Question: What does it mean to reveal The Zohar in our common sensation?

Answer: Nothing is revealed in an individual person, but only in his proper connection with the friends in the group. My first ten Sefirot, the first spiritual vessel (Kli), is my aspiration to come out from myself and unite with others (the group). My spiritual state is determined by how much I will try to create this unification.

There is you and I. Between us, there are five worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon. When I draw closer to you until the distance between us fades, my state is called the World of Infinity. But not yours. The World of Infinity is when you and I, on my side, become as one whole. Therefore, the extent that I am able to draw closer to you determines the spiritual degree that I am on since all 125 degrees are between us.

We can conquer the distance between us together. This is much more effective because what matters is the unification between us, rather than you or I. I don’t need to accept you, receive pleasure from you, or unite with you. We need to unite together. This unification is in fact the Creator, the third component, as it is written: “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.”

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, The Zohar

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Question: If foreign thoughts come to me while we read The Zohar, does this mean that I am drilling a hole in the boat?

Answer: These foreign thoughts are not yours but “come” to you from somewhere. They don’t depend on you; the Creator sends them. So, relax. You are not drilling a hole in the common boat just with the thoughts that arise in you.

It’s important, however, what you will do with these “foreign” thoughts, meaning, whether you will remain with them and continue to think about them. If so, you will really be making a hole in the boat. Or perhaps you will resist these thoughts and throw them away from you at every given moment while wishing to stay together with your friends who are using all their might to bring this boat to the goal? This depends precisely on you.

This is always the case in Kabbalah: We work on what the Creator sends us, above the circumstances (Reshimot) that emerge. We don’t choose them, and we are not judged according to them. Only our reaction to them depends on us, and we should be judged based on it.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Va Yechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 152: In the midst of all that, Rabbi Elazar saw that the angel of death departed and said, “No sentence holds where Rabbi Shimon is.” Rabbi Shimon said to Rabbi Elazar, “Come here and hold Rabbi Yitzhak, for I see that he is afraid.” Rabbi Elazar came in and held him, and Rabbi Shimon turned his face and engaged in Torah.

Question: Why does a soul fear to ascend to its next spiritual degree? If it already sees its corrected state, why does it dread leaving the current one?

Answer: I am not prepared for it, and therefore I fear. The wisdom of Kabbalah often speaks about the awe before the Creator. The state of awe is a spiritual vessel (Kli, desire). It is the same in our case. I am afraid that I am not ready to exist at the level of bestowal in my present state, which I share with the friends and the teacher Rabbi Shimon, who becomes revealed as a mentor and guide on our path.

Suppose a teacher one day tells me that I have to jump from a plane. But I am terrified for I don’t think I can do it. This is an earthly example of how I feel in egoistic properties.

In spirituality, however, we talk about the property of bestowal, where the fear is even greater. I discover that I am not in bestowal and have no strength of my own for it. I am unable to pull myself together (as I would in the material world) and take the next step. It isn’t the same in spirituality, and there is always a question: Will I receive the strength, or, rather, will I be able to ask for it? This fear, the awe, is a very problematic state.

Awe before the Creator is the first commandment. I use it as a foundation on which I build everything else. It’s because I depend on the Creator, the Upper Surrounding Light that I receive. My position at a certain spiritual degree depends on the amount of strength the Light provides for me. And if it doesn’t bring me this strength, I will have none.

How can I participate in this? How close am I able to come with the others? How great is my present capacity to do so? This “death” (for my egoism) must come to me step by step. It has to be accepted by me and turn into life within me, as it is written: “The angel of death becomes the angel of life.”

Spiritual acts (of bestowal) that a person is yet to commit seem an enormous stumbling block. When you think about fulfillment, it is desirable (in our egoism). But when you think about the corrected desire (Kli) where it is revealed, rejection and fear arise: Am I good for it?

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, The Zohar

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Following the Paths of Kabbalists

Thus you see that in spiritual matters, the authority of the collective [to organize themselves according to their understanding at the earthly level] is overturned [in order to obey the spiritual leader in their mandatory spiritual ascent because they do not and will never have their own understanding of the path to the goal] and [in the mandatory spiritual development of masses] the law of “Taking after the Individual” is applied, that is, the developed individual. For it is plain to see that the developed and the educated in every society are always a small minority. It follows that the success and spiritual well-being of society is bottled and sealed in the hands of the minority [is determined by following the developed individual].

Therefore, the collective is obliged to meticulously guard all the views of the few, so they will not perish from the world. This is because they must know for certain, in complete confidence, that the truer and more developed views are never in the hands of the collective in authority [wealthy and powerful ones, politicians, or external scientists], but rather in the hands of the weakest, that is, in the hands of the indistinguishable minority [the Kabbalists]. This is because every wisdom and everything precious comes into the world in small quantities. Therefore, we are cautioned to preserve the views of all the [spiritually developed] individuals, due to the collective’s inability to tell wrong from right among them.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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In reality, there is no difference between the Creator and the group; it exists solely in our ego. Only one element is concealed from me: the source of pleasure. That is why I see the group instead of seeing the Creator.

It is, however, done for my own salvation, so that I may develop a selfless relationship with them and not be corrupted by the pleasure they may provide! Hence, pleasure and fulfillment that exist in the group are hidden from me, and I am able to build relationships with them through my free and independent action.

If the Creator revealed Himself and His love to me at once, it would oblige me in everything and annihilate a possibility of my using free will. But in the Creator’s concealment, I remain totally independent: If I feel like being close to the group, I move closer; if I don’t, I move away; I can think whatever I want about them as well. Concealment is a great favor on the Creator’s part; He is doing this for our own good, in order to allow us to construct ourselves.

Concealment lets me remain neutral and assemble my individual character and values. It only seems that I am surrounded by a group of strangers. In fact, it is my own soul, my spiritual Kli!

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, “What is Day and Night in Work?”

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Question: The system of the spiritual stimulator works with people who can realize the principle of “faith above reason.” However, most of humanity cannot act according to this principle, and only very strong blows can force them to do this.

Answer: They still will start participating in it because there is no other choice. We need to somehow rise above ourselves, above our lives, fate, and the forces of nature that compel us to do something with ourselves. We need to act and search for some external, kind governing force which protects and cares about us.

I believe that people will quickly see that there is at least some refuge here. They will sense this with a “sixth sense.” It is written very clearly in Kabbalah that we have no other choice. Either we find a way to unite as one whole and to reach a state of being one society in complete interdependence, mutual help, and, consequently, even mutual love on our own and through the path of the Light, or we will be pushed to do this by the nature around and within us through the path of suffering.

Development of this system and the dissemination of it, its realization for educating children and solving social, family, and other kinds of problems will draw more and more people who now are distant from the goal of Kabbalah. However, both the system and Kabbalah will become meaningful and accepted in the society as a kind and common force for everyone.

It will be a parallel, alternative social system which will not contradict any existing social systems. However, to the extent that humanity begins to understand that this system can be the source of help, support, and a means for a more correct behavior, balance, safety, and so on, people will come here. Gradually, it will become more and more in demand and necessary for humanity.

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Question: What should we do if the whole group is in a descent?

Answer: This is wonderful! We need to view it as an opportunity given to us from Above to be “as one man with one heart.” It means we are all together in one desire and one state. This is great because we have succeeded in uniting. Now we can use the force of this unification to change our state.

The Creator gave us the force of unity in the worst possible state where we are most distant from Him. However, His force, the force of unification, is present in this descent. Let us now begin to use this force in order to come out of the descent. We only need to do one thing: Rather than concentrate on the fact that we descended, we should focus on the fact that we are connected as one.

We need to shift our attention from one thing to another, from our temporary state to the system of connection, even if it is an egoistic one. Then we should begin to strengthen the force of unity, even for the sake of egoism. We shouldn’t pay attention to the fact that we are in a state of complete spiritual descent and disappointment. What does it matter that we descended? The most important thing is that we are together since the force of unity belongs to the Creator and comes to us from Above. Unity is His quality.

We have to intensify the inner pressure that unites the friends in the group in the worst possible state. We can be angry toward the state or complain to the Creator, or we can do it without paying attention to the descent at all. As we intensify this pressure more and more, we will suddenly see how the force of unity will begin to raise us up all together.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, “What is Day and Night in Work?”

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Question: Is our suffering in this world not enough that we have to feel more pain striving for the Upper World? It looks like a person doubles his suffering when he embarks on a spiritual journey, doesn’t he?

Answer: That is correct. Your suffering becomes greater so that you cover this spiritual distance faster! What else could possibly give you a start? However, we do not receive suffering from Above, but are expected to find this lovesickness on our own. The Light that Reforms evokes our heartfelt longing for it, and we start moving ahead motivated by the latter. This is not the same as the suffering of this world, where we are like animals who are being beaten and don’t understand why, and simply keep running from the blows.

It is up to us to start acting. But we think, “Oh well, let’s wait until the help from Above arrives and takes care of everything.” What kind of help do you think is going to come? Only the suffering in this world will force us to advance!

Alternatively, if you connect to the group, you will receive spiritual suffering and will start advancing sooner. It will be a sensation of a spiritual void, the longing of the heart, lovesickness. Then you won’t need to be driven by the corporeal pain. If you make an effort to advance at the speed that is assigned to you, according to your original spiritual genes (Reshimot), it won’t be necessary to drive you “toward happiness with a rod.”

It is true that when you ascend so high that you can connect with all the other souls, you start feeling pain for them like a mother suffers when seeing the pain of her children. This is why we think that Kabbalists also suffer in this world.

From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And the Children Racketed Within Her”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt,” Item 165
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 4, Item 71
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 20, Lesson 21
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Nothing disappears in spirituality. On the contrary, the differences between the souls become even more vivid. Every particular soul possesses special qualities that create the entire wealth of perceiving the Creator. This happens precisely by virtue of connecting with the opposite qualities of other souls. That is how the mutual perception of the Creator becomes 620 times greater than the perception of a separate soul.

The size of our spiritual vessel (Kli) is not defined by its quality, but quantity. That is why every soul is revealed more powerfully and uniquely. This is similar to stem cells which are universal and can be used like building blocks to build everything else. The heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs can all be built out of this basis called the stem cell.

The same thing is true in spirituality. For now each of us lives inside the “stem cell” of his own soul. Later we will begin connecting to the general system, the group, or the system of souls that we reveal in the group, and by attaching them to us, we will then connect to the Creator who becomes revealed in the system of souls. That is when we will also begin to attain ourselves: Who we are, what we belong to, what our soul is, what my mission is, and what my main quality is out of the entire sum of qualities accompanying it.

Therefore, when we advance in spirituality, every person becomes more and more connected with everything, but at the same time he stands out more and more, becomes more unique because by connecting with others, he increases his own “stem cell.” That is why Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom” that every person must develop, rather than suppress, his unique qualities. By virtue of every person’s uniqueness, we will attain a huge, perfect vessel of the soul in which we will be able to perceive the entire spiritual world and the Creator 620 times greater than at the beginning of creation.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, The Zohar

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