Question: Why did the authors of The Zohar write using very earthly language in some places, which only confuses us, as if it is talking about our world, and in other places they wrote using the language of Partzufim and Sefirot?

Answer: The language that was created as far back as Adam HaRishon contains several Segulot (miraculous qualities). Why are they Segulot? It’s because we do not understand what the spiritual world is. We do not attain it and cannot imagine it correctly. We cannot formulate any of it before ourselves in any form.

It is initially clear that all of our notions, even ones of this world, are totally false. Like blind people, we are all trying to advance by feeling our way around, not knowing what we come up against and what is happening. All of our reminiscences and imaginary pictures are incorrect and false.

We are in such a dark state that we have never tasted the taste of truth. Not even a weak ray of Light has ever penetrated into this pitch darkness in order to even slightly illuminate any details of the world in which we exist, as well as the connections between us.

That’s why a question arises: Is it possible to speak to these creatures at all? It’s even worse than digging up worms in the ground and trying to tell them the Torah. That is not a joke! The difference between us and the spiritual world is much bigger than between us, living creatures, and a worm in the ground, which is also a living creature.

You differ from the worm by the size of your awareness and cognizance in the same darkness where you both exist. However, you and a person who is in spirituality are separated by opposite perception—an abyss that is impossible to even imagine.

Adam HaRishon was the first person who revealed the fact that besides our state, there is a source, the spiritual world, the true reality, whereas we are in total darkness, like worms in the ground who have never crawled to the outside and do not know that a different world even exists. Therefore, we have to be given at least the end of a rope that we could grab onto.

Thus, those who attain spirituality starting from Adam HaRishon invented what seems like all sorts of stories. However, they are not stories, but a system connecting us to the world and the souls that attain spirituality, to the connection between them and the Light that is in them.

Right now we have no idea what is the meaning of any of these words—not about that world, nor about the souls, nor the connection, nor the Light—nothing! Yet they traced a certain connection from the state which is unknown to us, and we have no idea what that connection is either. But they did it in order to somehow connect that state to us. And if we use that connection by following their advice, it gradually influences us.

Therefore, it’s absolutely irrelevant to ask why they wrote using one kind of language or another: one that’s more sensitive or rational, one that’s clearer or less clear. We can only get confused by the descriptions that seem more earthly and closer to us.

There is only one opportunity to come closer to The Zohar: to connect with one another as much as possible. To the degree we unite through efforts to be above our ego, we give these spiritual states the opportunity to be revealed. But as long as they aren’t revealed, we will not find out what they are. It is written, “I saw a reverse world.” You will see that the spiritual world is completely not what you were able to imagine.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, The Zohar

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Question: How do I thank the Creator for small spiritual revelations?

Answer: They immediately gain great value in a person since this has never happened to him. Never before have I valued rising above myself, but now I feel that I have risen above my egoism and view this as a real treasure.

Where does this attitude come from? From the Light. Obviously, it’s not me who makes the correct analysis. By the nature of things, while experiencing an ascent, I prefer to adhere to the truth.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How does a Kabbalistic prayer differ from a religious one?

Answer: Kabbalah fundamentally differs from all other methods and from everything there is in our world. In short, Kabbalah is one thing, and everything else another.

What is the difference then? It is in the fact that Kabbalah is based on changing a person himself rather than something outside of him, his surroundings; neither is it built on asking some “dear God” to start treating me better or to change other people’s attitude toward me. I do not ask Him to change my state of health or fate, nothing of the sort. I ask Him to transform my egoism, only that!

The entire method of Kabbalah is arranged so that a person can transform himself. On the other hand, all other methods and religions are founded on the idea that the Creator should change His attitude to a person: I ask Him to be more merciful and kind to me while I bribe Him.

Kabbalah doesn’t allow anything of the sort. In connection to the Creator, I am like man that changes in the face of the Absolute. And this Absolute is unchangeable. If the Creator is a primordial cause, the beginning of all, and if He is absolutely good, absolute, eternal, and perfect, then He cannot change. Only that which is imperfect can change. He cannot change.

