The Zohar, Introduction, Article “The Donkey Driver”: They said, “It is Rav Hamnuna Saba,” for now they have recognized his degree, that he was Rav Hamnuna Saba himself, and not as they previously thought—that he was only Rav Hamnuna Saba’s son.

Question: Usually we study that the “son” is the next level of the “father.” So why does this paragraph say that the son of Rav Hamnuna Saba is a smaller degree than him?

Answer: During the descent from Above downward, every greater degree is higher. Thus the grandfather (Saba in Hebrew) is the higher level, and the father (Aba) is beneath it, and lower still is the son (Ben).

We ascend up the levels from below upwards, going through them in the opposite order: from grandfather, to father, to son. A “son” is the most advanced level, above all of them. But during the descent of the degrees, the son is below everyone.

The levels that the “donkey driver” goes through are the levels of the worlds. These forces descend to the sages from the height of all 125 levels in the form of “grandfather” and “father” being higher than the son.

But when these sages ascend, their levels of attainment: grandfather, father, and son are expressed from above downwards, in which case the son is the most advanced level.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 1/20/11, The Zohar

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Question: Who or what is the “Light that Reforms?” Is it the Creator?

Answer: The Light, the Creator, the Upper Force, are all one and the same: the integral force of bestowal that governs the world, the enormous sphere inside of which all of us reside. Today, it is increasingly contracting above us, affecting us with its might.

It is regarded as Nature or the Creator since in Hebrew, a numeric equivalent (Gematria) of these words is the same, and emanation expanding from it is defined as the Upper Light or bestowal.
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From the Introductory Lecture in Netanya 12/12/2010

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Question: Why do they say that the Creator is concealed? Aren’t His actions manifested in every part of the Universe?

Answer: The revelation of the Creator implies that I feel the upper force, its cause, the entire network of acting forces, the way this network operates, and the results of its influence. I attain the entire totality of creation in the infinite dimension.

The only question is to what degree I attain it. I can either be without glasses, or I can wear the reading glasses, or distant vision glasses. Everything depends on the level of my perception.

The attainment of the spiritual world means that this reality becomes transparent for me, and through it I see the entire system of forces, which operates in the whole world. I understand the reasons behind the forces which act and move everyone of us and also why we react in a certain way.

I can observe this process from different angles: time, motion, place, life cycles of souls, from the beginning of creation to its end. A person reveals all of this. However, in the beginning, he sees this picture very vaguely, then increasingly more clearly until it becomes completely transparent for him.

At that point, you change your attitude to what is happening. You understand that your neighbors or anybody else cannot be blamed for your problems. It becomes clear to you that the entire universe is governed by a single law: the general law of nature called the Creator.
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From the Introductory Lecture “Why the Creator is Hidden” 12/14/2010

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Question: Why does the Light work on us so slowly? What else must we do?

Answer: We are advancing in big steps. However, we can’t measure how many more steps we have to take in order to switch our perception from consuming inward to bestowal so as to draw the force that will link the “cogwheels,” our souls, together, thereby letting us feel the upper world.

Neither I nor anyone else in the world, including all the Kabbalists of the previous generations, have ever experienced the state we are undergoing today. Never before has such a large group of people striven to the end of correction based on the lack of connection between them, as well as the lack of the Creator’s revelation in them. Since there is no precedence for it, I cannot say in which form it will occur.

In truth, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything is identical to nature. If something isn’t revealed, you can’t know how it manifests. A real scientist will say that according to his data, it must be this way or that way, but if he makes a step forward, he steps into the unknown.

There are scientists that spend decades studying some phenomenon and are certain that they have found an explanation as to how it works. Yet, they suddenly say, “No, we were wrong“ and start all over again.

The same is true in reference to the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is a science. We have to explore the upper world ourselves and not expect an email, SMS, or something else from there. All that has been revealed up to this point, unfolded in personal, individual Kelim (vessels) of each Kabbalist.

Now, we must uncover the upper world in this enormous collective desire, in our mutual unification. And it will be done for the first time. All seven billion people might not unify, but there will still be hundreds of thousands or even millions.

In other words, the aspiration to see the spiritual world has become collective rather than individual. This has never been seen in the past. Hence, it is impossible to tell when it will occur, but we are advancing at a very fast pace.
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From the Lecture on the Unity Day 12/26/2010

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In “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 4, Baal HaSulam writes: “The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fate…. And one’s choice refers only to the strengthening.” The Creator leads a person to the friends and the study, and the rest is up to him. Don’t expect that someone will do your work for you. It is your job to sort all the tools and arrange them correctly.

“But I don’t understand anything! I can’t study, don’t know how to relate to the friends, and get confused in internality and externality.” You can complain to your mother, but it’s pointless to complain to the law of creation. It is just as pointless as arguing with the law of gravity.

The Creator is the law of nature, which is absolute bestowal. If you are in sync with it, you feel good, and if not, you feel bad to the degree of your inadequacy. As a matter of fact, both the former and the latter correspond to the level of your development. Similarly, in our world, we treat little children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly differently with respect to their age.

Imagining the Creator incorrectly, we attribute to Him some human qualities and feelings that characterize us. We keep trying to “convince” Him hoping that He will change his mind. It is the most serious flaw produced by our egoistic nature.

Since the beginning of time, people have been making the same mistake: They transfer their attributes onto the surrounding world. We demand an expected reaction even from our domestic pets. Generally, we expect to find similarity to ourselves and correspondence to our imagination in all levels of nature, including the speaking level.

This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah radically differs from all religions and belief systems. It is written: “The law is set and cannot be broken,” “I did not change my HaVaYaH.” The Upper Light remains at absolute rest, and all changes take place only in the vessels. I either ask the Creator to change or know that I must change myself.

My prayer is “tied” to myself. To pray means to judge myself and change. This is the only way I may cause a different response from the unchanging law. This is the whole point. Religions don’t talk about the transformation of man; they suggest that I should “bribe” the Creator by performing mechanical actions or passionate prayer. People hope that it will help them, although human history proves the opposite to be true.

Kabbalah maintains that you are the one to change and nobody else. Continue to appeal to the Creator as you did before, but only for a different reason: This is His will, and you are doing it against your own desire.

You stand before the Light. By changing yourself and becoming similar to Him in properties, you begin to perceive His influence that previously remained outside of your senses. You become a vessel for the Light and grow until it fills all of you.

To anticipate the Upper Light doesn’t mean to whistle for the wind. Make an inner move toward Him, wish to change, and it will affect you. All changes that we observe in the Light are changes within us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/2010, “The Creator Created the Evil Inclination, and He Created the Torah as a Spice”

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Question: The purpose of creation is basically clear to me. What I don’t understand is why did the Creator do it? What does He need me for? Why did He make it all this way?

Answer: He did it for two reasons: First, His nature is good who does good, meaning that He wished to give us infinite fulfillment above time, motion, space, and all limitations. Second, this fulfillment must be of the same degree as the Creator’s so that we would enjoy a status equal to His and be as He is. Yet we have to achieve this ourselves by having received independence and increasing our “self” to His level.

We still don’t comprehend how we can grow to such a status, but we will reach a position equal to the Creator’s and become equal to Him in everything. The force of love and good, which in fact is the Creator, obliges Him to create a being and lead it to perfection. In truth, however, we already are in this state of completeness since He initially created us as such.

He didn’t create us in this despicable form we find ourselves at the moment so that we would have to reconstruct ourselves anew. No, all we have to do is unveil our true condition. As to the Creator, we are still perfect in relation to Him.

If we don’t achieve this status independently, we won’t be able to experience the world of and life in Infinity. We could experience it right now, but since our Kelim (vessels, desires) are not developed, we perceive this world instead.
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From the Introductory Lecture “Why The Creator is Hidden” 12/14/2010

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The transition from the present, internal sensation to the external one is the most challenging step on the path of evolution. In the corporeal world, it is egoism that makes us grow by providing a natural motivation for us to search. In the upper world, we feel how wonderful it is to step out into the new dimension. We start seeing and experiencing it, and sensing the forces that interact with all of its parts. We unveil the tapestry of forces that connect us, which naturally results in our yearning for spiritual attainment.

We have to move on from our present perception to a higher one, and reside in both dimensions simultaneously. This is a very difficult psychological transition because it is as if we are being reborn.

Just like a newborn comes out of its previous place of existence into the external world by way of its own efforts, as well as its mother’s, so we have to pass through the very same stages of internal maturation and necessity to be born. With our own effort, we “flip upside down,” which signifies that we completely switch our perception of reality. The pushing force of the mother works in sync with the moving force of the embryo, and as a result we come out into the external world.

This is the most serious state and a crucial point in our lives. For the first time in human history, we are undergoing it on a mass scale. In the past, the revelation of the upper dimension or the external world occurred on the individual level. The first person to do so was Adam 5771 years ago. After him, over the course of thousands of years, many others discovered this possibility, attained it, and described it in their books, which have survived to this day. That is how the method continued to develop.

However, today, it is being transformed from an individual wisdom to a mass wisdom. Therefore, it is undergoing very serious modifications. We are the groundbreakers of implementing it, and the process will be much easier for the rest of mankind. We will be born first, and then all the others will follow us by the same principle.

We should be aware how challenging, profound, and unique our path is.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Kabbalistic method is built on group work, on the connection between us, on the aspiration for all of us to gather together, to collect all the common forces, and with our mutual efforts to help every person come out of himself to others. In reality the method is very realistic and simple. In order to perceive the upper world, we have to stop paying attention to the “atoms” of our bodies and switch our attention to the emptiness in the “interatomic space.” We can do this in human society or in a small group that allows us to change ourselves.

We have to get together, mutually helping each other, and start shifting our attention from ourselves to what is between us. The work is unpleasant, unclear, and very unnatural for us. But that is why Kabbalists wrote an enormous amount of materials. By applying the Kabbalistic method to ourselves, we add to it, complete it, and materialize it. We begin to accept and feel it inside. As a whole we adapt it to us and to real time, and implement it in the present.

Therefore, we carry it out and research it, as well as develop the phase of the practical realization of all of Nature. Today the method is applied on us, those who desire to complement our sensation of the universe with an additional, external part. Moreover, this is not simply an additional part, but the most important part. We begin feeling forces, phenomena, and actions in interatomic space, meaning in 99% of reality. First and foremost this enormous volume is filled by a thought, a plan, forces, and their interactions, and everything that activates us, who are tiny, microscopic parts.

This attainment of the root leads us out of the state of time, lack of vision, and submission, in essence a state of non-being, to a state of clarity, eternity, and perfection. That is what the right realization of the science of Kabbalah gives us.

All of this is realized in the group, where we begin to feel how to come to the outside, to the perception of others. We go from the sensation of “the world inside me” to the sensation of “the world in the world.” If there are billions of people or souls instead of me, then by coming out of myself I begin perceiving the forces that act between us, and I feel all the souls as one whole, as one closed system.

Today even on the material level something is already telling us that the world is global and integral, and everything in it is interconnected. Thus, I begin to perceive everything on the outside as myself. I thereby acquire a great desire, force, and fulfillment, which is at my disposal. All of this becomes my “self.” These are no longer people, but simply forces that exist in this form.

That is how a person starts to reveal the true volume and vision of the world.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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Speaking of the Creator’s attitude to us, we use our lexicon and say that He is “merciful,” “angry,” and so on. Naturally, all of this exists only relative to us.

We don’t merit any transformations by the Creator. But to the extent that we ourselves change in relation to the unconditional, unchangeable, and ever-constant active law of “Good Who does Good,” we merit a reciprocal reaction.

I would be able to predict what this reaction will be if I were familiar with all the inner parameters of my soul, with the entire system and its conditions. Obviously, it is challenging to know everything. As pertains to us, however, the Creator doesn’t change. The force that fills all of nature and sustains all creation’s existence always treats us with absolute love, as the “Good Who does Good”; on its part, there aren’t any changes.

We ourselves trigger all reactions according to how much we change in relation to this law, how developed and similar to it we already have to be, and how capable or not we are to accomplish this. Besides, it depends on our collective influence of one person on all and all on one. This is what we are now discovering in our global world.

Yet we say that the Creator treats us well or badly, sometimes this way, other times another; we feel that there are good and bad times, holidays and so on. But none of it exists. All of this is defined by how a person attains. If I didn’t labor, I wouldn’t come to the state of correction since I didn’t reach this degree.

But why is it then that times still change while I don’t? It is so because I am linked with all other systems, other souls, and everybody must advance. Hence, the Reshimot (spiritual information genes) constantly unfold. If we actualize them correctly, we feel good, and if not, they get actualized by way of suffering, and we feel the evil. But only Reshimot emerge, while the Light that works on them is constant.

Also, the Light that we regard as “the Light that Reforms” or “the Surrounding Light” doesn’t change either. We are still in the same unchangeable system. But I aspire to the Light, and it affects me to the degree of my yearning. If I don’t, it doesn’t work on me. There is nothing that will change without my desire. And only relative to this desire do I experience transformation.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Donkey Driver”

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