Question: “Absence” or “nothing” is a category that captures the absence of something. In physics it is called a vacuum. But although a vacuum is the absence of some objects, fields exist in it. And what does the wisdom of Kabbalah mean by the terms “absence” and “existence out of absence”?

Answer: Absence and existence from absence are different things.

Absence is the negation of anything in any place, volume, or space. Therefore if we say “absence,” “none,” or “nothing,” we are simply saying that no forces exist in the place, format, or category in question.

And existence from absence is something that exists. Therefore it is called “being” or “essence.”

Thus there is absence and there is something that has appeared from absence. But how can it appear? To what extent does it exist? What properties does this something have, and who can feel and affirm it at all? Regarding whom and what does it exist?

These are very deep, serious, one might say philosophical questions, but in Kabbalah they are dealt with simply, clearly, and each has its own place.

First we must immediately discuss one of the most serious attitudes: everything we are talking about happens with respect to a person who attains nature and finds in it absence, existence, being, nothing, and so on. It means that any person who makes certain efforts can attain these categories of nature.

Question: So they don’t exist by themselves, outside of a person?

Answer: We cannot talk about what is outside of man at all, even about the Creator, because the upper force of nature is still felt in us. Therefore the Creator in Hebrew is called “Boreh,” “Bo-reh“—”come” and “see.” That is when you come and see, attain it, and define it. This will be called “Boreh” in relation to you.

Question: Is there any term that means a force that cannot be attained and seen?

Answer: If it is impossible to attain and see, then how can you define it? What we don’t feel, we can’t call by any name, and therefore we don’t talk about it.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/19/21

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For if you turn away, and cling to the remnant of these nations, that remain with you; and intermarry with them and mingle with them and they with you;

Know of a certainty that the Lord your God will not drive these nations out from before you, anymore; and they will be a snare and an obstacle to you, and a goad in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you. (Prophets, Joshua, 23:12-23:13)

This is about reward and punishment. Moreover, punishment is also a reward and a correction; everything is aimed in one direction. Do not think that there is some kind of closeness or separation here. All of it brings a person toward the similarity with the Creator.

Question: It is said that we are not allowed to “intermarry with them,” which is a serious prohibition in the Torah. What does it mean?

Answer: This prohibition means that throughout various stages of development of egoism, there are desires that we cannot work with yet for the sake of bestowal, so we seemingly cut them off from ourselves. That is, prior to correction there can be no combination of egoistic and altruistic desires.

But afterward, as it is written, “intermarry with them and mingle with them,” because in the end everything will be corrected.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/30/21

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What the Wisdom Is About

This question comes to the mind of every right-minded person. To properly address it, I will provide a reliable and lasting definition: This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots that hang down by way of cause and consequence, following fixed, determined laws that interweave into a single, exalted goal described as “the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.” (Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”)

Simply put, the wisdom of Kabbalah studies the ways a person can attain the sublime goal of becoming similar to the upper force. The main thing for us is to attain the state of the Creator, to have attributes similar to His. No more, no less! Can you imagine what fantastic levels of development this is about?! Indeed these are the assignments that the Creator gives us and we have to ascend to His level.

Consequently, the wisdom of Kabbalah explores the structure and the mutual connections of the multiple spiritual bodies: how they depend on each other, how they can be revealed in each other, etc. By clarifying and analyzing this dependence, we study and explore the attribute of bestowal, the attribute of love and thus study the attribute of the Creator Himself.

Indeed, if you take the body of a small animal, whose only task is to nourish itself so it may exist in this world long enough to procreate and carry on its species, you will find in it a complex structure of millions of fibers and tendons, as physiologists and anatomists have found, and there is much there that humans have yet to find. From the above, you can conclude the vast variety of issues and channels that need to connect in order to fashion and reveal that sublime goal.

From a person’s perspective the main thing is not to understand his attributes, his nature, to enter it, and to delve into it, but to study the connections between us, how we are connected to each other. It is because it is actually this network of connections that helps us reveal the Creator. So I don’t care about the character of my friends, about their internal attributes, and all the more so about their history or their lives, their family, etc. The only thing I care about is the network between us, which is the most important thing for me.

But in order to restore this network, we need to draw the upper light onto it and then the light will begin to influence it, to restore and to reconstruct it, to shape it correctly. This is how we will determine and identify the Creator.

The right network of good mutual connections between us in which we sustain each other is called the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 8/18/19

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A person’s attitude to the Creator is never simple because love and fear are always intertwined in it. On one hand I feel a great difference between our degrees and full control of the upper one over me. Since I am still within my egoism, I naturally try to adhere to Him egoistically.

Even if I change my attitude, I still remain dependent on Him and not free. This is why I feel animal fear. After all, I am His creation; the first word is always His, and the last word is also His. This is such dependence and control that we do not even fully recognize it, like little children who do not notice the control of their parents.

How, with all of this dependence, can I still acquire freedom of choice and freedom of action in order to have the right to say that in my devotion to the Creator I am the first and I am the last? Otherwise this connection cannot be called free if I adhere to Him as a slave to the master.

This is why we are given the Torah, to receive from the Creator strength and definitions in order to form the correct attitude toward Him. We cannot know the very essence of the Creator, but we study our connections and relationships with Him and better and better imagine this upper force that created us. By the actions of the Creator upon us and the whole world, upon the entire human society, we know His mind and feelings, the force that created everything.

Therefore our connection with the Creator consists of two components: the Torah and the work. In this way we build the image of the Creator within ourselves and bring our qualities to an ever-increasing similarity to this upper force that is unknown to us.

We as if collect all the qualities opposite to Him that we have discovered, and transform them into the opposite ones in order to arrange them in the correct form. Since they are shattered, we need to connect them correctly. From the obtained result, we will understand that this is the Creator, His essence, His form, His attitude toward us.

Through correcting the shattering we begin to understand from all its fragments what has shattered here and how to correct it, i.e., to connect, and what connection and dependence should be between all the parts so that they complete each other. In this mutual completing of each other, we reveal the divine wisdom so that in thought one part is connected with the other.

It is enough to look at our universe, how huge and contradictory it is, the shattering that we can see in it, and at the same time the connection, the dependence of one on the other. All this is one integral system in which nothing can be added or subtracted in any fragment, in any atom, or in any action.

At the moment it seems to us fragmented, but if we correct our mind and feelings, we will be able to assemble the entire universe into one system the way it really is: one desire and one force that is inside this desire. Then we will find ourselves in the state that existed before the shattering, which is called “He and His name are one.”

He is the light, the upper force of bestowal and love, that dwells in His name, that is, in the vessel, in the desire created by Him, which acquires the form of light, the quality of the Creator. Although the desire itself is opposite to the Creator, it works in the same direction, in the same inclination for unity as the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/21, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #45 “Two Discernments in the Torah and in the Work”

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Question: Can scientists discover the worlds that the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about? They have already proven that everything depends on the observer in what is called the double-slit experiment.

Answer: Indeed, everything depends on the observer. But the observer must have the attributes that he wants to see. If he doesn’t have these attributes, he can invent instruments to help him.

An instrument by which we can see the upper world is a certain society, a group whose members are connected to each other by the attribute of bestowal. If the right group is made of such people, it becomes like a lens, a telescope, a magnifying glass. Then it is possible to see the upper world through this group.

So there is no problem with that. We simply need to understand that we need to change corporeal actions and turn them into spiritual actions and then we will receive an answer.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 10/6/19

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Question: How can a person develop the necessary amount of patience?

Answer: It is only through the importance of the goal. What was I born for? Why do I exist? What am I living for and why do I die? Is the meaning of life to actually feel comfortable at any given moment?

This is very important for the corporeal body, of course. We can all agree with that because this is our nature. We fear pain and we fear hardships, each of us to a different extent; but that’s the way it is and we cannot do anything about it because this is our egoistic nature.

But if I am in a group and it speaks about the greatness of our path and about the importance of the goal of life, and if I somehow lower my head and don’t raise it in pride with regard to them, if I am impressed by the importance of the goal that they feel and I subdue myself to their impact, then I feel the powers to advance.

Furthermore, it is important to burn the bridges behind me. When I found my teacher I burned everything I had before. I had a successful business and everything a man needs in life, but I immediately parted from that so that there was no going back, so that I could no longer restore anything. I moved to live near my teacher Rabash and by that cut off any contact with my past.

I began a new life, a more modest life, more limited in every sense, but next to my teacher. So it was already very difficult to change my life.

When we are under the influence of the environment and negative thoughts, we need to tie ourselves to the right path as much as possible, just as sailors tie themselves to the deck so that stormy waves will not wash them overboard.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/13/19

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Prophets, Joshua, 24:3: And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

From the land lying between the Tigris and the Euphrates, from egoistic desires and goals, the Creator guided the children of Israel to completely different desires and intentions, to a different level of existence. It is allegorically written in the Torah that they seemingly physically left the other side and came to this land.

The fact is that a completely new ideology started to awaken in Abraham: questions about the meaning of life and the desire to attain the upper force. As a result of an internal search, this gradually led him to the Creator.

Question: What is “Abraham” inside of us?

Answer: It is a state when one is looking for his purpose in life, he suffers, gets confused, but still finds it. It is arranged specifically so that he finally finds out what he needs on this earth. And when the Creator reveals the true meaning of life to him, he understands that this is everything.

Within our desires, we want to reach the truth. How will it appear to us? You cannot present it to a child but only to a person who has been searching for a long time, has evolved, and will be able to grasp this truth.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/6/21

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We cannot express concepts of the upper world in words or letters from our world because our whole lexicon reflects sensations from our five senses. The greatest difficulty is when we have to express certain knowledge in words and publish it for the sake of discussion as is customary in scientific research. This is the reason that a Kabbalist has to use definitions that are absolutely accurate.

We encounter a double problem here.

On one hand the wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom of attaining the law of nature, but attaining that internal part, the internal layer of nature that we do not feel through our five senses or instruments we invent. Basically there is no way of feeling this internal layer of nature called the upper world, which the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about, inside of us or through instruments that we can build.

Special actions that are connected according to special laws take place there, laws of reception and bestowal, of ascent and descent. In general, there are certain forces, their actions, and their consequences. Unfortunately we cannot see that with our corporeal senses.

Just as we can speak about atoms and molecules in our world, but if all these micro, macro, and other processes are not perceived by our senses, there is nothing we can do. Until we invent certain devices, we cannot feel them.

And in Kabbalah, we can create this instrument inside us. It is impossible to reveal the upper world, the Partzufim, the Sefirot, the worlds, etc. by any external instrument. It is all only on the level of our personal, internal attainment.

So, in order to begin to feel the upper world, its laws, its attributes, and its actions, we must bring ourselves to a more sensitive state, increase our sensitivity, and bring our qualities to such a level that we will be able to feel what happens in the basis of our world, at its foundation.

Second, we cannot express what we feel. This is the reason why Kabbalists had to invent a special language that would reflect our five special senses. We call them by names that we do not understand, such as: Kli (vessel), Ohr (light), Masach (screen), Ohr Hozer (reflecting light), etc. This means that Kabbalists make definitions for themselves and ordinary people do not understand where they got them from.

As we advance in the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we begin to feel there are accurate actions behind these names and terms. We begin to feel that very fine changes are actually taking place here as a result of our efforts, and we can determine the level of our actions, which means that everything is gradually included in our lexicon of concepts and later in our sensory attainments.

This study and its gradual internal development bring us to a gradual understanding of the language that Kabbalah books are written in. It is called the language of branches. In other words, there are roots in the upper world, and in our world there are branches of these roots that we can feel and study. Thus, we can determine their roots according to their names and according to their actions and attributes.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 10/6/19

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There is a point in the heart in every person. But in some people it awakens more, and then they begin to be interested in the science of Kabbalah and eventually come to study in order to develop their point in the heart using this method and build a temple from it, which means a spiritual vessel (Kli), a Partzuf of ten Sefirot, in which they will be able to reveal the Creator.

Therefore the Creator puts a point in a person’s heart and says: “Make Me a temple where I can reign, that is, reveal Myself in you.” This is why we exist, to allow the Creator to reign in us, to become a vessel for the revelation of the upper light.

This is the purpose of every person’s existence, and everyone should join this work. Our whole life, whether it will be good or full of suffering, depends on whether we go the way of building a Kli for the revelation of the Creator.

This point includes the entire universe, but for now it seems to us just a point of no importance, and we do not see in it either the power or the potential for the revelation of all the upper worlds. Strength comes when we strive to connect together to become like one person with one heart. Success depends only on this.

All the desires of a person are called a heart, and inside this heart there is a tiny spark, which is called a “point in the heart.” This point glows because it reaches out to the Creator.

And sometimes it’s just a black dot that doesn’t glow, as if it has gone out. And a person should always try to ignite this spark. In the beginning the Creator awakens it, but then He transfers this work to the person so that he awakens himself.

Sometimes this point awakens itself and reveals in a person a desire, a feeling that he lacks the spiritual. But there is no need to wait for the point to awaken itself and pull us to the spiritual. It is necessary to light each friend’s point in the group, in the ten, so that it begins to shine in his heart and through him to all other friends.

This is a special action when I feel that my friends are thinking about me, and therefore I wake up, and before that I was like a dead man. So let’s try to think about all our friends in order to help everyone burn together with the desire for the Creator. If we do this together, we will achieve success very quickly and easily. Alone, it can drag on for eternity.

And besides, the point itself, although it gives aspiration to the Creator and some connection, does not yet provide fulfillment. To fill it, it is necessary to create a spiritual Partzuf from the point, a certain volume. And this can only be done by connecting several points together.

We will feel that although we are striving for the same goal, we are very different. And then through overcoming these differences, the distance between us, and trying to connect on top of everything, we awaken our points in the heart, and from internal compression and pressure they flare up.

It is a huge gift to receive the initial awakening from the Creator, and we are obliged to realize it. Otherwise, it will be an unforgivable neglect of the great gift from above.
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From KabTV’s “Conversation at a Meal” 10/24/21

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Question: Where can we find the strength to create the correct Hisaron (desire) for our friends?

Answer: You should develop it among yourselves. The point is that both strength and desire do not come from somewhere, but only from above, from the Creator. But it all depends on how much we need it.

Sometimes we demand: “Give us the desire!” But we cannot handle properly what we have, and this is why all our screams, shrieks, requests, prayers give nothing. Therefore, you need to understand that only to the extent of your connection will the correct impulses for a request or a desire from above arise in you, for a desire to rise to the force that will develop and raise you.

Only the identification of a common request between us and turning it to the Creator depends on us.
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From KabTV’s “Videoconference”

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