The Zohar, Chapter “Ve’Eleh Toldot Itzhak (These Are the Generations of Isaac),” Item 30: Jacob knew that Esau would cling to that Slant Serpent. For this reason, he followed him in all his actions like another Slant Serpent, opposite him, cleverly and shrewdly.

It is precisely the desire to receive pleasure that teaches us to be shrewd. It teaches us how to work with the same desire and lie to it. After all, the desire to bestow does not have wisdom or a mind; it has no Light of Hochma (the Light of Wisdom). It’s meant for the desire to receive pleasure. Therefore, in particular, the serpent is smart. We need to learn wisdom from it for the right line. This is called “help against him” since the serpent, itself, teaches us the right line and how to work with it. It teaches us how to kill it, extract only medicine from its venom, and to work with this medicine for the desire for the intention to bestow.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: What does it mean that we have to desire to study The Zohar together? How should we do this or feel it?

My Answer: Correction means that all desires are united together. When our desires are separated from one another, we feel this reality or this world within them. When we unite our desires together, then inside them we feel a reality called “the spiritual world.” Everything is very simple and it does not involve space or time. Everything depends on the unity of desires into one whole or their separation from one another.

Right now we feel this reality because our desires are disconnected and each one stands on his own. Inside your own small desire, which is aimed only at your own good, you feel what you are able to feel inside it. You feel Light, but when the Light appears inside this desire it seems to you as what you see now. Do you want to see something different? Well, you won’t be able to do anything with these earthly desires all the way until the End of Correction.

When this earthly desire is revealed and grows within us, we feel that we live. Afterward it dwindles and we feel that we die. Then it comes to life again and dies as if it is revived in order to be used and then goes back into concealment. However, besides it, there is another desire called “the point in the heart,” which comes from another, spiritual level. This is a desire we can connect to others. We cannot connect the desires of this world, which are desires of the still, vegetative, and animate levels. They exist in their regular form, where every person is connected with others to the degree that nature obliges him to, and not more than this.

However, we can unite our desires called “the points in the heart,” and then we will feel the spiritual world within them. This is why I have to imagine this common desire (Kli or vessel). It is very tangible and it really is in our hands. If we could unite our desires for spirituality, our points in the heart, together through mutual help and mutual connection, then we would feel the spiritual world. However, the sensation within them has to be mutual. It cannot take place in each separate individual because it is revealed through the unity of desires.

What is it that becomes revealed? It’s the connection among the desires. This connection is called fulfillment, the Creator, or the Light that fulfills the desire. We don’t reveal the Light by itself. We only reveal our impression of the Light, the quality of bestowal that clothes into us. It clothes precisely into our relationships of love and bestowal to one another.

There is a force that enables us to unite together and treat each other with mutual bestowal. My bestowal to another person is called “Light,” and the mutual bestowal that I reveal among everyone is called “the Creator.” This is the meaning of the verse, “From love for the created beings to love for the Creator.”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

It is difficult to feel and understand what a soul is, yet Kabbalists tell us that a soul is a part of the Creator, who is the quality of bestowal. When the desire to receive pleasure assumes the form of bestowal, it begins to work as a bestowing desire. As a result, it feels similarity with the Creator, as though it is a part of Him.

Every time we feel a change within, we have a new and different soul. During each of our actions of merging with the Light, twenty-five new spiritual Partzufim, or souls, are born. So how is it possible to identify ourselves in the spiritual world? In this material world we identify ourselves by everything we currently perceive as our own, such as by our body parts (the arms, legs, head, and so on). As long as we’re alive, the same body will remain with us now and tomorrow, and the next day, and so forth.

However, what is “ours” in the spiritual world? What remains with us from the previous state if we constantly receive ten new Sefirot and a new depth (Aviut) of desire, with new qualities, a new screen, and new Light? Is there something that remains in order to feel that it’s “us” who advance instead of the birth of some other soul?

The truth is that in spirituality, every day and every instant, you are a new person. Nothing ever remains with you from the past. It is contrary to our material life. In spirituality, everything is constantly renewed, except the initial point in the heart.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

By simply reading The Zohar, we gradually begin to understand it. This book is not built upon explanations, but rather upon the reading itself, meaning the process where we begin to feel a clearer sensation of the Upper World.

“Ima Ilaa” (the Upper Mother for all of us) is called Bina. She radiates the Surrounding Light to us. Similar to infants with wide open eyes and mouths, we should try to appeal to Her with the right intention: to become as one man with the wish to reach the quality of bestowal by revealing it within us.

This is enough. Everything else written in the book will be gradually revealed to us. What does it mean “gradually?” It means in the same way that infants learn. They don’t know any words, don’t understand what’s going on, and due to their desire to know, it happens that “this” or “that” is revealed to them and thus, they begin to understand something. This is the way that they discover the world.

This is a normal, natural approach. The Upper World is revealed to us in the same way. If we remember how we grew up and discovered this world, we will understand how to advance in spirituality.Then we will have no complaints. We will be developing in exactly the same way; nothing has changed.

Subsequently, it is easier to understand that we are not required to be “smart.” All we have to do is reveal a desire to attain the Upper World, and conform to it just a little bit.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: What does it mean to annul oneself at the Zohar Convention so the Upper Light will become revealed to us?

My Answer: It means that I annul my egoism in relation to the common desire to be together, and I do this with the purpose of revealing the Upper Force – the force of bestowal and mutual love within us. It is the common force of nature, the Creator (Bore), meaning, “come and see.” More precisely, it means, come to the annulment of your ego at the inanimate level of holiness, and then you will see and feel the Light which fulfills you. This is possible to do!

It is enough to simply want to connect, even with no true intention to bestow yet. One should want to rise above his ego in order to connect with others and reveal the Creator. This requires a connection according to the method of Kabbalah, rather than simply an egoistic unity among people.

Then the Upper Light will connect us and fulfill us. That is the meaning of the verse, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator unite as one.” “Israel” means everyone who wants to annul his ego for the sake of connecting with others. This is possible to do with the force of the Light which is called “Torah” for the sake of revealing the Upper Force, which is called “the Creator.” We have all the conditions for that!

It is impossible to do it alone, but it’s easy to do it together.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 10: This is so in action, meaning in sacrifices.

Item 11: When the priest intended to light candles below and bring the incense closer, the upper candles, the Sefirot, would shine at that time, everything was connected, and joy and jubilation were in all the worlds, as it is written, “Ointment and perfume delight the heart.”

The main spiritual work is sacrifice, where the word “sacrifice” (Kurban in Hebrew) means “closer” (Karov). This means that we take our desire to enjoy, measure it, and check to see which part can be the “sacrifice.”  By “slaughtering it,” we bring it closer to the quality of bestowal, releasing it from its egoistic form of “an animal” that lives only for its own sake.

We want to raise it to the level where it can be used by man, elevating it from the animate to the human level. This is the essence of all sacrifices from the still level (salt and water), the vegetative level (grains), and the animate level (birds and animals), which are the levels that are brought to the Temple. It is the corrected Malchut, where Malchut is connected to Zeir Anpin.

All of this is talking only about desires inside a person, which are corrected from egoistic to altruistic. It seems like it is talking about hard, dirty, and cruel work, such as sacrificing or killing with blood and water. And indeed it is – the correction of our egoistic desire is dirty work. It is written, “Mother (Bina) will come and cleanse the son.” This is why we need to attract the Upper Light so that it works on us. Then, the work is done by forces of Cohen, Levi, and Israel: singing, blowing the horn and lighting the candles – the Sefirot that shine from Zeir Anpin into Malchut. A person does not have to know all the details of this work; once he receives these qualities corrected by the Surrounding Light, he will see how it all works. We only need to observe the Creator; He will wage this war with Pharaoh, while we simply have to want it.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

At our current level, we don’t need to delve into details but should simply work together tending to our common spiritual vessel into which everyone adds their own part. When we ascend to higher levels, we will need to clarify precisely which of our parts we are connecting together in the same way as in the human body where there are tissues, matter, and cells connecting together. The organs connect, discover their respective functions, and provide specific things to the others.

For now, however, we’re only talking about uniting our desires toward one goal. We need to concentrate on one thing only: We all want to reveal the Creator simply because we want to feel good. We want to attain mutual bestowal where He will bestow to us and we will bestow to Him and to each other. This is in order for our spiritual “basin” to come alive and sustain itself. Within this basin, we will exist together as one organism without any separation between us.

The Light must solder us together into a single whole so that my “I” will vanish. Every one of us adds his own drop of water, but inside the basin, one can no longer feel which water belongs to him because everything is collective. Then, our mutual connection above our ego begins. One part coalesces with another as if connected by vital arteries in one living organism. Life in the body is like life in Malchut of the World of Infinity: Malchut is filled with Light and its life is collective, relying on mutual bestowal among all its parts and to the Creator.

Imagine that we are all one person. We are his organs and we all want this person to live because by living, he bestows pleasure to the Creator. Then, we begin to reveal that we’re not just some disconnected part like a part of a brain, for instance, but we’re a part of the brain that’s included in all the other organs. How else would we be able to care about others? Inside every cell and bone there is a brain particle, and in the same way, we will feel included in everybody without exception. We lose our individual identity, but on the other hand, we acquire more opportunities to think about others beyond our ego, while our ego continues to reveal itself in new ways.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - 1 Comment →

All our senses operate according to the principle of revealing the opposite – translating everything that is perceived inside them to something that is opposite. What is seen as external is actually inside us because we turn it around in our brain, seeing the reverse picture only afterward. We don’t have any other way to perceive the world since we were all created such that we can only reveal something based on a lack or flaw in us. And we call that lack, “Light.” For this reason, spirituality is seen as dark and repulsive; we don’t agree with it and don’t want it. It doesn’t seem reasonable to us to love our neighbor and give to others.

The Zohar tells us about the Creator’s qualities, but how can we grasp this when we only know how to receive? How can we feel bestowal? This is a world that is hidden from us, a reality that we are unable to feel. The Zohar explains how to start perceiving, little by little, what is not presently felt by the heart or the mind. I am unable to put it into words since words express a feeling or understanding, but if there is no sensation behind them, then I simply do not feel the words.

If I read The Zohar together with others, hoping that it will help me, then a revelation will occur. The spiritual world is located here, right in front of us, but we are unable to perceive it with our heart or mind. It is a tremendous accomplishment to gradually begin to feel that it exists somewhere nearby, although we are unable to detect it. We need to continue feeling this lack when we study so that The Zohar will begin to tell us more.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Creator enjoys playing with man just like a father enjoys playing with his child. In our world, nature has instilled in parents a desire to bestow to their children. However, this comes from the spiritual root. This corporeal example can help us understand the spiritual world. Just like we enjoy caring for our children, the spiritual parent, which is the Upper System, enjoys caring for its spiritual children. We are those children; we just don’t see it.

When playing with a child, the game itself does not matter. What matters is our attitude toward the child and his attitude toward us in return. When the child stops reacting, the game stops being pleasant to us. We only receive pleasure when the child receives pleasure, when he understands what we do for him, and when he appreciates what he receives from us. This requires a similarity of our desires and qualities. In our world, we don’t understand this because the bigger the children grow, the further they grow apart from their parents. However, in the spiritual world, it’s the other way around: the older the child gets, the closer he becomes to his parent and the stronger he bonds to him.

However, this doesn’t mean that the child becomes dependent on his parent. The child’s dependence ceases just as it does in our world, yet the connection between them strengthens. This same thing happens to parents and children in our world who share common activities and a goal; they unite.

The Creator and creation are connected through a common goal because they want to fulfill one another. They want to return pleasure to each other so that each would understand how much the other values what he has received and to discover love in this reception. Otherwise, we would never feel and understand the Creator.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

A question I received: How come problems do not go away even when you understand the cause?

My Answer: This means that you lack the understanding, meaning, the attainment of the cause and the source. Where do these problems come from? They come from my egoism. Why do they come? They come because I am opposite to the Creator. What do I need to do? I need to demand help from the Surrounding Light so I will acquire the quality of bestowal and attain a connection with the Creator; these are my initial goals.

Basically, I need to go through several stages. The ten Sefirot of the Direct Light awaken the ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light within us, causing us to feel pain starting with the first Sefira (Malchut). After the first nine Sefirot, I feel the evil as a stab or a blow when the Light comes from Above and collides with Malchut. And then I must turn this evil into a proper reaction – the nine Sefirot of the Reflected Light.

In other words, I need to understand that this evil did not come from the Creator, but from my egoistic desire, which is opposite to Him. But why am I opposite to Him? Didn’t He create me this way? I need to understand why I was created this way and what I need to do. I have to rise above my egoism, unite with others, and attain the form of Bina. I rise from Malchut to Bina to acquire the quality of bestowal to the full extent, so that Malchut will be included in Bina and the quality of bestowal will influence and fulfill me.

I remain in it, but that’s not all. After that I’ll need to rise even higher – from Bina to Keter. I rise to Keter in order to attain reception for the sake of bestowal, until I unite with the Creator completely. This is the goal, and the reason why I am now receiving the first blow in Malchut, which I perceive as pain. It’s so that I will be able to attain Keter. The entire process must occur inside me inside Malchut of the Direct Light, or stated differently, inside Keter of the Reflected Light. It must take place within the creature’s initial reaction to the Creator. I need to examine all of this, comprehend it, and solve it, so that as a result, a prayer will emerge inside me where I ask, “Give me the strength to ask”! Because I don’t even have that yet.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →