Question: People who recently found out about Kabbalah have doubts about whether or not it should be studied methodically. What is the use of regular, systematic study of the science of Kabbalah?

Answer: Throughout history the only people who came to Kabbalah were those who felt a burning worry, a burning desire. A person could not hold himself back. It was important to him to find out what the essence, source, or meaning of life is. And according to this desire, he “ended up” with the science of Kabbalah. And that’s because everything we see in the world is a spiritual force field in which we move. If the spiritual desire awakens in a person, being an aspiration to the Light, to bestowal, to the Creator as the source of Light, then he finds Kabbalah by moving to it naturally, similar to a charge in an electromagnetic field.

This happened in every generation. However, today is a special time when not only individuals, but masses are discovering that our world is empty. They feel this from the suffering and inner emptiness, and then they also ask the question about the meaning of life. However, their question is aimed not so much at the source of life as at the cause of what is happening: Why do they feel bad and where could goodness come from?

This desire is vested into the garments of our world. It does not yearn for ascent or the search for the source of life, its force, its Governor. A person just wants to know how to arrange his life to avoid losing everything. His family is falling apart, his children are strangers to him, he has no job, everything is vanishing into thin air, and who knows what will happen next? This is driving millions and even billions of people to the same Source, although on a lower level of desire.

Therefore, today we accept everyone to the study of Kabbalah. If a person wants to study and find out some things, then let him come and study. At first we present the science of Kabbalah to him in an easy, friendly form and talk about “rights” rather than “responsibilities.” But later a person sees that just like in any other area, here he also has to exert efforts, and he has to do it more and more. In order to acquire something important, one has to work a lot. This is not a secret, but a person first has to see that there is something to gain here.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/12 on Kabbalah Learning

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 51: …One concealment relates only to the concealment of the face, while the posterior is revealed to them…. Item 52: Concealment within concealment means that even the posterior of the Creator is hidden from them, as they do not believe in reward and punishment….

Am I on one of these levels? No, in the meantime the Creator is absent from my picture. I don’t feel that He exists and I don’t feel that He doesn’t exist. I simply don’t feel anything. This means that it isn’t the level of concealment yet.

In the time of concealment, I don’t feel that there is someone and that he is concealed from me. This allows me to inquire: Why and for what reason is he concealed? What is this concealment in itself? How can I remove it? Could it be that it is better if I conceal myself from Him so that He will start to reveal Himself? But I won’t conceal all of me from Him, only my desire to receive, my ego. If I conceal the part of the heart, which is controlled by self love, then perhaps I will be able to reveal the Creator and to connect to Him.

So the concealment is already the beginning of the work and the test: I find out under what conditions I can remove the concealment. It is about the preparation period for the action that will reveal the Creator to me. Now, however, we are preparing for the preparation.

Question: What is the benefit of this stage?

Answer: Advancing towards the state in which we feel that He is concealed.

So what should I do in order to discover His concealment? I have to understand who I want to reveal, who the Creator is. The Creator is the attribute of bestowal. That is, I have to discover that the attribute of bestowal is concealed from me. When I really want it, I will feel that it isn’t in me, and to achieve it I have to work with the friends in the group.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The Creator’s purpose is to do good to His created beings. The pleasure that comes from the Creator can only be felt by two opposites, when we see Him from a point that is opposite to the good. Then, in this gap between the empty vessel and the Light, we can all feel His goodness.

It cannot be done differently according to the way we see it. Therefore, there was the shattering of the vessels as preparation. Thanks to the fact that we work on the correction of the vessels, we begin to feel the gap between the corrupt vessel and the correct one.

The corrupt vessel is called the desire to receive for itself, and the corrected vessel is the desire to bestow upon others. The correction begins from the level of this world, from the complete detachment from the feeling of the connection with the Creator.

All the laws we have to discover, to determine, and to fulfill are the laws of society. In it we learn these laws in the process of our work, as it says: “There is none wiser than the experienced.” Therefore, the moment a person is given the urge to correct himself, he begins to look for the meaning of life that is actually in the corrected vessel, and then he is brought to the group so that he will be able to put together his spiritual vessel and feel the purpose and meaning of life in it.

We learn on ourselves all the laws of reality by our gradual connection in the group. This is what the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is dedicated to: It tells us about how Kabbalists correct themselves and connect with others on the corporeal and the spiritual levels. In fact, there is nothing but the correction on which this wisdom is based.

It takes a long time until we agree to hear this, then there is a long period in which we hear it but cannot implement it, or don’t feel the connection between the world and what we should do.

During that time the Light influences us in small portions, until we finally begin to feel that we have no choice and that we have to fulfill what we hear. In doing that there are many degrees and states.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, Writings of Rabash

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“The prayer of the poor” is exactly what we need if we want to go to such an action like the convention in the desert: to look for the right deficiency, for the necessity. After all, we don’t need anything besides the deficiency. We exist in the Light of Ein Sof, in the Creator’s desire to bestow. But we don’t have a vessel that can receive this bestowal.

But this is what we need. How can we know for sure what the Creator wants to bestow upon us? What should we ask for? In the Torah it says about the beginning of the spiritual path: “And a certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying: ‘What seekest thou?’ And he said: ‘I seek my brethren.’”—the connection with others. How can we reach this connection if everyone feels hatred towards others and they don’t know where they are, they don’t understand that they are preserving their beastliness, going out to the field to hunt or to herd, while the one who wants to resemble the Creator is looking for a human (that resembles the Creator) and wants to see that “human” part in another?

As a result a person begins to discover the exile, Pharaoh, and the need to leave his control. It is all revealed in the connection among people.

Therefore, if we want to go out “to a field that God has blessed,” in order to do this kind of work and to feel that we are in the desert and should reach connection, then in that connection we can reveal that we hate one another and that Pharaoh, the snake, is among us. And this will evoke us to ask for the Creator’s help. Let’s hope for this to happen.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, The Zohar

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Shamati #159, “And It Came to Pass in the Course of those Many Days”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “A Prayer for the Poor,” Item 189, Lesson 54
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 24, Lesson 16
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Lesson Topic: Kabbalah Learning
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Question: Should we get rid of all our corporeal desires in order to reach the level of the “poor man?”

Answer: We shouldn’t get rid of any desire. We should only ask for correction, and nothing more. The upper Light knows what to do better than we do. I don’t have to get rid of anything. Even if I see my worst attributes, I mustn’t get rid of them because it’s as if I would be cutting off my arms and legs. I don’t correct myself; it’s the Light that should correct me.

If I come to you, and attack you, shout at you, and insult you, I mustn’t “shut myself up.” I have to pray for the upper Light to perform this correction because that will be a real correction and not something that is done under pressure. This is a huge difference.

Baal HaSulam says that if you suppress something by that you are destroying this part in the world, and due to that the world will never be corrected. It will require much more effort to bring it back to the way it was and to correct it.

Similarly, we sometimes use medicines in order to suppress an illness and to conceal it inside, and this is even worse than if an illness is seen clearly and thus can be cured. This is how a snake operates: It hides inside and you don’t see it, but then it crawls out.

Therefore our attitude to transgressions, to quarrels between people and to different conflicts is totally different: Let them be as they are, yet above them we should build the correction because now is the best time to correct them.

If a person wants to cover up the negative revelations and to hide them, it’s the worst thing. There are people who are afraid of quarrels and conflicts, they are afraid of such revelations, and it’s bad because that isn’t aimed at correction.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 59: Hence, when one is granted repentance from fear… now he evidently sees that there is Providence of reward and punishment. It is clear to him that all the suffering he had ever felt was a punishment from His Providence for the sins he had committed.

Why is Providence being revealed to us? It is because it cannot spoil us. Each time we get an adequate measure of concealment that prevents us from blaming the Creator and His Providence within our desires that were initially destroyed and by doing so, we descend even more.

The step that is good for us is being concealed from us for our own protection. Just like parents who “diminish” their love to their children and start demanding more from them. They demonstrate “cruelty, insolence and stubbornness” to the extent that the wellbeing of the child requires. They regret that they have to “limit” their love, but there is no other way. This is called “suffering of Shechina” which has to be concealed from the lower ones.

However, when a person reveals His Providence, which is based on reward and punishment, he rids himself of any limitations. Now, he can misbehave like a child who suddenly realizes that his parents love him unconditionally and endlessly and that’s why he drops all barriers.

Kabbalists wrote a lot about this situation. As it is said, “The one who spares the rod hates his offspring.” It is essential to use rigidness and perseverance while constantly balancing between judgment and mercy.

The Creator has to conceal Himself from those who have receiving desires. He can open Himself only to bestowing desires, although, it is true only in regards to His Providence rather than to the Lights. By all means, it is also the Light, but it deals with intelligence rather than with feelings.

This stage is the starting point of human development. It should be clear to us that we advance only while acquiring the correct screens and powers. Thanks to them, if the Creator manifests Himself as absolute goodness and is ready to fulfill all of our desires, we won’t lose our independence. At the time of concealment we protect ourselves, and even more so.

When we were in concealment, we had nothing to “steal”; now, we have something to steal and should hold back from doing so. While in concealment, we don’t regard the Creator as good and benevolent. Our duty is to prevent ourselves from being spoiled by this sensation. It’s prohibited to undermine one’s fear because of the Creator’s abundance and our attitude towards the Creator. On the contrary, our fear has to continue growing: “Will we be able to give to the Creator at such a high level? Are we capable of rising above everything that is being revealed to us?”

Revelation of the Creator weakens us greatly since it compliments desire. It’s as if the Creator tells us: “Do whatever you want. There are no restrictions. You are welcome to have half of the kingdom or the whole kingdom.” This is where the problem lies: Are we capable of avoiding such confusion?

The most important thing is not pleasure, but rather illusion and complete disarray. All of a sudden we soared into the skies: “Everything is fine; we can do whatever we want; it’s easy! Previously, we didn’t realize that everything came directly from the Creator and was permeated with love. Moreover, we are in complete agreement with Him and He indulges us in our caprices…” That’s where we can get into trouble.

That’s why we have to constantly work on our desires until we reach the level of bestowal. When the Creator reveals Himself to us, we still carry on our path. However, this completely wide-open revelation” is only a trick, an invitation to the wrong side to us to continue expanding the screen and using ingenuity against the evil inclination, against Pharaoh.

It’s as if the Creator and Pharaoh approached us together as in the “Scroll of Esther,” where it is even harder to tell who the Creator is and who the Ahasuerus (the king) is. The king supports Haman, while Mordechai sits at the gates in the street, and we don’t know for sure which of them is right.

At times like this, we cannot endure without the right environment that evokes us to life.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: If I read the text while listening to The Zohar, I cannot concentrate on prayer. What is better: to read or to pray?

Answer: It is better if you do both, but you cannot accomplish it at once. It takes a long time. It is similar to working with some novel device or entering a new society. Initially, we don’t know anything about them. We start exploring their behavioral patterns and reactions to the environment and eventually analyze the initial data and our impressions; we figure out what impacts this mechanism and what doesn’t.

Gradually, we begin to sense the nuances of the system; we learn how it reacts to external factors. It doesn’t matter whether it is a human society, a family, a person, or a machine. All systems react to external influences.

When we study the upper system: Aba ve Ima, ZON, worlds of BYA, and Atzilut, we gradually start assigning our own properties to them under the influence of the surrounding Light. We can tell the difference between Aba ve Ima (Father and Mother) and ZON, which occupies a position that is lower than Aba ve Ima or the worlds of BYA; we distinguish between right and left lines, and recognize Arich Anpin with its “brain partitions” and “hidden intelligence.”

We begin sensing definitions. It’s as if we know people that belong to a certain group or as if we connect a familiar person with a concrete sensation:  pleasant or unpleasant, intimidating or not.

When we get to know The Zohar and other Kabbalistic books, we link Kabbalistic notions of internal and external nature with our own sensations. Thus, we begin to assemble all images into one picture, no matter what we read:  a weekly chapter of the Torah, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” or The Book of Zohar, which is written in an allegorical language. We start collecting all images into one picture.

It’s about the upper system to which we belong and its influence upon us. It doesn’t matter what time and place we are talking about: Egyptian slavery, wandering in the desert (as described in the Torah), shattering of the worlds, or correction described in the “Study of the Ten Sefirot.”

Not only do we start to understand that all sources talk about parallel events, only using different languages; we also begin to connect them to ourselves. First, we thought that everything was outside of us and that some upper system was somewhere else, whereas we are here in this world.  But later, our self-vision starts to differ and we recognize that everything is within us and about us. The whole Torah is instruction (Orah) that helps us enter the authentic system in order to avoid the state of unconsciousness and keep us away from the condition of living without any clue of where we really are. This is how a person gradually advances.

When we open The Zohar or any other Kabbalistic book (The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Tanakh, Midrash, or Psalms), it depends only on the person and his in-depth sensation that all these sources speak about him, the Creator, and the buffer that connects them together, that is, the world, humankind, the group, and our teachers, the great Kabbalists, the authors of the books that connect us with spirituality.

Then, it doesn’t matter what “language” we are using and what style we cling to; all that matters is whether we have enough time and a suitable place for authentic actions. We feel that we stand across from the system that facilitates revelation of the Creator to us. This system is both external and internal and the Creator stays inside of it until “Israel” (the people), the Torah, and the Creator connect into one whole as all of us always strove to attain.

It will come gradually.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, The Zohar

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Question: How can we protect ourselves at the time of the Creator’s revelation if our Reshimot (informational genes) and desires change and are being renewed at every given level?

Answer: This is true, but we shouldn’t overlook the initial principle that states that the only thing we have to do is work on our desires and demands; the result will come from Above. It doesn’t make a difference if we face even a thousand confusing situations. All we do is prepare a desire for each state.

There is total confusion around us; we cannot trace internal connections and don’t understand a thing. We don’t have to understand: All we have to do is to want. We are not obligated to comprehend the situation and assemble fragments of the whole picture into one. Our task is to want to connect them together with the help of the Light that reforms. The more confusion there is, the better.

If we regard our work incorrectly, it seems that we don’t advance at all. We get more and more confused and frustrated; looking back, we are frightened by events in recent years, and looking forward, we don’t see even a glimmer of hope. Rabash once told me: “If at the time you leave a lesson you don’t feel more empty than the day before, it means that the lesson was unsuccessful.”

The lesson should end with a sensation that we don’t have anything. “What do I do?!”—I cry out. My cry has to resound.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What is a good indicator that we are on our way?

Answer: A good indicator is one’s discovery of the deficiency from which the spiritual Kli (vessel) is constructed. As it is written, “God will complete for my sake.” This means that, in response to this deficiency, the attribute of bestowal will truly arrive. Through it, our spiritual Kli will be filled.

We were given the initial Kli, HaVaYaH, about which it is said, “I the Lord do not change (Ani HaVaYaH lo Shiniti),” “Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey,” or the four stages of the direct Light. We can broaden it only by attaining the root through the tip of the “Yod” through which all of the HaVaYaH is filled to the same extent to which we open to Her the place of fulfillment, our deficiency.

The fulfillment is measured by the extent of bestowal that is acquired by this HaVaYaH (Yesod of Neshama – foundation of the soul). The soul (Neshama) is filled with the letters: “Yod-Vav-Dalet” (the complete spelling of the letter “Yod”), “Vav-Yod-Vav” (the complete spelling of the letter “Vav”), “Hey-Yod” (the spelling of the letter ”Hey”), and so on.

How can the Kli of HaVaYaH, the “skeleton” of the soul, be filled with letters? After all, the letters are also Kelim. Does that mean that I seemingly fill a pail with empty cups? Is that called filling? I wanted to be filled by the Light! The bestowal that the Kli acquires is specifically called the Light. It fills it, and it doesn’t need anything else.

Therefore, the acquiring of deficiency for the desire to bestow is the essential preparation of the person himself. When the desire to bestow arrives, it will fill the Kli with longing for bestowal, for love. There is no other filling: only this!

When a person is filled with the attribute of bestowal, he studies the Creator, the upper force, and becomes like Him. It is especially in this that he feels the fulfillment, that is to say, the filling is the Masach (screen) and the returning Light.

This is what we need to long for, to prepare for. All the work is just for this purpose. The main problem is not to become confused and not to replace the real fulfillment from bestowal, from the desire to bestow, the desire to love, with other fillings. No other fulfillment is able to give us more from this corporeal life than the very “small candle” and the awakening to spiritual life, meaning a kind of weak luminescence that stimulates the desire to receive and forces it to search for real fulfillment.

Therefore, all of our work is to search for the correct deficiency, and thanks to it, we become familiar with the Creator. That is what we can add to His work.

The Creator created the desire to receive, and we add to this desire our new correct form. We take this raw material and sculpt from it what seems to us as good and correct. Thus, we complete the creation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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