Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words”: Question 26: What is “above”? Hishtavut ha Tzura (equivalence of form) of the lower one with the upper one is a “rise above.”

There are no rises and falls, nor movements to the right or left. All of this is evaluated only relative to qualities, and we are talking about their transformation, reaching the similarity of properties of the lower one and the upper one.

However, what happens when the lower one “rises” toward the upper one and becomes the same? Does it disappear completely and turn into the upper one, or does the lower one exist next to the upper one?

Each one is left with their desires, aspirations, and natural qualities which do not change. The matter of the will to receive remains unchanged. It is said: “The way their faces differ, their souls differ as well.” Nothing changes in a person besides the intention with which he uses all of his desires and qualities.

If we are the same in our intentions, in their level and strength, then this means that we are on the same level. If one is lower and the other is higher, this means that the intentions of one person are still weaker than the intentions of the other.

The lower one is rising toward the upper one, “becoming like Him,” but not Him Himself. Of course, the difference between them remains.

When I ascend toward the Creator by the 125 steps of the ladder of equivalence of form, I feel Him on each step, even on the smallest one, and I become attached to Him in some form. With each following step, I connect with Him and come to know Him more and more. Nevertheless, the Creator and the creature remain, as well as the connection between them, Dvekut (adhesion)—one does not disappear inside the other.

So, a “rise above” is the equalization in terms of the qualities of the lower one to the upper one. They are equalizing only in terms of their form of bestowal, while each one remains with their natural qualities.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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At the end of “The Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 156, Baal HaSulam writes that adopting the right definitions is of primary and paramount importance in the study of Kabbalah. They must be at our disposal, placed in our mind as if on book shelves so that I can pick out the right term without even thinking how I need to understand, to feel, and to picture the meaning concealed behind each word in the text.

Otherwise, I will be confusing myself and generating in myself the wrong impression and perception, which doesn’t correspond to the truth. This is a very important key to studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. If you do not correctly decipher what is written, you will become completely confused.

We are not studying for the purpose of getting to know how many angels there are in the sky and what their names are, and we are not memorizing which spiritual objects (Partzufim) exist somewhere out there. We need to apprehend that everything that has been written about is inside of us, inside our soul, which we have not revealed yet.

Let this spiritual system be concealed from us for now, but it is inside of us and not somewhere out there. We are not talking about angels in the sky, but about man’s inner forces. Everything is inside man, and there is nothing else besides him. It only seems to us that other people exist around us, but in reality, all of them are parts of myself. That is why the phrase of “love thy neighbor as thyself” seems to be speaking about another person until you come to understand that this is actually you, yourself, and everything belongs to you.

Kabbalistic terms need to be known by memory, meaning that you need to be attached to their true spiritual meaning and not to imagine it in your current perception. When I come across words like “sun,” “moon,” “up,” “down,” “entering,” and “leaving” of the Light, all of the most technical terms, and even the ones that are barely related to this world, I still need to check myself as to whether I am keeping to the right definitions. This will eliminate 99% of all confusion and mistakes.

Furthermore, I will not need a lot of long explanations if I adopt the correct definitions. That is why it is so important to study the appendices to each chapter of The Study of the Ten Sefirot: “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words.” This is even more important than studying the main text of the book.

Even though we cannot remember all of these definitions yet, to understand and to feel them, we at least we need to look at how these spiritual definitions differ from those inside of us because we  usually already have a certain material picture about each of the words and concepts.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: If all of the desires keep changing and taking on different shades, must I long for something specific, or do I need to strengthen the desire in the form closest to me at the moment?

Answer: No, the women’s desire must be formed into a collective, aggregate, integral women’s desire aimed precisely at the goal. Each woman must analyze the desires inside of her and aim them at the goal to the maximum, as much as it is possible at any given level, in each state she finds herself in.

However, after these desires are basically formed, they must be felt by the men. And men will undoubtedly feel them since they are built this way; they gradually feel the women’s desire. This is like in a family where the wife may not say even one word to her husband, but he feels how she is quietly pushing on him, as if pointing, wanting, and waiting for something from him. He feels this, and he will not relax until he fulfills her desire. In some way he eventually must resolve it.

In the same way, the men should feel this from the women, and the women must constantly work on crystallizing in themselves a more and more definite desire.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Question: What do we need in order to realize that all the problems and blows that we experience in this life are, in fact, the Creator’s messengers?

Answer: We need the opinion of the environment, public pressure. It is necessary to link the two opposites: on one hand, to feel strong fear and on the other, to be a hero, to simultaneously be both very naive and very smart, depending on what is being discussed.

We usually get confused between them. When we should be naïve, to lower our heads, and just trust, we act like a “smart aleck” and take pride in it. When we should be clever, we act like fools.

A great deal of our energy and time is consumed until a person gets straightened out. Sometimes, a tiny little mistake made in only a moment or over a few days costs us ten or twenty years of hard work.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why is it that I understand what needs to be done, but I don’t always have the strength to remain dedicated to the goal?

Answer: This is because understanding happens only in reason, whereas a dedicated attitude toward unification and connection must be in the desire. However, reason and desire are two different things. I can say lots of smart and great things with my mouth. My mind would agree with all of them, but I cannot find the desire within to carry out even the simplest action.

The desire requires correction, and in order to correct it, first of all, I have to annul myself before the friends so as to receive through them the Light that Reforms, provided that we study correctly in the right group. Then, in this partially corrected desire, I’ll be able to carry out some tiny action.

From my head, I can talk about the highest possible states even now, but in order to manifest them within the desire, I need to labor hard and persistently. I still need to find the form in which to draw the Light that Reforms and how to accept and use it correctly. Words are not enough for this.

There are plenty of wise guys in this world if you only judge by words. It is said: “Believe the wisdom of the nations,” but the difference between a “nation of the world” within man and “Israel” (aimed “straight to the Creator”) is that the former only understands with reason the entire spiritual world; it doesn’t want to correct itself. However, “Israel,” aimed straight to the Creator, corrects its desires.

These two parts may contradict one another completely. A person may appear to be an angel in terms of what he says by showing thorough knowledge and a strong grasp of the theory.  (Like the “Kabbalists” that Baal HaSulam once met in Jerusalem did who knew all the books by heart.)
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: It is written that we must feel spirituality to such an extent that “all bones will speak.” But if a person died and no bones are left, how will he feel spirituality then?

Answer: This passage speaks about man’s spiritual vessels regarded as “brain-bones-tendons-flesh-skin,” the five spiritual degrees. We have to come to a spiritual state which can be described as “all bones will speak.”

This is a revelation in a very powerful, internal spiritual vessel of the “bones,” the vessel for the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), which already contains “marrow” (the Light of Hochma). “All bones will speak” is an action when the spiritual vessel, “bones,” which contains the Light of Hochma in it, eventually reveals this Light in the “tendons,” Bina, an even more external vessel.

I wish you this kind of revelation! As to the corporeal bones, don’t worry about them; we know exactly how they end.

Try to perceive the materials we read not in their corporeal, but authentic sense. We read books that talk about the soul, not about our biological body. The body is regarded as “matter” or “a donkey” (Homer), and its fate is the same as that of all other animals who live and die.

But for as long as it lives, we ought to manage to revive our spiritual body: to resurrect it from the dead. If the soul is dead at the moment, revive it! Draw the Light to it that will breathe life into it.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah World 6/24/2011, General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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Question: The external society is constantly goading me on with threats of humiliation and harm to my Self. Feeling this “knife” pointed at my throat, I cannot stop chasing after material things. Why don’t I feel the same in the group?

Answer: Indeed, in certain predicaments, a person desires to be “pricked” by some external stimulus since he is unable to wake up on his own. But such an approach is incorrect. Only when a person is unable to arrange a necessary “disturbance” by employing the group and the books, only then he will feel the “knife at his throat.” However, if he knows how to arrange it, then he is given some time, then some more, and some more. Besides, the group is also supposed to take care of a person and be responsible for waking him up.

On the whole, there are two ways for us to evolve: through suffering or the power of the Torah. It depends on my interconnection with the group: how much I put in and receive from it in return.

I need to keep receiving guarantee and assurance from the friends. Essentially, I am supposed to feel like a baby in his mother’s arms. There is no safer place in the world than that, is there? A baby calms down in the mother’s arms; he doesn’t want to be placed in the crib or anywhere else, but only to remain in the place where trouble doesn’t exist by definition.

This is mutual devotion; it is natural both in the baby and in the mother. They are programmed by nature, whereas we must achieve this above our nature. Imagine: The group, like a baby, is in your arms, while you, like a baby, are in the arms of the group.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah World 6/24/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: Can we use the reading of The Book of Zohar to correct very difficult conditions in which many people in the world find themselves today? The wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed, and everybody may read The Zohar. Would it help a person who does not feel the need for the group, studying, and understanding?

Answer: We have to realize that in reality, the use of the wisdom of Kabbalah is effective only if a person wants to advance towards correction. We see that time passes until people who come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah join the group and begin to understand and hear what is going on. These are very slow, internal, stage-by-stage changes in a person.

Hence, we need to understand that “Segula,” “a special effect of the Light,” starts much earlier than a person realizes that he or she is under its influence. The Light that Reforms works on him or her like on a baby who does not know yet how he is developing, for what,  or to where he should advance. He is attracted by an interesting game and plays with his toys; this is our environment.

We are in the group, and this is our environment. There are people who do not have a group, but it does not matter. The key is that in some way they use the means of attracting the Light that Reforms: The Book of Zohar, the works of Baal HaSulam, Rabash’s articles and letters, Kabbalistic music, songs.

Thus, reading The Book of Zohar in any condition, even if a person is not thinking yet about the group and unity, but wants to improve his life, still helps. If the entire world has already entered the stage of development whereby we must achieve unity among us, then any use of the sources that bring the correcting Light is beneficial.

Not everybody has to sit together with us and thousands of people around the world during our morning lessons. We also have to awaken people who have no connection with us, who have never heard that one should study for the sake of unity among people. Baal HaSulam says that we have entered the period of  the Messiah, and the entire humankind must advance in this direction.

Hence, it is desirable for a person to be connected with the primary sources even without any intentions.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/2011, The Zohar

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In Baal HaSulam’s Letter #1 there is a parable about a king who grew so fond of his servant that he wanted to raise him above all the ministers….

He appointed the servant a guard at the city gate, and told a minister who was a clever joker to pretend to rebel against the kingdom…

The minister did as the king had commanded and with great wisdom and craftiness, pretended to fight against the king’s house. The servant risked his life and saved the king, fighting devotedly and bravely against the minister, until his great love for the king was evident to all.

Then the minister took off his costume and there was great laughter for he had fought so fiercely, and now realized that there was only fiction here, not reality. … Every single item in this terrible war became a round of laughter and great joy. …

[Then for a second time the king] said to that minister that he must disguise himself as a robber and a murderer, and wage fierce war against him. The king new that in the second war he would display wondrous wisdom (Hochma), and merit standing at the head of all the ministers.

In the meantime, the servant inherited “wisdom” (Hochma) from after-knowledge, and “love” from fore-knowledge, and then has been erected for eternity.

It is true, that all the wars in that exile are a wondrous sight, and everyone knows in their kind interior that it is all a kind of wit and joy that brings only good. Still, there is no tactic to ease the weight of the war and the threat on oneself.

We really do not know why we have to go through all of the suffering, problems, wars, and confusion, and on the other side of that, clarification, successes, and failures…. What is the use of all this suffering?

But later on this path, we gradually realize how from this we acquire knowledge, wisdom, power, and understanding of the general system. We study the Creator’s actions that are done to us, and as a result we attain and understand Him, as it is written, “We will know You from Your actions.” To the extent we understand Him, we start to sense Him.

Yet, the reason why we definitely had to reach this by such a difficult path is not clear to us. And now, while we are still on the path of correction, we won’t be able to understand it, but only when we rise above its limitations to the state of perfection. Then we will gain the necessary mind and feelings, the means enabling us to discover the justify this path.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/11, “A Parable about a King”

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People’s desires are not sufficiently developed yet to grasp the altruistic message. And they couldn’t bear it either. They would immediately run away. That is why there is a concealment preventing us from perceiving the idea of love. People start hearing its reverberations and changing little by little.

Everything happens by means of the upper Light. However, under its influence people do not get smarter because we are not talking about regular wisdom. Spiritual ideas can only be grasped with the help of the Light. When it pours upon me, I start understanding something, and that’s how it happens again and again. After a period of despair and pressure, I suddenly feel that the time did not go by in waste. It turns out that this was a transition to a new phase of inner development.

Everyone experiences these transitions. We are still unable to prepare for them or to control them, to regulate their ascents and descents, the fillings and revelations. However, the time will come when you will control them, as it is written, “I awaken the dawn instead of the dawn awakening me.”
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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