A question I received: When a person is on the path of spiritual development and is going through the period of concealment, he feels lost and confused. He understands that egoism is evil, but he is unable to part with it. Where can he find the strength to do this?

My Answer: We go through many different states throughout our life, and the states are different for every age group. At every moment in time, all kinds of inner changes take place in us with the speed of atoms spinning inside us, faster and faster. These changes take place inside our desires, on an unconscious level.

For several billion of these inner actions, there’s one instant when a “number shifts” inside us, like in a meter with many cogwheels spinning inside it, when suddenly the meter shifts from “0” to “1.” After that everything spins around inside for a long time again, and then the number jumps from “1” to “2.” This is what happens inside us as well.

This is why we have to allot some time for these actions to transpire. The same thing usually takes place in our regular lives: we often find ourselves in a situation that drags on and on, until it’s suddenly over “by itself.” And when you’re in that situation, you know that you have to change, but you just can’t.

It takes time for things to change. Meanwhile, we have to act as an “ox in a yoke,” since we can’t tell exactly what is happening to us, we don’t understand the actions taking place.

Later on, when a person enters the spiritual world, he begins to understand everything. He acquires new desires of bestowal, and through them, he is able to discern billions of actions in a single instant. This becomes simple, like his body.

However, today the same actions are also taking place inside us, infinitely fast. We have to be patient and wait, meaning that we have to continue along our path. At one point, the present state will reach an end, the “number will shift,” and we will agree to bestow.
(From part 1 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Shamati #18)

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A question I received: If Kabbalah is a science, why is it written that the Surrounding Light influences only those who believe?

My Answer: In Kabbalah, “faith” means the force of bestowal. Kabbalah doesn’t tell you to believe in something that someone says. In this science, faith is the force of bestowal – Bina, rather than words that someone says and someone else accepts as a fact.

When you study a science, you don’t believe in anything. Likewise, the science of Kabbalah does not use the notion of faith. This is not religion!

When I study Kabbalah, I trust the Kabbalists’ advice in order to draw the Surrounding Light upon me. The Kabbalists tell me what I should do, and explain why. With their help, I study the spiritual system, trusting them like a child who trusts his teacher in school or his parents. A small child has to trust an adult in order to ascend to a higher level. He has to rely on the instructions that come to him from the upper level – but not more than this.

This differs from the religion of our world, where faith isn’t when you trust someone in order to then ascend and verify things for yourself; but fanatic loyalty with your eyes closed. In Kabbalah, however, you don’t accept the Kabbalists’ words for a fact. Rather, you implement and verify them for yourself. Then, once you acquire a set of knowledge and proofs, you can continue the research on your own.

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Baal HaSulam writes that everyone has to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, because this is the reason a person is born: to correct himself.

Our world emerged due to the breaking of souls, when the single, unified soul partitioned into billions of pieces – individual souls. Today we are in the state of separation, which we perceive in the form of “this world.” In reality, however, there are no lower or upper worlds; they are just products of the human perception of the degree of connection between the souls.

“The world” is a degree of connection among the souls. The current degree is “this world.” If the souls begin coming closer to one another, then the increased interconnection among them will be called, “the World of Yetzira.” An even greater connection is, “the World of Beria,” and so on.

As we strengthen the connection between the souls, we will consecutively feel all the worlds. We will ascend up the levels of the worlds all the way until the World of Infinity, where everything is one.

Kabbalah is the method that helps all the souls to unite into the corrected state. This is why it is so vital to us.

(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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Preparation to the Lesson
By uniting, we create a common desire, within which we can reveal the quality of bestowal.
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Part 1, on Shamati #18, Shamati #18, “What Is, My Soul Shall Weep in Secret in the Work”
You should see yourself as a laboratory, where you perform experiments based on the Kabbalists’ instructions.
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Part 2, on “Inner Observation” in Talmud Eser Sefirot
No matter what kind of changes are happening around us, they are all happening inside us.
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Part 3, on “Introduction to the book From the Mouth of a Sage”
Everyone has to study the science of Kabbalah. After all, this is what man is born for: to correct himself.
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A question I received: I have completed a few courses, attended the Tuesday lectures and participated in a Congress a couple of years ago. Now, I am listening through the Internet and reading the books, but I have a strong repulsion from taking part in dissemination. Further, I don’t feel a gram of spiritual advancement. I don’t want to feel used in any way. Does this mean that I won’t be able to advance with acceleration?

My Answer: You are making no progress. The dissemination of Kabbalah is the means for your own personal spiritual development because it is precisely in connection with others that you will build a place in which you will reveal the Creator. You haven’t yet grasped the method and haven’t used it correctly. Best wishes!

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Baal HaSulam Article: “Messiah’s Shofar”

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A question I received: I simply don’t understand what the meaning of life is. I understand that maybe you can think up a meaning yourself. I can also do this but I won’t believe it. For now, I don’t understand what I should strive for. I don’t know what I can do or what direction to take.

Yes, it is possible to change, to develop, to realize oneself, to become like the Creator…but, what for? How can one strive to become similar to someone who you do not know?

My Answer: If you don’t have this need, you can relax. This means that you are not yet ready for Kabbalah. When the need arises, you can come back to it! The study of Kabbalah is for those who ask about the meaning of life, have not been able to find the answer and who cannot exist without finding it!

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Talk from TV Series: “Revealing the Upper World”

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If a person follows all the required conditions: he studies authentic Kabbalah books, has the right teacher and the right environment, and he makes efforts, then his soul starts to be connected to the spiritual world. This connection is evoked by the Surrounding Light, and it affects him so that he gradually begins to receive new impressions. These impressions become greater and greater with time, until his sensation of the vague, Surrounding Light turns into a clear revelation of the obvious Inner Light.

Although a person started out with a desire that was a mere point of aspiration to the Creator, he now begins to feel a whole new reality through this desire. In this new sense, he perceives the Light that is now obvious to him. But it is the same Surrounding Light that previously shone to him in an imperceptible, concealed manner.

A person thus begins to see the Light’s actions and to work with It like with a partner. The period of concealment and preparation comes to an end, and a person begins to act with a clear perception of the spiritual world.
(From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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Even when a Kabbalist has already reached high spiritual degrees, it is still very beneficial for him to study books by other Kabbalists, because this enables him to see reality through other people’s qualities. After all, every person sees the world from his own point of view.

By learning how others perceive the spiritual reality, one begins to see it through each corrected soul, and thereby quickly joins the common soul. Picture it this way: at first I am a point inside a circle. As I correct myself, I build a connection with Infinity – a line from the center of the circle to the Light surrounding it. Then, by connecting to all the other souls, I broaden this line, like a sector, until it comes to include the whole circle. Now the whole area of the circle is my corrected desire. Therefore, I can only correct myself completely by uniting with the other souls.

However, this is still not enough, because my personal circle is flat. But there are more circles like mine – other corrected souls. When all these circles unite, they form a sphere with one common center. This means that I start seeing all the corrections of all the souls from their point of view.

Why is this? It is because the Creator looks at each soul from Above and activates it. And I have to reach the same level. Therefore, I have to “clothe” into every person and see his correction from his point of view – from within his soul.

Only then will I reach equivalence of form with the Upper Force. It is not enough for me to correct my own “flat surface.” I have to correct one surface after another, circle after circle, until they all unite into one sphere.

This is mandatory in order for us to reach similarity to the Creator. Each person has to unite with others in this way and to look at the world “through” them.

And after that, everyone has to unite all together, so all the individual spheres will be united into a “rounder,” more perfect dimension. At that point, all the individual differences between all the people will disappear completely. But this stage is already above the corrections we make…
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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We cannot advance without the help of egoistic desires, Klipot. We are born with an egoistic desire, and this desire constitutes the whole of creation. But when we enter the spiritual world, then instead of our own tiny, primitive desire to receive, we discover an entire system of desires. The difference between Klipa (egoism) and holiness (bestowal) is only in how a person uses these desires: for his own sake or for the sake of bestowal. As he ascends the degrees of the spiritual worlds, he himself determines whether his desires are Klipa or sanctity.

We tend to have a mistaken conception that there are two worlds surrounding us, which are alien in relation to us, and we are “walking” between them. There is no such thing. Rather, everything always happens inside us, inside our desires. There is nothing besides this.

As we advance, we constantly reveal new desires within, and depending on how we relate to our environment, we determine whether our desires will be for the sake of reception or bestowal. We thereby build the spiritual worlds or stages.

This is different from what we imagine today – that the Upper Worlds already exist and we simply enter them as if they were an enchanted forest, with the evil spirit (Klipa) living to one side, and sanctity (goodness, bestowal) living on the other. Rather, everything exists only inside the person: all the worlds, the Creator, and the person himself.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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There was an entire infinite Kli, none of which was corrected, and the Creator seemed to be a source of evil. I then corrected a single element in the Kli, just the element that belongs to me at this moment, and suddenly I discover that the Creator is now good to me!

So what was happening yesterday? As I continue the correction, I feel that He has always treated me well – in the past, the present, and the future!

But what about other people? When I connect to them, I discover that they are also part of my Kli. I thus expand my correction to encompass the entire creation – Infinity, and I incorporate it all within me.

Everything depends on my correction. To the extent I correct myself, I discover that the Creator is good, and to the extent I don’t correct myself, I reveal Him as evil. Every person judges things to the extent of his correction or lack thereof. There is no past, present, or future; there are only degrees of revelation of the corrected Kelim, the degrees of my correction.
(From Part 3 of the revelation)

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