A question I received: What are the signs that my point in the heart is developing?

My Answer: If your point in the heart is developing, then with each passing day you gain a greater understanding of the fact that your connection with others is the vessel for revealing the Light. And you are always inside this vessel.

When someone says the word “spirituality,” you immediately envision a picture of your connection with the other souls, in which the Creator is revealed. This image of the Creator – a completely giving Kli – is always standing before your eyes. After all, Malchut is called an image of the Creator.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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The following discourse took place while we were reading the “Preface to the Sulam Commentary” at the Daily Kabbalah Lesson:

I am a black dot in an ocean of Upper Light. My entire existence is connected to this Light, and I assess myself with respect to it. I discover that He is good and bestowing with respect to me. Conversely, I am the receiver who wants to devour and use Him. I learn that our two natures, that of the Creator and the creature, are polar opposites. And when I compare myself to Him, I discover that there is an abyss separating us, because everything that exists in Him exists in me in the opposite form, like an imprint of a seal. And I am overtaken by shame! He is bestowing and full of love, while I am receiving and full of hatred…

This shame is unlike anything I have ever felt before – and it is the true creature. I have never sensed such a profound awareness of myself. I begin to regard His bestowal as good, and my reception as evil. But where is this measuring scale coming from? It didn’t exist in the Light! This is the true creature. It feels independent and separate from the Giver, and therefore, it realizes that it is opposite to Him.

This goes on until the creation comes to feel that it can no longer remain in this state; it cannot justify itself, and for this reason, it performs a restriction and expels the Light from itself.

This is Malchut of the World of Infinity, which suffers because it cannot be like the Creator – it cannot love like He does. That is why all the development following the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) ultimately brings us to love – to the same attitude as the Creator has for us. Everything stems from the action of the First Restriction, so much so that the decision to perform the restriction drives the whole universe and leads to its final correction.

Therefore, the sensation of shame was that “Big Bang” from which the whole universe had come into existence and traversed its entire path, down to our world and back up above.
The driving force of this development, causing reality to unfold from above downward and from below upward, is that very sensation of shame that was felt by Malchut of the World of Infinity. There is nothing else. It is like the Big Bang from which the universe was created and continues to expand evermore to this day.

All this transpires in the Malchut of the World of Infinity, which contains all nine preceding Sefirot.

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A question I received: The “Preface to the Sulam Commentary” describes a system that is external in relation to man. So how am I supposed to envision that this system is related to me and is inside me?

My Answer: There is no soul inside my animate body. My body does not contain the ten Sefirot of the soul. I only have an initial point, and I have to build the ten Sefirot from it. This point originated from inside my egoistic desires. When I make a connection with the other points in the heart using my egoism, then my ego gives me the material, the desires, and the connection to other people, and this will create the structure of the ten Sefirot inside me.

I will then become the point of Malchut, the tenth Sefira, and my first nine Sefirot will be comprised of my attitude to other people. All the other souls, everything I see in front of me, the entire world, and everything around me are my nine Sefirot (Tet Rishonot). When I connect them to myself with love, with the understanding that we are all one whole, then I rise above my egoism, and if I am able to rise above my Malchut in order to bestow, then I will connect these external qualities of bestowal to myself.

That is when my soul, the complete Partzuf made of ten Sefirot will appear within me. And that is exactly where I will reveal the Creator: inside the desires that I have acquired through bestowal to others.

Everything around me is the structure of my own soul. But after the soul’s breaking and fall into egoism, I started desiring to use these other parts of me egoistically, to receive everything they have. Now I have to go back to bestowing to them. I have to reconnect them to myself through love, and that is how I will reveal the Light of my soul—inside them.

I can never reveal the Light inside myself, in Malchut, because the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) cannot be revoked. This is why everything depends on me coming out of myself and connecting to the other souls, by feeling their desires as my own. Inside this common desire, I will reveal the Creator.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on the “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”)

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In the News (from MailOnline): “Why richer mothers have more sons and poorer women can expect girls” Wealthier mothers tend to have more sons while hard-up women produce more daughters, a study claims. According to evolutionary theory, when conditions are good, and babies are likely to be healthy, a mother’s best chance of passing on her genes to another generation is to have boys.

My Comment: This is determined by the spiritual root, where Zeir Anpin, or the male part of creation, is the source of the Light for the female part, his Malchut. And she awaits fulfillment from him.

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A question I received: Our souls are in a broken state, but their structure – Malchut and the nine Sefirot, is the same for all. So what is the difference between them?

My Answer: The nine Sefirot, like parts of a person’s body, are the same for everyone. But the Malchut of a person, like a separate part of one body, differs from everyone else’s. And Malchut determines how the nine Sefirot pertaining to it are manifested, even though they are the same for everyone.

Related Material:
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In the News (from BBC News): “An atheist advertising campaign has been launched on buses across Britain” The campaign backers were exasperated at the excessive religious advertisement. The promotion carries the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

My Comment: There was a time when religion lulled the people, giving them psychological fulfillment, security, and hope. But for many centuries now, religion has exploited people instead of protecting them. The bureaucratic apparatus that it has created exceeds even that of the state.

The desire to rule over the minds of the congregation defines today’s religion, which is a political force. It does not matter whether there’s a God or not. Being free from the pressure of the psychological religious brainwashing is already a path to inner peace.

Kabbalah says that there is no world to come (or a world “beyond the grave,” waiting for us after our bodies die). There is only what we reveal in this world. If you attained or revealed more than the five bodily senses, then you will keep this perception even after your body dies along with its five senses. This perception will remain with you forever because bestowal and love are above egoism, and they raise a person above time, space, and change (motion).

The stages of one’s attainment of the universe are:

• Olam HaZeh – “This world,” which is perceived inside egoism, also called the level of Malchut;

• Olam HaBah – “The world to come,” in Kabbalah known as the level of Abba ve Ima of the World of Atzilut.” A Kabbalist ascends to this level during his life. And if a person doesn’t attain this level, then he has to be born again.

• L’Atid Lavo – “Coming in the future,” the level of “Arich Anpin of the World of Atzilut.” It also has to be attained during this life.

• Gmar Tikkun – “The End of Correction” (of egoism). It is when a person attains “the World of Infinity,” where everything is infinitely corrected.

Related Material:
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“Attaining the Unity of the Universe,” Lessons 07.07.04 – 07.13.04

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Questions I received on Maaser:

Question: Can we advance spiritually if we don’t pay a tithe (Maaser)?

My Answer: No.

Question cont’d: I bought the book Kabbalah for the Student and printed “The Introduction to The Book Of Zohar” from it myself. Is this considered as a tithe?

My Answer: No.

Question cont’d: With the obligation of paying the tithe, many people will be turned off to Kabbalah and this will not be a solution for them. At first they engage in Kabbalah with all of their desire, and after a while they understand that they have to pay Maaser in order to advance spiritually. I wonder, if a person is already above the Machsom, will he also be obliged to pay Maaser in order to attain the whole goal?

My Answer: Yes.

Question cont’d: Even on the last 125th degree of the ladder?

My Answer: Yes.

Question cont’d: But the poor won’t be able to advance even a millimeter.

My Answer: If they’re poor, their Maaser is also small, accordingly.

Question cont’d: I am very disappointed that one has to pay to attain spirituality. The Maaser has to be removed because it is a limitation to attaining the so called “new civilization.”

My Answer: Maaser is a law of nature, and no one can remove it. You are not paying anyone; you are merely deducting the part of you that is impossible to correct and giving it to the world’s correction through a different method. You are realizing your own Maaser for disseminating Kabbalah around you. You should read about it (you can also look it up on Google.com).

The Maaser is 10% of your desires, which pertain to Malchut and which you are incapable of correcting on your own. You can only separate a tenth of your income, which corresponds to them. Otherwise your soul will not be corrected; however, it’s not corrected by the money, but by your rejection of it. This is why you are able spend this money on all kinds of empty objects, but find it practically impossible to spend it on Maaser!

Question: I understand that we are to pay 10% of our net/gross income as our Maaser. Where do we make the contribution? Are we to do it once a month according to our monthly income or can we do it bi-weekly with our pay cycle? Are you saying that, if we do not participate in the Maaser, we will still advance spiritually, but we will hinder the whole from advancing quicker?

My Answer: You should look for the answer in previous posts on this topic.

Related Material:
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A question I received: I am studying Kabbalah for 3 years and I have translated many writings from English to German. I also know almost all of your women’s lessons. But sometimes it happens to me that I still wonder why, for instance, the children’s lessons are made only by men (even if a woman appears, her role is played by a man), or why women are not allowed to read texts for audio material or translate your lessons simultaneously? All the Kabbalistic songs are sung only by men. Why are women excluded from participating at cultural evenings during Congresses? Is it really because men are distracted and cannot concentrate on the goal?

My Answer: The lessons are taught by men because Kabbalah in general is taught by men. As the method of correction, Kabbalah must come from men. Didn’t you study that Zeir Anpin corrects Malchut?! However, the translation of our lessons to Spanish, for example, is always done by a woman. Our TV shows also devote a lot of time to women and women participate in them. We welcome women’s participation anywhere possible. However, it doesn’t correspond to our inner work to have women speaking in front of men. We learn in Kabbalah that the female part (Malchut) receives from the male part (Zeir Anpin), but not vice-versa.

Related Material:
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The Book of Zohar: “Rose”

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News Report (from US News & World Report): A team at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University followed 1,000 seniors in three Florida retirement communities for up to 15 years. They found that women with higher levels of anxiety at the start of the study lived longer than others. In contrast to women, men with higher anxiety levels at the start of the study were more likely to die earlier, the researchers said. “Our research indicates that anxiety may have a protective effect on women…,” Dr. Jianping Zhang, of the department of psychiatry and psychology at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a prepared statement. “In contrast, increasing anxiety over time is more detrimental to men.”

My Comment: Well, this just goes to show who’s the stronger sex! And the reason for it all is that a woman is naturally closer to nature; she is Malchut – all of nature. A man, on the other hand, does not have strong roots in our world, because he has to master them through becoming similar to the Creator. Only then will he find his place and become strong – stronger than the woman. So it’s true what they say: Behind every successful man, there is a woman. This is absolutely true in the spiritual sense as well, where one’s “woman” is one’s corrected desire.

Question: What is your view about Hillary Clinton being expected to accept the position of Secretary of State in the Obama administration? A woman is a powerful force; could this be a positive move?

My Answer: In our time, when everyone is feeling empty and revealing the need for correction, perhaps this is best, since women are more cautious and realistic, less ambitious and closer to nature. However, on the whole, this is contrary to our spiritual nature, where a person begins by correcting the “man” within and only afterward – the “woman” within.

Related Material:
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Man and Woman: Talk between Rav Michael Laitman and Kabbalah Academy Instructors

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Questions I received on interpreting Baal HaSulam’s words and visiting graves of the righteous:

Question: In Shamati, Baal HaSulam mentions several times the “Masach de Hirik.” Would you please explain this phenomenon or concept?

My Answer: It is the correction of the soul in the middle line. One uses the egoism from the left line and the force of Light that corrects it from the right line, thereby building himself with the help of these two forces.

Question: What is the meaning of the word Yuli (יולי)?

My Answer: It is the initial material, from which everything developed.

Question: Why is the expression that Rav Ashlag uses, “What’s the meaning of my life?” and not for example: “What’s the meaning of life?”

My Answer: It’s because a person has to feel this question personally, to feel that his life depends on it completely. He has to feel that he is the only created creature (see the materials on Perception of Reality), and because of this, the purpose of life in general, of everyone’s lives, depends on his life.

Question: Where is the place in which the creature realizes his “I,” and on the other hand, realizes that there is none else beside Him?

My Answer: The place of realizing his “I” is in Malchut, and of realizing the Creator – in Keter.

Question: Does it help visiting the graves of the righteous and lighting a candle to sanctify the soul?

My Answer: Only psychologically!

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Shamati #92 – “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”
Shamati #171 – “Zohar, Amor”
Shamati #179 – “Three Lines”

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