A New Book In Czech
Posted on August 19th, 2010
My book Basic Concepts in Kabbalah is being published in The Czech Republic.
My book Basic Concepts in Kabbalah is being published in The Czech Republic.
Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar
Some of the souls within the general system are already corrected. If we, too, desire to attain the revelation of the Creator, but feel that He is concealed, then from the spiritual standpoint, we exist in “darkness” or “night.” It is precisely in this time of “night” when we have to exert efforts and raise our prayers whereupon those exalted souls in which the Creator reigns will influence us through The Book of Zohar.
The Book of Zohar was written specifically so that we could create the link between us and these souls. When we read The Zohar, we establish contact with them, and in return they send us a force called the Light that Reforms through this Book.
For the time being, there is no compatibility (equivalence of form) between our souls and the Light, so this Light is not yet penetrating our souls so as to fill them. Nonetheless, it acts upon us as a mother’s womb, enveloping, embracing, and caressing us. The Light gradually corrects us until we begin to perceive it, the corrected souls with whom we’ve established contact by reading The Zohar, and the Creator who reigns in the entire system of souls.
This Light is called the Surrounding Light. As we continue to correct ourselves, it enters us, fulfills us, and becomes the soul’s “Inner Light” which is our spiritual life.
Inside the mother’s womb, which this Surrounding Light forms for us, grows the middle line. The middle line is a precise calculation on my part which combines the two forces of nature, the force of desire and that of the Light, in the most optimal way for the Light to correct the desire.
The part of the desire that becomes corrected in this process and thereby similar to the Creator is called the middle line. In other words, the middle line is the measure of my ability to become similar to the Creator. It is the Creator’s image that I have constructed within myself and out of myself by this process. It began with that very request: the prayer that I had raised in the time of the “night.”
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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar
Darkness sensed within the desire to receive pleasure can be transformed into the Light provided that the direction of the desire is altered from “for my own sake” to “bestowal to my neighbor.” It means that one has to use his desire to enjoy in order to start bestowing to his neighbor and thus feel pleasure from giving. Only at this point does a person become unlimited in his actions since only bestowal knows no boundaries.
If I get pleased in the same way as the Creator does (from giving), I thereby become similar to Him and sense eternal and perfect life filled with love and bestowal. What do I lack in order to acquire this new type of fulfillment? I need to love my neighbor and find the fulfillment he needs. I can obtain “love of neighbor” from the Creator with the help of the Light that Reforms. I receive the Light of abundance from Him in order to fulfill my neighbor.
Thus, I become the Creator’s partner in everything that exists; I become similar to Him. This is how correction of the intention used by the desire to enjoy works.
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Excerpts from my future book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar
In our world we are born and grow next to adults who love us. We don’t understand what they demand of us, but we follow their example. We mimic all their actions and words without understanding their meaning; understanding comes afterward. This is arranged by nature: We learn from participation rather than with our minds.
This is the most natural means that allows us to learn about the world we exist in, and this is how we enter the spiritual world as well. The same system is prepared for us: We have a spiritual “father and mother” who present the text of The Book of Zohar to us.
Even if we don’t understand what we have read, the reading itself along with the desire to understand and an aspiration to grow spiritually develops us like babies, and we gradually begin to perceive the text. All the names and titles that we don’t comprehend at first gradually become clearer. We start to understand the language of the spiritual world just as we learned our corporeal language from our mothers.
Therefore, it is necessary to know that “not the clever one learns” and attains the spiritual world, but only those who insistently refuse to leave The Book of Zohar and try to come back to it time and again in order to reveal and understand what it is trying to tell them.
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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar
In order to feel what is described here, let’s look at the following example: Suppose I visit the home of a very distinguished person. The hospitable host offers me the finest delicacies, invites me to play a round of golf, and to listen to some classical music. However, I am a simple man and have no interest in doing any of that since I have no connection to any of these pleasures. I have never experienced them in my life, and that is why I don’t desire them.
I look at the host in surprise and say, “What do you want from me? I didn’t come here to take pleasure in the things you love. I want to enjoy the things I love!” The host replies, “My dear friend, I want to bestow onto you such awesome pleasures. You cannot even imagine how amazing they are. Try to get accustomed to them a little bit and you will reveal infinite, higher pleasures which are incomparable to the ones you’re used to.”
So, what am I to do? I can trust the host and try to let him teach me new tastes even though I’m not used to them and for that reason am not drawn to them. Gradually, however, I will learn to feel in them a special, heavenly flavor. Or, I can tell the hospitable host, “You know what? It’s hard for me to get used to these new tastes and such difficult conditions and forget all my past habits. I cannot do it. Leave me alone and let me get back to my simple life.” What would the host tell me then? “Sure, go on.”
However, when I get back to my regular life, I begin to experience unpleasant states. That is when I remember the host’s words describing other, higher tastes, so I come back to him. This process may repeat itself several times as I return to my former life and then back to the host.
Ultimately, I will realize that there is no other way: I simply must return to the host so that he could help me replace my tastes with his for good. I know now that I will savor the taste of life in them.
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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar
It is important to understand why we need all this. The fact is that the Creator desires to bestow to begin with, so there’s no point in asking Him to give us Light and pleasure as we usually do.
The Creator has what we need and He has the will to give it. However, He wants us to not merely be receiving from Him, but to become like Him, meaning to be great, independent, bestowing, and similar to Him in the quality of love and bestowal. Therefore, this is precisely what we have to ask for in order to acquire that which the Creator has: the will to bestow and the quality of love and bestowal.
We are used to asking for fulfillment but what we need to ask for is correction. As soon as we become corrected, the Creator’s Light will instantly fulfill us. In other words, our problem is that we don’t understand what it is we should ask of the Creator. We exist in an ocean of Light, goodness, and pleasure, but we lack the necessary vessel to feel all this abundance within. This vessel is the quality of love and bestowal, and that is what we need to ask of the Creator. As soon as we acquire this quality, the Light of abundance will fill us on its own.
There is only one restriction set by the Creator, only one condition for receiving the Light: We have to become like Him. After all, He desires for us to feel just as much pleasure as He does.
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The Upper worlds do not exist in corporeal space; rather, they are like qualities without space, volume, weight, or size. When a person exists in his inherited egoistic desire, his qualities paint for him the picture of “this world.” But once the “point in the heart” awakens in him, he begins to want to attain the Upper dimension.
By working on himself in a group of friends who study the wisdom of Kabbalah, he begins to draw the Light from the degree of “Infinity” which descends onto him from Above through all the worlds. This Light creates within him the need to achieve the quality of bestowal (Malchut of the World of Atzilut) along with his group. Having achieved that level, he begins to feel the Creator and to bestow to Him just as the Creator bestows to the person.
The common desire of the souls united in the Malchut of the World of Atzilut ascends to Zeir Anpin, then higher to Aba ve Ima, and higher still to the World of Infinity. Then the Light descends from the World of Infinity through all the degrees back to the souls and fulfills them. With this fulfillment the souls grow and unite with Zeir Anpin who bestows to them. This is called the unification of ZA and Malchut, the Creator (Kadosh Baruch Hu) and Shechina, the merging of the souls with the Creator.
Many such actions are necessary before all the desires within the souls actualize themselves and bring about the adhesion with the Creator. When all the desires are corrected and bestowing to the Creator, just as the Creator bestows to them, it will be the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).
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In order to let us realize the entire process of spiritual development, the Creator created the system of connection between Him and us. He uses this system to control us from Above, and from beneath we can use it to ask for and receive help from Him.
This system divides into several parts:
1. The World of Infinity, where the Creator is found with His fully revealed strength.
2. The level below the World of Infinity referred to as the “World of Adam Kadmon,” where the Creator divides His influence into five types, according to the five levels of our ego above which we can ascend.
3. Beneath the World of Adam Kadmon, there is the governance and surveillance system which we refer to as the “World of Atzilut.” The World of Atzilut divides into five parts: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut that are called Atik, Arich Anpin, Aba ve Ima, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut (Nukva).
4. Beneath the World of Atzilut are the Worlds of Beria, Yetzira, Assiya (Worlds of BYA), where our souls exist.
5. This world is located beneath the Worlds of BYA.
In the language of The Zohar, Malchut is called “earth” and Bina (Ima) “heaven.” In The Zohar, Zeir Anpin and Malchut are also referred to respectively as Shochen and Shechina , the Creator (Kadosh Baruch Hu) and the gathering of the souls of Israel, the Groom and the Bride, the Masculine and the Feminine parts (Zachar and Nukva). Every one of these components of reality receives many names from The Zohar in the language of the legends (Midrash). And for this reason, in order to help us connect with their inner essence, Baal HaSulam meticulously adds Kabbalistic terminology next to the words of The Zohar.
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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar
Truth be told, we are not very successful at connecting all positive and negative things to the Creator or at understanding that everything comes only from Him and only for the sake of a positive goal. Therefore, our work consists of asking Him for the strength to connect everything to Him as to the only source.
Our ego grows constantly, becoming stronger, worse, and crueler every time. This forces us to turn to the Creator increasingly often to receive continually greater strength from Him to overcome our egoism. This is so that our ego will not confuse us, causing us to think that there is someone else besides Him and that He is not just good and does good.
Thus, due to this growing ego, we ascend higher and higher until the entire egoism that is concealed within us is revealed, and we reach complete adhesion with the Creator by becoming just like Him.
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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar
We exist in the reality which includes the Creator, the Creator’s communications system with the created beings, and the created beings themselves. Through this system the Creator governs us with the aim of bringing us to the goal of creation “to delight the creatures” and to make us similar to Himself. The Creator wishes to share everything He has with us.
Therefore, from the very beginning we need to view everything in reality as though it was created by a loving Father. However, He has to bring us to independent development so that we will grow and be independent. To do so He has to influence us from two sides: mercy and judgment. And even though they both stem from Him, from His kind and loving heart, they are divided into two opposite forces which we perceive as manifestations of good and evil, mercy and judgment, light and darkness.
When we perceive all the circumstances of our life “down in this world” we shouldn’t forget that we receive them from the kind Father, and even the worst and harshest of His methods of influence stem from His desire to delight us. As long as we don’t forget this and connect everything to Him, “There is none else beside Him, and He is Good that does good,” we combine these two lines back into one which is the same source. And because we combine them in our heart and mind, in so doing we merge with the Creator.
It follows that our entire work lies in constant attempts to relate everything that happens to Him.
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