Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea

Question: There are 32 springs descend from Mount Hermon and their waters gather on the Golan plateau. Why exactly 32? Did somebody count them or is it a pure allegory?

Answer: No, this is not allegory. The fact is the entire system of the upper world consists of 320 parts and each of them consists of ten Sefirot. Therefore, as it were, 32 streams of the upper light come down from the highest point through the system called the light of Hochma to Bina—the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee).

Question: From the River Jordan to Jerusalem stretches the territory that corresponds to the force Zeir Anpin. What is this force?

Answer: The fact is that the descent from above downward is intended to provide water to the lower ones. The lower ones are the souls that belong to Zeir Anpin and Malchut, that is, to the Dead Sea. Ultimately, it is necessary to bring water to the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea has existed for many thousands of years. This is the lowest point on earth 420 meters below sea level, and today perhaps even lower because it constantly gets shallower. Huge craters have formed in it that go deep into the earth.

The Dead Sea is very close to the inner part of Earth, where, in its magma, the entire system of chemical elements boils. Therefore, this place is very heavy. The water in the sea is also special. No matter how much it is studied, it is impossible to fully study its special internal qualities.

This sea represents our egoism, the will to receive, the black matter, that closes only in itself and therefore, there is no life there.

Remark: It is written, however, that after the end of correction everything there should come alive again.

My Comment: It is only if we do the right thing, then the Dead Sea will receive all the goodness, light and water from Mount Hermon and will blossom.

Once instead of these deserts and mountains lush vegetation, forests, and vineyards grew.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

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Spiritual Contact

Question: What can one feel in the places that are influenced by spiritual forces?

Answer: A person who has no spiritual sensitivity will not be able to feel anything. I was standing beside my teacher in the most powerful place in our world, at the grave of Rashbi, and I can say that I almost felt nothing. At least, compared to him it was practically zero, and he was in absolute spiritual exaltation.

Question: Why do we feel a spiritual force at the grave of a Kabbalist and not at the place where he was born?

Answer: It does not matter. It simply is the only place where we know for certain, see, and feel that it is associated with Rashbi.

Question: Then why not in the cave Idra Rabba where he wrote The Book of Zohar?

Answer: Frankly, I personally am not sure that The Book of Zohar was written there. We never went there with my teacher. I have been in those places since, but I did not feel anything.

You can say the same thing about Miriam’s well on the Sea of Galilee. According to the legend, if a person drinks water from this well one begins to attain the upper world.

Of course, you can drink water from the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), it is not forbidden, but the fact that you will be able to acquire some spiritual attainment is, of course, a legend.

Each nation has very interesting and beautiful legends. However, we should understand the difference between the true Kabbalistic sources and the false ones.

First, everything depends on the place: even in our world, there must be a clear root you can touch. Second, a person must be able to touch it internally with one’s intentions. When these two conditions are fulfilled, there really is a spiritual contact.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

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A Kabbalist’s Sensitivity 

Question: You often went with your teacher to the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). Does this somehow have to do with Bina?

Answer: He and I traveled almost all over the country, and at each place we indeed felt different influences.

We had a small house at the Kinneret where we came and lived for several days. We did that periodically, once in a fortnight.

Question: Can a Kabbalist feel any forces that influence this Earth? Can he somehow draw these forces?

Answer: Of course, we drew strength from there, a lot of strength.

Question: Can you do this in Siberia or in New York?

Answer: No. Firstly, nowhere except Israel. Secondly, in the north near Tiberius, at Mount Meron there are vast spiritual spaces where you just fall into certain spiritual forces.

However, only people who are predisposed to this, who have developed such sensitivity within them and can tune in to the same frequency, can feel them.

This is not mysticism or meditation. We are talking about those who study Kabbalah. They feel and understand the difference in these forces.

Conversely, to those places that ordinary people consider spiritual, Kabbalists are quite prosaic, do not pay attention to them and do not refer any spiritual forces, influences, sources to them.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

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Spiritual Influences on the Land of Israel

Question: You explained that there are five sources of influence on the Earth, in particular, on the land of Israel. The first source is the root, the thought, the beginning of everything, the quality of the Creator, the force of bestowal.

Next, four types of influence correspond to four phases of the spreading of the light, the creation of the created being. Each of them influences a certain part of the Earth.

The root, which is the beginning of everything, the thought, Keter, influences the part of the Earth that is called Mount Hermon. Hochma influences the Upper Galilee, and so on. What is this Kabbalistic geography?

Answer: Since each upper influence occurs through five phases that are determined in the upper world, our country is also divided into five parts. Then they are divided into twelve parts and so on. It all depends on what aspect of the division we are talking about.

From a geographical point of view, Mount Hermon is Keter, Galilee is Hochma, the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is Bina, the Jordan river up to Jerusalem is Zeir Anpin, and below it begins the movement toward Malchut, to the Dead Sea and stretches up to Eilat, to the Red Sea.

Remark: The great Kabbalists Ari and Baal HaSulam also mention countries such as Jordan and Syria.

My Comment: This is a different kind of division, not the Land of Israel, but other lands. Yet, again in the center of the influence of the upper force is the Land of Israel and then next to it Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Babylon, also five parts.

All other countries are divided any way you like, it does not matter.

Question: It is interesting that Kabbalists clearly define these borders even hundreds and thousands of years ago. Does it mean that it is not about countries, but rather about spiritual influence?

Answer: In the spiritual worlds, there is a prototype of these influences that later are reflected in the matter of our world.

Question: Does it mean that a person who is in spirituality can somehow feel where within him Lebanon and Syria are?

Answer: Of course, he absolutely clearly feels different qualities and how to vary and manage them.

Question: Is Hermon from the word “harmony”?

Answer: This is the upper harmony because Keter is the basis of everything that descends to our world.

Question: If a person comes down from Mount Hermon to the Upper Galilee, does he feel that this is Hochma?

Answer: An ordinary person feels nothing except the difference in air pressure. A Kabbalist, however, depending on his or her interaction with our world, can turn this on and off within himself.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

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In the System of Upper Forces

Remark: In the sources, it is written that every part of the Earth is influenced by spiritual forces according to the law of root and branch.

My Comment: The fact is that everything comes from spiritual roots. There is one single root, the spiritual force that later gradually decomposes into the system of upper forces connected with each other. This system consists of ten forces later expanding to thirty and so on.

But in principle, in the universe there is the force of bestowal—influence, emanation, the upper force, the Creator, the light—and the force of reception—the force of creation, the egoistic force.

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the system of the universe that practically consists of these two forces that are in a certain system of interactions with each other. Their interactions originate from a very high level when they exist in the form of forces and then there is a gradual coarsening, the manifestation of matter in the lower, receiving force.

In this state, the worlds are built from above downward: the world of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. Then in each of these worlds further division occurs, which is based on the interactions between two forces.

This is explained from the point of view of the more internal, particular degrees of interaction called Partzufim, meaning degrees, and Sefirot, sub-degrees, and their further division.

“Sefira” is from the word “Sapir,” which means luminous. To the extent creation, that is, the will to receive, egoism, can, above itself, become like the quality of bestowal, it receives the upper light, becomes equivalent to it and shines.

All this leads to the fact that in the end, there is a system of interaction of two initial forces, which at different levels of interaction intertwine with each other and form all kinds of combinations. These combinations enter into all kinds of connections, assemblies, etc.

This is how Partzufim, Sefirot, and worlds appear. All this is in the system of upper forces. Then there is, as if, their materialization in our perception. That is, from the forces all this comes into the system of interaction in our corporeal qualities.

The difference between the spiritual and corporeal qualities is in the fact that spiritual qualities are built on the principle of bestowal, mutual interaction, and mutual support when each one tries to do something outside of oneself.

Then, they fall to such a level where they begin interacting with each other egoistically, only to manifest some kind of egoistic qualities, skills, and fulfillment in themselves. This is the division between our lowest egoistic world and the five upper worlds.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

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Expanding the Limits of Perception

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: Now you can easily conclude that all the names and appellations that appear in books of Kabbalah are indeed real and factual, although we have no attainment in the subject matter whatsoever. It is so because those who engage in it have the complete satisfaction with their inclusive perception of its ultimate wholeness, meaning a mere perception of actions, prompted and born of the association of the Upper Light and its perceivers.

The fact is that there is a limit to our perception. The wisdom of Kabbalah says that you constantly attain deep, wide, enter all vector spaces, and fully reveal them. However, you nevertheless attain only the reality that fills you. And the reality that does not fill you, you do not attain and do not even know whether it exists or not.

Here the question arises: How do Kabbalists know that there is some other reality? Did they attain it themselves? If so, then why don’t they speak about it as yet another additional level of attainment of reality?

It turns out that they place riddles before us or they want to intrigue us somehow, as if they say: “There is something here but I am not telling you.” However, this is not their approach.

We have to reach the quality of bestowal, the quality of the Creator. The Creator positions Himself in relation to us as bestowing, loving, and uniting, rising above us despite our egoism. We, by rising above our egoism, can explore Him, feel Him, and become similar to Him.

How can we make it so that we do not just feel the Creator because of our equivalence to Him, but feel Him not from our own Kelim (Vessels) and qualities? This is a problem.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 9/15/19

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Reach a new Level of Attainment

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: … render us complete satisfaction although we have no perception whatsoever in the essence of the subject.

Furthermore, you have no perception or attainment whatsoever even in your own essence. Everything you know about your own essence is nothing more than a series of actions extending from your essence.

It turns out that what I have is enough for me. If I feel some kind of phenomenon and it completely fulfills my desires and satisfies my questions, then I do not yearn for anything more.

Is it still possible to be infected by further questions? Perhaps somewhere somehow it is possible if we get closer to the Creator and want to acquire His nature. Maybe there we will be able to reach such possibilities of attainment that are higher than our current ones. However, this is a completely different level of the universe, a different level of attainment.

Everyone exists on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, including all the people in our world. If a person who studies Kabbalah rises above the animate level, ascends to the level of the Creator and begins to attain this system, he or she feels not only it, but also the causes of all the phenomena.

That is, I do not just feel the Creator, but I reveal His essence, the next level of reality. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah studies. But that is already a top chord.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 9/15/19

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A Person Is a Reaction to the Influence of Nature

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: This name is as tangible and as close to us as though it were entirely perceived by our senses. Even little children are familiar with the word, “electricity,” as well as they are familiar with words such as bread, sugar, and so on.

Moreover, if you wish to exercise your tools of scrutiny a bit, I shall tell you that as a whole, as there is no perception of the Creator whatsoever, so is it impossible to attain the essence of any of His creatures, even the tangible objects that we feel with our hands.

It seems that everything is clear to us, but in fact, nothing is clear. We can somehow work with electricity because everything around us is the manifestation of this force. But what is this force? We do not know.

Moreover, if you wish to exercise your tools of scrutiny a bit, I shall tell you that as a whole, as there is no perception of the Creator whatsoever, so is it impossible to attain the essence of any of His creatures, even the tangible objects that we feel with our hands.

Thus, all we know about our friends and relatives in the world of action before us are nothing more than “acquaintance with actions.” These are prompted and born by the association of their encounter with our senses, which render us complete satisfaction although we have no perception whatsoever of the essence of the subject.

The fact is that we attain not the essence of any natural phenomena, such as electricity, gravity, magnetism, and so on, but rather only their effect in us. Something gravitates me – “Oh, it means there is a force of gravity and I can measure it.” Yet, I do not know what this force really is.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that in such a form we can also attain the Creator. We attain Him from His actions. It is written, “From Your deeds we shall know You.”

This is a very serious limitation for us. Will we ever attain the essence of the phenomena? Never! Even if we aspire to it.

In fact, we, in general, do not even aspire to it. We have some kind of movements, impulses, but we do not suffer from the fact that we do not have this, and therefore, we have nothing in which to reveal the essence of natural phenomena. We see only their effect because we ourselves are the effect.

Yet, is it possible to rise above this to absolute attainment? There, far-far beyond the full attainment of the Creator, we will begin to contact the point from which everything comes. Perhaps, there is an opportunity to get out of our sensations of effects and get to the essence, to the truth.

Somewhere deep inside we want this, although where can we get such a feeling, such a lack? Is the feeling of the truth, the root, the basis, the source, of everything that is happening so necessary to us?

There are a lot of nuances here, and I would like to tease you a little, to cause you such excitement that you will want to reveal this.

In other words, all corporeal phenomena we attain are only through the reaction of our sensory organs to their influence. That is, we are the effect, the reaction to some kind of influence.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 9/15/19

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Do we perceive the essence of natural phenomena?

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”:

The Actuality of the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Actual things are found even in the corporeal reality, set before our eyes, though we have neither perception nor image of their essence. Such are the electricity and the magnet, called “fluidum.”

Nevertheless, who can say that these names are not real, when we vividly and satisfactorily know their actions? We could not be more indifferent to the fact that we cannot conceive the essence of the subject itself, namely electricity itself.

Indeed, we do not understand what electricity is or the essence of any other physical phenomenon. We observe only their effects.

For example, we know how to work with electricity, with electromagnetism, we use them freely in our lives in everyday household activities. But we do not really know what it is. Yet, this does not bother us at all. We continue to exploit these natural phenomena completely unaware of their essence. And we understand that we do not know this.

Do we know what gravity is, even though everyone feels its impact on themselves? Try to jump, you will see what it is. We measure this force, learn how to overcome it. But what is this force? What is its essence? Where does it come from? We do not know. This is how it is with all natural phenomena.

Baal HaSulam writes that our knowledge about their manifestation satisfies us completely. We do not need anything else in order to use them.

The main thing for us is to use these phenomena. We do not attain their inner essence because nature created us this way. We attain only their effects in our sensations and nothing more.

Of course, we could decide that it would be good to find out where magnetism, electricity, gravity, and all other natural phenomena come from. But they are completely concealed from us. We are just the instruments in which these phenomena manifest, and their manifestations are what we feel.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 9/15/19

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No Limit to Perception

Remark: One can study the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” forever. I have gone back to it for 20 years and still find something new in it every time.

My Comment: The need for a beginning is felt more from the end. Any real science develops a person so that he needs to study it again and again.

Remark: Let’s say The Study of the Ten Sefirot studies the physics of the spiritual worlds, and every time you seem to discover it anew. However, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” seems like an ordinary article that can be treated lightly, and suddenly you discover such depths within it.

My Comment: This is not because of the article, but because it expands the limits of your perception and your attitude to the world. The first four topics in this article are “A conduct of general and particular,” “The Abundance of Partzufim, Sefirot, and Worlds,” “Two Conducts—from Above Downward and from Below Upward,” and “Abstract Names” in the wisdom of Kabbalah. They talk about many concepts that are very complex and serious.

When you get to the fifth or sixth concept you begin to understand that you, in fact, still do not understand the first ones. You have read, agreed with them, and moved on. And now you see how comprehensive they are internally, and you again turn to them. There is no getting around it, you have to do something about it. So you study them again.

How many times do we go through all the articles of Baal HaSulam? Those who read “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” for the first time today cannot even imagine what else they will see in it after they go through it the second and third time, or in a year, or in 10 years.

For example, I have been studying the wisdom of Kabbalah for 40 years and I cannot even compare what I had imagined about these concepts previously and now today. The current me and the person who opened this article 40 years ago are completely different people.

Question: Does it mean that in Kabbalah there is no such thing as in our world, “I have already read this”?

Answer: There is no such thing in Kabbalah. In anything! You get into this wisdom and you immerse yourself in it without the ability to somehow finish it.

It talks about such a round, interconnected world that you can pull one string and all of reality will change for you. Every new definition, every new sensation, and new attainment changes everything because there are only ten Sefirot, but each of them consists of another ten and another ten; it turns out that there is no limit to perception.

The world is infinite, although it consists of only ten parts, ten emanations.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 9/15/19

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