I am trapped in my skin which cuts me off from the Creator who is situated “outside.” I am a slave and I cannot break out. At every given instant, a force influences me and automatically returns me to my own self, to the egoistic center.

How do I force myself to pay attention to what is happening on the outside in order to understand that it is also me? My true reality is “outside”; there, I am together with the Creator; there, I am outside of my animal; there, my soul is outside of the egoistic “I,” which I currently imagine myself to be.

These are two forces that act in nature. I need to arrange them in such a way that the second force (centrifugal) would influence me in the same natural manner, instinctively and inevitably, as the first force (centripetal). Let it occupy my mind and heart and drag me out by force. Let it force me to think about others and worry about them. I need this since this is the only way for me to find my soul.

In this regard, the force of a Kabbalistic group helps me; only the group can convince me to come out of my circle and turn my attention to what is “outside of it.” When I change my attitude from the “intra” (within) to the “extra” (outside). I stop worrying about the body and begin to be concerned with the soul.

I understand that the external reality, which seemed foreign to me and which I was completely indifferent to, contains the real me. This external circle is actually much more valuable to me than the inner one since it contains my soul which is eternal. Meanwhile, the inner circle is merely an animal, which is allotted some 70 years.

However, the concealment does not allow me to see all this. When I begin to realize this, I am amazed to what extent the Creator plays a joke on me.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 4/1/10

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The Chinese state publishing house Tianjin Academy of Social Science published my first Chinese book, The Wisdom of Kabbalah. The book contains the translations of two books, Kabbalah Revealed and From Chaos to Harmony. Press releases have already been sent to Chinese newspapers around the world; the information about the book is now being sent to the universities in China, philosophers, historians, and social scientists.

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Shamati, Article 86: There is a great rule we must know. Our work, which was given to us so as to be a basis for faith above reason, is not because we are unworthy of a high degree. Hence, this was given to us so as to take it all in a vessel of faith.

We exist in the world that we perceive through our senses and evaluate in our brain (“heart and brain”). This type of perception is called “reason.” “Reason” means that we recognize and feel something that “enters” our senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch) and constitutes “our world.” We perceive the whole through our five sensors.

Anything we feel is called “within our reason” (Be Toch Da’at) and corresponds to our sensations and observations. The spiritual world is something “above reason” since we are unable to sense it and thus cannot perceive it (neither in the heart and brain nor in our organs of perception). In order to start perceiving spirituality, we have to obtain new properties (desires) that correspond to its level: a “spiritual heart” and “spiritual brain.”

According to the type of perception, reality is split into two parts: the inner sphere (“I”) and the outer sphere (the world outside of me). Driven by the desire to receive pleasure, we perceive inner and outer influences selectively. This selective perception builds a picture that is called “my world.”

The division of reality into two parts stems from the separation of the soul into two parts: Keter, Hochma (GE) and Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut (AHP). Before the separation occurred, all of them constituted five desires of the soul, five Sefirot. As a result of the separation, our perception of the world was divided into two parts: GE (Galgalta Eynaim – skull, eyes) formed our inner desires through which we sense our world and ourselves, whereas we feel AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh – ears, nose, mouth) as something “outside of us.”

Things are arranged this way on purpose. It is in order to give us a chance to work in GE “within reason.” However if we choose to work with AHP, treating it as our own desires, we reach the state called “above reason.” Our “reason” is something that exists within us, whereas “above reason” means something outside of us.

If we want to attain spirituality, we have to connect the AHP desires to us; when we do so, it is called “work above reason.”  In fact, these terms are simply the words that we use to describe our attitude towards our desires, inner or outer.
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From the lesson on 4/1/10, Shamati 86

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #78 “The Torah, The Creator, And Israel Are One“
The goal of creation is to make “desire for pleasure” independent and similar to the Light. This is the Creator’s desire to give pleasure to His creations.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 431
In the spiritual the “main component” is the desire to receive, where as the “programming support” is based on the intention to bestow.
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 64, Lesson 21
By trying to give my inspiration to others and only leave what’s necessary for myself, I don’t feel ashamed because I’m not receiving any free gifts.
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Article, “Exile and Redemption,” Lesson 2
In the land of Israel, a spiritual state must be created, which will show an example of “love thy neighbor” to the entire world.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 381
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The Creator constantly confuses a person by placing obstacles before him all along his spiritual path. And it so happens that the joyful occurrences confuse us even more than the troubles. We suddenly uncover extraordinary opportunities, find success in business, have a chance to go on an exciting trip, and many other small temptations that come to us at every moment.

This causes us to start revealing that we don’t have any ability to control our state without the support of the environment, which is called “mutual guarantee.” If I don’t have global, universal support, with thousands of people all over the world also aspiring to reveal the Creator, despite all the obstacles which He deliberately places before us, then I cannot go through the “49 gates” – the obstacles that separate me from the Creator. And then I cannot reach the last, 50^th gate, where I unite with Him. (40 designates the distance from Malchut to Bina, and 10 is my own structure. Together they add up to 50.)

If I am not connected to people who are doing the same thing, then it’s all over for me and I will never attain the goal. I will stretch this work out for several lifetimes, and unfortunately, this is what is happening to people.

Even conventional science is now revealing that human thoughts are interconnected and transferred miraculously from one end of the world to the other. Scientists explain this by saying that our very nature causes us to think in synchrony. However, we who study Kabbalah understand that we are simply connected to one another through our desires within one common net of souls. That is why my thoughts and desires are transferred to everyone else.

Moreover, if we aspire toward the spiritual goal, then with this thought we begin to actively influence everyone and it spreads all along the entire system. Mutual guarantee is this inner intention, rather than sending each other SMSs over the phone. Mutual guarantee is when I think about spirituality, I desire it, and I’m burning with the desire for others to think about the same goal as well. Then I am redeemed from the angel of death.

If others don’t think about this, then nothing will help me and I will never be able to make the right calculation. I will always be distracted by something else. I won’t have the basis, the connecting net that holds me inside like a mother holding a baby in her hands. Without this, it’s impossible to attain our goal.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gatehouse of Intentions): “The Moon waned on the fourth day of creation, for in the beginning Zeir Anpin and Nukvah were as two great lights, standing on the same degree, back to back, and Nukvah had a full spiritual Partzuf of ten Sefirot of the reverse side. [This means Nukvah contained spiritual vessels. Why, then, did she lack lights?] When the Moon made a complaint, saying that two kings cannot use the same crown (Keter), she was told, ‘Go and diminish yourself!’ Thus, she returned to a point beneath Yesod of Zeir Anpin, where she dwelled prior.

Malchut (creation) thought that she could be the same as Zeir Anpin; however, she could not shine as he. She ascended to Bina in order to receive Light like Zeir Anpin, but was unable to. This was for the reason that Zeir Anpin possesses the quality of bestowal. His nature is the Light of Hassadim and He feels perfection even when there is no Light of Hochma. He shines with the Light of Hochma anytime he wishes so because he always has the Light of Hassadim.

However, Malchut does not have the Light of Hassadim and she feels her existence in the Light of Hochma as darkness. This constitutes the complaint made by creation (Kitrug Yareach): “I can ascend to the height of the very World of Infinity, but if I don’t have the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Bestowal, then the Light of Hochma won’t shine for me and I will only feel greater darkness.”

When do we reveal that we are in the dark? It’s precisely at the time when we are being elevated! When we are slightly elevated upward, it makes us feel that we lack the corrected desires, the Light of Hassadim. This is what we perceive as darkness.

We don’t feel darkness because we fall, but because we ascend; however, it’s because we ascend without the garment of the Light of Hassadim, the Light of love and bestowal. What we consider descent is actually the ascent, but one that is not corrected. Likewise, what seems to us as an ascent is really a descent, because we receive what we are given into the desires of reception. Thus, everything is the other way around in the spiritual world.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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A question I received: If there is no time in spirituality, then why is it written that correction occurs over a period of six thousand years?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam explains the meaning of “6,000 years” in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” as well as other articles. “6,000 years” are the VAK of Zeir Anpin, which need to be realized in relation to Malchut.

When Malchut, the seventh Sefira, reveals all these six qualities, called “6,000 years,” inside itself, it is called the “seventh day,” “Sabbath,” or the “seventh millennium.” Only then Malchut becomes filled for the sake of bestowal.

Therefore, these qualities are called “6,000 years.” Year (Shana) comes from the word “to change” (Shone). We need to experience these degrees one after the other. On one hand, we’re not talking about years in our world. On the other, if we don’t hasten time, then in accordance with the connection of root and branch, the perception of time in our world will comply with its root and the process of correction will actually end in six thousand years.

However, we can change the length and the essence of six thousand years; we can shorten and compress them. Nevertheless, they’ll be called “6,000 years” because we do not cut off degrees, yet according to corporeal time, it will be less.

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

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“The people of Israel will not return to their land until they are completely united.” The people of Israel are a group that Abraham once organized by selecting them from among the Babylonians. He wanted to correct the whole world but managed to gather just a few thousand people in this group.

However, the Torah does not speak about historical events, rather about internal states through which a person passes. The property of Abraham within us takes a part of our desires and leads them to a partial correction, and then to a shattering (a fall of the Temple, or descent from the spiritual level to exile).

Exiles are required in order for desires that have been in spirituality (Israel), to mix with the rest of desires that did not go through spiritual ascent and shattering (called “nations of the world”). After mixing together and becoming included in one another, all of them are prepared for corrections. In other words, everyone now has a part that has been in spirituality, and a part that hasn’t.

Those who went through the ascent and shattering must be the first to undergo corrections because they contain Reshimot (data about previous states). After this others will awaken. Everyone must come to understand that the “Israel” within, meaning the desires aspiring to the Creator, will not attain their land (Eretz) or corrected “desire (Ratzon) “straight to the Creator” (Isra-El), in which the Creator becomes revealed, until they all unite to become “as one man with one heart.”

This is the requirement Kabbalists tell us about. We must implement it in a small part of the soul inside each of us, as well as in a big part of the soul among all Kabbalah groups in the world, and in yet an even bigger part of the soul, which includes all of humanity. Thus, this necessary requirement begins to be realized starting from a very material level.
[12285]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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