A question I received: Since the end of the Passover holiday, I feel horrible from the realization of my own evil. How do I deal with this? What should I do?

My Answer: We need to get acquainted with our nature. A person has worked hard during the holidays; he put in effort, aspiring to reveal the Creator in himself, to come out of egoism, and now the darkness of an even greater egoism has been slightly revealed to him. This causes him to feel weakness, fatigue, and a lack of interest for the Upper World…What should one do?

One should rejoice in the fact that a bit more evil has been revealed and that one has an opportunity to “clench his teeth” and turn to the group, the studies, and to the Creator. The opportunity is precisely now, when one has no strength, no desire, is not in the mood, when his eyes are closing, his brain doesn’t work, and all his feelings are foggy. This is wonderful! This is precisely the kind of state that a “Creator’s worker” should experience, since then one can ask for mercy, for strength from Above.

This doesn’t mean crying and pleading to the Creator to have mercy on you. In fact, this will not help. We are situated in a system where everything is precisely measured out, and we are given sensations, thoughts, strengths, and weaknesses, which are necessary for us at any given moment.

Now, I need to gather all of them into one and realize that it’s the hardening of the heart, about which it is written “I have hardened his heart.” The Creator took me by the hand, led me to Pharaoh (which is my heart) and He is showing me how much He hardened it.

Now the choice is mine: Will I be with Moses (the point in the heart) or with Pharaoh (the heart)? If you moan and groan, saying “I am tired, I cannot go on, I am sick of everything…” this means that you are under the control of Pharaoh, you are his slave.

However, if you grab onto the Creator’s hand (since He offered: “Let’s go to Pharaoh!” meaning that the Creator is next to you, and you merely need to recognize Him), then you have the strength to oppose Pharaoh.

Try to grab onto the Creator! Try it, and suddenly you will see how close the Creator is to you. After all, it is written “The Creator is near broken hearts.”

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What specifically should I do when I feel a “hardening of the heart“?

My Answer: Without extra emotions, try to clarify this state: Who does this, why, how does He control you and organize your environment? Don’t fall; try to be in control of the situation that you are in so that you are able to create a point of contact with the Creator. Also, as the Creator told you, “Let’s go to Pharaoh because I hardened his heart,” now you may demand from Him. Now is precisely that moment when you may demand help from Him. After all, this is why He brought you to Pharaoh.

The Creator will never answer you while you are in a state where you feel well and everything around you is illuminated. You will not receive anything in such states! After all, while you are in such states you do not need Him. You can thank the Creator for His kindness, but all this is just complete egoism.

When will the Creator hear you? He will hear you precisely during your bad states (the Gate of Tears, Shaar Hadmaot). Otherwise, at present, why does He exist and why did He bring you to such a state? Only in such states do you really need Him! They are all given to you only in order for you to grab onto the Creator’s hand. You are small, and you stand beside Him and say, “Did you harden his heart? Now help me! I am scared! I don’t want this! I don’t know what to do! Have pity on me!”

And what does the Creator say? He says, “I hardened his heart because I wish to be revealed to you. I want you to see My greatness. I will become great through Pharaoh!” The Creator can be great in your eyes only under the condition that you are afraid of your ego, Pharaoh. You don’t know what to do with it and you are subjugated by it. Then, if the Creator can rescue you from this state, you will begin to respect and value His power and greatness. In this manner, we learn who the Creator is.

Pharaoh gives us the measure of the Creator’s greatness and power. For example, Pharaoh weighed you down with a weight of 20 lbs. and the Creator released you from it. Then you evaluate the Creator’s strength to be 20 lbs. directly against Pharaoh. After all, the Creator, the Light, has no form. Your desire (Kli) gives Him form. This is how you advance. Therefore, only such states are positive.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, The Zohar

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Shamati #2: “Divinity In Exile” – Lesson

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled),” Item 432: And now that Divinity needs correction, to bond with her husband, ZA, that redemption of Egypt must be shown to contain four redemptions. And with the awakening of the Mochin of the exodus from Egypt, she is corrected to bond with her husband because she has become liberated from all four Malchuts.

Shechina (Divinity) must go through four exiles which will be followed by the final redemption, the exodus out of the final exile. Malchut comprises four layers of the desire to receive pleasure. Thus, each time she must reveal a greater egoistic desire and exit out of it, meaning to use it for the sake of giving; and then once more reveal an even greater desire to receive pleasure, and again correct it with the intention to give. And so on four times over according to the structure of Malchut of Infinity. In so doing, we will conclude her correction, and she will be completely corrected.

Presently we stand on the threshold of the final redemption. The greatest desire to receive pleasure, which is being revealed today in the souls, must be corrected with the intention to give. And then there will be no more exiles.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/10, The Zohar

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If I, along with my friends, wish to reveal within myself the inner qualities described in The Zohar, they will be revealed. I only need to desire greatly that the property of mutual bestowal, love, and guarantee will be revealed in all of us. By doing so, I affect all the parts of my soul whom I see as strangers so that each of them would awaken himself.

You are a part of me, but I can’t act in you directly as we are separated by our egoism which acts as a divider. I have no access to you even though you are a part of my soul. So, what should we do? I realize that I can reveal the Creator or the Upper World only inasmuch as I restore the soul. I search for ways to influence you in order to awaken and revive you since you are my part. I affect you and, when you correct or revive yourself, it is my doing. Thus, this corrected part belongs to me. In this manner, I adjoin the whole of creation to me.

It’s written, “the corporeal of a friend is the spiritual of you.” That is to say that I rouse him to correct himself through corporeal actions and thereby bring a part of my soul closer to me. Everyone acts in this manner and returns everyone else to himself. It turns out that I never work against someone else. By bestowing to others and by loving the neighbor, I simply relate to parts of my own soul in a different, correct, “egoistic” form. Later, it will be revealed to me that these are parts of my own soul.

For example, I hate the son of my neighbor for disturbing me by playing the piano. Then, suddenly, I discover that he’s my own child and I repent my hatred bitterly. In other words, I take the mistakes and the transgressions of the past and turn them into merits.

In the same manner, we reveal our sins right now on the stage of preparation for spiritual revelation. We reveal our hatred in regard to everyone. Later, we learn that it’s all our own and correct it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What is a Kabbalist’s position on sports and a healthy lifestyle?

My Answer: Kabbalists are in favor of healthy lifestyles. Baal HaSulam used to like to swim out to the ships in the harbor. My Teacher Rabash and I would frequently go to the gym, the sauna, and swim at least 400 strokes in the sea. I currently ride a bike for 1.5 hours, swim 400 strokes, power walk for 1 hour, and work out every morning. A person needs to take care of his body, otherwise it can’t serve him.

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Our thoughts and desires are interconnected. Therefore, right now, as we study The Zohar, if someone is being lazy, this weakens everyone else. That person will be punished for his deed in that it will be even more difficult for him to keep studying.

We are all in one common boat. Either I am drilling a hole in it, or I’m trying to the best of my ability to move our common boat with my intention.

The less energy I have, the more difficult it is for me. Yet, if I overcome all these obstacles, then I contribute great efforts to the common effort to evoke the Light. I thereby influence everyone else and this comes back to me through them. As a result, I end up a winner.

Therefore, the more difficult it is during the study, the better it is. I have to feel the responsibility I have because we have all signed a group contract, a mutual guarantee, and this fact has to obligate me to act.

It is impossible to read The Zohar by myself; I need an environment. That environment is the people who are studying all over the world and expecting results from the study. The Creator has awakened several million people in different parts of the world, who are now reading The Zohar together with us.

Every person sitting in front of his TV or computer screen has to understand that if he is being lazy at this moment, then he influences all others! This transgression will come back to him and will push him away from attaining the goal in the same measure that he caused harm to all of us.

Therefore, the study is not just my personal work. Right now all of us together are trying to attract the Surrounding Light and with its help to move our boat closer to the goal. It is written that one has to attain such a degree of love for one’s friend that one would give the friend one’s last pillow if the friend wanted it.

Now think: Your friend wants to advance toward the spiritual goal, and the two of you are moving together in the same direction. However, suddenly you abandon him! What kind of punishment does a traitor of this caliber deserve?

From the 1st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/10, The Zohar

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The division of people into the nation of Israel and the nations of the world, which Baal HaSulam describes in his articles, can be interpreted in two senses: inner and outer. When understood in the inner sense, it describes how qualities are divided within every person, with “Israel” designating one’s aspiration “straight toward the Creator” or the point in the heart that has awakened in a person, whereas the “nations of the world” are the desires of reception.

Any person whose point in the heart (aspiration to reveal the Creator) has awakened can be called “Israel,” which means “straight toward the Creator.” If one’s point in the heart has not awakened yet, then he belongs to the nations of the world, meaning to all other goals in life.

All the people can be categorized in this fashion and divided into Israel and the other nations. This is the same as what once occurred in Ancient Babylon.

When considering those whose point in the heart has not awakened yet, the science of Kabbalah must first and foremost be disseminated among the nation of Israel in the material sense. After that it should reach the other nations. In addition, the nations of the world include the ten tribes of Israel that fell to the level of “the nations of the world” from the height of the First Temple (Mochin de Haya).

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #22 “Torah Lishma (For Her Name)”
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 40
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 462
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