Question: What is the difference between our unity with the group, with all of humankind, and with nature?

Answer: The fact is that everyone who begins to engage in spiritual work becomes more individualistic. The group also becomes rough, clearly defined in itself; everything is mixed and bubbling inside. The groups have difficulties merging with each other.

When this mixture starts to connect, especially during the conventions, it gives a tremendous spiritual force because suddenly, within a few days, everybody coalesces together in the same material, in a single burst, in the same songs, in the same daily schedule. This affects everybody and releases a huge amount of spiritual energy. This is why the conventions make such a strong impression.

In other words, the more we are opposed to each other, egoistic—each of us individually and the groups as a whole —the greater spiritual potential our unity passes on to the world. This immense potential truly shakes everybody up.

We cannot imagine that our unity injects such a strong reviving infusion into the world, and the world charges forward without even knowing where and how. This infusion gives the world powerful energy for the next state. Accordingly, we advance as well because we cannot move forward faster than the world.

In the past, Kabbalists could reach the world of Infinity and our world kept on rotating as it was. But we are in a period of global correction and should realize this correction. So, our movement will be only in accordance with the movement of the world! And for that reason, we must take this fact into account during our conventions and to think as much as possible about everybody, not just about our friends everywhere, but about the entire world.

The world is beginning to sense that problems exist, and these problems cannot be solved. Anxiety is seizing the world, and humanity feels that it simply distracts itself to avoid becoming frightened and going insane. We know how it’s done: It’s better to give painkillers to the terminally ill in order for them to feel no pain and leave quietly. The world is preparing itself for this state and would even wish it. If people knew that they could take such a pill and not wake up tomorrow, evidently, it would be salvation for them… But it’s not that easy.

We have to understand that our unity is necessary for the world. A huge responsibility is placed upon us! Thus, we are uniting not only to spend a good time together. We have very serious goals. We don’t even realize how global and universal they are, and how they find response in all the worlds.
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From the Virtual Lesson, Fundamentals of Kabbalah Series 5/15/2011

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In order to receive the Light that reforms, the force that will make us similar to the upper force, the Creator, and that will return us to the source of goodness and abundance so we would become just as good, bestowing, and loving, we have to place ourselves in the right conditions.

How can I prove to myself and prepare myself to make the right request from the upper Light so it would influence me? Only through the environment. I don’t have any opportunity in our world to prove that I want to become bestowing and good unless I organize the right connection with the environment to the best of my ability.

That is why before and during the lesson, especially while reading The Book of Zohar, every one of us must constantly feel that he has an unceasing connection with others, that he is in a net of connection where he loses himself and only feels everyone together. He must try to feel with all his might that he does not have his own “I,” but there is only “WE.” This is called the assembly of the souls of Israel (Knesset Israel)—the unification of all those who aspire to reveal the Creator.

If they unite together in order to reveal Him, that means the broken souls desire to unite together and ascend through their request for unification to Malchut of the world of Atzilut. Malchut of the world of Atzilut takes these desires, which aspire to unite and make mutual efforts to unite, and raises this request to Zeir Anpin. He, in turn, works on this request, corrects them, and then all who participate in it acquire the force of mutual bestowal and begin to feel closer, more connected together. Thus, gradually, step by step, very slowly they reveal the net of connection between them. When this net attains its first realization, we begin to feel that we are on the first degree of the spiritual ladder.

Therefore, while reading The Book of Zohar we must constantly aspire only toward unity among us so inside of it we would reveal the form of our connection called “the Creator.” After all, the Creator is the form of connection among us.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/11, The Zohar

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Question: What should my attitude to corporeal problems be?

Answer: Both corporeal and spiritual problems originate from the same source since “there is none else besides Him.” We have to view everything as parts of a single whole.

However, the corporeal world has its own additional laws. If we still see corporeality, we have to overcome these obstacles and battle them according to the laws accepted in this world and in human society. After all, these laws are also a result of our corruptness, and therefore, we are obliged to follow them.

If I live in a human society, regardless of what a great Kabbalist I may be, I have to behave in this society according to its laws. We all have to abide by these laws and cannot ignore them even though they do not have any relation to spirituality. For example, if someone is going to kill me, I have to protect myself and fight him down.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, Shamati #8

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In our work, there are four stages of HaVaYaH, just like in everything else. At first, a person wants to take advantage of the Creator, even though he has no idea of what it is, and selfishly to use the group in all kinds of ways.

Later on, he starts wanting at least a little bit of bestowal. This sort of desire gives him the upper Light by constantly affecting a person and leading him through the four stages of evolution, along the steps of sensing and understanding. Even though he doesn’t reveal what state he is in relative to the Light just yet, the sensations he feels still change.

Thus, he comes to a point when he begins to demand correction. Obviously, it is still an egoistic notion since he is the one who wants to feel good and thinks that he’ll get all the benefit from being able to bestow. In other words, it’s still all about “me, me, me, and me,” but the shadow concealing the Creator from him is being altered in depth and quality.

Previously, he thought this shadow was simply covering the Creator. Now, he comes to realize that it is a kind of game like a grown-up with a child, where the former allows the latter to do something on his own so that he may grow. Then, a person starts to like the concealment.

It doesn’t mean that he wants to remain in it; rather, he is willing to use it correctly. He views it as an expression of the love that the Light, the Creator, nature, feels for him. Thus, he increases his conscious participation in the group and begins to pay attention to every moment.

He starts to see that this entire system “breathes” all the time. One instant it pulls away, another, it draws near, depending on the “attitude” of the upper Light, the greater or smaller concealment. A person gets involved in all kinds of interactions with it, by working with these concealments, the upper Light, the desire, all sorts of “accidental” events, so to speak, that he becomes subject to. He starts tying everything to one root: “There is none else besides Him.”

The shadow that used to conceal the Light and felt like a shadow of the impure force transforms into a holy shadow. Now, he wants to use this shadow so that it won’t disappear, but will remain a shadow covering his will to receive pleasure. As regards himself, he desires to work above it.

This shadow becomes vital for him and turns into an anti-egoistic screen that holds back his egoistic desire. Now, a person controls this shadow autonomously and uses it solely to bestow.

Herein lies another four stages of development, the complete HaVaYaH: bestowal in order to bestow followed by reception in order to bestow. And at all the previous stages he has already passed through, he was learning from the upper Light: It revealed to him who he is, his attitude to the Light as the nine Sefirot of the Direct Light (from the Creator down to him) so that he may come to reveal the nine Sefirot of the Reflected Light (from himself up to the Creator).

Conversely, he is learning from these concealments how to conceal himself, his coarse, egoistic desire, and turn it into one that bestows and is filled with the Light! Thus, a person gradually accepts the entire concealment onto himself by transforming it from a covering over his egoistic desire into the screen and the Reflected Light, into the intention to bestow. He transforms the entire depth of desire that was previously concealed into the force of bestowal, the power of love of others.

Thereby, he begins to feel that there are no others. Miraculously, by beginning to see in the Reflected Light expanding from him, he discovers that the others who used to seem alien, foreign, and terrible to him are exactly the opposite: someone dear and loved.

A person accumulates all these transformations by passing through the degrees of concealment (of the worlds) and builds from them new relationships of love and bestowal. Thus, the impure shadow of egoistic desires turns into the holy one, and all the concealments become a revelation of love.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, Shamati #8

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The upper Light remains at absolute rest, and nothing prevents the created being from feeling that it is controlled by one unique and unified force that fills the entire creation. It’s only the properties of the creature itself that won’t allow it to experience that force due to their being opposite to the Creator, the Light.

In fact, according to the condition of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the creature’s properties have to correspond to the properties of the Light, bestowal. This condition is laid down by the Creator who wishes to bring the created being to the most comfortable state, just the same as His own.

Thus, the desire of the created being which doesn’t possess the intention to bestow is the one that fences it off from the Creator, not letting it feel Him, the Light, fulfillment. The correction that we must undergo in order to feel ourselves being inside the upper Light is regarded as the “screen” (Masach) or the intention to bestow.

Therefore, there is a concealment system, the concealment of the worlds that screens the Light away from the created being (a “world” in Hebrew is Olam and “concealment” is Alama), behind which it cultivates its egoistic desire. Then, a spark of the screen and the Reflected Light awakens in it, and it is the “point in the heart.”

If the creature fosters it, it is in a process where it’s constantly shown a new depth of desire by the system of worlds, to a greater and greater degree, beginning at zero. The former responds by showing a willingness to acquire the intention to bestow for this very desire.

In that case, the concealment system will grant correction to it, an anti-egoistic screen, the intention to bestow. The created being demands that the entire thickness (Aviut) of desire that the system of the worlds reveals to it from the left side be corrected by the screen, the intention to bestow from the right side. By tying these two forces together, desire and intention, the creature assembles itself in likeness to the upper Light.

As it grows, the creature experiences different feelings under the impact of the upper Light. It may think it’s free to do as it pleases. Moreover, it may ponder or not about it. It may strive to be free to a greater or lesser extent, or it may be clueless about this issue altogether, meaning it may be closer or further away from the animate or human degrees.

When the point in the heart, the spark of the broken screen and the Reflected Light, starts unfolding in a person, he or she gets an opportunity to expand it and demand the Light that Reforms for it. Previously, this spark, the broken screen, compelled him to want spirituality egoistically and to enjoy the Creator and the spiritual world selfishly. Whereas now he wants to turn it all into bestowal.

Thus, a person enters a Kabbalistic group and starts practicing bestowal in it. Whether it is successful or not, these are all necessary components of reaching a prayer, a plea. If the right type of need ripens in a person, the upper Light, which today brings him a feeling of being distant, will give him a feeling of being close.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, Shamati #8

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Question: At the beginning of the lesson on The Book of Zohar, I understand and get inspired by your words about intention. But the moment we start reading The Zohar, I’m beset by a multitude of foreign thoughts, and I fail to re-establish the right intention. What should I do?

Answer: Regret it! A person gradually develops a need to sense the material. Indeed, we are talking about an opportunity to perceive spirituality. Our desires (vessels) are our sensations, yearnings.

If a person doesn’t yet have a desire to discover the upper one, the force of bestowal, on the basis of the lower one, the force of reception, by way of the lower one becoming similar to the upper one in its properties, he or she doesn’t yet get inspired by a constant spiritual quest.

You can’t help it, just regret it as much as you can. And the group has to stimulate the unwavering, right intention during the study.

Only those moments during which a person remembers about the intention are regarded as the study of the Torah (Kabbalah), the Light of which reforms. If one sums up all these moments, he can count how many minutes during his life he studied the Torah…. But whatever reason doesn’t do, time will. Gradually, it will come.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Zohar

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Question: Is there any connection between the network of our relationships with one another and the network of connection between the great Kabbalists whose works we study?

Answer: We have to become similar to the network of connection that ties together these great Kabbalists. A small one grows by wanting to become like a big one.

A “big one” is the network of connection that Kabbalists created between themselves. A “small one” is us, those who desire to connect with, be in, and become similar to it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Zohar

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Question: How do you prepare yourself for giving explanations during the lessons or delivering lectures at conventions?

Answer: To tell you the truth, I would rather come to the stage and stay silent for an hour and a half, and that’s it. Meanwhile, you could work on building the intention to unite into a single aspiration, to reveal between yourselves the property of bestowal and love, the Creator. The moment you will unite, you will merit revelation, the Light that Reforms, and the general disclosure.

Why do I have to “babble” for an hour and a half? Perhaps I thereby distract you from building the correct intention toward the Light? Speech is needed only to bind you together more and more, to add a few more words of awakening.

The key is unification, in which you receive everything else. If it is revealed, you don’t need the lessons. The souls then work in a different kind of connection.…
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Question: What should I demand from the Light that Reforms?

Answer: Everything! Correction—until the final corrected state (Gmar Tikkun). This Light does not just bring us back to spirituality from our degree. Always, in every degree, wherever we are, we have the Inner Light and the Surrounding Light. The latter shines from the next degree that for now surrounds me but cannot clothe inward because of the absence of the screen. Thus, I always yearn for the Light so it corrects and then clothes into me.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, The Zohar

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