A question I received: Would you be kind enough to explain the reason that the Creator created us in this form, with only the will to receive. Why do we have to go through this process at all? Why couldn’t we be created more like the Creator? Doesn’t the whole creation look like a game to you?

My Answer: You are perfectly right: the whole of creation is the Creator’s game with which he plays with His creation! The purpose of creating us in a quality that is opposite to the Creator is exactly for us to remain creatures that are different from Him, so that when we attain Him and become equal to Him, we will not vanish into Him.

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Preparation to the Lesson
The beginning of a person is the point in the heart, which enables him to become similar to the Creator.
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Part 1, on Baal HaSulam’s Letter 28
In spirituality, the 613 desires don’t become revealed separately, but as a single complex.
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Part 2, on Item 6 of “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”
We are inside a global system: no matter what you touch, all people participate in your action.
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Part 3, on Item 152 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot”
The spiritual world is not a magical forest filled with characters from a fairy tale, but a reality that becomes revealed inside you.
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A question I received: If we proceed from the assumption that there are two realities, physical and spiritual, it follows that there must be two histories as well. There’s the history of the corporeal, physical world, and there’s the spiritual plane of history, correct?

My Answer: They are the same, because the spiritual plane is the “base” upon which our corporeal world exists. That is to say, our world exists upon a net of forces, which we cannot feel. We call these forces “spiritual” because they are beyond our senses, too subtle to be perceived by them. We simply haven’t learned to perceive them yet. But it is these forces alone that determine everything taking place in the corporeal world, and this world is a reflection of those forces.

Question cont’d: But in science we make derivations based solely on the cause and effect relationships of this world. How, then, does the spiritual world play into it?

My Answer: Think of it this way: a small child walks up to a faucet constructed into a wall, turns on the faucet, and fills his cup with water. He thinks that this is the way the world is set up: he believes that water simply flows out of the faucet in the wall. But what exists behind the wall is beyond his understanding. To him, the faucet is the source of the water.

And that is precisely how our earthly sciences perceive everything that happens to us, as they never see beyond the “wall” of our world. So what actually happens behind that “wall”? This is explained by the science of Kabbalah.

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Baal HaSulam Article: “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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The correct way to study is to always connect your mind with your feelings, like a doctor who gives a sick patient a medicine, knowing its ingredients and how it works, and at the same time, understanding how the patient feels. This is how we have to research the desire to enjoy: on one hand, we can talk about sensations, as The Book of Zohar does, and on the other hand, we can discuss scientific terms and definitions, which Baal HaSulam adds in his “Sulam Commentary” on The Zohar’s original text.

This is why the science of Kabbalah may seem mystical, founded on sensations, faith and morals, but on the other hand, it’s a science that has precise definitions and analysis, explaining how the entire system of Lights and Kelim operates, similar to a well working machine. So, are we dealing with science or sensations? The answer is: both!

A student has to try to connect both of these approaches together in order to unite his heart and mind. He has to be able to feel and see why he feels the way he does, which forces and actions of the Creator are operating inside his desires, and what is happening inside them. But on the other hand, he has to be able to evoke the actions of the Light (the Creator), so they will influence him. He has to know them and be able to measure them correctly, while feeling and marveling at what is happening inside him.

He has to connect the mind and feelings together by staying in the middle line and controlling his research of himself. He should evoke the Creator’s actions and see the results inside him, and in addition, experience the results of the Creator’s work in a very sensitive way. Yet, at the same time, he should stay grounded and not lose self-control. He shouldn’t forget where each action comes from, why, and how to use it next.

This constitutes our entire work, because the Creator wants us to work with the matter He created and to have control over it. We thereby attain His mind, the very Plan of Creation.

Meanwhile, people who aren’t familiar with the science of Kabbalah think that it is mysticism or fantasies. They don’t understand that this is real, actual work with the matter of creation, with all of reality, carried out with full awareness and control. You control yourself and the Creator’s actions, because everything happens by your choice alone.

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If a person begins to work directly with his desire to enjoy, trying to suppress it or, vice versa, to increase it, then the process takes place within the boundaries of this world. There are many people who are willing to suppress their desires for the sake of something more important – for example, because they want to lose weight, keep a healthy lifestyle, or attain success in a sport.

In these cases, the bigger egoistic desire subjugates the smaller desires. Everything depends on one’s decision. What is more important for me?

The society and advertisements can imbue us with values that are so artificial that they will force us to act contrary to our natural, egoistic desires to enjoy life. That’s because man’s greatest desire is to merit society’s approval, as this is a desire that comes from the connection among the souls.

Many people cause their egoistic desire to grow on their own or under society’s influence: they struggle to win wealth, fame and power, without setting limits for themselves and trying to fulfill themselves directly. Both approaches are egoistic and common in our world. Even what we call “mercy” or “empathy” is also a form of reception in disguise.

If, however, a person wants to ascend to the level of true bestowal, then he has to find a way to be sure that he isn’t lying to himself, that he isn’t remaining inside the same egoism as usual. This is why he is brought to a society whose objective is to attain bestowal and unity with each other, but in addition, this is done for the sake of revealing and uniting with the Creator.

In order to do this, one needs the Upper Light, because an external force, the force of the Light, is needed to carry out the work against one’s egoism. In this case, I don’t choose which desire is more important to me, to eat well or to lose weight, but I simply decide that my egoism won’t receive anything at all. My only reward will be the quality of bestowal that I acquire.
(From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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We don’t understand how two opposite phenomena can exist at the same time, how it is possible to receive and enjoy, and at the same time to give delight to the one who gives you pleasure. These feelings are opposite. So how can they be combined, if they are aimed at opposite directions: one towards me, and the other towards Him? How is it possible to simultaneously feel pleasure from two desires?

There are no examples of this in our world, because it is based on one desire alone, which is the egoistic desire. But in the spiritual world, there is an additional desire, the desire to bestow, and both desires work together.

But first, these two desires must go through a collision with each other. The will to enjoy grows and contradicts the will to delight. The harmony between them takes place in virtue of the third line, which isn’t just a connection of the two desires; it isn’t a comprise. Rather, the two desires – “for myself” and “for Him” – become one. The only way for this to happen is through the revelation of the Upper Light, which gives you the ability to understand opposites and connect them together.
(From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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Preparation and Part 1
The spiritual dimension has no relation to the body. It lies deep inside my desires.
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Part 2, on Item 5 of “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”
I am the whole world. When I change myself, I change the world. Eventually, every person will come to a state where the only thing in existence is him.
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Part 3, on Item 149 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot”
By changing myself, I change the forces that influence the world. It is precisely by doing this that I bring goodness into the world.
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A question I received: What can I tell a person who is doubtful about attending an introductory lecture on Kabbalah? What can he receive from a one-time encounter with Kabbalah? What can coming into contact with this wisdom even once do for a person?

My Answer: It is quite possible that thanks to that one encounter, a person will be giving the greatest gift to himself by revealing his path in life. We keep track of our lives from the beginning, our birth, but if we understood the process, we would count back from the end of life to see how much time we have remaining.

A person who encounters Kabbalah brings Light into his life, with Light being the only positive force that exists in reality. A person then begins to see everything that happens as development through cause and effect, and he begins to see all of his problems correctly – as directing him to the goal. Kabbalah gives him power and reason to control his fate. It gives a person the Upper Light and teaches him how to control it (within the permitted limits and circumstances). All of this begins with one first encounter.

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Revelation is an upshot of concealment, just as fire is born from the wick of a candle. A person experiences a great deal of concealment on his or her path. And this concealment is necessary, as an oil in which a wick is immersed, the very oil that feeds the wick and allows the lamp to light up. But the light and the wick don’t have fuel to burn, only the oil (desire) does.

The oil, however, can’t burn on its own – it needs the “means of revelation.” Darkness, evil and the burdening of the heart that a person feels on his spiritual path, all remain. But not a moment is wasted: all of our efforts throughout the period of the Upper World’s concealment accumulate and create a body, like the oil in a lamp or the wax of a candle. When enough oil, or enough desires for the revelation of the Creator are gathered, then the wick appears together with a spark of fire.

The greater the concealment, the tenser a person becomes when awaiting to reach revelation, and the hotter the flame of revelation that will arise. After all, from Above we receive only the spark with which to light the wick. But the burning of the wick does not come from Above; it’s the Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer) that rises from the burning oil.

The Creator just supplies one spark that Lights a person, provided that this person is ready for the Creator’s revelation. Then a person is lit like a candle, and the flame nurtures the oil of disappointments and searches – the states that he went through while in concealment.

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The following discourse took place while we were reading the “Preface to the Sulam Commentary” at the Daily Kabbalah Lesson:

I am a black dot in an ocean of Upper Light. My entire existence is connected to this Light, and I assess myself with respect to it. I discover that He is good and bestowing with respect to me. Conversely, I am the receiver who wants to devour and use Him. I learn that our two natures, that of the Creator and the creature, are polar opposites. And when I compare myself to Him, I discover that there is an abyss separating us, because everything that exists in Him exists in me in the opposite form, like an imprint of a seal. And I am overtaken by shame! He is bestowing and full of love, while I am receiving and full of hatred…

This shame is unlike anything I have ever felt before – and it is the true creature. I have never sensed such a profound awareness of myself. I begin to regard His bestowal as good, and my reception as evil. But where is this measuring scale coming from? It didn’t exist in the Light! This is the true creature. It feels independent and separate from the Giver, and therefore, it realizes that it is opposite to Him.

This goes on until the creation comes to feel that it can no longer remain in this state; it cannot justify itself, and for this reason, it performs a restriction and expels the Light from itself.

This is Malchut of the World of Infinity, which suffers because it cannot be like the Creator – it cannot love like He does. That is why all the development following the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) ultimately brings us to love – to the same attitude as the Creator has for us. Everything stems from the action of the First Restriction, so much so that the decision to perform the restriction drives the whole universe and leads to its final correction.

Therefore, the sensation of shame was that “Big Bang” from which the whole universe had come into existence and traversed its entire path, down to our world and back up above.
The driving force of this development, causing reality to unfold from above downward and from below upward, is that very sensation of shame that was felt by Malchut of the World of Infinity. There is nothing else. It is like the Big Bang from which the universe was created and continues to expand evermore to this day.

All this transpires in the Malchut of the World of Infinity, which contains all nine preceding Sefirot.

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