ABSTRACT
Rabbi Ashlag, one of the most significant kabbalists of the twentieth century, was born in Warsaw and received a traditional Jewish education in Hasidic schools. He was a disciple of Shalom Rabinowicz of Kalushin (1851–1901) and also of his son Yehoshua Asher of Porisov. Reportedly Rabbi Ashlag also had a kabbalist teacher who did not want his name to become public. One of Ashlag's later remarks, however, indicates that his secret teacher was some Warsaw merchant (letter of 3 January 1928, addressed to his brother-in-law Rabbi Avraham Mendel Braunstein). In 1920 Ashlag moved to Palestine and settled in the Old City in Jerusalem. There he established a yeshiva called Beit Ulpana le-Rabanim. In the early 1940s he moved to Tel Aviv, where he finished his famous commentary on the Zohar (which is a fundamental kabbalistic work written largely in Aramaic), together with its Hebrew translation titled Ha-Sulam (‘The Ladder’). Ashlag integrated some socialist and communist ideas into his kabbalistic system. One of Ashlag's basic ideas was the need to transform the human egoistic ‘will to receive’ to the divine altruistic ‘will to bestow’. He believed that the altruistic state of community which is connected to the latter concept correponds to the coming of the Messiah. He also believed that Kabbalah should not be a set of esoteric teachings, and in this respect he strove to disperse his kabbalistic teachings to the public in the hope that it would help people to reach the altruistic state of consciousness. After his death his work was continued by his sons. Currently, there are several kabbalist groups that follow Ashlag's legacy. Ashlag wrote numerous books, many of which have attracted attention in kabbalistic circles: Panim Meirot and Panim Masbirot (1927–1930) – a commentary on a crucial part of the Lurianic Kabbalah work, Etz Chaim by Rabbi Chaim Vital; Talmud Eser Sefirot (1955–1967) – an interpretation of the teachings of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria; and Ha-Sulam (1945–1960) – a commentary on and a translation of the Zohar.
