We are all outcomes of the Light, and therefore, we have to attain it. All of our strongest desires, prayers, and yearnings are aimed toward the Light.

We subconsciously desire this alone, and, in truth, throughout our entire lives we are after nothing but it. All of the other fulfillments and sources of pleasure, such as food, clothes, new cars, and whatever else all come from the Light! We only perceive them in a certain form, as some type of pleasure, such as a car, a child, family, warmth, rest, a beautiful landscape, and so on. However, in fact, there is only Light, which depicts all of these objects for me, and I feel only it.

Therefore, people will gradually cease being interested in of all these things and will instead try to find their source: the Light itself and not its derivatives. I won’t desire to have a certain car anymore because what does it actually give me? It gives me pleasure. Yet, in truth I wish to get this pleasure in its “pure form,” without the actual car. Why do I need this chunk of metal? After all, it pleases me only when I drive it, and when I don’t, there is no pleasure. So, when I get tired of driving, it just stands by the house. But I still seek pleasure!

While we were undergoing our historical evolution, we constantly aspired to find things and "waves" that were more subtle and elusive. That is why everything in the world today is becoming smaller in size; quantity is becoming quality. We are the same: Instead of investigating the corporeal world, we are starting to yearn for spiritual attainment.

People don’t yet understand it yet, but the number of suicides and terrorist acts, the rise in drug abuse and the divorce rate are all indicators of man’s enormous lack of fulfillment. It is so great that, in fact, man is unable to fill this lack in his life. And that is a sign of man’s need for the Light itself, rather than all the other substitutes that the Light can depict in us.
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From the program "Kabbalah for Beginners" on 12/08/10

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Question: You say that there is the Light of Infinity outside of us. What does it mean, “outside of us”?

Answer: “Outside of us” means “outside” the point of our desire within which I perceive this world, myself, and everybody else. Besides this point, there is nothing since the Creator created only a single point. Everything that we perceive (the worlds and what fills them) is the sensation of that point itself.

There is only one tiny, black point against the white Light of Infinity.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series, “Perception of Reality” 11/23/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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It seems to us that we are in a world that really exists and is relatively stable. We don’t even allow the thought that everything we see is unstable and relative.

Humanity has always believed that the world really exists and that we’re living in it. This belief was strengthened by the fact that people saw our planet, the stars, and the galaxies. Although a person is born, lives, and dies, all of these things remain in their place despite the changing times. That is, everything that surrounds us exists outside of us. People believed it for thousands of years.

Then, the science of Kabbalah comes along and completely destroys the foundation upon which our perception was based. First and foremost, this science explains that everything we see before us actually exist within us, within our desire, and not outside of us.

This means that if the people I see before me exist in my head, then I exist there as well. According to Kabbalah, this is true, and our current perception of reality is false.

Kabbalah tells us that we have a “projector” in the back portion of the brain and that it projects all that I sense into images I see before me. This is how I’m able to see my own body as well as everything outside of it.

Kabbalists state this with grave seriousness, emphasizing the fact that it’s precisely due to the fact that I sense things within me and see them on the outside that I can reach special attainment, the revelation of the Creator. I see how, in each moment, everything around me changes and gains momentum. This happens in accordance with the changes in my qualities and it means that I’m drawing my reality.

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that besides the point called “I,” everything else is the Upper Light, the Light of Infinity, where I exist. The only quality of this Light is love and bestowal. On the backdrop of this love and bestowal I see my own qualities which are opposite to the Light.

It seems to me that there is a big world existing outside of me where everything is moving. However, all this is being projected by my desire, by my ego and its various qualities, showing me my inner picture as though on an x-ray.

Can I change reality? Yes, but under the condition that I change myself. This is very serious. I have my family, my work, and a big world around me. Although I sense all of these thing as solid, it’s still in my power to change it all.

If I begin to change myself, then I’ll change the world because a person is a miniature world that contains everything within him. On the outside, there is only constant Light of the World of Infinity.

Therefore, everything depends on the person. My perception of reality depends only on me, not on someone else.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series, “Perception of Reality” 11/23/10

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is particularly the science that explains to us how to change ourselves. Then, accordingly, our world turns into a different, upper world in which various changes begin to take place.

Kabbalah tells me that I am situated against the Light, but I don’t feel it. Instead, like in an x-ray picture, I see my own qualities in front of me. In other words, if I see people, stars, or the whole world; all of these are my qualities against the Light.

How do I begin to change at least something in me? I want to make sure that this picture truly is a result of my inner world and that it is not coincidental. So, I begin this game. I change myself in some regard, and the picture around me also changes. I change a little more, and again the surrounding world changes slightly. It truly is an interesting game!

In the article “The Creator’s Concealment And Revelation,” Baal HaSulam writes that to a person who has a particular perception of reality it seems at first that some people are successful, others are miserable, and others are ill. However, after he changes himself, he sees that the same people are completely different. Those who seemed stupid, suddenly become smart, poor people become rich, and successful people suddenly lose everything.

In order to change your qualities and control reality through this, we are given a teacher, books, and a group in the present reality. If we use them to reveal the Light or Creator, the qualities of bestowal and love, we rouse the Light that exists outside of us, and this Light influences our desire, changes it until it becomes equal to Him, the Creator.

It turns out that if I desire to change something, I only need to change myself.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series, “Perception of Reality” 11/23/10

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Our world is situated below the central point of the whole universe, Malchut, directly beneath the end of the line of the Light extending from Infinity (Kav Ein Sof), which “touches and does not touch it.” In other words, it passes a tiny spark of Light to us so that we could somehow imagine the Light and exist. This spark is called “a thin candle” (Ner Dakik).

But, in fact, with respect to the spiritual world, this whole world that we currently feel does not exist! In the picture of the universe, this point is also spiritual rather than material as we imagine it now.

Furthermore, all the subsequent 125 degrees by which I ascend to the World of Infinity vanish after my ascent. However, they are not my illusion; they simply unify, rolling up like a carpet, and remain inside of me, similar to how a person’s whole childhood experience remains with him when he becomes an adult. One can remember his childhood, and therefore understands children.

How else would I be able to understand my two-year-old grandson? This is possible only because I was once a child myself. And although I don’t remember myself at two years old, a child’s state, the whole “Partzuf of two years old” is inside me. If I didn’t have this, I wouldn’t know how to approach a little child from the height of my 60 years of age. I would invite him to study The Zohar and would not realize what else he needs.

However, we are arranged this way from Above, like a computer that holds all of these programs. We operate on the basis of inherent data and images that we awaken and choose from our storage archives.

Yet the reality that appears before our eyes now is a complete illusion. After all, it is projected by our egoistic desire, while this egoistic desire itself is an illusion and doesn’t exist! There is no desire to enjoy for one’s own sake; it vanished during the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph)! And even prior to it, the egoistic intention was not real because as soon as it awoke, it was immediately restricted.

But in order to commit a transgression, you need to repeat it. The first time, you just feel the taste of the previously unknown pleasure. If during the second time you already consciously decide to go ahead with it, then it is called a sin.

Therefore, reception prior to Tzimtzum Aleph was not considered a transgression; as soon as the creature felt it, it immediately resisted it. In Kabbalah our "earth" indicates the desire to enjoy for one’s own sake (“Eretz” – earth comes from the word “Ratzon” – desire). So does the terrestrial globe exist or not? It is my desire that portrays the earth this way for me.

It doesn’t exist, but its picture exists in my desire. And since it is an egoistic desire, it doesn’t exist in the spiritual world! Therefore, this whole world is imaginary. It is given to me as an illusion so that I could begin to be born in spirituality on my own.

The Creator wants us to build ourselves exactly like Him. But where do we begin? We begin with a complete zero, just like the Creator began with “absence” (Yesh Mi Ain). In other words, I’m starting from scratch, with not being in the spiritual world.

Each new degree for me should begin here, in this imaginary world, outside of the spiritual one: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on, until the 125th degree. (Remember how before Rabbi Shimon rose to the final degree, he felt himself as Shimon from the market.) That is, every time we rise from “this earth,” this desire.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Sometimes there are states, when a student thinks that he is smarter than the Teacher, that he understands something better, and that he can have his own opinion about inner work. He simply forgets that “the mistakes of sages are constructive, while the creations of the young are destructive.” It seems to a student that he is right from the rational point of view, and the Teacher is wrong about many things, or maybe he is just insufficiently informed.

However, the spiritual differs from the material, and a person who exists in the spiritual cannot be wrong. Furthermore, even if today it seems to you that the Teacher is wrong, this is not the case in perspective. This can be likened to how a child thinks that a tailor is ruining the fabric by cutting it into pieces. However, one who understands that it should turn into clothing thinks: “What can you do? He’s a child!”

A person who wishes to advance needs to proceed with faith above reason in spite of seeing mistakes in the Teacher’s actions since the whole nature is split into degrees, and one who is situated on a higher degree is likely to act correctly. And the evident mistakes of the Teacher are your own mistakes!

Therefore, we need faith. Faith means that I am working with the mind of the Upper One rather than with my own mind. I annul myself before him and accept what comes to me with joy. It may seem incorrect to me on my degree, but when I rise to a higher degree, I will reveal that it is the truth.

Everything depends on whether a person is ready to accept it. While it strengthens some because they understand that it is a good sign and they need to agree with the Upper governance, others cannot cope with their egoism and become more distant from the path and the goal. It is said about this: “Where the righteous go forward, the wicked go back.”

It is impossible to pass to a higher degree if I don’t accept it with faith above reason in relation to the teacher and the group. I accept everything they have and cancel myself, which is called being “Hafetz Hesed,” not desiring anything for yourself; this is the first correction.

From the very lowest to the very top degree, you should always advance by acquiring the level of “Hafetz Hessed” in regard to the Upper degree. This is called advancing with faith above knowledge.

Joy is a sign of faith! You are “happy with your lot,” and you wish only to agree with the teacher, the group, and the Creator: nothing more! You are happy because you are in consent with them, which means that you have reached correction and can go on to a higher degree. Your egoism has calmed down, and now you need to receive additional obstacles in order to correct them and receive the Light of Hochma in them, and this is already much more difficult.

Now you need to begin to bestow instead of just agreeing with the teacher and the group; you need to work with their desire instead of your own. Your desire should serve their desires, and they are always opposite! We need to go through a few inner overturns in our egoism! Therefore, the extent of faith in the teacher determines the height of the student’s degree.
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From a lesson 11/26/10, Shamati

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At present, you are moving ahead, inquiring, wishing for something. Who instills these desires and actions in you? That is what you must find out.

Gradually, as you get to know the unifying force working in the whole of creation, you thereby replace the instruments of your perception: the heart and the mind. You become more responsive and begin to better comprehend what is going on and understand the Creator’s actions.

You suddenly see an enormous world, which is much broader, deeper, and more complex in all its angles and aspects. All of this becomes different in relation to you. But later you will understand that it is you who is changing, and outside of you, everything remains the same.

Later, you will find out that all you are seeing is only the Creator. It is so because there is none else beside Him. And what you see as the world is just your shadow over Him, and it is so until you will have reached the condition when this shadow disappears.

In other words, to reach adhesion with the Creator, we must undergo multiple changes. In your perception, these alterations are called the worlds of Assya, Yetzira, Beriah, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the World of Infinity. These are degrees of your perception of reality that are shown to you in its much more authentic form.

So, what did change? Only your perception. You alter your sensory organs and witness how gradually the Creator is being revealed to you, how the image of the world acquires much sharper characteristics, becomes real, constant, and eternal. It all depends on the place you are observing it from in relation to the Light of Infinity.

Then, you begin to understand that the shadow you saw on the Creator, all of these concealments, the worlds, all of this was for your own good. At least, you saw some silhouettes, a certain drawing that you needed to erase, saw that you needed to become similar to the Creator within this shadow, to make it disappear.
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From a Lesson 11/26/10, Baal HaSulam’s Letter #151

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Our whole work consists of justifying the states that we go through, and then they will seem more comfortable to us. And this depends only on us! After all, all these states are inevitable; all the Reshimot (spiritual genes) must come out, in order, one after another, and be realized until the end of correction.

They are gradually revealed in you in order for you to justify them. And what does it mean to justify them? It means to realize, feel, and understand for what purpose they come, who brings them, why, and in what order.

Thereby you develop yourself, and so much that you begin to include in you the whole creation. This is precisely what the Creator wants from you! This is why He does not give you the final form; you wouldn’t feel or understand anything in it. Instead, He leads you through the whole sequence of actions.

But does this process truly exist? It doesn’t! There is no beginning, no end, and nothing at all! There is one perfect state. The Creator stretches it out from beginning to end, like a rubber band, implanting the ego, the evil inclination, or the desire for pleasure, into His own action. And then you can go through all these states in order, from beginning to end, all the while perfecting your sensations and mind.

This helps you understand the whole process of creation, from two opposites: from darkness – to Light. And if this were one state, you would not be able to differentiate between anything, since you are a created being. You need two states in order to feel and elucidate one against the other.
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From a lesson on Baal HaSulam’s Letters 11/26/10

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Question: You explained that the text we read in Talmud Eser Sefirot and The Book of Zohar describes the forces of connection between us. Can you give me an example of this connection?

Answer: If you were in spirituality, then you would actually reveal everything you read about in the book. You would reveal the forces of connection among us, including their might, character, how they operate, and how they unite together into the net connecting us.

You would participate in the net of these forces and its work, in the illumination of the Shechina. You would see how much you are able to take an active part in it, how much you can add to it yourself. While reading the text, you would see how this entire net behaves.

However, if you do not live inside spiritual attainment, it is impossible to convey this to you. Baal HaSulam writes in his poem, “Whatever your eyes will see, you will see it and no other.”

As long as you do not feel spirituality, you have to read these texts hoping that it will become revealed to you. We read the Kabbalistic texts in the quality of Segula (a miraculous quality), and not in the form of facts.

For example, suppose I am blind and I am listening to a physics professor tell me about optical laws. He tells me how a ray of light splits into several colors. Yet, I am just hearing about it. I do not understand what he is talking about, but only hear that these phenomena exist.

I can keep studying this way my entire life, without understanding what it is talking about. However, if I make special efforts and begin to feel the phenomena I heard about, then they become my life. This is called “Taste and see how good the Creator is.” You have to taste it – to receive these Lights and feel their taste.

The real science of Kabbalah begins only after you have this sensation.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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