Question: What is the danger of speaking critically in the Kabbalistic community?

Answer: First, different critical thoughts arise from within each person. This is natural because our egoism is constantly working, constantly growing, and constantly arousing a critical attitude in us toward the world, except for those who are truly close to us.

Relationships in a group require constant spiritual elevation; therefore, our egoism works at full capacity there. It is not surprising that egoism is constantly aroused in each of us. Let it get excited, as it should be. This is a sign of growth, but it is about what we do with it.

I must constantly tune my egoism to the opposite; that is, I must work in such a way so that without destroying it and above it, I can build the property of bestowal and love in relation to my friends in the group. I must show them the same thing and set an example to everyone. And they should act in the same way regarding me and everyone else.

As a matter of fact, it is a game above our egoism and contrary to it. From this game, we gradually arouse the surrounding light, which in this case affects us, raises us, and actually creates a common property of bestowal in us in which we will then feel the Creator—the upper, governing force of the world.

If instead of this, I tell my friends about the critical attitude that I see in others—not about that I should demonstrate love and affection for them, but about my neglect, that is, my reason from my own egoism—then by doing this I simply spread a harmful infection between group members. This is absolutely unacceptable! This is the worst thing that kills our spiritual advancement.

Among men this is not such a terrible thing because they initially do not have such a movement from within as women do. And if they want to be with us in a group, in motion, it must be uprooted, weeded, and nipped in the bud. That is why I am so harsh about gossip and speaking critically. There should be no place for this among us.

You can be critical of someone who did something wrong in dissemination, professionally speaking, but not of the relations between us. In no case can you criticize a friend.

In addition, you do not even understand that you are talking about yourself and not about others; that is, you are reasoning from your ego.

Speaking critically is the most terrible thing that can be in a Kabbalistic group, and we must fight against it with all our might because it is a poison that kills any of our advancement. That is why I am so intolerant of criticism from friends, and if such things happen, we must actively fight against them. And if someone is not able, then these people should simply be removed from the group.

I should not speak out about the fact that I do not like some character traits of a friend. This should never happen. I have to rise above this.

Just like in my beloved child, I practically do not see any negative qualities, and even if I see them, they overlap with love. I still love him and I do not tell anyone what is bad in him. This is a clear example of how we should treat all of our friends like my beloved little child. We should treat them like that.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Beware of Gossip!” 3/19/13

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Question: What kind of relationship between friends in the group can be called a Klipa?

Answer: In a group, there can practically be no relationships such as Klipa. Klipa is envy, jealousy, rejection, unwillingness to help, i.e., all properties that deny the soulful, spiritual, heartfelt fusion between people.

Question: How does the Klipa work in general? What is its mechanism?

Answer: There are several properties in a person that form a Klipa. In general, these are egoistic properties, but they are divided into certain types. They are envy, jealousy, self-exaltation, deceit, and pride.

Question: That is, everything that separates us?

Answer: Yes. In fact, there are a lot of them, but they all make up one single whole—the egoistic “I” of a person.

Question: Is there a difference between those properties that you have just listed and properties that are revealed to a person who is directly in the revelation of the higher power?

Answer: They operate there too.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/21/22

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It does not matter from which part and exact place we begin to read The Zohar. Even if a person hears a lesson for the first time, it doesn’t matter at all. “There is no time in the Torah“; it talks about spiritual states and all this happens inside us, but we do not feel it yet.

But it doesn’t matter. It is important for us to awaken the light that is in The Book of Zohar, which is the highest, most faithful and powerful source. No book can even compare with The Book of Zohar in its effect on the soul.

To summon its light upon oneself so that it affects us is possible only by becoming like it in qualities. Therefore, we read The Book of Zohar together, meaning, first of all, before we open this Book, everyone should prepare themselves for connection with others.

It is also written about the gift of the Torah that if you agree (it is clear that you are unable to, but only agree!) to become “like one person with one heart” and to achieve brotherly love (in the future), then you will receive the Torah, that is, the method of correction by the light that returns to the source, the Creator. Then this light will affect you and return you to the source, to goodness, to equivalence with the Creator.

Therefore, while reading The Book of Zohar, we must always try to meet this condition: to be ready to unite so that the light affects us, unites us, and in our unity, as in one soul, we will reveal the light, the Creator. After all, an individual soul can only feel our current reality that we perceive now.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, The Book of Zohar, “VaYechi“

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Question: What is The Zohar?

Answer: “Zohar” means the “upper radiance.” This is the light of the level of the head of the world of Atzilut, which is Arik Anpin. The book is named after this glow because it speaks about the source, which through many different filters, gradually reduces itself and affects us.

Question: Why does The Zohar have a narrative form in the style of a story?

Answer: No! It’s not about people. Neither the Torah, nor the Zohar, nor even the Talmud speak about people but only about spiritual levels.

If you were at some spiritual level, then we would measure your level relative to the height of, say, Rabbi Shimon or someone else. This is how a person is measured, not by his name. What difference does it make to me what his name was!?

The level from which he speaks is important to me, because at this level he breaks through all the screens and sees the spiritual world. It is important to me what this opens up to him. He works like an accelerator of some micro-particles.

Therefore I need this data about him not as a person, but rather with what power and how many electron volts are in his “cannon” by which he breaks through all the barriers and reveals the upper world to me.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call,  Entering The Zohar 3/22/13

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Question: In The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Baal HaSulam writes about the miraculous quality of the singularity of the Creator. What kind of singularity are we talking about?

Answer: The fact is that in all His actions the Creator is absolutely good. He only gives and bestows; He only thinks and intends to do everything for the absolute benefit of creation.

He does not have any thought with regard to Himself, but only for the creation that He created. He has no desires for Himself, and therefore, He cannot be a source of negative actions. After all, everything He does is only for the sake of the created beings.

Question: Does it mean that we too should come to a state where we do not think about ourselves at all?

Answer: Yes, we will have to come to the same state as a result of our correction. The “miraculous quality” is to not to think about myself, but to think about others.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 8/14/22

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Question: There is constructive stubbornness and there is destructive stubbornness. Is stubbornness a good property in Kabbalah?

Answer: Yes, it is good. Every property has a direct and a reverse side in its expression. In diligence there is also a negative side, you can get stuck into something and keep hammering at some completely needless thing. Everything should be balanced.

Harmony is the golden mean, the middle path we have to follow.

Question: Can stubbornness on its own destroy everything?

Answer: Certainly. There is such a kind of stubbornness that does not want to hear any reasons of its mind or others.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call, Stupid Stubbornness” 4/18/13

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In Ein Sof it is a “simple desire” because He is One and His Name One. The light in Ein Sof is called He and the will to receive is called His Name, and they are simple unity without any form of separation (Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, Chapter 1).

Question: What does it mean “He is One and His Name One”?

Answer: The Creator is the force itself and His name is what this force produces.

The essence of the Creator, in principle, cannot be attained by us. His actions are the actions of the Creator within us, and based on them we can decide what His essence is. But all the same, this is not the essence of the Creator Himself, but the essence of His revelation to us, the Good and Does Good. Eventually, this is what we attain.

Question: Can we say that He is the force, light, and His name is the will to receive, creation?

Answer: Yes. As a result of the way we feel and explore His influence on us, to that extent we attain Him.

Question: What is this state of “simple unity”?

Answer: Simple unity is what we can reach as a result of our similarity with the Creator, i.e., the gradual coming closer to Him, up to the adhesion. Although we are absolutely opposite to Him since He created us, as it were, as His imprint, based on this imprint, we become similar to the Creator, and eventually we begin to feel Him.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 8/14/22

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When it rose upon His simple desire (30) to create the worlds and emanate the emanated beings to bring the perfection of His deeds, His names and appellations to light, which was the reason of the creation of the worlds (Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, Chapter 1).

Question: Does this mean that the Creator created worlds and created beings to show the perfection of His actions?

Answer: Basically, yes. The Creator created the worlds and created beings in order to reveal His perfection and the perfection of His actions to the created beings who would be able to attain His actions and through them to attain Him.

The Creator Himself is concealed, He is unattainable. Only His actions are attainable because He reveals Himself in them. Through His actions we can imagine who He is, although the very essence of the Creator is unattainable to us.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot

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After the creation of Malchut of the world of Ein Sof, nothing else changed. This is the only form in reality, the Malchut of Ein Sof, in which desire and light are in perfect fusion, harmony, and unity according to the principle: “He and His name are one.”

All other states represent a kind of cover of this perfection. They hide it from us and therefore are called “worlds (Olamot),” which means “concealments (Halamot),” the ten concealing Sefirot that as if absorb the light and conceal it from us who are in this world.

Therefore, if we want to get closer to the world of Ein Sof, we must learn to look correctly at ourselves and at the environment, at the world we are in, over and over again so that this picture takes an increasing similarity to the world of Ein Sof. This means that “He and His name are one.”

As far as possible, we find out who “He” is, what “His name” is, how and with what details of perception, to solder them into one. This is how we move up the degrees of the ladder of spiritual worlds back to Ein Sof.

From here it becomes clear that the stairway and the worlds are not outside, but inside. All these veils of Ein Sof, in which we are now, are layered in ourselves. And they are needed so that we gradually reveal where we are; we reveal ourselves by our own efforts. The more reason I gain, the greater my excitement and inspiration, the more desires I will gain, and I will develop myself to become a resident of the future world, the world of Ein Sof.

This is why we are given the environment of this world. If a person uses all his aspects and elements correctly, then everything is in his power. And if not, then, according to the level of his development, he is under pressure: crises, wars, problems, and disasters of various kinds. Together they clamp him “in a vise” and direct him in the right direction so that he begins to build this world for himself in ever greater similarity with Ein Sof.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/11, Rav Yehuda Ashlag ”Peace in the World”

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The flower buds are the patriarchs, who entered in thought and entered the next world, Bina, and were hidden there.

From there, they came out in concealment and were hidden in the true prophets. Joseph was born and they hid in him.

Joseph entered the holy land and erected them there. As it is written: Joseph was born, who is Yesod de Gadlut. (Zohar for All, “The Flower Buds,” Item 5)

Our entire connection with the spiritual world passes through the Partzuf of Nukva of the world of Atzilut. It is to it that broken souls raise MAN, a request for correction.

A person with a point in his heart yearns for the spiritual world, and spirituality is bestowal and unity. Therefore, he strives to unite with others, and he is given such an opportunity in the group.

If a person fulfills the condition of the ascent and creates a Kli, he connects with Malchut de Atzilut. It raises the common request of the friends to Zeir Anpin, and Zeir Anpin gives them the reforming light. Then the souls who want to become one ascend the degrees of unity.

First, to the state of an embryo (Ibur). Here they annul themselves before each other and unite. Everyone bows his head to the environment and becomes an “embryo in the mother’s womb.”

Then they reach the stage of nursing (Yenika), where their connection grows stronger. Now they are already able to work with their will to receive, to rise above it.

Then the souls move to the state of maturity (Gadlut). The level of their connection allows them to connect with Zeir Anpin, and this stage is called Yesod de Gadlut, or Joseph.

From here we can understand the story of Joseph described in the Torah, whom his brothers sold into slavery. These events unfold around the fight for our connection so that we achieve mutual guarantee (Arvut) to the extent sufficient to reveal the Creator between us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/10, The Book of Zohar, “The Buds”

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