Question: As part of my job, I have been in contact with several professors lately and among other things we speak about Kabbalah. I must say that they understand the principles, but they don’t believe.

Answer: True. They have a rational approach. “We have studied so much about our world by different sciences that the picture is clear on the whole. But here this guy who doesn’t seem ‘mad’ comes along and starts talking about some concept that we are not sure where he brings it from. He says that this is the basis of all sciences and he ties everything to Lights and vessels.”

“We don’t know anything about this. We don’t see any evidence of what he tells us about. His explanations may well sound very logical, but he establishes his wisdom on a virtual assumption. ‘Let’s suppose that it is so,’ he says, and on this assumption he bases a whole perfect philosophy.”

“But why should we accept it as a science, if according to our standards it is not a science? A science is what can be studied and thought about. He is saying that his science only requires living according to it and changing internally. We’ve never heard about anything like that. What does it mean ‘to change human nature’? We have a culture, and education, we teach people to be kind, empathic; what could be better? What does this have to do with science?”

Scientists cannot acknowledge the relativity of their perception. They don’t understand that the changes in a person change his reality since it is all created by internal responses.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains this accurate mutual connection; to the extent that I change myself, the world that I feel changes. This is the key formula that has a fixed coefficient and a changing parameter that reflects the vessels, my desires, my sensitivity, my intentions, my thoughts, etc.; they change and then the world changes.

X is me, K is the fixed coefficient and Y is the world. I speak to those who are willing to listen to this.

But scientists are not ready for this. They lack a new desire that pulls them out of this world. If they haven’t developed to reach it, they will not listen. One has to be sensitive not only to worldly phenomena but also to phenomena of the spiritual world.

Question: So what does that mean? That intelligent people, scholars, cannot understand us?

Answer: They are actually the most “resistant” since they are sure that they already have a solid foundation.

Question: So who can we turn to then?

Answer: There is a Kabbalistic fable about a man named Ptachiya who came to a town and took all the “empty” people to the desert. After all, if the new question about the taste of life is evoked in a person he feels that he is miserable and empty.

However, if a person doesn’t feel that, if he has no vessel, no desire that matches it, it means that he hasn’t reached a certain level of perception.

We don’t stop disseminating, of course, but only a person who has a point in the heart can hear the message of the wisdom of Kabbalah. The alternative is to feel that you are a beaten animal that has nowhere to run from the endless blows that hit it. Then it will be ready to follow us, just to get rid of the troubles.
[97078]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Philosophy: A Building Without A Foundation
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah And Philosophy: Who Has The Last Word?
The Golden Mean Between Mysticism And Scholasticism

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Dissemination, My Similarity to the Creator, Perception, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Baal HaSulam, Letter 25: It says in The Zohar that the Holy Shechina is revealed to a person who is awarded with repentance, like a loving mother who hasn’t seen her son for a long time, and they made many efforts to see one another, and for that reason they encountered great dangers, and finally they have reached this long awaited freedom and were awarded to see one another and then the mother falls on his neck and kisses and comforts him and speaks to him all day and all night, telling him about her longings and the dangers she had encountered on the way until that day, and how she had always been with him, and had not left him, but suffered with him everywhere he had been, but he could not see that.

Judging by what Kabbalists tell us, the Creator, the Shechina, makes great efforts for us, for the souls, by helping us wake up and to gradually come closer by climbing the spiritual ladder so that eventually we will be incorporated in the Shechina and connect to it. In fact, there aren’t any changes in reality. All the changes are only in our understanding, in our perception, until we discover the good and stable upper Providence that doesn’t leave us for one moment and that never changes.

Eventually a person attains that all of reality is in absolute rest. Everything that is born in his feelings is the revelation of the vessels that have to be corrected. All the changes are only the appearance of the corrupt vessels, one by one. The feeling of the created being in the vessels that are not corrected is what depicts the picture of the corrupt world for him, and of the bad Providence, meaning that which is not eternal and is incomplete.

