Question: How are the 613 desires and 613 Mitzvot (commandments) connected? How can I correct these desires if I don’t know what they are and am totally stuck in my ego?

Answer: I have a certain point, similar to a drop of semen a human development starts with. I must attach to this point the entire mass of my soul, which will result in its developing based on the information instilled in this point.

Similarly, a drop of semen contains the entire information about a new human being: That he or she will grow and weigh, let’s say, 200 lbs, be 7 feet tall, be brilliant, exalted, and so on. We don’t know any of this, but all human characteristics, his path in the material and spiritual world, all of this is contained in the drop of that semen. We simply need to infuse it with a certain force. This force is provided by the mother.

We study that in the spiritual world there is also a mother: Bina. From there we receive the force to develop spiritually. Inside this spiritual mother, there is a place regarded as the “womb” or AHP, where our “droplet” ascends to. This is what we call MAN. The drop gets accepted by Bina and begins to grow.

This spiritual mother is the group. We had previously mentioned that a person has to enter the group and cleave to it, cling to the “wall of the womb.” Thereby, he starts receiving from it the force of development for its point.

The group itself doesn’t add anything to us; it exists to allow us to receive the upper Light through it, something regarded as blood (Hebrew “Dam” comes from the word “Domem” or “still”). In other words, we are still being developed at the still level, with Aviut Shoresh (the coarseness of desire of the root level).

In our point, there are 613 desires. They all evolve, but we don’t know how it occurs.

Besides, we don’t know what desires are developing now and which of them will be unfolding later. This process can be demonstrated as a diagram that looks like an ultrasound scan: All desires, from 0 to 613, develop in various degrees: some more, others less.

Each of us has 613 desires but in their various combinations. Let’s say desire “20” is developed in me greater than in someone else, while desire “40” less so. They are the same 613 desires which differ in their might and exist in different combinations and proportions between themselves. And when the group becomes a channel through which the upper Light influences all these desires, the Light is regarded as blood and nurtures them, even though I have no idea how.

I don’t know or understand it, just like an embryo in the mother’s womb doesn’t comprehend the process of its development and doesn’t think or ask about it. It is fostered by the nature’s force. This is why this is the development at the still level: without understanding, feeling, and attainment.

What then is the development of 613 desires? When I cancel myself before the group in order to cleave to it, be one with it, so that it would impact me, it means that I am performing the acts of annulment of 613 desires. I am clueless of what it is. All of it together is my ego that I cancel relative to the group. Then I am influenced by the upper Light and advance.

In other words, my action of nullifying myself before the group in order to receive new desires, thoughts, and a scale of values is regarded as carrying out of the 613 commandments. Each action is called a “day.” Thus it is written that every day, a person must perform 613 commandments. And it is so until a person has completed all his or her corrections. This concerns both men and women.
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From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: You said that for the women to be able to carry out their function, they must turn to the Creator with a request. What does this mean?

Answer: The women should try to unite in order to create a great collective force and to convey their desire to the men. Women don’t have to connect with each other; they are incapable of that. They can unite in opposition to men, to “fight” against them. This is the nature of a woman; she can do that, in a good way.

When you begin to engage in this, you’ll feel that in relation to spirituality, to put pressure on the men, you cannot unite either. In the corporeal world, perhaps you can plan a joint action against the men, but you have no power in the spiritual world. Why? The Creator wants you to ask Him to participate in this with you so that He can help you unite and put pressure on the men correctly.

It turns out that from the very beginning, performing the correct spiritual action, you will feel that you need the Creator’s help.
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From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: Is it so that a woman can attune herself to the Creator only through the men’s group?

Answer: Absolutely not! A woman also must personally attune herself to the Creator! This movement through the men’s group is necessary only to bring us all onto this degree. But tuning to the Creator is still an individual process.

How can a woman not be connected with the Creator?! We are moving ahead together: Men cannot advance without the women’s desire, while women cannot advance toward the Creator without the men’s effort. All of this must go together, just as together, we bear children.

Movement is birth at each new stage, when we beget the next state. A woman cannot be a sole parent and neither can a man. They must be together to create a family and take care of the common family circle, after which they produce new states.

But both men and women have a personal relationship with the Creator, while movement can only occur in the group. I attune myself to the Creator individually. But how do I receive fulfillment? I get it through the group.

The impact of the environment both on the men and the women is crucial. And a woman cannot advance if she doesn’t receive the influence of the environment, albeit that of the men’s rather than the women’s.
[41978]
From the Virtual Lesson in Russian, Fundamentals of Kabbalah 4/21/2011

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Question: Following your advice to expand my world, I have connected as many pieces that are similar to me as I could, but I see the suffering of the people outside of our group because we are not bringing the wisdom of Kabbalah and the level of connection that exists among us to them.

Answer: I already told you how to disseminate Kabbalah. Give the easiest book we have, From Chaos to Harmony for example, to one person, then another, then someone else. Have a small library, and this way, you will see whether people are interested in this. Do they feel that there is an actual reason behind all this chaos? Do they understand that there is a solution?

This is the best way to act because as soon as you begin to speak with them, you ruin yourself and them. The best method to disseminate is to give a book.

Question: What else can I do to strengthen the connection between the people who study Kabbalah?

Answer: This is a different question. You should unite with other women to use your strength, desire, and concern to motivate the men to work harder between them on the destruction of their egoism and the strengthening of their connection. You cannot even imagine how much influence women have over men.

There were many times in my life when I received great advice from my wife, as if it were sent from God. She often offered me a solution in the most critical states—I am speaking about spiritual solutions. You, women, can influence men, and you should not be avoiding this responsibility.
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From Lesson 7, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: What is the nature of the work of a man and a woman in terms of the annulment of the desire to receive pleasure in the spiritual world?

Answer: There is no difference whatsoever in the work of a man and a woman because they both are desires to receive pleasure; they both are egoists. Each of them has to elevate the importance of the goal, meaning the revelation of the upper force and its connection with all people, in order to reveal the spiritual world.

Feeling the importance of the goal, I annul my ego and reject various things that appear as obstacles to reaching it. I do not stop to receive pleasure from food or from life, I do not reject anything in this world, but I work only on the importance of the goal.

We say that our world is important for us and is full of big pleasures, but the spiritual world is even more important and more attractive for me. It turns out that according to the degree of this importance, I seemingly do not notice all that prevents me from reaching spirituality. This is the way I advance.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series 3/8/2011, “Reaching a Balance”

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Question: Why does a woman always have disagreements with her mother-in-law?

Answer: Both of these women have a big desire to have power over the same man. It is known from the Torah that in the past everything was the opposite way. Before his marriage, a man would bring his bride-to-be to his parent’s house, to his mother, where she would “simmer” in his familiar environment. This way, the woman understood the personality of her future husband and received all the information about him from his mother in order to connect to him correctly.

A man does exist between two women, his mother and his wife (the upper, Bina, and the lower, Malchut). This is why a man naturally tends to treat his wife as a mother to some extent, and often times he sees his mother in his wife.

All of these really descend to our world from the spiritual world. Therefore, women should forgive their husbands for this.
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From the Introductory Lecture Series 3/8/2011, "Reaching a Balance"

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Question: Can women disseminate Kabbalah through music and singing like the men do?

Answer: As the world continues to advance toward spirituality, there will be less difference between men and women. We see that greater equality in spirituality is founded in nature—after all, we’re now approaching unity.

Why was the aspiration to the equality of men and women suddenly revealed in the 20th century? This is because nature is leading us toward unity, and in unity we’re equal. For now it’s happening on the material level, until we begin rising to the spiritual level.

We have to preserve the male and female qualities, which is something we are unable to do in our world. We shouldn’t get confused in thinking that our qualities are equal, but instead see their uniqueness. If we fail to see this difference, we won’t be able to create a correct connection.

Nature is distinctly divided into two sexes and we can’t obscure or overlook this fact. We should only find the correct connection, as the wisdom of Kabbalah explains.

In our everyday life we don’t know how to do this. Therefore, we make so many foolish mistakes that cause families to fall apart, and each person goes where ever they want. But with time, we begin to draw conclusions from these mistakes.

In spirituality we have a precise methodology: The women’s desire has to push the men. The women take part in studying and dissemination. Moreover, a woman’s part in dissemination is greater than that of a man because dissemination resembles birth, meaning that it is inherent specifically to a woman.

Possibly the men execute more, whereas the women do more preparation work. The woman prepares while the man goes out hunting or to discover new continents, and so on. He does this so that he could bring it back to the woman and create a new life.

This is why both men and women must participate in the circulation of Kabbalah. I can’t even imagine how we could exist and present ourselves today without the women. There are many women helping me with work and their help is more significant than that of men. I depend on women much more than on men. This is a force that’s more dedicated, consistent, and irreplaceable.

If I see that women are involved in something, I’m confident in the result. But if only men are involved, it’s questionable! However, this isn’t anyone’s fault or merit; these are simply parts that need to complement one another. A man is always in search of something new; therefore, he isn’t consistent. A woman is more stable, which hinders her personal development. But by uniting together we make it work.
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From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Question from a woman: I have a very big desire to become perfect. What should I do: direct this desire towards the men or straight to the Creator?

Answer: Neither. You have to correct it yourself. You don’t have to “direct” your desire anywhere. Every person must correct his or her own desire. It’s just that the means for this correction is the mutual help we give to one another, our connection with each other.

No one can correct your desires. This would take away your freedom of choice, your independence, and the ability to attain the level that you have to attain, the root of your soul.

Only work in the group, both for men and for women, in the appropriate form for each to perform their spiritual work will help them become included in one another with their souls and to feel that all together we belong to one Kli, one common soul, just as before the breaking.
[39827]
From the 3rd lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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Question: You have repeatedly said that men who study Kabbalah must be married. Does a homosexual male have to marry a female or rather, have a partner of the same gender? Do you recommend for homosexuals, males and females, to conceive or adopt children?

Answer: I think that everyone, within the parameters of the corporeal world, can do as their inclination dictates. And all their inner forces should be directed toward reaching an exalted, eternal, perfect goal.
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