“Exile” is a state in which a person lacks an anti-egoistic screen and has no contact with the Light. A person is unable to correct himself and perform the act of sacrificing.

“Sacrifice” stands for a corrected desire. Time after time, a person has to take a part of his desire of the still, vegetative, or animate level and elevate it to the speaking level. But while in exile, a person has no strength to correct any of his desires. This is because he is totally deprived of spiritual powers until the Surrounding Light reaches him and leads him out of his state.

Getting out of exile and obtaining the power to withstand a desire, to rise above it and work for the sake of bestowal, means that a person has reached the “desert” (a state in which desires are still small like in a desert) or that he has arrived at the “land of Israel” (a state of higher desires and work on a higher level). Where a person arrives after he gets out of exile is solely dependent upon the size of the desire that he is able to overcome and rise above in order to work with for the sake of bestowal.

After 40 years of its correction and redirection towards bestowal, the desire that previously was a “desert,” turns into a desire that is called the “land of Israel.” It means that the desire becomes suitable to work with for the sake of bestowal.

So far we don’t have the power to correct, and therefore, we stay “away from the land of Israel” (land – “Eretz” is derived from the world “Ratzon” – desire). We don’t have the power to work with our desires for the sake of bestowal; we only imagine what “correct spiritual work” is.  It signifies that instead of sacrificing we pray. We replace the real work with our desires by our request to be granted a power to perform real correction.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Should the work on the intention during The Zohar study begin during the day, long before the lesson?

My Answer: One should work on the intention all the time. The world is arranged in such a way that we are in contact with the group and the studies only for a brief interval of time.

Thousands of people from around the world are watching the lesson right now. Many are listening to simultaneous translations. There are those who can barely even understand the translation, since it’s available only in the main languages. However, it makes no difference for their spiritual advancement. With regard to The Zohar, we all are in an equal position. We come to the lesson like to a gas station. We fill ourselves with the Light and then live in it during the remaining hours.

Our world is purposely arranged in such a way that we work for one third of our lives, sleep for the other third of it, and waste another third on various nonsense. Only an hour or two remain, which we tear away from our sleep and use it to study.

However, when we begin to study, we need to understand that our whole life is arranged correctly, and we shouldn’t work just for the lack of a better choice. The Creator purposely organized this process for us. If we come to the lesson even for an hour, this should be enough to remain in adhesion with the goal for the twenty-three remaining hours and to prepare our desires for that one hour of study.

More than 2000 years ago in the Negev desert there lived a person by the name of Bar Bi Yoma (a student for one day). He was a peasant who worked in the fields. When his work was done for the season and he could leave his home, he walked to Jerusalem. After the journey to Jerusalem, he would have only one day available to study the Torah; the next day he would hurry back home to work.

In honor of this person, there is a custom today for everyone to study for one day out of the year. Back then sages said that his studying for one day was equal in value to continuous study over the course of a year because he would aspire to this day throughout the whole year.

Therefore, if we await this one hour of the lesson for the twenty-three remaining hours of a day, all 24 hours are counted in our favor. This shows us how many hours are necessary to prepare the desire for one hour of studying.

Thus everything depends on preparation. We should spend all the other hours preparing ourselves for one hour of the Zohar lesson.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Study 4/23/10, The Zohar

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #235 “Looking at the Book Again”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Korah,” Item 44
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 108, Lesson 35
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Lesson 3
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A question I received: What game is the Creator playing with us and what is its purpose?

My Answer: As it is written, all of creation is a game. The Creator made the universe and man in it so that through the correct connection with the surrounding universe we would develop and reach similarity with the One (Creator) who created them both. This is called a game because in developing we grow and rise to a higher level of development rather than just simply accumulating knowledge.

We all have to rise to the first spiritual degree. We don’t see it. It’s like in a game: We play and we don’t know what is happening. The outcome of the game is unknown.

The same process is occurring in the development of plants and animals. Everything develops in the form of a game. A game means that one exists on a certain degree, but he cannot discern the next one. However, one makes all possible efforts in order to attain it.

Children, too, play all the time, and through their games they suddenly become smarter and begin to talk and understand. They don’t study a language or science the way we do. They absorb the surrounding world with their desire to understand it.

This is the same for us in relation to the spiritual world. We only need the desire to sense it, and after feeling it, we have to understand and perceive it within ourselves. Suddenly, the spiritual world manifests within us – and we feel it. After all, we are a vessel of sensation, a desire. The understanding and intellect follow the desire.
[13112]
From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/21/10

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Shamati #16: “What Is the Day of the Lord and the Night of the Lord in the Work”

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #221 “Multiple Authorities”
If revealing eternity in which I exist is truly important to me, then this importance will determine each moment of my life.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Korah,” Item 20
The Creator is unalterably perfect.  We assign changes to Him so that we’d have the opportunity to change ourselves and acquire similarly to perfection.
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 99, Lesson 34
In Klipa Noga, the good is combined with evil, which becomes the basis for spiritual work.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Lesson 2
False connections between people are doomed for failure. We only unite in our aspiration toward the Light which will truly correct us.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Korah,” Item 1
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A question I received: How does my point of view actually change when I come out of egoistic self-love and see the world through the desires of others? Will I see a different room, a different glass on the table in front of me, and will I see all these people differently?

My Answer: An animal will always remain an animal, and that pertains to every one of us. You always remain inside the point of your “self”; however, when you attain spirituality, you add a completely different sense (vessel or Kli) to that point – the desires of other people.

The Creator created a desire consisting of ten parts or Sefirot, called HaVaYaH. Right now you only feel the lowest layer of this desire, a black point. As you are born, live, and die, you return to the same ten Sefirot of your egoism, which is the sensation of this world. This continues from one generation to the next, from one life cycle to the next (or from one Partzuf to the next), each time going through the same states: embryo, feeding, and maturation (or from one Partzuf to the next), and then once again: embryo, feeding, maturation, and so on.

How can you feel the world in a different way, not just from within the black point, but through the desires of other people who are outside of you? When this happens, your “I” still remains, and your world won’t change. If you were to disappear, then in relation to what would you feel others? You have to feel others opposite of you, and see them as opposite and hateful to you. Moreover, this feeling has to keep growing.

An example of this is the group of Rabbi Shimon: They revealed the greatest possible hatred among themsleves. But above it, they built love and thus attained the revelation of the Light of The Zohar. When you have great hatred inside and great love above it, this provides the necessary contrast in which the Light of Hochma, the Light of Attainment, shines. There is enormous egoism inside, and above it there is a screen. That is the only way to reveal a great Light.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, “Matan Torah”

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I can desire correction for bestowal only if the environment supports me in this. The desire to bestow manifests and acts only in my connection with the others, and thus I need their assistance in the form of “mutual guarantee.” To the extent that I support them, they support me. This is a system. To the extent that I activate it, I receive from it.

By desiring to join the group and connect with the others, I trigger a counter-reaction toward me. The others pass me the correct forms of our connection without even being aware of it. Since we exist in a network, they show me the type of connection we have.

This connection is not simply a desire to bestow; rather, it is a guarantee that cements our connection. This results in response to my request. Then, I turn to them with my prepared vessel (Kli), with a prepared system of connections that consists of 613 (Taryag) elements. Without knowing it, I activate the whole system. Thus by connecting with each other we revive the whole system among us.

Mutual guarantee is a very deep concept. It refers to life and the activation of the inner system of connection between us. We only need to retrieve it from within and start using it.

Otherwise, I can scream about my desire to be connected with the others, but how can I know how to do it? Do I understand how to connect with each person and with everybody all together? It is because I awaken them that they begin to influence me and pass to me the forms of our connection. They may be aware of it; it’s not important. We nevertheless activate this system of connections.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: The authors of The Zohar wrote the book for our generation. I just started my spiritual path. Why do they so scrupulously describe such high degrees? What meaning can I derive from these commentaries for myself?

My Answer: The degrees and the states described in The Zohar are in fact the states of the World of Atzilut. These states bear a relationship to every degree, even the lowest, when a person is merely reading this book without understanding any of it.

It is not important exactly what we read about in The Zohar. A person who opens this book for the first time can read about the most remote systems of the spiritual world. Most importantly, a person’s desire connects him with the Upper Root. From there, he needs to attract the Light upon himself and let this Light elevate him to its Source.

That’s why Baal HaSulam didn’t confine himself to only one book on Kabbalah that one could read and refer to over and over again. Rather, he wrote two thousand pages of Talmud Eser Sefirot to describe the Upper Roots and convey all that’s necessary for our ascent.

However, it doesn’t mean that a person needs to read all the books. By being connected with the text, he awakens the influence of his Upper Roots upon him. Hence, it’s worth reading any text regardless of whether we understand it or not.

In the course of preparing The Zohar for All for publication, we present the whole Zohar except for the parts that describe the research and comparison of sources. We do so because this can be of interest only to researchers, but not to those who strive to attain similarity to the Creator.

Our primary concern is to help people “enter” spirituality, to reveal the Upper Light, and to establish contact with the Creator. This is the reason we prepare The Zohar in a slightly simplified version, but nonetheless, a version certainly sufficient to allow one to enter spirituality.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, The Zohar

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #78 “The Torah, the Creator, and Israel Are One”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “BaHar(On Mount Sinai),” Item 65
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 94, Lesson 33
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Lesson 1
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