Question: Why is the Shavuot holiday called the holiday of the giving of the Torah and not the receiving the Torah?

Answer: The giving of the Torah happens when we reach a deficiency for it. This is speaking about the Light, about giving from Above, not about receiving from below.

A person is not a free man; he is not free as long as he has not received the Torah. And after receiving the Torah, we begin to acquire the characteristic of Bina, freedom. This is freedom from our ego, from the desire to receive. And then it is possible to declare that we are working on receiving the Torah.

But on this day itself, when we are compelled under the pressure of the plagues of Pharaoh and all of the troubles that brought us to Mount Sinai, we agree to accept the mutual guarantee, but sill don’t have a strong enough desire  In the meantime this is only the giving of the Torah, given from Above.

And receiving the Torah begins when we already approach its realization: beginning with the Ohr Hassadim, to bestow for the sake of bestowal, the correction of the desire of Galgalta ve Eynaim on all levels; and after this the correction of the desire of AHP on all levels. When we correct the desire of AHP, this is truly called the receiving of the Torah, for there the Light that Reforms is working with all its power.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/14, Shamati #66 “The Giving of the Torah”

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Question: How can we connect the two discernments of “If I am not for me, who is for me” and “There is none else besides Him“?

Answer: Our mission is to reach a state in which there is no time, place, or motion. This means that there is no difference between the ascents and the descents. Even if one discovers the greatest evil and a sharp sword is placed on his neck, he shouldn’t despair of mercy. All these states don’t disappear, but we simply rise above them.

The desire to receive has to die totally, and so it is cut off, piece by piece, but we receive it as the greatest pleasure since it becomes not a simple necessity that we can avoid but the preparation of the vessel that turns into a real Light and the fulfillment of the act of bestowal.

It is actually in the worst states that we can see the height of faith and bestowal, and thus love them. Everything depends on how important we regard the Creator and our bestowal unto Him. Thus, we increase our vessel to the extent that we manage to turn ourselves into a means to delight Him.

The Creator opens up all the discernments in our hearts and minds that are not corrected and by which we are not adhered to Him in every state, from the easiest to the most difficult.

Thus, we connect these discernments: “If I am not for me, who is for me” and “There is none else besides Him.” The adhesion annuls the gap between these two discernments.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/14

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “BeLaila De Kala” (The Night of the Bride), Item 138: This is the main point of the essay, for thus far the corrections, too, were regarded as the work of our hands because we received rewards or punishments for them. However, at the great Zivug of the end of correction it will be revealed that both corrections and punishments were all the work of His hands, as it is written, “The heavens tell the work of His hands.” This is so because the great Zivug of the firmament will say that everything is the work of His hands and He alone does, is doing, and will do all the deeds.

A person has such a feeling and such thoughts that the end of correction is a fixed state that will come sometime in the future and that we can simply wait for it. He doesn’t understand that this state comes according to the corrections that a person performs. Nothing comes by itself, but only according to our work on the corrections.

We shouldn’t hope to remain the way we are and that corrections will simply arrive on their own. No, I am the one who has to try hard in order to reach correction.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, The Zohar

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Question: Can you explain the meaning of the ten commandments that were given on Mt. Sinai and that should be repeated every day, now, before Shavuot, which symbolizes the giving of the Torah?

Answer:  First of all, the ten commandments symbolize the desires in which we are connected to one another. It is only about connection.

The giving of the Torah takes place at the foot of the mountain only after the people accept the condition of mutual guarantee as one man in one heart. This means that we understand that there is a mountain of our ego above us and that we can ascend this mountain only with one point in the heart. This point is called Moses since it pulls us out of our ego.

Mt. Sinai is enormous, like the tower of Babel and even larger. We are at the bottom of the mountain ready to stand around this mountain of our ego. That is, we agree to connect all the parts of our private egoism into one mountain and not to fear it although it is a mountain of hate. We need to yearn for connection even though the only goal of our ego is to resist connection.

When we connect this way, we demand the revelation of the power of bestowal in our connection. It is because the inclination for connection is the spiritual vessel, the deficiency for mutual bestowal, as it is written, “From the love of the creatures to the love of the Creator.” Thus, we accept the condition of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/14, Shamati #66 “The Giving of the Torah”

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The first decision to accept the mutual guarantee is on Shavuot. Shavuot is the name of the holiday from the perspective of the vessels as we gradually correct ourselves in the 50 days between Pesach and Shavuot, which are called the counting of the Omer (bundle).

Omer means connections. During these 50 days we collect ourselves as much as we can and clarify what we can correct and what we cannot. After we collect all the deficiencies, on the 50^th day, we decide what we can do with it.

Every day we ask for correction in one of the Sefirot and bless it. On the whole there are 7 x 7 = 49 Sefirot that make up the connection between us: between Malchut and Bina. On the 50^th day we already have our corrected vessel, our connected desire, and we are able to receive the Light that Reforms.

Thus we become one man, one vessel, and instead of the Light that corrects and reforms, the Light enters us as a filling. This is the beginning of receiving of the Torah.

The holiday of the giving of the Torah, Shavuot, symbolizes all that. It is a very important, great, and special holiday. There isn’t a more joyful holiday for Israel than the day of receiving of the Torah.

But people don’t regard this holiday as importantly as they should; they only know that it’s customary to eat dairy products. This holiday is also called the holiday of harvest, the first harvest. The Creator gives us the Torah just like cows give us milk.

But the nation of Israel living in the land of Israel, as a corporeal branch of the spiritual root, must understand the true meaning of the giving of the Torah. There is no greater holiday. Of course the exodus from Egypt is the starting point, but all this is the preparation for receiving the Torah.

It makes no difference that we received the first two stone tablets with the ten commandments and that we broke them. It is through this that the sparks of Torah penetrate our vessels because these vessels are still mixed with the vessels of the Egyptians, and so we make the golden calf. Later we receive the second tablets on Yom Kippur, and after the holidays, we reach Purim. This is how the year ends. Let’s hope that we can at least start this process that will be completed only at the end of correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/14, Shamati #66 “The Giving of the Torah”

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We need to try hold ourselves within one Kli (vessel), a general boat, and constantly think about the existence of this Kli, of our mutual baby. It is as if you have a daughter who got married and now lives far away from you, and you constantly worry about the baby she gave birth to.

You think about him being in the hands of silly and frivolous children, who are lazy and don’t care for him as they should. You suffer from this and can’t see how they treat him. Your heart is torn when you hear his crying on the phone when they call you. You are full of concern.

There are those kinds of worries in life, i.e., worrying about the welfare of someone outside yourself. And in this way we need to worry about the group.

Question: It turns out that I have to work not with the friends, who are fine with the group, but with those who want to leave the group and thus harm our unity, harm our collective boat?

Answer: Yes, but only if previously they were aimed toward unity. However, if they heard that one has to unite and immediately ran away, then it was before any commitments to Arvut (mutual guarantee). In the meantime, they are not called friends.

Friends are only those who work for the attainment of Arvut (mutual guarantee). And the others don’t.

Comment: But we know that this is hard work, and many run away in the middle of the path.

Answer: It isn’t in the middle, since they, after all, haven’t even begun. They saw the beginning of the path, understood that it wasn’t for them and left.

Question: So why did they come if it they didn’t have a “point in the heart?”

Answer: Everyone has a point in the heart, but in the meantime it doesn’t burn in such a way that a person needs to invest all of himself in it. But if they were already part of this connection, and left, then one needs to fix the gap that was left through our even greater and stronger connection.

Question: Should such people return?

Answer: You are not able to force them to return because there is no coercion in spirituality.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #53, “The Matter of Limitation”: This is called the main part of the degree, which is a discernment of Katnut. This discernment must be permanent, and the Gadlut is only an addition. Also, one should yearn for the main part, not for the additions.

The goal is to reach wholeness, and a sign of wholeness is the joy that fills all of our senses, all desires, and all thoughts, which means our heart and mind. It is because wholeness and joy come from the Creator; when in the smallest state, I am adhered to Him and thus delight Him, and then it is the greatest state.

At the bottom of the ladder it seems that a person has to be as great as the Creator: to know, to understand, and to feel everything, to control everything, to swallow the whole world. The Creator seems as a powerful ruler that dominates all of creation and a person thinks that he also should be the same. The ego inside me constantly grows and expands so that I will advance.

But then I begin to understand that no matter how much new desire will be added and no matter how great it is, I have to make myself a zero and another zero, as many zeros as possible. I cannot do that with regard to the Creator, but I can make an effort and do it with regard to the friends.

Annulling myself and not wanting anything for myself but from the point of annulment to delight the Creator is actually the starting point of every level, of every state. This is the attribute of Bina, to bestow in order to bestow with nothing of its own.

This is called Tzimtzum (restriction), Masach (screen), and the Returning Light. To the extent that greatest discernments are revealed to me, I annul them when it comes to my own benefit and I don’t want to exist on my own if I cannot delight the Creator above this state and not demand anything else.

My perception of reality is always divided into two. I want to delete all the desires and the thoughts that are for myself and to restrict them; I cannot get rid of them completely, but want to feel as if they don’t exist. It is because I begin to feel that every thought and desire for myself in any way doesn’t let me focus on delighting the Creator.

Thus I establish my bestowal by restricting all my desires by which I am blown up with from Above, to zero. I return to nothing, and then above that establish my bestowal. These are already the next phases of my ladder. The sign for these states is the ability to ascend above all the ascents and descents and to turn them into means of bestowal, as if I don’t have a volume of my own but convey everything above myself.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, Shamati #53 “The Matter of Limitation”

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Question: What is Gehenna (Hell)?

Answer: Gehenna depends on how a person defines it. There are those who suppose that Gehenna is when everything that they had in this world disappears and they regret that life passed by without any benefit.

There are those who suppose that Gehenna is not here in this world from an emotional point of view: good or bad, with all kinds of observations. Rather, it waits for us in the future, after the body dies. They think that after the body dies, Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden, heaven) or Gehenna waits for them.

In Kabbalah, what is called Gehenna is the most undesirable state. Through our study and work in a group, we strive to reach a state where values are changed so that hell and heaven take on a different identity in comparison to what is conventionally accepted. Regular people think that when the body dies, some kind of door opens to hell or heaven for a person.

But is this wretched beast at fault for having died or because it was alive? This is speaking about life or death of the desire to receive in the same situation when we have free choice. This illusion that I am found in a physical body and feel this world is intentionally given so that I will leap above it and see myself as alive and existing only in a spiritual Kli (vessel) in relation to Light.

It is very good and beneficial to imagine hell Gehenna and see it in a different form all the time. When I am under the control of the desire to receive, which doesn’t let me bestow, this is called hell. Then we have such a Gehenna!
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, The Zohar

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Question: Is it possible to say that a workshop is a conversation without arguments?

Answer: A workshop is an “accumulative clarification” where everyone adds to clarify the answer, the problem, the phenomenon, with the power of connection.

For every problem there is a key, which is called the wisdom of the crowd, where through taking an average of a large number of answers, a correct solution emerges, despite the fact that all of the answers were not correct. So let’s solve our problems with the help of the wisdom of the crowd, the wisdom of the group.

If we don’t argue with each other, but gather together our knowledge and sense of unity, then we suddenly begin to discover a unique phenomenon within our connection. In this way we clarify a particular problematic question or phenomenon that becomes understandable.

This is because the connection is found above us and gives us additional wisdom, an additional I.Q. Suppose that everyone had an I.Q. of 100. From the connection of five, in sum we have 500. But through our connection, the result is 1000. That is how the connection between people works. There are experiments that confirm this phenomenon called collective intelligence.

Question: Is the wisdom of the crowd revealed only in a good connection at the time of the workshop or can there be disputes?

Answer: The wisdom of the crowd cannot be revealed during an argument, for there will not be a connection between opinions. Only when all of the opinions are connected do we attain the higher knowledge.

In arguments we don’t reach agreement between people. Someone simply surrenders due to all kinds of different reasons, but he doesn’t complete you. While in a workshop we complete each other.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14

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The whole world is my Kli. Only one person was created in the world. This is a paradox, also known in quantum physics. Our perception of the world can transform in a moment and the situation will appear completely different, like quantum superpositions.

There is no contradiction between the fact that I the only one in the world and seeing the whole world as parts of me. Because of some kind of psychological effect it seems to me that these parts are outside of me.

It is as if they gave me an injection of an anesthetic in my leg and I stop feeling it as part of my body. Now someone could come with a saw and cut off my leg and I would not react because I don’t feel any pain. My feeling is so clouded that I don’t see that it is mine at all.

We are under an anesthetic like this in relation to the whole world. All of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and people are parts of my Kli, vessel. All of them belong to me, to my desire to receive. I am Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity), the entire creation. So the whole world was created for me, to serve me. But my ego detaches me from the world and presents it to me as being outside of me and not as belonging to me.

The ego works like an anesthetic that disengages all of my organs from me and leaves me with only a small part of all of reality. So I must begin to correct my ego, and through the Surrounding Light, I return to myself my parts that seem to me as being cut off and distant from me, in that I work with them as if they are mine.

This is specifically what we try to do in a group: to come closer as one person with one heart and see all of reality as one. We ourselves invest effort to reach this and are not pushed backward by the crisis like all of the rest of the world is, which must be compelled to accept all of reality as one system.

I have the opportunity to not wait until the crisis will begin to push all of reality back at me, arguing that it is all mine and forcing me to recognize this through the way of suffering.

If I will begin to bring all of reality to myself, according to the advice of the Kabbalists, and relate to all of its levels— the still, vegetative, animate, and human—as my parts, then I will receive huge additional deficiencies. They will make it possible for me to see reality not through my small part, but through them, through the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, which I bring close and adhere to me by leaping over my ego. In this way I build a bridge above all of my hatred, as it is said, (Proverbs 10:12) “Love covereth all transgressions.”
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14

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