The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.

Daily Morning Lesson: July 19, 2026

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Letter No. 39.

Original Lesson (10-16-2005)

Reader: Hello friends, in commemoration of the ARI, we will read letter 39 of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam. We'll read the letter together in the Ten. It is a 22-minute read.

Reading: (00:35) Letter 39

June 17, 1927, London

To the famous Hassid … may his candle burn:

Regards to you.

I must inform you that I just received a very distressing letter about my sacred pamphlet being handed over to external ones to abuse it as they please. Now you will understand my stern warning to keep a secret, and why I have not sent the pamphlets until now. This is what I feared, so I wanted to first send the pamphlets to the MARAN and to the rav.

Indeed, that which I dreaded came to me, and the hands of illiterate have betrayed me, doing what I did not order, after my stern warning not to disclose my secret to any person, whoever he may be. And now they have defamed me in the eyes of the generation and have failed me on the path of my exalted work to bring contentment to my Maker. Who can forgive them this? Heaven will testify to my labor in all my strength to extend His holiness to that generation.

And yet, the Sitra Achra [other side] always finds her people, doers of her missions, setting obstacles before me wherever I turn to benefit others. Thus far are my words. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them,” and the Creator does not deny my reward. Bit by bit, I am paving the way, at times less, at times more, but always with profit (reward), until I am rewarded with taking down all the enemies of the Creator with the help of His great and terrible name.

As for you, do not fear the fear of fools. Those who slander, my little finger is bigger than their waist. So the Creator desired, and so He made me, and who will tell Him what to do and what to work? The merit of my law is greater than the merit of their fathers. Similarly, the contemporaries of Prophet Amos defamed him and said that the Creator had no one on whom to instill His Shechina [Divinity] but that stutterer, as it is written in the Psikta [a Midrash].

However, it is written, “A truthful lip shall be established forever, and a lying tongue is only momentary,” for in the end, the truthful people are the winners. Amos remains alive and existing forever, and who has heard or knows what had happened to his adversaries?

So it is here. The sayers can harm only their own kind, so it follows that the storm swirls on the head of the wicked, the truth lives on and does not weaken by all the lies. Instead, it grows even stronger by them, like a sown field that is strengthened by the manure and dung that are thrown in. With the Creator’s will, the blessing of the field increases and multiplies by them.

I still do not feel the harm that will come to me through them concerning the dissemination of my teaching, so I do not know how to calculate a way to instill light and save it from their evil. And yet, it is certain that if I feel any harm, I will take my revenge against them, as is the law of Torah, and I will contend forcefully with them. I will do all that is within the power of my hand to do, as it is the Creator I fear, and there is no other force but Him.

As a rule, you should know that it is not for my own need or my own glory that I composed the book. Rather, it is only for His sake, for I noticed great confusions in the writings of the ARI because the ARI did not write or arrange them by himself in the full depth of this sublime wisdom. When Rav heard and wrote the words, he was still not in the degrees of wholeness necessary for attaining those words at their root. He was young then, thirty years old, when studying with the ARI, as it is written in Gate to Reincarnations (Gate 8, p 49). It writes, “Now, in the year Hey-Shin-Lamed-Aleph [1571], and I am twenty-nine ...” Then, on Passover he was already serving the ARI, and the Rav [ARI] fell ill on Friday, July 21, 1572. The next Tuesday, on the Fifth of Av [July 25, 1572], he passed away.

You therefore find that at the time of his demise, he [Chaim Vital] was only thirty, and the ARI lived thirty-eight years, as it is known. And he wrote some more there (Gate 8, p 71), that at the time of his passing, Rav Chaim Vital was not by his side [the ARI’s].

These are his words verbatim: “Rav Itzhak HaCohen told me that at the time of my teacher’s passing, when I came out of his room, he (Rav Itzhak HaCohen) entered and cried before him saying, ‘Is this the hope that we all hoped in your life—to see great good, Torah, and wisdom in the world?’ He replied to him, ‘If I found even one complete righteous among you, I would not be taken away prematurely.’ While saying it, he asked about me (about Rav Chaim Vital). He said, ‘Where did Chaim go? Has he left me at such a time?’ He was very saddened. He understood from his words that he had some secret to pass on to me, so he (Rav Itzhak HaCohen) said to him, ‘What shall we do from now on?’ He (the ARI) replied: ‘Tell the friends in my name that from this day on they are not to engage at all in this wisdom that I taught, for they did not understand it properly. Only Rav Chaim Vital shall engage in it, alone, in a whisper, and in hiding.’ He (Rav Itzhak HaCohen) said, ‘But is there no hope at all?’ He said, ‘If you merit, I will come to you and teach you.’ He replied to him, ‘How will you come and teach us if you are now departing from this world?’ He replied, ‘You have no knowledge of the concealed, of how my coming to you will be,’ and he promptly passed away.”

