The one problem in every state is that in this world we cannot connect two opposites into one. Modern quantum physics also deals with the fact that light is both a wave and particle. Although a wave and a particle are not perfect opposites, physicists cannot understand how they can be integrated into one phenomenon. They cannot see a phenomenon yet in which two total opposites connect simultaneously, as it happens in the spiritual world, but they already see the beginning of this phenomenon.

A person who studies Kabbalah faces a similar problem, not on the level of the still nature, not like in physics, but rather on the level of thoughts, intentions, and feelings—on the fourth level compared to the first level of the still nature. The first levels are the still nature, the vegetative, and the animate, and only afterward is there the human level that determines what’s in a person’s mind and heart, the feelings thoughts, the power and the insight.

This dualism brings about many problems. On one hand, I have to see the truth and I see it through my own eyes—this whole corporeal world is corrupt, it is in a crisis, and I am also in a crisis. On the other hand, if I correct myself, I will have nothing else to correct and then I will have nothing to do, since the whole world will seem corrected and it will indeed be so. I will see it this way since “one judges according to one’s own flaws.”

In the meantime there is no dualism in that, the dualism is in the fact that on one hand I have to bestow upon the whole world and to worry that I will be able to bestow upon everyone. On the other hand, I have to understand that I am doing all this for myself and that this world doesn’t need that. All the corruptions that I see in it only show me where I have to work, and they were made especially for me.

There is the same contradiction here as in the story of Abraham who was told that he had to sacrifice his son Isaac, but that through him he will multiply—these are two contradictory things. This is how we should see our path: On one hand we worry about correcting everything in the external world, on the other hand, there is nothing to worry about, since all of reality is already in a state of absolute rest and is corrected.

A person should be grateful to the Creator for the one moment in his life in which he was awarded some contact with the upper force. The question is how we can understand that. But if a person was in contact with the Creator for even one moment, it isn’t just any moment. After all, he could penetrate that moment and enter the upper world through it, the eternal world in which there is no time and so every moment is an eternity.

So if a person can really be grateful for that one moment, he is already at the end of correction or has at least corrected his current level.

This is the reason that it is hard for us to be in spiritual states and to accept them, and this is on purpose by the way. All our work is “above reason;” we have to accept the spiritual conditions as “an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.” And although we don’t understand them, a “habit becomes a second nature,” the Light will gradually influence us and build new desires in us. Thus we will reach a state in which all the opposites will connect into one. Then through them, we will be able to enter the spiritual world.

On the one hand, our ego increasingly separates us from others, since “he who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater.” The distance between the desires remains, but we work on it so that by the intentions we will connect into one whole. It turns out that everyone is infinitely separated from the others, but in our intentions, we are in one common point and the Creator is in it.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/13

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When we move toward correcting ourselves, all our intentions must be oriented to unity, and none of them can be of a personal nature. Our points in the heart are the only personal thing we have. What can this point in the heart worry about except reaching unity with the rest of our collective body from which it will eventually receive spirituality?

That’s why our attempts to join our collective body reveal to us its various forms and characteristics that we read about in the Torah: Pharaoh, an angel, Moshe, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and many others. Who are they? They are the images that all of humankind, the group, and the world acquire to the degree of their attainment.

The picture described in the Torah is a form of the general soul that constantly changes and reveals itself in a new shape. However, it discloses only on condition that we continually aspire to unity. The Book of Zohar speaks about it. Each word and every line of The Book of Zohar represent an in-depth, gradual revelation that goes on until it fully discloses itself to “the eyes of all of Israel.” It’s not an accident that these words are the final phrase of the Torah.

We only reveal spiritual forms when we are connected.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/13, The Zohar

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Question: How can we explain to people that there is actually only one soul of Adam HaRishon (first man)?

Answer: There is a desire to receive and it is full of Light. This state is called Ein Sof (Infinity). There are no bounds, no limits; no matter what size the desire is, the Light fills it to the fullest. This is why in spirituality everything is measured not by qualitative parameters but by qualitative ones. If there is “one gram” of desire, there is “one gram” of pleasure to match it, and this is already Ein Sof, no limits—the Light and the desire are equal.

At the same time, when the desire to receive gets to know itself more deeply, it discovers in it a greater qualitative intensity until it reaches the central circle called the soul of Adam HaRishon. Inside my desire to receive, in my Malchut, I attain where I came from and for what reason. Then I really want to unite with the Light, and to receive the soul of Adam HaRishon.

Baal HaSulam brings the example of the guest who tells the host he wants to be like him.

– Well, says the host, I will do that for you.

Then the guest eliminates the Light, but, in fact, he acts against the host and begins to draw away from him in search for a state in which he can prove to himself and to the host that he can be like him in order to show the host his true bestowal.

In the same way, Adam HaRishon wanted to taste from the “tree of knowledge” using every means possible, which means to receive the Light in his vessels of receiving with the intention to bestow. This was the “sin of the tree of knowledge,” which is similar to the “shattering of the vessels” in the world of Nekudim, but in a more revealed manner. There are already details here like: “snake,” “Eve,” “the Garden of Eden,” and “Hell,” which means there are whole parts of the desire to receive whose essence and goal you already understand. Thus you penetrate into the depth of the desire that was created by the Creator. It becomes more detailed, more clear, more ripe, just like a fruit that ripens on a tree.

This fruit promises wonderful flavors and evokes great passion in you. The first taste was really in order to bestow: Adam and Eve received the whole Light of Ein Sof, but they didn’t have a whole desire yet with Reshimot (spiritual genes) aimed at this pleasure. But later, when the new Reshimot, the new tastes, penetrate the desire, it cannot relinquish the egoistic intention in the second attempt, or more accurately, it couldn’t avoid being tempted. After all, there are no “restrictive circumstances,” in spirituality. There everything is solved within the desire, and if I want to steal, I steal.

Now we have to correct these desires, the vessels. When we correct them, we return to the corrected soul of Adam HaRishon.

Why is it one for everyone? It is because everyone attains unity with everyone else. After all, the correction is actually the connection with everyone, thanks to which I attain the united vessel and in it receive the only Light of the soul. You cannot correct yourself separately and let them remain “evil.” There is no such thing. I will not correct myself if I don’t connect with everyone and correct everyone.

This is why eventually I come to a state in which everyone is corrected, and then I am called a “complete righteous,” which means that I justify and judge myself and the world to the scale of merit.

Imagine that someone next to you, speaking from his pure heart, says that the whole world is good and the Creator is good and benevolent and that there simply can be no evil. You look at him and you don’t understand where he is coming from: “Perhaps we should call an ambulance? Doesn’t he see what is happening in the world?” You don’t understand him, but he understands you; since he has already climbed the ladder of the spiritual attainment, he attains the whole soul of Adam HaRishon and sees everyone in Ein Sof. Although you feel our cruel world in your corrupt vessels, you are actually there too.

What should we do in order to feel this? Just one thing—correct ourselves. The world doesn’t change, you change, and then you see it differently. It is only your inner personal perception. Today you are looking at everything through the prism of your flaws so you don’t see the actual reality, but you see yourself the way you are today…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13, “600,000 Souls”

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In the News (from the Max Planck Society): “Many processes in the brain occur automatically and without involvement of our consciousness. This prevents our mind from being overloaded by simple routine tasks. But when it comes to decisions, we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. This is questioned by our current findings. …

“The researchers found that it was possible to predict from brain signals which option participants would take seven seconds before they consciously made their decision. …

“This suggests that the decision is unconsciously prepared ahead of time.”

My Comment: A decision is made outside of us, above, but not only in our case, but in the case of all the objects of the world according to the principle: glass begins to break before the bullet hits it. Everything in the world happens in a way opposite to what we think; our thoughts, decisions, and actions do not come from us to the world but in the reverse order, they come from “somewhere” to us… The Creator passes through us a series of sensations, and we have to learn to respond to them correctly, recognizing Him in each of them… and then our life will become conscious!
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Question: What does the perception of reality in the form of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” symbolize?

Answer: The perception of “Israel, the Torah and the Creator are one” is the only true reality there is. We, on the other hand, are in a state of imaginary concealment, in “worlds,” which means in concealments that exist only with regard to us so that we can be corrected.

The host who faces the guest accepts the guest’s desire and creates this concealment between them so that that guest will not feel the host and his good deeds. It is because this gift paralyzes the guest! The guest wants to be like the host, but he cannot do anything as long as the host fills him with everything that is good.

Under such conditions the guest cannot say to the host that he loves him and wants to bestow upon him. Even if he says these words, they will only be said in gratitude to the host for his kindness towards the guest. This is not how love and a relationship is tested. Love is tested when you are ready to give everything that you have! Then it is evident that you love and that you bestow.

So the host agrees with the guest that he should have the right conditions to express his attitude. Otherwise the guest has no point in receiving the goodness from the host, and will only experience sorrow. Instead of enjoying the refreshments the host has prepared, he will torture himself.

This brings about great sorrow to the guest, and so he is ready to restrict his desire (restriction I). Later a system develops that enables the guest to correct himself. It is as if he is thrown away from the host to the other end of the creation, of reality, as if he falls from a cliff into an abyss.

But he is happy about it since by falling further down, he begins to discover who he is. Before, he dissolved in the upper Light that took care of everything and covered everything. The Light filled the desire to receive and the desire didn’t even understand what it actually is. This is how a person who has an important and influential patron feels, that he cannot think about anything by himself, and so he begins to lose himself.

But the created being who is thrown away from the Creator to the other end of reality can now check whether his desire was real in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) and can do everything for the host, just as the host does for him. Can the guest really do this and does he want to? Here is where his work begins.

First there is a long period of preparation, thousands years of our history, which in the meantime we cannot even be considered as if we exist with regard to the spiritual world. For the time being it is only a process that takes place inside us, like a dream. Like in a dream, 50 years of our life go by in five minutes. It is the same with us, who by entering the spiritual reality, the spiritual ladder, look back and the whole way we’ve made in our lifetime as seeming like a short and meaningless episode of a couple of days at the most. The scale of the events totally changes.

After the guest restricts his desire, he can now start working and adapt himself to the host. He is ready to receive from the host to the extent that he can bestow upon him by that. He is ready to be in the dark and to receive the darkness as Light. This means that he doesn’t need to feel the taste and the fillings of the host for his own pleasure. He receives these fillings only in order to bestow and to bring contentment to the host.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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On one hand there are many souls and each of them is divided into more parts. But on the other hand, can spirituality be divided into parts? We know that there is one whole reality and nothing but that. Even when we are confused as we see its separate parts, it is actually one whole since only one state was created from the beginning, one soul.

It is called the soul of Adam HaRishon (first man), Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity). After the preparation, we discover this inner reality behind the Partzufim and the “worlds” much more clearly. It’s about a desire that is adhered to the Creator. On the root level of adhesion, it is called Malchut of Ein Sof, and on the fourth level of adhesion it is called the soul of Adam HaRishon. It’s all about how we see this desire at a certain point of our development.

So only the world of Ein Sof was created or the soul of Adam HaRishon and nothing else. This soul is in every person called “Israel,” which means Yashar—El (straight to the Creator), who has attained spirituality. What is more, it’s whole in everyone, since spirituality is not divided into sections and parts as we see in corporeality. Only the lack of correction prevents me from seeing the real picture, but I am in it nonetheless, in the initial state of one soul that was prepared for us to reveal.

But Kabbalists say that there are 600,000 souls that are divided into “sparks.” So what does this structure stand for, a “genealogical tree”? This is the distorted picture of reality that is divided by the force of the corrupt desire in each of us. First this desire separates and totally prevents the entrance of the Light, being totally opposite from it. Then, by the force of correction, the desire starts to receive the intention of in order to bestow, or in other words, it is refined. To the extent that it has this intention, the general soul illuminates in it. This means that the desire gradually discovers its real state. First it feels that it’s a small part of the general soul, and finally it discovers that it’s the same as the soul. Then it discovers that it is Adam HaRishon.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13, “600,000 Souls”

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Question: The convention “A Flame in the Desert” seems to be closing the circle that the first convention in the desert started about a year ago. We feel that the previous phase is ending and there are new opportunities before us for the emotional connection among us. What will our global group look like after its spiritual birth when we succeed in attaining connection?

Answer: I don’t think that our external form will change that much, and the inner connection cannot be described in words. There will be such a connection among us that you will constantly feel as if your child is away from you, the physical distance separates you, but you know and feel him so well that his image has become a part of you and is living in you; this is how we will all feel one another.

We won’t need to talk much since we will understand each other’s feelings internally by adhesion. There will be few words and the clarifications will be short and simpler. It is as if we are eating one salad, and I say that there isn’t enough salt and you already understand that when I say half of a word. After all, you are tasting the same dish, and feel the same reality.

We won’t need endless words and powerful media in order to create the connection between us like we do today when we don’t feel connected. We will correspond, but in a very short and to the point manner since we will understand what each one feels anyway. We will become “one man in one heart.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, “What is the Acronym of Elul in the Work”: Yet, there is a condition to that: It is impossible to obtain disclosure before one receives the discernment of Achoraim (Posterior), discerned as concealment of the Face, and to say that it is as important to him as the disclosure of the Face…

It means that when one comes to a state where one has no support, one’s state becomes black, which is the lowest discernment in the upper world, and that becomes the Keter to the lower one, as the vessel of Keter is a vessel of bestowal.

The lowest discernment in the upper is Malchut, which has nothing of its own, meaning that she does not have anything. And only in this manner is it called Malchut. It means that if one assumes the Kingdom of Heaven—which is in a state of not having anything—gladly, afterwards, it becomes Keter, which is a vessel of bestowal and the purest Kli. In other words, the reception of Malchut in a state of darkness subsequently becomes a Kli of Keter, which is a vessel of bestowal.

We have to work hard and do everything that we can, as it says: “Do everything that is in your power” until we reach a state that the Creator’s “posterior” and the Creator’s “face” become equally important. This means that you will see the Creator’s work on you both in the concealment and in the revelation. If you want to work in order to bring the Creator contentment and not for your sake, then you receive both the concealment (the “posterior”) and the revelation (the “face”) gladly.

You will see no difference between the Light and the darkness, the difference between them is only felt in the corrupt desire to receive, but in the corrected desire, they are equal. Thus all your reflections regarding the good Providence disappear. All the states of the concealment of the Creator’s face become equally important and desirable to you, just like His revelation.

Then you reach a state where there is no more concealment. Since everything is determined by your perception, according to the person who receives. In the meantime, you conceal the Creator’s actions as the good and the benevolent from yourself by your desire to receive, and instead of the good, you see everything as black and evil. When you correct yourself, you discover that everything was good and corrected before and the only thing that had to change was your perception.

Thus you come to understand that it is your Malchut with all its thickness that reaches the great bestowal of Keter by turning its force of receiving (the thickness) into bestowal (purity). It isn’t just a change from receiving to bestowal, from receiving evil to receiving goodness. You, with all your egoistic material, will participate in the disclosure of the goodness by purifying it in order to feel the Light and bestowal as good in it, and instead of the ego, to change it to bestowal.

By that you make your contribution, participate, and build the revelation by yourself. It is by the thickness of your desire to receive that you increase the Creator’s bestowal by increasing it from the small spark of the Light and from a small point of desire to the size of Ein Sof.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13

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Our real existence develops in the desire and only in it. There is nothing but that. But, besides the desire and the picture that it creates in our feelings, I was given another temporary imaginary picture, an imaginary addition in the form of a physical body that is in a corporeal world. This reality doesn’t actually exist, but now it helps me be in an illusion of existence. When a real urge to use my initial desire will be revealed in me, I will approach it.

One way or another, everything takes place in the desire, with the physical body that is simply an “animal” that has no freewill and is not required to do any work. This body is an opportunity to approach the real work in the desire and not more than that. The picture that is depicted by my corporeal senses is the imaginary world.

This is why philosophical approaches and other methods of sophistry are so far from the truth. It is because they take the body into account, its actions and its imaginary potential, allegedly raising it above the animal level.

Now I have only bodily desires that create the illusion of the existence of a live body. As a result, I have to take care of the body of this desire, to guard it, and to provide it with different things. This corporeal desire lives and dies.

Besides that I have a point in the heart (•). I develop it by connecting with all the other points in order to attain love, and then in contrast to it, I feel aversion and hate. Then from zero to 100%, according to my exertion, I begin to develop the real ego inside me, the spiritual desire to receive. This happens when I enter the group, the right environment.

Until then, I only have an “animal” and a point in the heart that may have appeared. There are people who remain in the system of the body with the point for a long time. Even if they study with the friends but don’t involve love, the group, and don’t keep the first condition (1), they don’t reach the second stage, the feeling of hatred (2). The point only stimulates them a little. Later when they start the real work with the group, they leave the previous system and move on to a new system, which becomes the only important thing for them. Everything that happens with the bodily desires is totally irrelevant. It should be satisfied with the basic necessities and not ask for more.

We build a group among us, a network, and fill it with our mutual bestowal. On the whole this exertion is our desire to bestow upon one another. We raise a request (MAN) for correction, and in response the Surrounding Light comes and corrects and connects us, and then provides the filling, which is called the soul.

The main thing is actually the transition from one system to another. This is the difference between philosophy and religions from one side and the wisdom of Kabbalah on the other.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/13, “Body and Soul”

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