Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

In order to feel what is described here, let’s look at the following example: Suppose I visit the home of a very distinguished person. The hospitable host offers me the finest delicacies, invites me to play a round of golf, and to listen to some classical music. However, I am a simple man and have no interest in doing any of that since I have no connection to any of these pleasures. I have never experienced them in my life, and that is why I don’t desire them.

I look at the host in surprise and say, “What do you want from me? I didn’t come here to take pleasure in the things you love. I want to enjoy the things I love!” The host replies, “My dear friend, I want to bestow onto you such awesome pleasures. You cannot even imagine how amazing they are. Try to get accustomed to them a little bit and you will reveal infinite, higher pleasures which are incomparable to the ones you’re used to.”

So, what am I to do? I can trust the host and try to let him teach me new tastes even though I’m not used to them and for that reason am not drawn to them. Gradually, however, I will learn to feel in them a special, heavenly flavor. Or, I can tell the hospitable host, “You know what? It’s hard for me to get used to these new tastes and such difficult conditions and forget all my past habits. I cannot do it. Leave me alone and let me get back to my simple life.” What would the host tell me then? “Sure, go on.”

However, when I get back to my regular life, I begin to experience unpleasant states. That is when I remember the host’s words describing other, higher tastes, so I come back to him. This process may repeat itself several times as I return to my former life and then back to the host.

Ultimately, I will realize that there is no other way: I simply must return to the host so that he could help me replace my tastes with his for good. I know now that I will savor the taste of life in them.

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What is “faith above reason?” “Faith” is bestowal, and "above reason" means that it is more important than reception. In our state, this property only manifests through my attitude toward the group because only in a group can I clearly see that I prefer the group’s well-being to my own, both in my actions and thoughts.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/10, “The Importance of Faith that Always Takes Place”

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The ARI is a great soul which descended into our world in order to open the gates of wisdom for us. Therefore, as Baal HaSulam writes, from the time of the ARI and onward, everything depends on a person: He has to correct himself and thereby reveal the Creator, come to adhesion with Him, and achieve the purpose of creation. Before the ARI, this door was closed altogether because the souls were not yet ready. They still needed to undergo a certain path of development and to mix together.

The ARI symbolizes the period of the Messiah which is why he is called Messiah son of Joseph. From his time forward, the science of Kabbalah began to acquire the form of a method of correction. Before then, it was intended only for a chosen few and was presented in a special form.

We ought to respect the Kabbalists who were living in Safed at the same time as the ARI as they recognized his greatness and appreciated him. The Ramak was already old, famous, and esteemed, but he went to the ARI’s lessons. He sat there as a student despite the fact that he was twice the ARI’s age and recognized as a great Kabbalist.

Thanks to the Ramak and several other Kabbalists who recognized the ARI’s attainment, the ARI was protected from the opponents of Kabbalah. After all, he had several young (26 year old) students, and the attitude toward Kabbalah at the time was far from positive. We may think that everything was allowed as some people tend to write nowadays, but this was not the case.

In this sense, the ARI’s life is similar to that of the Ramchal who was persecuted for studying Kabbalah and exiled from the ghetto of Padua, Italy where he lived. However, the Gaon of Vilna (Agra) testified to his greatness, and the Ramchal was left alone.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Wisdom of Kabbalah and the System of Mussar (Ethics)

Many are mistaken and compare our holy Torah to ethics. But that has come to them because they have never tasted religion in their lives. I call upon them: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

It is true that both ethics and religion aim at one thing—to raise man above the filth of the narrow self-love and bring him to the heights of love-of-others. But still, they are as remote one from the other as the distance between the Thought of the Creator and the thought of people.

For religion extends from the Thoughts of the Creator, and ethics comes from thoughts of flesh and blood and from the experiences of their lives. Hence, there is an evident difference between them, both in practical aspects and in the final aim.
– Baal HaSulam “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose”

For the recognition of good and evil that develops in us through ethics, as we use it, is relative to the success of the society.With religion, however, the recognition of good and evil that develops in us, as we use it, is relative to the Creator alone, that is, from the disparity of form from the Maker, to equivalence of form with Him, which is called Dvekut [adhesion].
– Baal HaSulam “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose”

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “You Should Always Discern Between Torah and Work”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shoftim (Judges),” Item 10
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item  12, Lesson 12
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot” Item 9, Lesson 11
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Question: Kabbalah says that the reason for all the problems in the world is man’s egoistic desire. But what is the connection between me being an egoist who’s opposite to the Creator and the extreme heat in Moscow or the ecological crisis?

Answer: We are all inside a closed system or sphere called “the Creator” where all the parts are connected through mutual bestowal. That is the law of existence of the entire system as well as each of its parts. We can see this on the example of the human body, the ecosystem, and so on. I exist inside this system like an embryo inside a mother’s womb, and I feel good to the degree I am connected and equivalent to the system and bestowing like it. And vice versa: To the degree I am disparate from it and have different qualities, I feel bad.

Proximity and separation are not defined by distance, but by equivalence of form. If I have a small egoistic desire, then even if I am different from the system, I feel small problems. But if my desire increases, then so does my sensation of discomfort.

Since man’s egoistic desire constantly develops, his opposition to Nature’s system, the Creator, also increases, and thus it is inevitable that man will feel worse. This will continue until he begins to understand what the reason for his suffering and problems is.

I will receive blows of fate from all sides until I understand that it is systematic and not accidental. The problems with the ecology are not accidental! I can no longer keep ignoring them. Similar problems will take place all over the world and in all forms. They will shake people up and make them stop and think, “Apparently, there must be a reason for this?”

As the desire grows, it feels suffering and creates a mind by its side in order to avoid the suffering. A person becomes smarter and shrewder. He learns to connect the causes and consequences and inevitably begins asking, “Why is this happening? Where are all of our problems coming from?” Usually people ask, “What did I do to deserve all of this?” And that is already a subconscious question about the Source of what is happening (Nature, the Creator).

People will reveal that what is operating here is the general law of the universe. Call it “Nature” instead of the Creator; either way it requires us to constantly and consciously maintain balance with Nature, which means we have to have the same quality of bestowal as the whole universe since all parts of the universe exist in universal connection and integral unity.

That is why there is no choice about the matter. Humanity is a cancerous tumor inside all of nature, and it is obligated to cure itself. Eventually, under pressure from all the problems, we will reach this realization. It’s already very close.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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Question: What is the meaning of mutual spiritual work between spouses?

Answer: A spiritual connection is when a woman is like “half of a man’s body.” A man without a wife is an incomplete part of the desire. This part of the “animate” existence (as it seems to us) and the entire mutual life in a family, which seems unconnected to spirituality, are in fact very important.

It’s not time for it yet, but we will reach the state where men and women will feel a need to find out what the meaning of our lives is and what we are living for? This problem can only be solved on the condition that we are similar to nature, the Creator, and thus are obligated to unite into a couple, a family. That will be our mutual spiritual work. We will feel that we are unable to maintain a family without a spiritual connection, and we are unable to attain spirituality without creating a family!

That is why families are now in crisis or a “breaking.” It’s like the Tzimtzum (restriction). All of our previous lives, ways of thinking, approach to the family, and our entire paradigm of the past are over! They have reached “the breaking.” Our old philosophy and attitude to life, family, and society no longer work. All of this has reached the end, and that is why we are experiencing a crisis today. We are cutting off our entire previous attitude to life and are entering new interrelations.

From here on, a person will once again need a family, children, work, and society, but precisely in order to attain bestowal and revelation of the Creator instead of using them egoistically and trying to obtain a small, comfortable home in order to lead a good material life. That is why we are going through a drastic transition and will have to cut ourselves off from our entire previous life and attitude.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

It is important to understand why we need all this. The fact is that the Creator desires to bestow to begin with, so there’s no point in asking Him to give us Light and pleasure as we usually do.

The Creator has what we need and He has the will to give it. However, He wants us to not merely be receiving from Him, but to become like Him, meaning to be great, independent, bestowing, and similar to Him in the quality of love and bestowal. Therefore, this is precisely what we have to ask for in order to acquire that which the Creator has: the will to bestow and the quality of love and bestowal.

We are used to asking for fulfillment but what we need to ask for is correction. As soon as we become corrected, the Creator’s Light will instantly fulfill us. In other words, our problem is that we don’t understand what it is we should ask of the Creator. We exist in an ocean of Light, goodness, and pleasure, but we lack the necessary vessel to feel all this abundance within. This vessel is the quality of love and bestowal, and that is what we need to ask of the Creator. As soon as we acquire this quality, the Light of abundance will fill us on its own.

There is only one restriction set by the Creator, only one condition for receiving the Light: We have to become like Him. After all, He desires for us to feel just as much pleasure as He does.

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Receiving pleasure in our desires of bestowal is completely different than receiving it egoistically. First, we need to acquire an anti-egoistic screen, then draw pleasure, reject it for the sake of the Host, and finally gain the capacity to receive pleasure in order to delight Him. In this way we receive doubly. We receive the very sensation of pleasure within us and, most importantly, the sensation of greatness of the Host. His greatness is infinite and depends only on what value it has in our eyes.

The ratio between the pleasure received from direct fulfillment and the pleasure received from knowing the value of the Giver is such that we agree to receive from Him “symbolically”; it is just a tiny seed, a drop that merely defines the point of contact. However, His greatness lies in our eyes, meaning that we expand this point to infinite value.

Therefore, “sinners” lose double, and “righteous” win double by receiving the entire World of Infinity solely because they possess a screen. If we have a source of energy, that is, two opposing forces of “plus” and “minus,” then we can run a device that produces useful work. Meanwhile, trying to connect these two opposing forces without this device will cause a short circuit between them.

If we desire fulfillment, then we have to find the correct way to connect ourselves with the Creator, which is called a screen, the ”device” that brings benefit to the others. In that case, all of the Light will pass through us down to the others, and we will feel as the source, as the Creator.

If we use the vessels of bestowal, we feel the following: 1) pleasures within ourselves, 2) pleasures in Him, and 3) pleasures coming from Him, meaning we simultaneously reside in the past, present, and future, enveloped in all of the existing pleasure, all of the Light of the World of Infinity. This erases the sensation of time, motion, and space.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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