According to the Kabbalists, The Zohar is the most effective part of the entire Torah and of all Kabbalah books. Why? These books are called holy (the property of Bina) because they are written from the heights of spiritual attainment. Therefore, by reading them, we can attract upon ourselves the Light that brings us back to the Creator (to similarity to Him).

However, we can correct the desire to receive only by the desire to correct ourselves for there is no Light, no fulfillment without a desire. Hence, we have to demand for the Light to act upon and transform us. This Light is called the “Surrounding Light” because it shines on us from afar. Under the influence of the Light, our “evil intention” turns into a good one. Then, to the measure to which the desire resembles the Light, the Light fills it.

Hence to prepare for the study of the Torah means to acquire the desire for correction. This desire is preceded by realizing that our nature is evil (for us). The evil in our nature is our inability to unite with each other! Our unification is precisely the vessel where our Upper, spiritual life can be revealed.

For this reason, we have to try to establish a connection with each other and to unite together. This is described in the writings when Israel stood at the foot of  Mount Sinai: “as one man with one heart,” “all of Israel are friends,” and  “love thy neighbor as you love thyself.” After we discover our inability to unite and start feeling what prevents us from achieving our good state, then MAN, a true prayer, the wish to become corrected, will emerge within us.

That is, preparation for studying the Torah amounts to our efforts to unite, feeling how incapable we are of doing it, and realizing this state as evil, as an obstacle on the path toward good. That is, the Torah study comes after the correct preparation; MAN emerges itself.

We can think and clarify all of it already while we read The Book of the Zohar. Meanwhile, the Light will help us in our work.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Preparation For Receiving The Torah: The Light Of Correction
Laitman.com Post: What Does It Mean To Study And Engage In The Torah?
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is For Those Who Yearn For The Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

"Preface to the Sulam Commentary," “Three Come Out of One, One Exists in Three,” Item 52: Thus, it has been explained that the second discernment in raising MAN de Zeir Anpin to YESHSUT is to unite the two lines of YESHSUT, right and left. They can only shine through the Masach de Hirik in Zeir Anpin (Item 39), which completes the middle line in them and determines the two lines of Bina….

There are two lines in Bina: the right line, which is Hassadim (Mercy) and the left line, which is Hochma (Wisdom). They are not able to unite. In fact, each is ready to completely occupy the desire 100% by itself. They remain in opposition to each other.

However, they cannot emanate without each other! They both come from Above, but the right line, as if, says: “How is it possible without bestowal? Isn’t bestowal the purpose of creation?” While the left line, as if, contends: “I am the foundation of creation! I am the Light of Hochma that must be revealed in it! How can it be without me?”

And so they argue with each other without the possibility of compromise or reconciliation. Yet, in their agreement lies the solution: reception for the sake of bestowal.

To facilitate agreement, a third factor is necessary. This third factor allows each one to budge from his strongly held stance and to understand the other. The solution lies in the middle. The solution is not a compromise! Rather, it is a unique and remarkable opportunity to understand one another, to clothe in one another, and to arrive at the golden agreement.

Before the middle line, everything that existed was the qualities of the Creator. Creation begins with the middle line which allows the union of bestowal and reception. This is the form in which the creature can fully participate in bestowal and can become similar to the Creator. It is like a child who unites his parents (the two opposite lines of the Creator), and makes them one family.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/8/10, "Preface to the Sulam Commentary"

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Correction In Three Lines: An Exalted, Complementary Compromise
5 Minutes Of Light: "3 Lines In the Inner Work"
5 Minutes Of Light: "Connecting The Opposites"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

The environment will keep me thinking about the spiritual goal, if I, in turn, care that everyone is thinking about our unity and doesn’t abandon these thoughts. Thus, everyone will receive this impression, grow stronger, and advance. This is called “mutual guarantee,” whereby everyone cares about others having everything that is necessary for spiritual advancement. If instead of worrying about receiving from the environment, I worry about how to strengthen the bond between friends, as a mother cares about her children, then this is sufficient for this environment to begin influencing me.

