Question: I am a Muslim who has been studying Kabbalah for several months. Is it possible to observe the laws of my religion and correct my soul at the same time?

Answer: Kabbalah was born before Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Torah speaks of Abraham “bestowing gifts” to the sons of his concubines and sending them East, thus laying the foundation for Eastern teachings. Everything stems from one source.

The collective desire is divided into many parts, and each part has its own individual path of correction. Certain parts can commence with correction immediately. They constitute the group that Abraham had taken out of Babylon. The other parts have scattered around the world, with each part developing individually in accordance with its unique set of qualities.

Their means of advancement are the various religions, faiths, and cultures. A person can easily remain in his faith and follow the spiritual path at the same time. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his Writings of The Last Generation:

“The religious formation of all the nations should first and foremost obligate its members to bestow upon their fellow man the concept of another person’s life coming before one’s own, a formation of ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’… But otherwise, each nation may pursue its own religion and traditions, and one must not interfere with the other.”

That is, we must not meddle in the affairs of other nations and cultures. Let them have these things; people need them. This whole “territory” has nothing to do with the spiritual world. As a person advances, it turns into a cultural platform for him, a set of traditions, and does not get in the way.

If I want to rise above my nature so as to unite with everybody, even the relationships between religions appear to me in a new light. As a Muslim, I suddenly understand that I can advance toward the goal alongside a Christian, and, truly, what can stop us?

Everyone is used to their own home cooking, and nobody is taking that away from you. As Baal HaSulam writes, everyone can remain in their religion, and nobody has the right to meddle in your affairs precisely because this has nothing to do with the spiritual path. Ultimately, in our world, religions constitute culture, tradition that corresponds from the beginning to the nature of the various parts of Malchut and conforms to the root of the soul.

Recently, we read the weekly Bible chapter about the Creator bidding Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, but at the very last moment commanding that a baby goat, not Isaac, be sacrificed. In Hebrew, the word “sacrifice” is Kurban, from the word Karov (to draw closer). Here, the right line (Abraham) sacrifices its ego, Kurban, the left line (Isaac), thus drawing closer to the Creator (Karov).

We hear that Muslims celebrate the holiday of Kurban to honor Ibrahim who had sacrificed a goat instead of Ishmael on Allah’s bidding. Allah is derived from the word Alla (Elyon or the Upper One).
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

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Question: When I served in the army, I saved money and waited for my service to end, so that I could start traveling. Now I can talk about what I have seen in various places, my adventures of pleasures received. What kind of impressions do we receive journeying through the Upper World?

Answer: From the place where we receive “the point in the heart” and begin to dream about ascending to Malchut of the World of Infinity, accordingly we descend lower and lower into a sensation of hatred, which separates the parts of Malchut.

The more hatred we reveal, the more we can correct and rise above it. This is what is meant by ascending from world to world: negative Assiya → Assiya → negative Yetzira → Yetzira → negative Beria → Beria → negative Atzilut → Atzilut → negative Adam Kadmon → Adam Kadmon (AK), until we reach the World of Infinity.
Your point in the heart receives the desire to journey through the “land,” that is within the desire (“land” in Hebrew is “Aretz,” from the word “Ratzon,” “desire”). And then you set out on the path.

You take the Light of Hassadim, that is the anti-egoistic screen (“money/cover”), penetrate the desire, and thanks to this cover/money you select the pleasure/Light of Hochma. You have the desire and the “cover,” meaning you can pay for it, and so you make the payment and receive the pleasure. This is your journey!

It is a journey within your desire! The entire world is your desire, and all the lands you’ve visited are parts of your inner desire as well. You have tested your desires and clarified which inner pleasure you can receive in Thailand, Europe or somewhere else.

The same applies to the spiritual world, except it is no longer an illusory picture, where it only seemed to you as if you’re traveling in this world. Now you really see that these are parts of your soul, and you discover that you exist together with them, in unity, revealing the light (pleasure) within this adhesion!

This pleasure is thousands of times greater than your past travels, where you might have seen or heard something, or eaten something that later gave you indigestion. The spiritual world is where you truly take pleasure! After all, this is a journey within your desire, only it seemed to you as it existed on the outside.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, Baal HaSulam “The Gate of Intentions”

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Question: Spirituality requires completeness and joy, but in the group we sometimes deem it as gaiety. How does it fit in?

Answer: You drop into the group after your mundane, “civil” life. There, you would enjoy food, sex, family, wealth, respect, power, and knowledge. Here, however, you are placed before a goal that you don’t achieve and people you didn’t pick.

In the outside world, you would individually decide with whom to work and spend leisure time, but here you see the faces of the friends. Look, would you invite them into your circle? You have no choice. Moreover, there is no benefit. You find neither a reason, nor place, nor ways to feel the joy you used to experience in the outside world.

Now, you need to replace all your ideas. What am I here for? Why do I need all these people? How do I find fulfillment? What is the goal? How important is it? Having gathered and arranged these questions and their answers correctly, you must simply burst with joy, and soar to the seventh heaven because you are so happy.

After all, you are in the only correct place, in the company of the right people who yearn for the same exalted goal as you do, which cannot be reached on one’s own. Look, they all came together just for you. They exist solely for you to attain perfection.

Then, looking at the friends, you start loving them. They become important, close, dear to you, and the goal isn’t that distant any more. If we all unite, we will find it among us. It isn’t in some distant galaxy, but right here behind the partitions separating us, which we must crush.

The goal is to reveal the Light in us, but it cannot flow as long as there is a gap in the net. Because of the torn wires, the spiritual current doesn’t pass through any of us. So, let it shine; close the circuit. Everything is ready for us, and, if you see the events correctly, you will definitely get filled with joy.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, Rabash “The Matter of Schechina“

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When I connect to the group, it is as though I transplant my soul from one place to another, from the body I’m in now to another body. I transfer my soul from the sensing of its presence in this body, to sensing that I’m transferring it to another one.

This other body is called the group. However, by “group,” I don’t mean my friends’ faces, the individuals that are more or less connected to one another. By group, I mean a new system, or not even a system, but rather a new desire which exists outside of me.

This is the most corrected desire that exists at the end of correction. This desire has no lack because the Creator exists within it and fulfills it entirely. This is a great and perfect desire with only one thing missing: my connection to it.

This is similar to a transplanted organ that has to be accepted by the new body and feel its different parts, then nullify itself before them and connect through the incoming and outgoing blood vessels. This is how a transplanted organ becomes more and more familiar with this system, connects to it, and starts functioning together with it. It understands that everything depends upon the extent to which it was able to integrate itself into the system to become an indivisible part and literally lose itself in it.

This is called reaching Malchut (Kingdom) of the World of Infinity, the last degree of correction. The extent to which I connect to this new desire (group) is called Shechina (Divinity, the presence of the Creator) that is where I reveal Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, Rabash “The Matter of Schechina”

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “VaYeshev,” Selected Excerpts
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I must “force” myself to unify with the friends and constantly keep in mind that success lies solely in unity. This is what our common, collective aim should be: unified desires turned to the Creator. Unified, they become one shared desire aimed at the Creator, the property of bestowal, so that it would unfold and dwell within us.

We have to act as if that is what we yearn and beg for. This “as if,” bubbling all around me, saturates me with true desire. This is the rule of how the environment affects an individual.

As a result, having gotten inspired by the environment, everyone begins to cry out. It may not be an authentic action yet, but it is enough to draw the Light that Reforms. We cannot cry naturally. If we could, we would already be in the spiritual world and have the correct desire. Hence, our crying is insincere, but the Surrounding Light still illuminates us and brings us what we pretend to be asking for.

That’s the kind of game we are voluntarily playing, “If you plead as if you desire it, I will do as you ask.” Yet, I have to try to the best of my ability to imagine our corrected state as close to reality as I can. Thus, from Lo Lishma (not for Her Name) I transition to Lishma (for Her Name).

On the spiritual degrees, the Light responds even to an insincere plea. It is called the plea for correction. I am corrupted, and I ask the Creator to fix me. I ask reluctantly, specifically because I am flawed.

Herein lies the bridge from the corporeal to the spiritual world. While below the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), I am unable to beg naturally, but I am willing to exert effort to unite with the others.

Thereby, I carry out the agreement: I perform an action in response to which the Light comes in. In the corporeal world, I arrange a situation, a link, which allows me to trigger a reciprocal action in the spiritual world.

The same rule applies when we ascend a ladder in the corporeal world. However, the key lies in the qualitative transformation of my nature when the property of bestowal descends and starts governing me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/10, “All Who Suffer for the Public”

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 56: There is remission of work on Sabbath and on good days for each according to its Behina [discernment/essence]—like the ox, on which there is the yoke, and the donkey, on which there is the load—between those who have the burden of the kingdom of heaven, like Tefillin, who are exempted on Sabbath and good days, and the burden of the kingdom of idol worship.

The Zohar speaks of states: weekdays, holidays, Sabbaths, and beginnings of the month (Rosh Hodesh). These are special Lights that come from GAR of the World of Atzilut to the souls in Malchut.

The broken souls ascend from the worlds BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya) to Malchut of the World of Atzilut (Malchut de Atzilut) to the extent that they can connect to her, that is, desire to unify. Malchut de Atzilut turns to Zeir Anpin (ZA) de Atzilut, ZA to Abba ve Ima (AVI), AVI to Arich Anpin (AA), and, from AA de Atzilut, the Light returns to the same souls that have ascended to Malchut.

This Light that descends from Above varies in power and potency. There are Lights with the potency of Aleph (1st day of the week), Bet (2nd day), Gimel (3rd day), Dalet (4th day), Hey (5th day), Vav (6th day), and the Sabbath (7th day, Saturday). This is what we call them.

We can also describe them as the Lights that bring the desire to enjoy various qualities: Hessed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yessod, and Malchut (the last quality, Sabbath). That is why there are Lights which vary in qualities which we call weekdays.

When we conclude a degree, a special Light comes called Sabbath, and that’s when working is forbidden for we are incapable of working with Malchut, the desire to enjoy. We can only work with the part that can be attributed to the desire to bestow, the six qualities preceding Malchut.

That is why the seventh day of the week is a day of rest, a day off. What does that mean? There is no work, but all the preceding work is accumulated and revealed in Malchut.

Then, there are 30-day periods that are based on the moon, that is, ZA‘s attitude toward Malchut. There are the holidays of the New Year (Rosh Hashanah), Sukkot, Shavuot, and others. These are all the various Lights that come from the Rosh (head) of AA.

Therein lies the entire program by which we work. All these Lights are called “awakening from Above” (Itaruta de Leila) because this luminescence does not depend on us. These Lights are constantly changing and influencing us, evoking various states.

Although we say that the Upper Light is in absolute rest, by that we imply that it does not alter its program, course, or direction. It does its function whether we want it to or not. If we are able to draw additional luminescence from it, that is to our benefit. If not, it will take care of everything itself.

That is why it is called absolute rest and not inactivity, for every moment the Light does an infinite multitude of actions on which we have no impact. However, we can evoke from it additional influence onto ourselves.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Introduction “Among All the Sages of the Nations of the World, There Are None Like You,” Item 164
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 115
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 55
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Body and Soul,” Lesson 3
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