Question: In mathematics, when analyzing a system with many unknowns, we make all parameters constant, leaving only one degree of freedom. Oftentimes, in man’s inner work we get the same feeling that you are looking in a number of directions: perception of reality, the group, the Creator; that is, there are too many "degrees of freedom," and it’s overly perplexing. Can I use the same principle as in mathematics and in the meantime only take into consideration the attitude towards the group?

Answer: In spiritual work it’s much easier. Even with all that infinite number of variables, we need to relate to a single Source and become included in Him. Let all these thousands of parameters change, while you remain inside the Creator, the sole cause of all that infinite number of changes.

If you attempt now to "freeze" reality, making it still in order to connect all of it together, it would forfeit the whole purpose of the spiritual work, degrading it to the level of dissecting events in the material world. Why do we need it?

We only need to know that from all the infinite number of changes, I should immediately establish contact with the Upper One, the Creator, and grasp Him. Let everything around me change even more, let the whole world swirl.

Despite and above it all, I have to hold on to Him even more strongly so that these changes will only strengthen our bond. There’s nothing else I need! I don’t have to learn anything about these changes. The moment I adhere to the Creator, I attain all the senses and mind, achieve the purpose of all the changes. So why should I get bogged down in them to begin with?

The sciences of our world are entering a crisis because they are going in the wrong direction. What are we wasting our time on: looking for yet another one of many thousands of particles, a search that has no end? The further we advance, the more and more entangled we get.

Let’s say they discover a new elementary particle which they were missing, only to find that it can be split into another thousand particles, and so on to infinity. It’s pure curiosity. Although in the final analysis each quest contains the search for the Upper One, the Creator.

But if we want to advance correctly, we need to find the cause of all that is happening. And it means that we must break through to a higher level. So I never concentrate on what is happening in this world. I must make only the actions that connect me to the Creator: Through the group, make some physical actions, but only in that direction.

On the level of this world we will never reveal anything higher than that. After all, what research tools do we have in the material world other than our earthly, animal intelligence? From the height of the animate level we explore the still and the vegetative degrees.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: In his article "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy," Baal HaSulam writes: “Even when science reaches its ultimate development, we will still have to regard only the tangible reality.” What “ultimate development” is science destined to reach?

Answer: Science will develop to such a condition when it will merge with the wisdom of Kabbalah and become part of the same movement. In fact, our world is set to ascend and clothe the upper world, having become its indispensable part and included in it along with all our actions and efforts exerted even in the matter of the corporeal world.

Nothing disappears without a trace since everything belongs to one universe, one reality. Therefore, sciences will also merge and join in the wisdom of Kabbalah as its integral part. The wisdom of Kabbalah involves all of creation, and all sciences of our world will be engaged in it.

They are already part of it, and it only seems that they exist separate from it. After all, all laws of our world are the same very laws that govern the spiritual world, though only imprinted in our egoistic matter. If matter works with the intention to receive “for self gratification” at the level of Malchut de Malchut of the world of Assiya, then it results in the corresponding laws.

In the spiritual world, intention “for myself” pertains to the Klipot, the impure forces, where such are the spiritual laws. Here, they come out as material laws, and there is no awareness of the fact that they are based on the intention to receive “for self gratification.”

If we achieve the final corrected state (Gmar Tikkun), then all of this corporeal world is gradually cancelled and dissolves. We sense it less and less, and more of its parts abandon our perception.

We begin to realize how transient and temporary everything is. It is similar to how matter gets transformed from one state to another, when its forms return to their initial state: from “tangible states” of hard matter they become liquid, and then, not a very tangible state, gas, and finally, into a completely intangible one, a zero or a void.

All of this occurs in our sensations, our perception. And if our perception changes, there is no room for ordinary physics which essentially deals only with still matter, while biology, zoology, and medicine study the vegetative and animate levels of nature.

None of our sciences rise above these levels: still, vegetative, and animate. At the human level, there is no “science” any longer in the strict sense of this world; there is merely a recording process of accumulated observations of life and facts as in psychology and psychiatry.

To the extent that this world abandons our sensations at the still-vegetative-animate degrees, these planes will start to “fold up,” by ascending and getting included in the human degree. We will no longer practice these sciences since we will stop feeling these phenomena and counting them as real in the form we see them today.

This entire reality exists solely in relation to us. If all our attributes and sensory organs get transformed, meaning that reality as we experience it right now in these organs of perception changes, then what science can deal with an absent reality? Everything is relative.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: Physicists keep attempting to catch the “X” particle, thinking that it gave start to all matter in the Universe, meaning mass itself. Through their discoveries do they come closer to Kabbalah? How did the material universe form, and at what point does the Upper Force dress in all of these forms visible to us?

Answer: Physics treats the forming of the universe as a new creation while Kabbalah states that the material universe is a product, an “imprint” of the whole previous process when another, new object of creation, a Partzuf, comes to life.

Our world is another Partzuf born out of the previous one: Bina de-Malchut de-Malchut of the world of Assiya. NHY (Netzah, Hod, Yesod), the lower part of this upper Partzuf, expanded downward and clothed into our egoistic matter thereby adding its opposite forms to the latter. This means that all forms manifesting in this world are spiritual albeit dressed in corporeal images (imprints, vectors), meaning “for self gratification.” This is the form in which our world exists.

You are asking at what point it got formed. But time doesn’t exist! We live in an imagined reality, and only when this deception falls away will we be able to see the true picture. Presently, we resemble a person whose head is wired to a few electrodes which send electrical impulses to his brain, creating various images in it and making him feel them as real.

This is how various pictures arise in us, just like on the computer screen as the software dictates. Therefore, there aren’t such things as past, present, and future, but rather a sequence of images.

The upper Partzuf descends from Chazeh of Malchut de-Malchut of the world of Assiya to Malchut that ascended to the lowest Bina, gathers her forms and transfers them into our matter, into Malchut herself. All forms of our world are spiritual imprints albeit egoistic ones.

Here we find the entire world, as well as stars and galaxies, because even in the spiritual world there are the exact same objects: “stars” and “heavens.” But in this world, we see only the reverse projection of a small part of the spiritual world while its major part is out of sight. The spiritual world is much richer in the quantity of components.

Our world is entirely egoistic since it is Bina which doesn’t share its power with Malchut but only its forms. When the rungs of the worlds expand from Above downward, the force of bestowal in them gets reduced, gradually diminishing until it totally runs out.

Finally, at the last degree, when there is nothing left of the force of bestowal except one spark, a “thin candle” (Ner Dakik), this spark is clothed in our world and gives it its form. Our world’s degree is characterized by the fact that here, the force of reception is more powerful than the force of bestowal while at all upper degrees, the force of bestowal is greater than the force of reception.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/5/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: Do we need to resist the egoism or work with it?

Answer: I resist egoism when I look at it while I identify myself with the point of the Creator. I acknowledge that such is my nature; however, it will become the Creator’s nature once I correct it, because egoism is His imprint.

This is why egoism is referred to as “help against you”: Its form is opposite to the form that I need, but it helps me since I do not have anything else.

For this reason, at this moment I am lacking Light, which will help fill the egoistic “dents” in the imprint with the proper qualities, and I receive unity—the Creator’s form.

Our egoism contains all the opposite forms as they formed while alienating from their perfection to our world.

These forms are as though included in one another, like nesting dolls. And we need to arrive in a complete proper form in the reverse order, with the help of the Light.

This is why we stand against egoism in the realization that we have everything except for the upper Light. So I need to evoke the influence of the upper Light on my desire for the future state of unity, my desire for the corrected form (Reshimo).

For this reason we say “we will do and we will hear” from the very beginning; in other words, we are ready for unity once we receive the desire from the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Arvut”

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A person will not be able to work for the sake of bestowal if he doesn’t receive an experience of its importance, which serves him as fuel for completing the following steps. We are founded on egoism in order not to perform any pointless actions. Egoism aims us at the actions that bring a reward, a benefit; otherwise, it won’t let us perform the next act.

In spirituality, egoism helps us to act solely in the direction of the goal if its importance is greater than egoism; and if it there isn’t a goal, egoism offers us its own and opposite one, thereby aiming us at the goal. This is why it is called “help against you”.

Hence, in each action, even the one which is highly prepared, after the action, we must care to gain even greater importance of the goal than before, to gain a satisfaction from advancing toward the goal. This will be the fuel for the next action.

This always makes us think: Why, for what purpose, and for whose benefit do we act?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Arvut”

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Question: How does working with the “wicked” differ from working with the “righteous”?

Answer: First of all, please understand that we are talking about the states a person experiences relative to the Creator. As Baal HaSulam explains in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” we need to undergo these states on the path: a complete wicked, an incomplete wicked, one in the middle, an incomplete righteous, and a complete righteous.

How do I measure these states though? Anybody you ask thinks they are at least those in the middle if not complete righteous. In truth, the only criterion of a correct assessment is self-annulment in the group. In our case, the environment is our measuring device. The common Kli (vessel) broke only so that you, by lowering your head before the group, could know where you are and receive strength from the Creator.

After the breaking, your Kli split into multiple parts. The Creator, who was present in it, also split, and is now in all of these parts. They are as the pieces of once whole puzzle that you are assembling according to the program designed Above. Thereby, you are restoring the parts of your soul, along with the parts of the Creator, parcels of Light that are hidden in them.

In this world, in your egoism, you perceive all of this as a physical group. But in truth, it isn’t a group. With time, the group will become a spiritual appellation to you. These are not people who sing songs and wish to unite, but rather in each of them, you discover a part of your Kli and a particle of the Creator planted in it.

Behind the friends’ faces, there is a spiritual environment. Now you clearly realize that the breaking, our current reality, and the friends allow you to engage in spiritual work. When the Creator has no value in your eyes, you feel a sinner, and to gain this value, you appeal to the environment. It contains the Kelim (vessels); the Creator dwells in it; and the Light pours into it and brings this spiritual meaning to you. Thus, everything is in one place: the person and all his parts he sees as alien to him at the moment.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, “What Are the Misfortunes that Come to the Wicked Which Start From the Righteous in Work”

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The descents show me that I will never realize the importance of the Creator alone; I will never come out of my egoism or find the strength within. However, every descent teaches me in its own way, revealing different weaknesses, properties, and degrees in me. Descents are followed by ascents, but at the end, one way or another, I always discover how powerless I am.

At first, I want to satisfy my egoism, which is referred to as discovering the number of angels in the skies. Then I switch over to the Creator, I want to “catch” Him and see the spiritual world. It appears to me as if the door of change needs to open before me and not within me.

Finally, I begin to understand that changes need to happen within me. I catch a thread of an answer to my question: Liberation must come from the outside because alone I am certainly incapable of it.

This work is done through descents and ascents until man comes to the threshold of truth, and then he understands that everything depends on him, on a change in his perception. The Light gives him the strength to do this; this strength cannot be found within. His demand is egoistic, but he lowers his head before the upper force allowing it to change him, agreeing slightly with the fact that everything comes from Above.

On the next degree, man begins to understand that he needs to acquire the property of bestowal instead of the property of reception. His demand is still egoistic, yet it’s a step forward.

Then he works with the environment in order to evoke the Light that lifts him to spiritual wealth. As he works on figuring out the notion of the group, he makes himself dependent on it, hoping that this will benefit him, as it did before.

And then the Light actually reforms a person because he has properly arranged everything. There is only one change that still remains: the intention, the final outcome, who is he trying to benefit?

By turning to the Creator, through the group, with the correct appeal, we shorten the path.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, “What Are the Misfortunes that Come to the Wicked Which Start From the Righteous in Work”

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Question: How can I check whether my intention is really aimed at the Creator? What practical test does the science of Kabbalah have to offer?

Answer: Kabbalah offers something very simple: work in the group, which accelerates your personal development and provides you with a practice ground. Inside the group a person can find the place for the Creator’s revelation, the place to bestow to the Creator. Overall we attain the goal by way of mutual study and unification with friends.

At the same time, no matter what we do, it is important to ascertain that we do not suppress our egoism by trying to run away from bad sensations. After all, a person spends most of his time covering up his ego.

Inside us there is hatred, envy, lust, ambitions, and other attributes of interaction with others. Sometimes these desires are so small that a person does not even discern their evil. Yet, whenever I look at someone, I unconsciously or consciously make a calculation: how much better I am than him, how much I don’t accept him, how much power I have over him, how much I can use him, and so on.

I always have to feel higher than the neighbor in some way. Even if I don’t have anything to criticize, I am still higher.

Thus, if I don’t blur over my egoistic attitude, then at every second I reveal an opportunity to work. Overall my sensations are called "unfounded hatred." My nature dictates that I feel it toward every person. But can I immediately build a good attitude, love above it?

I hate every person for some reason and if I don’t conceal this from myself, then I can work ceaselessly until every situation turns into a means for coming closer to the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/11, Writings of Rabash

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We haven’t yet reached a sensation that the entire problem lies in the connection between us. For the time being, each of us wants to "pick the fruit from the tree" by himself.

We have to reach a state of standing at the foot of Mount Sinai in order to understand the hatred which the authors of The Zohar describe. Then, you will uncover that mountain of hatred and begin to correct it.

Until then, it’s only the individual ego of each one without his or her relation to others. It’s not yet the reverse imprint of the Creator. Each person isn’t yet aimed at the connection with the others.

That’s the way babies grow. Up until the age of two or three, a child has no need for the company of other children. He plays with his own toys. It’s only after he is two or three years old that he begins to realize that he can play with someone else, that someone else exists.

We are at exactly the same degree in our development. So far, we don’t want to unite with others; we don’t want to "play" with them yet. No matter how much we talk about it, the result is only words and not a change in our desire.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/2011,  “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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Question: Without the environment, it is impossible to advance. How do we build the environment when we read The Book of Zohar?

Answer: We build the environment when all of us, together, wish to attain everything we read about in The Zohar in our mutual connection. The Zohar draws various forms for us. What are they? If we become unified, we will obtain a certain form of connection between us. Let’s name it “a rabbit,” for instance. The next form of connection will be labeled as “a cow,” and the next after that will be “a donkey.”

Later, we may come to such a connection that will be called “human” at various stages of development: Ibur, Yenika, Mochin (fetus, breastfeeding, and adulthood), until we reach the level of human. Then the form of connection between us will have a human shape. In other words, it isn’t I, you, or he, but rather a form of our mutual connection, some unifying formula, that will make our image human.

“Human” in spirituality is bestowal. But what is bestowal? What is its form? It is a certain field between us that we will title as human. This field undergoes various states that The Zohar describes as individuals with different hair and eye color, and so forth. All of it speaks about the forms of connection between us. The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t discuss anything else; there is nothing else to talk about.

There is nothing to say about the will to receive pleasure (desire) since it simply strives to enjoy. But as individual desires rise above themselves and mutually connect in bestowal in this place of unification, they create the common form that The Zohar is describing. It is that very form of the Creator which you are getting to know.

Therefore, The Zohar explains what specific form of the Creator you are discovering. It is what is named “human” within you, your inner equivalent to the Creator. Do you find him a bit unattractive in his uncorrected state? True, but that is what you are for now. Hence, The Zohar explains what steps you take as you advance.

It always speaks of the connection between the souls: to what degree it is equivalent to bestowal which awakens hatred, caring, and other feelings between them. However, all of it still lies in their mutual connection.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/2011,  “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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