Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And There Was Evening And There Was Morning”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Lech-Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 96
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7, Item 8, Lesson 14
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Question: If Abraham and Lot are both within one person, how is one of them perfect and dwells in the abode of the Creator and the other stays with the wicked?
Answer: Can Abraham reach Elon Moreh (the place of union with the Creator, the state of Brit – adhesion with the Creator) without Lot? How will a person attain holiness (the property of bestowal) if he doesn’t have a Klipa (egoistic desire) in the first place?
It is written: “I have created the evil inclination and gave the Torah to correct it.” There is no holiness in the world. The Creator created Klipa or an evil, wicked intention. He did not create the good. He does not say: “I created the evil and the good inclination. Pick the good one.” On the contrary, He says: “You will do the good (by correcting the evil that I created). But it is I who created the evil.”
How will man reach Elon Moreh, the place of his first union with the Creator, if he has neither Lot nor Sodom? He will reach this state only after having made corrections. Therefore, Lot has to be close to Abraham until they separate. However, Lot returns numerous times. In this way, a person makes discernments.
Without discernments and corrections you have no holiness, the quality of bestowal. Holiness by itself does not exist – we build it. Let’s hope we will succeed!
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, The Zohar
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Question: Is it true that every time we read The Book of Zohar it precisely describes my spiritual state?
Answer: The spiritual states include everything just like a holographic image. Indeed, every spiritual state comprises the ten Sefirot. And whichever way you look at it, in every state you see yourself.
How is this possible? It is because all this is a single, universal state; it is only that we discern in it a gradation of qualities. There are not multiple states, but only one state: the first and the last state of adhesion. However, for us it is revealed in different perspectives, as though we are looking at the same picture from different visual angles. Therefore, I can see and recognize myself in every state that there is.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/10, The Zohar
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Question: What does it mean to strive toward unity and to try to “step out of myself” during our reading of The Book of Zohar? It sounds like fantasy. What am I supposed to visualize? What can I latch on to?
Answer: If I am sitting in a stuffy building and need fresh air, I open the door. Opening the door is all you need to do! When you open yourself outward, everything that is outside will enter you.
It is written: “You shall not bow down to a foreign god.” (Psalms, 81:9) If you do not want the Creator to be foreign to you (dwelling outside of you), bring Him in.
The entire Book of Zohar speaks about the Creator, as does the whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Above our world and everything else that exists is the Creator. There is nothing more to look for but the Creator. Beyond this world, there is Upper Light that is revealed to you in your corrected desires where you discover the properties of the Light.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, The Zohar
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Question: What should someone who is just beginning to study the wisdom of Kabbalah do when he is sitting in front of The Book of Zohar absolutely clueless about what is written in it?
Should he keep trying to hold intention for the entire 45 minutes of the lesson? It is so frustrating to sit in front of such an incredible book and get nothing out of it. What am I to do?
Answer: The only thing I need to get out of The Zohar is the force of bestowal, nothing else. If I have a minimal force of bestowal, I will start sensing The Zohar, my involvement with it, and the flow of text in it. I will start feeling how precious this book is to me. Gradually, through my reactions to its words, I will start feeling what it is talking about.
But all of this follows my desire above myself for the force of bestowal and my desire for an open heart. Only with such intentions should we open The Zohar. When you step “out of yourself” (out of your egoism), that is when The Zohar enters you.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, The Zohar
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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 32: “And I will make you a great nation”…“And I will bless you”…By retiring from the right line that is not mingled with the left, he was rewarded with illumination of the right that is mingled with the left…
Because he retired from the illumination of the left that is not mingled with the right, he was rewarded with the promise implied in the words, “And [I will] make your name great,” which is the illumination of the left that mingled with the Hassadim on the right.
…“And you will be a blessing,” which is the illumination of the middle line.
The advancement along three lines is like walking with two legs: on one side there is the force of bestowal (the right line), and on the other, the force of reception (the left line). One uses these two forces or lines to advance, “stepping” on one and then the other. However, the direction he moves in, which also determines how he activates these two forces of right and left, is called the middle line.
Therefore, the middle line is not some kind of third force. There is no third force! The middle line is the correct combination of the left and right lines. The correct combination ensures advancement, first via the governance of the quality of judgment, and then mercy, first good, and then evil. One triggers the revelation of the evil forces, which push man from behind. The other reveals the forces that draw and beckon him forward. Man advances with the help of these two forces. They are like two reigns through which one controls and advances himself. There is an entire science on how to use them.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is called the third line, the “golden path.” It is the method of the correct use of these two forces of nature: the force of reception and the force of bestowal, plus and minus. Our entire corporeal sciences also amount to the ability of using these two natural forces: from atomic energy, which too contains “plus” and “minus,” to molecules that join and divide on the basis of positive and negative valencies. Everything is comprised of two opposite forces.
Therefore, the correct study lies in learning how to take these two natural bases (the Light and the desire, the plus and the minus), to merge them into a single whole, and to assemble whole systems up to the infinite universe which includes everything. We have to learn so that the “mechanisms” we build through this unification, such as “engine,” “refrigerator,” “air conditioner,” and so on, all work in the best and optimal way.
