Question: How do we distinguish spiritual properties from material ones, and how do these differences become apparent?

Answer: From early childhood and on, we have been developing properties of reception, that is, properties of absorption. We feel only what we can absorb into ourselves and for ourselves.

However, there is another phenomenon, another method of perception: effusion, outflow. We are not familiar with this property because it is not instilled in us from birth. But we have the starting point, and even if it is still absorption, its vector is bestowal rather than receiving.

In order to develop this property, we are given the wisdom of Kabbalah that tells us about the concealed part of reality. From there, we attract the abundance, giving that part of our desire a similar “external orientation.”

In other words, the Light develops the point in the heart, the only desire that will bring us to real bestowal. We don’t know what will grow from this seed, but its seedlings will be nothing like the fruit of absorption.

The intention to bestow is built on a different basis: A person begins to sense something that exists outside of himself as his own. It doesn’t become your possession as in our world, but rather, it is the “native” part of yourself. This is completely different from anything that we feel today.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “The Rose”

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As we read in The Book of Zohar, Introduction we should be more concerned with the intention, rather than with understanding the text. Our main concern should be to keep ourselves attuned properly. Why are we reading The Zohar? What happens to us meanwhile? What affects us? What do we wish to achieve as a result?

Only then do we turn to the text itself, trying to penetrate into its meaning. Only by “cleaning out” a place within ourselves will we achieve the needed effect. Otherwise, there will simply be no place for it to be revealed.

Question: How do we prepare this place?

Answer: We prepare it by rising above the obstacles. A person comes to a lesson on Kabbalah, to a “date” with The Book of Zohar, to a meeting with the friends with a whole heap of problems which seem coincidental to him, but there are no coincidences. There is none else besides the Creator.

Therefore, I need to perform the right calculation: I don’t understand what is happening, why it happens to me in particular or to us, and I still need to rise above everything only for the sake of unification with the friends. In this manner we prepare the foundation, create a place for future ascents; we form Malchut. This is written about in a different article from The Book Of Zohar, Introduction: “The Night Of The Bride.”

At the lesson, we are given an opportunity which is not present anywhere else. How important is it for me to reveal the Creator, to give Him pleasure? How important is it for me to rise above my egoism and unite with others in order to reveal Him? I constantly measure my goals according to their importance.

At the same time, I see that every time, I am given obstacles, and I need to step on the throat of my egoism in order to continue the path, staying in unification, on topic, and in direct closeness to the spiritual primary sources. This is a great work, and this is what is meant by “preparing a place” for the revelation of the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, The Zohar, Introduction, “The Rose”

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Question: From the very beginning of the lesson, I feel that I am battling myself in order to hold the intention, but I fail constantly. How can I hope to win this battle someday?

Answer: Since you’re asking me, I will tell you just one thing: If a person doesn’t connect himself to the group, the teacher, and the studies using every means possible, he will not survive. Only patience and perseverance can help… “Holding on with his teeth,” a person needs to determine his place and advance against his ego.

If you are here and you are constantly unhappy, wishing to escape every minute, and you still stay, be grateful at least for this. After all, this is already some kind of connection. It’s not important that you are “naked and deprived of everything,” as was written about King David. Nevertheless, you have some connection to the Torah.

Nothing can be done. We don’t understand to what extent we need to perform inner work. We cannot see this. A person constantly judges himself. He forgets that he is dealing with the Creator.

After all, the Creator gives you all this. He wishes to pull out all the stubbornness from you, all your pride, foolishness, and dumbness in the mind and in the heart. He pulls you in various directions, not leaving you alone even for a minute.

Allow Him to work on you. What can you do? How long will it go on? The more you can withstand, the faster He will carry out this work. However, if you are unable to stand it and every minute you scream, “Oh, no! Just not this!” He lessens His influence since He is proceeding along with you. It turns out that you advance very slowly.

Readiness to endure is everything. He reveals to you who you are to the extent that you have patience when you just don’t see this, but you are able to exert much effort to sort out all these things properly. What are they for? Why? From where? From Whom? What specifically do I do with them now?

If you truly invest all your strength into this, then you will advance. If not, you will continue to advance less. However, in any case, every one who exists within these boundaries advances. It takes years, but such is the path. Sometimes, it takes from 10 to 20 years, but so what? What is this compared to the universe that has existed for 15 billion years?

Your ancestor, a hundred thousand years ago, hunted for animals in order to find food for himself and throughout his whole brief life of 20 to 30 years didn’t think about revealing the spiritual world or the Creator. Just look at how many reincarnations you have already gone through and only now you have an opportunity to really realize them. All the previous incarnations are now reaching their realization.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter,” Item 16, Lesson 1 
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 17, Lesson 7
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 70
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress,” Lesson 2
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Question: How can I think about the correction that The Book of Zohar brings us if I feel negative emotions such as hatred?

Answer: Prayer is whatever the heart feels. If there is hatred in my heart now, then this is my prayer, “I want to hurt my enemy.”

In order to correctly use the force that’s hidden in The Book of Zohar while reading it together in a group, I must first prepare my heart so it will desire the same thing the Creator desires. In reality, the Creator responds to every prayer, meaning the desires in our heart. That is why our world is so bad!

However, on the other hand, it is written that He responds only to the prayer that has gone through “the gate of tears.” So does He really respond to every desire, even the whim of a baby or the machinations of a villain?

Yes, say the Kabbalists who have revealed the system of our relationships with Him. A thief who has set his sights on some object, or a criminal who goes out “on the prowl” and is ready to kill someone, also desire to succeed and their prayer is also accepted. After all, we are talking about the desire of Malchut of the World of Atzilut, and everything beneath it, including our world, belongs to it.

Why, then, do we say that the desire can ascend into Malchut, or it can not ascend? The matter is that we draw a division into two types of desires:

– Some aspire in the same direction as the Creator’s will. Then they unite with the upper desire and are perceived as abundance from Above.

– Some do not match the Creator’s will. They also evoke the same response from Above as the positive desires, but are perceived by the negative desires negatively, as a negative reaction. This corrects a person, leading him down a lengthy, difficult path of suffering instead of the short, easy path where his desires coincide with the Creator’s desires.

That is why it is best for us to prepare for the right prayer and to use it when turning to The Book of Zohar. A person cannot sit at the lesson without any desires. One way or another, he desires something, and if his desire has been prepared ahead of time and aspires in the right direction, then he advances easily and quickly while reading The Zohar.

Besides, we have to remember that we are in the group, which helps us to strengthen our prayer. Thus, if a person’s thoughts are not aimed at the goal, then he takes an adversarial position in relation to the group and feels what seems like a negative reaction from Above even more.

Therefore, our entire work amounts to preparing for the lesson, that is, for reading The Zohar and other Kabbalistic books. Once we are at the lesson, it is difficult to change anything because a person’s heart is already tuned to a specific desire.

That’s why it is so important what thoughts I have when going to sleep and how I prepare for the lesson in the morning. These minutes play the decisive role. And we shouldn’t forget about the physical preparation so the body won’t fall into slumber.

Rabash writes the following in Article 36 in Writings of Rabash:
It is written, “He who hears the prayer.” Why does it say “the prayer” in the singular tense? Doesn’t the Creator hear all prayers? The matter is that we have to raise just one prayer: to restore the Shechina from the dust.

To pray for the restoration of the Shechina from the dust means to desire the revelation of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love for the neighbor inside me in order to become similar to the Creator in this regard. If we all aim our efforts in one direction, then we are knocking on the gate that will definitely open.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, The Zohar

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Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and so on are stages of the soul’s development. A new force arises inside the soul each time and begins to drive the development and all that accompanies it.

The new force is always a will to receive and a will to bestow. The development is phased, however, with one period following another. Until I have completed one stage of development, I don’t know what the next one will be, and so on.

After the seven years of plenty, I don’t know what the seven years of famine are. It seems to me that I am advancing, and I will enter the spiritual world the same way. Suddenly, instead of the spiritual world – boom! – the Egyptian darkness descends. Similarly, I don’t know that all of a sudden I exit the Egyptian darkness, the terrible, pitch-black darkness when my desire has no fulfillment, neither the Surrounding nor Inner Light, and I come to the Light.

Development occurs in stages. We just need to know how to advance, but every revelation is a surprise, a complete surprise.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion, 12/2/10

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Question: What can I give the group during the study?

Answer: Your participation and aspiration to the goal, which has to be as strong as possible. This is the force of mutual guarantee by which we strengthen the group.

This is especially so during the study because that’s when we are able to unite and attract the Light that Reforms.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Mi Barah Eleh (Who Created These) and Mi Barah Eleh shel Eliyahu (Who Created These by Eliyahu),” Item 10 and Item 11
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 10, Lesson 6
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 70
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Question: What should we do about friends who don’t awaken? Should we be patient with them just as with the outside world?

Answer: No. In the group we have signed a mutual agreement just as in the past Kabbalistic groups demanded newcomers to sign a statute. Do you want to be a friend? “A friend” is a person who puts forth all his energy working to unite. After all, the only way we will attain the goal is by means of uniting.

We do not have the ability to accept every person who is not yet ready for it as he will simply “water down” our forces, or might even confuse us and lead us astray. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Peace” that a person might understand that he cannot steal, yet not see anything wrong with not carrying out bestowal.

In spirituality, if you do not give the group everything you have to give it, it means you are stealing from it. Therefore, people who desire to enter the group have to know that they are signing the “bestowal declaration.” They are taking on the obligation to put in their contribution, to give all of their energy for the sake of unity.

Otherwise a person has no place in the group. So let him sit home in front of the television set.

This has to be understood and the group has to demand it from everyone and from each person. We will not attain anything without unity.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, The Zohar

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Question: You explained that the text we read in Talmud Eser Sefirot and The Book of Zohar describes the forces of connection between us. Can you give me an example of this connection?

Answer: If you were in spirituality, then you would actually reveal everything you read about in the book. You would reveal the forces of connection among us, including their might, character, how they operate, and how they unite together into the net connecting us.

You would participate in the net of these forces and its work, in the illumination of the Shechina. You would see how much you are able to take an active part in it, how much you can add to it yourself. While reading the text, you would see how this entire net behaves.

However, if you do not live inside spiritual attainment, it is impossible to convey this to you. Baal HaSulam writes in his poem, “Whatever your eyes will see, you will see it and no other.”

As long as you do not feel spirituality, you have to read these texts hoping that it will become revealed to you. We read the Kabbalistic texts in the quality of Segula (a miraculous quality), and not in the form of facts.

For example, suppose I am blind and I am listening to a physics professor tell me about optical laws. He tells me how a ray of light splits into several colors. Yet, I am just hearing about it. I do not understand what he is talking about, but only hear that these phenomena exist.

I can keep studying this way my entire life, without understanding what it is talking about. However, if I make special efforts and begin to feel the phenomena I heard about, then they become my life. This is called “Taste and see how good the Creator is.” You have to taste it – to receive these Lights and feel their taste.

The real science of Kabbalah begins only after you have this sensation.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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