Synopsis of In the Shadow of the Ladder
M. & Y. Cohen
Kabbalah originates with the dawn of humanity. Kabbalah was passed down from Master to qualified disciple through the generations. Now all that has changed. A new access has been given to this ancient wisdom. The times are special and demand this. But when something has been secret for so long, special care is required to understand and integrate it in the right way.
Chapter One: Kabbalah in Context.
The chapter concludes with the way Kabbalah reveals its light and how we can be effective vessels for the light, for ourselves and for others, using Kabbalah as a tool for self-transformation and healing.
Chapter Two: Rabbi Ashlag and his Predecessors.
M. & Y. Cohen
Who was Rabbi Ashlag? Where did he get his teaching and his inspiration from? Born to a Chassidic family in Warsaw, he was obviously unusual from the start. By the age of fifteen, he already knew that his whole purpose in life was only to serve God. As a young man, he acquired the habit he was to retain all his life of rising at one o’clock in the morning to study the secrets of Kabbalah until dawn.
In 1922, he and his family took ship and sailed for the Holy Land. Here a small band of pupils gathered around him. Saintly men themselves, they saw him as a holy angel of God burning with the flame of Torah. Overcoming hardships of poverty and opposition, Rabbi Ashlag broke open the secrecy surrounding the Kabbalah with his monumental works of Kabbalah and established a school of self-transformation which continues to grow today.
Rabbi Ashlag is seen as the spiritual heir and commentator to the sixteenth century Rabbi Luria, and to the first century, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar. Short biographies of these Rabbis are included and the centrality of their work is shown. A direct account of the sojourn of Rabbi Shimon in the cave whilst channeling the work of the Zohar is brought in translation from the Talmud.
Chapter Three: Introduction to the Zohar.
Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag
This Introduction opens with some very basic questions, pertinent to us all. Who are we? What is my role in life? What is my relationship to God?
Rabbi Ashlag goes deeply and profoundly into these questions. Using his wisdom, perception and logic, he discusses the origin and reality of the soul and its relationship to God; he also clarifies what it is that obscures us from God. What is the relationship of the soul to the body and why is it that the body is born only to die?
He examines the purpose of the Creation; its ultimate purpose and how we experience it during the process of creation. He looks at us as vessels for receiving God’s light and explains the work that needs to be done on the vessel to correct it, heal it and enable it to fully experience God’s light. He teaches how, if we live for ourselves alone, we ultimately separate from God, but if we start to serve others and develop qualities of love and compassion, we come into affinity with God and the light can come into the vessel. He examines the presence of evil in the world and its purpose. He looks at the importance of free will, and its role in choosing the work of conscious endeavor to come to God and the unconscious path embodied by the path of suffering.
He examines the stages of a man’s life and how different aspects of the ego manifest within them. He explains how the work of healing enables access to different levels of consciousness and the higher spiritual worlds to which these levels correspond. He refers to the Sephirot and their corresponding lights. He concludes this Introduction with an impassioned plea for all to study and involve themselves with this wisdom, not only for their own sake but for the sake of the peace of the world.
Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag
Chapter Four: Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sephirot.
He moves onto the question of Divine providence. How do we perceive God in our lives and how can this perception change? Why is God concealed? Do we believe in God at all? How we misunderstand the process of cause and effect in our lives and how our relationship with the Divine need not stay static but can mature and grow. Using the analogy of relationships between friends, Rabbi Ashlag considers how our relationship with God can grow into love; first, a conditional love and then, finally, expanding into an all-encompassing unconditional love. A person who reaches such a state of consciousness now perceives the flow of Divine energy from a different standpoint – a transcendental point. Such a person is called a tzaddik or a saint. This love encompasses both God and the world, for without love and compassion for one’s fellowmen one cannot attain consciousness of God.
Yet, as Rabbi Ashlag teaches, the time of concealment of God’s providence has great value in itself as it is during this time that a person is free to choose and exercise his own will.
Does the tzaddik’s new perspective alter his perception of his past, when like everyone else, he made mistakes and sinned? Rabbi Ashlag goes on to teach that when one attains unconditional love, even one’s past errors become transformed.
How does the tzaddik affect the world? When one man becomes enlightened, then the aspect of the world that corresponds to this person becomes filled with light.
Rabbi Ashlag concludes his Introduction with a further exposition of Kabbala as the most intimate part of Torah, in which the lights of the higher worlds are more specifically revealed and the transformative power of Torah is more clearly available than in the other more practical or well-known parts of Torah.
Contact with the intimate part of Torah affords us contact with the most intimate part of ourselves – our souls.
Chapter Five: Keywords, Definitions and Concepts.
M. & Y. Cohen
Short definitions of basic vocabulary of Kabbalah are given as they appear in the Introductions. Rather than being set out in alphabetical order, they are arranged in an intrinsic order which enables one concept to flow to the next.
This chapter also includes a more in-depth look at terms, principles and values not only in Kabbalah but also in Judaism. Looking at these ideas from the standpoint of Kabbalah is a refreshing experience, not only for the novice reader but also for those with some Jewish background. Familiar concepts such as ‘God’ and ‘Torah’ are presented in the new light Rabbi Ashlag sheds on them. A list is appended to enable the reader to refer back as in a glossary.
Chapter Six: One Person's Journey in Kabbalah.
Y. Cohen
Can learning change someone? Can we allow ourselves to be changed? How does the understanding of our true nature actually work in our day-to-day lives? With these questions in mind, Yedidah Cohen tells of her own personal interaction with the ideas contained in the Introductions. Her story relates some of the insights and difficulties encountered on the way of Kabbalah.