It is considered a vice to feel yourself, your soul, instead of the single common soul. Yet some people might consider this a great attainment, since I am nevertheless in the spiritual world, together with the Creator, even though I’m separate from others. However, if a person attains spirituality, he feels that this state is not good because he is separate from others and there are two parts in existence.

It’s even worse when there is a third part, the Creator, because everyone must be one whole: the person, the method of correction, and the Creator. However, there are different sins on every level and you are still far away from these “criminals.”

Initially only one soul was created, so how can this perfect will to enjoy created by the perfect Light be divided into parts? How is this separation even possible?

Now do you understand that we are living in an unreal world? Only in our imagination does everything divide into parts this way: the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels, as well as all sorts of colors and sounds. None of this exists in spirituality!

True spirituality is one common sensation, the Simple Light. All the other separations we feel now come from our lack of perfection.

We artificially left the perfect state and that’s why we feel a world where everything is divided, split, separate from others, and opposite. However, if the Creator is one, then several creatures cannot come out of Him, but only one.

Baal HaSulam writes the following in the article, “600,000 Souls“: “Indeed, there is just one soul in the world, as it is written about the creation of man: ‘The Creator breathed the spirit of life into him,'” which means there is one desire and one Light.

A person who aspires to return to the Creator is called “Isra-El” (straight to the Creator) and he attains the one ,single soul. I attach to myself the people who seem to exist outside of me and I attain this as one, single soul, Adam HaRishon, just as it was created by the Creator. It is filled inside by the Light of Infinity, the Creator.

However, in order for me to carry this out more easily, I am given the group through which I relate to the common soul. The group is the part of the soul closest to me, an intermediate means through which I can work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “600,000 Souls”

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We clarify everything that takes place not from the outside, but within ourselves for there is nothing outside of us. The Upper Light is simple, and we reveal it only when we equalize ourselves to it in our qualities.

Therefore, only attainment can expose all the details of perception. The realization of importance and lack thereof, our desires, high and low, exile and redemption, ascents and descents, creation and the Creator, all this is revealed only in relation to us.

Our reality is initially arranged in such a way that spirituality is unimportant to us. The Creator and the Shechina, as the place of His revelation in us, the quality of bestowal, the group in which we advance, everything that pertains to the Upper One has no importance to us.

Our desires are purposely created this way. They present us with an opportunity to create effort on the path to an opposite quality so that bestowal would become important in our eyes. Why is this work necessary? It is needed in order to reveal all the qualities of the Giver from the opposite state. And for this we need to acquire and to incorporate these qualities into ourselves.

Thereby we will change our external form from reception to bestowal. Our ” material,” meaning our initial desire will manifest externally as though it wishes to bestow. Whatever it does in regard to the group and the Creator, it will always display itself as giving. Otherwise, it won’t act at all.

Consequently, we need to ask to raise the importance of bestowal in our eyes, which is called bringing the Shechina to life from the dust. The Shechina is a Kli (vessel) in which the quality of bestowal is revealed. Shechina is unity of souls. Everyone unifies the souls in spite of the rejection, and then this place acquires a screen and the Reflected Light, the quality of bestowal, intention for bestowal. As this intention grows, we reveal more and more that the Light, the Creator, dwells in our vessel.

Thus, our whole work is conducted between two states: exile and redemption. In Hebrew these words are similar, only the word “redemption”  has the additional letter Aleph (א) which means the Creator, Light, the quality of bestowal that fills creation and ascends the throne in its desire.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”

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The Creator brings a person to a specific place and tells him, “Take it.” A person has to accept this place and check: What kind of people are there, what is their goal, and what sources do they study? The check is performed through the mind and feeling, according to all of one’s notions and concepts.

A person checks all of this “upon his arrival” and then he has to make a decision: Will he stay here or not? Without making this firm decision he cannot make any further actions and he cannot advance!

We are talking about the inner circle that Kabbalah calls “600,000 souls,” which is the nucleus. A person must clearly feel that he has accepted and entered the spiritual environment. That is why Kabbalistic groups always had an agreement, a statute, and a list of friends who have decided to enter the group and who were accepted by the group.

What does it mean to “become part of the environment”? The correction of the soul requires total dedication. It is written, “A person will sell the roof of his house.” In other words, for the sake of spirituality a person “sells” everything he has in life besides the vital necessity. No matter how much his understanding grows, a person always tries to go higher, above it.

He makes an agreement with the friends, promising to support and strengthen them with all his power and to be together with them so the common unity will enable every person to rise higher. All the forces for ascending can only be received from the unification with the group in which a person finds the Light.

The faster a person makes the decision, the faster he will advance. And vice versa: By being indecisive and failing to make a decision, he stands in one place. The decision is made once and after that a person has to carry it out.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/10, Writings of Rabash

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Freedom starts at the point where I make a decision as to whether I am governed from Above or not, whether the Creator exists or not, and whether I depend on Him 100 percent? If not, then what does freedom mean? If there is no freedom at all and we cannot change anything, then there is nothing to think about. However, if we are capable of autonomous actions, then what are they?

Here is the point at which I begin to clarify why I live, what is the essence of my life, what will happen to me further, and what is the use of my life. In other words, I would like to know if I am managing my own life and whether I can modify anything in it. These questions emerge at a “speaking level” in a human being.

The whole clarification is about whether I can act on my own and contest the Creator (nature) that governs everything there is. Is there a “free” point outside of me that doesn’t belong to nature?

At a regular, animate level of this material life, we cannot change anything, and, therefore, it is so predictable. However, not a single fortune teller knows what will happen in the Upper life, at the “speaking” level, within our connection with the Creator, our freedom. A fortune teller can guess only what might happen at the level of this world, with our physical body.

Below the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), there exists no freedom of will whatsoever; it subsists only in spirituality. An animal doesn’t possess any freedom of will at all, so why would our physical body be any different? However, the soul exists beyond this level and obeys different forces that are present in another world, another dimension. We can only speak about freedom in relation to the soul.

What kind of freedom can exist in this world if our biological bodies are rigidly governed by pleasure and affliction? Freedom of choice exists only in spirituality in the “middle line.” Don’t waste your energy for material things that are beyond your prime necessities. You won’t get anything worthy from this bodily life, and if you persist in demanding more than you really need, you only make your life more complicated.

However, if you use your vigor to attain spirituality, you will win. This is the law of nature: You have to provide for a normal material existence, but the rest of your energy and intellect has to be devoted to attaining spirituality. That’s where you will find genuine fulfillment.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Freedom”

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The environment is not just the entrance ticket to spirituality and not something that accompanies me on the spiritual path, rather it is my soul – the place where I reveal my connection with the Creator. The environment becomes my soul, my World of Infinity when I no longer differentiate between its inner and outer desires (Kelim): myself and others and the worlds. Rather, I experience all of this as one desire (Kli) and one Light.

For example, suppose I ascend to the level of Netzah of the World of Beria. What happens to all the levels I have gone through? They don’t exist inside me in the form of degrees since I already went through them. Rather, they exist in the form of a circle because I have corrected all of these desires.

When I ascend up the ladder of degrees inside the group (our unity), then everything I have already gone through on the ladder of degrees becomes attached to me; it becomes my own. On the other hand, everything I still have to go through remains scattered and divided into many disorderly forces.

That is why the environment still seems like a means to me. And it seems like this is what is written as well, “From love for the creatures to love for the Creator.” It seems like the Creator broke us in order for us to reveal Him. But what does it mean to reveal Him? We reveal Him inside the same broken vessels (desires, Kelim) by correcting them. When these desires take on the form of bestowal, that form of bestowal in them is called “the Creator.”

Therefore the environment is not a means, but precisely the space I have to put together and then live inside it. The right form of this system, the connection between the souls, is my soul, and its inner form is the Creator whom I reveal and thus unite with Him into one.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/20/10, The Zohar

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In essence, we represent souls rather than physical bodies even now. The Creator created the desire to enjoy, and there is nothing else besides this desire. If we sense certain corporeal matter, it is not because another separate reality exists. There is only desire which feels itself in a physical body. It is the same soul which feels only itself and only within itself. It does not perceive anything outside.

For this reason the soul feels itself as existing in its corporeal body, seemingly surrounded by other, similar bodies. This is how I perceive myself and the surrounding reality since I am enclosed inside myself with my ego. As soon as I begin to acquire new desires and perceive properties outside of myself, I begin to see reality in a different way.

The reality which I see outside of myself is called the “Upper World.” How do I exit out of myself (from my ego) and see the existence outside of myself? I have to connect with other souls, with my friends. Within this connection between us, in greater unity, we reveal common sensations and manifestations called “the spiritual world.”

Therefore, when we read The Zohar, we have to remember that we all desire to reveal the Upper Light, to reveal everything described in The Zohar. It conveys to us the states and pictures which talk only about the connection between us and its various forms. That is the entire reality.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, The Zohar

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There are no events in the Torah that already happened or will happen in the future. They must only become revealed to us, while the states themselves exist each on their own spiritual degree.

We feel good when we strive to reveal them, but when life pushes us, we suffer. This is why we want to reveal these states now, and we attract the Light that discloses them.

For this reason, we should not care how The Zohar describes the events, whether it uses Kabbalistic terminology or regular words to tell about the Israeli tribes and journeys. I should always discern only one aspect in the story: the connection between souls, not the bodies, the connection between friends, meaning between our spiritual sparks, our desires to unite.

And all the other desires “drop”; they, as though, become irrelevant to us by our having secured the mutual guarantee, and they do not impede our unity. We unite above the corporeal desires and reveal that which is written in The Zohar in our connection.

The Zohar tells us how the connection between us will be revealed to the extent of the gradual attainment of the mutual guarantee. This connection will manifest step by step through images described in The Zohar. The Book speaks of reality that exists within us. We only need to gradually reveal it, like opening one window sash at a time.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/10, The Zohar

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During our reading of The Zohar, we should constantly exert effort to see the connecting system of souls or the spiritual “network” behind each word. Behind the names of Shimon, Reuben, or Gad, the “right hip” and the “left hip” of Israel’s camp, certain actions, or “snakes” there stands not a bad or good desire, but its motion and its aspiration relative to the action of the moment.

Therefore, it is desirable to perceive The Zohar as a story of our connection, a story about the picture or pattern that is expected to unfold between us. There is no doubt that we always reside in this state and only have to uncover it. For this very reason we read The Zohar: to aspire for the revelation of its narrative.

And now, we need to do our best to connect this story with ourselves and not to be tangled in it thinking that The Zohar is talking about some distant places and events. All of this is occurring right now between us: within our connection, mutual guarantee, and our collective movement.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/10, The Zohar

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Question: Is there a difference in the efforts that I’m required to apply when I fulfill the conditions of the mutual guarantee for the first time and when it happens for the second time?

Answer: The difference is in a sensation of a lack, in that I now intend to achieve the second degree on the basis of the first. The first degree stays in me as a Reshimo (internal record, imprint), a state that I have experienced but could not preserve because of an additional desire to receive. I must now overcome this additional desire in order to attain the next degree. The previous degree helps me to reach the next one.

These are not degrees of a descent, but those of an ascent. In other words, even if I fall, I understand why I have fallen and know what I have to do. Based on my own experience I already know how I managed to reach the state of a mutual guarantee on the first degree, and now I am going to do the same on the following degree.

This is called “a person’s soul teaches him,” meaning that I have gained experience and I know what to do. It is clear to me now that my descents are not states where I simply lose myself. I realize that I am in a descent now and that I lack strength (contact with the Creator).

It is already a realization that I am in darkness, that I have lost touch with the Creator. In other words, the point of awareness of or contact with spirituality is preserved, and that is very important. Now I begin my work from that point instead of a state completely detached from spirituality.

Expressed differently, you do not lose your previous level due to a “sin”; rather, you fall from the first degree because you have been given a desire of a second, higher degree. The magnitude of the uncorrected desire of the second degree, the sin that is being revealed to you now, overshadows the corrected degree, although the first degree stays inside the second in the corrected form.

It is actually an ascent, and not a fall; you have achieved the first degree and have now revealed the second degree, its opposite side. In the AHP of the Upper One, you feel yourself as “fallen,” a “sinner.” However, it is the way you define yourself from the perspective of the corrected first degree.

It exemplifies the saying “a person’s soul teaches him” because I already have a soul. Indeed, the first degree is my soul. Afterward, I will develop a soul of a magnitude that corresponds to the second degree, then the third, and so on.

Each time higher degrees will be emerging inside me; they will conceal the previous degrees to a greater extent, but I will always have the strength, the connection to the Light in order to ascend. I always discern each subsequent degree of an ascent based on the degree which I have already achieved. It means that I will have an opportunity to correctly diagnose what is happening to me and how to draw the Light that Reforms.

My state doesn’t resemble anything more than that of an unconsciousness patient because I am constantly equipped with the force of the mutual guarantee. I already signed its conditions, I am observing them, and I’m in a state in which I do not lose it, although from a personal perspective it may still happen. And then I suddenly realize that I am “drilling a hole in the boat.”

I have not yet drilled it all the way, I have just started, but in a moment it will be complete, and at that precise instant it begins to dawn on me. This is the revelation of egoism of the next degree. However, the previous degree, the bond between friends, remains inside me and is called “one is elevated in sanctity, and never lowered in sanctity.”

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that the real stumbling block is attaining the first degree. Until it happens a person feels completely confused.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/10, “The Love of the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 675: Zebulun was rewarded with preceding Issachar in the blessings because he took bread out of his mouth and gave it to Issachar’s mouth. Thus, one who provides for one with Torah receives blessings from above and from below. Moreover, he is rewarded with two tables, with which no other person is rewarded. He is rewarded with wealth—blessed in this world—and with having a share in the next world.

The Zohar speaks of the types of connections existing between the souls for only this is concealed from us, and this is what we need to reveal. In the connection between the souls, which we reveal, we clarify the picture of forces (desires) of bestowal, the web of connections between them that manifest the degree of their bestowal to one another above the egoistic forces of each particular soul. The connections between the souls are the forces of bestowal, the desires to bestow, while every soul is an egoistic desire to enjoy.

It follows that if we work, everyone in his desire, so as to actualize it in bestowal to others, this means we are working with the right desire (Kli) equipped with a screen so as to be connected in mutual bestowal with everybody. This is the way the system of desires (Partzufim) of every soul works with respect to other souls (Partzufim). Mutual bestowal and its general force, the Creator, become revealed in the connection between them, while within every soul there remains its inherent desire to enjoy.

The Zohar speaks not of the desire to enjoy embedded in each of us, but of what happens between us, where we reveal the web that connects us. Initially, this web is called the world of Assiya, then Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the World of Infinity, where the connection between us has no end or limits. As we strengthen our connection, we reveal the Creator, the Light, inside it.

Therefore, when we read The Book of Zohar we must think of what The Zohar speaks of: the connection between us wherein the Creator is revealed.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/10, The Zohar

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