Question: What does the term “place” mean according the wisdom of Kabbalah, both on the part of the Light and on the part of the desire?

Answer: The Creator created a desire to receive in its initial raw form. Then the Light began to work within the desire to receive. It gave birth to the desire to receive and then began to appear in it more and more. Then the desire to receive began to change in quality, and went through the five phases of development and began to take on different forms, enriched with different attributes and facets.

Thus it reached a state called “place.” It means that it’s different from what fills it. The filling is not the first and not the Light, but the “place” it enters.

They should have separated because it is said: Unless the Light separates from the vessel one time, it’s impossible to determine anything. But when it separates one time, they are already two separate things, and now it’s possible to identify a “Light” and “vessel” separately and also to study the connection between them. This is how the “place” is created, but it’s not enough; it’s possible to pour some drink into a pitcher, for example, and fill it to the top. The Creator wants this “place” to feel Him and who He is.

Imagine that you have made a clay pitcher, and now you want this pitcher to feel who made it and for what purpose. What’s more, it wants to receive the exact filling: Suppose it doesn’t agree to receive water, milk, or wine, but rather needs oil. Then according to what it chooses, it’s filled and rejects all the other fillings. This means that the “place” should also differentiate between good and bad, or in other words, be a “wise egoist” who depends on his ego that was created by the Creator.

Next the Creator wants this desire to prefer the opposite nature by itself, and to choose it by its freewill. It has to “format” itself, to arrange itself so that it can operate for itself in an opposite manner as it builds itself anew. If the desire acquires this ability, it begins to act again and to fill itself and then it’s called Adam who resembles (Domeh) the Creator.

It’s as if the desire gives birth to itself anew by its own freewill, and chooses every step it takes, every filling, and every manner. On the one hand, everything comes from it and does not depend on anyone, and on the other hand, everything is whole and in bestowal. This is called a “place.” This is the deficiency we need. Until then we are not even aware of how many states we have to go through to reach these discernments…

Question: Is there a connection between the “place” and the environment?

Answer: In order for the desire to be independent, to act freely in its discernments, in its perception, it’s divided into two systems: me and outside myself. In the internal system, there is only a spark, and in the external system, there is the whole world. To the extent that a person uses the “world” correctly, he increases his spark. To the extent that he wants to use the world in an opposite manner, wrongly, he diminishes the spark. He checks himself and learns according to his attitude to the world, to the environment.

In addition to that, a person has the wisdom of Kabbalah (a teacher, books, and a group), and this is all to help him fulfill himself consciously and not only by feeling. After all, if we learn from our feelings, it will lead to a whole chain of failures, to a very slow and cruel way of the five phases of development. If a person develops by the environment, then for him the environment becomes the teacher, books, group, and the Creator. Then he develops by the “path of Torah,” by the path of the Light that Reforms.

The difference is that by the path of the Light, he brings his own component of development and by that develops the image of the Creator within him. He begins to relate to reality not like a created being but like the Creator: “How do I use the group, the teacher, the books, and the Creator, all the forces that influence me, in order to stabilize myself correctly?”

Thus we develop the human in us and advance correctly in the easy and shortest way for all. Then the deficiency to advance that we stabilize anew each time is called a real “place,” and it’s such a place that we should reach.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/13, “The Peace”

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In the News (from the Max Planck Society): “Many processes in the brain occur automatically and without involvement of our consciousness. This prevents our mind from being overloaded by simple routine tasks. But when it comes to decisions, we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. This is questioned by our current findings. …

“The researchers found that it was possible to predict from brain signals which option participants would take seven seconds before they consciously made their decision. …

“This suggests that the decision is unconsciously prepared ahead of time.”

My Comment: A decision is made outside of us, above, but not only in our case, but in the case of all the objects of the world according to the principle: glass begins to break before the bullet hits it. Everything in the world happens in a way opposite to what we think; our thoughts, decisions, and actions do not come from us to the world but in the reverse order, they come from “somewhere” to us… The Creator passes through us a series of sensations, and we have to learn to respond to them correctly, recognizing Him in each of them… and then our life will become conscious!
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Question: If I don’t lift a finger without a command from Above, what can I do to help my correction, where is my freewill?

Answer: We have no free will with regard to our correction. Our free will is only in hastening the correction. You don’t need to delve into the states you go through. The more you delve into them, the more you will linger and delay your advancement.

The only beneficial act you can do is to hasten your correction. This doesn’t depend on the states that are revealed to you at all. It only depends on your actions of incorporation and your connection with others.

So our work is very simple, and we might say even primitive. All you need to do, no matter what happens to you, and above it, is to constantly yearn for connection. As a result of this work, you will discover that you have a new mind, wisdom, and feelings only thanks to the fact that you advance persistently in this one direction, as “an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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In what state do we currently find ourselves? Who is organizing this state for us? Who “resets” us, who prepares us by leaving us only one correct action, which in so doing we will succeed?

We see that everything is determined in Nature. We are in a rigid system that chains us in on all sides and doesn’t let us move freely by even one millimeter. On the contrary, every movement you make shakes the system and it responds immediately. If you understand that, then your reactions are correct. Imagine that you are standing naked, completely surrounded by needles that almost touch your skin. You can’t even make the slightest movement, and at the most you may be able to move your eyes a little.

This is how the laws of nature “wrap” us. It’s even much more than that since they operate both in our mind and our emotions (in the heart), and I have to check: Do I have any free will? Does anything exist except this nature? If so, then this is where my self is. But can anyone exist on the outside? In the meantime I am totally, internally and externally, surrounded by needles and can’t move independently at all.

So we have to clarify what there can be besides nature. Has it left one of its creatures called “Adam – man” something that enables him to become free of it? And besides, how can this be if the whole universe is a system of absolute fixed laws? We are in a system that is totally mutually connected and each day we discover its integrality more and more, that it is deterministic and that there is no freedom in it; so how can it be that there is something outside its whole laws and frameworks? It’s a serious problem: Who is outside the laws? Of course, it isn’t our animal body, which we can study thoroughly since we have all the necessary data for that.

On the whole, we all totally obey nature’s laws, and if we are satisfied with that, then everything can keep on flowing that way, but if we can discover at least one grain of freedom that would really be a wonder. For what is the freedom intended? How and for what has nature made room in itself for it, why has it restricted itself and not entered this zone? What is this space in which the real created being who is not under the influence of nature actually exists? What is this created being actually? Does it have any laws of its own according to which it operates?

There are many questions to answer here. Spinoza and Kant mainly dealt with these questions. It’s a complex system that belongs to us since we ask the question about the meaning of life by refusing to accept the deterministic approach, aspiring to be above the predetermined corporeal state, and to find something else….
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/13, “The Peace”

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Question: On the one hand, we need the perpetual internal burning, and on the other hand, we need patience. How do we combine these two things?

Answer: You become patient to the degree that you are patient. It is impossible to acquire this attribute any other way. I went through different times next to my teacher Rabash, and sometimes I was simply burning with impatience, but eventually, it isn’t that I got used to things since there is not habit in spirituality, but I simply received the recognition of my state.

This is the approach of “submission,” which is absolutely essential. If the Creator is good and benevolent for the good and for the wicked and according to His perception we are already at the end of correction, then everything that happens is only with regard to me, in my feelings. If everything depends only on desire, on my vessels, then it means that my whole correction is in accepting the upper Providence correctly, my current state.

If my state changes and becomes like my state at the end of correction, will I see a different world? Will I see the same faces around me? Didn’t Baal HaSulam, who was at the end of correction, see the same world that we do, with all the atrocities in it? But he perceived the world as absolute good and at the same time he dressed in our desires and felt how we perceive the world differently.

Being patient means that you understand that the world is already corrected, that everything is corrected, but there are still levels of correction that those who see a need for them have to correct. Eventually, you will receive this understanding. It is impossible to skip levels and reach it directly. You can help yourself only by trying to stabilize the environment for yourself, and that’s all.

You cannot have any complaints against the Creator since from the start He has created everything in a finite correct form, at the end of correction. But the created being has to develop the vessels in him so that he can attain and acknowledge all this goodness. It is impossible to give it as a gift, since by that the created being will not feel this infinite state.

In order to do that a person has to go through the state of the “recognition of evil” since you can arrive at the recognition of goodness only through that state. This means that there must be darkness first, concealment, the “recognition of the evil” of this state. This isn’t bad because your ego suffers as a result, but because there is no connection with others in it, there is no bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Everyone needs time and the freedom to develop without coercion. You see that I allow people to come to the lessons freely and don’t stop anyone if he wants to leave. If a person isn’t harmful, if he isn’t mentally ill so that this kind of study can harm him, then I am always happy to see him, even if he comes once a year. Let him come here and check other places, as long as he clarifies things as quickly as possible. My job is to help him in this and not to tie him to it.

There are different circles people can be in depending on how much they put themselves into this work that are increasingly more internal. And the conditions are tougher; they take greater responsibility upon themselves and need greater help. So every circle needs “policemen and guards” that are increasingly strict, all the way to the most inner circle.

You can determine all this between you. It isn’t so clear now because you don’t understand the root of your souls, but later everything will be clearer. It is to such an extent that Rabbi Shimon’s students knew exactly which Sefira the soul of each friend who is in the general structure of the ten Sefirot came from.

We must respect a person’s patience, since everything can change and one day is different from another. So a person who comes to the lessons for years and is always present and comes back time after time does a great work by that. No matter what, he is incorporated in everyone, and besides, he advances in studying the material. Each time the Surrounding and Inner Lights influence him through the study, the teacher, and the environment.

It is a great thing! We don’t value every moment we were awarded to be in contact or even just in the direction of revelation of the Creator. It is a sign of a lack of respect and the importance of spirituality. So patience is not just waiting in one place, patience is doing the best I can and accepting the outcome!

It may well be that I cannot rejoice every moment with what I receive, since I still lack the feeling that everything comes from the Creator, even the most unpleasant events. But we still must see patience as a very valuable thing.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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In the News (from Iowa State University): “The Media Violence Commission’s research-based report concludes that the research clearly shows that media violence consumption increases the relative risk of aggression, defined as intentional harm to another person that could be verbal, relational, or physical. …

“In their report, the commission wrote that aside from being sources of imitation, violent images — such as scenes in movies, games or pictures in comic books — act as triggers for activating aggressive thoughts and feelings already stored in memory. If these aggressive thoughts and feelings are activated over and over again because of repeated exposure to media violence, they become chronically accessible, and thus more likely to influence behavior. …

“While most public policy has focused on restricting children’s access to violent media, the commission found that approach to have significant political and legal challenges in many countries. For that reason, it recommends putting efforts into improving media ratings, classifications, and public education about the effects of media on children.

“‘Improving media ratings really has two pieces. One is that the media ratings themselves need to be done by an independent entity — meaning, not by an industry-influenced or controlled system,’ said Anderson, himself a leading researcher of the effects of violent media on children. ‘They need to be ratings that have some scientific validity to them.’”

My Comment: Since these media are beneficial to many, it is much more difficult to ban them in our society than smoking. The environment forms a child, but even parents cannot talk in the organized manner against the media that destroy their children and all the efforts of parents to instill good education. Are WHO and UNESCO opposed to these media? Did anyone put forward such proposals in the UN? There is one answer—we cannot resist such media because we ourselves are no different!

According to Kabbalah, a person never commits his own acts, but only what society, his surroundings, his environment, dictate to him. That is why by choosing the environment, a person completely determines his actions, which are the result of the influence of the environment. That is, one can determine his actions only through the environment in which he exists. And his free will is only in choosing the environment. (See Baal HaSulam, “Freedom of Will”)
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From Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 78: “Even if the whole world says you are righteous, be wicked in your own eyes,” specifically in your own eyes. In other words, as long as you have not attained “opening of the eyes” in the Torah, regard yourself as wicked. Do not fool yourself with your reputation in the entire world as righteous.

People are not at will to do good or bad deeds. Regarding spirituality, the natural qualities of a person, which he was born with, don’t count: how nice and polite or how rude he is. Until one merits a revelation and the Creator’s testimony, that will guarantee his good intentions, until then, one will remain wicked.

But when a person achieves a revelation and the Light keeps holding him up, from then on, he will be a good, righteous. Therefore, we don’t make calculations about each other, who is bad and who is good. Regarding the spiritual path, everything is determined by crossing this cherished border—the “Machsom.”
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSulam, Letter 20: You are carved … on my heart, all day and all night and like incinerators of thirst after your goodness and your wholeness, and the Creator knows what exertion and powers I have given on your behalf, and you are sure that it will not be in vain and God’s word will be eternal.

From this day onwards we will grow stronger in the Torah and the Mitzvot (commandments), “like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load” to raise Divinity from the dust, and the sins will become merits, since His honor will fill the land. And thank God, I am very sure that our salvation is soon to be revealed, and we will be rewarded to worship the Creator together, in expansion and God willing, we will succeed.

Baal HaSulam writes about his investment in his students and about his helping them. However, in the spiritual world, in contrast to the corporeal world, the lower has to make efforts so that the upper can help him.

In the corporeal world, a baby is naturally attached to his mother first by the umbilical cord in the womb and then to her breast, to her body, and so he receives her treatment. Nature forces him to annul himself this way. He doesn’t make any efforts on his part. On the contrary, he feels that his mother is the source of his life, and he is inclined to adhere to her.

However, in the spiritual work, we have to do this action against our ego, toward the group, the teacher, and the Creator. Only to the extent that we annul ourselves will we receive nourishment from them, either through what we call a “spiritual umbilical cord” or through the spiritual breast of the upper Partzuf, through the Surrounding Light and the Inner Light.

So, if a teacher writes that the students are carved … on my heart all day and all night, it means that they also have made a great deal of work in order to reach such a mutual connection.

What exertion and powers I have given on your behalf, this is possible only if the students allowed the teacher to bestow upon them. If a baby refuses to eat, how is it possible to force him? Here, it is a matter of his own freewill.

First, his freewill is only in annulling himself. Then, it is also in agreeing to accept the bestowal from the upper, which is always in contrast to one’s own mind and feelings. It is a very big problem. Even to just annul yourself and to accept everything as Hassadism isn’t easy. The embryo is in the waters of Hesed, but it isn’t simple to receive everything as Hassadim in total self-annulment.

So, a student should begin to accept actions that are opposite to his feelings and his mind, and to accept them in order to see the upper’s grace in the greatest sufferings, just like Rabbi Akiva in his painful death.

This isn’t simple at all, and we have to prepare ourselves for that. The main thing is to want that our attitude to what is happening with us will change. We are required to ask and to beg, to pray, so that we will be able to justify everything that happens, and to receive the Creator’s actions upon us with love and to ask for help in order to adhere to the group, to the teacher, and to the Creator so that love will cover all our sins.

This work is called like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load. We must constantly feel that There is none else besides Him, and the vessel for this feeling is our connection and love. This is why it is called the great rule of the Torah.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12

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Question: What does it mean to “correct past mistakes and transgressions” and become a “complete righteous?”

Answer: We reform desires that have gone through the breaking. A person comes face to face with his evil inclination, and he perceives it as his own; that is, he takes the blame for it. He doesn’t identify himself with the point in the heart and cannot observe his desire from aside as the material given to him for correction. So far, he doesn’t cling to the Creator, who created this evil inclination, but identifies with the evil inclination itself. The Light has not clarified his desire yet and hasn’t severed it from the person to move him to the Creator’s side. So, one thinks that it is he who is bad and not the evil inclination.

The Light has not sufficiently reformed him, hasn’t illuminated his desires, so a person doesn’t see the source of all evil and then of all good. In other words, he doesn’t consider himself subject to a singular power beyond which there is nothing else, and he doesn’t realize that he is always ruled by one source, which determines how bad the desires are and how to correct them.

He doesn’t understand yet that he must ask to have selfish desires revealed and how to correct them. After all, everything is done by the Light that Reforms, which reveals the left line first. To the extent that one strives to reach total correction, bestowal, according to how much effort he exerts, the Light comes and reveals his evil inclination to him.

He has to pray for the Creator to show him what he is lacking for perfection. The prayer is to reveal the desire to be human, to be perfect, faithful to the Creator, and to bestow. Revealing what I need for perfection is to see the deficiencies that I have to correct in order to achieve the good.

But I don’t ask for my deficiencies to be revealed; a person is unable to do so. Due to our nature, we can only ask for good conditions.

Our work is to come to this understanding that all desires, corrected and uncorrected, are in the Creator’s hands. And man is that small clever child who knows how to ask the Creator correctly. And then this whole monster will become revealed: the evil inclination, egoism, Pharaoh, which later on will change and get transformed into a good inclination, by way of restriction, the screen, and the Reflected Light.

All of this descends from above, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination and the Torah to correct it since the Light in it reforms.” So where does a person come in, if at all, since the Creator said that everything comes from Him? What a person needs is awareness, a prayer for a good state.

But he doesn’t want to ask for what is good; after all, his nature is the evil inclination. So he has to use the power of the group that will infuse him with these good values although he may not necessarily sense them. It looks as if they are playing a game; they are staging a good state and through this influence each other. Thus, a person achieves a greater and greater desire until the Light has finally reformed him.

All of this is arranged so as not to rob a person of his freewill. He has to be aware that he is merely acting, while, in reality, has no desire for any of it, and that he opposes the true, perfect state. And the closer he moves to the right state, the greater freewill he is given, the more of the sinner in him is revealed, and greater doubts in needing this path unfold in him. He has to discern these things, matching himself against the other side, comparing good and evil.

Hence, our entire work rests on our freedom of choice, and all we have to do is to offer ourselves to the influence of the group that we have built according to our understanding of the spiritual world. We should play so as to have the group affect everyone as if all of this is true. And then, everyone will come to the true prayer.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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