Usually it is customary for different nations to hold holidays as a way of honoring certain historical events that took place in this world. But since the nation of Israel once separated from the other nations to carry out a special mission, to realize the correction of human nature upon itself and then to bring all of humanity to this, its holidays, therefore, have a special meaning related to that.

The Scroll (Megilat) of Ester, which is devoted to Purim and which talks about Mordechai, the King Ahashverosh, and Queen Ester who saved the Jews from destruction after the evil Haman planned to kill them, actually explains how to attain that goal. That is why it is written that all the holidays will be canceled in the future with the exception of the holiday of Purim because on that holiday, on that level, the greatest Light shines, which includes all of the previous levels.

All the holidays of the nation of Israel are symbols of special states on the ladder of the spiritual levels which we ascend from this world to the world of Infinity, attaining increasingly greater equivalence to the Creator through bestowal, love, and unification among us. Therefore, every higher level includes all the lower levels as its constituent parts. Purim, the highest level, obviously includes all the previous, smaller levels which are canceled before it and enter it. In the end, not a single holiday remains besides the holiday of Purim.

How do we reach this holiday? Our entire work is based on raising a prayer (MAN) for unification and love among us, which we are trying to attain. All of our work is devoted to correcting the division. At first we have to unite on the level of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” which means the quality of Mordechai.

When we reach “the king’s gate” (as the story tells about Mordechai who sat by the king’s gate), there we meet our Haman, the huge and horrifying egoistic desire that becomes revealed to us. Then we have to correct it and receive Light into its Kelim with the intention of Mordechai, “for the sake of bestowal.” That is how one can receive the Light of Mordechai into the Kelim of Haman and attain the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).

We have to take the force, the “spiritual vessel” from our nature, our egoistic desire, and add to these desires the intention “for the sake of bestowal” so it would begin to rule over us, “to saddle the desire” like Mordechai who rides on top of a horse.
[38586]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/11, Shamati

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Holidays, Israel, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Question: The holiday of Purim symbolizes the opposition of two forces: Mordechai and Haman. Then why are we commanded to get so drunk on this day that we can’t tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai?

Answer: This happens after the analysis where you use all of the Kelim, when everything is already clear to the utmost. You have hung Haman and his ten sons on a tree, or in other words, on the tail of the letter Kuf (ק). No more illumination comes beneath the Tabur in order to give life to the impure forces (Klipot). There are no Klipot since you have destroyed all the egoistic intentions.

Previously intentions for the sake of reception, Klipa were below. Klipa lives by virtue of the illumination from above. Above the Tabur are the letters or qualities of Kuf (ק), Reish (ר) , Shin (ש), and Tav (ת). Previously the tip of Tav also descended down, but its “leg was cut off” and now only Kuf descends beneath the Tabur. This means that the Lights descend down, giving life to the Klipa.

This is necessary because the Klipa helps us. It has to exist in order to give us the opportunity of free choice, to place us between good and evil.

Here, below, are Haman and his “family”—all of the egoistic qualities that have joined him. It is important to remember that this is talking precisely about intentions for the sake of reception, rather than about desires. After all, desire is just matter.

After that, from Yesod of Zeir Anpin to Nukva comes the illumination of Mordechai. It comes as a result of the ascent of a plea (MAN) from the souls of Israel, which are below, under the rule of Haman. Then they are all able to ascend upwards with the help of the illumination called Purim—the illumination of Mordechai.

In that case only Haman with his family remain below. After that the leg of the letter Kuf is annulled so the Klipot would no longer receive an illumination, or in other words, Haman is hung on the tree. Then the Klipot inside each of us die because they no longer realize or feel the opportunity to steal or to attain anything.

That is where it all ends. All the egoistic intentions disappear due to not having a footing and everything shifts above the Parsa, into the intention for the sake of bestowal, into the approaching end of correction. Now all of your Kelim are covered by the altruistic intention and you fill them with the Light of Hochma without any restrictions. That is because you have created great, perfect screens which free you from the necessity to make calculations.

The entire matter of Haman, who is under the power of the egoistic desire, has shifted to the altruistic intention. Stated differently, all the desires that were below have ascended upwards. They divided into two groups of 248 and 365 desires, and now even the lowers ones are above because you have cut off the egoistic intentions from them. Thus, nothing remains below.

And since there is nothing below, holiness (Kedusha) expands from Raglin until Sium, until the Mount of Olives.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
The Contours Of Spiritual Combinations
Instructions On Canning Egoism
The Hidden Meaning Of The Scroll Of Esther

Filed under: Egoism, Free Will, Holidays, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Why is it so difficult to keep the intention while reading The Book of Zohar, or to imagine the connection between us and to grab on to the text? What should we do?

Answer: If a person found himself in a great disaster and was told, “Read this text for half an hour and there you will reveal how to get out of the disaster,” then you can imagine how he would spend that half hour. Would it be difficult for him to concentrate on it? What kind of pressure and hope would he feel in trying to penetrate inside the text, to understand what is being required of him, what he can find there, what kind of salvation is there, and how it will arrive….

Everything depends on the environment, on how much it “warms up” this inner attitude to The Zohar’s text. All other Kabbalistic texts are beneficial to a smaller extent with regard to their text’s influence on the reader because when reading them we can involve the mind and feelings, and somehow connect them to ourselves.

The Torah, in turn, is perfect, pure, unattainable, “in the heavens.” What does “pure” (Tmima) mean? No one touches it. It is the upper Light. We only wait for the results from it that will manifest in us.

Only the group can give me this attitude to reading The Zohar so I would passionately wish to receive a result from it. Otherwise it won’t happen.

We have already gone through this state when we just began reading The Zohar. During the first few months people were so inspired that this common excitement influenced every person and every person felt the surrounding illumination to some extent, feeling the power of The Zohar’s influence upon him.

Now this inspiration has waned because at first we received it from above, whereas now we have to develop it ourselves. Nothing happens by itself in nature. You receive an initial awakening and then it is taken away so you would add it from your own end, so you would complete the space that has been emptied of inspiration from above with your own efforts.

If we don’t add to it ourselves, then we cannot keep the intention for correction over the course of 45 minutes while reading The Zohar, and we just wait for the lesson to be over. If we don’t awaken a person, if we don’t stimulate the inner vibrations in him so he would feel like a sick person facing the only means of salvation, the only opportunity to be healed and saved from disaster, then of course it is difficult for him to keep the intention and to grab on to the text. In essence, he blames us because we do not let him feel the vital necessity of this, meaning the importance of the goal.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/11, The Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: What remains unchangeable in a person who develops spiritually and what changes in him?

Answer: The only thing that doesn’t change is the intention toward the right goal which he sometimes tries to create. Besides this, everything else changes and nothing remains. You lose everything besides the right intention if you have created it. Everything else only seems to belong to you, including your existence, and it is given to you only to create the intention.

This world and the spiritual world are not taken into account. Only the intention remains which we can create as a result of our efforts. This is the spiritual vessel, the soul.

In that intention you see the eternal reality, meaning yourself. What is the true reality? It is the degree of your revelation of yourself in the upper Light, in equivalence to it, in becoming identical to it. All of this becomes revealed only in the intention, and nothing remains besides it.

There is nothing besides the intention. This means that nothing else exists in reality. Everything else is imaginary and only seems to exist right now in order for you to attain the intention. After all, you have to live inside something. Who creates the intention? It’s the person whom you now perceive as yourself, living and existing in this world. Why do you need this? It’s in order to form the intention.

When you complete creating your intention from the beginning of the ladder of the spiritual degrees and until its end, then this entire world, this entire reality disappears because in reality it did not exist. It only seemed to exist to you in order for you to develop the right intention.

Now understand how important is the activity you are engaging in—the creation of your eternal image, the human who is similar to the Creator.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/11, The Zohar

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: How can I control a prayer in the heart when the heart is not corrected?

Answer: If the heart is corrected, there is no prayer! A prayer is an appeal for correction if I feel that I am corrupt, or if I do not feel my own corruptness, then I ask the Light to discern my desires (Kelim) for me, to show me my shortcomings.

Suddenly strangers start telling me that I probably need glasses that I don’t see well. However, I haven’t noticed this before because I didn’t have anything to compare this with.

Thus, I have to ask the Light to show me my corruptness. When I sense it, I will ask the Light to correct me. When I am corrected, I will ask the Light to fill me. The same Light, the Creator, performs all these actions within me. However, He is manifested through different actions in accordance with my appeal.
[38013]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/2011, The Book of Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: I cannot aspire to bestowal since I don’t have the slightest idea what it is. What is bestowal?

Answer: Any spiritual property such as bestowal and love is revealed from the state opposite to it since we don’t know what it is. Actually, if I knew what bestowal is, I would already possess this property.

But I do not possess it. So how can I acquire it? I can do it only by performing mechanical actions: I influence the group, while the group acts upon me. And all these actions have no relation to spirituality, which is the reason we perceive ourselves as presently living in this world.

It is an imaginary reality that contains some desires and even corporeal bodies in it, meaning that they are not, in fact, desires, but rather something that doesn’t possess free will. The spiritual world, however, is full of desires, aspirations, and forces, such as love, hate, and lust, which are manifestations of man’s will. And without this manifestation of will, there isn’t a world; it doesn’t exit.

It is similar to a laser image: I turn on the laser, and the picture appears in the air. If I don’t turn it on, there won’t be one. This is how we perceive the spiritual world as well. As to the material world, it exists even without my expression of will. In this reality, I pass through life cycles, and it transforms me without my being aware of it; it asks for no participation on my part.

Therefore, this reality seems to me so “material.” All changes in it occur without my conscious participation, my strive for bestowal; they simply unfold naturally under the impact of the upper force that pushes everything to evolve.

But when in this corporeal world I reach a state when I want to take an active part in my development, the question about the meaning of life arises in me. And from this moment on, I start seeking the answer.

Yet, it is all so that I start activating the spiritual reality. At the instant I become ready for it, I will discover the part of reality that was activated by me. It is what you can regard as your first spiritual degree.

Hence, all our actions must begin with corporeality, with the idea that I force myself to influence the environment and the environment influences me in all possible forms by using all available forces and capacities, as it is written: “All that you can do, do!”, meaning grab any opportunity, no matter what it may be.

After all, if you perform all these actions in the material form, that is, without the correct conscious participation, you still awaken this reality. This is the way it is built.
[37662]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - 2 Comments →

When the created being starts to clarify what free will is, he sees that if the property of bestowal in him is above the property of receiving, then the former leads him to the truth and freedom! Thereby, the created being chooses bestowal since he understands that only bestowal carries completeness and independence from one’s desires, meaning the absolute truth that is above the Creator as well as the creature.

Man achieves such an exalted state. After all, both the Creator and the creature reside in their corresponding properties: those of the Creator and the creature. But man has to make a choice that is independent of both these properties.

It looks like the force of the Creator and the force of Creation stand against each other, whereas man performs a unique act regarded as a “prayer.” He makes a choice that lies above both of these forces. Thereby, his new desire (Kli) is produced in which the property of receiving and the property of bestowal, or the attribute of the Creator and the attribute of the creature, unify as one above these properties.

This is how man receives a unique result: He finds the Creator’s Keter. It is not the Creator’s acts by which man himself is made, but rather His thoughts, the plan that precedes creation. This is an outcome of the middle line that rises above the first two: the right and the left, the properties of the Creator and those of the created being, which reach man in action. But in the middle line, man rises above the beginning of Creation.

Herein unfolds a new opportunity given to the created being: to rise above all existing forces and properties. Indeed, all forces, properties, desires, information genes, everything that exists in the universe and is revealed to us—the matter of reception, the force of bestowal—are only the instruments to bring the creature to more exalted notions preceding the act of Creation.

Hence, in every state where the creature needs to make a correct choice, it feels totally helpless relative to the point that precedes its entire birth. It needs to discern the vessels and the Lights, the desire to receive pleasure that it possesses and the desire to bestow, while the choice lies above both of them.

The prayer is born when the created being realizes that in the state that he has reached as a result of all of his discernments, he does not and cannot have any chance to rise above these equally valuable options and make a decision. Here the Creator has the final say!

We think we need the Creator only to defeat the force of egoism with our own force of bestowal, to dethrone Pharaoh. But there is more to this than a simple confrontation of desires when man stands between the two forces: the Creator and Pharaoh. The essence is not in clarifying who is more powerful and thus will win, but rather in unifying both of these forces as one in the middle line and ascending over them.
[37672]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

Related Material:
The Soul’s Laser Beam Projector
Bring On The Dawn
Ascending To The Root Of Creation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Question: What is a prayer?

Answer: The Creator created only the desire to receive pleasure. Desires can unfold automatically, triggered by the inner engine that activates in me one desire after another, by actualizing the sequence of the Reshimot (informational genes). A prayer is methodical work on a desire that unfolds in a person.

Every desire or Reshimo consists of 613 (Taryag) desires. These 613 desires, by surfacing up, paint the picture of the world for me: Each instant in new desires, I discover a new frame of reality, a new world.

But I, myself, can wish to work on my constantly unfolding desires, speed up the development of new Reshimot in me, control how they unfold, and not allow my evolution to take a random course. I can look forward to the emerging of new desires so as to work on them, justify the Creator every moment, advance in adhesion with Him, and see the necessity and purposefulness of each state.

Such work with desires is regarded as a prayer. A prayer is work in the heart, and the heart is a collection of all the desires of a person. Hence, the work with our desires is regarded as a prayer. This is why it is written: “May one pray all day long!” which means let a person constantly work with his or her desires, motivating themselves to corrections.

It radically differs from the opinion of the masses who think that by reading prayers from a prayer book, they perform spiritual actions or anything at all. Our entire history demonstrates to us how pointless and worthless this interpretation of “prayer” is. They are mere external actions that are carried out during preparation for the true spiritual work on ourselves during Kabbalah studies. Only then is the work aimed at the correction of one’s self regarded as the “work of the Creator” since it is done by His Light, Ohr Makif.

Authentic work lies in accelerating desires. I want them to unfold in me as quickly as possible so I could work on them, having prepared myself and the environment: the teacher, the Kabbalistic texts, and the group; so I would always be ready and trigger my own development, “bring on the dawn” myself. It is dawn because each desire unfolds in me as the dark void, while I immediately bring it to the Light.

Hence, a prayer is all our work, and there is nothing but work with desires.
[37897]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/2011, The Book of Zohar

Related Material:
Kabbalah Moments: Prayer
May The Creator Hear Your Plea!
Praying In Order To Change

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: Do we have to think about others even if we understand that deep down it’s a lie? Do we have to lie to ourselves while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: We lie about everything because we do not have a true connection with one another, but only “play” as if we do. I do not desire to connect with others, but I play at being a “good boy”: I read The Zohar, wishing to change under the influence of this reading, to understand the way in which I am uncorrected, and why I can’t attain the perfect state. I search! In short, while reading The Zohar, I wait for changes for the better. This is called “awaiting redemption.”

Question: I force myself to come back to the intention even though it truly is a war. Does this help our work in the group?

Answer: Precisely the inner war gives us a good result! Without this war a person does not advance because his desires are not renewed. Only on the condition that he wages a war with himself do new Reshimot awaken in him and he constantly feels opposition. That is how things should be!
[38016]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
Questions At The Zohar Lesson, Part 1
The Most Important Thing Is To Continue
The Ship Of Our Intentions

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Today, in light of the earthquake that has befallen Japan, we see how nature threatens our existence. After all, we are, in fact, living on top of a giant volcano that is boiling deep underground, while we exist on the thin layer of the earth’s crust.

From the depths of the earth we mine oil, water, and minerals, and we use plants and animals which exist on its surface for food, and breathe the atmospheric air. We are entirely dependent on the processes happening in the earth’s crust.

Besides, we are influenced by many other factors: magnetic fields, the force of attraction, all sorts of radiation, the speed of the Earth’s rotation, and so on. But we don’t even imagine that the smallest change in any of these parameters can fundamentally change our lives!

All of the natural cataclysms are caused by the imbalance of forces, which is happening as a result of our incorrect actions. The entire universe is a single system which includes the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature as well as man. The greater part of the universe belongs to the still level of nature: This is the entire universe, including the Earth. Plants cover only its surface, and the animate kingdom comprises even a smaller part of it, and compared to all that, just a tiny fraction belongs to man.

However, in the spiritual dimension what is taken into account is not quantity or mass, but the quality of forces. Therefore, man, who is on a higher qualitative level of development, can change the entire universe with just one thought. Baal HaSulam writes that all of the still nature is equal to one plant, all plants to one animal, and all animals to one person.

In other words, if a person makes any tiny change for the good or for the bad, this changes the entire animal kingdom. The vegetative world undergoes even greater changes as a result, not to mention what happens with the still nature. That is because all of it is a single system!

Therefore, we have to change ourselves and attain balance among one another. Only then will all of these forces of nature that are below the human level—the entire animate and vegetative world, and all of the still nature—will also reach balance.

Question: How can we convince everyone that the world is controlled by our thoughts?

Answer: It is impossible to achieve this through words. We have to bring the world to the inner sensation that thought is the most powerful force in the entire universe. But we have to prove the same thing to ourselves! If I realized that my thoughts influence the whole world, would I allow them to “go with the flow” free and uncontrolled? No, at every moment in time I would check what I am thinking about, where am I directing my thoughts, and what I am influencing. I would constantly control myself!

We just can’t explain this to ourselves or to the world. We cannot measure the power of thoughts, and especially the degree of their influence on specific events. We will never be able to give the world proof of this connection’s presence. So how will we bring the world to balance?

There is just one solution: We, those who understand this and study Kabbalah, have to attract the Upper Light through ourselves so it will give people the awareness “from within” of the fact that everything in nature is interconnected and precisely our desires (hearts) and thoughts (minds) determine the state of the world.

Precisely the Surrounding Light, which intangibly influences everyone, will evoke the inner understanding in people that their thoughts and intentions influence the state of the system of nature, where the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature as well as man with his intention, are united into one.
[38009]
From the lesson on Shamati on 3/11/11

Related Material:
Like A Drop In Free Fall
The World’s Problem Is My Problem
The Process Has Begun

Filed under: Collective Soul, Crisis, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →