“The fear of the Lord is the Resheet [beginning] of wisdom.” It is also written, “The fear of the Lord is the Resheet [beginning] of knowledge,” since fear is called Resheet. Also, it is the gate by which to enter faith, and the whole world exists on this Mitzva” (Baal HaSulam, Introduction of the Book of Zohar, “The Commandments of the Torah,” the First Commandment, Item 189).

The fear of the Creator is a common foundation that binds everything and holds the whole building on itself. A person fears the Creator, who is the root of everything, governs everything, and organizes everything. There is nothing in the world that exists outside of the Creator, the one upper force that embraces everything.

It is a mistake to think that a person can exist independently of the Creator and decide something oneself. Such a thing does not exist in nature. Only the Creator does everything, and therefore, fear of the Creator is the root of everything.

To fear the Creator means to tremble before the greatness of the one who reigns everywhere and governs everything like before the only force in the world on which a person depends one hundred percent.

But this is not about being afraid of the Creator, but about being afraid to separate from the force that embraces everything. A person should perceive every moment of his existence as being sent by the Creator. This is what is called the fear of the Creator.

The Creator is the entirety of nature, which includes all the natural laws that He established.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Are there any examples of receiving for the sake of bestowal in our world?

Answer: No. In our world, we do not feel the desire to receive and the desire to give in an open form. We do not see the fulfillment that others receive.

Question: But in our world, a person also feels that he receives and gives. What desires are we talking about here?

Answer: The fact is that in our world all desires are egoistic. Even if a person gives, he acts so only for himself.

Question: So, when a person comes into some kind of contact with an upper force, he receives something from it, and gives something to it. And these calculations fill him when he receives and gives. And if I just contact people in this world, I also receive and give something, I also fill up, but is it something else?

Answer: If you assume that this brings you closer to the Creator, that you can give to Him, then you feel receiving or giving. It is impossible to give and receive directly from the Creator. It always goes through humanity, through other people.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/15/23

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Before reading The Book of Zohar, we need to adjust ourselves so that we feel that we are in a group. Then we are in an equivalence of qualities with the very group of Kabbalists who wrote The Zohar, and we can more easily understand what they want to convey to us.

Understanding comes as a result of the influence of light. The light acts on us from the connection between the souls of the ten Kabbalists, who all together were in a completely corrected state, that is, in a completely corrected connection with each other.

Therefore, when they corrected the connection between them to such an extent that none of them had an uncorrected will to receive, they revealed between them the upper light, called “Zohar” – radiance, which is emanating from the Rosh (Head) of Arich Anpin, the light of infinity.

Therefore, if we try to reach the same relationship between us as the authors of The Book of Zohar, we attract light from the same states they have reached.

This light can also create a connection between us, as it is said: “He who makes peace above will make peace upon us.” This is what we should expect from reading The Book of Zohar.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus)”

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Comment: If we treat time on a psychological level, then indeed, it may not exist. But with respect to our protein bodies, we see that time still exists.

My Response: Our protein bodies measure time by their pulse, the beats of the heart, and by the way we measure the relationship between the states we go through. But these are all purely subjective concepts.

In fact, if you are in a rocket that is launched into space at high speed, then time will be measured differently for you, and you will look different compared to others.

Time is not a biological system that changes you; time is what you change. So I would not treat time in this way. But we are used to it, and live in a world in which time passes according to the ticking of the clock.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/25/22

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A man is created from the material of the desire to enjoy; therefore, he is constantly worried about whether he will be able to get pleasure. A person is concerned about this every moment of his life; a person feels some kind of deficiency and fears that he will not be able to fill it. He is like a bunny always hiding under a bush and trembling with fear.

The fear of not getting what we want lives in us all the time. This is our nature of the desire to enjoy, which is based on fear.

But when we correct ourselves, we must move from fear to trembling. This is something completely different. I am afraid that I will not be able to give to the Creator, I will not be able to draw near Him, to become like Him, to fulfill His desire. He has been guiding me and giving me exercises all my life, and I am afraid I will not feel it and will not connect with Him correctly.

Fear is anxiety about my own existence, and trembling is anxiety about whether I will give pleasure to the Creator. The main task of a person is to achieve such trembling; this is the very first commandment.

The feeling that everything comes from the Creator and there is none else besides Him is the root of the right trembling from which one already comes to wisdom, attainment, and correct fulfillment.

The source of trembling of the Creator is in Bina, and above Bina is Hochma, wisdom. And even higher is Keter, the full governance of the Creator over all reality. Therefore, it is possible to enter the GAR, the higher Sefirot Bina, Hochma, and Keter, only through Bina, which is called trembling.

