The Torah, “Exodus (Ki Tissa),” 30:11-30:12: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “When you take the sum of the children of Israel according to their numbers, let each one give to the Lord an atonement for his soul when they are counted; then there will be no plague among them when they are counted.”

“Counting the sons of Israel” means to acquire new foreign desires and intentions, which I had previously rejected. A person begins to feel them as one integral whole.

“Let each one give to the Lord an atonement for his soul,” means that we don’t just connect to one another but that each one begins to work above his ego and to connect to others and discovers our common attribute, the common desire between him and others. It wasn’t felt before, either by me or by others, since it was mutually established between us. This mutual desire resembles the Creator and is therefore called a soul.

No ordinary person in our world has a soul. This attribute simply doesn’t exist. We have to develop it by our efforts, by drawing the Upper Light that creates the general soul among us, not separately in each of us, but only between us.

It turns out that there are seven billion people in this world and one common soul for all, which is the void between us that was filled by egoistic feelings towards one another. We establish new connections above it, by changing the egoistic attitude to an altruistic attitude towards one another, which is our soul.

Thus, the force field of mutual attraction begins to work in which we exit ourselves and live for the sake of others, and by that we acquire our soul. The state in which everyone begins to feel himself outside his previous corporeal egoistic self is the feeling of the upper world, the feeling of the Creator.

This is what the Torah teaches us, as it says: I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah (Light) to correct it. The word “Torah” stems from the Hebrew word “Light.”

First we have to discover the ego in us, and to the extent that we discover it, we should want to change it. When we change our attitude towards the ego, not by despising it but simply by wanting to turn it into an opposite attribute, we understand that it was intentionally created as help against us, and so we begin to draw the Upper Light upon us that corrects this ego.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/2/13

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The Torah, “Exodus,” 30:14-30:15: Everyone that goes through the counting, from the age of twenty and upward, shall give an offering to the Lord. The rich shall give no more and the poor shall give no less than half a shekel, with which to give an offering to the Lord, to atone for your souls.

Every person gives half a Shekel since the person one connects with adds the other half. Everyone should first unite in tens, then to hundreds and thousands.

It turns out that everyone brings only one half of his own and we can manage between us in such correct mutual cooperation. The point is that the individual’s positive attitude to the world, his love for it, leads to nothing. This is the principle of dissemination.

There cannot be one righteous person while all the others are wicked. I have to help all the others be like me in mutual cooperation and must establish a field of mercy, warm welcome, bestowal, and love. It’s only then that the Upper Light descends on me.

No one can advance if he doesn’t help others. Here we need the friends and the group. Half a Shekel is my half that I put into the collective treasury. What is more, it’s considered half a Shekel only when I awaken others to give the other half.

When each of the friends gives his half, the Upper Light, called the Torah, descends upon these efforts and connects them. This is called, to make atonement for your souls, which symbolizes purity, birth, the revelation of the general soul, the general connection between us.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/2/13

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Question: How is the “middle phase” between this world and the spiritual world discovered?

Answer: The transitional phase between this world and the spiritual world is the physical group where we can begin to establish spiritual laws. This is a wonder in this world: deeds which are Lo Lishma (for my sake) can bring us to Lishma (to bestowal).

In other words, we do all kinds of deeds artificially, with false bestowal. Yet they advance us because there is a transitional level between the spiritual world and this world. This intermediary level is a person who is comprised of two parts: one within the other. Therefore it is possible to build an external group of people to carry out external actions and to awaken internal actions within them. This is as if we have two parts from different worlds in one “medium.”

And therefore a collection of people, a Minyan (ten people), become the ten Sefirot that intervene between this world and the upper world.
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Question: How can a person open his desires before the friends on the corporeal level as well as on the spiritual level?

Answer: Everyone should feel that they are in their own family where you can be sure that no matter what happens, it is all yours. All the problems, the outbursts, the disagreements with the children or the spouse are all yours and you have to fix things no matter how difficult it is. So try to treat the friends that way and see; check your heart to see whether it is really inclined to respond that way, whether it has this inclination, and whether it is ready for that.

We must develop our connection until we reach the level of mutual guarantee. Mutual guarantee is when I am ready to respond this way to everything for the sake of everyone, like a mother with regard to her children. She is ready to be responsible and to provide her children with everything that they need. This is natural and everyone understands this in our ordinary life. This is why we live in the corporeal world. Later this world will disappear and we will see forces instead of bodies. This world is called fictitious because instead of forces and qualities, we feel the body as the still, vegetative, animate nature, and people, which are all matter. But later we will see that these are forces of receiving and bestowing.

This world is given to us so that we will be able to ascend from this lowest point without being forced to or pressured to from Above. If we could see the spiritual world, we would lose our freewill. We would want to do everything according to what we see. So the concealment helps us to be free and puts us in a state where we can grow freely.

Adults move away from children in order to allow them to do things independently. It is the same here as the Creator conceals Himself to a certain extent and helps us in different ways “behind the scenes.” He gives us clues by showing us exactly what is wrong and what needs to be corrected. Our job is to remember that we are constantly shown our deficiencies in a negative manner and to constantly try to change the negative to positive.

Then we will be grateful to the Creator for treating us this way and teaching us in different ways, showing us the picture of all our attributes in an opposite manner, in their negative form. We want to connect this negative picture with our attributes, desires, and thoughts and make them positive. This is why we are in a constant search.

This is called the work of the Creator, which is done on top of everything that surrounds us. If we regard all these things spiritually, it will be spiritual and it will become our spiritual world. It is said that “the Creator did not change its original action of creation.”
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/14

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“Israel” means “Yashar-Kel” (straight towards the Creator). This is a person who reacts to influence from the Creator within himself and is ready to react in regard to Him. The Creator sends the “burdening of the heart” to us and it is up to us to surmount this, and to the degree that we surmount it, we begin to enter into a connection above all the disturbances, above all the egoistic desires, above all the thoughts that weigh upon us and which don’t direct us towards equivalence of form with the Creator.

When we rise above these disturbances that the Creator sends, we are called Israel. And if we sink within the disturbances and yearn to alleviate our condition, to become as comfortable as possible at every moment, then we remain on the level of corporeal, material existence.

Eventually, after undergoing very many trials and disappointments, “A penny and a penny are gathered into a large amount,” into a higher level. And then we begin to feel that we won’t agree to continue life this way. It is clear that this development can only be by means of the Light that ultimately brings us to a state of Israel, the yearning “straight to the Creator.”

The states through which we pass accumulate. We must pass through a multitude of actions, which within our ego, we don’t agree and don’t want to endure patiently. For our ego we want everything to happen quickly and pleasantly; but according to the relation between Lights and Kelim, it doesn’t happen this way. This continues until the desire to receive ultimately decides to be transformed, changing to an intention “for the sake of bestowal.”

This is like a pendulum that goes up higher and higher in two directions until in the end, it transforms at the highest point, reaching an intention “for the sake of bestowal.” And then all of the movements forward and back, right and left, up and down, in all directions and in all forms, everything enters into the volume of the new Kli that receives an intention “for the sake of bestowal.”

Therefore it is said, “I labored and found.” We must invest maximal effort until we reach this finding. And the finding arrives from Above. Even just a moment before this it is impossible to know when it will happen. It is forbidden to reveal this secret and to talk about it, so that we don’t sweeten this period too much for a person whose ego must be restrained.

Baal HaSulam laughed about the complaints of his students and said, “I am happy about the wicked that are discovered”. I remember when I was studying with Rabash, I was angry and demanding and encountered a very dry response from him that did not seem appropriate from a person who loved me. I thought that the teacher hated me, so happy was he with my difficulties. That is how it really seemed to me in the beginning of the study in the first half year. He would simply laugh in my face in response to my complaints.

I was really furious because I had invested so much effort; I did everything that he required from me, and he wasn’t at all merciful to me. But all this was only not to weaken this feeling of bitterness and despair in me. This is because if we soften this feeling, the time is lengthened. There is nothing to do; we must bow our heads and continue to accumulate our overcoming.

It is true that it is possible to “get your world in an hour.” Our efforts can be gathered very quickly and we can suddenly reach revelation. And truly there are signs that we are very close to revelation. But the last effort has a unique quality. And all of the quality that is attained depends upon the connection between us, in its strength and directness. For this we must open ourselves maximally so that not one thought or desire will remain that we wouldn’t reveal to everyone. This is the way each must examine himself, both men and women.

The work of the women is different from the work of the men, it is earthier, and that of the men is more spiritual. The men are more connected with the Creator and the women among themselves, overcoming rejection. This requires much effort.

It is worthwhile to pay attention to this, for in general a person thinks that spirituality is something detached from life, that it is above this world. He forgets that the spiritual Kli within which the Creator is discovered is his link with the friends. If the link between us will be appropriate for the discovery of the Creator, then He will be revealed, and if it is not appropriate, then the Creator will not be revealed. Period!
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/14

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Article “Two Points,” Item 121: This is the meaning of the locks on the gates. First, all the many contradictions to His uniqueness, which we taste in this world, separate us from the Creator. Yet, when exerting to keep Torah and Mitzvot with love, with our soul and might, as we are commanded—to bestow contentment upon our Maker—all those forces of separation do not affect us into subtracting any of the love of the Creator with all our souls and might. Rather, in that state, every contradiction we have overcome becomes a gate for attainment of His wisdom.

Question: What does it mean “every contradiction we have overcome becomes a gate for attainment of His wisdom…”? What is a contradiction?

Answer: A contradiction is something that can be resolved this and that. A contradiction is when one doesn’t see, agree, or understand. It’s something that does not connect with His uniqueness and with the notion of “there’s none else but Him” or with the concept of “Good that does good.” It just doesn’t fit together.

We get numerous blows from various sides. We have no idea whether they are right or wrong, but we still have to justify all of them. If we knew that it’s just a form of a punishment for something we did wrong or if we were sure that if our behavior were good, we’d receive an award instead of a punishment, then we would feel more or less fine. However, it’s against our logic. It is said: “The righteous feel bad.” There is nothing we can do about it. These states are called “contradictions” in the Upper Governance.

Question: What do “the righteous who feel bad” have to do?

Answer: Because they are righteous, they justify the Creator even though they feel bad.

Question: But the goal of creation is to bring contentment to creation. Does it really help when even though one feels bad one still justifies the Creator?

Answer: In fact, one feels good, but the truth is that there is evil in him. Obviously one suffers because of one’s own wickedness; however, one still continues justifying the Creator. That’s why one is called the righteous.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/14, Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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Tu B’Shevat is called the New Year of trees, meaning the New Year of somebody who starts growing during these days. It’s very symbolic that we have moved to a new building at this time and will host such a huge congress that embraces three conventions in one and that we are undergoing a very special process of construction right now. All we need to do at this time is just wait for the fruit to show up so that our tree won’t be just a regular tree, but rather one that will be fruitful.

Rabash explains in his Letter No. 29 how to make a fruitful tree out of a man. Tu B’Shevat is called “Rosh Hashanah of trees” because at this time a man has completed self-scrutiny and has already decided whether it is worthwhile for him to continue the work or rather (God forbid) he decides to act the other way around. At this time, one already knows what source he draws life energy from – either out of the will to receive for one’s own sake or out of the will to bestow onto one’s Maker.

Really, these are very special days. Sometimes a man is awarded with a synchronization of his spiritual and material lives; thus one senses that holidays and weekdays are dressed in one’s internal states. During these days, one has to decide what direction to choose in life: to live for the sake of one’s body or soul. These are the days when one has to choose one or the other. If one makes a decision to advance for the sake of one’s soul, then one’s work begins.

It is said: “A man is a tree of the field.” This means that all the work that is done with the trees to make them fruitful also applies to a man. Fruit is the main thing here! “Fruit of sanctity” implies that a person merits a revelation of the Creator and turns into an ever flowing river by going from one degree to the next until one says: “Let the Maker be joyous in me, since He wants me; let Him be the crown of beauty.”

In other words, a person starts realizing that everything that happens to him and outlines the choice between his body and soul is done by the Creator. It’s He who creates all the conditions that lead us to making the decision. If the Creator brings a person to a “decision point,” it means that one has enough power, correct surroundings, and adequate support that allow one to make the right decision. From this point on, one’s destiny will be redirected correctly.

I’d like to wish all of us to always understand that “There is none else besides Him” and that there is only one force that makes everything there is. It’s the force that sends us the hardest moments in life when we have to make a decisive choice. Let us always make the right decision!
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From the Talk during Meal 1/17/14

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, #19, “Why the Creator Hates the Bodies, in the Work”: The highest degree, the farther a thing is from the clothing, the higher it is. One has to feel in the most abstract thing called “absolute zero,” since man’s hand does not reach there.  

It is a place that is totally disconnected from our desire. It is an abstract attribute which one cannot benefit from: absolute zero. Our senses, desires, and thoughts do not perceive this place and don’t operate there. One can exist in this place only in faith above reason since the desire to receive does not operate there but only the desire to bestow.

This means that the will to receive can only cling in a place where there is a presence of Light. Before one purifies his vessels, so as to not blemish the Light, it is impossible for the Light to expand in his Kelim (Vessels). Only when one is on the path of bestowal, meaning in a place where the will to receive is not present, whether in mind or in heart, there the Light can come in utter completeness. Then the Light comes to him in a sensation that he can feel the sublimity of the Upper Light…

It follows that the importance of the work is precisely when one comes to a state of absolute zero, meaning when one sees that he annuls his whole existence and being, for then the will to receive has no power; only then does one enter the Kedusha.

A person has to divide himself into two parts: One part is his desire to receive and the other part which he wants to attain is the desire to bestow. He has to lower himself to the level of absolute zero, which means to correct the desire to receive so that he doesn’t use it at all.

It is impossible to hide from it because it won’t leave me alone, but everything depends on my priorities regarding receiving and bestowing, and whether the society, the teacher, the Creator, the study, and the importance of the spiritual goal are above everything else.

We should see this as the most important so that everything else becomes an absolute zero, which means that my ordinary desire to receive will cease to function. Only concerns about the basic necessities will remain, and I would also love to be free from this as well, but it has nothing to do with the desire to receive. Then I raise the importance of bestowal above this absolute zero, and the upper Light can dress in me. I cannot perform these corrections by myself of course, but I can want to. I don’t even have the power to want that and have to be incorporated in the group for this. The group does not provide me with the power to do it but the Light that Reforms does, and this Light operates only if the group tries to connect. This effort is actually our freewill, and we have to ask the Light for it so that it will complete the work for us.

Although we yearn to become absolute zeros, our desire doesn’t disappear. On the contrary, it constantly grows, trying to overcome a person. We have to overcome it with the help of the environment. Thus we advance by tilting to the left and to the right, until we reach the first revelation. Then this work continues, but it becomes clearer and more irrevocable.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/14

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The Book of Zohar, VaYikahel [And Moses Assembled], Item 131: Then the twelve-letter name acted, lowering Malchut once more from the place of Bina de Malchut de Assiya to her place at the Sium of her ten Sefirot, and Bina and TM rising to their degree as in the beginning, above the firmament of Malchut.

And since Elijah was clinging to that Avir—Bina and TM that rose—it follows that he raised Elijah with him, above the firmament of Malchut, because of the equivalence.”

When we swallow, circular muscles push food further into the stomach. Straight line vessels act similarly: They create a consistent chain in accordance with the principle of cause and effect: pressure – relaxation, pressure – relaxation. The same mechanism is used in technology, for example, there are pumps that work this way.

Let’s say, I enter some place and the door behind me closes (A). How can I proceed further ahead? When the door behind me closes, there appears a new door right in front of me (B). Until then I hadn’t noticed it, but all of a sudden I see a new doorway. Again the door opens and I enter the next place where I see the third door, and so on.

This is a rigid order that works both in materiality and spirituality. The doors that open and close are “the firmaments.” While going through spiritual steps, Malchut continuously rises to Bina and then lowers from there. AHP also falls and rises over and over again. When it falls, it “picks us up” and raises us to a higher level where we associate it with Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE).

In AHP, we only nullify ourselves, whereas in GE, we turn into Hafetz Hesed of the current step that we occupy. It’s not just a self-nullification, but a small “childlike” state. Then, we feel the AHP of the Upper and self-nullify in front of him. Then he takes us up and the cycle repeats. This is how we gradually grow.

It goes without saying that our ascent during this process is accompanied by qualitative changes. We go through conception (Ibur), breastfeeding (Yenika), and adulthood (Mochin) each of which also is divided into three corresponding phases.

On this path, we go through awakening both from Above and below and through some other steps. Similarly, in this world we live in accordance with the calendar that does not depend on us. We adjust our lives according to days, weeks, months, years as if we are urged from “Above” to act so.

In the same way, in spirituality we sometimes should “fall into slumber” or act in a more reserved and passive way. Then we go back to a “day-time” regimen again. To make it short, there are more changes there than in this life including possibilities for personal initiative because the “awakening from below” depends upon us.

In general, all our work is becoming similar to the Upper. How can we test ourselves? We can only do this through our ability to attach lower vessels to us. That’s why it’s said “I dwell among my people.” Revelation of the Creator is possible only among “the people,” through others, through their broken desires, when we accept them as our own.

As a result, they become dearer to us than our own desires since they belong to deeper layers, and when as a result of our efforts they cling to us, we see that their structure and spiritual Partzuf are far more important than the ones that we had previously. Their vessels seem to be external to us since they were tossed far aside from us at the time of shattering. The ones that were the closest to us previously now seem to be the farthest from us.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/14, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar says that its purpose is to lead the entire world out of the exile and bring us to deliverance. Interestingly, when we studied Kabbalistic texts in the past, we didn’t tune ourselves to The Book of Zohar. We studied The Study of the Ten Sefirot, “The Book of Life,” “The Gate-House of Intentions,” articles and letters written by Kabbalists, in short a lot of texts. On the other hand, The Book of Zohar looked great, but we did not feel it or feel particularly concerned about it.

It is not an accident! It’s said that The Book of Zohar will reveal itself to our generation when the process of final correction begins. Humanity went through a lot of suffering before discovering that there is The Book of Zohar and that its mission is to help us; now, we cannot abide without it.

We need a lot of time to develop internally and to be able to access The Book. One comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, explores numerous sources, and only afterwards discovers that The Book of Zohar possesses a huge power and unusual possibilities that come with different clarifications and are accompanied by a new sensual and rational background. The Zohar is a book that encompasses everything there is. It’s not an easy discovery!

Many of our friends sleep during The Zohar lessons since they don’t feel any connection with it. In the course of time, they will be able to sense in the lines that they read various forms of bestowal and receiving, the correlation of the Lights and vessels, and will learn to connect them together: the Kabbalistic language of branches, the language of Tanakh and Agadah. Everything of which The Book of Zohar is comprised has to be regarded as one whole. It talks about the details of perception using different languages.

We can express various notions in different languages of this world; however, they all are about one sensation, one phenomenon. In The Zohar many languages are closely intertwined. There are numerous ways of presenting the material. The reader has to be educated and prepared; one has to sense the reality that is described in The Book, no matter what language is used there to depict it.

Similar to when we use words of foreign origin in our speech, there are Greek and Latin words in The Book of Zohar. At that time, these languages were very widespread and common. The authors of The Book of Zohar were not at all reluctant to use them. They could have used Gematria values, Hebrew or Aramaic equivalents, but they chose not to do so.

It means that if we learn at least a little bit of the languages that are used in The Book of Zohar, meaning that if we become more knowledgeable of the styles and forms of presenting the materials that are described in The Book, we’ll be exposed to many additional sensations to those previously experienced. We’ll see what its “multilingualism” is caused by: Every word or phrase in The Book of Zohar whether Gematria, the language of Sefirot, concepts of Tanakh, or terms of Halacha (the collective body of Jewish religious laws) reflects the spiritual essence.

When I turn on a Halacha radio station, I listen to things that are very clear to me from my prior experience: Halacha speaks about a preparation of our vessels,desires, about the ways of working with egoistic desires at the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. This work is regulated by a set of laws named “Halacha.” It outlines a correct treatment of vessels, the order of their correction, and ways to ascend to a speaking level.

After all, this level gives expression to everything. We work internally with inanimate, vegetative, and animate desires, with the desires that correspond to our level and also with the desires of our neighbors. This is how preparation of all four steps happens. This is where an expansive and rich language of Halacha derives from; no other language is more precise than the one of Halacha.

However, let’s return to The Book of Zohar: Its authors and readers find the iridescent, multilingual sound of the book habitual and clear. It’s similar to using well-known foreign words in our speech. Habit is all there is.

Baal HaSulam writes that the language of Kabbalah includes everything. I hope that soon we will be able to understand that The Book of Zohar embraces the entire complex of notions and languages, includes all imaginable components, and delivers the “cure” to us in the best possible way.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lessons 1/8/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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