When reading a Kabbalistic text, it’s important to understand that it is only talking about spiritual processes that take place inside a person, rather than about different characters and external actions. Everything that is described in a Kabbalistic text is inside a person.

For instance, the entire Torah talks only about how a person discerns different desires and qualities within: which ones belong to bestowal and which – to reception, which are fit for correction and which are unfit for it; and how a person experiences an inner world through these qualities, which is the only world that actually exists. A person then discovers that he perceives our world inside him as well, and there is never anything on the outside.

The way to enter the new world is by expanding your perception of your internal desires and qualities and by taking care to use all of them for the sake of bestowal. This is how one realizes oneself to the fullest.

A person contains all the characters of the Torah – the whole world to the fullest is within him. Kabbalah explains how a person can arrange the entire sum of all his desires within, and thereby reveal a new world.

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The spiritual world is not in a different dimension or up in the clouds. It is something you find inside your attitude to other people, when you see that your neglect toward them becomes replaced by attentiveness toward them and a feeling that they are important. This happens because you wish to reach spirituality, and you start to see that they are your partners on this path.

You then begin to worry about them and to take care of them just as you would with anyone who is important to you. At first you do this egoistically, but you gradually start to feel that you want to give to them.

That is when the Light begins to work, making you feel that there are qualities inside you that you have to correct. You wish to treat others with love, and you also feel that only the Light can carry out this correction. If you really want this to happen, then the Light will come and correct you.

However, this Light works only inside the connection between people, turning hatred into love and correcting the breaking which once turned love into hatred. Inside this new attitude to others, you begin to reveal the spiritual world that was lost during the breaking. You realize that your connection with others is a connection of souls, of your inner desires, and inside it, you reveal the Creator.

All of this occurs precisely inside this net of desires that bind all of you. They create a vessel (Kli), in which your spiritual life becomes revealed. Meanwhile, the material life turns out to be but a dream, like an imagined world.

Deep inside the connection among people, you reveal the quality of bestowal, and you realize that it is the only thing that exists in the world. Everything else was a fantasy, a concealment of the spiritual world, which was necessary in order for you to reveal it.

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No matter what we do, we always act for the sake of our egoism and we never go against it. It was in order to help us exit our egoism and enter the Upper World that we were given the Light of Correction. This Light influences us even when we strive for an egoistic goal, such as when we are afraid of ending our lives without achieving anything of greatness, when we desire to feel eternity and perfection, and to enter the eternal spiritual world.

A person sees that he gets nothing from his earthly life. It is short and empty, and nothing remains of it once it’s over. We, as humanity, had to go through thousands of years of egoistic development just in order to come to this realization. And the majority of people still don’t stop to think about this even today, being preoccupied by the mundane concerns of daily life.

For now, they are still not so concerned about the meaning of life, as they are about how to gain the most in life. Their inner desires haven’t yet ripened sufficiently to ask about the meaning of life.

But if the point in the heart awakens in a person, he begins being concerned about his life after death. And later on he comes to understand that he can attain the sensation of eternal life even while living in this world.

Thus, he begins to study Kabbalah books, even though his objectives are still egoistic: He wants to master the World of infinity, to feel, understand and control everything. But gradually, the Light inside these books changes him and instills new values in him. He learns how to lie to his own body and to force it to work for the spiritual goal. And eventually he comes to agree and accept the path that the Creator has set for him.

The Light then raises him above his ego and brings him to the quality of bestowal. He thereby acquires a new mind and an understanding of the entire system of reality; he reveals the Upper Worlds and the thought of creation.
(From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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A question I received: When we learn how to bestow, will the mutual bestowal between our souls in the spiritual world influence our material world?

My Answer: Of course. Our current, uncorrected attitudes to one another awaken forces of envy and hatred in our world, which is why our world looks they way it does. If we attract the force of correction (the force of mercy) from Above, then positive forces will descend into our world, bringing us peace, unity, balance, safety and tranquility.

We cannot influence anything within the plane of this world. We see that no matter how much we try to do something in our world, nothing ends up right. People think that they can change something in their personal lives because they see that they advance there. But on the global scale, we see that no one is in control of the situation. The latest crises (including those in education, culture, family life, economy and finance, and the ecology) are making us realize that we are absolutely unable to withstand them.

All of this is purposeful, intended only in order to show us time and time again that we cannot correct anything within the plane of this world. Our world is but a result of the Upper Forces’ influence. That is why we have to ascend to the level of these forces and from there, change their influence on us here, in this world.

If we attract the Upper Light during our studies, when we connect with one another, then we will undoubtedly elicit very big improvements in our world. This is the only chance we have to affect our world.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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A question I received: Why does the science of Kabbalah devote so much attention to the structure of the spiritual worlds?

My Answer: There are five worlds separating us from the World of Infinity – the world of complete perfection, where everything is revealed. The five worlds are like five concealments or filters, concealing the World of Infinity from us. The worlds are called Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. Our world exists below the World of Assiya and is entirely concealed from the Upper Worlds.

Each world is structured in exactly the same way as the World of Infinity, but each lower world is weaker, less clear and shines less than the one above it. Besides this, all the worlds are the same: they have all the same elements, the same number of elements and the same connections between them. So, everything that exists in each world, including our world, is similar.
Therefore, the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature that exist in our world are interconnected inside one common structure, and have the same interactions and relationships as the forces in the spiritual world. The only difference is that the qualities of the forces are different. Yet, the relationships between the elements are the same, and their order is the same as well.

We exist in total darkness and therefore we don’t see the equivalence between our world and the spiritual world. This is the reason why we perceive things in our world as flawed, entangled, messy, and unfair.

However, our world is a branch, and its root is the World of Assiya. The World of Assiya, in turn, is a branch, and its root is the World of Yetzira. This pattern continues until it reaches the root of everything – the World of Infinity. This is how everything is structured.

We exist in our world and we have no choice but to exist in a certain reality with our particular qualities. I have particular forces, qualities, mind and feelings that cause me to discern a picture called “this world.”

However, I can start changing my feelings and my mind through this picture. The Upper World is built by the same model, and it differs only by its qualities. It presents the same picture, but in a more vibrant manner. Therefore, while I in our world, right now, I can try to attain the higher perception, for the reason explained above: because the elements of the worlds and the relationships between them are the same. It’s just that the quality of the forces in the spiritual worlds is higher.

By studying the science of Kabbalah, I attract a force from above upon myself, as I try to attain the Upper World. This aspiration brings me the Light, which returns me to the Source. The Light is the force that changes my qualities, but It doesn’t have to change my inner elements or their structure.

The Light has to change only one thing: the quality of my most prominent attribute, egoism. Instead of my egoism, the Light gives me a little bit of the force of bestowal, which is a force higher than my own. That is how I “rise,” together with all that I see and feel, onto a higher level or dimension, and thus, I begin to perceive the spiritual world.

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Our world does not pertain to the spiritual world; therefore, there is no need to correct it. While living in this world, I discover a point in my heart – the embryo of a spiritual desire. I need to extract it from the other desires, expand it, and correct it in a way that will make it possible to reveal the spiritual world within it.

Our world remains the same. Until the very end of a person’s spiritual correction, he should feel this reality without trying to correct it with his own strength. Why? Because it is impossible to do so! History has taught us this through every step of our development.

With this attitude towards our world, the science of Kabbalah differs from other sciences, spiritual and corporeal methodologies, belief systems, and religions. In other system, people direct their efforts within the plane of our world, which is not where they should. Our world will only change for the worse due to those actions, since it does not become truly corrected and more time passes by.

Yet if a point in the heart awakens in a person, by following the path of Kabbalah, he begins to widen his point in the heart until it encompasses the sphere where he perceives the Upper World, the Upper Dimension. He begins his ascent from this central point, acquiring a screen and the Reflected Light, which is the force of bestowal.

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A question I received: What does it mean “that which I do not attain, I do not call by a name?”

My Answer: Contrary to philosophy or our perception of the world, nothing exists on its own in the science of Kabbalah. Everything exists only in my perception and sensation, and this is the only thing I am allowed to speak of.

There is no Creator, no creation, no worlds. There is nothing that can be said to actually exist. I am the only one who senses that it exists, I am the one who thinks, I am the one who sees, and this is the only context in which I can speak of anything I perceive.

I perceive everything through my senses, and everything depends on my relation to it and its relativity to me. This is why we can only speak of that which a person reveals and attains. In Hebrew, the Creator is called “Bo-re” – “Come and See.”  There is no Creator without the creation.

The quality of bestowal is revealed within our Kelim in accordance to the similarity of its attributes with something external which we do not perceive. This we call the Creator, “Come and see what I see!”

I perceive Him in my senses, which have changed due to my evolving qualities, due to the changes taking place within me. I say: “The Creator is within me! Look at the form  I’ve taken!” This form is what I call the Creator.

I don’t point at Him directly; I only speak of His form which is engraved into my matter, and it is this form that I call the Creator. The matter (desire to receive pleasure) has changed its form into the desire to bestow.

This is why we evaluate and determine everything only in relation to our personal attainment and not, in relation to anything outside of us. All the worlds are my Kelim, my vessels of perception, and I only perceive them to be external to me.

I perceive myself inside of my internal desires, but I perceive the world in my external desires since my Kelim are divided into the internal and external. When they merge, I will have ten Sefirot of the soul, the world will disappear and everything will enter me.

At present, I sense everyone surrounding me as external because my Kli isn’t complete, it is shattered. If it was complete, I wouldn’t be able to discern anyone external to me. I would feel everything as the World of Infinity.

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There is no such thing as a descent in spirituality. You always keep everything you have attained. However, you do receive additional, new egoistic desires, and this makes you feel as if you are in a descent.

Yet, you shouldn’t think that the force of bestowal has abandoned you. Rather, this force has helped you to attain a greater revelation of egoism, and you should be happy that you have received the opportunity to see yourself as more deformed, to reveal more desires you can correct, and thus to ascend higher than ever before.

You should see yourself as a trail breaker who makes his way deep inside the egoistic desire, taking little pieces from there that can be attached to bestowal. You should use all your natural qualities, such as a thief and a liar, to steal from and lie to your own egoism.

After all, our egoism is but an animal, and it cannot find out about a man’s intentions. It only understands straightforward, direct gain. We are living inside this egoism and we do everything for its sake. Meanwhile, we don’t realize that we are dealing with our inner animal, which always demands us to serve it.

On the upside, it does not understand the human mind and guile, and this is why the right relation to it enables us to make it do anything we – humans – need.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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You have to constantly check yourself in relation to the Light, the quality of bestowal. To the extent you do this, you will receive the force of the Light, which will correct you. All our efforts have to be directed at desiring the influence of the Light, which will cause the birth of a new quality – bestowal – inside us. If you focus only on this: drawing the Light of correction, then you won’t get confused or scatter you efforts on unnecessary actions.

We usually try to do everything except drawing the Light of Correction upon ourselves. However, this Light is the only thing we need. It will give us the right intelligence and carry out all the actions for us. We don’t do anything ourselves. Anything that we do without the Light’s assistance is an animate action, which won’t bring us an inch closer to the goal.

Therefore, from dawn to dusk, every thought we have and action we perform should lead us to one question: “Where is the Light of Correction?” Only the Light of Correction should perform the work for us, including the clarification and the action. This is what’s written: “I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah for its correction, because the Light that is hidden in it returns one to the source.” It’s the Light that has to do everything, not you. It has to return you to goodness and correct you.

It is not written that the Light should help you return to goodness yourself. Rather, It does everything from beginning to end. So, if you do anything at all besides drawing the Light, then you will become confused and waste precious moments of your life.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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Scientists hope that the Large Hadron Collider will help them discover new particles, to reveal what existed before the universe was created, and to find out about what was there before matter formed. By going deeper into the micro-world, it’s almost like they’re going back to the time when the spark of spiritual energy broke through from the Upper World to the material level, and began creating matter in it.

But even though scientists are hoping to reveal this state, they will instead encounter an effect where everything just disappears… After all, people and all their instruments are built on the egoistic principle of capturing, absorbing, and revealing what we are able to “catch” inside ourselves.

We can only reveal nature to a specific point – the limit of our senses’ perception. However, the Upper World of bestowal is situated beyond our current perception. In order to investigate it, we must “equip” ourselves with its quality – bestowal.

If we begin to gradually acquire this property, we start rising up the spiritual degrees, until we reach the point from which the spiritual forces began their descent down to our world, before its conception. And on the border of the worlds, we will be able to understand how the spark of the Upper Light was able to break through into our world and create all is filling.

This is why scientists will eventually come to the conclusion that they must first change themselves before they can obtain results. The observer is the one who must change! Indeed, science is already acknowledging that the observation of an event influences the results of their experiments, whether they are researching elementary particles or entire galaxies. In the past, however, science asserted that the world exists independent of us, independent of the observer, of man, the earth and life on it.

If the observer can change the outcome of the observed, then the reality we see depends on us and does not exist independently, or outside of us. Thus, in order to move forward in our research of nature, we have to acquire the quality of bestowal. We will then discover “the Creator” – the force that creates the world.

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