It is written: “I created the evil inclination and the Torah for its correction.” We have gotten used to all these sayings and think that they are just pretty words about the Torah. However, in reality, this is all very profound and serious. If we do not approach the Torah studies correctly, we suffer from it. The Light is a powerful force that influences us, and with its help we can reach either goodness or the opposite.

This “opposite” is also a path, meaning that revelation of evil lets us achieve goodness as well. We see this through the example of the last exile. Exile means that we are torn away from spirituality and have no chance to reach a connection with the Creator until the end of the exile. However, how can we study the Torah while we are disconnected from spirituality and have selfish intentions? All your studies will be for the sake of self-gratification, receiving a reward, not even “Lo Lishma,” that is, they will be completely devoid of the right intention.

Yet we already understand that precisely because we study the Torah (the external Torah, not Kabbalah) during the exile, we thereby draw the Surrounding Light. But instead of bringing us closer to correction, this Light distances us from it. This means that we use the Light of the Torah as a “potion of death.” However, thereby we discover that we are immersed in evil, and with the descent of the generations, when “the face of the generation has become like the face of a dog,” we reach a state about which it is written: “And the sons of Israel cried out from this work.”

In other words, whether we are in the state of spiritual attainment or the exile, we constantly use the Light of the Torah, doing so either from the negative or the positive side. Without this we would never be able to reach a sensation of exile, the need for redemption.

Therefore, now, when we exist in such a special state which Baal HaSulam calls “the generation of the Messiah on the threshold of redemption,” it is very important for us to understand that all this is a condition given to us from Above. We, however, haven’t accepted it yet. What does this mean? It means that we were given an opportunity to start using the same Light that Reforms, the Light that returns one to the Creator, in a new way, so that it will return us to the Source instead of distancing us from it as it did during the exile.

During the exile our intentions were constantly directed at ourselves: how can we benefit by using the Torah in this world and in the future world? Now we need to change our intentions. Due to this we will change the influence of the Surrounding Light on us, and it will truly return us to the Source – directly to it, rather than through its reverse side.

Hence, now we need to primarily think about the intention with which we approach the studies. The more clarified, desirable, and precise our intention will be, the better we will organize ourselves in such a way that our prayer will become a “group prayer,” and we will all unite into one whole standing opposite to the single Source. The more we do this, the more we will advance.

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

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 20: Because of the sin with the Tree of Knowledge, the impure forces were given control over man. This is why the order of the universe is very confused. Sinners beget evil, decreasing the Light’s abundance for the people. This naturally leads to destruction and suffering. But if they increase the abundance, then the separation for the receivers increases even more, as the sages said, "If a person has one hundred coins, he wants two hundred, and if he has two hundred, then he wants four hundred."

It is man’s nature to always chase pleasure, but by doing so he only increases his desire to receive. All of life is an endless pursuit of pleasures which you can never attain. And the small bits of fulfillment that we do receive are given to us so we would keep pursuing and increasing our desires.

It seems to us that we run after pleasure, but we are running after even greater desire! We barely touch our object of desire, and the next moment we feel that we need twice as much! When we experience pleasure for a moment, we increase our desire two-fold, and thus the pleasure itself turns into desire. This continues on and on until we grow disillusioned.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

This [purposeful guidance] means that the corrupt [egoistic, natural] conducts in the states of humanity are the very ones that [to the extent of their correction] generate the good [corrected] states. And each good state is nothing but the [ripening] fruit of the work [correction] in the bad state that preceded it. Indeed, these values of good and bad do not refer to the value of the state itself, but [only] to the general purpose: [the state is is not evaluated by itself, rather] each state that brings humanity closer to the goal is considered good, and one that deflects them from the goal is considered bad.

By that standard alone is the "law of development" built—the corruption and the wickedness [egoistic evil] that appear in a [any] state are [also] considered the cause and the generator of the good [perfect] state so that each state lasts just long enough to grow the evil in it to such an extent that the public can no longer bear it. [That is, it depends on the society’s realization of evil, time that can be hastened by explanation, upbringing, and education.] At that time [after realizing evil in itself and resolving to correct it], the public must unite against it, destroy it [the egoistic evil in itself, its relationships], and reorganize in a better state [particularly] for the correction of that generation. [Without trying to skip over any successive periods of development.]

And the new state, too, lasts just as long as the sparks of evil in it ripen and reach such a level that they can no longer be tolerated, at which time it must be [involuntarily] destroyed and a more comfortable state is built in its stead. And so the states clear up one by one and degree by degree until they come to such a corrected state that there will be no sparks of evil. [There will be nothing to correct, and this state will be recognized as final correction.]
– Baal HaSulam, Article, “The Peace”

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Question: In his article “Finding the Creator Within,” Baal HaSulam writes that a person keeps reincarnating until he completely attains the wisdom of Kabbalah. What does that mean?

Answer: To completely attain the wisdom of Kabbalah means to comprehend the structure of my soul in general and in particular, to attain all inner differences and actions that can occur within me with all their fulfillments, causes, and affects. That is, one attains the soul’s structure, the actions that take place in it, and from this, a perfect state. This is what thorough, complete knowledge is.

In other words, complete knowledge is attainment of the Creator which happens as a result of our adhesion with Him. The soul (one soul or all souls together) or the Creator are the same. Each soul attains all the souls because all of them are its parts. The Creator is the force that connects the souls together and encompasses them.

Who was shattered? The Creator was. We assume that the breaking occurred in our Kli (the general desire, the unified soul). But in fact, the breaking occurred in the Creator within us; the screen (Masach), the force that binds us all together broke. The Creator was broken within us to such a degree that we stopped recognizing and sensing Him.

What are we actually achieving by bringing the shattered splinters of the broken soul together? As we connect our impressions, inspirations, and sensations into one, these “constituents” eventually will bring us to perceive the Creator. The same Creator, the same Upper Force previously filled us when we were in a state of “love of others,” but with the shattering it turned into “unfounded hatred.”

Now, we have to reverse and return this force into its correct state. It doesn’t mean that it will alter itself; the relationships among us will. Therefore, from the state of hating the Creator we rise to loving Him, which happens to the extent of our efforts to transform unfounded hatred into brotherly love.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article, “From Within My Flesh I will See the Creator”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 19: Egoistic reception of pleasure carries a drop of lethal poison, and thus we increase our debt two-fold… As a result this takes the last remaining spark of life away from a person, as if he is met by “the angel of death, bearing a drop of poison on the edge of a sword, and the person obediently opens up his mouth, swallows the drop, and dies.”

We are creatures, and we have to turn the Creator’s pleasure into our pleasure for the sake of bestowal in order to enjoy twice as much: both from the pleasure and from adhesion with the Creator. It will be sweet and true simultaneously. However, in the meantime, we are acting in the completely opposite way and are receiving pleasure from double falsehood. We are “opening up our wound” and enjoying the fact that we are bringing ourselves closer to death!

This is directly counter to true life since our inner system must work opposite to the way it currently does. We must change to receiving, but for the sake of bestowal; yet, with us everything happens in the opposite way.

It turns out that a person manages to enjoy his suffering and even to be proud of it. The power of all the impure forces is built upon this. However, spirituality begins precisely above this.

Otherwise, the angel of death eventually comes and takes the last drop of life from a person. Why does a person die? It is because he severs the connection with the Light, with bestowal, which was given to him by nature, like a small fire that, according to the plan of creation, he must develop into greater bestowal, eternal life, a great fire, Light. However, we squander this spark on egoistic life and we die instead of developing it and acquiring true life.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

By observing nature’s systems, we understand [the purposeful development under the Upper guidance of the Creator or Nature, which is the same] that any beings of the four types: still, vegetative, animate and speaking, as a whole and in particular, are found to be under purposeful guidance, meaning a slow and gradual [necessary] growth by way of cause and effect, as a fruit on a tree, which is guided with favorable guidance to finally become a sweet and fine-looking fruit. [The purpose of man’s development is the same: to reach a state of perfection.]

Go and ask a botanist how many phases the fruit undergoes from the time it becomes visible until it is completely ripe. Not only do its [absolutely all] preceding phases show no evidence of its sweet and fine-looking end, but as if to vex, they show the opposite of the final [correct, perfect] outcome.

The sweeter [more spiritually developed] the fruit is at its end, the more bitter and unsightly it is in the earlier phases of its development. [Since the final state is the corrected original state, then naturally the greater the imperfections revealed in a given creature, the more perfect it is at its final state.]
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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A question I received: Does the light that people see during clinical death, that gives them a sensation of peace, have anything to do with the Surrounding Light?

My Answer: This type of sensation is a common psychological phenomenon during clinical death. I experienced it while being in a coma for a week and am well aware of its effects. It is a physiological reaction of the body.

Why would an animate body receive Light just because it died? Why would one think that the death of a physical body implies correction? After death, the body remains at the animate level, just as it was while being alive. How does it impact the soul?

The only thing that impacts the soul is correction. Conversely, if the soul simply exits the body without having performed any spiritual work, why should it be entitled to Light? It would be “shame,” like “the bread that is not his.” If you attain the Upper World solely by being driven by the Upper Force that operates on you from birth through death, then where is your freedom of will and conscious effort? If I, through my own work, do not form within myself a vessel capable of perceiving the Upper World, how will I know this Upper World?

