A question I received: What does it mean that the Creator gets angry? If we’re talking about invariable spiritual laws, why does The Zohar portray the Creator as one who possesses human qualities, such as anger, envy, etc?

My Answer: The Torah uses the language of man to tell us what we feel and attribute to the Creator. I often use a computer as an example of this. Why do we get angry at a computer when it is nothing but pieces of metal and plastic? It has no intelligence, but merely executes its programmed commands perfectly. All its actions are correct.

If you press the wrong key, or if you lack the knowledge of how the program functions, you can smash the keyboard in frustration all you want, but the computer will still respond with the same error every single time. A computer isn’t a person who can change its behavior. A computer is inanimate, and cannot change. Yet, again and again, you relate to it as you would to a person, questioning it in rage: “Why aren’t you doing what I want you to do?”

We attribute to a computer our own qualities, our personalities, wishing for it to change as we do. In truth, we are uncorrected and we change, while a computer is not uncorrected; hence, its behavior is unvarying and always correct.

The same rule applies to the Creator. We’re not talking about the Creator Himself, but about “Bo-Re” (“Come and See”), that is, our perception of the Creator. We discern and conceive the Creator in our desires (vessels of reception, Kelim). And that is why we ascribe to the Creator the same qualities and reactions characteristic of us.

It is therefore written that the Torah speaks the language of man. In order to explain to us our correct behavior and to help us change, we need to imagine that the Creator undergoes changes though in truth He does not. Perfection cannot change, otherwise it would not be perfection.

By ascribing to the Creator our qualities and regarding Him as though He changes His attitude toward us, we can see ourselves in two manifestations: One, the way I am as is, the way I appear from the side and two, in the changes I undergo either in a constant or transient world.

This perceptual duality which allows us to imagine as though something changes outside of us is a great gift from the Creator. Because of it we come to perceive a different dimension, to understand the spiritual world, to enter into its perception freely and independently.

Therefore, our perception that reality exists and changes outside of ourselves is a true salvation from the prison cell of our world (the sensation of spiritual claustrophobia). It is a fundamental point which grants the creature the opportunity to rise above its creation, to become human: Adam, similar to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Do we attain the properties that we read about in The Zohar during the preparation period or after crossing the Machsom?

My Answer: We begin to discern within ourselves various reactions to all these names and terms even before crossing the Machsom. To the extent that we want to rise above our desire to receive pleasure, we begin to differentiate between the giving and receiving desires. Ultimately, there is nothing more to scrutinize.

It is said, “In the future the angel of death will become an angel of sanctity.” This means that there are no bad or good desires, only the desires for the sake of bestowal or for the sake of receiving. Everything depends on the way we use them. “Haman,” “Terah,” “Abraham,” “Elazar,” “Rachel,” and “Laban” differ only in their intention  and in strength.

Therefore, by trying to keep one’s intention for the sake of bestowal – to learn, understand, and discern it through the group – a person will also react differently to every name and definition, so much so that that he will reveal their “tastes” or sensations: pleasant and not so much, shining and irritating. He will start discerning various shades in them.

However, after the Machsom, a person attains them in a clear and precise manner. Then they are clothed in him and he discovers them in practice.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, The Zohar

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Egoism, which is rooted in our nature, is the reason for our suffering. Since nature is inescapable, people attempt to limit the use of egoism by reaching all sorts of  agreements, realizing that otherwise egoism will lead to confrontation and war. Countries make all possible efforts to sign treaties while at the same time they realize such treaties won’t radically change the situation, yet they understand that it is necessary to counter-oppose the power and the egoism, to curb it by force.

If only people knew that it is possible to correct our nature, that evil reveals itself through us specifically so that it could be corrected and bring us to something great and supreme! If only we knew that we can escape hardship, rise above death, and attain eternal and perfect life!

This is the knowledge that we try to bring to others, since merely understanding it will bring humanity tremendous relief. No one knows how much time it will take since nowadays time accelerates exponentially. This is why we have to keep working and not despair; we will see the fruit of our work in the nearest future.

We have to explain to the people why everything happens (for our correction), what the goal is (eternal and perfect life), and the good path to it (how to realize the goal with the Light’s help). Then people will understand what real life is, that it’s not just something we perceive at a given moment in our limited egoistic desires.

We sense transition from one Partzuf to another as death and the loss of everything there is. But if we perceived the world through the desire to bestow, this transition wouldn’t be felt as a loss since we would sense a larger, general system. Upon losing one’s Partzuf, a person still stays within the system and enters a new Partzuf. If one connects other people to his desire, he feels the eternal flow in everything that he undergoes.

Today, we don’t perceive eternity and it seems a disaster for us to lose our Partzuf and the ten Sefirot that we envision as “this life.” We don’t know anything except it.

It’s not so hard to explain this. Any person gains so much from listening to this information that he would want to know more. Ultimately, everybody dreams of eternity and perfection.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Article “The Peace”

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A question I received: What is a real spiritual vessel (Kli)?

My Answer: A real Kli is a desire that is ready for correction. My task is to fully discern which part of my desire I can correct for the sake of bestowal, and which part I can’t correct and must simply restrict.

Suppose I am given a desire and I discern that I can correct 20% of it for bestowal, and that I have to restrict the other 80% of it, making Sof out of it, meaning the end of the Partzuf. This means that I corrected that entire desire. Both kinds of desires are always present, and I have to understand what to do with them.

However, there may be desires awakening in me that are unclear. This is because the Light that reaches me is insufficient to illuminate all the desires and all their details. This is why I am left with desires that aren’t discerned, called Hash, Mal, and Noga.

It’s as if I am in a fog and I cannot touch part of these desires. I only have to revive them as Klipot in order to support life in them. I have to make these compromises due to my own weakness and inability to perform the correction.

The desires that I have discerned are called “root, soul, and body.” They differ from these other desires, called “garments and castles,” which appear as if they’re not my own, real desires.

Later, at the very end of correction, these desires will turn into my own, real desire. It will join that which is called “brain, bones, and veins,” and will become my unified spiritual vessel. I will then see that all of reality is inside me, as opposed to the way I see things today, when it seems that there is me and a world outside of me.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Everything consists of just two components: desire and fulfillment. In Kabbalah, fulfillment is called Light. It is all around and inside us, unlimited in scope. We are in it like in an ocean. All the changes in how we perceive ourselves and our surroundings depend on the changing of our desire. Our desire, in turn, either changes under the influence of the Light or under the influence of our efforts. The desire is called a vessel and the fulfillment is called Light. The Light is constant, and the only thing that changes is the desire or vessel; its change alters the constant Light that it perceives.

Kabbalah teaches us how to change our desire so we feel an additional, spiritual world within it. This is the meaning of the verse, “You will see your world in this life.” This happens when a person creates one more inner desire. Inside it, he feels the Upper World, and then even when the desire in which he feels this world disappears, it does not influence his desire and sensation of the Upper World. It always remains in his sensation. Yet, even if one was unable to create a new desire, the Partzuf of our world eventually disappears and is replaced by a new one. Thus, a person is “born” into the sensation of this world.

Every sensation in the desire has its period of existence. When a certain level or Partzuf runs it course, it disappears and is replaced by the following one. However, on the level of this world, it remains as long as we don’t create an inner desire (Partzuf) of the Upper World, the desire of bestowal and love.

In essence, all the generations are Partzufim on the level of this world, existing within the quality of reception. They are limited by their inner perception because this kind of development takes place within a single plane: We return to the same level or the same world in various life cycles. We see our reality in different forms, but always on the same level – this world.

The Upper World, however, is the sensation within the quality of bestowal, the sensation beyond oneself and development upwards. That’s why we are summoned, “See your world in this life.”

From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Shamati #69

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The science of Kabbalah defines life and death only with respect to merging with the Creator. A state similar to the Creator is called life, while one that is opposite to Him is death. Therefore, egoistic desires (Klipot) are considered dead, whereas the “poison of death” refers to the force that separates the creature from the Creator.

Death is not a loss of existence, as we observe the disappearance of one’s form in this world (at our degree). All that is created (desire) changes only with respect to drawing closer to or further away from the Creator in its intention to bestow; in everything else (in its desire), the creature remains the same. Hence distancing from the Creator, losing the state of adhesion with Him, is called “death,” whereas adhesion with Him, acquiring the quality of bestowal, is called “life.”

In his article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Baal HaSulam writes that the science of Kabbalah is a means for the creature to reveal the Creator in this world. To reveal the Creator means to assume His qualities.

Although we exist in a world of the still, vegetative, and animate matter, by acquiring the human level of similarity to the Creator, we come to feel ourselves and our existence as perfect and eternal, like the Creator. The science of Kabbalah changes us to facilitate our ascent to the next level (degree) where we begin to see that we do not disappear, but simply change the level of our existence.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/21/10

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A question I received: In the Torah, a lot is written about death. Yet the Torah and the Creator are eternal and perfect; the reality that He created is also eternal and perfect. Therefore, it seems that “life and death” are states of the eternal process.

My Answer: We see how still objects lose their form; animals and plants lose their life. They are also born in a new form. We learn that nothing disappears; everything that exists only changes form. Since we do not perceive some of the forms, we imagine that they disappear or no longer exist.

A soul or a Partzuf loses the screen and the Light (Ohr Pnimi) leaves it. Its previous form remains, but it is hidden behind the new form that is born. However, at the End of Correction, all the previous forms unite and form a final corrected state.

Therefore, there is no death, just the disappearance of the previous form with respect to the observer since he is not on the level of his subsequent state. Yet if we were able to look at these states “from the side,” we would see the transformation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: How can I become similar to the Creator if He has no form?

My Answer: The Creator has no form as we usually understand it in this world. The Light has no form, and neither does the upper degree. Rabash writes that all the worlds, when they’re not revealed in our desires (Kelim), are the Light of Infinity.

There are no worlds that exist outside of man. In relation to one’s inner system or the Soul, the “worlds” is an external system within him. Because of this, we give form to everything including the Creator.

The Creator (Bo-Re) means “come” (Bo) and “see” (Re). By changing and improving our qualities, we build an external form out of our uncorrected desire to receive pleasure. As we correct our attitude toward this external form (that is, correct our egoistic desire), this external form connects into us.

Each degree initially appears as external to us. Then, through our work with our environment, we have to raise its value in our eyes and see it as supreme and desirable. In so doing we attain love for a new degree from hating it. We desire this degree and change our selfish attitude toward it to aspiration to give to it. Thereby we attain this Upper degree. We as though absorb it or “turn a hating one into a loving one.”

We do this again and again until we incorporate the entire universe into ourselves and start perceiving it to be ours.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/01, Shamati #225

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Revelation is a result of efforts. When we read The Zohar, we only need to exert effort. By trying to discern the properties The Zohar is talking about within ourselves, we penetrate toward a more inner screen within us, toward a deeper picture of the world. This is where the revelation of the Creator occurs.

Personal interpretation and commentaries of the text do not bring revelation. To feel a new world within, to interpret The Zohar internally, in sensations, a person needs to direct himself toward an increasingly inner state when reading the text.

A more internal state means that a person connects the text with his internal properties to a greater degree. He sees them in himself; he discovers that every word points to a property or action within him such as the “twelve tribes,” “Jacob,” a “desert,” and a “well.” As a result of his efforts, he reveals their true meaning.

This is why Kabbalah is called “Torah Emet” or the true Torah. Such understanding of the text cannot be conveyed in words. Rather, it can be revealed only within a person, in his new properties which appear as a result of efforts.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/10, The Zohar

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I read The Zohar and wish to penetrate into its inner picture. What desires and qualities are these? I want to erase this material, dreamed-up world, this imaginary picture completely. I want to imagine the true picture instead. What would I see if there were this revelation right now? I want to aspire to it like a child that wants to be a grown-up. Then, I will see the connection of qualities and desires within me, rather than these corporeal images.

With this aspiration, I rouse the Light that Reforms that equalizes me to the Creator. I don’t need to think about this Light; the aspiration to see the true picture awakens it. Really, there is no "Light that Reforms;" there is only an advanced picture of the world in the next, higher degree, which in comparison to me right now, is called the Light. If I am impressed by a more inner picture, this is called the Light in relation to the present picture.

We perceive the Light as a special stimulation in the desire. We record the Light with letters in the same manner that we record desires. "I aspire to the Light," means that I aspire to a more advanced state of bestowal. This is what the Light is for me.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/10, The Zohar

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