A person who starts studying the science of Kabbalah discovers that his previous notions are far from reality. “Body,” “soul,” and other familiar notions acquire a completely different meaning.

The science of Kabbalah arranges everything very simply, practically not leaving you any chance to get confused. There is a desire for pleasure, inside of which different forms of bestowal can be perceived. And that is the only thing happening in our reality.

Depending on what level of bestowal you are on, that is the reality you feel. You can feel reality on level zero, in other words, you can live in our world where the degree of bestowal equals zero. We are at the very bottom, but even here there are four developmental levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human.

Then, as you ascend up 125 levels of the spiritual ladder, you will attain the degree of bestowal, or in other words, the Creator. At the end, at the 125th level you will reach 100% bestowal.

We are talking about equivalence of form or how creation acquires a form of bestowal above the desire for pleasure. You must constantly ascend in your receiving desire in order to acquire the form of the bestowing desire over it. The form of bestowal you clothe over the receiving desire brings you to the degree of bestowal because you have actualized this to a specific measure. That is how you make yourself similar and equal to the Creator, becoming human (Adam).

In essence this is very simple: You only need to combine two qualities correctly, ascending up a slanted ladder that is built of two forces or two lines: the right and the left. Thus, beginners receive clear explanations. In fact, Kabbalists do not draw a distinction between the worlds. everything depends on the person: Develop your capability for the form of bestowal and you will see more than you now do.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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We work above our matter, the will to enjoy. It has to grow all the time in order for us to grow, creating the form of bestowal and equivalence to the Creator above it.

That is why we experience the growing desire as a disaster. It comes when a person is ready for it. It is written, “The woe that comes to the sinners starts with the righteous.” In other words, the negative forms become revealed in those who used to be righteous, who made an ascent and prepared themselves.

Beginners who don’t understand the method yet are taken aback by this, “Why is it that after all the efforts I made, I am experiencing such negative states?” Suddenly the inspiration is gone and one feels indifferent to everything. However, with experience comes wisdom and a person realizes that the path forward lies through descents and opposition to the egoistic inclination.

The spiritual goal will always remain a question for me, “Why do I advance? Is it worth it for me to go against my egoism, my nature? Is it normal to work in such great descents, without any aspiration or motivation?” A person feels miserable and helpless, and experiences his state as unworthy and undeserved.

This is precisely the place about which it is written, “The righteous will walk where the sinners will retreat.” The entire matter is that we have to come out of our nature. We shouldn’t nourish it or tend to it, but raise it in order to ascend above it. Every time a person has prepared himself for an ascent, he is sent a new “burdening of the heart” so he would ascend even higher. That is how he advances on the spiritual path.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I understand that The Zohar talks only about the spiritual world. But at the same time, there is a law of root and branch. Besides, the material world is an imprint of spirituality. So what is the connection between them?

Answer: There are only two forces or qualities in nature: reception and bestowal. All the possible unifications and connections between them create their mutual, common form for us.

If this common form has a desire to receive for itself, this is the reverse imprint of the Creator, and if it has the desire to bestow, it is a direct copy of the Creator. Nothing else exists. That is why we say that there is none else besides Him and in general He is the only thing that exists.

So who are we? We are those who desire to discern these forms that are opposite or similar to the Creator. These forms build the image of the Creator inside us, showing it to us on our inner screen.

We cannot see a force by itself because a force is a form outside of matter, similar to electricity. I can tell that electricity is present only if it activates a device, meaning I can only identify it by certain results.

I do not know who the Creator is, but I can attain His form and according to that I can see and realize it. I too exist to the degree that I attain the form of the Creator.

The Zohar talks about which forms of the Creator I attain—good or bad, better or worse. Can it really be that I attain bad forms from the Creator?! Yes, because I am the one who attains and "Every person judges to the extent of his own lack of correction."

On my inner screen I attain the forms between how much I can be in the opposite quality and how able I am to become similar to the Creator. This is the contrast I attain and it creates the image of the Creator for me.

There are always two distinctions in this image—for and against, good and evil, Light and darkness. I attain the difference between them and without that difference I would have no sensation because I am creation.

Through all sorts of forms such as these, which remind us of earthly pictures, The Zohar shows us the combination of forces, Hassadim and Hochma, reception and bestowal, which create the image of the Creator for me. But they create this image inside of me because for now, it is in my desire and my sensation that the Creator appears to me in these uncorrected forms.

The question arises: But why does The Zohar depict this for me in this earthly form? It’s because the Creator initially brought us to this imaginary reality where we also imagine Him as our world with the inanimate nature, plants, animals, and people, and where we exist connected with each other.

This entire dream that we are now seeing is intended only in order for us to ascend from it to the true picture of reality. That is why The Zohar describes the spiritual reality for us in this earthly form that we now feel. Then we can at least start to talk about higher forms of reality based on something.

Otherwise we would not have any chance to do it because we need a scale by which to measure, a certain basis with which to start. There has to be some kind of initial state and that initial state is our world.
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From the lesson on 12/4/10, The Zohar

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8: Time and place in spirituality signify a renewal of form. Since a Partzuf grows only through a multitude of unions (Zivugim) and transfers of Lights that differ from one another, building it together, they are called "the months of the intrauterine development" or the period of embryonic development, which can last for 7, 9, or 12 months depending on the amount of portions of Light that are necessary to form it.

We study the changes that happen to the will to enjoy and count the number of these changes or renewals, which are called "months" (Hodesh, month, comes from the word Hidush, renewal). There is no time in spirituality. Time is determined by the number of changes that we have gone through, rather than the motion of the hand of a clock or the changes of some external factor. As much as I changed, that is how much time has gone by. This is how time is defined in spirituality.

Therefore, the period of an embryo’s development means that I go through one state after another ("I go through," Over, comes from the word embryo, Ibur). I have to go through a specific amount of changes in order to go from the intrauterine development inside the Upper One to development outside of Him.

Now I am also in the Upper One and He develops me. During this process of development I have absolutely no influence on the changes I undergo. I am forced to change by instincts and forces that I experience as suffering, and thus, I go through these changes against my will.

Then another phase comes: I start to feel that there is some kind of reason behind it, that there is a high need for it, and there is an Upper One who makes all these changes to me, wishing for me to start finding out about the system of governance, the cause and effect order of development, the beginning and goal of the whole path. That is how the whole world is beginning to awaken in our times.

After that we reach the realization that we have to evoke these changes ourselves. From a certain state onward there is no time that the Upper One changes for us, forcing us to develop. Now the Upper One only adds Lights for us, which we perceive as evil. However, this does not enable us to develop, but only to reach the realization that we have to demand development from the Upper One. That is, we must already participate in the development ourselves and demand it.

The Upper One does not force me to do the action itself, but only to request it so I would ask the Upper One to carry it out. My request has to be in the middle. For now this request can be expressed as a cry due to feeling bad.

After that I develop and am required to have this cry come out of the realization of goodness, when I understand that all of this is for my good. Even though I might feel bad in my sensations, I already realize that this is good for my development, because I have to ascend to the next level. Then the Upper One no longer demands a cry from me, but cooperation in development. This is called partnership.

After that we reach a state where the Upper One does not awaken me at all, but I have to search for an opportunity to awaken inside of me, using the environment. I have to awaken the Upper One so He would awaken me, and then agree with His action and tell Him exactly how to do it. It’s as if I understand and choose the best form of action for myself, and then the Upper One does it.

In the end we reach a state where I give the Upper One all the orders. In the beginning of the path He made all the actions upon me, from beginning to end, without my awareness. I did not know who is operating me, what He does, and where I am. But at the end of the path I determine everything from beginning to end, and only use the force of the Upper One.

Our entire path lies in that we acquire increasingly greater independence and self-sufficiency, becoming more and more similar to the Upper One.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: At the lesson we have to aspire to one place and unite everything into one. However, over the years I have developed different notions of spiritual phenomena. When reading about Bina and Malchut, I perceive them differently. Is it possible to reduce them to one point?

Answer: They really do have to become one whole. In essence, Bina and Malchut are the qualities of the Creator and creation. We do not know exactly what this is, but nevertheless their interconnection and relationships indicate union.

Bina lowers a part of herself into Malchut, the letters “ELE” of the name Elokim. Malchut ascends into Bina, changing the name MA to MI. Behind the descriptions of these processes in The Book of Zohar we discern the bonds connecting them.

Accordingly, we have to build our intention. By uniting with the group, I see it as the place, the focal point where the quality of Bina, bestowal, or Elokim is revealed. That is where I raise my desires and yearnings. It is where I want to unite as a corrected part of Malchut.

I hope that Bina will help me by means of its vessels ELE, which are lowered intentionally in order to take care of me in order to become a motherly womb for me and raise me spiritually. That is how I should relate to the group.

The group is the system that is empowered to present Elokim, HaVaYaH, to me. It is the place where I receive nourishment, and from where the Lights and changes come to me.

My conception of the group depends only on how able I am to reject myself before it. The Upper One may take on any forms, but it happens only to the degree that the lower one ascends the degrees of self-rejection and becomes similar to Him, going through the phases of conception, feeding, and adulthood.

This is what I want when I subject myself to the group’s influence, the place that nourishes us. This should be my intention at the lesson: to constantly search for my place in the story about the interrelationships of Bina and Malchut.

They connect through Zeir Anpin, through HaVaYaH, the quality of mercy, the Light. This is the entire system that develops us. Our territory is the lower part of Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut herself. That is where our entire life is, both the material and the spiritual.

That’s because reality is one. Even though we only see an illusory picture now, it is just a flaw in our perception, an illusion caused by meager understanding and sensation. When the fog begins to clear, the Upper World will come through from it, our connection with the group, with the other souls, which comes through in AHP, meaning in the lower part of Bina (ZAT), Zeir Anpin, and Malchut.

This is what all of the science of Kabbalah talks about. This is the expression of our relationship with the Creator, with the unity of HaVaYaH and Elokim, which we have to attain.

Therefore, we have to understand that ZAT de Bina is the corrected group in which we find ourselves. We will never reveal anything more. we discern only the degree of our ability to unite in the lower part of Bina, in the group. That is our place. By giving ourselves over into its power, we will reveal our true reality, which is concealed from us for now by a veil of hazy perception.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/10, The Zohar

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"A judge has nothing more than what his eyes see." This is a very strict law that must be observed very precisely. We cannot follow even the very best advice unless it comes from our own corrections, our similarity to the Light.

Also inside yourself you must ask at all times: "Who am I hearing now? A person who lives inside his own fantasies, or one who looks at things as they really are and knows his exact place, not jumping any higher?"

Then I don’t perceive the things I hear from Kabbalists as laws or even advice, but as "Segula," a miraculous means. I want it to influence me and change me! Once I change, I will then see the truth.

"A judge has nothing more than what his eyes see," meaning that I will actually hold the fulfillment in my "hands," in my Kelim of reception, and I will "see it with my eyes," meaning inside the Light of Hochma. That’s when I will be able to act!

Until that happens, you can memorize the entire Torah by heart and it will do no good; yet the Torah can work as a "miraculous means" or a "spice." You will be able to correct and use your egoism only to the extent you can add this "spice" to your egoism.

Then you will see exactly which desires you can use and to what extent, or how deeply (with which Aviut). This approach, first and foremost, requires correction.

A completely different approach to teaching follows from this, namely, that we have nothing to say to a student. We can only awaken him so he absorbs as much Light that Reforms as possible. It is impossible to give him ready-made behavioral models, but only "miraculous means": the need to unite in the group among friends, and then to wait for him to change on his own.

If this doesn’t affect a student, if he does not change and does not accept the teacher’s advice, then nothing can be done about it. It is impossible to coercively give him exercises that are above his level, but only to the degree he has corrected himself and understood that he has to make the calculation, change, and then start to act.

This greatly restricts the teacher’s possibilities when teaching a student compared to our world, regardless of whether the student is an adult or a child.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, "Body and Soul"

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Question: The Creator is concealed, but instead of Him I have the group. How can I see pure bestowal in it?

Answer: There are always disturbances in the group, and it is precisely with their help that we can do wonderful exercises, practicing to become similar to the Creator. Any negative must be used precisely as it was intended in order to turn it into a positive.

Everything is for the best; we only have to act correctly, without backing down from what is happening and by building the right attitude to it. “Everything is for the best” does not mean that we accept the inevitable ahead of time, as people commonly do. Rather, above the disturbance or example we received, we must first of all discern the final point, the corrected state. Then I will find the way to turn the incorrect into the correct, to unite myself in the present, the disturbance (which may be related to the friends, the Creator, or even my personal circumstances), and the goal of creation.

I will find out how to correct any aspect, be it a desire, intention, thought, or event. Not only will I be able to justify it and attribute it to the Creator, but I will also attach it to a connection with Him. I will understand to what extent I have to reconstruct my desire and way of thinking in relation to the given event, and how much I have to change my perception of the event in order to see that the Creator has brought me goodness.

The sign of this will be joy: I am happy because the Creator has given me the opportunity to come that much closer to Him. That is how our efforts gradually accumulate into a great possession.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, The Zohar

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Question: Instead of gaining superpowers, I feel weaker from one day to the next. How can I become a spiritual superman that ascends above his ego?

Answer: First of all you should base everything on the facts. There’s no reason to get scared of the facts because everything comes to us from the Creator, who presents a process to us as a way to learn something.

The Upper Light influences our inner Reshimot, creating inside them the pictures that appear before us. He takes informational data (Reshimot) from us, projects them on our inner screen, and thus we perceive ourselves as being in a specific state.

All of these states have to happen to us on the path. So what’s the problem? Is it the fact that sometimes I feel bad and sometimes I feel good, having completely no power over myself? After all, I am governed by the Light.

Now I am receiving an explanation of how the Light influences me. But who am I? I only observe this work. That is why it is called the Creator’s work. We are looking at it from aside and should use it to learn about what is happening.

Is it unpleasant to know He is operating me? What if I looked at my friend who suddenly cries or feels happy, sometimes he sleeps and sometimes he is rushing off to some place; that would be normal because I would see the Light’s actions operating someone else. But I am not glad to observe how all of this is happening to myself.

On one hand, this is correct. On the other hand, if you start to identify with these actions, with the Creator, and if you desire to justify Him, then you won’t care what passes over you. You identify with the One who operates you and perceive yourself as the material for Him to work on.

Can you detach from this material? Can you say, “This is not me at all. If I am moving, doing something, thinking or desiring something, none of it is me. I identify with the Creator who is doing anything He wishes to this material.” That’s when you can already see yourself from aside.

Now a question arises: Can I ask the Creator to carry out other goal-oriented actions? It’s possible that this will happen, so let’s try. What actions will they be? And for what? What will He hear? What will He want to carry out? I don’t want to ask Him for something vain. If I have already reached a state where I act together with Him against my body, as Moses did with the Creator against Pharaoh, then let me ask for something real. That’s when a person begins this entire process.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

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Question: When I served in the army, I saved money and waited for my service to end, so that I could start traveling. Now I can talk about what I have seen in various places, my adventures of pleasures received. What kind of impressions do we receive journeying through the Upper World?

Answer: From the place where we receive “the point in the heart” and begin to dream about ascending to Malchut of the World of Infinity, accordingly we descend lower and lower into a sensation of hatred, which separates the parts of Malchut.

The more hatred we reveal, the more we can correct and rise above it. This is what is meant by ascending from world to world: negative Assiya → Assiya → negative Yetzira → Yetzira → negative Beria → Beria → negative Atzilut → Atzilut → negative Adam Kadmon → Adam Kadmon (AK), until we reach the World of Infinity.
Your point in the heart receives the desire to journey through the “land,” that is within the desire (“land” in Hebrew is “Aretz,” from the word “Ratzon,” “desire”). And then you set out on the path.

You take the Light of Hassadim, that is the anti-egoistic screen (“money/cover”), penetrate the desire, and thanks to this cover/money you select the pleasure/Light of Hochma. You have the desire and the “cover,” meaning you can pay for it, and so you make the payment and receive the pleasure. This is your journey!

It is a journey within your desire! The entire world is your desire, and all the lands you’ve visited are parts of your inner desire as well. You have tested your desires and clarified which inner pleasure you can receive in Thailand, Europe or somewhere else.

The same applies to the spiritual world, except it is no longer an illusory picture, where it only seemed to you as if you’re traveling in this world. Now you really see that these are parts of your soul, and you discover that you exist together with them, in unity, revealing the light (pleasure) within this adhesion!

This pleasure is thousands of times greater than your past travels, where you might have seen or heard something, or eaten something that later gave you indigestion. The spiritual world is where you truly take pleasure! After all, this is a journey within your desire, only it seemed to you as it existed on the outside.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, Baal HaSulam “The Gate of Intentions”

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Work in the group takes place in two planes: 1. the greatness of the group, the friends, or the Creator (which is the same thing), and 2. your own insignificance compared to the group and the Creator. If I orient myself in this manner, then I receive the right desire, which enables me to cancel myself and become part of the group.

The moment I really become part of it as just one point, I begin to feel that I am a spiritual embryo immersed in the Light that fills the group.
The faces of the friends that we see around us are not called a “group.” The group is the common desire of souls united with each other and given to me as the place where I meet the Creator. I have to work in relation to this “place” because I am a desire or vessel, and this place is the desire or vessel that I work with in order to become part of it, to adhere to it and expand myself. I can work with it because we have the same nature!

However, I cannot work with the Creator because He is Light. He is the quality I reveal inside of our common vessel (the “place”) to the degree I enter it and participate in it. Right now this place appears to me as filled by separate particles (souls). But if I saw the true state inside, I would see all of them as special souls and spiritual Partzufim united by one connecting net, one desire.

I have to correct my attitude to them in order to seem them as connected, and that constitutes my correction! The group is Malchut of the World of Infinity. There is not a person in the world who isn’t connected with others and is not at the End of Correction.

However, right now I see a different world due to my uncorrected vision, as it is written, “Every person judges to the extent of his own flaws.” When I demand greater inspiration and energy to advance from them, I am turning to my own reflection in the mirror!

The Creator has arranged the whole world we see in front of us in this way. It is a copy of me with which I work. To the degree I demand that the group work and unite, it influences me in response in the same way. In essence I work with myself, as if standing before a mirror and making different faces at myself!

It was in order to accomplish this that the Creator divided my perception of the world into me and everything outside of me so I would have the opportunity to work and attain the inner sensation. Otherwise I would never be able to feel Him. I wouldn’t even understand that something else can exist besides me.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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