Question: I am quite convinced by what Baal HaSulam says about the fact that there is no chance for us to comprehend spirituality with our corporeal mind because if somebody wanted to lure me into it, they would promise me exactly the opposite. But it is still painful to realize that I am unable to understand anything. Why is it so?

Answer: It is because you don’t have spiritual organs of perception, awareness, or sense.

I always bring up a memory of a very vivid example I received when we were working on a musical adaptation of one of Baal HaSulam’s melodies .The home owners’ fat cat was always near us while we worked. We cried and were overwhelmed with feelings, while the cat just lay there totally undisturbed; only his ear would occasionally twitch when the music was getting too loud.

Both of us live in corporeal bodies, in the very same world, but a cat cannot understand me. It lacks the ability to feel. How can you explain to a cat what emotions we wish to express through music?

But trust me, to teach a cat to comprehend a symphony is a less complicated task than for us to comprehend spirituality. After all, the animal is at the same level in this world, while we need a much stronger impact of the upper Light in order to bring us to sense the spiritual world.

And then, according to this sense, you will immediately begin to understand what every word a Kabbalist says means. You will hear some words with external hearing, but the internal sensations will start unfolding in you. Imagine yourself speaking with a cat, when it suddenly starts understanding you….
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: If all our work is to find the place of our breaking, what are we lacking then in order to do it?

Answer: You simply don’t want to reveal it! Why should you disclose your envy and hate? It is much easier and safer to remain apathetic.

A person feels that the friends, “the others,” simply don’t seem to exist. In Kabbalah, “the other” is a person whom I feel as being outside of me. I know that everybody is supposed to be within me if my perception of reality is correct, yet I feel them as outsiders in relation to me, someone who is distant and abhorrent. And it frightens me: Do I really hate the parts of my own soul this much?! That is exactly how the force of the breaking feels. I know that it is a lie, and I want to fix my distorted sight!

Try to attempt to see that all the friends are related to you. Even the whole world already sees how round and interconnected it is. But we don’t arrive at this conclusion from the external side due to the lack of choice. This is what the rest of the world does, by getting blows that point at people’s interconnectedness. Our path is internal and in this way, we gradually discover that all of us are one whole and are linked in an integral system.

Knowing all this, I look around and see people who are alien to me. I don’t feel what they are thinking about, what they desire. Moreover, I don’t even care about them; I am unable to keep focusing on them, let alone feel them. Not even one of them!

In other words, I realize that it is a total breaking: I am ill with a horrible disease. In fact, I see that I completely lost my sensitivity, my ability to feel all these parts that must become mine. I am disintegrating like a corpse. After all, death is when the life force leaves the body and it starts turning into dust. I feel as if I am losing my arms and legs. It throws me into a panic.

I can see and feel all of this in the organs of perception (Kelim) that evolve in me thanks to the study of Kabbalah and that in the future will become my properties of love and bestowal. But love starts with our revelation of hate towards the others, and we begin to hate it within ourselves.

And now I am living this hate, my inability to feel the other because I don’t care about him. And even worse than that, I measure my success by their failures. The worse they feel, the better I feel. What a perverted and distorted perception it is, and how blind I am that I think of the others in this way.

Rabash gives an example of a person who suddenly finds out that the child next door who annoyed him so much is in fact his son. It is possible to repair this picture only if you strive to see how everyone in the group is eager to correct this distortion together.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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We always experience extreme difficulty when studying anything relative to Partzuf Adam HaRishon (“the First Man”), which consists of two parts, the male and female ones, Adam and Eve (Zachar and Nukva). It could be the simplest of things, but since our structures are different (it has the spiritual structure while we have the material one), in our case 1+1=2, and in its, 1+1=3 (as it is written, “Husband and wife, the Creator, Shechina (Divinity), between them”). And we are incapable of understanding this.

We don’t need all these infinite details that are described in Talmud Eser Sefirot; we study them only in order to draw the Light that Reforms. And inside the entire content that we discuss, there is our intention, the expectation that the Light will come. That’s all we are talking about.

But we have to keep in mind that it talks about me, the structure of my soul, the various spiritual states it undergoes. I don’t feel them just yet, but all of them are given to me for one reason: to live through each state, from start to end. I can’t escape any single state described in the book.

Each of us passes through the same states on this path. Therefore, a student’s job is to cleave to the upper one, to the teacher. After all, the upper one has already gone through these states, and by clinging to him, you will pass through them as well. We draw the Light namely by studying what is written about your soul.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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All the problems in the world are caused by the fact that Israel, those who are yearning for the Creator, are not carrying out the task they have been entrusted with. That is what Kabbalists write. We are not bringing the method of correction to the world or educating them about it.

Essentially, the world is not expected to do anything; it just accepts this method from us, and we are the ones who put it into practice. Therefore, all work is supposed to be done by us. We start and finish it.

The world will supply you with the desires (Kelim) if you find a way to appeal to and receive them from it. The world itself doesn’t perform any actions. In other words, its actions will derive from nature itself. It is written that “The nations of the world will carry Israel on their shoulders.” They will do it when the correction unfolds.

However, only those possessing free will have two forces: the female and the male (the desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow it). They are the ones regarded as “Israel,” which means “straight to the Creator” (Yashar El). In the middle line they can draw the Light that Reforms for the entire world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 24/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Can the circulation of Kabbalah serve as a springboard for doing the work in order to bestow, as desire does?

Answer: Circulation is a priority. After all, by spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, I give explanations to the whole world so that people may wake up. And as a result, I will receive their desire aimed for correction.

Desires that awaken in us, in the world movement of “Bnei Baruch,” in those who aspire to the Creator (Israel), are not sufficient. We need to store desires from all over the world, and to achieve this, we must spread the wisdom of Kabbalah. Such dissemination is regarded as the “Messiah’s Horn.”

Thanks to these desires, we will be able to deliver the method of transformation correctly, to make it lighter and simpler for all. The way we present it depends upon who is sitting before us and to whom we give all the explanations. In accordance with that, we can speak more freely, openly, and simply, all because we absorb the desires of others.

This is why we need desires from that part of humanity that cannot repair itself. And then, strength will be given from Above to the part that is capable of correcting itself so that the second part may get corrected through the first.

And if there is a part yearning for the Creator (Israel), which is able to establish a connection with Him, then the part that doesn’t have direct connection with the Creator must be attached to it. Then both of them, “Israel” and “the nations of the world,” will receive powers and repair themselves.

However, if they aren’t mutually connected, Israel won’t receive strength from Above since on one’s own, a person doesn’t require correction. He was broken solely in order to transform the peoples of the world. And the nations of the world, or those who cannot wake up by themselves, won’t receive the strength either since they don’t have anyone to receive it from. Then, the nations of the world will turn their hate and bad influence onto Israel in order to wake it up to the fulfillment of their task.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is Your Wisdom and Cleverness in the Eyes of the Nations in the Work”
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 1
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Question: How can we attain unity?

Answer: Unity means that according to all the desires of the Giver and the receiver, the two unite with one another like the guest and the Host in Baal HaSulam’s famous example.

The guest has nothing to give to the Host besides his attitude, provided that he develops the same attitude to the Host as the Host has to him. Meaning, we don’t take into consideration the fact that the guest uses his appetite, and the Host—his power. They are initially this way: one is the Creator, and the other is creation.

But if we remove these initial conditions, the fact that one is the Creator and the other is creation, since they have to attain total equality, then by what criterion can they be equal? According to their attitude, which they build without any connection to what existed before.

That is, we must ascend in the relationships between us so it wouldn’t matter that He is the Creator, He is primary, and He created me in the desire to enjoy and does anything He wants with me because all of this initially comes from Him, being the upper root. And it doesn’t matter that I, the creation, am unable to do anything more than that.

However, if He and I attain this state where we have absolutely equal opportunities, then out of our equal opportunities we desire to attain adhesion and unity. First of all, the Creator and creation have to attain the state where they are both completely equal and independent from one another—the creation from the Creator and the Creator from the creation.

Once we are equal and we have the opportunity to create any connection between us that each of us freely desires, we attain the state where we desire only love, unity, and adhesion between us.

As Baal HaSulam explains, the guest and the Host reach a state where they depend on one another in equal measure: the Host on the guest and the guest on the Host, like children and parents. Then the will to enjoy contained in creation and the will to bestow that the Creator has both harness one another and obligate each other. And even though on one hand the Creator is able to do anything, this does not indicate anything because He feels love for creation and this love limits Him, enabling Him to do only what love dictates, rather than everything He can do.

That means that the force of love is the force of restriction, the reverse force operating in the Creator. It does not let you do anything. You cannot destroy the person you love. Love rules.

Therefore, the condition of unity is equality—in opportunities, forces, abilities, and freedom of expression. Once the equality is there, then out of all of these opportunities we activate precisely the force of love and attain unity.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/11, The Zohar

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Upbringing as we understand it has lost the meaning it had in previous generations when we used to raise children so they would be good, kind, cheerful, and pleasant, behave properly, and so on. Upbringing today is something altogether different and we are increasingly sensing that it is necessary to all. That’s because “receiving an upbringing” or “education” means knowing how to act with yourself, with the environment, with the country and the world, as well as in different situations that happen to us.

Stated differently, “upbringing” is a person who changes inside of me, while my parents and surroundings help me to build myself correctly so I would know how to live my life well, confidently, and securely. After all, everything we learn as children later becomes our nature, and then we can behave well effortlessly. This is also confirmed by the latest research which shows that children’s education from the ages two until six or seven is what serves as their foundation.

Our development throughout all of human history unfolded in the egoistic direction where every person thought only of himself: How can I succeed, how can I earn, and how can I swindle everyone without being harmed myself? This is the simple, egoistic formula by which a person was previously taught how to arrange his life. And this really was considered the right education.

Today this is starting to change as we feel that the world has become integral, meaning connected with all of its parts, on all levels, and in all elements. We are facing a very serious problem because we do not correspond to the new world that is now appearing and coming to us. A new governance is becoming apparent, a new method, and a new law of Nature.

Previously I didn’t care about anything. I could cut down forests over here, dry up lakes over there, and do anything I wanted in society. Each of us personally was able to do anything he wished without asking others.

However, now we have reached a world in which there is no freedom of the individual. Now you cannot do anything you like even in your own backyard unless it is for our good because whether you want it or not, through the common connection between us you evoke a blow upon everyone.

We do not know which of our actions bring harm and what the consequences are because we aren’t yet integrally connected with one another in our consciousness. And if I want to have some work done or make a deal with someone, then I have to take the whole world into consideration. But I am unable to do so. I cannot accept the fact that I influence the world and I don’t know whether the world will benefit from this or not.

Yet since all of us together make up a single organism, even a small tremor will later influence the whole system, just like in our animate bodies. If we don’t have the right attitude to the nature that is now being revealed, then what will happen to us? It means that I will not be able to succeed in business, nor at work, nor in upbringing, nor in my attitude to anyone.

Soon the connection between us will manifest to such a degree that unless I consider all of the consequences of calling the police or my landlord, for example, then I will definitely cause harm. In other words, as the science of Kabbalah explains to us, having reached the current level of development, we are already required to correct man’s nature. This correction is for all of us to unite “as one man with one heart” by the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.”
From my lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 2/8/11

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The Kabbalistic “language of branches” is the language of those who attain spirituality. It is incomprehensible for a person who hasn’t attained the connection of the branches with the spiritual roots.

First, I have to start sensing the upper world. And then, hearing the words that belong to the lower world, I will clearly understand what phenomena of the spiritual world, in which I exist together with the authors of Kabbalistic books, they point to. I will acquire a common language with Rabbi Shimon and Baal HaSulam since I, too, will be at the same level or place, that they are telling about.

Since I exist in this world in my physical body, I know what the words of this world mean: “sun,” “earth,” “vegetation,” “donkey.” First, I become familiar with the terms themselves, and then I hear their names: words, language. I ascribe this real, perceptible object, the “sun,” a name in any language. This is how we name all phenomena of this world, thereby creating a language, and it allows us to comprehend what is being described.

If I exist in the spiritual world as well, I attain an additional reality called “sun,” “earth,” “vegetation,” “donkey.” I sense these properties and find out their names. Now the author of the Kabbalistic book starts explaining to me the connection between all these phenomena of the spiritual world by using the words of this world.

Since I exist in attainment of the connection between the material branches and the spiritual roots, it’s clear to me what he points to in the spiritual world. This “language of branches” turns into my language; it explains everything to me.

When we teach a child to talk, we show him objects and name them. This is how we can explain everything to a “child” in the spiritual world as well. For this, he needs to sense the spiritual reality and discover how it is called. That is, he needs help in understanding the connection between branch and root as well as the connection between parts of the spiritual reality.

Kabbalists teach us to find our bearings in the spiritual world with the help of the “language of branches.” But first we need to sense what the spiritual flowers, grass, or sun are….

There are spiritual terms which a person does not yet sense, while a Kabbalist helps him perceive them. This language advances, builds us. The connections inside the language explain to us the meaning of words or why the words are composed out of particular letters. This is because in Hebrew, the form of the letters and their order in a word indicate the properties of a spiritual object that has this particular name. This is how the spiritual information is passed down to us.

This language is already prepared for us because all the worlds, from Above downward, are interconnected. We are born into this world, feel it, and get to know the connection between the words. Now we must rise from the lower world to the upper one, and we take everything that there is in this world, the knowledge of all branches and all their names, and start ascending equipped with this.

The connection directed at the root has extended upward till Infinity. Each level contains everything that exists in our world, but each time it becomes revealed to us in more qualitative terms, meaning that they are more strongly connected with one and unified root.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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