First of all, I have to take actions in the direction of giving, connection, and care. I should view myself as being bigger than them in this regard, in order to influence them, strengthen them; I should search for additional ways of how to provide this for them. And after this I have to be able to humble myself in order to receive from them.

This will come to you, because by putting efforts into something it becomes dear and important to you, and thus influences you. It is similar to parents being both impressed by and dependent upon their children.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Are All Responsible For One Another
Laitman.com Post: The Unique Range Of Each Soul
5 Minutes of Light: “The Power of the Environment”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

If I stay alone for one moment, without the support of the group, I will immediately fall. By myself I have no grip on spirituality, the Creator, or bestowal. I can either be within my spiritual vessel while I am connected with the others and receive support from them, or outside of it. As soon as I lose their support, I fall.

One cannot advance and achieve something on his own. He won’t be able to keep himself in spirituality even for an instant. If a person thinks that he can advance on his own through reading Kabbalah books, performing some actions, and keep on the spiritual path, then it is self-deception. One will be lying to himself and only hoping in vain for advancement. Without participation and connection with the group, called the mutual guarantee, we have no chance to stay in spirituality even for a moment.

Besides, to be present in the spiritual environment doesn’t mean to be in it physically. What matters is how strongly a person desires this environment to impact him since that testifies to his desire to put himself under the influence of the Upper Force or the Creator. But if a person simply reads Kabbalistic texts in solitude, he will not be under the Creator’s influence because everything one reads passes through his egoistical filter. A person will perceive the book as he understands, feels, and desires to see it!

Thus, I’m under the influence of the Creator only if what I read comes to me through the group. The Creator or the Light “dwells amongst his people,” meaning within the group, the assembly of the souls.

Individually we have no chance for spiritual advancement. We have to understand very clearly that our only instrument to unveiling the Creator is our unity.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reaching The Right Request
Laitman.com Post: Why Was The City Of Sodom Destroyed?
Kabbalah Moments: “Group and Light”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - 3 Comments →

There is no Light without a vessel, and no fulfillment without a desire. The Upper Light is in a state of complete rest; it fills and surrounds creation entirely. Everything depends solely on our desire, our vessels of perception. If we yearn for this particular fulfillment, we will perceive it. However, if our desire does not correspond precisely to the frequency or quality of the fulfillment (meaning there is no equivalence of properties between the desire and what fills it), then we don’t feel fulfillment. Multiple examples of the corporeal world attest to this.

We have to bring our desire to the Upper Light to be filled. To do this correctly, the desire has to correspond to the Light, that is, to be in bestowal. How are we going to acquire this force of bestowal? Kabbalists say that the power of bestowal exists in every person, but is very small and remains this way in the person alone.

It can grow only if a person unites with the others. If he wishes to attain bestowal and is willing to do whatever it takes in order to receive from the group and the friends their desires to bestow, then he acquires from them many such desires. He does so in the degree in which he annuls himself and exalts the friends in his own eyes. In this way he is able to receive from them a greater desire to bestow, in both quality and quantity. And if a person possesses the desire to bestow, then the Light during the reading of The Zohar will work on him; it will begin to organize his desire and fill it.

Therefore, preparation to reading The Zohar should take place in the group, in the mutual “incorporation” into each other, in order to form a strong desire. In this case, we will succeed. We can accelerate time and shorten it, without the need to submerge ourselves in prolonged corporeal suffering. We can transform earthly suffering into the torments of love, which means suffering from not having the qualities of bestowal, from not having the desire to give that we must attain. We can work with the group and friends, and in doing so acquire such a will.

As we see, everything is in our hands. We can actually condense time to zero. The Creator created only the point “existence from absence.” The rest He handed to us, so that we increase our desire from the size of the point in the heart to the expanse of Malchut of Infinity. This is only possible if we unite. Therefore we only have a single opportunity to attain the desire for the Light: to strive to be together within our small desires to bestow.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Discontent Is A Catalyst For Development
Kabbalah Moments: “No Chance Alone”
Unlocking The Zohar: “How To Evolve”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: If Kabbalists wished to tell us about the Upper World, then why do they describe it using the words of our world and thereby confuse us?

My Answer: Kabbalists communicate with us in the “language of branches.” The science of Kabbalah is written for those who have a point in the heart, meaning for the people who yearn to reveal spirituality, the Upper World. They don’t know what it is, but nevertheless aspire toward it.

You can take a Kabbalistic book and read it as though you are reading about something existing in this world. Yet by doing so, try to constantly imagine that whatever you are reading about exists in the Upper World in the form forces and properties, reception and bestowal, and nothing else. This is why Baal HaSulam defines each word of our world by providing its meaning in the Upper World.

If I aspire to see this picture, then where is it? It’s not somewhere in the heavens; it’s within me. That is, a Kabbalistic book talks about my inner forces, about the world within me. In general, the book talks only about me; everything exists within me: people and animals, the sun, the moon, and the spiritual Partzufim.

However, when I imagine all of this within myself, I also have to wish for the Light to come and correct this picture within me, to let me see and feel these forces of love and bestowal. I desire to reveal not only this bestowal, but also the force that governs it all: the Creator.

To achieve it, I have to imagine that the people surrounding me in this world also exist within me. There is nothing else; everything is merely my inner forces. Start imagining that you now connect with all of these people, that is, with all of these forces within you. When you begin to constantly work with the book in this way, it will direct you toward bestowal. This way you will awaken the real picture and draw it closer to yourself. This is called “attracting the Light that Reforms.”

A Kabbalistic book not only helps us reveal what exists within each of us, it also teaches how to sharpen our vision so as to reveal all the worlds, the entire universe, and all of reality within ourselves. There is nothing outside. That’s why Kabbalah is called an inner science.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Correcting Our Souls In Order To See Reality
Laitman.com Post: There Is Never Anything Outside A Person
ARIfilms: “Kabbalah Books”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception - 4 Comments →

There is a psychological barrier on the path to the spiritual goal. If I wish to attain bestowal, I must not ask about anything else but how to bestow. Moreover, this isn’t bestowal as defined by my egoistic mind and my current desire. This means I can’t demand anything which is within my current understanding; it would be opposite to true bestowal and the spiritual state. Only when I move into the spiritual state and receive this spiritual attribute, will I begin to examine myself there with my new mind and new heart. Then, I’ll feel and understand within the desires of bestowal.

I simply cannot know about bestowal in my egoistical desires; it won’t work. In fact, the very first phase of entering spirituality is called “crossing the Machsom” (the barrier before the spiritual world) precisely for this reason. The perception of the quality of bestowal is completely separated from anything that’s taking place in my present desires. Therefore, it is above reason (above my current understanding) that I demand the quality of bestowal. I just want to know how to receive this attribute, even though I don’t know what it means. At present, I don’t have any connection with it, any point of contact with it, or the  ability to test it. I simply accept it in whatever form it will be handed to me from Above.

Such an attitude doesn’t seem to fit a serious, evolved, intelligent person. However, it is quite the opposite. Those who possess advanced perception, mind, and comprehension of all the processes that we go through, examine their egoism and see how we are entirely controlled and enslaved by it. They understand that we have no choice but to rise above it by cutting ourselves off from our present desires and limited egoistic perception and mind.

Therefore, during the lesson, I’m only asking for the Light to work on me. It doesn’t matter what it’s doing with me. I’m like an infant who doesn’t understand anything, but lies in the arms of its mother, completely compliant with anything she is doing with him. I have to attain such devotion to and annulment before the Upper One. I beg, “Heal me!” Beside this, I ask nothing more.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Must Be More Than Passive Participants In Our Development
Laitman.com Post: Upper Logic
Kabbalah Moments: “Faith Above Reason”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

A question I received: If we are unable to control our states, how can we make them change?

My Answer: We have to ask the Upper Light to give us the ability to learn what bestowal means. I’m not asking for anything more. We are not to know, discern, nor manage states in the sense that we imagine it in our mind. This is possible only to the degree that I rise above my reason, above the approach I’m used to. I can rise to pure bestowal when I don’t request anything else besides it. I have to exist in bestowal rather than request understanding or sensation.

