Question: What does Kabbalah say about original sin, and what does this lapse from virtue mean?

Answer: Kabbalah asserts that the entire tale of Adam and Eve and their lapse from virtue is an allegory. It refers to the events that took place in the upper Sefirot before the creation of this reality: our universe and us inside it.

There is no “sin” in any of this. We call it so because we fell from the spiritual degree on which we were initially created to our current degree, this world, across the entire 125 degrees. This is called the “sin,” but it was not our doing. It happened in our root.

Later, when we developed over thousands of years at the level of this world, this also was not our doing. We have developed unconsciously this entire time, without knowing how and where we developed. Egoism pushed us forward.

However, now is the first time in history that we have come to our freedom of choice. Either we will develop consciously and correct ourselves because we see and feel a benefit and purpose in it, or very big problems will come which will force us to do so through enormous suffering. In other words, at this point, we stand at the crossroads. We can choose the path of suffering or the path of attaining the entire reality. Naturally, there is a huge difference between these two directions.

In any case, we must attain the complete correction of the world before the expiration of the 6,000 years which began with the first man, Adam. So, we have approximately the next 230 years. In other words, all of us must complete the correction and every person must acquire a soul. Then all these souls connect into one common soul and rise to the next degree.

If we follow the conscious path as we attain the universe and do the work ourselves, we will be able to complete this correction in several years, here and now! If not, we will still advance, but in the bad way, which will not last more than 230 years.

This is determined by the spiritual structure of the six upper Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, and Yesod. This is why we must attain correction over the course of 6,000 years.
[44665]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: What do we celebrate during holiday Shavuot?

Answer: During Shavuot, we celebrate the giving of the Torah. It’s the day when all who are regarded as “Israel” (“Isra-El,” meaning “straight to the Creator”) were given the Torah, the method of self-realization through free will, rather than coming to the pre-programmed state of fulfillment under the impact of the Light pushing them to it.

On the contrary, they are able to see themselves, the entire reality, and even the Creator. Instead of Him doing it, they can decide that they truly desire to reach this goal, as if He wasn’t the one who supplied it.

We celebrate that we are able to understand, feel, and attain the upper force that works within us and can identify ourselves with its acts. Clearly, this upper force, the Creator, works either way. However, we attain how He works; we desire for Him to work on us, and even before He takes any action, we already strive toward Him. This is how love is measured.

Question: So, only with the giving of the Torah did we obtain free will, the freedom to accept the method and realize it willingly, whereas previously, we didn’t have any such free will, did we?

Answer: Correct. Hence, it is regarded as freedom from the angel of death, “being a free nation in our own country (our desire),” being free. What does such freedom entail? Now I am able to express my own view of the purpose of creation and our path.

Can you switch to another purpose? You can’t. Can you choose a different path? No. What is so unique about it then? I take my part in it; I make a decision; I choose this desire; I am present in this process. Otherwise, I’m not. The Creator gave us a chance to participate. This means I assert myself and my independence, which happens in the degree I identify myself with the Creator by becoming similar to Him. I am either a beast or a human.
[44582]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/2011, Shamati #40

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The science of Kabbalah is special because it allows us to reveal how to control the two forces of nature: the force of reception and the force of bestowal. All of nature is comprised of these two forces. We see them everywhere: plus and minus, bestowal and reception. Their combination is what creates the essence of our lives.

On the still level they build atoms and molecules, dipoles, crystalline patterns, and so on. On the vegetative level the combination of a plus and minus produces life: a plus provides useful things whereas a minus excretes waste, which enables a body to live and develop.

On the animate level a plus and minus become even greater and their interconnection not only causes useful things to be absorbed and harmful things excreted, but also brings about movement, reproduction, and the individual life of a separate animal. This is already a special sum of two influences.

However, as paradoxical as it may be, on the human level only one of two forces was operating to this day. As a result, any pleasure that entered us immediately waned. That’s because our desire is egoistic and we did not have any chance to oppose it, to add a second force against it so we could excrete the harmful things from our desires and thoughts, from our hearts and minds, which belong to the human level.

Now a second force is being revealed in us—the point in the heart, which stands opposite to egoism. It enables us to form ourselves, to decide which thoughts and desires to bring inside and which to take outside. As a result, out of thousands of thoughts and desires, we can gather a new structure and build a special level inside of us called “human” (Adam) or ”soul.” It consists of ten Sefirot and is also called “Partzuf”—a spiritual structure.

This is what we form inside of us by virtue of the fact that two forces have finally begun developing in us. For hundreds of thousands of years, only one force operated in us on the human level. We were constantly activated by the desires and thoughts that awakened in us. That is how we lived.

But now, together with several million people from the whole world, we have received a true gift from above—the bestowing desire in addition to the receiving desire. And now we are forming a new creation inside of us. We must build the human in us ourselves. This is the entire purpose of man’s existence in this world. Otherwise, why does he exist here? What can he possibly do here?

Today we are advancing together with all humanity. We are the first, and others will come after us. From one day to the next new people are awakening and joining this process of building a person inside of each one of us. You and I are learning how to become human in the true sense of the word.
[44840]
From the 1st lesson at the Madrid Convention 4/6/11

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Comment: As a rule, prophets talk about two options of development: hard and easy….

Answer: Suppose your son is lazy and stubborn. He is smart but has no desire to realize his potential properly. What would you like to see him as in the future?

Comment: A famous soccer player.

Answer: I see. It is the modern dream of a father.

Well, you take him to a soccer school, but he is lazy and does not want to work. He is required to have a daily regimen, exercise regularly, and sleep well at night without any parties. The life of athletes is a hard life indeed; it follows a strict schedule. People sacrifice their best years to become professionals. In this case, the body becomes a machine that is pushed to work at full capacity.

So, your son does not want to practice. What can you do? But you are sure that soccer in particular is his future. Then, you take a belt. Here, the question arises: Whether beating can make him a soccer player? Does this move him in the right direction?

Comment: No, this simply hurts him.

Answer: It means that the belt does not help. But after this “educational work” your son makes a calculation: What should he do? He suffers both from the beating and the training. Where is suffering greater, and where is it lesser? His egoistic desire compares the outcomes, and he decides: If his father makes him suffer more than the coach does, he goes to soccer practice.

On the soccer team, he meets other boys and gradually acquires a taste for the game. If he does not, you continue to punish him until he fulfills your program.

We see from this example that suffering simply takes one closer to realization. How can we manage without it? We are lazy and stubborn, each of us. It is not just about physical activity; we are obstinate in the mind and heart, in perception and sensitivity. Every second, we shrug aside important things, take a smoke break, sleep with our eyes open.

How can we use every moment of our life for spiritual training? To do that, we constantly have to ignite ourselves with our friends’ burning desire. Otherwise, the Creator will inflict blows upon you, and you will come out of your daze because of fear or pain, one or the other. However, you must realize the entire program because without it, you will lack desires.

Consequently, you face only one opportunity: to fulfill the desire of the Creator. You will do it in any case, but you have two options, two paths, leading to this realization. You cannot escape training and awakening; however, you can take the long path of suffering, during which you sleep (although not like a baby). Or, you can take the short path, where you are given a chance to realize yourself quickly by receiving additional desire, additional awakening from the environment. They stir your enthusiasm, and you run to your practice.

It does not matter which way you come to the practice: This is your choice.
[44466]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: What is so special about the Torah that even The Book of Zohar is just a commentary on it?

Answer: The records that Moses made on parchment are the earthly expression, through material symbols, of spiritual actions of Light on desire. Moses wrote down everything he taught his students in a book. Over the course of 40 years of wandering in the desert, they wrote down the whole Torah, going through the entire process in record, as well as in bodies, and in spirituality. This is the entire path from the Egyptian exile (earthly and spiritual), through the desert (earthly and spiritual), and into the land of Israel (earthly and spiritual). All of this came true in the connection between the root and the branch. Moses expressed this entire process in this concrete, symbolic form.

The Zohar expresses the same process on a different level, in a different form because the general desire to enjoy that the Creator created had by that time advanced several steps forward and was perfected by the influence of the Light. Therefore, this desire, which went through ascents and descents, the destruction of the First and Second Temple, the exile, and then reached the last breakage before the last exile, had to be given the method that is appropriate for the end of the exile, for our time.

That is why The Book of Zohar was written, whose authors were the successors of many generations of Kabbalists, starting from Abraham until the destruction of the Temple. Rabbi Shimon was the student of Rabbi Akiva, who revealed a great Light, and therefore he was able to express this in The Book of Zohar.

The Torah itself is divided into two parts: oral and written. This comes from the difference between Zeir Anpin and Malchut. Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut is the “oral Torah,” while Malchut of the world of Atzilut is the “written Torah.”

The Torah is the revelation of Light. The Light that comes to Malchut contains everything that is necessary for changing Malchut. But this Light still hasn’t come true in practice, and is therefore called “the oral Torah.” For now this is work with the screens.

Under the influence of the same Light in Malchut, inner changes take place and are impressed in Malchut, this is called “the written Torah.” This is talking only about actions of the Light in the desires from the beginning of creation and until its end. That’s because there is nothing in existence besides desires.

Among these desires some feel that they exist by themselves, separate from all the others. This is us. These desires contain qualities that can help them on the path of correction. And that is why we receive a sensation of lacking, our own lack of correction, the realization of evil. This is how we perceive ourselves.

These are exactly the desires that need to be given “the Torah”—the instructions explaining how they can participate in their own corrections out of their own free choice, how they can attract the Light by wishing to become corrected faster, instead of waiting for the Light to come and shake them up.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/11, Shamati
[44585]

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Question: If the Creator has a certain program of our development, why should we be interfering in it and trying to go around it?

Answer: There is a natural program of evolution regarded as “nature.” Nature has a built-in engine that spins and unwinds the entire development, while we obediently follow it for hundreds of thousands of years and thereby evolve. And so it has been over the whole human history on earth.

But at the same time, the program stipulates that man gradually reaches a state when he will start participating in its work himself. The force underlying nature keeps influencing and developing desire. And inside desire, it also cultivates the point that originates from the soul’s root. At a certain moment, besides the will to receive pleasure, we start hearing the voice of this point in the heart. The time comes when it makes itself known and demands man to actualize it.

Realization of the point occurs above desire. Hence, man feels split into two and finds himself facing a choice: to follow his ego, which is his corporeal desire (for things such as food, sex, family, wealth, power, and knowledge), or to keep raising this spiritual point and get the answers to the questions: Who am I? Where did I start? Where is the upper force? What is this life all about? What is the purpose of existence?

The point in the heart begins asking these questions and plunges one into confusion. Then he or she somehow finds the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is programmed as well! Life is not accidental; everything that takes place in this world descends on us from the upper world. Whether you will choose the second path or not, get all the opportunities to have it actualized, this too is subject to the same program of creation.

Today, you come to study not at your own will. It’s just that there were forces which worked on you and made you realize that you should come. Your freedom starts only where you are clearly facing a choice: to enter a Kabbalistic group or not, and even at the deeper level within you, are you willing to sacrifice your ego so you can become vital part of it or not.

The choice lies only between two desires: one aimed at oneself and the other directed outward. Here is where you really have to choose. Desire directed at oneself is AHP (the lower part of the Partzuf). Desire turned outward is Galgalta ve Eynaim, the upper part of the Partzuf. And in between, there lies an area regarded as “Klipat Noga,” where you seem to be making that choice. Yet, new questions arise: What do you base your choice on, and how are you being manipulated from Above so that you make this and not the other decision?

The same program dictates us to circulate Kabbalah all over the world. Without it, it won’t come to correction since it follows only a natural program of development, just like all other levels of nature. We need to use these levels correctly, meaning that we need to use—in thought, action, and intention—the rest of humanity, as well as the animate, vegetative, and still levels of nature, in order to adjoin them to ourselves and together, as one creation, ascend from the level of this world to the upper world.
[44147]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/2011, “General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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We shouldn’t criticize the states we experience every moment. After all, we don’t know what they are given for and where they come from.

All we need to do is try to understand how to use the state we received right now. We should acknowledge it with the understanding that there is no better state for our advancement, for the correction of our soul, than the one we are presently in. We should thank the Creator for the bad just as we would for the good.

After all, I measure my state according to my flaws. If I were reformed, I would feel infinity in each state. However, if I experience an opposite feeling somewhere, it means there is a certain flaw that I need to feel, work through, and to correct this sensation until I feel perfect.

Hence, it follows that it is the Creator who causes a person’s prayer. He is the very cause. However, between His calling and a person’s action, there lies free will of the person himself, which consists of the way he responds and clarifies the following:

• from whom he received this condition,
• what he is supposed to do with it,
• what will help him reform himself,
• what state he should come to next.

All of this is up to a person himself. He discerns the difference between the state he is going through and the one in which he would like to see himself. Indeed, the sensation of deficiency will determine his subsequent state.

As for us, we are not expected to provide anything else except the correct desire, until it is aimed directly at reaching the final goal: bestowal, the degree and might of which equals that of the upper force as in the root of our soul from where we all came.

Thus we work together: The Creator awakens us, while we, at each moment of our life, first have to understand that everything is supplied by Him. We must aim ourselves at the right work: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” Thereby, we develop a prayer that expresses our personal desire.

That is, both of us, the Creator and I, are working on desire. As for the Light, it’s not our concern. I worry solely about desire. He gives it to me, and I start working with it, having done so and exerted sufficient effort to bring the desire received from Him to another desire which is now called a prayer. To the degree of my desire being correct or corrupt, the Creator reforms me and provides me with a new desire. With its help I have to correct myself again, defining my desire more accurately and precisely, which will become my new prayer.

Thus, the Creator and I keep working on my desire together, until it acquires the right shape in value, power, character, and form, thereby reaching Malchut of Infinity which includes the desires of all souls. Then, to the extent of my attained caliber of bestowal and my own lowliness, I formulate my prayer, my authentic will to receive, in the proper manner, and, there, reveal the purpose of creation.
[43842]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can the “evil inclination” exist if there is only the Creator and none else besides Him?

Answer: And who created this “evil inclination” if there is nothing else besides the Creator? The Creator made this evil. And it lives under the Creator’s thumb. The Creator controls it; He begot it; it is His son, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination.”

Question: But the Creator is good that does good, so how can evil derive from Him?

Answer: The good who does good created this “evil inclination,” as it is said: “The end result is in its initial thought.” In fact, if you decided to create someone else besides you, so that your creation could reach your level, and if you wanted to assist it with all your heart and soul, with all that you have, then you wouldn’t have a choice: You must create a vessel in it, a desire that will be exactly as your own in quantity, quality, understanding, attainment, and everything else, but with a reverse imprint. And that is exactly what the Creator did.

Therefore, the “evil inclination” is the entire creation; nothing else is required. We don’t understand it. We think that there are material objects, for example, a pencil. Why not? After all, you see that it exists. It has color, shape, and weight. But in spirituality it doesn’t exist. In spirituality, one exists only if he has an individual essence, something of his own, instead of existing only because someone created him or her.

Let’s say a pencil doesn’t exist in spirituality since there is no action coming from it, no desire to be similar to the Creator. Therefore, it doesn’t exist in the spiritual dimension. All that we see in our world doesn’t exist in spirituality. This world doesn’t exist because this world is a reality which doesn’t have any personal motion toward equivalence to the Creator, in any object or any desire.

For this reason, if we are to create a being, we must program in it an ability to move autonomously, independently. What kind of creature did the Creator create? It was the “evil inclination.” But does this “evil inclination” have its own ability to move? Is it really that independent and respectable? Yes, it is.

The evil inclination is the left line in spirituality, where it counters the Creator, understands Him, and desires to be opposite. That’s where it all begins. The evil inclination doesn’t start with my wanting to gobble up food or sleep.

After we undergo preparation in this world and cross the Machsom, then from one side, we receive the “evil inclination,” the left line, reception, and from the other, “the good inclination,” the right line, bestowal. And it’s our job to restore the middle line in between.

On the left side, there is the “evil inclination,” Pharaoh, who claims: “I rule!” and it is only after the Machsom. And right against it, there is the upper force, bestowal. As to us, we are in the middle line.

This is the very “evil inclination” created by the Creator, while all we have during our preparation in this world is a mere animate existence, neither good nor bad. It’s not what we are talking about. And hence, this world doesn’t exist; it is imaginary and has neither good nor bad in it.

The “good” and “evil” inclinations exist only in spirituality. They are the two angels, two forces, two servants. Whom do they serve? They serve man who is building himself, meaning his own desire, his “Self,” from both of them. That is what the Creator desires.

Hence, how can my “Self” be realized if I don’t have these two forces from which I will construct myself in the middle, between “pro” and “con,” by making my own choice? Therefore, the Creator intentionally created the “evil inclination” as a force that opposes Him. After all, bestowal, the “good inclination,” is the Creator Himself. Then, between these two forces, in the middle part of Tifferet, between its upper and lower thirds, there is space for man.

This is the only way you can build a free space or the point of free will. Freedom lies only between two strictly defined states that press on you from both directions, and you must choose between them.

The point of freedom, the point of choice, free choice, is the choice you make in the narrow, contracting space between the blades of the scissors. Imagine this: Two walls suddenly start moving and squeezing us in between them… This is what freedom is. And the higher you rise on the steps of the spiritual ladder, the narrower the space in between them gets and the harder they press on you. But it is from this very pressure, from the horrible tension between them, you find your expression of Self.
[42860]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, The Zohar

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Question: Why do we undergo such a long, tangled, and unclear process that contradicts our logic and common sense?

Answer: The point is that ultimately, to the created being made by the Creator, we have to add our own desire, our need to experience Him, to receive the upper Light and spiritual fulfillment. I have to come with an eagerness, hunger, and desire of my own.

And in order to obtain a desire of my own, I need to start at the opposite end, from not wanting any of this! Only by coming to this desire from its opposite end can I say that it’s mine! Otherwise, it is not.

Suppose I want something right now. Where does this desire come from? If I dig into the depth of it, I will understand that it’s not actually mine, but rather derives from some internal causes: genes, hormones, information accumulated in my memory, the environment, and the needs of my body and nature. That means I am being awakened from within, but it isn’t my desire whatsoever; instead, it’s the call of my nature. And, a slave to my natural instinct, I start running to get what I want.

What I presently want is food, sex, family, wealth, power, honor, and knowledge. But do I really want it? No, I don’t! I was either born this way or the environment influenced me every minute by instilling in me these sorts of desires. But it isn’t the “Self” that I am.

So, it looks like I am a puppet and not even aware of it. I think that I am the master of my life and, like a hero, fight to get out of it what I want. But it turns out that it isn’t what I want at all. Who am I then if I act like a robot? I cry, strive, and labor, if only to realize that I am fulfilling someone else’s desires and don’t even know that I am a slave. I am totally dependent on the strings by which I’m pulled and controlled every moment.

If we had a chance to see ourselves from aside, we would see exactly this: We are puppets that have nothing of their own, no personal desires or chances to fulfill them. We are not the ones to define our purpose, and apparently, we aren’t even humans, but rather some dolls made of fabric and tied to the strings that are moving us up and down.

However, when I feel a desire within, isn’t it I who does? It is also a big question since a feeling arises in the matter provided for me. A certain internal disturbance inside the puppet occurs, certain electrical impulses pass through it, and it starts reacting and acting.

If we examine ourselves in such depth, we will see that there isn’t a creature here! This is when we begin to understand what the Creator’s task was: How to create basic, primary desire that didn’t derive from Him. How can He make a doll that, despite it being plastic, would obtain life and start thinking and desiring on its own? Moreover, how to make its desires, thoughts, and actions its own? Otherwise, the whole creation is a mere toy, a total hoax.

We don’t even realize how difficult it is to create us so that we would build something within ourselves independently, something that could be called “man” (Adam), meaning “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator, autonomous and independent in one’s choices, actions, and desires, and not merely a drone.

Therefore, we are destined to pass through strange and unusual states, until we obtain desire of our own. And only when that moment is reached will we be called “human,” Israel. Those who are still controlled from Above are regarded as the “nations of the world.” But those who have already evolved and have their own desire that moves them toward the Creator are regarded as Israel (Yashar El, “straight to the Creator”).

So, the purpose of the created being is to obtain such a desire and utilize it, and that is what the upper Light is leading us to. It can bring us only to the awareness of how necessary this purpose is, whereas to earn this desire is our job. Here, we cannot receive anything ready-made since otherwise, it won’t be our own merit.

Hence, the Creator awakens us once with delight and another time with suffering, using these two particular reins to drive us to creating something new within ourselves.
[42446]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/2011, “Explanation of the Article, ‘Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah’”

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