In our world the surrounding environment automatically influences a seed that is placed in the soil and the seed begins to grow. That is how everything on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature interacts with the environment, with no freedom of will.

However, our spiritual development does not work the same way. We have to awaken the environment so it will influence us, so there will be appropriate “temperature, moisture, minerals, and sunlight. We have to create these conditions on our own, and that is called raising MAN. Our environment is the Creator. And if you think that you are influenced by the friends, the sun, the moon, or a sudden change in mood, in fact all of it is the Creator.

On the inside there is my self, my point in the heart, and everything else is the Creator, even though He exists around me in various forms. At the end of the day I awaken Him.

Can the friends really influence me even if they yell and demand? What force of influence do they have? After all, I have to receive the force of spiritual influence. Thus, the environment only seems this way to me, while in reality it is the Creator. That is how I awaken Him, reveal Him, and speak to Him.

Therefore, if we don’t awaken this external influence, how can we grow? We are unable to advance by any other way besides “awakening from below” (Itaruta De Letata). There must first be a MAN, a request, or a demand coming from us. It is written, “A person made efforts and found.” If you don’t make efforts, you won’t find.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, “Body and Soul”

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When I develop my point in the heart into a whole spiritual vessel, within it, I begin to sense the concealed part of reality. That is when I begin to truly identify myself with this newly revealed part of the universe. I feel that I live in this new dimension and receive a greater impression from it than from the corporeal world.

I begin to perceive sensations in my spiritual body, the soul, much more strongly than corporeal sensations (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch). And even if my body dies, I do not feel it as a loss for I now sense a much more powerful reality, one that is eternal and perfect.

This is what we must come to. This is why it is said that the Torah “frees from the angel of death.” To the degree that we rise above our “undertaker” (our egoistic desire), we free ourselves from the very notion of corporeal death.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/10, Kabbalah Learning Approach

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In the material world, everyone has a body with its fulfillments. We are separated from each other by biological bodies, and psychologically, each of us perceives themselves as an individual personality.

In spirituality, everything is constantly changing by going from one state to another; the Light and the vessel are always different. We “clothe” in a certain state and name ourselves in accordance with it as actors who change costumes for new roles. It is as if we are in a science fiction movie where we play a variety of characters.

There is no such notion as a “private, permanent soul” that exists autonomously, climbs the ladder, and preserves its individuality. It’s hard for us to understand how our "self" disappears. For example, it is said in the article “600,000 Souls” that each person who corrects his soul will uncover Malchut to the world and will be named King David.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/10, "600,000 Souls"

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On the Day of Atonement we read the story of Jonah, the prophet whom the Creator had instructed to travel to Nineveh in order to awaken the people there to do good deeds. However, Jonah decided to run away from the Creator. He boarded a ship and decided to sail far, far away. But the Creator made the sea stormy, and when the sailors on the ship learned that Jonah was the cause of the storm, they threw him into the sea. A whale swallowed Jonah and brought him to shore, to the city of Nineveh.

Jonah went into the city and after he spoke to the people, they turned away from evil and attained love for one another. That is how Jonah carried out the Creator’s decree against his own will.

Jonah, boarding the ship, is a soul descending into a human body because a person in this world is like a ship in a stormy sea. A soul comes into a body in order to reach its correction by connecting with other souls. It is exactly through the egoistic desire to receive pleasure that it can correct itself by using egoism and the inclination to reject others specifically to connect with others and love them. That is how the soul develops from the “point of bestowal” to the Creator’s level and greatness.

This “point of bestowal” gradually connects greater egoistic desires to itself. The desires that are not yet able to be used for the sake of bestowal are left unused (restricted). This happens gradually, 125 times, until the point transfers all the desires to receive pleasure to itself.

The Creator sends the “point of bestowal,” the root of the soul (the prophet Jonah) into this world and into the desires of a person (the ship). The sailors and the captain are angels, meaning the Creator’s agents that surround man.

Jonah needs to awaken his desires for correction, connect with all the souls (the city of Nineveh), and awaken them to correction. He must turn their evil inclination into goodness and love for one another. Otherwise, they will fall into egoism and hatred, which will bring them to death.

In order to do this, we need to attract the help of the Light. This is what we mean by asking or screaming for help. Depending on how "loud" we scream, the Light elevates a part of our desire to receive pleasure and connects it to the action of bestowal.

In this way, we transfer all our desires from our world, from the desires “for our own sake,” to the world to come, the desires “for the sake of others.” By doing this we enter the Creator’s world where we perceive ourselves and the world through the quality of bestowal, experienced as eternal and perfect existence.

The story of the prophet Jonah speaks of how the Creator will force us, either through the good path or the path of suffering, to disseminate Kabbalah around the world, the method of the world’s correction. That is why it is written, "Therefore choose life," which is what the Day of Atonement is about.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/2010, Selected Excerpts for Yom Kippur

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The egoistic desire constantly chases delight and knows no boundaries, thus leading itself to death. There is no way for it to survive. Even within the complete righteous, the still, vegetative, and animate degrees strive towards and approach death.

This is our whole life: From the very moment of birth we begin to move towards death. The egoistic desire is unable to exist in any other form since it nourishes itself from death rather than life.

However, we can acquire the desire to bestow. It is completely separated from our egoistic desire to receive and represents the soul that exists apart from the body, regardless of whether the body is dead, alive, or born again. All of these states occur solely at the level of this world, while the soul lives in the spiritual, Upper World.

In other words, we are now transitioning  to an entirely new type of existence, which is not associated whatsoever with our previous ways of life. We will not be able to continue based on previous education, culture, or values unless they are directly necessary for our essential bodily needs. So-called “human” values will simply cease to exist because we will no longer find fulfillment in them. And on the animate level we will exist as all animals do, consuming no more than is necessary for life.

Thus, the whole life of humanity will change radically, and no one will force us to it. Rather, all these fulfillments – be it fashion, movies, or mass media – won’t give us the sensation of life. It will be reduced to the necessary existence of the body, and for everything else people will search only on the truly human level. It is a qualitative change that has never previously taken place.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The Zohar, Chapter ”Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Items 146-150: He said, “When a man goes to sleep on his bed, his soul departs from him and goes up, as it is written, ‘At night my soul longs for You.’”…

Afterwards, she walks and roams and rises according to her degree.

That Nefesh that was rewarded with rising appears before the King and adheres with a desire to be seen, a sublime craving to see the pleasantness of the King and to visit His palace. This is a man who always has a share in the next world.

What is the soul (Nefesh)? When I desire to unite with the others and feel how through this aspiration I connect with similar desires of the others, the place of our oneness and unity is called “Nefesh” in relation to me. Everyone may feel it differently, but for me Nefesh is the first spiritual step. If I can later strengthen this connection despite my growing egoism and obstacles, I can attain the next spiritual degrees: Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. But the place of my very first contact, my desire for unity to occur, is called Nefesh.

I have to create a place for all of our desires to come together! And when everybody is there (and so am I), when I have connected them with my effort (and they have given me the opportunity to enter and join them), there, in the place of my exertion and my oneness with all the others, I will finally undergo all the spiritual states that The Zohar tells us about.

All I need is to desire this connection and feel as if I’m already in it, which will indicate my entering the state of Nefesh. The Zohar tells me about what happens next, in this oneness. There is only one relationship which experiences ups and downs, various adventures, and spiritual states. The Zohar doesn’t discuss anything else. As a matter of fact, The Zohar talks solely about the spiritual world since spirituality can be found only in our oneness.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/10, The Zohar

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Question: Does the death of the ARI mean the death of Messiah ben Joseph (Messiah Son of Joseph)?

Answer: We are speaking about souls! What does the death of a physical body have to do with this? The soul can operate in the common system without revealing itself in this world. There are many souls like this. The body in our world is one of the external consequences of the soul that helps other souls.

Connection among souls is the only reality. We see and understand certain connections among souls whereby we work together and convey knowledge and feelings to one another. However, there is another type of connection whereby the souls are unable to feel their true state, and hence perceive their connection as a picture of this world.

What is the difference between this world and the spiritual one? In the spiritual world, the deep inner connection among our souls is revealed to me. Conversely, when I am unable to reveal this inner connection, I see it in its external form as this world, which manifeststs to me in a very unclear, uncertain, and blurry manner.

World (Olam) is a degree of concealment (Alama). I exist in the common system of souls, but the concealment affects me and presents this system to me in the misleading form of this world. Yet, it is the same system! Nothing else exists besides the single structure of Adam HaRishon, the system of connected souls. We are all parts of it. However, instead of perceiving all the souls and the network that connects them, we perceive this world.

This is why this world is called the last degree, meaning that it is completely cut off from our actual perception. It is similar to what happens during the loss of consciousness when a person lies with his eyes closed and sees hallucinations. However, I exist in the same system. I am just unable to perceive it and hence, imagine it in a distorted form, as is written, “Every person judges according to their own flaws.”

But once the true picture becomes revealed to me, I will be shocked at how everything is different from the way it initially appeared to me. There are no worlds separated from one another; there is one single structure which we reveal as we correct our desires. There are five levels of their correction, and according to this we reveal the five states of reality: the five worlds and 125 degrees.

This is what we live for because the Creator never created another world. Some parts of the common soul are already corrected and function actively, while the rest are still broken up and do not perceive the proper connection among all the souls. This is why we should understand our obligation to perform the correction, our duty to others, ourselves, and the common system which supports them and which we call the Creator.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: Is a person’s soul connected to his body like a spiritual root and its branch?

Answer: The soul is not connected to the body. The soul contains 613 desires which I have to correct with the help of 613 Lights. These desires are not connected to our world in any way and they are not present in a regular person.

They surface only in those who study Kabbalah with the intention to create a connection among the students based on bestowal and love, meaning to correct the breaking of the single soul of Adam into parts, into separate souls. These uncorrected desires or mutual hate do not emerge in those who do not study Kabbalah and therefore they have nothing to correct.

The correction takes place in two phases:

1. Not using the 613 desires. This is called carrying out the "613 recommendations of the Torah (Eitin).

2. Reception inside the 613 desires for the sake of bestowal. This is called carrying out "613 instructions of the Torah" (Pkudin).

The desires that were corrupted and became egoistic have the intention "for one’s own sake.” When they are corrected, they acquire the intention of being used "for the sake of others." These desires are the fulfillment of a commandment, since the Creator commanded us "to correct our souls."

This is a spiritual action that does not depend on the physical body. A person may have no arms and legs, or may even lack the whole body, but he can still carry out these actions. The correction of one’s desires is in no way connected to physical flesh. One’s presence in the spiritual world is not connected to this world.

Everything is felt inside the desire. Matter is desire. The sensation inside the lowest desire creates the picture of our world for us or the reality in which we live. The lowest level, called "this world," is impossible to correct. It is the still level which is not subject to correction.

However, besides the still level of desire called "this world," I also receive a small desire of the next level, a "point" of the higher level which is in no way connected to the material level. This desire is called a "point" because in it I perceive only an aspiration to something beyond this world. I can develop it by drawing Light that will connect it to the points of other people, or stated differently, it will connect my soul with other souls. Inside the connection that emerges, I will begin to feel the spiritual world.

When more points connect to my point, then a system emerges and the Light brings it to life. Then all the participants feel life!

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/10, “The Matter of Root and Branch”

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A question I received: Does the light that people see during clinical death, that gives them a sensation of peace, have anything to do with the Surrounding Light?

My Answer: This type of sensation is a common psychological phenomenon during clinical death. I experienced it while being in a coma for a week and am well aware of its effects. It is a physiological reaction of the body.

Why would an animate body receive Light just because it died? Why would one think that the death of a physical body implies correction? After death, the body remains at the animate level, just as it was while being alive. How does it impact the soul?

The only thing that impacts the soul is correction. Conversely, if the soul simply exits the body without having performed any spiritual work, why should it be entitled to Light? It would be “shame,” like “the bread that is not his.” If you attain the Upper World solely by being driven by the Upper Force that operates on you from birth through death, then where is your freedom of will and conscious effort? If I, through my own work, do not form within myself a vessel capable of perceiving the Upper World, how will I know this Upper World?

We don’t receive anything after the death of our body, because it remains at the same animate level as it was while alive. The only thing left after death are  Reshimot (informational data, records). However, if a person didn’t realize the Reshimot, he will be born in a new body with the old Reshimot.

In the corporeal body of flesh, there is nothing spiritual or sacred. We respect a dead body because it represents the soul to us. Therefore, in our attempt to mirror Upper spiritual acts, we perform such rituals. If we did the same through the forces of our soul, then we would be making real corrections.

Baal HaSulam wrote: “I don’t care where you bury my sack of bones.”

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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We are completely under the authority of nature. We are controlled in all of our actions, those of the body as well as those of the soul. Yet, Kabbalists say that we have freedom of choice. There would have been no point to create this whole creation if the Upper Force unambiguously determined everything that happens to us beforehand.

However, the freedom of will exists only above our present life, only there, in a higher dimension where we wish to rise above our egoistic nature, in the quality of bestowal. Only on that ascent from one degree to another will we able to choose whether to ascend by receiving blows from nature. If we do not use our freedom of will, do not exert our own effort, do not strive to develop ourselves on our own in the same direction, or see a desired goal in this, nature will push us. But if we search for the forces to help us execute this ascent, this is where we find our freedom of will.

Kabbalists explain that freedom of choice exists only in building a correct environment. Moreover, I don’t just choose the environment; I advance under its influence. I can choose my environment and by that hasten my advancement as well as change the nature of this ascent.

Instead of dashing to and fro under the blows of fate like a beaten animal, I can rise by a wonderful path, according to my own desire, full of feelings, understanding, and by my own strength, as befits a human being. I can do this if I examine the goal, wish to near it, and understand that in order to hasten my development I need to draw more Light than I receive through the natural path. This means is given to me; it is called the Torah, the Upper Light; it pulls me out and returns me to the source.

It is written in regard to this work that if we leave it even for one day, if we don’t realize our freedom of choice, then we halt our development for two days, and are not permitted to advance independently. We begin to be influenced by the natural Upper forces.

After all, it is not enough to only lose to the extent of our not exerting effort; we don’t learn much from this. To teach us to stay on the wonderful path, we receive a “punishment” for straying that is slightly greater than what we did so that the next time an even greater obstacle emerges on the path, we would beware not to stumble on it. The spiritual law states, “If you leave Me for a day, I will leave you for two.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/10, Shamati #108

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