Gems of Wisdom - Words of the great Kabbalists from all generations

472 Pages·2010·1.21 MB·English

G W
ems of isdom
Words of the great Kabbalists
from all generations
LAITMAN
KABBALAH
PUBLISHERS
Compiled by Yaniv C
Gems of Wisdom:
words of the great Kabbalists from all generations
Copyright © 2010 by MICHAEL LAITMAN
All rights reserved
Published by Laitman Kabbalah Publishers
www.kabbalah.info [email protected]
1057 Steeles Avenue West, Suite 532,
Toronto, ON, M2R 3X1, Canada
Bnei Baruch USA, 2009 85th street, #51,
Brooklyn, NY 11214, USA
Printed in Canada
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles or reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Laitman, Michael.
[Kakh katuv. English]
Gems of wisdom : words of the great kabbalists from all generations / Michael
Laitman ; compiled by Yaniv C ; [translation, Susan Gal, Chaim Ratz]. -- 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-897448-49-6
1. Cabala. I. C, Yaniv. II. Title.
BM525.L253513 2011
296.1’6--dc22 2010042561
Compilation: Yaniv C
Translation: Susan Gal, Chaim Ratz
Translation Assistants: Ronit Ovadia, Ronit Cohen
Proofreading: Noga Burnot
Cover Design and Page Layout: Baruch Khovov
Post Production: Uri Laitman
Executive Editor: Chaim Ratz
FIRST EDITION: AUGUST 2011
First printing
C
ontents
foreWord .....................................................9

The PurPose of CreaTion ..........................13
The Creator Is the Absolute Goodness .................13
What Is the Purpose of Creation? ..........................14
The Purpose of Creation
Applies to the Entire Human Race ........................21
Why Did the Creator Burden Us with Creation? ....24
Why Is the Creator Concealed from Man? ...........29
The Creator’s Guidance
Is a Purposeful Guidance ......................................34
The essenCe of The Wisdom of Kabbalah ... 39
The Question of Life .............................................39
What Does the Wisdom Concern? .......................40
All the Wisdoms in the World
Are Included in the Wisdom of Kabbalah ............44
Realism and Practicality
in the Wisdom of Kabbalah ..................................48
The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy ............51
The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Ethics ...................57
The KabbalisTs .........................................61
Who Is a Kabbalist? ................................................61
Walking in the Path of Kabbalists .........................66
The Principal Kabbalah Writings ...........................74
The language of Kabbalah ...................... 85
The Wisdom of Kabbalah
Does Not Speak of Our Corporeal World ............85
The Law of Roots and Branches ............................89
The Language of the Kabbalists
Is a Language of Branches .....................................95
All the Languages Are Included
in the Wisdom of Kabbalah ..................................98
The ConCealed Torah
and The revealed Torah .........................101
Attainment of the Torah Begins with Sod [Secret]
and Ends with Peshat [Literal] ..............................101
Studying the Concealed Torah
Is Preferable to the Revealed Torah .....................104
Who is suiTable for sTudying Kabbalah ..111
Concerning the Obligation of Each Person
to Study the Wisdom of Kabbalah .......................111
The Opposition to the Study
of the Wisdom of Kabbalah ................................129
Engaging in Kabbalah
Requires No Preliminary Excellence ...................138
The meaning of israel
and The naTions of The World ................143
Yasher-El [Straight to the Creator] .......................143
Why Was the Torah Given to Israel? ...................144
All of Israel Are Responsible for One Another ..149
Israel’s Role Toward the World ...........................153
Israel Must Carry Out
Their Role toward the World ..............................162
Kabbalah noW .......................................167
Proof that Our Generation
Has Reached the Days of the Messiah ..................167
An Opportunity for Redemption .........................174
The Importance of Disseminating
the Wisdom of Kabbalah......................................178
The booK of Zohar ................................185
Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai and His Friends .........185
The Importance of The Book of Zohar ................187
Torah and miTZvoT ................................199
Torah ....................................................................199
Mitzvot .................................................................200
The Essence of the Work in Torah and Mitzvot .202
613 Suggestions and 613 Deposits .......................207
The Torah Develops
the Recognition of Evil in a Person ......................213
What Is a Prayer? ..................................................219
Only the Light in the Torah Reforms the Person ...234
Workers of the Creator
Who Make the Torah Arid ..................................242
The aPProaCh To sTudying
The Wisdom of Kabbalah ........................255
The Remedy in the Engagement
in the Wisdom of Kabbalah ................................255
The Importance of the Preparation
for the Study ........................................................258
The Importance of the Intention
during the Study ...................................................261
from love of oThers
To love of The CreaTor ..........................269
Love of Others Is the Means
to Attain the Love of the Creator ........................269
A Prayer of Many ..................................................277
The naTure of man
and The naTure of The CreaTor ...............283
Man’s Essence Is the Will to Receive ..................283
Egoism Is Embedded in the Nature
of Every Person ....................................................286
The Superiority of Man to the Beast ...................290
The Subject of the Purpose of Creation Is Man. ...298
The Discrepancy between Man’s Nature and
the Nature of the Creator ....................................301
Remoteness from the Creator
Is the Reason for all Suffering .............................303
Two Ways to Discover the Wholeness.................308
freedom of ChoiCe .................................315
Does a Person Have Free Choice? ........................315
The Influence of the Environment on a Person ...321
The Freedom of the Collective and
the Freedom of the Individual Are One .............329
sPiriTual WorK in The grouP ..................341
The Purpose of Society .........................................341
Obtaining the Greatness of the Creator
through the Environment....................................342
Unity of the Friends ............................................347
The Power in Bonding .........................................356
Principles of Spiritual Work in the Group .........360
Writers’ Envy Increases Wisdom .........................366
The Right Conduct at the Assembly of Friends .368
PerCePTion of realiTy .............................373
Everything Is Preordained ...................................373
The Entire Reality Is Contained within Man ......377
We Have Neither Attainment Nor Perception
of any Matter ........................................................380
All Changes Are in the Desire, Not in the Light ...384
A Thought Is an Upshot of the Desire ................390
Time and Motion ................................................392
Incarnation of Souls ............................................395
the Greatness of Baal hasulam ...............399
KaBBalists Cited in this BooK ....................413
researChers and PhilosoPhers
Write aBout KaBBalah ..............................443
further readinG .......................................455
aBout Bnei BaruCh ...................................463
f
oreWord
At the age of forty, Abraham came to know
his Maker...
He began to call out to the whole world,
informing them that there is one God in the
whole world, and He is the one to be wor-
shipped.
He would walk and call out, gathering
the people from town to town and from king-
dom to kingdom…
Until thousands assembled, and they are
the people of the house of Abraham.
He instilled this great tenet in their
hearts, and composed books about it…
And the notion was growing and inten-
sifying among the sons of Jacob and their
company.
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Gems of Wisdom
Thus, a nation that knew the Creator was
born to the world.
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, “Laws of Idolatry”
Through the millennia, Kabbalists have
bequeathed us with numerous writings. In
their compositions, they have laid out a struc-
tured method that can lead, step by step, unto
a world of eternity and wholeness.
Gems of wisdom is a collection of selected
excerpts from the writings of the greatest
Kabbalists from all generations, with partic-
ular emphasis on the writings of Rav Yehuda
Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), author
of the Sulam [Ladder] commentary of The
Book of Zohar.
The sections have been arranged by top-
ics, to provide the broadest view possible on
each topic. For smoother reading, slight alter-
ations of spelling and punctuation have been
made. In addition, sections originally written
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