Question: It is known that Rabbi Shimon’s group attained unity among themselves through the mutual writing of The Zohar. Is this also a correct method for us in our time? Should we try to unite by forming small groups, and together taking an article and trying to develop it? Or will this just confuse us since each of us is on our own stage of advancement, different from everyone’s else?

Answer: The authors of The Zohar were also on different stages of advancement; they were not all equal. Each one of the ten authors of The Zohar corresponded to one of the ten Sefirot, according to their nature and the root of their souls. Yet, each of them completely canceled their egos and were able to unite with the others to the full extent of their nature.

This is why each one was able to attain 125 degrees of the spiritual ladder, meaning his own individual final correction (Gmar Tikkun). And together they were able to connect on the highest level possible of the unification of souls, which is why they revealed all of the Light, the upper illumination that descends to us from Arich Anpin referred to as “Zohar” (a special kind of Light).

Clearly, we are not even close to being near these degrees; we are all “dead,” that is, submerged within our egoistic desires. We are not ready nor do we have the desire to connect with one another. We face many struggles and corrections until we attain some form of unity.

But if we try to imitate adults like children do through the games they play, then we attract Light from that perfect state which already exists. These souls, the authors of The Zohar, have revealed and formed it through their ascent from below upward.

A ladder of the worlds (five worlds, each containing five Sefirot, with each containing another five Sefirot, totaling 125 degrees) descends from Above downward, from the world of Infinity. In this way the Light descends towards us from Above downward: Yechida, Haya, Neshama, Ruach, Nefesh (NaRaNHY in reverse order). This is called a concealment, the reduction of Light or worlds (the word “world,” “Olam” in Hebrew, comes from the word “Alama,” “concealment”). In other words, above there is 100% of the Light, and below 0% of it. This is the system of worlds (concealments).

There are souls in our world in which the desire referred to as “man” or “Adam” (similar to the Creator) awakens; it is the rudiment of man in spirituality. Then, this desire begins to grow. How does it grow? It must connect with another nine like it, even to the slightest degree of unification. In this way, they continue to connect even more strongly, until they attain the greatest degree of unity between souls.

Throughout history there were souls who attained unification with one another and they are all connected with others on different levels of this ladder of degrees. All of the authors of The Zohar attained the highest degree together, and for this reason, the Light they brought to this Book is so great that it influences and shines to everyone. This is because they take the Light from Infinity and are able to bring it to us under the condition that on our part, we at least want to rise a little bit towards them.

The Zohar, the entire Light or a part of it, is always revealed to the extent of the degree of unification, the degree of bestowal, and the similarity between the desire (Kli) and the Light. This is why we need to connect as much as possible, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We will receive this Light according to our ability to attain at least the first rung of the 125 degrees.

After all, what do all the 125 degrees represent? The degree of Nefesh also contains all five Lights: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida (NaRaNHY), and each one of them also has its own NaRaNHY. Hence (NaRaNHY) х (NaRaNHY) х (NaRaNHY) = 5х5х5 = 125 degrees.

Since the Light is divided according to the degree of Aviut (thickness) of desire, we can realize our connection, that is, rise above this thickness and connect despite of our ego. The Light will influence us, correct us, and then fulfill us to the extent of our ability to cancel this Aviut, along with our desire to use it to connect.

There is nothing here besides these two components, the Light and the Kli, and the degree of connection between them called the “screen” or an “intention.”
[33583]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Donkey Driver”

Related Material:
A Ray Of Light In Pitch Darkness
Who Will Help Me Attain The Goal?
A Messenger Between Two Poles

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Why is the process of asking a question so difficult? Why is it difficult to clothe the inner processes into a verbal casing?

Answer: It’s because when a person feels pain, he screams. But he does not know exactly what is hurting him. That’s why we invite a doctor to make a diagnosis. Similarly, when a baby feels pain, he cannot say exactly where he feels the pain.

It takes a very long time to go from the inner pain, problem, or disturbance to the sensation, “What are these disturbances? Why are they happening? What is their purpose? What are they about? Where are they taking me? What should I do with them?” All of this is part of the process of one’s inner maturation.

We learn in the science of Kabbalah that the Light has to go through four phases before it builds the right desire for itself. The first thing I feel is something unfamiliar to me. Then I suddenly feel the state opposite to it—that I felt something, but now I don’t feel it. After that I go on to feeling and not feeling at the same time, and that is how an inner comparison begins. Only by comparing these two opposite sensations do I start to reach an opinion regarding what this is. After that, from the understanding of “What is this?” I start to attain the primary cause—from where did this emerge inside of me?

This is an entire succession or sequence of a person’s inner maturation where he can already come and say, “Yet, this is what is hurting me. This is why I feel bad. This is my question. This is what I demand to solve by receiving an answer.” It isn’t simple.

On our part we have to try to help him, like a baby. It doesn’t matter that he’s screaming. That means we have to go to him, pay attention, and try to figure out why he feels bad, even though he can’t even ask for this. Let’s find this common contact.

This problem exists on all the levels. If you ask me, then I go through the same thing. When we move forward, we continuously encounter something that isn’t clear: “What? Why? How? From where? Where is it connected and with what? What are the reasons and the consequences?” As this entire chain starts gradually being born, the question starts to come through. And then, from the right question follows the answer.

After that things become unclear again. I ask, “Why? What is bothering me?” Once again there’s a question and an answer.

Therefore, we have to work on the questions.
[34194]
From the 1st lesson of the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

Related Material:
Are You Asking Yourself The Right Question During Zohar Study
When I Feel Bad
If The Soul Hurts, Hence It Exists!

Filed under: Conventions, Q&A, Suffering - No Comments →

Question: Baal HaSulam provides a detailed explaination of the influence that SAG (Bina) exerts on NHY de Galgalta (Malchut), just like a group influences a person who has nullified himself before it. But how was NHY de Galgalta able to reach that kind of self-nullification and restriction?

Answer: The same restriction from the world of Infinity operates in NHY de Galgalta. All of Galgalta is the same world of Infinity. It is a restriction by the force of the Light that rules inside of the desire to enjoy and can do anything it wishes to it because the Light created the desire.

The Light wishes to bring the desire to equivalence with itself, but on the condition that on every step the desire will retain the freedom of will. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a creation. The Light would simply make an inanimate imprint or copy of itself, like with a copy machine, and then there wouldn’t be a living creation, a person.

That is why the Light carries out all the actions, but leaves “spaces” between them for you to add your own participation. For example, you come to the lesson and are given an enormous desire to sleep. That is when you must express your own participation, working against this desire. The states that come to you will be such that you won’t be able to overcome them yourself. But you have to organize an environment for yourself that will influence you and help you cope with these disturbances—not with your own forces, but by the power of social influence.

Things are arranged this way on purpose so I would feel the need to cancel myself before the group because that is the only way I can come closer to bestowal and come out of my petty egoism. Just as you wait for the Light to influence you, so the Light waits for you to use the group as a lever and to start doing something with yourself. The group is like an instrument, such as a screwdriver or wrench: Take it into your hands and start working with it! You don’t have any other instruments.
[34183]
From the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot on 1/27/10

Related Material:
The “Analog System” Of The Spiritual World
What Will You Chose After All?
Ascending Rungs Of The Ladder By The Light Of The Zohar

Filed under: Free Will, Group Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: At some moment the development of the worlds seems to branch out in two directions. After the breaking of the Kelim, the world of Atzilut is born from them by the conditions of the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet), but Partzufim of the world of Adam Kadmon continue to come out one after the other above Tabur Galgalta by the conditions of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph). It’s unclear; how are these processes synchronized with each other?

Answer: Following Partzufim Galgalta, AB, and SAG (Keter, Hochma, Bina) above Tabur Galgalta, Partuzifm ZA and Malchut (MA and BON) have to come out. All five Partzufim have to be born because the degree has to be complete. That’s because there is a screen and Reshimot, and they have to be realized. If there is a desire, Light, and a screen between them, then it’s impossible to stop halfway.

If you’re worried about how this is synchronized, then be assured that everything happens simultaneously and one thing does not interfere with the other. Think of how the air is permeated by millions of radio waves of all ranges—some for radio, some for television, Internet or mobile phones. Do they interfere with one another?

Every country conducts a registration of all the radio signals. There is an enormous and extremely sensitive locator that picks up all of the ranges of waves together and records this entire radio noise. If people later wish to find out whether you talked on the phone on some specific day at some specific time, then they can take that recording of millions of wave ranges and place a filter there to extract just your voice. No range interferes with any other.

That’s how Partzufim of the world of Adam Kadmon do not get in the way of the birth of the world of Atzilut. When Baal HaSulam describes this in Talmud Eser Sefirot, he does not specify that there are billions of other parallel actions taking place. But all of this comes together. In the spiritual world there is no time. It is built as an analog system where everything happens simultaneously and isn’t divided by the notion of time. There is no need to wait for one degree to develop after another. All of these states come out automatically and the system exists in this specific form.

The system that operates by bestowal does not have any limitations because the only calculation you have to do is with yourself—with your inner resistance. You don’t have to consider the external factors. There are no restrictions from outside. If you want to bestow, then go ahead and bestow to this entire system! That is why you are not limited by anything, you do not bother anyone, and no one bothers you. You make a calculation only with your own nature.

Therefore, the spiritual system works above time and does not have any restrictions by virtue of its “permeability.”
[34187]
From the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot on 12/27/10

Related Material:
A Living Creation On An Inanimate Mold
Time=Motion=Place
Up And Down The Spiritual Ladder

Filed under: Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: What role does asceticism play in human development?

Answer: Kabbalah has a very negative opinion of various restrictions. It does not demand anything from a person with regard to his earthly life. In principle, you can do anything you want.

It’s a different matter when you become engrossed in all sorts of fetishes in this earthly life by introducing some kind of special customs, habits, and exercises to it. Live normally. If you like doing yoga, then do it. If you like running in the morning, then run. If there’s a certain diet that is healthier for you and another that’s less healthy, then eat accordingly. None of this matters. The most important thing is not to turn anything into a cult.

Kabbalah treats every person absolutely normally. It doesn’t care about how a person lives, what habits he has, and what his customs, religious convictions, and inclinations are. Who he is in the earthly life doesn’t matter one bit.

We are once again returning to the essence: Egoism rises in us in order for us to compensate for it above ourselves. That is why it doesn’t matter one bit what I am like. Limiting yourself in food or applying any kind of methods—none of this will help. Nothing will help.

On the contrary, a person who does some kind of physical exercises or keeps some kind of strict boundaries thinks that he has already advanced forward, has achieved some kind of level, that he is righteous and so on.

This can only confuse people. Therefore, live normally, calmly, eat well, and think about your health and profession. Take part in all the things that your surrounding society does.

And together with this, study Kabbalah. This balance or normal state is the most preferable one. Fate has placed you in this environment so go with its flow. Then you will see that in reality, everything around you is in the ideal state, besides yourself.

A minus is compensated by the right plus.
[34198]
From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

Related Material:
I’d Rather Jump Into The Water
Like A Dog On A Leash
The Worse The Better

Filed under: Body and Soul, Conventions, Egoism, Health, Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Society, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: We see that man is a predator. The entire meaning of his existence is to devour his neighbor and reach his own goal. If we attain mutual guarantee and the earth’s population will increase to 20 or 25 billion, how will all of this actually take place?

Answer: What’s the problem with having twenty billion people? Imagine that they are all your relatives and you feel like one whole with them. It completely doesn’t bother you that they are together with you. On the contrary, you change your attitude to them: You feel good when all of them are as close to you as possible.

Question cont’d: But what will happen if there are no limits?

Answer: Every person makes a limit on himself. Imagine a mother who has twenty billion children. Does this number bother her if she has everything they need? She exists in the world of Infinity, meaning in the world of absolute Light, satisfaction, fulfillment, and abundance.

Of course, it’s difficult to imagine how a person changes. But if you are next to your beloved and you really love him without any calculation, then you want to be with him all the time. You always want to be next to him and as close as possible.

Then what would be the problem with having twenty billion beloved? You won’t feel that there are twenty billion people. You will feel that they are all together with you. This state is the most desirable and comfortable one.

In reality you do not split them up into twenty billion, but there is just one you. This is called inclusion.

Our obstacle is a psychological problem. We cannot imagine how this will happen. We imagine that we exist in bodies, but when we reach mutual guarantee, then instead of the bodies, we will feel every person’s inner potential.
From the 2nd lesson of the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

Related Material:
Receiving To Bestow
This World Will Evaporate Like Smoke
How Will You Color Your World?

Filed under: Body and Soul, Collective Soul, Conventions, Love, Mutual Guarantee, Perception, Q&A, Spirituality, Unity, World - No Comments →

Question: I would like to know: Where inside me does the evil inclination reside? Is it in the heart or in the ego? How can I find it in order to get rid of it?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes that he rejoiced about the revelation of new, evil qualities inside of him because they are not new, but are concealed in a person, and it is unknown when all of our evil, not yet revealed, will be revealed in us.

Indeed, the times when the evil becomes revealed are unpleasant. A person begins to eat himself up because he does not agree to it and does not want it. This approach also needs to be corrected.

To tell you the truth, we must only be happy when the evil becomes revealed, but not as masochists. If this evil reaches the necessary measure, then a person will explode and produce such an inner outcry, such a feeling will emerge in his heart that he will receive a revelation from Above.

Then in relation to his heart, he comes out to other people and starts feeling the spiritual world, which cannot be felt inside of you, but only in the desires of other people. However, this is a good feeling. Then a person experiences every moment as a great adventure where his desires and intentions begin opening up the world to him.
[34167]
From the lecture in “Kabalah L’Am” Hall on 12/21/10

Related Material:
Work With Resistance
Rid Yourself Of Everything Animate
The Right question Is Already The Answer

Filed under: Egoism, Inner Work, Q&A, Spirituality, Suffering - 1 Comment →

Question: Can Kabbalah help a person find mutual understanding between a man and woman or fix relationships in the family or at work?

Answer: No, you will not be able to create a good life for yourself in this world with the help of the science of Kabbalah. A good life will come as a result of your using all of the evil that becomes revealed in order to attain love for the neighbor and love for the Creator. Then the desires in which you feel bad will no longer emerge in you. The science of Kabbalah does not lie to a person! This is not psychology or charlatanism; it is not mysticism or a magical means to improve our lives!

Kabbalah says that the evil which becomes revealed to you is goal-oriented. It is intended to push you toward correction. You do not have to nullify the desire in which you feel bad, but rather, you have to admit that the desire is bad because of your hatred to the neighbor, and when you correct your hatred to love, you will be able to enjoy love for the neighbor and then the bad desires will no longer become revealed in you.

If you want to create a family or you are already married and a disagreement, animosity, or a misunderstanding comes up between you, that misunderstanding is impossible to correct without correcting your attitude to creation and the Creator. The Creator is between you: “Husband and wife—and the Shechina between them.”

For now the Shechina is still in exile. It becomes revealed as an evil, harmful force, the force of mutual hatred which sets you one against the other. The Creator does this deliberately so you wouldn’t connect on the previous, animate level, the way a female animal unites with a male animal in order to produce offspring, but in order for you to merge with one another as two souls into one soul and reveal the common force of bestowal that will connect you together.

If you are able to correct the relationship between you in this way, you will really become a family. Otherwise you won’t be able to do it. Kabbalah does not give you hints, solutions, or medicine for your current state, but elevates you to a new state where you will be able to be happy, successful, and perfect.

All of the suffering, problems, and blows become revealed in our world not in order to bring peace and perfection into the world, but in order to elevate us above our world. Otherwise it is similar to building communism in Russia. If you do something not for the sake of the Creator, meaning not in order to reach absolute bestowal, then you won’t achieve anything.

I feel bad, I have problems with my family, at work, with my children, and with my health, and I want to succeed in all of these areas. Kabbalah says I will feel good? Then fine, I agree to study Kabbalah! To do that I have to bestow to others? Then I’m even willing to bestow to others—anything to feel good myself.

This is called Lo Lishma (not for the Creator’s sake). This means that you know the method and you want to bring it to life for the sake of everyone so that you would also feel good. Now everything depends on what proportion you are willing to bestow to others in order to improve your state.

At first it is 1% for others and 99% for yourself. Then it’s the opposite: 99% for others and 1% for yourself until you acquire the force enabling you not to want anything for yourself. “I don’t care about what happens to me, I want to bestow to others.” This is called “bestowal for the sake of bestowal.”

However, we will never be able to return to a successful and corrected material life. All the methods that say that they can achieve this are lying, and Kabbalah tells you from the onset that this is impossible because all the evil in this life exists in order to elevate you to a new level.

Therefore, if you apply the science of Kabbalah to improve this life and you begin selling holy water or red strings, then it becomes a deadly poison. We have to understand that the reason for the general state of the world is the need to elevate us, but not to improve our situation. This is the difference between Kabbalah and other methods.

Therefore, if someone promises you a good life in this world, or health and happiness in your personal life, don’t believe it—it’s a lie and goes against nature! Nature wishes to elevate us to the “human” level. And when you aspire to this state, everything falls into place in the most wondrous way!
[34174]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Related Material:
Be Happy About The Evil That Becomes Revealed In You
A Key Error In Calculation
When The Serpent Unfolds

Filed under: Body and Soul, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Depression, Family, Love, Q&A, Spirituality, Suffering - No Comments →

Question: In spirituality why do we have to form a desire for every new pleasure?

Answer: It’s because in spirituality there is no pleasure without desire. Without desiring, you won’t attain anything. And the desire has to be new every time. These are not the desires you were born with in our world.

When we are born here, our senses do not work yet. A baby practically does not perceive anything. He does not hear or see. He only has some reactions on the animate level. And then we immediately begin pumping and filling him with our programs of perception.

If we endowed this creature that just came out of its mother’s womb with other programs, then we would form him into something completely different. We would be able to build him spiritually. This depends on education, upbringing, and the method of development.

With our attitude from the very first day, we raise a child to be an egoist. Notwithstanding, a baby is open to everything: He can hear and see differently, he can perceive the world in the opposite way. In the end everything depends on the environment.

Now, with the help of the environment, by the same principle we must transform our vision of the world, our attitude to life.
[34178]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Basis Of Correct Development
Brushing Off The Dust From Bestowal
Growing From Opposites

Filed under: Children, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What is going on with the European Union? A month ago, a collapse seemed inevitable, but now everything looks all right?

Answer: It is indeed so, and it is going to repeat many more times. There will be an impression that a collapse is imminent, and then it will seem that everything is going to be okay. Only through such gradual, step-by-step development do we become aware that we must change.

Generally, it is necessary to understand that nature’s goal is not to annihilate us. The collapse must be internal. It has to occur in our consciousness, in our awareness of how wrongly we treat ourselves and the world. It’s not in the fact that I was hit by a hurricane, tsunami, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, or freezing weather.

All of this is necessary solely in order to pull us out of our own swamp, elevate us, and force us to start thinking. As a matter of fact, these particularly consistent acts—a sudden blow and its retreat until the next blow hits, then another blow and retreat—gradually pull a person out of himself.

With each new step, we think it is all the same, but in fact, it is not so. Each new time, we process another type of egoism, its greater part. One blow to the ego, the second, and the third one, but we don’t feel the difference and don’t realize that each time, our egoism processes completely new degrees.

Egoism is diverse, and until it reaches its very last state, nothing will change. This is why we need to pass through so many small blows.

We experienced many of them already while descending from the world of Infinity into our world along the 125 spiritual rungs. These rungs contain billions of various actions and events that we must live through in our world. And we have to work them out during our incarnations, in these lifetimes.

There is nothing accidental; nothing can happen out of the blue, by leaping over the spiritual rungs, or by skipping spiritual states. We have to swallow every pill, which is the only way to learn. There is no other option.
[34151]
From Lesson 2 Berlin Convention 1/28/2011

Related Material:
The Worse, The Better
Under The Whip Of Universal Egoism
Before A Trip To Hell Gets Scheduled

Filed under: Conventions, Crisis, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →