PHILADELPHIA CNTR OF BNEI BARUCH KABBALAH ACADEMY

BNEI BARUCH 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.
THE MESSAGE
Bnei Baruch is a diverse movement of many thousands of students worldwide. Each student chooses his or her own path and intensity, according to one's personal conditions and abilities.
In recent years, the group has grown into aCOL movement engaged in voluntary educational projects, presenting genuine Kabbalah sources in contemporary language. The essence of the message disseminated by Bnei Baruch is unity of the people, unity of nations and love of man.
The wisdom of Kabbalah, hidden for millennia, is now stepping out. It has been waiting for a time when we would be sufficiently developed and prepared to implement its message. Today it is emerging as a message and a solution that can unite the factions in and between the nations and bring us all, as individuals and as a society, to a far better state.
HISTORY AND ORIGIN
Rav Michael Laitman, Professor of Ontology and Theory of Knowledge, PhD in Philosophy and Kabbalah, and MSc in Medical Bio-Cybernetics, established Bnei Baruch in 1991, following the passing of his teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (The Rabash).
Rav Laitman named his group Bnei Baruch (sons of Baruch) to commemorate the memory of his mentor, whose side he never left in the final 12 years of his life, from 1979 to 1991. Rav Laitman was Ashlag's prime student, personal assistant, and is recognized as the successor of Rabash's teaching method.
The Rabash is the firstborn son and successor of the greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag. Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag is author of the most authoritative and comprehensive commentary on The Book of Zohar, The Sulam Commentary (The Ladder Commentary), the first to reveal the complete method for spiritual ascent. This is also the reason for Ashlag's epithet, Baal HaSulam (Owner of the Ladder).
Bnei Baruch bases its entire study method on the path paved by these great spiritual leaders.
WHAT IS KABBALAH?
The Structure of the Soul
Conditions for the Soul’s Development
A person in our world cannot exist without having some basic knowledge about the structure of this world, how it affects him, and what the laws of the inanimate, vegetative, animated, and human levels of nature are. Undoubtedly, the more a person comprehends the world around him, the easier and safer it is for him to exist in it.
No one would argue that if fate threw a modern urban person into a desert, he, unfamiliar with desert conditions, would simply perish. That is, in order to exist in any environment, it is necessary to know how this environment functions, what its laws and attributes are, and what is conducive, or harmful and dangerous to life.
Moreover, for the least painful existence in society, a person has to know what lies in the heart of another, understand those who surround him. Without this ability, he cannot be a full-fledged member of the society.
If we placed a primitive man among us who did not know the laws of our society, its problems, the thoughts of the surrounding people and their relationships with each other, would he be able to exist?
Thus, a person who lacks these two kinds of knowledge – about nature and about society – is unable to exist in our world.
Just as a person in our world cannot exist without knowledge of our world, a person’s soul cannot exist in the spiritual world, having not acquired certain knowledge of its laws and nature.
This knowledge must include understanding of the structure and functioning of the spiritual worlds, Partzufim and Sefirot, as well as their interactions called “Zivugim” and their consequences and actions.
However, in order to gain knowledge of the spiritual world, one is required to have a soul. Only then it becomes important to him to understand the nature of the spiritual world, for this is what gives one's soul the ability to exist in it.
What does it mean to have a soul?The soul is a spiritual organ that is gradually born in a person who exists in our world.
The birth of the soul signifies a gradual emergence of sensation of the spiritual forces that affect him, new altruistic desires, and the emergence of a minimal sensation of the Creator.
This way, along with the person’s physiological body that leads a physiological life, emerges a spiritual body that lives in the spiritual world.
Just as without knowing the laws of nature and society we would not be able to physically exist in this world, our soul or spiritual body cannot exist in the spiritual world without the comprehension of the nature of the spiritual world.
And vice-versa: a person who does not posses the spiritual knowledge will not acquire a soul. And it is because he would instantly harm it. Therefore, the Upper governance limits his perception.
Only a person who is able to act spiritually being fully aware and familiar with the functioning of the spiritual environment revealed to him, will acquire the perception of the spiritual world.
Thus, a person who has not acquired spiritual knowledge will not acquire a soul. And he who has acquired a soul develops in the spiritual world like a newborn.
The soul’s development
Since everything in creation is structured according to a single principle - the five stages of development - the birth of the spiritual body (called the “soul”) in a person is equivalent to the birth of our physiological body.
We differentiate three stages in the birth and development of our body, and they are the consequence of the three stages of development that the soul (our spiritual body or our egoistic desire to receive pleasure) undergoes. The original or starting state is the absolutely egoistic desire to receive pleasure, meaning the state when we want to receive that which we perceive to be pleasure. In the final state, we alter the objects of our pleasure.
The first stage – birth and emergence into the world. At this stage, we lack knowledge and strength, and a person receives everything necessary for his existence from his father and mother, and he exists due to their strength and care.
Correspondingly, the spiritual birth (or entrance into the spiritual world) occurs after a person has realized that egoism is evil, meaning that he has rejected his own egoism and has acquired the initial desire to give himself over to the will of the Upper, in order for Him to correct and create a creature equivalent to Himself.
The realization of evil is the full understanding of the fact that you lack any desires for the spiritual, or for that which is beyond the bounds of the body’s benefit.
Once this realization has occurred, birth takes place. The Upper light gives a person strength or the forces to completely reconstruct his nature, to suppress it and not to use his own desires. That is, to create a screen over them, or to accept the conditions of the First Restriction.
This state is called “conception” and “birth of the spiritual desire-Kli”: despite the fact that increasingly greater desires are emerging in a person as a result of his revelation of immense spiritual pleasures, nevertheless, the person prefers to remain in the state of an embryo.
This corrected desire is called “the first small state” (Katnut Alef).
A soul that has been acquired by an adult living in our world is called “newborn.”
During the soul’s birth and at the beginning of his perception of it, a person does not yet have any spiritual knowledge and he is not aware of what is happening in the spiritual world. This is equivalent to the way a newborn baby does not realize where he is. The reason for this is that the person has only “Aviut Alef,” or the screen to withstand only the tiniest part of his egoism.
On his own, he is unable to move or to perform any spiritual actions, in the same way that a baby cannot perform any conscious physical actions.
After a person has been spiritually born and he is in this state, how can he exist in the spiritual? Only on account of his parents - the same way as in our world.
What does this mean? In spite of all of the interfering forces and circumstances, a person should attach himself to a higher Partzuf and, with all his efforts, try to avoid becoming separated from it in spite of all the egoistic obstacles that tempt him with their pleasures or reasonable deductions.
That is, a person receives various obstacles, thoughts and temptations that oppose his spiritual advancement. He falls down many times (in the spiritual sense), makes mistakes and falls into animal pleasures, as if he is the weakest-willed person in the world.
The reason for this is that the Upper is showing him who he really is, how insignificant and weak his spiritual desires are and how strong his egoistic nature is.
If a person “glues” himself to the Upper Partzuf despite all of this, then he grows, because he overcomes the obstacles that are in his way.
The same aforementioned Upper force purposefully sends these obstacles to him, and He does it in such a way that the lower does not feel the purposefulness. The Upper sends the lower various obstacles to his spiritual advancement in order for the lower to become convinced in his own inability to do anything and to cry to Him for help.
When this happens the Upper helps him. He does not need abasement and pleas. Simply, when the lower has realized his own weakness, he creates within himself the condition for receiving help or light from the Upper.
If a person does not realize that on his own he is unable to overcome the conquering egoism, the urge for pleasures and the desire to understand everything rather than to act in spite of knowledge -- this means that he does not have a Kli or the ability to receive help.
This is equivalent to the condition necessary for a person to receive knowledge from another person: a person is able to receive knowledge from another person only if he is convinced that the other person knows more than he does.
Therefore, the Upper needs to show the lower that he is nothing. This necessity stems from the necessity to develop His newborn baby – the soul -- from the egoistic desire.
However, when a person perceives his own total insignificance and weakness, he wants to leave the spiritual path, because his inner voice convinces him that he does not have the strength for it. And how can he possibly attain such a high goal without strength?
Only the strength or force of the Upper Partzuf is able to help a person remain in this state. That is, his “AVI” or “father and mother,” meaning the strength/force of the parents who are above him.
This state - the baby’s growth under the influence of the Upper - is called “Katnut Alef” or “the first small state.”
The second stage – growth and acquisition of the necessary knowledge and reason that enable the person to avoid everything harmful to the body by generally taking care of himself with his own strength, as well as the father’s and mother’s strength.
What does “growth” mean in the spiritual? Does it mean to become fatter or taller, as in our world? Yes: “fatter” with regard to the light Hassadim means to increase one’s desire to bestow. “Taller” with regard to the light Hochma means that a person acquires an immense ability to receive light for the sake of the Creator.
A person acquires knowledge by receiving the light Hochma. However, he is able to receive this light (Hochma) only when it is clothed into the light Hassadim, meaning into the intention “for the sake of the Creator” or the altruistic intentions.
This way, the light Hochma is able to enter into the altruistic desires, and this is the light that gives us knowledge about how to withstand the impure forces.
What does it mean when we say “impure forces?” We think that our desires are given to us for our benefit, because having desires enables us to receive and perceive pleasures.
Therefore, we think that all the things that “sparkle” and attract us with their pleasures are good for us. And generally, we think that “pleasure” and “good for us” are the same thing.
In reality, however, a person attains the realization (or awareness) of evil when he understands that “egoistic pleasure” and “evil” are the same thing.
In the worlds BYA, the spiritual impure forces tell a person about the great spiritual pleasures he will receive if he follows his desires (that is, the desires given to him by the impure forces as if they were his own.)
If a person is able to realize or see the evil for himself in this, then this realization already becomes a part of the next – higher -- state.
On every step of his spiritual path from the bottom up, a person must go through all of the following stages: he must see that the Ego is evil and, for this reason, he must gain the ability to withstand it; he must admit his own weakness or inability to do anything independently; and he must want to turn to the Upper for help.
A person is able to go through these stages only with the help of the Upper light’s illumination or glow on him. The light that comes from the Creator allows the person to perceive that egoism is evil, that he himself is insignificant and that the Upper is the savior.
When a person goes through these states, he feels how his parents (or the Upper Partzuf) watch over him and take care of him. They safeguard him, provide him with everything necessary from all sides and show him what is good and what is bad.
Gradually, the lower realizes that everything he perceives -- both good and bad -- comes from his parents. He is now able to accomplish certain things on his own, by remembering what his parents have taught him. Gradually, as he acquires more spiritual strength and knowledge, he grows even more.
Spiritual growth consists of at least two stages: whenever a person is able to do something for the Creator, he must do it on his own. Whenever he is unable to – he must ask the Upper for it.
On his current level, a person is able to do everything on his own. However, in order to achieve a higher level he must ask the Creator for everything. This is how he grows.
This stage - growing on account of the Upper and attaining the spiritual nature - is called “Katnut Bet”, or “the second small state.”
The third stage – Gadlut (the large state). This is the adult state. The knowledge a person has acquired gives him the strength to exist independently, and this is equivalent to an adult in our world.
He depends on society and the people around him, but no longer on his parents. He himself possesses the light Hochma, and he is able to perform a Zivug, give birth, as well as raise and fill with light another lower Partzuf – his son.
He now has his own experience and reason that allow him to exist independently. In addition he is able to pass this experience on to another person.
The spiritual object (a soul) goes through the same spiritual processes as a person of this world does, or through processes that correspond to the ones a person in our world goes through.
The difference is only the material: whether it is egoistic or altruistic. However, it is precisely this difference that makes all spiritual events completely incomprehensible to us. The reason for this is that we completely lack any understanding of the altruistic nature.
Every person’s soul repeatedly incarnates or returns into this world (or clothes into the body of this world). This reincarnation continues until the soul has fully attained the entire Kabbalistic knowledge; because without this knowledge, the soul cannot grow and receive everything the Creator has designed to give it.
The reason the soul is obligated to attain the Science of Kabbalah is not that the knowledge itself enlarges the soul. Rather, the soul must attain this science because of the nature of the soul: without having knowledge - Ohr Hochma (the light Hochma) – the soul is not capable of achieving the level or height for which it was created by the Creator.
Thus a person’s soul does not grow by acquiring knowledge. Rather a person’s soul has an inner attribute that does not allow a person to make himself grow with his own two hands before he has assimilated the entire spiritual nature and acquired all the necessary spiritual knowledge.
The soul’s growth completely depends on the degree of knowledge it acquires.
If the soul could grow without receiving the Upper light or knowledge of the Creator, then it would harm itself.
It would acquire increasingly greater desires without knowing how to use them correctly. This is equivalent to a person in our world: if a 20-year-old person’s level of intellectual development still remains on the level of a one-year-old child, then he can do horrible things. This would be strength without reason, and it is dangerous for the person and for the people around him.
This can never occur in the spiritual. A person acquires the ability to perform spiritual actions only to the degree he is corrected, or to the degree of spiritual knowledge he has received.
A person’s age is determined by the degree of his reception of spiritual light. Therefore a person who has not developed spiritually lives and dies physically without having begun to live spiritually.
There exist bodies that have not given birth to souls and that have not achieved the creation of a spiritual Kli. Therefore our world is full of two-legged bodies; but unfortunately there are very few souls in them.
The amount of light that enters the soul determines the Partzuf’s height.
It can exist in a laying-down position, as a newborn: his legs, arms, torso and head are all located on the same level. The head does not have any advantage over the legs: all the spiritual body parts or all desires have only one minimal screen and, correspondingly, a minimal light.
Therefore, the head does not differ from the legs. It is equivalent to a baby or a sleeping person, meaning that the mind is not manifested.
In Kabbalah, a horizontal position means that there is only Ohr Hassadim (the light Hassadim) and there is no Ohr Hochma (light Hochma), which enters the Partzuf correspondingly to the screen. The initial stage of spiritual development begins with the “lying–down” position, as a newborn baby.
The second stage is when he is already sitting, but the legs do not yet have the strength to hold him up.
The extensions, or the ends of the desires to receive pleasure have not yet been corrected; they do not yet have a screen and they cannot create boundaries or restrictions on their own reception of big light.
In the spiritual state of “lying down,” all 10 Sefirot of a person’s soul are evaluated as having a single light, or one minimal screen. A newborn baby does not have knowledge and therefore he does not, and should not, have the strength to move around.
Only the light Hochma gives the soul (Partzuf) spiritual strength. Most of its development does not occur by receiving light from its parents without its own efforts; but rather development takes place as a result of the Partzuf’s own good deeds or actions.
“Good deeds” – means to receive light with the help of the screen, in opposition to one’s own egoism. One’s ability to do this depends on one’s attainment of Kabbalah. That is, the main factor of growth is the function of good deeds, and they depend on the assimilation of Kabbalah, or the reception of knowledge from the upper Partzuf.
Each soul’s knowledge allows it to attain all the other souls: beginning with their initial state called “the soul of Adam” and ending with the final correction of all the souls.
This is equivalent to the way a person attains the entire world: he attains humanity’s nature, mentality, habits and everything around him. Based on this knowledge, he safeguards himself from harm that may come from nature and people around him, and he connects with and grows closer to people who assist in his growth.
It should not be surprising that a single soul is able to attain all the souls. The same thing applies to a person in our world: if he is wise, he is able to attain the nature of all humanity by attaining himself because every part of creation includes the elements of all its other parts.
A person does not have a single attribute that other people do not also have. Every person has all of humanity’s attributes, even if he has them to the minimal degree.
Every person is slightly a murderer, slightly a rapist, a womanizer, a scientist, a fool, a pious man, an atheist, etc. Everything is contained in each person!
When a person works to spiritually perfect himself, he begins to perceive all of these attributes in himself and, as he perceives each of them to be egoistic, he gradually realizes their evil for himself.
When the perception of this evil reaches the maximum and unbearable threshold, a person voluntarily rejects this attribute as one that is harmful. This way, step by step, he corrects himself.
A person perceives another person’s attributes to be natural only if he has discovered and felt them inside of himself. That is, if he has become aware of their presence inside of himself.
How often do we see people who possess negative attributes, yet they do not even suspect this fact and do not perceive it within themselves. At the same time they cannot tolerate these attributes in other people.
With the help of studying Kabbalah, a person begins to attain who he really is and therefore he gains the ability to tolerate others and to forgive them, because he realizes that he possesses the same things as they do.
Why does he become tolerant of others? Because he perceives that they are not capable of getting rid of their negative attributes. He begins to love others to the degree that he realizes his own insignificance, because he sees himself in them.
Since all parts of creation consist of all the other parts (after all we are separated only by egoistic intentions, while our souls comprise one single spiritual body called “the soul of Adam”), when a person corrects himself he corrects the whole world. This applies to each one of us.
Body and soul
Every body (in Kabbalah, a body does not refer to the physical body, but rather a person’s desires) is full of impatience and anger, because it undergoes phases of accumulating lack and hunger, which alternate with phases of feeling pleasure. These mutually alternating states or times bring about the body’s ability to perceive the smallest and greatest pleasures, as well as the desires to receive those pleasures.
Descents – towards the light
Pleasure enters a person and becomes perceived by him only in the place where he had previously perceived the desire to receive this pleasure. Hunger is a necessary condition for the perception of pleasure.
Moreover, as soon as pleasure becomes constant, meaning it does not change and alternate with the perception of hunger or arousal for it, then it immediately ceases to be perceived as pleasure. Constant alternation is necessary, or the shift between fulfillment and its absence.
Coming from the state of pleasure, knowledge, and awareness, a person perceives spiritual descent. It is precisely these oscillations of states that cause a person to have the perception of hunger for pleasure. Consequently, these alterations cause the next phase -- the reception of pleasure or knowledge -- called “reception of the Torah.”
When light or pleasure leaves the Sefira or Kli, a memory of it remains, meaning the desire for the pleasure that is no longer there. It is precisely these Reshimo or memories of the previous light that are the real Kli -- the desire to receive the next light.
Therefore, the Reshimo from the light that exists is the vessel-Kli.
-The light that enters the Partzuf is called Taamim or taste.
-The light that leaves the Partzuf is called Nekudot or disappearance.
-The memories of the taste are called Tagin, and they give an additional perception of the previous pleasure.
-The memories of the Nekudot are called Otiyot or letters. They are the Kelim/vessels for receiving the light in the future, because it is precisely they that have the desire to receive, since they do not perceive the light that fulfills but rather the light that is leaving.
Therefore, the perception of the light that is leaving or loss is impossible without a spiritual descent, and this is a necessary condition for spiritual growth.
Thus, the fulfillment by the light-pleasure, the light’s exit, the emergence of the Reshimo-memory; all of these are necessary conditions or stages for the emergence of the aspiration for previous pleasure.
When pleasure emerges for the first time, it becomes perceived as unconscious pleasure. However, when it has already been perceived and then it leaves, creating a desire for itself; by being desired in advance, it becomes perceived completely differently.
The alteration of fulfillment and emptying has the effect of the light “hitting” the Kli. At first it performs a Zivug, meaning the light says to the Kli: “Accept me,” and the screen answers: “I do not want to. I can accept it only for the sake of the Creator” – and accepts it.
However, as soon as the screen accepts a portion of the light, the light that remains outside hits it from the side: “Accept more.” The Kli is unable to take more light for the sake of the Creator, and it decides to become empty altogether.
However, then the light again “presses” and asks the empty Kli to accept a small portion of light. In this way, light hits the screen and creates new perceptions, new Kelim, or new possibilities for future reception of the light.
Light creates the desire
The body undergoes various incarnations or circulations, or states of hunger and fulfillment. However the law of nature is such that the states of hunger cross out the states of fulfillment and pleasure.
The spiritual body constantly undergoes these circulations. This can be compared to a pebble that acquires smoothness by being washed by the ocean’s waves, as if it acquires the water’s softness as the water externally transforms the rock and makes it resemble itself. This is how the light performs work on the Kli and makes it suitable for receiving the light. The light gives the Kli its own attributes.
However besides the fact that unpleasant sensations and memories completely cross out the pleasant ones, leaving nothing of the latter as if they never even existed, there is one more additional attribute of egoism: it thinks that others have what it does not have, or that others have more of what it has. The Kli acquires a feeling of envy and the perception that another person’s state is better than its own.
This comes from the fact that the soul itself is neutral and it is located between two forces called “angels,” or between two systems – pure and impure forces, or the good and evil origin.
They rub the soul between themselves, as if throwing it to each other between the palms of the hands one after the other. This is how a person feels during his spiritual development.
Sometimes he is thrown to his positive thoughts, actions and desires, and then he suddenly falls under the influence of negative thoughts and aspirations. And nothing can be done about any of this.
Firstly a person must try to investigate himself and understand what forces are exerting an influence on him right now. Then based on this understanding, the person should make a decision.
Spiritual ascent
A person who ascends the spiritual levels attains his own Kelim, which have remained in him on every level of the chain of his soul’s descent from the world of Infinity into our world; on every level along which his soul descended into our world.
He ascends and begins to perceive new desires. According to them, he begins to ask for help. However if he has not corrected the previous Kli, the consequent one will not become revealed in him. He will not perceive it and he will have nothing to ask for.
As we have already said, the Creator (or nature in our world) does not give strength to a baby in order for him to avoid harming himself as a result of the absence of reason.
A person’s spiritual ascent consists in him gathering all Kelim within himself that have remained on upper levels. Then, as he ascends, the person fills them (Kelim) with light and attaches them to his soul. This is the complete soul, or Kelim that are filled by the light.
Since everything is apprehended in comparison with its opposite, without having apprehended the spiritual world we are not capable of apprehending our world! Both of these worlds are nothing more than our subjective states, and we apprehend them simultaneously.
We perceive only our own suffering, but never other persons’. We do not see another person’s suffering because it is “inside.” However, we see another person’s pleasures because they are “outside.” Therefore we become filled with a feeling of envy.
This is envy of the light that has entered another person. However thanks to the fact that the Creator has created the feeling of envy in us, that same light has entered me as well and formed a Kli-desire within me.
I want the same pleasure as the person whom I envy feels. I acquire my own personal desire for that pleasure. Therefore as all of a person’s other attributes (including the “worst” ones), the feeling of envy is necessary for spiritual advancement.
Attainment in the material and spiritual
There is no difference between the body and soul. Their difference is only the fact that the body is influenced by the surrounding nature, and the inner body (soul) is influenced by its own nature. The soul, however, changes only as a result and to the degree of its work, or the degree of combining the material and spiritual within itself.
Everything that happens to our soul and body comes from that same Source – the Creator, Who manifests himself through material or spiritual nature.
People who do not perceive the spiritual and who perceive only our world assert, “There is no Creator. Everything is nature.” Those who receive a soul or the upper light feel differently: everything comes from the Creator and, as it passes through the upper worlds, it descends down to us.
A person receives pleasure either from the material nature, meaning the final level of all of creation, or from the highest level. Depending on what level a person receives from, he is called either simply a person of our world, or a Kabbalist. This is because Kabbalah is the science of receiving the upper light (from the verb “Lekabel” – to receive).
The nature that surrounds us is attained even without the necessary attainment of its laws, or the essence of what is taking place.
We can live in this world without understanding what is taking place in nature, in society and in our world, without knowing the past and the future and without knowing what is happening to us and above us, as well as where humanity is going. Existence under the influence of the surrounding universe is unconscious or animal existence. However in the spiritual world it is impossible to understand one’s state without having the understanding of its cause and consequence.
Spiritual attainment is ideal, meaning it is complete and perfect on every one of its stages. Therefore a person is able to receive his future state to the degree he attains the initial causes of spiritual nature.
As a person ascends, first of all he attains the levels along which his soul descended from up down. That is, he attains his own empty Kli that is already located on a given level, since it has remained there during the soul’s ascent from up down.
Now, however, as he ascends from down up, a person himself attains or creates the Kli or desire. He corrects it, adds a screen to it and fills it with light.
On every step of the ladder – from us until the Creator – there is an empty vessel that awaits each person. As a person ascends, he fills it with light. While doing this, he attains his past or the descent from up down, together with his growth beginning with the moment of birth until the level he has currently reached.
We have to reach the highest possible level, where the soul unifies with all other souls in the world of Infinity, thus attaining our Source – the Creator – and becoming filled with His light. In this way the end and the beginning of our path meet.