The most popular Israeli newspaper “Maariv (Evening)” published a big article about the recent Convention:

Excerpts from the article: Roberto from Mexico walks up onto the stage in a gigantic hall filled with thousands of participants. He is choking on tears and is barely able to speak.

Suddenly, we hear the words, as if he found a string in his throat: ‘You are my family,’  he says. ‘And I cannot live without you.’ The audience is crying. They will cry when Alexander from Russia will ask everybody to join the good within, and when Reuben from the United States will ask everybody to close their eyes and think about this special day.

Reporter: ‘I don’t understand why people are crying here. Do you?’

Alexander Demidov: ‘They are crying because they didn’t know that they would find so much warmth here, that everything here would be so close and true. It is like you suddenly discover you have a son. And you didn’t know he existed, that he is so nice, strong, and handsome.

This is what I feel when I see people from Japan and Turkey here, the people who say that we are closest to them. I didn’t cry because I am not that sensitive, but I felt short of breath.’
[27240]

Related Material:
An Israeli Newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth About The Convention

Filed under: Conventions, News - 3 Comments →

Question: The Creator is concealed, but instead of Him I have the group. How can I see pure bestowal in it?

Answer: There are always disturbances in the group, and it is precisely with their help that we can do wonderful exercises, practicing to become similar to the Creator. Any negative must be used precisely as it was intended in order to turn it into a positive.

Everything is for the best; we only have to act correctly, without backing down from what is happening and by building the right attitude to it. “Everything is for the best” does not mean that we accept the inevitable ahead of time, as people commonly do. Rather, above the disturbance or example we received, we must first of all discern the final point, the corrected state. Then I will find the way to turn the incorrect into the correct, to unite myself in the present, the disturbance (which may be related to the friends, the Creator, or even my personal circumstances), and the goal of creation.

I will find out how to correct any aspect, be it a desire, intention, thought, or event. Not only will I be able to justify it and attribute it to the Creator, but I will also attach it to a connection with Him. I will understand to what extent I have to reconstruct my desire and way of thinking in relation to the given event, and how much I have to change my perception of the event in order to see that the Creator has brought me goodness.

The sign of this will be joy: I am happy because the Creator has given me the opportunity to come that much closer to Him. That is how our efforts gradually accumulate into a great possession.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
The World Depends On Me
How Do You Become A Spiritual Superman?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Perception, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

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

Proof that Our Generation Has Reached the Days of the Messiah

Our generation is the generation of the days of the Messiah. This is why we have been granted the redemption of our holy land from the hands of the foreigners. We have also been rewarded with the revelation of The Book of Zohar, which is the beginning of the realization of the verse, “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31).
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

All the interpretations of The Book of Zohar before ours did not clarify as much as ten percent of the difficult places in The Zohar. And in the little they did clarify, their words are almost as abstruse as the words of The Zohar itself.

But in our generation we have been rewarded with the Sulam (Ladder) commentary, which is a complete interpretation of all the words of The Zohar. Moreover, not only does it not leave an unclear matter in the whole of The Zohar without interpreting it, but the clarifications are based on a straightforward analysis, which any intermediate student can understand. And since The Zohar appeared in our generation, it is a clear proof that we are already in the days of the Messiah, at the outset of that generation upon which it was said, "for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord."
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”
[25987]

Related Material:
Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 18

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources - No Comments →

Question: When we read The Zohar, we try to imagine something that we are not able to perceive as of now: the general soul of Adam HaRishon and unity. Doesn’t this mean that we are transgressing the law of the Torah by “creating an idol”?

Answer: This isn’t so. I don’t picture any material images of this world. I simply wish to sense a connection with others. For the time being, I picture this connection in my limited imagination and therefore see it as conventional relations. But being described is a feeling, a desire, and not material images. Though it may be egoistic, we are nevertheless trying to draw closer to a spiritual form. A person builds himself out of what he has.

We have to strive to reveal your connection with others. It already exists, only it is concealed from me. I try to find this connection through darkness and fog and wait for The Zohar to lift the veil that’s covering my senses and reveal the true picture.

I will see this picture with my heart rather than my eyes. Then I will truly feel everything that The Book of Zohar describes. Right now, I don’t know how it will be exactly, but it certainly will be in a form of interconnections.

After all, nothing exists but the types of interconnections among the parts of a spiritual desire, which are called “the soul.” The Light of NRNHY runs between these desires. Ultimately, this Light is the Creator.
[27415]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

Related Material:
Format Yourself For Spirituality

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Why is it said that in order to get corrected, broken souls have to rise to the World of Atzilut if at first we have to go through all the worlds of BYA, step by step, starting with Malchut de Malchut of the World of Assiya?

Where am I: in Malchut of the World of Atzilut or some place in the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, and Beria? If the Land of Israel is located in the World of Yetzira, whereas the most sacred place of the Temple that only the High Priest can enter is located in the World of Beria, how can I possibly be higher than him?

Answer: When I ask for correction, I rise together with a point in my heart to Malchut of the World of Atzilut, an assembly of souls of Israel. Our correction happens in Malchut of the World of Atzilut; it is our homeland, our Keter. Anything lower than the worlds of BYA is, in fact, dispersal of Malchut, her nine lower Sefirot.

All the worlds, Partzufim, and souls that are lower than the Parsa (beneath the borderline of the World of Atzilut) belong to Malchut de Atzilut. In other words, in order to get corrected, I have to rise there and connect with Malchut of the World of Atzilut. But where does the correction of me and my soul happen?

The common soul of Adam HaRishon is present in the worlds of BYA (starting with its “head” in GAR de Beria until the “feet” of the World of Assiya). If I raise my soul into Malchut de Atzilut and ask for correction, I receive the Light that Reforms from Above (it descends to me from the World of Infinity through all the worlds and is “meant” specifically for me). With this Light, I correct the connection between Zeir Anpin and Malchut of the World of Atzilut, which relates to me. Thus, I correct the broken connection between Malchut and Zeir Anpin (Shechina and the Creator).

I am representing the “bride’s friends” that support the Torah, which The Book of Zohar describes in the chapter called “The Night of the Bride.” I help her connect with the “Groom” and, therefore, I am called “a son of the bridal chamber.” By doing so, I correct my soul since Zeir Anpin and Malchut got separated only because of me, so that I would re-unite them and thus assemble all pieces back together.

When I re-establish the first connection between Malchut and Zeir Anpin, I correct my first spiritual level, Malchut de Malchut of the World of Assiya (see Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar ”). The second time that I manage to reconnect Malchut with Zeir Anpin, I correct my Yesod de Malchut de Assiya, and so on. Each time I support Malchut and thereby elicit her union with Zeir Anpin. This is how I correct my soul.

In other words, we always raise our request (MAN) to Shechina, meaning to Malchut of the World of Atzilut. But our correction and revival happens in the worlds of BYA since Adam HaRishon was born in the worlds of BYA and doesn’t sense anything outside of them; these worlds are his environment. He rises and falls together with them.

Since I want to please the Creator, my intention raises to Malchut de Atzilut. Because I do so, I get corrected in the worlds of BYA, within my environment.

Let’s hope to rise to the level at which we, like a High Priest, enter the “Holy of the Holies,” meaning Bina of the World of Beria. This is how I raise Zivug ZON (Zeir Anpin and Nukva) to AVI (Aba ve Ima).
[27425]

Related Material:
Keter-Hochma-Bina-ZA-Malchut

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: What should I do if at The Zohar lesson I feel like I am just wasting my time? Should I try to overcome this by faith above reason and suppress this sensation?

Answer: There are studies on human life showing that out of 70 years that we have to live, we spend 30 years sleeping, another 10 years eating, 5 years washing and doing an enormous amount of other things until at the end, after accounting for all these years, we have about one free day left – so what will you do during that day? You’ll probably sleep through it….

That’s why I ask you: What fills up your life so much that you feel sorry wasting your time on The Zohar lesson? Just think about how you live in this world for 70 years and then die, whereas here you have the opportunity to reveal eternal life. So perhaps it’s worthwhile to work for it a little.

You can persuade yourself and lie to yourself as much as you want; anything to stay in touch with this source. When a person comes to Kabbalah he first imagines something imaginary and unreal. However, we understand that the world to come is the quality of bestowal in which the Creator becomes revealed.

That’s when we acquire attainment and understanding of the Upper World. If you have attained this in your Kelim, that means it is yours and it doesn’t matter whether you are alive or your biological body has died.

The animate body was given for you to start with and to accompany you so that by starting with it you will be able to attain spirituality. Once you attain it, it means you have won, and if you haven’t attained it, you will receive another chance to do it later on.

Therefore, if the Creator has given you this opportunity and you are already sitting in the group reading Kabbalistic books, that means from now on the problem is only inside you. So don’t miss this opportunity!

Alternatively, you can decide that you do not agree with the Creator and go back to your regular life: “The shop is open and anyone can come in and borrow, but the Hand writes….”
[27808]
From the lesson on 11/25/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
An Apple In The Creator’s Garden

Filed under: Body and Soul, Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Spirituality, Zohar - 1 Comment →

The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “The Rose (Shoshanah),” Item 1, Lesson 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 136
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 58
ownload: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Body and Soul,” Lesson 4
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →