The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34:29-34:30:So Moses came down from Mount Sinai. And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with Him. Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; and they shrank away from him.

The vivid story of the Torah is expressed by images and so we may think that Torah is the source of the drawing of icons and figures with a halo. But in fact, icons came into use as a means for telling ignorant people what cannot be expressed in writing since people were illiterate. So the content of the Torah was passed on orally and expressed in pictures.

The pictures are original conventional symbols, each conveying a specific event, like the “life of the holy.” This is where all the icons and from which everything that we call the “pictures of the saints” stem from. On the whole it is a means of conveying information, since in those days there were no other means but drawings.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/30/13

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34:29: So Moses came down from Mount Sinai. And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact… This is about Moses‘ descent back to Malchut. Having received the Light and the power to work with the egoistic desire, with the created being, he descends in order to start its correction.

The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34: 29: …Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with Him. Moses didn’t feel that he was full of the Light of Hochma that illuminates in Hassadim. A person doesn’t feel the level he is on because he lives in it and can only feel it when he ascends or descends relative to a certain environment. Just like a baby who can grow and become a king’s son or the son of a pauper, but who doesn’t realize his state yet. A person also measures his level only in comparison to others.

Thus, Moses doesn’t feel that he has acquired the level of Bina. The point is that when a person descends from the level of Bina in order to convey the upper Light to the lower, he doesn’t feel that what he brings to them is a heavy burden, as his immense personal gain, because he does it for them.

This means that the AHP appears from Bina only in order to give to the lower. So a person feels that he is in the attribute of bestowal, but he doesn’t feel to what extent this attribute is revealed in him in the form of physically giving the Light that stems from him to the lower. It’s below his level since he is on the level of Bina, which is characterized by “I have nothing and I don’t need anything.”

But when he begins to descend in order to convey everything to the people, he takes as much as they need with him, but he is not included in this bundle. The attribute of Bina annuls pride; there is complete self-annulment, and so a person doesn’t feel his state.

The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34:30: Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face was radian; and they shrank from coming near him. The glow is the illumination that can only be received in the attribute of bestowal. But it repels the people from Moses because they don’t have this attribute yet.

They cannot resemble him and so they withdraw from him because they have no means of correction yet. This is what happens today. We have to change, but how and into what?

Now we already begin to realize that if we continue to treat each other egoistically, we will not survive. But how can we change and is it possible? The wisdom of Kabbalah answers this question because it is the method of drawing the Light of correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/30/13

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34:31-34:34: But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the chieftains in the assembly returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he instructed them concerning all that the Lord had imparted to him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would leave the veil off until he came out; and when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded… .

When Moses appeals to the Creator, he receives twice as much, as he has to pass on to the people. The middle Partzuf receives a double portion from the upper in order to be great too, in order to understand, and then it passes a small portion of the Light to the lower.

In our world, a girl, to become a mother and have a child, has to grow up and become a woman, which means to acquire a state of greatness in order to give birth to a smaller state. Similarly, Moses attains the level of connection with the Creator only in order to pass on the whole method of correction to the lower.

Question: What does it mean that “he put a veil over his face?”

Answer: Hiding one’s face symbolizes the passing of the Light through the Masach (screen), which weakens the Light because otherwise the people will not be able to receive it. Suppose Moses has Reshimot (spiritual genes) 3, 2 and the people have Reshimot 2, 1, that is the next level. Moses has to lower himself and withdraw from his state in order to align with the people since any spiritual transfer is according to the equivalence of form.

On the one hand, he has to be in contact with the Creator, and so he reveals his face and cooperates with Him. Then he has to cover his face, which means to lower himself in order to cooperate with the lower.

Moses is the conductor between the Creator and the people, and he prepares himself for that from the start by saying to the Creator, “destroy me,” since there is nothing for me on this level. He doesn’t eat or drink for forty days, which means that he ascends to a level where nothing remains of a person except for the Reshimo from his previous life.

We perceive this state through our ego, and then it seems like endless suffering. But in fact, it’s a tremendous elation, detachment from falsehood and becoming part of the truth. In fact, it’s the only thing that justifies everything since the truth includes a state that is contrasted by nothing.

Everything else is false, slander, evil gossip, fiction, idle thoughts, it is unfounded and imaginary. In fact it’s the only thing that exists, and so a person can give up everything in order to be in this state.

The Israelites would see how radiant the skin of  Moses’ face was. Moses would then put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with Him. (The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34:35). The people of Israel gradually receive small portions of Light from Moses, which correct and raise them, and this is called wandering in the desert, building the Tabernacle, etc.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/30/13

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Preparation for the Lesson

Workshop 

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “VaYechi,” “Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt,” Item 15

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, “Histaklut Pnimit,”  Item 44   

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 16   

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Question: I was constantly at war with the Creator and I always argued that only I exist. And He, the good and benevolent, let me do this, and after that He took everything from me and brought me to a Bnei Baruch group.

The fact that there is a group and a teacher is proof that “There is none else besides Him.” The Creator always teaches me to nullify myself in regard to the group and all that I have left is fear and awe that because of this nullification I could miss the action called “I will hasten it” (Achishena).

Answer: But it is specifically the approach towards the Creator through the group that is called hastening (Achishena).

Question: So why do I feel this fear?

Answer: Because you are not in a covenant, with the group or with the Creator. You don’t have any faith to fall into the hands of the group, the teacher, and all the more so, the Creator. How can you nullify yourself if you don’t have an inclination like this?

Question: Meaning that I feel an indication that I am not there yet?

Answer: Indications gradually change, become more subtle, precise, and narrow.

Time is running out, and you need to feel for yourself how you are advancing forward. Are you placing yourself in the right way regarding the group or do you have many philosophical thoughts that come out of your egoistic mind? You cannot trust this intellect and rely upon it; this is impossible.

You need to rise above everything that is in you today. Spirituality is on the next level and you want to rise to it by using your present emotions and intellect. It will not happen.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Lesson 1

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Question: My physical group, which is closest to me, is a four hour journey away by train. I meet with it once a month. I don’t see and don’t know the trend and direction of advancement of this group.

But the trend and the direction of my virtual group, which meets daily and lives in my heart, I understand. And I try to hold onto it with both hands in order not to deviate and move to the side. Is this enough for spiritual progress, or in spite of all this, is it necessary to change something?

Answer: If you are in contact with your virtual group all the time and this is a good, strong group that tries to be together and to participate in all of our events, and first and foremost in the lessons, even if it is not at the actual time, because we live in different time zones, then this is enough. Moreover, you travel once a month to visit the physical group.

More than this, it provides you with a good indication between the physical and virtual inner perception. And this is good.

To the degree possible, come to all of the various conventions, because you see how participating in it, you can take off in one week.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Lesson 1

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Question: What is the right way to approach the public today in our generation, is it through the mind or through the heart?

Answer: It should be both ways but more through the heart.

Most people are underdeveloped, which means that their ego blocks their mind. We are all like that. The ego blocks a person’s brain, his mind, and he cannot see more than his ego. It turns out that he is wretched and limited. He may have great, wonderful abilities, but the ego stops him and doesn’t let them be expressed.

If for example you want control, the ego blocks everything else. Although you could prosper, the strong desire for control obliges you to engage only in that. This is an example of how limited we are in our ability to work with our brain. But by working with the heart, we can open the way to the brain. This means that we have to turn to the heart and to work on it, but it is possible only by mutual incorporation with the friends and through them with the public.

People have to penetrate our heart this way, so that we will not be able to abandon our concern for them. Then it means that we have incorporated them in us like the upper level with regard to the lower level.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/14

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Question: If several people decide to do something, but each one is in his own ego, in his own perception of reality, and cannot concede to others, will the decision be right?

Answer: First we have to reach general equality. It is impossible to advance without that.

Each one has to do his best to annul himself and his own opinion in order to do what the book says, and what the author of the book and the teacher say. Otherwise a person doesn’t learn.

Only a person who feels that he is less than the teacher can learn: from me, from Rabash, from Baal HaSulam and all the great Kabbalists who stand behind us and who teach us. If a person doesn’t humble himself before everyone else, by seeing himself last on this chain and that he is not even part of this system.

If we could strain all the students here through a special filter, we could see who does and does not pass this test: his humbling himself to others, to the group, to the teacher, to the opinions of the authors of the books. So how many people would be left? As it says: “I have arrived and there is no one.” There are many bodies, but internally there isn’t even a Minyan (ten people). So we must first fulfill this condition.

Everyone thinks that he is the one who knows how to do things right, but he should not “think,” our role is not to think but to fulfill. After a person reaches certain spiritual discernments, he realizes that it requires annulling himself towards the group and he begins to incorporate in it, to see everything that happens through it from the perspective of the group’s benefit and not of his own, for the goal that Kabbalists write about. He receives this as if from the outside, as if he is a third party who isn’t related to it; that it, he makes a total zero of himself.

The main problem which stops us from reaching spirituality, from feeling it, and from starting to live in it is that we see everything through our ego, through the intention of in order to receive. We have to annul it a little bit, to set it aside, and then we get closer to the real perception and will be able to see everything the way it actually is. So we should constantly try to lower ourselves until absolute zero.

When a person reaches this level, he begins to perceive the goal independent of his ego, objectively, he should take it and run. No matter if he is capable of that or not, or whether he acts within reason or above reason, he will see the truth.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/14

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Question: What does it mean that the Creator’s tower is full of abundance but empty of guests?

Answer: There is the thought of creation to do good for His creations. The Creator created one creation so it would attain His form, which means His state. But the creation has to be separated from the Creator; otherwise, it isn’t considered as a creation. And thus it was created with an attribute opposite to the Creator, and it establishes a special connection with Him, not in the same attribute inherent the Creator.

So there is a desire to receive and its fulfillment, a concept that is not a characteristic of the Creator. In the relationship between the creation and the Creator there must be two planes. One plane is the fulfillment that the Creator gave the creature with the desire to receive. And the second plane, which is more elevated, is the relationship between them. Both planes need to develop simultaneously so the creature will receive greater and greater fulfillment, and in spite of it, will build above the fulfillment his relation to the Creator, to bestow.

The Creator has a tower filled with abundance. But we are not talking about a juicy steak with which the Creator wants to honor the creature, but about relationship, about love. This tower is filled with love, with the Light of Hochma. This is what the Creator wants to give the creature. And the creature has to prepare himself in order to come and receive all of this love.

For this purpose, he needs to come with a huge vessel (desire) of mercy (Hassadim) of the Returning Light so that he is able to receive the Light of Hochma to receive in order to bestow. So he needs the Light of Hassadim on all of his vessels (desires), on all the levels, i.e., the root level, the first, second, third, and fourth levels.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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