“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Letters of Rabbi Hamnuna Saba,” Item 26: He told her, “Tzadi, you are Tzadi, and you are Tzadik, but you must be hidden. You should not be so disclosed as to begin the creation of the world with you, to not give the world excuses.”

Question: If the letters of my name point to a Klipa (shell), do I have to change it?

Answer: We are not talking about someone’s name here, but about the names of spiritual actions, Partzufim. "Letters" are the properties awakened in the vessels by the Light. We do not discuss the Light itself; it is unattainable for our perception. We perceive only the reactions of the Kli (vessel) which, in conformity with the Light, enters a certain state.

At all degrees, the desire to enjoy finds positive aspects in 22 states of Malchut or, in other words, in 22 "letters." And it is indeed so: There is nothing superfluous in creation. Even a part of the Klipa, the force of impurity, can claim to be worthy of becoming the basis of the world’s creation if the spark of Light settles on it.

The Book of Zohar explains to us that not a single state of Malchut is perfect except the one created by the letter Bet. Yet even Bet is not perfect by itself, but only thanks to its dependence on Bina. This is why the letter Bet in particular is worthy of creating the world by it.

On the other side, the rest of the letters are not only included into Bina; they are also connected to Malchut, which prevents them from becoming the basis for correction of the world. In all other forms of connection beside "Bet," there is a deficiency which will necessarily hinder the path.

Hence, each letter is a symbol of the degree of Malchut‘s similarity to Bina. The words put together from the letters are the acts of the Lights, concrete corrections.

There is no connection with the names given by the parents to their children in our world. You may change or add a name; it will bear no change in spirituality. If we were able to influence the world with such tricks, we would have brought it to ruin long ago.

The hopes to change reality by simply re-arranging the letters of one’s name are futile. Reality will change only when we will change ourselves, when we draw closer to the Light in our properties. When you change yourself, you change the world. After all, only our Kelim are changing.

It is said: "Change of place, change of luck." "Place" is desire. Change your desire and you will truly experience transformations.
[29617]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Letters of Rabbi Hamnuna Saba”

Related Material:
The Creator’s Presentation
Come And See Your Creator!

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

The movie and television industries are transitioning to 3D imagery. So do we, too, have to part with the superficial two-dimensional perception and get to see the depth of spirituality in our reality.

In my perception, there are three dimensions: width, height, and depth. This is my screen. On this three- dimensional screen, I view people, animals, buildings, the sun, and the entire world that surrounds me.

I experience all of this in my will to receive (desire). Yet, it draws the picture of the world for me not on a flat surface, but in three dimensions within me. Since besides this picture there isn’t any other, I experience it as true and the only existing one.

This image assembled during the breaking of the souls (Kelim, vessels) when my parts detached from me: my “self” which is GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and, outside of it, my AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh) which I don’t experience as mine.

Now, finally, instead of manifestations of my AHP, I start working with the group and interact with the friends. They gravitate toward me, and I toward them.

We are trying to work together as if we are in Arvut (mutual responsibility or guarantee), and this practice helps me understand that the group as well as everything else are mine indeed. Having amended my attitude to the “external” reality, I discover that it becomes closer to me and “spills out” from outward inward.

Hence, the group is a sort of laboratory where we attempt to correct within ourselves the corrupted desires (Kelim) so that they would return the forfeited depth to our reality.
[26020]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, “The Matter of Shechina”

Related Material:
The World Through Distorted Lenses
A Person Who Draws The Worlds

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

Question: Since I started studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and entered the group, I have been feeling how my desire for sex and other worldly pleasures are growing in me. How do I work with them?

Answer: It is written, “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him.” During the entire course of our history, we have been developing egoistically; our ego has been constantly growing. In the end, we come to a state when we are utilizing all of the enormous egoism this world contains.

Therefore, people feel despair, fall into depression and abuse drugs; terrorism and other misfortunes expand. We don’t know what to do with our lives anymore. Now, we must leap further with the greater egoism in order to reach the spiritual world and the Creator.

Therefore, people who come to the wisdom of Kabbalah think that now they will be like “angels with wings,” as if wings were the only thing they lack when no worldly pleasures can fill them any longer. However, when a person starts studying, he suddenly discovers more desire for food, sex, traveling, and other corporeal pleasures.

Why is this so? The ego is increasing, and there is nothing we can do about it. Age doesn’t matter. A person can be 80 or 90 years old, and he still begins having desires as a young person would. I don’t want to advertise it or we will turn in a group of oldies. But, in truth, there is no salvation; in a person who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, all desires must keep growing.

The foundation of all desires is sexual pleasure, the root of which is adhesion of the Light and desire (Kli, vessel), the coupling of the male and female parts of creation. For this reason, a person first experiences an increase in sexual desire to such a high degree as has never happened to him before.

Previously, he was a stable person, and all his desires were in check. However, now, they manifest in such a grotesque form that they start getting in the way of his normal life. All of this is true, and we know that as a person begins studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, all our desires and tendencies get renewed.

What do we do with this? As we may know from the wisdom of Kabbalah, we are prohibited from resisting our desires. Don’t challenge the “evil inclination” directly, as if you are about to battle it as a hero; you won’t win. Just submerge yourself in the studies, the group, and connect with them to the best of your ability so that the Upper Light could affect you more strongly. Only in this manner will you be able to go through this with all the kinds of obstacles surrounding you.

Besides, there is no other choice. All of it is designed to purify the intention and thoughts in order to seek in all of these obstacles the point of bonding with the group since your free will lies solely in it.

You are given such states so that you may forevermore settle in your choice, even on the foundation of all the desires for wealth, sex, family, and other pleasures of the corporeal world. On this ground, bond with the group tighter and realize your only free choice.

You don’t have the power to fight your desires. Don’t be a fool and start a war with them. After all, you are not the one in charge; it isn’t your job. You are given external conditions so that, thereby, you could exercise your free will to a greater extent.

This must be understood while facing any predicament in our life. Act normally in our world; there should be no change in home, family, vacation, and health. However, all your attention should be focused on your only free choice.
[26030]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Climbing The Steps Of Desires Toward The Creator
The Role Of Jacob In Egypt

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

All that we feel and see around us is only a play between the Light and the vessel (Kli), the Light and desire. And since they differ in their properties, in the middle between them, there is the world, the reality that we perceive. It represents exactly what we still lack in order to attain the world of Infinity.

That’s why the word “world” (Olam) means “concealment” (Alama). All forms of life that we observe around us, namely, the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels either in the material or spiritual world, show us the deficiency that we need to “fill” in order to reach Infinity.

After all of them disappear, we see only the Light that completely fills all desires, the entire sphere; it indicates that we have reached the corrected state. Until then, we feel all kinds of forms, and this is a sign that we have not corrected all the desires to become similar to the Light, the property of bestowal.
[27079]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Perception of Reality” 10/20/10

Related Material:
From Opposites To Perfection
Shift The World’s Balance To Good

Filed under: Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

Question: Who am “I,” and how can I separate myself from the reality “show?” If all my thoughts and sensations are simply a “movie,” then where am I?

Answer: At this time, you are unable to separate yourself from the “movie” you are watching because you are within it, within the pure desire to enjoy. However, if you manage to live within both desires (the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow), you’ll command both powers: the power of the Creator and that of the creature. If the Light illuminates you and grants you its property of bestowal, you’ll be able to tell the difference between you and the movie.

Today, you are incapable of analyzing your own world because you have only one desire: to receive pleasure. You have no clue whether the Light works on you or not. You are like a baby that doesn’t know who takes care of it and what’s going on. The baby cries because he feels bad, but he doesn’t even know to whom to address his cry for help.
[26249]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Perception of Reality” 10/20/10

Related Material:
Play Your Own Movie!
Kabbalah Moments: You Don’t See The World

Filed under: Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

Before I start studying, “engaging in the Torah,” the key is to know what and why I am studying and what I will get from it. The Torah is the only medium that can help us reach the goal. There are probably multiple conditions to that, but all of them are necessary solely in order to form a correct connection with the Torah for us.

“The Torah” is the Upper Light that affects and reforms us so that we get to know the Creator, the Upper Force, and appreciate Him as the Giver, as love itself, which lies above our essence: the will to receive pleasure.

This is why the prayer book opens with special blessings that we bring before the study: We give thanks for the opportunity to study the Torah. A person feels that it is worthwhile to study the Torah which is designated solely for the correction of the evil inclination. This is described as: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice for it.”

If it weren’t for the evil inclination, the Creator wouldn’t have created this special Light, the unique system of reforming us. And now, seeing the inner evil unfold, a person truly needs the Torah. And if it isn’t the case, a person doesn’t study the Torah since he isn’t connected with the system that teaches him about inner changes.

I need to become aware of my evil and wish to get rid of it; I need to understand that there is no way out of it and only the Upper Light will reform me. Then, I will turn to the Creator in the correct manner.

The journey may be long. Most don’t have a clue about it, while others think they practice the Torah although it isn’t really so; for them, the Torah is not the instrument of correction and ascent to the Creator.

First of all, a person has to find out what inner part of him needs to get corrected. I think not about what I will get from the Torah but what must be reformed in me. After all, the Torah is a “spice” which conceals the Light that Reforms. What then is corrupted in me? What requires correction?

I must visualize both these forms, the corrupted and the corrected ones, as clearly as possible and expect liberation, the force that will help me to transit from the first to the second spiritual degree. Having constructed this crystal clear, accurate system, I anticipate and demand assistance from Above so that it all comes true.

If the evil inclination is evil for me indeed, if I understand what correction is exactly and am determined to come to it, then I draw the force of the Torah, the Light that descends and reforms me. And that is when I truly do “engage in the Torah.”
[29938]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, "Introduction of The Book of Zohar," Article “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba”

Related Material:
Rabbi Shimon’s Cry
Are You Anticipating The Light’s Arrival?
Spice Up Your Desire

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Kabbalah Study, Torah, Zohar - 3 Comments →

Question: You have explained that each word and letter we read in the Kabbalistic texts contains the force of correction. It is my job to draw this force and feel how it enters me and reforms my flaws into perfections.

Is it correct to assume that when you speak and explain the content of the Kabbalists’ writings, I must also apply this process regardless of the fact that in one case, I am dealing with a word written in the book and in another, I hear it from you?

Answer: No, it works in a different fashion. You hear from the other what has already passed through him, his own experience of spiritual revelation; therefore, you adhere to him and, together, you act as one system. Meanwhile, when you read the text yourself, you perform corrections differently. In short, there are different ways to do correction, depending on whether you listen to or actually read the text.

When you read it yourself, you become one with the author and belong to his system, whereas when you listen to someone, you join him and together with him or through him you perform correction.
[29947]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
The Sculptor Of My Soul
From Apprentice To Master
You Will See It And No Other

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

“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,”Article “Flower Buds,” Item 5: The flower buds are the patriarchs, who entered in thought and entered the next world, Bina, and were hidden there. From there, they came out in concealment and were hidden in the true prophets. Joseph was born and they hid in him. Joseph entered the holy land and erected them there, and then they appeared in the land and were revealed there.

Our entire connection with the spiritual world goes through the Partzuf of Nukva of the world of Atzilut. The broken souls raise their MAN, the request for correction, toward her.

A person with a point in the heart aspires toward the spiritual world, and spirituality is bestowal and unity. Because of this, he strives to unite with others, and he is given the opportunity to do this in the group.

When a person carries out the condition of ascent and creates a Kli (vessel), he connects with Malchut de Atzilut. She raises the common appeal of the friends to Zeir Anpin, and He gives them the Light that Reforms. Then, the souls that wish to become one whole ascend the degrees of unity.

First, they rise to the state of conception (Ibur). Here, they unite through nullifying themselves before one another. Each lowers his head before the environment and becomes “like a fetus in its mother’s womb.” Then, they reach the nursing degree (Yenika, drawing of sustenance) where their unity becomes stronger. Now, they become able to work with their desire to receive pleasure, and rise above it.

Then, the souls move on to a grown state (Gadlut, adulthood). The degree of their unity enables them to connect with Zeir Anpin, and this degree is called Yesod de Gadlut or Joseph.

This helps us understand the story described in the Torah of how Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. These events unravel around our fight for unity, for us to attain the mutual guarantee to the degree that is sufficient for revealing the Creator between us.
[28446]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Flower Buds”

Related Material:
The Inexhaustible Means For Advancing
How To Enter The Book Of Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Mutual Guarantee, Zohar - 1 Comment →

The world is entering a qualitatively new period of development, and Israel is becoming the leader in it. This has not happened before because we were in the period of "exile." Now we have entered the time of “redemption.”

“Redemption” means similarity to the Creator, becoming closer to Him and revealing Him, discovering the laws of nature, and attaining harmony with it. To reveal nature means to accept all the upper laws in order to observe them.

All these laws must begin to be realized in human society and within us through our own efforts. In other words, right now we do not need to work on anything besides our similarity to nature, the Creator.

Meanwhile, we are going in the opposite direction, and we do not want to listen. This is the source of all the catastrophes. Before, suffering was revealed in a simple manner to just slightly push us ahead. However, today, it works in a direction opposite to us, against us.

Before, suffering was like small pricks from behind that would turn us in the right direction and stimulate us to develop faster, but they worked together with your own aspirations. They simply rushed you, like a donkey who is pricked with a sharp stick. Now, anywhere you try to advance in development, nature faces you head-on and hits you straight in the face. Do you want to continue your old journey? No way! By doing this, you will attract more problems. As it is written: “Sit and do nothing is better.”

In other words, we must begin correction, and, in this world, Israel is the conductor of correction because it possesses the method. This is why Israel will continue to experience more and more problems if we do not advance properly.

Here, everything depends on us. First of all, as we see the catastrophes that are happening, we need to draw the right conclusions. These are not “accidental events.” In nature, everything is connected, and everything has a reason.

If we are going into a head-on opposition to nature by becoming opposite to it, which has never happened before, we should hurry with correction. Instead of being opposite, we need to come to similarity and do what the Creator, nature, wants us to do: attain harmony, connection among us as one man with one heart, and achieve brotherly love.

When we achieve this, all the disasters will disappear, and all the nations will begin to support Israel. We will become the center of correction of the world. If there is hatred of Israel in the world, it is only because we have the method of correction, but we are not fast enough to realize it and disseminate it around the world.
[28608]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Special Talk on the Tragedy in Northern Israel and Balance in Nature

Related Material:
I’m Asking For Everyone’s Sake, Including Ourselves
Go With The Flow Of Nature

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

Question: If the Creator always resides in our mutual connection, how can we unite and at the same time, forget about the Creator and stray off the path?

Answer: What forms of unity could divert you from the path? All kinds of them! The Russians tried to do it, didn’t they? They did. Fascists tried (“Fascio” in Italian means “unify,” “tie in a bunch”), didn’t they? They did! Kibbutzim, Sparta, armies, vegetarians, fundamentalists, and so on are all various forms of association.

This is why unification has to be thoroughly scrutinized, analyzed, and implemented not by us, but by the Upper Light. First of all, we must keep the principle of “I am the First, and I am the Last,” “The end of an action lies in its initial thought.” I must advance toward the Creator and not simply strive to achieve love and bestowal between us in a secular fashion.

We should be dominated not by the force of egoism, but by the force that is above egoism since all advancement occurs by way of “faith above reason,” above hate and not within or with the help of hate.

We hate each other, but there is someone we hate even more. Therefore, we unite, and our general hatred mutually connects us to even greater hatred for a third party that we wish to destroy.

There is a great margin for error here. That is why we have to employ the Torah, an instruction that always leads you to the Light; and it is the Light that corrects you, not you yourself. Neither in the mind, nor in the sensations, nor in any action on the way to correction, do you ever use what is in you except the Light that Reforms. You have nothing to add to it except your effort to annul yourself.

If you annul yourself, you give the Light an opportunity to work on you and make out of you a correct future form. Otherwise, the Light will make the wrong form out of you so that through suffering you would discover the correct method you hadn’t understood previously.

The Light affects you all the time. The question is whether the Light and desire are opposing each other or not, and you are the one who determines that.

This is the deciding point, the point of free will. Only the group can help you to place yourself under the Light correctly. While the Light illuminates constantly, you have to continually examine yourself in the group.
[25010]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 17, 1926

Related Material:
Why Do I Need This Whole World?
Jump And Freeze!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Society - 1 Comment →