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Yehuda Ashlag
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Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (1885—1954) or Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag also known as the Baal Ha-Sulam ("Author of the Ladder") in reference to his magnum opus, was an orthodox rabbi born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, to a family of scholars connected to the Hasidic courts of Porisov and Belz. Rabbi Ashlag lived in the Holy Land from 1922 until his death in 1954 (except for two years in England), and is considered by many to have been a great kabbalist.
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Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (1885—1954) or Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag also known as the Baal Ha-Sulam ("Author of the Ladder") in reference to his magnum opus, was an orthodox rabbi born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, to a family of scholars connected to the Hasidic courts of Porisov and Belz. Rabbi Ashlag lived in the Holy Land from 1922 until his death in 1954 (except for two years in England), and is considered by many to have been a great kabbalist. In addition to his Sulam commentary on the Zohar, his other primary work, Talmud Eser Sefirot is regarded as an important study text for many students of Kabbalah.
Biography
Poland
Ashlag reputedly studied Kabbalah from the age of seven, hiding pages from the book Etz Chaim (The Tree of Life) of Isaac Luria (also known as the Arizal) in the Talmudic tractate he was meant to be studying. At the age of twelve, he studied the Talmud independently. By nineteen, Ashlag’s knowledge of the Torah was profound enough for the rabbis of Warsaw to confer upon him the title of rabbi. During this period he worked as a judge in the court of the Warsaw rabbis and also gained experience as a teacher for training judges for Jewish courts. Ashlag also studied German while in Warsaw, and read original texts of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer.
While still in Poland, he met an unidentified Warsaw merchant, who revealed himself to Ashlag as a Kabbalist. Ashlag studied with this particular teacher every night for three months, he said, “until my arrogance separated us,” and the teacher disappeared. A few months later Ashlag met the teacher again, and after pleading with him, convinced him to reveal an important kabbalistic secret. The next day, the teacher died.
Ashlag systematically interpreted Kabbalah. In line with his directives, many contemporary adherents of Ashlag’s teachings strive to spread Kabbalah to the masses.
Israel
In 1921, at the age of 36, Ashlag made the decision to emigrate to the Land of Israel, a journey that took several months. He spent the first few years living anonymously, supporting his family through manual labor by day and writing his commentaries at night. Eventually, he was recognized through his work, and was appointed Rabbi of Givat Shaul, Jerusalem in 1924.
Ashlag was friendly with the Kabbalist and Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine, Rabbi Abraham Kook, who recognized Ashlag as a great follower of Isaac Luria. Ashlag had high hopes of meeting great Kabbalists in Jerusalem including the Sephardi followers of the great 18th century Yemenite Jewish Kabbalist Sar Shalom Sharabi. However, he was profoundly disappointed by his encounter with them. Their views about Kabbalah ran contrary to Ashlag’s experience with the teaching as a means of profound personal transformation and spiritual illumination, by becoming a vessel for divine light.
In 1926 Ashlag left for London, and it was there that he wrote his commentary on Isaac Luria book Etz Chaim (The Tree of Life). This work is entitled Panim Meirot Umasbirot. It took him one and a half years to complete this work. It was published in 1927, and in 1928 Ashlag returned to the British Mandate of Palestine.
In 1932 Ashlag and his family moved to Jaffa. During this period, Ashlag also began one of his main works, Talmud Eser Sefirot, a commentary on all the writings of the Isaac Luria. In this undertaking, he developed a comprehensive explanation of the sequence of the creation of all of the upper worlds (Olamot Elyonim), starting with the source of emanation (Ma'atzil) and finishing with our world (Olam HaZeh). The work is divided into six volumes, containing sixteen parts and over two thousand pages. Some today consider it as the core of the entire teaching of Kabbalah.
In the 1930s Ashlag, now in his fifties, gathered around him a group of disciples who studied Kabbalah every night, often from shortly after midnight until dawn. He also composed many articles and letters at this time that openly promoted the study of Kabbalah on a mass scale. Ashlag went to great lengths to publish Kabbalistic material, in mediums suitable for disseminating the knowledge he had acquired across the entire Israeli nation. He began an independent Kabbalistic newsletter publication, “HaUma” (“The Nation”), of which only one issue survived. Its contents present Ashlag's analytical depths of using knowledge he had attained in Kabbalah to illuminate the cause of political and social problems in human egoism; giving reasons why communism was destined to fail, and offering solutions for correcting the property of human egoism through his teaching method of Kabbalah.
Ashlag differs fundamentally from all Kabbalists of the past, who studied and taught Kabbalah in a concealed manner, in that he felt a great need to reveal and clarify the teaching of Kabbalah to the masses. This was because he saw that the evil inclination in people (human egoism) would rise to an altogether new height in this era of humanity, causing an altogether new era of internal suffering felt as a meaningless and confused existence.
In 1943, Ashlag moved to Tel Aviv, and there began working on his book, HaSulam (The Ladder), a collection of commentaries on The Zohar. During this period, he wrote for eighteen hours a day, and due to a lack of money he was not able to afford a sufficient amount of paper and ink to write more precise explanations. He later said that if it had been within his capabilities, he would have written a full commentary on The Zohar in two-hundred volumes, but he was unable to begin the work only because of a lack of means.
He completed this work in 1953, and later added three more volumes. In honor of the completion of the entire work, his students organized a big feast in Meron, where Ashlag gave the speech that is today printed under the title “Maamar LeSiyum HaZohar” (“An Article for the Completion of the Zohar,” also known as “Speech in Celebration for the Conclusion of the Zohar”). Yehuda Ashlag died on the day of Yom Kippur in 1954.He was buried on cemetery Har HaMenuchot located in Givat Shaul , Jerusalem , Israel.
Books
Ashlag wrote and published two major works. The first, Talmud Eser Sefirot is a complete re-editing and commentary to the works of 16th century Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria. This is a comprehensive exposition of the system of the upper worlds, Partzufim and Sefirot, in the scientific language of Kabbalah which was developed by Luria.
As a core Kabbalistic text, it is especially unique in its utmost precision to detail to the structural organization and processes occurring in the upper worlds. It is set out as a comprehensive textbook, complete with commentaries, a section in each chapter dedicated to further reflection upon the commentaries, definitions of terms, tables of questions and answers, an introduction clarifying how to study Kabbalah in the correct manner, and also a summarized preface of the entire text.
His other masterwork was his Sulam commentary on The Zohar, which earned him the name “Baal HaSulam”. This monumental work took him ten years to complete, written between the years 1943 and 1953. It includes a translation of The Zohar from Aramaic to Hebrew as well as an extensive interpretation.
Another publication is the notebook of Yehuda Ashlag’s son and disciple, Baruch Ashlag. His notebook, entitled Shamati (I Heard]), contains over two hundred articles which were copied down from lessons and talks of Yehuda Ashlag. Baruch Ashlag kept this notebook with him in secret, until he was on his deathbed, in 1991. It was later published in Hebrew, and has been translated into many different languages. The articles in Shamati form a unique kabbalistic work in their emotional depth of capturing the inner processes that a Kabbalist goes through on the path of spiritual attainment.
Teachings
Ashlag’s commentary offered a systematic interpretation of the legacy of the Isaac Luria. This was the first since the 18th century when the Baal Shem Tov, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal), the Vilna Gaon and Sar Shalom Sharabi (the Rashash) offered their interpretation of the Luria's teaching. Ashlag’s system focused on the transformation of human consciousness from a state of desiring to receive, to desiring to give. This path of transformation is described in Lurianic Kabbalah.
Ashlag stated that the purpose of studying Kabbalah is equal to the purpose of why human beings were created, and that through its study, a person is capable of revealing the entirety of processes and structures that have taken place in the creation of the universe.
"Equivalence of form" with this source means having the same attributes or qualities as it, and Ashlag defines the qualities of this source as being altruistic, namely the desire to give, or in Ashlag's words, the "will to bestow" (Ratzon LeHashpia).
Through intensive study of Kabbalah, a person's desire to give to others is developed in relation to this goal. Ashlag believed that the coming of the Messiah meant that humans would attain this quality which would allow them to give up their selfishness and devote themselves to loving each other for the sake of life's purpose, as stated in the commandment "love thy neighbor as thyself."
Ashlag's sons
- Baruch Ashlag (1906–1991)
- Shlomo Benyamin Ashlag
- Ya?aqov (Jacob) Ashlag
External links
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- —Contains melodies composed by Yehuda Ashlag.
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