Therefore, all changes occur solely in man. In other words, depending on my strengths, internal states, and properties, I feel more or less comfortable. But it is just me because I can change. The Creator never changes; He is a constant, omnipotent force of Nature.

Accordingly, all the prayers Kabbalah describes constitute man’s plea to be transformed. Who does one address these to, a wall? If the Creator is constant, eternal, and complete, then He doesn’t react to you in any way.

However, when you appeal to Him, you become different and receive a different response because you increase your sensitivity while doing so. You are still present in the same constant field regarded as the “Creator,” in the same constant force. Yet you are praying while wishing to change, and as a result, this field affects you with greater intensity. This is what we call a “prayer.”

The word “to pray” in Hebrew (Lehitpalel) means self-imposed judgment. “To pray” means to judge, evaluate, and rebuke oneself. It isn’t an appeal to someone, in order to be shown mercy or favored. No, it is self re-evaluation. This is what a prayer is.

Hence, although religions use the same word, in Kabbalah it has an opposite meaning, much like everything else.
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From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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All creation is the will to receive pleasure, and that is why it requires transformation and fulfillment. But this can be done only by some part in it that will gain understanding, wisdom. This part doesn’t belong to creation itself; it descends to it from the Creator, from the desire to bestow.

There is nothing in the universe except these two forces: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. From the relationship between these two properties, the creature starts analyzing itself and the nature of the force that affects it.

As a result, in the desire to enjoy a mechanism gets formed, which is regarded as a “head” (a “Partzuf’s Rosh”), meaning a mind, thought, and discernment. With the power of this thought, desire begins to attain itself.

At the still, vegetative, and animate levels, the desire to enjoy acts instinctively. And a creature of this world called “man” who acts instinctively as well is also included herein. Try as we may to measure and evaluate ourselves by our own devices or by the view of others, we always judge within our egoism.

All our “compassion” is solely for our own sake, and all our actions are for our own benefit. But remaining locked inside ourselves, we can’t know who we are. We can only weigh and prefer greater desires to the lesser ones. And the ability to make such a calculation is called “thought” or discernment in our world. But in essence, it is merely an evaluation: What is greater, more vital, and beneficial for our egoism. That’s all our mind is about.

All these discernments take place at the animate degree, at the level of our animate body. This is how we live and evolve for thousands of years. But when we acquire an additional property, the property of Bina, bestowal, it is at that point that we begin to perform an assessment based upon two attributes: reception and bestowal. That’s when the mind, the “head,” which makes decisions is now called spiritual since it makes a calculation pertaining to bestowal, the attribute of the Creator.

Relative to Him, it evaluates what the created being should or shouldn’t do and how. Hence, work only within the desire to enjoy is regarded as animate since it’s the highest degree it can attain. This is how we all exist, as it is written: “All are similar to the mortal beasts.”

But one who acquires the desire to bestow is regarded as “human” (Adam) since he is “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator. That is the Kabbalists who attained the property of bestowal, the Creator. Then, they calculate coming from the two properties, reception and bestowal, meaning that they analyze how to connect within a person the desire to enjoy and the intention to bestow, to what degree the intention to bestow can rule his desire to enjoy.

Such a person has a different mind, “the head.” And even though all his actions continue residing in the desire to enjoy, the aim of these actions and their intention which moves and governs them is bestowal. And it is evident that this is a completely different type of calculation as well as perception, which cannot be comprehended by those who for the time being view things with mammalian eyes. It is written: “The view of the Torah is opposite to the view of the laymen.”

The “view of the Torah” is bestowal, whereas the “view of the laymen” is egoistic reception. And although the matter remains the same, the desire to enjoy, it all depends on how it is used, on the intention governing this matter: Will it be egoistic or altruistic, for my benefit, or for the benefit of others? This will be the test for our desire.

In all upper, spiritual worlds, only one law of bestowal governs everything, while the desire to enjoy obeys this thought and such an intention. And only in our world, in the state from which we start our ascent, the governing law is the one that submits everything to the interests of egoism.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “The Freedom”

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We exist in the opposite form to the Creator’s property of bestowal: the egoistic will to enjoy. On the spiritual path, all desires that gradually unfold within us, from the lighter desires to the heavier ones, have to be transformed into the intention to bestow.

In contrast to the still, vegetative, and animate levels, as we humans evolve, our egoism does as well. Our entire history is a non-stop growth of the will to enjoy and a chain of attempts to satisfy it. This is our nature. Therefore, we constantly wish for this desire to be realized, fulfilled.

So it goes on until at some point of his development man arrives at the question: “What do I need this for?” His desire completes its quantitative stage of evolution and transitions to the qualitative one. Now, a person needs not just a better car, bigger home, and more comfortable world. He starts asking questions regarding why things occur the way they do: “What for? Why? What is happening with me and what does it give me?”

New questions rise above the previous levels of evolution. At the human degree, we start evaluating and analyzing life, not being satisfied with the role as a “go-for” person who thoughtlessly serves egoistic desire. In previous generations, very few contemplated such questions and attained the source of events, the essence of the process and its purpose. These individuals are called Kabbalists, from the Hebrew word “the one who receives” (Mekabel) since they receive the revelation of the upper governance, advancing thereby. As for the others, they didn’t feel the calling for the answers to such questions.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah which assists a person in finding answers to the questions regarding the purpose of life (the source and goal), it is written that the time would come when many would wish to know for what we are living. In their gradually emerging egoistic desires, the masses will start transitioning from the animate level, from seeing a good life, to the human degree, to the question of for what is it worth living.

Kabbalists marked the time when such a transition was supposed to begin: the end of the 20th century. And it truly did. Today, “the highest priority questions” arise in a great many people around the world and to a certain degree among all of humanity. We see how growing despair, drug abuse, divorce rates, and the human crisis in general demonstrate that the questions regarding the purpose of existence halt our normal egoistic development, and they demand that we seek answers. Only then will we find the strength to continue the journey.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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Today, the wisdom of Kabbalah must be revealed to the world. In our times, everyone must know what the purpose of life is and how to attain the root of creation. Attainment of the root can be compared to fruit, where the spiritual life of a person and their spiritual development equates with tending to a fruit bearing tree.

In one of his letters, Rabash explains how to “tend” to desire by using the analogy of tending to a tree in our world. We cultivate it in the four stages of HaVaYaH until we acquire the desire to bestow, after which we start employing the will to receive in order to bestow. That is the “fruit,” meaning the end of correction of man, his maturity.

But in the meantime, having faced the question of the meaning of life, a person comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the place where it is actualized by the individuals who have similar questions. This is the period defined as “Lo Lishma” (not for Her name). The person’s approach is still egoistic, but now he desires to obtain the spiritual world and collect upper “fruit,” thereby answering the question of what is the purpose of life. Due to man’s nature, he doesn’t comprehend how it can be achieved otherwise.

This is how we plant the seed in the soil, and it begins to evolve. First, a person walks on the egoistic beaten path as he always has and relies on himself, seeing a bright future ahead. But after a while (sometimes a few years), he experiences a feeling evoked by the Light that Reforms: He begins to feel what an egoistic nature really is.

Then, he discovers that the spiritual world cannot be attained by using his usual feelings and mind; he realizes that it can only be attained in opposition to what has been until now. And a person seems to be losing his wings. He can’t move ahead with determination opening every door as he did before. At this point, he has to start working with himself seemingly from the outside, which is through the environment: in the group, with a teacher and Kabbalistic texts.

One must stretch from inward outward, and only then, having completed a circle, can a person treat himself as a seed planted in the soil. He will learn to tend to this seed so it may germinate and not dry out in the sand. He will provide nurturing conditions for it: minerals, moisture, and light, whatever is necessary for its growth. And only then will his seed sprout.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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As we examine the universe, we see that nature together with our world are concealed from us. We are revealing the world over the course of thousands of years, from generation to generation, and we are becoming more familiar with it.

The Creator is the common force of nature, and this is why we will need some more time to attain Him. However, why is reality concealed from us? Why is the Creator hiding from us?

After all, He is not like the laws of nature that conform to Him: the still, vegetative, and animate levels of development or the human level. He is the common law which contains the thought, as well as the beginning and the end of the universe. Everything is included in Him. Then, why did He create everything so He would be concealed from us?

What is so special about attaining His revelation on our own and asking His help with it? What is this game? He conceals from us, and we need to suffer over the course of thousands of years of our development until we come to the question of, “Why is the Creator concealed?” Only then does the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method of revealing Him, become revealed. What do we get from it? So, we will reveal Him, and what will happen then?

People say that we will be happy then because the Creator is Good and does good, and we will exist in love above all the suffering once we attain His revelation. However, if the Creator is the force of infinite love and bestowal, then why did He create us to be so miserable and sordid? Why do we need to work so hard to come to the one who loves us?

We see that everything is also the same in this world. People who have been through different obstacles on their way to attaining love, unity, and revelation value it; they feel how they have benefited and discovered something great, dear, and important.

We also see that every person in our world essentially wishes to be loved for who he is. However, this kind of relationship between us cannot exist. Only a mother experiences these feelings toward her child, and this love is corporeal and animalistic. It has come to the mother from nature, and it obligates her to love her child, give him life, sustain him, and facilitate his further development.

This is the only exception. Since we do not love other people for who they are, we want to have proof of how this will benefit us. All of this helps us to understand, at least slightly, why the Creator needed this game (the concealment).

He wants us to come to this love without expecting it to benefit us. Just like we want to be loved for who we are, He also wants to be loved for who He is without our expecting any personal benefit. This is why we will not be able to understand how to begin to establish a connection with Him before we free ourselves of our ego.

The first thing we need to do in order to develop the sensation of the Creator within us is to rise above our nature. In other words, we need to rise above personal interest, above “How will this benefit me?”

This will be possible when I manage to become absolutely free from it, as if I did not exist, as if I were absolutely independent and objective, and able to see and judge things this way. Then I could begin to perceive the Creator, the force of bestowal, the force of goodness, from that moment on.

Otherwise, if He were to reveal Himself, I would come to Him because this would benefit me. This is because if I were to feel that He only evokes love, security, health, and happiness, I would be forced to love Him because He is the source of everything good. This love would be compulsory and dependent.

This is why I need to arm myself with a screen, a restriction and my anti-nature, and to become free from my own ego. Then, both of us would become carriers of infinite and pure love without personal benefit, and we would begin to understand that it is not the Creator who conceals Himself from man, but man who conceals Him with his ego.
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From the Introductory Lecture “Why the Creator is Hidden” 12/14/2010

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Question: Is it true that in each generation, there is only one authentic Kabbalist?

Answer: Everyone is necessary since each person works in their own area. Humanity is diverse, and each of its parts requires a special language and approach until people have advanced and become able to hear the truth. Therefore, it’s not worth thinking about who is a Kabbalist. We should strive to learn the truth and come closer to it, but if today or tomorrow a truly great one shows up, we will follow him.

As to a specific generation, it is hardly possible for more than one real Kabbalist to emerge. After all, there is only one head. And all others, who are either near or below him, may be in the tens, hundreds, or thousands according to the structure of the pyramid. If not in this generation, then in the next one, I hope that we will see something resembling the Sanhedrin (Assembly of Sages): a great number of Kabbalists who are at a high level of attainment and together guide humanity on the path to the Creator.

Question: Is there a connection between the “36 righteous ones” and Kabbalists?

Answer: There is not. The “36 righteous ones” is a concept. It means that in this world, there are special souls through which abundance comes into this world so as to sustain the existence of this corporeal reality. It is a unique system, not individual people.

Question: Can a woman be a Kabbalist?

Answer: Definitely so. There were women who attained spirituality: our foremothers, followed by prophetesses, and then the people who before the fall of the Second Temple perceived the upper world.

Men and women are not different in this. Today, I know many of our female students who have been working selflessly for many years and advancing thereby. Their perception and desire are greater than those of most of our men. I have no doubts that they can reach a level not lower than that of the men.

Besides, since all of us are moving toward the revelation of the Creator, most likely it will result in both men’s and women’s revelation of Him. Is a woman not part of the creation? It’s just that she has a somewhat different spiritual job than a man does, but “different” doesn’t mean “not spiritual.”

Question: How do I explain to a child what a Kabbalist is?

Answer: A Kabbalist is a person who reveals the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form. He transformed himself in such way that he became somewhat similar to the Creator. Hence, he has a particle from Above which is called a soul, the Creator’s part. In this part, he experiences the spiritual world, upper dimension, eternal life, and identifies himself with it.

So, when the life of his corporeal body expires, he doesn’t feel a loss. He continues to live and feel spiritual existence as he does right now. Such a person is regarded as a Kabbalist because he received a spiritual life.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners “Who is a Kabbalist?” 12/13/2010

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Question: Suppose I reached complete bestowal and harmony with the Creator. How can I make this state continue and work from a plus to a greater plus?

Answer: The instant you feel that you are neutral and work with the Creator in total tandem, start searching immediately: "Where can I get foreign desires in order to start working together with the Creator, to act the way He does? Let Him show me how to relate to others!" And you immediately witness how He fills them all.

Your eyes suddenly open and you see: Everybody is in the world of Infinity, completely filled. In reality, the poor ones scream that they have nothing, and they curse everything. And you see them as absolutely filled, absolutely spiritual.

That is, on the next stage you begin to work as the Creator, in the same system, being ahead of Him and wishing to act instead of Him. You become His partner. You do it. You even take Him by the hand and pull Him, like a little child pulls a grown-up, asking Him to carry it out. You add your desires to it. You feel the pain of others, and you force Him to fulfill them.
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From the Lesson 1 in Moscow 1/14/2011, "Introduction of The Book of Zohar"

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Question: Unfortunately, I was brought up to believe that the Creator is an old man sitting somewhere in the sky. Now that I study Kabbalah, I understand that this is a false perception. How can I get rid of these childhood stereotypes?

Answer: This isn’t related to one’s childhood. Humanity developed such myths a long time ago. It is natural for us to imagine the existence of something in this way. Stories have been told from generation to generation about an existing force which people associate with images that have arms and legs, all according to one’s understanding.

The Creator has no image or form. The Creator is Nature, and since both words have the same numeric value, they represent the same object. The Creator is the general law of Nature, and Nature is a force. We are forces as well, even though it seems to us that images, matter, and nature exists at the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Just as we see various images on the television screen, we see everything in this world exactly the same way. We imagine it in our heads.

The image of the Creator as an old man in the sky is a grave mistake and creates a warped perception of reality. The wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed, and even Judaism didn’t explain to people who the Creator is. This led people to believe these myths. Similar beliefs still exist among the nation.

We associate things with the Creator that we would normally associate with people in our world: If I give Him something, then He’ll give me blessings, or if I give a dollar, then He’ll give me two. We think that if we bribe Him, we’ll get better treatment from Him and life will take a turn for the better.

However, with each passing day it’s becoming increasingly clear that our relationship with the Creator has to be built only in the direction of our correction. He demands but one thing from us: to be one man with one heart and love thy neighbor as thyself.
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From the Introductory Lecture “Why the Creator is Hidden” 12/14/2010

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