The Zohar: It is known that everything is comprised of “world, year, and soul.”

One perceives oneself and the world through limitations called “world, year, and soul.” “World” is everything one perceives as the space surrounding him, in which he and everything else exist. “Year” is the sequence of actions, times, and states that one goes though, perceiving them as an order of cause and consequence. This gives one the perception of life and the flow of time. The soul is the person who feels that he exists and lives within space and time.

Thus, there is the person, the world that surrounds him, and the perception of a changing reality – world, year, and soul. This is how we all perceive our existence. However, in actuality, the limitations of “world, year, and soul” do not exist. They are all the Upper Force, which depicts these feelings, coordinates, and boundaries inside us.

In the science of Kabbalah we learn that there is Malchut and Bina. When we perceive our existence in Malchut, we feel that we are standing on earth; when we perceive our existence in Bina, we feel that we are in the clouds; and when we perceive that we are situated between Malchut and Bina, we feel that we are between the sky and the ground.

The Upper Forces depict for us the whole world that surrounds us and our existence in it. They are like vectors on a computer screen, giving us a sensation of time and space, which consist of many objects. However, all of these are just forces that illustrate a colorful, three-dimensional picture for us and within us.

All of this is, in fact, one force, but its influences are presented to us in a way that separates them into time, space, and motion, or, as The Book of Zohar says, into world, year, and soul. As a result, we feel that we exist in a world where everything moves and exists in a continuous fashion.

However, all of this is the influence of one force upon us. It is this force that creates all these various impressions, giving us a sensation of ourselves, a three-dimensional space, and time.

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Malchut is incapable of being corrected on its own, since it is an inanimate desire. However, when it mixes with Bina (with the Nekudot de-SAG which descend under the Tabur of Galgalta), it takes on its qualities and begins to realize, “I want to bestow, I want to ascend and be corrected, and to become similar to the Creator!” This is how Malchut with the inclusion of sparks of Bina, sparks of bestowal, is formed under the Tabur.

However, during this inclusion, Bina receives Malchut inside itself and thereby separates into two parts: the upper part – Galgalta ve Eynaim, which is the pure Bina, and the lower part – ZAT de-Bina, Rechem (womb), or Ima (mother), which understands what kind of desires exist below.

The upper level contains a part of the lower level, and the lower level contains a part of the upper level. Stated differently, Bina contains a small part of Malchut and Malchut contains a small part of Bina. Now they can understand each other. Their relationship is analogous to a mother and a baby, where a mother understands what her baby is crying about, and a baby knows that there is someone to cry to. He instinctively feels that someone gave birth to him and is obligated to care for him.

If this did not occur, then the space beneath Tabur of Galgalta would forever remain empty and the creature (the will to receive) would never reach the goal – bestowal to the Creator. This is why each of our thoughts and desires contains a part of Bina and a part of Malchut. After all, if we only contained the part of Malchut, our world would be dead. All progress and development comes from Bina.

Even scientists are now discovering that when cells separate or when any other development occurs, there are altruistic actions taking place. There are always two opposite forces acting in Nature: the Creator and the creation, a plus and a minus. The inclusion of Bina inside Malchut is what enables creation to not remain locked in complete darkness and to begin moving in the direction of the Light. It’s because it gives creation an inner sensation that “There is someone who must help me!”

In much the same way, a newborn feels that the mother is obligated to care for him. He cries and yells because he knows that someone is reacting to him. He isn’t just crying empty tears, but directing them at someone.

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The Zohar: The Creator said to Noah: “Enter the ark with your entire household.” One of man’s qualities, which he defines as the Creator, turns to another quality in him called Noah. Noah is the quality of bestowal and love, and the aspiration to rise above one’s ego. One’s quality called the Creator speaks to this quality, called Noah, in order to elevate it even higher. This is why the Creator says: “Enter the ark!” which means – fortify yourself in the quality of bestowal.

It is written of the entrance into the ark: “The Creator (HaVaYaH), Zeir Anpin, said,” and it is written about the exit: “Elokim said,” referring to Nukvah of Zeir Anpin. It is written that the master of the house, Zeir Anpin, allows Noah to enter the ark. The ark is the quality of bestowal, Bina. If a person (the quality of Noah that aspires toward bestowal) enters the ark, Bina, then he feels that nothing can harm him – he is safe from all of his other qualities, which disagree with Noah. All the rest of man’s qualities are egoistic and can harm his spiritual progress; this is why he wants to separate the quality of Noah from them and advance only with this quality. He leaves the other qualities alone for now and makes a restriction on them, hiding them away.

Then the mistress, Nukvah of Zeir Anpin, tells him to exit. He entered with the permission of the master, Zeir Anpin, but exited with the permission of the mistress, Nukvah of Zeir Anpin. This is talking about two forces that influence a person: the force of Zeir Anpin and the force of Nukvah, judgment and mercy. By influencing us with these two reins, we advance closer to the goal.

Thus we have found out that the master brought the guest into the house, and the mistress led him out of it, as it is written. “Elokim said to Noah: Come out of the ark!” Elokim is the masculine force, the force that overcomes. She is permitted to bring the guest out, but she does not have the right to let him in.

Even though these two forces are opposite to one another, they act together in order to advance us. We cannot advance with just the help of the one force that pulls us forward. We also need the force that pushes us from behind. We are always being controlled by them as if by two reins. If we understand that these two forces are influencing us for our own good and balance the left force with the right one, then we will connect them together and build the middle line.

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When our egoistic desire feels bad, it drives us from behind like a whip, driving us in search of happiness. However, that is not enough to proceed in the right direction, because it is not the goal of creation to flee from egoism. This is merely a way of assisting us since it acts as a force to drive us forward.

To aim us in the right direction, we are granted a desire from Above – a spark or point in the heart which draws us to spiritual development. This spark brings us to a Kabbalistic group and a teacher, so we can grow and develop it.

Using these components, we must build an “ark” for ourselves, wherein we can escape all the evil, all that confuses us and stumps our spiritual growth. At the same time, we have to understand that nothing can be done about the disturbances, whether external or internal. They are revealed in us and around us purposefully, so we could fortify our resolve and gather strength against them, similar to how the turbulent waters of the flood destroy everything harmful and leave behind only what is necessary.

Indeed, we have gathered here to build an ark inside us, representing the Creator’s quality of bestowal. This ark will be our shelter.

The Zohar: Go and enter the ark with your entire household, for all that does not take shelter in the ark shall be erased from the face of the earth.

We have to attach everything we can to Bina, the quality of bestowal, the Creator. We can do it by giving ourselves to Him fully and attaching to Him like a seed in a mother’s womb. Everything that we are able to attach to this quality will be saved and developed in spirituality.

As for the desires that one cannot attach to Bina, they shall be destroyed by the waters of the flood. Noah is the only desire within us that can lead us to spirituality, provided we cut it off from the rest of our desires which cannot develop spiritually. That is why we want to connect to spirituality by means of this desire. It is the only desire we should want to cultivate.

We must cut off the rest of the desires and drown them in the waters of the flood, because we can only advance with the one desire symbolized by Noah. With this desire, we can build a new world – the world after the flood.

We don’t know what this new world will be like. We develop inside of Bina like inside a mother’s womb – and be what be. When we reemerge, there will be a new world!

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Our work is to rise above assessment by the principle of “sweet versus bitter” to assessment by the principle of “truth versus false.” After all, the Creator is called Truth.

The word “truth” (Emet) consists of the letters: Alef-Mem-Tav. Alef and Tav are the first and last letters of the alphabet, symbolizing desires on two different ends of the spectrum. Mem, which is in the middle, is the quality of Bina, which we can use to connect these two ends and reach correction, the Truth.

