Books | Kabbalah Blog

August 22, 2014July 29, 2014

Introducing the Greatest Spiritual Teachers of the 20th Century and Beyond

Who Was Baal HaSulam?

Since Abraham and Moses there have been many brilliant Kabbalists through the generations, writing some of the fundamental books of Kabbalah, The Zohar and the Ari’s writings being the most important among them.

However, in the end, neither The Zohar nor the writings of the Ari were intended for a systematic study of the Kabbalah. Although the Kabbalah is indeed a science, before the 20^th century there never was a true textbook. It is only in our days that a comprehensive and concise method suitable for all souls of this world was established. To fill in the gaps, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, the great Kabbalist who was born in Warsaw in 1885 and lived in Jerusalem from 1922 until his death in 1954, wrote a commentary on the Zohar and the texts of the Ari. Rabbi Ashlag, called Baal HaSulam (Master of the Ladder), evolved while writing the commentaries and published his principal work, The Study of the Ten Sefirot (Talmud Eser Sefirot), considered the predominant Kabbalah study book of our time.

This textbook consists of six volumes, containing more than two thousand pages. It includes everything that Kabbalists have written since the dawn of time: the writings of the first man, Abraham the Patriarch, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, and the Holy Ari. This book displays Kabbalah in a concise manner, fit for study. Thus, we have with us today everything needed to learn how creation was made, how it comes down to us, and how we can influence it from below, all the way to the highest world, to have the future we’d like to have.

Why Kabbalah Is Completely Opposite to Other Spiritual Teachings

Today The Zohar is incomprehensible without the Sulam commentary. Yet, the method of Baal HaSulam is often misunderstood. To those who have not achieved spiritual fulfillment, the book may be perceived as dry, schematic, and unemotional. It can read like an instruction manual rather than something that moves our heart. But this perception stems from a lack of understanding.

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July 31, 2014July 26, 2014

3 New Books that Will be Released at the Upcoming ONE Convention

1. Disclosing a Portion: The Inner Mechanics of the Torah

The Pentateuch, or The Five Books of Moses, is a fascinating odyssey of a nation in the making. Yet, underneath the tales that reveal human nature at its zenith and at its nadir lies an ocean of wisdom that, if uncovered, can alter reality itself. Dr. Michael Laitman’s Disclosing a Portion: the inner mechanics of the Torah uncovers some of that wisdom in a manner none other has done before.

Throughout the year, each week observant Jews read a different portion of the Pentateuch (which they refer to as the “Torah”). Each portion deals with a different topic, and is titled according to the first word, or words, in the portion.

As you read through the portions, you will discover that each of the protagonists in the stories we’ve known for so long is not a myth, but a living force within. These forces direct and determine your path in life, and when you come to know them, you come to know your true self. Take your time to delve into the text, and portion by portion you will find new meanings that will enrich and empower you as you become the happy, confident person that you dream of being.

Pre-Order Your Copy of Disclosing a Portion Here »

2. A Sage’s Fruit: Letters of Baal HaSulam

The greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, Rav Yehuda Leib Halevi Ashlag, who wrote the Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar, had very few students. A prolific writer, he spent almost all of his time at his desk, so the students that he did have were precious. When spending time away from home and from his students, Rav Yehuda Ashlag would write elaborate letters to provide them with guidance and encouragement. Today these letters offer a window into the special relationships cultivated between the great teacher and his devoted students.

A Sage’s Fruit: letters of Baal HaSulam is a compilation of those letters, which are now being presented to English speaking readership for the first time. The unique style and tone that Rav Ashlag uses in his letters offer inspiration and guidance to any seeker of spiritual advancement. The nature of this book is such that it changes a person. Regardless of how many times one may read the text, it constantly takes on new forms, as if reading it for the very first time. Now that these letters have been revealed, it is unclear how we could perceive spiritual advancement without them.

Pre-Order Your Copy of A Sage’s Fruit Here »

3. Women, Relationships & Kabbalah

Rav Michael Laitman’s words have been carefully compiled into this book according to topics that help a woman to find answers to questions along the path of her spiritual development. She will find answers to questions concerning love, relationships, family, children, the group, unity, dissemination, the nature and role of a woman, her inner work, and the correction of her soul.

“…Our corrected relationships in this world reflect the underlying structure and goal of nature, and once a person feels the need to be in harmony with this goal, their relations become the medium by which they can measure their progress.

Pre-Order Your Copy of Women, Relationships and Kabbalah Here »

July 30, 2014July 26, 2014

How Reincarnation Really Works

The Mystery of Reincarnation Explained

In each generation, the same souls that existed in previous generations reappear. They are clothed in new bodies, evolve, and become more sensitive and receptive to sublime and complex spiritual knowledge. Thus, people who lived thousands of years ago had the same souls as our own but are more developed today, bringing technological and spiritual progress to our world.

Any progress in humankind is the result of souls rising to a higher degree, after having gained experience in previous lives. Each soul that comes to our world begins its life with the experiences it has accumulated in the previous life. Hence, the soul goes through a process of accumulating knowledge, spiritual attainments, and worldly sensations, leaving it with memories we call Reshimot (records or reminiscences).

Of all the souls that have come down to our world from previous generations, only a few have wished to evolve into the spiritual realms. However, in our time, many have done so. We are much more advanced than our ancestors. It is easier for us to absorb new information and live it, because we are born prepared to absorb this information. Hence, each new piece of data is completely natural for us.

How the Concealment of Kabbalah and Reincarnation are Related

Kabbalah books tend to be revealed and concealed intermittently. They can be hidden for several generations, reappear, and then be lost again. It happens this way so that humanity can go through certain “corrections” (Tikkunim). Generally speaking, these books exist throughout the history of humankind to correct humanity and assure its development. All these books will be known to everyone in the future. The Zohar and the books of the prophets state that in our final days, all humanity will use these books as manuals for attaining the upper worlds, and people will have happy, eternal, and complete lives.

Souls of great Kabbalists go through special cycles. They do not appear in our world in every generation but, like the books, only in special ones. The soul of the first man incarnated later on in Abraham the Patriarch, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar- Yochai, the Holy Ari, and, in our days, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag.

Such a soul comes only during special times, when it is meant to influence and correct the entire human race.

The Story of the Reincarnation of a Very Special Soul: The Ari

In the 16th century, the time of the Middle Ages and barbarism, a child was born in Jerusalem. Later in his life he received the name the Holy Ari. He absorbed the entire Kabbalistic knowledge since the first man and processed it and phrased it in such a way that all the generations following him could receive their spiritual nourishment from his books.

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July 29, 2014July 26, 2014

The One Book that Everyone Interested in Spirituality Should Read

**Why The Book of Zohar Is So Important for Your Spirituality**

Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi) was the author of The Book of Zohar, which was written in the second century CE. It is the most important work of Kabbalah and considered to be its primary and most fundamental textbook. Rashbi lived between the Talmudic period and that of The Zohar and is regarded as a great researcher of both human nature and the upper world. He is also among the most important sages of the Talmud (his name is mentioned there some four thousand times). He was proficient in the languages of both the Talmud and Kabbalah, and he used both of them to describe the upper system of management, how the events of the present and the future are made to happen there—all the innovations and transformations—and how they come down from there to our world and manifest themselves in the clothing of this world.

The Zohar explains which actions influence the rest of the world from here below. Rashbi was the first Kabbalist to describe the reactions that we get from above for our thoughts. He described how they operate in the upper world and thus affect the unfolding of future events that are to descend to us. The Zohar is crucial to us because it encircles all the possible circumstances throughout human history.

The Unique Circumstances Behind the Writing of The Zohar

Before Rashbi began to write The Zohar, he established around him a group of disciples, where the soul of each disciple corresponded to a certain spiritual degree in the upper world. There were nine students, and he was the tenth. Together they formed one collective soul, corresponding to the complete structure in the spiritual world called the Eser (ten) Sefirot.

Thus, although Rashbi is the author of the book, each and every one of the students represents one of the attributes of the spiritual world he describes. He built a sort of prism, through which the simple upper light descends to our world and divides into ten parts, which are then divided into ten inner Sefirot. Their story is in fact a description of how those ten spiritual properties or forces come upon our world and lead it and how each person can use these forces for his or her own benefit and for others.

**Why The Zohar Is Often Misunderstood**

Rashbi said he could not have written the book by himself. He was supposed to write the book for the last generations and, in the meantime, conceal it so that it would only be revealed in the 16th century. To write this book in such a way that the intermediary generations would pass it by, he used his disciple Rabbi Abba. Rabbi Abba began writing the book while hearing and studying it from his teacher, but he wrote it in such a way that those who read it perceive only the outermost layer of the book.

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July 28, 2014July 30, 2014

Forget the Da Vinci Code, Discover the Torah Code

What Secrets Lie in the Torah?

People search for all kinds of codes in the Torah and find all the possible interconnections among its parts. Indeed, the parts of the Torah are interconnected in an infinite number of ways— the number of the letters, the words, the verses, and the phrases have been calculated. Recently, a fantastic work of calculation analyzed the inner structure of the letters and parts of letters. But those calculations give us nothing. They don’t teach us what stands behind each symbol or dot, or the shape of the letters and their combinations.

What the Dots and Lines in the Torah Mean

The Torah was first written as a single word with no spaces. Only later was that single word divided into individual words and the words into letters, and those letters were further broken down to their parts. In the end, these parts become a point and a line that extends from it. A black point on a white background symbolizes the source of the light: the light emanates from the single point. If the light descends from the upper force, from the Creator to the creature, it is a vertical line; if the force is ascribed to the entire creation, it is a horizontal line.

This is all the information that we get from the Creator. All the possible combinations between dots and lines depend on those two signs sent to us from the Creator:

The vertical line—a personal sign sent to humankind by the Creator
The horizontal line—a general sign sent to humankind by the Creator
All the situations in between

All the signs combined created the code for the relationship between God and humankind, and at any moment things can appear different because at any moment the soul is in a dif- ferent state.

**Why The Book of Zohar Is the Key that Unlocks the Torah**

A person who looks at the letters of the Torah, provided he or she has learned to read it correctly, can see his or her own past, present, and future through the combinations of dots and lines. But to see these things, one needs a key. With it, one can read the Torah like a tour guide to the spiritual world as opposed to simply a historic episode. This key is found in The Zohar, which interprets the Pentateuch and explains exactly what Moses meant by writing the Torah.

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