Question: Back in his time, Baal HaSulam seemed to be pounding on a closed door, trying to warn the nation of danger. And he understood what was happening. How did he not give up in the face of this impasse?

Answer: This is not an impasse. Success is in our hands, and we don’t have any other way to go – we have to act, especially today, when the whole world is in crisis. Today we are no longer talking about the survival of one particular nation, Israel because the collapse is drawing near every place you look.

A special situation has arisen where everyone understands that things are bad, but no one has a solution. These aren’t conflicts between the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor anymore, but on the contrary, we have come up against a global problem that will become expressed in the most radical form within a few months.

Under the circumstances, we have to unite stronger and stronger. Of course, it will be difficult. It’s like crossing the Red Sea: You won’t get anywhere until you jump into the water. But you have all of the conditions in order to jump.

Passing the Machsom is a problematic endeavor. It requires you to jump without looking back, but you do reach the state where you are able to do that.
[51245]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/11, “The Nation”

Related Material:
Who Are We?
With Our Face Turned To The Country And The World
Let’s Let Light Through The System

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Israel, Q&A, Torah, Unity, World - 1 Comment →

In order for the study to become an “elixir of life” rather than a “deadly poison,” it has to start with the intention to attract the Light that reforms. We have to study and open the book only for the sake of our correction.

Kabbalah and all the other holy books, regardless of what language they are written in (for example, the Talmud and Mishna use the language of hints and allegories) are descriptions of our connection with the Light, our spiritual states. All of these books, written by sages, Kabbalists, over the course of our entire history, talk about the spiritual world, our higher states.

If a person studies with the aim of attaining the states and spiritual degrees that the Kabbalists tell us about, like a child who wants to grow up, then first he reaches the revelation of his own evil. It is written, “I created the evil inclination and in addition, the Torah, the means for its correction.”

As long as we were “in exile,” all of that was concealed, but now we are starting to come out of the final exile. And just like during the exodus from Egypt, today we are again standing before the reception of the Torah if we desire to become “as one man with one heart,” to attain mutual guarantee just like by Mount Sinai.

A mountain of hatred is being revealed in front of us (Mount Sinai comes from the word Sinnah – hatred). But even despite that, we unite with the help of our points in the heart, the upper quality, the Moses in us who pulls us upwards and leads us through the desert, through the “preparation period” towards entering the “land of Israel,” meaning the desire for the sake of bestowal.

That is how all of humanity is standing before the mountain of hatred today. It is becoming revealed to us as one for all and is called the global crisis. We are all in the same state, but not everyone understands it fully yet, similar to how that crowd of people included different people as well—men, women, the elderly, and children who barely understood what was happening.

Yet, everyone is already starting to feel this state. It’s just that some already understand that the cause of all of it is our ego and the hatred that divides us, whereas others still experience it as a bad financial situation. Every person feels some kind of lacking depending on his qualities, his environment and needs: one person lacks an apartment, another cottage cheese, a third something else, and so on in all of humanity, every person.
[50972]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Question That Weighs Down The Masses
Four Hundred Years At The Mountain Of Hatred
Love That Defeats A Mount Of Hatred

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Kabbalah Study, Kabbalistic Sources, Mutual Guarantee, Prayer and Intention, Torah, Unity - 1 Comment →

We have to fight indifference because this is the worst possible state. Indifference is called death.

We very much respect the two forms that are opposite to it: love and hate. Pharaoh, Haman, and all the other sinners described in the Torah are very important characters. Without them, we would not be able to rise to holiness. We receive all of our vessels, desires, from them. All of the righteous men stand opposite them because the Creator made one against the other.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether a person supports something or protests against it. The most important thing is that he cares about it very much, as opposed to being indifferent to it, feeling that it is “neither here nor there.”

It is possible to awaken a spark in anyone. This spark is concealed in every person because he originates from the broken vessel. Therefore, he definitely has a spiritual spark and it can be awakened. The only question is: How deeply is it concealed?

However, when this spark is awakened, he might react negatively: A person does not want to hear about it and he curses himself, the Creator, Kabbalah, and the whole path to bestowal. He does not agree to it and hates all of it. But Baal HaSulam says that this does not matter. It’s the same as if he agrees to it, the same as if he wants it because he is revealing his desire in this form. Even if the desire is corrupted, he already has it.
[49828]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/11, Shamati

Related Material:
The Ego Suffers From The Light Of Good
With What Can We Appeal To The Light?
Don’t Miss Your Chance

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Torah - 1 Comment →

Baal HaSulam, “Arvut ”: It is written, “You shall be My treasure from among all peoples.” This means that you will be My treasure [a special quality, Segula], and sparks of purification shall pass through you onto all the peoples and the nations of the world.

Segula is a special action by which we correct our egoistic intention to an altruistic one. I do not know exactly how this action is actualized, but it enables me to change, to acquire a second nature, to enter the next dimension, a reality that lies above my current self. And I don’t know exactly how this occurs.

That is why the exodus from Egypt is called a “miracle” and why the force of correction, the Light that reforms, which is contained in the Torah is called “a special quality”—Segula. I don’t have any idea about how it works. I only see the results, as if a certain “illumination” effuses upon me or a certain force works on me, and I become different.

Thus, even though I don’t understand how Segula works, I activate it by carrying out the conditions I am told about. “Do this,” write the Kabbalists, “And you will receive that.” I cannot trace this connection. It is not within my power. I simply know that specific actions on my part will bring about a specific reaction, although the cause and effect chain remains unclear to me. That’s because it originates from the Light, from the Giver, while I am still in the egoistic desire and do not see or feel Him. The contact with Him is still unclear to me, just as I don’t understand the mechanism of the return connection by which the Giver influences me and changes something inside of me.

That is why this kind of action is called “special.” A child has this same “special means” while playing and growing in our world. What actually causes his growth? We are so used to seeing how children develop by playing that we don’t notice how it happens. What force is activated by a child’s contact with a toy, with pictures in a book, with animals he sees, or with the cars that pass by him on the street? How do the images of the big world that he wants to come closer to, form something new inside of him? To us this is the regular routine, but in essence, this is the same “special means” at work.

A child wants to grow and is drawn to all sorts of forms of the adult world, and that’s how he really grows. Likewise, if we want to advance, we have to carry out several actions in order to activate the upper force that raises us. In a child the yearning to grow is instilled naturally, while we have freedom of choice: We have to organize an environment, the study, and ourselves, and attach the intention. That is how we develop.

Thus, “Segula” is the result of certain actions a person makes, even though he does not know exactly what he activates and how he is activated in response. With us this is expressed in our relationship with the upper Light, while in children—in their relationships with the surrounding world. The same principle operates in the interactions between the “nations of the world,” meaning all those who do not aspire to the Creator, and “Israel,” meaning those who do aspire to Him. Our relationship with the Creator is similar to their relationship to us. After all, they do not have a spark, a connection with Him, an aspiration for Him, or a desire to reveal Him. Only troubles push them to search for something better. That is why we bring them the science of Kabbalah in an adapted, accessible form.

The invitation to reveal the Creator does not say anything to them. They need a good life here and now, and nothing more. Accordingly, we reveal our message gradually to them, in the appropriate form, and they use us as a “special means,” as a “treasure from among all peoples.”

By being connected to us, they “suddenly” start acquiring forces, understanding, and desires that they did not have before. These “sparks” come from Infinity, from the Creator—through us to them. As a result, the “special quality” operates on all the levels.
[49236]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/11, “Arvut”

Related Material:
The Problem Exists. Who Has A Solution?
The Point From Which One Enters The Spiritual World
The Zohar Will Help Everyone

Filed under: Children, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Free Will, Israel, Kabbalah Dissemination, Prayer and Intention, Torah - No Comments →

Question: We see our friends from Los Angeles and representatives of different nations on the screen. How well do they understand our Biblical language?

Answer: Both we and they must interpret this language in the terminology of desires and understand it according to the inner way of reading.

I have my inner truth. For example, in this world I am of Jewish origin, and sitting next to me there is a Chinese friend. I am separated from my truth by the confusion of the first order, and he—by the confusion of the second order.

Let’s detach from this material world. We both have a specific egoistic desire. According to his level of desire, he is called a “Chinese” person and according to my level of desire, I am called a “Jew.”

Thus, he and I both have to perform certain work in order to get to the truth. This is what the notion of “70 nations” points to. Each of them has its own work, but it is absolutely the same for everyone to a specific measure. We think that this is not so, but in reality, the work differs only slightly by its external style, although it is entirely identical by the inner specifics, by the relative depth and the phases of the path. We all have the same work.

It seems to me that it’s very difficult for another person, that a third is not making it at all, and a fourth was already born an angel and is attaining the goal offhand. But in reality, nothing is known to me and I do not see the general picture in which everything works equally.

Thus, the great egoistic desire is divided into the “70 nations of the world” and Israel. Don’t think that Israel has an easier time than others. It’s just that every person makes efforts from his own layer of the common desire.

The real work of Israel lies in coming out of all the “70 nations” to the truth. After all, it is included in them by means of the breaking. It is written about this, “You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for Me.” That is why representatives of different nations come to us—desires that aspire straight to the Creator from the common receiving desire. They express themselves as Israel and are now called precisely that.

Everyone else who are not awakening are called “the 70 nations of the world” and will have to correct themselves later on. But one way or another, all the qualities and opportunities of every person are precisely “optimized.” Not one nation has precedence in spirituality.

You might object, “But the common ‘body’ of Adam HaRishon contains some organs that are more important and some that are less?” That’s true, but this relates to the order of correction: At first the purer desires start the correction, and then the “coarser” ones. However, perfection erases all disproportions.

Therefore, it’s enough to have a small wound, the absence of just one cell, and the whole body is devoid of perfection. In this sense, everyone are equal, by the principle of equality of the general and the particular.
[49103]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/11, “Arvut”

Related Material:
The Order Of Correction
The Three Parts Of Humanity
Inner And Outer Israel
Serving The World

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Israel, Q&A, Spirituality, Torah - 1 Comment →

People come to Kabbalah with many illusions and incorrect ideas about this science, imagining it in whatever way their egoistic desire depicts it to them based on all kinds of rumors. People present it as mysticism and think that it is related to astrology, healing, blessings, miracles, holy water and red strings, and that it can be used to reveal the past and the future. After all, our ego is looking for some special kind of fulfillment for itself.

Therefore, at first everyone has a difficult time grasping the Kabbalistic principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Even if they agree with it, they approach it egoistically. This is the basis of all kinds of “spiritual” methods.

However, it takes special people to come closer to the true realization of the method of Kabbalah. This requires great endurance, many efforts, and mutual support from a group of people who are ready for this and who understand that otherwise they don’t have any chance of realizing themselves. Only through this mutual desire, the “common vessel,” can they receive the opportunity to become people and do something with themselves in order to rise above the material, animate existence to the “human” level.

The spiritual action that we have to do is expressed in the execution of the “613 commandments,” meaning actions of unity among people who have decided that they have to unite.

This is what happened during the times of Abraham and during the times of Moses as well. And it’s the same in our day. The principle is still the same. If fragments of the broken soul that was created by the Creator are ready to unite together in order to restore the common vessel, then it becomes a great summary of the Torah – the vessel for the Light. The Light becomes revealed inside of that common desire, the common efforts, the mutual support and guarantee.

Therefore, it’s pointless for a person to think about spiritual attainment and his self-realization unless he perceives all of this through unification with others, with “neighbors,” meaning with the same kind of people as himself, who also desire to unite and who understand that only by uniting will they acquire a second nature.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Finishing Abraham’s Business
Why Abraham?
A Thin Ray Of Love From The World To Come
FAQ On Kabbalah – No Red Strings

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, History, Kabbalah Study, Mutual Guarantee, Spirituality, Torah, Unity - No Comments →

In essence, what we study in Kabbalah is the process that we have to go through. The science of Kabbalah explains to us what is the world, why and for what  it exists, and how we exist in it and realize the goal of creation.

Kabbalah points to the part we have to realize ourselves by setting it apart from everything else, which does not depend on us. We have to concentrate all of our forces precisely in the area that depends on us, making this victorious breakthrough and attaining success on the path to the goal.

Therein lies the entire Kabbalistic method: to show man this point, the tiny button among thousands of various buttons and switches that are not connected to anything. It’s like you are standing in front of a huge control panel to the world, but in reality it’s a dummy.

Only one button is connected to the system, and that button is lost among huge switches, bulbs, and color coded panels. Your whole life you press on buttons, click tumblers, tug at levers, shift sliders, spin wheels, and tune dials, but there are no results and you die as if you did not spin anything.

And moreover, all of your efforts accumulate into one tremendous negative charge, which you will still have to correct in the future. After all, egoism grows in every generation.

Therefore, at the end of the day, the science of Kabbalah explains to us where this secret button is found, which cannot be distinguished or recognized among thousands of others. This is precisely the button we must constantly press in order to advance.

Thanks to it, we begin to understand the system, to guess what is happening behind the panel, to surmise how the other buttons are confusing us and why only one of them works. In short, we reach the understanding of who we are, who is on the other side of the mechanism, and how this mechanism operates to connect the Creator with creation and creation with the Creator.

From everything there is in this world, we have to press one button called “love for the neighbor.” Only by means of this button will we be able to activate the system. All other buttons are a bluff, a lie. Together with billions of your contemporaries, you can press, spin, click, and nudge at these counterfeits, just like the past generations did just to pay their last debt in futile attempts.

Therefore, we have to understand how to find this special button and how to press it, how to use our free choice to act correctly, without letting anything go by us. We have to explain this to ourselves and to others so it will become clear to all of us: other actions, which are not connected to pressing this button that commutates (reverses the direction) love for the creatures with love for the Creator, are futile and useless. Moreover, they just increase the minus in our accounts and we will still have to return to them.

If your actions lead toward the goal, they get recorded in your account. Thanks to them, you advance forward, understanding and feeling more. However, if your actions are false, then you will have to become aware of this lie, of your mistake, and the harm you caused in order to correct it and then to keep moving further.

Thus, it turns out that we accumulate a highly undesirable addition, and therefore, we have to be cautious of actions that are inherent to the “correctors of the world.”
All the corrections that we have to carry out, meaning presses on the right button, are called “using the Torah and commandments.” I consist of 613 desires and by pressing on the button, I evoke a certain force that corrects me with its influence, turning my 613 desires into actions of bestowal.

If I restrict the desire, creating a screen and reflected Light above it by correctly interacting for the sake of bestowal, then this desire transforms from a transgression to a commandment. That is how I have to correct all of my desires on all five levels of Aviut of each of them. This is my work, which we have to perform by pressing the right button, meaning by establishing the right connection with the neighbor.
[47431]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/11, Matan Torah

Related Material:
“Spiritual” Practices: The Final Revision
Love Is A Two Way Street
The Guide Book To Goodness

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Free Will, Love, Torah - No Comments →

Question: The Torah tells a story about how the people who were wandering around the desert faced death from lack of water and Moses turned to the Creator for help. The Creator instructed Moses to go and talk with a rock in front of all the people so it would give him water.

But instead of talking to it, Moses hit the rock with his staff, and “the waters of discord” flowed from it, named so from having disobeyed the Creator. Why did Moses, the leader of the entire nation, disobey the Creator’s instruction?

Answer: The rock is the ground, Malchut, the desire to receive pleasure, which needs to be corrected in order to be used “for the sake of bestowal.” This correction can either be in the form of a “blow” or a “talk,” depending upon the degree. It is in this way that it can produce an act of bestowal: the water flowing from it.

The water is the force that gives life to the desire to receive pleasure and turns it into the desire that receives for the sake of bestowal. When you “talk” with the rock, Malchut, you tune into it on the human level, the “speaking” level, the degree of Bina, and the water you derive from it carries life, bestowal, mercy (Hassadim).

But when you hit it, you derive “the waters of discord.” And even though it is water (the symbol of Bina, bestowal), this water is not kind (it carries the force of Gevurot); it has fallen under the influence of Malchut. This is the origin of all the typhoons, floods, and tsunamis. All these things are a reflection of the force of Bina controlled by Malchut.

“People” are all the private desires, and Moses is the highest quality which has the ability to receive the water of Bina by raising Malchut to it, the desire to receive pleasure. But Moses sees that there is not enough strength to lift all the other desires called “people” out of their current state and pull them over to the degree of Bina with him. And this is why instead of rising to a higher degree and “speaking,” he “hits” the rock, which means that instead of connecting with it on a higher, “speaking,” level, he only connects with it on the level of an “action.”

From the side of Moses, he was punished for this apparent sin. But we need to understand that all the “punishments” described in the Torah are corrections. He was simply unable to do it any other way, even though it was clear to him that at that moment he needed to attain the “speaking” degree: a certain level of connection between Malchut and Bina.

This is a result of his spiritual revelation, and it is called: “The Creator tells him.” But it is easier to carry it out quickly and correctly on the level of an action, and he does not see any other opportunity for correction.

This is why Moses was forced to “sin,” and his correction is in his “punishment” of not receiving permission to enter the land of Israel. He dies as he reaches the actual border. Even though he was not able to enter it (it is not his degree), he is called “a loyal guide,” and the maximum he can reach is Bina. And others continue after him.

A border is the line where I stop my actions of bestowal due to the lack of strength of the intention. This forces me to stop and no longer use my desire; I restrict myself.

To die means to lack the ability to do actions for the sake of bestowal.
[46956]
From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 6/27/2011

Related Material:
Who Will Serve Whom?
Searching For A Red Heifer And A Well Of Water
What Is A Spiritual “Rise Above”?

Filed under: Inner Work, Torah, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Kabbalah books use different images to describe the connection between Malchut and Bina. For example, they use the image of a well, either empty or full of water. An empty well, Malchut, consumes everything and remains empty. Whereas a well full of water is the proper connection of Malchut and Bina. Or the other way around, Malchut’s desire rises to Bina, into the sky, and derives water from it. This is why it rains.

Another description of a connection between Malchut and Bina is a “red heifer,” a purifying sacrifice, whose ashes purify some and, on the contrary, makes others impure. All these transitions are related to the way Bina and Malchut become included in one another: Whether Bina becomes included into Malchut or Malchut into Bina and which one of them dominates as one connection brings purification, and the other, impurity.

The “heifer” symbolizes the force of Bina, the force of bestowal, because it gives milk (the Light of Hassadim or Mercy). But if it is red (Aduma), which means that it is connected to the ground (Edom), then it is mixed with Malchut. And when the forces of bestowal and reception, Bina and Malchut, connect, it is man who determines what the resulting force will be.

If man intends to correct himself and reach bestowal, he will derive the force of bestowal specifically from this connection of forces called “a red heifer” and will purify himself. But if he was already pure, then a new egoistic desire becomes revealed in him, and if he is yet unable to work with it, he becomes impure.

The Torah provides detailed instructions on finding a red heifer and burning it, and what then needs to be done with the ashes. These are not simple actions because none of this exists in our world, even though scientists are searching for the traces of a red heifer to prove that it once existed, but now has disappeared.

During the times of the Temple, the entire nation was on a spiritual degree due to the wisdom of Kabbalah, as it is written: “Every adolescent knew the laws of impurity and purification,” which is the difference between egoistic reception and bestowal. In other words, their level corresponded to the connection of Bina and Malchut, called “a red heifer,” and they could understand to what the Torah refers.

The entire Torah is a description of the order of correction, an “instruction” (Oraa) on the correction of the soul.
[46960]
From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 6/27/2011

Related Material:
A Man’s Talk With A Rock
Who Will Serve Whom?
Turning To The Creator To Get Light For The Friend

Filed under: Inner Work, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

We are created with the desire to receive pleasure, and in order to correct this desire, our intention must be “for the sake of bestowal.” By doing so we correct ourselves and attain the purpose of creation: total adhesion with the Creator. But to attain correction, we must unite with the force of bestowal.

The force of bestowal is called Bina, and the force of reception is referred to as Malchut. These two forces of bestowal and reception have to enter one another. When they unite, then according to the combinational analysis of these two forces, it creates four outcomes: Malchut in Malchut, Malchut in Bina, Bina in Bina, and Bina in Malchut.

If Bina enters Malchut, it creates an evil force because Bina falls under the reign of Malchut. Malchut rules over it and dominates it, making Bina its slave. This state created all evil forces in the world.

Sometimes these forces pretend to be good in order to lure and bribe a person and then draw him into evil. This is a special sly, egoistic force (Klipa), contained within Malchut. With the help of this force Malchut conquers Bina and begins to use it. It is written that no evil can exist in the world unless it initially pretended to be good. This is how the evil forces operate, and for this reason they exist.

If it is simply Malchut, then it is a simple desire to receive such as the still, vegetative, animate world and human, in whom only the forces of the still, vegetative and animate levels are at work. That is, it is a simple human who’s living a primitive corporeal life.

When Bina is present in a person’s desire to receive pleasure, that person becomes very smart and cunning. He knows how to help you and give to you, and then exploits you to the fullest. These are very evil forces caused by the inclusion of Bina into Malchut: the forces of bestowal that have fallen under the rule of egoism.

Opposite inclusion occurs when a person uses his own efforts to elevate Malchut into Bina. Then he connects to Bina because he wants to enter it and become a slave, an inseparable part of the force of bestowal, like a fetus in the mother’s womb. Bina is called Ima Ilaa (the upper mother). That is, he wants to develop only through connecting and being guided and protected by the force of bestowal, the Creator. Then, good forces are created, which choose parts of the egoistic desire and gradually correct them from within.
[46963]
From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 6/27/2011

Related Material:
Searching For A Red Heifer And A Well Of Water
My “I” Section
My Role In The Group

Filed under: Inner Work, Torah, Zohar - 1 Comment →