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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Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article "Above Reason in Divine Service": I will only put my faith in the sages, who have told us that the Creator indeed hears our prayers. This is called faith above reason.

A person has to try to clearly reveal for himself that the Creator hears one’s prayers. Until it happens, he advances as though he has already revealed it.

Here, everything depends on the correction of one’s Kelim (vessels). If a person does not yet see something, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist in reality. The broken glasses are not an indication that the world has become depleted. I imagine to myself that the things I saw before still exist.

But what should I do if I’ve never seen them before and still don’t have the glasses? Then I have to follow the advice of the sages. Otherwise, how will I be able to discover anything?

I recall that when I was 11, all of a sudden they told me: "You need glasses." At first, I didn’t realize why and what for, especially because back then children wearing glasses wasn’t very common. With difficulty, my parents found a suitable pair for me; when I finally put them on, I was surprised to see things that escaped my sight before.

The same happens in spirituality: I have to trust the experts who tell me that I have to acquire a new instrument of perception, a spiritual Kli (vessel), and then I will recover my sight. This instrument is not obtained instantly, but by way of multiple actions. I perform them in order to see a new world; I act by using the force called "faith in the sages."

They said: "It’s worthwhile for you to get new glasses; you need them." I don’t feel it; I have never experienced the spiritual world to lack it now. Yet, I still follow their advice.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, " Above Reason in Divine Service"

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Question: If in the end the whole path we have gone through becomes canceled, then what’s the point of all the actions we make today?

Answer: How else could you reach absolute love? How else could you build it if every subsequent level is built based on the previous one?

The entire path you have gone through becomes canceled similar to how you reveal that this entire world is imaginary. When you attain the end of correction and become part of the original point of creation, then the first state (the beginning of creation) and the third state (the end of correction) merge as equals. And the second state (the process of correction) ceases to exist. It becomes part of the third state together with the first state, as if none of it ever happened and all of it just seemed so to us!

All the changes took place only in our sensations. It was necessary for us to go through all of these states in order to be able to understand the Creator and feel Him, become attached to Him, and merge with Him.

All the worlds (Olamot) mean concealments (Alamot), and these worlds or concealments disappear! They were necessary only in order to create this gradually increasing concealment; the problems and suffering awaken us in order for us to gradually start attaining, from below upwards, the one and only existing state in reality. Nothing exists besides it.

All the states we go through are necessary for making discernments. They are 125 levels of discerning the perfect state in which you always exist. You are simply unable to attain it fully all at once, and therefore you do it gradually, in parts, each time understanding and feeling more.

It’s as if you’re “eating this meal” in parts; that is how you ascend up the levels of the worlds. In reality, these worlds do not exist other than in your perception. As soon as you attain everything, there is no more need for them.

However, don’t they seem to exist in me because I ascended up through them until the end of correction, until the final unity? That’s right, but this is only your sensation, the path of attainment. However, in reality there is only one perfect state, existing before and after you: Malchut, filled by the Light of Infinity, both in the very beginning and at the very end.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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The Zohar, Introduction, Article “Yitro (Jethro)”: The Zohar explains the order of the emanation of the Partzufim of Atzilut: Atik, AA, AVI, and ZA, how the source of everything, the Masach of Malchut of Midat ha Din, uses Partzuf Atik, operates in AA to conceal the Hochma there… Afterwards, it explains VAK de ZA concerning six curtains, and the embroidered curtain, GAR de ZA.

The authors of The Book of Zohar revealed the order of relationships between them and inside the connection among each other they revealed Partzufim, worlds, qualities, and inner discernments. All of this is present between a person and others.

When a person sees others as connected together, it is called “the World of Infinity.” If he sees them as connected partially, it is called Partzufim that are above him. That is how they speak to each other, revealing every quality and calling it “Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Hiya, Rabbi Elazar, Rabbi Shimon,” as well as various pictures of nature.

All of these are states that our souls go through in the process of their correction. I know from my personal experience how difficult it is for a person to depict a very simple picture in his imagination: that there is nothing besides the separated souls. Their total division is perceived by them as our world. Their partial unification, the inclusion of the desires into one another by the principle “Love your neighbor as yourself” creates the sensation of the Upper World in the souls.

Their total unity is perceived by the souls as the World of Infinity: unbounded, unlimited unity, and accordingly, total fulfillment by Light.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/11, The Zohar

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Question: What beacme of Adam HaRishon after his transgression?

Answer: We describe it as if there is Adam before and after the sin. Eve, the snake, the apple, the Tree of Life, the Garden of Eden: In truth, none of them exist.

A system descends from Above and it arranges spiritual degrees by diminishing the Lights in the vessels (Kelim). By employing free will, we acquire a new Kli, wherein various phenomena occur. Until then, there is nothing but the Creator, Elokim.

And indeed, who can perceive Adam in spirituality? If we don’t exist in the spiritual world, nothing does, except some abstract idea we can say nothing about. Everything exists solely in relation to a person.

How then do Kabbalists know about the system’s descent from Above downward? They can do so based on their authentic attainment from below upward. But can one talk about something which had existed before he did? A Kabbalist attains the events of the spiritual world and describes them; afterward, I, too, comprehend what he has written. For me, he is part of the very same system of Adam.

Any Kabbalist passing the knowledge of a spiritual reality to me is a system rather than a person. We should also view the friends and the whole world in this way. We are a system. By working in it correctly, we manifest the correct results. But if we act incorrectly, the results will be erroneous as well.

Kabbalists attain the roots within themselves, in their Kelim. Nothing can exist outside of my Kli. Having created a Kli, something immediately manifests in it within me. I realize that its roots are in the world of Infinity (Ein Sof) and it undergoes degrees of reduction while it travels down to me.

However, if I don’t have a string of connection with Infinity, then there are no worlds between us either. They exist only if I awaken them to life, if I want to tap into the Creator. Then, a connection is immediately established between us, and it, in fact, is the system of the worlds.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: In order not to lose sight of the spiritual goal, a person has to hold on to something; he needs clues, “crumbs of bread” along the path. What should we cling to?

Answer: Here is an example: Each person feels as though he is a blown fuse in an electrical system. This is what his life represents. He thinks that he feels the others, but in reality he feels only his “burnt” still, vegetative, and animate properties and himself.

But when we begin correcting the system, a person starts experiencing the program, the force of creation, the currents that run in the corrected system. Now, its components are linked with each other and function perfectly, according to the plan of creation, which is, in fact, the Creator. A person starts experiencing his life in the system and all of it as one whole.

In truth, if I am not connected with the others, if I feel isolated from the system, and if I live only “within myself,” then my perception is limited to this world, which is the reality that is projected on the inner screen in the back of my brain as Baal HaSulam describes. It seems broken to me, corrupted, and dependent on my attitude towards it. And only I am able to make a connection between all the others.

If, however, I exit myself and see the external world, I move into the true reality. Then, I see the others not as bodies but as properties of bestowal. Each of them is essentially corrected; however, in order to bring them together, I need a connection, the property of bestowal, and then everything will start working properly.

In other words, the general system is already saturated with the corrected connections, and I am the source of power, a battery for it. Without my energy, the whole system is on hold. It is my duty to become the source of power, and then everything will start working again.

A person has to constantly hold these pictures within, as if everything is exactly this way. Everybody will gradually get accustomed to them, and then suddenly the contours of the system will protrude before us. In truth, the habit becomes second nature; it allows a person to experience even what didn’t speak to him before.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”

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Question: Where is our freedom of choice when reading The Zohar?

Answer: We read The Zohar to realize our freedom of choice. Otherwise, there is no need either in The Zohar or in the entire wisdom of Kabbalah. Why do I need it? Is it to know the number of angels in the sky? What difference would it make if I counted them by name? I still wouldn’t know what “skies” or “angels” are, or I would draw them with wings.

For this reason, I approach the reading of The Zohar, the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, work in the group, and the entire spiritual work in order to realize my free will, in order to receive the miraculous remedy, Segula, through all these means.

The book before me is a certain artificial device that connects me with the spiritual world of which I am neither aware nor have any idea about its properties. However, Kabbalists say that I have a certain “adapter” that can connect me with an unknown world.

Let’s say that there is a notion of a “micro world” in quantum physics, a world of elementary particles. Even though I live among them, I do not feel them, but physicists say that it is possible to create an instrument which will help you attain this world and begin to perceive it. This is why they are building different devices, such as (elementary) particle accelerators.

This way, there are tools that help us perceive the inner world of particles that are concealed from the world we presently feel. We can attain a world where we are not able to perceive anything because our senses do not operate in its range.

The wisdom of Kabbalah also gives me a tool, the reading of The Zohar, which can help me attain the concealed spiritual world, and it works! Just use it.

However, by using the tool in Kabbalah, you are the one who changes, and this tool transforms into your inner instrument. In contrast, the scientists who study earthly sciences do not change. They only perfect their tools and make them more powerful. For this reason, whatever they are doing is called the external world, outside of man.

In Kabbalah, we work with the inner world because thereby we change our nature. And at the same time, we suddenly begin to perceive phenomena that previously were completely outside of our sensations.

We do not improve the sensitivity we already have, as do musicians who perceive sounds much better than we do, or artists who perceive colors much better. Kabbalah helps us attain a state where properties that we previously did not have develop within us.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “You Are Partners With Me”

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Question: What is Light if every person reveals it differently? Isn’t it some subjective sensation, rather than a universal one?

Answer: The Light is energy; it’s not a subjective sensation. It’s like electricity that, depending on the device it’s connected to, can generate both cold and heat, it can pull and push. Everything depends on the vessel which receives and senses this energy.

Your desires determine everything. You do not know what the Light is and will never know. All you can do is to prepare your vessels (desires) in order to receive pleasure from it in all possible forms. However, the Light per se does not have any form; energy is formless. When electricity is passed through the wire by moving electrons, it is already a form clothed in matter; it’s not the force itself.

Everything we feel is only sensations in our organs of perception.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: If we have to view the group only as its inner, corrected state, how then does it differ from the rest of the world that also seems only to be uncorrected?

Answer: There is no difference in the inner meaning. But when you look at the group, you can’t help but notice that their aspiration to spirituality manifests externally, that they come to the lesson every day. This means they strive to reach spirituality but haven’t yet.

You have an external screen where you see how they yearn for bestowal while currently remaining in the egoistic system that intends to consume everything for self gratification. However, they already know, somewhat understand, and even feel that there is a chance to come to a different attitude to the world: to replace consumption with bestowal.

They know that there are two forms of experiencing life in the universe:

1. A life where I instinctively try to gobble up everything because I was born this way, which is regarded as “the evil inclination” we are born with.
2. And there is another attitude to life: bestowal, stepping outside oneself, when my “self” per se doesn’t exist unless it is included into all others. And this second approach is the one we wish to achieve.

It turns out that we already have two approaches. Everybody is living according to the 1st principle so far by consuming everything into oneself. This is what we are presently perceiving, “this world.” But we dream to reach another outlook on life and see the spiritual reality which exists in bestowal.

What will happen with the corporeal reality then? Will it disappear? No, it won’t. It will remain for as long as you need it, to the extent it needs to be employed as a necessary component.

So, now you should be able to understand what your material body is: It is a necessary measure that you have to preserve in order to keep consuming for your own benefit and not to bestow. But in reality, there is no body. Yet, to the extent that you need to be present in the egoistic consumption, you continue to exist in this material reality. And to the extent that you step outside of yourself, you enter the spiritual world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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All of the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks solely about the acts of bestowal that are realized in our mutual connection. The entire reality except this world exists in bestowal. This world appears before us in the opposite property, where everyone receives for himself as much as possible. In this tendency to “consume into oneself” we experience our corporeal reality.

Imagine tiny little desires scattered on a flat surface. If each of them intends to make maximal profit by taking advantage of all the others, they create a mutual connection that is regarded as “this world,” in all forms of its matter. In this case, people get tied by hierarchy, marry, bare children, unite, and all of it happens according to their intention to derive pleasure from the others. And this is the way they settle among themselves.

This is what we call “our world,” “this reality,” at all of its levels: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (human). We see the others as close or distant, depend on them to a greater or lesser degree, but all of it is according to our intention to feel pleasure.

We build this reality ourselves, with our intentions to enjoy whatever there is. But if someone says: “No! I wish to relate to the others with the intention to bestow, not to receive,” he will experience his new attitude to the same reality as spiritual world. It is described as: “I saw a reverse world.”

Everything is determined by intention. To switch from the intention “for myself” to the intention to bestow means to cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). In this intention of bestowal, there are 125 degrees, until we reach a perfect intention, absolute bestowal.

The reality we perceive right now in the intention for self gratification is imaginary. It is given to us solely so that we may use it as a stepping stone to the true perception of reality.

We received this egoistic attitude to others on purpose so that we could work on ourselves starting with it and further on, transition to the property of bestowal, and by ascending the 125 spiritual degrees, explore the connection between us ever more, that is, climb the rungs of the spiritual worlds. Only our intention determines what we experience, this or the upper world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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