The Next Stop Is Gmar Tikkun

whats-the-right-attitude-to-have-to-this-worldA question I received: Usually our lives are so bad that we want to ask the Creator: “Stop this train, I want to get off!”

My Answer: If you get off this train, you will only be left waiting at the same stop. Later, the next train will come, and you will be forced to board it and continue your journey.

Our world has 230 years left to complete its correction. However, each of us can complete his individual correction earlier. Until that happens, you will continue participating in the general movement: being born, living, and dying.

Our Greatest Asset Is Everything We’ve Gone Through

matterIn order to reach a new nature, a person has to perceive his egoism as evil. He has to come to hate it like an enemy that does not allow him to reach what he most desires. This realization of egoism as evil can be achieved under the influence of the right environment (group) and the Light. Along with this, one reveals that only the Upper Light is capable of correcting him, since It created him this way.

A person does not have to destroy his nature. He has to use it as an instrument in order to rise above it. We have nothing except egoism; it makes up all of us! We have developed it throughout many reincarnations, which were very costly to us. We were continuously given more egoism, and every time we tried to use it , we received blows as a result. But we needed all this suffering and the efforts we’ve accumulated throughout all our lives. This is a person’s asset and the only thing he has. Now, all that remains is for us to ask the Light to help us use our nature correctly.

Things That Sound Similar Can Be Opposite

others.jpgA question I received: Kabbalah talks about bestowal and unity. Isn’t this similar to communistic ideas, which scare people?

My Answer: The idea of communism wasn’t bad in and of itself, but its problem was that it did not have the means to change human nature. This is what happened in socialist Russia as well as in the Israeli Kibbutsim. They did not have the right method.

Kabbalists seem to use the same words and the same goal. However, communists were secular, whereas Kabbalah talks about the Creator. Still, this is irrelevant as well, since the Creator is altruistic nature, and creation is a person that desires fulfillment. That’s all. The fundamental difference between Kabbalah and communism lies in something else: How can human nature of complete egoism be changed so people would begin to love their neighbors?

If only the socialists had an opportunity to change their egoistic nature! However, no power or method in our world is capable of changing man’s nature because our whole world is egoistic. All of man’s desires, actions, and thoughts are absolutely egoistic, and therefore, our world does not have any force capable of correcting us.

When a “point in the heart,” an embryo of the quality of bestowal (Bina) emerges in a person, he can change himself and acquire the quality of bestowal through the method of correction, Kabbalah. This will allow him to unite with other souls, and inside the unification, he will reveal the Upper Force which created him – the Creator.

Socialism, communism, and other methods talk about something that sounds similar to Kabbalah. However, the only way to realize unification and reveal the Upper Form of life (which is spiritual and eternal) is with the help of an outside force – the Creator.

True Pleasure Comes From Bestowal

marriageThe Creator wishes for the creation to become similar to Him, to be just as eternal and perfect. Therefore, through an explosion He implanted His quality to bestow into the creation’s quality to receive. Due to this breaking in the Upper World, we are born as little egoists in our world. But in the process of our development, the quality of bestowal begins to be revealed within us.

Particularly in our generation, when we as humanity have reached the greatest possible egoism, we are discovering its emptiness. This is why so many people are depressed. But suddenly, precisely in this situation, as if by a ray of Light in a dark kingdom, we can find the entrance into the Upper World!

A new desire pulls us somewhere and instills hope in us. In our generation, many people already feel this addition to their regular egoism, which has developed in us throughout many millennia.

In the previous generations, this small spark called the “point in the heart,” the sprout of an altruistic intention, was awakened only in special, chosen people, who became Kabbalists. However, today millions of people are feeling this new quality that is awakened in them. It pushes them ahead and demands to be realized. Previously, we were pushed ahead by egoism, but now egoism no longer sees anything worthwhile to chase in this world.

This new desire begins with the question, “What is the meaning of my life?” We feel emptiness and see that it is impossible to receive any more egoistic fulfillment. However, there is another side to the question, “What can I receive pleasure from?” Its opposite realization is: “Who can I give pleasure to?” That is when a person begins to feel a need to bestow. He feels that he can find true fulfillment in that!

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10.30.09

Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 2, Lesson 2
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Baal HaSulam’s writings, “Introduction to the Book From the Mouth of a Sage”, Lesson 6
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Moments From The Daily Lesson: Unleashed

5 Minutes Of Light From The Daily Lesson: Trying To Love Others

In An Integrated System, Even A Small Change Causes Changes Within The Entire System

life The Upper Partzufim do not receive Light for themselves. The Partzuf Aba is full of the Light of Hochma, but Ima does not wish to receive it, pushes it away, and receives it only under the condition that the souls wish to accept this Light from her. This is why MAN, a request is necessary from the lower.

This principle is widely used in technology and everywhere in our lives, in any changing, living system. Any opening and closing, as well as any regulators, are based on this principle.

It is like a spiritual transistor; there is the Light of Hochma (a plus and a minus), and I send an impulse to the base, starting a flow of electricity. I send a very weak signal, a small desire, but due to this desire, enormous Light begins to flow within the system.

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In the same manner, souls wish to receive just a little from Ima and open her up slightly, but she asks for the Light from Aba, and Aba asks from an even higher source, and hence this plea reaches the World of Infinity.

This plea causes enormous Light to be spread through all the worlds in order to bring us, who are at the very bottom, the small drop of Light, which we requested.

This is the principle of our whole life. If the system is integral, then even the smallest change leads to a change in the whole system. The spiritual is a reflection of the harmonious connection between all the elements. If we change even one very small part, we thereby completely change the whole system, causing it to reform in its entirety and reach a new state of balance.

The spiritual system is analogous to systems in our world. If a small impulse is sent towards the entrance of the system, the whole system experiences changes, from beginning to end, and in the opposite direction. It is only after it becomes balanced that the result becomes evident.

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Therefore, if even the smallest possible soul somewhere at the very bottom performs a slight correction, it changes all the worlds. The lower this soul is situated, the greater Light it arouses above it. This is like a small valve, which blocks a huge pipe. Just a little bit of effort is necessary to move it, but it opens up the flow of an entire ocean of water.

(From the lesson on the “Preface to the Sulam Commentary of The Zohar” 10.29.09)

The Teaching Of The Language Of Roots And Branches

The Meaning of Spiritual and Physical Tears A question I received: Does a person attain the spiritual roots in the process of his studies?

My Answer: In the process of one’s studies, a person attains many things with his mind, but this does not pertain to the attainment of spiritual roots. To attain the spiritual roots means to reach the quality of bestowal. This is not knowledge, but reception of corrected, new qualities.

Right now I have 613 material desires. When I turn them into spiritual desires, 613 desires for bestowal, this means that I attain my spiritual roots. I attain the “I that bestows” instead of the “I that receives!”

The Upper World is revealed in me in my corrected qualities. The spiritual roots are my qualities, and right now while seeing this world, I perceive my own self which is the picture that exists inside of me. The combination of all my qualities and the unification between them is what I call this world.

In my inner scheme, there are many connections, signals and impressions, all of which I call my world. When this scheme begins to work according to the principle of bestowal, achieving the very first degree in all its elements will mean that I have reached my spiritual roots.

The connection between my former state, when I felt the world in my material scheme which was unified for the sake of reception, and the scheme that is unified according to the program of bestowal, is called the language of branches. It is due to this language that I begin to understand how the Creator created the spiritual levels and all the degrees of ascension.

Rather than acting on a flat surface, in only one single plane, I understand what is happening between the different layers and how the descent or the ascent is occurring. If I study only one plane, I can only be inanimate, vegetative, or animate within that plane.

However, if I study the difference between these layers or planes, I will discover what I can use to further change myself. In other words, the language of branches is a means of rising higher and higher.

It does not speak to us on a flat surface, like the languages of this world. Instead, it explains the differences between this world and the spiritual, the connection between the root and the branch. I am not just studying the spiritual world; I am studying both of these worlds together, one against the other.

In this manner, I get to know the Creator’s actions. After all, the most important thing is not the layer itself, but what is between them. This helps me understand how I can change myself, rising higher and higher every time. This is what we need to learn from the Teacher.

(From the lesson on the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,”  10.29.09)

Kabbalah And The E-Book Partnership

Love is Providing Others With the Means to Fulfill Their Point in the HeartSeven years ago I got a PDA Palm Pilot, which happened to be a very convenient “pocket” for the storage of an enormous number of electronic books, which are “always with you.” I asked myself, “If I am able to read Kabbalah e-books then why wouldn’t others want to do the same?”

So I started making e-books from our materials and posting them on the different sites. Initially, they were available in English, then in Hebrew and eventually also in Russian.

I have recently hit an “historic” event – the number of downloaded books hit 25,000!

What is especially pleasant is that people are choosing to download these books. I encourage you to do the same!

Attaining the Worlds Beyond

Freedom of Will

Interview with the Future

Kabbalah – All Worlds

Kabbalah – Book of Creation

Kabbalah – Peace in the World

Kabbalah and Philosophy

Kabbalah in 90 Minutes

Kitvei Baal Sulam (כתבי בעל הסולם)

Lir’ot Tov (לראות טוב)

Necessary Kabalistic Terminology for Beginners by International

Academy of Kabbalah – Ashlag Research Institute

Passages before going to sleep

Shamati (What I Heard)

Shamati – שמעתי

The Experience of Kabbalah

The Path of Kabbalah

The Wisdom of Kabbalah

Kabbalah for Beginners