Question: Why didn’t the Creator walk Moses through the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality) at the last Convention and leave the Pharaoh to stack the chairs?

Answer: Where was our Moses when we had to plea for exiting Egypt? Where was our cry to the Creator? There was no one but Pharaoh.

We did not demand from the Creator to break the wall between us. Everybody was waiting: “When on earth will He reveal Himself? I want to be filled!” We were still ruled by Pharaoh. Moreover, we got to see what was in our way, what blocks our unity.

It wasn’t accidental that I immediately threw to the audience the words about the necessity to think about our mutual connection, submerging into it, and finding the torn strings in order to tie them together. No dancing, no talking, just let everybody look within themselves and think solely about how to unify with all the others.

And what was the result? We got stuck. It turned out that I am unable to do it. And it’s good because I got to see something important: I am totally disconnected from the others; there is no link. All strings and channels are cut. There isn’t a tiny impulse. I’ll do anything but unify with the others, absorb their thoughts and desires so that they, God forbid, become like my own.

This is the power of Pharaoh. But where is the cry? Yes, we are cut off, isolated from each other. But where is our plea to make us unite? Why aren’t You coming to unite us?!

We don’t have the need for such a plea yet. We still think that we can unite by our own will: “We will make an effort and succeed.” But how is it possible to achieve this with our egoistic qualities?

The need for the Creator must be born from our mutual work, when the group will obligate everyone to use this method and convince them that the Creator will correct the situation. We need the Creator’s labor, not Bnei Baruch’s. We must provide only the plea. When we achieve this collective, world-wide demand for His correction of us, we will ascend to the next degree indeed.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Questions and Answers”

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We cannot attain GAR, the first three Sefirot of each degree. They are not part of the created being. The “letters,” created beings, desires in whom the yearning to become similar to the Creator awakens, start only with ZAT, the lower seven Sefirot.

Therefore, each Partzuf is divided into two parts. Its upper part consists of Keter, Hochma, Bina, and the upper part of Bina (GAR de Bina), which is part of the Creator, the Upper One, the Maker. The lower part of Bina (ZAT de Bina), Zeir Anpin and Malchut of each degree, belong to the created being.

Until the final correction (Gmar Tikkun), we work only in ZAT, the lower part of each degree; that is our area. That is, we act where Malchut ascended to Bina and can descend again. Only in this region where Malchut and Bina, mercy and judgment, intermixed, is it possible for us to exist, learn, and get to feel something but not above it. Malchut didn’t rise above ZAT de Bina.

However, what will happen when the rule of Tzimtzum Bet (Second Restriction) gets cancelled and we start working under the rule of Tzimtzum Aleph (First Restriction) is unknown at present. We learn everything through our desires (Kelim, vessels).

Hence, it is unclear how we can attain something that has no will to receive: In Keter, Hochma, and GAR de Bina there are no Kelim, this is not a creature. It is, in a way, the brain of the Creator, His plan as to how to make you human. That is why they are part of Him, and not you.

When I uncover the Creator, it is enough for me to rise to the middle of Bina. Thereby, I get to know Him, and with all the acquired might of Bina, I descend back to Malchut, thereby attaining the level of Hochma and Keter.

First, I lift my entire self to Bina and attain the degree of “to bestow in order to bestow.” Afterward, from Bina, I descend back down and attain “to receive in order to bestow.” I even reach Keter, but get to know it solely “by His actions.” It is located in GAR, not in my “I.”

Just as we learn something in this world, we get to know not the essence of the phenomenon itself, but our impression of it, our reaction to “something” since everything occurs only within our own Kelim or sensations.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Why was all this life drama necessary: for Israel to exit Babylon by separating from the rest of humanity, ascend to the spiritual level, build the First and the Second Temples, and then break and fall into the Klipot (shells)? It was done in order to collect a little Upper Light from Above and bring it downward, to the souls, in tiny sparks.

These sparks are the result of the breaking, and this is why they can exist inside the ego according to the law of equivalence of form. And if there is a spark in the ego, it can raise MAN (prayer) through the group that will pass this request to the Creator. The Creator will send a response in the form of the Light that Reforms that will perform a correction.

In the spark itself there is nothing to correct, but the Light will correct its connection with the other souls so that the will to receive pleasure (desire) will participate in it as well. Gradually, a person bonds with all others, and the souls begin to unify into one soul again.

Hence, this entire process undergone by the group called Israel was solely in order to correct all the other souls. Otherwise, Babylon couldn’t have been reformed for it didn’t possess spiritual sparks.

Thus, some time ago humanity divided into two groups. One of them went on attaining the spiritual world and later returned: It broke apart and fell into the material world. But this group brought the sparks of the breaking with them, and for the next two thousand years, the two groups were “stewed” together and intermixed. The time was pre-set for it. Now, the time is up and what are we to do next?

Now we have to clarify the conditions of correction both on the spiritual level and on the material one. Therefore, mankind is entering a global crisis while at the same time the method to resolve it, the wisdom of Kabbalah, is being revealed.

We are able to feel all of it only because the sparks of the breaking are living within us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “Who Created These”

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Question: I can understand how people give in the material world (you can help people voluntarily), but I don’t get how one can bestow in the spiritual world?

Answer: I, on the contrary, do not understand how you can give in the material world. After all, the reason behind of all of your actions is you wanting to feel good; that is not considered bestowal.

In the spiritual world, to bestow means to rise above all egoistic calculations, above one’s ego, one’s own desires. When it happens, a person acquires a new force which he lacks. Such a force makes it possible to bestow without any feedback from one’s desire.

Today, all your actions of giving are based on selfish calculation. We need to preserve peace and ecology, to help sick people because it hurts you to see their suffering or because, God forbid, if tomorrow you get sick, then you, too, can get help. But it’s not called bestowal; it’s an ordinary egoistic calculation.

Nature has made us from the material that needs “fuel,” just as an engine. If you want me to give or do something, you need to “fill me up” because otherwise I can’t make a single movement.

In our life, such actions characterize a person as a giver, a good man with a good heart. But a spiritual test shows that we are all egoists. All I’m doing in this world with my desire to be fulfilled is simply performing actions aimed at filling myself. That’s why I feel the world and us within it in the same manner that we all feel it.

However, in the spiritual world I reveal how I can give to others, that is, to begin to feel the desires of others as my own. I work to fulfill their desires, and I feel everything that is outside of me. Right now here, in the material world, I am feeling everything that’s inside of me, but in the spiritual world, I feel everything that is beyond me, in other people’s desires. This is only possible when the Upper Light creates within me the properties of bestowal!

Therefore, the law “love thy neighbor as thyself” is a condition or a prescription for sensing everything that exists on the outside, meaning, for having spiritual sensations. The material and the spiritual worlds are just two ways of perceiving reality: either through absorption or by coming outside of oneself in bestowal.
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From Introductory Lesson Series, “Hanukkah” 11/30/10

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Question: Why is there such a big difference between spiritual objects where the lower one is always considerably worse than the upper one?

Answer: The lower Partzuf isn’t just lesser than the upper one. It is worse in absolutely everything and opposite to it because on the spiritual ladder, all degrees are opposite to one another.

The upper degree is not just a little smarter, more knowing and perceiving. It is the same as in the four phases of the Direct Light. The first phase (Behina Aleph) is totally opposite to the second one (Behina Bet) both in relation to desires (Kelim, vessels) and in relation to the Lights. Similarly, the third phase (Behina Gimel) is opposite to Behina Bet. No consecutive degrees differ from each other just a little bit; they are always completely contrary to each other.

We don’t feel this in our corporeal world. Our egoistic desire simply continues to grow, getting more and more intelligent; here everything is clear to us. However, in spirituality, the upper degree is so opposite to the previous one that they are incapable of understanding each other. It refers even to the adjacent degrees, not to mention those separated by an interval.

Therefore, when we read a text written by a Kabbalist, we can only ask for our correction, raise MAN (Mayin Nukvin, Female Water). My own explanation is also aimed solely at focusing you on it.

All of the fancy things we are studying will help us only in forming a plea to the Creator. It’s because the ascent from one degree to the next can be made on the condition that the Upper Light turns us “upside down” or “downside up,” each time making a complete revolution.

This is how ascent occurs on the spiritual degrees, like in an embryo that turns upside down when it is about to be born. This way, he is prepared to come out. And while it’s being born (while coming out), it turns upside up again, now being at the next degree. However, it covers the gap between the degrees namely by turning upside down.

It is impossible to receive the next degree having not completely freed oneself from the previous one. “Upside down” means emptying oneself of all Light at the moment of birth. It is impossible to receive the Light of Ruach without emptying oneself of the entire Light of Nefesh because they are opposite to each other.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Our world is situated below the central point of the whole universe, Malchut, directly beneath the end of the line of the Light extending from Infinity (Kav Ein Sof), which “touches and does not touch it.” In other words, it passes a tiny spark of Light to us so that we could somehow imagine the Light and exist. This spark is called “a thin candle” (Ner Dakik).

But, in fact, with respect to the spiritual world, this whole world that we currently feel does not exist! In the picture of the universe, this point is also spiritual rather than material as we imagine it now.

Furthermore, all the subsequent 125 degrees by which I ascend to the World of Infinity vanish after my ascent. However, they are not my illusion; they simply unify, rolling up like a carpet, and remain inside of me, similar to how a person’s whole childhood experience remains with him when he becomes an adult. One can remember his childhood, and therefore understands children.

How else would I be able to understand my two-year-old grandson? This is possible only because I was once a child myself. And although I don’t remember myself at two years old, a child’s state, the whole “Partzuf of two years old” is inside me. If I didn’t have this, I wouldn’t know how to approach a little child from the height of my 60 years of age. I would invite him to study The Zohar and would not realize what else he needs.

However, we are arranged this way from Above, like a computer that holds all of these programs. We operate on the basis of inherent data and images that we awaken and choose from our storage archives.

Yet the reality that appears before our eyes now is a complete illusion. After all, it is projected by our egoistic desire, while this egoistic desire itself is an illusion and doesn’t exist! There is no desire to enjoy for one’s own sake; it vanished during the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph)! And even prior to it, the egoistic intention was not real because as soon as it awoke, it was immediately restricted.

But in order to commit a transgression, you need to repeat it. The first time, you just feel the taste of the previously unknown pleasure. If during the second time you already consciously decide to go ahead with it, then it is called a sin.

Therefore, reception prior to Tzimtzum Aleph was not considered a transgression; as soon as the creature felt it, it immediately resisted it. In Kabbalah our "earth" indicates the desire to enjoy for one’s own sake (“Eretz” – earth comes from the word “Ratzon” – desire). So does the terrestrial globe exist or not? It is my desire that portrays the earth this way for me.

It doesn’t exist, but its picture exists in my desire. And since it is an egoistic desire, it doesn’t exist in the spiritual world! Therefore, this whole world is imaginary. It is given to me as an illusion so that I could begin to be born in spirituality on my own.

The Creator wants us to build ourselves exactly like Him. But where do we begin? We begin with a complete zero, just like the Creator began with “absence” (Yesh Mi Ain). In other words, I’m starting from scratch, with not being in the spiritual world.

Each new degree for me should begin here, in this imaginary world, outside of the spiritual one: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on, until the 125th degree. (Remember how before Rabbi Shimon rose to the final degree, he felt himself as Shimon from the market.) That is, every time we rise from “this earth,” this desire.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: Why did the Creator set up such a cruel joke: There wasn’t a drop of rain for a very long time, which resulted in a horrible fire, but as soon as people put it out by making unfathomable efforts, the very next day a heavy rain came down that only interfered with agricultural work? If the Creator controls everything, why didn’t He send the rain sooner?

Answer: Along the same lines, you could ask: Why did He cause the fire to happen to us? After all, what would be the point of igniting a fire and then sending rain in order to put it out immediately? If I love someone, I won’t beat him up in order to then be nice to him.

Clearly, everything comes from the Creator. As soon as the airplanes put out the fire, the rain immediately began, and this happened on purpose in order to teach us something.

The Creator ignites the fire and He also puts it out, while we have to learn from this and draw conclusions. We are inside a system that is entirely governed by the Upper Light and nothing can come out from its power, as it is written, “The hearts of the ministers and kings are completely in the hands of the Creator.”

All of nature is the Creator, and there is no freedom of will there. Our freedom lies only in our attitude to what it happening.

If I adopt a different attitude, then will the fire happen or not? Your attitude will change your reality or the way you perceive it.

Instead of perceiving Upper Light that comes in the form of harshness (Gvurot), as a consuming fire, you will feel it as the warmth of love. This depends only on your attitude: Do you love it or hate it?

Imagine that the person you hate most in the world is now hugging you. You will turn to ice, horrified by this embrace. And now think of how different it would be if you were hugging a person you loved.

The only thing that comes to us from the Creator is love and Light, but we do not feel it and cannot accept it. From Above there is always Light coming to us, wishing to fill the common desire of the whole world and the entire universe overall. This Light methodically advances this desire to the goal, to equivalence of form with itself.

If the creation below organizes itself in the appropriate manner, then it will feel a good attitude from Above. And if it doesn’t, then it will feel the reverse.

Everything depends only on you! Nothing changes from Above. Even when we say that we can change something with our prayer, that we can raise MAN and receive a response from Above, MAD, which brings us Light and returns us to the Source and changes us, none of this affects the influence of the Upper Light in the slightest. The Light constantly comes to creation, leading it to the final goal.

All the changes take place only relative to our sensation. No matter what, the train is moving forward and nothing can stop it or slow it down.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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The only thing that can help the world against all disasters and problems is a stronger connection, cooperation, participation, and attention to each other. This is the part that the world can fulfill. And the people around the world who relate to “Isra-El” (“straight to the Creator”) have to add their intention to this. Our work is on the intention.

By connecting our intention, we will raise all these actions, all the common desires to the level of bestowal, back to the Creator. And then we’ll balance all these forces of nature that are falling upon us nowadays.

In reality, these forces are good: All disasters, fires, and hurricanes are nothing but a stronger Light coming to us. But we can’t receive it properly, and that’s why it leads to disaster. If the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) is not received inside the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), it turns into four plagues. The Light of Hochma without the Light of Hassadim is called a sword (knife).

The Creator always reveals a greater Light. He reveals Himself according to a special formula: He cannot and does not want to stop. He will not “wear our shoes” as He already has a complete program from the beginning to end of creation.

The first (initial) and third (end) states are already joined together and that’s why the program is working: The Light releases itself stronger and stronger with every moment. And according to this, if we don’t start working on greater similarity to Him all the time, disasters will continue.

They will be happening on all levels. First, they started on the still level; these are the blows that we see now. It’s like the first Egyptian plague, “blood.” And then just wait, all the other plagues will come: “frogs,” “lice,” and so on. Let’s hope that we won’t have to get to the last, the worst plague, “death of the first-born.”

The whole world has to connect and help each other, putting aside all the hostility and childish bickering. And those who have a “point in the heart” and are called “Israel” have to add to this their screen and Reflected Light, meaning the intention of bestowal.

And then everyone will unite together and achieve equivalence to nature, revealing the Creator for everyone! Each individual, according to his level and degree of participation, will discover the spiritual world.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Special Talk on Tragedy in the North of Israel

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The Creator works only with His Light. The Light affects desires (Kelim, vessels) which, depending on their condition, feel better or worse according to their equivalence to the Light. This is what constitutes the law of equivalence of form.

The more I match the Light, the better I feel. The less I am similar to it, the worse I feel up to the point that I feel a blow. All of these are effects of the Upper Light. Even the darkness I experience is also the Light working on me, and it is only my opposite qualities that reveal Him to me as darkness. Instead of the Light (Ohr), I feel darkness (Orta).

However, the Creator possesses no darkness. Simply, when He adds a little bit of Light, we immediately feel bad. This is because in this Light, we uncover a greater desire, and that’s when darkness falls.

The Light stands against desire. In other words, with the help of the Light, enormous desires unfold in me. Somewhere across from them, in a place concealed from me, there lies enormous pleasures, and, yet, I suffer.

It may also manifest in health problems, lack of sustenance, bad mood, inner restlessness, and even in wanting to die, but it is all the effect of the Light. If the Light fills prepared desires (Kelim, vessels), it is experienced as pleasure since it fills them. If the Kelim are not ready, it is a blow.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 52, 1928

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We need each other in order to overcome our ego and be truly able to bestow to the Creator. This is what He expects us to do. However, you will be able to delight the Creator only when you unite with the friends.

You will not succeed if alone because when you do it alone, it isn’t true bestowal. It won’t work. When you are alone, it doesn’t mean that you bestow; you deceive yourself.

The entire system is designed so that there is a certain filter on your path, and it doesn’t allow you to arrive at that sort of bestowal since it isn’t authentic.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 52, 1928

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