“Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Rose”: “Katnut [infancy/smallness] is called “a rose among the thorns,” since her bottom nine were emptied from the light of Atzilut and remained as thorns. Gadlut is called plainly “a rose” or “the Assembly of Israel.” This is why it was said, “There is a rose, and there is a rose.”

Question: What advice would you give a new student who finds himself at a Kabbalah lesson for the first time?

Answer: Our Source is called “Infinity” (Ein Sof). From there and through the World of Adam Kadmon (AK), the Light descends to the common Tabur (navel). Below are the Partzufim of the World of Atzilut: Atik, Arich Anpin (AA), Abba ve Ima (AVI), and ZON (Zeir Anpin and Nukva). Below them are the Worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya (BYA).

We study what is happening in the World of Atzilut. For us, it’s of utmost importance for here is where governance is conducted, where the past, present, and future are contained. It is concluded with the Parsa (border, separating line) which restricts the diffusion of the Light of Hochma (Wisdom).

Below, in the Worlds of BYA, there are the broken souls, whereas our world is all the way at the bottom, below the common finishing (Sium) line which stems from Infinity. Here, we exist in our bodies until we are awakened spiritually.

The souls raise their desire, their appeal for correction, to Malchut of the World of Atzilut. She utilizes her connection with Zeir Anpin and raises the souls’ desire to him.

To the extent that Zeir Anpin connects to Malchut, they become a joint Partzuf called ZON and ascend to AVI. Zeir Anpin ascends to Abba, the fatherly Partzuf, while Malchut ascends to Ima, the motherly Partzuf.

ZON obligates “father and mother” to give them all the necessary Lights, corrections and fulfillments, and then return to their places. There, they become “big,” acquire the adult state of Gadlut. This helps us clarifiy the meaning of the two states of the “rose” or Malchut: Katnut and Gadlut.

In the first state, she represents only the point of the Upper Sefira, Keter, whereas its other nine Sefirot are below the Parsa. Also here are the forces of filth (Klipot, shells). This is the meaning of the phrase, “a rose among the thorns”: Malchut among the Klipot. It is Malchut’s first, smallest state.

In her adult state, Malchut elevates her lower nine Sefirot, makes a Zivug (mating, coupling) with Zeir Anpin by unifying with him, and thereby becomes a genuine rose, blossoming to its full beauty. Malchut can become this way only when her “thorns,” meaning Kelim (vessels) that are unconnected and unfulfilled by Zeir Anpin, ascend to a Zivug with him.

All of this is evoked by the broken souls when they unite together, and it is they who bring about the correction of Zeir Anpin and Malchut. Herein lies our entire work: to bring about the correction of ZON until they reach their ultimate state.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Rose”

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Question: In reality, I don’t like my friends at all. What states can help me recognize the Creator in the group?

Answer: You don’t like the Creator to the degree you don’t like your friends. In order to reveal the Light, you need the vessel of love. I connect with the inner point of my friend, with his spiritual desire.

If he is in the group, it’s certain that the Creator brought him here. The Creator gave the point in the heart to my friend, and this is why we are together. I have to connect to this inner point all the rest of the properties which I see in my friend and in myself.

These properties have to become the support, the ground for the growth and development of this point. All our desires will be building a new spiritual Partzuf around it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Rose”

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Question: We are talking about a line and a circle, but I am missing some additional shape. It seems that there should be a cone also, not just a line and a circle.

Answer: Just like there is no one except the Creator and the created being, there is also nothing except a circle and a line. A triangle, a square, a hexagon (the unification of two triangles, an upper and lower one), and a diagonal line are artificial, temporary forms in the process of correction.

Only lines and circles exist in nature, and they turn into one whole in the World of Infinity. Where the intention is only for the sake of bestowal, the line becomes equal to a circle. The round Light of the World of Infinity spreads out in the form of a circle, passes through a line, and achieves a round shape again. Then, it comes down again through a line and comes to a circle again, and so on.

All the circles are connected to each other with lines, and the line segments interlace with circles. There are lots of such garlands. Atik, Arich Anpin, and YESHSUT consist of a multitude of such wonderful systems. Sometimes, space is depicted this way.

Each of us consists of such structures, and there isn’t a single detail that is not built from circles and lines. This is caused by the fact that GAR (the upper three Sefirot) of each degree consists of circles, and ZAT (the seven lower Sefirot) consists only of lines. Thus, both are present in each Partzuf and its part.

In other words, you have a connection with the World of Infinity through the circle, and through the line, you have connection to the line. Thus, you consist of these two shapes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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If you gain what you so passionately desire by going through a lot of pain, you give thanks for the bad like for the good. Obviously, it isn’t the path of Light, but such is reality. We, however, have to advance only by way of the Light, as it is written: “In Your Light, we shall see Light.”

Why can’t I feel this evil long before it hits me? Why can’t I run ahead of the blow? I know it is possible! If I enter the group, I receive an awareness of my evil from the friends. It isn’t the Light that comes from Above which reveals it to me, but I discover and recognize it on my own.

Making efforts to unite with the friends, I see how unable I am to do so and feel my total uselessness. At the same time, however, I receive the greatness of the goal, cry to the Creator for help, and advance.

Having received the Surrounding Light, I turn to the group again, only to feel resentment once more, and cry out to the Creator again. He provides the Light that Reforms. The Creator draws me closer to Himself and holds me up. I begin to feel, understand, and attain more, thereby moving ahead. Then, the cycle repeats.

This is a non-stop, unbroken action that must be performed at an infinite frequency, and you are to be constantly in it. Moreover, your plea to the Creator and to the group, as well as receiving the Surrounding Light, occurs automatically. One follows the other.

You simply “press the pedal” to move in the right direction. As to how all the “cogwheels” spin in the “engine,” you are not interested in that. So, why wait for the blows?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Writings of Rabash, Letter 24

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Question: Why did Nekudot de SAG descend below the Tabur of Galgalta? What do they bring to the lower Partzufim?

Answer: Nekudot de SAG are Bina that descended under the Tabur of Galgalta in order to merge with Malchut (NHY de Galgalta) and fill it, thereby finishing the entire correction since the Sof de Galgalta is Malchut of the World of Infinity.

The end result of its attempt to fill NHY de Galgalta is the World of Nekudim. It collects all of the unfilled desires of NHY de Galgalta and all the forces of Bina, and builds a Partzuf from all of this, the World of Nekudim in its adult state (Gadlut), which breaks.

This outcome was impossible to predict, but now, as a result of the breaking of the screen, Bina includes all of the records of the breaking in it. Using these Reshimot (reminiscences, spiritual data), it can start working with them beginning with the lightest and ending with the heaviest in order to carry out the creation’s correction program correctly.

Hence, we see that it is impossible to correct something unless it’s broken first. It is written, “There is no righteous in the land who did not sin first.” It cannot be. If someone thinks that it is possible to perform corrections without getting involved in the breaking, it is unrealistic. What is there to correct without it?
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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We cannot attain GAR, the first three Sefirot of each degree. They are not part of the created being. The “letters,” created beings, desires in whom the yearning to become similar to the Creator awakens, start only with ZAT, the lower seven Sefirot.

Therefore, each Partzuf is divided into two parts. Its upper part consists of Keter, Hochma, Bina, and the upper part of Bina (GAR de Bina), which is part of the Creator, the Upper One, the Maker. The lower part of Bina (ZAT de Bina), Zeir Anpin and Malchut of each degree, belong to the created being.

Until the final correction (Gmar Tikkun), we work only in ZAT, the lower part of each degree; that is our area. That is, we act where Malchut ascended to Bina and can descend again. Only in this region where Malchut and Bina, mercy and judgment, intermixed, is it possible for us to exist, learn, and get to feel something but not above it. Malchut didn’t rise above ZAT de Bina.

However, what will happen when the rule of Tzimtzum Bet (Second Restriction) gets cancelled and we start working under the rule of Tzimtzum Aleph (First Restriction) is unknown at present. We learn everything through our desires (Kelim, vessels).

Hence, it is unclear how we can attain something that has no will to receive: In Keter, Hochma, and GAR de Bina there are no Kelim, this is not a creature. It is, in a way, the brain of the Creator, His plan as to how to make you human. That is why they are part of Him, and not you.

When I uncover the Creator, it is enough for me to rise to the middle of Bina. Thereby, I get to know Him, and with all the acquired might of Bina, I descend back to Malchut, thereby attaining the level of Hochma and Keter.

First, I lift my entire self to Bina and attain the degree of “to bestow in order to bestow.” Afterward, from Bina, I descend back down and attain “to receive in order to bestow.” I even reach Keter, but get to know it solely “by His actions.” It is located in GAR, not in my “I.”

Just as we learn something in this world, we get to know not the essence of the phenomenon itself, but our impression of it, our reaction to “something” since everything occurs only within our own Kelim or sensations.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter,” Item 18, Lesson 2
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 71
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Question: A person can only feel one thing at a given moment in time. How then can we experience disappointment and joy simultaneously?

Answer: Two opposites are inherent in us: Our egoistic desire and the altruistic spark, the point in the heart.

If we begin to fan the spark correctly, then it pulls us toward bestowal, the Creator, while the desire pulls us in the direction of the animate world, simply wishing to be fulfilled. If I position them one against the other, if I am ready for my desire to suffer for the sake of raising my point in the heart, then my work already unravels in two different directions.

The more my desire for pleasure is restricted, the higher the point in the heart ascends above it to bestowal. It is on their opposition that I build my Kli.

I have to give all my energy to the point in the heart in order to plant it in the group and raise it there. As for the material desire, come what may. I don’t pay much attention to it, confining myself to the vital necessities.

Therefore, we must definitely “split” into two so that eventually a screen, Masach, will emerge between these two parts. Then we will go on to doing real spiritual actions.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, The Zohar

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Question: What criteria of advancement do we have? A month goes by, then a year…. How can I tell that I’m not standing in one place?

Answer: All of our work is done in relation to the group. As a result I have to be convinced and agree to see it as the place of the Creator’s revelation.

This understanding awakens in me and I can measure it. If it becomes increasingly clearer to me that only in our common, single desire will we all reveal the Light that Reforms, the Creator, unity, and the end of correction; if I feel that this is so with my whole being, that means I advance.

You can almost check it using a ruler. That’s how clear-cut everything is in this endeavor.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, The Zohar

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Question: How can I attach the desires of others to myself in order to attain a common prayer?

Answer: You have to understand that all the corrections happen inside our common sphere, which is called a “place.”

If my thoughts are anywhere outside of this common place, it means I am outside of Malchut of the World of Atzilut, outside of Malchut of the World of Infinity, outside of the group, the “place” where the Creator is revealed (the Creator is called a “place”). This means I am outside of reality.

The place where He is revealed is called reality. This world, where the Creator is concealed, is not considered to be actually existent. All of the spiritual reality is revealed inside of our common Kli, vessel, or desire.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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