We experience the world within our desire to receive pleasure. Everything we are able to perceive through our five sensory organs, such as sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, results in the picture we observe from within. This is the reality we perceive.

Is there a way out of this limited perception into a broader one, which is not restricted by the physical body and its five sensory organs? After all, our vision of the world and our self is dictated by our animate body. It all depends on perception. Perhaps, there are countless forms beyond the body, but our body filters them allowing us to feel only what it is able to process. It means that we will never be able to experience the ultimate reality. If this is the case, then maybe we will see it is the true reality after the body dies? Yet, how is this possible if our five sensory organs die with it?

Kabbalists tell us that we are unable to perceive the entire reality because it is experienced “within myself” and thereby limited to only partial perception called “this world.” However, we can shift into the “outer” perception, the one outside the body. There is a force that changes our range of perception, where it is possible to experience reality outside of myself. In other words, instead of focusing on myself, I focus on the others and put them above myself.

When we are reading about the outer reality, it influences us in such way that we gradually begin perceiving it. It is called, “labored and found.” We must exert effort in order to obtain this new perception. After a few months of such laboring we start noticing changes occurring within us, and how different our perception of others becomes.

The most effective way to advance in this process is through a group reading The Zohar, regardless of how well we understand it. What counts is our desire to be affected by it, which will gradually help us start experiencing the outer reality.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/10, The Zohar

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We are part of a society that is moving toward the purpose of creation, and under its influence, our values are changing. We check everything that is happening relative to our advancing toward eternity and perfection. We don’t want to be bound to transience and death. Our desire to receive pleasure wants to rise higher. It is not enough for it to merely improve current conditions; our desire strives for qualitative change.

Initially, I want change in the world around me, not within me. I need time, study, and collective efforts in order to switch my desire from that of external change, to an internal one. At first my efforts seem to bring no results, but then something suddenly clicks and my understanding and perception of the world change. Such changes may take months to occur.

Each new state consists of 10 Sefirot, which are our accumulated inner transformations that are hidden from our own awareness. Only after they are completed can we make a leap to the next spiritual degree that we perceive. Therefore, we simply need to exert effort to accelerate time. Once we build a new state consisting of the 10 Sefirot, we will experience it as a new spiritual degree.

Before this change occurs, a person feels confused, as if in a fog. This happens at every spiritual degree, even the highest. It is a sign that one is standing at the threshold of the next degree. In fact, in order to enter the next state, a person must lose the previous degree in order to receive the new one. These transitions are much more effective than going through another cycle of life and death.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 108: The act of Egypt is extension of the light of Hochma from above downwards, like the sin of the tree of knowledge….

However, there is a degree that is close to the act of Egypt and is not the real act of Egypt. He [a person] extends illumination of Hochma from above downwards once, to strengthen and to increase the [lights of] Hassadim that are covered from Hochma…. Hence, this degree is considered close to Egypt, but not the actual land of Egypt.

If a person holds back and does not use his desires, how does he grow in his anti-egoistic screen? He needs to draw some pleasures to himself, but even receiving them, he should feel a lack of pleasure. This is the first exercise. Then, as he allows himself to gradually feel the pleasures, he should still remain in the intention above them.

For example, one could be enjoying something tasty, but using the pleasure to see how much he can rule over it and rousing the pleasure in himself only for the purpose of nevertheless feeling that he is above it. Another exercise: a person consciously brings himself closer to a source of fear or shame in order to feel whether he has power over himself and can hold himself above this feeling.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/10, The Zohar

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “15th of Av”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Lech-Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 120
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 1, Lesson 1
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Shamati #161 “The Matter of the Giving of the Torah”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Lech-Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 117
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Item 70
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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 116: Woe unto the wicked of the world who do not know and do not look to understand that all that there is in the world is from the Creator, that He alone did, does, and will do all the deeds in the world. He knows in advance all that will unfold in the end, as it is written, “Declaring the end from the beginning.” And He watches and does things in the beginning in order to repeat them and to do them perfectly after some time.

The end of the action lies in the initial Plan. Everything returns from Bina to Keter and from Keter to Bina. Between them, in the upper part of a Partzuf, which relates to the Upper One, is where all the work occurs on the lower part of the Partzuf, from ZAT of Bina and down until Malchut.

We are inside Malchut and from our position we do not see the causes of the actions taking place in Bina, nor the goal that all of this must lead to, which comes from Keter. We are opposite to them due to having opposite qualities. As long as Malchut does not acquire qualities of Bina, it cannot understand Keter, the Upper Governance.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 96: Three Degrees NRN. The most hidden is given to the wise at heart. Three degrees cling to one another—Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama.

All of The Book of Zohar and the entire wisdom of Kabbalah speak about spiritual degrees. However, what is a spiritual degree? What is ascension? What do we ascend in? In the corporeal world, a greater fulfillment of the desire to receive pleasure (in terms of food, sex, family, wealth, recognition, and knowledge) is considered to be an ascent. This is material “ascension” since it is dictated by the aspiration to receive egoistic pleasure.

In contrast, spiritual ascension is greater bestowal to others. A spiritual force is the force of bestowal, whereas a material force is the force of reception. This shows that the science of Kabbalah speaks about ascensions in bestowal.

Where can I actualize, verify, experience, and perceive this ascension and be certain that it is real? I can do this in the group. This is why the Creator broke the connections between the souls. He gave us a perception of this reality called “this world” and a diversity of numerous similar creatures that we call “people.” However, in essence, they are all souls who have lost the sensation of spirituality and live solely in the corporeal world. Thus, instead of experiencing our spiritual vessel, which is the will to bestow, we feel the material desire that paints a reality for us where we live in our bodies in this world.

What are we left to do? In our present state, we must start yearning for bestowal and mutual guarantee. Then, we will become equivalent to the nature of the spiritual degrees that the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about, and we will be able to ascend the steps of bestowal.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Vaetchanan,” Selected Excerpts
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It is written: “I created the evil inclination and the Torah for its correction.” We have gotten used to all these sayings and think that they are just pretty words about the Torah. However, in reality, this is all very profound and serious. If we do not approach the Torah studies correctly, we suffer from it. The Light is a powerful force that influences us, and with its help we can reach either goodness or the opposite.

This “opposite” is also a path, meaning that revelation of evil lets us achieve goodness as well. We see this through the example of the last exile. Exile means that we are torn away from spirituality and have no chance to reach a connection with the Creator until the end of the exile. However, how can we study the Torah while we are disconnected from spirituality and have selfish intentions? All your studies will be for the sake of self-gratification, receiving a reward, not even “Lo Lishma,” that is, they will be completely devoid of the right intention.

Yet we already understand that precisely because we study the Torah (the external Torah, not Kabbalah) during the exile, we thereby draw the Surrounding Light. But instead of bringing us closer to correction, this Light distances us from it. This means that we use the Light of the Torah as a “potion of death.” However, thereby we discover that we are immersed in evil, and with the descent of the generations, when “the face of the generation has become like the face of a dog,” we reach a state about which it is written: “And the sons of Israel cried out from this work.”

In other words, whether we are in the state of spiritual attainment or the exile, we constantly use the Light of the Torah, doing so either from the negative or the positive side. Without this we would never be able to reach a sensation of exile, the need for redemption.

Therefore, now, when we exist in such a special state which Baal HaSulam calls “the generation of the Messiah on the threshold of redemption,” it is very important for us to understand that all this is a condition given to us from Above. We, however, haven’t accepted it yet. What does this mean? It means that we were given an opportunity to start using the same Light that Reforms, the Light that returns one to the Creator, in a new way, so that it will return us to the Source instead of distancing us from it as it did during the exile.

During the exile our intentions were constantly directed at ourselves: how can we benefit by using the Torah in this world and in the future world? Now we need to change our intentions. Due to this we will change the influence of the Surrounding Light on us, and it will truly return us to the Source – directly to it, rather than through its reverse side.

Hence, now we need to primarily think about the intention with which we approach the studies. The more clarified, desirable, and precise our intention will be, the better we will organize ourselves in such a way that our prayer will become a “group prayer,” and we will all unite into one whole standing opposite to the single Source. The more we do this, the more we will advance.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, The Zohar

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “You Stand Today, All of You”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Lech-Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 106
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 22, Lesson 19
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