But if the created being advances correctly, he understands that he has to build external support for himself in the form of the group and a teacher, as it says: “Make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend, and judge every person to the scale of merit.” This environment constantly influences him and evokes him. It will shake a person and not let him forget that everything that happens at any given moment is the revelation and the fulfillment of new Reshimot (spiritual genes) through which a person sees the world, and he has to correct these Reshimot.

The environment will help him to not forget and that he will constantly be reinforced by it. So “he who chooses a better environment” according to the Reshimot that can be revealed in him in order to be corrected, will not forget for one moment the goal of his life. He has to discover the right attitude and then he will be able to advance to correction until he embraces the Creator.

The meeting place between a person and the Creator is called the Holy Shechina. The created being prepares the desires, his vessels, according to which the Creator is revealed. Thus we attain adhesion which is the goal of creation.
[97064]
From the Preparation the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13

Related Material:
What Would A Cardiogram Of The Heart’s Desires Reveal?
Brushing Off The Dust From Bestowal
Grieving For The Shechina In Exile

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

Question: If a person reaches a certain level of correction, does it affect the rest of the world?

Answer: Of course, every person’s correction affects everyone since we are all in the same system. So there is the concept of “birthright,” which helps us advance. How can the concept of “birthright” help us and what is it? Is it some historical documents kept in an archive? Of course not.

It is about the correction of the desires. The great Kabbalists, the sages of the Talmud, made a special correction after which we don’t have to through physical penance in order to exit our ego. It is enough to make efforts studying Kabbalah. If I study in a group and want to connect to others in order to discover the Creator in the connection between us and by that bring Him contentment, it is enough for my advancement. I don’t have to torment my body, to beat myself and to be thrown to the ground.

Before the correction of the sages of the Talmud, a person had to torment his body if he wanted to reach a spiritual revelation. According to nature’s laws we had to humiliate our physical body and to torment it so that it would want to come out of its skin. Kabbalists in the past made corrections so that we wouldn’t have to use such methods.

Our forefathers belonged to the Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, and Daat (HBD). Then came the sages of the Talmud who belonged to Hessed, Gevura, Tifferet (HGT) and so they are called the “sons.” The period of the sages of the Talmud lasted until the destruction of the second Temple. These Kabbalists corrected the part of creation that belonged to their desire. Therefore, the Light already dressed in the same vessels and became closer to us!

We belong to the last Sefirot: Netzach, Hod, Yesod (NHY). Every period: HBD, HGT, and NHY lasts two thousand years and today we’ve reached the year 5773, which means we’ve nearly reached the end of the 6000 years of correction.

First the Surrounding Light reached only the most external circle—HBD. But the fathers have brought it closer by their corrections and it has reached the Sefirot of HGT. The sages of the Talmud brought the Surrounding Light even closer to NHY, and then Kabbalists who lived during the last exile passed on the Light even closer to us. This means that the Kabbalists of the past have prepared for us the corrections which we can now use. It is one general system.

By our corrections, we are preparing the infrastructure for the next generation. This help is not only in the books and video clips that we produce; what’s important is that we are preparing a system full of Light for the next generations and are bringing the Light even closer! Thanks to this, the whole world is waking and it isn’t because of some articles or clips on the Internet.

Everything wakes from below, through the general system of souls. So the more united we are, wanting the Light to be revealed in the connection among us, the closer we bring the Light to all of humanity.

By this we can understand the connection between all the souls, in all the generations. Thanks to each correction, the Light gradually gets closer to desires that are thicker and more internal. As long as we haven’t corrected ourselves, there will be parts of the desire in the world that will not be able to wake up.
[96994]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
The Time Of Grandsons Is Here
Nobody, But Us
Correction: The Beginning Of The Final Stage

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, World - No Comments →

Question: Many times someone has seemed to be a great man, but as I got closer to him and got to know him I discovered there was nothing there. When will the disappointments end and when will we really discover greatness?

Answer: Greatness is only discovered in the Creator. We have to work in an opposite manner towards the group, the teacher, and the Creator; we have to build their greatness by ourselves. The closer you get to them, the smaller, humbler and lower they will seem to you. They will not allow you to hold on to them and to appreciate them.

It says, “Wherever you discover His greatness, this is where you discover His modesty.” It is very hard to hold on to a feeling of greatness in spirituality.

Therefore, religions use external attributes in order to raise importance, and every rabbi or priest presents themselves as great and important before the people. This is necessary in order to attract people, since they are impressed by external appearance. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, however, it is the opposite; here everything is determined by the internality. So sometimes the study, the group, the friends, and the teacher present themselves as not being special in any way. Then a person has to overcome the disrespect and try to raise their importance on a more internal level, by himself.

We don’t even act like the great group from Kotzk, who purposefully showed each other lightheadedness and disrespect of spirituality in order to allow for more work.

We have to work on the greatness of the friend, the teacher, and the Creator, although each time we feel that they are smaller. So we have to value these moments dearly, just like during the workshops when we have a chance to be impressed by the mind and feelings of the friends when we don’t even expect it. It is because we are used to humiliating everyone by seeing ourselves as the greatest of all.

The fact that I value myself more than everyone is instinctive. Suddenly I discover that the friends are greater than I, and this shakes me in some sense. First it only shakes me egoistically, but then I begin to value them and to envy them, and then I tie it to the goal and use it in order to advance.
[96991]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Separation That Helps Stronger Connection
The Creator Governs With Love
The Sculptor Of One’s Own Soul

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean to be impressed by the Creator?

Answer: To be impressed by the greatness of the Creator means to be impressed by His creation since we are not able to grasp Him Himself. It is “from Your actions we will know You.”

You are impressed by everything that you discover within you and surrounding you, in all of reality, that in the meantime you don’t connect to yourself and don’t feel that it is you yourself. You are shown only your inner world in a kind of external mirror so that you will study it better. We need to thank the Creator that He gives us the opportunity to see our inner pictures from the outside, and in this way can learn to know ourselves.

If you don’t connect together with the friends, the teacher, and the Creator, then, for certain, you are degrading them. It occurs automatically. If the importance of the Rav, the group, each of the friends, and the Creator aren’t completely equal for you, as something above you, given to you so that you understand yourself and the reality in which you exist, then it turns out that you degrade them.

You can’t just value the Creator. It isn’t the Creator if you don’t connect Him to the teacher, the group, the studies, and to all the components of this concept, the “Creator.” The main thing is to connect all the factors together; otherwise, it is impossible to talk about anything that is real and concrete.

“There is none else beside Him” signifies that all the rest, except for the single point inside me through which I am able to research the reality, is the Creator. And “the point of breakage” of mine that is separated from me was given to me so that by using this breakage, this special act of the Creator, I will get to know myself and Him.

We are both separated by the attribute of severance, purposefully created by the Creator. And only this one point doesn’t belong to the Creator, so that I will invert it into a point of adhesion.

And when I begin to work on this point of separation between us, it suddenly turns into five worlds, a black abyss that I constantly try to skip over. To skip, means to connect above this abyss that separates between us.
[96988]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
The Humble Greatness Of Spirituality
Being Impressed By The Creator’s Greatness
A Check For Selfless Devotion

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Kabbalah Study, My Similarity to the Creator, Perception, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean to judge the whole world to the scale of merit?

Answer: It means to attain a level in which I am incorporated in all the desires in the world, in all the souls, in all the parts of the one general soul, to such an extent that it all becomes me. Prior to this, in the previous levels, I already attained my personal end of correction, having totally justified the Creator’s attitude to me in the past, the present, and the future.

Now I attain the general end of correction by including all the souls in me and by being in one vessel with them. This is called judging the whole world to the scale of merit and by that I actually attain the Creator’s attitude to all of them. It is because I am in their end of correction and in my end of correction, and it becomes the same thing. What is revealed in this corrected vessel is called “absolute love.”

Until then, all I have in the meantime is my own vessel and I judge according to my feelings in it. So at a certain moment I can say that the Creator is good, but the next day when something unpleasant happens to me, I don’t justify the Creator any more. I cannot annul myself and determine that the Creator is good unless I correct all my vessels. I am constantly in the slingshot, tilting from one side to another each time.

When I correct myself, I begin to incorporate with all the other vessels, with all the people, with their internality. By this love for them, I reach the love of the Creator. These are not just nice words that call me to love everyone in order to use them as a means of getting to know the Creator; they are my spiritual vessels!

I am increasingly filled with love for them that is expressed by my being able to bestow upon them. Greater desires join me each time, and I work with all this accumulative desire.

Suppose I had 50 kg of desire yesterday by which I could connect to 50 people, and today my desire to receive has grown, and I feel melancholy, but I overcome this feeling and rise, and now I have 70 kg of desire. By that I can now connect with several more people.

My process of correction is by connecting to others and bestowing upon them, by love connections with 20 more people. It is possible to explain this simply, although it actually doesn’t happen so simply, but as an integral incorporation in “circles.”

To the extent that I connect with others this way, they become me and all of reality becomes mine. Thus I see the Creator’s attitude to reality, since it is the same thing, just like His attitude to me. It is like judging your attitude to me according to your attitude to my baby. Because I love him, your positive attitude to him is the same as a positive attitude to me.
[96885]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
The World On The Scale Of Justification
From Multiplicity To Unity
In The Analog System, “Almost” Doesn’t Count

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Love, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Once we reach the state of Gmar Tikkun (the final correction), will the feeling of the Creator, as the greatest, remain because we adhere to Him in one whole and become equal?

Answer: The special method of Kabbalah is that in adhesion with the Creator, our feelings of oppositeness to Him are not lost.

On the one hand, we become more opposed to the Creator; we distance from Him because during spiritual ascent our egoism grows. But at the same time, we become closer to Him, above our increasing egoism, and that is why our oppositeness to Him does not evaporate, does not disappear.

That is, in the state of Gmar Tikkun (the final correction), we discover that we are absolutely opposite to the Creator in our desire, and absolutely equal, like Him, in adhesion with Him, in our intention.
[96971]
From the Virtual Lesson 12/23/12

Related Material:
Who Is Steering The Wheel Of Creation
To Stand Before The Creator And Become Like Him
Winning The Contest With The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →

Rabash, “What is Thou Shall not Add and Thou Shall not Detract in the Work”: We should understand that when a person wants to begin the work of Holiness, he must first know what it is about. This means whom he wants to serve. This means that he must first estimate how important the King that he wants to serve as a slave is, which means that he will be as “slaves serving the Rav not in order to get a reward.” But who is the one who gives him the desire to serve the King without any reward. Only the greatness and the importance of the King fuel him to want to work without any reward. So all his work is to depict the importance of the King to himself, and to thank Him, for having given him a desire and a thought to take some part in spirituality.

The importance of the Creator is the only reason that can commit us to the real work. There are many kinds of awakenings, but they all come and work on the part of our ego. Only if we get an inspiration to work and are impressed by the Creator’s greatness, does this motivation come on the part of bestowal. The greatness of the upper obligates us to bestow and helps us to attain bestowal.

We have to divide it accurately into two. All the other types of awakenings, even those that come from the group, from the friends, all eventually influence our ego and evoke us egoistically: through envy, lust, and honor, which are on the part of the desire to receive.

It’s only the Creator’s greatness, which we ask Him to reveal to us, that motivates us. We don’t want His filling. We only want to be impressed by His height and to see His greatness. This really draws a person.

We know that without a push from behind and being drawn forward, we can’t move. Since we are naturally lazy, we don’t want anything but absolute rest. This is how the desire to enjoy is built. Only to the extent that we see a certain pleasure ahead, can we move from our place according to the pleasure that we imagine. Therefore, we want our desire to receive to move by being drawn by the Creator’s greatness, the King’s greatness, then we will undoubtedly advance correctly.
[96917]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12

Related Material:
A Check For Selfless Devotion
The Only Gift From The Creator
Cursory Thoughts On Shamati, “What Is The Greatness Of The Creator”

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

Question: What are the components of the force that affects the unity of friends?

Answer: The total sum of the spiritual force is made up of our aspirations for the next higher state. Each one individually has no spiritual force, but if we annul ourselves relative to others and begin to connect between ourselves, our connection forms the field, the network, in which the Creator is manifested.

Each of us is just a point, not even a vector. A vector appears when we mutually connect with each other.

The force that unites us is the upper Light, the manifestation of the Creator.

There is nothing but the Creator and what He has created—our egoistic desires. The manifestations of the Creator in relation to us are called the Light, and they have the other side, the direct side, Hassadim, Hochma, various NRNHY, fractions of the Light, its modifications.

By trying to unite among ourselves to reveal the properties of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love, we draw, according to our efforts, His closeness to us, not by His command and desire, but by ours!

The law, similar to the effect of a magnetic field, functions here: I strive to connect with my friend, wish that the Creator is revealed between us, and thus I bring about the attraction of the Creator towards us. This is an absolute law, and nothing depends on Him; He does not decide anything. He establishes one law, and this law is carried out because the law of nature or the Creator is one and the same. That is why, as soon as we strive to get closer to each other, our closeness with the Creator appears immediately. This desire gradually brings us closer, revealing a mutual force between us, as if feeding it.

Similarly, a child’s development occurs in our world; he makes an effort and receives energy and knowledge; he puts effort again, and again gains energy with new knowledge. Thus, we get a regular flow to the extent of our mutual movement towards each other and in overcoming egoistic interferences.

The Creator purposefully created egoism in us, which is constantly growing and changing in us in various forms, shapes, kinds, not only in size but also in quality. Moreover, He does all this in such cunning ways that we forget that everything comes from Him and begin to assign this to our friends, ourselves, our environment. But in reality, He spins all this.

It all depends only on our reaction to discover that it is Him, not forgetting about this, supporting each other, and constantly trying to get closer to each other.
[96867]
From a Virtual Lesson 12/23/12

Related Material:
The “Left Line” In The Group
Spiritual Advancement
Obligate The Creator To Help Us

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Unity - 1 Comment →

Question: How do we reach collective exertion?

Answer: This is all the work in the group. Without a collective effort, without our connection, we cannot attain vessels of bestowal.

We don’t have desires to bestow; there are only desires to receive! In the desire to receive, there is a point in the heart. So how can I build a desire to receive from it? I have to be incorporated in the right environment, with the initial bud of bestowal, the point in the heart.

I accept this environment as if it is my “point in the heart.” The group is thousands of points in the heart, a billion times bigger than my one point! If there is only one star in my heart, then the environment is like all the stars in the sky. I want to connect them, and by that I build my GE. Otherwise there is nowhere I can get vessels of bestowal.

These GE already belong to the next level with regard to my desires to receive (like phases three and four) and are intended to adhere to AHP of the upper.

By being incorporated in the environment, I build the desires to bestow (GE), and if I am not incorporated, then they don’t exist in me. Then I can say that my desires to receive are my AHP, and to the same extent I am incorporated in the group. If I have brothers in it (my family: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), with whom I am in a conflict now, then to the same extent I am in Egypt.

My whole path is determined by how I am incorporated in the group: First it is Babylon, then the Land of Canaan with all the adventures there, until I find myself in Egypt, right in it. This whole inclination takes place in the group, together with everyone else.

“Brothers go down to Egypt,” means that the desire to receive that separates them grows and they turn it to in order to bestow, which means that the children of Israel multiply in Egypt. During the first seven years, their number grows, and then come the seven years of famine, which is the time to start the correction.

They carry on in the same direction, but now they see that Egypt enslaves them and doesn’t let them attain a higher level. This is called that “a new king arose in Egypt.” But in fact, the same work in the group continues and as a result the states that are described in the Torah are revealed.

This whole story is fulfilled only in a person’s connection to the group. It is in the connection that everything the Torah tells us about is revealed. The Torah tells us only about a person’s connection with the Creator in order to bring Him contentment. There is not a word in it about anything else.
[96622]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
In Memory Of The Exodus From Egypt
The World Will Disappear And The Group Will Remain
What Is Darkness For The Ego Is Light For Me

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →