Question: Why is it written that “this world is created for none else except Israel” rather than for the nations of the world, although their correction is the goal of creation?

Answer: We need to follow scientific definitions of the wisdom of Kabbalah. The “world” (Olam) means “concealment” (Alama). Concealment is created only for Israel, those who aspire “straight to the Creator.” Those who desire to reach the Creator need to go through concealments, suffering, and blows in order to build within themselves a negative form opposite to the Creator and then desire to reach the Creator’s quality: bestowal detached from reception.

This is the point that we need to reach. Meanwhile, our desire should not be similar to the Creator in all His might. Not at all! You can have a desire that weighs only 1 ounce, but it should be correct! A correct desire means that you feel what it means to be detached from reception. This quality is most important, and we need to experience it.

After all, for the time being we are able to give only if we see a benefit. As it is written, we “trade a cow for a donkey,” as we receive what we consider more preferable. For example, a book is more important than money for me. Then I give money and receive a book. This is called an acquisition.

But why is it an acquisition? Didn’t you pay? Didn’t you give your money? No. What I gave is less important to me than what I received. If I needed to give something of equal value in exchange, I would be unable to do this. I always need to imagine that what I receive is more preferable to me than what I give. And the greater the difference between them, the more it fulfills me since I profit from it: “Look at what I found! It was almost free!”

This is how you live: Your fulfillment should be as preferable as possible relative to what you give in return. And then it is not called bestowal.

How does one feel the separation from reception in order to give and not to receive anything in return? I am willing to work without receiving anything in exchange if I believe that I thereby earn myself the world to come. It is as though I open an account in the future and make installments there. This is even more reliable: No one will take it away and nothing will get lost like in this world.

But how do you feel that you are completely detached from the result of bestowal, that you do not profit in any way from it, and it is completely isolated from you? You work arduously your whole life, and no one, including the Creator, knows anything about you. But you know about it; you work and wish to remain only in this. However, if you work in order not to feel guilty, this is your pay.

So how can we tear away from desires of reception? You need to feel this detachment in as little as one ounce, and that’s all; you don’t need any more than that. Then you are ready for revelation. After all, that is already an image of the genuine quality of bestowal, an image of the Creator.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #90 “Every Act Leaves an Imprint“
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Passover, Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “This Month Shall Be Unto You,” Item 158
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Writings of the ARI “Shaar HaKavanot”
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Pri Chacham
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Question: What is the meaning of the command, “Remember the day when we came out of Egypt” in the sense of a person’s inner work?

Answer: It says in The Zohar, in Item 121 of Chapter "Bo" that the Torah will mention the exodus from Egypt 50 times. Besides that it is written that every day a person must see himself as coming out of Egypt, and that is because all of our work happens only in relation to Egypt.

A person’s spiritual work on correcting his egoistic nature begins from the state of “Abraham”—the rudiment of the quality of bestowal. But how can we develop this quality?

This is why “Abraham’s” question to the Creator emerges in a person: “How will my descendants inherit a great land?” (Chapter "Lech-Lecha"). This means: How can I develop inside of me (because my descendants are my future states) a huge desire of bestowal and love in order to receive Your entire Light from You?

This receives the following answer (from the Creator to Abraham), “Know that your descendants will be in exile for 400 years,” where 400 years are all four levels of egoism. That is, the Creator tells a person that he will become entirely immersed in egoism and will thereby acquire a desire equal to the Light of Infinity.

First you will be permeated by this desire to absorb everything and then you will discover that it is flawed and will desire to come out of it. Once you come out of it, you will begin correcting it from an egoistic desire to bestowal. This means leaving Egypt and entering the holy land.

This way, by gradually correcting the egoism we acquire, we ascend up 125 degrees until the full correction (Gmar Tikkun). Thus, our entire spiritual path divides into three phases:

1. From the initial point (Abraham, the aspiration to reveal the Creator) until entering Egypt.
2. Inside Egypt, where we develop the aspiration to the Creator, which brings about the development of egoism, the realization that it is evil, and the exit from it.
3. The correction of our egoistic desire until its total correction.

Everything revolves around “Egypt”: Part of our path is “before it” and part is “after it.” But Egypt is the central point. That is why a person must feel that he is coming out of Egypt every day, meaning that every day he takes a part of the egoistic desire and corrects it, and receives a new Light inside of it. This is called “a new day.” And this continues on all the levels.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter "Yitro (Jethro)," Item 533: There are two gemstones and one Masach between them, standing between each other. The upper gemstone is colorless, it is not openly visible.

Item 534: Malchut is called “a gemstone” because it clings to NHY de ZA, which are called “legs.” Because of Malchut’s ascent to Bina, Bina, too, is called “a gemstone,” and it is an upper gemstone.

There exists the ladder of the spiritual degrees extending from the world of Infinity to our world. This ladder consists of 125 rungs. The upper part of each degree contains the lower part of a higher degree, while the lower part of each degree is immersed in an even lower degree.

The upper part of the highest degree is the world of Infinity, while its lower part is inside the lower degree. It follows that the lower part of each higher degree exists together with the upper part of the lower degree. Hence, in each degree there is a common part between the upper and lower degrees where both of them unite into one.

The upper part of each degree is called Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), while its lower part AHP (Awzen-Hotem-Peh). In sum, they comprise 10 Sefirot, but in a way that the lower degree contains the AHP of the upper one, and the GE of the lower degree clothe this AHP. It follows that the upper part of each degree is comprised of 10 Sefirot in total, which the upper and the lower degrees form together. This is how it is at every degree.

In the collective system of souls we are all connected together, all seven billion souls. Hence, all parts of my soul are included into everybody, and if I connect with them correctly, all of their parts are within me either as my GE or AHP. That is, nothing is left of me but my initial point with which I started my path. Only it remains in me; it is my foundation. I acquire everything else from the others: either the GE or AHP. I include everyone within myself: It is the body of my soul.

This is what The Zohar explains: It is impossible to create a "gemstone," Malchut, the spiritual vessel of each person unless he or she connects with everybody. I need everyone: They are my spiritual vessel. I have to receive my GE and AHP from everybody. And who am I? I’m the point in the heart from which I started the path.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: I just can’t seem to understand: What is the Light that reforms? And how can I demand it during the study?

Answer: 1. At the very least, try to recognize all of these qualities inside of you which we read about in The Book of Zohar. Try to discern where they are inside of you, “rummage” inside of your desires, thoughts, and inside yourself.

That is how you expand your inner Kelim, desires, and qualities of perception. As you search among them, you begin to differentiate between them. But all of these qualities already exist inside of you.

2. If I don’t have a need for correction, then to me the words “the Light that reforms” are devoid of life. If I require correction, then I expect this Light. But if I don’t have this need, then I don’t know what this Light is.

I am told, “You have to wait for the Light to come.” Fine, so let it come. The sages say it’s good, and I agree. If that’s my attitude, then I cannot attract it.

It is written that one must await salvation at every moment. “The Creator’s salvation comes in the blink of an eye.” This is talking precisely about the correcting Light, the Light that reforms, bringing us back to the Creator.

The action we demand from above must always be preceded by our desire, the need for it. Otherwise it will never happen. Either we elicit the suffering inside of us on our own, which is “the suffering of love,” a passionate desire for the Light, or it will come in the form of compulsory suffering, by the path of “Beito” (in due time).

However, without suffering, without a question and without a desire, I cannot attain the correcting Light. That’s because the Light is at absolute rest. We only need the desire so the correcting Light would influence us.

We could say that the Light is present inside of the desire, but is revealed only when this desire reaches the true measure.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, The Zohar

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Question: How does The Book of Zohar teach us the methods of the connection between us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam adds a commentary to The Zohar to stave off the materialization of The Zohar‘s text. It lays ground for the formation of the spiritual state within us, beyond space and time, beyond the images of our world, to make us want to experience it within and not outside of us.

The Sulam commentary, like all the books of Kabbalists, is written for people who have already acquired spiritual attainment to help them understand what they’re already feeling. I am being explained what I am feeling right now; I’m at the level where “a person’s soul teaches him.” Then by reading Kabbalistic texts, I begin to understand what I am feeling.

Before spiritual sensations arise in me, however, the Kabbalistic texts are not a source of knowledge but “Segula” (a miraculous force) for me because while reading them, I am exposed to the influence of the upper Light, washing over me like a stream of living water.

Hence, I don’t want to explain what each phrase in The Zohar means from the standpoint of Sefirot and Partzufim so that a student will not be satisfied with superficial knowledge. I want him or her to search inside, within their feelings, wondering what it is really like. Then they will have a greater yearning for revelation and thereby form a desire, a need, for it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #59 “About The Rod and the Serpent”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Passover, Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “And It Came to Pass at Midnight,” Item 114
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 6, Part 15, Item 41
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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam “Time of Redemption”
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Question: What signs can help us tell whether a person is advancing in the study of The Book of Zohar?

Answer: Which books you study is irrelevant in this regard because besides studying The Book of Zohar we also study Talmud Eser Sefirot as well as articles and letters by Baal HaSulam and Rabash which explain how to advance toward unity among us and toward mutual study. They help us to get organized correctly. After we organize among ourselves into a study group, we begin studying actual Kabbalah.

The purpose of the study group in Kabbalah is not to study the material, but to aspire through reading it to realize the “Segula,” meaning to evoke the influence of the Light upon us from a higher level. If during the study we desire for the Light to become revealed inside our unity, then by this effort we build the higher level and then our effort brings about the emergence of that level.

However, if we study trying only to understand the material, then we do not study the Torah. That’s because the Torah refers precisely to our effort and the appearance of a new level in it.

Therefore, progress in studying the primary sources (The Zohar, the books of the Ari, and Talmud Eser Sefirot) is determined by the force of your aspiration to reveal the next level inside of you, instead of the desire just to know the material.

There is no advancement in understanding or accumulating knowledge because prior to the sensation of the upper world, all our notions of it are incorrect.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati No.86 Article: “And They Built Store Cities,” To: “Now We Can Understand What Our Sages Wrote…,” Lesson 2
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Passover, Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “And Pass Over the Lentil and Two Mezuzahs (Doorposts),” Item 75
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 6, Part 15, Item 40
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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam “The First Innovation”
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Question: How can I learn to place more importance on the intention rather than the understanding of the text when we study the Kabbalistic sources in the group or when I read them alone?

Answer: When I read alone, I also have to think that we all are connected together. It is as though I plunge into our collective desire which connects us into one, where we are united all together even though we don’t feel it.

I try to be on the same level. Being together with everyone inside the system that connects us all, where we all share the same desire and energy, I wish to sense that there are no differences between me and the others.

Then, when reading the text, I try to penetrate into its essence as much as possible and, most importantly, not to disconnect from the inner connection between us. If I need to give 99% of my strength to the thoughts about our connection, I have to do that. Then I use only 1% for understanding what I read. Sometimes I don’t even know what I am reading about: So big are the distractions that come to me.

However, I should not worry about the fact that later on I won’t be able to tell what I just read. The key is to wish to connect with everyone when my eyes follow the letters. This is enough for the text to influence me.

I specifically want to emphasize that first of all you have to think about the connection between us, and only then you may read and understand the text as much as you are able to.
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From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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