Even now, we are all in the World of Infinity; we just don’t feel it. Everything depends on our qualities, because the Upper Light is the unchanging quality of bestowal and love.

We don’t have to work on correcting our egoism and we don’t need to fight it. What we have to work on is building the quality of bestowal and love (the screen) above it, so we will be able to receive the Light inside this quality and discover the Creator. This is why in Kabbalah, the work and the reward are the same thing.

This is different from the earthly or religious systems where the work takes place in one place and the reward is given elsewhere. Moreover, if you could get the reward without the work, you would happily abandon the work. In Kabbalah, the only reward is to become bestowing and loving like Him.

It is written: “The reward for a Mitzvah is the Mitzvah (Schar Mitzvah – Mitzvah).” This is followed by knowing the Creator or merging with Him (Schar Mitzvah Ladaat HaMetsuveh). On the other hand, in religion people think that by performing commandments mechanically, they will earn a reward in the world to come, and once they get there, they will have everything. This is what religion tells us, and this is the fundamental difference between religion and Kabbalah, which says that we have to receive our reward here and now! There is nothing waiting for us after death, besides the next life cycle where you will get another chance to reveal the Creator within yourself.

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Two questions I received from women concerning finding the right match:

Question: On the show “Women, Men, and What’s Between Them” you were asked what qualities a woman should look for in a partner, and you answered unambiguously that only when someone is close to you in qualities does a relationship as a couple stand a chance of being successful. My partner and I have opposite personalities, and there are some problems in the connection between us. However, one rabbi checked our compatibility and said that we are a good match.

My Answer: I have already stated my opinion.

Question: Ever since I was a child, I’ve experienced difficulties in communicating with people. Is there any way to appeal to the Creator with a request to change me, so that, accordingly, my life would change, I would find friends, a partner, and I could be happy?

My Answer: Other than under the influence of Kabbalah, I don’t know a more effective method to change oneself and one’s life, and to be able to do it in accordance with the flow of Nature. If you are sure that this is your path, go to our dating site, and maybe you’ll find your other half there!

Related Material:
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A person thinks that when his life is over, he will receive a reward in the world to come for having behaved well and being faithful, as well as for having carried out all that was demanded of him by his religion. But what can he receive if he did not prepare his desires for it?

His desires are for the pleasures of this world – pleasures that don’t exist in the spiritual world! A person’s primitive imagination made him decide to collect as much “stuff” as possible from this world in order to take it all with him to the grave.

If we think of the Creator as a king-like character for whom we must work, then we are like the religious people. The Creator is within us; He is the quality of bestowal and love which we have to acquire here and now.

Therefore, we have to work on ourselves in order to correct ourselves, rather than to be rewarded or punished by some contrived powerful ruler. This is Kabbalah’s difference from religion, and the reason why we need the force of correction – the force of Kabbalah, or the Torah. It’s because its Light returns us to the Source – the Creator.

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In the physical world, even if a door is closed, you can still see that there is a door there. In the spiritual world, however, you cannot see the door until it opens. The door itself is invisible: it’s a solid wall. A person can go through the door only when he corrects himself sufficiently.

The entrance into the spiritual world becomes revealed to a person as soon as he likens his qualities to those of the next degree. But he will not see the door or the opening even a second before that.

As soon as a person makes his qualities similar to the next degree by acquiring the quality of bestowal that is being demanded of him, then at that very instant he sees the door and it opens for him. Then the Kli and the Light unite.
(From Part 1 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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A question I received: How is it possible that there seems to be an objective reality in this world with external objects and which we can measure?

My Answer: We are used to a life that forms an image of reality based on an inanimate desire to receive pleasure. Similarly, we think that the spiritual world exists on its own and does not depend on changes within us.

This is how we perceive our lives until we begin to sense the relativity of our perception and come to understand that this perception depends on our qualities. Gradually, humanity is moving toward the realization that everything that we see in this world depends on the qualities of the observer.

Quantum physicists speak of the fact that experimental outcomes are equally dependent on the observer. However, we do not have the means by which to measure the influence of thought over matter.

Over time, everything becomes absolutely elusive until we come to the understanding that all things are relative to a person’s qualities. It is not dependent on whether or not one observes or thinks, but rather on the qualities of the person who is doing the thinking and the observing.

At such a point, we transition to being a true researcher from the realm of regular science which is not dependent on the qualities of the scientist. A true researcher is someone who concerns himself with his own qualities first and foremost, and only then proceeds to study matter. That is a Kabbalist!

