Excerpt from the forthcoming
The Path of the Ladder : A Spiritual Biography of Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag by Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Gottlieb
translated from the Hebrew "Hasulam" by Yedidah Cohen
Preface
"I give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, I will tell of all Your wonders" (Psalms 9:2)
When I saw that the students of the holy Sage of Israel, Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag, known as the Baal haSulam, “the Master of the Ladder,” were departing this world, as their generation was leaving us, I became anxious lest Torah may be lost from Israel, because the deeds of the righteous are actual Torah. So I said: “It is time to act for the Lord’s sake,” and I set to the task of compiling this book.
Actually, even prior to this, whenever I heard my holy teacher, Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, tell a story, or say something of moment, I would write it down immediately. Likewise, when the holy band, the students of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, would meet and tell a story, or discuss a saying attributed to the Baal haSulam or his students, I noted it down immediately. However, once I had made the decision to write this book, I, and some of my pupils, went specifically to meet with the descendants of the students of the Baal haSulam and we listened to their words over many hours. Through all these notes became woven a web of life, wondrous with fortitude and holiness. We found a texture of life that was made up of sacrifice and dedication emanating from the power of the desire to fulfill the will of the King, the holy Blessed One.
One needs to remember, however, that this is not a book about people who lived in some remote age, but about living people, some of whom I had the privilege of knowing personally, and it is from such near acquaintance that I was able to attest to their great spiritual stature. What was common to them all was that they walked in the way of our holy teacher, the Baal haSulam.
The reason I wrote this book was so that all those who seek God should see the way of truth that the Baal haSulam taught, and how important this way is for the spiritual progress of this generation. I wrote this book in order to show the superhuman dedication of the Baal haSulam and that of his pupils, and to let people understand that this is not beyond our reach, but that we may each of us make meaningful efforts in our lives to come to unity with the holy Blessed One. My purpose then, in compiling this book was not to write a memoir or an historical document, but through this book to awaken all of our hearts to serve God.
In a world which is so involved with externals, with the rottenness of animal appetites and of self-interest, in a world where even those who do practice Torah and mitzvot do not know their right hand from their left hand when it comes to the innermost part of Torah, in a world full of people who are sick with the disease of seeking honor and power over others, in a world which is complicated with politics and stinking intrigues, in a world filled with the miscarriage of justice and corruption, in such a world the Godly light of our teacher, Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag shines forth. His bright and clear light radiates out, from the higher worlds to our world, in order to disperse the fogs of confusion and dismay, and in order to prepare us for our redemption.
I found the following excerpt in the book Meir Einai haGolah (Enlightening the Eyes of the Exile), which tells of the life and works of the Rabbi of Gur: 1 (paragraph 647)
The holy chassid Rabbi Bunam of Lublin told, “Once our holy Rabbi of Gur was walking in the courtyard of the study house, and I was walking with him. It was then the month of Elul. My teacher asked if they had sounded the Shofar that day in the study house. After that he added in this language: ‘When a person becomes the leader of the generation then all the trappings required for leadership come into place. The need arises for a study house, with rooms and tables and benches; one person gets appointed to be the treasurer, another the organizer, and so forth. But then the ego comes and snatches the innermost spark, leaving the rest revolving around as previously. One needs to fear this: that the time may come when everything will run exactly as it does now, but the innermost spark will be missing.’ Then he cried out in a loud voice, “May God help us!”
The concern of the Rabbi of Gur has come true before our very eyes. We see a generation impoverished and orphaned; a generation that has everything—except for the true spark of a real connection with our Creator.
However, we have a remedy, and that is the teaching of Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag, the Baal haSulam, which, with the help of God, may shine a light directly upon our way and show us the path which ascends to the house of God.
A solution to the problems of our generation through the innermost aspect of the Torah
There are a number of problems that we need to note that are occurring in the reality of our present time:
1) There is a tendency amongst the religious to immerse themselves in the practical aspects of the mitzvot alone, practising them without any intention. Neither are they given guidance how to carry out the mitzvot with intention and with feeling. This leads to a reality in which those who practice the mitzvot go to extremes, even “tithing the salt”, for they have no awareness of their lack in turning their heart towards the Creator, and therefore, when they want to increase their level of holiness they add yet another aspect to the practical side of the mitzvot alone. So they continue to add more and more strictures. But the holy Baal Shem Tov already warned, “Do not be over punctilious” 1 צוואת הריבש because over involvement with too many strictures causes the most important thing, the innermost spark of Torah and mitzvot—the Creator— to be forgotten.
Torah, without its innermost aspect, leads both young and old to feel a great dryness in their practice. The practice of Torah and mitzvot becomes more and more external, carried out without enthusiasm or attraction towards the Torah. The practice becomes ritual, practised without happiness or pleasure, but out of social obligations only, or from the habits engendered by education. This is what the Sages have termed “commandments of men carried out by rote”. This phrase is taken from the scriptural text, “And the Lord said, ‘For this people draw near to Me with their mouth and their lips in order to honour Me, but they have removed their heart far from Me; their fear of Me is that of a commandment of men, learned by rote. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their men of sense shall be hid” (Isaiah 29:13-14).
2) When a person learns the scriptural portions of the Torah he cannot see any connection between them and himself. It is hard for him to understand the connection between the lives of our fathers and his own daily life. For example, it is hard for him to see the connection between the servitude of our forefathers in Egypt and his life here and now. This lack of connection leads to lack of interest and apathy.
Through the learning of the innermost part of the Torah, the dryness caused by the performance of the commandments by rote, that we noted above, simply disappears. The study of the innermost aspect of the Torah, as the Baal haSulam taught, stabilizes a person’s life. Education in the innermost aspect of the Torah leads a person to be absolutely meticulous in his ethical behavior and thus gives principles by which the whole society may run with integrity and honesty.
When a Jew occupies himself or herself with the innermost aspect of the Torah he amplifies the soul aspect that is within him of loving his fellow-man above his egoistic side of himself. By this means he causes an increase of all of the positive forces in the world. He increases the forces of love of one’s fellow and of loving-kindness. Furthermore, he neutralizes all the forces of violence and egoism. He brings about a lessening of the anti-Semitism in the world, and a lessening of the attacks against the religious within the context of Israeli society. For the inner state of the individual Jew broadcasts a telepathic message to the whole world, and according to his inner state so does he give light to the entire world.
If God forbid, a Jew does not occupy himself with the innermost part of the Torah, but sticks only to the outermost part of the Torah, not making efforts to acquire vessels with which to amplify his altruism, but he remains with his egoism, such that all his actions are carried out for his own utility, he causes an increase of egoism in the world at large. This is the source of the various attacks on religion and on the religious, and all the forces of anti-Semitism in the world raise their heads and batter the Jewish people, working to destroy us. Thus we see that the practice of the innermost aspect of the Torah is critical for the general state of both religious people and of the Jews in the world.
The innermost aspect of the Torah uncovers the deep beauty and precision of the Torah, so that even people who are not religious can clearly see the truth of the Torah. The innermost aspect of the Torah reveals the reason within the Torah and the mitzvot so that the Divine web of system and logic becomes manifest. We see that everything comes about in order to move a person from an egoistic state to an altruistic state. The Torah and mitzvot are set forth with complete exactitude to pluck on the strings of the soul of the man to transform him. It is no wonder that when people who were not given a religious education get exposed to this wonderful knowledge they draw closer and closer to the religion as the true godliness of every mitzvah and its necessity becomes apparent. The pursuit after the spirituality of other peoples, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and others becomes completely superfluous.
Likewise, non-Jews become aware that the laws of the wisdom of the Kabbalah bring sanity to the world. These laws cause human society to be arranged in a more just and whole manner. They bring about consciousness, such that the phenomena of violence will be utterly uprooted, and they remove the despoiling of life and corruption from our daily fare. They even give a possibility for the world to function without ecological disasters and without devastation from natural causes. The laws of the Kabbalah reveal that the principles of the sciences stem from the spiritual worlds; the rules governing mathematics, physics, music and biology did not come into our world through chance, but cascaded down into our world from the rules governing the higher spiritual worlds. As we become cognizant of these facts we come to internalize the exalteness of the Torah and its absolute necessity for humankind. Then the phenomenon of the world’s hatred for the Jewish religion and for the Jewish people will vanish as their value for all humankind is recognized.
The Messenger of God
In this book we have brought two pieces of writing which particularly fill me with awe. In one the Baal haSulam writes that he merited the soul of the holy Rabbi Yitshak Luria, (the Ari). In the other he tells of a prophetic revelation, in which the Divine revealed His light to the Rabbi, telling him, “I have chosen you to be the Tzaddik and Sage for all this generation in order that the crisis of humanity may be healed with a lasting salvation.”
These words are clear evidence of the great role that the holy Blessed One designated to Rabbi Ashlag. Such a role only becomes apparent gradually and over a period of time. As we have seen with other famous sages such as Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon (Maimonides), the Baal Shem Tov, and Rabbi Moses Chayim Luzzato, (the Ramchal) it was the case that in their own generation they faced enormous opposition, but later, through the years their greatness became recognized and their light shone forth, bringing the hearts of thousands of Jews to turn to their Creator.
In the book, Meir Einai haGolah, I have found words which the holy Sage of Gur said, through which it is possible to understand the Divine Providence concerning the souls who are sent to lead the generation.
The chassid Rabbi Hirsh Leib from Warsaw heard the Rabbi of Gur himself say, at the time when the Sage, Rabbi Mendel of Kotsk lay dying, “As the generations unfold, we are given, from Heaven, a greater leader. Because as the generations grow sicker they require a greater man to lift them up.” This is similar to the situation of the sicker the patient, the greater is the need for a specialist doctor. 1 (paragraph 479)
Thus we do not need to wonder why the Master of the Universe saw fit to send us such a holy soul, which, at first sight seems to be unsuited to the lowly level of our generation. However, we can now understand that it is because of the great lowliness of this generation that we need such a great light to deliver us from the pit of our exile. This light encourages us to strive and labor in the true way so that we may come into affinity of form with the Creator of the world.
However, I certainly knew that there would be skeptics who would say, “Who says that these matters are true?” However, such people were also around in the generation of Moses our Teacher, and would ask the same question, if Moses were to go and say to them “Ehyeh sent me”! As Moses said, (to God at the burning bush), “But they will not believe me, neither will they listen to my voice, but they will say that God did not appear to you” (Exodus 4:1). Therefore, God needed to give Moses signs and miracles in order to quell such doubters so they would not place obstacles in the way of God’s work.
Such skeptics were also present in the times of the Ari, the Baal Shem Tov, and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, who tried to cast doubt and aspersions on their holy work. Because who could prove that these great souls were sent to us from Heaven and who could prove that all their words were true? Nowadays anyone who would question these sages would hardly be considered as sane. But at the time these Tzaddikim lived, such skeptics troubled them. The opposition to them in some cases being so great that they or their followers were threatened with excommunication.
However, the true test lies according to the words of the Zohar, “A false god is sterile and does not bear fruit,”1 (parshat Mishpatim mamar HaSaba para 166 in the Perush haSulam) This means that those who walk in the ways of uncleanness do not bear fruit, but those who cling to the ways of holiness bear fruit.
What is this fruit? The meaning of fruit is not social standing, or money, but success in the ways of clinging to God. Certainly this matter is hard to put to the test, especially since most of these sceptics do not understand anything at all about how to cleave to God. For if they would understand that, they would not be asking theoretical questions. As the verse says, “Taste and see that God is good” (Psalms 34:9). They could try to follow the instructions of our teacher and then they would see how they would be lifted up above materialism to the happiness and eternity of oneness with God. This, in fact, is what in the end defeated the opposition to the Baal Shem Tov, the Ari, the Ramchal and the Rambam, once their light was clearly manifest in the world, that their way raised up the person and brought him to connect with the One.
The Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag, the Baal haSulam, brought the light of the holy Zohar out, from the hidden to the revealed, in writing his work the Perush HaSulam, a twenty-one volume commentary on the Zohar. Likewise he clarified the works of the holy Ari in the six volumes of the Talmud Eser haSephirot and in the three volumes of his work the Panim Meirot uMasbirot. Anyone who learns these works deeply comes to the conclusion that these commentaries are not products of the thought of Rabbi Ashlag but they are actual Divine light that God wanted to be revealed in this generation.
Sufficient is the evidence that Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, Rabbi Ashlag’s first-born son, brings when he tells that his father never needed to use drafts when writing, but he wrote the Perush haSulam directly onto the paper in front of him and that paper was taken straight to the printers. This testifies that the Baal haSulam had an enormous spiritual perception of the higher worlds and his works are descriptions of what he grasped and saw in the higher worlds. He had no need to edit or arrange his thoughts.
To conclude, we bring the words of the Baal haSulam (Pri Chacham first part of article “Commandment one)
T
he main success of the prophetic utterance is to draw the highest light right down to those who dwell on earth. The one who is most able bring it down to the lowest level is the most successful.The issue of above and below is seen both in spirit and in practical good. For the practical good that is achieved by the prophecy is the point which gives a grasp for the human being. And it is known that the hardest part of serving God is in getting hold of the first part.
It is clear that these words are testimony to the light of our teacher himself. The wondrous light that shines from his books makes real for all people, religious and secular, Jews and non-Jews that there is no possibility for the human race to survive unless we all take upon ourselves the commandment of “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Not, however, in the way that was tried by Marx and Engels, the founders of communism, who placed their ideas on a secular basis, but through the Divine light of Torah, which has, as its goal, the unity with God for all humankind.
Sheltering within the shade of our teacher
It was before I was fifteen years of age that I first came into the presence of the Sage, the holy teacher Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag of blessed memory. I remember the first time I saw him. It was on the Sabbath at three o’ clock in the morning. I went into the room where the lessons were given, and already the young men were poring over the book, the Talmud Eser haSephirot. The atmosphere in the room was saturated with holiness and purity; one could really feel it in the air. My teacher, the Rabbi, entered and sat on his chair. Even before he began to teach I had the feeling that I could seek wisdom and knowledge of spiritual matters from him. The spiritual stature of this holy man of God was very pronounced, even without any word being spoken by him. When he entered the room a spirit of great strength entered with him. His face expressed tremendous fortitude. His whole being spoke of determination and decisiveness, of great strength of will, of resolve to establish all the actions of his life according to the will of God, may the One be blessed.
Since then I have cleaved with all my life and my spirit to my holy teacher, never removing myself from him. He raised me as a loving father and supervised my path with great watchfulness, as a father supervises his son in all ways. He taught me all I have learned in Torah and gave me my understanding, so that nothing that I have originates from me. All my knowledge and understanding, both in the learning of the Kabbalah, and in the practical way of serving God, I learned from him, according to his instruction and his guidance.
Day by day I saw him; his face filled with majesty. His ability to serve God in such an exalted way was really incomprehensible to normal human intelligence. If you were not privileged to witness this it is impossible to comprehend. His way was that of faith that transcends knowledge, the way of giving benefit to the other person—a way that demands great fortitude. When we, his students, gazed at his face, we would immediately get the desire to dedicate our life for God from love.
With the mercy of God I merited to serve him and become one of the students who were closest to him. I spent many hours in his presence, and from this closeness I learnt a lot—sometimes more than what was possible to learn in the study sessionsthemselves. Being in his presence gave me understanding, in the most concrete way possible, of what it means to be a person who truly believes in God. He considered all his ways, his words and his thoughts according to the one criterion, am I in accord with the will of God or not? This was the one single rule to which he adhered throughout his life.
In his last year he related to me, more than once, the events of his life. He told me of his childhood, and of the period after his marriage, when he became a student in the Beit haMidrash (study hall) of his great father. He told me of his very deep connection with his father and of his affinity with him. He spoke of the texture of the relationships which the students had enjoyed with his holy father and between each other. He also told me of the many trials of his life—most of which I do not want to retell here—and how they strengthened his longing for affinity of form with the Creator, may the One be blessed.
It is now clear to me that it is the years in which I merited to spend in his presence that have given me the chief inspiration for the writing of this book. All the explanations that I have written in this book spring forth from the life teaching of my teacher, the Sage Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag
I would like to apologize to the reader, in that sometimes the topics in this book are not polished in a literary sense. For really I am not a writer, but I didn’t want to put this holy work into the hands of a professional writer, because, however good he may be, he is still an outsider and will see the matters only from an outsider’s perspective, and I did not want this. Therefore, I preferred to do this work myself, with the purpose of giving the reader, as much as possible, an inner view on our holy Rabbis.
Naturally I haven’t been able to convey that much of the inner spirit which permeated the reality of our holy teachers because these matters aren’t easy to pass on. It is a case of “Taste and see that God is good.” I couldn’t pass on the day-to-day difficulties of the students in rising before dawn, in loving the friend, in self-negation before the Rabbi. This is a whole way of life which is possible to understand in real terms only when one walks that path in practice. But I have tried as much as I can to pass on the wonderful spirit that ruled in the Beit haMidrash of our holy Rabbi, the Baal haSulam and in that of his son Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag. I have also endeavored to make clear their true principles and how they were put into practice in every step of their lives.
I hope that this book will bring about a change in the thought of those who seek to come close to God. This is my real purpose in putting these matters onto paper, to show the way of serving God in its true form.
In our generation, to my very great sorrow, the issues of how to serve God have become very blurred, people who are not qualified to do so purporting to teach others the way of serving God. But the truth is in fact lacking and the confusion and the darkness is very great indeed.
I wish to point out that whilst undertaking this research on the lives of our holy Sages I occasionally came across instances when they rebuked their students. I tried to understand the reason for these rebukes and in what way the students erred, in order to find guidelines for our own lives and in order to understand the true principles of serving God without compromise. However, on the other hand, one must remember that the students themselves were men of great spiritual stature; men who served God with incredible devotion and self-sacrifice. They were of an entirely different dimension to that of ourselves, and, even though we do not in any way measure up to their standards, yet we may learn from them.
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my honoured father Rabbi Sharaga Gottlieb and my dear mother Mrs Rachel Gottlieb who were faithful messengers of God and raised me in the ways of the holy Torah. They did not spare any labour or toil throughout their lives in fulfilling the will of God. May God grant them health and much joy from their children and may they merit so see success in the service of God.
May we all merit soon to the complete redemption and to the revelation of God’s divinity in the sight of all.
Abraham Mordecai Gottlieb,
Disciple of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag.
"I give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, I will tell of all Your wonders" (Psalms 9:2)
When I saw that the students of the holy Sage of Israel, Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag, known as the Baal haSulam, “the Master of the Ladder,” were departing this world, as their generation was leaving us, I became anxious lest Torah may be lost from Israel, because the deeds of the righteous are actual Torah. So I said: “It is time to act for the Lord’s sake,” and I set to the task of compiling this book.
Actually, even prior to this, whenever I heard my holy teacher, Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, tell a story, or say something of moment, I would write it down immediately. Likewise, when the holy band, the students of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, would meet and tell a story, or discuss a saying attributed to the Baal haSulam or his students, I noted it down immediately. However, once I had made the decision to write this book, I, and some of my pupils, went specifically to meet with the descendants of the students of the Baal haSulam and we listened to their words over many hours. Through all these notes became woven a web of life, wondrous with fortitude and holiness. We found a texture of life that was made up of sacrifice and dedication emanating from the power of the desire to fulfill the will of the King, the holy Blessed One.
One needs to remember, however, that this is not a book about people who lived in some remote age, but about living people, some of whom I had the privilege of knowing personally, and it is from such near acquaintance that I was able to attest to their great spiritual stature. What was common to them all was that they walked in the way of our holy teacher, the Baal haSulam.
The reason I wrote this book was so that all those who seek God should see the way of truth that the Baal haSulam taught, and how important this way is for the spiritual progress of this generation. I wrote this book in order to show the superhuman dedication of the Baal haSulam and that of his pupils, and to let people understand that this is not beyond our reach, but that we may each of us make meaningful efforts in our lives to come to unity with the holy Blessed One. My purpose then, in compiling this book was not to write a memoir or an historical document, but through this book to awaken all of our hearts to serve God.
In a world which is so involved with externals, with the rottenness of animal appetites and of self-interest, in a world where even those who do practice Torah and mitzvot do not know their right hand from their left hand when it comes to the innermost part of Torah, in a world full of people who are sick with the disease of seeking honor and power over others, in a world which is complicated with politics and stinking intrigues, in a world filled with the miscarriage of justice and corruption, in such a world the Godly light of our teacher, Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag shines forth. His bright and clear light radiates out, from the higher worlds to our world, in order to disperse the fogs of confusion and dismay, and in order to prepare us for our redemption.
I found the following excerpt in the book Meir Einai haGolah (Enlightening the Eyes of the Exile), which tells of the life and works of the Rabbi of Gur: 1 (paragraph 647)
The holy chassid Rabbi Bunam of Lublin told, “Once our holy Rabbi of Gur was walking in the courtyard of the study house, and I was walking with him. It was then the month of Elul. My teacher asked if they had sounded the Shofar that day in the study house. After that he added in this language: ‘When a person becomes the leader of the generation then all the trappings required for leadership come into place. The need arises for a study house, with rooms and tables and benches; one person gets appointed to be the treasurer, another the organizer, and so forth. But then the ego comes and snatches the innermost spark, leaving the rest revolving around as previously. One needs to fear this: that the time may come when everything will run exactly as it does now, but the innermost spark will be missing.’ Then he cried out in a loud voice, “May God help us!”
The concern of the Rabbi of Gur has come true before our very eyes. We see a generation impoverished and orphaned; a generation that has everything—except for the true spark of a real connection with our Creator.
However, we have a remedy, and that is the teaching of Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag, the Baal haSulam, which, with the help of God, may shine a light directly upon our way and show us the path which ascends to the house of God.
A solution to the problems of our generation through the innermost aspect of the Torah
There are a number of problems that we need to note that are occurring in the reality of our present time:
1) There is a tendency amongst the religious to immerse themselves in the practical aspects of the mitzvot alone, practising them without any intention. Neither are they given guidance how to carry out the mitzvot with intention and with feeling. This leads to a reality in which those who practice the mitzvot go to extremes, even “tithing the salt”, for they have no awareness of their lack in turning their heart towards the Creator, and therefore, when they want to increase their level of holiness they add yet another aspect to the practical side of the mitzvot alone. So they continue to add more and more strictures. But the holy Baal Shem Tov already warned, “Do not be over punctilious” 1 צוואת הריבש because over involvement with too many strictures causes the most important thing, the innermost spark of Torah and mitzvot—the Creator— to be forgotten.
Torah, without its innermost aspect, leads both young and old to feel a great dryness in their practice. The practice of Torah and mitzvot becomes more and more external, carried out without enthusiasm or attraction towards the Torah. The practice becomes ritual, practised without happiness or pleasure, but out of social obligations only, or from the habits engendered by education. This is what the Sages have termed “commandments of men carried out by rote”. This phrase is taken from the scriptural text, “And the Lord said, ‘For this people draw near to Me with their mouth and their lips in order to honour Me, but they have removed their heart far from Me; their fear of Me is that of a commandment of men, learned by rote. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their men of sense shall be hid” (Isaiah 29:13-14).
2) When a person learns the scriptural portions of the Torah he cannot see any connection between them and himself. It is hard for him to understand the connection between the lives of our fathers and his own daily life. For example, it is hard for him to see the connection between the servitude of our forefathers in Egypt and his life here and now. This lack of connection leads to lack of interest and apathy.
Through the learning of the innermost part of the Torah, the dryness caused by the performance of the commandments by rote, that we noted above, simply disappears. The study of the innermost aspect of the Torah, as the Baal haSulam taught, stabilizes a person’s life. Education in the innermost aspect of the Torah leads a person to be absolutely meticulous in his ethical behavior and thus gives principles by which the whole society may run with integrity and honesty.
When a Jew occupies himself or herself with the innermost aspect of the Torah he amplifies the soul aspect that is within him of loving his fellow-man above his egoistic side of himself. By this means he causes an increase of all of the positive forces in the world. He increases the forces of love of one’s fellow and of loving-kindness. Furthermore, he neutralizes all the forces of violence and egoism. He brings about a lessening of the anti-Semitism in the world, and a lessening of the attacks against the religious within the context of Israeli society. For the inner state of the individual Jew broadcasts a telepathic message to the whole world, and according to his inner state so does he give light to the entire world.
If God forbid, a Jew does not occupy himself with the innermost part of the Torah, but sticks only to the outermost part of the Torah, not making efforts to acquire vessels with which to amplify his altruism, but he remains with his egoism, such that all his actions are carried out for his own utility, he causes an increase of egoism in the world at large. This is the source of the various attacks on religion and on the religious, and all the forces of anti-Semitism in the world raise their heads and batter the Jewish people, working to destroy us. Thus we see that the practice of the innermost aspect of the Torah is critical for the general state of both religious people and of the Jews in the world.
The innermost aspect of the Torah uncovers the deep beauty and precision of the Torah, so that even people who are not religious can clearly see the truth of the Torah. The innermost aspect of the Torah reveals the reason within the Torah and the mitzvot so that the Divine web of system and logic becomes manifest. We see that everything comes about in order to move a person from an egoistic state to an altruistic state. The Torah and mitzvot are set forth with complete exactitude to pluck on the strings of the soul of the man to transform him. It is no wonder that when people who were not given a religious education get exposed to this wonderful knowledge they draw closer and closer to the religion as the true godliness of every mitzvah and its necessity becomes apparent. The pursuit after the spirituality of other peoples, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and others becomes completely superfluous.
Likewise, non-Jews become aware that the laws of the wisdom of the Kabbalah bring sanity to the world. These laws cause human society to be arranged in a more just and whole manner. They bring about consciousness, such that the phenomena of violence will be utterly uprooted, and they remove the despoiling of life and corruption from our daily fare. They even give a possibility for the world to function without ecological disasters and without devastation from natural causes. The laws of the Kabbalah reveal that the principles of the sciences stem from the spiritual worlds; the rules governing mathematics, physics, music and biology did not come into our world through chance, but cascaded down into our world from the rules governing the higher spiritual worlds. As we become cognizant of these facts we come to internalize the exalteness of the Torah and its absolute necessity for humankind. Then the phenomenon of the world’s hatred for the Jewish religion and for the Jewish people will vanish as their value for all humankind is recognized.
The Messenger of God
In this book we have brought two pieces of writing which particularly fill me with awe. In one the Baal haSulam writes that he merited the soul of the holy Rabbi Yitshak Luria, (the Ari). In the other he tells of a prophetic revelation, in which the Divine revealed His light to the Rabbi, telling him, “I have chosen you to be the Tzaddik and Sage for all this generation in order that the crisis of humanity may be healed with a lasting salvation.”
These words are clear evidence of the great role that the holy Blessed One designated to Rabbi Ashlag. Such a role only becomes apparent gradually and over a period of time. As we have seen with other famous sages such as Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon (Maimonides), the Baal Shem Tov, and Rabbi Moses Chayim Luzzato, (the Ramchal) it was the case that in their own generation they faced enormous opposition, but later, through the years their greatness became recognized and their light shone forth, bringing the hearts of thousands of Jews to turn to their Creator.
In the book, Meir Einai haGolah, I have found words which the holy Sage of Gur said, through which it is possible to understand the Divine Providence concerning the souls who are sent to lead the generation.
The chassid Rabbi Hirsh Leib from Warsaw heard the Rabbi of Gur himself say, at the time when the Sage, Rabbi Mendel of Kotsk lay dying, “As the generations unfold, we are given, from Heaven, a greater leader. Because as the generations grow sicker they require a greater man to lift them up.” This is similar to the situation of the sicker the patient, the greater is the need for a specialist doctor. 1 (paragraph 479)
Thus we do not need to wonder why the Master of the Universe saw fit to send us such a holy soul, which, at first sight seems to be unsuited to the lowly level of our generation. However, we can now understand that it is because of the great lowliness of this generation that we need such a great light to deliver us from the pit of our exile. This light encourages us to strive and labor in the true way so that we may come into affinity of form with the Creator of the world.
However, I certainly knew that there would be skeptics who would say, “Who says that these matters are true?” However, such people were also around in the generation of Moses our Teacher, and would ask the same question, if Moses were to go and say to them “Ehyeh sent me”! As Moses said, (to God at the burning bush), “But they will not believe me, neither will they listen to my voice, but they will say that God did not appear to you” (Exodus 4:1). Therefore, God needed to give Moses signs and miracles in order to quell such doubters so they would not place obstacles in the way of God’s work.
Such skeptics were also present in the times of the Ari, the Baal Shem Tov, and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, who tried to cast doubt and aspersions on their holy work. Because who could prove that these great souls were sent to us from Heaven and who could prove that all their words were true? Nowadays anyone who would question these sages would hardly be considered as sane. But at the time these Tzaddikim lived, such skeptics troubled them. The opposition to them in some cases being so great that they or their followers were threatened with excommunication.
However, the true test lies according to the words of the Zohar, “A false god is sterile and does not bear fruit,”1 (parshat Mishpatim mamar HaSaba para 166 in the Perush haSulam) This means that those who walk in the ways of uncleanness do not bear fruit, but those who cling to the ways of holiness bear fruit.
What is this fruit? The meaning of fruit is not social standing, or money, but success in the ways of clinging to God. Certainly this matter is hard to put to the test, especially since most of these sceptics do not understand anything at all about how to cleave to God. For if they would understand that, they would not be asking theoretical questions. As the verse says, “Taste and see that God is good” (Psalms 34:9). They could try to follow the instructions of our teacher and then they would see how they would be lifted up above materialism to the happiness and eternity of oneness with God. This, in fact, is what in the end defeated the opposition to the Baal Shem Tov, the Ari, the Ramchal and the Rambam, once their light was clearly manifest in the world, that their way raised up the person and brought him to connect with the One.
The Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag, the Baal haSulam, brought the light of the holy Zohar out, from the hidden to the revealed, in writing his work the Perush HaSulam, a twenty-one volume commentary on the Zohar. Likewise he clarified the works of the holy Ari in the six volumes of the Talmud Eser haSephirot and in the three volumes of his work the Panim Meirot uMasbirot. Anyone who learns these works deeply comes to the conclusion that these commentaries are not products of the thought of Rabbi Ashlag but they are actual Divine light that God wanted to be revealed in this generation.
Sufficient is the evidence that Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, Rabbi Ashlag’s first-born son, brings when he tells that his father never needed to use drafts when writing, but he wrote the Perush haSulam directly onto the paper in front of him and that paper was taken straight to the printers. This testifies that the Baal haSulam had an enormous spiritual perception of the higher worlds and his works are descriptions of what he grasped and saw in the higher worlds. He had no need to edit or arrange his thoughts.
To conclude, we bring the words of the Baal haSulam (Pri Chacham first part of article “Commandment one)
T
he main success of the prophetic utterance is to draw the highest light right down to those who dwell on earth. The one who is most able bring it down to the lowest level is the most successful.The issue of above and below is seen both in spirit and in practical good. For the practical good that is achieved by the prophecy is the point which gives a grasp for the human being. And it is known that the hardest part of serving God is in getting hold of the first part.
It is clear that these words are testimony to the light of our teacher himself. The wondrous light that shines from his books makes real for all people, religious and secular, Jews and non-Jews that there is no possibility for the human race to survive unless we all take upon ourselves the commandment of “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Not, however, in the way that was tried by Marx and Engels, the founders of communism, who placed their ideas on a secular basis, but through the Divine light of Torah, which has, as its goal, the unity with God for all humankind.
Sheltering within the shade of our teacher
It was before I was fifteen years of age that I first came into the presence of the Sage, the holy teacher Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag of blessed memory. I remember the first time I saw him. It was on the Sabbath at three o’ clock in the morning. I went into the room where the lessons were given, and already the young men were poring over the book, the Talmud Eser haSephirot. The atmosphere in the room was saturated with holiness and purity; one could really feel it in the air. My teacher, the Rabbi, entered and sat on his chair. Even before he began to teach I had the feeling that I could seek wisdom and knowledge of spiritual matters from him. The spiritual stature of this holy man of God was very pronounced, even without any word being spoken by him. When he entered the room a spirit of great strength entered with him. His face expressed tremendous fortitude. His whole being spoke of determination and decisiveness, of great strength of will, of resolve to establish all the actions of his life according to the will of God, may the One be blessed.
Since then I have cleaved with all my life and my spirit to my holy teacher, never removing myself from him. He raised me as a loving father and supervised my path with great watchfulness, as a father supervises his son in all ways. He taught me all I have learned in Torah and gave me my understanding, so that nothing that I have originates from me. All my knowledge and understanding, both in the learning of the Kabbalah, and in the practical way of serving God, I learned from him, according to his instruction and his guidance.
Day by day I saw him; his face filled with majesty. His ability to serve God in such an exalted way was really incomprehensible to normal human intelligence. If you were not privileged to witness this it is impossible to comprehend. His way was that of faith that transcends knowledge, the way of giving benefit to the other person—a way that demands great fortitude. When we, his students, gazed at his face, we would immediately get the desire to dedicate our life for God from love.
With the mercy of God I merited to serve him and become one of the students who were closest to him. I spent many hours in his presence, and from this closeness I learnt a lot—sometimes more than what was possible to learn in the study sessionsthemselves. Being in his presence gave me understanding, in the most concrete way possible, of what it means to be a person who truly believes in God. He considered all his ways, his words and his thoughts according to the one criterion, am I in accord with the will of God or not? This was the one single rule to which he adhered throughout his life.
In his last year he related to me, more than once, the events of his life. He told me of his childhood, and of the period after his marriage, when he became a student in the Beit haMidrash (study hall) of his great father. He told me of his very deep connection with his father and of his affinity with him. He spoke of the texture of the relationships which the students had enjoyed with his holy father and between each other. He also told me of the many trials of his life—most of which I do not want to retell here—and how they strengthened his longing for affinity of form with the Creator, may the One be blessed.
It is now clear to me that it is the years in which I merited to spend in his presence that have given me the chief inspiration for the writing of this book. All the explanations that I have written in this book spring forth from the life teaching of my teacher, the Sage Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag
I would like to apologize to the reader, in that sometimes the topics in this book are not polished in a literary sense. For really I am not a writer, but I didn’t want to put this holy work into the hands of a professional writer, because, however good he may be, he is still an outsider and will see the matters only from an outsider’s perspective, and I did not want this. Therefore, I preferred to do this work myself, with the purpose of giving the reader, as much as possible, an inner view on our holy Rabbis.
Naturally I haven’t been able to convey that much of the inner spirit which permeated the reality of our holy teachers because these matters aren’t easy to pass on. It is a case of “Taste and see that God is good.” I couldn’t pass on the day-to-day difficulties of the students in rising before dawn, in loving the friend, in self-negation before the Rabbi. This is a whole way of life which is possible to understand in real terms only when one walks that path in practice. But I have tried as much as I can to pass on the wonderful spirit that ruled in the Beit haMidrash of our holy Rabbi, the Baal haSulam and in that of his son Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag. I have also endeavored to make clear their true principles and how they were put into practice in every step of their lives.
I hope that this book will bring about a change in the thought of those who seek to come close to God. This is my real purpose in putting these matters onto paper, to show the way of serving God in its true form.
In our generation, to my very great sorrow, the issues of how to serve God have become very blurred, people who are not qualified to do so purporting to teach others the way of serving God. But the truth is in fact lacking and the confusion and the darkness is very great indeed.
I wish to point out that whilst undertaking this research on the lives of our holy Sages I occasionally came across instances when they rebuked their students. I tried to understand the reason for these rebukes and in what way the students erred, in order to find guidelines for our own lives and in order to understand the true principles of serving God without compromise. However, on the other hand, one must remember that the students themselves were men of great spiritual stature; men who served God with incredible devotion and self-sacrifice. They were of an entirely different dimension to that of ourselves, and, even though we do not in any way measure up to their standards, yet we may learn from them.
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my honoured father Rabbi Sharaga Gottlieb and my dear mother Mrs Rachel Gottlieb who were faithful messengers of God and raised me in the ways of the holy Torah. They did not spare any labour or toil throughout their lives in fulfilling the will of God. May God grant them health and much joy from their children and may they merit so see success in the service of God.
May we all merit soon to the complete redemption and to the revelation of God’s divinity in the sight of all.
Abraham Mordecai Gottlieb,
Disciple of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag.
