We are inside an ocean of Light; all we need is a Kli (a vessel or instrument) in order to reveal it. It’s like cosmic space that seems absolutely dark to us. I enter outer space and there is nothing blocking the sun from me any longer. So why don’t I feel the light; why do I see everything around me as being black?

It’s because the light does not have anything to collide with; it does not come across any boundary. There has to be something that stands against it; then we will feel it. If you put a boundary next to you in outer space, then the light will collide with it and you will suddenly see that it is there!

If you take the boundary away, then there won’t be any light once again. That’s because the light is not felt in any way by itself – not even material light! If it weren’t for the atmosphere around the earth with all its particles of air, we would not see the light. We would be surrounded by darkness just like on the moon because there would be nothing to stop the photons, the particles of light.

Therefore, the only thing we need is a Kli for revealing the Light. First of all it must be opposite to the Light, meaning that it has to be a desire to receive because the nature of the Light is the desire to bestow. Besides that, it must match the Light according to the type of action – it has to be “for the sake of bestowal.”

When our desire to receive acquires the intention “for the sake of bestowal,” it will become a vessel for revealing the Upper Light.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: Is there anything eternal inside us?

Answer: In every aspect relating to the material body, we are mere animals, although more developed,  endowed with feelings and a mind. Nevertheless, every animate body is mortal.

There is a second nature, the desire to bestow, which is called the spiritual world, the soul, or the “part of divinity from Above.” Besides it, everything else belongs to egoism, the animate level, or the material world. Therefore, for now there is nothing connecting us to eternity besides one point that belongs to infinity, This point has to organize an environment for itself as a means to develop.

I am not talking about the animate soul that enlivens the body, which is the “vital force” present in all creatures still, vegetative, and animate. Besides it, man has one real point of the root which he has to develop. It is because of this point that he is called “human” – “Adam,” “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator, whose level he can attain.

A regular person contains nothing besides this point that is spiritual and eternal. Just as his animate body lives, so it dies – and nothing remains! And what about that point, do we get to keep it at least? Well, was it ever present inside the body? No, it does not belong to the body. We will never be able to transplant it to another person together with some other organ.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, “Body and Soul”

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Question: The material reality is described by Einstein’s famous formula in the theory of relativity: E=mc², which relates mass to speed. Is there an analogous formula in the spiritual world relating the will to receive to the will to bestow?

Answer: I don’t think Einstein’s formula can be applied to the spiritual reality because it talks about the limited nature of our material world, about what we can maximally extract from matter with all its manifestations (mass, speed, and energy).

Any formula indicates a limitation, but spirituality is not limited by anything. In spirituality we attain the maximum limit that is described by the formula: “He and His name are one.”

That is to say, we connect the entire will to enjoy with the entire force of the Light together with all the corrections, and we attain such unity among them that everything unites into one whole. The result is Infinity.

This is the maximum realization in spirituality. The material formula of the theory of relativity is about the boundaries of time, motion, space, energy, mass, and speed, but in the spiritual world these boundaries do not exist! That’s because you connect to the Upper Force, the Creator, and you become infinite like Him, without any boundaries!

In spirituality there is no formula because any formula compares conditions on one side to conditions on the other side, assessing how they can be in balance on account of one another. Energy cannot be greater than mass multiplied by the speed squared. But in spirituality that is not so! By completing opposites, we attain infinity. It’s as if we take the integral sum of all the forces of the universe, from zero until infinity.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, “Body and Soul”

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The Light builds our connection and we will reveal the Creator only inside it. We have to aspire to this not for our own good, but only in order to give Him pleasure. Once we attain love for the Creator, we will reveal His love for us. All of our study is intended to reveal or awaken our love for the Creator.

Obviously, right now we do not feel the slightest need for this. We remember about the Upper Force’s existence only when we feel bad. It is our nature to act only when we lack something, desiring to complete and fill ourselves.

We don’t feel any need for the Creator and moreover for loving Him. But if we try to artificially aspire to the Creator by means of working in the group, we gradually elicit the influence of the Light upon us that brings us special qualities, ones of love and bestowal.

This quality can be directed only toward the Creator because He is the only one in existence besides us. However, in order to reach Him we have been placed in a special state called “this world.” Here, with the help of our family and friends, we can make efforts and practice to acquire love for the appropriate environment. Then we will go from love for the creatures to the degree of love for the Creator.

That is how we come out of egoism, shifting from self love to love for the neighbor, and through our family and friends, we acquire love for the Creator.

Then we reveal the true nature of the “means” we have used. It turns out that the Creator Himself divided our reality in this way so we would have the opportunity to come to Him by means of these “exercises.” In reality there is nothing besides myself, incorporating all of reality and the Creator who is above it.

So let us build the intention to receive the Light that Reforms from our mutual study in order to reveal love between us and our love to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Horn”: …the children of Israel are redeemed only after the wisdom of the hidden is revealed to a great extent, as it is written in The Zohar, “With this composition, the children of Israel are redeemed from exile.”

Until the wisdom of Kabbalah has spread all over the world, Israel (“Isra” – “directly,” “El” – Creator), meaning those who aspire for the Creator, will not be able to reveal the Light that Reforms, which must pass through them to all humanity. The world has to be ready to receive the wisdom; otherwise Israel will remain enslaved to their egoistic nature.

The Zohar was revealed in order to accelerate the development of the entire world. But what is so special about this Book? Why does it affect the world so much?

The truth is that we do not live in this corporeal world, it just appears this way to us on our internal “screens.” The world is one; reality is one.

Thus, when The Book of Zohar, a spiritual source, is revealed on the corporeal level, it influences and affects us. Existing among all the souls, this source accelerates our progress and spreads like a virus. It penetrates every desire, every reaction, and begins to change them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Messiah’s Horn”

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The Book of Zohar speaks of how Zeir Anpin and Malchut unite, how everything becomes one. This makes it clear that we all have to aim at the final action: bestowal to the Creator.

It is hard to imagine something outside of our current desires. However, the Light gradually impregnates us with this necessity. Suddenly I feel that I am drawn to the Creator. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden I want to think about Him and bestowal to Him.

It is like an unknown neighbor shows up, one that I never cared about before, and now occupies all my thoughts. A relation toward him is awakening within me, and we are becoming connected. Again and again I am reminded of him.

Where did it come from? It came as a result of my studies and the influence of the environment. Either on its own or artificially, a thought about the final, even if distant state visits us. This is how the intention to bestow to the Creator is born, an intention that we try to realize on the spiritual degrees.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Engaging in Kabbalah Requires No Preliminary Excellence

During the practice of Torah, every person must labor in it [but not by learning the text by heart], and set his mind and heart to find “the light of the king’s countenance” in it [the Light of correction, Hassadim, and later on, the Light of fulfillment, Hochma, which both are called “the Upper Light”], that is, the attainment of open Providence, called “light of countenance.” And any person is fit for it, as it is written, “those that seek Me shall find Me.”

Thus, one needs nothing in this matter except the labor alone [in attaining the property of bestowal and love].
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 97
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The Light corrects the Kli (vessel) very simply: It comes and settles in it. And the Kli immediately gets “tamed.”

We are managed by the Lights as we speak. We can be clever or foolish, kind or cruel, and all of this is done by the Light. It affects everyone each instant in accordance with its program. We all reside in the ocean of Light; its waves lift us up and throw us down, mixing us together.

Therefore, getting to know the Creator, the Light, the property of bestowal, our mutual connection, is all one and the same. The arrival of the Light is our correction. When it comes, you become “sentenced” to it and are unable to (and don’t wish to) act otherwise. You realize that you are ruled by the Light that dictates all your actions.

This is what your connection with the Creator is. It is in you, and you feel how He works in all your desires, governing you. So, you comply with Him.

Then, beside the points that have joined your Partzuf, you will discover new points and will start asking the Light to help you unify with them. In this manner, a series of corrections continues, always at your request.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “All Who Suffer for the Public”

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Question: Where may the prayer for our unity and correction come from? How do I start asking for it?

Answer: We cry and beg for correction, but it is a pretense and falsehood. We, ourselves, don’t even realize that it is just lip service.

However, if I am working in the group and allow it to influence me, thereby exercising my only free choice, then it passes to me its enthusiasm and motivates me toward spirituality. At that point, it isn’t a lie since I am inspired by the friends. Even though I tried to connect to the group artificially, when they worked on me, I started to take it seriously.

This is how I am made: I am a particle in the collective system which has been functioning this way since the beginning of creation. That is why I cannot escape being affected by the environment, try as I might.

However, in this case, it was my wish to be influenced by the friends, and I made an effort to achieve it. If I now turn to the Creator with the desire received from the group, I will immediately receive an answer to it, a response. After all, this desire has a unique nature: the will to unite.

When I try to unite with them on my own or cry to the Creator to get this wish granted, it is a false demand. It isn’t regarded as a true prayer (MAN or Mayin Nukvin, Female Waters), but a lie. Although it is also beneficial, I will eventually see that it doesn’t work.

However, when I turn to the group, exalting it and reducing my own importance, and receive from it a new desire, a request that I further raise to the Creator, this is called MAN. As a result, there will be an answer from Above called MAD (Mayin Duchrin, Male Waters), which will truly connect me with the group, and there, inside it, I will find the Creator.

Inasmuch as I contribute myself to the group upon my own request, to that measure, the Creator will be revealed to me. However, no altruistic desire or action can come directly from me.

The group stands between me and the Creator, and we meet inside it. I raise my prayer to the Creator through the group. In response, He channels the answer to me through the group, with the help of which I may now rise to the group and find the Creator in it.

Between the Creator and me, there has to be the group. That’s why it is called the “place” and so is the Creator because there, He and I meet.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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