Baal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Horn”: Know that this is what it means that the children of Israel are redeemed only after the wisdom of the hidden is revealed to a great extent, as it is written in The Zohar, “With this composition, the children of Israel are redeemed from exile.”

In my assessment, we are in a generation that is standing at the very threshold of redemption if we only know how to spread the wisdom of the hidden to the masses. We are required to disclose the secret wisdom to the public. But what will be left of the mystery if we reveal it? The fact is that at this stage, we are talking to people about good interconnection based on the principle of love of the other as yourself, about unity for the sake of correction of humanity.

Through numerous incremental phenomena that add up to historical evolutionary development, our vessels, desires, are prepared for the time when there is the generation that is capable of bringing intention into its life and existing on Earth not because it was placed in this “cell,” in this “barn,” in this “kennel,” but because people want to know why and for what purpose this situation occurred and what state they are destined to achieve. We live in this generation. The crisis, despair, and other negative things of the day are the signs of the changes about which Baal HaSulam writes. The necessary conditions are already established from above, but we must finish our work from below. Only the opportunity for redemption comes from above, and the rest is up to us.

We have accepted that there is a precondition for the redemption—that all the nations of the world will acknowledge Israel’s law.

As a result, our entire receiving desire, revealed by this moment, will reach the point where we understand that it needs to be changed. And even if we are incapable of this, even though the egoistic power of “Pharaoh” dominates over us, at the same time it is clear: We have to rise above it. We understand that one day we will achieve universal correction and in advance agree with this future state and wish that it will come, although we have not yet come out from under the power of egoism.

This knowledge, this awareness, this requirement, means that Pharaoh also knows, understands, and agrees that his parts went into the altruistic intention. He is willing to sacrifice himself to let go of a part of himself so that it would be corrected and come into bestowal, having disconnected from egoistic intentions. This is deliverance.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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One of the sections of the Torah read on Sabbath is called “Truma” which means “donations” in Hebrew. This term has a completely different meaning in the spiritual work and it means the raising of the Creator.

This section describes how the Temple is built in great detail. It is because everything is built according to the form of the Sefirot that are the connections in the upper world, in the system that manages us and which is beyond the limits of our sensations.

The upper world penetrates through all of creation and so the Torah describes all the connections, the mutual relations, and its formulas. It isn’t just formulas but a network of formulas. It is very hard to convey this since there is no similar mathematical system in our world and we don’t deal with such problems. Only some of them are solved individually.

But when we deal with analog systems in which there are endless options of different connections that are closed to all, where everything is connected, then we are not able to do it. We cannot perceive such a network either in our mind or in our feelings and keep everything simultaneously. We have to be created that way internally in order to feel that there is the same system on the outside.

If there is no such model inside us, then we can only “cut” it to pieces and perceive them as an integral, to take the pieces and to put them together. But it is merely a sum and not a whole. We cannot contain everything. Only to the extent that we are corrected, to the extent of similarity to this system, can we begin to reveal it. Otherwise it isn’t on the same level, and it goes through us, and we don’t even feel it.

So in building beams, a roof, and partitions that are described in the Torah, we refer to the building of the integral system inside a person.

It isn’t about building objects in our world but about creating new attributes inside us. What does it mean when it says “And they shall make an ark of acacia-wood” or “And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee”? You will discover these attributes inside you (the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature), choose them in the most concrete manner and create an inner system out of them according to certain measures and drawings of what seems to be the external upper world, which you have to attain. If you create these conditions inside, you will attain this system, and it will be called a “Temple.”

A Temple resembles a big tent in which many people gather in order to unite and to discover the upper force, the upper system, in the full absolute connection between them.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/29/13

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Question: What is the right way to develop love for a teacher and what are the correct ways to demonstrate it?

Answer: The word Rav (teacher) is derived from the word “big.” Loving the Rav means to respect him. To love and respect the Rav means that you should follow his advice. There is nothing else that you need besides this.

Loving signifies that you hear your teacher or, at least, you are trying to listen to what I say to you (my students) and that you read what our teachers have written. In fact, this is enough. I assure you that if you act like that, your love will be mutual.
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From the Preparatory Lesson for the St. Petersburg Convention 7/11/13

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The Torah, “Exodus,” 25:1-25:4: “And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering; of every man whose heart maketh him willing ye shall take My offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold and silver and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair.”

Question: Until now, the commandments in the Torah were strict. Suddenly it says now “of every man whose heart maketh him willing.”

Answer: It is about freewill.

There are clear and accurate commandments of prohibitions, “don’t do,” which everyone must keep in order to be minimally adapted to Divinity since otherwise he cannot be called Adam (similar to the upper).

There is an even upper system that already analyzes the commands and manages us. A person can resemble this system when he first performs the initial corrections. This is a precondition. Then he can continue to adapt himself to the upper system of Divinity, which means to form it inside him.

It actually exists for such people who are called the Levites, Cohens, etc. They are special people who can form the Temple inside them.

A servant in the Temple is a person who has corrected himself and now resembles and is equal to the general nature, to the upper force, to the Creator, and who works internally with these attributes. This means to serve, and there is nothing but that. The Creator doesn’t need our obedience, or that we feel impressed by Him, or serve Him since He is absolute! We need this in order to transcend ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/29/13

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The Torah, “Exodus,” Mishpatim (Laws), 21:28 – 21:29): And if a bull gores a man or a woman and (that one) dies, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, and the owner of the bull is clear.

But if it is a (habitually) goring bull since yesterday and the day before yesterday, and its owner had been warned, but he did not guard it, and it puts to death a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and also its owner shall be put to death.

A “goring bull” symbolizes a state when a person “unleashes” his internal animal. If one doesn’t know what kind of animal it is, one is not considered guilty. In this case, it means that this person has received from Above such a powerful impulse of the Light that he simply is not able to resist It and that the Light went through him. When a person is murdered with the other person’s hands, this unintentional killer is still considered guilty of something since it was done through him rather than through somebody else. It means that he can be accused of another crime, but not of an intentional murder.

A lot of laws originate from this. Let’s say, a woman had two husbands and both of them died. So, she is prohibited to marry for the third time.

Question: This triggers lots of suppositions. If people lead an ordinary earthly life and are not aware that they are egoists, what can we expect of them?

Answer: The Torah does not speak of people who know nothing and live a normal life on earthly since they are still at the animate level and nothing can be expected of them. They are governed from above without any questions. They know only what they know and they don’t have any freedom of will, nor do they have any relationships with the governing force. The Torah speaks about the ways of rising to the level of the governing force and being in control of our lives.

However, it’s said that if one knows one’s genuine nature and still intentionally commits egoistic deeds, then one is subject to death. One has to take care of one’s correction; otherwise, one has to die. It means that if one’s action repeats twice, then, on the third time, the same action excludes this person from the level he is currently at and throws him to a lower level, meaning that one will need to self-correct the very basics.
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From Kab TV’s “Mysteries of the Eternal Book,” 5/20/13

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The Torah, “Exodus,” Mishpatim (Laws), 22:15 – 22:16: If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall provide her with a marriage contract as a wife.

If her father refuses to give her to him [in marriage], he shall weigh out money according to the dowry of the virgins.

“An unengaged girl” stands for an egoistic desire that cannot be used correctly. That’s why, relative to this person, this desire of his is considered “a virgin” who cannot be his, and yet he seduces her and thus receives a certain pleasure through fulfilling the desire.

One is prohibited from doing that since his desire is egoistic and doesn’t lead to bestowal. That’s why one has to pay, meaning “refill” the screen, the part of the action that one has not committed yet.

If he paid for the girl, meaning had a screen to work with her (his desire) seriously, then he would be allowed to marry her, to receive an egoistic pleasure. Otherwise, in the spiritual world it is considered to be a serious crime since it stands for the interaction that takes place in a Kli, a vessel, which is completely unsuitable for this person.

It is said that such a man is overwhelmed by his passion similar to the way it happens in this material world. It seems to him that he is able to treat his spiritual desire correctly and use it for bestowal, although later it turns out that he was not able to do it. Thus, he is obligated to use an additional correction and start working with his quality of bestowal over again.

Question: So, it means that the “seduction of a virgin” can happen subconsciously?

Answer: There are countless situations in life. Spiritual life is much more complicated and complex than ours. It has a huge amount of variations. Only after one starts acting can he acknowledge the quality of his desire and tell if he acts knowingly or subconsciously, whether it is a debauchery and seduction or simply a lack of knowledge and a misunderstanding. Who knows, maybe one had a good intention and all of a sudden it turns out that he cannot implement it into reality and it should be considered a violation. In other words, if one used a vessel that one should not have used because it is beyond one’s capacity, one cannot endure it.

It is only about working with a desire! Whatever we touch in the Torah is about the correction of desires that consist of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and internal speaking levels of nature. The Torah explains everything in an allegoric way.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/16/13

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When we rise from below to above on the spiritual ladder, I am renewed all the time. So in what way is my “second self” different from the “first self”? In that I perceive the Creator, my Maker, in all these levels?

In the previous level I was found under the influence of particular forces and also in the new level. Yet the difference between the levels is that in the previous level I had a “first Creator” and in the new level I have a “second Creator.” The ascent from level to level is in the perception of the Creator and not just that I perceive myself. I perceive myself in a more primitive form if I rise from below to above. Yet in addition to this, I perceive the Creator, I attach Him to me.

Which is to say, the “second creature” is different from the “first creature” in that he adds the Creator to himself, to his essence, and therefore he transforms into a great man, into an Adam relative to his previous state, he becomes more like the Creator.

It follows that spiritual attainment is not involved with the addition of greater feelings and intellect, rather it is qualitative. New Kelim are formed, desires are renewed and reorganized all the time.

From time to time the structure of the Creator penetrates more and more into the creature and organizes him according to His image. Because of this, we begin to think otherwise, to feel, to accept other decisions, we look at the world in a different way. Everything is changed within us. The substance seemingly is left unchanged, although it gets new information.

This is the ascent from below to above. The person is changed all the time, so that nothing of the previous state is left for him, not even memories. The desire for pleasure is left, yet it gets new complexity, division, structure, and organization. To this substance is added the structure of the Creator every time, meaning, the characteristic of bestowal and love. The connection between all the parts causes changes and influences the structure itself.

It is possible to compare this to a computer that is rebuilt yet is not changed in itself too much. Only a little memory, processing speed, and clock signal frequency is added, yet apparently the hardware, the machine is left the same, only it becomes more sophisticated, complex, faster, and responsive, which is to say it becomes more sensitive. Inside, those zeros and ones still alternate, yet with a higher speed than before.

Within these zeros and ones a new program acts, a new connection that changes the quality of the substance completely. The program establishes everything and controls the substance. The machine itself, the “metal” is unimportant—what is important is the program that works inside. Our ascent from below to above involves a more sophisticated program.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/20/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: Philosophy loves to concern itself with His Essence and prove which rules do not apply to Him. However, Kabbalah has no dealings whatsoever with it, for how can the unattainable and imperceptible be defined?

Kabbalists do speak a great deal about His illumination in reality, meaning all those illuminations they have actually attained, as validly as tangible attainment.

Kabbalists attain an abstract Light when it dresses into vessels and turns from a theoretical form to a tangible structure by manifesting Itself in us as various features of ours.

It is said that “we do not define by name or word that which we do not attain.” We attain everything there is by analyzing it in our vessels of receiving. They are our “eyes,” our vision, the channel through which we perceive the world. Only on condition that we know a certain phenomenon can we explore it to the degree of our immersion in it. Thus, we advance. There is a rigid principle: “We shall know You by Your deeds.” That’s why we always rely on our perception within our vessels, desires. Our internal reactions to them are in fact the Light.

Similarly, we recognize electricity not by its essence, but according to its results. Something flows through wires and generates various phenomena. All we see are the results. Baal HaSulam writes about it in his article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.” Actual things are found even in the corporeal reality set before our eyes, although we have neither perception nor image of their essence. Such are the electricity and the magnet, called “fluidum.” Nevertheless, who can say that these names are not real, when we vividly and satisfactorily know their actions? We could not be more indifferent to the fact that we have no perception of the essence of the subject itself, namely electricity itself.

We always explore the consequences of various essential categories, rather than deal with the categories per se. I have no idea what the subject that I look at is in fact, but I know how it acts.

All I do is check my sensations and reactions: Something looks black to me, other things feel solid, some are long, and certain things I can taste or smell. Reality is comprised of my internal reactions to outer impacts, rather than the factors that cause them per se. Therefore, phenomena that we differentiate are actually the effects that externality causes in us.

Why do philosophers refuse to admit it? The answer is that it will obligate them to become Kabbalists and study the Wisdom of Kabbalah in order to explore spirituality. Common sense prompts that they don’t know or understand a thing and have nothing to say. Really, what can one say if one doesn’t live in spirituality, nor does one sense It in one’s vessels, desires?

We shouldn’t approach Kabbalah with a regular human mind; we are not in the dimension that Kabbalah describes as of yet. We can fantasize about what’s inside the Earth and imagine life on other planets since these things are at least somehow interlaced with our sensations. However, they have nothing in common with spirituality. Moreover, we don’t have any connection with the spiritual realm: Our material reality as we see it is absolutely detached from the picture that is created in our minds. How can we deliberate about something that we have no contact with whatsoever?

This is one of the reasons the Wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed from humanity throughout millennia. Kabbalists were afraid of “smart alecks” who just tended to philosophize about the topics that are related to Kabbalah.

It also applies to the philosophers who valued Kabbalah, such as Reichlin, Goethe, Pico Della Mirandola, and others. Even these people did not understand a thing in the great wisdom, nor could they realize that the general universal knowledge that is beyond traditional disciplines originates from Kabbalah. What they proclaimed is in fact nothing but philosophizing. Some philosophers approach Kabbalah with critical analysis that is based on a subjective approach, others admit its importance, although none of them understand it. Their position lacks rationalism that is so much needed. Nevertheless, the truth will be revealed soon; we are very close to it.
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Question: Lately you have been advising us to “let go of the reins” and not to object to the spiritual process, “to flow with the current.” But the ego doesn’t let us do so since it constantly objects and refuses to. How pleasant and easy it would be to simply let go…

Answer: It is quite difficult since we can’t just do nothing, but rather we have to accept everything that happens in a totally open manner, gladly, and see that it comes only from the Creator, not to examine it, criticize, or assess it.

This is very complicated. Apparently there is nothing special here, just live freely and rejoice at everything. But in fact there is nothing more difficult than this. It isn’t easy to go with the flow, since in this case you need to be in absolute unity with the Creator. Absolutely! While he puts you in such circumstances in which you find yourself in states that are contradictory to Him, disagreeing with the world, with this life, with the problems that constantly trouble you! You constantly disagree! There is always something that makes you feel bad.

This is done on purpose from above. How can you accept everything calmly and flow with the current? Only by changing yourself! There is no other way! This is the problem. This is how you attain a peaceful tranquil world—when a person totally annuls himself and adheres to the Creator.

This type of rest is relative since a person advances quickly above the speed of light by going through an infinite number of changes. At any given moment he goes through billions of changes according to the upper Providence, in total acceptance, thinking logically, engaging only in what suppresses his ego and rising above it, thus entering a state of absolute rest. This is opposite from the concept of rest that we refer to today.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/29/13

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The Torah, “Exodus,” Mishpatim, 23:3: “Nor shall you favor a pauper in his lawsuit.”

By the word “pauper,” we mean a state where a person doesn’t have the power to overcome it. A “pauper” is weak and you don’t need to force yourself on him; otherwise, he will remain weak. You need to make a judgment concerning the state in which he is found. Everything must be according to the law, the judgment needs to be constructed without connection to “Partzufim.”

This refers to the right and left lines. Which of them is weaker? Altruism is considered to be weaker compared to the ego; the ego is stronger.

You don’t have to lean to this side. First, you cannot do this. Second, you don’t need to do this, as long as you have not raised the weak side to a level where it will become so important to you that the two lines will be equal, and then you can make a judgment in spite of it all.

Our role is to raise the “right line” to a significant level. Here there cannot be any inclination to any side: not to the right and not to the left. This is not as it is in other religions and beliefs.

As long as the two lines are not balanced as in a scale, you cannot make a judgment. But how is it possible to make a judgment if they are equal? Which of them is correct? Neither! Take both of them and raise them up. Only there does the vertex of the triangle join them like two opposites that can only connect above, on the next level.

This is the entire judgment, when you establish precisely that there is no possibility for deviation, the two lines are absolutely equal! I don’t see any preference for this versus that. And so the need for elevation is discovered. And until then, only words, but not a necessity.

On the next level the same thing happens. The mechanics of all the levels is identical.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/24/13

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