A question I received: Why can’t we perceive the spiritual realm?

My Answer: We don’t possess the spiritual qualities through which we would be able to feel the spiritual realm. We have the desire to do so, but that desire senses spirituality through receiving and absorbing, whereas spiritual perception is based on bestowal, a quality we don’t have. But our goal is to obtain it.

We have to model ourselves after the Creator – something that exists outside of us. We don’t know Him or anything about Him. We can only transform ourselves into a being that is somewhat similar to Him; then we will begin to sense ourselves as giving creatures. This is what it means to attain spirituality.

Spirituality is the “form” of bestowal that we build within ourselves. This “form” is what we call the Creator and what we attain through our soul in the spiritual world. No one except me can create this form, since we do not feel anything outside of ourselves Kabbalists tell us: “Curtail your current self, reduce your desires, and then use them for the sake of giving rather than receiving.”

Have you managed to do that? If yes, what do you feel now? Our new perception is called “the spiritual world,” the “Creator,” or “the soul.” We still don’t feel a thing outside ourselves, but simply sense your desire in its new form; this is what is called the “spiritual realm.”

Is there anything outside of us that created our desire? We don’t know the answer to that question, but we do know that our “external” desires are also perceived through our inner desires and never through anything that’s outside of us.

We can perceive either the physical reality or the spiritual one, but in either case we can only perceive anything through its matter and form. So there is no difference in the way we perceive either world. We imagine that this physical world exists outside of us, but in fact it is inside. Similarly, we will later imagine that the Creator and the spiritual worlds exist outside of us, but they too are inside. It’s simply a matter of our desire assuming a new shape, a new image, or a new silhouette.

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We have done enough work throughout history to reveal the evil; now is the best time to reveal the medicine, which is the greatness of unity and our rising above the material world. But in order to do this, we have to realize that there is nothing higher than our spiritual goal, and our whole former development was aimed precisely at this.

All the problems in our lives come from the Creator in order to urge us to come out of our animate state. In this world we are no different from animals, whose head is on the same level as the body. What does my head think about? It thinks only about the body, and therefore the body and the head are on the same level. So are we humans or animals who walk upright? By making all of these discernments, we come closer to the goal, because we gain a greater understanding of what we lack.

“There is none else besides Him,” and we have to justify Him because everything that happens is in order to advance us towards the goal. What is important to us is to become humans instead of remaining animals. This can be done only by raising our heads higher, and to do this, we need the force of the Creator, who controls our nature. Otherwise we will remain within our egoism.

This is why the Creator constantly sends us troubles so that we will wish to come out of the evil! He pushes us, helping us to rise! Otherwise, we would never wish to become human – perfect and eternal creatures. We would simply continue to be submersed in self-love just to somehow make it through the 70 years or so allotted to us, according to the principle, “Let’s drink and be merry today, for tomorrow we’ll die.”

Instead, we are not given a chance to rest and we are constantly sent troubles, which makes us think about how to cope with the hopelessness. At this point the science of Kabbalah becomes revealed, and it explains that we have all the means (the group, the teacher, and the books) in order to advance. Don’t be fatalists – strive for correction, and you will rise to a wonderful state.

In essence, this is a very easy task. The only reason this is so hard for us is that we don’t want to raise our heads from our feeding rack. We are afraid to tear away from it, to tear away from our stomachs. However, today we are being compelled to do this by the global crisis that is hitting us. The way people are thinking is changing, although it takes time to move such a huge mass of people.

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A person that advances spiritually has to understand that all the problems he encounters on the spiritual path come from Above. Problems are given to us on different levels and they can be of different types. This depends on the specific soul and what it needs to go through to reach correction.

We shouldn’t analyze why we receive the particular problems that we do. We will never be able to understand them while being on their level. We have to ascend above them, as if we’re not paying attention to them, and think only about the spiritual goal. On the path to the goal, sometimes we have to overcome a river, sometimes a fissure in a cliff, sometimes an abyss, and sometimes a cyclone. By overcoming the obstacles for the sake of reaching the goal, we turn them into help and build the goal precisely out of them!

None of the obstacles come to us by coincidence. They are all determined by the qualities of one’s soul. The soul is broken and its breakage determines the type of problems that become revealed in order for us to correct them.

If you aspire to the spiritual goal despite all the obstacles, then you correct them and they become filled with knowledge, understanding and connection. This is how a person advances. But the path is always paved with obstacles and this will continue until the very end of correction. That is why it is called “the path of correction.”

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A question I received: You said that a person’s success at achieving correction depends on his inclusion in the group. On January 22-24 there will be an international virtual Kabbalah Congress. Congresses will be held all over the world in different countries at the same time. Anyone is invited, including those who study alone over the internet. This is an opportunity for them to join the local groups. What can you say to those who are now trying to decide whether they should attend the Congress?

My Answer: A person cannot sit home alone at this time, without making en effort to unite with other people who study Kabbalah. If he does, he will lose a lot. This Congress is especially intended for bringing people together who are located in remote locations. Now is the best time to unite with others in your country or city, and to meet other people like you who are working on spiritual development. During the Congress, you can meet them.

A virtual connection is a good thing, but a physical connection is necessary. It’s not a coincidence that we are living in the material world. The physical connection serves as the beginning for developing all subsequent spiritual connections.

During the Congress I will be in Italy, presenting a new book. I am not inviting you to come to the Congress in Italy, which will be exclusively local. Instead, try to organize local Congresses at the same time in other places worldwide.

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The Zohar: At the hour when the world was overfilled with the sins of humans and was brought to trial, woe to the righteous who live in that world, for they are the first to answer for the sins of the wicked.

So how was Noah able to escape the flood and not be punished for the sins of his generation? The Creator wanted him to beget the posterity of the world, and that is why He saved him.

There are many wicked people (egoistic desires) in the world (inside man), but they weren’t able to take advantage of Noah’s good desire (the one spiritual desire, the point in the heart). That is why the wicked (bad desires) were cut off from Noah (the correct desire) by the flood and drowned. (These desires died within a person, so he stopped feeling them. For the time being this constitutes his correction, but later on, when he corrects these desires, they will reappear).

Man’s one tiny, correct desire for bestowal, called Noah, was saved by the Creator (by Ohr Makif – the Surrounding Light), taking shelter in the “ark.” (One is granted an additional force, a protective shell made of the quality of bestowal, called ark, a mother’s womb or Bina).

And the court had no power over him, for he had taken shelter in the ark, hidden from all eyes. The court held trial over the egoistic desires, but it had no power over the desire to bestow. This is talking about a person who has acquired a connection of bestowal with the group, took shelter in it, and thus hid from the evil eye, from his egoistic desires that wanted to draw him away from the goal.

It is written: ask for absolution, ask for mercy, and perhaps you shall escape the Creator’s wrath. One cannot escape the Light’s influence. The Light shines and divides one’s desires into those that have the Light in their qualities and those that are against it.

Noah asked for absolution (correction from Above), entered the ark and hid there (in the Creator’s quality of bestowal; he dissolved in it like a drop of semen in a mother’s womb), on the day of the Creator’s wrath (the revelation of the Light of Hochma, which separates desires according to their intention – to receive or bestow). That is why the court had no power to accuse him.

He hid inside the quality of bestowal of the Upper One, the Creator. Malchut ascends to Bina and hides there; that’s what it means to be righteous, Hassadim – to ascend above one’s egoism.

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When our egoistic desire feels bad, it drives us from behind like a whip, driving us in search of happiness. However, that is not enough to proceed in the right direction, because it is not the goal of creation to flee from egoism. This is merely a way of assisting us since it acts as a force to drive us forward.

To aim us in the right direction, we are granted a desire from Above – a spark or point in the heart which draws us to spiritual development. This spark brings us to a Kabbalistic group and a teacher, so we can grow and develop it.

Using these components, we must build an “ark” for ourselves, wherein we can escape all the evil, all that confuses us and stumps our spiritual growth. At the same time, we have to understand that nothing can be done about the disturbances, whether external or internal. They are revealed in us and around us purposefully, so we could fortify our resolve and gather strength against them, similar to how the turbulent waters of the flood destroy everything harmful and leave behind only what is necessary.

Indeed, we have gathered here to build an ark inside us, representing the Creator’s quality of bestowal. This ark will be our shelter.

The Zohar: Go and enter the ark with your entire household, for all that does not take shelter in the ark shall be erased from the face of the earth.

We have to attach everything we can to Bina, the quality of bestowal, the Creator. We can do it by giving ourselves to Him fully and attaching to Him like a seed in a mother’s womb. Everything that we are able to attach to this quality will be saved and developed in spirituality.

As for the desires that one cannot attach to Bina, they shall be destroyed by the waters of the flood. Noah is the only desire within us that can lead us to spirituality, provided we cut it off from the rest of our desires which cannot develop spiritually. That is why we want to connect to spirituality by means of this desire. It is the only desire we should want to cultivate.

We must cut off the rest of the desires and drown them in the waters of the flood, because we can only advance with the one desire symbolized by Noah. With this desire, we can build a new world – the world after the flood.

We don’t know what this new world will be like. We develop inside of Bina like inside a mother’s womb – and be what be. When we reemerge, there will be a new world!

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The Kli (vessel) is a form imprinted by the Light inside desire. It is the vessel’s attempt to reach a special state in order to attain fulfillment. If I’m looking for some specific form of fulfillment, that means my desire has already acquired the “form” and property of what I desire.

This Light is already present in me, but it exists in the shape of an informational record (Reshimo), in the form of emptiness, a hollow figure.  I don’t feel it as fulfillment, nor do I sense pleasure.

In spirituality, these states are adjacent to each other. The same applies to the material world: when I want something, and I can see it and sense it, then what else do I need to do in order to get it? I have to make an effort!

In other words, I have to add a new twist to my already existing desire so that it becomes possible to reveal the “big Light” which we call fulfillment within the small Light called “Reshimo.” The size of the Light depends on the size of the desire.

I feel a deficiency in fulfillment because the Light already exists and is shining on me from a distance, waking my Reshimo and forcing me to strive towards it. The difference between Reshimo and fulfillment depends only on my desire, since the Light is eternal and permanent. Reshimo is the Light within me that has not yet manifested within my desires.

I must accelerate my efforts to increase the intensity of my desires and reveal the fulfillment that already exists within me. Because of the low intensity of my desires, I sense them as Reshimo, as a lack of fulfillment.

I exist in an ocean of eternal, constant and endless Light, but I can’t feel it since I don’t have contact with it, nor do I possess any common qualities with it. If even the smallest bit of desire towards the Light arises in me, I start feeling the Light.

On one hand, the slightest of feelings confirms that the Light exists, but on the other hand, it makes me regret the fact that I don’t sense it to its full capacity. The regret that I feel as a result of not sensing the Light at its ultimate level is called “Hissaron” (a lack of fulfillment), and it pushes me to try harder to reach the Light.

When I start increasing my level of effort, the Light that I felt in my weaker desire as Reshimo turns into fulfillment. The Light is unchangeable, but as my desire grows, what I desire becomes real.

I am always inside an ocean of Light, and the entire difference is whether I can expose myself to it on a smaller or larger scale.

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