Question: What is so special about the Torah that even The Book of Zohar is just a commentary on it?

Answer: The records that Moses made on parchment are the earthly expression, through material symbols, of spiritual actions of Light on desire. Moses wrote down everything he taught his students in a book. Over the course of 40 years of wandering in the desert, they wrote down the whole Torah, going through the entire process in record, as well as in bodies, and in spirituality. This is the entire path from the Egyptian exile (earthly and spiritual), through the desert (earthly and spiritual), and into the land of Israel (earthly and spiritual). All of this came true in the connection between the root and the branch. Moses expressed this entire process in this concrete, symbolic form.

The Zohar expresses the same process on a different level, in a different form because the general desire to enjoy that the Creator created had by that time advanced several steps forward and was perfected by the influence of the Light. Therefore, this desire, which went through ascents and descents, the destruction of the First and Second Temple, the exile, and then reached the last breakage before the last exile, had to be given the method that is appropriate for the end of the exile, for our time.

That is why The Book of Zohar was written, whose authors were the successors of many generations of Kabbalists, starting from Abraham until the destruction of the Temple. Rabbi Shimon was the student of Rabbi Akiva, who revealed a great Light, and therefore he was able to express this in The Book of Zohar.

The Torah itself is divided into two parts: oral and written. This comes from the difference between Zeir Anpin and Malchut. Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut is the “oral Torah,” while Malchut of the world of Atzilut is the “written Torah.”

The Torah is the revelation of Light. The Light that comes to Malchut contains everything that is necessary for changing Malchut. But this Light still hasn’t come true in practice, and is therefore called “the oral Torah.” For now this is work with the screens.

Under the influence of the same Light in Malchut, inner changes take place and are impressed in Malchut, this is called “the written Torah.” This is talking only about actions of the Light in the desires from the beginning of creation and until its end. That’s because there is nothing in existence besides desires.

Among these desires some feel that they exist by themselves, separate from all the others. This is us. These desires contain qualities that can help them on the path of correction. And that is why we receive a sensation of lacking, our own lack of correction, the realization of evil. This is how we perceive ourselves.

These are exactly the desires that need to be given “the Torah”—the instructions explaining how they can participate in their own corrections out of their own free choice, how they can attract the Light by wishing to become corrected faster, instead of waiting for the Light to come and shake them up.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/11, Shamati
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The Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 4: … Jacob, who was whole, brought love in both worlds, meaning he married the two sisters, Leah and Rachel, the two worlds, Bina and Malchut.

Question: Which of my inner desires are called sisters?

Answer: A person contains the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of desire. The entire world that I see is my desire, divided into many particular desires, each of which forms a certain earthly image in my perception.

We “see” our desires. We look inside ourselves, into our desire that is divided into parts, the objects of the world. We see the world in three dimensions, as if we are looking through 3-D glasses. And we don’t even feel that we are in this virtual reality because we don’t have anything to compare our sensation to. That is why it seems to us that we exist in the authentic world.

That is, we perceive something inside our desire, but it seems like we see it outside, in front of us. However, if besides this world, we would see a different reality, then we would discover that the reality of this world is relative. Parts of my desire depict images of inanimate objects, plants, animals, and people. However, these are not people who appear before me in this world, but my desire on the human level, which divides into many parts and I see each part of my desire in the form of an image of some person.

I also have desires on the animate level and therefore I see different animals in this world. Moreover, there are desires that are present in me now, as well as ones that were present in the past or that will surface in the future. This is why I see a developing world, extinct kinds of animals, or new species that suddenly appear in front of me. This means they surface in my consciousness and disappear. And the same thing happens on the still and vegetative levels.

There is no world. These are just my sensations inside of my desires when certain Reshimot (informational genes) come to the surface, replacing others, and by perceiving the realization of my Reshimot in this way, I feel that I live in them—in essence, that I live in the world. This is an internal movie that is projected to me by the constant Light, which awakens Reshimot that replace one another.

