Question: What is the difference between revealing the Light through one of the eastern methodologies or the method of Kabbalah?

Answer: The revelation of Light can only be reached if one has a big Aviut (coarseness, thickness of desire) which he can correct only with the help of Kabbalah and thereby reveal the Light, the Creator. After all, with a smaller Aviut, a person will not be able to reveal anything but more or less pleasant sensations that give him or her the illusion that he or she is already “soaring” in the spiritual world.

Everything except for Kabbalah—all the eastern methodologies, New Age teachings, different beliefs and religions—are its modified forms born out of the desire to receive pleasure which has not reached its last degree, that of Dalet (four), and is not perfect on all of its levels of Aviut, not as egoistic.

Besides, what did they take from Kabbalah? One preaches moral norms, another advocates meditations, a third recommends food limitations, a fourth prompts to believe in drawn images or spoken tales, a fifth commends ceremonial observances that are considered to be sacred, and so forth.

All of these are the results of the desire to receive pleasure which has not yet reached its final development. It thus expresses the wisdom of Kabbalah in an equally light form instead of correcting itself.

After all, a person like this does not feel the need to correct himself. He does not understand what he needs to correct. He believes that if he were to kiss a “sacred” object or donate something, he would be all right. A small desire to receive pleasure does not push man toward anything greater. All of this flows out of the desire that has not yet been developed to the level of the last degree, that of Dalet.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: What does it mean to constantly accelerate in relation to the spiritual goal, and how can we “push on the gas” as much as possible now, before the convention?

Answer: In the spiritual space, acceleration is movement. That’s because if you don’t make a certain action now, then none of your previous merits will count and you will lose all of the speed you have accumulated until now by all the previous actions. The spiritual space is like an empty cosmos where there is no other system from which to start counting, and if you don’t accelerate then you don’t move at all.

A constant state is equivalent to zero. Even if you are flying at the speed of 10 miles a second, this is not considered motion and it’s the same as if you were just hanging in the air. In the spiritual sense acceleration means speed, and in essence it is the action.

Therefore, there are no “gaps” between spiritual actions. Wherever one action ends, that is where the next action immediately begins, just like during the birth of spiritual Partzufim. This indicates that a person’s attitude to the group and the group’s attitude to him must be such that it will constantly awaken him to act and always renew his desire.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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From “The Principles of Global Education”: The essence of our development lies in the recognition of evil.

We are able to perform act after act only according to our recognition of evil, to the degree of our sensitivity to good and evil. Everything depends on the level to which our properties allow us to measure the difference between them.

My desire is like a measuring instrument. Its pointer moves one measurement if, say, I change the inner tension or weigh something on my inner scale. There are scales with divisions of 100 pounds for cars and precise scales which measure milligrams.

My measurements also depend on sensitivity. As soon as I feel within myself some gap between the two forces, it triggers my action, my response. I feel bad because of this gap; I am unsatisfied and concerned. Then an impulse emerges within me and it pushes me back towards the point of balance where we originate from.

This is why everything depends on the recognition of evil. I have to intensify this feeling again and again by pushing the “button” which is fine-tuned more and more. Just like the initial point of creation felt that it differs from the Light until this dissimilarity turned into the darkness of their complete oppositeness, the same way I raise the sensitivity to the Light within myself in order to ultimately achieve correction.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/37/2011, The Principles of Global Education

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Prayer for the society is the aspiration to bestow to the other, which gets born in the person. At first, he feels that only his group, its inner desires, is “the other.” But then he realizes that the entire world is unified and filled with the Shechina, the Divine presence. And then the spiritual world, the upper reality becomes revealed to him.

Now he begins to understand why he had to go through hatred. This is how the process of his development was arranged from Above. Instead of fortifying his egoism through the society and using the others for his own profit, he had to come to the group in order to lower himself, to bow before the force hidden in the society, to develop the desire to connect with this force of bestowal, unite with it, and simply drawn in it.

This is the prayer of the many since he asks for peace for this society, meaning that he aspires to reach the property of bestowal, until he establishes such a connection with this society that there remains no difference between them, and they merge into one whole.

When a person acquires the form of the society, completely unites with it, this signifies their unity, “mating while striking” (Zivug de Hakaa) since untimately, this unity works against his egoism. He strikes his ego in order to unite with the others and in that extent builds his spiritual Partzufim, the forms of unification, and acquires the Creator’s properties.

The form he conceived in his head now becomes realized in him; it spreads in his “body,” fills it, and assumes the form of the Upper One. By receiving the intention “for the sake of bestowal” and clothing in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), the desire to enjoy becomes fit to receive fulfillment, the Light of Hochma (Wisdom): the Creator’s form.

The Light of Hassadim lacks form; it spreads in breadth, as the gifts of a “generous hand”: for all and without any restriction. But when the Light of pleasure, Hochma, starts to clothe the desire, it imparts it with a certain form of bestowal called “the name of the Creator,” the form of the Upper One. Thus, by virtue of Zivug de Hakaa man attains the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11, Preparation for the WE! Convention

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On one hand, nature treats me lovingly. Even if I can’t see this with the naked eye, when penetrating a bit deeper, I can see its true attitude. People who are close to nature feel that it is entirely good.

At the same time, externally it is very harsh, similar to a loving but demanding father who scrupulously takes a child through the phases of development. That is how we must view what is happening. Otherwise we won’t understand good and evil and will only get confused.

If I want to feel nature this way, then I must reject the externality and immerse myself inwards. Precisely from nature’s external attitude, which seems negative to me, I must start to develop based on the realization of evil. In reality nature is showing me a negative of myself. By correcting it, I will enter inside and will feel its love.

All the negative external phenomena are intended to show me what I must correct in order to attain love. It’s exactly how parents raise a child: The father looks at him with a strict gaze and the mother is nervous. It’s very hard to recognize their love. But this is the discernment that I have to be very sensitive to while developing the inner feeling of the realization of evil.

Perhaps I don’t notice the negative. The parents are only giving me hints, but I don’t understand what they want from me or perhaps I don’t feel that they need something from me at all. Instead I continue fooling around. Then they tell it to me directly, but I still don’t listen. At the end, after all the persuasions and warnings, the troubles start, and that is something I understand very well. “Why didn’t you tell me that right away?” I wonder.

This is the problem of all of us and of each of us separately – a lack of sensitivity. If I now felt what I lack in order to discern nature’s love, then I would immediately correct myself. Therefore, we have to take care of just one thing – our receptivity to the realization of evil between us and to the love coming from the Creator.

We don’t lack examples. Open your eyes and you will see them. So what is standing in our way? The problem is that the world does not imbue us with a basic attitude to goodness. I need a society or environment in which I will reveal goodness and compare it to my own evil.

The realization of evil begins the moment a person feels that he is worse than those around him. He sees them all as interconnected and united by love for one another, but he cannot join them and feel that he shares that unity. This gap is the evil that a person has to reveal and correct.

By realizing the evil and by trying to correct it, a person discovers that he does not have the slightest shred to grab hold of or the slightest access. He clearly sees that the friends are united and he is separated from them, and he does not see any opportunity to join them, having no loophole into their unity. For that he needs the Light that reforms. Only the Creator’s help will save him.

That is where we finally come in contact with the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11 on Global Education

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Many people think that spirituality is an ordinary method to fulfill oneself. A person thinks that very soon the Creator will be revealed to him, and then he will be able to get the whole world at his feet. But it is a false idea because in truth, spirituality is bestowal.

In other words, I am fulfilled not by what is being revealed to me, but rather, if I open myself correctly, I get filled with bestowal. After all, the Light never enters a Kli, desire, directly but only when dressed in the Reflected Light. Hence, I must become a giver and enjoy bestowal. But how do I accomplish that?

To achieve this, a person needs the environment that would influence him so that he would think that bestowal is a very profound, exalted property, that it is fulfillment. Everybody must elevate the value of bestowal in the eyes of the friend, passing to him his part of the mutual guarantee thereby. And then, thanks his awareness of the importance of this goal, a person receives illumination that assists him in spiritual advancement.

But on top of that, a person must understand that it is a game since from his present condition, he cannot see the goal. And hence, all of this work is regarded as ascending to the state which for now is unclear, imperceptible to him, opposite to what he is able to comprehend today. In other words, a person should constantly think about the importance of some false goal. But it is false only for him because it opposes his egoistic desire.

Therefore, the environment must educate a person, provide the correct scale of values for him, and be fairly strong in order to override his egoistic nature. As to the person, he must assist his environment, lower himself before it, submit to, and literally dissolve in it. And then he will be able to receive from it the importance of the goal, despite his ego that unfolds in him more and more.

Otherwise, he won’t be able to advance since there are two forces that participate in it: the force that rejects and one that attracts. The force of rejection, resistance, surfaces naturally: It is his ego. And the question lies only in whether he will manage to oppose it with the force greater in value, the force of the environment that will draw him into spirituality.

Therefore, everyone must be preoccupied with how to arrange the right environment for oneself. This is what is implied in what Rabash describes as: “We have gathered here to rise to the degree of man.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Could you tell us about your intention while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: Kabbalists teach us what the intention should be. Every person has to actualize what he read to the extent he understands it.

It is impossible to tell you about the intention. This is something that cannot be explained to another person since the intention comes from a person’s inner state which he reveals.

I am in a state that’s unknown to me. I reveal it as it unfolds inside of me. From this state that becomes revealed to me, I create the intention.

In essence, it is impossible to clothe this intention into words. There are no words for it. That’s because it includes a person’s inner desire (Hissaron) and the degree of his connection with the upper reality through his attempts to find the means that will bring him to the highest possible closeness to the Host, the Creator – to adhesion (Zivug de Hakaa) with Him.

What are those means? They are the books, the teacher, and the group. A person includes everything that he understands and feels from their entire sum total, and through them attains unity with the Creator.

All of these means have to be present. If you miss even one of them, then you don’t have the right contact. And in addition, each of them must be properly balanced with the others.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/11, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Yitro (Jethro),” Item 465: On Sabbath, the Torah is crowned with him, crowned with all those Mitzvot, all those sentences and punishments in seventy branches of light that shine to every direction…. Who saw those gates that open to each of the directions in them, where each consists of ten, and they are fifty gates? They all shine and illuminate in that light that is emitted and which never stops.

Where can I reveal all these details? I can find them only in the internal connection between the friends. The Zohar describes all types of connection that we will reveal, until it becomes an infinite bond between us, when we completely correct it.

All states and relations The Zohar describes, as well as various images of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, including people and all kinds of situations, or in the language of Kabbalah, Partzufim (souls), Olamot (worlds), Reshimot (spiritual genes), and Sefirot (properties), along with their ascents and descents, all of them are expressions of the internal connection between us, the people who are willing to unify in order to reveal the upper world within, in their relations.

Everyone advances in being able to see how the 613 desires of his or her soul expand outward in bestowal to the other souls and how from every soul, its 613 desires also expand to all the others. Imagine this: There are billions of souls that match the number of people in this corporeal world. From each soul, there expand 613 desires to every soul, all of them link into each other, and with a new, mutual linkage they bestow to each other again, and interconnecting once more, they continue to bestow.

Thus, finally we will see a sphere that has no empty “space” since all of it is filled with the souls’ bond. If we reveal this bond in the minimal measure, in 1/125th part of it, we begin revealing the Light flowing in the channels between us. This is called the revelation of the Creator because this Light is, in fact, the Creator, and that is what The Zohar describes.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, The Book of Zohar

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We need to unify Israel, the Torah, and the Creator as one (the person striving straight to the Creator, the Light, and the Creator). Each part must strive to unify with the others so that in the end, it could bestow to the Light. It is just as in the beginning, the Light was the one to bestow, having endowed Malchut with the sensation of His love, prompting it to all of the actions that started with the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and unfolded further downward.

But when after all these corrections Malchut returns to the same state of perfection, wholeness, and oneness, in its love and bestowal to the Light of Infinity, we get to see that all of it is just one created being which has gone through all kinds of “hardships.”

These “predicaments” are regarded as the “worlds,” from the word “concealments” in Hebrew. They are concealments on the perfect state of Infinity, in order to withdraw from that sensation of fulfillment and undergo all kinds of inner experiences, impressions, choices, and wars, to construct within an identical relationship with the Light while going through the states of separation from and then drawing closer back to the world of Infinity, and to finally arrive to an embrace, or complete adhesion.

In all of this process, there are infinite details, each of which is linked to the beginning and end of the process. After all, we also participate in this whole entanglement of feelings that Malchut experiences, caused by the collision of the Light and the vessel, pleasure and desire, the force of the Creator and that of the creature. We pass through the same states individually, as parts of Malchut, so that in the end we would experience ourselves as one soul.

After all, there is only one creature: Malchut of the world of Infinity. And every one of us must unify with all the others, having overcome this terrible nightmare and our illusory separation, this concealment of a perfect, eternal state. And then, everyone will see that he or she is included in all the others with their feelings, thoughts, love, and bestowal.

Therefore, we need to do all that we can to expedite our awakening from this dream. It is written that the Creator will bring us back “out of Zion,” meaning that there is a way out (Yetzia) from this reality, from this slumber. Then, we’ll see that we were in a dream-like state and will unify into one soul.

I hope that the upcoming convention will help us make a huge leap forward so that we’ll wake up and feel as one soul.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/11, Preparation for the WE! Convention

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