I have elaborated in copying the words of Rav Chaim Vital’s book, Gate to Reincarnation, so you would see that the ARI forbade Rav Chaim Vital to teach what he had learned to others because at the time, he did not sufficiently understand what he had heard from the ARI. This is why he would not even arrange the writings he had heard from his teacher, and his successors arranged them, the third generation—Rav Yaakov Tzemach, Rav Meir HaCohen Paprash, and Rav Shmuel Vital.

Each of those compilers did not have the complete writings of the ARI because six hundred pages from the writings were stolen while Rav Chaim Vital was alive. Out of those, Rav Yaakov Tzemach compiled the majority of Tree of Life, as well as some other compositions. Rav Chaim Vital ordered another part to be buried along with him in the grave, and so they did. He left a third part as inheritance to his son, Rav Shmuel Vital, from which the famous Eight Gates were compiled.

After a long time, Rav Yaakov Tzemach assembled a large group of students, who dug the third portion out of the grave. From them the first and next editions of Tree of Life were composed, as well as Olat Tamid, and other compositions.

You therefore see that each time, the compiler had only a third of all the writings, which together make up one entity and one structure. I wish it were enough, but since they had only a small portion of the writings, they did not understand the depth of the wisdom at that time, and they terribly confused the matters by not understanding how to arrange them.

Know for certain that since the time of the ARI to this day, there has not been anyone who understood the method of the ARI to the fullest, as it was easier to attain a mind twice as great and twice as holy than the ARI’s than to understand his method in which many hands fiddled—from the one who first heard and wrote them through the last compilers, while they still did not attain the matters as they are in their upper root. Thus, each inverted and confused the matters.

And now, by the Creator’s will, I have been rewarded with a conception [impregnation] of the soul of the ARI, not because of my good deeds but by a higher will. It is beyond me, too, why I have been chosen for this wonderful soul, with which no one has been granted since his passing until today. I cannot elaborate on this matter as it is not my way to discuss the concealed, but I did find it my duty to ease your mind because ... before a flow of great water from servants that burst out at their master and expel from their water mire and dirt, to fall under the work that their animate soul has worked, since they still did not completely understand how to separate it from the spiritual soul. You should know that one must not fear such forces, which spring forth only to wash away all holiness, and the Creator saves us from them.

I think you will believe me, as it has never been my way to fabricate, exaggerate, or pursue respect and gain a name among the fools, which, until today, I have tolerated and had no desire to even fight with them.

To reinforce your not being confused by their armies of the Sitra Achra [other side], I will give you a clear sign that we received from the ARI, by which to know who is a true righteous and who is not a true righteous, but is worthy of being righteous, for which he should be treated respectfully, too. Do you believe that we should cast lots [flip a coin] about it, to know who is serving the Creator and who is not? After all, the signs and the tokens do not determine in this matter, as is known among the Hassidim, so it is a lot that we need, God forbid.

Rather, know that Rav Chaim Vital asked the ARI that question, and it is explained in the book Gate of the Holy Spirit, the seventh of the Eight Gates by the ARI, page 1. Here are his words, word for word: “The sign that my teacher gave me was to see if all his words come true, or if all his words are for the Creator, and he will not be wrong in even one of his words (relating to a letter that he learns from his friend, that he needs, etc., as it is known to those who know the wisdom of the hidden). He should also know the secrets of Torah and how to explain them, and then we can definitely believe in him.” Rav Chaim Vital ends with this sign, and these are his words, verbatim: “According to his words we can know and recognize his greatness and merit to the extent of his knowledge.”

The explanation is as previously written, that when a person is righteous and Hassid, and engages in Torah and prays intently, angels and holy spirits are created out of him. This is the meaning of “One who performs one Mitzva [commandment] has acquired for himself one advocate.” The follies that come out from his mouth become a chariot to the souls of the first righteous, to go down to teach Torah to that man.

He also says there that if the Mitzvot [commandments] are incomplete, incomplete angels and spirits are made of it, which are called “tellers.” It is about that that he gave the above-mentioned sign that if the Torah and Mitzvot are complete, he is rewarded with complete attainment and knows how to explain all the secrets of Torah. If he is lacking in it, meaning knows how to explain only some of them, his works are certainly incomplete.

Indeed, all those who can be my adversaries, it is because they do not even understand my words, so how can they be deemed complete righteous? Thus, I have given you a clear sign.

I have already written you that my book needs no endorsements because I did not add even a single word to the words of the ARI, and I have also given references to every single concept, showing their place in the writings of the ARI, and the ARI does not need the endorsement of our contemporaries. I did this deliberately, seeing the ways of the Sitra Achra against me in advance. My own work and additions in all those two commentaries are hardly recognizable. Thus, how will they hold out the campaign against this notebook? If they do have complaints about my teaching, and I am more proficient in the writings of the ARI than they are, this is not an argument. They should not have spent their time on vanities; they had time to study the words of the ARI, and since they folded their hands idly, now they will eat their own flesh.

