Question: The request to correct my repulsion from the friends seems very mechanical to me. Don’t I have to attain a need for correction?

Answer: If you wait for a need for correction, you will never attain it. It’s not the necessity that precedes our work, but the work that precedes the necessity. Then the necessity emerges.

If I work according to necessity, then I am an animal. If I work above the desire, then I am human.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
Hello Desire!
Don’t Suffer, But Enjoy!
The Effort Comes From Below And The Sensation—From Above

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: If our entire reality and world are imaginary, then isn’t the fact that we are now reading The Book of Zohar also an illusion?

Answer: Of course! The Zohar is not a book, but a higher illumination. It is Light that comes to us from the system of souls, the Light filling our souls.

Similarly, who is Rabbi Hamnuna Saba about whom we read in The Zohar? This is a special, great Light and a very high degree. How do I attain him? If I attain a specific degree of connection between the souls, then the degree of their connection, the mutual bestowal among them becomes revealed as Light which is called Rav Hamnuna Saba, and if it happens on a small degree, it is his son. The Light is the degree of bestowal between the souls.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
Through All Labyrinths To The Light Of Love
The World Projected By The Light
A Trampoline For Ascending Into Spirituality

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

Question: What does it mean to enter the environment?

Answer: To enter the environment means that I feel or imagine myself as being inside the system where all souls are connected together. I advance together with them and depend on them. They are higher than me and through them I can receive the Light that corrects and fulfills me.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
Test Yourself
The Kabbalistic Group Is A Spiritual Booster
What Is “Sin” And What Is A Woman’s Sin?

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

Question: You said that inner discernments begin even before the Machsom. But what should I discern if I still haven’t acquired the quality of bestowal and am entirely immersed in my will to enjoy?

Answer: It is precisely before the Machsom that you must discern just how much you desire everything in life only for your own good. However, these discernments are made with the help of the Light.

I constantly check: Am I doing this for myself or for the sake of others? I do this in relation to everyone and in all directions. I constantly discern what my thoughts and calculations are: “I hate him, but I have to ascend above this because my hatred comes from my ego, my will to enjoy. But if I ascend above my ego in the intention of bestowal, then I will start to love this person and act for his good. Even though this will evoke negative sensations inside the will to enjoy, in my intention I will feel that I have ascended to holiness and bestowal.” These discernments take place constantly before the Machsom.

Try to enjoy the fact that you are trampling your ego. One might think that this is masochism, a psychological disorder. But it’s not a disorder because at the same time you are united with your future inner quality of bestowal, which is good. You identify yourself with this new quality.

This does not mean that you like suffering. No! You like being inside this new quality of bestowal, and therefore you try to ascend above your will to enjoy. Even though you suffer inside it, you still enjoy in the quality of bestowal. And after making the discernment, you suddenly feel, “There’s absolutely no reason for me to suffer! On the contrary, I have turned my will to enjoy to the will to bestow, and this enabled me to ascend even more!”

This is not simple. But by virtue of several such actions, it happens. In any case pleasure is a sign that an action has reached completion: either in reception, Klipa, or in bestowal, holiness. Either way, pleasure has to happen as the completion. We enjoy in any case because the goal of creation is to enjoy.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/11, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

Related Material:
The Primordial Point Of Love
Learning To Use The Pharaoh
A Psychological Barrier On The Path To Bestowal

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

Question: Has there ever been a couple, a husband and wife, in the history of Kabbalah who revealed the Creator specifically in their connection with one another? And have they left any sources behind?

Answer: Couples like this have existed throughout history: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau with their wives, and so on. The female part is always in the picture because without it, there is no contact, no adhesion (Zivug de Hakaa), no connection between the Creator and the creature.

The only purpose of the male part within us is to correct the female part within us. For this reason, from the point of correcting creation, it is the female part that needs correction. The object of correction is woman. The force of correction is man. The Light of correction comes through the man with the purpose of correcting the female part. When the female part is corrected, it births the next state from the male part.
[33315]
From Lesson 1 in Moscow 1/14/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Companion Chosen For Me By The Creator
Husband And Wife: Where Is The Creator Between Them?
A Place Deserving Of A Woman

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

Question: What does it mean “to rejoice over the friend’s joy and to grieve over his grief,” and how do we achieve this?

Answer: To rejoice over the friend’s joy is to feel happy that we reach our spiritual goal together, that we are on the path together. It’s when I feel the friends’ yearning within me and don’t feel my own presence or personal eagerness toward the goal, but rather how I aspire to it with them. In fact, my “self” disappears, dissolves into the others. This is how I attain eternal life, too.

A person’s “self” no longer exists. It functions only as a conduit of the Creator’s Light to all others. So it turns out that all our “selves” disappear. And instead of them, there emerges one integral whole, multiplied by the number of the “selves” that there used to be.
[33303]
From Lesson 1 in Moscow 1/14/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
This World Will Evaporate Like Smoke
Let Me Have Your Desires
Who Are You, My Friends?

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

Question: What is "Zivug?"

Answer: "Zivug" is a connection according to the equivalence of form, the similarity of properties. This action is not based on what each of us used to be, but rather on how similar to each other we have become after corrections.

At first, we were completely separated and opposite. Then we performed corrections, and to the measure of these corrections we come to a "Zivug" (unity, adhesion).

Question: What is "Parsa"?

Answer: "Parsa" is a partition which separates the receiving desires from bestowing ones by the force of Bina. A person himself has to wish for such division to take place within him. And then he attracts the force of Bina, bestowal, the force of the Creator, so that it will protect and save him by separating bestowal and reception within him. This is called "to distinguish day from night, light from dark."
[33243]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
Let The Light Come In!
A Spiritual Trio
The System Of The Universe

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

Question: How should those coming to a convention for the first time prepare for meeting with friends from the World Kli?

Answer: No preparation is necessary. We have friends all over the world. Even if you don’t speak their language, you will not feel different from them because everyone is aimed at the Creator.

Every person who has such a spark for spirituality awakens to the same goal; you are together and feel no differences. Don’t be afraid that something will be new to you. You will feel that they are all close to you.

Question: If I am a beginner and don’t understand anything in this science but want to come to the convention, is it worth doing so? And if yes, how should I prepare for it?

Answer: First of all, if time allows, you should study the material online designed for convention preparation. But regardless, you will pick it up “from the air” that you will be breathing….
[23871]
From the Introductory Lecture Series Kabbalah for the Nation 10/12/10, “Preparation for the Convention”

Related Material:
Electric Vibrations Of Bestowal
The Effort Comes From Below And The Sensation—From Above
Pay Heed To The Creator

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

Question: What does a person who has experienced the ten plagues, came into the desert, and entered the land of Israel feel? I think that anyone can imagine blows.

Answer: No, these blows are completely different. These are not the blows that we are used to. A blow is not something that makes us feel bad; we can all imagine feeling that way. Rather, a blow is something that makes me understand that my egoism, my nature, is evil. This attainment is called a plague. Nothing else pertains to the ten plagues.

It is not a blow if I am just feeling bad. I suffer not because I am feeling bad, but because I feel the evil of my desire to receive pleasure, of my egoism. A blow points me to the cause of the evil. It, itself, is not evil.

In reality, these blows are not that much suffering. People suffer much more in our world. What matters most is that a person feels a direct connection between suffering and his egoistic qualities: “You suffer because of what you are. You will not suffer if you rid yourself of these qualities and rise above them.”

A person strives to escape this suffering, but it is not because he just wants to stop feeling it. It is because he feels his insignificance, the evil in him, especially in relation to those around him.

There are several terms here: the Creator, man, Pharaoh, the sensation of evil, and the reason for the sensation of evil versus good. Man does not want to escape the blows. This is not the problem. The blows help him discover the true causes, and he no longer wants to just escape the blows; he desires to rise over them toward the property of bestowal.

He wants to attain a connection with the Creator and to disconnect from Pharaoh not from the bad feeling. In other words, he transitions from evaluation according to the principle of “bitter and sweet” toward examining the principle of “true and false.” He wants to cling to the truth, and this is why the ten plagues lift him and take him out of Egypt.
[33058]
From the Lesson on the Weekly Torah Portion 1/6/2011

Related Material:
Turning A Snake Into A Staff
Living In Intention
How To Roll With The Punches

Filed under: Inner Work, Q&A, Torah, Zohar - 2 Comments →

Question: Is it true that in each generation, there is only one authentic Kabbalist?

Answer: Everyone is necessary since each person works in their own area. Humanity is diverse, and each of its parts requires a special language and approach until people have advanced and become able to hear the truth. Therefore, it’s not worth thinking about who is a Kabbalist. We should strive to learn the truth and come closer to it, but if today or tomorrow a truly great one shows up, we will follow him.

As to a specific generation, it is hardly possible for more than one real Kabbalist to emerge. After all, there is only one head. And all others, who are either near or below him, may be in the tens, hundreds, or thousands according to the structure of the pyramid. If not in this generation, then in the next one, I hope that we will see something resembling the Sanhedrin (Assembly of Sages): a great number of Kabbalists who are at a high level of attainment and together guide humanity on the path to the Creator.

Question: Is there a connection between the “36 righteous ones” and Kabbalists?

Answer: There is not. The “36 righteous ones” is a concept. It means that in this world, there are special souls through which abundance comes into this world so as to sustain the existence of this corporeal reality. It is a unique system, not individual people.

Question: Can a woman be a Kabbalist?

Answer: Definitely so. There were women who attained spirituality: our foremothers, followed by prophetesses, and then the people who before the fall of the Second Temple perceived the upper world.

Men and women are not different in this. Today, I know many of our female students who have been working selflessly for many years and advancing thereby. Their perception and desire are greater than those of most of our men. I have no doubts that they can reach a level not lower than that of the men.

Besides, since all of us are moving toward the revelation of the Creator, most likely it will result in both men’s and women’s revelation of Him. Is a woman not part of the creation? It’s just that she has a somewhat different spiritual job than a man does, but “different” doesn’t mean “not spiritual.”

Question: How do I explain to a child what a Kabbalist is?

Answer: A Kabbalist is a person who reveals the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form. He transformed himself in such way that he became somewhat similar to the Creator. Hence, he has a particle from Above which is called a soul, the Creator’s part. In this part, he experiences the spiritual world, upper dimension, eternal life, and identifies himself with it.

So, when the life of his corporeal body expires, he doesn’t feel a loss. He continues to live and feel spiritual existence as he does right now. Such a person is regarded as a Kabbalist because he received a spiritual life.
[32859]
From Kabbalah for Beginners “Who is a Kabbalist?” 12/13/2010

Related Material:

Women, Men, And The Mutual Guarantee
Children’s Fantasy, Faith, And Reality
How To Recognize A True Kabbalist

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