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Baal HaSulam

Prefaces
Letters
Articles
Study of the Ten Sefirot
Shamati
Passover Haggadah
Gatehouse of Intentions
Even Sapir
Ha-Ilan (The Tree)
The Bright Light
Tree of Life , with the Panim Meirot uMasbirot Commentary
Poems of Baal HaSulam
A Sage’s Fruit - Talks (heb)
A Sage’s Fruit - about the Torah (heb)

Rabash

Prefaces
Letters
Articles
Purpose of Society - 1 Purpose of Society - 2 Concerning Love of Friends Love of Friends - 1 Each One Shall Help His Friend What Does the Rule "Love Thy Friend as Thyself" Give Us Love of Friends - 2 According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself” Which Keeping of Torah and Mitzvot Purifies the Heart One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate? Concerning Ancestral Merit Concerning the Importance of Society Sometimes Spirituality Is Called “a Soul” Forevermore One Sells All That Is His and Marries a Wise Disciple's Daughter Can Something Negative Come Down from Above Concerning Bestowal Concerning the Importance of Friends The Agenda of the Assembly - 1 And It Shall Come to Pass When You Come to the Land that the Lord Your God Gives You You Stand Today, All of You Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend - 1 The Meaning of Branch and Root The Meaning of Truth and Faith These Are the Generations of Noah And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend - 2 Jacob Went Out And Jacob Went Out Concerning the Debate between Jacob and Laban Mighty Rock of My Salvation I Am the First and I Am the Last And Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall But the More They Afflicted Them Know Today and Reply to Your Heart Come unto Pharaoh - 1 He who Hardens His Heart We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name On My Bed at Night Three Times in the Work In Every Thing We Must Discern between Light and Kli Show Me Your Glory The Spies The Lord Is Near to All Who Call upon Him Three Prayers One Does Not Regard Oneself as Wicked Concerning the Reward of the Receivers The Felons of Israel And I Pleaded with the Lord When a Person Knows What Is Fear of the Creator And There Was Evening and There Was Morning Who Testifies to a Person A Righteous Who Is Happy, a Righteous Who Is Suffering Hear Our Voice Moses Went Lend Ear, O Heaven Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah Concerning Hesed [Mercy] Concerning Respecting the Father Confidence The Importance of a Prayer of Many Concerning Help that Comes from Above Concerning the Hanukkah Candle Concerning Prayer A Real Prayer Is over a Real Deficiency What Is the Main Deficiency for which One Should Pray? Come unto Pharaoh – 2 What Is the Need to Borrow Vessels from the Egyptians? A Prayer of Many The Lord Has Chosen Jacob for Himself The Agenda of the Assembly - 2 Who Causes the Prayer Concerning Joy Should One Sin and Be Guilty Concerning Above Reason If a Woman Inseminates Concerning Fear and Joy The Difference between Charity and Gift The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments] A Near Way and a Far Way The Creator and Israel Went into Exile A Congregation Is No Less than Ten Lishma and Lo Lishma The Klipa [Shell/Peel] that Precedes the Fruit Concerning Yenika [Suckling] and Ibur [Impregnation] The Reason for Straightening the Legs and Covering the Head During the Prayer What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet Judges and Officers The Fifteenth of Av What Is Preparation for the Selichot [Forgiveness] The Good Who Does Good, to the Bad and to the Good It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing From a Bad Person The Importance of Faith that Is Always Present The Miracle of Hanukkah The Difference between Mercy and Truth and Untrue Mercy One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future What Is the Substance of Slander and Against Whom Is It? Purim, and the Commandment: Until He until He Does Not Know Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover The Difference between the Work of the General Public and the Work of the Individual What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah - 1 What Are Revealed and Concealed in the Work of the Creator? What Are Dirty Hands in the Work of the Creator? What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator? What is Unfounded Hatred in the Work What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work? What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work? What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work? What Is “According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward”? What Is Making a Covenant in the Work Why Life Is Divided into Two Discernments What Is the Extent of Teshuva [Repentance]? What It Means that the Name of the Creator is “Truth” What Is the Prayer for Help and for Forgiveness in the Work? What Is, “When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,” in the Work? What Is the Difference between a Field and a Man of the Field, in the Work? What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven? What Does It Mean that the Righteous Suffers Afflictions? What Are the Two Discernments before Lishma? What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator? What Is “the People’s Shepherd Is the Whole People” in the Work? The Need for Love of Friends What Is “There Is No Blessing in an Empty Place” in the Work? When Is One Considered “A Worker of the Creator” in the Work? What Is the Reward in the Work of Bestowal? What Beginning in Lo Lishma Means in the Work What Is the Difference between Law and Judgment in the Work? What Is, “The Creator Does Not Tolerate the Proud,” in the Work? What Is, His Guidance Is Concealed and