Question: I don’t understand Hebrew just yet, so what should I do when we are reading The Zohar? Should I look at the letters or just listen to the text?

Answer: All languages but Hebrew are meant for communication in this world. Hebrew, on the other hand, is not a spoken language but a record of spiritual actions from ZAT de Bina (its seven lower Sefirot), Zeir Anpin, and Malchut on the matter of Malchut. The symbols describe these spiritual actions.

So look at the text before you as a sequence of commands in a computer program: It is simply a record of spiritual properties, forces, and actions that you must carry out within yourself. This is how I view Hebrew. I don’t treat it as a literary language used to make text flow smoothly, as in other languages.

While you don’t usually look at the letters and combinations when reading the Kabbalistic texts, you still look inside the word and its inner meaning. You look at the symbol since each letter is always a symbol.

Hebrew has so much data, information hidden within the language, that it’s impossible to reflect it in a translation. After all, the sequence of letters of the text describes the Sefirot, the order of actions. How can that be recorded in another language?

In each letter we should see a symbol of some spiritual property or action that it signifies.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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Question: What is Light if every person reveals it differently? Isn’t it some subjective sensation, rather than a universal one?

Answer: The Light is energy; it’s not a subjective sensation. It’s like electricity that, depending on the device it’s connected to, can generate both cold and heat, it can pull and push. Everything depends on the vessel which receives and senses this energy.

Your desires determine everything. You do not know what the Light is and will never know. All you can do is to prepare your vessels (desires) in order to receive pleasure from it in all possible forms. However, the Light per se does not have any form; energy is formless. When electricity is passed through the wire by moving electrons, it is already a form clothed in matter; it’s not the force itself.

Everything we feel is only sensations in our organs of perception.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: Why does the Light make us reject pleasure in order to come to adhesion with it? It sounds sadistic.

Answer: The Light doesn’t have a choice. It created you with the will to enjoy, and now it wants you to prefer to be with Him, rather than to keep filling your egoistic desire with pleasure. It is as if you love a woman despite the fact that she is very unattractive, that is, without any personal benefit.

Each of us wants to be loved just as he is with all his flaws. And the Light wants us to demonstrate our love to it, as absolutely as the one He loves us with. We can prove that we love only by having risen above pleasure.

You seem surprised: How can you love someone who hits you? But if I no longer associate myself with my body and egoism, rise above it, and feel that it is not “I” at all, then I have no difficulty falling in love with the Light. And I love Him not by “rising above my suffering,” but along with all the pleasures!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: If people agree that all problems are rooted in our egoism, why then can’t we simply agree to share everything with each other and decide that everything is collective?

Answer: If we declare everything ours and divide it between ourselves, it will not resolve anything. We won’t make the world better, but rather would go back to the “fair” socialistic distribution of goods. This cannot correct the world. This is because the entire world exists solely for us to reveal the Creator.

Without taking this into account, you cut yourself off the source that can change a person. Unless you study the wisdom of Kabbalah in even the smallest degree, you won’t have any power to change human nature. As a result, you will end up in an even greater crisis, if not today, then tomorrow.

We must inject everyone with a dose of authentic wisdom of Kabbalah so that he has the force that affects and transforms him. Otherwise, we will simply start playing a game of building some new society.

However, does the world exist solely for us to build a comfortable material life? We must explain to everybody that this isn’t the purpose for which the world was created. The program of creation is to bring each person, all of human society, to another level of existence: absolute, mutual bestowal in order to unveil the force of total bestowal among us. This force is regarded as the Creator, the Upper Nature.

However, in order to change our nature to the degree that we must achieve, we have to receive an infusion from that level so that the Light that Reforms will affect us. Otherwise, how can we jump onto this degree?

At present, I am standing on the lower level, between the first and the second one, and I see how the higher degree is growing before me like a wall. However, it isn’t a wall; it is merely an ascent to the next degree. It’s just that this step is so exalted that it looks like a wall to me.

How do I leap over it? Kabbalah tells me: “You can do it, just draw the force of the Light to you.” However, we can’t do it alone, not you nor he nor I. It’s only if we unify all together. One person will study more and another less. One part will be performing actions and the other intentions. Everyone will be doing just what suits him or her best.

Not all people are the same: One person doesn’t want to think so much and prefers to act; another solves everything solely in thought. However, when all of them unite as one, everything works out for the best. Both are necessary.

However, we have to explain all of this to a person. He needs to understand life and the world he lives in. How deeply it sinks in is up to him. It makes no difference that one person processes things mostly in the mind and another in his feelings. But everyone will have a connection with the Light.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that everybody has to go back to school. The question is only who should be studying and for how long. After all, everybody studies somehow in order to survive, doesn’t he?

Today, you won’t find a farmer who has not studied somewhere. If you were told that tomorrow there will be a horrible storm and you should learn how to escape it, everyone would agree to study, wouldn’t they? Everyone is forced to learn from natural disasters that are taking place everywhere right now. We offer humanity a way to learn how to achieve happiness, which everybody will be happy to learn.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: People are still asking the same question: What must we do in practice?

Answer: If we are talking about a simple, mechanical action, then the less you do, the better. Less damage will be done. If you are able to work only by using your hands, then don’t do anything at all, as it is written: “It is better to sit and do nothing.”

First of all, we need to employ thought to discern. This is true specifically for those who are seriously engaged in studying Kabbalah, who will teach it to the rest of the world as the educational society that produces all types of media and disseminating information about Kabbalah and its method. In this case, there should be much more discernment and very little action.

However, the same goes for all of humanity. Everyone has to influence himself, his desire. Therefore, before anything else, I need to think about what inner and outer actions can change my desire so that I will want to raise MAN (a plea for correction). In essence, this is what finalizes my actions. I need only to ask, to feel the need to change, and to come to bestowal like the Creator, to step out of myself in order to delight Him.

So, how do I accomplish that? If I have to perform some external actions for this, I will, but in essence, the inner actions are what are required. No matter how simple the person, anyone can affect himself to start desiring this kind of transformation by way of various media such as film, music, and theater. After all, each person lives inside his desires, and we need to think about how to evoke in ourselves a desire to transform to bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: What solution can you offer a person who is a neutral observer? Wouldn’t it all seem to him as just a philosophy?

Answer: Kabbalah speaks of a force that exists in nature, and we can invite its positive influence upon us if we wish to become like it. We can’t change that force, but we need to put our house in order. It’s the same as with sunlight; I can stand in the shade, or I can climb onto the roof and bathe in the sun rays. The sun doesn’t change; it’s me who changes, wishing to get more of its light.

There’s the exact same force in nature, and the wisdom of Kabbalah can teach us to receive it. Kabbalah is a science. Be smart, learn to use the power of the Light, and it will develop you in a good and correct way.

We’re not talking about artificial things or fantasies, only about how we need to organize ourselves, the relationships between us, a shared “network” to “catch” the force existing in nature and to profit by it. Instead of turning your back or side to the “sunlight,” turn your face to it. In other words, reach equivalence of form with it.

That’s what the wisdom of Kabbalah is saying. It advises a person: You are forced to evolve whether you want to or not. However, if you want to develop in a good, enjoyable way, know the force that affects and develops you. If you turn your back to it, it develops you through suffering because you feel its effects as pushes from behind. If you stand “sideways” to it, it varies, sometimes better and sometimes worse. However, if you turn your face to it, you will develop in a kind and happy way.

That’s all we do. We just want to discover the positive influence of that force upon us. It influences and develops us in any case, even now. It’s an indisputable fact that our states change. Can we make life stand still? No, every moment we face a new situation, and that process doesn’t depend on us.

However, there’s a science that says: “Look at the existing trend. You don’t have to ‘reinvent the wheel.’ You see that we are all connected with each other, but our connection is not good. We are ruining nature more and more. So, let’s connect in the right way and invert the trend.”

If all of our problems are caused by the flawed connection between us, let’s think about how to connect properly. Kabbalah simply lays out clearly the natural law of similarity of attributes. “Creator” means Nature.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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The Book of Zohar, Introduction, Article “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 65: …for the righteous, who have already been completed in the upper brightness, constantly going and becoming new heaven and earth, as it is written, “Righteous go from strength to strength.”

Question: How do the righteous create this continuous renewal?

Answer: They are constantly trying to support each other. A person who holds the spiritual intention is constantly thinking only of others who are also supporting the same system.

What does it mean that we penetrate into a more inner screen, into a more internal picture of reality? If I am there, does it mean that I join an unchangeable system, and there is nothing more for me to do? No, I join a system which I support, wanting to see it this way, to realize it in this way.

On the one hand, I say that the greatest people of the generation are in it; everyone is in the right intention. The minute I join it, I am sure that I am in mutual guarantee. Everything depends on me. As soon as I add my “lepta” (the smallest coin in Ancient Greece), everything will immediately settle and be fine.

On the other hand, I must be concerned about everyone supporting this system so that everyone will be in it, will realize this connection, as if I am the only one upon whom everything depends, and I “sentence myself and the whole world to a scale of merit.”

Furthermore, there are mutual actions here. From one side, I connect with others, and they are in the state of Final Correction (Gmar Tikkun). From the other, in order to be together with them, I am obliged to be concerned about and take care of them as if they did not have anything and I support them, and their whole correction depends on me.

What is it for? All of this is for me, for the correction of my Kli (vessel) since my desire consists of everyone else. This is called “interconnection.” I include (connect) everyone within me. If I want them to include (connect) me within them, I have to consist of them.

It is necessary to try to feel these concepts. It will not help to simply memorize them in my head as it will escape me in a second.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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Question: If the Light is the most absolute, total pleasure, then I want to get to know it better. How do I do that? It seems to have come to take me along, but I didn’t notice it….

Answer: You must decide whom you do choose: the Light or the pleasure it brings? If you choose the pleasure, it won’t work.

It’s only at the beginning that the Light raises you by way of pleasure, so you may grow up and be an adult. Likewise, we raise children in our life. Our children receive, taking everything for granted and keep growing until they reach a certain age, and then we tell them: “Hold it, from now on you are an adult.” He can scream that he wants to remain a child and keep getting candy; it won’t work. If you grew up, you have to do your duty in the army and work; you must act as an adult.

What does it mean to be mature? An adult can’t run after pleasure; he must go for bestowal! You live in the society and have to bestow to all others: go to work, contribute to society, and then you will have the right to exist.

It is exactly the same in the spiritual world. An adult doesn’t wish to simply enjoy; he strives to reach an exalted and great purpose in his life. To be mature means to be in bestowal, to work not for the sake of the pleasure but for its source.

This is the kind of loyalty that is expected of us. This is when we establish a connection with the Light itself, not just with what we receive from it.

Hence, we are presently entering a new era, when the Light is no longer giving us pleasure. It no longer promises us that there are nice things ahead, and we don’t run forth in anticipation of receiving some new pleasures any more. Nothing attractive lies ahead.

At this point, we don’t have a choice but to transition to a new paradigm: rather than chasing after pleasure, to go after its source. And if we don’t wish to do so, it will get worse. The Light will still force us to do it by cutting us off from the opportunity to enjoy anything. Then, we will start asking: “What is happening? What is my life for? Why is the pleasure gone? What do I do?”

You begin asking not about pleasure, but rather about its source: “Where did the pleasure go? What happened with its source? Where did it used to come from?” And so we advance.

For as long as we keep receiving pleasure, we don’t ask about it. But as soon as we don’t get it in the present and don’t expect it in the future, it becomes a problem. I start seeking where it was supposed to come from: “Why hasn’t it come? What happened there?”

And at this point, I begin to see that if I wish to reach pleasure, I have to get closer to its source. And to get to it means to replace my desires to receive with the desire to bestow.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: What does it mean to experience the Light?

Answer: To experience the Light means to feel pleasure. In this world, I can enjoy different things that delight me or don’t, depending on my state of mind. One time I enjoy staying in bed and don’t want to get up to attend a lesson; another time, I am dying to jump out of it, but they don’t let me get up and tell me to stay in bed for another week until I get well.

In other words, this isn’t an absolute pleasure, just like sweet, soft, or warm, all have a limited, conditional meanings. Sometimes, they give me pleasure, and another time quite the opposite feeling.

Common pleasure that we experience in our collective desire to feel pleasure (the will to receive) is called the “Light.” It’s because the Light that existed initially created our desire, a vessel, and now the desire receives pleasure when the Light fills or unfolds in it. That’s how we are designed! Therefore, when the Light leaves the desire, it cries and wants to bring it back. This is how the entire creation is made.

But the Creator wanted for you to desire the Light by your own will and not just to receive it and enjoy. Beside the pleasure you feel, He wishes you to have an understanding and awareness of the Light: Where does it come from? Where is its source? Why did it create you and what does it want from you? It is as though the Light wants to show you: “Look from what a distant star I came here; there, everything is so wonderful and good, and I want to take you with me!”

Therefore, it hides from you and starts trying to get your attention with various indirect actions, from every side. It plays with you until you finally start wishing to know the source it came from, rather than chase the pleasure it can bring, and despite the pleasures it brings.

In truth, if you desire to come to it, to its “home,” it means you love Him and not just the pleasures He sends to fill you. You have to love Him so much as to be ready to “fly away” to that place, that “star” where He came from, just to never part with Him again. And you do it despite the fact that you completely renounce the pleasure, thereby showing Him how much you love Him.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: I am invited to a celebration tonight, but I already know that as soon as it is over, all the pleasure will be gone. Is there any license to keep the pleasure?

Answer: It is impossible to keep pleasure in egoistic desires (Kelim). It isn’t even a pleasure but a mere spark that slightly brushes against us and dies.

Pleasure is nothing but the Light! And if you wish to keep it, you need to prepare your vessels (Kelim) that would be fit for it. If desire is in bestowal, you will experience an enormous and everlasting pleasure in it, which continuously and endlessly expands. Otherwise, there is no chance to hold on to the pleasure longer than a few minutes or seconds.

It also depends on the pleasure itself: The more exalted it is, the sharper and faster it ends. A simple pleasure may last for a while. You may stay in bed for a few hours and enjoy rest, or put a candy in your mouth and savor it for a few minutes. But if the pleasure is exalted and powerful, it comes in a form of a peak and very quickly disappears.

Indeed, it isn’t a pleasure, but rather an encounter with a spark of Light that is regarded as a “thin candle” (Ner Dakik). If you wish for pleasure to never die, you need to offer it a desire that matches it, which is the desire of bestowal.

The pleasure comes from the Giver, and your desire must also come from a giver. Then, they will meet, cling to each other, and adhere, never to part again!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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