In the process of the Reshimot’s development (where a Reshimo [singular form of Reshimot] is an informational record in my memory), a part of them depends on my willingness to process new Reshimot, while part of the Reshimot awaken on their own. This entire process of development, which happens by itself, is called “Beito” (in due time). But if I want to accelerate it and am able to, this path of development is called Ahishena (accelerating time).

However, in any case we are only talking about Reshimot that awaken in me, which I perceive as the world, myself, and the entire process of development.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/11, The Zohar

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Question: When a person tries to come out of Egypt, meaning self-love, he receives blows which he can overcome only by asking the Creator for help. But besides that there is also the material, earthly egoism which receives blows at its level, such as problems with one’s family, health, income, and so on. How should we relate to these problems?

Answer: No matter what kind of problem emerges in my life, first and foremost I must see it as a disturbance that came from the Creator. Even if I am in pain, I must still rise above that disturbance through faith above reason. Despite it all, I know that I have to make calculations above the disturbance and not under its weight. I must stay in touch with its “sender,” the Creator.

As for responsible actions, in the realm of this world I have to resolve all the problems by the commonly accepted methods. When it comes to the bank, work, family, and health, I have to take care of everything just like any person in our world.

Thus, you build up a two-sided attitude to the problems:

– First of all, they come from the Creator and you are dealing only with Him. You want to have these disturbances because they give you the opportunity to rise above knowledge and stay in touch with the Creator. Then you are correctly treating the disturbances and you even begin to love and respect them. After all, no matter how much they bother you, no matter how much salt they put on your wounds, and no matter how nerve-wracking they are, this is exactly what helps you rise above them.

– Secondly, you resolve the incoming problems the way it’s customary in the material world.

Both of these dimensions must be present in your attitude. You attribute the problems to the Creator, and at the same time you want to work with them. We do not throw Pharaoh out of our lives, but we enjoy his troubles. After all, only through them can we reject him and separate from him, and thus ascend higher and higher.

Pharaoh is my most precious flesh, my core, my most sensitive point, my child, the most important and finest string inside of me.

Question: But Pharaoh resists the unity of friends. What do the material troubles have to do with it?

Answer: They also distract you from the inner work. It’s not accidental that so many Kabbalists experienced material problems. The Creator deliberately caused them to be sick and despised by the people around them. It was in order to give them a place where they could overcome.

At the end of the day, all of this is a result of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. The desire gradually becomes revealed inside of you and in conformity to it you experience various problems, both in others and in yourself.

Question: Do I have to ask for help in these cases? After all, the Creator helps us in only one respect—unification.

Answer: That’s right, and the problems obstruct you from doing this. When you are sick, it’s difficult for you to focus on love for friends. Most likely, you forget all about it. And that means you have to ask for help. There is none else besides Him. Everything comes from the Creator, but it happens through different channels.

You have to attain the goal, but your body, your “little donkey” is sick and cannot carry you. So what should you do? Leave him to die? But you need him on the path.

Why do you perceive this world separately from the spiritual work? Even small disturbances can be helpful if you work with them correctly. No matter what happens to us, it’s important to remember that this comes from a single Source, until we really come to feel that we are in spiritual exile.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Shamati

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Question: A part of me really wants to go to the Convention, but another part of me opposes it so strongly that I don’t want to see anyone. What should I do?

Answer: You have to make your free choice. You should understand that both parts of you, like all of the thoughts and desires that awaken in us at every moment, come to us from the Creator. These are conditions which are set for us; it is not the actual me.

What makes the decision is not my body, which gets sick and does not want to go to the Convention, and not my mood either. We act like a mechanism where all of the internal electrical signals are controlled by the upper force according to the program leading us to a certain state.

Life, death, and all of the states in between are determined from above and there is nothing accidental about any of it. Therefore, in every state I have to detach myself and look at this “mechanism,” meaning my body, its mood, and everything in it, from aside. The purpose of this is to see that this is the Creator’s work and to understand what He wants to give me right now, and to what state does He want to bring my “donkey” (Hamor, donkey means Homer, matter). Then I will understand how to work with it and will not identify myself with this “donkey.”

The more times a day a person is able to detach from himself in this way and look at himself from aside, like at a body in which some kind of forces are being awakened, without identifying himself with it, but rather using it as a means to attain the goal, the faster he will reach success. That is also how we should treat the friends in every regard. Don’t look at their faces or personalities, but at their inner desire in the pure form, which does not depend on anything external. This is the friend of my point in the heart.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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Question: What remains unchangeable in a person who develops spiritually and what changes in him?

Answer: The only thing that doesn’t change is the intention toward the right goal which he sometimes tries to create. Besides this, everything else changes and nothing remains. You lose everything besides the right intention if you have created it. Everything else only seems to belong to you, including your existence, and it is given to you only to create the intention.

This world and the spiritual world are not taken into account. Only the intention remains which we can create as a result of our efforts. This is the spiritual vessel, the soul.

In that intention you see the eternal reality, meaning yourself. What is the true reality? It is the degree of your revelation of yourself in the upper Light, in equivalence to it, in becoming identical to it. All of this becomes revealed only in the intention, and nothing remains besides it.

There is nothing besides the intention. This means that nothing else exists in reality. Everything else is imaginary and only seems to exist right now in order for you to attain the intention. After all, you have to live inside something. Who creates the intention? It’s the person whom you now perceive as yourself, living and existing in this world. Why do you need this? It’s in order to form the intention.

When you complete creating your intention from the beginning of the ladder of the spiritual degrees and until its end, then this entire world, this entire reality disappears because in reality it did not exist. It only seemed to exist to you in order for you to develop the right intention.

Now understand how important is the activity you are engaging in—the creation of your eternal image, the human who is similar to the Creator.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/11, The Zohar

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Question: How is it possible to unite the whole world if nations, countries, and religions are so different from each other in every way?

Answer: These are egoistic differences. When we unite spiritually they disappear and we all become as one man with one heart.

The earthly differences actually don’t separate us at all. One person likes to spice up his food with pepper and another one doesn’t. One person holds ceremonies this way and another person that way. This doesn’t make us different at all. On the contrary, that is exactly when we begin respecting one another.

Being dissimilar does not obstruct us from coming together spiritually. On the contrary, by uniting above our egoistic differences, we make them even more powerful and all of that power is aimed at spiritual unity.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/11

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Kabbalists are scientists who study nature that exists above the limitations created by our physical body, meaning above the limits sensed in our egoistic desire. In this desire we feel a certain reality we call this world, in which we exist.

However, if a person has the opportunity, the aspiration, and the means to obtain the desire to bestow, through this desire he begins to sense a new reality, as it is said: “I saw a reverse world.” Then a person senses two realities: He continues to sense the old world in his desire to receive, and he perceives an additional, new world in his desire to bestow.

The egoistic desire has a certain time frame of existence within a person, and while it’s there, a person senses life in this world. The desire undergoes three stages: conception, nurturing, and adulthood (Ibur–Yenika–Mochin). The desire grows through these stages and then gradually weakens, until it disappears completely.

These stages determine the sensation of our life: birth, childhood, and adulthood. A person lives his life, then grows older, and dies. One feels death because he can no longer feel anything in his desire to receive.

However, life within the desire to bestow isn’t as temporary as the corporeal life. In it we receive an unlimited perception of reality. It doesn’t depend upon our desire to bestow since bestowal is directed “outward,” unlike the egoistic desire that’s directed inward. This is why we always have the opportunity to develop. Our desire to bestow never runs out or dies because it continues to expand without any limitations.

For this reason, a person senses an eternal life within the desire to bestow. And because this fulfillment never ends, but on the contrary, becomes greater, such existence is called eternal and perfect. But in order to become familiar with this state, one must first carry out a course of actions to acquire the desire to bestow, in which he will sense his spiritual life.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/2011 on Mutual Guarantee

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Question: What is confidence in my life?

Answer: Confidence in my life is the sensation that I am so connected with the group that inside of that unity I reveal the Creator. I have attained this connection myself. It is recorded in my account and therefore does not disappear. And if it does disappear all of a sudden, then it’s only for me to restore it on a new level in order to attain a stronger connection. And I also have confidence in this—that in the future I will always be able to maintain that connection and thus I will advance.

Confidence in my life is the sensation that by virtue of my own efforts I have attained a connection with the Creator and have been filled by the Light of bestowal, Hassadim. Only the Light of Hassadim, bestowal, raises us above egoism and fear for ourselves, giving us confidence. Either you will worry for yourself, or for others —one of the two.

There is only a psychological barrier here, and if you go beyond that boundary (barrier or Machsom) and instead of yourself you will start experiencing others, then you will receive the sensation of total confidence in your life. This is given to you only by the force of the Light. Obviously, you cannot change your own nature. And when that happens, you will feel that you don’t lack for anything and never had. You will be in the Light of the Creator, in His power. And what problems could you possibly have in the King’s castle, which contains anything you could possibly wish for?

Only the upper Light can free you from the fear of death because it gives you the sensation of eternal life. You begin to live in everyone else and lose the sensation that you live inside of your egoism, your animate body.

Right now you are afraid to lose this life inside of the body because you do not have another life! The moment you begin to live the other, spiritual life, and rise to its level, there you will perceive this earthly level, this body the same as a dog or a donkey that’s beside you.

That is how you will sense this earthly life, like something that merely accompanies you until it leaves you. But you won’t feel sad or scared about it.

Don’t worry, we are yet to attain the eternal life that Kabbalah delivers to us!
From the 4th part of the Daily KAbbalah Lesson 3/3/11 on Confidence

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Question: If the world is integral and global and is governed by the Creator through the plan of creation that permeates it, then why can’t we be in direct correspondence and harmony with it?

Answer: We exist “in concealment,” meaning that we don’t sense the actual connections between us. The fictitious picture which we currently sense, with the distorted connections between people, is called “this world.” As soon as we discover the real picture of the connection between us, we will feel as though we exist in a new world. It will be a global, spiritual world which doesn’t depend on our physical bodies, in which birth and death do not exist since we are not tied to the body.

Instead of sensing one’s tiny part in the enormous system, each of us will feel this huge system in full. And for this reason, everyone will feel eternal.

We will feel the force that connects us with each other. It is called “the Creator,” “Boreh” in Hebrew, which comes from the words “come and see” (Bo–Reh). That is, one simply needs to come and see!

Above the animate level in which a person exists in his or her physical, animalistic body, he has an additional, upper level of consciousness, thought, desire, understanding, and knowledge. This is the degree we have to reach.

Beside this system, we also reveal the general life force that drives it. It’s similar to how in addition to a biological body, a person also has a human personality. This is exactly what we reveal in the general system: An additional force that enlivens it, which we call “the Creator.” When we reveal Him, we become like Him.
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From my lecture in Paris 2/1/2011

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Question: What role does asceticism play in human development?

Answer: Kabbalah has a very negative opinion of various restrictions. It does not demand anything from a person with regard to his earthly life. In principle, you can do anything you want.

It’s a different matter when you become engrossed in all sorts of fetishes in this earthly life by introducing some kind of special customs, habits, and exercises to it. Live normally. If you like doing yoga, then do it. If you like running in the morning, then run. If there’s a certain diet that is healthier for you and another that’s less healthy, then eat accordingly. None of this matters. The most important thing is not to turn anything into a cult.

Kabbalah treats every person absolutely normally. It doesn’t care about how a person lives, what habits he has, and what his customs, religious convictions, and inclinations are. Who he is in the earthly life doesn’t matter one bit.

We are once again returning to the essence: Egoism rises in us in order for us to compensate for it above ourselves. That is why it doesn’t matter one bit what I am like. Limiting yourself in food or applying any kind of methods—none of this will help. Nothing will help.

On the contrary, a person who does some kind of physical exercises or keeps some kind of strict boundaries thinks that he has already advanced forward, has achieved some kind of level, that he is righteous and so on.

This can only confuse people. Therefore, live normally, calmly, eat well, and think about your health and profession. Take part in all the things that your surrounding society does.

And together with this, study Kabbalah. This balance or normal state is the most preferable one. Fate has placed you in this environment so go with its flow. Then you will see that in reality, everything around you is in the ideal state, besides yourself.

A minus is compensated by the right plus.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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