What Was the ARI’s Contribution to the Development of Kabbalah?

In the words of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam):

“Our sages have already said, ‘You have not a generation without such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Indeed, that Godly man, Rav [teacher/great one] Isaac Luria [the ARI], troubled and provided us the fullest measure. He did wondrously more than his predecessors, and if I had a tongue that praises, I would praise that day when his wisdom appeared almost as the day when the Torah was given to Israel.” — Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “Introduction to Panim Meirot uMasbirot.”

The ARI (Kabbalist Isaac Luria) opened the path to the discovery of the meaning of life for our entire generation. He revealed the end of the thread for us, and if we grasp it, we can rise to the height of the upper force of love, bestowal and connection that Kabbalists call “the Creator.” We still have insufficient understanding and words to appreciate everything the ARI has done for us.

We should thus extend our faith to the Kabbalists who hold immense appreciation for the work of the ARI, and who thank the Creator for sending such a messenger to humanity that tells us about the Creator, how we can come closer and establish connection with the single force that operates reality.

The ARI’s legacy gives us tools to attain a screen (Masach) and reflected light (Ohr Hozer). Beyond our intellectual understanding of the texts that extended from the ARI, there is reforming light contained in such texts. Therefore, if we approach the ARI’s texts with the intention to attain similarity with the upper force, then we attract the reforming light that corrects out intention from egoistic to altruistic, similar to the Creator.

In such a manner, the texts of the ARI are holy. We can see the awe by which Kabbalists treated his texts, as if they were the Torah from which not a single word can be removed. The death of the ARI became the starting point from which today’s method of Kabbalah started developing.

It took several hundred years until it entered the world thanks to those who saw a priceless gem in his words and wished to disseminate them, going as far as digging up the grave of his student, Rabbi Chaim Vital, in order to extract and distribute hundreds more pages of his texts. Nevertheless, much of the ARI’s works became revealed and served as the basis for today’s Kabbalah.

It is similar story to that of The Book of Zohar, which was also hidden and then revealed a thousand years later. Only in the time of Baal HaSulam did all the writings of the ARI finally come together as Baal HaSulam merited the same spiritual level as the ARI and was thus able to understand his words and assemble them with his commentary in his monumental textbook, The Study of the Ten Sefirot.

The works of the ARI are a life-saving rope dropped to us from heaven. The entirety of Kabbalah is based on The Book of Zohar and the writings of the Ari. To gain a small taste of the uniqueness of the ARI’s innovations in the method of Kabbalah, the following are three unique characteristics of the ARI’s Kabbalistic method, which did not previously exist in the teachings of Kabbalah:

1) A Method of Screens

The ARI explained that each level of desire to receive is determined by a screen (Heb. Masach) that rests upon it. This concept was a significant development, as it was not discussed by earlier Kabbalists.

2) Focus on Ascent from Below Upward

Unlike earlier teachings that primarily discussed spiritual processes from above downward, the ARI’s method emphasizes understanding and spiritual attainment from below upward. This represents the journey of the soul’s spiritual ascent.

3) Perspective of the Vessels (Kelim) as Opposed to the Perspective from the Light (Ohr)

The ARI shifted the focus from the perspective of the light, which was the primary focus before his time, to the vessels. He taught that understanding spiritual processes requires studying how the vessels are arranged with the coarseness (Aviut), screens (Masachim) and reflected light (Ohr Hozer), as they determine how the light flows from above to below.

(Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on August 9, 2024. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.)