Letter 59
A letter that Baal HaSulam wrote to his disciple regarding the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah in English in the United States
To the famous kabbalist, my great teacher and rav, Rav Levi Yitzhak, may he live long and well,
I received your latest letter, and for the first time since you went to America, you have given me a sliver of hope that you will succeed in your mission. I am certain that you understand that I am referring to the English replication that you did, from which you wish to give lectures in English, as this is the only way you will be able to make money in America, and perhaps even substantially, which was my intention.
I do ask that you will send me a complete copy of the book you wrote, to see if you have not veered from the path. In the first book that you copied, I did find a big mistake concerning the conveyance of Kabbalah, where you did not give Moses his rightful place, but I did not send my comments because you had already printed it.
Indeed, there is one drawback that you must remove from within you, which is like an iron partition between you and obtaining funds from anyone: Since you know that the distance between you and the donors of the money is as the distance between heaven and earth, you try to elevate the donors to your place, to heaven, so you can receive the money from them, since you must be with them in the same place, of course. However, they are heavier and stronger than you are, and I guarantee that you will never be able to raise them to heaven, and therefore, you will not be able to stretch out your hand to them and receive money. This way will never succeed, and no grievances or anger will help you.
If you want your mission to succeed, do the opposite, the complete opposite. Let those who listen to your words, the donors, stay in their place on earth. Do not move then one bit from their earthliness or from their views and wishes. I mean, deliberately prepare such words that will not soften their earthly heart or bring them any faith in anything at all, so that you will come down from heaven to earth and be with the listeners in the same world and in the same view.
What you want from them, prove to them with clear evidence that they themselves should have known before they heard your words. That is, not because of faith in the next world and so forth, but out of national pride and recognition of self-value, that the wisdom of Kabbalah is an important asset to the Israeli nation, which has been forgotten in recent generations and must be expanded and revealed, and this will be our glory before the nations so countries will see us as we truly are—a nation of an ancient culture.
At the same time, you should add that the nations are vying to rob this wisdom from us and equate it with Christianity, and it is a commandment of paramount importance to save it from their thick and crass hands no less than what we do to save the souls of Israel from assimilation. The only way toward salvation is to slightly lift the veil from the wisdom of Kabbalah, and reveal some of its luster and beauty to all before the eyes of the nations so they will see that there is none like it in depth or wisdom, and will be embarrassed and ashamed of their notion to compare this wisdom with the arid Christianity.
At that time, it will be clear that “It is a wise and intelligent people,” a nation of an ancient and persisting culture, and not as they boast among themselves, that they are the true heirs of the Bible and the people of Israel—by which they involuntarily admit to the antiquity of our culture while degrading the teaching of our sages for two thousand years and mock us. Naturally, this great cessation and vacuum revokes all the merit of our ancient sages, similar to cursing a man who had many millions for a few days in his youth, but since then and until now he has been frayed, barefoot, penniless and indigent, and devoid of the sanctity of the Creator and the name of the whole of Israel to show them a portion of this wisdom, which can present the beauty of our ancient culture through the days of our exile since our Temple was ruined to this day. Thus, they will see the difference between the wisdom of the hidden that is present among the nations of the world and our own wisdom of the hidden, and do add of your own understanding similar to these words.
Speak to them with love and humility, with confidence that they will accept your words, and then I hope that they will open their pockets before you willingly, and you will connect with them in true friendship, you will benefit from them and they from you, and you will be rid of any strife or quarrel, and you will see before you a new world. But the strict condition is that you do not cut off their corporeal, earthly threads. Be very careful not to make them faithful in any way at all. Leave them completely as they are, and lower yourself to them, to their very place, and then they will listen to you.
All these words and points that I have given you, expand them as much as you can and replicate them in the best English, spiced up with commentaries on a verse or two, but under a strict condition not to fill your words with moralism, but with contemporary phrases and praises. Compile sermons of half an hour, which is more than enough. Do not jump too high, and there is no need to make a name for yourself as a first-rate speaker, but only as a first-rate fundraiser. Remember will this point.
Also, to the above points, you can add what the nations of the world do in order to preserve their ancient culture, how they invest on it, and how every nation respects the benefit and necessity to cherish all the great ones they had had throughout the generations, and the words of our sages will come true in us, “Worthless is the dough whose owner testifies that it is bad.” If we do not respect ourselves, we cannot hope that others will respect [us].
Hence, a heavy duty lies on us to reveal the truth also among ourselves, that our culture is ancient and persisting, and yet, that even today, as far as religion goes, we are in the first place, and not necessarily only as the cradle of religions.
You should also promise the listeners that after you publish your book and advertise it in the masses, you are completely certain that the intellectuals of the generation will set their hearts and minds on replicating all the necessary books and establishing seminaries to make the wisdom known to all.
It would be good if you suggested these ideas before the best speaker, so he will embellish them with appealing and attractive expressions. It might be good to spend some money on this.
I should not elaborate any further; remember not to let a day go by without learning in my books.
Hoping for your success,
Yehuda HaLevi Ashlag
But most importantly, see that you have a regular yearly order of study for the seminary, and collect for half a year or more, and know what is before you.