Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” (37): Hence, until this day there has indeed been a fortified wall around this wisdom. Many have tried to begin to study, but could not continue for lack of understanding and because of the corporeal appellations. This is why I have labored with the interpretation, Panim Meirot and Panim Masbirot, to interpret the great book, The Tree of Life, by the Ari, to make the corporeal forms abstract and to establish them as spiritual laws, above time and place. Thus, any novice can understand the matters, their reasons, and explanations with a clear mind and great simplicity…

It becomes a real problem if people perceive the teaching of Kabbalah in its external sense and assign material meaning to spiritual forces. There is a commandment that prohibits creating idols and images. This is exactly what triggered Abraham to exit the material realm and rise to the spiritual world.

There still is a danger of going back to worshiping idols if we happen to allocate any spiritual essence to material subjects or actions. Many people think that certain objects possess spiritual power: red strings, holy water, icons, etc. On numerous occasions, people used to bring such objects to my teacher Rabash, and I always gave them away to those who wanted to have them since he never kept them for himself.

People are inclined to assign spiritual properties to letters, pictures, objects, animals, and other people. There are many objects of worship. A spiritual aura is ascribed to various actions as well. In fact, there is no spiritual force in materiality whatsoever. It hides only within the intention of a person when he interacts with the reforming Light.
[67152]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot“: One concealment means that he believes in the Providence of reward and punishment. Yet, because of the accumulation of the suffering, he sometimes comes to thoughts of transgression.

The egoistic desire pressures a person and the slight revelation of the Creator’s posterior isn’t enough for him. But he still restrains himself as much as he can.

This is because even though he believes that the suffering came to him as a punishment, he is still like one who sees his friend from behind, and might doubt and mistake him for another. And these sins are only mistakes, since, as a whole, he does believe in Providence of reward and punishment.

So what are these states? Suppose a person’s egoistic desire weighs 100 kg and the Light gives him only 50 kg of power of resistance. If we subtract the 100 kg of evil from the 50 kg of the power of the Light, the result will be minus 50 kg. These 50 kg of the ego operate inside a person and lower him to the level of mistakes. If all the 100kg of the ego were set loose in us, a person could find himself on the level of sins.

If I am totally under the control of my egoistic desire, it is the level of sins. Here all my vessels, the ones that receive and ones that bestow, operate with the intention of in order to receive. But if some of my vessels can restrain themselves fearlessly, then I am on the level of mistakes. It all depends on the revelation of the Creator, on the way He appears to me.

This mechanism doesn’t work in our world. Here only the threat of a blow to the ego restrains us: whether it is the feeling of shame, or whether our pride may be hurt, or even physical harm. On the other hand, in the spiritual world the punishment is the inability to bestow. The threat of the inability to bestow restrains a person.

On the whole, it all depends on how much the Light influences me, in how many of my vessels I want It to bestow. Accordingly I am on the level of a “righteous” or an “evil person.”

Do I have free will here? It depends on whether I can demand that the Light will influence me as much as possible.

For example, I have a “cruel” egoistic desire that weighs 100 kg and I am ready to correct it only by 10 kg because I simply cannot ask for a greater correction; I can’t resist all the pleasures and put them under the intention of bestowal. Even when I am incorporated in the group, I am not ready to get rid of all my egoism. At the most, I am ready to “cut the edges,” to get rid of the “excess fat,” and not more than that; that’s all I can ask for. So what’s next? Will my request be accepted in such an egoistic manner?

Everyone should try and answer this question by himself.
[67602]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What makes us create “idols” and assign spiritual properties to material things and actions?

Answer: We are like infants: each of us carries around a baby’s pacifier, a doll, or a toy. Those who haven’t grown up yet need something that they can hold onto. They require something that they are used to, that is intertwined with their parents’ house, something familiar and comforting.

Nobody knows how to behave, what to say, and what to expect when they get to a new and unknown place. One feels discomfort, can’t relax, and gets nervous. It’s quite different at home where everything is familiar, clear, and easy. We speak one language with our friends and family.

We are built similarly to the spiritual realm, which is the origin of such order of things. How can we abide with the situation that is opposite to us in phase? In order to familiarize oneself with the surroundings, a person needs some kind of foundation that is usually made of simple symbols. The farther people are from spirituality, the weaker they are and the more they depend on external objects. The general public is in more need of relying on them, whereas individuals depend on them less.

All external traditions of Judaism started at the time of the destruction of the temple. Prior to that period of time, material symbols were not necessary since people lived in spirituality.
[67149]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: When is our state called self-sacrifice?

