The entire evil has been prepared for us from Above during the breaking of the vessels. So how can we say that the creature sins if this is the Creator’s making, the result of His actions? Anything man does will always be the consequence of the Creator’s actions. We can always point at the source from which everything comes. Even He acknowledges creating evil and nothing but evil: “I created the evil inclination” (“Barati Yetzer Ara“).

The only freedom of will that allows us to choose between good and evil and demand the correction of evil within us is realized with the help of the environment. As a person turns to the group, he discovers an “empty space,” Klipat Noga, which belongs neither to the Creator nor to the creature. Good or evil there is determined only by one’s free choice.

As you work with the group you begin to see that the Creator has left you something where you can make a decision. This is a special point of your independence. If you begin to create the Creator’s image from this “white,” free point, and decide that you want to become like Him, you will be referred to as “human.”

However, you still need to reveal this point. So far the Reshimo(recollection) of the breaking is being revealed in you. This point is a rudiment of a screen, which you need to build from the Reshimo. It is revealed through our work with the group.

We clear away the accumulation of the shell (Klipot) and different habits with our inner efforts to suddenly discover something that does not belong to the Creator beneath them. This really is a miracle. In this point a person has to say: “The entire world depends on me. Every moment I direct it either toward good or toward evil with my decision.” Then a person spends his entire time like a tightrope walker on a tight wire; every moment he has make a new decision in the direction of good to make sure he does not fall off the tight wire. This means that every moment he chooses to walk the path of truth.

This is why Baal HaSulam says that the path towards the Creator is a very thin thread, and the person walking it must be very careful to make sure he does not bear right or left. Yet all of this happens under the condition that a person discovers the point where the rope starts: his freedom of will in his work with the environment. All of the following points on which he walks are the points of his proper connection with the environment, which he chooses as he realizes his freedom of will.

A person constructs his own rope with the points that he discovers. He himself walks through them, as every time he directs himself and the entire world towards good. Actually, nothing exists before him, neither the point that he discovers nor the rope made with these points, the path straight to the Creator.

The path does not stretch out from the Creator toward us. We only receive the Reshimot, which remain on every degree from the above-downward descent. The rope does not exist, but we build it ourselves from below-upward. At the end, this is precisely what we call “human.”

All the Partzufim that we reconstruct from below-upward are not the same Partzufim that exist during the descent from above-downward. This is because when we climb the degrees, we reveal every degree 620 times greater than it was during the descent. This is a completely different degree, which we build ourselves.
[14473]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Items 147-149: The Yod of the Holy Name connects in three ties. For this reason, there is one tip in it above, one tip below, and one tip in the middle, since three ties hang down in her. The tip above is the upper Keter, above all the upper ones, the head of all the heads and stands atop all of them…The bottom tip is the other, bottom tip of the Yod. It is Bina, the head to water the garden, Malchut. This is the fountain of water from which all the plantings are watered, since all the Mochin of ZON and BYA extend from the Bina….

The letter “Yod” is Hochma of the world Atzilut, its “hidden mind.” Through the upper point enters the Light of the Infinity, and through its bottom point exits the Light of Bina, flowing through Zeir Anpin; it waters the garden, Malchut.

It would be possible to describe the entire system in details like this, but we are studying The Zohar in order to arouse the Light that Reforms, not to study some dry theory. We study The Zohar not to gain theoretical knowledge of spirituality, but to actually experience it! When we begin to feel what The Zohar is telling us, we will feel bestowal and reception within us and the difference between them; only then will we be able to read and unveil the whole picture, which will appear as sensations. We will study The Zohar in order to understand what we are feeling! Then I will start studying Kabbalah as a science; I will add mind to my feelings.

But first I have to receive the sensation! The mind follows. Otherwise, it would simply be theoretical reasoning without practical comprehension. We would get stuck in these diagrams and remain in this world to intellectualize, as if we know what is going on “there” in the spiritual world.

But we don’t need to know what is happening there: We have to be there! There is a great difference between those who are perceiving the spiritual world and the theorists who are just learning about it in The Zohar. The latter are the type that Baal HaSulam encountered in Jerusalem when he arrived in Israel. They were studying The Zohar and knew all its books and writings of the ARI by heart. But when he asked whether they perceive it, they replied: “There is nothing to perceive here! We just memorize the text.”

But for us, first and foremost, it is important to achieve the ability to perceive the spiritual world: The Zohar has to enter us, and we must begin living in it. Then, we will study what we feel and how to change these feelings, how to walk in spirituality.

We cannot research what we don’t perceive. Since we are the matter of the will to receive, we must perceive the reality within it. Only then we will be able to study what our perception. consists of.

Bina derives from the word “Havana,” understanding, as it is written, “the heart understands.” This is why we study The Zohar, in order to be able to bestow and perceive the Creator. Later, you and I will discuss every page of The Zohar, and we will see how much it contains, the entire symphony of feelings.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, On Major Corrections

Adam was the first person to reveal the order of actions that lead to spiritual success. He passed on this wisdom to his disciples “mouth to mouth.” And everyone can add to his friend (Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”).

One: The Creator is One, all of reality is included in Him at all times; everything stems from Him; He is perfect despite the seeming imperfection of creation. Kabbalists call this investigation “One.”

Abraham laid down the basis of this investigation. In his Book of Creation, he arrived at the conclusion that there are not two different authorities of good and evil, but rather everything is ruled only by good (Baal HaSulam, “The Character of Kabbalah”).

The Book of Zohar, Preface (abridged)

1. Abraham is the root of mercy in the souls. That is why he corrected the common soul (Shechina) and made it suitable for fulfillment by the Light of Mercy.

But if the Light of Mercy (Hassadim) stayed in the souls of Abraham’s disciples (the “people of Israel,” the group he created), they wouldn’t be able to exercise their desire to receive pleasure. That is why the correction of mercy didn’t bring the Thought of Creation to completion. This is because the main idea behind the Thought of Creation is to please the creatures specifically by receiving fulfillment from Him.

2.  This is the reason why Abraham (the property of bestowal) gave birth to Isaac (the property of receiving). As a result of Abraham’s correction, Isaac discovered the existence of the common soul which was in the state of a complete perfection filled with the Light of Mercy. He then sensed its desire to receive the entire perfection that was pre-determined by the Thought of Creation.

In other words, Isaac awakened in it the desire to receive from the Creator for the sake of bestowal which means that the desire to receive emerges only because of the desire of the Bestowing One; if the Bestowing One didn’t desire it, the soul wouldn’t possess even the tiniest desire to receive anything at all from Him.

This type of receiving for the sake of giving is considered bestowal since it is a quality that is not supported by egoism. It completely corrected the general desire (Shechina) to receive the entirety of abundance that was programmed at the time of creation.

3.  However, since the world was not ready for complete correction, the villain Esau appeared and corrupted the process of correction.

Esau didn’t follow “receiving solely for the sake of bestowal” as per Isaac’s correction; he sinned by receiving “for his own sake.” Even when he came to understand that the Bestowing One didn’t want him to receive, he still continued to receive pleasure for his own sake and that’s why Klipot “bonded” with him.

Since Jacob was aware of Esau’s “defect,” he corrected the Soul within the property of trepidation. That’s why it is said: “his hand grasping Esau’s heel.”  As a result, the corrections of Abraham and Isaac were united and no wrongdoing occurred.

4. But this correction was not final since it resulted from fear of sin that comes from “Esau’s heel.”  When complete correction takes place, the fear of “Esau’s heel” is annulled, and trepidation appears out of the greatness of the Creator. Jacob’s fear serves to correct all generations of the people of Israel until complete correction is attained.

5. Everybody has to go through correction, and by doing so perceive the soul created by the Creator. This means obtaining the “qualities of the forefathers.”

Only after the acquisition of such properties, correction of the soul commences; it takes off from the same place which Jacob left for us, meaning elevating trepidation to a degree at which it depends solely on the greatness of the Creator. Afterward, the Upper Light is attracted through this elevated property of trepidation to guide us towards complete correction.

6. The reason for all afflictions that emerge in this world is exclusively to correct the desire to receive within souls so that they become ready to receive all of the abundance included in the Thought of Creation.

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Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” that all those who aspire to the Creator are one nation where everyone is responsible for one another. This is called mutual guarantee. The Torah (the Light of Correction) was given to this nation only after every person was asked: Do you agree to carry out the commandment of love for the neighbor?  “Love your neighbor as yourself” means to take care of others no less than our nature forces us to take care of ourselves. This is the condition that enables us to draw the Light of Correction upon us. The Light will come and correct our spiritual vessel only if we reveal that we want to unite in this way.

Mutual guarantee is when, having ascended above our own desire, we already comprise one unified body, one organism, and we all depend on each other. To do this, every person must have an anti-egoistic screen and be in the spiritual world on the level of bestowal (Hafetz Hesed), while also treating his material life as a necessary component for his spiritual life.

Operating in mutual guarantee, every person fulfills another and understands that he has to be connected with the others. His entire life takes place for the sake of this, like it happens with the cells within one’s body. Every cell and organ of the body lives in order to carry out its function in relation to the common organism. The meaning of its life is love and bestowal. When we perceive this connection among us, this is called spiritual life.

If we desire to unite in this way, then we will receive the force to carry this out!

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Rabash’s article, "The Purpose of the Association:" We have met today to establish an association of those interested in following the path and method of the author of the “Sulam” (Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag), the path of ascension from the level of an animal to the level of man.

We have to deduce the fundamental principles from this article:

1. What does it mean "to assemble"?

2. What is "the method of Baal HaSulam"?

3. What is "the human level"?

4. Was man created to experience pleasure or fear before the Creator?

5. The condition for attaining all of this is equivalence of form with the Creator.

6. The will to enjoy by itself is not bad. It is the matter of all creation. The evil inclination (Yetzer Ra) is our unwillingness to unite and to correct the breaking of the common soul into parts, our individual souls.

7. We must not destroy the egoistic desire, but only correct its intention from "for myself" to the intention of bestowal, "for others." Inside our desire to receive, we are always opposite to the Creator, but inside the intention to bestow, we join Him.

8. Adhesion with the Creator takes place through equivalence of form with Him. The way to attain the intention to bestow is by working with the group. This task is achievable and verifiable, and the common desire to bestow that we create together is our common soul, which the Creator fulfills.

9. Any state we are in consists of two opposite states, and as we advance, the gap between them increases. On one hand, I continually reveal how insignificant I am, and at the same time, I continually reveal the greatness of the goal.

I have to unite all of this inside one point. Thus, I will feel the breaking between the souls which will force the Upper Light to correct me. Then bestowal will reign between myself and other people.

This is called "the giving of the Torah, the Light of Correction." After that the One Who Gives the Torah becomes revealed as well inside our corrected attitude to our neighbor, inside the common spiritual vessel (Kli).

From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, "The Purpose of the Association – 1"

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A question I received: How should we work during the day on building a Kabbalistic group, a vessel that we prepare to be filled by the Creator’s Light and revelation? How do we assess our personal state and that of the world group?

My Answer: We should interpret the Creator’s message which we receive from Baal HaSulam and Rabash as a single appeal: to unite. Rabash discloses this state, this point of contact, and tells us what it involves. However, it can only be reached by combining in oneself all opposite qualities.

These qualities seem different to you because you are not perfect. Yet the more you engage in this work, the sooner you will see that everything contracts into the single point which is called unity. Everything merges in it: you, the Creator, your efforts, the group, correction of the evil inclination, the greatness of the goal, your own insignificance, and the intention for bestowal with the egoistic inclination below it. Everything unites into one whole.

It is incorrect to take one item from the article and lock onto it. Rather, everyone should work on the entire article during the day: Read it a number of times and prepare a summary. Suddenly you’ll discover that with the synopsis you’ve prepared the subject can be examined from many different perspectives.

However, simply engaging in this work is most important. It attracts upon us the Light that Reforms. A person is not required to make correct and clever conclusions. As we advance, we become less and less successful in making reasonable conclusions as we feel more shattered and unfit. It looks as we are moving in an opposite direction, but this sensation is given to us by the Light that comes to awakens us!

Every day we have to set  a new task for everyone of us. If someone fails to perform it, he immediately lags behind. By the next day, he won’t be able to continue together with everyone because we move consecutively from one state to another. One can’t leap over several states and make a running jump onto a high-speed train.

Now that we have started this work, we should make sure that we perform it every day, regardless of our mood. We have to support each other to ensure that nobody falls down because anyone who is in descent prevents others from the proper understanding and learning.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association – 1”

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We have started our work on building a Kabbalistic group. If, throughout the day, we keep thinking about the day’s article we are studying, we will see enormous transformations within us. When so many hearts and desires act according to the method of Baal HaSulam, aspiring to and clarifying the goal together, this action itself already unifies us.

Together we attract the Light which begins to act upon us, and we feel tremendous changes. These changes, however, may seemingly be to the worse. So what? Their purpose is to teach us that advancement occurs above our egoism, above our desire to receive pleasure and sense an egoistic reward.

I worked so hard, but the next day I felt even more heaviness of the heart, my own insignificance, weakness, disregard, hate, and indifference. Nonetheless, I have to get up and continue walking. It is similar to the wandering in the desert described in the Torah. “You have discovered your evil? Great! Now you will learn how to correct it and continue on the path.”

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association – 1”

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When we read The Zohar, we should expect salvation. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155:  “Indeed, there is a great and marvelous quality concealed in Kabbalistic books, worthy of being publicized.” In other words, by studying The Zohar we can unite with the Source, the Creator, Who exists in other dimensions.

We exist in our dimension, in separation from Him, while The Zohar creates a connection between us and Him, the higher dimension. From there, to the extent of our aspiration, we receive the Light, the remedy that flows into us one drop at a time, like an infusion.

The Torah does not demand anything unrealistic. After all, the Upper One knows us better than we know ourselves; what is expected of us is measured according to the way we’re created. One is told: “Sit down with a book. You must connect with your environment because that is your spiritual form.”

Currently a person is on his or her own level. One is an egoist and doesn’t care for anyone, wanting nothing except egoistic pleasure. A person doesn’t even know what exactly is wanted, but the Upper One knows it well. It is He who creates these desires, even the most disgusting qualities in a person. And only occasionally do we slightly feel what He does.

Having created all of this in within us, the Creator expects just one thing: “Try to unite with Me just a little bit, based on all the things given to you from Above.” A person has to reveal the present state, and just wish to become like the Upper One.

However, in order to become like the Upper One, one needs to imagine the state when he and the group are together in a state of mutual bestowal, mutual guarantee. Imagining our self and them as one whole means we want to feel this state of the Light already operating between us in a single whole. We want to feel that we’re together and the Light is fulfilling us because we become like the Light to the extent of our unity. This is the state that we need to imagine.

It is clear that we are not together or connected with one another, but we are trying to connect, which means we want to grow spiritually and become like the Upper degree. Thus, to the extent of one’s aspiration, The Zohar creates a connection between that person and the Upper degree, injecting this infusion, which are drops of Light called “drops of luck” (Mazalot) that flow towards him.

There is no other difference between a person and the Upper degree, aside from the fact that one is better connected with others on the Upper degree. Try to imagine this upper state, the inner connection of mutual bestowal with everyone, which is called the “Upper Light.” This force, the Surrounding Light that rears a person like an infant, influences from that same state that one imagines, dreams of, and aspires to.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/13/10

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In the article "Matan Torah" (“The Revelation of Godliness”), Baal HaSulam writes that bestowal manifests itself through actions that are directed from one person to another and from a person to the Creator. Both of these actions are aimed at one goal: to attain partial similarity (through the 125 steps of the worlds) and then complete similarity with the Creator (the World of Infinity, a state of unity with the Creator). When a person acts for the sake of bestowal rather than for his own sake, he doesn’t feel the difference between giving to another person or to the Creator because anything beyond his own body is perceived as foreign.

What does it mean “to work for the sake of the Creator?” How do I imagine Him? I unite with my friends (people with whom I share the same goal), and for this purpose I rise above my egoism. Within this union, I begin sensing a more internal desire defined as “the Creator.” Through the group (Circuit 1), I influence Him (Circuit 2). In turn, both react to me. The Group and the Creator comprise two models of “strangers” or "others" that are present within me, both of which I can differentiate. I work with both models for the sake of bestowal and rise beyond my ego.

This is where the circle is completed. There are no “others,” I just imagined them within my ego (my desire to receive pleasure). I rise above my egoism and attain a state called “The Other – 1,” and then I rise even higher into a state that is called “The Other – 2.” Everything happens within me. The saying, “From love of the created beings to love of the Creator” refers to two steps of correcting my egoistic desires.

By “giving to the other” I want to be similar to the Creator, that is, to merge with Him. Everything is within me: In one case my desire is called “group,” “surroundings,” “humanity,” and “souls,” and in the other, on a deeper level, it is called “the Creator.” However, all of it happens within my corrected desire for bestowal. I am involved in two layers of relationships. It’s just harder for me to “give” to the Creator than to my fellow friends.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/10, Article “Matan Torah”

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A question I received: I heard that you are getting more involved with inner dissemination and work on building a system of virtual (Internet) connection that will allow those who pursue spiritual growth to stay connected, develop, and to receive reminders and programs for their spiritual development.

What about other people who have never heard about the possibility of salvation and have never been exposed to the idea that suffering is here to help us correct ourselves and attain the Light and bliss? Aren’t you cutting them off?

My Answer: We are not slowing down the pace of external dissemination. But consider the following example: We are on board a plane and a flight attendant announces an emergency landing. She reminds us to first put our own oxygen masks before we put them on our children, which could be construed as a cruel requirement.

Here we are in “a plane crash situation” and we must put oxygen masks on ourselves before our children can take a breath of air (Light). Instead of doing so, we try to put oxygen masks on the children first, and don’t think about our imminent death. But will our children stay alive if we collapse first? There is no chance. They can only survive together with us.

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Items 66-71 that dissemination of Kabbalah should radiate in waves from the center, from those who are interested in Kabbalah to those who are completely indifferent. All people are connected into a single soul of Adam. If those who have a point in the heart (are interested in the revelation of the Creator) build the spiritual connection among themselves and discover the Creator in it, then everybody will begin to feel that we have acquired the Upper Force and wisdom. It will then attract them to us and the Source.

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