The laws of a person’s behavior are examined in the Torah under the condition of his correct integration in general nature. After all, a person isn’t subordinate to nature, he has freewill. His hesitations bring about imbalance not only in society, but also in nature that surrounds him.

Since human society is the most important part of nature, a person’s improper behavior affects nature by disrupting the focus and the meaning of its evolution.

This is the reason that the Torah gives us the major laws of proper behavior of human society, thanks to which it must be integrated harmoniously with the environment that surrounds it: the still, vegetative, and animate nature. This is the only way that the system can reach the ultimate state that initially was planned.

Human desire is made of four levels of the ego. Their correction is called working with the still, vegetative, animate, and human nature in a person. Therefore, the initial work is to relate to the level of the still nature properly.

The level of still nature is characterized by working with the category of the land because even the name Adam stems from the Hebrew word “Adama – earth.” Everything stems from the land.

When a person works on this level, he must include everything else in it because the four levels in us don’t operate by themselves but only in mutual connection with the others, just like all of nature. Therefore, when we work even on the lowest level with the earth, we also operate the levels of the vegetative, animate, and speaking in us.

Baal HaSulam tells us about this in the Introduction to The Book of Zohar, emphasizing that even in the world of Assiya, which is the level of the still nature in itself, we perform actions by drawing all the other types of Light.

It isn’t only the Light of Nefesh but also the Lights of Ruach, Haya, and Yechida that are dressed in the world of Assiya, but only temporarily. Only the Light of Nefesh operates permanently in the level of the world of Assiya, the level of the still nature.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/16/14

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The Zohar, Sulam Commentary, Chapter “BaHar,” Item 69: Abraham repented and shattered the idols of paganism and the food that had been placed before them.

Everything that is considered holy and sublime on the previous level that was worth living for, working for, and dedicating myself to, needs to be shattered. All the actions that are performed in our world for the sake of our ego, for our children, for humanity, and for nature belong to that.

Unfortunately, we live simply in order to survive, saying, “Let us live the years that we were given from Above in peace, and I don’t care what may happen afterward.” This is what everyone thinks, not realizing that they deceive themselves that way. Such an attitude is harmful and destructive.

Abraham believed that our world wasn’t created in order to appease the idols—our work, our studies, our children, and the good life, after which we can lay down and die in peace—but that our world was created so that we would reach the next world in this lifetime.

Noah was the first who broke away from the past. He built an ark and hid in it. He realized that he had to be saved from this world and he created his own protection, a shelter from the thoughts and the temptations that surrounded him, and sailed away from them. Therefore, all his egoistic feelings, thoughts, and desires died during the flood.

The point is that we need to perceive the still, vegetative, and animate natures, and mankind as one unique whole. Only a part of this whole, called Noah, survived the flood, which means that this part had been corrected under the influence of the Surrounding Light (the ark is the Light of Hassadim). The part that couldn’t be corrected that way died. However, later it undergoes its own correction in a different manner and is reborn in a new form.

The same thing happened to Abraham. The parts that couldn’t be corrected remained in Babylon, while Abraham shattered, burned, and threw away all the idols and left Babylon. He had a higher understanding than Noah: that everything that belonged to his egoistic state was on the level of still nature and that there was no Upper Light in it. He discerned and distinguished the higher level from the lower and cut off the layer of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and the human level that are inside his soul. He could not be free of the domination of Nimrod (the ego), and so he left.

We see that here, too, the general soul distinguishes and sets aside a certain part that cannot be corrected and follows its own way. Just as Noah detached himself from the entire world, Abraham also detached himself from it. The part of the Babylonians remained and developed following a different path.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/18/15

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Question: In the transition from the five senses of this world to the five senses for feeling the Upper World, where is there a place to “bring a sacrifice”?

Answer: In the beginning a person has nothing. We begin to bring sacrifices during the exodus from Egypt when the Creator seems to demand the bringing of sacrifices, building the tabernacle for the “tablets of the covenant” and so on.

If a person is already found at a particular degree of attainment, it is as if they tell him: “This desire of yours is egoistic to this degree, and another desire – to another degree. It is necessary to cut it to this degree here, and from there – to another degree.” This means that they show him how, to what extent, and with what accommodation to the other desires he can use each one of his desires with an intention for the sake of bestowal.

When a person clearly feels that he is passing from one world to another, he begins to feel a kind of detachment from this world. This is already apparent to some degree in people who come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah.

After that a clear desire for the next state is revealed, the discovery of the Creator. But the person doesn’t yet understand what the Creator is, what kind of characteristic this is—bestowal and love, and what he must sacrifice to discover the Creator, which he wants very much after all.

Of course, a person needs a group in order to develop correctly, to look at the others and maintain his envy and craving within him, his aspiration to move forward. He needs to feel that he is not alone.

He makes a Tzimtzum (restriction) on himself, and strives forward on every level. And problems are constantly awakened within him, which apparently pull him backward: withdrawal, indifference, and excuses. After this he makes a leap forward; he goes through difficult experiences in the form of the plagues of Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, the wilderness, and so on.

But the main thing is that only then does he receive instruction and guidance about what to do. After all, he doesn’t immediately receive instruction about how to bring sacrifices.

First of all, we understand the importance of detachment from this world in which only our physical body exists. And we, with our desires, intentions, and hopes move towards attainment of the upper world, the characteristic of bestowal and connection between everyone.

As serious investigators we want to discover how the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature are connected, where the forces that exist between them are.

We gradually discover all of this in two stages. In the first stage we don’t want anything for ourselves, we try to be completely detached from the receptive characteristic, and in this way we acquire a characteristic called “Hassadim” (mercy).

In the second stage we fully rise to the level of the Hassadim, to the level of Bina, after we make a correction on our desires, when they are found in total separation from reception and any fulfillment. After this we begin to transform those desires into characteristics of bestowal and love. This is where the place for sacrifice is revealed. In other words, we must clarify how to sanctify each one of our desires, everything that is within us: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.
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From KabTV”s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/20/13

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Adam HaRishon (First Man) is the structure of the only soul that was created and which has undergone great changes after the shattering. First, it existed in the state of Hafetz Hesed, and didn’t receive anything and didn’t want anything for itself.

This state is called the Garden of Eden (heaven) or an angel.

An angel is a force that has no ego at all. He performs all the work that is necessary for the general force of nature. It is said that an angel is part of the Creator.

He is managed by the upper force that operates and advances all of creation toward the goal, toward attaining the attribute of love and bestowal.

Question: Is there a Reshimo (reminiscence) of the state of Adam HaRishon in us?

Answer: There are Reshimot, spiritual genes, of all the states in us. It is because we have descended into our world from the spiritual level of absolute wholeness, and now we must ascend once again by ourselves using the Reshimot that were preserved in us, but we must do it consciously through drawing the upper force and correcting ourselves by it. This force is called the Torah, stemming from the Hebrew word, “Ohr” (Light).

We gradually accept the Upper Light because it arrives gradually, according to our ascent. The upper system of illumination formats and affects us, raises us, and corrects us by reintegrating everyone into one general structure that is the same general soul that was initially created.

This sums up the entire history of our descent from the top down and our ascent from the bottom up. The ascent from the bottom up began when the general soul called Adam was shattered and discovered that it was absolutely egoistic, and that it wasn’t ready for the contact with the Light, with the Creator. This is called Adam HaRishon’s sin and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

The Creator disappeared from people’s feelings, and they were left to roam the earth in the corporeal darkness. This is the reason that we all are totally shattered, separated, and distant from one another in this world.

Twenty generations of Kabbalists after Adam tried to correct this situation, but the first ten generations understood their problems and that they couldn’t do anything until Noah appeared. Noah was saved during the flood while most of the people died.

This wasn’t death and loss, but purification because there is no actual death. People who died symbolize the egoistic desires that we cannot use at a certain time.

This is the reason that they are considered dead. However, later, they come back to life in the correct form and, thus, seemingly appear in the next generations.

They are the same desires that underwent phases of purification through death in their earlier egoistic form and then come back to life in an altruistic form. Thus, the ten generations that followed Noah are already generations that are closer to Abraham, to the recognition of the right spiritual advancement.

The last level before Abraham was his father Terach. Terach is the feeling of the ego that we want to use and to enjoy, while Abraham is the recognition that this ego is evil, which means its opposite side.

Abraham and Terach are one single whole, but the part called Terach wants to work with the ego and the part called Abraham already understands that it is forbidden to work with the ego and that it means death.

This is why they break apart. Abraham changes his attitude toward life, toward the world called Terach and becomes Abraham, meaning the father of the nation in Hebrew. This means that he becomes the father of all the desires that eventually will be corrected.
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From KabTV’s Secrets of the Eternal Book 6/18/14

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The Zohar, “Sulam Commentary,” Chapter “BaHar”: “Live in the country…” “Live in the country” refers to the highest country, Malchut, for there is no man in the world who can live in Malchut until the good awakes in it, Yesod of Zeir Anpin, since Malchut without Yesod is full of harsh courts.

When a man awoke him with his good deeds, it seemed that he had “created it” on his own. Then, they say, “live in the country,” live within it, that is in Malchut, and eat its fruits and be happy with it.

Malchut of Atzilut is this common, single, and only soul. If, by rushing for the goodness and love, and wishing them to all the rest, I can connect myself with all the creatures (inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature) into a single entity, then I will be included in Malchut.

It is entirely possible that, at first, I could join it with some of my egoism, perhaps with its tenth part. This means that it is how much I will be able to connect to Malchut, causing it to move toward the next level, Zeir Anpin, where there is the highest Light. Zeir Anpin will fulfill the part that I have made in Malchut by its good intention.

The purpose of our correction is a one hundred percent arrival into the whole soul, into Malchut. Therefore, if I awake the common desire in the soul for goodness and love, then I take my own little place in it, my point. Then, my motivation rises above and manifests the higher Light upon this point, the Light that accumulates inside Malchut.

That is, we rise up to it from below, and the Upper Light descends into it from above, and then it is filled with our good wishes and the Upper Light. This ends our earthly existence, and we become inhabitants of the world of Infinity.

The goal of each and every one of us is to correct ourselves up to this state and rise to the world of Infinity. We are on the way to the goal, connecting to Malchut with all of the feelings, thoughts, desires, and gradually going through the 125 spiritual degrees because there are 125 egoistic thresholds within us.

Question: In order to rise up, we need to manifest a state of love and kindness. How does this relate to the unity between us?

Answer: Only a unity with all of the others and striving to connect to the world, to carry the good for the people through myself, will I get the opportunity to enter Malchut. Only in this way will I be able to contact my soul. Otherwise, I do not have a soul. Otherwise, I am just an egoist, an animal.

Through the love of my neighbor I move toward the love for the Creator, and, in the desire to carry the good for others, I rush to receive the higher Light in order to pass it through me onto them. Only in this case do I conquer a part of my soul.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/18/14

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The Torah, “Leviticus,” 23:24 – 23:25: …In the seventh month, on the first of the month, it shall be a Sabbath for you, a remembrance of [Israel through] the shofar blast a holy occasion. You shall not perform any work of labor, and you shall offer up a fire offering to the Lord.

A person is a desire to receive, to enjoy. There is nothing in him but an egoistic desire. This means that he has to limit himself in some way and to sacrifice his ego. I, for example, stopped smoking, if it can count as a sacrifice of certain pleasures.

Actually it isn’t a sacrifice, but a simple calculation: I want to be healthier, which means that under the influence of the environment a person calculates what is more beneficial and the environment increases the benefits of this specific action. That is what happened when I stopped smoking. I got together with a couple of friends and we swore to each other that we would stop smoking. Everyone threw his pack of cigarettes into the center of the circle and then we swore that we were committed to keep the oath.

In other words, if I promised my friends in the circle, I have to keep my promise since it was a spiritual action that I was about to perform with the friends I came to this unified decision with. I wanted to establish an even greater connection with them through that action, which is the preparation for the feeling of the revelation of the Creator, and so I see it as a spiritual action.

There is no greater treason than breaking a promise because it is exchanging one state with another when we raise the earthly decision to the spiritual level. Generally speaking with such a yearning for unity, we can commit ourselves to anything and it will be achieved. This already depends on the people.

Question: Why do people sometimes break their promise?

Answer: A person tears himself from the circle. There are two approaches that he should constantly renew internally and even cultivate: First, he holds on to the point of view that now he is much more than whole, perfect, purer, and higher compared to the state he was in previously when he smoked, for example, and thus reaches a new level. Second, he has to constantly feel that he is in front of his friends and that he cannot betray them since the Creator is a witness to this oath.

If I keep cheering myself that I am on a higher level than I was previously, or that I am facing the friends and promise them (actually not to them, but to myself) that I will never have another cigarette, it gives me power and then I feel that nothing is too difficult. I know that I could suffer terribly if it weren’t for the friends, since a person’s physiology doesn’tchange. But it is actually because I imagine that I am committed to them that I have no problem.

For us it was a remembrance of Israel. We realized that we had gathered not simply in order to stop smoking but that we could also use this means (the group) in order to purify ourselves or to even realize that it was possible, with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah and our advancement forward.

Question: What does the Shofar blast refer to in this case?

Answer: The Shofar blast refers to something that cannot be expressed, which stems from the heart, not of an individual but of everyone together. The Shofar blast symbolizes this state, which stems from Malchut that wants the Creator to appear in order to perform a spiritual connection and to give birth to the next level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/11/14

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The Zohar with the “Sulam Commentary,” “Parshat Tzav,” paragraph 50: And further, “Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually….” This is the Torah; this is what is said about it. “Certainly my words are like fire” says the Creator, you certainly won’t extinguish them, for a transgression does not extinguish the Torah. But a transgression extinguishes a Mitzvah….

There is Torah and there is Mitzvah. Torah is the general Light that acts upon us and advances us. This is the general system.

Suppose that in the physical world physics and the laws in which we exist help us explore some space. That is how it is with the Light of Torah also. It keeps us in spiritual levels all the time; it makes no difference whether we are found above, below, in descent or ascent. We are found in descents and ascents all the time since we must constantly fall into the ego and transform it into altruism until we move through our entire ego and correct it through altruism.

The intentions in order to receive are left on the side and we move our desires to the other side with intentions in order to bestow. The fall into the ego and our departure from it are similar to the movement of a piston up and down, from the lowest critical point to the highest point in which we are found in contrasting states: either with an altruistic intent or completely egoistic. In order to get out of this state there is a general force called Torah, the Light that advances us.

The fall into a low state is called a sin. The ascent to the higher state is called a Mitzvah, correction. We are constantly found between sin and correction, sin – correction. So it is said, “There is no Tzadik (righteous) on earth who will do good and not sin” (Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 7), and only after he corrects the sin does he become a Tzadik. The state in which I am found in the high point after I have corrected the sin is called a Mitzvah. That is how the ignition is created in me. Just as a piston that reaches the high point when it compresses the fuel mixture and it is fired, so also the Light appears in me, which is an additional moving force through which I advance.

Thanks to that power of movement I begin to understand more, to recognize, to see, to be integrated into everything. This is exactly what helps me and forces me to descend into the next situation, into an even lower point, into greater ego. After all, if I accumulate sufficient power, then I can descend, perceive my egoistic desire, descend into absolute darkness, pass through the low point, and rise again.

A Mitzvah is a high state, additional Light that is created as a result of burning my egoistic power, transforming it into altruism. This means that to the general Light of Torah is added a Light called Mitzvah. Both the Torah and the Mitzvah exist only in the upper part. The additional Light makes it possible for me to descend into the lowest and most egoistic part. But the further I descend, the power of the Light of the Mitzvah also descends. So when I reach the lower part, I am ready to pass through it only because I have a small general Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light), which is called the Light of Torah. It reaches me from the environment, from the group, like a liquid that flows from one vessel to another vessel.

Question: Why don’t we explain this to people?

Answer: It is up to a person himself to produce all of these states within himself. Otherwise, my words will just remain a nice example for him. After a day or two, even after two minutes, he will forget everything. But in spite of it all he still must search and obligate himself to pass through these states, like a child who is intentionally given a task so that he will sweat and try, and so he grows. The ready made example doesn’t help.

Question: But is a person prepared to contend with this alone?

Answer: No, he can only do this with the help of the group. Towards where would I direct the Light that I received after I descended? It is towards the group, just like a receptacle.

For example, the torque of the crankshaft operates the piston. The rotary torque that accumulates the energy is the group. So I can always advance up and down through back and forth movements towards the group.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/27/13

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The Torah, “Leviticus,” 21:16 – 21:18: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron, saying: Any man among your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect, shall not come near to offer up his God’s food. For any man who has a defect should not approach: A blind man or a lame one, or one with a sunken nose or with mismatching limbs;

From a spiritual point of view, a blemish is a flaw, an internal corruption of a person, a flaw in his spiritual yearning for connection and unity.

Question: How is a person’s inner flaw determined?

Answer: It is impossible to determine it externally since it is concealed even from the person himself until he discovers it inside him by himself. This is called the concealed wisdom or the concealed knowledge. It is only to the extent that a person can reveal the defect inside him and bear it that he can fulfill it properly.

The blemish is totally unfelt and cannot be seen on the outside since no one knows what a person’s intentions are. He can perform actions that may seem absolutely stupid and even harmful, totally tasteless and egoistic, on the outside, but in fact everything is totally different because the character and the quality of the action determines the intention.

Comment: But in our world everything is opposite from the Torah, which only refers to the intentions when it speaks about a person.

Answer: These limitations do not refer to a person’s external appearance, of course. Moses, for example is described as very handsome, tall, and strongly built. Can a 120 year old person really look that way? It is only about his internal beauty and purity.

I first understood that when I studied with Rabash. He asked me to help find a match for a certain girl and I decided to introduce her to a guy who studied with us. The girl was very intelligent, really smart, and a talented painter who later gave one of her paintings as a present to Rabash. I invited the guy and the girl to lunch at my place and they spoke and then went for a walk and two hours later he came to the lesson and told me that he doesn’t like the way she looks. I passed this information to Rabash since the future of that girl was very important to him. At first he didn’t understand what happened, but when I explained it to him he wondered: “so he only looked at her externality?!” The guy couldn’t ascend above his reason, and eventually life didn’t work out for him or for the girl. He got married and had five children, but then got divorced after a while. She got married and had one child and then divorced her husband.

Rabash always said simply: “Love is a kind of animal that is built by mutual concessions.”
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/28/14

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The Torah, “Leviticus,” 23:14: You shall eat bread or [flour made from] parched grain or fresh grain, until this very day, until you bring your God’s sacrifice. [This is] an eternal statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

Bread represents the characteristic of Hassadim (mercy), so the correction of a person happens precisely around this states.

In our spiritual correction before the Omer (sheaf), we are involved with everything, just not with bread. Bread is human nourishment. Those who correct the Omer within them—meaning those who harvest, gather, bind, and turn it into baked products made from flour—reach the level of full bestowal.

Pastries (baked products made from flour) refer to the attainment of egoistic desires that grow from the ground, from the lowest state, where a person can grow them and turn them into the characteristic of bestowal.

As a general rule, egoistic characteristics on the level of the still are found in each one of us, so we can correct them without any problem. But here this is talking about developing the egoistic characteristics within ourselves that transform into food for the spiritual level, Adam.

With this we create our internal self-inquiry because we know how to develop the ego within us, how to manage it, how it will grow in the left and right lines, and then we correct it by comparing and matching them, advancing forward in the middle line.

Everything that is mentioned in the Torah is intended only for our connection and unification, and teaches on what level, in which conditions, which parts of our desire, are connected and complete each other reciprocally with resemblance and equivalence with the Creator. This is all that a person needs to do in this world beyond the minimal satisfaction of his basic needs.

When we finish our spiritual correction, providing ourselves with the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate through the “fruits of the land,” then this world disappears. And we remain existing in a corrected and eternal state. We try to reach this while we are still alive in this world. The wisdom of Kabbalah was given to us for that purpose.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/28/14

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The Torah, “Leviticus,” 21:1 – 21:3: And the Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Cohanim (priests), the sons of Aaron, and say to them: Let none [of you] defile himself for a dead person among his people except for his relative who is close to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, and for his virgin sister who is close to him, who was not [yet] with a man for her, he shall defile himself. 

In spiritual work, a person is always found as an intermediary component between higher and lower characteristics. The higher characteristics of the priest are direct to the Creator.The lower characteristics are those that hold and support a desire that is directed toward the Creator and proceed according to a hierarchy directed downward. A person is based seemingly upon these desires, each one of them is connected to him on his level when he nullifies himself and is included in his yearning for the Creator. With this, they justify their mission.

This is to say, “…his relative who is close to him…” symbolize those desires of the priest (Cohen) that are not relevant to his direct connection to the Creator, but to lower levels.

In creation, nothing was created besides desire. So, our work is to direct it toward bestowal, toward the Creator, just as He directs His action toward us, and then we attain adhesion.

A priest (Cohen) is a characteristic that is ready to raise all of the desires that stand below according to a hierarchy and direct them toward connection with the Creator.

The Levites are the executing mechanism, shaping the desires that are found under the priest. They understand the priests and know how to carry out his instructions.

Israel are even lower desires that can be subservient to the Levites and through them to the priest (Cohen), and they constitute a connection between the higher desires and the desires called the “nations of the world,” and below the desires of the nations of the world are the desires of the animate, vegetative, and still.

All of the desires must be directed together toward general unity, and when it is attained, then within it the characteristic of full mutual bestowal is discovered. Imagine for a long time you are painstakingly gathering something, and suddenly it begins to glow from within. This means that the power of the desires attains this kind of unity when it begins to shine. This is the discovery of the Creator.

In other words, this mutual unification among the characteristics of the creatures happens when the Creator is discovered. He shines through the entire pyramid according to the law of equivalence between the desire and the Light. This is the goal of our development, whereas the goal of our existence is to attain this state and to advance toward something that, in the meantime, is still not known to us.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/28/14

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