The complete and perfect spiritual vessel is a single and unique desire. I have to ask only for the property of bestowal (faith above reason) so as to know what it is and to exist in it. Then, once I receive this property, I will sense, see, and manage everything.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How To Understand The Creator
Laitman.com Post: A Leap From The Roof With The Creator’s Parachute
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: "Faith above Reason"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

A question I received: We have to rise MAN (Mayin Nukvin, a prayer). Is this action performed within the desire?

My Answer: MAN means that I’m asking for the force of bestowal. From within Malchut, I turn to Bina and ask Bina for the ability to bestow. However, I have to reach the state whereby becoming filled with this prayer (MAN) is enough for me; I feel joy from being able to rise MAN.

How does the Torah describe this state? It is when you come into the “daylight.” A “day” is when you have nothing and have been wandering in the desert, looking for MAN (the desire to bestow), and you find it. When you do, it enlivens you, satisfying all of your tastes. It contains everything that you desire.

What kind of “taste” is it? Where is it coming from? What is MAN? It comes to you from Bina. It is when a mere possibility to make a plea to the Creator is enough for you: “I have the connection with Him. I can ask Him. Nothing else is important to me.”

Yet, don’t I want to have the desire within which I can reveal the Creator? No. I’m satisfied by merely having an aspiration to Him. This constitutes my fulfillment now. The connection with the Creator through the group fulfills me.

"But what kind of connection is it? How can you have anything? You have nothing." True, but can I appeal to Him by rising MAN? When this is possible, that’s enough. This is called “wandering in the desert,” acquiring the properties of “Hafetz Hesed” (he who doesn’t want anything). In the desert you are deprived of everything, you truly desire nothing for yourself. Yet thereby, you acquire the correction by the property of bestowal, similarity to the Creator, and this is your fulfillment.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Learn To See The Light In Bestowal
Laitman.com Post: From A Lie To The Light
Shamati #81: "Concerning Raising MAN" – Lessons
5 Minutes of Light: "What is Practical Kabbalah?"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Zohar - No Comments →

In order to understand and feel where we are, we have to grow spiritually. In the material world, a drop of semen starts to grow in the mother’s womb and then, after coming out into this world, continues to live in a larger space, ultimately becoming a human being. Similar processes take place in our internal spiritual development.

At a certain stage of our earthly lives we begin to sense a drop of spiritual semen that is called “the point in heart,” a desire toward spiritual development. This means that the point has unwrapped itself. We didn’t exist in this world before our parents gave birth to us. Similarly, we are brought to spiritual birth by our father and mother (also called “Abba ve Ima” in Kabbalah).

Spiritual growth happens under the influence of a force called the Upper Light. It leads us through concealments and revelations of the Light. It “shakes” us by revealing itself and showing us reality and then hiding it from us again. It plays with us and  increases and decreases our aspiration toward it. The Light influences us by altering the states we go through: good and bad, and in clarity and confusion. If our reaction is right, we develop: one more moment, one more day, and one more week.

Our development can last for thousands of years or we can complete it in a year or two. Everything depends upon the individual. All we need to know is how to react to the force that triggers our development, and to start connecting everything to one source: “There is None Else Besides Him.” He hides behind our visible wrapping of reality.

I start to discern Him and dig deeper into this reality. I do this in order to feel this power and understand how it works through all the “coverings” of this world including: close friends, strangers, nature, and even myself when it changes me internally.

With the internal changes, I begin to sense myself as a black box that understands and feels to a small degree the influences it undergoes. I begin to understand that my only task is to react to what’s happening to me. Impulses come from a visible reality, from those who are close to me, from strangers, friends and enemies; all of them are shadows that block the Upper Force from me.

If I manage to connect with the Creator through this concealment, it is called “a shade of holiness” since I build my relationship with the Creator through the resistance of concealment. At this point I begin to understand the show He is playing for me, and through it, I attain Him.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/10, Shamati #8

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Connecting To The Director Of All Reality
Shamati #1: "There is None Else Besides Him"
Kabbalah Moments: "Game"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →