Spiritual Equality

Where to Send Logistical Questions There are many people living in our world who have no idea how it operates. They are unaware of the structure of social and governmental systems, the laws of nature, the orbiting of planets, and the various connections that exist between people. People can live a very simple life, knowing only what is needed to get along day by day and never burning with desire to know more about how the world functions. In contrast, in our world, some people are more interested and curious to know more, and they research the systems that operate on the world.

The same is true about spiritual existence. Not all people who acquire spiritual perception endeavor to delve deeply into it. They are naturally limited by the root of their soul, which does not demand any more than its level. In other words, it performs its function at its intended place and nothing more is required.

The root of the soul demands more of others who are meant to research the spiritual world. These are Kabbalists. Similar to scientists who examine our world, Kabbalists investigate the entire system of the spiritual world in detail. Kabbalists are meant to come to complete spiritual attainment and perception. This is according to the root of their soul, which compels Kabbalists to include everyone within them and to scrutinize all the details in the spiritual world through synthesis and analysis in order to correct their souls. It is to the extent that one’s soul demands correction that the general reality is perceived by that person.

And it is the degree to which one corrects himself by which he is judged. If one’s correction is 100%, then he is equivalent to the great Kabbalists and is equal to them in all ways. In spirituality, there is no division of people by important and unimportant. It matters that one has done all that was required of him.

Spirituality is a world of bestowal. The approach is a bit different than what we’re used to; a person enters spirituality, looks back, and realizes that he hasn’t done anything! There is nothing left of what a person once fought for or the actions he had performed. Hence, one becomes surrounded only by pure bestowal.

The Spiritual Magic

spiritual A question I received: We live our lives in hopes and never achieve pleasure. What will happen when we acquire the desire to bestow? Will we be able to feel pleasure then?

My Answer: When we transform the egoistic intention into the bestowing one, time ceases to exist. The very notion of time disappears because there is no past, present, or future in spirituality. Being in the attribute of bestowal, we don’t inquire about cause and effect. We delight in the act of bestowal that we find ourselves in, needing nothing else. Having the opportunity to bestow is our reward.

But don’t we care about the results of our actions? An opportunity to bestow is the result. For this reason, the concept of time disappears and everything is at absolute rest.

Egoism promises us the future, while in spirituality, there is no future; everything happens in the present. The future is felt only if I reveal the lack of bestowal in my current state, only if I want to bestow more and aspire to it. It’s as if I desire to go from the small World of Infinity to the big one.

This, too, is possible only through “magic,” through egoistic desires that are helping me. They reveal to me the deficiencies of my state, the impurity of my bestowal.
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When Will We Undo The Spell That Is Our Life?

world Our entire life is a spell, a great deceit. The egoistic desire constantly manipulates us, forcing us to work for it. Meanwhile, we are in love with this impure desire of ours and actually desire to be deceived by it.

It lies to us about the end of our path, promising us pleasure and Light when we get there. And along the way it seems like we do receive some kind of pleasure. Even though we don’t have anything besides empty promises, we enjoy them. We think about what we are about to gain and start to feel as if we already have it in the present. We receive sparks of pleasure and they give us hope.

However, there is no Light behind these sparks because the Light does not descend beneath the Parsa, the boundary that separates the World of Atzilut. The Light shines for us from there and awakens these sparks, making us feel hopeful that we will receive the Light. And this goes on throughout our entire lives.

Even though we are always disillusioned and never see any Light, just the sparks, we have no other choice but to keep looking for them in order to feel pleasure. We hope to enjoy ourselves by gaining a little more money, fame, power, knowledge, food, and sex. And thus, we are always on the path, with all our hopes aimed at the future. But the moment the Light is supposed to come to the spark, it does not come and everything immediately disappears.

This constitutes the work of the egoistic desire: to attract us with promises of pleasure, making us constantly desire it and always being on the path, thinking that we are enjoying ourselves. But we never reach the actual pleasure. We only reach disappointment and everything disappears.

In the material world a person’s entire life is based on hopes for the future and he supposes that this is happiness. He believes that all kinds of egoistic pleasures are waiting for him up ahead and tries not to think about the darkness and death that await him.

However, today humanity has developed to a level where it begins to understand that egoistic promises are groundless. But in that case, what are we to do? After all, we can no longer keep living just on hope! We no longer believe in socialism or a beautiful future where everyone will be happy.

As a result, depression and disillusionment are becoming very common; yet, we have to keep living somehow. As a result, people start to lie to themselves even more. They deliberately enter a drunken stupor in order to force themselves to believe. All the mass media channels work for this sake; it is a universal spell that is kept up by society.

This will continue until the lie reaches the breaking point, beyond which it will no longer be possible to keep going.

The Only Promise That Will Come True

A Woman Can Advance Independently A question I received: In our material lives we are in a dead-end situation where it’s impossible to attain pleasure. But what does the science of Kabbalah promise us?

My Answer: When I sit and study The Book of Zohar, it is called Lo Lishma – an egoistic action. I deceive myself because I plan on fulfilling my egoism through this action, but in return I receive the quality of bestowal.

Why does this action end up bringing us success, unlike any other? It’s because by making these actions, I desire to do everything I can to attain bestowal. I look for signs of bestowal along the path, consciously deceiving myself, and I use the Light that brings me correction and draws me closer to itself.

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.09.10

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 81
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“Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 20, Lesson 6
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Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 67
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When Will Our Prayers Be Answered?

The Soul Is the Property of Bestowal, and Until We Develop It, We Remain Animals Any concepts that exist in the world are divided into the degrees of HaVaYaH, according to the four stages of direct Light – in any quality, influence, definition, and in any division. This separation can be spread onto all of reality:

· The stages 0-1-2-3-4 “Shoresh-Aleph-Bet-Gimel-Dalet,
· HaVaYaH “the tip of the letter Yod-Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey,”
· Sefirot “Keter-Hochma-Bina-Zeir Anpin-Malchut,”
· Senses “vision-hearing-smell-taste-touch,”
· Partzufim “Galgalta-AB-SAG-MA-BON,”
· The worlds “Adam Kadmon-Atzilut-Beria-Yetzira-Assiya,”
· The Lights “Yechida-Haya-Neshama-Ruach-Nefesh,”
· The four natural elements “fire-air-water-earth”….

Our prayer should always be generalized: a prayer of the society, for the society, a prayer of many. It should contain all the levels, all the degrees, a full HaVaYaH. If a person merely screams about something, this is not a prayer. His request should contain his understanding and sensation, the past, the present, and the future. If he makes an appeal in precisely this manner, then his prayer will truly be mature and ripe, and it will be awarded a reply.

Baal HaSulam’s book Beit Shaar HaKavanot represents this precise, general approach, a global view of creation and all of reality. Instead of discerning small, individual details, it explains how to unify them. Talmud Eser Sefirot is an analysis, where the common whole  is broken up into parts, and Beit Shaar HaKavanot is a synthesis, where the parts unite into one whole.

Affecting The World Through Our Correction

What Is Mutual Guarantee in a Virtual Group A question I received: After the Zohar 2010 Convention, I received a desire to help people. How do I check whether I am doing the most that I can in this regard?

My Answer: The ultimate help is when a person spends all the hours of his existence trying to think about correcting himself and the world.

After all, a breaking first occurred in the worlds and then in the common soul, and now the broken souls exist in a broken world. Correction is possible only by the method of Kabbalah, which helps us draw the Upper Light, which alters our intention from an egoistic one to a giving one. The same force, the same Light, which created the whole universe, needs to affect us and correct everything.

Therefore, we can help others only by disseminating the science of Kabbalah until we reach complete redemption. However, while the world still needs correction, we need to try to bring the correction to the world. During the Convention we received a great force from our mutual unification because, together, we attained greater understanding and sensation.

And now we need to perform immense actions for the sake of the general correction of ourselves and the world. We received advancement precisely for this purpose and no other. None of us would have received what we received (an opportunity to participate in this gathering, an understanding of something, or feelings) if we were unable to affect the world through our correction.