There are different stages of fear. At the initial stages, a person worries about himself, about what will happen to him and what he will not have, and he is afraid of punishment. And so he goes through all the fears until he rises to true trembling when he is afraid whether he will be able to please the Creator.

And in order to come to trembling before the Creator, a person needs proper work with his friends, where is the root of all fears: Will I be able to help my friends, will I be able to feel their help for me or not? All work on spiritual development revolves around mutual guarantee.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: What does it mean to “act for the sake of others”? For example, a factory worker stands behind a machine for 12 hours. Does he work for others? Or, let’s say a teacher at school teaches children. Is it for the sake of others?

Answer: No. Action for the sake of others is an intention and not the action itself. I can work 20 hours a day, but it does not mean anything. Why am I doing this? If it is for the benefit of others and this is my motivation, then I am doing good. But if I work 20 hours a day to earn a million dollars, then I am not doing anyone any good.

Question: Does it mean that we need to have some kind of device to check this intention?

Answer: We do not have such a device. We cannot measure a person’s inner efforts. We cannot measure his thoughts.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/8/23

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While working on themselves at the level of the Second Temple, the people of Israel tried to do everything possible to stay on it, but egoism grew because the ego that contained all of humanity was not corrected since humanity was still developing egoistically.

Therefore, the developing egoism affected the Jews, and they could not remain at the same level of benevolent interaction with each other. Their condition is represented by the wars with the Romans and the Greeks, but in fact these were internal wars of the people of Israel.

The fall occurred under the influence of egoistic desires: the Greek ones (in ideology) and Roman ones (in action). Of course, this is not about the Greeks and the Romans because we are talking only about the internal states of the same group of Abraham.

Eventually they fell from the level of the Second Temple: “Do not do to the other what is hateful to you,” were completely disconnected from any kind mutual actions, and became like ordinary people. This means that they were captured not by the Egyptians or Babylonians, but by humanity in general, which was disconnected from all spiritual categories.

This is the next, most difficult stage—the third exile from spirituality. The Jews entered it gradually and lost their previous degree. This continued for many years and ended in the 16^th century in the time of Ari.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History of the Jewish People” 5/4/14

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Question: There are 31,556,926 seconds in a year. How would you advise spending these seconds in the most efficient way?

Answer: There is no need to think about it. You need to think about how you fill your time. The main thing is to understand what you exist for so that every moment of your life will be filled with the mission you live for.

Suppose the main thing for you is the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah. You should measure your time and your success by this parameter.

Question: Precisely regarding the results, right?

Answer: Of course. In the corporeal world, we do an action, and after a while, we see the result. But in the spiritual world, because all actions are performed in relation to the Creator, the action itself is already a result and a fulfillment. Therefore, time does not exist there, it does not stretch.

Question: Suppose, now I’m making a program with you and the result of it will come after some time, then, is the reception of the filling delayed?

Answer: You are cutting time. But if you would receive fulfillment right now, then time would not exist for you.

Question: That is, a Kabbalist lives outside of time, right?

Answer: In general, yes.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/25/22

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The staff that we rely upon in our spiritual work in the ten is the connection of Malchut with Bina; it is the force that we hold on to that does not allow us to make mistakes and fall. When we connect with each other in the ten, we thereby build such a staff, i.e., connection between us. Through our connection with each other, we connect with Bina.

Each one annuls his egoistic desire in something and joins the tiny will to bestow that shines before him. In this way, together we can grasp this force, this concept called the staff (Mate). This means that the will to receive becomes of lower (Mata) importance for us.

Each of us tries to set an example to our friends of how we can hold on to the staff together.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Although only phase four was restricted, the light left the first three phases as well (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 7).

The last, fourth phase is the desire itself, which was reached by the expansion of the first three phases. The desire did not want to be egoistic and differ from the first phase in the opposite direction; therefore, it restricted itself and the light disappeared from it.

Then it took a different development of light as a basis;: it will receive the light but only in order to bring contentment to the Creator. Here it receives oppositeness from the Creator, on one hand, and on the other hand, similarity to Him.

Question: What is this state when the light departs from the Kli? How is this manifested in our world?

Answer: It is not manifested in our world. When the light leaves the Kli, it remains dead. This is similar to how any animate or vegetative body dies. The life-giving power leaves it.

Question: Does the expulsion of light from the Kli occur consciously?

Answer: Yes, the Kli cannot remain in this state, it is ready to sacrifice everything that is in it just not to be the opposite of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/1/23

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