We often find ourselves asking, “Why do I feel so bad? I haven’t hurt anyone, so what am I doing wrong?” Like small children, we’re asking what we’ve done wrong and why we’re feeling so bad. Besides this, we seem to be getting worse without any apparent reason. We consider ourselves respectable citizens, innocent of any crime. So what’s going on? Why does evil come to us?

Everything comes from Above. There is nothing in our world that is not planned from Above, according to the calculation of the common system. The Zohar explains that new corruptions are revealed in us at every moment. If we pay attention to them through our inclusion in the common system, which is the group and the studies (at least one to two hours per day), then we’re given the strength and sensitivity to correct them.

It would be impossible for us to distinguish these states without first beginning to recognize them. Moreover, if we don’t recognize the same corruptions (Reshimot – informational genes), as well as opportunities to correct ourselves and advance spiritually, then they are transformed into evil within us. This is the reason for all the illnesses, problems, and crises in our life.

From one generation to another the uncorrected evil gradually builds up, and in our generation it has reached sufficient measures. All of this occurs because we don’t build a desire, which is a vessel (Kli) for the Lights (Ruchot) to clothe within us. Otherwise we would be able to reveal the meaning of our life and change our fate.

Without a Kli, the Lights that should have clothed within remain in the form of a “spirit” (Ruach) without a body, which means they act to our detriment. Thus, we are falling behind in perceiving these Lights within the corrected desires.

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A question I received: You have mentioned that there are seven sciences that originate from one root, Kabbalah. What are these sciences?

My Answer: Kabbalah is the root of all the sciences because it speaks about the common law of the universe, the law of similarity. This law is also expressed in these sciences.

The sciences that originate from Kabbalah manifest in our matter divided into seven disciplines: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. All of the other sciences in our world are their derivatives.

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Dan Brown, the author of the bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, is the most popular author of the 21st century. The Da Vinci Code was the bestselling hardcover adult novel of all time with 81 million copies in print worldwide.

He has recently published a new novel, The Lost Symbol. Here are a few excerpts from it:

…human intentions could affect the world … In fact, man’s oldest spiritual quest was to perceive his own entanglement, to sense his own interconnection with all things. He always wanted to become “one” with the universe … to achieve the state of “at-one-ment.”

As she [Katherine] continued reading, she suddenly gasped and recoiled. “My God, it even describes how six of the dimensions are entangled and act as one?!” She took a frightened step backward. “What is this book?!”

“Absolutely.” He motioned to the page’s illustration of ten intertwined circles called Sephiroth… Katherine didn’t know how to respond. “But… then why don’t more people study this?” Her brother smiled. “They will.”…”we have been born into wonderful times. A change is coming. Human beings are poised on the threshold of a new age when they will begin turning their eyes back to nature and to the old ways…to the ideas in books like the Zohar…”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Rising To Infinity
Laitman.com Post: Reality Is Imaginary
Laitman.com Post: Merging Together With Nature On A Wonderful Path
From Chaos to Harmony:  “Balance with Nature”
Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: “Picturing Reality”
The Zohar

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Fourth Lesson: Advancement in Three Lines (10:00am)

1. There is nothing bad in the world. Everything is necessary and fits its role. On the evil inclination as a “help against Him.” To the extent of one’s ability to adhere to the right, the force of the left reveals, for the purpose of its correction.
   a. Based on the articles of Baal HaSulam: “There Is None Else Besides Him,” “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before.”b. Every interpretation in “HaSulam (The Ladder)” amounts to work in three lines – about the shattering, and that everything is constructed so that we would be able to connect two forces – “right line” and “left line” – and create the middle line between them. However, the middle line is not only the sum or average between the two lines, but something new: a person equal to the Creator.
2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of the three lines.
3. Questions from the audience.

Fifth Lesson: Israel’s Role in the World – Being a Light of the Nations (16:00pm)

1. The lesson is based on the article “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” items 60 to 71.
2. A collection of quotes about the Israel’s role from the book Lirot Tov (To See Well).
3. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of Israel’s role.
4. Questions from the audience.

Sixth Lesson: The Last Generation (21:00pm)

1. The dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah is the correction.
2. Quotes from great Kabbalists on the importance of disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah, and on how we are in the last generation.
3. Dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah is first and foremost for us to attract the Light of correction.
4. Dissemination is a means for us to be awarded with correction and the revelation of the Creator.
5. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of the generation of the Messiah.

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Most people in the world do not yet feel that we are all one. But since we are all one common organism, then the big and powerful countries will suffer more than the small and weak ones. It’s similar to how when my leg hurts, I feel most of the pain in my head and my entire body loses its capability to operate properly. This means that the big countries will suffer more than the small ones, and the small countries will be able to do anything they want to the big ones until they all come to an agreement, just like the recent situation with the pirates from Somalia and Al-Qaeda.

All of the energy of the superpowers will be wasted on attempting to pacify the small trouble-causing countries, whose behavior will continue to spread around the whole world until it paralyzes it. The behavior of these small countries might seem insignificant, but we will not be able to do anything until we begin to work together.

In the past, when the world was not yet global, this was tolerable, but that’s not the case anymore. Large and powerful nations have their hands up and are unable to do anything. Unless they reach mutual accord, they will simply disappear from the map.

What is the value of having a head when I have a problem with my leg? All I can do is lay sick in bed, unable to move. Not so long ago I had broken my leg, and I clearly recall that my head was the last thing on my mind when all I could think about was finding the best position for my leg so it would hurt less. My entire life revolved only around this.

This is why we need to understand that only by attaining unity can we turn to the Creator, who will influence the Pharaoh (all the evil) and will change and correct it.

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 10: This is so in action, meaning in sacrifices.

Item 11: When the priest intended to light candles below and bring the incense closer, the upper candles, the Sefirot, would shine at that time, everything was connected, and joy and jubilation were in all the worlds, as it is written, “Ointment and perfume delight the heart.”

The main spiritual work is sacrifice, where the word “sacrifice” (Kurban in Hebrew) means “closer” (Karov). This means that we take our desire to enjoy, measure it, and check to see which part can be the “sacrifice.”  By “slaughtering it,” we bring it closer to the quality of bestowal, releasing it from its egoistic form of “an animal” that lives only for its own sake.

We want to raise it to the level where it can be used by man, elevating it from the animate to the human level. This is the essence of all sacrifices from the still level (salt and water), the vegetative level (grains), and the animate level (birds and animals), which are the levels that are brought to the Temple. It is the corrected Malchut, where Malchut is connected to Zeir Anpin.

All of this is talking only about desires inside a person, which are corrected from egoistic to altruistic. It seems like it is talking about hard, dirty, and cruel work, such as sacrificing or killing with blood and water. And indeed it is – the correction of our egoistic desire is dirty work. It is written, “Mother (Bina) will come and cleanse the son.” This is why we need to attract the Upper Light so that it works on us. Then, the work is done by forces of Cohen, Levi, and Israel: singing, blowing the horn and lighting the candles – the Sefirot that shine from Zeir Anpin into Malchut. A person does not have to know all the details of this work; once he receives these qualities corrected by the Surrounding Light, he will see how it all works. We only need to observe the Creator; He will wage this war with Pharaoh, while we simply have to want it.

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First Lesson: Intention Reveals the Upper World (10:00am)

1. Intention is the main thing. The lesson will be based on central concepts from the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” including:
   a. Revelation of the spiritual world within 3-5 years, as an act of the right intention.
   b. Focusing the intention before the study.
   c. The desire is unchanging. Change is only in intentions.
   d. To the extent that we will have correct intentions, a greater desire will be revealed to us, and with its help we will be able to advance more.
2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of intention during the study and the importance of intention.
3. Questions from the audience.
4. Importance of the intention during various events at the convention – meals, Yeshivot Haverim (Friends’ Gatherings), cultural evenings, and activities during recesses – in order to derive maximum spiritual benefit from them.

Second Lesson: Unity is the Kli for the Revelation of the Creator (16:00pm)

1. The wisdom of Kabbalah as a means for the revelation of the Creator.
   a. The revelation of the Creator in the mutual Kli, which is unity.
   b. Selected quotes from the writings of Rabash and other Kabbalists on the correction of the Kli being through the unity among us.
   c. Destruction of the Holy Temple – from brotherly love to hate among brothers.
   d. The condition for the reception of the Light of Torah, Light of correction – based on the articles “The Giving of the Torah (Matan Torah)” and “The Mutual Guarantee (Arvut).”
2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of unity as the means for the revelation of the Creator.
3. Questions from the audience.

Third Lesson: Freedom – Only by Uniting with Others (21:00pm)

1. “Evil inclination” means everything that acts against unity. Everything else is not called “evil inclination.”
   a. Only in the effort to unite reveals the opposition to unite.
   b. Unity with others is the person’s one and only free act. All of a person’s other actions are operated by natural urges.
2. Selected quotes from The Zohar on the topic of the choice in being Adam (a man) – from the unity among us to unity with the Creator.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 150: When one begins to build a house, he should mention in his mouth that he is building it for the work of God.

The Zohar speaks about our spiritual work. Not a single word of it pertains to the realm of this world with its material objects, such as houses, rocks, animals, or plants. The Zohar explains the inner work of a person needed to reach the revelation of the Creator in the part of the soul called “human,” the “point in the heart.”

It is a new sense that we need to reveal and build, replacing senses of reception with a bestowing sense, called a “soul,” “home,” or “collection of the souls of Israel” (Malchut). This sense has many names depending on what property we want to discern and highlight.

The Zohar explains this through the example of building a house, that very sense in which we reveal spiritually. A spiritual sense (a vessel, Kli) that we need to build should be flawless. If there is a flaw inside this Kli, meaning, there is an intention for the sake of reception rather than for the sake of bestowal, the Light vanishes immediately.

Such a state is called an “afflicted house” (Nega). Then we need to correct this Kli by burning, destroying, or, in case it is possible to cleanse it and make it fit for use, by correcting it. As a result, Nega (curse) turns into Oneg (delight).

A person that built his Kli improperly, by mistake or negligence, needs to understand where it comes from. In this manner, one advances through corrections.

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 43: There are seven ties to the seventy-two names, by which they are tied in each and every connection: the tree patriarchs, HGT, and four others, NHYM. The Rosh [head] of the AB [Gematria: 72] names is the three Sefirot HBD, which are called Rosh. They are in one connection with their middle, the Malchut, since these Hochma and Bina are the ones who dug the well of water, Malchut, as it is written, “The well, which the princes dug,” meaning Hochma and Bina. Hence, the Hochma, Bina, Daat, are in one connection with the Malchut. The second tie is to each other, meaning the two lines Hesed and Gevura, of whom it was said, “The one did not come near the other.” These are in one connection, which begins with three Yods.

When a person begins building his soul’s connection with other souls it means that he starts forming his own image. It’s because our structure is not present in any of us. The structure of each person, his soul is built around his “point in the heart” by connecting to it the desires of others as his own. That is to say, by connecting with other points in the hearts that aspire toward the same goal.

Every person remains a point; that’s his personality, like a drop of semen. Everything else that he acquired appears out of connection with other souls. As a result, a system of connections between the souls is formed in which every soul is comprised of itself and others. This system that a person reveals is called “Merkava” (Creation).

This is the very same “Act of Creation” (Maase Merkava) that is considered to be a great secret. But it is a secret only for those who haven’t attained, haven’t revealed it yet. Namely, it is a very high spiritual level; when one reaches it, one becomes the Creator. Then one knows how to create a connection with other souls, for one attains the structure of the common soul of Adam HaRishon (The First Man) and acts within it constructively, in three lines and the 72 names of the Creator.

The letters are the properties in which we reveal the connection among us and different parts of the system of Adam, the groups of souls or individual souls. As in our body, the cells connect into organs and organs – into a common system, with many parallel systems being connected with each other.

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