Question: You say that the information that comes into our eyes is reflected on a “screen” located in the hind part of the brain, correct?

Answer: No, it isn’t. Nothing comes into our eyes. There are no eyes, just as there isn’t a “hind part of the brain.”

There is nothing but an egoistic desire to fill itself with pleasure, which is projecting to me that I am “constructed” this way, meaning that I have eyes, a head, arms, and legs. Yet, this is how my will to receive pleasure is painting it for me. Additionally, it paints other objects that seem to exist outside of my body.

Question: So, does it mean that we perceive the Creator as concealment? Is that how our reality is?

Answer: What we see or, rather, feel (we say “see” because sight is our most powerful sensory organ) is the difference between us and the Creator. It is the shadow of our egoistic desire cast on the Upper Light, the white screen.

Therefore, I see only various individual desires, different attributes contained in my egoistic will to receive. In other words, the still nature, plants, animals, and man are the four levels of my desire to feel pleasure (Shoresh [root], Aleph [first], Bet [second], Gimel [third], and Dalet [fourth]), which are presented to me in this fashion on the background of the white Light.

I feel only my desire to fill myself with pleasure. What about the Light? The Light is the background on which I see my will to receive. When this desire becomes like the Light, it will not block the Light from me and I will fully feel the Creator.

In the meantime, instead of Him, I perceive only my egoistic desire. In other words, everything I am surrounded by are parts of my ego.

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From Lesson 6, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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What is the end of correction? Let us say that I need to fix my car to go somewhere. I take it to a shop, and the mechanic fixes it. Once the car is fixed, this means that I have completed the correction. Now, in a fixed car (or, if it is us we are correcting, then with a corrected common soul) we begin our trip upwards.

However, we do not speak about this. We only speak about the way to attain correction. Kabbalists do not say what happens to the corrected soul. They only hint about the things that await us there, but this is an even higher reality, above all the worlds, above the World of Infinity.
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From Lesson 8, World Kabbalah Congress 2010, 11/11/10

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Question: What is the foundation of a person’s aspiration that moves him to turn to the Creator?

Answer: Aspiration can come only from the group. When I strive to unite with the friends, I receive additional desire from the exalted nature of the goal, and most importantly, the realization of my own powerlessness, an awareness of our inability to help each other or achieve something on our own.

In my essence, I am a little egoist who always justifies himself. However, when I connect with the friends, I learn from them. Whether I like it or not, I watch them and see that they are all weak. When everybody is weak, it affects me in a different manner, unlike when I feel weak myself.

The sensation of incapacity that I receive from them contains an element of the breaking. Within myself, I don’t feel it since the breaking occurred between us, outside of me, in relation to the others. Having attempted to become one in order to find the Creator in the connection between us, we discover our inability to do so.

This is exactly what we discovered during the recent Convention: the revelation of the breaking. From now on, we have to understand: What are we to accomplish with this revelation that we are facing? We have come to a disappointment, for we have found that we are unable to mutually connect. What do we do now? Should we abandon this path?

We have stumbled upon this wall for the first time, and now we have only one remedy: to turn to the Creator for help. After all, on our own, we are unable to break through it. We have to openly admit that we clearly see the state we are in and cannot fight it.

While trying to unite during the Convention, we found how cold the air became all at once and how frustrated we are on the path. This froze us up and we seemed to have been chained within the will to receive pleasure, unable to take even one step toward oneness. And that is something we have to clearly understand.

Now, we have to acknowledge that “A prisoner cannot release himself out of prison,” and I cannot do it either. This is excellent. The next step after becoming aware of my incapacity is to ask the Creator to do it.

If you ask Him while being in this particular state, you will receive what you ask. After all, it was you who found the place where you are unable to do anything. Before, you had nothing to turn to the Creator with. Now, the time has come.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/10, The Zohar

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Question: What does it mean to ask the Light for correction, to turn to the Light?

Answer: We need to understand that the actual correction does not depend on us. We are the desire for pleasure, and if we are able to do anything, it is only to evoke the action from Above.

Our entire work is the raising of MAN, the request for correction, but the Creator does all the work. This is why our path is called “the Creator’s work.” We exert efforts in the group and studying only to convince each other of the need to develop a single aspiration described as: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.”

We should not forget for even a second that we must ask for correction. Everything is only given through a prayer, an appeal, the uncovering of the need. I do not just want something abstract: I want to correct the Kelim (vessels), I want to be like You, I want to be big.

A child looks at those who are older and instinctively wants to grow up. So I also want the same, but I do not just want, I demand it. After all, the force of development comes from the Creator. We will not grow up without asking Him for help.

The problem is that we consider ourselves to be actual participants. We think that we can make things happen on our own. But in reality, nothing depends on us except for the revelation of the desire.

So how do I reveal it? Through uniting with others. They, too, don’t have the strength, but they have desires, and this is all I need.

The desire I receive from my friends is far greater than the one I had initially. Imbued with this desire, I strive to unite with them, and I do not succeed. Now I can finally turn to the Creator.

Through our collective action at the Convention, we have discovered that we are unable to unite. It has never been this clear before. A wall appeared clearly before us, and our efforts broke against it. Now all that we need to do is turn to the power of the Light for it to break this wall. And we really can appeal to it.

We must demand correction while studying, especially when reading The Zohar. You can ask and receive an answer right now, right this moment.

Your ego is in the way; you have frozen like a rock: “Who else should I ask? I don’t see a Creator around here.” That’s true, so demand to Him to reveal Himself and make it clear for you to whom and how to ask.

We are egoists and we will not break the Machsom on our own. When egoism becomes an unbreakable wall, we ask the Creator for strength to rise over it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, The Zohar, “Introduction to The Zohar”

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We have done a great job! In the upcoming days, weeks, and months, it will become clear to us what a substantial leap we have made. Never before have we raised such questions and spoke so openly about unification that has been the theme of the recent convention. For the very first time, we have tapped upon the essence of our correction, the wisdom of Kabbalah, and our soul.

It has been a truly radical change, and we will never be the same as before. Now we are mutually connected, but we must keep working at it harder and harder, until we get to see that the Creator is filling us more and more by the minute and that all cosmos, including this world, is permeated with the Upper Light, and we are dwelling in it.

All of the worlds where we are bonded, mutually intertwined like a grid-net, are starting to clearly emerge. We will come to that!

There is the time of giving and the time of receiving. Giving from Above exists and has to manifest itself; all we need is just a little bit more sensitivity to feel that the Creator is filling the world, the air between us, and the entire reality. A bit more subtlety, enthusiasm, receptivity, and openness toward the others, and we shall see that we are living the revelation.

I think everyone will begin to feel that it is possible, that it isn’t some fantasy. Rather, it becomes true thanks to our individual efforts in seeking and finding the Creator.

Try to bring out your inner empathy. What is faith? Faith is a sensation of bestowal. The book Faith and Hope says that “faith is a subtle predisposition, the attribute of a delicate and sensitive soul.” It is what we need: a subtle inclination of an empathic soul.

We must get to feel that this Upper Force truly dwells among us. It is as if we are trying to see something and when we finally manage to get a glimpse of it, we become convinced that it exists and are surprised at how we couldn’t see it until now. If you withdraw your glance yet again and lose focus, it becomes harder for you to find it next time, but at least now you know that it is real.

The difficulty lies in getting to see it for the first time. We have to adjust our vision or, rather, our heart a bit.
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From Lesson 8, World Kabbalah Congress 2010, 11/11/10

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Question: If there is no reward and punishment in this world, where do they exist?

Answer: There is reward and punishment in our world, good and bad people, and everything else that you see and understand. It is written: “The world behaves according to fixed laws.” Within the scope of our world, each society, country, and civilization has their own laws.

If you come to a kindergarten, a school, or some adult establishment, in each place you’ll find specific laws of communication and reward and punishment for their observance. Wherever you may end up, there will be a charter of laws for a group of people, whether a society or a nation.

But with respect to profits and losses concerning the spiritual world, your corporeal actions have no bearing on the spiritual degree. They affect the soul’s future reincarnations, but not on the Creator’s revelation to the creatures, the revelation of the spiritual world, which is described as “see your world in this life.” And, as the Torah explains, a person who has only performed corporeal actions is considered to have done nothing at all.

We study that your only free action in this world is the exertion to unify in the group; all of your other actions are not yours. We are evaluated only with respect to choosing the best environment every time so as to achieve the purpose of creation.
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From Lesson 2, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Question: When we cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), do we do it together or each of us in our time?

Answer: The Machsom is a potential border. If I aspire to unity with the friends and from separation between us yearn to reach greater closeness, if I try as much as I can to annihilate this distance, but am unable to do so, then I appeal to the Creator, the Light, and break through the Machsom. In other words, my ego remains, but I wish to rise above it despite the fact that at the previous stages, I didn’t especially desire this and was accepting of its presence in me.

This is how it was before the Machsom. However, above it, there are two forms of connection: “to bestow in order to bestow,” the level of Bina, and “to receive in order to bestow,” the level of Hochma and Keter.

Where, then, do I realize the Machsom? I do so in the connection between us. In it, I am not subject to our external actions concerning each other and expressions of personal likes. Here, I need to work solely within.

I have to feel an inner ability to bond with them within myself, in our desires, so that all our sparks of bestowal connect together. As soon as I start desiring it, I cross the Machsom. Yet, all our egoistic attributes remain. After all, we haven’t corrected our ego, but rose above it, eager to unify our passionate desire for spirituality, the property of bestowal.

If our sparks of bestowal are bound together, they form a vessel for the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) because such a vessel already has the attribute of Hafetz Hesed (presiding above one’s egoism). That’s when a person starts perceiving the Upper Light ruling over everything there is.

Below the Machsom, the same Upper Light fills the entire reality, but we don’t perceive it. As soon as our points in the hearts begin connecting, in a bond, density, compression between them I suddenly start feeling the Light that permeates everything . However, the sparks had already “found” the Light and become its “gauge.”

We are now in the same condition, and we don’t need to zoom into another dimension or other galaxies. The Light resides between us, and we just lack sensitivity for it, an organ of perception. The closer our hearts get, the more we discover the Light that dwells among us. We arrive at this in mutual bestowal and desire it to take place.
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From Lesson 2, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Perception of reality, as the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us, is very subjective. Reality is perceived solely in relation to us and our sensory organs. But outside of them, there is no reality; it doesn’t exist. We receive it as an image on the screen located in the “hind” part of our brain, as if reality exists irrespective of us, on the outside.

As The Book of Zohar explains, I see parts of my will to receive to the extent that it differs from the Light, to the degree that my desire to receive varies from the attribute of bestowal that characterizes the Light.

Our collective desire, the single creature, was initially in the state of “Infinity.” Then it descended from the property of “Infinity” to that of “our world” by experiencing the breaking, meaning changing its property from bestowal to reception.

Through the breaking, this big soul divided into 600,000 individual souls and then into a multitude of parts that ended up in “our world,” an egoistic property. This is why we feel that there are many of us, although in truth, each of us sees only parts of his own soul.

We study that the soul is comprised of 10 Sefirot. They are divided into GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh). GE contains the Sefirot of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, and Tifferet, which are the vessels (desires) of bestowal, whereas AHP contains Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut, the vessels of reception.

It turns out that I perceive reality by means of these ten vessels or desires. What I perceive within GE is my self, my “I,” and what I perceive in AHP is the illusory, external world I see outside of myself.

Essentially, I have experienced an internal tearing of the vessels of GE and AHP. I perceive my greatest desires that were supposed to bring me the greatest pleasures as alien, like all of you, for example. You all are the vessels of my AHP. I experience “I,” myself, and everything related to me in GE of my soul. In my ego, I am constantly preoccupied with this specific part, and all my calculations aim at my personal benefit.

I perceive the part referred to AHP as completely alien to me. Moreover, I am willing to use it in any way I can for as long it may serve my benefit. Hence, it looks like I am constantly trying to fool, lie to, and steal from myself, but I am neither aware of it nor feel it.

Later, when a person begins discerning it, he arrives to great disappointment. Therefore, the method of Kabbalah, before anything else, stresses the need to unite, although it must not occur in the corporeal plane (between you and me). The entire method is aimed at the necessity to unify and correct the soul, meaning that I must unify these two parts in my perception.

So now, what I see outside of myself and experience within myself, these two parts, have to become one whole. Then, we will truly see that there is nothing but a person, and what I observe inwardly and outwardly is my “self,” my “I,” or my will to receive (desire).
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From Lesson 2, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Question: If there is no one besides me, then why do I have to come to the Convention, unite with everyone, and love them?

Answer: You have to start perceiving the true reality in your sensations. Therefore, you have to come and see that we all do exist, and you have to perform all actions so we would “cease to exist.”

Question cont.: But you said that there is no one else here.

Answer: But it is me who said it! And you have to reach such an attainment on your own. You have to prove it for yourself that there is nobody here except for Malchut of the World of Infinity.
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From Lesson 6, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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The question “What do I live for” is the inception of the desire to reveal the Creator. I want to know Who had begotten me, where my root lies, and Who governs me. Who created all this, and why did He create me “wrapped up” within this huge world? What does He want from me at every moment, giving me not a moment’s rest and pushing me toward some unknown?

When these questions come to me, they poison my entire life, and I can no longer live without revealing the Creator. This is how I am structured for I am created by the Light which had imprinted itself in me, in all my desires.

All my desires are like a cast, the Light’s reverse imprint, and until I draw the Light and fill myself with it, I will not rest, to the point where this life will feel worse than death. I will be ready to do anything for even a drop of this fulfillment.

Therefore, my task is to clarify how to reveal the Creator, the Light, and the form in which I can fill myself with it. Indeed, this is no simple task which is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “Hochmat HaKabbalah (wisdom of reception).”

It is not like in our world where I need only to open my mouth to slake my thirst. A spiritual desire cannot be quenched directly. Rather, it must be clarified first since the Creator does not give me a ready desire suited for the Light. He wants me to verify what is it that I desire, what is the Light, and to realize that it is the greatest of any possible fulfillments. He wants me to try all the desires and all the fulfillments, to verify myself, and to say, “No, I want only this!”

The Creator is extremely jealous and captious. He wants me to love only Him and nothing else, and He verifies this by revealing in me every possible thing. I am supposed to reply, “No, You are still the greatest of all fulfillments, of all pleasures! You are the tastiest!” It is written, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” because this type of fulfillment is called taste.
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From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Congress 2010, 11/11/10

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