Answer: At the moment, we should simply try to do whatever is in our power according to our understanding of what self-sacrifice means. Try to find your point of the shattering, which is the opposite from the point that was created during the shattering from top down, and correct the place of the shattering in the ascent from the bottom up. This is what we call to clarify what you can give up, in order to hold on to bestowal.

Suppose I am ready to give to someone, to help him, to think about him under certain conditions, but beyond that—no. Can I do anything else above that “no?” A single step or half a step? What will I feel then?

These are very high concepts, which cannot be conveyed in words. People think that it is simple: We often say that a person sacrifices himself for his work, for his family, etc., but true self-sacrifice is not in the hands of the created being at all. We can’t do it as long as we operate within our egoistic nature. There must be the influence of the Light, which raises me above my egoistic desire, and then I can work in self-sacrifice.

To sacrifice my soul means to give myself to a higher level. But if I am within my egoism now, how can I reach the level of bestowal? And if I am on a certain level of bestowal, how do I rise to a higher level? I have to give my soul to the higher level, to enter the upper, like a fetus.

In order to become a fetus in the upper, I have to annul my feelings, my mind, my clarifications, and all my healthy logic and common sense. But I feel that I am a grown up, that I am clever, and not some insane fool. So how can I give myself to the upper?

And what does it mean to give myself: simply not to do anything and to wait until He does something with me? No, it won’t work this way. To give myself the upper means to do whatever I feel as His desire by myself, above my reason. If you can’t do that, you cry out!

In the article: “The Matter of the Association of the Quality of Mercy with Judgment,” it says that it is in the darkest state that a person tries to reach self-sacrifice. It is in the darkness that a person is given this opportunity.

It is very hard to do this alone. If a person makes great efforts, for a long time by oneself and sees that it leads nowhere, he can reach the conclusion that he needs the group’s support. I won’t be able to do it alone, and neither will all the others if they operate alone. So let’s help one another, as it says: “they shall help one another” and then we will have a reason to go out to the desert!

A desert is a place where we despair of our own powers and cry out. Therefore, we need to prepare the vessels for this.
[67731]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, Shamati #219

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All our work is climbing up the levels, where every level is totally cut off from the previous one. Such a ladder is created during the cascading from top down, when Malchut of the upper becomes the Keter of the lower. And this is how the transition from one state to another takes place, even if it isn’t an ascent up the spiritual degrees yet.

It is a real transformation, and the change our matter goes through is so thorough and complete that we cease to understand ourselves during the transition from one state to another. This is because all these states are made of the change in the amount of the Light that evokes our desire to receive, and both, the Light and the desire, give birth to a new level, a new state.

When we are on the new level, we have nothing left of the previous state except for the Reshimot (informational genes) that brought about this new state. It is also concealed. This means that there is nothing from the previous state in the new spiritual state.

We feel that it happens this way even before entering the spiritual world; we have to agree with all the states we go through, and learn from them what the spiritual transition really is as we move from one world to another. Every level is actually a world in itself.

The problem is that there are two elements in every level: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, which are two opposites that contradict one another—the right and left lines, each with its own shell. We have to become the middle line that connects the two in it, that controls them and that is above them.

The cascading from top down takes place in the following way: Hochma (on the right), Bina (on the left), and then Da’at (wisdom) (below, in the middle). And thus a triangle is formed with a vertex facing downwards. During the ascent from the bottom up there is Hochma (on the right) and Bina (on the left) and then Keter (on the top, in the middle), because we only want to rise. Each time it is the result of Hochma and Bina, Hassadim and Gevurot, fear and love, and always above them.

And so there is always a problem of how to combine these two components that contradict one another, until the third arrives and decides. The third component comes from Above in the form of the revelation of the Creator, after a person sees that he absolutely cannot reconcile the two.

Therefore, self-sacrifice is required both in fear and in love. In fear it is harder to attain than in love, because love also absorbs the soul and they both act in the same way. If I love someone, I am totally devoted to him and desire to connect to him. This is how it seems to us in this world, because we love what our desire to receive likes.

But in the spiritual world I love what is hated by my egoism, as it says: “love will cover all the sins.” This means that self-sacrifice is also difficult in love, but in hate it is totally impossible.

To hate and to give my soul is called to use my vessels to receive in order to bestow. So how can I unite my most hated enemies who also hate me, and to bestow upon everyone the good that I can only do to the people I love most and that are closest to me?

This can only be done for some additional goal that justifies everything else. But if the goal is the action itself, it is simply impossible. This means that a very difficult ascent is expected here, above personal accounts.

We approach it gradually, perhaps not by the Light, which is the shortest and nicest path, but on a much longer path that includes sufferings and that is called “Derech Ererz,” (the path of the earth). Eventually, however, we reach the goal, because the upper Light operates on every action that we perform and decides between the two rival sides.

Therefore, although I have to give my soul both in fear and in love, they arrive alternately, until we rise and are able to connect everything. Then you can be in a state of self-sacrifice in fear too, just like in love.
[67721]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, Shamati #219

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When we read The Book of Zohar, we must open our hearts. What does a person use to open his heart? What code does he use to crack open the “safe” that locks up his heart, so that it can open up before reading The Zohar?

Kabbalists are called “the sages of the heart” because they treat the heart, the desires, so that the Light of Hochma will enter them.

Therefore, we should think about how we can open our hearts; otherwise, we won’t attain the Light of Hochma. How can we open our desires, so that they will be open for the Light?

The Zohar is like a magic book, which we actually enter. It isn’t a novel that you read in which you picture yourself the hero. When you read The Zohar, you don’t need to imagine, you simply enter it, live there, not as if, but actually so. You enter it and you find yourself there, and the state you were in before reading The Zohar doesn’t exist anymore. You’ve entered by reading and you stay there and have only to advance.
[67724]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, The Zohar

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Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “Letter 40”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let Us Make Man,” Item 172, Lesson 48
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 19, Lesson 11
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 61, Lesson 31
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Our correction occurs at two stages: fear and love. These two stages become realized within us if the Light corrects our desires. This means that we have to aspire toward corrections but we don’t actualize them on our own. Such an approach differs drastically from what we’re used to in this world. In our world it’s up to me to search out the strength and the knowledge that’s needed to realize my plans. For spirituality, however, I have to search out the strength and the knowledge with which I’ll be ready for what the Light is going to realize within me.

On the spiritual path, all of our preparation is aimed at our creation. At each new level we prepare ourselves for a rebirth, thereby getting to know the Creator’s actions and working with Him as His partner. We prepare ourselves for birth and He begets us over and over again. Through this process and through His actions we get to know Him better.

Clearly, on this path we don’t attain the essence of the action that begets us. Possibly by the end of all corrections and after attaining a perfect degree we’ll understand how the Creator operates.

But for now our work consists of preparation. This preparation allows us to better sense and attain the Creator and His work; however, from this encounter we must draw exactly what is necessary for our preparation for the next birth. This is how we advance from one level to the next and this is the only thing that should concern us.
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: Why was there a need for the great move of all the worlds, when all the worlds rose together with Adam HaRishon (first man) on the evening of the sixth day of creation, if later on he sinned and fell even lower than the place where he was born?

Answer: After the sin of Adam HaRishon, all the worlds descended to the same place they are now, which is the world of Nikudim. Yet, as a result of all the ascents and descents, the environment where the souls are was created. From this point onward, the souls are placed in a world, in an environment, and thanks to that environment they can exist.

The levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate of the worlds, the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya (BYA), allow the souls to exist in a “beastly form” and provide them with the necessary conditions for living. But after a person receives life, he can reach the existence of the soul on the level of the speaking in addition to the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. In order to do that, the souls have to connect, and then they build a network between them.

At first the worlds rise without a person’s participation according to the plan of creation. There is a plan called Beito (in its time) that ticks like clockwork and is fulfilled step-by-step like the movement of the hands of a clock. You can hasten the plan if you wish, and make the clock tick faster, but you have to make extra efforts for that. There is a preliminary plan, and everything moves according to the plan of creation and returns to its root.

The world of Atzilut by itself is Galgata ve Eynaim. If I insert Galgalta ve Eynaim into Awzen, the result is the world of Beria; if I insert the world of Atzilut into Hotem, the result is the world of Yetzira; if I insert it into Peh, the result is the world of Assiya. So the worlds of BYA are a copy of the world of Atzilut in Awzen, Hotem, and Peh (AHP), that is the incorporation of the attributes of Bina and Malchut. This is how the worlds of Beria, Yetizra and Assiya, which are the environment of Adam HaRishon, were created.

Now man is in the desire to receive in which there are different attributes of bestowal, different attributes of life. These attributes of life have no free will, and there are only levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate. It is exactly like in our world, where there are levels of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, which exist and are active around a person, creating for him an environment in which he can live.

We live by the world of Atzilut, by the Creator’s attributes that are around us in the natural forms of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate! Thanks to this we exist. But if I don’t want to exist by the level of the inanimate, vegetative, or animate, but rather by the level of the speaking, which is the world of Atzilut itself: I have to rise to it.

Then from the worlds of BYA, I collect the information about the meaning of life, from the attribute of bestowal (Galgalta ve Eynaim) that is incorporated in the attributes of receiving (AHP). I want to join the force of the attributes of bestowal (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and I express my desire for that by my attempts to connect the shattered parts and to raise them to the world of Atzilut.

I don’t raise the shattered parts of the desire to receive to the world of Atzilut, but only the shattered parts of the desire to bestow, the points in the heart that were separated from each other by the desire to receive (AHP) that entered them. I want the Light to come and to connect the points in the heart on top of the desire to receive. Then they will begin to work mutually with AHP. This means that I raise AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim.
[57758]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/11, “Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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The world treats us more harshly, persistently, seriously, and tenaciously with each passing day. Willingly or unwillingly, people feel that something has to happen or is already happening. The religious attribute this to a higher force; the secular blame it on nature. One way or another, we are under strong pressure that forces us to focus our attention and start acting.

Kabbalah teaches us that there is a way to optimize and accelerate our development. For that, we have to recognize what’s going on and observe the process as a whole. At each given moment we have to choose how to continue growing.  It is not about being right or wrong, but rather whether our progress complies with the program of nature. The closer we are to the program, the faster we progress. Everything depends on our understanding, grasp, and attainment of, and agreement with the algorithm that nature demands of us.

How do we know about this? Today, we can arrive at this conclusion from our own experience.

Scientists, psychologist, and philosophers repeat in unison that we are developing by two forces: good and evil. Good brings us goodness and evil, evil. We have no doubt about this, since each of us can interpret good and evil.

The impact of a good force is especially felt in childhood when we are cared for, loved, and protected while we are growing. Nature (or the Creator) elicits a good attitude and love in parents, immediate family, and even in the distant environment towards children. It doesn’t matter if the child misbehaves or breaks things. He is excused for doing things that an adult would never be forgiven for. Everyone pampers a child and he uses their good attitude.

As soon as a child grows up, that kind and indulgent attitude stops abruptly. From now on he becomes the one who has to take care of himself and others; he begins to “owe” others and is held responsible for his actions. To make it short, demands replaces love.

Why does this happen? We are not questioning childhood, but why is nature so demanding of adulthood, why does it stop being as kind as it previously was? Why does it start to apply a negative attitude towards us?

It is essential to understand that it has nothing to do with negativity, but rather about giving us incentive to grow. If we develop correctly, then instead of feeling bad influences, we sense benevolence. Thus, we have to realize that the whole of nature, life, and the world treats us according to our compliance with the world. If the world treats us problematically, it means that the problem is rooted in our own incorrect and imbalanced attitudes towards the world. When we adapt to the world, we begin to re-evaluate the forces that we previously considered bad to good.

What is the reason we don’t feel that negative force instigating our self-correction? If we re-connect with that force, life will again seem just like it was in childhood when everyday promised to bring something good.

Everything depends on our preparedness and upbringing. If from our early years we were brought up correctly and trained to ensure that as adults we matured with the understanding of how to correctly interact with the environment to elicit positive responses and how to correctly interact with nature, society, family, and ourselves, then our lives would have continued perfectly, without any problems.

But we do not get correct directives in childhood regarding our adulthood. It is easy to talk about these issues by using the Kabbalists’ words, but what can we do if we are not familiar with the wisdom of Kabbalah? Can we find precise directions by listening to nature’s hints? Can we form the proper attitude to everything that surrounds us? Humanity faces the problem of finding a way to avoid suffering and is trying to discover how to relate to life in order to experience the least amount of distress. Even now we continue to suffer and we will suffer more because we haven’t yet found the answer to this question.

The contradiction between what we want and what we actually possess in reality pushes adults to search further. As a result, throughout history we have developed several approaches to this problem. Baal HaSulam writes about them in his article “The Peace”; pointing out that if we honestly and realistically view nature, humanity, and life,  we will arrive at the same results that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us.

The main thing is to not be bribed by our egoism, but rather to rise above it to an objective level at which we do not depend on our existing sensations, inclinations, and notions. If we could rise above ourselves as independent researchers, we would detect some data that is contained in Kabbalah.

This is what the wisdom does: It raises a person up to a level where he can take a look at reality without the prism of his ego. If we could remove these “lenses” of egoism, we would easily attain the wisdom of Kabbalah. According to Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Peace,” this is scientific research with an experimental, experiential, and practical basis that works for everybody without exception and that allows each and everyone to discover the need to bestow to our neighbor.
[60423]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/11, “The Peace”

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