A question I received: The whole nation existed in spiritual attainment during the First and the Second Temples. Why wasn’t it possible to go through the destruction of the Temples only in spirituality and to reach the Third Temple without the material manifestation of destruction?

My Answer: All descents and ascents of the souls have to be reflected on the lowest inanimate level – our world. Up until the end of correction, ups and downs of the souls have to go through all layers of the desire to receive, through its entire depth, ending in this material world.

Therefore, we have no possibility to escape events that occur in this world, meaning in our egoistic desire which we feel as “this world.” Our big or not so big successes in the spiritual world, in our relations with the Creator, will always be felt as events happening in this world.

It is impossible to separate occurrences in the spiritual and material worlds because they are the same. A desire to receive with its different layers of Aviut (coarseness) covers the entire depth from this world to the World of Infinity.

A person who is at the bottom of the spiritual ladder raises his MAN to the World of Infinity. Thereby he determines the Light which descends from the uppermost level through all layers (worlds) of the desire to receive pleasure to his rung and further below. When a person exists somewhere in the middle of the spiritual ladder, the entirety of the Aviut of the desire below him is included in his MAN. Then the Light that comes as a response to the prayer goes through a person and spreads out further below to the very end. This is why every person has an impact on the entire thickness of Malchut of the World of Infinity.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled),” Item 432: And now that Divinity needs correction, to bond with her husband, ZA, that redemption of Egypt must be shown to contain four redemptions. And with the awakening of the Mochin of the exodus from Egypt, she is corrected to bond with her husband because she has become liberated from all four Malchuts.

Shechina (Divinity) must go through four exiles which will be followed by the final redemption, the exodus out of the final exile. Malchut comprises four layers of the desire to receive pleasure. Thus, each time she must reveal a greater egoistic desire and exit out of it, meaning to use it for the sake of giving; and then once more reveal an even greater desire to receive pleasure, and again correct it with the intention to give. And so on four times over according to the structure of Malchut of Infinity. In so doing, we will conclude her correction, and she will be completely corrected.

Presently we stand on the threshold of the final redemption. The greatest desire to receive pleasure, which is being revealed today in the souls, must be corrected with the intention to give. And then there will be no more exiles.

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

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A question I received: If there is no time in spirituality, then why is it written that correction occurs over a period of six thousand years?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam explains the meaning of “6,000 years” in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” as well as other articles. “6,000 years” are the VAK of Zeir Anpin, which need to be realized in relation to Malchut.

When Malchut, the seventh Sefira, reveals all these six qualities, called “6,000 years,” inside itself, it is called the “seventh day,” “Sabbath,” or the “seventh millennium.” Only then Malchut becomes filled for the sake of bestowal.

Therefore, these qualities are called “6,000 years.” Year (Shana) comes from the word “to change” (Shone). We need to experience these degrees one after the other. On one hand, we’re not talking about years in our world. On the other, if we don’t hasten time, then in accordance with the connection of root and branch, the perception of time in our world will comply with its root and the process of correction will actually end in six thousand years.

However, we can change the length and the essence of six thousand years; we can shorten and compress them. Nevertheless, they’ll be called “6,000 years” because we do not cut off degrees, yet according to corporeal time, it will be less.

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

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The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 247: Sixty is Malchut, the mighty ones above, from the side of Gevura that cling to carvings, meaning to the externality of the holy Haya of Israel, which is Malchut. This is why they are named after her, sixty queens [Malchuts]. Those are angels appointed over the nations. Eighty maidservants are the angels appointed by the carvings of Malchut, beneath the sixty queens. This is why they are called maidservants and not queens. And there is no number to the maidens….

Everything that we read in The Zohar transpires within desire. There is nothing else but desire. We are reading about its inner phenomena, changes, and various relationships between its parts.

It is a great device, collectively called Malchut, which needs to change, each time bringing itself to greater equivalence to the Light. Therefore, all the names and terms written in The Zohar exist within Malchut, within our desires, in their various interrelationships.

Hence, we need only think of how to draw the Light to the desire described by The Zohar. Though we don’t understand specifically which qualities or changes are being depicted, or anything that’s going on there, still we await redemption: for the Light to influence this desire, for us to understand and sense the desire and the Light that fills it, and to feel them together. Indeed, it is impossible to feel one without the other, but only if there is contact between them, even to the very first, minimal measure.

That is what we are waiting for. And all the words and letters that we read in The Book exist only in this desire – in our soul.

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The process of correction happens in ups and downs. First, Malchut rises to Bina and gets included into it, in this way Bina gets to know what Malchut wants. After it attains Bina, Malchut takes Bina’s strength and then descends. At this point, Bina already carries part of Malchut.

Altogether, there are four parts: pure Bina, pure Malchut, Malchut’s insertion into Bina, and Bina’s insertion into Malchut. Their inclusion into each other creates something that is called “love.” Now, since Malchut and Bina acquire each other’s qualities and start to understand one another, the process of correction becomes possible. Not only does Malchut join Bina and learn from it, thereby correcting Galgalta ve Eynaim’s bestowing desires, but also it is enabled to use the power that it acquired from Bina to descend back to its original place and correct its AHP (Awzen, Hotem, and Peh). These repetitive swings up and down complete the correction process step by step, each time proceeding to a new level.

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statutes),” Item 24: …This is so because justice is neither corrected nor completed but in righteousness, as it is written, “In righteousness shall you be established.” This is said to the assembly of Israel, Malchut, which is completed only in righteousness, as it is written, “And do them,” which is done by the awakening of the lower one.

What do MAN, appeal, tears, charity, “gates of tears,” and prayer mean? It all means that I want to become like the Creator. It is only under the condition that being like the Creator is the only thing I ask for, that I will awaken Zeir Anpin, so that He influences Malchut.

Only when the lower wants to become like the Upper, can the Upper influence him and lift him to the next degree giving him strength and understanding of what it means to be the Upper. After all, what else can the Upper give? The Creator only has perfection, and He can only pass the degrees of this perfection to us, gradually and according to the state that we are in.

This is why we have nothing to ask of the Creator except for the opportunity to gradually become like Him, where every time our qualities become equal to a greater degree. He has nothing to give us besides our correction. We would really like to become like Him; this is our connection with the Creator.

Therefore, this is why all the other cries and tears that we shed in this world do not lead to anything. Looking back at history we can see that it does not help. The only thing that works immediately is when I attain the “switching point.” Beginning with this point, which is that I want to be like the Creator, when I determine precisely who He is, what He represents, what I lack, what I really need to strive to, and when I make my desire into a desire like the one He has – this is what is called the beggar’s prayer, tears, the gates of tears and charity.

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Kabbalists who lived before the author of The Book of Zohar Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) performed corrections in the common system of souls on a higher level. Rashbi’s system is connected to us directly, and for this reason we treat The Book of Zohar as our primary source. By carrying out corrections in the system of broken souls, Kabbalists created special connections in it, preparations for a general correction. They revive this system, bringing Light to it through the channels of connection that they have established within.

Therefore, we can now rise and correct ourselves within this system. By correcting itself, a soul not only changes itself; it also brings about its corrections into all the other souls. Yet, there are certain souls, like the soul of Rashbi, which play a principal role in correction: They complete a specific stage and prepare the foundation for all the corrections that follow.

It seems to us that a corrected soul is some isolated part of the system. However, this is incorrect. The whole system of souls is integral, like a holographic picture, each part contains the whole picture. On the other hand, every part is present in the whole picture as well as in each of its parts. I am part of the system of souls, the whole system is within me, and I am also included in each part of the system.

The soul is not a unit of the whole – it is “dispersed” into the whole system of creation. It penetrates the entire Malchut of the World of Infinity, with its qualities. This holds true for every one of us. When each person supplements everyone else, we get one large sphere of souls, where the system of Rashbi acts in providing correction for it. It is through this system that we receive the Light that corrects and fulfills us.

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To be fulfilled by the Light of Infinity depends only on our connection. It is for this reason that before we begin to read The Zohar, we must imagine connecting our points in the heart in our desire to unite into one soul and merge with the Creator, the One. And in doing so, then the only thing remaining will be: He and His Name as a single whole. We do not see physical bodies, only individual aspiration towards the Creator which binds us into a single desire. If we were to unite this way, we would discover the Light of the World of Infinity amongst us.

The tighter we come together in our connection, the higher we ascend in the spiritual world. This is because there is no top or bottom there. These words only represent our attitude towards the value of bestowal.

We now need to discover that everything happens in this one common desire and that there is nothing other than it. The only thing that exists is Malchut of the World of Infinity which divides into worlds, Sefirot, Partzufim, and different states. But all these things are located in the same place, the same desire. The Zohar is only concerned with revealing this desire, while we wish to connect to it and to imagine what happens within it.

Connecting to the desires of others does not mean that I am connected to these people with binding strings. Rather, I incorporate and embrace their desires as my own, and I then become the entire Malchut of the World of Infinity.

It’s like a mother who receives her child’s desires while he is physically inside her until he is born. This perception of your neighbors’ desires as your own, where you internally don’t differentiate between yours and theirs is called “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

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A question I received: What inner transformations should I expect during the The Zohar study, and how can I open myself to the influence of the Light more?

My Answer: The best way to test how The Zohar acts upon us is to examine our readiness to unite with everybody to be in Malchut of the World of Atzilut together. This is the condition for attaining the Light that Reforms.

The condition for the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai is becoming one man with one heart. The condition for being in spirituality is being like brothers who are sitting together. “Sitting” means that a person annuls himself, that he is ready to be together with everybody. People standing differ in height; people while sitting are all equal.

Therefore, if after studying The Zohar for a few weeks or months a person feels that his attitude toward the connection with others is changing; if he feels that he is willing to listen more, that a certain inclination to unite appears in him; if he reveals the importance of unification, begins to sense that everything really works this way, and he is ready to accept it, this is the sign of advancement, an indication that the Light is acting upon him.

Spiritual progress is determined only according to one’s willingness to unite with other souls. This is the test. Everything else bears no relationship with the science of Kabbalah, with the advancement toward the goal.

The goal is attained in uniting. The difference between us and the World of Infinity is that in the latter, we are totally, unlimitedly connected together. All the stages on the path to Infinity are defined by our connecting with each other more and more. This means that there are 125 degrees of connection, which are increasingly compressed and adjoining.

Therefore, a person can determine his advancement only by his readiness to unite with others. All other tests are completely wrong; everything else can occur in the egoistic properties as well.

Our movement toward spirituality is also egoistic. We aspire to attain spirituality, to unite with the others in order to reach the goal. However, this happens in the intention Lo Lishma (not for bestowal). We already understand that we have to let go of our ego in order to deserve something more exalted. For the time being, egoism still motivates us, yet it already acts toward the goal.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 201: “And the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to the God who gave it.” When the Creator created Adam, He took his dust from the place of the Temple and built his body from the four directions of the world. And each of them gave him strength. Afterwards, He poured over him the spirit of life, as it is written, “And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Then he rose and knew that he consisted of above and below, and then he adhered to the Creator and knew the upper wisdom [Hochma].

The four spirits of the world are Hochma, Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut. They are called the four corners of the world, and they are also divided into the right and the left lines: Hochma and Bina; Tifferet is the middle line with Yesod at the end of it, followed by the place of adhesion with Malchut. This is how everything is divided into the right side, left side, and the middle, and the top and the bottom. Such is the structure of our soul, within which we reveal reality.

Even now we reveal our reality within our soul, but we call it our body only because this soul is small, uncorrected, and acts egoistically for the sake of receiving pleasure for itself. But in reality it is the same structure, the same desire, since the Creator only created one desire and not several. However, it is merely revealed to us to a very small extent, in a very uncorrected, tiny form. What we perceive within it is called “this world.” We must reveal this desire, make it bigger, change it slightly, and make it similar to the Light. Then, in it, we will perceive the soul or life in the future world.

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