The Surrounding Lights (Ohr Makif) and circular Kelim (Kelim de Igulim) are the means we use to advance and move from state to state in the spiritual space. What differentiates the circular Kelim (desires, vessels) is that they are deprived of the screen (Masach) and do not perform Zivug de Hakaa (coupling while striking) to the measure of their similarity to the Light. Only the screen brings this similarity, connection, to the vessel, thanks to which the Kli (vessel) defines what direction to take on its own.

However, for the time being, a circular Kli does not have a screen that would arrange its desires in a line, from above downward, to the extent of their similarity to the property of bestowal. And yet, the screen-less vessels also live, move, and transform under the influence of the Surrounding Lights.

As a matter of fact, how would we keep advancing from our world through the entire preparation period toward the Machsom and the entrance to the spiritual reality unless the Surrounding Lights were affecting us? What devices would we use? After all, we do not have a screen. Does it mean we would be left at the mercy of the natural flow of events and fate?

On the other hand, if the Kelim still gravitate to the screen and if their point in the heart awakens and gives them the first impulse to correction, to the truth, they become subject to the effect of the Surrounding Lights. These Lights perform according to the efforts of the Kli, its desires and demands no matter how silly they are. In a similar manner, children do not yet know how exactly to evolve but keep growing and developing nonetheless. All of this occurs due to the impact of the Surrounding Lights.

I was led to the group, and I do what looks good in the view of my friends. Having no understanding or power, I still don’t grasp completely what is going on but feel that it is important to me.

Until a person enters the spiritual world, he does not know whether he is dead or alive, how he lives and what nourishes him. We have no idea what the real status quo is until we have come to know the Creator in the smallest degree.

Hence, we are guided by the Surrounding Lights. We attract them and wish for them to affect us. In the dark, without the screen, the intention for bestowal, in the egoistic intention Lo Lishma that inevitably derives from their breaking, we still gravitate toward Lishma, bestowal. Afraid and unwilling, we nevertheless do not ignore it anymore.

Hence, in such situation, we get affected by the Lights that are related not to a line but a circle: the environment comprised of the friends in which we do our work.
[26587]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

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Question: During the parts of the lesson when we study The Zohar and TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot), I experience tremendous difficulty understanding anything. What is the correct approach to the content so that it would help me strengthen the bond between us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam and Rabash wrote articles, letters, and other similar texts. In addition, Baal HaSulam wrote a commentary on The Book of Zohar, The Study of Ten Sefirot (TES), “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” and the book Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot, all of which are the primary sources we get nourished by.

I drew a dividing line between them for the following reason. We use the above mentioned books as an instrument to draw the Light (Segula). And we read all the other works not only to draw the Light but to also understand the content. In the first case, understanding plays a supplementary role, whereas in the second it is in the lead.

The Book of Zohar doesn’t leave anything for the mind to cling to. At times, it explains something or provides a hint, although we don’t especially need it. In the end, we need a method called “the Torah” since the Light it conceals reforms us. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how much you understand. It’s not the wise one who learns. Intelligence doesn’t play a role here.

Some people write down every word, which is good for as long as it helps them connect to the source emotionally, in the desire. But if everything is determined by the mind, it isn’t worth it. We are not in the university, and from studies alone you will learn nothing unless you obtain a desire to bestow, connection with others, and love. Only this will allow you to feel the material since man is a desire, a vessel of sensation and perception.

Mind is powerless in itself; it is a mere means to direct and strengthen the desire.
[26597]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: Is there a connection between the individual and collective governance?

Answer: Yes, there is a two-way connection between them. The collective governance is related to certain parts and, at the same time, affects the entire system of souls, all of which correlates with each individual response.

The souls residing within the circle of the system must ultimately comprise a singular line. In order for all of them to find their own place in it, each of them has to be managed individually. Therefore, there is a program of general and particular management in the system which works from Above downward (marked yellow in the diagram below).

However, this isn’t enough. Now, everybody has to provide an individual feedback: To what degree do I wish to advance and exert additional effort toward the pressure that the management is applying on me? Am I adding my own power to the force of the Light?

The Light affects me “in its time,” pushing me forward by blows whether I like it or not. This process is regarded as “Beito.” However, there is another way: I can accelerate my development and engage in this process before the Light will begin to act. Such acceleration of advancement is regarded as “Achishena.” I align my desire with the desire of the Creator, with correction, the final complete state of existence.

Therefore, the essence of my work is in bringing forth all of my power, thereby neutralizing the power of the Light. I wish to accept the program of governance, understand and implement it independently. This is the reason we received the point in the heart, and, in truth, our sole aspiration is to know and carry out the program of creation.
[26602]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: What is the collective and individual governance?

Answer: We reside in reality the essence of which is the desire to enjoy, the force of reception. In addition, the force of bestowal, the force of the Light, acts in this reality.

What is the formula of their interaction? Suppose one force is X and the other Y, and they are equalized by a quotient K. In truth, the formula is this: The two variables, X and Y, are the will to receive and bestow pleasure, respectively, and the screen, K, is between them.

In the beginning of our reality, the desire to receive pleasure (0) opposes the desire to bestow (1). However, in the end, upon the completion of the 125th spiritual action, they become equal (1-1).

Hence, the formula is simple: From mutual opposition, we have to bring these desires to equivalence of properties. The will to receive has to acquire the attribute of bestowal.

Now, we know the rule and its result. The point is that two opposing yet interacting forces act in reality, and every instant of their interaction must lead to the final outcome in the most efficient manner.

Hence, Nature operates in everything there is according to the rule of "minimal input with maximal output." This mechanism affects us, and by experiencing the effects of its impact, we regard them as “governance.”

Governance can be individual and collective. The individual one applies to each cell of the organism and defines how a certain part has to advance by acquiring its individual form to fit the advancement of the collective system. We can see this type of governance in the example of the step-by-step formation of an embryo’s organs. Its body grows according to the collective governance that establishes the order of development of all other parts.

Then, from the general governance, the individual ties branch off, which get connected with each part in its respective place in accordance with its role in the process of the collective evolution. Thereby, the common program of development underlies the individual programs that govern us.
[26605]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: If there is no reward and punishment in this world, where do they exist?

Answer: There is reward and punishment in our world, good and bad people, and everything else that you see and understand. It is written: “The world behaves according to fixed laws.” Within the scope of our world, each society, country, and civilization has their own laws.

If you come to a kindergarten, a school, or some adult establishment, in each place you’ll find specific laws of communication and reward and punishment for their observance. Wherever you may end up, there will be a charter of laws for a group of people, whether a society or a nation.

But with respect to profits and losses concerning the spiritual world, your corporeal actions have no bearing on the spiritual degree. They affect the soul’s future reincarnations, but not on the Creator’s revelation to the creatures, the revelation of the spiritual world, which is described as “see your world in this life.” And, as the Torah explains, a person who has only performed corporeal actions is considered to have done nothing at all.

We study that your only free action in this world is the exertion to unify in the group; all of your other actions are not yours. We are evaluated only with respect to choosing the best environment every time so as to achieve the purpose of creation.
[26410]
From Lesson 2, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Question: When we cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), do we do it together or each of us in our time?

Answer: The Machsom is a potential border. If I aspire to unity with the friends and from separation between us yearn to reach greater closeness, if I try as much as I can to annihilate this distance, but am unable to do so, then I appeal to the Creator, the Light, and break through the Machsom. In other words, my ego remains, but I wish to rise above it despite the fact that at the previous stages, I didn’t especially desire this and was accepting of its presence in me.

This is how it was before the Machsom. However, above it, there are two forms of connection: “to bestow in order to bestow,” the level of Bina, and “to receive in order to bestow,” the level of Hochma and Keter.

Where, then, do I realize the Machsom? I do so in the connection between us. In it, I am not subject to our external actions concerning each other and expressions of personal likes. Here, I need to work solely within.

I have to feel an inner ability to bond with them within myself, in our desires, so that all our sparks of bestowal connect together. As soon as I start desiring it, I cross the Machsom. Yet, all our egoistic attributes remain. After all, we haven’t corrected our ego, but rose above it, eager to unify our passionate desire for spirituality, the property of bestowal.

If our sparks of bestowal are bound together, they form a vessel for the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) because such a vessel already has the attribute of Hafetz Hesed (presiding above one’s egoism). That’s when a person starts perceiving the Upper Light ruling over everything there is.

Below the Machsom, the same Upper Light fills the entire reality, but we don’t perceive it. As soon as our points in the hearts begin connecting, in a bond, density, compression between them I suddenly start feeling the Light that permeates everything . However, the sparks had already “found” the Light and become its “gauge.”

We are now in the same condition, and we don’t need to zoom into another dimension or other galaxies. The Light resides between us, and we just lack sensitivity for it, an organ of perception. The closer our hearts get, the more we discover the Light that dwells among us. We arrive at this in mutual bestowal and desire it to take place.
[26413]
From Lesson 2, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Perception of reality, as the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us, is very subjective. Reality is perceived solely in relation to us and our sensory organs. But outside of them, there is no reality; it doesn’t exist. We receive it as an image on the screen located in the “hind” part of our brain, as if reality exists irrespective of us, on the outside.

As The Book of Zohar explains, I see parts of my will to receive to the extent that it differs from the Light, to the degree that my desire to receive varies from the attribute of bestowal that characterizes the Light.

Our collective desire, the single creature, was initially in the state of “Infinity.” Then it descended from the property of “Infinity” to that of “our world” by experiencing the breaking, meaning changing its property from bestowal to reception.

Through the breaking, this big soul divided into 600,000 individual souls and then into a multitude of parts that ended up in “our world,” an egoistic property. This is why we feel that there are many of us, although in truth, each of us sees only parts of his own soul.

We study that the soul is comprised of 10 Sefirot. They are divided into GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh). GE contains the Sefirot of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, and Tifferet, which are the vessels (desires) of bestowal, whereas AHP contains Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut, the vessels of reception.

It turns out that I perceive reality by means of these ten vessels or desires. What I perceive within GE is my self, my “I,” and what I perceive in AHP is the illusory, external world I see outside of myself.

Essentially, I have experienced an internal tearing of the vessels of GE and AHP. I perceive my greatest desires that were supposed to bring me the greatest pleasures as alien, like all of you, for example. You all are the vessels of my AHP. I experience “I,” myself, and everything related to me in GE of my soul. In my ego, I am constantly preoccupied with this specific part, and all my calculations aim at my personal benefit.

I perceive the part referred to AHP as completely alien to me. Moreover, I am willing to use it in any way I can for as long it may serve my benefit. Hence, it looks like I am constantly trying to fool, lie to, and steal from myself, but I am neither aware of it nor feel it.

Later, when a person begins discerning it, he arrives to great disappointment. Therefore, the method of Kabbalah, before anything else, stresses the need to unite, although it must not occur in the corporeal plane (between you and me). The entire method is aimed at the necessity to unify and correct the soul, meaning that I must unify these two parts in my perception.

So now, what I see outside of myself and experience within myself, these two parts, have to become one whole. Then, we will truly see that there is nothing but a person, and what I observe inwardly and outwardly is my “self,” my “I,” or my will to receive (desire).
[26417]
From Lesson 2, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Question: If there is no one besides me, then why do I have to come to the Convention, unite with everyone, and love them?

Answer: You have to start perceiving the true reality in your sensations. Therefore, you have to come and see that we all do exist, and you have to perform all actions so we would “cease to exist.”

Question cont.: But you said that there is no one else here.

Answer: But it is me who said it! And you have to reach such an attainment on your own. You have to prove it for yourself that there is nobody here except for Malchut of the World of Infinity.
[26529]
From Lesson 6, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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The question “What do I live for” is the inception of the desire to reveal the Creator. I want to know Who had begotten me, where my root lies, and Who governs me. Who created all this, and why did He create me “wrapped up” within this huge world? What does He want from me at every moment, giving me not a moment’s rest and pushing me toward some unknown?

When these questions come to me, they poison my entire life, and I can no longer live without revealing the Creator. This is how I am structured for I am created by the Light which had imprinted itself in me, in all my desires.

All my desires are like a cast, the Light’s reverse imprint, and until I draw the Light and fill myself with it, I will not rest, to the point where this life will feel worse than death. I will be ready to do anything for even a drop of this fulfillment.

Therefore, my task is to clarify how to reveal the Creator, the Light, and the form in which I can fill myself with it. Indeed, this is no simple task which is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “Hochmat HaKabbalah (wisdom of reception).”

It is not like in our world where I need only to open my mouth to slake my thirst. A spiritual desire cannot be quenched directly. Rather, it must be clarified first since the Creator does not give me a ready desire suited for the Light. He wants me to verify what is it that I desire, what is the Light, and to realize that it is the greatest of any possible fulfillments. He wants me to try all the desires and all the fulfillments, to verify myself, and to say, “No, I want only this!”

The Creator is extremely jealous and captious. He wants me to love only Him and nothing else, and He verifies this by revealing in me every possible thing. I am supposed to reply, “No, You are still the greatest of all fulfillments, of all pleasures! You are the tastiest!” It is written, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” because this type of fulfillment is called taste.
[26423]
From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Congress 2010, 11/11/10

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We constantly search how to improve our life, and all our thoughts and desires are aimed at it. The Creator constantly reveals new desires and an inner void to us, thereby sending us in the reverse direction, forcing us to flee from this emptiness.

He reveals something bad to me, and I start running away from it, in the opposite direction, to something good. However, at that point, He reveals yet another void in me, and I reverse my running again. This is how we are governed from Above.

Every instant, we experience a new desire and instinctively try to fulfill it to the best of our ability. In this way, the Creator leads us toward the goal to become like Him. Although a person is totally opposite to the Creator (since the Creator is absolute love and bestowal, and man is the force of hate and reception), yet, gradually, he is enabled to see his antagonistic nature and correct himself.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method to know the Creator, the property of bestowal, is given to man to assist him in this life. To accomplish this, the Creator selects people He wishes to draw near to Him, but not all at once. Eventually, however, everybody, every person living on this earth will have to come to Him and will become like Him!

All of us have one purpose, but we are approaching it individually and gradually. There were people who started approaching the Creator thousands of years ago before us, in the recent centuries, and today, and there will be more in the near future.

Today, we are at the last stage of human evolution when all of humanity has to know the Creator and ascend spiritually again in order to return to the World of Infinity. We can be viewed as the first row of the last generation.

Man lives fueled by the matters of the corporeal world that he experiences on the path of his earthly life, until a question arises within, “What do I need this all for? I wish to know what happens ‘before’ and ‘after’ I die, and is there any sense in existing, living this life?” These questions come from the Upper degree, the source of life in this world. Hence, these inquiries elevate a person above his entire evolutionary journey.

A person starts seeking in search of answers, and, if the questions are truly above our corporeal world, he finds the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is because with his spiritual spark, “the point in the heart,” a person is like an electron in an electric field, a particle that carries a negative spiritual charge. He feels this “minus” and, therefore, keeps seeking fulfillment for his desire in the field surrounding him.

He can’t find it in our world, and this is the cause of frustration that permeates the world today. We have lost hope in a “better future” (communism or consumer society), and we have to find what we are living for. Otherwise, the entire world will drown in drug abuse, terror, despair, or antidepressants. A person won’t know what to do with himself since this inner void will drain his desire to live.

However, it will be these people who will discover the wisdom of Kabbalah as the only method to find higher meaning. They won’t find solace in religion, faiths, mysticism, “new age,” or meditation. In truth, all the above remedies are aimed at self-relaxation at the level of our world, although their questions come from the realms of a higher dimension.

Hence, we have received permission to reveal and circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah, and we are witnessing how people from all over the world have started to awaken and gravitate to it.
[26426]
From Lesson 8, World Kabbalah Congress 2010, 11/11/10

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