Related Material:
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Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Perceiving the Creator”
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Preparation to the Lesson
My reward is the ability to bestow, to love.
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Part 1, on Baal HaSulam’s Letter #26
When man reaches the secret door, he starts to understand what it means to part with egoism. He then retreats, until he fully strengthens himself.
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Part 2, on Item 9 of “Preface to the Sulam Commentary“
We are lacking the desire of all humanity in order to reveal the Upper System that connects us all.
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Part 3, on Item 156 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot“
For the modern generation, the only means to make spiritual progress are the books of Baal HaSulam.
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A question I received: It is written, “What’s important is not your reward, but who you are working for.” How can I be thinking about this, instead of the reward?

My Answer: These words may confuse you. Who am I working for? For myself, and no one else! It’s forbidden to imagine the Creator as any image or form. The Creator is the quality of bestowal which we have to reveal within us. Therefore, the answer to the question, “Who am I working for?” depends on who I identify myself with.

If I identify myself with my egoistic desire, then I will think that I am working for the Creator. Alternatively, I can identify myself with the point in the heart, which is the quality of bestowal – the embryo of the soul. This will mean that I want to attain the quality of bestowal, called the Creator; I want it to manifest inside me.

By definition, the Creator is Boreh, from the words Bo – come, and Reh – see. This means that you have to discover this quality inside you. So, there is no one outside of me that I’m working for. I am working on my own correction in order to attain bestowal and love, which are called “the Creator.”

On the other hand, if I will imagine that the Creator is somewhere outside of me and I have to work for Him, to carry out His desires, then I will not be interpreting the Kabbalistic texts correctly. This is exactly how the religion of Judaism came to be, when the people lost their inner sensation of the Creator during the fall of the Second Temple. Later on, Christianity and Islam also originated from Judaism. These religions depict the Creator outside of a person, separate from him, instead of inside him.

During the period of the Second Temple, the Creator disappeared from man’s sensations and became concealed from him. Thus, people lost the correct picture of the world, because they started thinking that the Creator is someone that exists separately from them, that He isn’t a quality that becomes revealed inside them. They started believing that they have a Master they have to work for, like slaves. All the religions are founded on this false interpretation of the Creator’s essence.

Instead of thinking of the Creator as the main, most important quality of creation, which becomes expressed inside a person, people started thinking of Him as an external individual that sits somewhere up in the clouds and pulls the levers controlling our lives. This is why it’s so important to learn the correct Kabbalistic definitions, as otherwise it’s very easy to make mistakes and bring everything down to regular religion.

In Kabbalah, the rules are explained very simply: There is no Light without a Kli; there is no Creator without creation, Boreh = Bo + Reh, and so on.
(From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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It is written, “There is not a blade of grass below that has not an angel above it that strikes it and tells it, ‘Grow,’” which means that everything comes from Above. And this general governance from Above is the shared path of the whole world’s development.

However, when we try to attain the goal of creation, we subject ourselves to the individual governance, which operates by a different rule: our desire, our prayer (MAN) from below precedes everything else. It is only afterwards that the Light (correction) descends from Above. That is why any new spiritual state that emerges within us is a result of our desire for it. However, we have no control over the actions that take place; we merely ask, demand and desire for something to happen, and then the Light from Above, from our next degree, performs this change within us and we ascend onto the next degree.

The entire skill of the spiritual work is to understand this, and then to begin to feel and act in this manner. All that is required of us is to investigate, scrutinize and ask for something, and as soon as our request is made correctly, it draws an instant response from the Light.

Therefore, all the changes begin with man, but are carried out by the Creator. The Light remains in the state of absolute rest, waiting for us to demand these changes.

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A question I received: What does it mean that “an inner change creates a new state”?

My Answer: The science of Kabbalah explains that everything occurs inside us, inside the desire to receive pleasure that was created by the Creator. There is nothing outside of this desire. Everything occurs inside the same matter of creation relative to the same Malchut of Infinity, including the actions of restriction, the creation of the screen, the descent, and the distancing from Infinity down to our world.

The descent of creation from the World of Infinity can be likened to a person who is slowly losing consciousness, and who gradually loses the understanding of where he is. It seems to him that the world and the situation outside is changing, while actually, the only that changes is him.

