The wisdom of Kabbalah is given to us to correct our state. Having descended from the World of Infinity (Ein Sof) into the corporeal world, we can ascend back up into the World of Infinity by using the method of Kabbalah. When can we do so? As soon as we use it as it was intended.

In Infinity, we all are linked together, as one man with one heart. We are bonded in the hearts, regardless of the bodies. The “hearts” should be viewed as desires, intentions, and even thoughts. After all, thought is designated to amplify and sort desire; it is intended as a tool for working on desire.

Hence, it is not said: “As one man with one heart and one mind” but rather, just “one heart” for it is enough. We have to link our desires to become as one. What kind of desires? The desires aimed at the purpose of creation. They are the ones we must link together. They expand from Infinity so that we may unify and correct them.

Our entire problem has been caused by the breaking of the Kelim (vessels) and separation, the distancing of these desires or sparks from each other. Thereby, correction is their moving closer to each other and achieving total adhesion. It is implemented by way of our efforts when we desire to unite while reading the authentic primary sources, the works written by Kabbalists who were in attainment of oneness and correction.

With this intention, we should turn to The Book of Zohar.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

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Question: What is meant by “prohibitory commandments” and “positive commandments” which are described in The Zohar, and what is the difference in their correction?

Answer: “Prohibitory commandments” means “do not do,” meaning that you need to refrain from using your specific desire to receive pleasure. We are talking about an egoistic desire which a person strives to use in order to receive the pleasure that stands opposite to this desire. And if there is no pleasure against the desire, I do not feel this desire although it exists in me.

However, we are talking about the desires that awaken in us, against which there are Lights that bring pleasures. We need to somehow refrain from using these desires, separate or “freeze” them. This is called “prohibitory commandments.”

I need to activate many forces for this. But what forces? Not using a desire does not mean that I hold myself back. In the material world I wish to use a desire, but I slap my own hands so that I don’t touch it. However, I cannot do this in the spiritual world. In order not to use my desire, I need to place a higher value and significance against it.

After all, in the spiritual world, a transgression is determined based upon whether I wish to use the desire or not. I need to reach a state where I have a desire, and according to the desire I would like to use it. However, according to the significance and to the system of values, I don’t want it since I don’t bring pleasure to the Creator through it; on the contrary, I become more distant from Him.

It turns out that I have a desire, and against it the correction. I need to work on this correction instead of just holding myself back and not using a desire, like in this world. I need to work on the desire itself so that there will be a screen over it, meaning the significance of the fact that I do not work with it on the level of the desire.

Therefore, our whole work on the desires consists of the system of values: how important the Creator and the goal are in my eyes, how important it is to be similar to Him in qualities. Then I can refrain from using the desires, and this is “prohibitory commandments.”

This is great work on each desire: to develop significance against it in order not to use it. Then the importance of the Creator in my eyes exceeds the use of the desire and withstands it. This is called “prohibitory commandments.”

Then there is a more advanced stage when I can use the desires in order to bring pleasure to the Creator. I take these desires and reveal them. I already have several screens on them as well as a restriction not to work with them. I have a screen of bestowal for the sake of bestowal and a screen of receiving for the sake of bestowal.

Then I work with these desires in order to bring pleasure to the Creator. This is called “positive commandments.”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, The Zohar

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Work in the group takes place in two planes: 1. the greatness of the group, the friends, or the Creator (which is the same thing), and 2. your own insignificance compared to the group and the Creator. If I orient myself in this manner, then I receive the right desire, which enables me to cancel myself and become part of the group.

The moment I really become part of it as just one point, I begin to feel that I am a spiritual embryo immersed in the Light that fills the group.
The faces of the friends that we see around us are not called a “group.” The group is the common desire of souls united with each other and given to me as the place where I meet the Creator. I have to work in relation to this “place” because I am a desire or vessel, and this place is the desire or vessel that I work with in order to become part of it, to adhere to it and expand myself. I can work with it because we have the same nature!

However, I cannot work with the Creator because He is Light. He is the quality I reveal inside of our common vessel (the “place”) to the degree I enter it and participate in it. Right now this place appears to me as filled by separate particles (souls). But if I saw the true state inside, I would see all of them as special souls and spiritual Partzufim united by one connecting net, one desire.

I have to correct my attitude to them in order to seem them as connected, and that constitutes my correction! The group is Malchut of the World of Infinity. There is not a person in the world who isn’t connected with others and is not at the End of Correction.

However, right now I see a different world due to my uncorrected vision, as it is written, “Every person judges to the extent of his own flaws.” When I demand greater inspiration and energy to advance from them, I am turning to my own reflection in the mirror!

The Creator has arranged the whole world we see in front of us in this way. It is a copy of me with which I work. To the degree I demand that the group work and unite, it influences me in response in the same way. In essence I work with myself, as if standing before a mirror and making different faces at myself!

It was in order to accomplish this that the Creator divided my perception of the world into me and everything outside of me so I would have the opportunity to work and attain the inner sensation. Otherwise I would never be able to feel Him. I wouldn’t even understand that something else can exist besides me.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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When we read Baal HaSulam’s book, The Foundations of Intention (Beit Shaar HaKavanot), which describes the system of the Upper Governance, we can slightly feel where our roots come from – how there is a transition from the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) to the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet), and we exist inside its systems.

Keter of the World of Atzilut is called Ain (absence) or “the concealed mind” because it is fully nourished from Above, from the World of Adam Kadmon. The First Restriction governs the Second Restriction because it is impossible to plan anything unless you come from the final state.

I have to see the entire final picture: where each of its details comes from until reaching its place and how they all unite together. After that we can already break this down into small actions: how is it possible to carry them out, in what form, and how it is done with each soul and with groups of souls.

Therefore, Tzimtzum Bet, beneath which we are found, is governed from above, from Tzimtzum Aleph, and in general all the orders come to us from the World of Infinity. The general, final picture is the final, completely corrected state (State 3), and it entirely determines the initial state of the World of Infinity (State 1) and the entire process of correction (State 2).
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: I am in a descent ever since the Convention has ended. I’m afraid that I have lost the desire for bestowal. I work in the group, but do not feel that this helps, and maybe it even interferes. I am thinking about leaving just in order to reveal the desire again. Is this correct?

Answer: What desire will you reveal if you leave? The desire to go to a bar or a football game? We receive the need for spirituality only from the environment. By leaving it you will go in the exactly opposite direction.

It is written about the revelation of egoism: The sinners will fall where the righteous walk. This is your dilemma: to become righteous or a sinner.

The concealment that came after the Convention revealed a new, powerful, egoistic desire in you, intended for you to work on and correct. However, you want to run away from this work instead of making a new start precisely from the place where you have to.

We always advance from the “opposite” – from the revelation of a new, corrupted part of the desire for pleasure. In this place you must only discern your connection with the goal. In reality this corrupted part does not separate me from the goal at all, but on the contrary, it offers me the opportunity to move forward by pulling it towards correction.

However, in the process I experience bad sensations, darkness, and helplessness. Heaviness and indifference come down on me and all the passionate speeches lose flavor. So what should I do? How can I keep from running away?

That is when habit, obligation, and an established order come to the rescue. My efforts accumulate, penny by penny, until reaching a great sum. No matter what happens, you cannot leave the path.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride),” Item 138
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 62
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 48
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” Lesson 7
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Question: What is it that really unites us? Is it faith in the One who is Good and Does Good, this ideal by itself?

Answer: We are united by the Light. None of our ideals and nothing we created will work. Only if we ask the Light to unite us, it will do it. It’s one simple action — yes or no. Only the Light does it!

We are only able to reach the right request, and even that is difficult. This is our only opportunity — to discern our state, to understand what is good and what is bad, to correctly prepare for the next level, a state of greater bestowal where we are more connected together, and to ask the Light to bring us the force of bestowal.

However, when we aspire to unite with one another, we mustn’t see our unity as the goal, but as a means in order to bestow to the Creator. Don’t forget about the Host! At the end of the day, if you always think about your correction and your uncorrected qualities, if you are immersed in this all day long, thinking, “I have to unite with my friends! Why aren’t we united?! Am I uncorrected or are they?” What are you doing this for? You forget about the goal and think only about half of the work! You scream and fuss about, but you are worrying only about the means. But what is it that you want?

We forget that through our unity we must attain bestowal to the Host. There is the Creator and we have to reach the state of bestowal to Him by performing actions so He will enjoy us. This is why we unite.

The end of the action lies in the initial thought. You must always open your path from its final point. That is how everything is planned. Figure out exactly what you want to receive at the end. Then start writing down what phases have to precede it and what you need, such as forces, money, knowledge, and equipment. However, we are screaming at the middle of the path as if it were everything.

This is very important because otherwise we won’t attain even half of the path. Why? It’s because we receive the Light from the final point, from the Creator. That is why I cannot put half of the path as a goal right now. I can only take a small measure of the work as the goal: I want to attain 10 grams of unity among us in order to give the Creator 10 grams of pleasure. Great! Then you have a full action: Rosh (the beginning), Toch (the middle), and Sof (the end). This works.

But if you say: I want to put forth all my energy in order to unite with the group! Then you won’t receive anything because this is just one half. That is why Baal HaSulam explains in his article that Israel (those who aspire to the Creator), the Torah (Light), and the Creator have to be present in every state. Otherwise you veer off the path and don’t move towards the goal. Therefore, the end of the action has to be present in the initial thought.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride),” Item 130: “The correction of Yesod is Brit Milah (circumcision). Hence, it is said that the existence of the covenant is called “the work of our hands,” for we separate the Orlah (foreskin) from Yesod through the work of our hands. But this only concerns the period up to the end of correction.”

Until the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun) we operate within the ten Sefirot of our soul. First of all, we must cut Malchut off, meaning to exclude from operation the desire that cannot be corrected. Moreover, we cut desires until Yesod, and we only work with those Kelim that lay above it, to the extent of our ability to incorporate them into Bina.

This is the “union of circumcision”: We deactivate the desires that cannot be used until Gmar Tikkun. They will only be corrected at the end of correction. But we can receive Light for the sake of bestowal in all the other Kelim (vessels) from Keter to Yesod.

…as it is said: “From my flesh I shall see the Creator.” Specifically “from my flesh,” because every time man signs the covenant of this union, he sees the Creator there.

“From my flesh” means from the receiving Kelim. The bestowing Kelim are located above, until the middle of Tifferet, and the receiving Kelim that are called “flesh” and “skin” are located under them.

It is only possible to see the Creator, that is the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), in the receiving Kelim, but only on the level of the “flesh” (Basar). We do not even touch the “skin.” In other words, we stop at the third stage (flesh, meat, or Behina Gimel), and we do not engage the fourth stage (skin, Behina Dalet).

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to correct the desire that represents the entire matter of creation to a degree that we start sensing the Force that permeates the universe: the Creator (the Light). There is nothing except this Force and desire.

Revelation happens in accordance with the law of equivalence of form: Desire feels the power of the Light to the extent of its correspondence to it. Full revelation of the Light is the program and the purpose of creation. It means that we have to correct ourselves to a degree of complete equivalence with the property of the Light: bestowal.

For that purpose the whole system of worlds was created; it helps us to change our desire and make it similar to the Light. This world is where the first steps are made; later, we rise into the Worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, and Beria. Nine lower Sefirot of Malchut of the World of Atzilut is where the broken souls “dwell.”

Keter, the upper Sefira of Malchut, is above the Parsa, in World of Atzilut, where bestowal is in effect. The property of reception acts below the Parsa.

Malchut receives the forces from Zeir Anpin. For us, Zeir Anpin is the Upper One, the giver; we receive everything from him. In its turn, Zeir Anpin is connected with the higher Partzuf of the World of Atzilut, Abba ve Ima (AVI), a part of which is Yeshsut. Below, there is the Partzuf of Arich Anpin (AA), which receives the Light from Infinity (Ein Sof) and passes it down the chain to Malchut.

The major issue for us is how we (the broken souls that live in the Worlds of BYA) rise to Malchut de Atzilut. By including ourselves in it, we begin to take part in the process of correction. The World of Atzilut corrects broken desires that bear egoistic intentions.

The desire to receive is unchangeable; it is matter which cannot be altered. But desire can be used in two different ways: It can either be filled from the inside by receiving, or it can be utilized for bestowal. In the second case, the desire will receive for the sake of bestowal. It is possible only as an outcome of love and union with others.

The Book of Zohar helps us mostly at the first stage of our rising to the World of Atzilut. The sequence of actions is as follows:

1.      We raise our request to get corrected (MAN).
2.      The answer (MAD) returns back to us in the form of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that empowers us.
3.      We rise upward to Malchut de Atzilut.
4.      Malchut delivers our request to Zeir Anpin.
5.      Zeir Anpin gives Malchut powers and corrects the souls.

Thus, all we do is work with the Light. Our work is intended to attain union among us in order to correct our desire by applying intention to bestow to it. This becomes possible only as a result of the Light’s influence.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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