“Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 12: This is the meaning of the existence of time in this world. You find that first, these two above opposites were divided into two separate subjects, namely Kedusha and Sitra Achra, by way of, “even the one as well as the other.” They are still devoid of correction, for they must be in the same subject, which is man.

Therefore, the existence of an order of time is necessary for us, since then the two opposites will come in a person one-by-one…

It is impossible to directly connect the two opposites: the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of creation. That is why we have to move in a step by step manner, first delving into an empty desire, then making a correction and being filled by Light, then going into emptiness again, then correction and Light, and so on. As we descend and ascend in this way, we advance from below upwards, increasing our desire and then correcting it with our intention so it bestows.

Only these changes give us the sensation of time. If we did not have the inner changes of desire and intention, then we would not feel time. We would remain in an unchanging state. Therefore, there is no time in the World of Infinity because there, everything is corrected.

To be in spiritual space means to cleave to one state or one principle above all the changes. That is why we don’t feel time there. We are familiar with this even from our regular lives: If we are engrossed in a game or work, then we don’t feel time passing by. We might be going through many states, but above it all we cleave to one single point, and then we don’t feel time. In other words, time does not depend on how we advance through descents and ascents, small states and great states. It depends only on how committed we are to this direction, the single point of adhesion, despite all the changes. Then we don’t feel time.

That is why we ascend above time in the spiritual world. Passing the Machsom (the barrier between this world and the spiritual world) means holding on to this principle. Then you begin to feel what it means to be above time. There is no mysticism here. It is simply that we ascend, in our sensations, above the changes, and therefore time disappears.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot“

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A question I received: It sounds strange to me that we are unable to change anything and that only the Upper Light can do it. Who else can I rely on except myself?

My Answer: You have a few years behind you and should know that it is hard to arrange life as you wish to or change anything in it. Life flows in accordance with its own laws and doesn’t “listen” to us. There is a force that controls our lives and transports us from one phase to another.

If we could only watch life unfold like a movie and see it from beginning to the very end. A regular person cannot do this, but there are people who possess special faculties and “see the movie.” In general, it is possible.

Today, you as though see a movie that I already saw yesterday. For you, the movie hasn’t started yet, for me it is already over and I know everything about it. If we saw this movie, we would understand that our development was completely predetermined. Nowadays, physicists, geneticists, and other scientists write a lot about a human being acting like a machine; it has been proven scientifically.

Our life is a sequence of frames in a movie, and all we do is transition from one frame to another. There is nothing we can do about it! This explains the existence of people who are able to predict the future. They don’t lie to us; they simply see the movie a little bit ahead of us. This faculty is developed in animals considerably more than in people since technologies have dulled our senses.

Currently, I’m at a certain “frame” of this film: My past is behind me, my future is ahead of me. The question is how can I influence my development? What is my freedom of choice? How can I really change something? I’m interested only in this for I prefer not to know about something that I’m unable to change. Tell me what does depend on me!

Kabbalists maintain that I can only attract the Upper Light called the Surrounding Light, which can Reform. I’ll live through the movie anyway, there is no chance I can avoid it. The beginning and the end of the movie are set, and it’s not in my power to change them. However, I can choose to live through that movie with pleasure and delight.

If I am already somewhere in the middle of it and see and understand the ultimate benevolent goal, I begin to anticipate its kindness already. It pleases me already and gives me fulfillment which might be even greater than what I will get later upon achieving the goal since at this point it is not limited by any boundaries! The pleasure I look forward to always seems bigger than its actual realization. So, it follows that I can attract goodness into my life right now and continue to advance in the rays of the Light.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, Shamati #38

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The Creator created only one state called the “World of Infinity.” All the changes taking place occur solely within us, and although we exist in the World of Infinity, we perceive only ourselves.

Once, in my perception, I was unified with all the souls and perceived the World of Infinity as boundlessness, eternity, and perfection. Then, my condition and perception changed, and I started to feel that I exist in a dark, defected world full of pain, problems, disorder, pressure, and restrictions. I felt worse and worse until I reached the lowest degree where I found myself in this world, the surrounding reality, together with other people similar to me.

All of this happened exclusively within me, in my subjective perception of reality. Outside of me nothing changed. It is as if by removing my glasses, I see nothing outside of me, but as soon as I put them back on, I begin to perceive another world. This is how our properties changed from the degree of the World of Infinity to the degree where we perceive only our world that has nothing of the World of Infinity.

However, we can return to the state called “the World of Infinity” where all exists in the ultimate harmony, eternity, and perfection, and where the Light, that is, “Good that Does Good,” dwells. How can we achieve it? We have to attain the perception of this state by awakening it in ourselves. The World of Infinity is hidden within us behind numerous layers of concealment. Gradually, by moving from a greater to a lesser concealment, we discover the World of Infinity.

The stages we undergo while coming back to awareness of Infinity are called the worlds or concealments ("world" — "Olam" comes from concealment — "Olama").  Eventually, the concealment disappears and we rise above it. This is what it means to ascend the degrees of the spiritual ladder, the degrees of the worlds, and to rise above the concealment to perceiving increasingly more.

How do we do that? We evoke a state called the “World of Infinity” by reading The Zohar together. This Book describes our connection with the World of Infinity, and it arouses that desire within us.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, The Zohar

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The purpose of Kabbalah is specifically to help us attract the Light that Reforms and feel the world as good. We only need to become similar to the Light.

I and other people around me currently exist in a certain frame of the motion picture called life. When I draw the Light upon myself, I transform this picture into a good one, filling it with light, goodness, confidence, and eternity. Accordingly, I develop in a pleasant way.

One can certainly say that wanting to change our fate for the better is an even greater form of egoism than that of an ordinary life. And that is correct: we aspire for a good life since the purpose of creation was to delight the created beings. Yet, the means to achieve this is to rise above our egoism.

Therefore, our first and foremost task is to clarify how Kabbalah defines our freedom of will. Let it explain what depends on us in particular. Everything else we can investigate out of curiosity as a nice addition, but it is essential to clarify what we can really influence to change. Otherwise, when we look back on our lives, we see that we were unable to change a thing. Did we make our life that way, or did someone else?

We don’t do anything but draw that Light that Reforms everything. All the actions performed by a person are not in his control whatsoever. The only power one has is how he will see them, from what angle: egoistically or for the sake of bestowal. This alters the entire picture for a person.

This is the only freedom we have! There is a force in the world which is waiting for us to desire its influence in order to change our nature, our qualities. It is in our power to draw it and make it change us. Then we’ll see the whole world as good; at that moment the world will change. Everything will turn upside down!

Right here and now we will see the spiritual world instead of this material one. As if through a transparent reality, we will see the spiritual world through all these manifestations of desire, all these people, and everything that surrounds us. We then will understand what is really going on and why everything is spinning around us this way. We will be able to justify this state and recognize it as good. We will see the connection of all that is happening right now with a sublime and beautiful purpose.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, Shamati #38

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A question I received: Why is it more and more difficult to study The Zohar? Not only do I not feel that I am progressing, but also that I’m regressing. I open the book and feel as if an even greater burden falls on me.

My Answer: Imagine a person who is burdened by a huge problem and is constantly thinking about it. Even when he is performing various other duties, his heart and mind are fixed on the problem. For instance, a woman who goes to work and must leave her sick child at home, will only think about him.

When your heart acquires a desire that is able to think anti-egoistically, you will be able to understand that The Zohar is talking solely about unity. Gradually, you will develop a need for it. Then, it will come as a sensation. After all, everything we feel is the connection (the Upper World) or the lack thereof (our world). This is how the picture of the world is built.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why is it said that the strength of spiritual Light brought to us by the wisdom of Kabbalah is bigger than an atomic explosion?

My Answer: We know that the most powerful forces in our world are obscure and hidden. Muscle strength, a stick in a clenched fist, or a knife in a hand are dwarfed by firearms and explosives. However, the principle remains the same: to inflict a blow.

An even stronger impact exists when we don’t feel the blow in and of itself, but rather its consequences such as with radioactivity. Nowadays, psychotropic weapons have been invented; they don’t impact the human body but our psyches. Humankind uses higher levels of energy as it develops. We don’t feel them, nor do we perceive them through our five senses. We only suffer from their consequences when they cause us harm.

Spiritual power is higher than all other energies. It doesn’t exist in matter, waves, or even thoughts. This force can’t be detected by any worldly instruments. It is impossible to use this force with evil intention. The law of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) prohibits such use of this energy. It can be used only for the sake of bestowal, that is, for our neighbors’ good.

Thousands of years of humanity’s development were needed to arrive at the conclusion that we shouldn’t use the power for evil. We should restrict our egoism by using it only for the sake of bestowal, for the benefit of other people.

Spiritual weapons are armaments of love. They are extremely strong and are meant to show a person that he must switch to a different perception of reality, the world, and his life. It is not about another “improved” stick in one’s hand, but rather it’s…a flower. It possesses an unusual strength under the condition that we know how to use it.

When we begin to use this spiritual power, then the Upper Force that rules the whole universe starts to act on our side and begins to fulfill the work together with us. All we have to do is to attract this power instead of looking for it within ourselves. We have to attract the Creator so that He acts for us. Everything in this world depends on the person who attracts the Upper Light, and his “weapon” is the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

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A question I received: Why is it said that the Light is in a state of absolute rest if our entire path is accompanied by the Light entering and exiting our will to receive?

My Answer: The absolute rest of the Upper Light is its constant change at infinite frequency. The “invariability” of the Light refers to its being at rest in its permanency in reaching a single goal. The Light solely performs actions that lead to the single goal. Its absolute rest lies in the fact that it doesn’t change the purpose, but acts toward it with infinite speed.

For us, rest means not to get tangled on the path, but to strive to find thousands of methods to progress toward the goal in one direction, to be alert, and to make intensive efforts. All this is called absolute rest because I see one singular goal in front of me.

The Light enters and exits the will to receive, and it performs an infinite number of actions each moment. However, if a person is in the state of bestowal, he perceives all these various actions as absolute rest.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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We can remain either in the quality of reception or in the quality of bestowal and fulfill them both. Basically, only two forces govern the Universe, two forces of nature: the forces of reception and bestowal. One of them, the force of reception, is already in us because we were born with it, so we consider it to be natural.

But in reality, there is nothing more natural than the quality of bestowal. Yet, it isn’t in us; therefore, it seems un-natural to us; it seems as something artificial that has no relation to reality. Yet still, the only real existence is in the quality of bestowal because all of creation, except our world, lives in it. Only we live in this tiny, locked, imaginary space in the quality of reception.

Due to the fact that this space is closed and isolated from all the worlds and the Creator, we think that nothing exists beyond it. Like a worm who lives in a radish and believes that the entire world is just like the radish, we don’t see beyond our world. The foolish worm doesn’t understand that there is a big, luminous, sweet, and beautiful world outside of the radish. And neither do we.

This is why we must comprehend that the quality of reception in which we reside is miniscule and limited. It is given to us in order to know its opposite, the quality of bestowal.

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The Zohar, Chapter "VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out) – Part 1," Item 129: “And they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.” The entire seven years were to him as the upper seven years from Bina, who are ones, in one unification, and are not separated. They are all one, since they connect to one another for the love that he loved her, since she was to him like the upper unification in Bina.

How do we define infinity? Is it when time lasts infinitely or when there is no time and it equals zero? How can it be that when I love her, I spend seven years working for her, and in my perception these years fly by? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t this time last infinitely long because it will take seven years before we will be able to be together?

In reality, infinity is when time reduces to zero. In our world, we believe that infinity is something infinitely distant because we imagine that the end (death) is pushed beyond infinity. We perceive infinity in this way because our perception is shaped from lack rather than fulfillment.

But in spirituality, where all our actions are dictated by bestowal, it is the other way around. Infinity is when everything is in one place as if compressed into zero. Everything exists at the same moment, "at the same time, in the same place, in the same woman."

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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There are two forces in nature: reception and bestowal. These two forces depict pictures on our desire to enjoy like on a computer screen. They project the picture of the world that consists of me and everything around me. As Baal HaSulam writes, in the posterior part of our brain there is a screen through which we perceive a picture of the world.

This picture is created with the help of two forces: a receiving (left) force and a bestowing (right) force. The combination of these two forces on my egoistic material depicts the whole picture of reality for me. I feel it, I see a picture, as it were, and it seems to me that this picture, this reality, exists outside of me. I, myself, project my inner picture in front of me. This is how I “see the world.” It’s as though I retrieve it from within myself and project it outside.

Why am I built this way? Why do I see my inner world in an external form? It is in order for us to treat it egoistically with neglect and hostility. Thereby, we receive an opportunity to study our inner world and to correct ourselves.

If I sensed it as being inside of me, I would never be able to correct myself because I would relate to everything in a positive manner with goodness, but solely in an egoistic manner. But now, since my ego comes out to the outside and I feel that it is foreign, I relate to my “external self” like to a foreigner, egoistically in a negative way, rather than positively and like it is my inner part. Therefore, I have an opportunity to understand what “external” and “internal” mean for me.

The world was split into two parts: me and the others. I cannot convince myself that something which exists outside of me is my own. I am given an opportunity to see my inner essence in the outside picture: “Come and see who you are and how you treat those around you. This is how you are inside.” You say, “Look how ugly this one is, how lazy that one is, how dumb another one is! I hate them so much!” Meanwhile, all these qualities are yours and not those of others.

These revelations help me. Otherwise I would never be able to relate to them, to completely reveal the “evil inclination” (egoistic desire, hate for everyone) and later to understand that these are my inner qualities that are projected on the outside.

Then I begin to understand how the Creator helps me by giving me such a perception of reality: to see my insides on the outside. I begin to understand how much this helps me, and that without this, I would be completely locked within myself and I would never be able to understand what the “I” is. Meanwhile, there is something here, “something in me that I do not consider to be me.”

Therefore, our entire work boils down to the unification of our inner self with our outer self, with the outside world, and particularly with the group. We can practice with the group. After all, when I begin to work with the group and try to treat the friends like myself, I see that I am incapable of uniting no matter how much I try to convince myself that all this outside of me is also me. I can’t even treat a small part of humanity, the group, whose goal is close to my own, like myself. I can’t relate to it above my egoistic mind.

In this regard, I begin to see this egoism like something that was artificially created by the Creator, particularly for its annulment. However, I am unable to do this on my own; I can only desire it and then ask the Creator for the disappearance of it (egoism). Why should I ask? In order to receive a connection with the Creator!

“How can this be?” Understand that they are you! Treat them with love, since they are parts of your soul!

“But I can’t!” They are your friends, your neighbors. They are advancing to the same goal as you! What separates you after all?

“The force of the breaking separates us. The Creator placed it as an obstacle, and I cannot overcome it.” And then you ask to correct this in particular. You ask for correction and incorporate the whole world into yourself.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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