24 Facts About Yehuda Ashlag

Rabbi Ashlag lived in the Holy Land from 1922 until his death in 1954.

Yehuda Ashlag systematically interpreted the wisdom and promoted its wide dissemination.

In line with his directives, many contemporary adherents of Yehuda Ashlag's teachings strive to spread Kabbalah to the masses.

Yehuda Ashlag reputedly studied Kabbalah from the age of seven, hiding pages from the book Etz Chaim "The Tree of Life" by Rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital in the Talmudic tractate he was meant to be studying.

Yehuda Ashlag studied German while in Warsaw, and read original texts of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Schopenhauer.

In 1921, at the age of 36, Yehuda Ashlag made the decision to emigrate to the Land of Israel, a journey that took several months.

Yehuda Ashlag spent the first few years living anonymously, supporting his family through manual labor by day and writing his commentaries at night.

Yehuda Ashlag was friendly with the Kabbalist and Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook, who recognized Yehuda Ashlag as a great follower of Isaac Luria.

Yehuda Ashlag had high hopes of meeting great Kabbalists in Jerusalem including the Sephardi followers of the great 18th-century Yemenite Jewish Kabbalist Shalom Sharabi.

In 1926 Yehuda Ashlag left for London, and it was there that he wrote his commentary on The Arizal's book Etz Chaim.

Yehuda Ashlag authored many articles and letters at this time that openly promoted the study of Kabbalah on a mass scale.

Yehuda Ashlag went to great lengths to publish Kabbalistic material in media suitable for disseminating the knowledge he had acquired across the entire nation.

Yehuda Ashlag began an independent Kabbalistic newsletter publication, HaUma "The Nation", of which only one issue survived.

In 1943, Yehuda Ashlag moved to Tel Aviv, and there began working on his book, HaSulam, a collection of commentaries on The Zohar.

Yehuda Ashlag later said that if it had been within his capabilities, he would have written a full commentary on The Zohar in two-hundred volumes, but he was unable to begin the work only because of a lack of means.

Yehuda Ashlag completed this work in 1953, and later added three more volumes.

Yehuda Ashlag died on the day of Yom Kippur in 1954.

Yehuda Ashlag was buried on cemetery Har HaMenuchot located in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem, Israel.

Yehuda Ashlag continued with a similar style of translation and commentary of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag known as Maalot HaSulam on those works of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, which Rabbi Ashlag didn't complete during his lifetime, namely Hashmatot HaZohar and Tikkunei HaZohar.

Yehuda Ashlag's notebook, entitled Shamati, contains over two hundred articles which were copied down from lessons and talks with his father.

Baruch Yehuda Ashlag kept this notebook with him in secret, until he was on his deathbed, in 1991.

Yehuda Ashlag's commentary offered a systematic interpretation of the legacy of Isaac Luria.

Yehuda Ashlag stated that the purpose of studying Kabbalah is equal to the purpose of why human beings were created, and that through its study, a person is capable of revealing the entirety of processes and structures that have taken place in the creation of the universe.

Yehuda Ashlag had strong political opinions, believing in a religious version of anarcho-communism, based on principles of Kabbalah.