Revealed? What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator? What Are the Two Actions During a Descent? What Is the Difference between General and Individual in the Work of the Creator? What Are Day and Night in the Work? What Is the Help in the Work that One Should Ask of the Creator? What Is the Measure of Repentance? What Is a Great or a Small Sin in the Work? What Is the Difference between the Gate of Tears and the Rest of the Gates? What Is a Flood of Water in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess? What Is Above Reason in the Work? What Is “He Who Did Not Toil on the Eve of Shabbat, What Will He Eat on Shabbat” in the Work? What It Means, in the Work, that If the Good Grows, So Grows the Bad What Is, “Calamity that Comes upon the Wicked Begins with the Righteous,” in the Work? What Are the Forces Required in the Work? What Is a Groom’s Meal? What Is the “Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man” in the Work? Why Is Shabbat Called Shin-Bat in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Evil Inclination Ascends and Slanders, in the Work? What Is, “A Drunken Man Must Not Pray, in the Work? Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night? What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work? What Is “Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson” in the Work? What Is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work? What Is the Preparation to Receive the Torah in the Work?-2 What Is the Meaning of Lighting the Menorah in the Work? What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work? What Is, “He Who Is Without Sons,” in the Work? What Is “A Road Whose Beginning Is Thorns and Its End Is a Plain” in the Work? The Daily Schedule What Does “May We Be the Head and Not the Tail” Mean in the Work? What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work What It Means that the Land Did Not Bear Fruit before Man Was Created, in the Work When Should One Use Pride in the Work? What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work? What It Means that Esau Was Called “A Man of the Field,” in the Work What Does It Mean that Our Sages Said, “King David Did Not Have a Life,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that by the Unification of the Creator and the Shechina, All Iniquities Are Atoned? What Is “For Lack of Spirit and for Hard Work,” in the Work? What Is the Assistance that He who Comes to Purify Receives in the Work? Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work?-2 What Is Half a Shekel in the Work? - 2 What Is, “As I Am for Nothing, so You Are for Nothing,” in the Work? What Is the Order in Blotting Out Amalek? What Does, “Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,” Mean in the Work? What Is, “There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,” in the Work? What Is, “Every Blade of Grass Has an Appointee Above, Who Strikes It and Tells It, Grow!” in the Work? What “Israel Do the Creator’s Will” Means in the Work What Is “He Who Enjoys at a Groom’s Meal,” in the Work? What Is, “A Cup of Blessing Must Be Full,” in the Work? What Is, “Anyone Who Mourns forJerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,” in the Work? What Is, “For You Are the Least of All the Peoples,” in the Work? What Are a Blessing and a Curse, in the Work? What Is an Optional War, in the work? - 2 What Is, “The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord Our God,” in the work? What Is, “We Have No Other King But You,” in the Work? What Is, “Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,” in the Work? What Is, “The Wicked Will Prepare and the Righteous Will Wear,” in the Work? What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work? What Is, “The Herdsmen of Abram’s Cattle and the Herdsmen of Lot’s Cattle,” in the Work? What Is “Man” and What Is “Beast” in the Work? What Is, “And Abraham Was Old, of Many Days,” in the Work? What Does “The King Stands on His Field When the Crop Is Ripe” Mean in the Work? What It Means that the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination Guard a Person in the Work These Candles Are Sacred What “You Have Given the Strong to the Hands of the Weak” Means in the Work What Does It Mean that Man’s Blessing Is the Blessing of the Sons, in the Work? What Is the Blessing, “Who Made a Miracle for Me in This Place,” in the Work? Why We Need “Reply unto Your Heart,” to Know that the Lord, He Is God, in the Work What Is, “For I Have Hardened His Heart,” in the work? What Is, “Rise Up, O Lord, and Let Your Enemies Be Scattered,” in the Work? What Is, “There Is Nothing that Has No Place,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that We Read the Portion, Zachor [Remember], Before Purim, in the Work? What Is “A Lily Among the Thorns,” in the Work? What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work? What Does It Mean that One Should Bear a Son and a Daughter, in the Work? What Is, “If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,” in the Work? What Does It Mean that Charity to the Poor Makes the Holy Name, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Creator Favors Someone, in the Work? What Is Eating Their Fruits in This World and Keeping the Principal for the Next World, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Right Must Be Greater than the Left, in the Work? What Are Truth and Falsehood in the Work? What Should One Do If He Was Born With Bad Qualities? What Is the Reason for which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance of the Land, in the Work? What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?
Assorted Notes
Concealment and Revelation
Explanation of the Article, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Moshe

Torah

Michael Laitman

Summaries of articles and letters of Baal HaSulam
Kabbalah Revealed
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The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Campus (rus)
Work with Faith Above Reason (rus)
Summaries of Torah chapters (rus)
Summaries of Articles of the Introduction of The Book of Zohar (rus)
Lecture in Arosa - Brochure
Lecture in Dusseldorf - Brochure
Summaries of Psalms (rus)
Summaries of Psalms for Twitter (rus)
Revealing The Creator (rus)
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The Tree of Life - a Poem
Gate of Intentions
Etz Chaim (Tree of Life)
Gate of Intentions - for Pesach (heb)

Rashbi

Zohar for All

Ramchal

Agra

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Maor VaShemesh
Degel Machne Ephraim
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Connecting to the Source
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Rabash / The Lord Is Near to All Who Call upon Him

The Lord Is Near to All Who Call upon Him

Article No. 29, 1985

It is written in The Zohar, Hukat (item 78): “From this we learn that anyone who wishes to evoke things above—in an act or in a word—if that act or that word is not done properly, nothing is evoked. All the people in the world go to the synagogue to evoke a matter above, but few are the ones who know how to evoke. The Creator is near to all those who know how to call upon Him and to evoke a matter properly. But if they do not know how to call upon Him, He is not close, as it is written, ‘The Lord is near to all those who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.’ What is ‘in truth’? ‘In truth’ means that they know how to properly evoke a true matter. So it is in everything.”

This means that one who does not know how to call upon Him should not go to the synagogue because if he does not know how to call upon Him, it means that his prayer is not accepted. Thus, there is an excuse here, so he explained that it is not enough to not go to the synagogue because he does not know how to call upon Him. Therefore, one should know what to do in order to know how to call upon Him and be close to the Creator.

The Zohar comes and explains to us about that what we should know, and then we should exert to come to know it. It says that knowing is only truth, that one who calls upon Him in truth is close to the Creator. Accordingly, if knowing means that he called upon Him in truth, what is new here when he says that with the Creator it means that there must be special knowledge in order to call upon the Creator? The meaning of the verse that says, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,” is that it is without exceptions, meaning that He is close to everyone, without exceptions. Afterwards the verse ends with a condition, which appears to be a major stipulation. What is the condition? He should call upon Him in truth! This is the principal condition required of man.

Regarding this principal condition required of man, which is called “truth,” usually, when someone calls another person, if the other person knows that he is calling him falsely, he is bound to ignore his calling him because he knows that he is calling him falsely, so he pretends not to hear him, since he is calling him falsely.

Thus, what is the principal condition required of man? Certainly, when it comes to the Creator there must be special requirements that do not apply to people, but this condition, that we must call upon Him in truth, is the smallest requirement that can be. Indeed, there is a special intention here in the stipulation of truth, and this intention is called “in truth.”

To understand the meaning of truth we should precede with the words of our sages: “Anyone who is proud, the Creator says, ‘He and I cannot dwell in the same abode.’” We should ask, “Why should the Creator care if he is proud?” If a person walks into a hen house and sees that one rooster is showing vanity over another, is the person impressed by that? Baal HaSulam said that the Creator loves the truth and cannot tolerate falsehood, as it is written, “He who speaks lies will not be established before My eyes.”

Indeed, the Creator created man with a desire to receive, which is the self-love that there is in him. This is the source of all the evil lusts that exist in the world, namely thefts, murders, and wars, they all stem from man’s will to receive. It follows that the Creator created man in utter lowliness, and he takes pride, meaning says that he is not like others. It follows that he is lying, and truth does not tolerate lies.

According to the above, if a person comes to the synagogue to ask the Creator to hear his prayer because he deserves to be heard by the Creator—to be given because he deserves, to be given by the Creator more than He gives to others, even when this concerns spirituality—then he is far from the Creator, since falsehood is far from the truth. This is why it is considered that he does not know how to call upon Him, since he is calling the Creator with a lie, and this is called “far” and not “near,” according to the spiritual law that “nearness means equivalence of form, and remoteness means disparity of form.”

Since there is no greater disparity of form than between truth and falsehood, it is regarded that he does not know how to call upon Him. The Creator is not close to him because when he is asking during the prayer, he is in falsehood for he feels that he is more virtuous than others because he sees all his faults in others. For this reason, he wants the Creator to help him.

But in truth, it is as our sages said (Kidushin, p 70), “Anyone who flaws is flawed and does not speak in praise of the world. And Shmuel said, ‘faults in his own fault.’” Because there are people who always look at others. If the other is learning as he understands or prays as he understands, then the other is fine. If he is not fine then he has found a flaw in the other.

This is similar to what Baal HaSulam said, that among the jealous there is a custom where if someone is more meticulous than him [in observing commandments], he is called “frumer” [derogatory term: overly pious], meaning too extreme. There is no point mentioning this person and it’s a waste to even think about him. But if he is less devout than him he says that the other person is far too lenient and should be persecuted to the point of banning, so he does not defile others.

That person, who comes to pray to the Creator to bring him closer because he is virtuous, is remote from the Creator, meaning in disparity of form from the Creator, since the Creator’s quality is truth, and that man’s quality is all falsehood. Therefore, it is regarded as the Creator being far from him, and therefore does not hear him.

We should ask, “If ‘the whole earth is full of His glory,’ what does it mean that the Creator is far from him?” It is as one who is standing far from another, and does not hear his voice. Therefore, in spirituality, it is known that the measure of remoteness and nearness depends on the equivalence or disparity of form.

But if a person comes to pray to the Creator and says to Him, “You must help me more than others, since others do not need Your help that much because they are more qualified than I, and are not as immersed in self-love as I am, and have better self-discipline than I, and I see that I need Your help more than the rest of the people, since I feel my lowliness, that I am farther from You than everyone and I have come to feel as it is written, “We have no redeeming and delivering King but You.”

It follows that his argument is true, and such arguments the Creator tolerates because they are true. It was said about this, “I am the Lord, who dwells with them in the midst of their impurity.” That is, although they are immersed in self-love, which is the source of impurity, since he is making a true argument, the Creator is close to him because truth with truth means equivalence of form, and equivalence of form is called “near.”

By this we will understand the question of the holy Zohar, which implies that one who does not know how to call upon Him has no reason to go to the synagogue because the Creator will not hear his voice because he is far from the Creator if he does not know how to call upon Him. And another perplexity is that this contradicts the verse, “The Lord is high and the low will see” (Psalms 138). And what is the meaning of “low”? It is one who knows nothing, not even know how to call upon Him; he, too, will see.

With the above we will thoroughly understand that he does not need to know anything, but only his true spiritual state—that he does not know any wisdom and any moral word that will help him, and he is in the worst possible state that can be in the world. And if the Creator does not help him, he is lost. This is the only thing he needs to know—that he does not know anything and that he is the lowest of everyone. If he does not feel it, but thinks that there are worse people, then he is already in falsehood and already in remoteness from the Creator.

By this we will understand the second question we asked, “What can he do in order to know how to call upon Him and be closer to Him? What should he learn in order to know? In that state, he is told that he does not need to learn anything special but simply try to walk on the path of truth, and then he will have what to pray for, meaning for necessity and not for luxuries, as it is written (Psalms, 33), “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His mercy, to deliver their souls from death and to keep them alive in famine,” or simply, the he needs spiritual life.

By this we will interpret the verse, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,” without exception. And the condition he states, “to all who call upon Him in truth,” is not regarded as a special condition. But among children, if one calls another, and he knows that he is lying, he will not mind him. But here, with the Creator, we should know to what the matter of truth pertains. It is difficult for one to know for himself what a state of truth is and what a state of falsehood is, since one cannot see the truth. Hence, he needs a guide to guide him and tell him what he lacks, and what he has, and even redundancies that interfere with his reaching the truth.

This is the meaning of “Seek the Lord while He is present; call upon Him while He is near.” Certainly, we find him when He is near. But where is the place called “near”? It is as was said above, “to all who call upon Him in truth.” If a person calls upon Him from his real state, one finds Him.