From the book Shamati, Article 197: Book, Author, Story. A book is considered [the state] prior to creation [the plan]. An author is the owner of the book. The unification of the author and the book assumes the form of a “story,” that is, the Torah along with the Giver of the Torah.

We perceive ourselves inside some sort of reality, and we have to do research to find out: What is the meaning of it? Is this an illusion or the truth? Or perhaps the two are the same thing? Some program is unraveling within me along a chain of causes and effects. But who is its author? Will I be able to recognize the author of the story that I read within me?

The book (this whole reality) already existed before I started reading and revealing it. However, all the revelations take place inside me because I am reading this story as I go through the book from beginning to end and receive an impression from its flow.

Inside this story, to the degree I become familiar and included in it, I reveal the author of the book. As I go inside the book, its story starts to build me and to push me to become its author (or scribe) as well.

The story is the Torah, which leads us to the full revelation of the entire book, in which we are together with the One who Gives the Torah. Each of us reveals it for himself anew, but we need a teacher to help us read this book, similar to how an adult in our world reads to a child until the child grows up and learns to read on his own.

In the science of Kabbalah, an adult (spiritually speaking) has to help the child. It’s impossible to reveal the book on your own, but only when it’s passed from teacher to student. That is how each of us must learn to read the book and go through this story in order to reveal the author within the book.

As long as I don’t learn to read on my own and go through this whole path, I won’t reveal the book and its author because that is possible only when I am similar to Him. Gradually I myself become the author, since I write the Torah on the matter of my desire, which continuously assumes new forms of letters.

Even though this book has already been written by its Author, I too, become its author. As I go through the story from beginning to end, I equalize and unite with the book, the author, and the story.

Note: In Hebrew the word Sofer means both the writer (author) and the scribe. The only author is the Creator, who wrote only one book, the Torah, which incorporates everything. We are only rewriting it (revealing it), each one of us within himself.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Shamati #197

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Shamati #197 “Book, Author, Story”
A Kabbalistic book is a revelation I make within myself when I attain similarity of qualities with its author.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 246
A thought doesn’t exist independently. Any given thought is based on a feeling and is there to serve it.
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 79, Lesson 27
On the way to correction one must thoroughly sense the breaking and reveal his inability to attain unity, similar to the way Malchut can’t merge with Bina.
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Article, “The Freedom,” Page 206, Lesson 2 
Contact with the surroundings is a contact with my Kelim, which for the time being I perceive as something external. That is the place of the breaking, as well as a platform for analysis and correction.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 228
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A question I received: What should I do if after the lesson, I am unable to stay focused on spirituality throughout the day?

My Answer: Each person goes through different time periods. There is a time when we want to study Kabbalah for hours and can’t get enough of it. Other times, we distance ourselves and stop striving toward it.

However, in the long run we see that everything is organized in the best possible way for each of us, and if we use our free time correctly, the Creator arranges more hours that can be utilized for the realization of what we studied. We encounter all sorts of problems: distractions with our work, problems with our boss, unsympathetic surroundings, as well as distractions in our thoughts and desires. Yet we feel that in spite of all these troubles, we have to stay connected with spirituality.

After the class ends, we have to go back to the “big world” that erases the impressions that we got from spirituality and confuses us, but these are the most effective circumstances for our advancement. We have to try to stay tuned with the spiritual world and to keep in mind the source of all these troubles and why they were sent to us. As well, we are to remember what we are supposed to adhere to and why, meaning that “There is none else beside Him, Who is Good and does good.”  We have to constantly feel our inner connection with the Creator as if staying in touch with someone we love and cherish.

Try to retain this state throughout the day. You’ll start to feel that all those unfortunate circumstances are brought to you by the Creator within some imaginary world which gives you a chance to seek connection with Him through all the hassles and illusions you get.

You’ll see that this world is “invented,” and that it is just an outer shell; you’ll sense that the troubles simply constitute the shapes of your desires that convert within you all the time. Those are the desires that you have to “link” to the Creator; if you do, they will turn into their spiritual forms.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/10, The Zohar

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While reading The Zohar we imagine, like on a screen, a picture of this world detailing various subjects and images, material words and actions. This is because our desire remains solely material.

We demand that The Zohar bring us the Light which illuminates a deeper screen similar to a computer screen where different windows are hidden behind each other. We have to try to see the spiritual property behind each word to the best of our abilities.

When we obtain spiritual sight, we naturally start to see a totally different picture behind the words we read: forces, connections, relations, properties, and qualities. This new picture is absolutely disconnected from what we used to see before. The prior form disappears and transitions to a more “inner” screen which is holding our sensations, sensibilities, and our whole life. We have to strive to attain this state.

In other words, I wait for the Light, the force that I attract while reading The Zohar, to get me more deeply involved in the screen that hides behind the others. By shifting from one display to another, I start to live through a new screen. That’s where my sensations and reason “reside;” it becomes my life.

When that happens, everything obtains a new essence. I previously thought that I grasped the meaning behind the words in The Zohar, and attached them to various subjects and actions of this world. Yet when I transition to a deeper screen, I see that the prior display barred a totally different meaning of a much more internal nature, for example, my inner properties. That’s the change that we have to expect from The Zohar.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: The whole nation existed in spiritual attainment during the First and the Second Temples. Why wasn’t it possible to go through the destruction of the Temples only in spirituality and to reach the Third Temple without the material manifestation of destruction?

My Answer: All descents and ascents of the souls have to be reflected on the lowest inanimate level – our world. Up until the end of correction, ups and downs of the souls have to go through all layers of the desire to receive, through its entire depth, ending in this material world.

Therefore, we have no possibility to escape events that occur in this world, meaning in our egoistic desire which we feel as “this world.” Our big or not so big successes in the spiritual world, in our relations with the Creator, will always be felt as events happening in this world.

It is impossible to separate occurrences in the spiritual and material worlds because they are the same. A desire to receive with its different layers of Aviut (coarseness) covers the entire depth from this world to the World of Infinity.

A person who is at the bottom of the spiritual ladder raises his MAN to the World of Infinity. Thereby he determines the Light which descends from the uppermost level through all layers (worlds) of the desire to receive pleasure to his rung and further below. When a person exists somewhere in the middle of the spiritual ladder, the entirety of the Aviut of the desire below him is included in his MAN. Then the Light that comes as a response to the prayer goes through a person and spreads out further below to the very end. This is why every person has an impact on the entire thickness of Malchut of the World of Infinity.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom” starts with the words “’Harut (Carved) on stones; do not pronounce it Harut (Carved), but rather Herut (Freedom), to show that they are liberated from the angel of death.” What does a person need in this world while he is still unable to feel the Upper spiritual worlds and simply worries about his life like any other animal? At this time, a person’s primary concern is the issue of life and death. There is a reason that it is written that freedom means liberation from the angel of death. The science of Kabbalah is the method of achieving eternity, and it is fundamentally important for everyone.

Humanity subconsciously hides the issue of death from itself; this issue has no solution, but it reduces all of us to a level of worthless beings. Everything we do in this world (culture, education, work) is done in order to conceal the certainty of death. We try to push it further away and not think about it, as though it does not exist. However, if this question arises within a person, one feels completely powerless since nothing can be done to stop a person from dying. We can deal with anything and achieve anything except for one thing – eternal life.

The inevitability of death cancels out the human being in me. Therefore, everything that humanity engages in subconsciously comes from this one thought. We don’t understand to what extent we would view life differently if we were immortal. Our whole attitude to our existence, to reality, to other people, and to ourselves would be completely different.

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, Article “The Freedom”

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A question I received: You say that Kabbalah allows a person to reach eternal life, but Kabbalists die. So how can this be?

My Answer: A Kabbalist dies in your eyes since you do not see his life the same way a Kabbalist sees it. You see only a part of him – his body, which certainly dies, just like any other animal. However, his godly, spiritual part, which he has developed inside, continues to live eternally. The moment that one acquires this part, he gains possession of it and it gives him a sensation of eternal existence; the quality of bestowal that one has acquired is eternal.

We begin to comprehend this only as we approach the Machsom, when the premonition of bestowal emerges in us. The Light that begins to reach a person, gives him a sensation of what it means to rise above matter and to think somewhat differently, to relate to others from the point of view of bestowal. A person does not exist in bestowal yet, but he can already touch it somehow. Then he gets a premonition that it is possible to adapt to this quality, a sensation that belongs to eternity.

Before this occurs, a person does not have the ability to comprehend, as the Light is not close enough to him yet, and the words are meaningless. A person wants to eat and rest, but eternity seems too far away and he doesn’t feel it. Only when one begins to feel the breath of the Light from afar, like fluttering wind, does he begin to understand that Kabbalah contains liberation from the angel of death. When the Light draws closer to a person, it brings him the sensation that eternity exists.

This is the initial condition for the only free action that we can perform. Otherwise, why do you need freedom? What else is there for you to do in life, in your animal body? Everything else is done for you from above; you do not do it yourself. The only thing that you can do on your own is reach eternity. Bestowal is eternal, while reception is temporary. The Light of Hochma does not come to us forever, but only if it is perceived within the Light of Hassadim. Therefore, in order to acquire eternity, first we need to acquire the desire to bestow, and then within this desire we will be able to feel our life as eternal.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, Article “The Freedom”

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