A question I received: Prior to the Machsom, how should we relate to this world, which is an imagined reality?

My Answer: Your attitude to this world should be very simple: While I am in this dream, I have to be a part of it. It is written, “A judge has no more than what his eyes can see.” I need to work, provide for my family and do everything necessary in this life, but at the same time, I should realize that it is a dream.  The world is a game and I perform all the right actions in it like in a game.

I must, however, treat this game seriously, since the Creator prepared this whole reality for me so that I could exist in it according to its laws and develop my “point in the heart,” my attitude towards the Creator.

These two levels, the corporeal and the spiritual, are completely unrelated to each other. On the corporeal level, where I am in a state of “sleep,” I carry out everything that is necessary for this life. Meanwhile on the spiritual level, I wish to find the connection with the Creator, and I develop while giving all my attention to this. Otherwise, what am I living for, if not to reach the Creator through my efforts in this life?

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A question I received: How can I imagine myself in bestowal?

My Answer: Only with the help of the environment. There is no other way. We’ve been given a truly miraculous instrument from Above. In this world, on every spiritual degree, and in each state, we have “us versus the environment.” That’s why even before the appearance of this world and the inclusion of humans, there was a breaking, a division of the souls and the emergence of individual bodies.

We are unable to picture an image of the Upper One ourselves, since we don’t have anything within us that is similar to Him. In the same dimension where we exist right now, in our world, there’s “us” and the “environment.”  On the basis of the relationships between each of us and the environment, we can then build the relationship between ourselves and the Upper One. The principle of assembling among us the model of connecting with the Creator, is called “from love for the created beings” to “love for the Creator.”

By overcoming the egoism within us, by putting the importance of attaining the quality of bestowal above our quality of reception, and by working on these relationships within the group (the connection between the points in the heart of our friends), we create the quality of bestowal within us. To the measure of the desire that the Upper One grants us, we sense the Creator by experiencing the attribute of bestowal within ourselves.

Here we can understand the need for the breaking of the universal soul. If it were not for this breaking into individual souls, none of us would be able to create the desire to attain the quality of bestowal on our level, nor to bring upon us the effect of the Light of Correction.

By verifying everything relative to the environment (points in the heart), it becomes clear to us how we relate to the Creator, to the Upper Degree. We cannot sense it, but we can prepare ourselves for its attainment.

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We all are in one boat, but we just don’t feel yet to what extent each of us influences our common fate. This is the whole issue. In our global world, it doesn’t matter if a criminal is far away from me or close by! In the integral system, all are equal and the most distant person from me is equivalent to the person closest to me. We’re all in the same boat.

We don’t see this integrated net as yet, but we are approaching its revelation. Soon we will feel that there is no concept of people being close or distant or that there are people on whom we depend more or less, because absolutely all people influence us in equal measure.

Action precedes recognition of this fact because we live in a world of actions. This is why when something happens I say, “Oh,” only after something has happened. Then I forget and repeat the same mistake, and again yell, “Oh!” After a whole series of exclaiming, “Oh-Oh-Oh!” I finally begin to think, “What could be the reason for these things happening? This was probably not an accident!”

How much more time will pass before humanity finally ponders about the reasons for all that is happening? How long will it take before all of humanity will want to understand that peace in society, peace for all of humanity and peace for each individual are completely dependent on each other?

Much like how I depend on my kids, my spouse, my parents, or those people who are the closest to me – today I depend on every person in the world the same way. The truth is, I depend on these other people to an even more significant degree!

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Two questions I received that relate to a soul’s age:

Question: Why do innocent children have cancer, AIDS or other incurable diseases? Is this not injustice from the Creator?

My Answer: The same souls are present in all  people. In addition, the souls have no age.

Question: What is the purpose of a baby dying or having a severe disease? Does the soul gain experience from it and is there any meaning in it?

My Answer: A soul has no age. All souls have been born together in the shattering of one soul. This is why only bodies have different ages, but there is no preference given to a baby over an old man.

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Preparation To The Lesson
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Writings of Baal Sulam, Letter 45, 1927, pg 132
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 30, Lesson 13
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“The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Its Essence,” Lesson 13
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A question I received: Baal HaSulam wrote that he received permission from Above to disclose the wisdom of Kabbalah. What does “permission from Above” mean?

My Answer: When a Kabbalist achieves a high level of attainment, he divulges that he has received “permission from Above.” He accepts his new mission, feels obligated to carry it out and starts acting. This is part of the mission placed upon the shoulders of all great Kabbalists, starting from the time of Abraham and onward. The brightest example is Moses, a spiritual leader of the people.

“Permission from Above” includes knowledge of the structure of the universe, a methodology for revealing the Creator and for educating people about self correction, both in our time and to a certain extent in the future. One who receives “permission from Above” becomes a conduit through which higher knowledge flows downward, in accordance with the ability of those below the Kabbalist to absorb and learn.

Permission from Above includes within itself a vast system for bringing all humankind into harmony with the Creator. Being given “permission from Above” signifies that a human being has become a representative of the Creator, a liaison between the Creator and His creation. In fact, if a person did not receive “permission from Above,” he would only confuse others. He would not be able to adequately present the goal, its importance, the methods of achieving the goal, nor the significance of those methods.

The goal is to become one with the Creator. The method for achieving it lies in the correction of our human desires with help of the Light which returns us to the Source. This is initiated by studying Kabbalah and aspiring to become corrected, a desire that emanates from the “point in the heart.” This in turn drives our desire to connect (“love thy neighbor”) with the “points in the heart” of our fellow group members.

If a person uncovers this system, understands it, and absorbs it into his being, it means he received “permission from Above.”

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In the future, only 5% of humanity will work on providing the whole world with the “necessary things for existence,” while everyone else will work on advertising the importance of the spiritual goal. Alternatively, all 100% will be engaged in spiritual correction, and will work one hour a day to provide themselves with “what is necessary for existence.”

The work of developing spiritual connections between all the souls is continuous. The Creator has to be revealed in this world, which means that each person in this world has to be inspired by your desire for spirituality and your feeling of its importance. In response, they will inspire you with the same thing from their end. To the extent you inspire each other, you will desire and be able to connect with each other.

Today we are just beginning the work of disseminating Kabbalah. Dissemination is not just about disseminating the knowledge (such as through books, internet, and TV), but also about establishing a connection between every person and everyone else. This is the practical implementation of the correction.

Everyone will have to work on this, since we are all inside a system of connections within the common Kli where the Creator, or the spiritual world, becomes revealed. Dissemination is an opportunity for every person to tune into the corrected system.

Therefore, we have to realize that the dissemination of Kabbalah is not a duty, but the action of correction itself. It is your connection with the world.

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Our desires exist outside of our bodies. In the past, however, people used to think that one’s qualities are contained in one’s heart, which meant that if you could change a person’s heart, then the person would change as well. But the first heart transplant proved all these conjectures false, showing that the heart is simply a pump. The same is true of the brain; in fact, it can’t even be called a computer.

As for the body, it is but an image that we imagine as being our existence. However, our true I – the spiritual I – is beyond this image.

This entire world is depicted exclusively within our sensations, within us. The three-dimensional screen we are watching is not really depicting the world around us, but the picture of the forces inside us. We don’t see anything else outside of that, which is why it seems to us that we are surrounded by a live world.

What surrounds us is a panoramic screen. We only know what we perceive, and we perceive only what is being shown to us at this moment. It is only when the spiritual picture appears to us that we realize that we’ve been watching a movie all this time.

The science of Kabbalah is a method that helps us transition to a new perception. And that is exactly what we should expect from it. We shouldn’t desire empty, theoretical knowledge from Kabbalah books, but a vision of another, higher world – a clear vision of ourselves and the Creator.

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