Man develops like an apple that ripens on a tree until it attains the final, desired state. Man certainly goes through very opposite states on this path. He feels like a hard, sour, unripe apple. Yet can he nevertheless follow the path of Light instead of the path of suffering and feel that he is constantly coming closer to the good?

When following the path of suffering, our desire to receive pleasure constantly receives blows as it grows without receiving fulfillment. However, when we follow the path of Light, it takes us through the same states consciously, and instead of living in our desires, we live in intentions, which enable us to reveal the opposite world, the world of bestowal.

In it, I receive pleasure from bestowing to the Creator. The egoistic Kli (vessel) is the desire, and the altruistic Kli is the Reflected Light, the intention to bestow, Ohr Hochma (Light of Wisdom).

I not only accelerate my development with the help of the Light, but also perceive this path as pleasure because I am going toward a desired goal. I agree with His plan, and every moment brings me closer to it.

However, the closer I get to the goal, the stronger I feel that I am opposite to it. This is because we constantly keep increasing our sensitivity toward the difference between us and the Creator, as it is written: “The Creator is critical of the righteous to the thickness of one hair.”

On the first degree, I feel that our difference is not that major: Big deal, I receive, and He bestows. Then, from the first degree I rise to the second one, and even though I become more like Him, precisely because of this, I feel that the difference between us is no longer minus 10, but minus 100. I have risen (in other words, I acquired a correction), and it operated as a magnifying glass where I see my flaws 100 times stronger than before.

Even though I became one degree closer to the Creator, I also became 100 times more sensitive. Before, a difference the size of cart ropes did not bother me; now, I am bothered by even one little hair.

The only element that can be changed in the four factors of development (the foundation, the ways of development of the foundation, the environment, and the ways of development of the environment) that influence a growing apple or a person, his spiritual gene, is the influence of the environment. This is because only the environment determines whether the apple has good conditions for growth: enough sun and moisture.

The same pertains to the soul. When we receive good conditions for growth, we will not need wars and suffering. If we want our apple (soul) to grow, it needs to be in balance with the environment.

In order to do this, it is necessary to establish a connection with this environment and attain the Upper Force through it, attain the Creator who turns into the environment and corrects it so that I, the environment, and the Creator would unite into one whole.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: Does the mutual guarantee pertain to women as well?

Answer: Both men and women, regardless of their gender, must reach the state of the mutual guarantee. When we say that the men stood at Mount Sinai and the women surrounded them, this reflects the inner spiritual properties of each one of us.

The “woman” represents the desire to receive pleasure, while the “man” is the symbol of overcoming this desire. “Man” is “Gever” in Hebrew, which comes from the word “Hitgabrut” or overcoming. He is the desire to bestow, which discovers the opposite property of Mount Sinai, “the mountain of hatred” inside him.

But unity and the mutual guarantee pertain to everyone. Women need to try to connect with everyone internally, just like the men. But the men also need to express it externally, while the women experience it within.

Moreover, the women must “pressure” the men. This is because according to his nature, a man tends to listen to a woman, his wife. His wife is a mother to him; this is how he perceives her.

The prototype of a man is Zeir Anpin who is located between two women, two Nukvas: Malchut and Bina. His mother is Bina, and his wife is Malchut. He receives the desires from Malchut, and he turns to Bina for its fulfillment.

In other words, he is unable to turn to Bina without Malchut, and once he has turned to her, he is left with no other choice but to pass everything he has received from Bina to Malchut. This is the way a man operates. And this is why his wife replaces his mother subconsciously in many ways.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/10, Shamati #1

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You are revealing the evil that does not let you enter the spiritual world as a wall that stands in front of you. Also, you cannot break through it alone, only together.

To do this, we have to unite in a group, which is the only free action that we are able to perform. Having gathered together, we have to draw the power of the Creator to us and break the wall with it!

Now I stand before the same egoistic wall, but I am no longer alone; I stand as many points in the heart connected together and called a “Kabbalah group.” This is a huge force that can easily break the wall. We reveal the Creator inside our connection because without the Creator, we are unable to connect!

I ask the Creator and He connects me with the others. The others ask the Creator for the same thing and they also get connected. By this we introduce the force of the Creator between us. He unites us, and with the same force we break the wall. It’s because the wall isn’t outside of us, it’s between us. By working on your connection with others, you are basically preparing yourself for a breakthrough.

What does it mean that the people of Israel exited Egypt? They united with such a force that the wall collapsed; they ascended above their egoism. This is what escaping from Egypt means.

There are no walls outside. The wall is revealed to show us that we don’t want to connect with each other; it’s a revelation of the wall between us. Now bring the Creator so that He will break it. That’s it, nothing else is required!

We should continue on without being too smart. Our main work is done in concealment, unconsciously; this is the preparation period. Thus, it’s important to follow the methodology even if we don’t fully understand it, just as a child doesn’t understand how he grows up. The wall is between us and our only free action is directed against it.

