Question: Where is a person’s free choice if everything comes from the Creator? It seems like I can’t do anything myself.

Answer: If I am creation, then everything I have inside came to me from the Upper One. I am beneath Him, being a lower level.

You can say that you have been stuck on this level for too long and you are not advancing in the slightest. But this also comes from the Upper One! Only a part of His actions is expressed clearly, while a part is expressed unclearly. Therefore, even the simplest logic tells us that there can be nothing in the lower one that is absent in the Upper One. Then where is my freedom?

The Upper One put you in a specific state. He made you in a specific way, creating you and the environment so that through the relationships between you, you would be able to generate a new quality.

If you aspire to mutual bestowal with your environment, then a force comes to you from the Upper One that connects you, the environment, and the Upper One.
This is where your freedom of will is expressed. That is how you earn the opportunity to become equal to the Upper One.

Question cont’d: But Kabbalists say that everything that happens afterwards also comes from Him!

Answer: Of course everything comes from the Creator! But we are talking only about what relates to our level. I don’t know what will be revealed to me after the end of correction.

Imagine a child who is allowed to do anything he wants in his room. At that moment he thinks that everyone has forgotten about him. But when he becomes an adult, he understands that this was done deliberately and in fact, he was always under supervision. Someone was watching him so he wouldn’t harm himself, while he felt that he was free.
From the lesson on 12/31/11

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Question: How do you work with a child correctly when he has an outburst of petulance and anger?

Answer: The best method is to film the situation and bring it up for a discussion. It is useful for a person, both for an adult and a child, to see himself from aside. When he looks at his behavior as a spectator from the outside, he quickly learns and draws conclusions. He has to understand that the world is relative, and that from the outside it looks different than from the inside.

Taking part in discussions carried out in a calm environment, the child gradually learns to control himself by balancing out extreme states. The impression he received stays in him, and the next time he will get angry at it instead. Gradually, the impressions from such examples will be accumulated and will make him hate the outbursts of anger in himself.

Question: Which field of professional activity should we direct our children toward?

Answer: Since we are an educational organization, education is our main goal. That is why both in the army, in college, and at the university, it is preferable for our children to choose professions related to education. Going through various states, our children learn themselves and become better at mutual education. The fundamentals are instilled in them and they can become highly successful in various fields of education. They can be teachers, instructors, and lecturers. Humanity needs them, and in huge amounts.

These professions are also preferable because all other fields of activities are artificial and require constant study; the person needs to work on improving his external skills. However, in education, his Kli (vessel) is always with him since he advances in his inner work all the time. That is why education is the closest profession to us.
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From the Talk on Education 1/7/2011

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Question: How can we increase the demand for unity even more?

Answer: A person never does anything unless it comes from a feeling of necessity. You have to ask yourself the question and clearly have the following picture before your eyes, “Where do we reveal the upper world? When do we reveal it? In what do we reveal it? What is the Creator?”

If you answer these questions, then you will arrive at the fact that the inner connection between us is the single soul in which the Creator becomes revealed, and He is the common force of nature that is already now bringing all of us together, pushing us to unite, while we oppose it.

All the people in the world feel this way. Look at the dependency that exists, at the things happening in the world, and the unpredictable, sudden events in nature. All of this is in order to force us to think about it, to come closer to each other, and answer the question, “What do we have to do?”

More and more people in the world are asking, “Why is this happening?” And eventually this “Why?” will lead us to the right answer: that we aren’t similar to nature and are, in fact, opposite to it.

If we feel this, if we depict this clear picture to ourselves and it is constantly facing us, if we talk about it, discerning more and more of its aspects, details, and dependencies, then we will gradually become part of it and it will live inside us. We will demand for it to be realized inside us.

This is the aspiration for it to be realized inside you, for this inner connection between all of us to come true. This is the revelation of the common soul.

When a person starts to feel this necessity, his aspiration is called “MAN” and it evokes the Light that Reforms (Ohr Makif).

