When spirituality becomes revealed to a person, he or she begins to feel that a certain force fills the entire space around him, that it exists in this world. It is as if the air becomes more dense, thick, and gentle. This is the Creator’s force, the force of bestowal, the force of love that fills the entire world of a person.

We must evoke and demand it so it would reveal itself to us as a force that connects us together. Through it we will begin to perceive us all as one whole.

We just need to pay more attention to it, search for it lovingly and sensitively. Let us begin to feel it!
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From Lesson 4, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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The Book of Zohar requires a special preparation on our part. It is the most powerful source of Light and the force that will change our nature if we correctly prepare ourselves for working with it.

First of all, in our current state we have to maximally correspond to the Upper Light that The Zohar brings us. This is why, as much as we can, we are trying to become similar to the authors of The Zohar, Rabbi Shimon and his nine students. They explain that in the beginning of the spiritual work, the revelation of The Zohar, the Light of Hochma of the World of Atzilut, they are suddenly overtaken by mutual hatred. The Light they attract shines into their desires, and despite their yearning for unity, what arises among them is repulsion. Standing before the illumination of The Zohar, they see that they are opposite to it.

The path begins with the revelation of evil; a person has to feel this every time. Otherwise his first step will be incorrect. It is written, “I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah as a spice because the Light concealed in it returns us to the Source.” This is talking about three lines. The evil inclination is the left line, the Torah or spice is the right line (the Light that Reforms), and the middle line is our corrected soul, the desire of the left line that has been corrected by the intention of the right line.

The evil inclination, egoism, does not come by itself, but under the influence of Light. Then we turn to the right line, the Torah, and the Light that comes from Above returns us to the Source, the Creator, the middle line. The revelation of evil is the beginning of every phase on the path to coming closer to the Creator from zero until the End of Correction. Even the group of Rabbi Shimon, which was on very high levels, went through the same phases.

Without revealing our enemy, we cannot study Kabbalah and attract the Light. We are trying our best to unite, but then we feel that our heart is deaf and that a stale taste lingers in our mouth.

Yet the goal is great and it evokes the need for the Light, the Creator who will come and correct us. We will no longer leave Him alone until He appears and establishes a connection between the friends so we will become a common Kli in mutual guarantee, as one man with one heart in one desire. This is what I demand. Even if I don’t know exactly what this means, even if I don’t have the smallest inclination to unite, I am still shouting together with everyone.

That is how we are approaching the reading of The Zohar, from the desire to unite. Unity will enable us to attract the Upper Light. At first every person is by himself, and then by way of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), we will come to unity.

In this unity we acquire the Upper World. The spiritual degree surfaces inside our interconnection. At first we reveal the evil inclination between us and then we demand the Light that will unite us. Then the Light does its work and unites us in the middle line, in the common desire.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/10, The Zohar

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Question: I feel that the principle of spiritual work, “If I am not for me, then who is for me?” contradicts another principle, “There is none else beside Him” and connecting with the group.

Answer: I have to say to myself: “If I do not help myself, no one will help me reveal the Creator” because this refers to the desire to reveal the Creator, the property of bestowal. Nobody can help me with this. I can read a thousand books and listen to a thousand lessons, but at the end, the development of the desire is my inner work. I will reveal spiritual life (in the property of bestowal) only if I desire it instead of this life (in the property of reception).

There is no point in waiting for someone to help me. My desire should be so strong that for me “death is better than a life like this!” After all, this life is no life for me. I must attain spirituality!

Here I have to act according to the principle “If I am not for me, then who is for me?” This is because the Creator will not reveal Himself on His accord, He will not force the desire for Him on us. He gives fulfillment, not the desire. There is no coercion in spirituality.

But as soon as “If I am not for me, then who is for me?” reaches its completion, that is, I begin to understand that this only depends on me, then I immediately discover that I am unable to do it. I hate my egoism and I fear it like Moses fears Pharaoh. And then “they cried out because of this work” to become free of the power of the ego because neither I nor anyone around me can help me.

When we attain these two sensations, the lack of help from the inside and the outside, it is referred to as the last birthing contractions. Then desperation bursts from the very depth of the heart, and only then the Upper Force, the Light (GAR de Hochma), which births man on the spiritual degree becomes revealed. At that point, the principle of “There is none else beside Him” begins to operate.

This is why there is a stage of “If I am not for me, then who is for me?” and then that of  “There is none else beside Him.” This is because I cannot reveal that “There is none else beside Him” until I complete “If I am not for me, then who is for me?”
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From Lesson 4, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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We are disappointed from being unable to break through our egoistic shell (Klipa) and unite into one Kli. We have revealed that there is something lying between us that does not allow our hearts to merge into one desire and leave aside the bodies and this world.

In the end, this shell must show us that we are powerless before it. The huge desire to attain the goal, together with the inability to attain it ourselves, leaves us no other choice but to turn to the Creator.

Until we become totally disillusioned in our own powers and passionately wish to attain the goal, we forget about Him. Even if we would post notices all around us saying that it is necessary to ask the Creator for help, we still wouldn’t have a need for Him. This need comes when: 1. We desire it with everything we have, and 2. We are unable to enter the spiritual world. That is when we begin to attain and realize the fact that only the Creator can help us.

We received the first, wonderful disappointment at the Convention, and that is a great possession. Now we must only understand what we received, and while constantly thinking about it, strengthen our sensation.

Thought increases the desire, bringing out all of its components, and this enables us to keep advancing without new troubles by simply trying to clarify the state we were in more and more. This is enough. That is how we will form our demand to the Creator since there is none else besides Him and only He can help us oppose Pharaoh.

Besides, we will understand that the Creator acts in both directions. Pharaoh is also the Creator, but from the other side. It says in the Torah, “Let us go to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.” The Creator warns us about this ahead of time, “I am standing on your path. Do you want to break through? Then turn to Me with a request because I am the one who arranged this obstacle for you, and with My help you will break through.”

It is written concerning this, “My sons have defeated Me.” There is none else besides the Creator, but in order to realize this and demand His help, we need joint efforts, aimed at one goal: How to repel Pharaoh and be born to the Light.

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

The Opposition of the Study of the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Now you can understand the aridity and the darkness that have befallen us in this generation [lack of knowledge of the laws of life and the world], such as we have never seen before. It is because even the worshipers of the Creator [those who study the Torah] have abandoned the engagement in the secrets of the Torah [Kabbalah].
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 57

All the great Kabbalists unanimously cry out like cranes that as long as we deny the Torah of its secrets and do not engage in its secrets, we are destroying the world [since we do not attract the Light into our world any more].
– Rav Kook, Igrot (Letters), Vol. 2, p. 231
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At the Convention we tried to pass the Machsom, to be born into the spiritual world, to acquire a new sense and feel what there is outside the desire for pleasure. This perception is called external because it is aimed at bestowal.

What we found is that this is very difficult. The incoming pressure immediately cooled us down, “freezing” us.  We no longer wanted it, thinking that we were incapable of it. “Anything but this, anything but true unity and the Upper World that is inside it.”

As a result, our expectations did not come true. Egoism, Pharaoh, pushed us back. This enabled us to feel slight hatred for it, to reveal our enemy and hater, to start to understand that without overcoming it, we will not be born. The opponent has been identified and we discern him more and more clearly.

Now we have to carry out several more analogous actions. They will take on a new form each time because nothing is repeated in spirituality. It will seem as if the actions are the same, but they will be felt differently and in the next state we won’t be able to recognize the previous state any longer.

We are talking about the contractions of birth, called “Tzirim” in Hebrew, which is also the word for door hinges. The mother’s womb that we are in resembles the form of the closed letter Mem (ם). Mem is Bina, which closes us between two doors. In Hebrew the word “door” is Dalet. In other words, we are between two letter Dalets (ד), which make up the letter Mem.

During the contractions we push on the doors so they will open by sliding around the hinges. That is how the fetus pushes from the inside in order to come to the outside. (Tzir is a hinge, Tzirim are the hinges of the door, and Rehem is a womb, which comes from the word Rahamim, mercy, the quality of Bina.)

The Pharaoh, our egoism, obstructs our birth, having been deliberately created by the Creator in order to exert the opposite pressure until we acquire a strong enough desire, until we become worthy of seeing and feeling the Creator, the external reality, and to live in it. Otherwise we would be premature and not ready for the new world. It turns out that Pharaoh is a good force. Even though he appears like an enemy to us, in reality his opposition forms a sufficiently strong desire in us in order to open up the doors of the womb and let us emerge to the outside.

We have begun the work that will bring us out from Pharaoh’s power and I am very happy that we have reached this stage. I have waited for it a long time.

The greater the disappointment and the stronger the opposition, the deeper is the despair after a person’s expectations are unanswered and he is thrown back. This is the best thing for a person because his hatred for Pharaoh becomes greater. We have gone through one of the birth contractions. A few more contractions – and we will be born to the Light!

Let us force the speed; this depends on our work. Let the force with which we are dashing forward, and the force of the Pharaoh who pulls us back, unite into one decisive leap toward birth!
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From the lesson on Rabash’s article 11/12/10

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride),” Item 1
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 437
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 16
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” Lesson 1
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There are two parallel systems of connection between us:

1. The egoistical system, which is the one we experience at the moment.
2. The more internal, corrected system hidden behind the egoistic one. This is our next stage of development. In this system, pre-existing but concealed from us, we are in the intention of Lishma (for Her Sake), and it contains the Light, the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi).

If we, to the best of our ability, connect to the next state, desiring to attain it, then we draw upon ourselves the influence of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that affects us from afar. How do we reach the connection between these two rungs, the present and the future, so that the Surrounding Light will affect us from there? Between them there is a difference, a transition from “Lo Lishma” (not for Her Name) to “Lishma,” and I need the Ohr Makif to perform this transformation in me.

How is it done? We do it by reading The Book of Zohar. This is why Kabbalists wrote books for us. If we strive to reach this Upper system, our more internal, corrected, and close connection, we read about it.

It is irrelevant that while reading it, we understand nothing. This is due to the difference between the rungs (states, worlds). How can I comprehend the Upper World if I am not in it and don’t even exist in relation to it? Of course I’m unable to feel it, and therefore have no understanding of it. But I am reading about it.

Kabbalists wrote about the Upper World in a language I cannot understand, and I look at these letters without any idea of what they say. But I look with an effort, like a child who is trying to understand this world, and through my efforts and desire to know the Upper World, I draw the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) onto myself. This is the whole purpose of reading The Zohar.

Today at our lesson, our friends, representatives of 50 countries, are present with us. Let everyone look at these unfamiliar letters and desire to attain spirituality, and let them hear the words of The Zohar without any comprehension whatsoever. With their desire to learn, to live in it (we are talking about the soul in its more exalted state), by their efforts and yearning, the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), affects them.

In other words, while reading The Book of Zohar, we have to connect together and wish to feel (as opposed to understand) what The Zohar describes. Then The Book will reveal the screen within us, and on it we will see everything that takes place in the Upper World.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, The Zohar

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It is a known fact that our efforts and cries alone will not help. They are like a cry of a baby, and there needs to be someone Who will hear it: a mother, Bina, or the Creator.

A cry can only be heard when it is the correct cry, that is, when it is directed towards the true goal of uniting, acquiring of the force of bestowal. This is why we need to connect together in order to create specifically the desire to bestow among us, and then we can scream for the Creator together.

And this is why we read The Zohar together, wishing to connect with one another, even if it is over the Internet, television, or other types of communication. It doesn’t matter that for now our connection is egoistic because each of us is driven by the desire for our own sake (Lo Lishma). We are ready to connect, yet still want to benefit from it. Such is our nature and there is no use in lying to ourselves.

We are egoists, and each one of us understands that he is connecting with others in order to somehow benefit from this. Otherwise, none of us would be able to make the slightest action, and we would not have the energy to connect with others.

But this physical connection (gathering in one place or virtually at the same time in one thought) is the only action allowed to us. This is because for now we are only able to perform physical actions (the so-called actions performed in our egoism).

Besides this action, we need for the Upper Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), to influence our egoistic connection. It is referred to as surrounding (Makif) because it shines from afar, from our next state, from the corrected desires (Kelim), in the “Lishma” desires that have the intention to bestow.

So if we really to try to strive toward it, we will evoke its influence over us because we exist in the world of physical laws of nature (the Creator). We evoke this Light over us by reading The Zohar because we unconsciously connect to our next degree.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, The Zohar

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Whether we want it or not, we need to learn how to become similar to the Creator, to come closer to Him, and be like Him. The Creator is the Upper Force of nature, and it operates everywhere in the lower nature, affecting all of its parts.

The Creator once broke the creature into the parts in the same way that our world was formed as a consequence of the Big Bang, when a small, upper spark broke through, exploded, and created our entire universe. The same way, the Creator created all the spiritual worlds through the descent of the Light all the way down to our world.

And now an opposite correcting force is beginning to collect all these parts in the spiritual space, and we have no way of avoiding this. Resisting this connection is the same as fighting the forces of nature; it will only bring us suffering until we give up.

If we resist, we will evoke enormous suffering over ourselves, and not just the usual problems with family, life, or health, but horrible epidemics, ecological catastrophes, and even atomic wars as Baal HaSulam wrote about. Everything only depends on our resistance and lack of desire to constantly follow the force of correction in order to better correspond to it.

All of this happens according to a very specific program. When we advance according to it, we feel good and comfortable. When we accelerate the realization of this program and even want to run ahead of it, we feel even better because we attract the Creator with our actions and force Him to do even more by rushing nature, as it is said, “Those who strive towards the Creator hasten time.”

But when we fall behind, our suffering and problems increase to the extent of our delay as they strive to push us to develop. And this is not because the Creator wishes to punish us; rather, this is the way everything operates according to the law of nature!

There is nothing here except the laws of nature, which we can come to understand and see how they push us as if in a force field. The further or closer I get to the place of balance, the force of the field (its intensity) influences me in proportion to the square of the distance, as it strives to return me to balance. For example, I distance myself to one measure and the pressure of force doubles; I distance myself to two measures and the pressure quadruples.

I need to understand that my slightest movement, a tiny step back immediately attracts enormous forces of suffering. This is because any field, whether it is the Light field, magnetic field, or the field of gravity, always operates in a square function. The spiritual field operates the same way. The laws of the Creator are constant.

It is written that the righteous pay double. This is why even a slight deviation to either side causes a huge impact, a positive one or, God forbid, a negative one.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Future Generation”

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