Question: How do we escape from impending natural disasters? What do we do?

Answer: You probably need to build an ark like Noah did and hide in it. “Noah’s Ark” is Bina, the property of bestowal. A person enters inside it, and it saves him, enveloping from all sides like a mother’s womb.

Bina absorbs Malchut, protecting it from harsh Lights, Gevurot (valor, strength), such as typhoons and fires. All disasters are manifestations of the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) without clothing of the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).

A blow occurs by the force of Light coming directly, not accompanied by the Light of love and mercy (Hassadim). Therefore, instead of embracing you, it beats you. The very same Light of Hochma, when dressed in the Light of Hassadim, embraces, but without it, Hochma beats you. Thus, all our correction is to attract the Light of Hassadim, the force of Bina.
[30197]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

Related Material:
Where Do You Go When The Rails Run Out?
Don’t Wait For Any Favors From Nature

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: We know that one component that refers to the “speaking” degree of nature equals the sum of all components of the animate degree. In that case, if there is just one living Kabbalist in our generation, why should we all strain ourselves?

Answer: In order for one such person to appear, all the others must exert themselves. After all, neither Moshe (Moses), nor Abraham, nor anybody else could reach full correction of the world because humanity hasn’t yet undergone the process of mutual interconnection.

The Tower of Babel hasn’t fallen yet, the ruining of the First and the Second Temples hasn’t occurred, and the blending of the souls of Israel with the nations hasn’t come to pass. It is written, “The people of Israel came into exile solely to incorporate the souls of the nations into themselves.”

The Israel (straight to the Creator) souls have to connect with the souls of the nations and mix with them to such an extent that on the inner level, there won’t be any difference between them. We can’t see it, but, as of today, it has been done.

Look how many people from the nations of the world are waking up to correction. Why would they? This is taking place because of the mutual inter-inclusion of the souls. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary to undergo all phases of exile and especially the last one.

This is why, today, the points in the heart are emerging. Only we, now, after having completed the entire process of mutual inclusion, are able to perform the corrections. If we make an effort all together, then we will surely become one soul.

When you hear that the corrections will be done by someone, it means that we will become as one, and we all will obligate him to include himself into all. In other words, one is the same as all, and this is what mutual inclusion is all about.
[26002]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “The Integration” 10/27/10

Related Material:
From All Talk To All Walk
The Danger Of Head-On Opposition To Nature

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, Israel - No Comments →

If we wish to instill good changes in the world, not through the legislature or by force, but realistically, then these changes must take place in a person’s consciousness. It is necessary to bring to public attention that the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about a person and his transformation through personal choice and by realistic methods.

We are expanding the groups and the outward circulation of Kabbalah, but the key to success lies in mutual inner connection. We represent a certain part of humanity that is connected with all the other parts. Therefore, the unity that we achieve among us will spread like light through the channels of communication without our and the others’ awareness.

Then, people will easily and naturally feel that the force of unity lives within us. This is what the correct circulation of Kabbalah is.
[26017]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, “The Matter of Shechina”

Related Material:
Appeal Directly To A Person
Balance In Society
Don’t Try To Argue With The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Kabbalah Dissemination - No Comments →

Question: When does evil become an obstacle on a person’s way?

Answer: It happens when a person identifies it as the “evil inclination.” At first, I don’t consider my egoism to be bad. On the contrary, I serve it as much as I can. It helps me and provides the sensations of life. Without it, I stop existing.

If a person loses his appetite because of some illness, we urge him to eat a little. If a person loses his sexual drive, he tries to cure himself by using various remedies. No one can survive without pleasures; one has to receive delight.

Food, sex, family, wealth, respect, and knowledge constitute all of my life, and I want to have a good bite of everything. If I lose the desire to receive pleasure, I become desperate and almost feel that I am dying. For this reason, when it’s time for a person to transcend this world, pleasure is taken away from him. He feels that he has nothing to live for. He simply cannot enjoy the desires that are at his disposal. Where can he find fulfillment?

At the same time, he is given a spark of a much higher spiritual desire, which by itself directs him to the wisdom of Kabbalah, a remedy that enables him to achieve a new kind of delight. A person is being lead to a group, and at first, he awaits much stronger egoistic pleasures. “Give me angels, reveal spiritual worlds, bring the Creator to me on a tray, and so on.”

As Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” before a person reaches a state called “thirteen years old,” he is ready to “swallow” all the material world. After reaching the degree of “thirteen years old,” he switches to pleasures of the world to come.

This is natural since we cannot enter spirituality without a full-grown desire that is eager to consume everything there is and preside. I demand that the Creator serve me, and I claim, “Why did He create this world ‘as is?’ Why doesn’t he fulfill me properly?” Later, a person begins to realize how opposite he is to the Creator. It is an immense egoistic desire that brings him to this understanding.

The same happens in this world: A small crook doesn’t consider himself to be a criminal. We, too, think of ourselves as being “innocent.” However, similarly to Pharaoh, a real, mature recidivist admits before robbing someone, “Yes, the Creator is righteous, but we are sinners.”

Thus, before the desire manifests itself to its fullest extent, a person has no way to realize that he is “bad.” It is not easy to comprehend that it is the Creator who made the evil inclination.

How many people in the world can admit that they are “bad?” On the contrary, all of them think that they are “righteous,” even “saints.” It needs much work and effort and lots of Light from Above to make a revealed ego manifest its wickedness.

It is important that we divulge our evilness only relative to the Creator, rather than to other people. I am bad only compared to the Creator, to the property of bestowal. I figure out that the desire to receive pleasure, the urge to receive instead of give, hatred toward others, the desire to take advantage of them, is, in fact, what we call “the evil inclination.”
[30034]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, “The Creator Created the Evil Inclination, and He Created the Torah as A Spice”

Related Material:
Make The Creator Important
Eternal Dependence

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

It is written: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice.” This phrase contains the entire itinerary of my inner changes, corrections. I possess not a mere desire, but an evil one. How so? It is evil because it isn’t aimed to the Creator. I don’t see value in bestowal.

However, is it really bad in my eyes not to be in bestowal? Surely, it feels good to be receiving. As to bestowal, it makes me feel quite uneasy. What should I do? There is no need to change the world since I am the whole world. Hence, all I need to do is change my own values.

Presently, I value the opportunity to receive. This is the essence of my whole life, my credo, the instinctive and rational approach to everything I do. Yet, further on, I have to perform an inner transformation and replace the value of receiving with the value of bestowal.

Thereby, I identify with the Creator and aspire to come closer to Him. I contemplate how to bestow to Him and transform myself into the vessel that receives His good. As I do to Him, so does He to me.

For this reason, the Torah is given to us as a spice, the wisdom of Kabbalah, that will eventually allow us to change the order of priorities, having placed bestowal, not reception, on the top of the list. Naturally, we can’t even think about something like this; we resist it kicking and screaming. Even when we are presented with an opportunity to do so, we avoid it at all costs.

Therefore, we were given an environment. Out of poor little egoists, the Creator formed a society that keeps talking about bestowal and love of others. Why mere talking? It is because everything else is up to a person.

A person first has to start viewing his friends in a different light, not to force them to bestow, but to change his attitude toward them. On the outside, they will always remain only “speakers,” but everyone has a chance to see greatness, bestowal, love of others, and oneness of hearts in them.

Everyone is free to see in the group what they will. If a person understands that this is his chance, then the friends’ “talking” is viewed by him as the most important aspect in life, the most exalted value. Suddenly, the environment starts affecting him, filling him with awareness of the value of the Creator or bestowal.

Self-imposed motivation brings real results, and the person draws the corrective force of the Torah to himself. This entire process lies in his own hands; he doesn’t need anything. The Creator has provided him with the desire and led him to the group, but a person arranges everything else by his own effort, not forcing anyone to do anything.

Everything depends on attitude. Some relate to the group with their egoistic benefit in mind; others keep “earning” the value of bestowal through it. There are many variables between the two. Herein lies the free will of a person: Does he acknowledge the group as a means of elevating the Creator in his own eyes?
[30037]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, “The Creator Created the Evil Inclination, and He Created the Torah as A Spice”

Related Material:
We Will Live!
True Lie

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Reading The Zohar is a very special kind of reading. We are the will to receive pleasure. The Creator cultivates this desire in us and leads us to the group. We are talking about people who, according to their inner evolution, are now expected to start uncovering spirituality.

From the group, I receive additional desire called “aspiration” which I obtain thanks to my work in the group while making efforts to unify with the friends. Despite my unwillingness to become one with them, I work on it by employing all possible means to receive awakening from them.

Thereby, I receive from the group the following: 1) additional awakening or the yearning for spirituality; 2) awareness of evil, my egoistic nature, and unwillingness to unite with the others; and 3) the value of the goal of becoming identical to the Creator, achieving bestowal.

Knowing all these conditions, I undertake reading The Book of Zohar. Now, while reading The Zohar with the desire to attain bestowal, with the awareness of my existing in the will to receive pleasure, employing additional desire that I obtained from the group, I demand transformation.

However, what does it mean to “demand transformation?” If I already reside in these desires and the forces are already working on me, I will be transformed for certain since The Zohar, per se, is the Light.

What does it mean that “I draw the Light, attracting it?” My attitude toward the studies must be such that right now, while reading The Zohar, I tap into the force of Light so it may affect, transform, and correct me.

In itself, the Light doesn’t do anything. Desire grows and changes due to the constant Light that remains at absolute rest. Therefore, when I demand transformation from the Light, I don’t really ask it from the Light. I ask for my desire to change and become more powerful in demanding the Light.

While reading The Zohar, we should think in the above manner. As a result, we will realize that it is all up to us, and we stand across from the unchangeable force that is willing to assist and reform us to the better.

Therefore, I begin reading The Zohar with all my demands for correction, a greater egoistic desire that opposes the Light, the desire to be reformed, and equalize myself with the Light at least somewhat. I must feel this central demand to be reformed in my will to receive like a thorn that keeps bothering me.

This is what my approach to reading The Zohar must be. I have to feel this “thorn.” After all, if I had a splinter in my finger, then, try as I might, I wouldn’t be able to focus on studying, reading, and listening because a powerful, sharp pain would distract me.

We should feel this “sharp pain” within us while reading The Zohar such that it won’t go away. The moment I stop feeling it, I’m not studying the Torah, but some fancy science, as it is written: “Believe that the nations possess wisdom.”

“The nations” are those who don’t wish to change. If a person desires to change, it means that he is “studying the Torah” since the Light contained in it reforms and returns us to the source, the Creator. That’s where the difference is.

The very same person can be “the nations” at one moment and “Israel” (aspiring to the Creator) the next. As soon as he doesn’t wish to change, he is regarded as the “nations of the world.” Then, he is studying fancy knowledge. The moment when he wishes to change and become similar to the Creator, he is “studying the Torah,” that is, demanding the Light that Reforms.
[30044]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
The Key Issue: The Willingness To Change
Know What You Want Precisely

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Kabbalah Study, Prayer and Intention, Zohar - 3 Comments →

Question: It is unclear how I can enjoy bestowal and giving when I do not have anything myself?

Answer: We are not talking about material bestowal, meaning the still, vegetative, and animate levels of desire (although it is also important if done correctly). First of all, in order to bestow, we have to correct our desire and intention so that they are aimed at this form.

Bestowal doesn’t mean that I start stuffing you with all kinds of pleasures that you don’t need. To bestow, I have to first develop myself to such a degree that I will start feeling your desire as my own.

Your desire is next to me, and I have to attach it to myself as if it is my own. Then, I begin fulfilling your desire as my own, thereby turning it into mine. This is what wisdom of Kabbalah is all about (it means “the wisdom of reception” in Hebrew). Look at the sophisticated game here!

At first, I thought that it was someone else’s desire. Then, I crossed over this “psychological barrier” (Machsom), attached this desire to myself, and now I feel your desire as my own. You became more important to me than I am, like a baby to its mother, who sees the purpose of her life in it and is willing to bestow to it endlessly, thinking solely about her baby.

In the same fashion, I attached myself to you; your desires became more important to me than my own, and all I do is work for your benefit! This means that I relate to you in complete bestowal. And since your desire became mine, I feel pleasure in it. It is I who feels pleasure by fulfilling it.

In this way, I gradually re-attach all souls to myself. After all, they used to be part of my “self.” But I was suddenly cut off from all these parts, and instead, my mind was implanted with some “microchip” that makes me hate the parts of my own soul. And I start despising and hating them instead of loving them.

Now I need to rise above this confusion and overcome this psychological rejection. And as soon as I start treating them as my own authentic, integral parts that are inseparable in their connection with me, I will bestow to them and enjoy it!

I did this work, corrected myself, and now feel pleased. We are not expected to do anything else but overcome this psychological barrier and repulsion so that love may replace hate. Then, we will be truly enjoying ourselves.

You will feel that these specific parts, alien to you for now, are the foundation for the root of your soul. You will reveal the Creator in them in particular. And the part of the still, vegetative, and animate degree, which you previously thought of as yourself and your world, has nothing to do with you at all. It is the lowest level in relation to you. Who is interested if they live or die? And they do indeed die, and you are left to live with your soul!

Therefore, before you leave this material world, it would be better to reach at least the first degree of the soul. Then, you won’t regret parting with the body.
[30052]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
The Elusive Key Component
Machsom Is A Psychological Barrier

Filed under: Body and Soul, Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

The Light always brings me a sensation of the gap between the Light and the desires. It always gives me a bad sensation and it cannot bring me anything good. Firstly it always gives me a realization of evil, which is the truth. As much as I am able to ascend above the sensation of “bitter versus sweet” to the analysis of “true versus false” in order to clarify the truth in spite of the bitter taste, to that extent the Light is able to influence me.

But where will I get the strength to hold on to the truth so strongly even when I feel bad? I can only receive this additional force from the environment. Therefore it’s pointless for us to cry out to the Light. The Light influences us to the degree we are ready for it. It can wait a thousand years until we are prepared by way of very slow, gradual development, or it can drastically increase its influence at every second if we are ready for it.

There is no delay from the Light’s end. The delay depends only on how ready I am to tolerate the gap between the Kelim and the Lights, to be “above knowledge,” above the bodily suffering, when I am ready to be in the truth even if it’s bitter. Indeed, it really is bitter not to use the Kelim of reception, the desire for one’s own sake, while remaining in the intention of bestowal.

Therefore, we do not have any other means to speed up our development other than to connect with the environment. However, connection with the environment is also extremely painful. I cannot overcome myself. I can spend thousands of hours pleading with my friends to unite, but it will all be nothing but words. After that I stumble across my inner wall and am unable to do anything more than words.

However, if we at least try to do this together, then each person receives an impression from the others and thus reaches the point of truth: that he is unable to do this and must break precisely through this wall. Then he demands it from the Light that Reforms.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
Shift The World’s Balance To Good
Working In Two Directions
The Reward Of Truth

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Suffering - No Comments →

The Creator wanted to create the creature identical to Him. And this is a true blessing. Why then didn’t the creature become like Creator in the first place? It’s because the creature must construct itself.

The relationship between the Creator and the creature is performed by way of reception and bestowal. The Creator readily bestows fulfillment to the creature and, in addition, gives the creature an opportunity to do the same in return. The more important the Creator is in the eyes of the creature, the more it can give Him. In the end, it will indeed become independent and equal to the Creator.

Thus, they establish total reciprocity. Man receives fulfillment ascending to the level of the Creator, but only if he wants to become identical to Him.

This additional desire that we need to find is called aspiration. It stems from realizing the importance of Creator. We observe the same in our world: If someone is important in my eyes, I strive to give something to that person. For instance, a child is important for parents, and they endeavor to give him gifts.

It turns out that I have to constantly work towards realizing the importance of this rung, the property called “Creator.” In this way, we achieve similarity with the Creator, naturally finding what is important to us: the property of bestowal.
[30040]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, “The Creator Created the Evil Inclination and the Torah as a Spice”

Related Material:
A New Type Of Humanity In Only 15 Years
Once Again About Love
The Timer Keeps Ticking

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

We evaluate everything solely by how fulfilling it is for us, and there are two types of fulfillment: for our own sake and for the sake of bestowal. If I wish to please myself, I cannot receive more than our material world. I have an enormous vessel (desire), but all that I am able to receive in it is a tiny part called “this world.” And even that which I am able to receive is comprised of temporary pleasures that enter me and immediately depart. And this is my entire life.

Thus, in the course of history, I continued seeking pleasure at an increasingly higher level: still, vegetative, and animate. But in the end, I felt even greater emptiness. At first, my desire was small and gradually grew more and more until it reached its limits: the twenty-first century.

There are no greater egoistic fulfillments at this point because I have reached the limit at the degree where I consume, absorb. Hence, I ask: “What have I achieved in all of my history, in thousands of my incarnations (Gilgulim)? What is the purpose of my existence in this world for thousands of years?” The informational records (Reshimot) about the journeys made have been preserved in me, and therefore, I demand an answer.

And at this point, one special informational gene (Reshimo) unfolds in me by which I suddenly begin experiencing my outside part of the will to receive (desire) that pulls me forward, toward further development. But first, I approach this new external desire in an old fashion and check how I can receive into it, absorb something. I don’t understand that it needs a totally different approach, and the pleasure must come not from receiving, but from giving.

It takes time for me to get adjusted to this new thought, begin to comprehend it, and transition to the outside from inside. This is what we refer to as the time of preparation, when I gradually come to understand that pleasure lies in bestowal, not reception.

Baal HaSulam regards this as the “psychological barrier” (Machsom). I must agree that the act of mutual connection and bestowal, a thought about someone else, can bring pleasure. We start doing such exercises in the group, gradually absorbing the exalted nature of bestowal.

If we remained in this alone, we would repeat the communist experience in Russia. But we have one more component, the Light that Reforms, and it constantly affects us to the extent of our effort. It is this Light that reforms our nature! I suddenly begin to truly value bestowal and feel pleasure in it.

This is called a miracle. I suddenly discover that there are infinite hidden pleasures in bestowal, and the ability to bestow is limitless! But the most important and confusing component for us is the Light that Reforms. In the meantime, it still eludes us.
[30055]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Are You Anticipating The Light’s Arrival?
One Instant Between Now And Eternity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →