Using the example of the article “The Night of the Bride,” we can somewhat understand how The Book of Zohar was written. Its authors were attaining Malchut as a whole while uncovering fragments of various parts in it, such as the desire to enjoy in order to receive (angel Dumah), the part working under the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet).

The male part of Malchut is regarded as “King David” and the female part as “Bat Sheba.” Kabbalists were uncovering the Light that Reforms Malchut which can feel divided into two parts and work only in one of them. These two parts of Malchut are “MI” (מי) and “ELEH” (אלה). We are constantly working on their correct combination, and by doing so, become similar to Bina and the name of Elokim (אלה-ים) that consists of them both.

Seeing our roots in the World of Atzilut and their correct performance, the authors of The Zohar discover the appellations or the numeric symbols (Gematria) of these parts. Afterward, they colorfully describe them to us and explain that once in history, when the spiritual root descends and clothes in the corporeal world, we undergo the same states.

However, only the effects manifest in this world, while Kabbalists tell us specifically about the roots to which we have to become equivalent. Therefore, while reading The Book of Zohar, we must visualize the properties, forces, and actions that they discovered at the Upper degrees and not characters and events of this world.

How do we get to see spiritual acts after all? To do this, only one condition has to be met: We must develop qualities similar to theirs. We wish to unite and uncover between us the attributes of this mutual bonding and fill with the Light of Yod-Kei (י”ה) the part of the desire that will unfold in every person.

Then, we will understand and feel how to sort our desires and separate David’s part which we can work with from the part that we cannot work with. However, we will attach the corrected female part, Bat Sheba, to David.

Everyone will find these parts within himself in order to unite with the others and correct the collective Malchut where, in accordance with correction, the Creator gets revealed. All worlds manifest between the souls in the place where the restriction and lessening of the Light occurred.

When we yearn for oneness, the concealment disappears, and we find the forms of communication that The Book of Zohar describes until we reach unlimited interconnection, the World of Infinity.
[27177]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

Related Material:
The Windows Of Your House

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Rabash, “Make Them Happy with a Complete Building”: If a person wishes to erect a house for the Creator, he builds a perfect structure, for the Creator is perfect. …And the Creator will give them joy, the Light of faith, so they may complete their work.

Our foundation, the matter we are made of is Malchut, the will to receive pleasure (desire). We have to use it as construction material for everything because we don’t have any other. If we receive power from our egoism, we build “structures” similar to the Tower of Babel or the cities of Pithom and Ramses. The buildings come out tall and beautiful, but in the end, they don’t please us because we find them empty.

That is how humanity has been constructing itself for centuries until today, when in the final stage of humanity’s historical development, we have come to realize that everything we have built doesn’t make us happy any longer. Yes, we have erected so much, but all of it is empty and lacks content and true fulfillment. Surrounded by our creations, we feel more desperate than ever before.

Hence, it turns out that we cannot bring joy to ourselves and our loved ones as we don’t take pleasure in our construction work any longer. Only a perfect house will bring us joy, when our home, our Kli, will be filled with the Light. How do we fill it? How do we illuminate our matter from within?

The house must let the Light illuminate it. We build it from the will to feel pleasure, but it has to be home to sanctity, a Temple. Sanctity is Bina, the Light, bestowal; and the house is the Kli, the vessel. The vessel must be fit for the Light to come to it, meaning that it needs to have the intention to bestow.

How do I accomplish that? To bring light into a house, we cut windows in it. “Windows” are cavities, empty desires. In the walls of our matter, we make holes of desires similar to Bina, bestowal, openness, and the Light can come into us. Hence, walls and windows must match each other precisely so that our house built from the will to receive pleasure would be “equipped” with the intention to bestow. And then, it will be filled with the Light.

If we wish to feel and bring joy while building our house, we must design it so that its form will match the property of Bina. We include the attribute of mercy into judgment, meaning that we make the openings in the walls to let the Light come in through them.

These niches look as flaws to us at first. Rabash gave the following example: A father brings his son to the tailor to get a suit made for him, and the son sees how the tailor starts cutting a roll of expensive fabric with scissors. He feels that the fabric is ruined, but the father explains: “It’s alright; he will make you a suit that will fit well on you.”

In other words, this fabric at the moment is nothing but material that will acquire a shape that will fit you. But the child doesn’t understand. In his opinion, the cuts and the holes in the fabric look like damage. In reality, thanks to this “damage,” we will later give the right shape to it, and the Light will dress in it. Keeping that in mind, we are willing to be patient and even thank the Master for what He is doing!

In our daily work, we discover such new “flaws.” And from them, as from the bricks, we erect a structure, including the walls and the openings for the Light to come through.

When Bina makes a hole in the wall, Malchut feels that the house is damaged. But in truth, it is the opposite approach, a totally new attribute, which isn’t designed to fortify Malchut. Having realized that including mercy into judgment creates equivalence to the Creator in us, we will see the benefit of refusing to hear Malchut’s complaints. When Bina rules over it, all of the house walls can become windows, or acquire the property of Bina.

Such house will be filled with the Light top to bottom. Its material, Malchut, will be purified by Bina’s attribute completely, and there will be no more hollows in it. Without disturbing one another, Malchut and Bina will act as one whole.
[27015]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Make them Happy with a Complete Building”

Related Material:
I Choose But I Do Not Rule

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work - 1 Comment →

Question: By attaching the desires of other people to me, I expand myself inside, but don’t I still feel only what is happening inside me? Is there any point in existence in which I really feel what is happening outside of me?

Answer: Of course there is! And moreover, you will feel it much greater than you now feel yourself here in this world. Imagine that you are seeing what is happening thousands of kilometers away from you the same way you see something at a distance of one meter. There’s no difference and no distances!

Just as you see an object’s external form, you are able to see through it, seeing everything taking place in it as well as all the causes and effects. This is called attainment. In spirituality nothing is bounded by space or by the depth of attainment. The causes and results of the phenomena you observe are not concealed from you; you see them in all their dimensions and qualities.

That is why it is called attainment, which is the final and greatest possible perception and understanding. It is impossible to compare this to anything in our world because in our world we don’t have attainment, but are looking only inside ourselves.
[#27758]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Attainment Is The Highest Degree Of Understanding

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam “A Person Studies Only What His Heart Wants”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 128
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Explanation of the Article, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Lesson 5
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “The Freedom,” Lesson 7
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 2 Comments →

Question: Instead of gaining superpowers, I feel weaker from one day to the next. How can I become a spiritual superman that ascends above his ego?

Answer: First of all you should base everything on the facts. There’s no reason to get scared of the facts because everything comes to us from the Creator, who presents a process to us as a way to learn something.

The Upper Light influences our inner Reshimot, creating inside them the pictures that appear before us. He takes informational data (Reshimot) from us, projects them on our inner screen, and thus we perceive ourselves as being in a specific state.

All of these states have to happen to us on the path. So what’s the problem? Is it the fact that sometimes I feel bad and sometimes I feel good, having completely no power over myself? After all, I am governed by the Light.

Now I am receiving an explanation of how the Light influences me. But who am I? I only observe this work. That is why it is called the Creator’s work. We are looking at it from aside and should use it to learn about what is happening.

Is it unpleasant to know He is operating me? What if I looked at my friend who suddenly cries or feels happy, sometimes he sleeps and sometimes he is rushing off to some place; that would be normal because I would see the Light’s actions operating someone else. But I am not glad to observe how all of this is happening to myself.

On one hand, this is correct. On the other hand, if you start to identify with these actions, with the Creator, and if you desire to justify Him, then you won’t care what passes over you. You identify with the One who operates you and perceive yourself as the material for Him to work on.

Can you detach from this material? Can you say, “This is not me at all. If I am moving, doing something, thinking or desiring something, none of it is me. I identify with the Creator who is doing anything He wishes to this material.” That’s when you can already see yourself from aside.

Now a question arises: Can I ask the Creator to carry out other goal-oriented actions? It’s possible that this will happen, so let’s try. What actions will they be? And for what? What will He hear? What will He want to carry out? I don’t want to ask Him for something vain. If I have already reached a state where I act together with Him against my body, as Moses did with the Creator against Pharaoh, then let me ask for something real. That’s when a person begins this entire process.
[#27650]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
The Art Of Winning

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Question: When does faith turn into attainment?

Answer: If it is faith above reason, then it becomes a vessel or Kli for attainment. After all, faith is a name for the Light of Hassadim.

Faith above reason is the quality of bestowal that rules over the desire to enjoy. The desire to enjoy with the intention of bestowal becomes a vessel or Kli for the Light of Hochma.

Then the Light of Hochma, clothed into the Light of Hassadim, starts to rule inside the desire to enjoy, and that is attainment.

The fulfillment of the Light of Hassadim by the Light of Hochma is called “total or complete faith” (Emuna Shlema).
[27654]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Jump Above Your Head

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spirituality, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride),” Item 138: …and the iniquity became as a mistake to him, as it is written, “If the Lord had not been my help, my soul had almost dwelt with Dumah.” But the rest of the people should fear that they will not be able to say before the angel that it was a mistake, and will fall into the hands of Dumah, to Hell.

When we manage to correct some parts of Malchut, a thin thread still remains that connects the parts that are impossible to correct to us. We have to “nourish” them and allow them to stay alive so that we can correct them later.

There is always a “catch” that holds us “tied up” to egoism. It is similar to the “gates of hell” through which we can suddenly submerge into egoistic intention. This is where a problem hides.

Are we capable of retaining the screen that prevents us from getting pleased for our own sake? If we cannot retain it, the Lights will disappear, and we will stay in the darkness of “hell.” Do we have a chance to preserve a little portion of egoism without opening the gates and ensure minimum illumination that is vitally necessary for its existence?

The Book of Zohar speaks about the ways of achieving this. We are correcting our mistakes, whereas intentional evil will be corrected only at the last stage of our work.
[27171]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

Related Material:
Where’s All The Salt?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Zohar - 1 Comment →

In the beginning, a person grows like an embryo inside his mother’s womb, thus far, at the “still” level; he simply nullifies himself. Then, he becomes as a little child who exists next to a grownup, and this is the “vegetative” level. After that, a person is an adult which is the “animate” level.

All these levels are staged by the forces of nature, meaning that we don’t need to exert effort in order to evolve since Nature turns on the forces and desire to grow in us from within. In other words, it raises a request for development, MAN (Mayin Nukvin – female waters), on our behalf; it awakens in us on its own.

The Creator (Nature) acts from two directions. From within, the embryo strives to develop and nullifies itself in relation to its mother, and from inside, the mother’s organism nourishes the embryo and doesn’t treat it as a foreign object. Both are driven by basic instinct, mutual love for each other, a grown up to a child, and the child to the adult.

On the animate level, at a more mature age, we still have to nullify ourselves in relation to each other in order to learn from the others. Yet, again, all of this is controlled by instincts.

As for the development of the soul on the speaking level, the level of Human/Adam (Adam or Domeh in Hebrew), man, himself, must initiate the raising of MAN, the plea for correction. In other words, there has to be a desire coming from man himself.

We receive the initial point of this first desire as part of the Creator, from Above, which is our “point in the heart” given to us from Above, along with all the other necessary instruments of the Kabbalistic texts, the teacher, and the group. Using these tools correctly, we need to achieve the desire to demand equivalence to the Creator. (The force P1 comes from the Creator, and P2 must come from you.)

I have a desire to evolve, but I am unable and don’t understand what and how to do that. Everything is concealed from me, yet, to figure it out, I am given the group, the environment. This is why the collective soul broke.

Attach them all to your point in the heart; you will receive the power necessary for the act. Your point in the heart is backed up by the group, and, if you receive assistance from it, you will be able to raise MAN to the Creator (who, in truth, also resides within the group).

As a result, you will receive a response, MAD (Mayin Duchrin – male waters), the force of development, the Light that Reforms, from the Creator. It doesn’t matter where you work all day long; what matters is where your thoughts are as that’s where you are as well.

However, your thoughts can be defined with the help of the environment. So, let’s agree that we will do our best to make sure none of us forgets, even for an instant that we must stay connected, thereby awakening each other.

Let’s make this wish and together with all our friends around the world draw the Upper Force, the Creator, to this desire. Let’s force Him to help us think solely about oneness, only about mutual responsibility, the Arvut.

If you don’t wake up, the others won’t wake up either, and if the others don’t wake up, tomorrow, I, myself, will be asleep during the lesson. There is no way out of this unless we take responsibility to provide the basic desire, having received it from the group, and with it, appeal to the Creator.

Anything that Nature does with the embryo, a child, and any creature living in this world by pushing them toward growth, we must accomplish with our own free will and consciously start our own evolution.
[27434]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, Baal HaSulam “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
“The Place” Where The Creator And I Meet

Filed under: Body and Soul, Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - 1 Comment →

Question: How can we reach revelation so we would see the spiritual world as realistically as we now see our reality?

Answer: I don’t know whether the things I’m seeing now are reality or not. What if I am dreaming and cannot wake up?

It seems to me that I am now inside of a certain reality, but how do I really know whether or not this reality is just a dream compared to the next reality? Maybe there such a level of wakefulness is awaiting me that everything I felt in the past will seem like a dream?

Inside my current reality there are also periods when I tune out from it and go to sleep. So how do I know: Maybe I am sleeping now as well?

In other words, I have to discern how to go from one state to the next and acquire a new consciousness. And that is why Kabbalists have given us a means.

Until you acquire that new consciousness, you will remain inside a dream and you won’t even find out that it is possible to wake up and start living! We all understand what it means to dream. I was sleeping, I woke up, and now I am considered awake. And that is exactly how we exist in relation to the spiritual world, the world to come.

There are many states like this, one above the other. Kabbalah gives us the means to keep ascending from one state to the next. If you correctly use the means given to you in your current state, then you will be able to ascend to a state that is called “life” in relation to your current state, and what you feel today will be called a “dream.” It is written, “We were as dreamers.”
[27688]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
A Conman In My Own Right

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →