Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 33: If one’s faith is incomplete, and he does not engage in the Torah or in the work only because the Creator commanded him to study, then we have seen above that in such Torah and work the Light does not appear. This is because one’s eyes are flawed, and like a bat, turn the Light into darkness.

Such a study is no longer considered a maid of Kedusha, since he will not acquire Lishma through it. Hence, it comes to the domain of the maid of Klipa (shell), which inherits these Torah and work, and robs them for herself.

Hence, “the earth doth quake,” meaning the Holy Divinity, called “earth.” This is so because those Torah and work that should have become to her, as possessions of the Holy Divinity, that evil handmaid robs and lowers them to be a possession of the Klipot (shells). Thus, the handmaid is heir to her mistress.

At some point in life a person living in this world asks himself: “What is the meaning of my life?” This question gives him a certain connection with the Torah, the wisdom of Kabbalah, and he starts studying it, feeling that this can give him an answer to the question about the meaning of life, its secret.

If he studies the Torah specifically for the sake of this, it is a correct attitude. But if he does so only because “the Creator commanded it,” it is called Klipa, an impure intention. It would seem why is that, if he fulfills the Creator’s order? But the fact is that we are egoists by nature, motivated by the desire to receive pleasure, to fill ourselves, and to win. If a person says that he studies the Torah only because it is the Creator’s commandment, it means that he doesn’t have a real desire for it and his approach is erroneous. The true desire that could lead him to the purpose of creation hasn’t awakened in him yet.

However, if he studies because he wishes to find out why and for what purpose he exists, what the meaning of his existence is, what the purpose of life is, then it is a useful, natural, inner desire, need, to reveal the secret of his life. And hence even by studying with the egoistic intention, being confused, and mixing in various other goals, he nevertheless can come to a result. Most important is that he has an inner, true desire.

Even if the correct intentions and pure desires, the aspiration for bestowal and love of the other, of the Creator are non-existent, it’s not terrible: He is already on the right path. The Book of Zohar calls this state a handmaid who tends to her mistress.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/2012, “Introduction to TES“

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Question: What rules the Israeli nation today? What state is it in?

Answer: Now concealment rules the Israeli nation. There are no false philosophical perceptions, but there is no truth as in the wisdom of Kabbalah; there is nothing but the animal mind and feeling to fill themselves somehow without any spiritual element or at least its human parallel.

I am not saying that things are any different in the world, but the values there are also different. We measure the Israeli nation in comparison to the times when it was in the height of spiritually, whereas today it is on the lowest corporeal level. There is no spirituality and no yearning for it; everyone is confused, and at the same time they are sure that they are not confused, that everything is clear.

It is perfectly clear to people that this whole world is material and they don’t need anything more than economic prosperity and success in this ordinary life. There is no connection, no relationship, no contact with the nation’s spiritual role and its duty towards the world. People are not aware of these things, and they don’t know about them. The nation is in a state of unconsciousness, like a patient lying unconscious in bed while a group of doctors discuss how they should treat him.

I am speaking about the Israeli nation living in the land of Israel. It is because the assimilation in the outside world has reached such a state that it has lost the external form of the nation. In fact we cannot call these people “Jewish” anymore. It may be that some of them go to the synagogue in order to say Kadish on Yom Kippur or give charity, but the young ones have cut off this chain. There is no more “Israeli nation” outside the state of Israel.

On the contrary, the Israelis and the Jews in the diaspora are separated. It is enough to look at the American Jews who are dispersed both physically and morally; they don’t worry about Israel, only about themselves. What’s more, they want to show that they have no interest in the state of Israel, that they are “just like everyone else in America,” dedicated only to the country they live in. Once they were proud of their roots, but this has disappeared.

They not only show the breach with their own people, but even more than that, they show disrespect towards Israel. Some prefer that Israel didn’t exist at all. It isn’t by chance that Obama has so many Jewish aides. The Jewish vote for the presidential elections is also very meaningful. Under such conditions, the term the “Israeli nation” becomes very theoretical and actually doesn’t exist at all.

This means that the name the “Israeli nation” refers to those who experience the shattering, the general global destruction, and who begin to emerge from different places in the world to connect to a group that is aimed at the Creator “Yashar – El.” This is called the “Israeli nation.” In other words, it is our whole organization with all of its participants who have come together from all over this modern, human Babylon.

