Question: What deficiency of the spiritual work allows the “impure forces” (egoistic intentions) to cling to it?

Answer: It happens when I, in my spiritual work, allow the egoistic intentions (impure forces) to arise and exist in me by wanting to use spiritual data, forces, and discernments egoistically. It diverts me from the goal. Being on guard against these thoughts is called “the measure of purity” in the work.

I may err in my intentions; however, a conscious desire (intention) “to bestow in order to receive” or “to receive in order to bestow” is an impure act. On the other hand, purity is defined by my discerning whether or not I steal from spirituality for the sake of corporeality.

It is very important not to try to extract any personal benefit from anything that pertains to spiritual work. We are held strictly accountable for this.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: In his book Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Baal HaSulam describes that the upper soul (Neshama) is in the brain, the spirit (Ruach) in the heart, whereas the lowest soul (Nefesh) is in the liver! Could you explain this?!

Answer: Kabbalists use words of this world because everything there is in this reality descended from the spiritual world. That is why it is possible to describe the Upper Forces using earthly words.

We have no other choice since in spirituality there is no language, only forces. We can give them any names or even assign numbers to them. However, our definitions have to bear certain correspondences and be able “to speak to us.”

Kabbalists found an easy and wonderful solution: They use words that belong to this world to name phenomena Above. They perceive spirituality, sense its forces, phenomena, actions; they live there! They observe spirituality through this world as if it is translucent. They view powers that act behind each object of this world and behind the entire picture.

It is similar to looking through a transparent glass and seeing a spiritual force that is placed at the other end of my “visual axis.” I see a force that works behind each person and each action in this world, and, therefore, it is easy to find a connection between them. For me, they are the same!

Differences between them show up only relatively to an “observer,” a person who discloses them. He either divulges them through his five bodily senses or perceives them within five spiritual organs of perception.

Other than that, all phenomena are identical. After all, our world is imaginary, and we feel it the way we do only within our sensations. If we get additional organs of perception, we’ll see things as if they happen simultaneously on two parallel screens.

Then, everything gets clarified and we never get confused any more. We realize what “brain,” “heart,” “liver,” and “Ibur – Yenika – Mochin” (conception, drawing of sustenance, adulthood) stand for. We recognize the spiritual meaning of all earthly words, such as “ascend,” “downfall,” “embrace,” “mating,” “left,” or “right.” They only have one meaning and cannot signify anything else.

We attain spirituality through our material world and sense it as its root. It becomes lucid and “apparent” to us, but the language that describes it has to be “borrowed” from this material dimension as if we “lay” a transparent film over it.

You used to see certain material images, but now you retain only their names that are further transferred onto a parallel screen in spirituality where they cling to the right places. You start using them without any confusion; you don’t have to explain their meaning to others since they, ascending to the spiritual world through the corporeal one, see the same picture and know what an illusion it is!

“Soul in the brain” means that the Light called Neshama (soul) dresses into a spiritual Kli (vessel) called “brain.” Beside the Light and desire, there is nothing else.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: Is it correct to clarify your state with the help of the mind, using it to discern: Why did I receive this state, where did it come from, and what should I do with it?

Answer: Nothing can be clarified with the mind because the desire is what makes the mind work. Don’t think that the mind exists independently of desire, or that I can take the mind and use it as a device to measure my state or desire. The mind is controlled by the desire.

Sometimes it tells you one thing, and sometimes it tells you the exact opposite, depending on your desire. Knowing this, can you really rely on its conclusions?

How does our mind develop? It develops by virtue of me always wanting to do something, to attain something, or to receive something; that is how I have built my mind. Thus, the mind is an acquisition.

However, when then Light comes, it gives us the opportunity to ascend so we are not enslaved to the mind or the desire. The Light begins to rule over us instead, elevating us and giving us its power.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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The four exiles described in The Zohar are our “inner philosophers” who force us to work “within reason,” in the desire to receive pleasure, and to follow all of its commands. To exit them means to rise above the mind, above the desire, with the help of the Light that Reforms.

So, if I feel that I am submerged in my mind and sensations and work only within them, am I in the exile or not? Do I agree with my state? Perhaps I even love my mind and feelings, have faith in them, study, understand, and accumulate more knowledge and sensations every day?

On one hand, it is good. However, if a person does not see that all of this is a means to reach spirituality, it is bad since he does not achieve anything by this. He only obtains the false confidence that some day this approach will bring him to spirituality. But it will never happen since one does not study by his mind. No matter how much you know, you will not become closer to spirituality even by an inch.

Then what should we do? We should make a calculation. This is called “and they cried from this work.” A person sees that by using all his strength during the “seven years of plenty,” by attaining within his mind and feelings, and understanding what was written in all articles, he has not achieved anything. The printed text on paper has become imprinted in his brain cells, but this is all he has now….

Then he makes another calculation: “I only need the Light that Reforms! Whatever I have inside me and I myself, all of it has nothing to do with spirituality.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar, Introduction, “Among All the Sages of the Nations Of the World, There Are None Like You”

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"A judge has nothing more than what his eyes see." This is a very strict law that must be observed very precisely. We cannot follow even the very best advice unless it comes from our own corrections, our similarity to the Light.

Also inside yourself you must ask at all times: "Who am I hearing now? A person who lives inside his own fantasies, or one who looks at things as they really are and knows his exact place, not jumping any higher?"

Then I don’t perceive the things I hear from Kabbalists as laws or even advice, but as "Segula," a miraculous means. I want it to influence me and change me! Once I change, I will then see the truth.

"A judge has nothing more than what his eyes see," meaning that I will actually hold the fulfillment in my "hands," in my Kelim of reception, and I will "see it with my eyes," meaning inside the Light of Hochma. That’s when I will be able to act!

Until that happens, you can memorize the entire Torah by heart and it will do no good; yet the Torah can work as a "miraculous means" or a "spice." You will be able to correct and use your egoism only to the extent you can add this "spice" to your egoism.

Then you will see exactly which desires you can use and to what extent, or how deeply (with which Aviut). This approach, first and foremost, requires correction.

A completely different approach to teaching follows from this, namely, that we have nothing to say to a student. We can only awaken him so he absorbs as much Light that Reforms as possible. It is impossible to give him ready-made behavioral models, but only "miraculous means": the need to unite in the group among friends, and then to wait for him to change on his own.

If this doesn’t affect a student, if he does not change and does not accept the teacher’s advice, then nothing can be done about it. It is impossible to coercively give him exercises that are above his level, but only to the degree he has corrected himself and understood that he has to make the calculation, change, and then start to act.

This greatly restricts the teacher’s possibilities when teaching a student compared to our world, regardless of whether the student is an adult or a child.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, "Body and Soul"

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The Zohar, Chapter “The Rose (Shoshana)“: Rabbi Hizkiya began [his speech]: “It is written, ‘As a rose among the thorns.’”…

The rose is Malchut and it includes all the souls that desire to reject their egoism and unite. This is possible only with the help of the Light that Reforms. Every person who aspires to attain the Upper World, to reveal the Creator, essentially aspires to the general unification inside Malchut. She is the place where the Creator becomes revealed.

The Book of Zohar talks about how this place becomes built from desires that are aimed at revelation, from the spiritual aspirations of people who are ready to unite on the path to the goal. We understand that we are unable to do this. However, the Light acts inside Malchut, inside “the rose,” despite the thorns that stand in the way of unity. Whoever desires to reveal the Creator is willing to live with these “prickles” and to make his way through them towards “the rose.”

This is what our efforts should be aimed at in spite of the egoism that pushes us away from the goal over and over again. We must nevertheless overcome the thorns surrounding the rose and unite all our desires into one.

We will thereby evoke the Light that Reforms and reveal the Upper One.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, The Zohar

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Question: Why are we given the illusion of freedom in this world?

Answer: We consider ourselves free for as long as we do not think about it much and identify ourselves with our animate body. But if we rose above our body a little, we would see that it strictly obeys the laws and processes it is subject to.

I think it is up to me when to go to sleep and when to go to work. But who is it really up to? I am placed in certain conditions and given certain internal qualities. Meanwhile, our will to receive pleasure (desire) acts as an engine that works according to a simple principle: maximal pleasure at minimal effort, that is, maximal gain at minimal investment.

This is the calculation we perform at each moment of our lives, in every aspect, any direction, any place, and in relation to everything there is. This is how our nature works, taking into consideration various conditions: how tired and healthy I am, how big the danger and possible pleasure are, and so forth. Understandably, as such, we remain inside our ego, and there is no free will there.

We have to realize that free will is possible only if I control my desire and am above it. For as long as I remain in my egoistic nature, I will always be an obedient puppet, fully controlled by my egoism.

If, however, I wish to take control in my own hands, I have to manage my desire, rise above it. In other words, free will is possible, but only above desire. And the only question is: How do I rise above my nature, by what means?
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, “The Freedom”

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Question: If I once chose the path and rose above my egoism, am I free for good or must I keep choosing anew?

Answer: In order to reach the purpose of creation, we have to attain the state of “Israel (those who aspire to the Creator), the Torah (the Light of correction), and the Creator are one” and experience it in all our properties and desires.

Therefore, each moment of our evolution, we have to aim ourselves at oneness with the Creator, which constitutes our free choice. From all of these points of adhesion, we build one line and arrive at the final destination.

In other words, it isn’t enough to make a choice once so that later you may do whatever you want. You make a choice based on the conditions that are revealed to you at the moment. But next time, you will be completely different, a new creation, new world inside and out.

It’s because you keep uncovering new, stronger, desire to feel pleasure, which has different properties. And you have to discern yet again what conditions you are placed in, find the point of free will, decide what you are choosing, and move on with this new choice.

Conversely, at each point of the journey, you need to perform the work of clarification in order to “distance yourself from evil and choose the good” and realize that point of adhesion fully.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, “The Freedom”

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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “The Rose (Shoshanah),” Item 2, Lesson 13
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 144
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 58
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Body and Soul,” Lesson 5
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The point in the heart, which has no form or direction, is similar to my spiritual “stem” cell, from which I can freely build myself up. It is the end of the rope thrown to me from the final state that I must reach. Grounded in it, I can now build everything else around it by exercising my free will.

All reality is divided into me and the external world. And if I know how to use the external reality correctly, I can change myself, thereby realizing my free will. Freedom lies solely in the ability to change oneself and not the world! The world is just the imprint of my properties.

I only need to know how to correct my properties, how to change the combination of these initial, natural qualities in me. To do this, I am given a “Kli” (an instrument), a lever, a “crane” that I can use to turn myself upside down and lift myself up! Then, the entire reality will change. I see that everything is different now, as if I were born into a new world.

So, do I replace my view of reality or the reality itself? I change the reality! After all, reality is what resides within my perceptions.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, “The Freedom”

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