Love And Hate Are Just One Step Apart

balance A question I received: In the corrected state, I will love my neighbor as myself. But will his desire in relation to me still remain “not my” desire?

My Answer: We do not erase the differences between us; we preserve all of our desires. It is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” not “nullify yourself and disappear.”

“As yourself” implies the depth of each person’s desire which remains between us, our differences and the hatred that we rise above, like over Mount Sinai (Sina means “hatred” in Hebrew). We use our ego, the entire depth of the egoism, in order to turn it into bestowal. If we were to cancel our desires, we would have nothing to rise above.

Therefore, we should not destroy anything about ourselves. Even the worst qualities have to stay. We just add correction to them without creating anything new; we simply use what exists in us initially. Until the World of Infinity, we ascend by the degrees of our egoistic desire, transforming it to bestowal.

We can fall at any given moment, as it is written, “Don’t believe in yourself until your very death (the death of egoism).” If you lose the screen, you will fall back into these desires, since the screen restrains your egoism – all your hatred. However, the hatred remains, and it can burst out at any moment.

Even in our ordinary lives, we see how people unite, and then suddenly and unexpectedly, hatred erupts between them and a war breaks out. This happens because people build connections with each other based on “corrections” that can fall apart at any moment. It is like a “united” Europe, where there are 30 different countries, all being torn apart by mutual oppositions. No matter how much they try to build a “common home,” it can explode and bring them to a third world war in one instant!

Suddenly terrible hatred will be revealed, a kind that they have never experienced before. All of the unification that they are trying to reach right now will serve as fuel for hatred. And all that’s needed for this is one match.

In our spiritual ascent, only the Creator serves as the guarantor of the fact that this will not happen to any of us, provided that we include Him in our union!

Don’t Be Afraid Of Mistakes

disappoint The period of preparation is the most important and special time because it is particularly during this time of concealment and darkness that we try to discern all of our qualities, goals, means, and inner definitions. Later, when we rise above the Machsom, we only correct the evil in us which we exposed and prepared for correction during the period of preparation.

Baal HaSulam explains that during the period of preparation, we “perform” (reveal in ourselves) Zdonot (intentional transgressions) and Shgagot (unintentional mistakes or negligence). We correct these mistakes and negligence after the period of preparation, during the stage called “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” and even later, we correct the intentional transgressions during the stage of “reception for the sake of bestowal.”

The period of preparation is a time of revealing all the “sinners” inside us. We reveal them gradually, to the extent that we are capable of doing so. But most importantly – we expose them to the extent that we are able to tolerate them in us, as much as we are able to reveal them without running away from the spiritual path! And until we awaken all of them, we will not be able to cross the Machsom.

We cross the Machsom under the condition that we rise above the transgressions and negligence. We should not engage in trying to correct them, but instead, to rise above them. Then, above the Machsom, we correct them and acquire the intention of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal.” We use them as they are, and we are willing to remain in them, but for the sake of bestowal. This means that we cross the Sinai Desert.

Then we correct them with the intention of “reception for the sake of reception,” which means that we enter the Land of Israel (the revelation of the Creator). It turns out that inside the very qualities that we revealed inside us before the Machsom, we later reveal the Upper World, the Creator.

5 Minutes Of Light From The Daily Lesson: Prayer Of The Public

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12.08.09

Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings Of Rabash, Shlavey Ha Sulam, Article 7, 1986, page 225
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Article: “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 59, Lesson 25
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Article: “The Character Of Kabbalah,” Lesson 3
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Crossing The Machsom Is Counter-Intuitive

intuitive The period of preparation does not mean that we have to prepare to be very patient and wait for this period to pass. It won’t pass unless we do everything in our power for it to be over the very next moment. The right way to “wait” means that at every moment we are ready to put efforts into this, again and again, without ever despairing of it. And at every moment we expect that we will receive a reward now – the force of bestowal, which we demand. We do this over and over again at every moment, without ever getting tired of it.

If we are capable of this, if the states (the entrances and exits) quickly come to replace one another, this is a sign that we really are able to merit a higher, deeper level. The more sins and mistakes we reveal during the preparation period, the more we advance later on when we enter the single and double revelation after the Machsom. That is how we achieve our correction.

During the preparation period, the group has to provide every person with the force of consistency, persistence, confidence and patience, as well as the understanding that we have no choice but to advance in this way. That is how we continue year after year, until we are ready to refuse immediate gratification at every moment and to work even without it. At that point we are worthy of passing the Machsom.

We must have such a great aspiration for the following level that by virtue of our tremendous, passionate, burning desire for bestowal, we are ready to give it up and continue the preparation period. If the Creator wants to give us only this preparation, and we only want to attain bestowal, then we are satisfied with this and we don’t need the Machsom. It is then that we receive it.

Pleasure Under A Magnifying Glass

How Can We Stop Being Slaves to the Advertisement Industry Our goal is to discern who we are, what our reality is, who the Creator is, and what qualities we need in order to attain Him. To help us accomplish this, a multitude of different opportunities become revealed to us in life, but the more we spread ourselves thin on them, the more we will suffer. If, on the other hand, we discern them, reduce them and focus on just one aspiration, then we will feel pleasure.

We enjoy only when we reduce the field of our searching, and after making many discernments, concentrate on one single point. When dealing with all the other pleasures and opportunities, we have to discern them one after the other and thus build a special instrument – like a huge glass lens that can focus all of the light that comes to it into one ray. The greater the lens is, the greater is its ability to focus the light and the more light it is able to focus. Eventually it can compress the light to such a small point whose concentration and might are so powerful that anything is possible within that point of Light and desire.

This is obvious in the field of optics, by examining the way lasers work. We can do the same in our inner work when we focus a multitude of different desires within us. That is exactly how we achieve a higher, spiritual force. Everything is built on what is now present inside us. The more our egoistic desire grows, the more we spread ourselves thin on it; we desire everything there is in the world! If it were possible, we would receive everything: money, power, knowledge, and everything else.

But why is it that we see so many different pleasures before us? It’s because that is how fulfillment appears to us in our desire. The entire descent of the worlds from the World of Infinity down to our world consists in multiplying the number of different Lights, desires and pleasures. It is a gradual division of the Direct Light of the World of Infinity into many Lights.

This distancing from Infinity and perfection amounts to a multiplication of qualities, which come out of one point and that we imagine. If we learn to unite all of these multiple qualities together and reach the One, Unique and Indivisible, then we will achieve correction and unity. That is the only way we will eliminate all suffering: by choosing the one force of bestowal, preferring it over all egoistic pleasures. That is how we will ascend upwards.

Disturbances And Alien Desires Are The Material We Can Turn Into Love

Building the Third Temple A question I received: How should I deal with powerful desires I have when I discover that they rule over me, such as the desires for honor, power and fame?

My Answer: You shouldn’t do anything to them, and certainly not try to destroy them! Just raise the importance of the goal – the revelation of the Creator, which will take place in these same desires once they are corrected. The importance of the goal has to be higher than all the desires and aspirations that pull you in different directions, and higher than all the thoughts that clutter up your mind.

You should not focus on your problems. After all, you are not your own doctor and you don’t have the power to correct them. You should only raise the importance of the goal and rise above all the problems, as if you aren’t paying any attention to them. You should aspire to the goal using them as the basis. How? By demanding from the group to give you a feeling of the greatness of spirituality, bestowal, and unity with the Creator; in other words – the greatness of connection and love.

In that case, all of these desires will become attached “from below” to your intention to attain the Creator, and that is how they will take on the right form. Whenever these desires and thoughts emerge in you, you should worry about increasing the greatness of the Creator, the quality of bestowal, and the connection with the other souls. Then all of those “sinners” that become revealed in you, meaning all the alien thoughts and disturbances, will add a special direction to your attitude toward the neighbor. Your simple intention to attain bestowal and the Creator will take on a special form and will gain greater power and might.

We have to transform hatred to love, because without it, love would have no form. What do you love, how, why and what do you get out of it? The Light that comes from Above is a pure Force; it transforms your evil to goodness, but it cannot perform an action in a vacuum. It transforms the hatred, repulsion, disturbances and confusion to goodness.

That is why we shouldn’t erase all of these disturbances, but rather, we have to aspire to the Light that Reforms using the disturbances as a basis. Meanwhile, the disturbances will only increase all the time, because without them, we wouldn’t have anything that could be turned to goodness.

Building The Middle Line While Reading The Book Of Zohar

author The Zohar: The Creator said to Noah: “Enter the ark with your entire household.” One of man’s qualities, which he defines as the Creator, turns to another quality in him called Noah. Noah is the quality of bestowal and love, and the aspiration to rise above one’s ego. One’s quality called the Creator speaks to this quality, called Noah, in order to elevate it even higher. This is why the Creator says: “Enter the ark!” which means – fortify yourself in the quality of bestowal.

It is written of the entrance into the ark: “The Creator (HaVaYaH), Zeir Anpin, said,” and it is written about the exit: “Elokim said,” referring to Nukvah of Zeir Anpin. It is written that the master of the house, Zeir Anpin, allows Noah to enter the ark. The ark is the quality of bestowal, Bina. If a person (the quality of Noah that aspires toward bestowal) enters the ark, Bina, then he feels that nothing can harm him – he is safe from all of his other qualities, which disagree with Noah. All the rest of man’s qualities are egoistic and can harm his spiritual progress; this is why he wants to separate the quality of Noah from them and advance only with this quality. He leaves the other qualities alone for now and makes a restriction on them, hiding them away.

Then the mistress, Nukvah of Zeir Anpin, tells him to exit. He entered with the permission of the master, Zeir Anpin, but exited with the permission of the mistress, Nukvah of Zeir Anpin. This is talking about two forces that influence a person: the force of Zeir Anpin and the force of Nukvah, judgment and mercy. By influencing us with these two reins, we advance closer to the goal.

Thus we have found out that the master brought the guest into the house, and the mistress led him out of it, as it is written. “Elokim said to Noah: Come out of the ark!” Elokim is the masculine force, the force that overcomes. She is permitted to bring the guest out, but she does not have the right to let him in.

Even though these two forces are opposite to one another, they act together in order to advance us. We cannot advance with just the help of the one force that pulls us forward. We also need the force that pushes us from behind. We are always being controlled by them as if by two reins. If we understand that these two forces are influencing us for our own good and balance the left force with the right one, then we will connect them together and build the middle line.

A Thin Bridge Into The Spiritual World

A Day for Each Year The Book of Zohar was written by a group of great Kabbalists the likes of which has never existed in all of history. They created a bridge of language, information, forces, sensations, and Light, connecting our sensations and our understanding of the revealed world, with the sensation and understanding of the concealed world.

When we study The Book of Zohar that they wrote and try to enter the state they want to convey to us, then we are like a baby that greedily opens his eyes and mouth in order to absorb what his mother is telling him. He doesn’t understand anything, but simply looks at her and expresses his joy through movement.

We have to make similar efforts to understand our teachers. To do this, we have to connect with each other the way the ten authors of The Book of Zohar are connected. Even if we read it without any explanations, we will gradually begin to feel new inner reactions and movements. From within us, from an unconscious and subconscious level, a new realm or world will begin to come though and become more habitual.

We call our lessons “a study of The Book of Zohar,” but in reality this book is not studied but revealed, and the revelation happens through our aspiration and readiness to feel the concealed world. The readiness must be expressed through the unity among us, similar to the unity among the authors of this book. It is a unity of all the point in the hearts – the aspirations toward similarity with the Creator. This is how Kabbalists describe the necessary condition for using The Book of Zohar correctly.

In the process of reading the text of this book, I provide small clarifications in order to help you “grab onto” the text, similar to the explanations of an adult while playing a game with a child.

Whenever Kabbalists write about The Book of Zohar, they do not refer to it as The Book of Zohar, but simply as The Book. This expresses their desire to show that there is no other book in the whole world!

A Book That Opens Our Eyes

report The science of Kabbalah reveals an enormous new world to us, the spiritual world, which includes our entire world of today like a tiny grain of sand in the entire universe. But how can we attain a sensation of the spiritual world? It’s like a baby who has no knowledge or sensations that he can relate to the world around him. But gradually, he accumulates impressions of this world, hears and recognizes sounds, sees images, discerns colors, and feels the difference between cold and hot. He has to learn all of this from the impressions he receives.

At first, for example, he simply develops his senses and learns to discern the presence or absence of sound. Later he begins to discern various sensations in each sense. What makes a developed person different from others is that his senses are able to perceive finer things. To a musician, sounds awaken an entire world of sensations. An artist lives in the world of colors. A writer feels the shade of every word.

But all of this comes to a person gradually. We exist in some kind of reality, which gradually becomes revealed to us. It influences us, makes us progress and forms in us a capability of perceiving it. This is how the material reality, this world, is arranged; and we develop and reveal the spiritual world along the same exact stages and by the same laws.

There is a special book that consistently develops our sensation of the spiritual world in addition to this world. In essence, we are living in one, common world, but relative to us it divides into a part we can perceive and a part that is concealed from us. In order to reveal the concealed part of the world, we must start to feel it in a direct fashion, like babies. This is what the unique book, The Book of Zohar, does for us.