Question: What is the Light that Reforms?

Answer: The Light that Reforms (or just Light) is a special impression, stimulation, or a special reaction in the desire. We call the Light “Nefesh,” “Ruach,” “Neshama,” “Haya,” and “Yechida.” How do I know what it is? My desire to unite starts feeling “vibrations,” receive filling, inspiration that I name “Nefesh,” “Ruach,” “Neshama,” “Haya,” and “Yechida.” This is what we call “Light:” a particular phenomenon in my desire to correct the breaking of the common soul.

On its own, the desire is formless; it has nothing. Even the lack of fulfillment cannot be sensed by it without the influence of the Light from afar. It is sensed only when the desire is stimulated at a particular “frequency” of a particular Light, this means that it demands fulfillment at the same “frequency,” meaning Light.

Then, the Light first influences the desire in such a way that it makes it appropriate to the Light according to its quality, so that the desire would also act for the sake of bestowal. To the extent that bestowal is present in the desire, the Light is revealed in it.

Everything is realized in the desire; everything begins and ends in it. Nothing comes in or out from outside of the desire, and, thus, everything only depends on our sensation.

Therefore, first I need to develop a desire for a particular fulfillment. Then, I search for how to receive it. I perform some actions in order to correspond to the fulfillment since I begin to realize that it depends on the extent of similarity.

To the extent that I begin to correspond to the fulfillment, I feel a need for it. Then, I feel my similarity to the fulfillment which is called the quality of bestowal, the screen, and the Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer). Only afterward do I feel the fulfillment itself. It fulfills my initial desire to receive it as well as my desire to bestow which I created now. It receives pleasure from the fact that I receive fulfillment in equivalence of qualities. Thus, I now have double fulfillment.

This is called “the righteous inherit twice.” I enjoy the reception in my natural desires (Kelim) as well as the bestowal in my corrected Kelim above my natural desire. However, these are all sensations and impressions only in the desire to receive pleasure, and they all are called types of Light. Even the lack of fulfillment is Light.

After all, if such “fulfillment with hunger” did not exist, I would never feel the need for fulfillment. In addition, if there were no “hunger to bestow,” I would never enjoy the quality of bestowal or similarity to the Creator.

From the Talk on The Light that Reforms 9/8/10

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Question: Let’s say a person is on the path of spiritual attainment and is studying Kabbalah. He is surrounded by the world where all kinds of things are happening. Yet you say it doesn’t matter; we should keep following the path and not get disturbed for these are merely “special effects” to divert us from the main destination. But why, if a person doesn’t fall for it and keeps going toward the goal, are these “special effects” still necessary?

Answer: They are needed for you to work them out: to rise above them and unite with the goal. These “special effects” and all that is created in the world are to aim you at the destination, lift you up, make your trajectory sharper, and hasten it. They are there to aim you at the goal at a greater precision and promote your advancement toward it.

Question cont.: What about the situation where someone puts a knife at my throat? Should I just tell him: “I am sorry, but I am in a hurry: I have a Kabbalah lesson to attend”? You say that you fear nothing and neither should we because everything is for our best, isn’t it?

Answer: Yes, it is done solely for this purpose. A person can feel it when he is working on himself in order to try to build within himself the image of the Creator. He sees that all these images that are being created by him, for him, within him, and outside of him, are solely for him to correctly assemble the image of the Creator within. And the image of the Creator is His qualities; it’s not a picture, but a character, where the character is the property of bestowal and love.

From talks with Vladek Zankovskiy

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Question: Why is there such a strong desire in the world to hurt Jews? Of course, it keeps Jews on their toes, but why Jews? Isn’t there some other nation to taunt?

Answer: There are many reasons why Jews are hated in the world, and they all come down to one: Jews don’t perform according to their function. There is an inner point of Light that exists in this group, a point of a mystical nature, which cannot be accepted and comprehended by others. Jews have something that makes them different from the rest of nations of the world, and it is something that the latter instinctively feel.

Jews are not just an underdog people but a special one. On one hand, they brought all the religions to the other nations. Jews’ forefathers are the gods those nations worship. For instance, the nations of the world often name their priests “Jacob” and give them other ancient Jewish names.

On the other hand, despite the fact that religion was taken from Jews, they still hold on to it and don’t wish to acknowledge the modifications the peoples of the world made to it. It seems that Jews are trying to prove, with their very existence, that they are correct and the others are not. The world can’t destroy Jews until they accept the other nations as their spiritual beneficiary. But they have to accept willingly, not forcefully, and not remain out of it all.

And if Jews don’t accept what the peoples of the world want them to, then the religions of the nations, their present world, and the future one they painted for themselves are worth nothing. This means that everything those nations have invented for themselves regarding the future world must be incorrect for as long as Jews exist.

From talks with Vladek Zankovskiy

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Question: How do we prepare ourselves for a descent during an ascent?

Answer: By no means should you anticipate a fall during an ascent! I should regard every ascent as the final correction of my soul. How can I possibly bestow if I am waiting for an imminent descent?

I have to be positive about the future. This is called “preparation for a downfall.” I do the maximum and expect complete correction as the outcome, believing that from now on nothing bad can happen to me in life. I completely cling to the One who is good and does good: the Creator. Each spiritual state requires absolute commitment and devotion of the soul; you should think only about bestowal and nothing else except that.

I am now going to rise, and no matter what follows afterwards as a descent, it comes as an ascent for me. This is what a person thinks about while he is in the state of ascent: “I am not afraid of anything at all, let the angel of death appear! I will tear him apart! It doesn’t matter which state I’m in, I will use it as a springboard to ascend further!”

This means that after the November Congress we all transition to a continuous ascent! There are no more falls! Every spiritual descent that we experience should be transformed into an ascent through our intentions.

Even when I sense a fall, it allows me to realize that I haven’t yet reached the top of the ladder, but through my intention I am already in the World of Infinity. Let the emptiness manifest itself within my receiving desires, I am ready to rise above it. On one hand, I descend revealing my evil, and on the other, I immediately rise above it through the intention to bestow.

We want to experience such continuous progress after the Congress, so that whatever potholes and bumps are on our path, we will all perceive them as an ascent.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, Shamati #42

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Question: How do we help and support the friends who are in the state of descent?

Answer: First of all, support them internally, through a prayer, request, and collective thought about everyone. We have all “signed” an “agreement” about a mutual guarantee (Arvut) and mutual assistance on the spiritual path. Hence, we must make certain that everyone participates one hundred percent, and this depends solely on the group’s support.

I shouldn’t blame a friend if he is unable to exert maximum effort in reaching the goal; I should blame myself for his weakness, that I am unable to awaken him. In truth, he completely depends on me. A mutual support at the time when nobody has strength and yet each gives a hundred percent, this is called a mutual guarantee.

If I signed the agreement, it means that I pledged to provide spiritual advancement for all. I agree to help everyone attain the goal; like a co-signer on a bank statement, I guarantee that my friend will have the strength to stay focused on the goal.

If I signed it, it means that now it depends on me! If my friend falls, I have to understand that he falls in my eyes, in relation to me, in order to give me an opportunity to awaken him. And by reviving him, I revive a part of my soul.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, “And Jacob Went Out”

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Question: What does it mean to “appreciate the state of spiritual ascent?”

Answer: Ascent is a state where I can justify anything that is happening to me, to justify the friends and the group by seeing them as angels helping me to realize my free will and to reach the goal. From the elements of this condition, I can assemble myself and my relationship with the Creator who is revealed within such a state.

The group, home, work, studies, health, and so forth comprise the components of my state. I have to determine that all of them are secondary in relation to the group. I have to “collect” everything but the group and enter the group with it even though the group is just one element among the many others. In the group, I also have to discern the multiple components until I select only the one: the desire to attain the Creator.

I go deeper and deeper in this work and these discernments, into the center. I am as if coming to the King’s palace from afar until I finally reach it. I narrow down and contract my focus verifying the route until I come to the goal.

At first, I feel there is a whole world around me. Soon, I see that there is only the group and the various situations within it. It remains so until I come to the realization of a very simple scheme: Everything around me is merely angels, forces aiming me at the Creator and helping me to reach Him.

What is this group? Is it a local group closest to me or the world group? The group is all souls. We begin with the entire world and gradually contract the circle.

The group for me starts with the physical bodies, the people I know around the world to whom I feel are connected to me through the common goal. These are the people who understand and sense me despite the fact that I don’t know them in person. However, in the spiritual world, we reside in one collective system. In this world, we may not have ever met, but in the spiritual one, we are together.

It is, undoubtedly, an opportunity for salvation because we are connected, support, and depend on one another. It’s not only the people of my generation who exist today in a similar state in relation to the Creator, but all the Kabbalists of the past beginning with Adam who was the first to discover the Creator 5770 years ago and to realize free will.

From that moment, the created being, a point of desire, began its journey of attaining similarity with the Creator. Since then and until today, all Kabbalists connected by this goal belong in one system regardless of their rung on the spiritual ladder. In regard to those who are not yet working in this system, they also belong in it, but we have to awaken them.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, “And Jacob Went Out”

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Question: During The Zohar lessons, you reveal very subtle, concealed, and secret things so to speak.

Answer: They are secret and undisclosed to our senses because we are too coarse and can’t detect them. That’s all there is to it! It doesn’t mean that these things represent some kind of secret. They only seem like a mystery since I don’t see or feel them.

I have to sharpen my perception and make it more precise, capable of sensing more subtle gradation of properties. As a result, I will suddenly start sensing a very different, true picture of reality at a higher “resolution.” In order to do this, we have to bring our perception to the quality called “bestowal.” Once we feel it, we will feel the Upper World.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/10, The Zohar

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Question: How do we constantly remain on the “spiritual trajectory,” meaning at the point of making a decision that the spiritual space and unity come before material achievements?

Answer: As soon as we succeed in creating this kind of connection between us, “a place for revealing the Creator,” it immediately fades. This is done so that we are able to make this decision again and again. Every moment should be the “Beginning.” And what helps a person to make this constant choice is only a strong environment which allows him to maintain a connection (see Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”).

It is impossible to maintain this decision on your own for longer than a moment. We need to bring ourselves to a correct society, like putting a seed into soil, and receive the realization of the importance of the goal from it. Then you will be able to unite the points of decisions, forming them into a straight line to the goal.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/10, “Rosh Hashanah”

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Question: If a person doesn’t exist apart from others, then why do each of us have a sensation that reality is created for him and that the Creator relates to him personally?

Answer: This is a degree of exclusiveness that each of us possesses. It comes to us from the Creator and constitutes our roots that make us different from each other. It obligates each of us to implement our uniqueness, as it is true that “the world is created for me.” This is what every person has to enunciate and validate to himself. However, it should not be done at the “expense” of others, but rather for the sake of others.

I am the one who corrects this world; other people are only parts of me. This fact obligates me to treat others as though they depend on me. I have to unite with them through the power of my love, and I am the one who defines it.

When my point connects with their points, I become their “head,” meaning the head of a body that is called the “common soul.” It is me who is making decisions, creating connections, and filling them with the Creator’s Light because for them I represent the source or the Creator. There is somebody else, and it’s you. You are the one who does the same thing in connecting other people (including me) to you. You, too, become a head of our universal body, but it’s a different body because, in your case, it is identified by your proper attitude to others.

Thus, each of us is a unique personality and doesn’t encumber others, but rather complements them. You sense the Creator’s personal attitude, but He can relate to you only through the group. Similarly, you relate to Him only through the group.

The Creator is that which is revealed in the connection between us. The Upper Light settles specifically within the desires of bestowal and the connection between all souls. When all properties of bestowal unite, the vessel for the revelation of the Creator (a network of bestowal) divulges itself.

The desire itself underwent the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and stopped receiving. Receiving is possible only through the bonds that connect all desires at a place where a screen and the Reflected Light are present.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, “What is the Matter of My Making A Pact in the Work”

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Question: Does every person need to experience all of the states described in The Zohar?

Answer: It is written, “Every man has to write the Torah.” This means that a person gradually needs to reveal all of his or her qualities or desires in their initial egoistic form and, to the extent of their revelation, correct them by changing the intention from “for myself” to “for the sake of others or the Creator.” Thereby a person builds a new vessel that has a screen and Ohr Hochma that fills it.

The revelation of the broken Kli means that a person clothes into a certain type of a sinner as described in the Torah. With the consequent correction of this state, he clothes into a righteous man from the Torah. A person has to assume these images and forms time after time, alternating between clothing into a sinner and a righteous man, both of which are presented to him by the Torah.

It is like an imprint of models that already exist in you. It is as if you were walking in darkness with a projector and alternate between shedding light onto a sinner that has clothed in you and a righteous man on the opposite end. In this way, you go from image to image every time. You must go through all of them! This is because the entire Torah consists of states that you experience, beginning with Adam: the first revelation of evil in you and the first contact with the Creator.

Man begins with experiencing the sensation of his egoism in contradiction to the Creator. The entire Torah only speaks about these consecutive clothings into different roles that you play like in theater and according to a script given to you. You clothe into different figures, but you are the only one playing this multitude of roles.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, The Zohar

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