Question: What does it mean not to be afraid to start each degree anew after all results from the previous work are erased?

Answer: Let’s assume that I am in a good state, meaning feeling the connection with the friends. This state is not necessarily pleasant to my ego, but by relating to the goal, I feel good; that is, I understand its importance and am aimed at the goal.

With this, I can go through difficult, unpleasant, confusing states, but the only criteria for evaluating all these states is the understanding of the necessity for attaining the level of Ubar (Embryo). And the same can be applied not only to the stage of the Ubar, but also to the subsequent higher degrees.

I am happy with my lot and progress. Where can I fall from this state if the importance of the goal and the importance of my degree are giving me inspiration? I am happy that I overcame this state, and with the help of the friends, the teacher, the study, the Creator it becomes clearer to me that all these states are the components from which my spiritual vessel is assembled.

It is not important if these states are pleasant or not, the main thing is that I rise above them, hold them together, and understand that this is my world through which I must aspire to the good that does good and there is none else besides Him. No matter what is going on inside me—what seething volcano of desires, intentions, qualities quake in me—all this is rubbish, and I am above them and build a white picture above the black picture.

I can fall from it again to this world and suddenly lose all aspiration for spirituality and be satisfied with corporeal comfort. I can fall to this state if I have not looked for deficiencies in advance. And then I fall to the degree of this world; I live in this world like a regular man, and even come to study, but this is simply a routine that will continue until I am tired of it.

If I don’t want such a descent, then I need to look for deficiencies while still in the higher state, in the “white light.” And this is possible only if I have prepared a strong connection with the friends that will add clarifications. How could I reach perfection by myself at this point? I justified the Creator and my state, so now where will I find deficiencies? Only the group can awaken them in me. When I am connected with them through mutual guarantee, then I am impressed by their importance of the goal. The importance of the goal that I receive from them is greater than mine. And I must tie myself to it.

After I have tied myself to the importance of the goal, I discover that I have no need for such importance. I have no aspiration or attraction. I don’t burst to feel it, and therefore, I am aware of my lack of desire. I begin to search where to get such a need from. There isn’t anywhere, because I am already fulfilled. As if I had eaten until there is no room for more in some cheap restaurant, and when I came home I found that my wife had prepared my favorite meal, and I say I couldn’t resist and had eaten on the way home. Now I suffer from heartburn, don’t feel good, and even feel nauseous; I can’t eat anything more. This means that I don’t feel the lack; where can I get it?

We are exactly in this state. After we have fulfilled ourselves and completed our degree only from the outside are we able to receive an additional desire. If I sit with friends and have a small drink, the appetite will awake in me. We must do such simple tricks in order to receive new deficiencies from the environment. If I don’t have an environment, I will fulfill myself and that’s it.

Without the support of friends, I am sentenced to fall to the degree of this world, to the state of “beast,” and to live in it. With this, due to the fact that I still go to the lessons and participate in some activities, I gradually receive from others their desires, exit from the routine of the study, and rise to the new degree. But this will take a very long time.

Therefore, after attaining some degree, one needs to immediately check if you are in the correct connection with the environment. Now I am giving you valuable practical advice that will cost a lot of blood for a person who wants to build this system, the method. If you see that you have received a new desire and again you caught fire, then it means that your connection with the friends worked, that there is guarantee between you. If there is no guarantee, you will fall to the level of beastly existence and live such a life.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, The Book of Zohar, 2/16/14

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 21:1 – 21:3: The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the south, heard that Israel had come by the route of the spies, and he waged war against Israel and took from them a captive.

Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You deliver this people into my hand, I shall consecrate their cities.”

The Lord heard Israel’s voice and delivered the Canaanite. He destroyed them and [consecrated] their cities, and he called the place Hormah.

We all exist in one desire, in one body, and although from the ego’s perspective it seems that we hate one another, we actually hate our own parts, our children and our relatives, the people who are closest to us who seem the most hateful and distant. This all will be revealed in the future, and humanity will be shocked by its actions.

In the Torah, the concept “to fight” also refers to the rebellion of the egoistic desires. However, when a person cannot fight them, he naturally asks for the Creator’s help because He is the only force that governs and controls everything. This is the reason that Israel turns to Him.

Every victory is about a person overcoming his egoistic desires—which, in this case, are called Canaanites—and transforming them to altruistic ones.

In other words, when our internal Canaanites rebel inside us, we need the Creator’s help, and the Creator helps us to overcome them. We destroy all of the egoistic intentions we have and advance.

The conquering of the land of Israel is a change of the seven major egoistic intentions for ourselves into intentions for the Creator, to bestowal and love.

The children of Israel take an oath to destroy the Canaanite city, which means the egoistic desires in them, because a man is a small world that includes everything in him, and this is why he needs the Creator’s help.

But how can the people of Israel who yearn for love ask the eternal Creator who loves everyone to destroy someone? Unfortunately, people don’t understand what the Torah says, and they think that it is an evil nation! However, the Torah presents opposite evidence, because in the spiritual world, everything is with the intention of in order to bestow, while in our world, it is all for filling myself.

Killing yourself means killing the egoist in you. Killing someone else means killing the egoist in me called by a different name, not my own. This means that this is our next state.

There are different methods of correction: partial, temporary, permanent, and ultimate corrections. The Torah tells us how the complete correction is achieved in different states. It is just like in our world. We advance, correct something, and leave something. Then something comes back to us once again, rising from the depths, and we must correct it once again.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/1/15

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 20:12: The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Since you did not have faith in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly to the Land which I have given them.”

Moshe cannot lead and bring the nation to the land of Israel because he is more connected to the people than to the Creator, meaning that the connection between Malchut and Bina was premature. It only appears at the next level, at the level of Joshua, who lead and brought the people to this land after he completed the preparation, which included all kinds of small corrections, including Moshe and Aaron.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/24/15

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Question: What does it mean that a person has completed his mission and reached the level of Aaron?

Answer: We all depend on one another in the spiritual world and are connected into one system, but each of us also carries his own unique element that no one else has. It is called after him, and it is his personal investment in the general system.

He must manage the whole system from the root of his soul, invest in it, and assist it. His investment in the system, which is what he needs to put into it together with all the other souls, is called his soul. This is the reason that everyone is very important. On the one hand, everyone has one single soul, and on the other hand, everyone has his own personal soul.

There is, for example, a Reshimo (Reminiscence) in me called the point in the heart that I must fulfill in order to participate properly in the system of man with all of the other souls. It is actually my participation in it that is called my self. Each of us must fulfill that.

All of the billions of parts of the general soul are inside of me, but the main ones are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David. They are the ten main Sefirot of the soul, and all of its other parts are dressed on them, like clusters.

By completing his system, Aaron detaches himself, retreats and joins his forefathers. Now his children continue his spiritual work.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/1/15

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Question: How should we behave correctly along the path of correction and how is the correction expressed in the corporeal world?

Answer: The search comes down to the fact that a person looks for a way to discover eternal life: either by changing the world or by changing himself.

According to Kabbalah, the two options, which seem different at first glance, merge into one as by changing the world you change yourself, and by changing yourself you change the world. It is the same thing.

When you change yourself, you enter a level where you begin to perceive the world as eternal and whole. Eventually you attain a perfect eternal life. It is destined for us while still on the level of this world, and then you can quietly and peacefully detach yourself from your corporeal body that is on the animal level.

Question: Does this means that a man can live forever?

Answer: I don’t know what you mean by “man.”

A person’s inner self exists forever, beyond time. There isn’t really the concept of “forever” in the spiritual world because this is also a way of determining time, and when you write “t=,” it is simply infinity. This is the reason that we speak about life above time.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/25/15

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The Torah, “Numbers” 20:27 – 20:29: Moses did as the Lord commanded him. They ascended Mount Hor in the presence of the entire congregation. Moses then stripped Aaron of his garments and dressed Eleazar his son in them, and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. [Then] Moses and Eleazar descended from the mountain.

The whole congregation saw that Aaron had expired, and the entire house of Israel wept for Aaron for thirty days.

Death spoken about in the Torah—the deaths of Aaron, Miriam, Moses, or other souls that attain the Creator and which are the foundations of the general system of man’s soul—means an ascent, not the demise of the body. The body is the corporeal level of a person and so there is nothing to mourn.

In the spiritual world, if the system called Aaron has completed its role, Aaron dies because he need not correct himself anymore; it is completely corrected to join the common system of the soul of Adam. This is called death.

What we regard in our world as a tragic event is a great joy in the spiritual world. It is written that the “…righteous, who, in their death, are called living.”

Question: But it says here that “the entire house if Israel wept for Aaron for thirty days.”

Answer: They wept because he was no longer with them, but was incorporated in the general state, so they couldn’t count on him specifically.They are deprived of the visible, physical support and communication, but of course, the whole system called Aaron remains. It is an enormous sub-system of the leadership in the general soul of man, but not the same level that the people are on. This is the reason they wept for him, but for a very limited time.

We mourn the dead for seven days, then in the memorial service after thirty days, and then once a year, not more than that. There are special days of visiting the cemetery: seven days after the burial and then after thirty days, and then once a year on the day that the person passed away. The reason is that death is the revival of the spiritual level that is totally detached from the body that is buried. Baal HaSulam used to say that he didn’t care at all where his sack of bones would be buried.

In ancient times, 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, before the exile from the land of Israel, the deceased were placed in a cave and walled in for one year. In a year, the caves were opened and everything that was left of the decayed bodies was collected in a vessel, sealed, and placed in a common cave. The tradition to bury dead bodies in the ground appeared later.

Today, we know the places of many ancient burials in various regions such as Syria, Iraq, Iran, and so on, since the land of Israel was much broader at that time than today. For example, Moshe and Aaron are buried on the other side of the river Jordan.

Many of the graves of ancient Kabbalists who lived more than 2,000 years ago, before the destruction of the Temple, are located in Galilee. The ARI, the greatest Kabbalist of the 16^th century, listed them. That’s how they were discovered.

The ARI walked the fields between Safed and Mount Meron where Rabbi Shimon was buried and pointed out the sages’ graves. Then, the tombstones with the names of the Kabbalists were placed on the graves.

The ARI sensed who and where each was buried because the root and the branch are linked. Even though the body is not a spiritual part of the human being, it still is related somehow with the spiritual component and suffers together with it. So the ARI was able to accurately find the connection and locate the burial places. Since then, monuments to great Kabbalists can be seen in Galilee.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/1/15

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Question: What does it mean to transfer clothes from father to son?

Answer: Clothing (Levush) refer to the correction of the body and the body is egoism.

Animals don’t need correction and are called angels, which means they were created simply in order to fulfill their mission. Man is different from animals and cannot live without clothes.

The clothes of the great priest included a belt, shirt, trousers, hat, robe, vest, breastplate, and headdress. The rest wore similar clothes but less decorated.

A person lived in a tent made of animal skins. A tent is the best environment for a person. Adjoined to the tent was a section of the yard, which was measured out a certain band, fenced off courtyard.

The yards were connected into a city and the city was surrounded by a wall. Seventy cubits were measured from the wall, which was the area that surrounded the city, and then another 2,000 cubits were measured. All this symbolizes the wide open spaces where the soul exits.

We also see the same thing with regard to the clothes of the body. We see how many garments there can be over our soul, which is parallel to the way we dress and manage our life in this world. Even if we don’t have anything, we instinctively exist in this complex space.

We need this space because a person’s internal space requires everything to be arranged specifically this way: a house, a garden or a yard that surrounds the house, a street, a neighborhood, a city, etc. A person needs everything, and even if he builds something that is totally different from these frameworks, he will make changes in it later.

This reflects the inner need of the soul to arrange the material world according to the same system.

Question: What does all that mean on my way to the attribute of bestowal?

Answer: Thanks to the fact that I arrange my desires properly—internal, external, and more external—and correct them in accordance with these measurements (requirements), I advance.

Question: What is easier to correct, the clothes that are closer to the body (the internal desires) or those that are further away from it (the external desires)?

Answer: Both of these desires and the others are corrected simultaneously, because the more you exit yourself, the deeper you have to penetrate yourself. It is the same in our world too, the more internal a person is, the further he has to see and to exit himself, which means that he has to think more about the world.

It is impossible to delve only into yourself and completely forget about the environment. Conversely, if you want to exit into the world, you have to raise yourself at the same time.

Question: What does it mean transfer your clothes?

Answer: Clothes symbolize the correction of the soul, and so the father passes his corrections to his son as the son is his continuation, the next level. Therefore in the corporeal world it is a custom to pass on clothes from father to son.

The only limitation are shoes, because shoes are the last level, the partition between heaven and earth.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/29/15

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Question: The Torah was written for its time. Did people who read it in that era understand what it is about?

Answer: The Torah was written for all times, but when it was written, people were on its levels and thus the instructions in the Torah were implemented without a problem. Thus they ascended from one level to the next.

In other words, what we believe to be a 40 year journey in the desert is an ascent from Malchut to Bina, which was a serious test for the people, but which they managed to overcome. Therefore Moses wrote everything for them and they processed it. He wrote and compiled the Torah according to the attainment of the levels they had been through.

Therefore all the events described in the Torah up to the entering the land of Israel, are levels of attainment.

But you shouldn’t think that those who entered the land of Israel were on a higher level than Moses even though it seems they attained it, it was simply such a level. It is just like in our world where experts are divided according to their profession and how much they know, according to their attainment, and their post, like a doctoral student, a doctor, a university lecturer, and a professor. It is the same thing here.

There is no greater prophet than Moses, and no one has spoken with the Creator face to face like he did.

Comment: But Moses didn’t participate in the building of the Temple.

Answer: It doesn’t matter. Everything described in the Torah afterward is fulfilled as the correction of the next level that isn’t perfect yet. It undergoes the state of ascent to the world of Atzilut and only in our times, when we begin to get accustomed to and to perceive the levels of ascent does the ascent to the world of Atzilut take place in order to later descend.

This means that our ascent is the right continuation of Moses’ path in the desert (in the ascent to Bina). When we ascend to Bina now, we will have to undergo the same states, including the exiles of Egypt and Babylon. Thus there is still a lot of hard serious work ahead of us, but we will undergo it for the third time already.

After the first ascent there was the destruction of the first Temple, of the first four levels called the kings of HGT (Daat, Hesed, Gevura and Tifferet).

Then the second Temple was built, which means the ascent from the destruction, the kings of TNHY (the lower part of Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut). Now there is the ascent to the building of the third Temple and the descent of the level of Atzilut to the level of our world.

Therefore it says that the third Temple includes the two previous Temples. This means that everything that ascended and was destroyed for its sake is taken into account during the correction of the third Temple, which means in our desires, attributes, and intentions. They were destroyed for this purpose so we could create the right connection from their shards.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/29/15

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We are at a level in our evolution when the real meaning of the Torah is concealed from us. When we speak about the secrets of the Torah, we must not forget that the real secret is that it is impossible to share it with others because a person cannot perceive what you discover.

It is like explaining to a small child, for example, a very complicated concept or a top secret device by showing him drawings and tables, but it still remains a mystery to him. One has to prepare for the revelation of a secret.

Therefore, we can only slightly lift the veil that is hiding the secret to show that is there for a person to understand the Torah; it is not a collection of stories. From here onwards it all depends on the person.

It is as if we open the door a bit saying: “Look, this is the next level, this is where the next world is, the entrance to the upper dimension. You can also go up there, see, hear, understand, study, explore it, and exist in it while living in our world. Nothing limits you except yourself. You can expand your attainment, your perception, your knowledge, your impressions, and your senses to the point that they will include all of infinity. But it is up to you! Make the efforts and you will succeed.”

The main point is that a person should see the mystery, not that something is hidden from him, but that he hasn’t grown enough to attain it. If he makes the efforts, the secret will become a reality. It is not protected in any way except by a person’s limited mind and inner feeling.

When the fog clears, a person discovers an enormous field of activity, infinity.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/29/15

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If we look at the narrative of the Torah from a historical perspective, it reveals a very interesting picture. The camp of people spread out in the wilderness was in itself a large city with several million people. Artisans, blacksmiths, and goldsmiths worked there.

People really grew roots as the transition from one place to another took many years. The camp didn’t move from its place as long as the cloud didn’t move. Only then did the people move forward 10-20 kilometers and again stop indefinitely. So the Torah allegorically describes a society in motion: it established a goal and advanced toward it.

Incidentally, during communism, they wanted to create an illusory picture of a bright future; there it was clear that the people were moving toward it. But how was it possible to achieve it? So we see different forces in conflict. However, the struggle was not about power, but about ideology: through which means can you advance towards the goal more effectively?

Question: Wasn’t Korach fighting for power?

Answer: No, all this is talking about holy people related only to bestowal and love only. Otherwise it would not have been written about in the Torah.

All the characters referred to in the Torah give shape to a desire that yearns for only one thing: to be in a state of movement toward bestowal and love, full mutual connection. Therefore, Korach frankly argued that it is possible to leap beyond the following level and adhere to the Creator more quickly with minimal loss and investment.

Everything that happened during those forty years happened from a desire to do good, to increase love. But in the end, all efforts were directed against Moses, regardless of whether they wanted to help him or not. But this was not a power struggle to which we are accustomed to in our lives, and therefore is how we perceive the story.

The Torah just describes everything in physical language, but it is necessary to understand that the people moving through the Sinai means that they were discovering the Creator and were beginning to receive the Upper Light of correction, the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light); they no longer referred to egoism because they were above it, like on a hovercraft. So their calculations were not at all egoistic.

What does it mean that “the ground swallowed them,” “they were burned,” and everything else? These were operations that were being carried out on the egoism that was suddenly discovered in them and needed correction. “Covered by the earth” is already its correction.

Therefore death, leprosy, and things like that were not various kinds of physical processes, but work on the ego. When new external conditions are discovered, we begin to work with them. It cannot be otherwise.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/27/15

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