Question: While anticipating the Kabbalah Mega Congress these days, I started to feel like a child who is looking forward to a holiday feast. What does it mean?

Answer: We stand on the threshold of the desired revelation. It is a very serious action that may bring about incredible changes. If we want to enter spiritual world, meaning to reveal the Creator among us, we can achieve this only in our unified desires.

During the three days of the congress, we will try to come together and connect our desires in one. If we keep aspiring to experience everything in one collective desire, we will meet the condition which the people had received at Mount Sinai: become as one man with one heart. If we do, the Torah – the Light that created and divided us and is now willing to unite and lift us to the Creator – will be revealed to us!

We won’t be able to unite by ourselves, but if all who participate in the congress truly yearn for unity in a single desire for the Creator, we will draw the Light upon us. Our oneness could be temporary, or it could be real and cause the correction of our “fall into sin.”

United desires are called the Soul (Adam), and the Light which is revealed in them is the Creator, Bo-Reh (from Hebrew words “Bo” – Come and “Reh” – See). This means we have come and attained such quality of oneness that we found the Creator in it.

In my perspective, it is quite possible. Therefore, I see congresses as profoundly important. If, however, the complete oneness is not achieved this time, I won’t despair. I know how much closer such gatherings bring people and I have no doubt that after a few such actions, we will have the Creator reveal Himself to us anyway.

There is no better means to accelerate our progress. One such “attack” of people unified in a single desire is worth six months of   scrupulous, daily studies. This is why I am so excited and hopeful that we will achieve what we aspire to.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/10, Article, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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The very first step in attaining love and bestowal is to achieve fear. This is much like a mother who is constantly in a state of fear, worrying about her baby and everything that happens to it. This natural fear constantly throbs inside of her and does not allow her to rest.

We need to reach the same attitude and concern regarding the Creator; that is, to constantly worry and quiver, checking ourselves: Am I thinking about Him, can I add anything else to my concern for Him? If I want to achieve the quality of Bina, then whoever I wish to bestow to is like my child. The fact that I call Him the Creator is irrelevant. I must worry and care for Him like I would about my own baby because I want to be a giver.

From this point a person’s connection with the Creator begins. However, in order for this to happen, we need to achieve the same tender connection with humanity, or at least with a small part: our group. I need to learn to worry about it like I would worry about someone that I love and cherish. We are given similar examples in our world: concern for our children or parents, for someone who is outside of me but is still connected to me with inseparable ties.

An inner fear or trepidation needs to live inside me: Will I be able to help them and bring them good? This is the quality of Bina from which everything begins, and, above it, we begin to build bestowal and love. The Creator gives us such exercises in our egoism so that we can gradually attain a different reality – an altruistic one. This is so we can have examples and a foundation on which to build the quality of Bina, bestowal, within us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/10, Article, “You Stand Today, All of You”

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Question: If the speed of advancement and the number of discernments are essential for spiritual progress, then it is unclear what we need to do. Should we discern every state as deeply as we can or should we try to replace it with a new state as quickly as possible?

Answer: You cannot enter a new state if you haven’t finished discerning the previous one. You need to thoroughly clarify the state that you are in. The moment you finish this analysis, the state is replaced. We cannot forcefully change our states. Every state lasts until you feel that you are unable to stay in it any longer and that you need to advance. This is how material, evolutionary development occurs, and so does spiritual development.

When we begin to hate our state and are unable to stand it any longer, then this attitude forces us to come out of it. After all, hatred means distance in the spiritual world. Thus, we enter a new state. However, what is important here is the correct discernment. Otherwise, it may happen that “a fool sits with his arms folded and eats himself up.”

We need to use all the means given to us (the study, the group, and dissemination), rather than some other ephemeral opportunities which also seem real to us. If you act in order to unite with the friends, to reveal bestowal and a mutual guarantee between you so as to discover the force of bestowal, the Creator, within it, then this is the right direction for the work. If you dissipate your energy in a thousand other directions and actions, then you just waste your strength and, consequently, fall off the track of your development.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/10, Article, “And There Was Evening And There Was Morning”

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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 96: Three Degrees NRN. The most hidden is given to the wise at heart. Three degrees cling to one another—Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama.

All of The Book of Zohar and the entire wisdom of Kabbalah speak about spiritual degrees. However, what is a spiritual degree? What is ascension? What do we ascend in? In the corporeal world, a greater fulfillment of the desire to receive pleasure (in terms of food, sex, family, wealth, recognition, and knowledge) is considered to be an ascent. This is material “ascension” since it is dictated by the aspiration to receive egoistic pleasure.

In contrast, spiritual ascension is greater bestowal to others. A spiritual force is the force of bestowal, whereas a material force is the force of reception. This shows that the science of Kabbalah speaks about ascensions in bestowal.

Where can I actualize, verify, experience, and perceive this ascension and be certain that it is real? I can do this in the group. This is why the Creator broke the connections between the souls. He gave us a perception of this reality called “this world” and a diversity of numerous similar creatures that we call “people.” However, in essence, they are all souls who have lost the sensation of spirituality and live solely in the corporeal world. Thus, instead of experiencing our spiritual vessel, which is the will to bestow, we feel the material desire that paints a reality for us where we live in our bodies in this world.

What are we left to do? In our present state, we must start yearning for bestowal and mutual guarantee. Then, we will become equivalent to the nature of the spiritual degrees that the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about, and we will be able to ascend the steps of bestowal.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/10, The Zohar

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We can only change how fast we advance and how quickly we pass through the various states in our development. An animal doesn’t experience change, while a person does since the egoistic desire grows in a person day by day. From the dawn of humanity and during multiple lifetimes, our egoistic desire grew on its own. We were not aware of it and could not do anything about it. Now, however, we have to participate in the process of creating our new desires for bestowal. This is in our hands. We can change the speed of our progress through our own efforts.

Depending on the speed, we will know what goal we are advancing toward and how we feel about it. Do we desire it or not? If we do not desire change, we walk the path of suffering. If we do, we walk the path of Light. Other than the speed of our advancement, we can change nothing. What helps us in this process is the Surrounding Light that we draw during our studies and self-analysis that we perform through the group. How quickly we clarify our desire depends solely on how fast we unite.

This is why it is written: “We shall do and we shall hear.” We can perform actions without understanding all the fine details. But by first going above our reason like children, we gain knowledge and perception in the end. In some few months, a person begins to discern certain changes and states within. This is the result of the path he has walked, although what exactly he had gone through was unknown to him beforehand. All we need to do is follow the recommendations of the Kabbalists in order to expedite all the necessary changes.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/10, Article, “And There Was Evening And There Was Morning”

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The first man was created with only bestowing Kelim, Galgalta veEynaim. He did not have desires to receive, the AHP, for he still needed to acquire them. And he did not simply need desires to receive, but desires that are ready for correction, meaning desires that include sparks of bestowal.

There is no need to correct the Galgata veEynaim since this is not a person; it is an angel in the Garden of Eden. What was needed was a person with a broken soul, with all the preparations for correction, and this is why the breaking occurred.

However, breaking alone was not enough since a person does not feel that he is broken – he was born this way! Being broken, he has no contact with the Light relative to which he could measure himself and realize his state. Now he needs to gradually accumulate the definitions inside himself in order to understand that he is broken. And he does this due to two components: his desire to enjoy and the spark of bestowal. They both need to be cultivated.

He engages in this until by checking one against another, he reaches a state of disappointment. Then he can begin the correction in order to become human.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/20, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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If a person’s actions are directed at uniting with the friends, he very quickly discovers the need for direct connection with the Creator who should aid this unification. Every action should lead us to the correction of the breaking, to unity among us, and then the need for the Creator’s influence for the quality of bestowal and love will manifest in it.

Thus, three components of our state – the Torah, Israel, and the Creator – are revealed. The Torah is the force that creates the desire (the world is created through the Torah), the force that corrects the intention of the desire ( the Light that Reforms), and the force that fills the desire (pleasure and wisdom, the goal of creation). “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the general rule of the Torah. Israel (one who aspires to the Creator, the soul) is the common Kli (the unification of souls, Shechina). The Torah is the Light, the force that corrects. The Creator is the inner source of this force.

Together we create the condition for unification and a mutual guarantee. We prepare the place for the revelation until “the sons of Israel cried out from the work,” that is, when we require His help. We see the comparison of the society and the Creator in almost all of the descriptions in the Torah. Without the society, we are unable reach the Creator. Therefore, the group is the means. It is the Shechina, Knesset Israel (Assembly of Israel), the collection of souls which ask not to stay in the dust (egoism). All the articles state this.

A person forgets about the need for connection with the Creator since this goes against his nature. However, this connection will appear in our nature if we unite into a group. If I am not connected to a group, then I am not aiming at the Creator and will not find the direction to Him.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, Article, “On My Bed At Night”

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It is written about an embryo: “A mother gives it the red part, the father gives the white part, and the Creator gives it the soul.” A common problem in spiritual work is that we forget about the “third component,” the Creator who needs to finish the work for us. A person exerts a great amount of effort and then he is perplexed: where is the desired result? One doesn’t understand that he does not complete this action; he forgets that all his actions should begin and end with the Creator, the Upper Force, while he stays in the middle.

Likewise, we come out of Infinity and return to Infinity. And “on the way” we develop and become corrected either through the path of suffering or through the path of the Light. But in both cases the Light works, and we merely add our desire. We do not correct ourselves; we only hasten our development.

However, one usually forgets that he is merely one of the components of his development. He intensifies slightly and thus feels the action changing from a negative to a positive one. But the action itself occurs due to the forces that already exist in nature. The most important component is the force of the Creator. If a person does not bring the Creator to help him so that He would complete the action, if he does not summon this third component that is not present in his picture of nature, then not a single action is finalized and a person remains the way he was!

This is a common mistake, which often remains unnoticed. And there is only one solution here: to turn to the group for help. If there is a common opinion in the group that the Creator is the most important force that determines the end of the action, then none of the members included in the group will forget about this. One will not be forced to experience bitter disappointment resulting from him working so hard and still not achieving anything.

Look for the Creator (as it is written in the Song of Songs: “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth”) and remember that one does not have the strength to win this battle alone; he also has a Partner. And without Him a person has only an empty desire, which gradually dies out like a small fire.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, Article, “On My Bed At Night”

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Question: In his article “Finding the Creator Within,” Baal HaSulam writes that a person keeps reincarnating until he completely attains the wisdom of Kabbalah. What does that mean?

Answer: To completely attain the wisdom of Kabbalah means to comprehend the structure of my soul in general and in particular, to attain all inner differences and actions that can occur within me with all their fulfillments, causes, and affects. That is, one attains the soul’s structure, the actions that take place in it, and from this, a perfect state. This is what thorough, complete knowledge is.

In other words, complete knowledge is attainment of the Creator which happens as a result of our adhesion with Him. The soul (one soul or all souls together) or the Creator are the same. Each soul attains all the souls because all of them are its parts. The Creator is the force that connects the souls together and encompasses them.

Who was shattered? The Creator was. We assume that the breaking occurred in our Kli (the general desire, the unified soul). But in fact, the breaking occurred in the Creator within us; the screen (Masach), the force that binds us all together broke. The Creator was broken within us to such a degree that we stopped recognizing and sensing Him.

What are we actually achieving by bringing the shattered splinters of the broken soul together? As we connect our impressions, inspirations, and sensations into one, these “constituents” eventually will bring us to perceive the Creator. The same Creator, the same Upper Force previously filled us when we were in a state of “love of others,” but with the shattering it turned into “unfounded hatred.”

Now, we have to reverse and return this force into its correct state. It doesn’t mean that it will alter itself; the relationships among us will. Therefore, from the state of hating the Creator we rise to loving Him, which happens to the extent of our efforts to transform unfounded hatred into brotherly love.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article, “From Within My Flesh I will See the Creator”

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The nature of this world is egoistic, and we were born into desire whose nature is to receive. Hence, this desire is constantly pulling and pushing me toward pleasure, not leaving me alone for a second. Each moment it is creating a new need in me, enticing me with new sources of pleasure. It turns out that in this world I am under the persistent pressure of the force of nature that awakens in me the sensation of pain and suffering. Hence, if I do nothing, there is no punishment. The urge to do something derives from nature because I am controlled by the force that is pushing me “from behind.”

On the other hand, there is no pushing force in spiritual development since there is no coercion there. It is up to me to gain, collect, accumulate, and arrange a force within myself that will advance me. Therefore, in order to help us who reside within our egoism (the desire to receive pleasure) to advance spiritually, we are “punished” if we don’t work. That is, we are punished for inaction.

If we start paying attention to our feelings, we will recognize that they come from the Creator. This will greatly help us to react more correctly and advance. If we start seeing the Creator’s attitude to us, punishment for our idleness in work, in every state that we go through, we will be able to better prepare for each new action moment to moment. We will see that the Creator is always first and that He invites and guides us to act. All we need to do is pay attention to what He is saying, to how He is working within us, and according to that, discern the details of our work. Afterward, our entire work entails uniting our souls, where the Creator will reveal Himself to us.

Within this unity, sensing how the Creator is guiding us, we will begin to perceive the Direct Light, the Reflected Light, and all the other actions that we are studying in the wisdom of Kabbalah. We will begin to perceive how they manifest among us. In this way, the Creator pushes us to connect so that our desires correspond with His.

Hence, the Creator doesn’t punish but corrects our trajectory.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/10, Article, “I Am the First and I Am the Last”

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