Question: What does it mean to think about unification of the world? Is it unification of spiritual desires, “the points in the hearts,” or all people in general?

Answer: “A person is a small world.” The world, everything I see and feel, is one single reality tied together. The still, vegetative, animate worlds, and the humans I see, all of this is my internal desires and attributes that I am observing within myself.

Try to delve a little bit deeper and you will begin to see how it all works within you and that it is indeed so. After all, this is your internal system. It is as if I am looking at the computer screen and simply view a demonstration, a reflection, a small manifestation of what is occurring within. This is how man is constructed as well.

Hence, we need to exit “this world,” tear away from this super TV set with an enormous, record-number-of-inches widescreen monitor and 3D/stereo display, and get inside our own system: inside the “memory” and “processor,” inside all our programs, everything we have within. And then, you will reach the spiritual, upper world from where everything descends.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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While reading The Zohar, you mustn’t forget that it talks solely about relationships between us. The wicked and the righteous, a Saturday eve and weekdays, night and day, the still, vegetative, and animate nature, man, a Temple, a field and a tree, all these words describe only the types of relationships between souls, their connection at the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels.

They speak of nothing else beside this because nothing else exists. Within this connection, in the types of it, we experience the world. Combinations of forces tying the souls together draw the pictures of our world on a screen for us. Thus, we perceive reality.

Kabbalistic books describe only the connections between us since there is nothing else to write about. There is nothing else, and the worlds are descriptions of the levels of connection between souls.

There is a formless desire to feel pleasure, and what is described are the stages of its transformation in order to connect with others. By unifying with others, making efforts, and drawing the Light that reforms, discerns, and fulfills, the created being reveals the web of connections between all parts of one integral soul, Malchut of Infinity. That is what we are reading about.

Kabbalists do not perceive anything more. The created being experiences the reality detached from connection with others and calls it “this world,” or it feels ties with others in the forces of bestowal that give it life, and in that case, the upper world becomes revealed to it.

The upper world is relationships with others and all that I find in them. What do I find? It’s the property of bestowal. This is regarded as “to bestow in order to bestow.” Relationships of this type are described as “Do not do to others what you hate.” Later on, these relationships become stronger, and we feel love in them, which is regarded as “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The relationships of bestowal conducted by the principle of “Do not do to others what you hate” are regarded as the Second Temple, the level of Bina, Mochin de Neshama. The relationships of “Love your neighbor as yourself” are the First Temple, the level of Mochin de Haya.

Everything speaks solely of ties between people. All of the words that we can use, the entire reality that we can reveal, everything is still nothing more than the connection between people.

The lack of connection in which we are presently living appears as this world to us. My vision, my perception in the egoistic net between all, in its minimal degree, is regarded as “this world.” Consequently, I reveal the real, powerful, egoistic connection between us all as the left line, a Klipa (shell, impure force).

However, we don’t have another perception or understanding, another reality and existence, except in the connection between us, no matter whether it’s good or bad. The Book of Zohar speaks solely about the types of this connection.

What else can Kabbalists write about? There is nothing else in reality. Everything that seems to me as the still, vegetative, animate, and human realms, various objects, acts, thoughts, decisions, buildings, furniture, and vehicles, all that we can imagine is human relationships in their correct or incorrect form.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to transition from the material world to spirituality, from the current perception of reality to the authentic one. We need to explain to ourselves that the reality we perceive right now is illusory, transient, and accidental, depending on our internal qualities. Reality only seems stable to us, but in truth, it can be altered, corrected, and transformed.

Suppose you receive a computer and assume it doesn’t have any additional features besides those you are aware of. You look at the same picture all the time because you have no other. Suddenly, an expert comes to you and says: “Look at this keyboard I brought you; try it.” And you start pressing keys and suddenly discover a lot of new things.

You are shown pictures where you recognize yourself. And so you enter them and start programming the world you are living in. You give commands, and indeed, everything changes around you. At this point, you start to realize that the world functions according to a certain program called “the Creator.” But to the extent you become similar to Him, you gradually acquire His functions as a commander.

And later on, you arrive to the state when you overtake this keyboard with your own hands, with all its commands and programs available to you, with all that is taking place, and essentially, with your own fate. And thus, picture by picture, you start organizing all of those images that come to you and continually change. Now you can plan on your own what to be, as it is written: “Israel is above the stars and the signs of luck.”

Suddenly, you observe that the past life is left behind, and you have already moved far ahead from the first image. You realize that you are not in it. But where are you now? You discover that you are in a certain reality and are engaged in it, programming it. It is increasingly open to you, beyond time, motion, and space, outside of the previous perception of reality, and your animate body is no longer there.

You already feel that the entire world of matter has dissolved since it didn’t exist in the first place; it was simply a sensation accompanying that very first image. That’s why our world is called a “make-believe world.” And the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to view reality correctly, or how to reveal the Creator.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series 1/4/2011, “What does the Wisdom of Kabbalah Revolve Around”

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Ninety-nine point nine percent of all changes in us occur while we don’t see and are unaware of them although we do influence and expedite these acts by striving to be corrected. But they take place just like the physical processes in our bodies that we also don’t need to think about.

I am not the one to pump blood through my arteries and it’s not my job to make sure my lymphatic and nervous system, as well as all my organs, work well. If anything, I can “unplug” altogether and fall into a sleeping mode, worrying about nothing, and my body will continue to live and even grow.

In spiritual development it occurs in the same manner. There are many processes that we don’t need to be conscious of and determine their form and order. There is one very narrow interval where we make our own decisions and input our participation. And it is sufficient, it’s all we need to achieve everything!

We reveal “oneness.” And by way of this oneness, the adhesion to which we aspire, we acquire the knowledge of all the other elements of the system that we didn’t know. I am given free will so that I will work on achieving adhesion with the Creator. I am told that if I switch my intention to an altruistic one, I will get to understand the Creator. And if I understand the Creator, then this whole system opens for me and I comprehend everything!

Therefore, I don’t need to work on the entire system and examine it all in order to learn, explore, and understand all of its incredible diversity and vast multitude of phenomena. Since I acquire the desire to bestow, I understand everything that takes place within it.

We work within a tiny field while the whole big world is revealed to us. It is written: “Make an opening for me, the size of a needle’s eye, and I will open the gates of the upper world for you.” Otherwise, it would be impossible to learn about this boundless system of infinite complexity that has a countless number of parts connected by constantly changing, infinitely possible ties and everyone by his or her free choice defines the changes for all the others.

In mathematics, we know how to define one unknown factor by the other in an equation. If we have two unknown factors, then we need two equations. But in this case, we are dealing with an infinite number of unknown components, so we need an infinite number of equations connected into one system. Thus, it is a matrix with a countless number of conditions, each of which changes according to its own law.

We can’t solve such a problem since our corporeal mind is unable to accomplish it. We don’t possess mathematical instruments to approach it in the first place. But we can accomplish this in the spiritual world because we grow the Kelim of bestowal (acquire desires to bestow) and receive the power over everything therein.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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We must change in order to attain the Creator since we attain Him in new vessels of perception, in new desires. Obviously, the desires themselves are not new, but they connect within us in a new way.

We have the desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow. In order to reveal the Creator, we must create such a connection between these desires within ourselves that would enable us to recognize Him. The Creator has 125 consecutive forms of revelation, when He reveals Himself to us closer and closer, sharper and sharper. It is 125 degrees, along which we ascend and become able to see and feel Him more and more.

How do we find the Creator? As soon as we create a connection between our desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow, where the will to bestow would rule over the will to receive at the first spiritual degree by giving it a form similar to the Creator, we instantly see the Creator through these desires and their unity.

In other words, I must create within me a common property between the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow so that it becomes identical, equal, and adequate to the Creator at the first, the smallest degree of His revelation. In that case, I will see, understand, and feel Him.

In our world, there are various phenomena as well. To understand them, I have to become more intelligent, acquire additional sense, and study some more. Then, I will start sensing what is going on, in what way, and what these phenomena are.

The same happens in the wisdom of Kabbalah. In order to arouse a merger, a mutual permeation of the desire to receive and the desire to bestow in each of us at the first spiritual degree and further on, at all 125 degrees, I need the Light which would make this change in me. I, myself, am unable to perform it since while I am at the lowest degree; I do not have the slightest idea of what I must become at the next one, like a baby that doesn’t know how it will look when it is one year old.

This is why we are given the studies. We must sit and learn from the authentic sources, and the most powerful source from which to draw the Light is The Book of Zohar. When we study this book together, it is regarded as “faith above reason” if while doing so, everyone thinks about how he will unify with the others. This is because in the connection between us, we create the Creator’s form, the correct pairing between the will to receive and the will to bestow so that the desire to bestow rules over the desire to receive, thereby giving it the right form.

If I wish for it to occur during the studies, it is sufficient. There isn’t a greater commandment, and there is nothing more vital. In that case, I draw the Light so that it would align these desires for me.

It is the Light that performs it. I don’t need to know anything else. So does a small child wish to grow, and that’s why he runs, plays, and does whatever he may. So do I, like a child, do whatever it takes only to get the Light to come, reform me, and bring me back to the source, to the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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There is a state when the will to receive and the will to bestow unite, fill each other, and remain in each other to such an extent that it is impossible to tell them apart. This state is called the “world of Infinity,” and it is the original state of existence.

And then there is a descent, a “step by step corruption,” when from the state of unity, they begin to withdraw from the state of oneness, and through an expanding cone, descend downward, distancing themselves from each other.

At a certain stage of their separation a special status was formed, and they discovered an opportunity to reunite. However, when they attempted to do so, it resulted in a breaking. These desires not only stand on opposite sides, with one on the right and the other on the left, but now each of them must also include the other. That is the cause of their breaking: Once desiring to unite again, as in the world of Infinity, they failed and broke. In other words, the failure in unifying resulted in their absorbing each other’s properties.

After this, evolution continued down along the expanding cone, moving them even farther away from each other. But at this point, the force of bestowal, that is, the primary force, the Creator, is completely permeated by the properties of the will to receive, the force of the creation, while the creature is totally imbued with the properties of the Creator, the will to bestow.

The Creator is filled with the force of bestowal, while the receiving force is included in and is subordinate to it. Whereas with creation it is the other way around: The creature is filled with the force of reception, and the force of bestowal is subordinate to it, internal and concealed.

And then they descend into our corporeal world. At this point, the creature, the force of reception, begins to evolve. In the beginning it doesn’t feel anything at all, what and who it is. It is automatically governed by internal forces and evolves by way of their influence. What forces are they? They are the creature’s basic force, the desire to receive pleasure, and hiding within it is the internal force, the desire to enjoy bestowing pleasure.

The will to receive evolves, while the desire to give is practically not felt. It manifests solely to the extent of maintaining the desire for pleasure, by supplying life force to it, and creating all types of communication between the forms of its matter.

When the Big Bang lay ground to processes in the still nature, its entire development derived from the will to bestow instilled in matter. After all, the will to receive, in itself, doesn’t move; it simply wants to enjoy and remains stationary while simply keeping its “mouth” open. What changes and gives it the force of life is namely the will to bestow that is hidden in it.

Thus, these two forces evolve: The giving desire, despite its being concealed, drives the receiving one and pushes it forth. In this way, our entire universe had developed, followed by Earth, based on the interaction of the two opposing forces: cold and heat, attraction and rejection, and so on. In nature, everything we see is comprised of these opposites which are actually included in one another.

All the changes occurring in the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature are caused by inter-inclusion of these two forces: the desire to receive and desire to bestow. They blend together in various combinations, while the giving desire manifests, prevails, and rules over the receiving one more and more. And the will to receive goes along with it because this development brings benefit to it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We read The Zohar and understand none of it. And it’s true, there is nothing for us to understand there. After all, it is for the people who already attained spirituality and feel the spiritual world.

They are already in the state where the force of bestowal, not the force of the will to receive, defines their internal life. In their case, the mind works differently; they have a different kind of sight; they see the spiritual world, and hence, understand what the Book is describing.

In fact, the Book is written for those who live in spirituality, and therefore, a person who enters it can understand it. And someone who lives only in the material world cannot since it describes a completely different world that I know nothing about, haven’t heard of or seen. And hence, these words don’t tell me anything.

What do I do? I can only desire to enter that world, not to understand it intellectually. If while reading The Zohar I constantly think about how to make it effect me and that is my sole desire, it is enough! It is regarded as “Segula” (a “miraculous remedy”). When after all these efforts I will suddenly receive the force of the Light and start sensing what is happening in the spiritual world, I will read or listen to the Book and understand what it is describing.

Then, I will engage my mind as well since at that point I will sense the spiritual world. Using my awareness, I will start working on the sensation. But if I don’t experience a certain phenomenon, how can I work on it mindfully? After all, awareness results from a feeling. In the mind, we only connect the phenomena that fall into the field of our vision and sensation.

Therefore, before anything else, we must start sensing the spiritual world and only afterward start studying it. As a matter of fact, until then we have nothing to feel. Do we have any idea what stands behind each word of The Zohar and what each of them points to: an “ox,” a “whole ox,” a “throne,” and so on? What ox and what throne? These are spiritual forces that carry such names. But it means nothing to me.

The entire spiritual world is the world of forces. The whole material world is a picture that these forces draw on my material screen. Therefore, we should think solely about how to experience what we are reading about. I must ask to feel rather than to understand. And that is possible only if we are together, create one desire between us, and strive for the Light to affect this desire and project a picture onto it.

The integral desire is like a computer screen, while the Light is like an electromagnetic force that draws an image on this screen. I want it to happen! And this is regarded as revealing the Creator to the created being.

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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “What Is a True Act of Kindness in the Work”: One should begin his work in “true kindness,” which means without any reward, so that everything he does may serve not one’s personal benefit but to delight the Creator.

We are born with the desire that acts in a certain way: “for one’s own sake,” “in order to receive.”  Each of us feels that before and outside of him there is a world that includes four evolutionary degrees: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. Additionally, we ourselves wish to only enjoy this entire external world in order to feel pleasure.

We could reverse it and say that man will feel good if he uses the world in a certain manner: for self-gratification. In general, all these things are quite relative since we are unable to see anything opposite to them.

But later on, man falls into despair from this tendency to seek pleasure. And then, a new desire, a new approach, awakens in him: “I must treat the entire reality differently. All of it is mine and is similar to me. I can’t enjoy it on my own, but only together with the others.” Obviously, this impulse does not come from man. The desire created by the Creator along with its Reshimot (informational genes) “keep rolling” further and further, unfolding to the person who feels it in this way.

By using the method of correction in the right way, a person starts showing a different attitude to the reality he feels within. In his 613 desires, he discovers that the parts he used to see as external are, in fact, related to him. To the degree that he is able to change his attitude to them and recognize them not as “foreigners” but as “relatives,” “kinsmen,” to the same degree he advances in a different type of perception of reality: a global, all embracing one. It turns out that everything is him.

In that case, when a person begins to link his own perception into the unified desire unbroken into individual parts, he alters the picture of his reality. Nothing is external: neither rocks, nor plants, nor beasts, nor humans. They are all parts of his desires.

A person changes his attitude. In other words, he arranges the unified desire, and thereby reveals the “additional element” as well, a unified force that fulfills this desire, regarded as the Creator. Thus, due to the correction of the desires, a person merits a new attainment and merges with the Source.

This is what is called the “true kindness.” If a person works on his will to receive and corrects himself, his attitude, and perception of reality, he merits a great “addition”: revelation of the Creator and adhesion with Him.

And that is why there is work in kindness, which means correction of the Kelim (vessels), and there is true grace, receiving in order to bestow, when a person reveals reality that includes the One who begot it: the Creator. Thereby, from correction of the created being, we reach its purpose.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If Kabbalah is the basis of all the sciences, then should we first give a child knowledge of this science and only then start teaching him all the other sciences?

Answer: At first a child has to get acquainted with his world. However, from a young age, from about six years or even earlier, it is possible to start explaining the notions of the science of Kabbalah to him.

Children can perceive this wisdom parallel to the sciences of our world just as naturally as they are easily able to remember several languages. In the same way, we can explain these two languages of perception of reality to them: inner and outer. They will easily learn this and it will become part of the foundation of their perception like a habit ingrained from childhood.

The explanation has to be that there are two forces in the world. And everything we see with our material eyes are pictures emerging inside our senses as a result of the interaction between these two forces. Then the child will be able to understand the inner essence of every phenomenon he observes.

Every object, such as a table, chair, a person, a car, or a plane can ultimately be laid out as a combination of these two forces: reception and bestowal, and it is possible to discern why this special combination of these two forces creates precisely this image of the material object inside of us. Then he will understand what he can receive from it and how he can use it in order to attain certain material or spiritual acquisitions. That’s because he will know that object’s place in all of reality, and that is very important.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The science of Kabbalah talks about the spiritual world and the forces operating in nature. These forces influence the matter of our world, creating various images in it, which results in an entire universe with everything filling it: still objects, vegetation, animals, and people. But we see all of this on the screen in the reverse part of our brain, and that is why it seems to us that this is in front of us. That is how we imagine reality.

That is why the science of Kabbalah is separated from this entire false picture, even though this picture is what helps us to attain the depth of creation, its intentions, and the Creator’s character. Yet in essence, the science of Kabbalah teaches us how to go from this external picture to the inner, true state where only two forces remain—the force of the Creator and the force of creation.

Of course, each of them divides into many more parts, particular forces and actions. But in essence it is talking only about forces: the will to receive, the will to enjoy, and what happens between them. This makes up all science.

If a science talks about the interaction of these two fundamental forces, then we have the science of Kabbalah. And if it talks about various results from them on different levels of matter—still, vegetative, animate, and human, then we have the sciences of this world.

Of course, these sciences are true because they give us knowledge about the external behavior through which the action of these two inner forces is expressed. But these sciences are very limited and we can only rely on them within the boundaries of our narrow world.

It turns out that the science of Kabbalah, which explains the two fundamental forces operating in nature, is the basis for all other sciences. And that does not include just the natural sciences that study nature and the external world, such as physics, chemistry, biology, and zoology, but also those belonging to man directly, such as music, dance, and art.

All of this is also part of the “seven fundamental external sciences” because it gives us knowledge about man’s abilities to perceive and sense his world.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, “Introduction to the book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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