The Book of Zohar, Introduction, Article “The Rose,” Item 1: These five lights are the light that the Creator created on the first day. Adam was watching it from the end of the world to its end.

Question: Why does it say, “from the end of the world to its end,” and not “from the beginning of the world to its end”?

Answer: In our perception, we exist between the attributes of judgment and mercy, between the two lines. Our entire world “fits” between the forms of these borders.

Hence, in a given context, we cannot see the world from the beginning to the end. In each state the world is limited by the bounds of our Kli (vessel), which we are able to detect.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, The Zohar, Introduction, “The Rose”

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The Light builds our connection and we will reveal the Creator only inside it. We have to aspire to this not for our own good, but only in order to give Him pleasure. Once we attain love for the Creator, we will reveal His love for us. All of our study is intended to reveal or awaken our love for the Creator.

Obviously, right now we do not feel the slightest need for this. We remember about the Upper Force’s existence only when we feel bad. It is our nature to act only when we lack something, desiring to complete and fill ourselves.

We don’t feel any need for the Creator and moreover for loving Him. But if we try to artificially aspire to the Creator by means of working in the group, we gradually elicit the influence of the Light upon us that brings us special qualities, ones of love and bestowal.

This quality can be directed only toward the Creator because He is the only one in existence besides us. However, in order to reach Him we have been placed in a special state called “this world.” Here, with the help of our family and friends, we can make efforts and practice to acquire love for the appropriate environment. Then we will go from love for the creatures to the degree of love for the Creator.

That is how we come out of egoism, shifting from self love to love for the neighbor, and through our family and friends, we acquire love for the Creator.

Then we reveal the true nature of the “means” we have used. It turns out that the Creator Himself divided our reality in this way so we would have the opportunity to come to Him by means of these “exercises.” In reality there is nothing besides myself, incorporating all of reality and the Creator who is above it.

So let us build the intention to receive the Light that Reforms from our mutual study in order to reveal love between us and our love to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, The Zohar

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Question: During the parts of the lesson when we study The Zohar and TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot), I experience tremendous difficulty understanding anything. What is the correct approach to the content so that it would help me strengthen the bond between us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam and Rabash wrote articles, letters, and other similar texts. In addition, Baal HaSulam wrote a commentary on The Book of Zohar, The Study of Ten Sefirot (TES), “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” and the book Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot, all of which are the primary sources we get nourished by.

I drew a dividing line between them for the following reason. We use the above mentioned books as an instrument to draw the Light (Segula). And we read all the other works not only to draw the Light but to also understand the content. In the first case, understanding plays a supplementary role, whereas in the second it is in the lead.

The Book of Zohar doesn’t leave anything for the mind to cling to. At times, it explains something or provides a hint, although we don’t especially need it. In the end, we need a method called “the Torah” since the Light it conceals reforms us. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how much you understand. It’s not the wise one who learns. Intelligence doesn’t play a role here.

Some people write down every word, which is good for as long as it helps them connect to the source emotionally, in the desire. But if everything is determined by the mind, it isn’t worth it. We are not in the university, and from studies alone you will learn nothing unless you obtain a desire to bestow, connection with others, and love. Only this will allow you to feel the material since man is a desire, a vessel of sensation and perception.

Mind is powerless in itself; it is a mere means to direct and strengthen the desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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In his article "Exile and Redemption," Baal HaSulam writes that Israel (a person who searches for the Creator) will find no rest among the “other nations” (desires of this world) until the following takes place within him: “And from there you shall crave the Creator, and you shall find Him, for you shall look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Until you have reached such a request, you have no chance of escaping Egypt for it is only with a ripe desire that you will gain your freedom. Your own desires to remain in Egypt are the guards that are keeping you there.

This is why the 10 Egyptian plagues are necessary. In order to be born, one must come to feel a great yearning for the next degree, that is, to desire what’s on the outside while still remaining on the inside.

It’s as though there are two totally opposite desires inside of you. They cannot be reconciled, but you come to a point where they almost connect, and that is when the breakthrough happens. The force of the Upper One expels you and hurls you onto the next degree in accordance with the principle, “I labored and I found” (Igati ve Matsati).

Indeed, you have achieved the point of near-contact between your desire in your current state and your subsequent state. In nature it is impossible for the desire to receive to make contact with the desire to bestow. Therefore, when this transition takes place inside you, the Creator completes the work (the serpent’s bite), and you are born on the next degree!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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Love is not only bestowal but also reception. After all, everyone performs bestowal in relation to me, and I must receive. Otherwise, instead of love, hate will burst out. If I reject the gift of someone who loves me, it isn’t love anymore.

Question: What do I receive and what do I give?

Answer: Your willingness and nothing more. After all, we must create a connection similar to the Creator between us. If we exist in love, then according to the law of equivalence of form, the Upper Light is revealed between us.

You must prepare the Kli, which is a type of connection, nothing more. Then, the law of similarity steps in and within this connection, the Creator is revealed. It is enough to start desiring it, for you are the desire. By doing so, you are preparing the network, a correct connection between the parts of the system, and as a result the Creator breathes life into it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, The Writings of Rabash

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The purpose of creation is to bring good to the Creator’s beings. The Creator is a good force that does good, and therefore, He gave us an opportunity to attain the most exalted state, to become similar to Him. We become equivalent with the Creator in two basic elements:

1. Independence. After all, the Creator is original, and man must be original in his actions; otherwise, he is not independent.

2. Bestowal. A person acquires the form of bestowal that must clothe in his nature opposite to the Creator. Thus, on the inside, man is opposite to the Creator, but on the outside, he is congruent to him.

By combining these two opposite properties within, a person builds his independence himself. Thereby, he doesn’t get out of the Creator’s hands, but grows independently. The rule of attaining independence is called the “covenant.”

This covenant means that I undertake building a human within me. The Creator provides all that is needed for it: a preparatory base, the fuel, desire of pleasures, the force of correction, and the power of fulfillment. I utilize these means. Contrary conditions emerge within me, a contrast between egoistic desire and the form of bestowal that I need to clothe in, and all of this together allows me to construct myself.

A person who accepts these conditions and aspires straight to the Creator is called “Israel.” He decides to attain adhesion and is willing to walk through all states and spiritual rungs. While he is at it, he understands that he must always walk with faith above reason; otherwise, he won’t be able to take one step, ascend, and approach the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10,”All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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Question: By what is our covenant held? After all, we don’t notarize it.

Answer: The covenant works very simply. Those who don’t comply with it are bounced from it at the speed of light since it is the Light that gives strength to our union when we have aspiration, agreement, and unity between us.

The union, the covenant of mutual guarantee, doesn’t need to be announced in words; it’s a certain level of interconnection. But, if a person has reached this level and is not establishing a connection, he is bounced off. To sign the “union contract” means for a person to complete the deal on his part. It’s OK if he is not quite ripe yet, but is already willing to restrict his egoism.

Let’s see, now, at the threshold of the upcoming World Kabbalah Convention to what extent everyone is willing to give themselves to this cause and think about only one thing: How do I become part of the collective desire and “lose myself” in it? Is a person participating in the preparation using all his potential? If not, he is deceiving himself and isn’t advancing.

Besides, we will certainly see it in him. The Light will expose everything like an X-ray. That’s when we will check everyone and see, if now, during the final run, he is prepared to enter the union. Everyone must answer for himself and examine himself. Can he do anything else for the common effort?

The time has come to engage the innermost forces of the soul. After all, it is right now when I have to decide whether I will pass through or not. There must not be any more delays; we are already lagging behind.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, “The Matter of the Will to Receive”

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The principle of loving your neighbor as yourself summarizes and includes all the principles. We carry out the principle of fear and the principle of love through unity by annulling ourselves before the group, and through mutual guarantee by receiving the Light that Reforms. The Light brings us the state of fear and then love.

All of it together is called “carrying out the 613 commandments.” This is talking about the correction of desires. Every desire neutralizes its egoism and acquires a screen, the intention of bestowal.

I don’t see the steps of the ladder ahead of time. I build them myself through self-renunciation, which enables me to hold on to the group more and more strongly. That is how a single Kli forms inside me, aimed at the single Creator. This requires the principle called “single corresponds to single.”

All of our efforts and corrections are aimed at building this unity. A person discerns it by aspiring toward it and suppressing everything else. Who does he unite with? With the group, which he evaluates using just one criterion: the goal. He joins just this point of the goal which is present in the group, and not anything else inside those around him. He bows down before unity, focusing on it.

Then he is single and he unites with the single group, discarding everything else in his desire in order to reveal the single Creator who is Good and Does Good: the quality of bestowal. Thus, through love for others, a person acquires love for the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/10, “According to What is Explained Concerning Love Thy Friend as Thyself”

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A group is not a union of individuals but a union with the Creator; otherwise, it is not a Kabbalistic group. I come to this group exactly because the Creator resides within it; if not, why do I need all these people? People always unite by interests, and what can a Kabbalistic group give us? It can give us the Creator! And this is the only reason I come here, in order to find Him in the connection between us.

This is regarded as: “Israel (I, who aspires to the Creator; Isra– directly, El– the Creator), the Light of correction (the Torah), and the Creator (the root of all) are one.” All three of these components must become one in order for me to achieve them. This is the reason I come here, and it defines all actions I perform in the group, as well as my attitude to the friends, and absolutely everything else!

It turns out that I relate to this very notion of the group as to the Creator because He resides there within it! But I am not able to focus my eyes on Him. He keeps getting blurry for me, and I don’t know where He is. I can’t catch him with my targeting device.

Yet, I am told that if I look at it through the group, it is aimed precisely at Him, with the result correctly targeted. Therefore, I value the friends as much as I value the Creator; after all, only through them am I able to reach Him. Besides, it is written: “From the love of created beings to the love for the Creator.” In other words, if I achieve love in the group, then as a final result, I will undoubtedly reach Him and attain love of the Creator.

I can’t work on love in relation to the Creator since I don’t see whom I must work with. Therefore at each stage, I attain love for the Creator by working on love for the group. Otherwise, I cannot study the Creator: I imagine Him according to my correct attitude to the unity with friends. I build and uncover this form myself. If not, why do I need to come in the group? I do so only because they are selected by the Creator so that through them I could approach Him. That is why I love them! They are my salvation!
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, “The Freedom”

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Every person wants to live in a world built on love, yet no one believes this is possible. Love exists only in children’s fairytales because every person understands that this is good for a child, that it makes life safer than animosity.

But what if it were possible to make the world like that? We live in a world that’s hostile to us, where everyone is fighting and competing with one another, and where life is becoming worse and worse.

“A person is a small world”; man’s anger and cruelty toward the world are starting to turn against him when he actualizes his egoistic desires and hates himself! This split personality is becoming more and more prominent.

Now imagine that you could shift your view and all your relationships to the path of care and love. What if we could suddenly raise and correct the whole world so no one would steal, no one would harm another person, and no one would use others to their detriment? We would see a reverse world and no one would be afraid that tomorrow their life would be destroyed. People wouldn’t be afraid that tomorrow we will destroy the earth and bury ourselves under the waste from our own production.

Love would oblige us to act in the best and most correct way. We wouldn’t have to search for billions of occupations just to keep the population busy, producing things no one needs. Even if they wouldn’t work, every person would receive what he needs because then people also wouldn’t need any excesses since they would live in a kind, amiable world.

Then we wouldn’t pollute the earth with unnecessary products, which is 90% of all the things being produced. If we look at nature, there is nothing wasted. Look at how life is organized in the animal kingdom, from the beginning of creation to its end, in all the forms that are included in nature’s cycle where everything is repeatedly used to 100% capacity.

All the cycles are absolutely closed, with the exception of the things man does. When man produces anything, he does not return it to nature in the natural form, but only in the form of toxins which poison nature.

However, if we treated each other with love, we would make the world absolutely clean! Love would ensure that we did not demand any excess for ourselves and then everything would normalize. How different would things be from today where all the oceans are full of garbage and radioactive waste.

The only thing we lack in our world is attention toward one another and mutual participation in the integral system, and we will get there out of despair.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/10, “Matan Torah”

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