We don’t receive anything after the death of our body, because it remains at the same animate level as it was while alive. The only thing left after death are  Reshimot (informational data, records). However, if a person didn’t realize the Reshimot, he will be born in a new body with the old Reshimot.

In the corporeal body of flesh, there is nothing spiritual or sacred. We respect a dead body because it represents the soul to us. Therefore, in our attempt to mirror Upper spiritual acts, we perform such rituals. If we did the same through the forces of our soul, then we would be making real corrections.

Baal HaSulam wrote: “I don’t care where you bury my sack of bones.”

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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From Baal HaSulam’s Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter No. 26, pg. 85: “The golden bell and the pomegranate are at the hem of the mantle, and a sound is heard when the High Priest enters the sanctuary.”The word “Ephod” (garment of the High Priest) originates from the words “Where is the door?” since where there is a door, there is an entrance, even if it is locked. In the material world, we can see a closed door, a closed entrance, but in spirituality, only an open entrance is visible. One can see it only through complete faith; only under this condition does the door become visible, and at the same moment it turns into an entrance.

The moment that a person attains perfect faith, complete measure of bestowal, the entrance and the door are revealed to him as one. A second before this, he didn’t see anything, neither the door nor the entrance. And all of a sudden the door opens up. Did the door previously exist or not? No, it did not; the property that a person acquired turned into an entrance and a door, thus allowing him to enter.

In our world doors exist before we are ready to walk through them, but in spirituality, we first have to build our Kelim (spiritual vessels) in order to sense a new reality through them. Before we do so, spirituality does not exist. We have to give it its form. This is why both the door and the entrance are built by a person who attains perfect faith: bestowal.

During his upbringing, a person sways from side to side, like those looking for a door. At the final moments of his advancement, he is next to the entrance, but it is then in particular that he suddenly gets tired and takes a step back. He has no strength left to open the door, and spends his life wandering from place to place, searching for an exit but never reaching it.

Our path consists of multiple steps forward and back, and that continues until a real need to enter spirituality is formed within us. We have to prepare our desires because spirituality has no form of its own until we give it one. A person lacks the right perception, reaction, and clarification until he goes through all four levels of each desire. Gradually, he accumulates all the discernments and combines them into one structure which he reveals in the Light. One can only hasten the time of his development; he still must go through all the states.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/10, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters), Letter 26, pg. 85

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

Thus, we have thoroughly shown the conducts of His Providence in our world, which is only a purposeful Guidance [that is, it can be understood only from the final result]. The attribute of goodness is not at all apparent before Creation arrives at its completion, its final ripeness [because the Creator can be comprehended only in the Creature’s corrected properties]. On the contrary, [until the creature corrects himself and his evil into love and goodness] it [his and the world’s state] rather always takes a form of corruption [although inside, it is absolutely corrected as good, yet concealed by the qualities of the observer himself] in the eyes of the beholders.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Part 7 of The Study of the Ten Sefirot by Baal HaSulam talks about the descent of the worlds from Above downwards and their breaking. We have to know this in order to comprehend the nature of things and thereby understand how to ascend by preparing ourselves for this elevation with small corrections and indirect, additional actions.

Each of our small actions is the foundation for a greater one in the future. During the descent of the worlds, an immense breaking gave birth to countless minor actions. And now, while ascending from below upwards, we are performing numerous little actions, which give raise to one great act of correction. In this way, the small corrections merge into one final completely corrected state: Gmar Tikkun.

Undoubtedly, we study mainly to draw the Light that Reforms. Still, we have to be somewhat aware of the processes that occur in spirituality. We study the breaking of the worlds in such detail in order to justify it and understand why it was necessary.

Thanks to the breaking, we are “down” in this world, but we have all the needed information (Reshimot) to ascend and attain our complete correction. We only lack the Upper Light that would gather together all of this data and connect it with our matter (desire) and realize one upon the other.

Reshimot are something similar to a computer program. If I were to install some software on my computer, it would arrange the content in a way that the program dictates, taking on the form of the program itself. Reshimot work exactly like that. I have to “sew” (actualize) each new Reshimo on my matter so that the matter would “formatted,”  “organized,” “systematized,” and “sculpted” into a specific form by it.

I have an informational gene (Reshimo); matter (desire) is also being revealed. My task is to lay one over the other and arrange them correctly, which is done by the Surrounding Light. In other words, we have two necessary elements, only the third one is missing: the force of the Creator.

This 7th part of TES (Talmud Eser Sefiort – The Study of the Ten Sefirot) talks about the breaking of the worlds, explains where the informational genes came from, and helps us to sense our essence.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, TES

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