Question: You give many examples from science when we speak about Kabbalah. There was a famous inventor in Italy named Guglielmo Marconi who perfected the first radio receiver, improving its sensitivity to such an extent that it allowed for a connection at a great distance. So, do we need to improve the sensitivity of our soul the same way to develop a connection with others? Is faith the very same antenna that ensures our connection with the Creator?

Answer: Guglielmo Marconi was a great scientist, and he had many secrets. He only revealed a small part of his discoveries to us. He discovered waves we do not yet know about, which readily envelope our globe and even completely penetrate it. He was a unique genius.

When we come “outside” of ourselves, we begin to perceive the general energy field which fills the entire space between us. This field is God, the Creator. To perceive it means to attain the Creator, the upper force that connects all the souls. Then, we, together, and He, this upper force, the thought called “the Thought of Creation,” become like one whole. This is why man is called Adam, from the word Dome (similar to the Creator).

We reach a state where we simply join Him, meaning exist in Him being aware of and comprehending it. This force that we join is called the power of faith.

Faith is the Sefira of Bina (from the word “Havana” or understanding). In other words, “believing” does not mean closing your eyes and moving like a blind person, relying on something someone said. Not at all! Faith is based on the force of bestowal. When I am able to change the channel of my inner “radio receiver,” I tune to the same wave, and the information I receive from it is called faith.
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From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: In the wisdom of Kabbalah, you talk about man’s ego, about unity with everyone, and about us needing to reach balance with nature. But how does this relate to the connection with God (Elohim)?

Answer: In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we talk about nature. According to Gematria (the numerical value of the word), “nature” and “Elohim” are the same thing. That is, if we talk about the upper force, nature, God, or the Creator, whatever you want to call Him, everything around us is just a manifestation of that force.

If we talk about the upper force, then what is the difference in how we call it: “Elohim” or “nature”? There is the upper force (really the upper!) which gives birth to and rules over everything, and we want to know how to connect with it, how to reveal it, and to understand it.

Thus, if I exit myself, my ego, and begin to reveal the reality outside me, above my ego, this is called the understanding, realization, and revelation of the Creator. Naturally, all this happens within me and only relative to me.

Gradually, I organize my desire, my spiritual structure, meaning the property of bestowal and love towards others: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod,and Malchut. According to this structure, I know the connections between them and thus reveal the Creator.

Elohim is also called the “Creator” (Boreh), from the Hebrew words “come” (Bo) and “see” (Reh) because we have to “see” Him, reach the state in which we understand Him, as if seeing firsthand. We are created by Him for this purpose.
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From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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As we rise above egoism, besides everything else, we make a wonderful discovery: We begin to discern that essentially, the entire world exists within us, and not outside of us. And this is logical because I really don’t know what exists on the outside.

A person only perceives what enters his senses and through the nervous system reaches his brain, which processes the final “image.” This is the way we perceive the world. It is enough to sever a nerve to make a part of our reality disappear from our senses.

Thus, as a person rises above himself, he sees that his perception is not at all on the outside, but fully depends on his senses, desire, thought, sensations, and mind. And when we know how to change these parameters, we can expand our perception and rise above the limits of the five senses.

This is where the name “the wisdom of Kabbalah” comes from, which literally means the wisdom of  “reception.” A person uses it to gradually come out from the physical senses of his animalistic body and expand the sensations to the point of infinity. While living in our world, he advances to the level where he no longer associates himself with a corporeal body since he sees a much greater reality above it.

Now he no longer conditions his life to perception in the five senses. And even after the body dies, the person remains in the reality he has acquired above it. He does not feel death since a new dimension has entered his perception before the death of the body.

This way a person lives on two levels: the corporeal degree, like all of us, and the “incorporeal” degree that rises above egoism.
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From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Essentially, Kabbalah is the method of correction of man, man’s nature. And so, within the framework of our studies, we are involved in widely distributing this information.

We have around two million students worldwide; we teach in 26 languages in many countries. We see that all different kinds of people and representatives of many nations express their need for this wisdom, and they begin to understand that the world has no future without it.

Besides that, we teach children and see how much more developed they become, how it opens them up. We publish books, broadcast on television, and work actively on the Internet. We promote development.

We study the wisdom of Kabbalah in groups. It is not about growing apart from others; rather, a person develops individually when he is in the group, in the environment, and constantly changes himself through the group dynamics. Essentially, a person adapts himself to the environment that has to show him, time after time, the need to rise above egoism and exit from himself into love of others. A person practices this in the group.

By establishing contact with the environment, a person feels its needs and unites with it. Then, a connecting network is revealed between everyone; it is above personal egoism, and a person feels common bonds, a common force that dwells between them. As a result, it’s as if everyone exits oneself and starts connecting to this collective force.

Thanks to this, we find out that above the reality that we are aware of, there is a higher reality. We perceive our current reality inside, in our vessel, and thus we are limited. We want to receive pleasure, and when the pleasure enters the desire, they cancel each other due to their mutual oppositeness.

It turns out that each time we achieve something, we enjoy it for a moment—and the pleasure disappears immediately. We run after the next pleasure, touch it, and it vanishes as well. As soon as the pleasure enters the desire, it neutralizes the latter at once: A short circuit between the plus and the minus leads to annihilation.

On the other hand, when a person exits himself and above his egoism starts to unite with the group, with other people, he creates a vessel above himself, an external desire. Now he feels outside himself both the desire and the pleasure, and they do not disappear. On the contrary, reality turns into the flow of infinite life above time.

Pleasure that enters and disappears over and over again creates for us a sensation of time. But if the pleasure is not extinguished, if we feel how it flows endlessly, then we rise above a sensation of time and begin to perceive the general force of nature, which surrounds and arranges us together.

We begin to discern connections between all the parts of reality, resembling the interwoven threads on the reverse side of an embroidered picture. Outside, we see a “pattern” of our world, but if we look behind its surface, we will see the threads tying the parts of this picture. This is what we discover with the help of the science of Kabbalah: the connection and mutual influence between us.

This produces a great impact on people, and they change. Having seen this reality, they understand that we cannot manage without connection and mutual understanding because they can see the harm they may cause to others.

Thus, we need not faith, but attainment. In this way, a person becomes free and begins to see the world clearly. Then, according to his degree, he determines the correct course of actions for himself.
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From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: Once a person rises above all his material interests and connects with the upper nature, the Creator, does physical death no longer have meaning for him?

Answer: This is true. When I asked my teacher about this at the very beginning of my path, he said that a person studying Kabbalah has to reach a state when he starts to treat the life of his material body like a shirt: It’s as if he takes a dirty shirt off at the end of the day and throws it into the laundry and tomorrow puts on a new one. Our body is exactly like this.

These are real things. They stem from the study of “Self” when I exit the perception of my life inside my bodily desires. Right now, we live for our material body! But if I exit this sensation and connect with the upper reality above it, I immediately begin to feel the eternal flow of life.
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From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: The tough, egoistic resistance between people, along which international relationships deteriorate, all these will not cease from the world by any human counsel or tactic, whatever it may be.

Don’t think that the world will be able to correct itself. Even if people realize that our egoism is the evil of the world, correction is impossible without the “spice,” meaning without the method of Kabbalah. We have to give the world the Light that Reforms, but it can be done only by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in one form or another, according to the various types of desires, that is, the people in our world.

In any case, we have to give them the Light. Egoism cannot be corrected by any other way. Nothing else can help here, neither psychology or sociology, nor wonderful endeavors or troubles. The only thing that can help is attracting the Light that Reforms. We have no chance without it.

Indeed, the Light includes the goal and the program for achieving it, all the stages that we have to pass through. Without the Light, we are like animals that cannot make a single move. The Light has to come and influence us. Then, we will come into motion.

So, why do we experience troubles and all kinds of changes? In fact, they aren’t changes, but namely troubles that will intensify until we, at least some of us, start attracting the Light, at least a small portion of it.

Development is carried out only by the Light. We should be thoroughly aware of this. There is no chance that the egoistic desire, itself, will find a path of development. Throughout the centuries, this opportunity was found through the Light that came without waiting to be called and it continuously pushed us forward.

Today, we have crossed the threshold after which we have to precede the arrival of the Light by our own desire addressed precisely to the Light. From now on, everything starts with “our initiative,” with “a prayer and good deeds.” This definition means that we, ourselves, have to want to evolve, not in the egoistic pursuit of new pleasures, but above egoism. Awakening, rising, has to come from our side.

Moreover, we won’t be able to evolve unless we form a request within ourselves, expecting that in return, the force of the Light will come and influence us, giving us new properties of unity and love so that we will merge into a global, integral whole. Only this Light carries our future states. We don’t know what they are nor how to pass through them, but our work, in essence, is simple: We are looking for the force that develops us.

That’s all; we don’t need any special wisdom. I don’t know in advance what awaits me. Sometimes, I notice something new in my mind and feelings, reveal a new, thin layer of understanding and sensation. It looks a bit like the effect of the Light that awakens and corrects our desires. We shouldn’t interfere in its work, but rather speed up our development as much as possible.

The Light will never affect us until we ask it to do that. We must be the first to ask. This is what it demands. This request, this necessity initiates a spiritual action on the matter of desire. Thanks to it, we reveal who we are and who the Creator is.

At our low degree, we understand a higher degree at least a bit, in order to merge with it. We don’t understand it completely, but only at the place where we are attached to it. To adhere to a point within the mother’s womb, one has to become equal in properties with her.

In this way, the created beings do a big job, wishing to merge with the upper one within a tiny segment of perception. Then, they want the upper one to cancel them, filling them with its Lights of development. Similar to an embryo, we ask for the Lights that bring development, not for those that bring pleasure. In this way, we reach equivalence with the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: In a few days we will be celebrating Shavuot, the great day of the Giving of the Torah. All other Kabbalah sources are essentially just commentaries on the Torah, while all philosophies, religions, and wisdoms have also derived from it. How does Kabbalah view the Torah: as a book or as the method of correction?

Answer: The Torah is the Light that Reforms, that brings one back to the Creator. It is not a book but the Light, the force of bestowal that expands from the Creator, the source of bestowal, and reforms a person so he or she may also live to bestow. Then, a person becomes part of the Torah and is filled with its Light, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) illuminated by the Light of Hochma (Wisdom). This is regarded as the Torah’s revelation, the revelation of the Light within man.

We have to align everything we hear about with the two notions: the Light and desire, and the measure of equivalence thereof, which is called the screen. There is nothing else in the whole of reality. In The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it is the “Light” instead of the “Creator,” “desire” instead of the “creature,” and the “screen” instead of the “correction of creation.” There is nothing else. All confusion starts with the fact that people can’t tie these three ideas altogether.

If you get too tangled in these three definitions, return to the four stages of the Direct Light. Only the Light and desire are there; start with that. All properties, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, all these confusing notions, the future worlds, and the perception of reality must always be brought to one point: the Light and desire since there is nothing else anywhere in all worlds.

And now, living in this reality and experiencing this big world, either frightening, good, or bad, you experience it all within the desire, which is in a certain state.

Question: But in my current state, I still see a book that somebody wrote.

Answer: Kabbalists have described for you the Light’s actions, its work on desire and they expressed them in various symbols so that you may connect with them in some way, thereby causing the Light to do work on your own desire.

This book is called the “Torah” (from the words “Oraa” or the instruction manual and “Ohr” or the Light”) since it describes the sequence of the Light’s actions over desire, how the Light moves desire. The book doesn’t offer anything other than that. After all, in the entire reality there is only the Light and desire.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/2011, Shamati #40

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Question: Why does the letter “Samech” in The Zohar refer to GAR (the three upper Sefirot) de Bina if letters start only with ZAT (the seven lower Sefirot) de Bina?

Answer: And how do we use letters in our world? Do we really have any connection to ZAT of Bina, ZA (Zeir Anpin), and Malchut of the world of Atzilut? It’s known that letters from Aleph to Tet descend from ZAT de Bina; Yod to Tzadik from Zeir Anpin, and Kuf-Resh-Shin-Tav from Malchut, while the final letters MaNTzePaCh stem from the Parsa.

Everything ends at the Parsa of the world of Atzilut, below which lie the worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya). Below them we have this world, while we exist even lower than that, in our world. So how do we use letters?

The point is that in the world of Atzilut there is a pattern according to which every part of reality divides further more. Hence, no matter where I am, I can use letters according to my spiritual degree.

In France, for instance, in the International Bureau of Weights and Measurements, BIPM, there is a meter gauge made of platinum and iridium. (Incidentally, they decided to stop using the physical model, and from now, a meter is defined based on the consistency of the continuity of the speed of light, as the distance the light travels in a vacuum per 1/299,792,458^th of a second.)

Therefore, in our world there are world standards of measurements with which to verify our measuring devices. This allows us to measure objects and distances between them in any place. Likewise, there is the world of Atzilut, where the key model or standard is. It governs how everything is divided and measured in all other worlds. Based on this standard, all other degrees in the world of BYA are built, each of which is a projection of the world of Atzilut, and that is why there are letters in them as well.

Our world is a projection of the upper worlds although its matter has a totally different nature, the egoistic one. Therefore, in our world, we also use letters. Besides, we use the words of our world to describe the spiritual worlds, the so-called “language of branches.”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/2011, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 24: Due to the Dinim in her, Malchut is called Efer [ash] and Efron. Efron means “our Efer.” From the moment Malchut rose to Bina, Bina is called Efron as well. At that time Bina divides into two—GAR, upper AVI, are Samech, corresponding to the six Sefirot HBD HGT, each of which comprises ten. From the Chazeh down she is established as Partzuf YESHSUT, which includes the four Sefirot NHYM, and it is Mem….

Question: What are the letters The Zohar talks about?

Answer: A letter is a symbol. The forms of letters symbolize the forces that are connected together. We have to give them a form to use it to describe these forces.

There are no forms in spirituality. However, in our world I can use letters to explain spiritual properties. Let’s say, the letter “Samech” (o) is round which indicates its property of mercy, bestowal. Its numerical value (Gematria) is 60. Sixty is 6 x 10 (six Sefirot, each consisting of ten). Thus, it’s possible to explain what 6 is, what 10 is, what “round” means, and what property we represent in the form of the round letter “Samech.”

There is nothing like this in the spiritual realm. However, to explain something to each other it’s necessary that we have a common language. If it were not for language as the communication between us, there would be no need either for letters or any other symbols.

Indeed, in spirituality, meaning in my inner sensation, I don’t need to draw any forms for myself. There are no images in my inner sensation; there is only a sensation in the desire, receiving an impression. However, when I want to say what my desire is, how much it’s impressed, from what, by which opposite properties, then the left and right sides, above and below, and various colors appear. Then, I need all these aspects.

Why does an artist paint a picture? He feels that he simply must express his or her inner sensation, delight, and inspiration and convey them to other people. A picture is only an external expression, to some extent reflecting his inner feeling and desire to share it with others.

People who don’t understand think that an artist simply threw on to the paper or canvas all his inner impression and inspiration. If we are talking about a weak earthly impression, that’s still possible.

However, it’s impossible to communicate a spiritual impression. That’s why it’s forbidden to portray spirituality in the form of paintings and statues because you will not be able to express your inner impression. Yet, it’s allowed to illustrate spiritual properties, states, and processes in the form of letters and diagrams because in them you depict not your inner impression, but only the symbols of impression.

This is called a language, when we connect among ourselves through external symbols, each of which, according to our agreement, may awaken in us a corresponding inner impression, and pass it from one to the other. Nonetheless, each human has a different impression because we are different from each other.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/2011, The Book of Zohar

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