There exists an empty realm in nature, which is there for us to have freedom of will. It’s there for man to take care of himself and complete his own development.

This means that we must hurry to build a machine that functions as an incubator in order to make up for what nature does not wish to complete. Suppose nature developed an embryo for just six months, and then left it without any support for the last three months. We would have to place the embryo inside an incubator that makes up for the missed development, supplementing it until the full nine months.

This is what happens with the development of our soul. Imagine what kind of state we are in: At first we exist inside the living body of mother nature which raises us and cares for us, bringing us to a certain state. Suddenly, it abandons us and tells us, “From now on, make do on your own as best you can!”

Nature has brought you to the “human” level, but this is a degree you have to build yourself. Yet, there is nothing in our world that can give us an explanation of what is the “human” or “speaking” level.

A human is one who stands opposite the Creator, and the only science that explains who the Creator is, as well as His actions, desires, intentions, and goals, is the science of Kabbalah. That is why it is so necessary for us.

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A question I received: Why does Beit Shaar HaKavanot describe the spiritual organs as a textbook of anatomy? Didn’t Rabash say that it was forbidden to write down the names of Sefirot on the picture of a human body?

My answer: These are completely different things. It’s permissible to take the names of objects and their interconnections from our life and transfer them upward, to the spiritual world assuming that the same connections exist there as well. However, it’s forbidden to take the spiritual properties from the Upper World and “ground” them here, as if to grant the material objects with spiritual properties.

One can take the language of branches and point to the spiritual objects and actions with these words. This way, one uses the language, symbols, and names. But if one takes the spiritual essence and starts saying that a greater spirit of bestowal is instilled in the right hand while a greater spirit of reception is found in the left one, it is idolatry.

It is because by doing so one is saying that a physical body of flesh and bones contains some spiritual properties. This is called “making idols” – taking still objects and ascribing the Upper, divine spirit to them.

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Everything starts with education. We need to build an educational system, an environment that will influence every person to want to change his qualities to the qualities of the Creator.

By changing one’s inner qualities, this in turn, impacts and changes all other systems: connections between people, connections with the environment, family relationships, industry, business, science, and culture – everything! The whole of life will change as a result of people’s inner changes, and so first we need to focus on helping promote these internal changes. Therefore, the first step is education.

Without education, we have nothing to talk about. Without it, a person will not understand or agree with anything. So first, we need to take him and begin to build an incubator around him, the nurturing environment which will correct him.

After all, if we were to start change anywhere else, like with a new system of economics and culture, with whom would we build it? If it were with the same people as before, what changes could we possibly expect to see in the system? Starting from scratch, we need first to lay the foundation. This foundation needs to be established in the basis of Kabbalah, by those who understand Kabbalistic books, who can explain the wisdom, and share how to treat people differently, how to perceive the world correctly, how to see the goal we are aiming for, and how to achieve it.

All the changes in society are carried out through a change in a person, by his changing his priorities. Therefore, there is no more important task than a Kabbalistic upbringing.

What should a Kabbalistic upbringing be like? What does an incubator do as it hatches eggs? It heats them up, providing them with the most favorable environment for their development at every given moment. The incubator changes, adjusts itself to the conditions that are necessary for the future nestlings. We need to provide people with what suits their condition. We cannot offer people what they don’t wish to accept now and what is not currently to their benefit.

If a child does not like the medicine, he will refuse to swallow it. Therefore, the medicine needs to be in a sweet coating. We need to think about this even now, since the whole world is separated into two halves: an internal and an external one. We have almost completed our work with the internal half, and we are moving on to the external one; we need to develop a completely different approach for these people.

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A question I received: You always warn us that we should not look back, like Lot’s wife who looked back at Sodom and turned into a pillar of salt. By this do you mean that when we are very inspired after a Congress or a dissemination activity, we shouldn’t think about it, but aspire ahead, to the next degree?

My Answer: Not looking back means not wishing to be in former states. However, this does not mean that a person should cut off the past, as though it did not exist. We should learn from yesterday in order to continue in a better state today, but a person should desire to be in a state of tomorrow rather than of yesterday. This is the meaning of “don’t look back.”

However, this does not have anything to do with Sodom. Sodom is when a person truly wishes to return to the previous degree, which had already been revealed as a faulty state. We cannot return to it anymore. If I have decided that my previous state was imperfect and unfit for correction, for advancement to the goal, to bestowal, then I have no choice – I need to do away with it and move on.

There are people who look back; they wish to remain in past states, to be “little.” Since this goes against development, it is forbidden for us to act in this manner. Instead, we need to always look to move to the future. The means for this is the group. If I try to attune to the group even slightly, I will always receive my future state from it, regardless of what state the group or I am in. Therefore, we always have an opportunity to go forward instead of going back.

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The science of Kabbalah is the order of descent of the Upper Forces directed to the revelation of the Upper Governing Force (the Creator) to a person.

The law of the particular: Even before the common revelation of the Upper Force to the whole of humanity, there are a few chosen individuals who are able to reach this state.

The law of the general: At the end of its development, the whole of humanity must come to the revelation of the Upper Governing Force, and completely attain it. Studying a path of attaining the Creator, Kabbalah explores “the order of descent of the worlds” from above downwards, that is, from the World of Infinity to this world, as well as “attainment of the Upper Force” from below upwards, by climbing the steps that were formed by the descent of the worlds.

Attainment of the Governing Force is gradual and sensed in our feelings, depending on correction of egoism. The Upper Force has to be gradually attained according to the laws established by its descent from above downward.

Kabbalah studies the world we can’t feel. A Kabbalist first senses this world, and then takes on the cognition of it. Those who don’t feel the Upper World think that Kabbalah studies something abstract and detached from reality. But it’s the opposite: Kabbalah describes only a real, attainable reality.

Everything is revealed from above downwards in the parallel worlds, and these worlds differ only in their material, a quality of desire. However, the objects and forms are the same as an imprint of a seal. All the details of the Upper World (roots) are reflected in our world (branches). A root controls its branch in everything.

The language of branches: The language of branches was created by Kabbalists based on the connection of each branch in our world with its root in the Upper World. However, this language can be understood only by those who feel the root. Aspiration to attain the Upper Force causes the Light to shine from the root to the branch, thus correcting the branch to the degree of the root.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “You Can’t “Jump” Through Spiritual States”
Laitman.com Post: “Attaining The Names Of The Creator”
Laitman.com Post: “A Language Created By Nature”
Talks: “Perception of Reality” Michel Laitman’s Talk with Michael Sanilevich and Eugene Litvar
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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A Question I received: What’s the connection between the merging of Malchut with Bina and our uniting through The Book of Zohar?

My answer: If we want to unite with each other, we have to believe that the force of Bina, the Creator, HaVaYaH, dwells among us. Everything is revealed among the souls. This is why our unification above everyone’s individual egoism is the power of unification between Malchut and Bina.

Bina is the Creator, the Upper Mother (Ima Ilaa), the Upper Force that dwells among us. Therefore we cannot unite together on our own. We will only discover emptiness, darkness among us, and see unity as unfeasible.

However, if we acknowledge the existence of Bina, the Upper Light or the Creator among us, we only have to reveal Him, to call for Him to unite us. Accordingly, the Creator can unite us only if we desire to become like Him – the force that dwells and fills all the empty spaces among us.

For us to reveal the Creator, He created us in such a way that we “float” in Him like bread crumbs in a broth. If I come out of myself (of egoism) and desire to connect to Him, to the attribute of bestowal, it signifies that Malchut begins to connect to Bina.

Once I’m ready to be outside of myself, Bina, the Creator or the force of the Light that Reforms, acts upon me, enabling me to do it. Then I can truly come out of myself and start connecting with the others. Yet by doing so, I don’t connect with them directly (it’s impossible), but do so through the Light, Bina.

How? I connect to Bina, and then the power of Bina “comes back” to me. It means that Malchut begins to receive into itself the property of Bina and can then work with the intention for the sake of bestowal. To the extent that Malchut has such a power, it starts feeling the powers of the others.

My coming into Bina and receiving the property of bestowal from it is called “repentance from fear.” Coming out of myself with my corrected Malchut and beginning to work with the others is called “repentance from love.”

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Until we limit ourselves according to the conditions set forth by the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet), we continue to live without a screen and stay “shattered.” That’s why we’re subject to the influence of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph).

It’s mandatory to bring our desires into compliance with the conditions of the Second Restriction, the state we were in before the shattering of the vessels occurred. The desires that are associated with these conditions symbolize the “exodus” from ourselves into other souls. Who are those “other souls?” They are my own desires that were cut off from me as if I had already been circumcised. It wasn’t me but my Upper Father and Mother (Aba ve Ima) who performed this circumcision on me before I even started to sense myself, my soul.

Since anyone who lives in this world has to reach the correction, Aba ve Ima decided to facilitate this task for us by cutting our spiritual vessel into two pieces: our inner and outer desires. This was in order to give us a chance to work with only our outer desires and thereby prevent us from making a mistake.

Hence, our world is clearly divided into two parts: me and the world outside of me. Even though my inner desires seem more important to me, I still have to work on my outer desires since they are my desires of the higher, “speaking” level. Staying within my desires, I have to learn how to make a preference toward the desires of others which means that I correct myself and work with the desires at the level of the Second Restriction.

The desires of the Second Restriction are located outside of me whereas the desires of the First Restriction stay inside. My whole desire is split into two parts, outer and inner, and it really is of great help to me.

We have to be grateful to the Creator for granting us the dual perception of reality that shows us how to act and how to avoid making mistakes. Our desires at the Second Restriction level have been cut off from us and clarified already: they constitute the reality outside of us. Our work consists of changing our attitude toward an “outside part” of us and enhancing its importance with the help of the group and the Upper Light.

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Preparation to the Lesson – Shamati #63 “I Was Borrowed On, And I Repay”
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 270
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“Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 53, Lesson 17
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Article – “The Individual And The Nation,” Lesson 7
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 61: …“And the wise shall shine as the radiance of the firmament.” Thus, with the correction of the firmament, the Parsa, KHB TM de Atzilut were split and divided, and twelve Partzufim emerged from them.

• Keter was divided into four Partzufim: Atik and Nukva, AA and Nukva.
• Hochma and Bina were divided into four Partzufim: upper AVI and Ysrael Saba and Tevuna.
• Tifferet and Malchut were divided into four Partzufim: the great ZON and the small ZON.

Hence, these twelve Partzufim are called “The radiance of the firmament,” since they were made and came out by the force of the firmament.

• The first radiance is the radiance of those who shine in the lighting up of the radiance.
• The second radiance is the radiance that shines and glitters to several sides.

The first radiance is Partzuf Atik and the second radiance is his Nukva. Atik himself is from the unmitigated Malchut, above the firmament, which is not fissured. However, this Malchut is the root of the mitigated Malchut, and she lights the lights of Bina after they have been quenched. It is written about the importance of Partzuf Atik that his radiance shines with the lighting of the radiance. It lights the radiance of Bina, which is the root of all the Mochin, and had it not been for that lighting, there would have been no Mochin of Gadlut in Atzilut.

He adds about the importance of Partzuf Nukva de Atik that she lights and shines both in the unmitigated Malchut and in the mitigated Malchut, since she has already been established with the firmament, having been fissured. For this reason, she shines to all sides….

The Zohar is the entire Light that comes through Atik and Arich Anpin to ZON and enters Nukva. The souls that ascend from the worlds of BYA and enter Malchut of the world of Atzilut reveal that Light there. Hence, it’s called Zohar (radiance).

We put this entire system in action with our desire, intention, and prayer (MAN) when we study The Zohar. Our request ascends, reaches Atik, and, from there, a Light begins to descend to us called The Zohar. This Light corrects and fulfills us as well as supports and activates this entire system.

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