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Everyone starts studies hoping to attain the spiritual world with the mind, like philosophers. However, a person gradually realizes that theoretical knowledge does not help, but rather stops him. It confuses him because he expects to achieve something by it.
We all have to go through this confusion, a stage of development, in which we try to understand the Creator through the mind; yet, we begin to grasp that neither the mind nor even feelings are intended for spiritual perception, that is, the true perception of reality. To do this, we need new sense organs.
Therefore, that part of desires and thoughts, the heart and mind, that was engaged in philosophical research is now freed from this occupation and can be dedicated to action. That is, a person really wants to change his desires and is willing to undergo surgery to have the stony heart cut out, turning it into the complete opposite.
He is ready to give himself to it, to have any changes made in him to the faith and devotion of the soul. He gives his soul to be changed qualitatively, and not in the mind. It is called that he becomes a hero, exits the nations of the world, and joins Israel.
[117196]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/13, The Book of Zohar – Introduction
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It says in The Zohar: “There is none like you among all the sages of the nations of the world.” This is talking about a person’s inner discernments. Cohen (a priest), Levi, and Israel are called Jews since they are attracted to unity (which has the same root in Hebrew). Scientists or philosophers have the human desire to achieve the same, but it is purely theoretical without any aspirations for changing and correction themselves.
This work is only in the mind and not in the heart. But we need to correct the heart, which means a person’s desires. Philosophers, on the other hand, want to do the same thing but in their mind, and therefore get confused and engage in “idolatry,” creating all kinds of fantasies in their mind.
All the properties except for Israel (those that aim Yashar El, straight to the Creator) are called the nations of the world since they are not attracted to adhesion with the Creator in order to delight Him. The nations of the world are divided into seventy nations and Israel is divided into 12 tribes and to many other parts, which means that the division is infinite. At the same time, each of us is incorporated in everyone else. This happens as a result of the shattering of the vessels, as a preparation for us.
So when we read in The Book of Zohar about some philosopher or a righteous we have to regard them about properties within us. The whole Torah is written about one person who includes the whole world inside him. The question is whether that person is created as someone who can attain the Creator by the inner vessels that were given to him: his desire to receive and the wisdom of the mind.
Of course not! The expansion of our vessels by which we attain the Creator and not philosophize about Him, like the sages of the nations of the world do, is done only by the upper force that provides us with a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. This is a totally different expansion of the vessels compared to those we can expand by wisdom.
If a person studies something logically, he acquires wisdom, a mind, and general knowledge. But his vessels of perception for attaining the Godly system, the upper operating system, are not expanded by it. He doesn’t learn about the forces that operate him; he doesn’t study the Creator. After all, the Creator can be grasped only through the acquisition of His attributes. If a person doesn’t change his properties, then he is still one who receives under the domination of his desire to receive and the mind that serves the desire to receive, trying to fill it.
This is how we operate in this world and there is nothing we can do about it. Unless we receive help from above that expands our vessels of perception and provides us with new vessels of bestowal, we will not attain the Creator. We will have no idea what Godliness or the spiritual world is.
[117146]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/13, The Book of Zohar — Introduction
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Question: What does the dialog between letters and the Creator that is described in The Book of Zohar in chapter “Letters of Rabbi Hamnuna Saba” mean?
Answer: We want to clarify the properties of each force (a letter) relative to Keter (the goal, the white Light) that act in the general system of our universe that was made by the Creator. The system defines relationships between the power of bestowal and the force of receiving.
There are two forces: “something out of something” (Yesh mi Yesh) and “something out of nothing” (Yesh mi Ain) and there is a system of relationships between them. How is it possible to make “something out of nothing” similar to “something out of something?” How can the desire to receive become like the desire to bestow? The desire to receive cannot turn into a giving desire, but it can copy the latter by acting like it. This type of behavior is called “receiving for the sake of bestowal.”
For that, it is necessary to have a sensation of the Giver since we are not yet concerned about Him; all we worry about is how to fulfill ourselves. In order to receive for the sake of bestowal, we have to sense the one to whom we are giving and use our desire in accordance with what the Giver wants.
Our desire turns into a method of pleasing the Creator, so we need energy and properties that we did not have previously. We want to “get acquainted” with the One to Whom we bestow and we should understand why we are doing this. In other words, we have to detach from ourselves and start feeling somebody else’s internal world.
What properties, forces, and augmentations are necessary to achieve this goal? We have to resolve this problem. We have to go through a certain process in order to achieve the goal. This question is clarified to us by the letters. Malchut asks Keter if she can become similar to Keter with the help of the letter “Samech.”
Keter responds to Malchut that it’s not possible. She can only cover a part of the path to meet Keter; she can only go a small portion of the road, to the place where Malchut separates from herself and receives support (Simcha) (derivative of the letter “Samech”). At this point, Malchut does not depend on the desire that she had in the beginning of her journey. It’s as if she floats in the air.
What’s next? Correction cannot be accomplished this way. On the contrary, if Malchut wants to proceed, she has to receive for the sake of bestowal. “Samech” doesn’t want to receive. This letter aspires to bestowal, to “Hafetz Hesed,” nothing but that. It’s like a righteous man who lives alone in the woods and doesn’t have even a shirt, but he doesn’t need one.
That’s why it’s necessary to cancel “Samech” since the force that envelopes this letter becomes a hindrance to it. We need a developmental power of the letter “Mem” that consists of two letters: “Dalet” (two doors – Delet) that have to open and let the fetus go out in order to continue its development. These doors are two opposing forces that fight with each other. That’s why they are called the door hinges (Tzirim), or labor pains (Tzirim), meaning the pain of advancement. The second power that cancels “Samech’s” protection is getting stronger and the fetus starts getting additional desire to be pleased that was previously under the power of egoism, but now it transitions from receiving to bestowal.
There is nothing that is absolutely and entirely good. There is no letter or force that could help us in all circumstances with the exception of the letter “Bet” that means “blessing.” The letter “Bet” doesn’t depend on anything at all, only on the Upper. The ways of receiving its blessing (meaning the Returning Light) can be learned from the wisdom of Kabbalah. The remaining properties reveal and correct because of this blessing.
[108678]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, The Zohar
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Question: What is the thing that the Klipa (shell) wants most?
Answer: The Klipa wants most to confuse us so that within this confusion we will want to turn to the Creator, to make us feel that we need faith, devotion. The Klipa brings us to these states, to such confusion, that it’s impossible to bear. And in the end, you agree to give up on everything. You are confused to such an extent that then you will understand that it’s worthwhile to be completely annulled in order to just cling to the Creator and not in order for the confusion to end, but because the Creator is the higher one, the source of everything.
The system of the Klipot is very sophisticated. It needs to be the exact copy of divinity and is actually composed of a mixture of holy forces and forces of the shell. This is so since it cannot confuse us if it’s only bad and shallow. Thus, it must be very sophisticated and diverse so as to teach us also what is correct and what is not correct according to the sensation and the intention.
In holiness, there are no forces of the shell that are revealed. They are already there in the inverted form through our preparation, which enables us not to ever be wrong. And then we are allowed to work with the Light. But all of this is on the condition that we have already included within us all of the impressions of the darkness and the Light, as it is written in The Book of the Zohar: “Whoever inverts darkness into light, the bitter to sweet, then enters the Palace of the King.”
This means, from the beginning we must equip ourselves with the whole system of the Klipot as a result of the inclusion of the opposing situations, a Kli (vessel, desire) emerges which is ready to be divine. The work of divinity is very simple in comparison to the study of the Klipa. Thus, the time of preparation takes a very long time.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/13, The Zohar
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