Question: Do we have to think about others even if we understand that deep down it’s a lie? Do we have to lie to ourselves while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: We lie about everything because we do not have a true connection with one another, but only “play” as if we do. I do not desire to connect with others, but I play at being a “good boy”: I read The Zohar, wishing to change under the influence of this reading, to understand the way in which I am uncorrected, and why I can’t attain the perfect state. I search! In short, while reading The Zohar, I wait for changes for the better. This is called “awaiting redemption.”

Question: I force myself to come back to the intention even though it truly is a war. Does this help our work in the group?

Answer: Precisely the inner war gives us a good result! Without this war a person does not advance because his desires are not renewed. Only on the condition that he wages a war with himself do new Reshimot awaken in him and he constantly feels opposition. That is how things should be!
[38016]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11, The Zohar

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Question: While reading The Zohar, I feel fulfillment that later on is gone. I try to find the force that is working on me, and the sensation returns, only to leave again. Is this how it should work?

Answer: Yes, exactly so! Every time when a person continues, forgets, escapes in his thoughts, and returns, it all begins anew. It’s very good! Nothing disappears, but “penny to penny, it turns into a great sum” and then revelation occurs.

Question: What indicates that my intentions are working correctly?

Answer: It is the extent in which I start feeling more that I depend on the group and together with the friends achieve correction.

Question: What should I do if I don’t understand what’s written in The Zohar and am constantly bombarded by numberless irrelevant thoughts?

Answer: First of all, a lack of understanding is not an issue. You shouldn’t worry about it. A person must feel rather than understand.

When the time comes and one’s desires are reformed to the level of what is described in The Zohar, he will understand, but from sensation. First, he will feel, and later understand more and more. Thus a baby experiences the world without a clue about what is going on, while gradually obtaining a mind.

Hence, a person should be concerned with how to develop desire to the degree described in The Zohar. And what we read about are the forms of bestowal between spiritual Partzufim: Malchut, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Aba ve Ima, and Yeshsut. Let a person make sure that his desire is being worked on by the forces that we receive while reading about the unknown to us spiritual processes.

Therefore, during the studies, I should think about how I must change and where the force that reforms me is. It is as though I am receiving an intravenous infusion and waiting for when the medicine will finally start to work, as it is said: “When my actions reach the acts of the Creator.”

Question: How can I anticipate correction by The Zohar if I don’t feel “ill”?

Answer: This is also necessary on the path. But what do you mean that you “don’t feel ill”? Do you really find yourself in the movie of the spiritual world that The Zohar talks about?

You should feel that these actions wash through you, that you live in that world, know the difference between the spiritual objects (Partzufim) and their descents and ascents. Do you find yourself in these ascents and descents, in all types of transformations? Do you experience them or not? If not, you have something to think about.
[37893]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/2011, The Book of Zohar

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We exist in a system of laws at work. There is the upper force that influences us and desires to bestow good. Hence, it created the will to enjoy, which it can fill with pleasure.

The created being receives pleasure particularly by becoming identical to the upper force: perfect and eternal. To achieve this, one must attain the same sensations, level, depth, power, and status as pertains to this upper force.

The primary force is regarded as the Creator, whereas the secondary one is the created being. This secondary force must undergo transformations while accumulating various impressions until it ascends all 125 spiritual degrees. It has to experience them on its own, through an independent quest, understanding, awareness, perception, and effort to attain all of it while aspiring to reach a state prepared for it by the upper force.

Hence, the creature’s evolution implies an element of personal participation, one’s own feelings and thoughts, an awareness of my own existence and attainment. But the creature doesn’t have the opportunity to do anything on its own except for one thing: desire to change. In fact, the force of transformations, their program and order come solely from the original giving force, the Creator.

One’s success in the work is determined by learning to divide one’s entire advancement into two parts: the work assigned to the creature and the work carried out by the upper one. They are partners, but their integral work is distributed according to what pertains to man and what to the Creator.

The key is not to try to do the Creator’s job, attempting to reform oneself and the world. A person’s job is to desire change. And these changes must occur above my nature, which is regarded as “above my reason.” This means that the direction of my transformation, as well as the properties and internal sensations that are being formed in me are totally incomprehensible to me since I receive a new nature.

Having no idea where one is or what he is moving toward is a sure sign of a new nature appearing in a person. After all, if man knew and felt everything in advance, all of the changes would occur in agreement with his egoism, his nature.

When a person grows within his own nature, he is somewhat aware of what is expected and makes choices to benefit his present egoism. But in spirituality, when we wish to obtain a different nature and become equal to the Creator, we always move towards something unknown and unpredictable. We only draw the developing forces upon ourselves.

However, essentially, there is only one force which is divided into several components according to its use: our individual, initial desire, “the point in the heart,” the power of the group, the force of the study, and finally the force that actually acts upon and reforms us called the Surrounding Light.
[37441]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2011, The Importance of the Study

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Question: To what extent do our thoughts, intentions, and ability to focus during the lesson depend on everyone who studies with us around the world? Is there such a global interconnection?

Answer: What does interdependence entail? If I view the entire reality as parts of my soul, then I am totally independent. These parts of mine awaken solely to the extent of my attitude toward them, my desire to awaken them.

I don’t focus on their external behavior, but rather awaken them from within, and at the same very level of inner connection, with that they awaken me in response. Everything is determined by my outlook on the world: Either I view it as a material reality with lots of corporeal bodies, or as the earthly desires of men, or as the body of my soul, its Partzuf (structure).

In the latter case, I see not the external images which seemingly exist in the corporeal world, but rather the parts of my soul, which I must transform. “I” is the focal point of my thought, intention. “I” is the intention which I must add to these desires and properties to aim them correctly.

What does it mean that I depend on and get awakened by the others? As I awaken them, I awaken myself in response. This awakening seemingly passes through the external system, while the system is mine nonetheless.
[37445]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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It is said that “all the gates are locked” for man’s prayer “except for the gate of tears.” But what should we pray and ask for, what decision, if we receive two forces and discern their opposition? The upper one provides the force of the Surrounding Light, egoism awakens against it, and we stand between the two forces: the right and the left.

But the property that we need to attain pertains to the Thought of Creation to delight the creature. It is above all outcomes, actions, and forces. This mind, the head of the upper one, is precisely what the lower one, the creature, strives to attain!

It does not have the slightest chance to achieve this alone through its own effort, since there is a difference between the upper thought, the decisions, and their outcomes and actions. And we, ourselves, are the Creator’s acts.

Hence, when man exhausts all of his resources, having done everything he could, he discovers a special property that he has no connection with. It is a decision, a plan, to create the creature, an entire program conceived long before its creation. Man gets to know who the Creator is Himself, who conceived all this, and why He conceived it as it is: the root of the root of the very point from which the creature was born.

This desire is hidden in the tiniest action, and it leads us on from the very start! But we arrive at it only after a very lengthy search, after many actions. And when we reach it, we discover what is said: “All the gates are locked except the gate of tears.”

It is regarded as the “gate of tears” because all the “hair” strands of the Light (Partzufim Searot, the “hair”) that stretch to us from Above downward, from the upper one who is “storming” (Soer) and suffering while anticipating our arrival, are revealed only now as do the “drops of fortune” (in Hebrew, “Mazal,” from “Nosel” “to trickle”), the droplets of Light that trickle down to us. And one can attain their cause, why and how such effects descend to us, solely by getting to know Rosh de Atzilut (the head of the world of Atzilut).

And this can be reached only through the gate of tears or a state when a person gets to know the difference between the “body” (Guf) of the Partzuf and its “head” (Rosh). He cannot attain and comprehend the head of the upper one itself, its mind, but thanks to this prayer, he attains it.

In fact, by studying all of the Creator’s actions, we receive some idea about His mind. As when we look at a table, we can guess what the maker had in mind, so do we, while studying ourselves and revealing within the Creator’s actions, constantly accumulate this burning desire to understand Him and gradually arrive at the gate of tears.
[37688]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

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Question: Humanity cannot connect the ecological catastrophes to the correction of egoism. How can we explain this connection to people?

Answer: We have to look for ways to do it and try to write articles and formulate explanations precisely during times of disaster in order to convey the essence: All of this is happening because we are not corrected.

The external world is a mold of our inner state. Therefore, in reality we are talking about inner catastrophes that we only perceive as external. All the nations are parts of one soul, but in our sensations they are divided parts that seem foreign.

It’s as if I have been given an injection of  local anesthesia and now I don’t feel how my leg is burning or how my arm is being cut off. Right now it sounds funny, but that is what is happening.

Therefore, I want the sensation of belonging to gradually come back to me. I want to feel the “external” parts as my own. I hope to receive the opportunity to correct my state, my attitude to others.

If the external reality really will become a part of me, then I will feel a horrible sensation. Therefore, together with the discovery of the illness I have to receive the medicine, the opportunity to improve my state. This is what I am asking for: the medicine together with the illness that becomes revealed. Then I will be able to correct the flaws in myself, and as a result, the “external” cataclysms will settle down.

This is what we have to do: Ask for inner correction which will evoke the correction that seems external. Then we will see all the problems in ourselves and will correct them in us. These desires (Kelim) will unite with us, will become inner, and all the natural disasters evoked by our inner lack of correction will cease.
[37934]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbaalh Lesson 3/13/11

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Question from Japan: What should our inner work be in emergency situations? While I watch the lessons, the quakes are going on non-stop.

Answer: During these days we have to focus on unity even more and be confident that precisely by virtue of our inner efforts will we be able to prevent similar catastrophes in the world, both in Japan and in all the regions where people are now suffering.

Why do they suffer? Why don’t they advance toward correction by the right path? Why don’t they awaken and come out into the streets shouting, “The Messiah now!”? Stated differently, why don’t they demand correction, change, a new state?

Why do they instead shout for a change in government? How will this help them? No one will be any better off if this happens, not even if the Libyan dictator steps down. The resulting gap will be filled by Islamic radicalism or some other party, but this will be just blind psychological compensation. In practice people won’t feel better. This is still the path of suffering.

In recent times the world is swiftly acquiring more weapons. We are renewing the arms race that was halted before, as if we want to compete at how strong we are. But how silly it is to quarrel like little children! Yet, look at how much energy and resources this is taking away.

As a result, everything depends on us, on all of our friends across the whole world who have received a drive to be corrected. We have to unite from within and feel that we are one whole. Then, by wishing to unite the whole world into one, we will help others come closer as well. After all, they are a passive part of ourselves. They are unable to come closer on their own, until we present them with the opportunity to connect to us.

Once a person receives an awakening, a point in the heart, he will come to us and will join all those who activate and accelerate development, adapting the speed of their work to the speed at which new Reshimot emerge. Then no forces, tsunamis, revolutions, wars, and others such things will force us to advance in a negative manner.

Everything depends on our efforts, on the degree to which we work on unification. There is no other solution for the world.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

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Question: How does The Zohar explain the breaking in order to achieve unity? Should we expect the breaking to be revealed between us during the upcoming convention in New Jersey, or have we sufficiently realized it and now it’s time to achieve oneness?

Answer: At the last international convention in Israel, we got a “taste” of the breaking between us, our mutual distance. It produced a fairly powerful impact, and people felt that they were unable to unite: “Please, anything but this!”

This experience should bring us to the prayer, an action where we would ask to rise above this separation. We are unable to reform it, so let the Light come and correct it so that we could rise above rejection, as it is said: “Love will cover all sins.”

Therefore, while striving to unite with the others at such conventions, each of us immediately feels rejection of others and is swallowed by egoistic calculations: “Why do I need it anyway?” Or it is the other way around: A person feels how he is engaging in the others as if losing himself in them, at which point he cannot discern his own mind and thought, his own “self,” and where his criticism of the others has gone.

Thus, in seemingly successful and unsuccessful attempts to engage in the others by nullifying oneself, dissolving in them, and losing oneself, or vice versa, by becoming aware of one’s inability to unite with them, a person discerns how he can bond without losing himself, his “I.” He unifies with all, while including in this unification all the inherent evil, with all his resistance, and at the same time, with all his good, all that he has, without annulling any good or bad.

This correct discernment is, indeed, the middle line. When a person cancels his self before the group or a big gathering of people at the convention, the key for him is not to lose his capacity to think critically and continue working with the left line, knowing why and how he works. Thus, a person deposits the Aviut (coarseness) of his desire to all others, thereby creating a powerful Kli (vessel), the desire which requires a prayer. After all, we want to be loved just as we are.

[37701]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: I’m a loner by nature. And I have doubts about going to the convention where I am expected to connect and unite with other people, which is something I do not want.

Answer: I promise you that you can go to the convention and remain there alone, be an observer. But even this kind of effort is very beneficial: to come there and feel yourself unconnected to anyone.

Let this inner battle happen: Do I want to unite, am I with everyone, do they influence me, did I do the right thing by coming here, or would it have been better to stay home? All the doubts and inner analysis that a person experiences being at the convention with his body, but not the soul, and seeing how others are able to connect while he remains aside, all of it constitutes spiritual self-analysis. If he does not go through this, he will never reveal his nature, the Creator’s anti-nature, and he will have nothing to correct.

The object of correction is that very rejection, alienation, an empty vacuum that we reveal between us. In other words, I have absolutely no desire to connect with others, to be tied with or in any way dependent on them; I want nothing from them, and they better demand nothing of me.

We begin to perform our corrections in this empty vacuum that becomes revealed to us. And it is impossible to advance without having made several attempts of physical participation. There is no need to look for excuses: “Not now, I will go next time.” There will not be another chance, and the calculation here is very simple: “reward according to the effort.”

This is why our work is to rise above our rational calculations and stop making up excuses for not coming, such as personal characteristics, work, or family conditions. Try to rid yourself of all the secondary things and look the truth in the eyes: You have a chance, so make sure you are not misleading yourself by thinking that you are unable to take it.
[37785]
From the Lesson on Inner Preparation for the WE! Convention 3/10/2011

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