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 20th 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.
Studying Kabbalah means attaining what the books speak of, not just knowing what is written in the books. Unlike any other science, with Kabbalah you become the subject of the research as you study, so the things about which you read happen inside of you rather than on the page.
Some say that all we must do is read, which then triggers something in the world above, which we do not understand. But this contradicts the desired outcome of the study, the pur- pose of the study, and what we should be doing. One should rise to the spiritual world while living in this world, in this corporeal life. That, in fact, is the purpose of the system of Kabbalah, and it can only be achieved through the right study, with the real books, written by Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai), the Ari, and Baal HaSulam.
Kabbalah Opens Up the Spiritual Reality for a Person
When we learn from Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) under the right conditions and with the proper guidance, the upper world opens. There is a special approach to the material in the book and a special key that explains how to read the text, to make it open correctly. When a person studies like that, he or she begins to feel the universe, to see and feel in every sense what exists beyond the range of that sense, because his or her senses are corporeal and limited and can perceive nothing beyond their scope.
Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” that anyone can attain the highest point of spiritual evolution in our world, anyone can attain equivalence of form with the upper force—the Creator.
Baal HaSulam writes that he is a reincarnation of a soul that starts with the first man, continues through Abraham the Patriarch, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, the Ari, and finally him. Because of that, he could take the compositions of these Kabbalists and process and present them to us in a way that suits our generation.
The Next Generation of Kabbalah: From Baal HaSulam to Baruch Ashlag
Baruch Ashlag represents the next phase in the evolution of Kabbalah after his father. The eldest son of Yehuda Ashlag, Baruch Ashlag was born in Poland in 1907 and came with his father to Israel at age fifteen.
Although he was very knowledgeable in Torah and Talmud, Baruch Ashlag never served as a community rabbi. Instead, he spent his entire life following in the footsteps of his father and advancing in the study of Kabbalah. When his father passed away, Baruch Ashlag inherited his disciples and continued his work. He published The Zohar with his father’s com- mentaries, as well as several other books.
Rabbi Baruch Ashlag wrote five books of articles, called Shlavey Hasulam (The Rungs of the Ladder), in which he successfully expressed all the inner states of a person who is on the way toward attaining the upper world. He studied all the possible phases, every step and movement that a person makes on the way, and explained how to reach the spiritual world and how to feel and live in it.
Attain the Spiritual Reality Like Baruch Ashlag
He constructed a system by which the individual could attain the upper world, something that previous Kabbalists did not do. This unique aspect of his articles is especially significant for those who want to attain the spiritual world. Without those articles, it is impossible to even imagine getting beyond our physical reality.
He also left us a manuscript of sermons he had heard from his father, which he called Shamati (I Heard). Using these articles, we can define the characteristics of our own spiritual state and learn how to continue the spiritual ascent in that specific situation. The book is the basis for all the phases in the spiritual worlds and their many combinations, which affect the soul of one who aspires to attain them.
The works of Rabbi Baruch Ashlag are essential to us and to anyone who wishes to be open to the spiritual world.
“Introducing the Greatest Spiritual Teachers of the 20th Century and Beyond” is based on the book, Awakening to Kabbalah: The Guiding Light of Spiritual Fulfillment by Dr. Michael Laitman.
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