My regards to you and to ... and ... Tell him that all his ways are as this deed, whose intention is good but the deeds are not good, and everything follows the act. But what can I do to him? He is my flesh and blood. Therefore, let him inform me in great detail the whole story and how it unfolded from beginning to end, and I will reply to him.

I also ask that you will let me know your thoughts about this letter, and more of what is happening among them in great detail and elaborately, for I need to know all the details in order to maintain the shield, for the work of the Creator is no small matter.

Yehuda.

Reader: We'll continue to the recorded lesson from the 16th of October, 2005.

Reader: We are reading in the book Pri Hacham, Letters, page 118.

Reading: (21:31) Letter 39

June 17, 1927, London

To the famous Hassid … may his candle burn:

Regards to you.

I must inform you that I just received a very distressing letter about my sacred pamphlet being handed over to external ones to abuse it as they please. Now you will understand my stern warning to keep a secret, and why I have not sent the pamphlets until now. This is what I feared, so I wanted to first send the pamphlets to the MARAN and to the rav.

Indeed, that which I dreaded came to me, and the hands of illiterate have betrayed me, doing what I did not order, after my stern warning not to disclose my secret to any person, whoever he may be. And now they have defamed me in the eyes of the generation and have failed me on the path of my exalted work to bring contentment to my Maker. Who can forgive them this? Heaven will testify to my labor in all my strength to extend His holiness to that genera

M. Laitman: (22:58) We must understand that Baal HaSulam had many opponents, haters. Today as well we hear of them, but now this generation is engaged in something different altogether. You don't have the same Torah, the same orthodox public that existed then. There isn't the same strictness towards the wisdom of Kabbalah, and also the Kabbalah of the Ramak and the ARI, they also had some division between them. And also it's to the extent that the sages of Jerusalem, if they understood or didn't understand what Baal HaSulam is doing, they greatly resisted what he was doing and what he was writing and how he's interpreting the writings, the words of the ARI, and he truly feared all that. He feared that they might shut his path towards the dissemination of the book and the dissemination of his words.

Reading: (24:12) Letter 39

And yet, the Sitra Achra [other side] always finds her people, doers of her missions, setting obstacles before me wherever I turn to benefit others. Thus far are my words. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them,” and the Creator does not deny my reward. Bit by bit, I am paving the way, at times less, at times more, but always with profit (reward), until I am rewarded with taking down all the enemies of the Creator with the help of His great and terrible name.

As for you, do not fear the fear of fools. Those who slander, my little finger is bigger than their waist. So the Creator desired, and so He made me, and who will tell Him what to do and what to work? The merit of my law is greater than the merit of their fathers. Similarly, the contemporaries of Prophet Amos defamed him and said that the Creator had no one on whom to instill His Shechina [Divinity] but that stutterer, as it is written in the Psikta [a Midrash].

M. Laitman: (25:32) We see that it's almost never that in a certain generation, the greatest of the generation were never respected or understood by their contemporaries. There's no prophet in one's hometown. So it's known that a person grows where he is, and you think that it's the same person, because the inanimate is inanimate, it doesn't grow. So how can one aged 20 — well, one aged 20 is the same as he is at 60, 70. What more does he know? A few more pages of the Gemara. So you don't understand how to become a spiritual person and to rise above the ground. And so one cannot be a prophet in his hometown, it's written.

And certainly the usual people, regular people, inanimate of holiness, they engage in their commandments day to day, and this is their liveliness, their spirit. They don't understand the other ways there are to live. This lifestyle of theirs doesn't allow them to think differently about how someone suddenly grows. But it's the same person towards him that people know. And Kabbalists, you can't understand them, because they're simple, simpler than others. As much as I got to know them, they didn't ascribe any importance to their selves. And how would they? Because if one checks himself against the Creator, then he always finds himself to be inferior, weak — who is he, what is he?

As it is written, the humility of the Lord was felt by Moses, and was not felt by anyone of his generation. He was the most humble of all people. And so, in the eyes of the people who see a person who doesn't appear as though important, with his belly full of Shas and Poskim, all matters of secrets that he disseminates among the public, or performing wonders before everyone, of course the audience judges him. The public judges him according to... each one who judges others is judging his own flaws, seeing his own flaws. That's how it appeared. It was the same with the ARI, also with Rabbi Shimon, and also with Baal HaSulam, and with Ramchal — many people, each and every one of them. The Creator actually, by that, He protects His unique beloved people, so they don't mix with the public and protect themselves, keep themselves. And so they can advance alone without any influence from the external group of those orthodox religious people, as Baal HaSulam says often.

And here, Rabash explains to us in his letter that people, as close as they get to the internality of the Torah, seemingly, then you need to stay away from them more and more to the extent that they are within, so as not to gain from them all their corruptions they have in the understanding of the path; to remain clean, pure. So however it may be, no one is safe from criticism, and there was a lot of criticism against Baal HaSulam. There were rough periods, very rough.

Reading: (29:27) Letter 39

However, it is written, “A truthful lip shall be established forever, and a lying tongue is only momentary,” for in the end, the truthful people are the winners. Amos remains alive and existing forever, and who has heard or knows what had happened to his adversaries?

So it is here. The sayers can harm only their own kind, so it follows that the storm swirls on the head of the wicked, the truth lives on and does not weaken by all the lies. Instead, it grows even stronger by them, like a sown field that is strengthened by the manure and dung that are thrown in. With the Creator’s will, the blessing of the field increases and multiplies by them.

I still do not feel the harm that will come to me through them concerning the dissemination of my teaching, so I do not know how to calculate a way to instill light and save it from their evil. And yet, it is certain that if I feel any harm, I will take my revenge against them, as is the law of Torah, and I will contend forcefully with them. I will do all that is within the power of my hand to do, as it is the Creator I fear, and there is no other force but Him.

M. Laitman: (31:02) Meaning, whatever the case may be, he's not going to take them into account, but continue on his path, whatever it may be. And we can't really evaluate these efforts, because a person living inside the ghetto in Jerusalem who has nowhere to run to, it's a very small world, his world especially. It was a few streets, a few streets in the city, no more. And also, according to his lifestyle, according to relatives and family, according to the education that he has to maintain externally, there's nothing he can do. He's in the same place with his detractors, and nonetheless, he has to continue going. It's related to the holidays, going to the synagogue every day, various get-togethers, weddings, and such like.

Meaning, everything that has to do with social life, where he must partake in it, although he feels how people relate to him in a special way, they see him as different from others, negatively so. For years, I had to walk with, I had to go with Rabash to weddings, and sometimes a few weddings a week. Twice, three times a week, I had to go to weddings with him. I hated it intensely. It was very difficult for me. And I also saw how much he suffered from this, where he had to sit there at the VIP table, talk to them about all sorts of things on their level, all the news, everything going on in the religious, Orthodox society. Things which are, to him, on his degree, are meaningless, empty, and how difficult it was for him. He used to come very, very, tired after all those meetings. He came home very tired, very late. And then after two or three hours, he had to get up and start the lesson. It was a difficult life, and Kabbalists also had to partake in public life for various reasons. Each one in his time, for this or that reason. Baal Shem Tov as well, all of them, in order to draw people to them, to show the people that he exists. Maybe to interest the public in something, to remind them that you also have these things that exist, and so on. They, to some extent, they had to participate in social life.

Reading: (34:11) Letter 39

As a rule, you should know that it is not for my own need or my own glory that I composed the book. Rather, it is only for His sake, for I noticed great confusions in the writings of the ARI because the ARI did not write or arrange them by himself in the full depth of this sublime wisdom. When Rav Chaim Vital heard and wrote the words, he was still not in the degrees of wholeness necessary for attaining those words at their root. He was young then, thirty years old, when studying with the ARI, as it is written in Gate to Reincarnations (Gate 8, p 49). It writes, “Now, in the year Hey-Shin-Lamed-Aleph [1571], and I am twenty-nine ...” Then, on Passover he was already serving the ARI, and the Rav [ARI] fell ill on Friday, July 21, 1572. The next Tuesday, on the Fifth of Av [July 25, 1572], he passed away.

You therefore find that at the time of his demise, he [Chaim Vital] was only thirty, and the ARI lived thirty-eight years, as it is known. And he wrote some more there (Gate 8, p 71), that at the time of his passing, Rav Chaim Vital was not by his side [the ARI’s].

These are his words verbatim: “Rav Itzhak HaCohen told me that at the time of my teacher’s passing, when I came out of his room, he (Rav Itzhak HaCohen) entered and cried before him saying, ‘Is this the hope that we all hoped in your life—to see great good, Torah, and wisdom in the world?’ He replied to him, ‘If I found even one complete righteous among you, I would not be taken away prematurely.’

While saying it, he asked about me (about Rav Chaim Vital). He said, ‘Where did Chaim go? Has he left me at such a time?’ He was very saddened. He understood from his words that he had some secret to pass on to me, so he (Rav Itzhak HaCohen) said to him, ‘What shall we do from now on?’ He (the ARI) replied: ‘Tell the friends in my name that from this day on they are not to engage at all in this wisdom that I taught, for they did not understand it properly. Only Rav Chaim Vital shall engage in it, alone, in a whisper, and in hiding.’ He (Rav Itzhak HaCohen) said, ‘But is there no hope at all?’ He said, ‘If you merit, I will come to you and teach you.’ He replied to him, ‘How will you come and teach us if you are now departing from this world?’ He replied, ‘You have no knowledge of the concealed, of how my coming to you will be,’ and he promptly passed away.”

