In the News (From Top.rbc.ru): “According to Professor Dimitrios Karussis, member of the Executive Board of the Israel Society of Neuroimmunology and the Head of the Multiple Sclerosis Center, Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, scientists were able to identify a soul in a human being by using MRT technology (magnetic resonance tomography).

Research indicates that Kabbalah study activates a part in the brain which the researches called “faith apparatus.” It activates brain activity and increases manyfold an organism’s resistance to diseases that have left modern medicine helpless.”

My Comment: How can we reveal the soul? It depends on what we want to discover. If that’s the force activating an animal body, then surely it’s doable. Back when I was a student, research about “the weight of the body before and after death”was already being conducted in the world, to define the weight of the soul that allegedly leaves the body.

Everything depends on how we define a soul. Sometimes a man and a woman address each other as “my soul-mate.” If that’s how you define the soul, then you can weigh it. But if we understand that the soul is a part of the Creator from Above, the force of bestowal, then, similar to other forces of our world, it can be identified only by the results of its actions. By perceiving the force of bestowal within the property of bestowal (the desire to give, Kli), we thereby reveal the Creator within us and thus call Him Bo–re, from the words "Bo" -"Come" (attain it with your property of bestowal) and "Re" – "See" (discover).

There is no Creator without the creature. We are unable to say anything about Him, as He is outside of us, since that’s the essence or the abstract form which we can’t discuss. Kabbalah, being a purely experimental science, forbids us to engage in such philosophical reasoning, as Baal HaSulam states in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “the judge has nothing but what his eyes can see.”

We need the material on which this spiritual force could act. This material along with the force acting in it will be called the “soul.” Why? It is because the material itself – a part of the Creator from Above that possesses the same property of bestowal – would resemble the Creator.

How can the scientists discover the soul if it exists in the property of bestowal? What kind of devices can they use? What can help them? To discover the soul, one needs the material that would have the property of bestowal.

That could only be when a person has reached such a correction. Then, whatever clothes that material would be called the Light of the soul. The Kli itself, the desire, the material that has the property of bestowal, would be called the soul’s body. Without possessing such qualities, a person of this world is unable to perceive neither the body of the soul nor its Light.

Hence, if we define the soul according to Kabbalah, as a part of the Creator from Above, then scientists have no way of approaching it. One can attain the soul only the help of Kabbalah.

Everything depends on our intention. If we aspire to reveal spirituality, the Light will come and correct our material (desire), so that it becomes bestowing. When the material will resemble the Creator, become the Creator’s part from Above, the soul will arise within us.

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A Question I Received: You said that there are three components of the intention while reading The Zohar: 1) Everything I read in The Zohar occurs inside of me; 2) I feel that I’m studying The Zohar together with my friends, and I feel them; and 3) Unification between us is possible only due to the Upper Light. How is it possible to maintain these three intentions simultaneously and continuously;  which should be given priority?

My Answer: The intention should always consist of all three components together. As Baal HaSulam writes, a person constantly should be in the intention, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.” If one singles out one of them over the others, he strays from the path.

We’re talking about a single reality called the World of Infinity where the Creator, creature, and the entire universe with all of its qualities (the good and the evil, the past, present, future, and everything that we can possibly imagine), are revealed in one point which is the connection called “adhesion.” Thus I should think only about this state, constantly feel as though I exist in it, and aspire to it. All the interferences that are revealed are only meant for me to direct myself more and more correctly to this point of adhesion where all the qualities complement each other.

Therefore, the group, the Creator, The Book of Zohar that I’m reading, myself, and everything happening inside me become included into Infinity together. We wish to reveal one reality which is the only one that exists. We exist in it even now, but, in order to reveal it, we need to aspire to this picture.

Every degree or each of my states is the same Infinity. We reveal it only as we draw closer to it in increasingly higher resolution and with greater precision. However, every degree is the same ten Sefirot which are revealed more: from a drop of semen (a point) to a full Partzuf.

The intention should consist of the fact that everything is situated in the state of Infinity where I, too, exist. I just desire it to be clarified to me and for its minor details to become larger and to complement each other so that the group, the Creator, all the states, and I are revealed as being one whole. All that is needed is the effort, and it will come. We shouldn’t think about how to connect all the components. On the contrary, we should try to see the final, perfect picture where we exist.

The Surrounding Light comes from this picture with which you wish to be connected. It’s precisely what we need in order to reach revelation. Any deviation to the individual components of this picture just weakens the Surrounding Light.

We need to strive to “learn” as Baal HaSulam writes in Item 155 of “The Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” To “learn” means to reach adhesion, a connection with that same picture that I’m trying to imagine now. As it’s written, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Emor (Speak),” Item 129: Open for me an opening like the tip of a needle, and I will open the high gates for you. …This is why when David wished to come into the King, he said, “Open to me the gates of righteousness … This is the gate of the Lord.” The gates of righteousness is Malchut; it is the way to enter the King. “This is the gate of the Lord,” to find Him and to adhere to Him. Hence, “Open to me, my sister, my love,” to mate with you and forever be at peace with you.

In one of his letters, Baal HaSulam describes entering the spiritual world. There is a wall in front of us, we are walking along it, looking for the entrance, but can’t find it. However, the instant a person becomes similar to the One who is behind the wall, an entrance appears in the wall.

This is the way to enter the spiritual world. You have a solid wall in front of you which doesn’t have any opening, and then, all of the sudden, an entrance opens for you.
In the material world, we know that there’s a door in a certain place, it’s closed, but it can be opened. However, in the spiritual world, there is no door; nothing is visible in advance; everything is completely concealed. It’s utterly impossible to imagine that something can be opened here. Then, suddenly, an entrance opens.

Everything happens according to the similarity of properties of the person standing in front of the wall, and the Creator behind it. If they share at least one percent of similar properties, the person can enter inside. It happens on the condition that he wants to enter only to the extent of this percent and leaving the rest outside.

This means that a person wants to become connected with the Creator only through the desires that fit Him. Then, the entrance opens and he finds himself in the spiritual world. Corrections of our desires ultimately lead us to a desire called “gates to the Creator.”

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/30/10

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Baal HaSulam, “The Future Generation,” Preface (abridged):
There is a legend about a group of people that were lost in the desert and suffered from hunger and thirst. One of them found an abode filled with abundance, and started to shout and blow his horn so that his less fortunate friends could hear him and come to this place of abundance.

All of humanity is lost in a horrible desert, but we have discovered Kabbalah books, a source that can fill our souls with life. We remember our friends who are still lost in the desert, and thus we blow the horn hoping that they will hear us, come closer to us, and become as happy as we are.

In this world, knowledge helps us provide for our corporeal needs. Aside from that, we develop through hardship and affliction, desperately trying to prevent pain and suffering. Imagine that there is a book that describes the way of attaining order, confidence, and tranquility, a book that guarantees peace in the world and in our everyday lives. With it, we have a chance to correct our future.

The Appeal to Study Kabbalah
I don’t consider myself to be a special person, so if I managed to find everything I need for happiness in these books, then you can too.

Why Do I “Blow The Horn”?
I take everything that is happening and the opportunity presented to us now so close to my heart that I simply cannot hold back any longer. I’ve decided to broadcast the way to achieve happiness. So, I reach out to people and blow the horn because, in my opinion, it is worth doing in order to gather together all the “chosen ones,” who by studying and comprehending these books will bring themselves and the whole world to the scale of merit.

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Baal HaSulam, Introduction to the Book, The Tree of Life (abridged): “Deliverance from suffering” and the “arrival of the Messiah” means attainment of the Creator, as it is said: “and they shall teach no more every man to his neighbor, saying:  Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the greatest of them to the least of them.”

When the children of Israel receive complete knowledge, the fountains of intelligence and knowledge will flow beyond the boundaries of Israel and water all the nations of the world, as it is written, “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord…. And shall come unto the Lord and to His goodness.”

That is why The Zohar says: “Because of this Book, the sons of Israel will be redeemed from exile.” Only through the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the masses will we be granted a complete redemption. As the sages said, “the Light of this book Reforms.” Only The Zohar contains the Light that enables a person to return to his Source.

Therefore it is our obligation to first disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah to the masses so as to become worthy of the arrival of the Messiah. The dissemination of Kabbalah and the appearance of the Messiah are interconnected. This is why we have to open schools and write books in order to accelerate propagation of this wisdom among the masses.

The Creator’s actions are laws of nature and cannot be changed. According to our sages, “If they do not attain it on their own, suffering will help them,” and whatever reason doesn’t do, time will. In other words, the path of suffering helps us to detach ourselves from our egoistic behavior and climb the ladder of perfection.

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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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If we place our “seed” in a good environment, it develops. If we put it in “bad soil” (environment), even the very best seed will wither. Everything depends solely on the environment. This means that we need people around us who reveal the evil of egoism within themselves and want to correct it.

I have to place myself in such environment and aspire to absorb from it all that’s possible: moisture, minerals, and warmth or, in other words, everything that soil can provide for a seed.

As Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom,” at the time of his death a person can’t take anything with him from this world except for the property of bestowal that he attained. One can attain bestowal only in this world, but while in this world, he can sense himself. It’s written, “See your world during your life.” However, if you have not attained anything, then you remain only as a seed which will be placed into the soil again, and thus will get another chance.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Article “The Freedom”

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The science of Kabbalah defines life and death only with respect to merging with the Creator. A state similar to the Creator is called life, while one that is opposite to Him is death. Therefore, egoistic desires (Klipot) are considered dead, whereas the “poison of death” refers to the force that separates the creature from the Creator.

Death is not a loss of existence, as we observe the disappearance of one’s form in this world (at our degree). All that is created (desire) changes only with respect to drawing closer to or further away from the Creator in its intention to bestow; in everything else (in its desire), the creature remains the same. Hence distancing from the Creator, losing the state of adhesion with Him, is called “death,” whereas adhesion with Him, acquiring the quality of bestowal, is called “life.”

In his article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Baal HaSulam writes that the science of Kabbalah is a means for the creature to reveal the Creator in this world. To reveal the Creator means to assume His qualities.

Although we exist in a world of the still, vegetative, and animate matter, by acquiring the human level of similarity to the Creator, we come to feel ourselves and our existence as perfect and eternal, like the Creator. The science of Kabbalah changes us to facilitate our ascent to the next level (degree) where we begin to see that we do not disappear, but simply change the level of our existence.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/21/10

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A question I received: Baal HaSulam writes that he asked the Creator to lower him from high spiritual levels in order to be able to bring Kabbalah to people. What does this mean?

My Answer: In order to bring Kabbalah to people, one must actually be on the highest possible level, but at the same time, be able to descend to the lowest levels in order to convey everything necessary to others. When I select a teacher for my children, I don’t pick some schoolboy, but a qualified pedagogue, even though all he has to do is teach them the alphabet. That’s because he is closer to the source of Light. Thus, if a Kabbalist asks to be lowered from his spiritual level, this does not mean that he refuses it, because refusal would mean refusing bestowal to the Creator. The higher a person is on the spiritual rungs, the greater is his bestowal to the Creator.

However, in order to bestow to the lower ones, he is willing to create an additional Partzuf Searot (“hair”). Yet, at the same time he himself does not descend, similar to how an adult plays with a child and behaves as a child at that time. When he comes down from his level, he does not lose anything. It’s only in relation to the lower ones that he is closer to them and is able to be in contact with them.

In the spiritual world, attaining a level is a very difficult action because it is opposite to movement toward the Creator, upwards. One has to connect with the uncorrected desires and prefer their correction over engagement with something higher. This requires inclusion into the general scheme of the souls’ connection; one has to feel the importance of their general correction.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/10, “Peace in the World”

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A question I received: What does it practically mean “To value the inner part of me more than the external part?” Baal HaSulam writes that this is necessary in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

My Answer: To value the inner part of you means to respect your mission and responsibility to attain mutual bestowal and to unite together “as one man with one heart” through brotherly love, for the sake of revealing the Creator, the general force of bestowal and love that rules in nature. This has to be the most important thing to a person. We are talking about the Upper Force of bestowal, which fills everything, but which we don’t feel because we nullify its manifestation with our egoism. The right intention for us to have is for this force to become revealed within us to the fullest extent.

I make a simple calculation: that this is the only thing that is important to me in this life. This is why I was born and what I live for. This is what I have to achieve as long as I live in this world. In addition, all of humanity depends on the work I do in this regard, because we are all connected together inside one net.

Baal HaSulam writes that “a person from the nation of Israel,” meaning a person who has a point in the heart (Isra-El means the aspiration to the Creator) determines the direction and state of the whole world with his intention. He can say, “I don’t want anything right now. I’m in a state of descent so leave me alone. I don’t want to hear about spiritual work. I’m going to rest!” In that case, where is his responsibility and the understanding that there are millions and billions of people who depend on him? He is now determining their fate and how they will advance toward correction – whether through painful blows or through realization and goodness.

If these people depend on you, then you have a very strict responsibility to make the right choice because you are leading everyone, be it in a good direction or a bad one. You have no choice about the matter; this is how the worldwide network is built and this is the place you have been allotted in it. Therefore, you must always be in a state of upper fear and remember that you decide what will happen to the whole world.

Later you will reveal that all the people are your children, the closest thing to you! But you have to think this way even now, by faith above reason. Everything that you do is not being done to you, but to the whole world!

How important we deem spirituality directly determines the fate of all humanity. What’s important for us will be important for everyone else. That is the structure of this entire system, in which we are connected with strict connections. A person without a point in the heart does not have the ability to change anything. Only you do, who are called “Isra-El,” or “Li-Rosh” (I am the head).

From the Independence Day lecture 04/20/10, “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

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