The only way to find out what is true and what is false is within a group of Kabbalists, an environment. Inside oneself, an individual doesn’t have any ability to do this, since he possesses only one parameter – the ego. In order to perform a measurement, one absolutely needs another parameter, which is outside of him.

After studying for a long time and performing many clarifications in the group, a beginner Kabbalist begins to feel that he exists in a general, global system of desires, among other “points in the heart.” In relation to this particular environment, he has an opportunity to acquire new sensuous concepts: drawing closer to or further away from it, a feeling of its global system, his inclusion in it, the need for its support, and a realization that it is the place where he will reveal the Upper World and the Creator.

However, in the meantime, the interaction of two forces – myself and the environment, is formed inside me. The environment will increase in weight in order to counteract my “I” – the ego. A new system of governance will arise, which will be outside of me, and which I will begin to consider and see as the salvation, the lever that can pull me out of my state – this world.

I measure “myself versus the environment,” and as a result of my measurements, I acquire quantitative and qualitative degrees of measuring spiritual relationships and forces. I thus build a linear scale: I am on one end, and the group is on the other. Using this scale, I can already examine, measure, and depict the Upper World.

From the relationship of “myself and the group,” a spiritual cell forms in me, and I can measure all of reality above me through that cell. That is how I build a soul inside myself.

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A question I received: Kabbalah talks about bestowal and unity. Isn’t this similar to communistic ideas, which scare people?

My Answer: The idea of communism wasn’t bad in and of itself, but its problem was that it did not have the means to change human nature. This is what happened in socialist Russia as well as in the Israeli Kibbutsim. They did not have the right method.

Kabbalists seem to use the same words and the same goal. However, communists were secular, whereas Kabbalah talks about the Creator. Still, this is irrelevant as well, since the Creator is altruistic nature, and creation is a person that desires fulfillment. That’s all. The fundamental difference between Kabbalah and communism lies in something else: How can human nature of complete egoism be changed so people would begin to love their neighbors?

If only the socialists had an opportunity to change their egoistic nature! However, no power or method in our world is capable of changing man’s nature because our whole world is egoistic. All of man’s desires, actions, and thoughts are absolutely egoistic, and therefore, our world does not have any force capable of correcting us.

When a “point in the heart,” an embryo of the quality of bestowal (Bina) emerges in a person, he can change himself and acquire the quality of bestowal through the method of correction, Kabbalah. This will allow him to unite with other souls, and inside the unification, he will reveal the Upper Force which created him – the Creator.

Socialism, communism, and other methods talk about something that sounds similar to Kabbalah. However, the only way to realize unification and reveal the Upper Form of life (which is spiritual and eternal) is with the help of an outside force – the Creator.

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Bina contains the entire Light of Hochma, but only in order to prefer the Light of Hassadim over it. In other words, it prefers bestowal over fulfillment. What does this mean?

It’s when I don’t want anything except to bestow! Someone gives me a million dollars, but I refuse to take it. They can give me 100 million or a billion, but I’ll still refuse it. This is called preferring Hassadim – bestowal – over reception.

It’s impossible to measure bestowal; it has no bounds. The only way to measure something is when it is inside the desires of reception. If I am able to receive a billion dollars and I want this money, but I prefer bestowal, then this is the measure of my desire to bestow. However, if I don’t have a desire to receive, then I don’t have anything with which to measure the desire to bestow.

These two opposite desires must come together: I need a great desire and a sensation of a great pleasure that I can receive, and at the same time, a screen over the desire. That way, I will prefer bestowal over anything else. But how can we possibly attain this correction?

Only the Light – Ohr Makif – is able to grant us this correction. When I prefer the Light of Hassadim and reject the Light of Hochma, then according to this, I measure the height of the Light of Hassadim, even though it expands outwards. The Light of Hochma, on the other hand, expands vertically, from Above downwards.

In and of itself, Bina has no height. If you want to bestow, go ahead. You shouldn’t care how much you bestow and to whom. But the height of bestowal is measured by the desires of reception, which are opposed to bestowal and can be overcome by it.

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Questions I received on interpreting Kabbalistic terms and phrases:

Question: What is Shechina?

My Answer: It is the desire to reveal the Creator, and if the desire is whole, then the Creator becomes revealed inside it. The Creator is called Shochen – one who fills this desire.

Question: What is the recognition of evil?

My Answer: It’s when you get to know you own egoism!

Question: Is suffering the same as falling behind in realizing the Reshimo?

My Answer: Yes!

Question: Can we envision humanity’s path of development as a ready-made, paved route from the point of “Adam” to the point of “the Creator”?

My Answer: That is absolutely correct!

Question: How are we to understand this verse: “Rabbi Shimon said: ‘Kill the best of the Egyptians, and split the head of the best snake’”?

My Answer: Egypt and the snake are your egoism.

Question: What is the Kabblistic meaning of the verse, “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk”?

My Answer: Don’t mix the developing egoism (the young goat) with bestowal (the quality of Bina, milk). If you do, not only will you fail to correct egoism, but you’ll make the egoism even bigger due to the quality of bestowal (Bina): you will get “bestowal for the sake of reception” instead of “reception for the sake of bestowal.”

Question: Can we say that the inanimate matter, plants, and animals are angels? They are like angels (spiritual forces that influence us) because they have no freedom of will.

My Answer: That’s right!

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Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (“Pticha”). Items 6 – 9, summary:

6. The five phases of the desire’s development from the Creator to its completed form comprise all of creation. Subsequently the desire is divided into different parts, but each part also consists of all these parts (according to the principle of a holographic image).

The Worlds of Adam Kadmon and Atzilut are still not separated from the Creator through their qualities. Hence, when the soul ascends to these worlds from our world, it merges with the Creator.

7. In the World of Beria, just as in phase 2, the desire to bestow is manifested. Therefore, when the soul is there, it feels independent from the Creator. Nevertheless, this does not make it separate it from the Creator, because it desires to bestow just as He does.

8. In the World of Yetzira, just as in phase 3, the desire to receive is manifested. However, this desire is still insufficient to separate the soul from the Creator.

9. In the World of Assiya phase 4 is manifested – the fully developed desire, called “the body.” It is completely separated from the Creator and feels absolutely independent. The Light inside it is called Nefesh – still, because the desire has no movement of its own.

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Two questions I received from students around the world:

Question: Here in Africa people don’t really want to know what lies beyond our world, but ever since I was young I have always been fascinated by the world and I have always wanted to find out the whole truth. Lately I have been thinking about how to help people change their ways and give meaning to their lives. I started telling others about goodness and coming closer to the Almighty, and I find much pleasure in what I am doing for others. I used to wait for a reward for my actions, but I do not want it any more. My greatest wish is for all of us to get closer to God. I found myself praying and saying to God that instead of being in heaven with Abraham I’d rather be here on earth until the last one of us is there with us.

Why do I feel responsible for the world? Why does my happiness depend on others’ well being? Is it a sign from God or is it just wishful thinking? Please tell me something about this state of mind. Thanks in advance for your help. Alhain Kadima

My Answer: You have simply revealed a new desire inside you: a desire for bestowal, for the Creator – a desire that others don’t have. You should actualize it, and then you will give a great gift to yourself and to the world!

Question: I am a new student and I’d like to ask you the following question. Can we say that we only acquire the knowledge and the true vision of reality (Hochma) as we are able, in some measure, in order to forward this truth to others (Bina)? Meaning that we can only discern the structure of the law of love as we experience it in all aspects of life? Thank you. Tiago.

My Answer: Yes, by bestowing to others we build a collective desire, in which we then perceive the one and only force in the world – the Creator.

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