A question I received: Why does the science of Kabbalah devote so much attention to the structure of the spiritual worlds?

My Answer: There are five worlds separating us from the World of Infinity – the world of complete perfection, where everything is revealed. The five worlds are like five concealments or filters, concealing the World of Infinity from us. The worlds are called Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. Our world exists below the World of Assiya and is entirely concealed from the Upper Worlds.

Each world is structured in exactly the same way as the World of Infinity, but each lower world is weaker, less clear and shines less than the one above it. Besides this, all the worlds are the same: they have all the same elements, the same number of elements and the same connections between them. So, everything that exists in each world, including our world, is similar.
Therefore, the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature that exist in our world are interconnected inside one common structure, and have the same interactions and relationships as the forces in the spiritual world. The only difference is that the qualities of the forces are different. Yet, the relationships between the elements are the same, and their order is the same as well.

We exist in total darkness and therefore we don’t see the equivalence between our world and the spiritual world. This is the reason why we perceive things in our world as flawed, entangled, messy, and unfair.

However, our world is a branch, and its root is the World of Assiya. The World of Assiya, in turn, is a branch, and its root is the World of Yetzira. This pattern continues until it reaches the root of everything – the World of Infinity. This is how everything is structured.

We exist in our world and we have no choice but to exist in a certain reality with our particular qualities. I have particular forces, qualities, mind and feelings that cause me to discern a picture called “this world.”

However, I can start changing my feelings and my mind through this picture. The Upper World is built by the same model, and it differs only by its qualities. It presents the same picture, but in a more vibrant manner. Therefore, while I in our world, right now, I can try to attain the higher perception, for the reason explained above: because the elements of the worlds and the relationships between them are the same. It’s just that the quality of the forces in the spiritual worlds is higher.

By studying the science of Kabbalah, I attract a force from above upon myself, as I try to attain the Upper World. This aspiration brings me the Light, which returns me to the Source. The Light is the force that changes my qualities, but It doesn’t have to change my inner elements or their structure.

The Light has to change only one thing: the quality of my most prominent attribute, egoism. Instead of my egoism, the Light gives me a little bit of the force of bestowal, which is a force higher than my own. That is how I “rise,” together with all that I see and feel, onto a higher level or dimension, and thus, I begin to perceive the spiritual world.

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Our world does not pertain to the spiritual world; therefore, there is no need to correct it. While living in this world, I discover a point in my heart – the embryo of a spiritual desire. I need to extract it from the other desires, expand it, and correct it in a way that will make it possible to reveal the spiritual world within it.

Our world remains the same. Until the very end of a person’s spiritual correction, he should feel this reality without trying to correct it with his own strength. Why? Because it is impossible to do so! History has taught us this through every step of our development.

With this attitude towards our world, the science of Kabbalah differs from other sciences, spiritual and corporeal methodologies, belief systems, and religions. In other system, people direct their efforts within the plane of our world, which is not where they should. Our world will only change for the worse due to those actions, since it does not become truly corrected and more time passes by.

Yet if a point in the heart awakens in a person, by following the path of Kabbalah, he begins to widen his point in the heart until it encompasses the sphere where he perceives the Upper World, the Upper Dimension. He begins his ascent from this central point, acquiring a screen and the Reflected Light, which is the force of bestowal.

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Jealousy is a direct consequence of the breaking. Previously we were connected and gave of ourselves for the benefit of others. After all, the Light was among us, uniting us and not allowing us to feel that we were separate.

Suddenly this body broke into separate organs or parts, and it is as though each of the organs was being prepared for transplant by being preserved and placed into a nutritious solution. Each organ therefore maintains its livelihood and is not allowed to die until an opportunity arises to transplant it into another body, connecting all the organs again into one entity.

This is how we live today – like a body that has been split up into parts, and each of these parts is preserved with a small spark of life that keeps it from dying so that it will be able to join the other parts once again. This is the state of humanity today.

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Desire must be whole. Take for instance a politician whose goal is to become a prime minister. His whole life is focused on this. Having set this goal for himself, he is prepared to discard all his principles and drag himself through the mud in order to achieve his goal.

Everything besides the goal is secondary to him. The possibility of becoming a prime minister captures the whole spectrum of his interests, and reduces them all to whatever can help him achieve the goal. That is what we call a “whole” desire.

A person who aspires to draw the Light that returns him to the Source examines all the qualities of his own nature and of the world, along with all the obstacles on his path, as a means of achieving the goal.

This examination and whole desire guards me from going off track under the weight of my egoism. If  somebody gossips about me,  tries to scare me away or detains me, or if  I am confronted with health problems, family responsibilities and stress, then I accept all of this with gratitude, as assistance to me in breaking the new ground of spiritual growth.

If I am correctly and fully aimed at the goal, I suddenly discover that all the obstacles are helping me on my path. All disturbances become “help against myself” – against my egoism.

There is nothing in the world that couldn’t serve as a means to achieve the goal. After all, the Creator has created everything for man and for his mission. It’s only a matter of how we utilize the “arsenal” available to us.

If I truly aspire to the goal, everything pushes me towards it. If however, I let myself be distracted by “attendant circumstances,” if I address the disturbances themselves, instead of utilizing them as means to attain the goal, instead of being a help to me, they will simply remain disturbances.

Only my distinct aspiration toward the goal will transform obstacles into distinct points of support along my path. Something that I perceive to be such a strong “headwind” I suddenly discover is acting as life support for me time and again, lending a hand and guiding me forward. By this “apparent opposition” the Creator actually helps me to advance.

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A question I received: How are things measured in Kabbalah?

My Answer: In the science of Kabbalah, we learn that there is no such thing as an absolute, true system of measurement. Rather, everything is perceived depending on a person’s senses. This is why everything is measured in relation to the person who attains reality. There is a Kabbalistic verse that says, “There is no Creator without a creation.”

This is why it’s important for us to understand that everything that is said by the authors of The Book of Zohar, by King David in the book of Psalms and other sources about the Creator is referring to the quality and depth of the reader’s attainment.

A person is judged in accordance to his position on the ladder, and he perceives the Creator according to where he is positioned on that ladder. It appears to a person that the Creator changes, but this is only because a person evaluates everything according to his own desires and qualities.

The Creator does not change; He is good that does good and He is at absolute rest. In a person however, many Reshimot are awakened at every moment and according to this, he judges the Creator as great or small, good or evil.

This is why we are only able to understand Kabbalistic texts once we have risen to the level of their authors.

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Presently we’re looking at the picture of this world as though it were a television channel. We’ve grown accustomed to it and cannot even imagine the existence of another channel.

Suddenly a desire (point in the heart) to change the channel appears in us. Before this we could not even imagine that this was possible, and now we begin to learn how it can be done and how we can transition to the new channel.

I begin to realize that I can change the channel if I truly have the desire to do so, and that my desire is that very button that can change it. In other words, I need the understanding of what I am I am changing and my purpose for doing so.

To that end I am given the right books, a guide and an environment of others, who are also striving towards this new channel. After all, my desire is tiny, and the right environment can increase this desire in me, impart to me its desire to watch this new channel, and the strength to make the change.

In the new society towards which we are striving, everyone will talk about bestowal,  the global interconnected network where everyone works for the benefit of society and the collective desire to change over to the new channel. Gradually, I also become filled with this desire.

With this desire I come to the lesson and demand Light, which is  the force of that very new channel towards which I strive. This force will evoke new qualities and discernments within me, and when I am ready to perceive the channel correctly, it will switch on automatically.

I desire this new understanding and the ability to discern this new world. This is what the Light teaches me. Otherwise I will not be able to see anything there.  It is  just as a baby looks upon the same painting as an adult, but instead of admiring its beauty, the baby tries to stick it in his mouth, because that is how he perceives the world.

The moment I am ready, the new channel will be switched on automatically. But the old channel will not disappear.  The new channel will simply be added to the first, and I will see the old channel against the context of the new one. This is how both worlds combine within me to form one unified harmony. I will see how all the parts of reality are connected and see reality itself not as matter, but as forces that set matter in motion.

Mankind is bored to death with the old channel, which is why societies are plagued with drug use and depression. It can no longer watch the same old picture of the world on the television screen; it longs to change the channel.

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Two questions I received about earthly love and desires:

Question: What should I do when I realize that love I feel toward another person is the game that the Creator is playing with me? Should I pray for the Creator to give me strength to love only Him and forsake earthly love in order to focus only on the Creator? After all, my love is a force that I feel inside me. Changing one love for another is not as easy as changing currencies. Such prayer too, requires a lot of strength. Can I play with the Creator, through such love?

My Answer: Don’t philosophize. Continue to study and the Light will put everything in its place. Leave it to the light. Above all – don’t leave your studies. That is the only thing that you have the ability to control.

Question: I’ve been studying for six months and would like to ask a question that really bothers me.  If I separate myself from the desire to receive, then who am I? If I am the desire to receive and my individuality is a collection of my Reshimot, what desire should I separate myself from? Do I have to leave only the necessary desires, and if so, how do I define them?

My Answer: You shouldn’t separate yourself from egoism, but instead, just aspire to  connection with the Creator. These are different tendencies! Let your egoism be. To the measure of your aspiration towards the Creator, His Light will act upon you and the Ohr Makif will make all the necessary corrections and changes within you.

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A question I received: When can a person begin to consciously realize that his desires are corrected?

My Answer: When a person is on a certain level, he has no sensation of it.  The current level on which someone exists cannot be studied until they rise to a higher level.

Prior to crossing the Machsom, all states are known as concealment and are considered only one level. When we are at this level, we see that we cannot orient ourselves, do or understand anything, and without question, we cannot evaluate or measure where we are.

Even after having crossed into the sensation of the next level, we cannot immediately orient ourselves, since we are entering the states of an “embryo” (ibur), followed by the states of “breastfeeding” (enika), and the “transition to adulthood” (mochin).

Only in retrospect can we evaluate, examine and understand relative to our previous states, but not to our current one. One can never evaluate their current state. When we desire to evaluate our current state, we must always perform this task according to “from the higher to study the lower.”

We must rise to a higher level, which we, the creation, perceive as the Creator, and from there, study ourselves as to the what, the where and the how.

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A question I received: Why does one person have all the luck in his life and another doesn’t? Can people change their fate?

My Answer: According to the Law of Roots and Branches, all the elements in each world are alike and all the connections between the elements are the same.  This means that the network of forces in each world is the same and all the events happening in each world are the same.

Nothing happens below if there are no changes that occur above, “There is not a blade of grass below that has not an angel above it that strikes it and tells it, “Grow”.”

There is nothing in our world that just happens for no apparent reason. If I begin to realize this unbreakable link, that everything is predetermined, then I understand that there are no accidents, but there is luck (Mazal).

The Hebrew word Mazal comes from the word “trickle or drip” (Nozel). To drip means to come down in drops, one after another and that a gap or space exists between the drops.

If I recognize these drops, than I am able to intervene and change my luck. The Kabbalists say that there are no accidents. There are only gaps between the forces that affect me. That’s why these forces are called “the drops of luck.”

There is a special system in the World of Atzilut where the Upper Light flows down in drops through the special spiritual Partzufim. We are able to change our fate if we know how to enter between these drops of luck that are descending upon us.

Despite predetermination from above, the Law of Roots and Branches allows me to influence my “luck,” though not on the plane of this world but on a higher plane, so my “luck” comes down to me clothed in a different form. That is what we study in the science of Kabbalah – what it means to have “a different form,” when and how.

If I know how to change my luck and how to enter into the space that is created for me, and if I correctly participate in it, then I become a human being. I complement the Creator’s actions that He has created for me, and by doing this I become independent.

The study of the Law of Roots and Branches helps us to join and become a partner in  Upper Governance. It is then that a person enters into a partnership with the Creator.

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The first stage on the spiritual path is recognition of evil and its purpose, which is to lead me to the understanding of my entire nature. The program which draws the picture of reality for me by giving me the sensation of this world and my part in it, is called ego, or the desire to receive pleasure only for myself.

It locks me inside, engulfs me and draws all of my attention, making me think only of myself. I act according to that program, unable to even imagine that there is another option, another reality. What can possibly be done to change this perception and behavior?

Our nature itself leads us to recognition of its evil, leaving us no chance to escape it. It has power over us, locks us inside and constantly coerces.

This is the worst kind of slavery, when a person reveals that he is a prisoner of his own nature and can only obey its orders. He knows in advance that he has no choice but to obey, even though each order he follows, will further harm him.

Kabbalists have a parable, where the angel of death comes to a person and extends a sword with a drop of poison on its tip. A man obediently opens his mouth, knowing that by taking it he will die, yet he licks it. He has no other choice.

It is a great inner drama. All of man’s work is in realization of his exile and bondage. When a man is completely in despair, the point in the heart awakens inside him and begins to shine for him, showing him that there’s another world and a blessed shore on which to land.

He can’t continue to sit inside a shell forever! He has the ability to hatch  and climb out as a worm that comes out of bitter radish and suddenly sees the sun and breathes the clean air.

A person can then hear that there is a method that allows escape from the servitude and terrible life where the pointless cycle repeats itself: birth is succeeded by death. He discovers that there’s a means to break that vicious cycle and rise.

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