). It consists of six volumes and more than 2000 pages that depict the laws of the system of creation in scientific terms. When we study them, we receive a special illumination, a special Providence from Above. The reason for studying this great work is because it is written in a manner meant for people in this generation...

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...

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...

Throughout time and throughout the world, wise men have failed to come up with a solution that would be accepted by all. I offer a genuine solution that is both acceptable and unites them all...

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)...

The scrutiny of the educated in creation, in the first concept, is defined as emulating the work of the Creator. The work of the Creator is called “Providence,” or the “nature of creation”...

Malchut that is clothed in the worlds is called Ani (me/I). It hangs down to Assiya, which is the separation, where each person feels as a separate entity, sensing the “self,” and by its expansion wishes to conquer the entire world for one’s own will and pleasure. This is the power of the shattering in Assiya, “I will rule,” meaning from holy sparks that were not yet sorted. It is called “the serpent’s skin,” which is the good and bad in the Noga shell...

This paper, The Nation, is a new entity on the Jewish street. It is an “inter-partisan” paper. And you may ask, “What does an ‘inter-partisan’ paper mean? How can there be a paper that can serve all parties together, despite all the opposition and contrasts among them?" Indeed, it is a “being” that was born in dire straits, through hard and dreadful labor-pains, from amidst the venom of hatred that had struck the nations of the world to obliterate us from the face of the Earth, the destruction of millions of our brothers, and they are prepared to do more. Their sadistic inclination is insatiable, and the calamity is twofold, for we cannot delude ourselves that all this is but a passing, transitory phenomenon, as with our past experiences in history, that if a nation erupts on us, we find a substitute in another.

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...

There are two parts in any understanding (recognition of reason). The first is in material elements, meaning the nature of the objects in the reality before us. The second is in the figurative elements devoid of those objects, meaning forms of mind and reason itself. We shall call the first, “material learning,” which is empirical, and is called “physics” ... and we shall call the second one, “figurative learning,” which is theoretical, and is called “logic”...

I have been requested to present my perception of a solution to the painful problem of the unification of all the parties and the trends on a single background. Firstly, I must confess that I have no solution to this question in the way it was presented, nor will there ever be a solution to it...

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...

The value of any wisdom in the world is according to the purpose that it yields. This is the goal to which all the scrutinies aim. Therefore, a wisdom without some purpose is inconceivable except for infants playing games, since to pass the time they come and this is their purpose, according to their value. For this reason, a wisdom is not evaluated by keenness and proficiency, but according to the merit of the purpose that it yields...

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...

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 where they were. What did he do? He began to shout out loud and blow the horn; perhaps his poor hungry friends would hear his voice, approach him, and come to that abundant settlement that is filled with every delight...

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...