Some time ago (before the destruction of the Temple) the nation of Israel was on a spiritual level, and the commandments were spiritual actions for them – the Tefilin was not a black box, but the Light of an exalted state, which shines “in the forehead” of the spiritual Partzuf (ten Sefirot). It was not a root and a branch for them; it was united as one whole. They did not live in two worlds, but in one common reality. Therefore, the question regarding whether to carry out commandments in the material did not arise for them; for them the internal and external execution of the commandments were expressions of the same action.

Then a “breaking and a descent” occurred; our sensations of the spiritual world were concealed. With this concealment, we no longer sense what happens in the spiritual world. We are “cut off” from it, and no longer exist on a spiritual degree of “Tefilin” for example or “Talit” (surrounding Light, clothed onto Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut); therefore, these commandments have turned from spiritual actions into mechanical actions called “traditions” or “customs.”

Once they were true spiritual actions rather than merely traditions as they are now. Previously, I “put on a Tefilin” in the spiritual and in the material. They were the same thing for me; reality was one whole. As a result of our egoistic development, we uncovered our “breaking and descent,” the destruction of the common soul. Now the time has come to break this division so that there will, once again, be a single, whole world.

Should all people study these traditions and customs? No, we just need to break this division, and when it falls, gradually with our correction, the material reality will begin to vanish. If the all of humanity is corrected, rather than just the small part that came out of Babylon and was called the nation of Israel, then to the extent that the world begins to be corrected, it will “lose” its sensations of the material form. The lower layer, which you correct for bestowal, becomes spiritual, and you no longer perceive it as matter. It gradually seems to vanish from your sensations, until the whole material world vanishes, since it is imaginary (Olam Amedume). Therefore, all that Kabbalah teaches us is how to break the “iron wall” (see Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 1), which separates us from the spiritual world.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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A question I received: Why is it so important in Kabbalah to know the meaning of terms? What is the benefit of that? After all, we see that a person needs to study for a long time in order to grasp the fact that words seemingly familiar to him have a completely different meaning. This is very difficult for a beginner.

My Answer: Even knowing the completely different meanings of familiar words is still very important, as through this we transition from a corporeal vocabulary to the spiritual one. Indeed, the words are familiar: “sun, moon, Earth, man, man’s body parts, animals, beasts, family, coupling (Zivug), kiss, embrace” – all these are words of this world (in the desire to receive) that we use in the spiritual world (the desire to bestow). We add a different meaning and interpretation to each word.

Baal HaSulam writes in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, “Inner Reflection” that we must transition to spiritual definitions and meanings of words, in order for them to be embedded into our minds like in a box, so that we will understand the word’s spiritual meaning the moment we hear it. By using the same words we are familiar with and trying to add a different meaning to them, we transition from a screen that draws for us the pictures of this world to a screen depicting the next, spiritual world.

We have no other words to express the Upper World, the world of forces and actions. But because these forces and actions are actualized in our world, we call these forces and actions (roots) by the names of their consequences (branches). Therefore, we must know their spiritual meanings. True, this is very difficult for beginners, until they free themselves of the former, corporeal content of a word and fill it anew.

As people change, we give words new meaning. The words “kiss,” “feet” or “head” of a Partzuf will remain physiological terms, but they will take on the spiritual meaning of their roots. In accordance with this change, you too will witness the changes you undergo.

Ultimately, the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is intended to give you a spiritual dictionary to replace your corporeal one. What is this “dictionary”? You will begin to interpret words in your inner sensation. You will feel and thus immediately grasp the word differently. In those words you yourself transition from the branch to the root.

Keep advancing and changing internally, and you will see the extent to which you change the meaning of words. This change is automatic. The entire spiritual picture is much stronger than the corporeal one, and so it will displace the corporeal and all its definitions with its own.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/10, Article “Exile and Redemption”

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A question I received: The more you explain the structure of the spiritual worlds, the more confused I am. Why does this happen?

My Answer: Imagine that I go to a doctor and tell him about some of my external symptoms. He asks me to undergo medical tests, checks the results, and discusses them with another doctor. When they talk among themselves, I understand nothing although they are talking about me, my sensations, and my health. This is because their discussion about me is on a more internal, complex level, about what actually is occurring inside of me.

Then they give me a pill; its content is also unknown to me. I take it, simply trusting that they and the prescribed pill will help me. Of course, they have confused me with their technical medical discussion and I should have never listened to them. Yet, in our world the pill will work regardless of one’s understanding of what the doctor says.

Here during the study, I read what these Kabbalistic “doctors” write about me: one Kabbalist writes to another describing what happens internally to souls in the system where the souls have to correct themselves. Of course, I understand nothing about it! However, because I get involved in this story and want to understand and feel it, I connect to them and get closer to becoming like them.

If I want to become a “doctor” like them, I use my connection with them and learn. If I feel confused but want to grasp the essence, if I feel that the book explains the correction of my soul, I  have no choice. I must learn their language (like Latin used in the medical field) and then I understand what they are talking about.

Kabbalists wrote these books for their fellow Kabbalists. They talk among themselves in the language that they understand because this language explains different worlds and spiritual concepts. At this point, I don’t understand what they mean at all.

However, if I aspire to understand what they teach me, and I strive to live in it and feel it, then I open these books and try to enter them. The level of my understanding does not matter. What matters is my wanting to enter inside with my feelings, rather than to my attempting to understand it with my external mind. I have to ask for revelation.

I have to see what they write about. They describe what they see and feel, and I have to want to feel this as well. This is why my lack of understanding, vision, and feeling will only push me to advance.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #100 “The Written Torah and The Oral Torah”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 60
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 70, Lesson 24
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Article, “Exile and Redemption,” Lesson 5
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 50
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A question I received: What stands behind Kabbalistic terms? For example, what is Zivug de Hakaa (coupling while striking)? How can I imagine it?

My Answer: “Coupling while striking” is when two opposites are able to unite and enter each other specifically as a result of striking. Initially they are opposite to each other, but each of them strikes his own nature. Although they are opposite in nature, each of them strikes against himself, arousing an opportunity to become alike in the desire to unite. Thus they merge with each other.

I’m opposite to you in all of my properties, yet I want to unite with you. Thus I strike my own properties, transform them into being similar to yours, and now can unite with you. This is called “coupling while striking” to such an extent that we enter each other and merge at the level of deep understanding and feeling, growing into and completing each other.

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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Exile and redemption are relative things, depending on where one fell from and where to. I can feel that I am in exile, detached from spirituality, only if I feel the spiritual world and feel the fact that I am disconnected from it. However, if I don’t feel what it is I am disconnected from, then this cannot be called exile, for what am I exiled from?

With respect to spirituality, the Babylonian exile was higher than the state of the exodus from Egypt. Yet it is called an exile, for it caused tremendous suffering.

When is it that I regret having fallen from the spiritual degree? Precisely when I exist in spirituality, for how else can I appraise it? When do I regret having descended from the state where there was love, bestowal, the correct connection, and similarity to the Creator in my love of others? When can I say that I have fallen into exile? It is when I already possess all those qualities and see that they are not enough, not satisfactory.

The sensation of exile is a very exalted state since it is when I suffer from lacking the qualities of bestowal and love of others.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/10, The Zohar

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Rambam (1135-1202), Mishneh Torah, “The Laws of Idolatry,” Chapter 1 (abridged):

1. The sages in the days of Enoch and Enoch himself decided that since God created the stars and heavenly spheres in order to govern the world, they are His faithful servants. Thus the stars are worthy of praise, and it corresponds to God’s will.

2. With this idea in mind, they started to build temples for the stars, make sacrifices to them, and laud them. All of it was done with the aim of fulfilling the Creator’s will. This marked the beginning of idolatry.

3. Thus idol worshipers do not claim that a concrete star is a god. Everybody knows that only You are God. Yet people err in that they consider the unwarranted actions to be fulfillment of Your will.

4. Many days have passed and false prophets have surfaced. They started telling that God ordered them to convey to the people: “Serve some star, make sacrifices to it, build temples to it, and create its image so that people could worship it.” They showed the people a certain form that they themselves invented and said, “This is an image imparted on me in prophesy.”

5. This is how they started creating images in temples and gathering there for worship. They suggested to the people that the image can bring evil or good, and one should fear or serve it. The cult servants convinced them: “Propagate the service and it will bring you luck; do this or that, or don’t do this or that.”

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By going through such spiritual states like the “New Year,” each time, a person reaches some part of the final corrected state. We cannot reach the Final Correction at once; rather, we attain it in portions, time after time. Thus each year the state of the beginning – the beginning of the year – returns. This continues until the corrections accumulate and the common and final End of Correction occurs.

Like a spinning wheel, we return to seemingly the same corrections again and again until they accumulate and we reach the final corrected state. It happens precisely as in a bicycle when its wheel seems to be spinning around its axis in the same place. Yet in reality, due to this spinning, the bicycle is moving forward because the outside conditions change.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/7/10

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