History of Kabbalah: Rabash - Baal HaSulam's Son and Successor

By: Bnei Baruch
Submitted: 2008-03-23 21:42:30
Print this article | Tell a friend | For publisher | Social Bookmarking
Rating:
 

Rabash (Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, 1906 – 1991) was the last great Kabbalist. He was the eldest son of Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag,1884-1954), author of the Sulam (ladder) commentary on The Book ofZohar; and was his father’s closest disciple.

From a very early age, he studied the innermost depths of the wisdom of Kabbalah with his father. Baal HaSulam taught a group of students, but his letters reveal that he regarded Rabash as a special student, and not because he was his son. In fact, the fact that Rabash was his teacher’s son required him to make extra efforts during the studies, because to absorb the Kabbalistic wisdom, he had to see Baal HaSulam as a teacher rather than a father.

The day his mentor and father passed away, Rabash knew that he was to be the next link in the chain of great Kabbalists, and that he was to continue his father’s work in disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah. On the very day his father passed away, Rabash set out to continue his father's work: The first thing he did was publish TheBook of Zohar with Baal HaSulam's commentary.

As fate would have it, Rabash turned out to be Baal HaSulam’s only disciple who continued his path. And like his father, Rabash also taught a group of students, transmitting to them all the Kabbalistic wisdom that he had accumulated during his life. He also continued his father’s legacy by writing books, most notably the book of Shamati (I Heard), a collection of talks he had heard from his great father. This book is a fundamental study manual for anyone wishing to learn Kabbalah in the modern age.

Another major work he produced is Shlavei HaSulam (Rungs of the Ladder), a five volume set of essays and articles. This text is a detailed description of all the possible states a person goes through on the way to attaining the spiritual world. In it, Rabash defined every possible state, step and action of a human being who develops spiritually by the method of Kabbalah. He also described the process of attainment: how to begin sensing the spiritual world.

For a modern Kabbalah student, these books are essential: they are the spiritual guide all along one’s development. When a student already develops the ability to sense the spiritual world, when he achieves even the minimal contact with the spiritual forces, he can look to the articles in ShlaveiHaSulam to define his current state, understand what is happening on his spiritual level and how to continue the spiritual ascent.

In this regard, Rabash is a true teacher, even for those who are only now beginning to learn this wisdom. It’s because in Kabbalah, a teacher’s task is to prepare the student for developing his own connection with the Upper Force, the Creator.

In doing so, Rabash had completed Baal HaSulam's work: he was "the last of the Mohicans," the last great Kabbalist who attained the spiritual world individually. From here on, as The Book of Zohar states, only a group of people who aspire to attain the spiritual world can break through the “barrier” separating them from it.

Today, The Kabablah Education and Research Institute, Bnei Baruch, named after Rav Baruch Ashlag, continues his legacy. Just as the Zohar predicted, 1995 marked a turning point when many people became interested in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Today, millions of people who desire to attain this wisdom are following the path that Rabash has paved. People all over the world are studying Rabash’s teaching, the wisdom of achieving peace, joy, and balance with Nature. This is the great gift that Rabash has left for us - the opportunity to become eternal and perfect.

Bnei Baruch, http://www.kabbalah.info is the largest group of Kabbalists in Israel, sharing the wisdom of Kabbalah with the entire world. Study materials in over 25 languages are based on authentic Kabbalah texts that were passed down from generation to generation.

Baal HaSulam

Article source: Expert Articles

Most Recent Articles in Philosophy category

  • Creation Theories - By: Stacey T Pollock
    A personal perception of creation theories.
  • History of Kabbalah: Rabash - Baal HaSulam's Son and Successor - By: Bnei Baruch
    Rabash (1906 - 1991) was the last great Kabbalist to attain the spiritual world individually. In our times only a group of people can do this, and Rabash's books are indispensable guides for one who develops spiritually today.
  • Passion for my Nation “Nepal” - By: Kshitize Agrawal
    These voices and these songs of the Nepalese people altogether seem to re- quicken the cosmic pulsation.
  • An Amazing, Hazy Look Into The Future - By: Geoff Howard
    Sometimes we all sit and think. Sometimes we doodle with a pen. Do we ever look in depth at what we are thinking?
  • Simple Words - By: Julie Pierce
    The words, the thoughts, the processes go on and on.As simple as it may seem to me I tend to feel that all words have their own meaning and not always the dictionary form.A simple word takes the form of many other words as each individual person who hears it puts it through a transformation process.
  • Raindrops Keep Falling On My Web - By: Sandeep Tiwari
    I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them. The probability of that obviously is very low but laws of probability have often been known to falter at the crucial test of reality. For example, there is a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they’d eventually comes up with the complete works of Shakespeare.
  • What Is Destiny? Is There Some Thing Called Free Will? - By: Ashok Kumar Gupta
    One of the greatest and everlasting debates of humanity has been about the role of destiny in the lives of human beings. There was a time when it was almost an accepted fact of life that each and every event was governed by destiny of human beings. Astrology was considered a science.
  • Culture and Knowledge - By: Lance Winslow
    In eastern Cultures the passing of thought was considered valuable, so much in fact that even to this day members of those cultures respect their elders and listen to their advice. The passing of such thoughts and concepts and philosophies is of extreme value. The Christianity religion and its followers take those stories in the bible literally, almost to an absolute truth.
  • Desire is the First Step - By: Lance Winslow
    When a member of a species determines it wants something a thought is born, which triggers a desire and thus starts the brain into a cycle innovation and strategy. If it is hunger in a Bald Eagle it means flying over the river to catch a Salmon. If it is a tourist who is cold it means going in and buying a sweatshirt.
  • DNA, Fiction and Society; How it Affects Thought - By: Lance Winslow
    A book called the Seven Daughters of Eve by Richard Sykes is worthy of a read and talks about what we have learned about the flow of human beings populations through DNA research. Thus it is safe to say that certain members of our species have developed differently and in different ways, meaning the brain also learns differently. As Scientists look at different human brains while doing various tasks and watch which areas light up with energy as it works through these different thoughts and tasks we are finding just how unique and different each mind really is.