M. Laitman: (37:42) Meaning, well we have many stories of this, of the ARI, how much he labored to turn them into a group, inviting them all to go to Jerusalem on the eve of the Shabbat, the Friday. He said that this is a special time where you can rise to Jerusalem, to take a leap on the path, a breakthrough, and to bring about the end of correction. And how they returned to him with various excuses: that the children are sick, the wife doesn't allow it, and so on. Such hindrances, special obstructions that they received from the heavens also, that they had. But what we see here is that one who didn't receive the right message from the teacher should not engage in it without a teacher at all. Because then he will follow his mistakes, his errors, his own reasoning, and then he will only prevent himself from it.

And the Upper Providence may bring him to a different place at a different time, maybe a different incarnation, but at least not to create for himself more mistakes and deviations on the path, become confused and maybe also drag others into that. And here the ARI tells him in a very harsh, very strict way, don't engage at all. What does it mean, don't engage at all in the wisdom of Kabbalah? We're talking about students who devoted themselves, their souls to it, but they didn't get to understand it yet. It doesn't matter. So he commanded that only Rav Chaim Vital will engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah under concealment, in whispers, and the rest, not at all. And if not at all then, later he says, but if you will merit it, I will come and teach you. What is that about? It doesn't... by our reasoning, we can't understand it. A person shouldn't engage in it by his teacher's command, leave the wisdom of Kabbalah, not engage in it? Then how will he be, how will he merit it later? He will. You need to do what the Rav says, and that's it. It'll all work itself out. Not for nothing he said, if you merit it — what does it mean, you'll merit it, you'll be rewarded? Do what I'm telling you, no more. And you'll see how, through that, if you succeed, I will come to you and bless you. Well, unfortunately, it didn't pan out for them. But only Chaim Vital, and with the assistance of a few, his son. And over several generations, he arranged the writings of the ARI, and that's what we have for today. And then Baal HaSulam interpreted them, clarified them. And these are the texts by which we can advance towards holiness. Any questions about this? No, continue.

Reading: (41:15) Letter 39

I have elaborated in copying the words of Rav Chaim Vital’s book, Gate to Reincarnation, so you would see that the ARI forbade Rav Chaim Vital to teach what he had learned to others because at the time, he did not sufficiently understand what he had heard from the ARI. This is why he would not even arrange the writings he had heard from his teacher, and his successors arranged them, the third generation—Rav Yaakov Tzemach, Rav Meir HaCohen Paprash, and Rav Shmuel Vital.

Each of those compilers did not have the complete writings of the ARI because six hundred pages from the writings were stolen while Rav Chaim Vital was alive. Out of those, Rav Yaakov Tzemach compiled the majority of Tree of Life, as well as some other compositions.

Rav Chaim Vital ordered another part to be buried along with him in the grave, and so they did. He left a third part as inheritance to his son, Rav Shmuel Vital, from which the famous Eight Gates were compiled.

After a long time, Rav Yaakov Tzemach assembled a large group of students, who dug the third portion out of the grave. From them the first and next editions of Tree of Life were composed, as well as Olat Tamid, and other compositions.

M. Laitman: (42:49) Meaning only after Shmuel Vital, and this is the third generation since the ARI, when they had all the writings, then they compiled them the right way.

Reading: (43:03) Letter 39

You therefore see that each time, the compiler had only a third of all the writings, which together make up one entity and one structure. I wish it were enough, but since they had only a small portion of the writings, they did not understand the depth of the wisdom at that time, and they terribly confused the matters by not understanding how to arrange them.

M. Laitman: (43:30) And that is what pushed Baal HaSulam to order things correctly in his TES, Study of the Ten Sefirot. To take the main writings of the ARI, to organize them correctly according to the development by cause and consequence from above downwards, and to write about this, to write a clear interpretation, so that we can later have a key to all the writings of the ARI, if we wanted.

Reading: (43:59) Letter 39

Know for certain that since the time of the ARI to this day, there has not been anyone who understood the method of the ARI to the fullest, as it was easier to attain a mind twice as great and twice as holy than the ARI’s than to understand his method in which many hands fiddled—from the one who first heard and wrote them through the last compilers, while they still did not attain the matters as they are in their upper root. Thus, each inverted and confused the matters.

M. Laitman: (44:36) The thing is, what he says is they had great minds, phenomenal memories, tremendous, but they did not understand the wisdom itself, the depth of it. They remembered by heart what's written where, all things, but they connected these things, related them, connected them together only by memory, according to, well, superficial understanding. Not according to the deep connection that exists, the spiritual connection that exists between the texts. So they confused it, and they damaged the wisdom greatly, on the one hand. On the other hand, they still preserved the writings, so that later, one of attainment — not intelligence, not a great memory, but one of attainment, could come and compile these texts according to the spirit in them.

Reading: (45:36) Letter 39

And now, by the Creator’s will, I have been rewarded with a conception [impregnation] of the soul of the ARI, not because of my good deeds but by a higher will. It is beyond me, too, why I have been chosen for this wonderful soul, with which no one has been granted since his passing until today. I cannot elaborate on this matter as it is not my way to discuss the concealed, but I did find it my duty to ease your mind because ... before a flow of great water from servants that burst out at their master and expel from their water mire and dirt, to fall under the work that their animate soul has worked, since they still did not completely understand how to separate it from the spiritual soul. You should know that one must not fear such forces, which spring forth only to wash away all holiness, and the Creator saves us from them.

M. Laitman: (46:40) Meaning, he has no choice, but he needs to state openly that he was the reincarnation of the ARI, Baal HaSulam was the reincarnation of the ARI. We do not hide this. Anyone is free to say whatever they wish; what a person says merely testifies to the extent that he understands these matters. It is even written on the synagogue — ARI Ashlag Synagogue. We indeed hold that this is the same soul that came through Abraham, Moses, Rashbi, the ARI, and Baal HaSulam. It is the same soul that returns into this world time after time, each time corresponding to new degrees of coarseness, of Aviut, and to a new stage in the overall development of humanity. It comes in order to advance, and to improve the wisdom of Kabbalah, and bring it to a level appropriate for that particular generation. As Baal HaSulam himself writes, the ARI marks the beginning of the Messiah's method.

Reading: (48:08) Letter 39

I think you will believe me, as it has never been my way to fabricate, exaggerate, or pursue respect and gain a name among the fools, which, until today, I have tolerated and had no desire to even fight with them.

To reinforce your not being confused by their armies of the Sitra Achra [other side], I will give you a clear sign that we received from the ARI, by which to know who is a true righteous and who is not a true righteous, but is worthy of being righteous, for which he should be treated respectfully, too.

Do you believe that we should cast lots [flip a coin] about it, to know who is serving the Creator and who is not? After all, the signs and the tokens do not determine in this matter, as is known among the Hassidim, so it is a lot that we need, God forbid.

M. Laitman: (49:09) There are two points here. First, in the passage "I think you will believe me," Baal HaSulam is saying that a person should not be impressed by what comes from society. It doesn't matter, because society understands nothing about these matters. There are no people in society who possess any spiritual attainment and can truly understand or evaluate them. Even those who engage in Kabbalah generally do so only superficially.

They haven't really reached the spiritual degrees where one could show them, here's where I am, and here's where you are, and thereby calm a person's spirit through mutual understanding and connection. And as for the rest of the public, they generally like anything except what comes close to erasing or annulling what they already have. Everyone says, my Rebbe, my Rebbe, while everyone else is regarded as though they do not belong or have any value. So we should understand this public, whether secular or religious, in the same way.

Anyone who has not attained spirituality, by the very nature of the uncorrected human being, they will inevitably relate to these things in this manner. We simply have to wait until the children grow up, and that they make a lot of noise and many problems on a daily basis for a Kabbalist. That should be accepted as a form of protection from the Creator, who deliberately places the Kabbalist in opposition to everyone else. That's the first point. The second point is, how do we truly determine whether someone is a genuine righteous person or not?

Baal HaSulam says, not by miracles and not by any other outstanding ability, such as mastery of the material. Because there’s people who know it by heart, in this really astonishing way. Baal HaSulam himself writes that when he arrived in Jerusalem, he was amazed by people who knew every word of the ARI by heart. The ARI's writings flowed effortlessly from their mouths, but they didn't understand them, even a millimeter beyond the superficial meaning. So it's not according to one's knowledge of the material, even if someone can lecture brilliantly with all this eloquence and wisdom, apparent wisdom, quoting the Kabbalists' texts back and forth. Nor is it according to miracles and wonders that a person might speak about, or maybe can even perform. Whatever the case may be, neither of these can serve as proof that a person has spiritual attainment and is qualified to be a guide toward the attainment of the purpose of creation. So what then?

Reading: (52:30) Letter 39

Rather, know that Rav Chaim Vital asked the ARI that question, and it is explained in the book Gate of the Holy Spirit, the seventh of the Eight Gates by the ARI, page 1. Here are his words, word for word: “The sign that my teacher gave me was to see if all his words come true, or if all his words are for the Creator, and he will not be wrong in even one of his words (relating to a letter that he learns from his friend, that he needs, etc., as it is known to those who know the wisdom of the hidden).

M. Laitman: (53:07) It is written that one who learns one letter from his friend must relate to him as his Rav. Here, one letter refers to faith. In other words, one who teaches faith, the quality of bestowal and how to reach it, that is considered one letter. Bracha, a blessing, Bet, the letter Bet, with which the Torah begins. Such a person may be called a Rav. The question, of course, is how much he teaches, how he teaches, and so forth. But that is the sign.

Meaning he’s not exalting himself, he does not attract students to himself, but rather he directs the students to make a vessel toward the Creator. And in such a way, he guides them and shows them how to enter the quality of bestowal, the quality of Bina, the quality of faith, which is called one letter.

Reading: (54:15) Letter 39

He should also know the secrets of Torah and how to explain them, and then we can definitely believe in him.”

M. Laitman: (54:22) The secrets of Torah and how to explain them — that is, he must know how to explain them to his students, according to the measure that they are able to absorb them, according to what’s beneficial for them. It doesn't mean revealing secrets to them outright, that's impossible. Everything depends on a person's spiritual degree, but he reveals a little more each time, gradually, in a way that helps and supports them at every step along the path.

Reading: (54:50) Letter 39

Rav Chaim Vital ends with this sign, and these are his words, verbatim: “According to his words we can know and recognize his greatness and merit to the extent of his knowledge.”

The explanation is as previously written, that when a person is righteous and Hassid, and engages in Torah and prays intently, angels and holy spirits are created out of him. This is the meaning of “One who performs one Mitzva [commandment] has acquired for himself one advocate.”

M. Laitman: (55:23) A righteous person, a Hassid, and engaging in Torah and prays intently, these are all spiritual actions of course. That's clear, right? A righteous person, a Tzaddik, lives by faith. A Tzaddik, a righteous person, is the foundation of the world, one who has already risen from Malchut to Yesod and exists entirely in the intention to bestow. A Hassid is one who has already acquired the quality of bestowal, the vessels of Galgalta ve Eynaim, the light of Hassadim. And one who engages in Torah is already correcting his vessels of reception. And one who prays with intention already knows how to establish a screen and the intention to bestow over all his vessels. So such a person is certainly holy.

Reading: (56:09) Letter 39

The follies that come out from his mouth become a chariot to the souls of the first righteous, to go down to teach Torah to that man.

M. Laitman: (56:21) In other words, through him, all the teachings, all the teachings, all the attainments, all the spiritual degrees of the great Kabbalists of previous generations, they become clarified for us. He is connected with them, and he receives from them and passes onto those below him everything that is for their benefit, so that they may attain the purpose of creation.

Reading: (56:49) Letter 39

He also says there that if the Mitzvot [commandments] are incomplete, incomplete angels and spirits are made of it, which are called “tellers.” It is about that that he gave the above-mentioned sign that if the Torah and Mitzvot are complete, he is rewarded with complete attainment and knows how to explain all the secrets of Torah. If he is lacking in it, meaning knows how to explain only some of them, his works are certainly incomplete.

M. Laitman: (57:17) But who can understand how a person explains these things, and whether he explains them completely or not? Clearly, that refers either to the person himself or to others who are greater than he is and are therefore capable of measuring and examining him. But it doesn't refer to those who are smaller than him, those who simply hear what they're told and swallow it whole, accepting it as it is. In other words, we're certainly incapable of determining whether someone is a true Kabbalist of high spiritual attainment and a genuine Rav or not. All we can judge is what he teaches his students, how he leads them, according to what we understand from the writings, from the path, and from the progression through the spiritual degrees, stage by stage. For those of us who are still small, there is no other criterion. We cannot measure a person's spiritual stature. We don't even enter the same spiritual realm where his degree can be attained. But only in that way, in the conveyance of the material, and by whether he preserves the path as it's been laid out, directing it toward the goal of adhesion with the Creator.

Reading: (58:54) Letter 39

Indeed, all those who can be my adversaries, it is because they do not even understand my words, so how can they be deemed complete righteous? Thus, I have given you a clear sign. I have already written you that my book needs no endorsements because I did not add even a single word to the words of the ARI, and I have also given references to every single concept, showing their place in the writings of the ARI, and the ARI does not need the endorsement of our contemporaries. I did this deliberately, seeing the ways of the Sitra Achra against me in advance.

My own work and additions in all those two commentaries are hardly recognizable. Thus, how will they hold out the campaign against this notebook? If they do have complaints about my teaching, and I am more proficient in the writings of the ARI than they are, this is not an argument. They should not have spent their time on vanities; they had time to study the words of the ARI, and since they folded their hands idly, now they will eat their own flesh.

My regards to you and to ... and ... Tell him that all his ways are as this deed, whose intention is good but the deeds are not good, and everything follows the act. But what can I do to him? He is my flesh and blood. Therefore, let him inform me in great detail the whole story and how it unfolded from beginning to end, and I will reply to him. I also ask that you will let me know your thoughts about this letter, and more of what is happening among them in great detail and elaborately, for I need to know all the details in order to maintain the shield, for the work of the Creator is no small matter.

M. Laitman: (01:01:10) Well, those were difficult times. Today we no longer feel all of that. This was about 70 years ago. Baal HaSulam was in London, and all that tension was taking place in Jerusalem, and it was very hard for him. That's why he traveled there and wrote this letter. Rabash, too, when things became very unsettled, he traveled to London and remained there for three years after Baal HaSulam's passing. What can we say? We have no unequivocal signs by which to answer everyone who comes asking, how do I know, how can I be sure?

But again, once I turned to Rabash with exactly that question, and he said, search. If you find somewhere else that seems more suitable to you, then apparently it's more suitable. But if you don't find such a place, then this is probably your place. And that is actually the test. Let us hope that in our generation, this scrutiny begins to take place on broader scales, and all of our dissemination should bring about a situation in which both the writings of the great Kabbalists and those texts that were compiled in confusion and without true understanding will gradually recede from public use, while the writings of Baal HaSulam become our guiding light and our path. For it is there that the words of Rashbi and the words of the ARI are presented in their proper order and with a correct explanation. The same applies to the Zohar. We need to understand that as tradition relates, the original Zohar was at least 20 times larger than the version we have today. It was also arranged differently, and what has reached us contains omissions and disordered sections. It's only about one twentieth of the original work.

So it's the same with the writings of the ARI. They weren't properly arranged. Rav Chaim Vital wrote down what the ARI said, while he himself understood only a part of it. So if it wasn't for the order and clarity that Baal HaSulam gives us regarding these original sources, the Zohar and the writings of the ARI, so we have no other path in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Let us hope that even those who do not yet understand, and those who oppose, and those who adhere to various other approaches, will eventually understand that we need to hold on to one source, one vessel. Although it's written that there are many paths to the Creator, the method itself, the Torah, is one. And for our generation, that method is found in the writings of Baal HaSulam, and if we follow them, we'll succeed.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:14) He writes towards the end about someone whose intention is good, but the act is not good, and everything is judged after the act. But we say that we judge a person by his intention, that the intention is the most important.

M. Laitman: If we're talking about a small person, where his mouth and his heart are one, then it turns out that his act and his intention are not the same. Let's say at the beginning of the action, his intention was good, but afterward, the ego, the evil inclination, overcame him, and what he had originally intended turned into something else. Or maybe the outward action itself remained exactly the same, but the intention behind it changed completely, it inverted. That's one point. Secondly, a person cannot accurately measure his own intention. Rather, the act bears witness to the intention. Nevertheless, when we're speaking about a person in this world, we check him only according to the act, because intention is the concealed Torah. Neither he nor we truly know what his exact intention was. Even he’s confused, biased, and it's concealed from him. That's called the Torah of the hidden, the concealed Torah, the teaching of intentions. And we also don't know and understand. So, judgment is based only according to the act.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:57) Other than Baal HaSulam, did anyone else author a thorough interpretation of the words of the ARI?

M. Laitman: There have been many commentaries on the writings of the ARI. There are several relatively good ones. There are many of them. I don't even want to single them out. But let's say there's Yitzhak Haver, Pitchei Shearim, the Opening of the Gates. And there are others as well. I wouldn't point people toward them, so as to not encourage an interest in them, although they're relatively good and correct. Not that I'm the one to judge them, for they were all very great Kabbalists. I've read them myself. I saw, for instance, a book that Hillel Gelbstein, Rabash knew it, and several other books as well. Also, together with Rabash, I studied a little of the Ramchal and a little of the Vilna Gaon, the Gaon of Vilna.

But these are not books through which we can study and advance today. But once we rise to higher degrees, then certainly we can enjoy for instance, Ramchal's Adir BaMarom, which contains wonderful insights. But the entire book deals with the GAR of Atzilut. It's entirely about the Rosh of Arich Anpin, the whole book, because that's the source of all governance and providence. So how much can we really discuss such things today? We need to be really close to attaining those states, not necessarily fully attaining them, but at least approaching them. Even when I studied with Rabash, I was not in those attainments.

But such study requires very special conditions. After everything, other than the writings of Baal HaSulam, for practical study by a beginner, before they enter into spiritual degrees, before they come into clear attainment, there are no other suitable books. Once a person advances further and further through the spiritual degrees, he himself will be able to see what else is worthwhile for him to study. And that's not much — perhaps a little of the Gaon of Vilna's writings, a little of the Ramchal, and that is all.

Baal HaSulam remains the loyal source that leads us in the shortest and safest way. And I hope again that through our dissemination, we will save a lot of confusion and also save a lot of time for those who are searching, so they can approach his books immediately. I studied with him three or four years all kinds of writings, and they were of great Kabbalists, of the Hassidism, or the book Tal Orot, relatively a good book. Mendel from Vitebsk, the Tree of Life, and certainly Ramak really explains vastly about all kinds of things, and so on. The Hagra, the Sifra DeTzniuta, a very difficult explanation, but nevertheless, Klach de Hochma from the Ramchal, I went through many. But after I came to Baal HaSulam, I understood how this source is the source. Well, let's move to the next part.

Reader: And now, friends, let's summarize our impressions from the lesson, and what we take from it to implement in the Ten. Six minutes, summarizing workshop.

Reader: We'll move to the next part of the lesson.

Kabala Medya

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Günlük Dersler16. Juli 2026(Morning)Derse Hazırlık

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Günlük Dersler16. Juli 2026(Morning)
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Kabala Medya
Telif Hakkı © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah L’Am Association, Tüm Hakları Saklıdır