One can work on this connection even if he watches the lessons at home on TV because our connection is not physical; we do not connect to each other with handcuffs or iron chains, only by inner desire. Therefore, even if I’m far from a center, I can still join as if I’m in the center itself. The distance doesn’t matter; it’s only the desire and devotion to the goal that do.

The same wall that we feel between us right now will turn into glue that will bond us together in the end. The same Pharaoh that stands between us will become the Creator. This means that we run from Pharaoh and come to the revelation of the Creator.

We don’t move anywhere; this is done within the group, but instead of feeling the breaking and rejection, we reveal the glue and connection. This is purely a psychological problem that we’ll overcome, and then suddenly the difficulty will turn to the power of connection, the angel of death into the angel of holiness, and the grave into the mother’s womb.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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What does it mean to reach Infinity? When I enter Infinity, I become Malchut of the World of Infinity, which means I contain everyone within myself. After all, “love your neighbor as yourself” means that all those whom I now see and feel as outsiders become essential components of my soul. My soul receives back all its parts, scattered and distanced from it, and it becomes a whole, completed soul.

Everything that seems to exist outside of me, such as still objects (imagine that you are swallowing all the stars!), are related to the still level of your egoistic desire, all plants are related to its vegetative level, and all beasts to its animate level. All of it is an imprint of your egoistic desire that is showing you all of these things as if they are located outside of you.

However, as soon as you start growing an organ, an attribute of bestowal, you start seeing them as existing within you. They are all your parts, and you feel that it is true. For the time being, however, it is difficult for you to comprehend since you live inside your ego and only inside it.

Physicists claim that even when you are watching some object from a distance, the act of observing affects what is observed. Hence, you see it not as it truly is, but as something that was averaged out from your own attributes and true reality. After all, everything you see, you perceive in relation to your own qualities. Everything depends on your sensory organs and how you decode what you have “seen.”

However, some day, after long contemplation, questions, and discernments, you suddenly will feel that everything is quite different. You will see it from a different angle, and then you will understand that this new vision is true. It is as if you put on a new pair of glasses.
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From Lesson 6, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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Question: Can one ask for the point of the heart to become revealed in a dear one?

Answer: Our development is similar to that of an embryo in a mother’s womb. Every part develops with a certain speed and in a certain order. We do not understand why this happens, but as we study the Sefirot and the three lines – KHB, HGT, and NHY – this development becomes more clear to us (this is explained in detail in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Parts 11 and 12).

I cannot speak to the individual beginning of development as this depends upon the root of the individual’s soul. My children or grandchildren may have nothing to do with Kabbalah and may be indifferent towards the spiritual, while a person awakens somewhere in Alaska and cannot live without it.

This depends on whether the soul has reached its development. This is why I should not pray for the Creator to change this common “embryo’s” order of development. I should only work within the group as much as possible. Our main objective is to attain unity between us!

Through this we will pour a fresh, fast, and strong flow of blood into this developing fetus. We will accelerate the common development, and everyone will develop faster as they keep their proper order. This is why we must accelerate our development and through this accelerate the general development .

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From Lesson 8, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

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The Zohar, “Introduction to The Zohar,” “BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride),” Item 128: …Zeir Anpin unites with Malchut, and she sees her husband…For she will not be able to see her husband until they all gather. And they depend on one another.

Malchut incorporates all the souls. Without them she is merely a point in the World of Atzilut, a point of Keter that has nothing of her own.

The broken souls, in other words, I and the group are found beneath in the Worlds of BYA. I want to unite with my friends, and my desire rises towards Malchut. From there it rises towards Zeir Anpin, and from there even higher toward Infinity (Ein Sof). Then as a response from her, I receive the strength to ascend. This way, the only thing that goes to Malchut is my desire to become part of the group, when I force myself into it.

I want it even stronger, and only this kind of pressure rises above to become incorporated in Malchut de Atzilut. Only it constitutes MAN, the actual appeal for correction.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 470: …as it is written, “For I will surely blot out the memory of Amalek. “Blot out is above,” “I will blot out,” below. “Memory” means the memory above and below.

“Above” and “below” do not speak of our world since it is not subject to correction; there is nothing to correct in it. This whole world that we live in while staying in our bodies (just like other people) before the point in the heart awakens in us and we find a group through which we connect with spirituality has nothing to do with correction and/or with spirituality.

We are talking about desire that originates from the point in the heart and later on is incorporated in the group (meaning into the assembly of other points in the heart that we have to reconnect together). The Zohar speaks only about this process. The rest of reality that we observe around us bears no relation to correction or spirituality.

We see a huge material world around us, but it doesn’t exist in spirituality. It is given to us only to serve as a basis from which we start our spiritual lives. Relative to the spiritual world, our world doesn’t exist. It is an imaginary reality from which we can enter spirituality independently, by ourselves.

The Creator gives us a point in the heart that allows us to advance. If we put our inner state through a filter that really separates the spiritual (authentic) world from the “unreal” one, only points in the heart would pass through this filter. The rest of this realm would be stopped by the filter and vanish since it simply doesn’t exist.

In other words, our imaginary reality has only one purpose: to allow the points in our hearts to enter spirituality. We have to continue living in this reality until we manage to connect all the points in the hearts into one spiritual realm and thus reach complete correction (Gmar Tikkun). Afterwards, this imaginary picture will disappear.

Until then, our world won’t vanish. In each action of correction (from the first to the last) we have to stay within the “unreal” image of our material world because that’s where we start a new round of correction each time.

It is written about Rabbi Shimon (the author of The Book of Zohar) that before his last correction he identified himself as “Shimon from the market,” meaning that he fell into this world and sensed only this dimension of life. From this world he managed to attain the highest level of correction.

This is the reason why the imaginary reality that we call “our world” is so important: It provides us with a sense of separation from spirituality. Because we sense separation, we independently manage to correct each portion of our uncorrected desires. We do it while staying in this world, which is totally absent from the spiritual realm, “from absence.”

This is why this world is so important. Everyone has to lead a normal life: have a good job and family, study, and comply with whatever this world requires of us. Without this world we will not become similar to the spiritual world; we will not correct ourselves or enter spirituality.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, The Zohar

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The good and bad states are not defined according to the pleasure we feel from them. States can be good or bad either according to sensations or from the perspective of truth and falsehood. Every person who begins to develop his spiritual gene (the spark, Reshimo) perceives every state both ways.

According to his desire, a person perceives the state either as “sweet” or “bitter” because the desire is an “animal,” a simple matter. However, according to the spiritual spark, he perceives his state as true or false.

Further, everything depends on how important truth or bitterness is to us; it is more important to one person, less important to another. Our advancement depends on our ability to tolerate bitterness for the sake of the truth.

Let’s say that today, I can take ten pounds of bitterness and still I will hold to the truth. This means that I am ready to go forward. Tomorrow, I will be ready to take even fifteen pounds of bitterness. Bitterness means that it is against my nature, the desire to receive pleasure, as it happened during the last convention when we tried to connect and got scared, “Anything but this!”

However, when we know that the truth is in this connection and we want to rise over our bitterness, then we will be able to do it next time. We will be able to make a calculation according to truth and falsehood.

Even though I am not ready to connect, and it hurts and scares me to break my ego and rise over it, I still see that it is false, and I hate it. I can no longer remain in it.

So far, we do not have this hatred, but it will appear. Then we will break the impure shell, Klipa, and we will go on. We just need time to do this.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 18: Happy are the righteous in this world and in the next world, who know the ways of Torah, and who follow it on the path of truth. It is written about them, “The Lord, by them they live.” “By them” are the ways of Torah. “Live” means that they will exist in this world and in the next world.

Each one of us is part righteous and part sinner. Perhaps one’s percentage of righteous is still zero, while the sinner in him comprises 100%. Or it may be that he is in the process of transforming the sinner’s part, his desire which is 100% intention to receive for oneself, into the intention for the sake of bestowal. Then that part is called the righteous within us.

Every time, we go through the following process:

1. We pass to the state where we feel ourselves as sinners.
2. We take part of our desires from there and correct them.
3. That very moment we become the righteous.
4. Then, we become sinners again by going back to another uncorrected desire to receive pleasure.
5. Once again, we transfer part of our desires into the intention for the sake of bestowal.

This way, our corrections accumulate piece by piece into one general correction.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, The Zohar

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Question: You say that the information that comes into our eyes is reflected on a “screen” located in the hind part of the brain, correct?

Answer: No, it isn’t. Nothing comes into our eyes. There are no eyes, just as there isn’t a “hind part of the brain.”

There is nothing but an egoistic desire to fill itself with pleasure, which is projecting to me that I am “constructed” this way, meaning that I have eyes, a head, arms, and legs. Yet, this is how my will to receive pleasure is painting it for me. Additionally, it paints other objects that seem to exist outside of my body.

Question: So, does it mean that we perceive the Creator as concealment? Is that how our reality is?

Answer: What we see or, rather, feel (we say “see” because sight is our most powerful sensory organ) is the difference between us and the Creator. It is the shadow of our egoistic desire cast on the Upper Light, the white screen.

Therefore, I see only various individual desires, different attributes contained in my egoistic will to receive. In other words, the still nature, plants, animals, and man are the four levels of my desire to feel pleasure (Shoresh [root], Aleph [first], Bet [second], Gimel [third], and Dalet [fourth]), which are presented to me in this fashion on the background of the white Light.

I feel only my desire to fill myself with pleasure. What about the Light? The Light is the background on which I see my will to receive. When this desire becomes like the Light, it will not block the Light from me and I will fully feel the Creator.

In the meantime, instead of Him, I perceive only my egoistic desire. In other words, everything I am surrounded by are parts of my ego.

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From Lesson 6, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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