Question: Earth is the only planet in the universe where life is possible. Nevertheless, there are areas on the globe that are uninhabitable, such as the desert. Why are there places on earth with virtually no water and conditions that are very difficult for survival?

Answer: There are places on the globe that are not intended for human existence: the north and south poles, as well as the area around the equator where deserts are mainly located. Apparently, for homeostasis and balance in nature, such extreme conditions must exist: extreme cold and extreme heat.

Similarly, one might ask why there are four seasons; would it not be better to have a constant pleasant temperature of 25 degrees Celsius? We fail to understand that external conditions are a reflection of our inner state. The same processes are happening outside as inside. Winter, summer, spring, and autumn alternate inside me—cold and hot states, states of dryness of the soul and life-giving rain.

Therefore all conditions must be perceived as necessary for a special cycle in the climate, in mood changes, in the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and in humans. The whole universe is built in four stages. After all, there are only two forces in the world: the force of giving (the property of the Creator) and the force of receiving (the property of creation), as well as the transition from one to the other and vice versa.

We cannot be in the receiving force alone; it is impossible to live in it. We are finally becoming convinced that we cannot continue to exist in such egoism. But you cannot live only in the force of bestowal either; you need to combine the two forces.

Even in the spiritual world, which is perfect, we cannot survive without egoism; we need it for the left line, to counterbalance holiness. Without it, it is impossible to study, imagine, or measure the spiritual. One is always evaluated relative to the other. Therefore we need both a plus and a minus, and to reach their correct combination.

Question: What is the inner desert?

Answer: The inner desert is hot and dry. These are very difficult conditions where there is no second force—humidity and coolness. There is no balance between the two forces; that is why it is so difficult.

In opposite conditions, when it is very cold, it is also impossible to survive. It can be 70 degrees Celsius in the desert and -70 degrees at the poles. Both are a problem.

We need to come to a balance of two opposing forces, as taught by the science of Kabbalah. Then we reach the middle line, that is, the balance between the force of giving and the force of receiving, and can live well—at peace with each other and each with himself.

If one day we manage to achieve the kind of inner correction that the science of Kabbalah talks about, we will also influence the external climate and the nature of animals, as it is said that the wolf will live peacefully next to the lamb.
[217359]
From KabTV’s “New Life – 924,” 11/28/2017

Related Material:
Why The Desert?
Desert Flowing With Milk And Honey
Work In The Barren Desert

Filed under: Structure of the Universe - No Comments →

Question: Are you afraid that you might be disconnected from the spiritual system?

Answer: There is fear on my part. I am afraid.

Question: And what if it is meant to be?

Answer: It doesn’t matter. I still don’t want it. Why should it be like this?! If I act correctly, run the program, and operate within it, why should this happen? I want to attain complete unity with the Creator through understanding His ways.

You want to say: “If you are still afraid that you might be disconnected, it means you are not yet fully devoted to the Creator, you have not yet given yourself to Him with all your soul.” That is true. And I do not want this. I do not want disconnection.

In everything else, do with me as You wish! But let me attain this program so that I can justify You; otherwise, I will not be able to do so. That is, this goal—this fear of falling out of attainment—is not an egoistic fixation on myself.

Question: So is it possible to negotiate with the Creator in some way?

Answer: No, not to negotiate, but rather to compel Him to lead you further, to not let go, to hold on, to force Him, just as a small child compels an adult.

Our goal is very serious. Therefore the desired attitude toward the Creator is one where on the one hand you recognize His greatness, and on the other you understand that you can influence Him. And He desires this! Because in doing so you pursue the same goal as He does: to achieve complete mutual understanding and unity.

Question: So is there really a choice between these two things you are talking about?

Answer: The choice lies in your attitude toward what is happening, not in what is happening itself.

Question: But then why are you afraid that you might simply be disconnected? Does it depend on the students or on you personally?

Answer: What it depends on, I do not know. I do not see the entire picture of governance. I only know what I have been able to attain from the beginning of my path until this moment. And what lies ahead, I do not know.

Therefore I cannot say whether it depends on me, on the students, or on something else. I do not know, and I do not need to. It does not matter whether I know or not. What matters is my attitude toward it. I want to justify the Creator in all His ways, and for this reason, I do not want to be disconnected from attaining His program and uniting with it.
[341617]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. To Exist in Attainment” 6/27/10

Related Material:
How To Never Be Detached From The Creator
A Daily Schedule Is A Lifeline
“Do Not Believe In Yourself Until The Day You Die”

Filed under: Q&A, Spiritual Work, Structure of the Universe, Thoughts on Twitter - No Comments →

Question: Can you share your experience of how you hold on to the goal?

Answer: Frankly speaking, I do not even know myself. It is unknown.

On the one hand, the ways of the Lord are inscrutable. On the other hand, I remember myself as a little boy, six to seven years old, constantly asking myself: “Why is this world a game? Why must one exist in it? What goal stands behind this whole spectacle?”

I always saw this world as if it were playing out on a screen behind which some kind of mechanism was specifically showing it to me. And what does it want from me? This sense of duality in the picture of the world and the idea that some hidden purpose exists behind it has never left me and has been absolutely clear to me since childhood.

Throughout all the years of my life, I have seen this from the outside. Even as a boy playing with others, and later during my student years, I understood that, out of inevitability, I had to act just like everyone else.

So if I were to say exactly what drives me forward, it is certainly not me.

But on the other hand, I constantly put myself within such constraints that I have no other options. I am afraid! There was a time when I was pulled away from my spiritual search for exactly one year, to the day.

Question: What do you mean by pulled away? Do you mean you stopped studying altogether?

Answer: No, I continued studying, but very little, automatically, and not in the way I should have.

Suddenly I was given an enormous desire to engage in a big business venture in order to later create a large system for spreading Kabbalah. And in this way I was led astray.

I devoted exactly one year to this, and although I never completely stopped studying Kabbalah, it was very little. I felt how completely it tore me away and could even immerse me in this world, something that had almost never happened in my life, except perhaps for a brief period after university when I wanted to pursue a scientific career.

That is, I clearly felt that if not for a force from above, it would be very easy to remove me from the path and turn me into an ordinary mammal.

Question: How do you establish boundaries for your spiritual work? What sustains them?

Answer: Through obligations. My entire schedule is planned by the hour.
[341608]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Purpose as a Way of Life” 6/24/10

Related Material:
Devotion to the Goal
Commitment To The Spiritual Path
This Is Undoubtedly the Right Place!

Filed under: Q&A, Spiritual Work, Structure of the Universe, Thoughts on Twitter - No Comments →

Question: You once said: “Unless you are disconnected from above,” which has happened to many Kabbalists when, at a certain moment, they were disconnected from spirituality against their will.

Answer: The upper force can do absolutely anything! We are, after all, set in motion within this grand machine. We exist within it.

However, we have been given the ability to rise above our existence in this machine and become aware that we are inside it, live in it, operate within it, are set in motion according to a specific plan, and are executing a specific program. In other words, we can develop an understanding that we are governed by the upper force, and through this understanding we can attain the governor, justify Him, learn everything about Him, and become like Him.

At the same time we will always be executing exactly what He triggers within us. We are constantly under His commands.

However, the goal is to reveal His governance over us, to recognize it as good, just, true, infinitely harmonious, and perfect, and to adhere to Him precisely through attaining this governance. In doing so, we rise to the level of the Governor, to the level of the Creator; we attain, understand, and become like Him. It is as if we begin to launch our own program and implement ourselves.

In essence, we never oppose Him in any way. We simply come to realize that His way is absolute perfection and follow it without any coercion. It turns out that at the highest level of attainment, even if there were no commands from Him, we would act in exactly the same way. In a sense, we replace the Creator.
[341614]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. To Exist in Attainment” 6/27/10

Related Material:
Revealing One’s Attitude to the Creator
Face-to-Face With The Creator
Genuine And Imaginary Governance

Filed under: Q&A, Spiritual Work, Structure of the Universe, Thoughts on Twitter - No Comments →

In ancient times, there were special cities where criminals were sent. They could escape to these cities and live there for, say, seven years. After those seven years, they were free to move around, and no one had the right to make any claims against them.

That is, on one hand a person is guilty of committing some crime. On the other hand we understand that this is the collective guilt of everyone. What happened to him was meant to happen from above as part of the global system, and we gave him the opportunity to correct himself. We were responsible for him!

A person is corrected through education. Criminals did not just sit idly in these refuge cities; they engaged in study and learning. They were specifically trained for correction through various discussions, lessons, and exercises. In the end, society took care of this because it bore responsibility for the fact that such individuals emerged within it.

Question: Why exactly seven years?

Answer: Because the seventh stage marks the completion of the period of Zeir Anpin and Malchut. Zeir Anpin consists of VAK (six Sefirot), and Malchut is the seventh. When everything from Zeir Anpin flows into Malchut, the cycle is complete.

Additionally, there are transformations that occur only once every 50 years (7×7=49) leading to what is called the Jubilee Year. The system functions this way by itself. Many elements are tied to this structure—how it develops, pushes us forward, and so on. By propelling us forward over seven years, it effectively renews itself.
[340576]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Negative Properties” 6/14/10

Related Material:
Reeducation In Ancient Times
Crime And Punishment
Not Punishment, But Correction

Filed under: Q&A, Structure of the Universe, Thoughts on Twitter - No Comments →

Question: How did Kabbalists of the past keep up the importance of the goal
and support each other?

Answer: Just as we are doing today. I need the support of the group because otherwise I cannot attain desire for spirituality. I advance only with the desire I receive from my environment, from society. Therefore, I need a suitable environment.

I must pressure them, flatter them, love them, literally dust them off, all in order to obtain from them—in a positive or a negative way—the enthusiasm and importance of the goal.

It is with this enthusiasm that I can turn to the Creator. Therefore, I need an environment that is on the same level with me as a source of desire with which I turn to the Creator. And from there, I receive the force that corrects and elevates me.

Question: But there were times when Kabbalists laughed at each other and at themselves, for example, stuffing crumbs into their beards. What for?

Answer: They laughed at themselves. This was all special self-irony about the state they were in. Yes, that happened.

In general, humor, satire, and self-mockery are inherent in the nature of the Jewish people. Actually, all the jokes about themselves they create themselves. This is a necessary condition for self-control and analysis, which helps them move forward.

Question: You say that the group as if intentionally pressures a person, creates numerous obstacles for them. Yet at the same time, it gives him the importance of the goal. Why is such a path necessary? Why get on each other’s nerves?

Answer: The thing is that we initially consist of two parts. I consist of one part that is egoistic and wants to use everything for itself, and the second part, the point in the heart that desires to aspire toward altruism, bestowal, adhesion with the Creator, that is, toward equivalence with the properties of the absolute in bestowal and love.

In accordance with these two parts, I perceive the surrounding world in a dual manner. Therefore, I always experience this imbalance, difference, dipole, both plus and minus within me. Moreover, I see plus and minus in everything around me: there is no good without evil and vice versa.
[340571]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Support in the Group” 6/13/10

Related Material:
The Ability to Laugh at Yourself
Humor In Spirituality
How To Win In The Struggle With Yourself?

Filed under: Group Work, Structure of the Universe, Thoughts on Twitter - No Comments →

It is said that envy, lust, and honor take a person out of this world. These qualities are intentionally created within us. And these seemingly most unpleasant, most disrespected traits suddenly turn out to be the most effective.

I suddenly begin to feel how much they can help me, how envy can be positive. I look at my friends, and they are doing something together, discussing certain matters, and I envy them.

They can respect me only when I love and bestow, when I sacrifice myself, when I feel my connection with them. Only in them, only in mutual guarantee, will I find myself and my life. Unexpectedly I begin to value this abstract state as something very necessary for me.

This is what we need to somehow act out among ourselves. But the group is not yet capable of doing this. We need to take action and organize some kind of scene for each friend. After all, we do not just whisper among ourselves in a corner: “Now we will start acting on you this way. Let us see how our experiment turns out.”

One, then another, then a third person begins to work on you, deliberately set an example, and you start reacting. “What do they want?” Sometimes you suddenly justify them, but mostly you do not know what to do.

This is how a person’s complete dependence on the surrounding group and on society is revealed. In novels, it is often said that some hero enters a large society and easily interacts with it. But in reality this is very difficult.

That is why we need to create such a place. I mean a virtual space, an environment, where we could act out this condition, society and each of us as an individual with desires for pleasure, envy, honors, fame, power, everything that defines our relationship with society.

Yet I do not see this society in my friends. For some reason, they cannot organize themselves, they cannot influence me, something is not working for them.

But if I had such a simulator on my computer, I would be required to enter it five times a day, which is something I cannot physically do with my friends. And this simulator would impose certain demands, whims, and conditions, it would impose its influences and questions on me.

It would show me what it wants from me, like a capricious group that demands a certain attitude from its friend: “What is more important to you—this or that? How would you progress—this way or that? How would you act in such a state? In which source is it said that this is so and that is otherwise?” It would pose questions that seem completely illogical. But otherwise you will not succeed, the group demands this from you. Do you agree or not?

Such a simulator is necessary, even just to theoretically force a person to understand what the property of bestowal is and how much they are opposite to it.

Moreover, the daily tasks must necessarily include both states of descent and ascent so that a person can see and determine where they are and how they would react to this in the opposite state.

The computer plays out the relationships between me and the group, and I begin to treat it like a Tamagotchi. It leads me forward, I am attached to it, I am interested in its opinion, its attitude toward me and its evaluation of my actions.
[340638]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Virtual Community, Part 2” 5/16/10

Related Material:
Replacement For Physical Contact
Wonderland On The Internet
A Real Virtual Environment

Filed under: Group Work, Internet, Q&A, Spiritual Work, Structure of the Universe - No Comments →

There are only two forces at work in the universe.  The egoistic one is the one in which we exist now. It is artificial and imaginary, and in fact it does not exist because it is only a reflection of the Creator’s property, “There is none else besides Him.”

In order to determine that there is none else besides Him, there is something opposite, since creation is made in such a way that it can attain light only from darkness, good from bad, and so on. Otherwise we would not be able to feel a single effect, action, or property.
[338831]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

Related Material:
Two Lines—Inner Contradiction
Between Two Lines
Two Forces Arising From One

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work, Structure of the Universe - No Comments →

We incorrectly imagine infinity as some kind of infinite space. But infinity in the spiritual world means unlimited fulfillment. This is a state when all our desires, which are limited in themselves, are corrected for bestowal.

Ten Sefirot are infinity; 125 spiritual degrees are infinity. In the spiritual world everything is infinite. This is just for us so we can establish our attitude that the spiritual is divided into ten Sefirot, 125 degrees in each world, etc.

All this division exists only relative to us, but in fact, every spiritual quality is infinite. No matter what quality I touch, infinity is revealed behind it.

In essence, the entire creation is HaVaYaH, five phases. But when this HaVaYaH wants to become like the Creator, it begins to divide again, and again, and again… And therefore, it becomes infinite.

If Malchut of the world of infinity had accepted the light in the form in which it was created, it would have been simply HaVaYaH. But since it cannot accept the light in one go and must work in a manner opposite to its initial nature, all of creation is divided infinitely.

Infinity is not a numerical measure, but a qualitative one. In our world, the concept of infinity does not exist, which is why we cannot truly understand it. It is something we can only “come and see.” Even within our world, if we try to delve deeper into a particular idea or explore something, an infinite number of layers and flavors begin to reveal themselves.

Creation is entirely unrestricted by the boundaries of this world, which we impose through our sensory organs. We perceive everything through our will to receive, which projects an imagined, finite reality, a deliberately simplified framework that allows us to exist with our primitive, egoistic understanding.

But when we break through this shell, we begin to understand what infinity is. Infinity reveals itself in our perception, and we ourselves become infinite. It becomes clear to us that everything is infinite because we are infinite, and our perception becomes infinite, and there is nothing complex about it.
[224087]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/18, Writings of Baal Sulam “The Study of the Ten Sefirot” (TES)

Related Material:
10 Grams Of Unlimited Fulfillment
The Program Of Development Coded “HaVaYaH”
Everyone Has His Own Infinity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work, Structure of the Universe - No Comments →

Accordingly, we should ask, “Why did He create the worlds, restriction after restriction down to this murky world, and clothed the souls in the murky bodies of this world? (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah“)

Question: Was our reality, with our murky bodies, part of the initial plan of the Creator?

Answer: When creating our reality, the Creator envisioned our corrected state, not the form in which we initially exist.

Therefore we must understand the work before us, what we need to do, and what we must achieve.

Question: How is the quality of Adam manifested, which the whole ten should strive to hold onto?

Answer: That quality is only revealed in the world of Atzilut.
[337868]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Related Material:
The Reason for Creating Created Beings
The Thought of Creation
Worlds That Make Up The Universe

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work, Structure of the Universe - No Comments →