Essentially, the entire wisdom boils down to extracting the maximum benefit from these two forces. And we stand in the middle between them, in the so-called “middle line.”
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, The Zohar
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A question I received: Can one person with a correct intention affect the entire group that reads The Zohar without any intention?
My Answer: When we read The Zohar together, we strive to unite. We gather in a group so that there are no difference between an advanced student and a beginner, a prominent one and not. Together in a group we are all equal.
Each of us may be in a certain state: one just started and doesn’t fully comprehend where he is, while another has studied The Zohar for some time and has already gained a certain picture from it. Yet both undergo different states. Perhaps today a person feels especially attuned and inspired, but there are times when he is unable to tune in at all, as if unconscious. It may be that yesterday there was great clarity, and today that person is unable to collect his thoughts.
Therefore, everything depends on the collective mass of those who study together, and how well, through a unified effort, they are able to feel that this mass contains everyone within itself. It turns out that those who have sharp clarity today help those who are now lifeless. Moreover, both benefit from each other.
As a matter of fact, the person now inspired lacks the force of egoistic desire (Aviut), but receives it from those currently in the dead state and vice versa. In this way, when there is great inspiration and Aviut at the same time, then together in unison we help each other to receive an opportunity for advancement. Thus, when we connect and bring both together, it works and brings good results. Conversely, if only those who are burning with inspiration came to study today while those who feel lifeless stayed in bed, we would gain nothing. We would not have a sufficient force of egoistic desire to advance.
Our strong desire attracts the Light that Reforms. We burn with the desire to receive it and it comes. So where does the Light enter? Where is your egoistic desire that it can influence? Yet when several “dead” friends sit next to you, the Light influences them and brings them back to life. And tomorrow you will switch places, and everything will reverse.
We do not fully comprehend the unique potential of a group. Without it, spiritual advancement is impossible.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, The Zohar
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Lech-Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 68
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 20, Lesson 17
A question I received: If everything is prepared ahead of time, then where does the participation of the creature come into play in this process? It seems that we receive everything from Above and that everything is predetermined….
My Answer: Of course! If I give my son a Lego toy to build or bring him baby food, both of which were created by factories and labs, weren’t they prepared ahead of time? Everything is prepared ahead of time, but at the same time, a child grows and becomes independent through these means that were already prepared. He tries to grow, and because of this, he matures and develops his own individuality based on everything that was prepared for him beforehand. This is the way we develop.
Therefore, we cannot do anything new here, as it is written, “We will eat what has long lay in store for us.” Everything occurs according to the Reshimot (spiritual informational genes), which are already instilled in us. However, we draw Lights so that these Reshimot will become revealed in us. We draw the Surrounding Light in order to understand what we need to do, and to perform clarifications.
We participate like partners in the Creator’s actions. Therefore, our work is called the work of the Creator. However, from this work, we learn to be similar to Him and advance from the stage of “conception” to “feeding” and then to “maturing.”
And then, at the stage of “returning through love,” we already carry out actions like the Creator. What does it mean “like the Creator?” The forces are His, and we merely discern what needs to be done and how. When we reach complete correction (Gmar Tikkun), it means that we have revealed all the actions of the Creator above us as active partners in these actions and we desire their execution. That is it and no more.
And after the end of correction, when I become similar to the Creator in all aspects, it is possible that there exist other actions, which I carry out to a greater extent on my own, independent of the Upper Force. However, we have no understanding of this. The science of Kabbalah does not tell us about further stages.
Therefore, it is written that we correct ourselves. Through every action that is carried out, I correct myself, meaning I agree, desire, and merge with that same action with all of my heart. In this manner we achieve final correction.
[19712]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, The Zohar
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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 22: Therefore, when Abraham… came and received the illumination of the left line, …he immediately fell under Nimrod’s rule. He, in turn, threw him into the furnace, which extends from the power of the illumination of Shuruk.This is when the Creator helped him extend the illumination of the middle line over the Masach de Hirik, which decides and makes peace between the two lines—right and left.
Salvation always lies in the middle line, the screen of Hirik (Masach de Hirik). Two forces – the left and right lines, the force of bestowal and the force of reception – must surface within us; with their help, we are being governed from Above. Similar to how these two forces descend from one upper root, so must we unify them in the middle line.
For this purpose, we are given the Wisdom of Kabbalah, a method that allows us to understand how to unify the two lines and remain in the middle one. However, in order to attain this wisdom, this knowledge, we need a group, studying, and dissemination. All these means help us visualize the correct state, desire it, and ask the Creator to grant it.
Obviously, this wisdom and understanding how to arrange these two forces in order to reconcile them in the middle line also come from Above. It is written: “Who makes peace in His heaven, makes peace within us.” “Who makes peace in His heaven” means the place from where the two lines derive. There too, the Creator extracts them from the middle line – Himself, Zeir Anpin in relation to us. Thus, the two lines descend down to us, to Malchut and all the souls residing within her.
“Makes peace within us” means that from Above, we are given the knowledge of how we have to arrange ourselves. And once we do, the middle line descends and enters us. This is our salvation that was given to Abraham as well.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, The Zohar
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