Shamati #108 “If You Leave Me One Day, I Will Leave You Two”
One’s activities in the corporeal world have nothing to do with correction. Kabbalah only talks about desires that are aimed at the Light, not at the corporeal world.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 378
The Book of Zohar is the most powerful source of Light. We demand this Light only so that it would unite us and reveal the Upper World within our interconnection.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 67
In order to experience spiritual pleasure one has to be hungry and full simultaneously.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Article 21 “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence ”
A person has to know the world in which he exists. Without knowing what surrounds me and what influences me, I won’t be able to know myself.
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When we read The Book of Zohar, we need to remember that we exist in two states simultaneously:

1. the true state which we do not feel, and

2. our imaginary world, where we exist in imaginary pictures without any awareness of the true world.

As we read The Book of Zohar, we exert effort in order to rouse the influence of forces from the perfect state. These forces influence us to the extent that we exert the effort to become similar to this state in the relationships between us.

Therefore, the relationship that we need to create in the group should be of “one man with one heart,” like in the perfect state. This is possible only by drawing the same forces.

As we return from the “foggy” state to the corrected one, we do not lose our present state; the contrast between them reveals to us the perfection of the state created by the Creator 620 times greater than when we were situated there prior to descending to our world.

We return to this state of a human being who is equal to the Creator. Therefore, we need to feel the World of Infinity from our world in particular, as it is written: “We will eat what has long been laid in store for us” and “Darkness will shine like Light.”

We need to reach complete correction in this world to attain the same kind of relationship between us here as in the World of Infinity, which is filled with love. Therefore, we must perform exercises of “love your neighbor as yourself,” “as one man with one heart,” in the connection between us. Then, the Light of Infinity, the Creator, will be revealed in us here, as it is written: “His desire is to be revealed in the lower ones."

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

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When I turn to The Zohar and begin to read, what am I coming with, what am I bringing in my hands for correction? I am bringing big piles of fragments and broken bonds with the other souls. To the extent I regret that they are broken, I can transfer to The Zohar my desire and my need for unity.

Herein lies our only free will: to increase this desire for unity in one another. None of us feel the need to do this, but by connecting to the group and the environment, I begin to desire what I have never desired before, something I couldn’t possibly come to desire on my own. I begin to feel the need to unite with others, and to ask for this unity.

Therefore, each time before we begin to read The Zohar, we must tune ourselves to feel the values of the group, to come under its influence, to “buy a friend,” to lower oneself before the group so that every individual and the group as a whole will be inspired by the need to unite, and will demand correction, which is the restoration of broken bonds.

With this desire, we will draw the Light of Correction. The Light will not come without a reason. We must know precisely what we want; otherwise it will be hypocrisy and not a prayer.

If we come together to reveal this singular desire for the correction prepared for us by the Creator, we will pray for the correction of the shattering. This plea will be answered from Above, and the bonds between us will be mended. Then, together, we will reveal everything The Zohar wishes to reveal to us.

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

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And the Children Racketed Within Her”
The sensation of emptiness depends upon what one is lacking and not on what he has.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 351
The degree of one’s accent intensifies the conflict between the two lines. One can only combine them in the middle line through “faith above reason”.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7, Item 5, Lesson 6
The breaking and mixing of the qualities of Malchut and Bina occurred before the appearance of our world. Now we are “sorting out the effect” in order to make a decision.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 13, Lesson 11
The spiritual world resonated within me; I have to acquire its qualities, tune the strings of bestowal, which will touch upon and reveal to me the Light and its Source.
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It is written that it is prohibited to study the Torah without intention because thereby one doesn’t draw the Light that Reforms and immediately turns the “potion of life” into the “potion of death.” This point of choice is our only choice in life. Hence, when dealing with The Book of Zohar, the only weapon against evil or egoism, we should try to use it correctly.

Obviously, we can’t push the “red button” that would lead the world to harmful irreversible results, but we might step into the states of suffering, which had already happened in the past (see “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Items 70, 71). This is why before reading The Zohar, a person should review a supply of Kabbalistic aphorisms, adages which impress him, which help him to start awakening from the animate level (desire for oneself) to the human level (aspiration toward unity, bestowal, and love).

The human level amounts to the desire to unite with the others. The corrected system of souls is called “Adam” (man). As soon as this system breaks and crumbles into multiple pieces, each of them turns into its solely animate part. The human level (equivalence to the Creator, “Adam” comes from “similar to the Creator”) appears in us only when the broken parts (souls) begin to unite and experience a unified desire.

It turns out that the souls live not within themselves but in the connection among them. It is called life “above reason,” that is, in the relationships among the souls, in mutual bestowal. The sum total of these relationships of bestowal is the Creator who connects us. This unifying force that is dawning in the distance is called “The Surrounding Light.”

Thus, the Creator is the force that actually unifies us, and the Surrounding Light is its manifestation from afar. There is nothing but the Light and the desire (Kli). We assign various names to them, but ultimately, there are only these two forces.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/10, The Zohar

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “The Life of Sarah”
We achieve independence when we become one with the Upper One.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 331
My “I” is my soul; a desire that builds a correct spiritual connection.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7, Item 15, Lesson 5
The breaking of the Kelim is a turning point in humanity’s development. Everything that happened prior to it constitutes the preparation period, and everything after it is the period of correction.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 12, Lesson 10
No matter what I’m going through, above all my states, I want to maintain a maximum connection with the quality of bestowal. This constitutes working in the middle line.
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While reading The Book of Zohar, the most important thing is to think about the connection between us in order to become “as one man with one heart.” The Light that Reforms is nearby and everything depends on our efforts to unite with one another in the system of Adam HaRishon.

This Light influences precisely the broken connections among us. If we try to unite and are unable to, then the Light unites us. It says in Item 155 of the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that a person is influenced by the Surrounding Light to the extent he aspires to know what he studies. What does it mean “to know what you study”? It does not mean to acquire knowledge, as in our world.

In spirituality everything is attained through connection. Therefore, “to know” means to connect, as it is written, “And Adam knew Eve.” Therefore, the more we aspire to connect with one another through the desire for bestowal and love, the more we awaken the Surrounding Light and then the Light of Wisdom (Ohr Hochma). This Light appears and operates only in the place where we desire to unite but are unable to.

Therefore, there is no sense trying to study The Book of Zohar as a science or wisdom since we don’t understand its language or what it is talking about. To understand it, we have to be in the same world.

Therefore, we have to try to unite with one another. Then the Surrounding Light will come precisely into the places where we lack a connection among us. The Light will unite us with each other, and through the restored connections we will feel the quality of bestowal, the Creator, the Light of Hassadim, and then inside it we will reveal the Light of Hochma.

Therefore, our entire study must be preceded by the desire to unite with each other, and we should not forget about this while studying The Zohar. Baal HaSulam writes the following in Item 17 of  the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“: “Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith,” meaning in the quality of bestowal, which he desires to attain as a result of the study, so it becomes his life.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/10, The Zohar

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And the Lord Appeared Unto Him by the Oaks of Mamre”
Each person will have to go through all the stages described in the Torah.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 312
The Kabbalistic books do not talk about our current state. They talk about how we can prepare ourselves for receiving the Light that will correct us.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7, Item 9, Lesson 4
The Lights that continue to change within us creates a sense of time, when in reality time as such does not exist.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 10, Lesson 9
We are confused; we’re trying to put together the pieces of a broken puzzle. We don’t know whether to follow the laws of our nature or rise above them.
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Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot, Item 3: This sensing force in the Animate is very limited in time and space, since the sensation does not operate at even the shortest distance outside its body. Also, it does not feel anything outside its own time, meaning in the past or in the future, but only at the present moment.

Atop them is the Speaking, consisting of an emotional force and an intellectual force together. For this reason, its power is unlimited by time and space… .

This is so because of its science, which is a spiritual matter, unlimited by time and place. One can teach others wherever they are in the whole of reality, and in the past and the future throughout the generations.

In reading these books, we are amazed by the immense wisdom of the Kabbalists who wrote them. They can write thousands of stories for us about the spiritual world since this world is open for them. They simply tell us what they see.

A Kabbalist sees the world from stem to stern; he sees all of its inner forces and connections. He takes some section of it and begins to explain it to us. Every one of his descriptions reflects unimaginable wisdom and is an amazing discovery for us. We are amazed at how he could know about these things. However, he doesn’t require special intelligence for this; he simply sees this picture in front of him because he has changed his nature.

Therefore, if we think that we will be able to attain what is written by using our brains, by systematically arranging everything in our minds, this is a big mistake. This will not help us. We need to rise to a spiritual level, and then what Kabbalists talk about will become a part of our lives. We will understand naturally that things are just as the Kabbalists described and they cannot be otherwise.

We read the articles and books in order to draw the Light that Reforms. And when we return to the Source, all these concepts will “enter” into us and become obvious for us. They will occur within our spiritual body.

Thus, we shouldn’t despair that we can’t grasp all this material with our minds. We need to desire inner change so that all this becomes our own nature and then no words will be required! Just like it is natural to me to see rocks, plants, animals, and people around me, I will see all of spiritual reality just as clearly. When the spiritual world will be revealed to me, it will cease to be a “science” for me; it will just become my life.

Don’t worry, no one will test us on this knowledge and demand us to memorize it. This will not help anyway. Let nothing remain in our heads from what we read; holding one intention is all that matters. The rest is not important, even if I forget what I had learned one second before. It is essential to never forget about the goal and the right attitude to the studies.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/10, Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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The Creator created only one state called the “World of Infinity.” All the changes taking place occur solely within us, and although we exist in the World of Infinity, we perceive only ourselves.

Once, in my perception, I was unified with all the souls and perceived the World of Infinity as boundlessness, eternity, and perfection. Then, my condition and perception changed, and I started to feel that I exist in a dark, defected world full of pain, problems, disorder, pressure, and restrictions. I felt worse and worse until I reached the lowest degree where I found myself in this world, the surrounding reality, together with other people similar to me.

All of this happened exclusively within me, in my subjective perception of reality. Outside of me nothing changed. It is as if by removing my glasses, I see nothing outside of me, but as soon as I put them back on, I begin to perceive another world. This is how our properties changed from the degree of the World of Infinity to the degree where we perceive only our world that has nothing of the World of Infinity.

However, we can return to the state called “the World of Infinity” where all exists in the ultimate harmony, eternity, and perfection, and where the Light, that is, “Good that Does Good,” dwells. How can we achieve it? We have to attain the perception of this state by awakening it in ourselves. The World of Infinity is hidden within us behind numerous layers of concealment. Gradually, by moving from a greater to a lesser concealment, we discover the World of Infinity.

The stages we undergo while coming back to awareness of Infinity are called the worlds or concealments ("world" — "Olam" comes from concealment — "Olama").  Eventually, the concealment disappears and we rise above it. This is what it means to ascend the degrees of the spiritual ladder, the degrees of the worlds, and to rise above the concealment to perceiving increasingly more.

How do we do that? We evoke a state called the “World of Infinity” by reading The Zohar together. This Book describes our connection with the World of Infinity, and it arouses that desire within us.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, The Zohar

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