This new book is about Baal HaSulam, the greatest Kabbalist of all times. Baal HaSulam climbed all 125 degrees of the spiritual ladder. He felt an ultimate connection with the force governing the universe. He lived in the 20th century and foretold all the events that followed. He had a passionate desire to spare humanity from misfortunes and suffering. This is the reason why he revealed The Book of Zohar to everyone.

The author of the book is my student, film director and scriptwriter Semion Vinokur. The book is currently being translated into English.
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Question: Who or what gives me an example of the next level?

Answer: The example of the next level is given to you by darkness. That’s because the next level first becomes revealed as darkness. However, I have to try to discern the Light in it, which is something great and special. It only seems like darkness to my ego, but if I had a desire to bestow, then I would see the Light and the entire system of souls that are filled by infinite Light.

Therefore, darkness is the example of the future degree, until I turn this darkness to Light.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

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Once a person gains experience, he sees that he is unable to do anything by himself. All of his notions of good and evil are built on personal benefit, and therefore the ascents and descents that he experienced were actually unreal. He evaluated his good attitude to spirituality, the inner ascent, as “day,” while his negative attitude to spirituality seemed like “night.” But that is incorrect.

“Night” is a state where a person makes discernments, firmly knowing that they are egoistic and that he is unable to ascend above his egoism. And if he is able, then it is only thanks to the Light that grows slightly stronger and gives him these moments. The Creator helps a person to “peek” out of himself to the outside, and only then does he merge with bestowal. This is “day” for him.

I have to be ready for the constant “therapy” of the Creator, who takes my evil that hides beneath the grain of good and transforms it to bestowal, revealing new goodness to me. It is impossible to convey these things. They come only as a result of inner work. Until then, Rabash writes that “You cannot greet a friend” because your “friend” is not good yet. First you have to attain peace (Shalom) or perfection (Shlemut) with the Creator, and then you will reach conciliation with your “enemies,” meaning you will return to your egoistic desires above which you have ascended. You will take them and complete your work with them.

At first a person greets his “friend,” meaning his desire, acquiring bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Then he also greets him with reception for the sake of bestowal, meaning that he returns to his desires and works with them. That is how he attains the final correction.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Is joy a criterion of advancement?

Answer: When I merge with the Creator and place myself under His influence, I feel that I make Him happy.

Question cont’d: But don’t we come from despair? Should I be happy myself or just know that He is happy?

Answer: Sometimes a person feels despair, but this does not bring about progress. I cannot come closer to the Creator in this state. It’s best to do everything possible to avoid immersing in despair. It is written, “A fool sits with his hands folded and eats himself up.” It is Klipa to think that we advance out of despair.

When I grievingly revel in my evil hoping to advance, the Klipa obstructs the truth from me. I do not see the Light, the Creator, the world full of corrections, joy, and fulfillment. I am in the evil like a worm in a radish and there is no way for me to move forward from here.

We never advance out of evil. Imagine a child immersed in evil. How will he grow? He will be barely able to, or won’t grow at all.

We grow only out of joy, fulfillment, and good influence. Therefore, we have to put all our energy to coming out of despair and running forward, away from it. An extra moment spent in despair is already bad. You’re better off going to take a nap; anything but to get used to being in despair.

Question cont’d: What does it mean to greet the Creator first and then to greet people?

Answer: This means that first of all you have to make contact in your thoughts with the goal of your life, the reason you were created, and why are you doing, thinking, and deciding this? And of course, it’s in order to reveal the Creator inside of you. This means that you have greeted Him. After that you already turn the person inside of you and greet him in order to bring him to the Creator’s level.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The request to correct my repulsion from the friends seems very mechanical to me. Don’t I have to attain a need for correction?

Answer: If you wait for a need for correction, you will never attain it. It’s not the necessity that precedes our work, but the work that precedes the necessity. Then the necessity emerges.

If I work according to necessity, then I am an animal. If I work above the desire, then I am human.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

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Question: If our entire reality and world are imaginary, then isn’t the fact that we are now reading The Book of Zohar also an illusion?

Answer: Of course! The Zohar is not a book, but a higher illumination. It is Light that comes to us from the system of souls, the Light filling our souls.

Similarly, who is Rabbi Hamnuna Saba about whom we read in The Zohar? This is a special, great Light and a very high degree. How do I attain him? If I attain a specific degree of connection between the souls, then the degree of their connection, the mutual bestowal among them becomes revealed as Light which is called Rav Hamnuna Saba, and if it happens on a small degree, it is his son. The Light is the degree of bestowal between the souls.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

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Question: What does it mean to enter the environment?

Answer: To enter the environment means that I feel or imagine myself as being inside the system where all souls are connected together. I advance together with them and depend on them. They are higher than me and through them I can receive the Light that corrects and fulfills me.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

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Question: You said that inner discernments begin even before the Machsom. But what should I discern if I still haven’t acquired the quality of bestowal and am entirely immersed in my will to enjoy?

Answer: It is precisely before the Machsom that you must discern just how much you desire everything in life only for your own good. However, these discernments are made with the help of the Light.

I constantly check: Am I doing this for myself or for the sake of others? I do this in relation to everyone and in all directions. I constantly discern what my thoughts and calculations are: “I hate him, but I have to ascend above this because my hatred comes from my ego, my will to enjoy. But if I ascend above my ego in the intention of bestowal, then I will start to love this person and act for his good. Even though this will evoke negative sensations inside the will to enjoy, in my intention I will feel that I have ascended to holiness and bestowal.” These discernments take place constantly before the Machsom.

Try to enjoy the fact that you are trampling your ego. One might think that this is masochism, a psychological disorder. But it’s not a disorder because at the same time you are united with your future inner quality of bestowal, which is good. You identify yourself with this new quality.

This does not mean that you like suffering. No! You like being inside this new quality of bestowal, and therefore you try to ascend above your will to enjoy. Even though you suffer inside it, you still enjoy in the quality of bestowal. And after making the discernment, you suddenly feel, “There’s absolutely no reason for me to suffer! On the contrary, I have turned my will to enjoy to the will to bestow, and this enabled me to ascend even more!”

This is not simple. But by virtue of several such actions, it happens. In any case pleasure is a sign that an action has reached completion: either in reception, Klipa, or in bestowal, holiness. Either way, pleasure has to happen as the completion. We enjoy in any case because the goal of creation is to enjoy.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/11, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is the Prohibition to Greet Before One Greets the Creator in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Donkey Driver,” Item 109, Lesson 7
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 60, Lesson 35
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Lesson 1
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