However, if we cannot correctly depict the system of the universe as being one, single, closed, integral scheme in which we are all small elements, like totally interconnected little wheels, if this fact is not crystal clear to you, then of course the question of unity seems purely theoretical and sounds entirely silly, like a boy-scout motto.

It has to be felt as a necessity. Otherwise we do not attain the goal. Otherwise, everything is in vain.

We simply have to see this picture in the world today because the world does not change. When we think about the upper world, we think it is detached from this world, but it is not! Rather, it is a more internal part of it, the place where we are all united together. It’s like several screens on a computer where on the first screen we are disconnected and see our world. On a more internal screen we already see our unity with each other, and so on, as we reveal increasingly internal screens.

Therefore, we must now already imagine that everything depends on how we relate to the world. If we really imagine this picture and desire to go from the first screen to the second, then we are raising MAN. This is aspiration and progress forward. This is already the movement that evokes in response an illumination from the second screen upon me that attracts and corrects me. That is how it works.
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From the talk at the meal in Moscow on 1/14/11

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Question: How can a person follow the advice of “being joyful” if he feels “the taste of waste” in his spiritual work?

Answer: This is a phase where you still do not understand the importance of waste. Yet, can anything grow without waste, manure, or fertilizer? There is nothing useless in the world; everything depends only on your attitude. We have to go through all of the states and feel each of them. In these states death seems sweeter than life, but you aren’t able to avoid them because you have to understand what the “will to enjoy” is.

I am speaking frankly, without exaggerating: Unless you experience this, you won’t be able to come out of the power of the will to enjoy, even though this also doesn’t help a great deal. This is the revelation of the “angel of death.” Without the group’s support, without a strict daily routine, and without taking on obligations, it is impossible to cope with this feeling.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to take on obligations that compel you to carry out a certain task today. It has to put pressure on you like a yoke on a bull. There is nothing worse than feeling free. Despite the fact that you do not see, feel, understand, or remember anything, you start to work because you have to, and gradually you come out of the state of descent and continue your path.

We are controlled by two forces, and the only opportunity we are given is to shift from the rule of one force to the influence of the other. Besides the rule of two forces, there is an intermediate state where you choose what influence to be under. You have to try to control these two forces from the intermediate state, the middle line, as if these are two reins that you hold in your hands.

That is why you have to stick to the daily routine: Go to the lesson, go over the lesson, sing, dance in your room when no one can see you, laugh—do anything you can to come out of a bad state! You have to disagree with and oppose the control of this force! The worst thing you can do is despair.
From the lesson on Rabash’s article on 11/7/11

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Question: What should we do if a person leaves the group? Should we try to bring him back?

Answer: If a person decided that he no longer wants to come to the group, we must respect his decision since there is no coercion in spirituality. This is first.

Second, even if a person says he doesn’t wish to continue his studies, tomorrow everything may change. So, we should have a flexible approach to this. If the group tried to bring him back several times (usually twice), but he still hasn’t returned, he should be left alone. We are not allowed to approach him any more.

In Gemarah, there is law: If a person is walking in a field and sees that another person’s donkey fell under the pressure of the load, he should help get the donkey back up and place the load on it. If this happens the second time, he should do the same: Get the donkey up and put the luggage onto it. If after the first two times the donkey fell again, the help cannot be offered again because the animal is unable to carry the load.

A donkey (“Hamor” in Hebrew) symbolizes matter (“Homer”) that we are comprised of. And its luggage is the load that this matter is able to hold. And if your friend “fell” after you have tried to bring him back twice, leave him alone. It is his choice!
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From the Introductory Lecture in North Tel Aviv 12/19/2010

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Question: During the Second Temple period Kabbalists would sit for two hours preparing to read the prayer, “Hear, O Israel.” Why is it that we, who are so small compared to them, are presented with a much more complex reality where we come to the lesson totally disoriented and confused, and struggle for a few minutes to get some kind of focus before reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: In those times Kabbalists had to enter the spiritual states that The Zohar talks about. They had to ascend up the levels from a total lack of spiritual sensation because every level begins from zero. It takes time for people to unite in one intention, to reach unity at the appropriate level, and to enter this state through the common sensation.

This can be compared to how parachute jumpers prepare for a common jump: They wrap up their parachutes, get into a plane, fly up beyond the clouds, jump from there, and while in free fall, without opening up the parachute yet, they connect with each other, creating different forms in the air.

This is a huge preparation for new unification on high spiritual levels. That is why it takes so much time, in accordance with the height of the level. The level obligates them to this.

On the other hand, if you are playing around here below, by yourself, without feeling others, then it’s enough for you to grab on to some thought “by the tail,” and that’s all. Let us hope that we will come to need the same preparation as the Kabbalists of the past.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/11, The Zohar

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Question: In the corporeal world, I have to see and draw a line between two points in order to connect them. How can I connect two souls with the help of The Zohar’s text?

Answer: I don’t know what my soul is, and I know even less about what the other souls are. Moreover, I will never know this. I only need to develop the correct attitude towards them called “bestowal,” and that’s it.

I have no awareness of who I am, nor do I know who my friend is. All I need to do is love him, and that’s enough. It means that I attain the force of the Creator, which rules between us. My open attitude towards the other person, my ability to like and love him is the Creator’s force, the force of bestowal. It is the Creator since He is omnipotent, and I become His part.

We don’t know who anyone is right now; it will be revealed later on. All I need to do is accept the conditions as they unfold. But all of my attention should go towards connection without contemplating who I am as I am the one who is supposed to make the effort to love the others right now.

Yet, to the degree of my effort to bring myself to love and bestowal, I will know my friend and myself even more. I will attain it only if I tie myself and him together with love, then both of our souls will be revealed. It will happen only under this condition.

Therefore, I should focus on the correct attitude towards others, the point where I can exert my effort, my desire, in order for it to be revealed. But how can I create and achieve such desire? Where does it come from? It comes from the group; it is where I influence my friends and they influence me. I have to feel my lowliness in order to receive the importance of the goal from them, and the Creator will be revealed between us.

Thus, I unveil this point more and more using the force of one gram, and all of the worlds light up. Why do I do it? In order to attain this entire labyrinth, to pass through it, learn the whole program of creation, and attain the entire wisdom.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/11, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Donkey Driver”

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Question: Why during reading The Book of Zohar do we not only have to focus on our mutual connection but also need to listen to the commentaries on The Zohar?

Answer: First of all, if we read the original text of The Zohar, we have virtually nothing to go by. Therefore, we need the commentaries. A commentary is a connecting, somewhat-abridged authentic source either in the outer form, in the degree, or in several criteria at the same time. But it connects us to the original.

The Zohar per se is also a commentary on the Torah. The major part of The Zohar is based on citations taken from the Torah, which it processes in a different form. Does The Zohar comment on these passages at a level lower than that which the Torah was written by Moses or not? I don’t want to discuss it, but such question does arise.

Does the Sulam commentary reduce the degree of The Book of Zohar by making it closer to our understanding? We understand little of this. The following could be said: Each commentary includes two extreme points. At its highest point, the authors of The Zohar share Moses’ revelation at his level; otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to make the commentary.

But they write the commentary itself with the reader in mind, meaning in a simplified form and at a lower degree of the spiritual ladder. After all, the entire benefit from revealing the Torah lies in using it to correct the will to enjoy, as described by the verse: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah for its correction.”

Hence, the author of a commentary has to stand on both levels: at the degree where he is receiving the source and at a lower degree to which he wishes to pass this source but in a more suitable form, adjusted to the receiver’s degree. This is the goal of each commentary.

Therefore, up to now, nothing can replace the Sulam commentary since on one hand, Baal HaSulam attained the degree of the ARI having thereby received the incarnation of the ARI’s soul and having attained the degree of The Zohar’s writers. On the other hand, he approximated The Zohar to our degree, explaining it in the three lines, in the language of Kabbalah, using the definitions of Partzufim, the worlds, Sefirot, Reshimot, and so on.

We don’t need anything else but to try to actualize it on ourselves. However, now the whole world is supposed to be approaching the transformation of souls. Hence, to make The Zohar easier to understand for the masses, we have somewhat refined The Zohar’s text from numerous symbols that might be an obstacle for a layman, in order to make the reading itself easier for him.

But we never add any comments of our own and only facilitate the mechanical reading of the text to help a person understand the text. We simply put it through some kind of “filter” that extracts all Aramaic language from it as well as some references and various versions. This is, in essence, what we did with the book The Zohar for All. Let’s hope that in this form, The Zohar is even more ready to use for the correction of the souls.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/11, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Donkey Driver”

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Question: Why did the world of Nekudim break?

Answer: The world of Nekudim miscalculated. It thought that it would manage to receive the entire infinite Light of the Final Correction “in order to bestow,” but failed since it unexpectedly started to feel self-gratification. It didn’t ever realize that there were such deep desires in it and, against them, such exalted Light, such immense pleasures.

Rabash demonstrates this by telling a story about a man who comes to a wedding party thinking that he can please the bride and groom by celebrating and dancing along with the other guests. However, after a few drinks, he eventually loses his sense of reality and starts getting loud at the table. So, he is taken out, brought home to his wife, and from then on nobody wants to invite him to weddings.

Now, he needs to correct himself and start watching his actions: in what shape he arrives to the party and how much he can drink, which is only a little just to honor the host and never step over the boundary. A similar story happened to the world of Nekudim.

Yet, none of this was in vain. The world of Nekudim broke in order to show the created being what it is compared to the Creator. In fact, all that had been revealed to it before the breaking wasn’t real, as it were. Never before had the creature been able to see the essence of its egoistic desire when faced with the Light carrying pleasure. It had always acted with the intention “to bestow” given by the Creator.

The Creator creates a creature in the world of Infinity, fills it with all of Light of Infinity in all desires (Kelim), and gives it all the intentions. Then, the creature makes a restriction, wants to receive in order to bestow, all thanks to the force of Light present in it.

This isn’t hard to understand: I am operated by the Light, and I follow its orders. It isn’t I who acts, but the two forces of the Creator: the will to receive and the will to bestow. The same pertains to nature in spirituality. The inanimate and vegetative, holy animals and angels, are all subject to this mechanism.

The nature of the creature is revealed for the first time when the creature acts independently, which is during the breaking of the worlds. The creature makes calculations based on the Light that is present in it and thinks that it can (as it always did before) receive all the Light in order to bestow, thereby completing correction.

All of a sudden, it turns out that everything that was done before was done by the force of Light, by its force of bestowal that filled you. It never was your decision; it was simply given to you at birth. Now, for the first time, your own nature comes to the surface.

Therefore, after the breaking, we can already speak of some creature that performs independent acts. It collects its empty desires which lack the screen and says, “And now, I will do it myself and receive the Light into them in order to bestow.” It’s like a foolish, willful son who, instead of a real weapon received from his father, the King, decides to go to war with a toy shield and sword as the fable describes.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Will revealing the evil within make it more difficult for the person to acquire love of others?

Answer: But this is exactly what you are revealing: the evil in relation to love and unification with others. All the other evil pertains to the animate level.

For example, there are dogs that bite, and there are nice, cute dogs that are pets. Animals also have different personalities. However, we are not referring to a good or bad temper, but to the way a person reveals the real evil when he begins to unite with others. The actual evil inclination becomes revealed precisely in the rejection of the goal.

I unite with others in order to attain the goal, the Creator. We reveal the evil only when we aspire toward the goal. Evil does not become revealed without a connection to the goal. I can have a bad temper, I could lack patience and be irritable; however, this is neither called “evil” nor does it pertain to spirituality.

But when I try to attain love for my friends in order to acquire love for the Creator and I discover how much it sickens me, then evil is the degree of resentment and rejection. Evil is the aversion to unity.

Filter all the human properties and rid yourself of all the animate. There are “dogs,” “rabbits,” and “donkeys” sitting within us. Leave it all; do not take it into consideration. The prophets wrote in reference to this: “I came, and there was no man.” Evil is only associated with unity and aspiration toward the Creator.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/11, “What is the Bread of the Evil Eye at Work”

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