It is a new situation and it shouldn’t be underestimated; today we must at least worry about the Jews who live in the land of Israel since they share the same corporeal fate. It isn’t by chance that they found themselves in one place since it is also organized by Providence. We have to treat them as those who carry the Reshimot (spiritual genes) from the shattering, from the previous state. During the time of the Temple they were in the spiritual height and have already fulfilled their potential. This is why we have to evoke them since we are obligated to awaken them as Baal HaSulam says in the articles “Matan Torah” (The Giving of the Torah) and “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee).

So there is an “Israeli nation” in the spiritual sense according to the intention of “Yashar – El” (straight to the Creator), which are those who join our global group, and there is the “Israeli nation” in the general accepted meaning, who are Jews from birth, who have Reshimot from the previous spiritual states, and who have better chances of awakening to correction than members of other nations.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy“

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Let’s first clarify the relationship between the wisdom of Kabbalah and philosophy.

On the whole, philosophy studies what life is, what is its meaning, its purpose, and what man’s attitude to life and to nature is.

In one word, philosophy seems to encompass everything. At the same time it isn’t called a science, because it studies man and the human level of reality, in other words, the sphere that we cannot measure. There are no clear and accurate opinions here that can be accepted as facts.

In scientific methods, we study the still, vegetative, and animate nature, which are lower levels that man looks down upon from the height of the next evolutionary level. We can descend to them, perceive them, investigate, and understand them. This also applies to our body that belongs to the animate level of nature.

But we cannot study the “human” in us accurately. We try to classify different phenomena, responses, perceptions, thoughts, and inner desires scientifically, but we don’t succeed. Why? Because it is our own level, the same level, and I can only study what is below me.

This is the whole problem. It is common knowledge, although science actually started from man’s approach to himself and to life. It is no coincidence that degrees in all fields are called “Doctor of Philosophy” (PhD), although they have nothing to do with philosophy. The general approach to yourself and to reality is simply called “philosophy.”

This term is actually derived from the wisdom of Kabbalah. Here is what 16^th century German humanist and linguist Johann Reuchlin, one of the greatest experts in ancient languages, a personal advisor to Emperor Maximillian I, and who maintained contact with the Platonic Academy says:

“My teacher Pythagoras, the father of philosophy, probably received his wisdom from the Jews and not from the Greeks, and he is the first who had translated the word “Kabbalah”, which was not familiar to people in his times, to the Greek word “philosophy.” Pythagoras’ philosophy stemmed from the infinite sea of Kabbalah… the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t let us spend our lives in the dust, but raises our mind to the summit of knowledge.”

Philosophers would like to show that their field encompasses every aspect in life. By the way, until recently, in order to study Kabbalah at a university, one had to be accepted to the faculty of philosophy. People still assume that Kabbalah is part of philosophy, although the true philosophers themselves admit that it is not.

In any case, this is a different matter. The modern world disrespects philosophy and rightly so, since many study philosophy today only in order to get a degree. But when we speak about philosophy, we refer to a worldview, to a perception of life, a paradigm of some sort. Each of us is a philosopher internally. Accordingly, we have to understand, what about these approaches is important and what isn’t.

A person’s perspective, his attitude to life and to himself, is constantly changing, and eventually over this sphere rises the wisdom of Kabbalah, the opening of philosophy, just as it was discovered from other religions, after ages of concealment. This wisdom waited for humanity to grow and develop. In the beginning of history it generated sciences and philosophy, and today in times of global crisis, it is revealed again, after the religions and philosophy, by being the only approach a person has to life. The wisdom of Kabbalah includes all the perceptions and so eventually it replaces them.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: Will everyone have to exert himself on the spiritual path?

Answer: Everyone. After all, it is even impossible to go through the path of suffering without exertion, without making efforts, without building a vessel, without the necessary investment in developing my deficiency and my yearning. How can I feel spirituality without all this? How can I feel the spiritual world? How can I discover the Creator if I am not adapted to Him, if I don’t acquire an equivalence of form with Him?

I must attain this, but the question is by what means? Through more or less troubles and sufferings, or by yearning that I develop in me. It too brings about blows, but in an opposite form.

One way or another, I have to feel and to go through a certain amount of pain and suffering, detachment, urge, and yearning. There is a desire and there is a yearning. So the yearning is my exertion. I am given the desire, but I have to add acceleration to it. And how? By sufferings or with the help of the group, this is already my business.

We can advance under the pressure of very unpleasant things: wars, disasters, bankruptcies, plagues, etc. And it is also possible to advance differently, under the influence of the right environment. Still the obstacles remain and I still have to discover the thickness of my desire, but I sweeten the path by my yearning for the Creator, by needing Him—pangs of love instead of pangs of hate.

Eventually, no one can escape God’s work, but it is possible to advance under the blows, under the load of “Pharaoh,” and it is possible to yearn for the goal by the help of the environment. According to the absolute value, it is the same thing, but according to the content, these are two totally different things.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Baal HaSulam, the article “ Exile and Redemption”: A secular ideal stems from humanness and hence cannot raise itself above humanness. But a religious idea, which stems from the Creator, can raise itself above humanity.

We always need to see this test in front of us: Whom do we wish to please? And the opposite, before whom do I fear being disgraced? In the eyes of the public, the surroundings, my relatives, or strangers? Or I only take the Creator into account, although this calculation may be the opposite to everything that happens to me on the level of this world. Usually this is how everything is arranged for us, one thing in place of the other.

For example, I am shamed in this world and through that I am brought closer to the Creator, or I prefer to refuse to approach the Creator only not to feel the shame in this world. Here a person always checks himself, to what extent is he able to suffer.

This is a very painful point. It is a major moment since shame is at the core of our nature. Thus it isn’t enough to just to restrain or to justify yourself with one’s own exclusivity, that we inherited unwillingly. No. When all the shame is revealed to me, I need to agree and so via this concession to invite one gram of bestowal to the Creator, which He doesn’t even know about.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/12, “Exile and Redemption”

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Question: Why is the question about the meaning of life considered more pure than just its performance.

Answer: Because this question is coming from within the point in the heart, from within the most internal desire that a man has. Everything that was created by the Creator is a desire, and in each one of us there is a part from this big desire. The innermost point of this desire is the point of truth, the question “What do I live for?” This I need to reveal.

If a man asks for what he lives, this is a sign that inside his heart exists all four levels of the desire. And the fourth, final level wants to reveal Keter: to clarify who manages me, why and for what, and what is going on in general? I want to find out if it is worth living? Because if I will not reveal this Keter, the reason, then any other fulfillment that I can receive will not satisfy me. And although I am still getting confused and I’m turning to other goals, the main thing for me is to reveal the cause and effect of all that.

I want to receive a direct and honest answer: Does this life have a purpose or not? And if there is not, then any other compensation will only worsen my despair, because I don’t need all that.

If a man reaches a question like that, meaning, that he asks from within the point of Malchut about the point of Keter, because he must reveal it! It means he is already ripe for the revelation of the Creator, to Dvekut, and the other not yet.  They still need to wait, to receive illumination through us that will speed their development. If they will join us, we will be able to take care of them. Everything depends on the desire of a man, and one needs to wait that it will ripen, because it is forbidden unripened fruit.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Preparation to the Lesson

“Introduction to the Study of the The Sefirot,” Item 61, Lesson 18

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Emor,” Item 288, Lesson 23

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 8, Question 148 “Answer-Seder Siba uMesuvav,” Lesson 48

The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy 

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The upper Light is eternal and constant. Rest is a consequence of His creation that He wanted to create. Thus, everything that is not the Light represents a garment that is put one on top of another and covers the Light that is inside of them.

Each covering, from first to last, is called the desire to receive, except for the internal Light that is the desire to bestow, the Creator.

This is why we are talking about multiple stages, worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, and so on, although all of them are only the garments of the Light. Each cover is like a screen that simply receives a certain type of impression from the Light, within which it’s possible to differentiate between things that come directly from the properties of the Light and things that are originated by the coverings.

So, the same thing can be explained from the side of desires,vessels, and from the side of the Light: relative to an action and an intention. The Light at the zero phase (Shoresh de Shoresh) decided to create something that is opposite to it, something that would want to receive from it, enjoy it, and consume it. It is called the creation, the act of birth.

Everything that evolves in this world originates from the authentic impulse that is the desire of the Light in correlation with the desire to receive, that is, the desire to create something that would take advantage of the Light and be delighted by it. The Creator has built in such a desire in the very root of the creation, to create in order to bestow good.

This instinct is in the depths of our desires, otherwise we would not be able to have children and care for them. Although in the end, it is distorted by our selfish desires and takes a completely different egoistic form.

The so-called four phases of the Direct Light are the garments on the upper Light, which develop from it by the chain of cause and effect and thus conceal it more and more. If the Light decided to create and created something opposite to it, then now this opposition develops more and more: starting with the zero stage, where everything was permitted, and to stage four, which prohibited all egoistic pleasure.

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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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We see that the world lacks unity. The common market can serve as a bright example of this. Europeans strove to create unity, but they overlooked that it should be supported by the desire and goodwill to connect among people, countries, and nations.

It’s not enough to establish financial, industrial, and commercial liaisons. Things don’t work without human input. Today, in order to make any business profitable, we must maintain good relationships with employees, spend weekends together with them and their families, open kindergartens, and so forth. Many things lack a human element.

However, the architects of Europe didn’t take into consideration the human factor. They didn’t include integral upbringing in their program. They haven’t taught people to unite and become one entity, instead of simply joining a common market. That’s why their projects have failed.

In Israel, we must consider such things. Correction should be provided through the mass media. I spoke about this fact at the Arosa forum six years ago. We must engage radio, television, the press, the Internet, and educational programs and courses at the workplace and in schools. We must build an environment that will remind people about the necessity to unite in order to survive.

It’s not about being polite to each other, like adults asking small children to stop fighting. We are facing a very difficult choice: Either we go down the path of discord or we choose the path of unity. Taking into consideration the tools of destruction we have at our disposal, it’s extremely dangerous to choose the first option.

Question: What hardships will the people of Israel face if it won’t aspire to unity?

Answer: The Prophets predicted very unpleasant things. The people of Israel will implement their predetermination anyhow, even if it will require tremendous pressure and predicaments.

It is said that potential affliction is not limited by the next world war. As it is written in the Holy Scriptures, “The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children. They have been for food to them.” Terrible commentaries are given in this respect. All of them are meant to obligate the people of Israel to fulfill their mission to correct the world.

The people of Israel must realize that no one else in the world has the authority, except them, nor does anyone else have a chance to achieve this task. The explanations that are given to other nations are needed only to make them comprehend the role of the people of Israel and then compel the people of Israel to act in good faith, thus avoiding catastrophes by pushing them to begin doing their work.

Because our correction bears a common and reciprocal nature, the people of Israel must elucidate and disseminate the knowledge of it and implement the method of integral upbringing, which explains how to unite and where to start the process. We conduct our activities in Israel to demonstrate that it is possible and to initiate this practice.

Everywhere we go, we try to organize roundtable discussions and create an atmosphere of collaboration. This applies not only to the Jews but to everyone who lives here. All our neighbors and the entire world must understand that it is possible.

The purpose of the people of Israel is inextricably linked with the correction of the world. As it is written, “And you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” meaning that the sparks of bestowal and love should pour onto all nations through the sons of Israel. If this nation doesn’t choose to act accordingly and doesn’t transmit the Light to the entire world, it will be deprived of its role on the world stage, and thus will turn into an unnecessary part.

The principle, “love thy neighbor as thyself,” is the basis for the Jewish people. It has been preserved since Abraham first formulated it. However, those are not only beautiful words, but a real methodology of attaining unity that allows the stirring of the love of other nations and, consequently, uniting so that everyone becomes as “one man with one heart.”

The method is quite simple. Egoism (the left line) is rapidly developing within us, yet we must come to the middle line. For that, we sit down at a roundtable, or without it, in groups of ten people and begin talking about unity and solidarity. At the same time, each of us diminishes their left line (ego) and enhances the part that is oriented toward love and connection with others. As a result, the left line lowers, whereas the right line moves up.

Then, while we are applying efforts to unite, we see that it is possible because of the power of love (the right line) that rules among us. If we happen to unite, we resolve the problems that are caused by our egoism, that is, in our left line. As it happens, it’s not that complicated to combine them together, and out of this combination, we can grow the middle line.

Now, we understand that the sons of Israel went through exile and not by accident; they needed to acquire their ego. It amplifies the value of love that they possessed at the times of the Temple.

In Hebrew, the Temple stands for “the House of Sanctity,” that is, a general spiritual vessel where mutual bestowal and reciprocal love dwells. In ancient times, the Jewish people attained it to a certain extent, but, essentially, they must reach the level of the Third Temple. Today, we must return to love by going above the egoism that was acquired in exile and exalt it above the left line to the level that is called “the Third Temple.”
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From a Conversation on 6/5/12

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Question: What does a person obtain when he attains spirituality?

Answer: He obtains qualitatively new knowledge because now his revelation is part of him. In our world, I discover these or those external phenomena. For example, if I am a chemist, I observe, examine, and describe a chemical process.

In the science of Kabbalah, I reveal the upper world and am myself in the picture that opens to me. I am identical to my discovery; I have the same qualities that are there in the reality that I discover. Of course, at the same time, I see all the stages that I have passed, both spiritual and material. They remain in me, and I can descend to any of them to establish contact with others.

In general however, spiritual development is a precise attainment. I don’t just get to know or understand something. Knowing and attaining are not the same thing. Attainment means that I turn into the state that I have reached, not just becoming acquainted with a new degree, but become it.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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