Question: You explained that the text we read in Talmud Eser Sefirot and The Book of Zohar describes the forces of connection between us. Can you give me an example of this connection?

Answer: If you were in spirituality, then you would actually reveal everything you read about in the book. You would reveal the forces of connection among us, including their might, character, how they operate, and how they unite together into the net connecting us.

You would participate in the net of these forces and its work, in the illumination of the Shechina. You would see how much you are able to take an active part in it, how much you can add to it yourself. While reading the text, you would see how this entire net behaves.

However, if you do not live inside spiritual attainment, it is impossible to convey this to you. Baal HaSulam writes in his poem, “Whatever your eyes will see, you will see it and no other.”

As long as you do not feel spirituality, you have to read these texts hoping that it will become revealed to you. We read the Kabbalistic texts in the quality of Segula (a miraculous quality), and not in the form of facts.

For example, suppose I am blind and I am listening to a physics professor tell me about optical laws. He tells me how a ray of light splits into several colors. Yet, I am just hearing about it. I do not understand what he is talking about, but only hear that these phenomena exist.

I can keep studying this way my entire life, without understanding what it is talking about. However, if I make special efforts and begin to feel the phenomena I heard about, then they become my life. This is called “Taste and see how good the Creator is.” You have to taste it – to receive these Lights and feel their taste.

The real science of Kabbalah begins only after you have this sensation.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
Traveling Through The Creator’s World
Spiritual Ascent

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Study, Kabbalistic Sources, Perception, Q&A, Spirituality, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: For whose sake should I demand unity now? For the group or for the whole world?

Answer: The common soul divides into many parts, and the order of their awakening divides into many phases. Meanwhile, we are going through two processes:

1. Being a part that received an awakening from Above, we are obligated to actualize it and become corrected. Only after being awakened in this way does a person ask the question about the meaning of life and find the answer by revealing the Creator. This task is incumbent on us first and foremost.

This might seem like a super egoistic endeavor. However, revealing the Creator means revealing the quality of bestowal, love for the neighbor, and realizing it through unity with others. Bestowal is self-rejection, self-nullification. You come out of yourself towards others and there you find your soul.

Therefore, the first impression is deceptive. You are endeavoring to find your soul and to fulfill it with eternal pleasure. The Creator Himself has given you this opportunity and endowed you with an impulse to achieve this. Any way you say it, it sounds extremely egocentric, but the real content, the inner essence is above egoism.

That’s because we actualize all of this together by means of bestowal, love, unity, and mutual help. We do it by aspiring to come out of ourselves, instead of absorbing everything inside.

In the past Kabbalists did not have the opportunity to disseminate the science of Kabbalah throughout the world, to study it publicly, and to teach others. Yet, back then the particular correction of their souls in small groups was also aimed at the benefit of the whole world. That’s because they acquired a great force of bestowal which operated among all the souls in the world, even though the world did not feel it.

2. Today we have to act in one more direction. We not only correct ourselves and acquire a greater inner force of bestowal in our groups, but also disseminate the Kabbalistic knowledge all over the world.

These are the two parallel vectors of our efforts, and they are both necessary.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Watching Life From “The 10th Floor”
Permission To Reveal Kabbalah
Pouring Fresh Blood Into A Spiritual Embryo

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Spirituality, Unity, World, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: What should we do this Hanukkah so that the spiritual world becomes reality?

Answer: All of us around the world have reached the point of breakthrough. We are approaching the exodus from Egypt, from the sensation of just our world inside our ego.

On the one hand, we feel that the Pharaoh, egoism is holding us by the toes and stubbornly refuses to let us go. On the other, we understand that we must break out of our ego. These forces are fighting one another.

Every day brings us greater understanding that the spiritual world and its perception are above the ego, which is called faith above reason. However, when we attempt to reach the spiritual world, we feel that we still lack the forces to make the breakthrough and escape from Egypt.

Therefore, we need more events such as the recent Unity Day, which was held by all the world groups with great success. Our world group is already big and diverse enough, giving great power of unity to our Kli. Therefore, we have come to a state where we are fighting against the “Greeks” in us, wishing to be free of them.

The difference between the Pharaoh and the “Greeks” is the level of the struggle: The Pharaoh represents the passions of the material world such as the desires for food, sex, family, wealth, fame, and so on, while the Greeks represent the struggle between materialism and Kabbalah. A person who stops being tempted by these things despite having all of them, and who realizes that other things are more important in life, wages the war for ascension above this world since his life lacks meaning. He doesn’t know what to live for.

Thus, the Maccabean War is a spiritual war. The ancient Greek philosophers argued that our world is real and that we have to live in it and develop it. This approach is opposite to the wisdom of Kabbalah, which says that we must rise above this world because it can no longer fill us; we have to realize the thought of creation.

We have reached a very advanced level, although we always want to achieve more. I think that all of us, including those who are advancing together with us in groups, as well as individual students all over the world, will quickly prevail in this war.
[28571]
From the lecture on 11/30/2010

Related Material:
Why Do We Like To Kindle Candles
Celebrate The First Victory Over Yourself

Filed under: History, Holidays, Inner Work, Kabbalah for the Nation, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Why do we feel comfortable when there are candles glowing in a room?

Answer: We relate a candle to warmth, light, and hope. That is how we perceive it according to our spiritual root.

The candles of Chanukah symbolize the outcome of man’s war with his ego. What is a candle, really? It’s a body that contains oil, a wick inside the oil, and a fire burning on the wick. Each of these components has a meaning: The body is the spiritual vessel or Kli, the oil symbolizes the Light of Hochma that becomes revealed to us, and the wick stands for the discernments we make. All of this together gives us fire, the Light.

When a person makes enough inner discernments, waging a war with his ego, desiring to ascend above it, independent of the egoistic approach where all his actions are aimed only at fulfilling himself, when he desires to get rid of his egoistic nature, this is called “the war of the Maccabees against the Greeks.”

In Hebrew the Maccabees are called Makabim, which is an abbreviation of the phrase, “Those who are going toward the Creator, follow me.” In essence we separate from the “Greeks” inside us – the rational thinking, the egoistic desire to enjoy – and slightly rise above everything earthly to bestowal and love for the neighbor. The level of Bina means, “Do not do to another what you hate.”

In other words, a candle is a good, beautiful symbol of the spiritual nature. That is why we feel so good and comfortable when it glows.
[28706]
From the program “Kabbalah for Beginners” on 12/1/10

Related Material:
The Light Of Chanukah In Your Heart
There Are Candles But No Light To Light Them Up

Filed under: Egoism, Holidays, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Mi Barah Eleh (Who Created These),” Lesson 3
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 5, Lesson 5
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 70
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Introduction to The Book of Zohar, Questions and Answers: Israel and the Nations
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →