Question: 200 years before its destruction, the Temple was desecrated. From the spiritual point of view, desecration means that people have discovered the Greeks, egoistic desires, within themselves.

At the same time, other desires, called the Maccabees, appeared among people who rebelled against the “Greeks.” In honor of the rebellion of the Maccabees, who purged the Temple, the celebration of Hanukkah began. What does this holiday mean?

Answer: Our soul consists of two parts: vessels of reception and vessels of bestowal. As we advance, at a certain stage we complete the correction of the vessels of bestowal and must start correcting the vessels of reception.

“Hanukkah,” from the word “Hanaya,” means a stopover, i.e., a transition from one action to another. The desires to bestow are easier to correct. Therefore, Hanukkah is the festival of light.

Question: It turns out that spiritual states can be viewed from different points of view. On one hand, these are historical events. On the other hand, a whole nation passed through these states. And third, each person within himself must go through the same states. Are these all identical?

Answer: Yes, as it is said: “… the collective and the individual are one and the same.”
[275338]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/16/20

Related Material:
Hanukkah—Striving To Unite
Hanukkah Is A Way Out Of Darkness
Hanukkah – The Miracle Of Unity

Filed under: Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How are external communication and attempts to connect between us
related to the potential development of my inner spiritual feelings?

Answer: Your spiritual feelings will be revealed solely and only in your
connection with others and not within yourself.

Where is the Creator? Where is the common spiritual field? It is between us and not in any one of us! If you remember this very well, you will not make a mistake.
[241074]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/11/18

Related Material:
Attack On The Fineness Of Feelings
Many Roads Lead To The Creator
Breakthrough Via The Shared Center Of The Circle

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What are the signs of a healthy growth of the ego in corporeality and spirituality?

Answer: Healthy growth of the ego takes place when I ascend above it and perform spiritual actions. By doing so, I force the ego to grow to my level.

Suppose I perform a certain spiritual action. As soon as I ascend to its level, my ego also ascends to its level. I yearn to advance, perform the next spiritual action, and ascend to the next level, and my ego ascends further from that level too. This means that to the extent that I grow in spirituality, my ego also grows.

This is how they follow each other, as it says: “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater.” It turns out that when you grow to be a good Kabbalist, you become a great egoist.

But then the ego is controlled by the spiritual attribute that you have acquired, which means that you work with the intention in order to bestow, and you push your spirit, your spiritual state, which in its turn pushes your ego upward.

Thus, our spiritual level actually grows thanks to the ego, because everything that the Creator has created is basically the ego, and everything else is its derivatives.
[241153]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/11/18

Related Material:
Should I Nurture My Ego?
Don’t Fight With Yourself
How To Work With Egoism

Filed under: Egoism, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

It is written: “You have made Me.” Yet, how can this be if the Creator is the only force that exists in the universe? This force contains everything, and apart from it there is nothing, nothing extends beyond its borders. Everything comes to life within the Creator, including us.

How can we create the Creator? Didn’t the Creator create us, because there is no one else? The Creator faced a difficult task: to create a creation and develop it so that it becomes independent. It is what we do when we want to foster independence in our children. The Creator, however, had a more difficult task because there is no other force beside Him.

Let’s say we grew up and found out that there is no one else beside the Creator and we are inside this force that influences us. Then what can we do by ourselves?

Therefore, on one hand, the Creator fills the entire universe and controls everything, but on the other hand, we do not see this because He is hidden. This is what we sometimes do with our children, we don’t want to help them so we hide so that they can work on their own and learn how to build something. Apparently, the Creator is concealed because He wanted to make us independent.

On the other hand, we need to learn to live in the world as if the Creator is present. And if He were revealed, we would do exactly what we are doing now when He is hidden. This state is called complete faith. First and foremost, we must reach it: faith above reason, bestowal above the force of reception, above the force of our egoism.

It is possible to overcome egoism only if there is something bigger than it, the force of bestowal. We are made of the of the desire to receive pleasure, and it is not impressed by words but bows to power. If my egoism feels the greatness of the Creator, it will do everything that the Creator commands. Yet, if my egoism feels its own greatness, it follows all the orders of egoism. It is obvious that either one or the other force governs: either the force of our egoism or the force of the Creator’s bestowal.

We behave according to the one that influences us. If egoism were openly active in us, we would obey it in everything and would be called wicked, complete egoists. In fact, this is what is happening now.

And if the Creator were revealed and allowed us to see that He fills the world, if the force and superiority of the will to bestow were revealed, we would immediately bow before it and obey its orders in everything. Sometimes it even happens; suddenly the greatness of the Creator is revealed a little, and we are ready to give and love for a while until this miracle disappears.

Such impulses come and go in order to show us that this is possible, but only if we are more impressed with the greatness of the Creator than with the greatness of our egoism. In other words, the question is who will rule: the will to receive or the will to bestow? There are only these two forces in nature.

However, if we behaved in this way, we would either be criminals who follow only our will to receive or angels who act according to the will to bestow. One or the other force would fully govern us, and we would remain animals, either predatory or holy, acting according to inner instinct. In this form, we are not similar to the Creator, we are not human, Adam, because we did not choose to be egoists or saints.

Then how to make us free so that we can choose whether to receive or to bestow, whether to be opposite from the Creator or like Him? The Creator was faced with the task of making man free so that he will choose what he prefers: either to be an egoist like creation or an altruist like the Creator and become His son, partner, ands similar to the Creator.

The Creator thought and found a solution: put an intermediary between the will to receive and the will to bestow, between the two opposite forces, so that the creation can consist of the will to receive, but will be able to shift to the intention for the sake of bestowal. The Creator created a situation where the creation can be impressed with the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of bestowal, but not directly from the upper force so as not to bow before it, but to study this state to the extent of its desire.

If a person really wants to recognize the greatness of the Creator, but not as His slave, then it is necessary to build a special state for him called the group. In the group, he has the opportunity to decide how much to surrender to his friends, and to this extent to be impressed by the greatness of the Creator.

The Creator is always present in the group but in a concealed way. To the extent that a person yearns to feel the greatness of the Creator through the group, he can feel Him. However, he will feel the Creator and His greatness, not directly but through his friends, through his subjugation before them. In this way, he acquires the force of bestowal and gradually becomes man, Adam, similar to the Creator, an independent person and not an angel.

By connecting with his friends, with the ten, a person shows his desire to be included in the quality of bestowal and operate with this quality received from the Creator through the ten, gradually growing in spirituality. He uses the quality of bestowal creatively, not under coercion, and builds himself as an independent individual similar to the Creator.

This will be true love and bestowal, not forced like in a slave out of fear or under pressure, but as a free person.
[275346]
From the 3^rd lesson of the Virtual Congress 12/12/20, “You have made Me, building the greatness of the Creator”

Related Material:
Where Does The Creator Hide?
So That The Concealment Does Not Hide The Creator
The Creator Hides Deep Within Your Evil Inclination (Advanced)

Filed under: Conventions, Events, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Hanukkah is a special holiday, which means that the created being ascends from Malchut to the level of Bina. That is, it makes a restriction on its desire to enjoy for its own sake and is corrected by the upper light, and acquires the intention for the sake of bestowal. Bestowal for the sake of bestowal is the level of Bina.

Hanukkah is a celebration of the victory over the “Greeks. “Greek” is the name of the force that pulls a person into knowledge and not above it. This force appears precisely when a person who strives to approach the Creator already acquires some properties of bestowal, that is, he wants to reach the level of Bina.

The person put a lot of effort into his or her correction, invested in the group, in the ten, in the studies, and started to feel what bestowal is. And it is at this time that forces opposite to bestowal awaken in one: forces of separation that pull a person back into egoism.

It is written about this: “The Greeks attacked me.” Egoistic desires awaken inside me, and I must declare an internal war on them and fight the thoughts that one should not go by faith above reason to bestowal and connection. They persuade me to remain in this world, to settle as much as possible in it and enjoy it.

This is the approach of the “Greeks” as opposed to the approach of the Maccabees who call to rise to bestowal to the Creator. There is a war going on in a person between these two opinions. On one hand, I want to reveal the Creator and my soul. But on the other hand, life draws me in, urging me to enjoy its pleasures and not to dream of spirituality.

It is this war that Hanukkah symbolizes, and it takes place in darkness. A person feels that he has fallen under the power of the Greeks, that is, under the complete power of the desire to enjoy, and one has no chance of defeating it. This is how one was created by the Creator.

And then a person seeks inside himself at least some kind of connection with the Creator and finds one thread, grabs it, and prays for salvation. And when the Creator unites with a person and begins to pull him out of his egoism, He seems to light a candle for him. In this way, a person is gradually going out from darkness to light.

He lights a tiny candle of one’s connection with the Creator, and it cannot be smaller. But since the candle lit by the person is connected with the Creator and the Creator is eternal, this candle burns and burns, and the oil in it is not burning out. This is how a person exits one’s egoistic intention and reaches intention to bestow, Hanukkah, the level of Bina, bestowal for the sake of bestowal.

The virtual convention “Uniting Above Reason” at which we attained the previously unattained connection with the Creator just ended. Let us keep this connection and try not to extinguish it. Then we will begin to feel how inside this tiny connection, this thin candle, we are kindling an ever stronger fire until we reach reception for the sake of bestowal until the end of correction.

Hanukkah is only the middle of the path. Let us feel that we are halfway there, and that we just need to preserve the connection that we have reached at the convention and develop it more and more.

We must not stop. Stopping means death! Just continue all the time. We have reached the parking place, and we need to reconstruct ourselves in a new way in order to attack our egoism with renewed vigor and achieve even greater unity.

Everyone should feel that he has the strength to rise above his egoism. And now we can begin to unite on top of our egoism and the egoism of our friends, cover all crimes, both mine and his with love, and build a connection.

Let us begin to implement this law: “Love will cover all crimes.” This is our work after the convention. Good luck!
[275382]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/20, “Hanukkah”

Related Material:
New Life 653 – Hanukkah: World Correction
Hanukkah—Striving To Unite
“Is Hanukkah A Jewish Holiday?” (Linkedin)

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What happens when the Creator is revealed with respect to the mind and feelings? Do I fully justify Him or not?

Answer: Naturally you justify the Creator. But the fact is that the revelation happens over the concealment, which does not go anywhere.

Let’s say I reveal something in the actions of the Creator with respect to myself. He appears to me as good who does good, and leads me to the goal. And then this gets hidden from me, and as I enter the concealment, I have to try my best to act as if I am in revelation.

In other words, concealment does not isolate me from the Creator but, on the contrary, makes it possible for me to act as if I am in revelation.

Question: Can I say that I myself conceal the Creator?

Answer: Naturally. My egoism hides Him from me. In the state of revelation, I do not associate myself with my ego and I conceal it from the Creator.

Question: So in double and single concealment, the Creator hides Himself from my egoism?

Answer: There are many different nuances: either the Creator hides Himself from me or hides me from myself.

The fact is that any state consists of four degrees, and we must on each of them establish ourselves as if we are in maximum revelation. Whatever states I go through, I must try to treat everything that happens to me as if I am in full revelation so that no darkness, no concealment, will lower me.
[274997]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/14/19

Related Material:
A Single Concealment And A Double Concealment Of The Good
What Does The Creator Conceal From Us?
Why Is The Creator Hiding?

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: The Greeks, led by Antiochus IV, captured the Temple in the 2^nd century BC. There was a division of the Jews into Hellenized Jews, who supported the Seleucid Greeks, and Orthodox Jews led by the Maccabees. The Maccabees led the uprising and expelled the Seleucids from the Temple that had been captured and desecrated. When the Maccabees entered the Temple, they saw that the pure oil for the Menorah candles could only last for one day. But a miracle happened, the oil burned for eight days.

These are historical events that occurred more than 2,000 years ago. What do they mean from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: After leaving Egypt, the people of Israel received the method of connection (mutual guarantee, Arvut), which developed during 40 years of traveling in the desert. Gradually, they became more and more united according to the method received from Jethro, the father of Moses’s wife. Jethro was not a Jew, nor was his daughter, but as the Torah says, he fully joined them.

The term Torah comes from the word “light”(Ohr). The light of the Torah, which a person receives from above, is necessary in order to bring people together and turn them into one single whole.

Despite the fact that they are egoistically distant, opposite to each other, and each wants to rule over the others, with the help of the right environment and the upper light, everyone can subjugate himself to society and make sure that all the people in it are directed to the center of society to unite with each other.

This is what the Jews were doing for 40 years in the desert. After they reached the state of unity, the desert turned into a fragrant land for them, called the Land of Israel. “Land – Eretz” comes from the word “desire – Ratzon.” That is, their desire began to blossom and bear fruit.

They built the Temple that represented the result of their efforts that came from the connection between them. The Temple does not mean something materialized, not stones and wood, but the connection of their desires.

So they lived, fought, reconciled, and constantly chose new conditions of connection. They were changing because new egoistic desires constantly arose in them. Therefore, they had to attract the upper light called the Torah more and more, to unite and thus advance.

But they could not hold on to this and for some time they fell into the slavery of egoism called the Babylonian exile of the time of Nebuchadnezzar. And then, with the help of Queen Esther, they came out of exile and began to inhabit the Land of Israel again, i.e., the desire to unite and connect with the Creator.

So they moved on until they reached the state of building the Second Temple, uniting in one common vessel in which they attained the Creator. But it did not last long because once again there was a huge, tearing egoism between them. This is how the Second Temple was destroyed, the common vessel was broken, the mutual desires and intentions for loving each other that allow us to reveal the Creator.

It was at this time that Rabbi Akiva called on the Jews to unite and shouted that one should love one’s neighbor as oneself,” but they could no longer hear him. This is the state the people of Israel are in now, people who, on one hand, understand that it is necessary to unite, and on the other hand, are not able to force themselves to unite.
[275311]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/16/19

Related Material:
The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 1
Hanukkah – The Miracle Of Unity
Unity Is The Guarantee Of Victory, Part 1

Filed under: Holidays, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Many Kabbalistic sources speak of bestowal. What kind of giving are we talking about if we, as creatures, cannot give?

Answer: It’s very simple. You must change your attitude toward people, consider them close, dear, necessary to you. And then you will be able to give to them as you would to your child.

Question: That is, if I treat a child this way naturally, then here I need to make an effort? After all, it is completely unnatural to treat an absolute stranger in the same way as your child and to receive pleasure from that.

Answer: Yes. But for this I need to see the general picture of the universe, to feel how we are all interconnected, how through my friends I can reach a higher, spiritual state. And then I go to them and contact them. They become dear to me, because I suddenly discover that they are parts of my soul. So do I really give it to them? In fact, I do not give to them, but I invest in my soul. This is love.

Question: So, love for one’s neighbor, unity, which is described in thousands of Kabbalistic sources, is impossible until a person sees that he is part of a common system, a soul?

Answer: Yes. Otherwise, I simply cannot bestow. I will not have the heart to do that. This is against the law of nature.

To do this, we need to see that each of us is a part of a huge global system and we are all completely dependent on each other in such a way when those who are outside of me define all of me. And therefore, if I take care of them, I will secure my future. And if I go into a state where I think only about them, and not about myself, then I will ensure myself a perfect future.
[274894]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/28/19

Related Material:
How Can We Fill The Desires Of Billions Of People?
Anyone Can Receive, And To Bestow?
Giving Means Filling The Desires Of Others

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The truth is that the Creator fills the entire universe. Truth (“Emet”) is made up of the letters “Alef” – “Mem” – “Tav” (“א – מ – ת”), that is, of the three forces that exist in creation. “Aleph – א”  is the first letter of the alphabet, Keter, the Creator. “Tav – ת” is the last letter of the alphabet, Malchut. And “Mem – מ”  is in the middle, Bina that connects Keter and Malchut.

You must understand that the truth is not what it seems to us according to our opinion and feelings. As it is said: “They have eyes but they will not see; they have ears but they will not hear.” That is, we do not feel where we are as if blind and deaf, we do not feel the true world, moving in it by touch.

But this is where the correction is. The Creator purposely created this concealment so that we can achieve perfection, that is, from concealment to come to revelation, from reason to rise to faith above reason, from Malchut to Bina, from receiving to bestowing.

A person thinks that he feels the outside world, but in fact, he is locked inside himself and feels himself from within. The whole reality is within us. The entire universe, the galaxies, the stars, the planets, and the earth with everything on it, it is all “I.”

It is as if I have lost consciousness or I am dreaming. Sometimes I dream that I am walking somewhere, doing something as if for real. But then I wake up and see that the true reality is not what I dreamed.

And the same thing happens to us when spirituality is revealed. We understand that we were in a dream, and now we have woken up and see the real reality.

Faith above reason means to understand that reality is not what I currently imagine it to be. In fact, I am inside the Creator, the upper force that controls me. And the vast world that appears before me is within me, and I must attract the power of the Creator to fill my entire world and put everything in order.

Man must try his best to reveal the Creator who fills the entire universe. And this is possible only through the ten, disappearing and dissolving into your friends, absorbing in them  so much that you feel that the Creator is behind all your friends and is waiting for me to reveal Him.

This is how I begin to perceive the light of faith, that is, to feel the Creator. This is called faith above reason. Reason was my former sense of reality as seen by the eyes and heard by the ears. But now I begin to feel reality beyond physical perception and through my friends I reach the revelation of the Creator, who fills my spiritual Kli, the ten Sefirot of my soul.

So we come to the first spiritual revelation, and we continue to move further and further.
[275195]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/20, “Work with Faith Above Reason”

Related Material:
The World Where The Opposite Is True
See The True Reality
A Real World And An Imaginary World

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment”: As in the past, so is now, and so will it be: Every servant of the Creator must begin the work in Lo Lishma, and from that achieve Lishma….The way to achieve this degree is not limited by time, but by his qualifiers, and by the measure of one’s control over one’s heart.

Question: How does this readiness ripen?

Answer: Everything depends on the extent to which the person can devote himself to the spiritual path. It is to the extent that he “bends” for the sake of this goal in all of his minutes, seconds, and movements in the world.

“Control over one’s heart” symbolizes a person’s control over his desire. It is to what extent he can direct his egoism so that everything within him will necessarily be directed only toward the discovery of the upper world.
[240623]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/25/18

Related Material:
Kabbalistic Terms: “Lishma”
Lo Lishma
Exile And Lo Lishma

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →