Kabbalah Channel: Sexual Secrets And Spirituality?
Posted on August 18th, 2010
Question: What is Gematria in spirituality?
Answer: Gematria is a specific inner state of a person or of his soul, comprised of desire (a vessel, Kli) and Light, fulfillment. The sum of all sensations, impressions, states, memories, and intentions, the general state of the soul expressed in the form of letters or a sequence of letters, is called Gematria. It is a way of writing down a specific state of the soul.
Suppose I could play a melody or sing a song that expresses my state. This is Gematria. I can draw a letter or symbol; this will also be Gematria. I can convey my sensation or my state by recording it. It is similar to Reshimo, a record of information about a state.
In spirituality there is nothing besides the state of the Light and desire (Kli), that state of equivalence between the Light and desire with the help of a screen or intention. Everything else are means or ways to express this state.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/10, The Zohar
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Question: Is a person’s soul connected to his body like a spiritual root and its branch?
Answer: The soul is not connected to the body. The soul contains 613 desires which I have to correct with the help of 613 Lights. These desires are not connected to our world in any way and they are not present in a regular person.
They surface only in those who study Kabbalah with the intention to create a connection among the students based on bestowal and love, meaning to correct the breaking of the single soul of Adam into parts, into separate souls. These uncorrected desires or mutual hate do not emerge in those who do not study Kabbalah and therefore they have nothing to correct.
The correction takes place in two phases:
1. Not using the 613 desires. This is called carrying out the "613 recommendations of the Torah (Eitin).
2. Reception inside the 613 desires for the sake of bestowal. This is called carrying out "613 instructions of the Torah" (Pkudin).
The desires that were corrupted and became egoistic have the intention "for one’s own sake.” When they are corrected, they acquire the intention of being used "for the sake of others." These desires are the fulfillment of a commandment, since the Creator commanded us "to correct our souls."
This is a spiritual action that does not depend on the physical body. A person may have no arms and legs, or may even lack the whole body, but he can still carry out these actions. The correction of one’s desires is in no way connected to physical flesh. One’s presence in the spiritual world is not connected to this world.
Everything is felt inside the desire. Matter is desire. The sensation inside the lowest desire creates the picture of our world for us or the reality in which we live. The lowest level, called "this world," is impossible to correct. It is the still level which is not subject to correction.
However, besides the still level of desire called "this world," I also receive a small desire of the next level, a "point" of the higher level which is in no way connected to the material level. This desire is called a "point" because in it I perceive only an aspiration to something beyond this world. I can develop it by drawing Light that will connect it to the points of other people, or stated differently, it will connect my soul with other souls. Inside the connection that emerges, I will begin to feel the spiritual world.
When more points connect to my point, then a system emerges and the Light brings it to life. Then all the participants feel life!
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/10, “The Matter of Root and Branch”
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One’s work must be as far from the body as possible. We can discern different stages in the work:
• First a person aspires only for fulfillment, whether in this world or in the world to come.
• Then, besides thinking about the fulfillment itself, he starts to think about “who is he dealing with,” who does this fulfillment depend on? He then begins to connect the fulfillment with the source of fulfillment, the Giver. He starts to have an attitude toward the Giver because the fulfillment depends on Him.
• At the next stage a person starts to respect the Giver for the fact that he is Giving, for His quality of being Giving, rather than for the pleasure that he receives from Him.
That is when he reaches an inner divide: On one hand he feels that fulfillment is important, but on the other he aspires to become similar to the Giver. Is the fulfillment important because it gives him energy for work, or because of the fulfillment itself? Where exactly does he get his energy and what is his goal: fulfillment or a connection with the Giver?
In this manner he gradually reaches a state of thinking only about equivalence of form between him and the Creator. However, this is also not so simple. Equivalence of form is not the same as the desire to give pleasure to the Giver. The aspiration to reach equivalence of form still involves a consideration for oneself. Even though I desire to give, to delight someone else, and to love, it is still something that I want; I am present in this consideration.
Yet, isn’t the same thing true for giving pleasure: Won’t I be giving it? Or perhaps there is someone who will do it better than me? How well can I do it without receiving anything in return?
We see that the work involves many levels. It encompasses five entire worlds where a person reassesses his entire motivation and principles: For what sake is he willing to make efforts? What fulfills him, and what is his attitude to the Giver? This is what causes his state to change and helps him rise from one world to the next.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/10, Writings of Rabash
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A question I received: Is it possible to ask the Creator to give points in the heart to those in whom they haven’t yet awakened?
My Answer: We need to pray for the whole of humanity to quickly reach a true spiritual need for the goal of creation. However, to pray means for you to aspire for inner unification with such tension and force that it will be felt by everyone else like a fire that is blazing within.
Imagine that humanity today is almost a lifeless body; maybe not completely dead yet, but in a state of unconsciousness. And we are its organs trying to revive ourselves and bring back life to this common organism. Gradually the whole body begins to awaken. This constitutes our work.
The most important work in dissemination is not in external efforts (the amount of books we release or materials on the internet); it is in the unification between us through which we rouse love, connection, and warmth in our whole worldwide unification of people who study Kabbalah. It is precisely this work that influences everyone else, and they suddenly begin to feel that there is something unique in all this! But what it is exactly, they don’t know. Nonetheless, they suddenly find us.
After all, every person’s heart somehow led him to Kabbalah though he himself didn’t understand how. It’s simply that once this need arose in him, he began to search, and suddenly he felt with his heart that his place is here. This is because his desire was already aimed in the same direction.
It was a very small desire for spirituality, a point in the heart was hiding deep within, but we ignited such a powerful fire that people felt it from afar. Therefore, everything depends on our inner unification. This is the most effective dissemination.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYigash (And Judah Approached),” Item 126: “There is a firmament above the firmament, and this firmament controls them, meaning three firmaments where the right and left are one above the other,” meaning three firmaments, where the left and the right are above one another and the middle one “governs them, subdues them, and mingles them in one another”…"Under the firmament their wings were straight" since they all governed what they were appointed over, since the middle line establishes the illumination of both of them together, where the right shines from above downwards and the left from below upwards. This is why the right wing is equal to the left wing….
How is possible to measure whether the right and the left lines are equal? Can they be measured by quality, weight, and power? They have completely different qualities, and we don’t have any means to evaluate them according to an external system of measurement, like that of our world. “Equal” means they complement each other in such way that each of them provides all that is needed for the other. Hassadim from the right line fully supplements Hochma in the left line. By the same token, Hochma shines in Hassadim as much as it is able.
This means that they are equal. Thereby, they are partners, and each bestows all it has so that a mutual connection, called the middle line, exists in an optimal form. This is why they are considered equal. Perhaps, Hassadim supplies 90% and Hochma only 10%, and on the next level the ratio may be 70% and 30%, or 99% and 1%. It is called equal because one fills the other to the best of its ability. They are equal because they hold the same intention, thought, and calculation. The ratio between them doesn’t necessarily need to be 50/50. In spirituality, equality is when I fill you up with all that you desire from me, then we are equal.
From the Evening Zohar Lesson 6/9/10
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In the past, people who wanted to attain spirituality had to torment and restrict their body so as to annihilate their egoistic desire and acquire a new, bestowing nature. This was customary at the time of our forefathers and the sages of the Mishnah. The Talmud era followed and the sages of that era, the Kabbalists of the time, changed the condition for transforming our egoistic nature into the bestowing, spiritual one by the means of their own spiritual work.
Each period introduced its own corrected part into the common system of the soul. As a result, the system became partially corrected, making it possible for the souls not yet corrected to receive help from the corrected part. Thus, we no longer need to torture and limit our body. In fact, we are not even capable of doing so because of our huge egoism. The sages of the Talmud made our path easier, and the part of the desire which we would have had to correct by torturing the body can now be corrected by the Light that Reforms.
The forefathers and the sages of the Mishnah corrected themselves by performing two actions: tormenting the body and attracting the Light of the Torah. In contrast, the sages of the Talmud corrected the system so that instead of suffering, we can correct ourselves with the Light of the Torah. This is of crucial importance for our times because who has the strength to renounce the achievements of modern civilization?
The Kabbalists of the Talmud corrected themselves and their connection into the common system, making a large corrected part. I am born uncorrected and a sinner, but I exist in a system that contains many corrected parts, which sustain it. And if I want to correct myself, there is someone I can ask help from and connect to. The ball is now in my court.
From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot
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A question I received: How does the Upper bring the lower one up the steps of the spiritual ladder?
My Answer: The Upper degree switches into his lesser state (Katnut) and descends to the lower presenting himself to the lower as smaller. We do the same thing when playing with children. We want the children to have success, so we lower ourselves and let them win the game. We lower ourselves to establish a connection with them.
This is like a mentor, who acts among children just as if he is like them; then gradually he begins to change, to model more desirable behavior, so that the children could see him as an example of a corrected child. First, the mentor displays an example as a child, not as an adult, so that the children can relate to him. We know that children learn more readily from other children than from adults.
This is because the environment impacts people only if the people in it are equal. Friends must be on equal terms; then they can serve as an example to each other. If I feel that a friend is greater than I am, he is not my friend anymore. I learn from the same level I am on.
It is the same way in the spiritual world. The Upper descends to the lower and becomes identical to the lower in everything, and by doing so, he unites with the lower. The lower doesn’t annul himself before the higher one since they are seemingly equal; hence, they unite on equal terms. After this, the Upper one can ascend and bring the lower one up with him.
In order to ascend with the Upper one, the lower one must annul his receiving desires (AHP), but remain united with the Upper one as an equal, in the bestowing desires (Galgalta ve-Eynaim). Thus, when the Upper one descends to me, I will not perceive him as higher because he has become the same as me. If a 7 foot tall adult plays with a child while matching the child’s emotions and behaviors, the child won’t perceive him as a tall adult. The child thinks that the adult is just like him. Without this similarity from the child’s perspective, there wouldn’t be any contact between them!
The truth is that I cannot unite with anyone if he isn’t on the same step with me, at the same level, in the same qualities, no more, no less. Then there can be a connection between us, but not before!
This is like in high frequency waves, if you step slightly beyond the limits of the frequency, the connection disappears. It is the same for the spiritual connection: We have to attain absolutely precise congruence, not more, not less, at the same level. Otherwise, there will be no contact; one will not penetrate the other.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”
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