Question: How does the reading of The Book of Zohar help me to feel our collective desire?

Answer: The Zohar tells us about the corrected system of the connection between us. If I feel my connection with the others as uncorrected and desire to have it reformed, I study The Book of Zohar and in so doing wish to get elevated to its level, the level of the corrected connection.

I don’t know what the corrected state is and how I can ascend to it. I only know that I must reach the state The Zohar describes. I don’t understand what is written there; I don’t even have to know the language, it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that I strive to be corrected. To be corrected means to unite with the group, the society, the others, and come to loving the others as I love myself. After all, love means oneness between us, when desires of the others and my own are one and the same. Then, we are unified.

It is written that if you have one pillow, you have to reach a state when you give it to the other. Why? It is because his desire has become more important to you than your own. Why is this regarded as loving the other as you love yourself? Since previously you loved yourself more than him and now you must love him just as you used to love yourself, it is more than yourself. And this is what we call the property of bestowal that dwells in man.

It seems unrealistic, appalling, and undesired. I have no idea what we are studying it for. And that’s how everybody thinks. But there is no choice. Gradually, the importance of the property of bestowal sinks deeper and deeper in us. We start seeing the highest and unique value in it and gradually, agree to live in it. This is how the Light affects us, especially when we are reading The Zohar. It descends and reforms our attitude to bestowal.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, The Zohar

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #8 “What Is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Mishpatim,” Lesson 17
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 15
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Peace in the World,” “In Practical Life, the Four Attributes Contradict One Another”
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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We are all egoists. So how can we organize regular life in human society in a way where we won’t eat each other?

That is why people have agreed that we can’t manage alone, after all. Other people serve me in one way, and I serve them in some other way. Without that we just can’t manage. Once we understand this, we come to an agreement: Let’s do this without waiting for a disastrous situation. Let’s do it out of mercy: I give a little bit to you, and you give a little bit to me.

Suppose I am driving in a car and someone in front of me suddenly stops. Then I also have to stop. If there is someone standing in front of me in line, then I have to wait. I spend time, gas, and money on others because we have all agreed on mutual sympathy and have to pay for it.

We create funds to help one another, such as medical funds and retirement funds. A person understands that it’s worth it for him to pay the medical fund even if he is healthy because his egoism recognizes how it will benefit from this. That is how we make concessions ahead of time because we need each other. This is “mercy”: We are willing to bestow to others in specific ways because we won’t survive without them.

As a result, people divide into two categories: Some promote “mercy,” wishing for everything to be “pretty,” while others support the category of “truth,” which says: “Mine is mine and yours is yours.” So whose side is truth on? The answer is: neither.

However, if every person clings to what is his, then society is torn apart to pieces, whereas if we add mercy, then we can somewhat soften or sweeten the situation. As a result, human societies throughout history have differed from one another by the correlation of these two approaches.

Society can be softer or harsher. In its pure form, capitalism does not like to play around: If you earned it, receive what’s yours, but if you haven’t earned it, then you can starve to death. Others understand that this is not a solution because hungry people will come and rob you, and maybe will even murder you. So it’s worth it to give them something “out of mercy.”

That is how humanity develops, but it cannot achieve piece on this path. Granted, truth is the lot of the strong, and mercy is the lot of the weak, but justice stands in the middle as the foundation of the scale so our cups could sway to and fro.

That is how society keeps itself back from self-destruction, but this does not bring it any closer to real peace – to conciliation and mutual completion.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/11, “Peace in the World”

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Question: Does The Zohar talk about our one common soul or about separate souls?

Answer: The Zohar talks about the soul of one person. That’s because there is nothing else in all of reality besides one man, one soul, one creation, Malchut – it doesn’t matter what you call it.

And if it seems to us that there are many people, many desires that are separate and foreign, all of that comes from the lack of the right perception of reality.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/11, The Zohar

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Question: Can the “evil inclination” make any autonomous movement?

Answer: The “evil inclination” and the Light work in unison since the “evil inclination” is the other side of the Light. It isn’t some desire that does whatever it pleases. It doesn’t exist in reality.

On the contrary, the Creator, with the help of the Light, awakes in a person all sorts of sensations or the dark states, which are regarded as the “evil inclination.” What personal desire can possibly be there in the world?! Who can possibly have it?! Nobody moves because they wish so!

Only in the degree of a person’s ability to recognize the “evil” and the “good” inclinations and stay in the state of faith above reason does he start to reveal some possibility to be free in that state. Free from what, the Creator? From the “good” or “evil” inclination? To be free means that a person voluntarily agrees to carry out the action that the Creator will perform anyway.

There is no reality that would be occurring on its own volition. The Light works upon everything decidedly and irrevocably, and it can’t be reasoned with. The additional element regarded as “man” is nothing but the fact that a person understands, feels, and agrees with the Creator’s actions. All we add is our agreement, so much so that the Creator demonstrates to us: “Do this instead of me!” and we do what He does. This depends on the level of one’s understanding, the height of his attainment.

What other option do you really have? Everything is predetermined, as it is written: “He that is banished be not an outcast from Him.” Everything is under His total control. Nothing works but the Light. We add our equivalence with the Light, with the Creator. And hence, in order to bring us to this awareness, the “evil inclination” was created so that we had a counter desire to speak against it: “I don’t want to!”

It is intentionally so, in order to give us an opportunity to examine and comprehend this—from the struggle between good and evil, from our unwillingness and disagreement, like a stubborn child who rebels against his parents.

But gradually, we search, agree, and realize how perfect everything is. And then, even if the Creator didn’t exist and neither did His power, I still wish for everything to be done the way He did it. This is regarded as a “complete righteous” who totally justifies the Creator. Let’s hope we will come to it one day.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, The Zohar

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In every state of ascent, you should immediately imagine a state of descent. If you are able to do so, you remain in an ascent longer than one instant. And that’s enough!

You already received this impression, made a “record” (Reshimo), and if you continue it further, you start to enjoy this state egoistically. It turns out that you not in control of it any more, you don’t finalize or aim it correctly as you did before, when you entered it. Instead, you simply start receiving pleasure from it, turning it toward your egoism.

If a state of ascent continues longer than one instant, and you have acknowledged it and are not going to add anything to it, you should view it as a descent. In spirituality, if you do not add, but stay in the same timeline, the same momentum, at the same height, you turn into zero. In spirituality, only acceleration counts, rather than speed.

And spirituality is in the group, the place where unity is achieved, since within our unity, we reveal the Creator. So, we need to constantly examine ourselves in reference to this unity. If I contribute in the group the impression of the importance of the group compared to my own lowliness in regard to it, the value of the goal, spiritual work, and the Creator being revealed in our unity, then I act in the right direction.

Suppose I’ve exerted effort in this direction and managed to reach a certain awareness pertaining to spirituality, the property of bestowal; I got to feel and understand something in my current state. But I cannot remain in the same state longer than an instant after I have experienced it emotionally and mentally. After all, the next moment, by realizing that I did understand and feel, that I achieved something, I will start feeling selfish pleasure. It will be serving the ego from that moment on.

Hence, at the very next moment, you have to immediately add more desire yourself and seek even more! But where does one get this kind of need to constantly strive for more? How can one not descend into to his desire to enjoy, by letting himself rest and delay and gaining pleasure from what’s been accomplished?

Rabash writes that if a person has felt a state of ascent, he must immediately seek explanation for it in the books and articles, dive into them with this newly achieved current desire, and attain this state deeper and deeper. A person does so in order to receive from it an additional desire that will allow him to continue ascending further.

In fact, if we don’t ascend, we fall! It’s impossible to crawl on the “straight path”; in spirituality, it doesn’t exist. It is written: “No instant is like another!” I must make it so that the next one is more exalted than the previous one.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If we ascend to Infinity, then it looks like we will never get satisfied and will constantly desire more than we have, won’t we?

Answer: It isn’t an endless but a clearly defined ascent: 125 steps, the Light of Nefesh-Ruach-Neshama-Haya-Yechida (NRNHY), desires of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut. There is a limit to which I am supposed to unify with the others, until we become as one man with one heart, which is regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity, where we attain the Light of NRNHY, the Light of Infinity.

Everything lies within its borders; everything has a measure. When we hear “the Light of Infinity,” it means that the vessel and the Light are completely equivalent to one another and there are no restrictions. From the desire’s point of view, it is the infinite fulfillment by the Light.

If I fill a glass with water to the top, it means that it is infinitely filled. There are no restrictions: As much as the glass can contain so much liquid was poured into it. It is an infinite fulfillment since it isn’t limited by a certain level, above which it’s impossible to go. It received everything it could possibly receive.

Thus, at times, we experience a sensation of total fulfillment as if there isn’t a greater pleasure! This means that you have reached total fulfillment. There were 10 ounces of desire, and all of them are filled. If you don’t need to grow further, then you have reached your infinite fulfillment. But someone else might need the fulfillment valued at 10 tons, and until he has gotten them, he will feel restricted. Once he is filled, he will experience infinity.

Infinity doesn’t get measured by distance since there is no distance in spirituality. But when we reach unity among ourselves and all of us link together in the integral, ideal system, the upper Light, the property of bestowal, can be completely revealed within such perfect connection. This is what is called the Infinity. It is a quantitative notion, rather than a qualitative one.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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

Workers of the Creator Who Make the Torah Arid

There is a common opinion that the essence of the Torah is in the observance of the actions, and for this it is enough to study the revealed part of the Torah. … Yet, this is not the case. Our sages have already said, “Why should the Creator mind if one slaughters at the throat or at the back of the neck? After all, the Mitzvot were only given to correct people.”

…Hence, clearly, if the actions are not arranged for the desired goal, it is as if nothing exists. And it is also written in The Zohar: “A Mitzva (commandment) without an aim is like a body without a soul.”
– Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

The aridity and the darkness that have befallen us in this generation, such as we have never seen before. It is because even the worshipers of the Creator have abandoned the engagement in the wisdom of Kabbalah. … [Hence,] it is no wonder the whole generation is failing because of them.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 57

Those who confine themselves to the practical part of the Torah and do not wish to try to understand the wisdom of Kabbalah… and the flavor of commandments …make the Torah dry. Woe unto them, for with these actions they bring about the existence of poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing, and destructions in the world.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 70
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