Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for two years. How can I help my husband join the studies of Kabbalah if he refuses to do so?

Answer: You can help him only in one thing: Do not include him in anything and do not influence him in any way. Just let him feel that you are grateful to him for allowing you to study. Otherwise, it will be worse.

You cannot force a person by putting pressure on him. If he does not want to study, he doesn’t need to. The only thing that is required of him is that he does not prevent you from studying. This is enough to make him gradually move toward it himself. If you do not put pressure on him, you will see that he will gradually become interested in what you are studying. Give him a book that is far from Kabbalah but talks about our worldly problems so that he understands that this is not mysticism or something like that.

In general, act in a hidden manner a bit, like Queen Esther. It is not by chance that she symbolizes a special female feature, a special approach to the man from whom she cannot escape.

Men are more direct, but a woman can quietly and calmly incline him to what she desires.
[101550]
From the Virtual Lesson 2/24/13

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Rabash, “And He Shall Cogitate in His Torah (Teachings)”: And so we read in the Megillah “and after all this the king raised Haman.” Literally it is hard to understand, after all, after what Mordecai did, which was good for the king, the king should raise Mordecai and not Haman, and this needs to be explained…

When a person cannot see the true face of his evil, which means the true form of Haman, then a person cannot pray to the Creator, so that He should save him from evil. Only when a person sees the greatness of Haman, who wants to kill and to destroy all the Jews, which means that Haman wanted to destroy everything that belonged to Judaism, which doesn’t let him do anything that is related to Holiness, then he can raise a true prayer. Then the verse “the Creator helps him” is fulfilled.

Only if we yearn for unity like Mordecai who evoked the yearning for unity by discovering the plot against the unity and killing it (two of the king’s courtiers who betrayed him), then Haman is evoked. The evil inclination faces the good inclination, the desire to receive rises facing the desire to bestow, and a struggle between them begins inside a person.

Only by raising and empowering the good force does the evil force grow, and then we raise the good again and evil also grows. This process continues until we reach a state in which we have to make a decision in this struggle. We cannot ask the good inclination, since it doesn’t need anything, it doesn’t want anything, but only to bestow every chance it gets. So we always ask the evil inclination, and then we do the opposite.

This is called working in faith above reason. We know how our desire to receive feels and follow faith above reason. Otherwise we have no way of imagining what the spiritual world is, what it means to be above myself, what it means to bestow. But we know that it is opposite from our egoistic desire to receive, which we know very well.

So when the desire to bestow grows, we have to raise the desire to receive and to ask it what it thinks should be done, and then do the opposite! That’s the way it works.

It is because we don’t see the image of the good; we don’t have an image by which we can resemble the Creator. The only way is to form it as an opposite image of the desire to receive. Therefore we were given an environment that should help us turn the desire to receive, which means the intention to receive into an intention to bestow. This is called “to repent,” to return to the Creator, the rising of Malchut to Bina.

We have no idea what the image of the good is but only that is it the opposite of evil.
[101340]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13

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Question: Is it true what people say that when we look at the letters of The Book of Zohar written in Aramaic it automatically connects us to the Light although we don’t understand the language?

Answer: Nothing happens automatically. It can be compared to a baby who is born and lives in this world and who grows because he is taken care of since he annuls himself before the grownups. It is an innate attribute, and, by that, he enables the parents to take care of him. They take care of him, and he grows.

If a person annuls himself during the study while reading The Book of Zohar, he is under the influence and the caretaking of the friends, even if he doesn’t understand and doesn’t feel anything but wants to place himself under the influence of the Lights, the friends, and the major society that deals with it. However, he needs to have that intention. Even if he forgets about it, he still needs to feel that he belongs.

Question: How can we follow the text while reading The Book of Zohar and keep the right intention at the same time?

Answer: The main thing is the intention, and the text is important to the extent that a person can attribute it to the right intention. Gradually, he begins to see the right meaning of the words in it: a “child,” “sages,” Sefirot, Malchut, and Bina. He will see it. Under the influence of the Light that Reforms that operates very slowly, gradually, bit by bit, a person will begin to feel different impressions. He will feel a connection to what he reads.

Question: What should our approach be while reading The Book of Zohar or what should change in it so that the Light will influence us and change us?

Answer: We must connect. A person should feel that he is in a united group like a commando squad, like in one whole that is made of separate parts. He needs to feel it naturally. Otherwise, his intentions are not the right intentions.

So, as he feels the whole reality connected in him, he wants to belong to the Creator together with it, to connect and to adhere to Him. He understands that it happens as a result of his inner change and looks forward to it.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13, The Zohar

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There is a system which in our perception of reality is depicted as the current reality of this world. In it a person has books that were written by Kabbalists in the past, a teacher who is a Kabbalist, friends, the whole world, and the Creator who is concealed, meaning the attribute of bestowal that is opposite from everything a person discovers in his five senses. Except for this attribute, everything is at his disposal.

So how can we use all the means we have correctly, in order to reach the general attribute of bestowal?

It is external to a person, outside his “vessel,” and he can acquire it with the help of three components: books, the group, and the teacher. With their help he fulfills the study, dissemination, and the connection.

The combination of all these things brings a person to turn his vessels, his desires, from receiving to bestowal. He discovers increasingly more egoistic vessels that he turns to “in order to bestow,” according to his efforts and exertion.

What are these efforts and exertion?

A person holds on to the right intention during the study, connects with the friends in the group, and follows the advice of the teacher without which he doesn’t know how to work with the books and the group. On the whole, these three components are called “Torah,” which means a study, a method, a means for attaining the attribute of bestowal.

From that we choose the right actions and the right relations by combining the books the group and the teacher in them. Thus a person reaches oppositeness, by rising “above his reason” above his mind and feelings, towards the next level…
[101113]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

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We are controlled by two opposite forces that have to reach the right intensity and resistance in order to enable us to be born into the new world. So a person encounters many interruptions that come from the Creator, and thus feels resentment and anger.

I see this kind of attitude in many of my students as if they are waiting for this birth to occur by itself, as if everything will happen by itself, naturally, and the time will come for everyone to enter the spiritual world. But of course, this will not happen to anyone if he doesn’t have the desires, the necessary vessels. The main thing is to prepare our vessels. How can we prepare them if not by overcoming difficulties and problems?

It’s as if some people are “doing me a favor” in coming to lessons and participating in dissemination, expecting they deserve some reward for it; they want to show me what they have done and how much work it entailed. They don’t seem to understand that they need this work in order to stabilize their spiritual vessel, their soul; but instead, they think that they are doing me or someone else a favor.

There are students who think that by their dissemination efforts they “pay” me, in a way, for the lessons I give. They don’t understand that without building the external circles they will not acquire the vessel of their soul, and they believe that they are making an effort for me.

Thinking this way is is a total lack of understanding: A person has to pay the Creator for having given him a chance to invest his powers in the right actions, which means to build the vessel of his soul. The reward is actually not what he thinks at all; our reward is that we have a chance to work, to exert ourselves and not in order to work and then receive a reward. This is a corrupt attitude that needs to be clarified.
[100939]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: You said in a lesson that you lack words. Does this mean that we don’t work as we should and don’t extract spiritual information from you?

Answer: It works exactly this way. When the lower one asks, he passes his unfulfilled desire, to which I receive an answer.

It is said that one learns from all his pupils: “I learned a lot from my teachers, more from the friends, and more than that from my students.” This happens thanks to a student’s questions, his prayer, MAN. The student passes his desire to the teacher, and the teacher gets such a desire which for himself he would never ask. This is how the general system is revealed: With each new question from each student, one more layer of the system is revealed, and then one more, etc.

Each pupil raises his prayer. This gives the teacher vessels that didn’t exist in him and never would have if he hadn’t connected with the students. Therefore, up to the moment that the pupil asked, the teacher did not know the answer. But the moment the pupil asked a question of him, the teacher receives new attainment. And this is called “learning from the pupils.”

Every day I come out of the lesson with new attainments because I feel your lack. But the students have to prepare themselves for the lesson, and often a sufficient lack, meaning a necessity, is not felt from you. Certainly, even without words I also feel in my students the need for spiritual revelation, and this helps me in advancement. However, it’s desirable that everyone will utter their questions.

I am connected to my teacher, Rabash; he is my upper one. When I receive questions from the students, I connect them to one direct channel that comes from Above. This is a hierarchical, tree-like system that spreads from the top down. If I receive from the bottom a desire that I can raise, I process it inside me, get an answer to it from Above, process it again, and transfer the answer to the student. However, 99% of the information that was received stays inside me and only 1% passes to the student, in accordance with how much I have to scale myself down and descend to the student’s level so that he will receive this answer from me and understand it.

In a few cases, I myself awaken this connection because there is a general preparation. For example, people invested a lot of effort in order to come to the convention and prepare it. And then, even if questions are not asked, I can awaken the Light, thanks to the great amount of exertion that you invested, which can be worked with. But sometimes this is possible only thanks to the questions.

I will never accept the sleepiness. But a teacher is forbidden to arouse desire in the students because it does the opposite, it plugs the channels that come to them. The lack has to rise from the bottom up!
[100000]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/13, TES

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: But in our generation we have been rewarded with the Sulam (Ladder) commentary, which is a complete interpretation of all the words of The Zohar. Moreover, not only does it not leave an unclear matter in the whole of The Zohar without interpreting it, but the clarifications are based on a straightforward analysis, which any student can understand.

Of course, this is not referring to the “man on the street” opening The Book of Zohar and the Sulam Commentary and immediately understanding them. The Book of Zohar is written from a level of the final correction; this happened only once in history, in Rashbi’s group. Other Kabbalists did not have the opportunity to attain this level of revelation, and only about ten percent of them could somewhat understand what is said in the book.

The dissimilarity between the steps of attainment is comparable to the disparity between the vegetative and animate levels of nature, or between a dog and a human being, or between the “linear” or “round” world; in other words, it’s a difference between the prior world that lives in compliance with simple egoistic laws and a new world that currently starts to emerge and acts in accordance with the laws of unity. Previously, individualists succeeded, and now only those who are able to unite will prosper.

And yet, even though the world has already started to self-correct and aspire to the end of correction, it still happens in a linear manner; it doesn’t’ matter that the “line” includes various steps, screens, and levels of unity of its own, it isn’t yet the unity, the integral system, that will be achieved at the final correction. At that stage, the picture will be quite different and I cannot imagine it.

Today, we think about the relationship and mutual interests of “one man with one heart,” meaning about the unity of Israel, the Torah and the Creator, but what will result there, I don’t know. As we are approaching a truly integrated system of the end of correction, which differs from what Kabbalists attained throughout the past millenniums by our uniting with each other, we are beginning to understand that there are laws that are beyond the spiritual laws.

It’s not simply a channel of connection, not a “line” or a “width” of a desire that is covered by a screen and shielded by the reflected light, nor is it the lights of NRNHY or Sefirot KHBZON. At that stage, new forms of connection will emerge. Possibly, for example everybody would be able to use the screens of others.

One way or the other, we are talking about a qualitative leap that is yet totally unclear to us. So, we should at least be aware of this gap, this difference.

In this world, everybody is an egoist, but at this stage of our development we are all facing the condition of global unity. If we could see the real picture in which we are inseparably interconnected and linked together, it would be very clear that each of us is unable to do anything at all until we establish correct relationships with others. But who has the appropriate intellect and feeling? Who has the nerves to handle it? Who is able to grasp all the details and tolerate inevitable tension?

Eventually, each of us stays in his own “corner” without having any energy to act. If I depend on thousands of other people, my current world outlook would simply deprive me of any hope; I would remain motionless. The world would stop moving, freezing in immobility. This explains why each new state shows up in us progressively and gradually forces us to self-correct, so that we avoid hitting a deadlock.

So it is in spirituality, we advance in the spiritual world through screens and collaboration, like the Kabbalists of the past. However, at the end of correction, a totally different state will be awaiting us. On the way, we expand the integrated system we gradually gain, but today, it still does not commit us to a complete interdependence, which will arise as a result.. This is the level, from which The Book of Zohar was written, from the level of the end of correction.

Therefore, if Baal HaSulam was given a chance to create commentaries on this book, it means that he reached the same level as Rashbi. Moreover, I would say even more than that, because he was able to adapt the commentary to those who are beginning the path from the level of this world, not yet embarking on the spiritual ladder, not even close to the end of correction. Nevertheless, these people are still sensitive to the impact of a “round” system, even though it’s presented to them in its material form.

Baal HaSulam speaks of the necessity to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah to all. It means that our connection with this world has already created a connection with the “circles” through the material “circles” of the global world and through the higher spiritual circles that are a part to our path to correction. This is why we are allowed to reveal the Kabbalistic method to everybody, and the works that were written from the highest level.

Thus, except for the books of Baal HaSulam, we don’t have anything to disseminate. There are no other materials that are suitable for our generation, which is on the beginning of the road that leads to the final correction. “The circles” that belong to that level are already active and shine on all of us and onto the entire world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Baal HaSulam, article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: And because The Zohar is revealed in our generation, this is a clear proof that we are now in the time of the Messiah, at the beginning of this generation, about which it is said: “ And the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Creator.”

Baal HaSulam is writing it that because everything is realized by the upper Light. And when the Light is illuminating less, then the nation of Israel is in exile, if it illuminates even less, then we all are in troubles up to the loss of life, meaning losing this perception of reality. And conversely, when the Light illuminates more, then we feel vitality and we live a full life. When it illuminates even more, then we begin to feel the source of the Light and we are attracted to it.

Everything comes from the Light, and precisely it “shakes” the vessels, our desires, but in our era, its bestowing is changing. The revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the thought of creation and its goal, the systems that humanity exists in, the global nature with its absolute laws, which is the Creator, all this brought great changes in our world. In the last century, the Light influenced the world in such a way, that as a result, The Book of Zohar was revealed, meaning that the strongest source of correction was revealed. The authors of The Zohar wrote openly that thanks to this Book, the people of Israel go out of exile. Therefore, it is necessary to see our time as time of spiritual ascent, and everything depends only on the correct use of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

From above there will be no concessions on what we are capable of realizing. But this way or that way, the revealing of The Book of Zohar and the wisdom of Kabbalah, the work that was done by Baal HaSulam that revealed the method of Kabbalah to this generation, and the works of Rabash that describe the rules of spiritual work—all this laid a foundation for our ascent. The two parts of the wisdom of Kabbalah that were prepared by our teachers were necessarily revealed in order for anyone who is awakened to self-realization in the path to the goal of creation (purpose) to be able to execute it.

Therefore, our time is the beginning of the period of the Messiah, meaning the stage of the final correction.
[100142]
From the 4^th Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: What can we understand from the books of Kabbalists when they tell us about the spiritual levels?

Answer: It is said, “It isn’t the wise who learns.” Your understanding or your lack of understanding have nothing to do with your advancement.

Suppose there is a wise man who has read many books sitting next to you. On the other side, there is a person who isn’t very clever but who has a big heart. There are people who excel neither in their feelings, nor in their mind, and there are others who have plenty of both, but all this has nothing to do with our advancement. It doesn’t matter whether you understand the material or not. We should understand one thing only: the principles. Can you hear them? Can you evoke yourself to that?

Sometimes you may want to hear them, but you don’t. Then patience and persistence are helpful. Even if everyone has already entered spirituality and a person may be ten years behind, he actually “gains” more by acquiring the depth of the clarification, the ability to see the global picture. In short, we should be patient and persistent. The main thing is not to leave the path, to subdue yourself no matter what comes from Above. It’s because eventually the Creator determines everything and although it may not be very simple, a person gains a lot by that.

Baal HaSulam writes about that in his article “The Attribute of the General Hidden Wisdom”: The undeveloped person cannot wait for the payment for a long time. He has no patience, like a child, who wants to receive the payment now, and cannot wait for even one moment. And he chooses jobs for which he is paid immediately, even if the wages are lower. One can learn how to be a taxi driver and receive an immediate payment from the passengers without any delay. On the other hand, he can spend years studying to become a musician, for example. And a more developed person can restrain himself and choose jobs for which one is paid more, even if the payment may be much later. And we should know that this is the scale to measure the wise, since it depends on the corporeal development of every individual, and whoever can prolong the payment can get much higher wages.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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