Question: How should the nation of Israel living on the material level of this world participate in the general correction?

Answer: Together with correcting the spiritual Israel, we have to correct its material “hypostasis.” It is the result of the reincarnation of the souls of Israel, whereas the spiritual Israel is all those who have a point in the heart, a spiritual aspiration by which they join the process.

The difference between them lies in what they are drawn to: a person with a point in the heart is drawn to spirituality, whereas a person who does not have this point is not. Still, if a person without a point in the heart belongs to the nation of Israel (Yashar Kel, meaning those aimed straight to the Creator), then he is obligated to work on correction.

True, there is a principle stating that there is no coercion on the spiritual path. But nevertheless, this obligation is incumbent on Israel. The Torah says, “You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for Me.” And the time has come.

Of course, the responsibility of those members of Israel who have a point in the heart is different from the responsibility of those who do not have this point, who have not been awakened yet. However, this obligation is incumbent on everyone, and the external pressure of AHP, the nations of the world, is aimed precisely at making Galgalta ve Eynaim correct themselves. This pressure will only keep growing. The more we fall behind, the more AHP wants because egoism constantly grows and becomes more and more empty. That is why the pressure on Galgalta ve Eynaim will become stronger. That is how the nations indirectly incite Israel to accelerate its correction.

Therefore, people with a point in the heart, meaning the spiritual Israel, and just the Jews, the material Israel, have to actualize the correction upon themselves and attract the Light for AHP. You can’t do anything to change this fact because we are talking about a single vessel whose parts are interconnected in this way.

Question: Does this mean that two processes have to occur simultaneously?

Answer: I don’t see two processes occurring here. At the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam writes about two parts of Israel: the internal and the external. The inner part are “the workers of the Creator,” those who desire to serve Him. They also divide into two parts: the inner part, those who wish to attain the intention for the sake of bestowal, and the external part, which makes material actions. Besides them, Israel also includes people who don’t know anything and aren’t interested in anything.

Similarly, the nations of the world also include two parts. The inner part wants to join us and belongs to Israel, even though it is called “Israel in the nations of the world.” And the external part is indifferent to this and feels only the troubles of this world. But we also have to awaken these people, so they will at least avoid making great mistakes in the future and will save themselves from annihilation and grave problems. That is how they join us.

In the end, correction is intended precisely for this external part—AHP. They are the goal of creation. The top priority is the will to enjoy, while Israel is not the goal of creation, but just its correction.

This is what our entire work has to be aimed at: correcting ourselves in order to bring correction to the world. This is the meaning of “a kingdom of priests.” We are servants, we serve the world.
From the lesson on 5/13/11, “A Discourse On Wisdom” by Ramchal

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We are in an unknown reality, and to this day, while existing in this world we still do not understand exactly where we are, by what program we develop, and what goal we are moving toward. We do not understand anything in our life, and being sheltered by concealment, we consider ourselves smart and intelligent, as if we have knowledge, our own opinion, and freedom of will.

But when blows and suffering catch up to us, we understand that we are incapable of anything, that we don’t understand anything, and don’t have any chance to behave intelligently. Especially now, during a time of crisis, we see that we do not have any chances of relating to reality correctly, that we are facing problems and don’t even have the slightest ability to understand them. Even if we sometimes understand something one millimeter ahead of time, this does not enable us to change our state or to behave differently. Even if we decide that we really do need to change and start behaving differently, we don’t have the forces to change our behavior. So what’s the use of these decisions if we can’t change ourselves, influence one another, and the whole world?

Even when we see that we only inflict harm and misfortunes upon ourselves, that we are, in fact, leading ourselves to death, we are still unable to stop ourselves. What insignificance, what ignominy! We would simply finish our lives inside of our will to enjoy, which completely kills us if we did not receive the Torah, the means to correct the egoistic desire so that starting from the lowest possible point, a moment before death, we could start raising it to the top, to the level of the Creator, the higher, opposite quality—the will to bestow.

This means, called “Torah” is more important than anything. Without it there is no chance to achieve anything. We cannot develop through suffering. The influence of suffering only makes the will to enjoy develop. Blows make it search for all sorts of means to get rid of the troubles, and in the end it leads itself to death in order to avoid suffering. When the desire feels unbearable suffering due to its absolute opposition to the Light, it is willing to nullify itself completely, anything but to suffer.

If so, then the Torah is the only means leading us to life, correction, and existence. That is why there is no path of suffering, no path without Torah. The Torah has to become revealed to humanity so people would be able to use it. And they have to reveal it in the right form—as the Light that reforms. But if they don’t use the Torah correctly, meaning that they don’t realize it, that means they are following the path of suffering. If they use it correctly, then they follow the path of Torah, the path of Light. And if they are in the middle between one and the other, they advance by “the earthly path.”

Therefore, Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)” is very important since it tells us about how we can receive the Torah. There is a giving of the Torah from above, and there is a reception of the Torah from below. All of the suffering comes to us because we do not use the Torah correctly, the Light that reforms, that brings us back to the source of goodness. Everything depends on our efforts to become good. Therefore, we do not have a lack for anything besides this means. So let’s find out how to receive the Torah and come to goodness!
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)

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Shamati (I Heard) No. 161, “The Matter of the Giving of the Torah”: Concerning the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai: It does not mean that the Torah was given then and that now it is not. Rather, the giving of the Torah is an eternal thing—the Creator always gives. However, we are unfit to receive. But then, on Mount Sinai, we were the receivers of the Torah. And the only merit that we had then was that we were as “one man in one heart.” This means that we all had but one thought—the reception of the Torah.

However, from the Creator’s perspective, He always gives, as it is written…, “Man must hear the ten commandments on Mount Sinai every day.”

This means that the Torah is being given to us now and always has been, but then we were like one man with one heart. That is why we could receive the Torah, but now we cannot because we are separated. Once we become united, the giving will take place again.

The ten commandments received from the Creator are always before the person, and there is always the possibility to use the Light called the Torah for benefit or detriment. The correct work and yearning to achieve a more advanced state attract the Surrounding Light to us. This is called studying the Torah: aspiring to learn what is written in it, to feel what it says about us, about our states, and our qualities. I have to feel them when I am studying and become similar to them.

I want to enter this picture that talks about me and begin to live there, to let this story that I am reading now be realized inside me. These are the efforts we have to put forth, to wish to become adults. If we accept these conditions and use them correctly, this means that we have made the efforts, as it is written: “I labored and I found.”

Then, my reality changes because my desire changes. It begins to build itself from the Surrounding Light and perceives in itself the image of the Giver of the Torah, the image of the Creator. The Light corrects my desire, and thus I start realizing the property of bestowal; I come from the giving of the Torah to the receiving of the Torah and from there, to the Giver of the Torah.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Shamati #161

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Question: What is so special about the Torah that even The Book of Zohar is just a commentary on it?

Answer: The records that Moses made on parchment are the earthly expression, through material symbols, of spiritual actions of Light on desire. Moses wrote down everything he taught his students in a book. Over the course of 40 years of wandering in the desert, they wrote down the whole Torah, going through the entire process in record, as well as in bodies, and in spirituality. This is the entire path from the Egyptian exile (earthly and spiritual), through the desert (earthly and spiritual), and into the land of Israel (earthly and spiritual). All of this came true in the connection between the root and the branch. Moses expressed this entire process in this concrete, symbolic form.

The Zohar expresses the same process on a different level, in a different form because the general desire to enjoy that the Creator created had by that time advanced several steps forward and was perfected by the influence of the Light. Therefore, this desire, which went through ascents and descents, the destruction of the First and Second Temple, the exile, and then reached the last breakage before the last exile, had to be given the method that is appropriate for the end of the exile, for our time.

That is why The Book of Zohar was written, whose authors were the successors of many generations of Kabbalists, starting from Abraham until the destruction of the Temple. Rabbi Shimon was the student of Rabbi Akiva, who revealed a great Light, and therefore he was able to express this in The Book of Zohar.

The Torah itself is divided into two parts: oral and written. This comes from the difference between Zeir Anpin and Malchut. Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut is the “oral Torah,” while Malchut of the world of Atzilut is the “written Torah.”

The Torah is the revelation of Light. The Light that comes to Malchut contains everything that is necessary for changing Malchut. But this Light still hasn’t come true in practice, and is therefore called “the oral Torah.” For now this is work with the screens.

Under the influence of the same Light in Malchut, inner changes take place and are impressed in Malchut, this is called “the written Torah.” This is talking only about actions of the Light in the desires from the beginning of creation and until its end. That’s because there is nothing in existence besides desires.

Among these desires some feel that they exist by themselves, separate from all the others. This is us. These desires contain qualities that can help them on the path of correction. And that is why we receive a sensation of lacking, our own lack of correction, the realization of evil. This is how we perceive ourselves.

These are exactly the desires that need to be given “the Torah”—the instructions explaining how they can participate in their own corrections out of their own free choice, how they can attract the Light by wishing to become corrected faster, instead of waiting for the Light to come and shake them up.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/11, Shamati
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Question: In a few days we will be celebrating Shavuot, the great day of the Giving of the Torah. All other Kabbalah sources are essentially just commentaries on the Torah, while all philosophies, religions, and wisdoms have also derived from it. How does Kabbalah view the Torah: as a book or as the method of correction?

Answer: The Torah is the Light that Reforms, that brings one back to the Creator. It is not a book but the Light, the force of bestowal that expands from the Creator, the source of bestowal, and reforms a person so he or she may also live to bestow. Then, a person becomes part of the Torah and is filled with its Light, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) illuminated by the Light of Hochma (Wisdom). This is regarded as the Torah’s revelation, the revelation of the Light within man.

We have to align everything we hear about with the two notions: the Light and desire, and the measure of equivalence thereof, which is called the screen. There is nothing else in the whole of reality. In The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it is the “Light” instead of the “Creator,” “desire” instead of the “creature,” and the “screen” instead of the “correction of creation.” There is nothing else. All confusion starts with the fact that people can’t tie these three ideas altogether.

If you get too tangled in these three definitions, return to the four stages of the Direct Light. Only the Light and desire are there; start with that. All properties, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, all these confusing notions, the future worlds, and the perception of reality must always be brought to one point: the Light and desire since there is nothing else anywhere in all worlds.

And now, living in this reality and experiencing this big world, either frightening, good, or bad, you experience it all within the desire, which is in a certain state.

Question: But in my current state, I still see a book that somebody wrote.

Answer: Kabbalists have described for you the Light’s actions, its work on desire and they expressed them in various symbols so that you may connect with them in some way, thereby causing the Light to do work on your own desire.

This book is called the “Torah” (from the words “Oraa” or the instruction manual and “Ohr” or the Light”) since it describes the sequence of the Light’s actions over desire, how the Light moves desire. The book doesn’t offer anything other than that. After all, in the entire reality there is only the Light and desire.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/2011, Shamati #40

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Importance of the Intention during the Study

If he intends to study the Torah in order to receive the reward of the Torah, called “Light that Reforms,” then his study is beneficial. However, when he forgets the goal of studying the Torah, the Torah is not instrumental in completing the work of making a desire of bestowal …This is the meaning of the words, “Any Torah without work [on the intention to get corrected by the Light of the Torah] ends in annulment” [is void of its Light].
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

One of the wonders of studying the secrets of Torah is that when a person studies its concepts out of love, even though he is not capable of perceiving the matters with intellect, they elevate his essence nonetheless, hence these matters shine their Light upon him.
– Rav Raiah Kook, Orot HaTorah [Lights of the Torah], Chapter 10, section 10
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Importance of the Intention during the Study

Before the study one must clarify the goal with which he now intends to study the Torah, meaning to clarify his intention.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

One needs to exert great effort before engaging in the study so that the study would bring him the Light of the Torah that Reforms.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

The purpose of the study of  the Torah is to come to feel the Giver of the Torah. Such a disciple is called “Israel.”
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Importance of the Intention during the Study

The Creator, who created the evil inclination, evidently knew to create the remedy liable to eradicate it altogether. And if one practices Torah and fails to remove the evil inclination from himself, it is either because he has been negligent in giving the necessary effort, as it is written, “I have not labored but found, do not believe,” or perhaps one did put in the necessary amount of labor, but has been negligent in the quality.

This means that while practicing the Torah, he did not set his mind and heart to draw the Light in the Torah, which brings faith [the property of bestowal] to one’s heart. Rather, he has been absent-minded about the demand for the Light that Reforms, although he initially aimed for it.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 18
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A person who opens The Book of Zohar, opens it in order to reveal the Creator. By definition, the science of Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to creation in this world. Otherwise why would Kabbalah and all of Torah be given to us? The Creator becomes revealed in the desire to bestow and love in a person. This desire is equal to the Creator in qualities, and the Creator becomes revealed in it according to the law of equivalence of form.

Thus, the Creator is the quality of bestowing and loving, the force of bestowal and love, “the Good who does Good.” How, then, can we achieve the desire to bestow and love, the Good who does Good? By connecting with each other in spite of every person’s egoistic forces that mutually repel one another and by building a net of good connection between us above the net of hatred. By building a net in which every person is good and does good, bestows and loves in relation to others.

But how do we do this if each of us is just a small egoist? We read The Book of Zohar, which talks about our corrected states in which we are connected by a good connection between us, and we desire for this to come true inside of us. In that case we receive an impression of those good states, which already exist in infinity. This impression, the influence of forces from our corrected states upon our current state, is called “surrounding Light” or “the Light that returns us to the source of goodness.”

Then, according to the formula, “I created the evil inclination and I gave the Torah for its correction, because the Light in it returns to the source,” we return to the source—the Good who does Good. Thus, we reveal the Creator, the Good who does Good, our root.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/11, The Zohar

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Importance of the Preparation for the Study

Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith in the Creator and in His guidance in reward and punishment…. One should aim one’s labor to be for the commandments of the Torah [his own correction], and in this way, he will be imparted the pleasure of the Light in it. His faith [in such act of correction] will strengthen and grow through the remedy in this Light….

Then one’s heart shall rest assured that from Lo Lishma [for oneself] he will come to Lishma [for the sake of bestowal or the Creator]. Thus, even if he has not been rewarded with faith [the property of bestowal], he still has hope through the practice of Torah. For if one sets one’s heart and mind to attain faith in [bestowal to] the Creator, through it there is no greater commandment than that.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 17
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