Baruch Ashlag
Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag , also known as Rabash (born January 22, 1907 in Warsaw , † September 13, 1991 in Bnei Berak ), was a Kabbalist , the firstborn and successor of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag , author of the Sulam commentary on the book of Zohar . He wrote Shlavey HaSulam (rungs of the ladder), Dargot HaSulam (steps of the ladder), Igrot Rabash (letters of Rabash).
Life
Ashlag was born in Warsaw , Congress Poland , Russian Empire . At the age of nine he began to study Kabbalah with his father's chosen students, the Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, and accompanied him on his trips to the Rabbi von Porsov and the Rabbi von Belz . In 1921 he came to the Land of Israel with his family and continued his studies at the Hasidic institution "Torat Emet".
He was ordained a rabbi at the age of 20 by the then chief rabbis Abraham Isaac Kook , Joseph Chaim Sonnenfeld and Yakov Moshe Harlap . He did not want to use the knowledge of the Torah that he had acquired as a profession. For most of his life he was a simple laborer doing road works, construction work, and menial desk work. As he grew up, he became his father's senior student. He accompanied him on his trips, ran errands for him and took care of his every need.
He often studied privately with his father, and wrote what he had heard from him in his personal notebook. Thousands of notes have thus been accumulated documenting Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag's explanations regarding the spiritual work of an individual. Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag was considered one of the leading Kabbalists of the 20th century. He is known as Baal HaSulam ("Lord of Ladders") because of his Sulam leader commentary on the Book of Zohar.
He studied Kabbalah with his father for over 30 years. When his father, Baal HaSulam, fell ill, he appointed Rabash to teach his students in his place. After the death of Baal HaSulam, Rabash took the place of his father as head of the Ashlag-Hasidim and from then on devoted his life to continuing his father's method, interpreting and expanding his father's writings and spreading Kabbalah among the people.
Due to unfortunate debates over the rights to publish the book of Zohar, including the Sulam commentaries written by his father, Baruch Ashlag left Israel for three years, spending most of that time in the UK . During this time he also had talks with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson von Lubavitch , Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum von Satmar and other well-known school heads. He also taught Kabbalah in Gateshead and other cities in Great Britain.
After his return to Israel, Rabash continued to study and teach. He did not want to be known publicly as a Kabbalist; therefore, like his father before, he refused any offers from official positions. After the late 1960s, he changed his habits and began to teach Kabbalah in broader circles wherever there was an interest in it. Hebron , Tiberias, and Jerusalem were some of the cities he visited. In 1976 he expanded his seminaries and his house in Bnei Berak became a spacious synagogue . He himself moved into the second floor of the building. Occasionally he went to Tiberias to be alone.
In 1983 about 40 new students joined the Kabbalist group that Rabash had taught up to that point. To help them fit into the group more easily and quickly, he began writing essays describing the spiritual development of an individual and the basic work within a group of Kabbalists. From 1984 until his death, he regularly wrote a weekly article and gave it to his students. Over time, his students collected these essays he wrote and published them in a five volume publication known as Shlavey HaSulam (Rungs of the Ladder). Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag died on September 13, 1991.
Publications
Rabash's main commitment was the interpretation and expansion of his father's essays. Because he wrote his essays in simple language, they are much easier to read than the essays of previous Kabbalists. Baruch Ashlag devoted most of his efforts to carefully working out an individual's spiritual path, from the first step, the question “What is the meaning of my life?” To the ascent to the disclosure of spiritual reality. His disciples testify that "Rabash believed that every person - man, woman, and even the smallest child - can study the inner dimension of the Torah simply by wanting their souls to be corrected."
- Shamati (“I heard”): This is Rabash's personal notebook in which he wrote down everything he heard from his father during his entire study with him. The uniqueness of this book lies in its content and in the (conversational) language in which it was written. The book contains essays that describe the spiritual states that one experiences on the spiritual path. These essays are the only existing documentation of the conversations between the author of the Sulam Commentary and his students. On his deathbed, Rabash gave his notebook to his junior high school student and personal assistant, Rav Michael Laitman, who published it three years after Rabash's death. The book title comes from the original cover of the notebook on which Rabash himself wrote “Shamati” (I heard). Since the second reprint of the book, it has also included “The Melodies of the Upper World” - sheet music for fifteen of the melodies composed by Baal HaSulam and Rabash.
- Igrot Rabash ("Letters of Rabash"): These are letters that Baruch Ashlag sent his students while he was overseas. In his letters he answered his students' questions regarding their spiritual path and progress, explained the spiritual meaning of the Jewish holidays according to Kabbalah, and covered many other topics.
- Dargot HaSulam (“Steps of the Ladder”): This is a two-volume publication primarily containing utterances and notes written by Rabash throughout his life. They were mostly written down as drafts on scraps of paper and served as headlines, drafts for essays and answers that he wrote to his students. This book can teach a great deal about Rabash's state of mind and thought, and it contains the essays from the book Shamati.
- Shlavey HaSulam (" Rungs of the Ladder"): A comprehensive five-volume summary of all of Rabash's essays, written between 1984 and 1991. In this publication Ashlag explains in detail his Kabbalistic doctrine through a Kabbalistic interpretation of the Torah, as an allegory of a person's spiritual path in our world. He begins with the work of people in the group, which is a fundamental element of his teaching.
Social doctrine
Rabbi Yehuda asserted that man is a social being and cannot exist without a society that provides for his basic needs. Like his father before him, Rabash believed that an individual is under constant influence by the environment in which he resides. From the moment a person joins a particular society, they have no freedom of choice and are completely at the mercy of their influence. According to Ashlag, the only choice is the choice of the environment that projects onto you the values you want to assume.
Since the spiritual path resembles a fine line from which one must be careful not to deviate, a society that is there to support and promote a person in his life goal is of great importance. Like his father, he spent many years formulating the foundations for building a cooperative society, a society that aspires to spirituality, the way Kabbalists have perceived it through generations: the love of the Creator by receiving the love of the To gain fellow human beings. For this reason, most of Rabash's articles are devoted to explaining and simplifying the principles of the spiritual work of each individual in such a society.
Correct approach to studying
Rabbi Baruch Ashlag claims that two elements are essential to our spiritual path. First, one has to find an environment that will bring us to "sameness of form" with our Creator as safely and as quickly as possible. Then one has to know how to correctly approach the study of Kabbalah so that no time is lost. For generations the Kabbalists believed that a light, a “surrounding light”, shines on the soul of a person while studying. In order to receive this light within the soul, one only has to want this light to penetrate our soul. In other words, one must want to experience the conditions reported by the Kabbalist who wrote the book. However, this is a complex process that requires time and great effort on the part of the student because one has to come into a state of "prayer", that is, one has to formulate a perfect desire to reach the higher reality.
The focus of his teaching is not on the understanding of the subject matter, but on the demands of each individual. From the point at which a person has achieved a complete urge to reach spirituality, the spiritual world opens and one discovers the higher worlds described by the author.
In Shamati , Essay 209, he mentions three conditions under which one develops a “true” prayer, the perfect desire for spirituality:
“There are three conditions for prayer: a) Believe that He [the Creator] can help you. b) That one no longer knows any other solution, that one has already done everything that was possible and yet found no cure for one's ailments. c) That if He doesn't help you, death is better than living. Prayer is the work of the heart. And the more lost someone is, the greater their prayer "
Quotes
“And now we're going to talk about the love of God. First, one should know that love is acquired through good deeds. In giving gifts to friends, each gift becomes an arrow that pierces the friend's heart, and although the friend's heart is like a rock, each projectile drills a hole and a space is made out of those many holes. Then the giver's love penetrates that room, and the warmth of love attracts the sparks of the friend's love. These two love elements then become a garment, which thus envelops both. "
"... But we see that one thing is common to all, namely to be in high spirits, as it is said," A concern in the heart should be told to others ". This is because neither wealth nor knowledge helps when one is in a good mood. Someone is more likely to help the neighbor ... It follows that everyone and everyone should pay attention to how they can help the friend and put him in a good mood, because in high spirits you can discover the lack in the friend that you can fulfill. "
“... Similar to ten people who watch an airplane in the sky from afar. The airplane seems like a small point and some use binoculars that magnify the airplane in many ways. And everyone has a different pair of binoculars, which means they magnify a little more for one and less for the other. It then turns out that one person holds the plane for four meters, another says there are three, and another means two, and so on. Undoubtedly, they are all truthfully reporting what they see, but there are still differences. In spite of everything, none of these differences cause any changes in the aircraft itself. Rather, these changes are in the eye of the beholder. It is similar in spirituality: the multitude of changes appear only according to the merit of the qualifications of the lower. "
successor
After his death, several students continued to study according to his method. The best known among them are Avraham Mordechai Gotlieb and Michael Laitman . Another of his students is D'zerke Rabbi Aharon Brizel, who is currently teaching this method in Jerusalem and New York. There are also some of his students and followers who had studied intensively with Rabash and are now quietly teaching selected groups and individuals.
literature
- Feiga Ashlag, The Prayer of a Kabbalist: From the Life of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag (Hebr.), Bnei Brak , 1997
- Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Gotlieb, Der Sulam: The Lives and Teachings of our Holy Rabbis, the ADMORIM of the House of Ashlag and their Disciples (Hebr.), Jerusalem, 1997
Web links
- slideshow
- Shamati
- Original recordings of Rabash singing the melodies of Baal HaSulam
- A very personal biography about Rabash by his student Rav Dr. Michael Laitman
- Sefer HaMaamarim
- Shamati
- Dargot HaSulam
- Shlavey HaSulam
Individual evidence
- ↑ Feiga. Ashlag, A Kabbalist's Prayer, p. 5 (Heb.)
- ↑ Rabbi Abraham M. Gotlieb, HaSulam, p. 233
- ↑ Eliezer Schweid, The Redeeming Revelation - Justification of God in Rav Yehuda Ashlag's Kabbalistic Doctrine, in Between Ruin and Redemption, Reactions of Haredic Thinking to the Holocaust in Its Time, Hillel Ben Chaim Library, HaKibutz HaMeuhad Publication, 1994 p. 194
- ^ F. Ashlag, The Prayer of a Kabbalist, p. 6 (Hebr.); Rabbi Abraham M. Gotlieb, HaSulam, pages 233-234
- ^ F. Ashlag, Das Gebet eines Kabbalisten, p. 7; Rabbi Abraham M. Gotlieb, HaSulam, pages 233-237
- ^ F. Ashlag, The Prayer of a Kabbalist, p. 7
- ^ F. Ashlag, Das Gebet eines Kabbalisten, p. 7; Rabbi Abraham M. Gotlieb, HaSulam, pages 239-241
- ↑ Shamati, Editor's Note; F. Ashlag, The Prayer of a Kabbalist, p. 7
- ↑ "Rav Yehuda Ashlag is without a doubt the greatest Kabbalist at work in the 20th century" (Boaz Hus, PhD, Department of Jewish Thought, Ben Gurion University). "Rav Yehuda Ashlag was one of the greatest Kabbalists of recent generations" (Jonathan Garb, PhD, Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem) In Michael Laitmans, PhD, book "The Last Generation", contemporary researcher on Baal HaSulam's work. ("Talmud Esser HaSefirot", Part 1, addendum by Rav Kook and Rav Chaim Zonnenfeld at the beginning of the book)
- ^ F. Ashlag, The Prayer of a Kabbalist, p. 8
- ↑ a b Rabbi Abraham M. Gotlieb, HaSulam, p. 254
- ↑ Rabbi Abraham M. Gotlieb, HaSulam, p. 260; F. Ashlag, A Kabbalist's Prayer, p. 10
- ↑ Rabbi Abraham M. Gotlieb, HaSulam, p. 260
- ^ F. Ashlag, The Prayer of a Kabbalist, p. 13
- ↑ Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, Shlavey HaSulam, Bnei Baruch, 2000. The same version was previously published under the title Sefer HaMaamarim (Book of Essays).
- ↑ hamodia newspaper (Heb.) A report on Rabash's death, September 15, 1991
- ^ F. Ashlag, Das Gebet eines Kabbalisten, p. 12; Rabbi Abraham M. Gotlieb, HaSulam, pp. 262-263
- ↑ Yehuda Ashlag, 1995, Matan Torah, Der Frieden, Ohr ha Ganuz publication, p. 88
- ↑ Baruch Ashlag, 1998, Book of Essays, Ohr Baruch Shalom, Jerusalem pp. 1-10
- ↑ Baruch Ashlag, 1998, Book of Essays, Ohr Baruch Shalom, Jerusalem pp. 41–42
- ↑ Baruch Ashlag, Book of Essays, p. 19, pages 1–10
- ↑ Baruch Ashlag, Shlavey HaSulam (The Rungs of the Ladder) Vol. 2, 2000, Bnei Baruch, Israel, pp. 173-180
- ↑ Baruch Ashlag, Shlavey Ha Sulam, Vol. 3, p. 69; Yehuda Ashlag, 1956, Talmud Esser HaSefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Vol. 1, Jerusalem, p. 43; Rabbi Isaac Yehuda Yehiel Safrin of Kumarna, Heichal Beracha, Devarim, p. 208; Rav Avraham Isaac Ha Cohen Kook, Orot ha Torah, Chapter 6, p. 16 and Chapter 10, p. 10
- ↑ Baruch Ashlag, Shlavey Ha Sulam, Vol. 2, pages 16-2026.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ashlag, Baruch |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rabash; Ashlag, Baruch Shalom HaLevi |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Jewish Kabbalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 22, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Warsaw |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 13, 1991 |
| Place of death | Bnei Berak |