Therefore, it’s because of the inner changes that happened in us that instead of the World of Infinity, our inner state appears to us as the Worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya, or this world. This is how we “descended.” Now we have to “rise” along the same degrees of perception from below upward. All the changes of perception occur only inside a person.

Each of our inner states is called a world. Our present state is called “this world.” If we change it, it will be called “the World of Assiya,” then “the world of Yetzira,” then “the world of Beria,” and so on.

How do we change our state? We do it by changing the relationships between us. We are given an opportunity to return to Infinity, due to the fact that each of us feels that he exists separately, distant from the others. We are separated by the “thickness” of our desire, hatred, egoism, the feeling of rejection from others, pride, and lust for power.

However, if a person understands that by uniting with others, he will return to the state of Infinity, and that he has to return there in spite of these new difficult conditions, in spite of our rejection of one another, then he begins to work. He begins to create a connection with others in spite of his egoism. He does not destroy his egoism, and in fact, he doesn’t do anything with his ego. He simply builds a connection with others above it. This is called building a screen over the desire. That is how the desire turns into a Partzuf.

The rejection between the souls remains and grows constantly, but a person builds bridges over it, creates connections between the souls, which become higher and higher. It’s precisely due to the growing Aviut (thickness) that a person raises himself to higher spiritual degrees every time – above the evil. This is how one ascends along the 125 degrees of connection between all the souls.

As a result, a person achieves a perception of the World of Infinity, which is 620 times greater than before he descended to this world. “Six hundred twenty” does not refer to the quantity, but to the level of realization, understanding, perception, and sensation of life and existence. We acquire this understanding and perception in the World of Infinity instead of our initial state, where we felt like a mere drop of semen and had no opportunity to do or perceive anything.

However, now, when we return to that same state of Infinity, and our sensation is 620 times deeper and stronger, we feel that we are on the same level as the Creator, the Upper Force, which created us and all of creation.

Therefore, our inner changes in regard to others create a new state in us, which is called a new world. All the worlds are within us, and we feel them to the extent we go through inner changes through our connection with other souls.

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A question I received: You said more than once that everything occurs within a person. The whole picture of reality is projected on a screen in the  brain. Who is it projected to? Who sits on a chair, watching this picture?

My Answer: The desire! The desire to enjoy, which has 613 (TARYAG) Reshimot,  are connected to each other in a special form, called 10 Sefirot or five Partzufim.

The world consists of five Partzufim, with five Sefirot in each Partzuf, and five sub-Sefirot in each Sefira. Consequently, this is a huge structure, with many parts, which are connected to each other like pixels on a TV screen.

There is a whole layer of desires in the desire to enjoy. The Light enters the desire, fills it, and builds it according to four stages:

• In stage Alef, the desire begins to feel fulfilled.
• In stage Bet, it wants to become similar to the Light.
• In stage Gimel it desires to become just like the Light, and
• In stage Dalet it desires to become independent and to absorb all of the Light.

In this last stage, it already understands what is happening to it, and the desire evolves due to the Light. These are two opposite forces, one of which influences the other. Therefore, the Light develops the desire until it begins to feel and understand itself, as well as to feel the root and understand it. This is how matter develops.

From where do we come to enter into this world? We come from matter, which consequently represents electrons, protons, neutrons, and positrons, which begin to connect with each other in an ever more complex manner.

This connection forms matter, which suddenly begins to move and to feel on its own–what is good or bad for it,  what to draw closer to and what to distance itself from.

It begins to think what is to its benefit and what isn’t and it therefore begins to make plans. It has already gained a sensation of the past, present, and future. It remembers the past and foresees the future.

All this is formed from parts of matter due to the fact that they unite with each other, forming more complex parts. However, what does it mean to “unite?” In this unification, matter receives a quality of the Light, since otherwise it is incapable of uniting.

It turns out that there is a desire to receive pleasure in the form of enormous or microscopic masses of matter, right down to elementary particles, which are studied by quantum physics.

However, unification between them is possible only with the force of bestowal in addition to the force of reception. Then a quality of the Light enters the matter, and this matter begins to consist of itself and its opposite.

From these two opposite qualities being joined together, a sensation of “I” and “the Creator,” emerges, which is a sensation of the receiver and the giver, the past and the future, the good and the bad. This is how matter begins to perfect itself and perceive the reality that surrounds it.

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Article: “Perception of Reality and Construction of the Soul”.-Lesson
The Path of Kabbalah: “The Birth of the Partzufim”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before”-Talk

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