We are in a state called “this world.” The reason for us being in this world is to rise, through our own efforts, to the level of similarity to the Creator, to reach His level, as it is said: “You will see your world during your lifetime.”

The science of Kabbalah is a method of revealing the Creator to creation in this world. How do we reveal Him? By becoming similar to Him. Only if I acquire a desire like the light, my spiritual vessel, will I be able to reveal the light, the Creator, in it.

How can I make myself into a vessel for revealing the light so it would fill me? We have been given two tools for this. The first is the material, the desire I acquire to the extent of absorbing outside desires, desires of other people.

There is only a point in me, which wants to move toward spirituality, although I do not know what it is. I just feel that something is missing. It is only a point of desire. I have no volume at this point, no top, bottom, right or left sides.

I cannot feel anything there, except an unquenchable desire–I want something, but I do not know exactly what. I can try to imagine spirituality, but no matter what I come up with, it is all fantasy from the realm of this world, not true reality.

How can I add volume to this point? I have to connect with a special, whole, perfect organism, with a great desire created by the Creator: Malchut of infinity. For me, it is a group, but in fact, it is the whole of humanity. But since I do not know what the whole of humanity is, a group is enough for me. This is the first component.

If I try to connect with a group and am able to connect with some part of it, as if cutting off a certain area from it, it becomes mine. It turns out that I am already gaining volume, and this volume is my desire. If I already have such a big desire, and not a point, I can start to feel something in it. What am I missing then? I am lacking this desire to be like the light. That is, the first stage is the acquisition of desire, the second is the correction of desire, and the third is the fulfillment of desire. That is it!

To obtain the desire, I have to annul myself before the group, before their unity, be connected to them like a drop of semen stuck to the wall of the uterus. This is the first stage.

The second stage is being with my friends, I must try to make my entry into the group, my connection with them, for the sake of giving so the desire I am now gaining is similar to the light.

I achieve this by using surrounding light (O”M), the light that returns to the source, what is called the “Light of Torah.”

After that, the desire becomes filled with the light of Hochma.

Therefore, when reading a source such as The Book of Zohar, which has great power, we must: feel ourselves in a common desire and want for our common desire to be corrected, to become as giving as the light.

In order to bring about such a correction, we must expect it while reading The Book of Zohar so that our desires, our union, would be for the sake of bestowal, so we would feel like a single whole and truly become a Shechina, a “place” where the upper light, the Creator, is revealed. If we correct this “place” for the sake of giving at least to some extent, to this extent the Creator will be revealed in it.

That is, I connect with the group as one whole, in mutual giving, mutual guarantee, unity, with the help of light that returns to the source, giving us all a sense of a common integral connection. Then, to the extent of unity between us, we reveal the quality of bestowal, the light of the Creator reigning in us.

Therefore, let us try not to forget about this task and realize that constantly remaining in these efforts to build such a picture for myself is my inner work, which I am now going to do as we read The Book of Zohar. After all, during the reading of The Zohar, a great light comes. Are we preparing the right desire for it so that it corrects and fills it?
[42950]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/11, The Book of The Zohar “Mishpatim”

Related Material:
To the Creator—Through the Group
Closer to the Creator
Triangle: Me – Group – Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, Zohar | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: How can humanity create the balance that exists instinctively in nature but is absent in human beings?

Answer: A human being does not have an instinct for balance with nature. That is why he is given the opportunity to build human society on his own and through his efforts to attain the force of connection and the mind that enables him to reach balance.

Therefore fighting environmental pollution is useless because the main source of pollution is the human being who has entered a new era. If he does not take care of his own correction, then even a minimal disturbance, just a gram of improper inclusion into nature, throws the entire system of nature out of balance. And this is what we are only beginning to see now.

Humanity will not disappear, but until the very last moment any kind of catastrophe is possible: nature will drown us in the sea, freeze us, roast us with extreme heat, and burn us in wildfires.

Question: For many years, the United States conducted nuclear weapons testing on two atolls in the Pacific Ocean, after which they naturally became unfit for human habitation. But nature blossomed there extraordinarily like nowhere else. As a result, scientists concluded that the harm caused by human presence is worse than that from nuclear radiation. How can that be?

Answer: Nature knows how to heal the damage caused to it on lower levels, but of course even that has its limit. If the damage is too great, the changes will become irreversible.

Question: What kind of harm does a human being cause on the “human level”?

Answer: Man caused no harm at all until the last hundred years. All his harm lies in the fact that he is not in balance with nature, which is his obligation as its central element.

The main reason is not the mechanical harm done to nature, not that man burns it or dries it up, but the fact that we should have begun to bring ourselves into balance with nature from the time of the ARI, from the 15^th century, or at least from the time of Baal HaSulam, who defined that period as the “last generation.” Our inconsistency with the integral system of nature—this imbalance—is what causes all the disasters.

Of course, this does not mean that upon reaching balance with nature we would be allowed to pollute it, but we simply would not even think of harming nature, we would instinctively act correctly.

To be in balance with nature means to attain good, integral relationships between people—in thoughts, desires, and intentions—not to harm human society and the whole of general nature, as well as the higher system.

To be integral in thoughts means to perceive the entire system of nature as one organism. And in accordance with the proper connections between people, all the other levels—still, vegetative, and animate—rise up, become included in the general system, and are corrected together with the human being. Then there will be no catastrophes, and balance will be established in everything.

A very strict condition operates: “The individual and the collective are equal.” This means that one person can cause as much harm as all of humanity.
[213290]
From the Conversation 9/6/17, “Climate Cataclysms”

Related Material:
Nature Has Begun to Remove Its Protective Screen, Part 1
Natural Disasters And The Role Of Humanity
Man Was Created To Exist In Balance With Nature

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #47 “In the Place Where You Find His Greatness,” (11.4.21)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 91 (8.10.06)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 5, “What Does the Rule ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’ Give Us?” (1984)”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

4th part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” “On the Night of the Bride”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: It is said that first we attain the quality of bestowal and only then do we receive goodness and delight. But what can we bestow if we have not yet received anything?

Answer: It does not matter what we can or cannot bestow. We are speaking about the possibility of acquiring the quality of bestowal.

Then, based on the forces I draw and wish to combine so that they alone will exist within me, I come closer to the qualities of bestowal, until they influence me to the point where I am in complete alignment with them. In this way, I will begin to act in the quality of bestowal.
[346997]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/25, “Subjugating the Heart”

Related Material:
Three Conditions for Acquiring the Quality of Bestowal
Acquire the Quality of Bestowal
The Ten—A Device For Revealing The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: I enter into the desires of the people with whom I try to unite, and I feel that I envy their Kelim. How should I work in this situation: Should I simply connect everything to the Creator? Is that the correction or is there some other way to work with envy?

Answer: The work is only in relation to your circle, your friends with whom you are going through this entire path. If you annul yourself more and more in relation to them, then you advance forward and receive more from the Creator.
[347022]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/25, “Subjugating the Heart”

Related Material:
Envying The Friends
A Good Start
I Envy You

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens | Add Comment / Ask Question →

This is so because it is a natural law for any being that anything outside one’s own body is regarded as unreal and empty.

And any movement that a person makes to love another is performed with a reflected light and some reward that will eventually return to him and serve him for his own benefit. Thus, such an act cannot be considered “love of others” because it is judged by its end. It is like rent that pays off only in the end.

However, the act of renting is not considered love of another.

But making any movement only as a result of love for others, without any spark of reflected light or hope for any kind of reward in return is completely impossible by nature (Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]).

This means that one should not try to perform supposed “good deeds” toward one another. If we do this without drawing the light that returns to the source, it is still the same egoism and does not bring us any closer to correction.

First of all, we must take care to draw the light, and only then, precisely with its help and power, to act. If I act without the light, then I am guided by my egoism and only entangle myself further, and I veer off the straight path that leads toward correction.

Question: If I want to do something for the benefit of another, what is the difference whether there is light in it or not?

Answer: If you act simply from yourself, it is the result of your egoism. Even though such an action may appear from the outside to be very good and kind (you may be helping everyone and handing out gifts), you must still put in effort and invest energy. This means that you must receive compensation; otherwise, you will not be able to do anything.

By the law of conservation of energy, you must replenish what you have spent. This replenishment of energy is called the reward that you receive for doing good to others.

For example, you gave out candies and in return you received honor from them. Honor is more valuable to you than the candies, which is why you do good deeds, and you receive a nice bonus for which it is worth working. Such is the calculation made within one’s desire to enjoy.

But if you perform a good deed through the power of the Torah, the light, then you do not consider yourself at all, but only how much it contributes to the correction of the world, for this is the Creator’s desire. Therefore you do everything in order to correct the world.

Then you may be allowed to see the benefit from your actions, that is, the pleasure they have brought to the Creator. You will be permitted to see this on the condition that you do not derive any egoistic enjoyment from it, but rather place a screen over this knowledge and hold the intention for the sake of bestowal.
[173235]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/15, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah” [The Giving of the Torah]

Related Material:
Advice In Which The Light Is Hidden
Signs Of A True Spiritual Action
A System Of Reception And A System Of Intention

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: You said that all spiritual models should be imagined within oneself. Suppose I come to a seminar and imagine that I am bestowing, answering questions. But as a result, I experience bliss, pleasure, and enjoyment. In that case am I working to give for the sake of receiving, or am I working to bestow and simply receiving a reward?

Answer: It depends on you. You must examine yourself and act so that your response to what the Creator does to you is correct, that is, so that it advances you toward sensing the true forces, their intention, and their goal, and so that you can influence them.
[347014]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/25, “Subjugating the Heart”

Related Material:
Check Your Feelings
Check Oneself for Purity of Thoughts and Feelings
Checking The Purity Of Intentions

Filed under: Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: In 2017, Hurricane Irma was raging over the Caribbean islands; it was the most powerful in the history of the Atlantic to that point. The hurricane was rapidly approaching Florida when the evacuation of the population from the threat of destruction and flooding was announced.

At the same time, thousands of miles to the west, the situation was exactly the opposite; there was drought and intense heat, which led to extensive forest fires. What is happening to nature?

Answer: Everyone is talking about protecting the environment, that we must protect nature in its original form, to preserve the natural balance. In nature, one devours the other, and so a certain balance is maintained. Once man comes and distorts this balance, which affects animals and plants, even the earth begins to crack and dry out.

People have always thought we must protect nature, as if man stands apart from nature and must preserve its correct shape and balance between inanimate matter, plants, and animals. Over the past 50 to 60 years, great attention has been paid to environmental protection and it is believed that this would guarantees us a good life.

But the science of Kabbalah says that this is the wrong approach. Nature gets out of balance precisely because of man, who is not in balance with it. The reason is not that he pollutes nature, burns trees, plows the land, or pumps out water.

Man must also be part of the overall ecosystem. Humanity must change and become integral, like the whole of nature, and occupy and fill the cell assigned to us between the inanimate, plant, animal and human levels of the ecosystem.

That is, we are talking about correcting man himself. But no one ever talked about that. Everyone thought the main thing was not to spoil the inanimate, plant, and animate nature, and everything would be fine. All the efforts are being made for this, all organizations are focused only on how to burn less oil and pollute the environment less. But what about man?

By our lack of an integral approach to the general nature, we ourselves cause its greatest imbalance. In fact, the only reason is not man’s negative attitude toward nature, but his lack of inclusion in the general system.

In the general system, there is a special law according to which the individual and general are equal. This means the power of one uncorrected individual, not even his destructive actions, but of the inner attitude, is enough to ruin the entire system.

The individual and the general are equal is a harsh condition for being in an integrated system where we all found ourselves against our will. After all, it is enough for me to commit the tiniest wrongful action to upset my balance with the system by just one gram, but because of the integrality of the system, I produce millions of times more harm with my microscopic violation.

After all, my gram is multiplied by what is included in every element of the system. Therefore the harm is general.

We do not yet understand that the individual and general are equal means either zero or 100%, and there can be nothing in between. But we are developing in such a way that nature hides our true, integral participation in its system.

That is why we do not have much influence on nature. Like a merciful judge, it evaluates us according to our level of development. If nature had not protected us, we would have reached the point of complete destruction, not only of ourselves, but of the entire universe.

It is only through concealment that a certain protective buffer is formed. And although I am wrong about everything, I have little impact on nature. However, nature has already begun to change, starting with the last generation, which is a sign that it is time for us to correct our involvement.

The further we go, the more nature will remove the protective shield, the buffer between man and general nature. And we will have to become integrated in consciousness, the heart, in perception, in all actions: physical, mental, internal in our relations with each other, and in relation to the whole system, until we achieve complete adhesion with it.

You can call it merging with nature or with the upper force, but we have to do it. We need to understand that we are in a classroom. Nature, or the Creator, teaches us and will teach us very concisely and quickly. This can happen through nuclear explosions, hurricanes, fires, or epidemics.

Nature has many ways to bring humanity to reason so that it understands that it must be balanced, and in full harmony with nature, like the inanimate, vegetative, and animate world.

Rocks, plants, and animals do not have the intelligence to go against nature; they act according to their instincts. But we humans, with all our evil, must act the same way animals act instinctively to achieve the same level of conformity to nature.

How is this possible if we do not have such instincts?! This is why we need the upper force to balance our evil. And the upper force is revealed only within our connection.
[213284]
From the Conversation 9/6/17, “Climate Cataclysms”

Related Material:
Yesterday Harvey, Today Irma, Tomorrow What?
The Spiritual Root Of Hurricanes
Natural Disasters And The Role Of Humanity

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: How can we make the words of a prayer awaken a prayer from the heart, preferably from the common heart?

Answer: That is indeed a real question. It would seem that each of us has some kind of Hisaron (deficiency). But what is missing so that our individual sensations of exile in that disconnection from the Creator could merge into one common desire? This is not simple at all.

What are desires the group cannot fulfill? These are desires that unite with the desires of other groups, and together they reveal a more complete, more perfect request, one to which the Creator will surely respond.

Beyond that, I can’t really explain in words, because this is something you feel only in the heart. The problem is that when we speak, the words themselves tend to erase the feeling that lies beneath them. The foundation disappears, and the words become dead.

You might have prepared them in advance, maybe even thought deeply about them, but the moment you say them, you suddenly feel there is nothing there. They are empty, completely empty. And there is nothing in them that could truly shake the Creator.
[347047]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/2025, “First Demand and Ask”

Related Material:
Prayer Must Be from the Bottom of the Heart
How Can We Invoke a Prayer from the Bottom of the Heart?
Prayer—The Inner Impulse of the Hearts

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →