Question: Who is to blame for my downfalls in the final analysis: me or the Creator? Are they a result of my effort or lack thereof?

Answer: It is said about the Creator, “I am the beginning and the end.” “I am the beginning” means that each initial state is not up to a person. Usually, it doesn’t have anything to do with whatever took place previously.

I am not talking about regular folks in whom the “genes” (Reshimot, orders from Above) unwind mechanically and sequentially, and the questions of the purpose of life and attaining free will don’t arise. Rather, I refer to a person who has already received the void to fill and senses it through the surfaced question of the purpose of life. Such a person can fulfill himself by entering the group (the collective system of souls) and analyzing his ascents and descents since this state initiates his spiritual journey.

Everything is evaluated in relation to freedom of choice, not to the state itself. My condition itself doesn’t matter; it can be good or bad. What matters is how I am employing it right now. In other words, only the “derivative” is evaluated.

I don’t change the world, nor do I correct it. I correct my participation in it.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, The Zohar

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Kabbalah Moments: To Learn The Descent From The Ascent

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In the article “When a Person Knows What the Fear of God Is,” Rabash writes that a sin takes place particularly during an ascent when a person, throwing away faith, merits the Creator’s love and decides to use it as a foundation for his work. A person thinks that he will never descend again since he will advance according to his common sense. However, he descends again into self-love, into punishment, for the fact that he has lost faith.

And this punishment is correction that helps him return to the direct path of ascending the spiritual ladder.

This is precisely how we should interpret our states. A state where it seems to us that we are in a descent and that we have received a punishment is actually given for our correction. Feeling one’s sin means not sinning anymore. A sin is what we have done prior to this! And the feeling of a committed sin is already correction.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, “When A Person Knows What the Fear of God Is”

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Kabbalah Moments: To Learn The Descent From The Ascent

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Question: Is it possible to proceed by “faith above reason” all the time?

Answer: Of course not. However, Kabbalists do not discuss whether we can or cannot proceed in that manner; we simply must! And when we can’t, we ask for help, and the Creator does this work for us. The entire work is done by the Creator, not a person. But we need to ask Him to perform it.

A person has to come to an end in trying to perform the work himself. Even if he knows from the start that he is doomed to fail in trying to achieve the goal using his own strength, he should still do it. Thereby he discovers that the work will be done by the Creator, and he knows how to ask Him.

I always exist in a process where I move along a straight line from the initial (current) point to the final goal, which I must reach by any means. The final point is bestowal, love for the Creator and for the created beings, faith above reason, and bestowal above/over reception. I need to leave the initial point and come to the final point, and on the path we have the following:

1st part: Doing everything that is in your power! This is first and foremost.
2nd part: Reaching complete disappointment in my own strength.
3rd part: Understanding that only the Creator can save me.
4th part: Beginning to work together with Him in bestowal (Hafetz Hesed) and love.

But while I am still at the very beginning, I should rely on my own strength and know that I will undoubtedly reach the end. I cannot fold my arms across my chest and wait for action from Above. If I do not exert as much as I can during the first stage, if I don’t do everything that is possible, then I will never reach despair and understanding of my powerlessness. This means that I will never realize that I require the Creator’s help. If so, how can I rouse the Light that Reforms?

Stages unfold one after the other, and the current state determines and builds the next one. A person doesn’t know exactly where he is and what awaits him at the next stage during the next moment. However, the whole advancement is carried out due to his pressure.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, “When A Person Knows What the Fear of God Is”

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The same question arises over and over again: Why couldn’t the Light create a perfect being similar to the Creator from the start? But it can’t be done! It is impossible to pass the property of bestowal from the Creator to the creature directly.

This is why we have to experience the breaking of the worlds (in the World of Nekudim) and the collective soul (the fall into sin with the Tree of Knowledge). There is no other way to connect and bring the qualities of bestowal and reception (Bina and Malchut) into one another except through the sin (the breaking) of Adam and the destruction of the Temple.

But what forced man to taste the fruit (apple) of the Tree of Knowledge? It’s similar to the predicament when you see a pleasure and clearly recognize that it brings harm; you feel shame, yet you are willing to override it because the temptation is too strong. You can’t resist it, even if it’s deadly. Moreover, the pleasure doesn’t cancel shame but forces you to continue!

This is when it’s necessary to arrive at conclusions and learn, since at this exact point you experience Adam’s sin founded on the collective egoism (the Tree of Knowledge), which is described as: “I ate and will eat again!” He can’t resist; this pleasure is greater than him although he knows it is forbidden.

This is the point where the difference between the Light and desire is revealed. And if you are able to sense and wish to correct it, you will realize that you need the Light that Reforms. There is no option; this is the only way to feel that you are doomed and can be saved solely by the miracle from Above. That is when you ask for the Light and receive salvation.

Salvation comes only from this point in a human. As for the “animals,” the Creator doesn’t call on them to come out of Egypt. It is the “human” who exits Egypt and leads the “cattle” out as well.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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It’s very easy to determine whether the path is a spiritual one: Everything that we agree with does not relate to spirituality! It is specifically the contradictions that our mind and senses do not accept, that are undesirable and repulsive to us, that relate to spirituality. We should work on these in particular.

If I sense that a certain state won’t bring me any benefit either in my senses or mind, then by rising above this particular state, I can start building spirituality. Most likely, in this state it will be impossible to “buy” me, and I won’t look for a selfish profit; rather, I will need the Creator’s help in order to rise above it. In other words, I constantly check myself: How much does my body resist my work? And for me this is the sign of my correct spiritual advancement.

Further on, I need to examine what I’m doing it for. Perhaps I want to overcome myself and pursue some personal goals. Or maybe I want to find love of the Creator which is repulsive to my “body,” my egoistic sensation and mind. And I’m searching for love that is built on hatred toward egoistic thoughts and desires about oneself.

Often, however, we are not trying to transcend our bodies and regret that we are unable to work according to our mind and feelings contained in the body. Instead of looking for a state that is beyond our sensations and mind, we wish to be in it.

First and foremost we need to push the body “down,” along with its feelings and mind, and be above them, not to take them into account. That is, I take them into consideration, but only in order to rise above them. Then it’s called faith above reason. But instead, I regret: Why is everything not revealed within my reason so that I can act as a sensible person and know that I have intellect and personal strength to advance correctly…

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, “When A Person Knows What the Fear of God Is”

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Kabbalah Moments: We’ll Make It For Sure

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Baal HaSulam, The Study of Ten Sefirot, Part 7, Questions and Answers, Item 7: The Achoraim of Nukva are NHY de Nukva, where there is the principal grip of the Klipot as long as they lack He’arat Hochma. This is so because it is adjacent to the Klipot as it ends the Ohr Atzilut and from it downward begin the Klipot, by way of “Her feet go down to death.”

All anti-egoistic screens that accompanied the desires in their descent from the World of Infinity to the degree of Malchut de Atzilut end at Nukva. The screens end, and the egoistic desires “grip” on Nukva since through her there’s a chance to capture Light.

Nukva, with her nine lower Sefirot, descends to the worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya) and has no strength to resist the unclean forces (Klipot). Nonetheless, she stays in a particular “balance” with them. When the Upper One resides within the Klipot, and the Klipot are able to “grab” something from it, by the same token, the Upper One is able to “grab” the Klipa, to analyze this desire and correct it. This is what happens constantly in Malchut de Atzilut with the broken souls. Inasmuch as they desire to “grip” on it and draw its Light, it can draw and correct them.

Without such mutual work, when each one strives to draw the opposite side to itself, there wouldn’t be any discernment and correction. Therefore, all our work (as the Torah describes) consists of transgressions and corrections that take place over and over again. All these fluctuations back and forth, from holiness to wickedness and vice versa, occur between Nukva and the broken souls that must discover their broken state.

These broken parts are revealed only when they are joined with Nukva; otherwise, they wouldn’t see that they are broken. As a result of such action, the Creator (Zeir Anpin) is aroused, and so tells the Torah when it describes how the Creator speaks with Moshe and apprehends his people for another sin.

In this way, Nukva reveals in the souls that their desire is egoistic. Nukva lifts a part of the souls that she is able to incorporate into herself up to Zeir Anpin. Zeir Anpin, the Creator, comes and cries, “What have you done?” This is the correct reaction to the desires which soon are going to be corrected.

We simply don’t understand the Torah. It doesn’t speak about any transgressions, but only about how the desires are revealed when they come to correction. At the instant when they are revealed, we “rejoice in the revelation of the wicked,” as Baal HaSulam writes. We rejoice because the “wicked” who aren’t revealed have no chance at correction. And who knows when it’s going to happen?

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The work that we do with our spiritual commonality is very similar to the “Tamagotchi” effect (a Japanese toy that obligates one to care for something virtual and nonexistent). The player becomes so consumed and fixated on the toy that for him it becomes more than real! He simply must stop everything he is doing and take care of the toy, “feed it.”

Interestingly enough, egoism doesn’t prevent him from caring for it. After all, this isn’t another person who he needs to compete with; rather, it’s an abstract “easy-to-care” for being, although it subtly imposes its own will on the person.

The same happens in our spiritual stimulator: On one hand, we separate ourselves from people and create something abstract where I depersonalize absolutely everyone, separate them from their bodies, appearance, and personality. But I leave their points in the heart, their aspirations towards unity for the sake of revealing the common force of love: the Creator.

On the other hand, it is nevertheless our desire, our yearning that is abstracted from the body and everything that separates us from each other. On the contrary, we are united by our common dream, our common need to reach the goal and do it only together.

This system is already becoming a supranational, multilingual world community. It will become the common spiritual root of all humanity because the idea is to unite all the people in the world. At first, we put all our strength into creating a system of connection, love, and bestowal between us. And afterwards, “the Ark carries those who carry it”: It will take the lead and begin to shape us with the Upper Light which will manifest within it to the extent that we create the vessel of bestowal.

In this system, we give the opportunity to the Upper Force of nature which exists in the unity among people to "enter" us and manifest between us. And it will begin to operate within us, nurture us, and lead us ahead towards the purpose of creation.

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A person advances inasmuch as he invests into our spiritual stimulator. I don’t enter the stimulator just to answer the questions. Nobody cares about my answers. The program keeps track of if I answered or didn’t, whether I logged in or not. That part is worthless. What matters is with what inner awe and apprehension I logged in and what I wanted to leave there, what part of my heart. This is most important.

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Today is Unity Day, and many Kabbalah groups and individual students from around the world will participate in it by connecting to us live via the Internet and the Kabbalah TV Channel. In unity we reach the desired result of our entire work, the final outcome of the entire creation because unity is the means, the vessel for the Creator’s revelation, when He is revealed “one to One,” as it is written in The Book of Zohar.

This is the only reality that we can wish for, where instead of feeling himself, everyone feels “someone” who incorporates into himself all of us. When everybody loses their own “I” and feels only “we” instead, it becomes a completely different reality. It is created “above us” and is called Malchut of the World of Atzilut or Shechina.

The broken souls exist in the worlds of BYA and are considered to be “separated from sanctity,” while in the Malchut of the World of Atzilut, above the worlds of BYA, there is the place of our unification. Hence, by aspiring to unite, we build Shechina and in it, we reveal the Creator who is called Shochen.

This is why the day on which we all engage in building such unity is a special day. We need to appreciate it and try to connect to it as much as possible!

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meiron uMasbirot”

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What makes our spiritual stimulator so special is its ability to completely abstract a person from his body (egoism) and all aspects of the material world. The system takes charge of practically everything that in everyday communication acts as an obstruction and prevents us from getting close to others.

It represents some abstract essence, which is not present in any of us, yet at the same time we all try to have it come into existence outside of ourselves, as our common whole. And since this essence is very weak, it is impossible to feel it in ordinary life as we communicate with other people because it is overlapped by our animate egoism, which is much stronger.

However, if we take care of it like it’s a “Tamagotchi” (a virtual electronic pet), if we consider it our common “baby,” then it will grow. At first glance, it is a completely irrational action that contradicts all the logical notions of the person who enters this virtual reality. But as a consequence of our common actions, we, on one hand, create an abstract commonality, and on the other, it influences us intensely and very vividly.

In other words, the force that is behind all our efforts to unite gets accumulated. This force is impossible to recognize, but it will manifest as a reaction to all our efforts. A participant in mutual efforts will individually feel its revelation. An outsider will just shrug in confusion.

It is impossible to explain its revelation to a person logically. However, we can invite everyone to participate and feel it. This is in fact the beginning of the Creator’s revelation.

This is why from the beginning and to this very day, it is so difficult for me to convince people to enter the “stimulator” for the first time and begin to participate in this process. A student needs to go by “faith above reason” in this regard and begin to work regardless of his conviction, doubt, and natural sense of reason.

But even for someone who is not a beginner, obstacles will arise again and again, despite the initial rejection of one’s egoism when he works on unification.

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