The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 7: The two are crowned and illuminate, meaning they became three—HGT—through the middle line that decided between them. Hence, three enter into one because the middle line, Tifferet, receives and spreads into three other lines by itself—NHY. This is so because the lower one is rewarded with the full measure that it causes in the illumination of the upper one, since it is its cause.

If you cannot awaken the Upper One, to cause the Upper one to bestow upon you, it means that you yourself haven’t accumulated the necessary desire to receive spiritual fulfillment. To the extent that the lower one is able to awaken the Upper One, he is corrected, ready to receive from the Upper One, and therefore receives. In fact, there is no action on the part of the Upper One; it is the lower one who opens the door and receives.

Nonetheless, in the entire process of bringing all of creation to perfection, there is a program called “Beito” (in its time), and accordingly, we must reach the purpose of creation in a certain period of time by uniting in one desire filled with Light as it was in the World of Infinity before the Tzimtzum (restriction). Therefore, there is a sequence of actions we must perform, either willingly or unwillingly.

Moment by moment, there arise our uncorrected Reshimot (informational data) and the force that corrects them. This process of correction leads us from the beginning of creation to the final correction, meaning to total equivalence with the Creator’s properties. For that reason, everything starts when the creature and the Creator are detached and set apart as two opposing poles. The impact of the force on the uncorrected desire (Reshimo) causes them to draw closer through similar properties.

The lower one doesn’t wish for and is unaware of drawing closer to the Creator, and by moving toward something undesirable, the lower one senses it as suffering. Thus, our whole life feels like suffering. We are advancing closer to the Creator, yet we feel that we are approaching evil. In this way, the path Beito (in its time) is a process that leads all of creation to correction automatically, without asking what the lower one wants.

On the other hand, today by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, we learn the program of our automatic correction called Beito, plug into it, and then correct ourselves willingly. In this way we engage in a process called “Achishena” (hastening our correction time), first out of desperation and then willingly.

The law of equivalence of form between us and the Creator, which is the state of the World of Infinity that we must attain, affects us and draws us into this state with or without our participation. Therefore, it is desirable to learn how to carry out this law. Otherwise, all of the phases we are entering with the lack of our similarity with the Creator, will cause us great suffering.

Now you can understand how much suffering is caused in the world by those who oppose Kabbalah.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/10, The Zohar

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It is believed that a collective prayer occurs when a person raises his or her prayer among others who are praying at the same time. Yet, those who are more spiritually aware believe that a collective prayer is a plea for society. Such a prayer is immediately accepted by the Creator, whereas an egoistic prayer (when a person prays for himself ) is not heard.

Nevertheless, even a request to the Creator for society is not perfect. In fact, if the Creator “is good that does good,” my request implies that society is suffering because of the Creator, doesn’t it? It seems like I think that the Creator is mistreating society, and that I should pray for them. However, if the Creator is always benevolent to everybody, for whom am I asking?

It follows that I cannot ask the Creator to change His attitude toward me (a personal prayer) or toward society (a collective prayer). Since the Creator is absolutely and invariably good, I can ask Him only to correct me and all the others in such a way that we will feel that He is only good.

If all who desire to be connected to the Creator in the property of love and bestowal are willing to unite with others in the same property, then through their aspiration, they create a place where the Creator is revealed. That place is our mutual love.

However, such a state can be achieved only through the correction of each individual’s 613 desires, which is called the “fulfillment of 613 commandments.” In the degree of our correction, we draw closer to each other since the correction of desires lies in their unification.

This is why the sages said that “love of others is the greatest law of the Torah,” and all the commandments are necessary only in order to attain the last one, the universal commandment: love. As a result, in these individual and collective corrections, we will feel the power of love and bestowal filling us.

But if we are not corrected and united, and everyone wants to receive for himself, our prayer is solely for material things. (Material is what is received egoistically, whereas spiritual is what is received in order to bestow). In this case, receiving for ourselves, we become “the nations of the world,” and not “Israel” (straight to the Creator).

These terms are not related to some nation or nationality. They describe the states of a person on the spiritual path. According to this, our prayer is either to improve our personal state of existence or to correct our attitude toward the others and the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, Article “The Importance of the Prayer of the Many”

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A prayer, a plea for correction, is the most natural desire, but the problem is that our heart does not want what is needed. Our desires are corrupted, and so we read articles by Kabbalists to learn what request we should form in our hearts.

First, we need to correct our desires. When a sensation of the Creator is revealed in the very first, minor, corrected desire, we will know exactly what we should ask for in order to draw increasingly closer to Him. For this reason, the sages of the Great Assembly (Anshei Knesset HaGedolah), all of which were great Kabbalists, wrote a prayer book for us so that everyone could at least read about what a corrected heart should ask for. When we open a prayer book, we need to remember that we are reading about the very elevated states which we need to achieve.

Along with the prayer book, we need a wise mentor who will teach us how to make our heart desire what the prayer talks about. After all, the point is not just to repeat the written words, but to reach a sensation deep in our hearts. A person’s heart should utter all the words of the prayer.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/12, Article, “The Importance of the Prayer of the Many”

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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 4: The two lines that were moist and mingled with one another have not been frozen by the middle line, which is Tifferet, and will no longer mingle with one another.

Only two lines descend to us from Above. Our job is to realize the Reshimot (informational records) that manifest in us and construct the middle line for them. The two lines – the left and the right, the property of mercy (Rachamim) and that of judgment (Din), bestowal and receiving – influence the Reshimot.

Both of them impact me and my Reshimo. My task is to realize both forces in an optimal way by using the Reshimo. This is what is called the middle or third line. My job is to use both forces that I receive from the Creator in the proper way within myself.

How do I recognize these forces? How do I find ways to connect them together? In any state, along the entire ascent until achieving complete correction, I have Reshimot that must be realized. My next state is already given to me; I don’t have to search for it. All I have to do is learn how to connect both forces together and how to organize my next state in the most optimal way in order to become similar with the Upper One at every given moment.

The Creator shaped both forces that come to me from Above. My job is to build a form from myself that is similar to Him with the help of these two forces and Reshimot. I have all the instruments handy: the engine (Reshimot) and “plus” and “minus” (the two lines). I only have to know for which purpose I “ignite” the system.

All the tools are already available to me. I only have to add my own effort. Yet my work has to be applied not towards the construction of my new state, but rather to the realization of what I do and why I do it. By acting this way, I become similar to the Creator.

Often times we think that we have to correct or build the whole world. But in fact, all we are required to do is to concentrate on a very easy task. Even though our work is extremely simple, it actually changes the entire reality.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, The Zohar

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

Why Is The Creator Concealed From Man?

And in order for the created beings to receive all the abundance and enjoyment without feeling ashamed for receiving it, the correction [of initially purposefully corrupted egoistic nature] was performed.

The essence of this correction is the restriction and concealment of the Upper Light [from man]. Meaning, until one corrects his desire to receive into a bestowing one [becomes similar to the Light, the Creator] no revelation of the Upper Light is possible. [We perceive the Upper Light like any natural phenomena only to the measure of similarity of our properties to that phenomenon.]

And instead of tasting goodness and pleasure [from bestowal] in the commandments [the acts of correction of the desire to receive into the desire to bestow so as to become similar to the Creator] that we fulfill, we are unable to feel the taste that won’t make us ashamed while receiving pleasure. For this specific reason the correction [concealment of the Light, pleasure from bestowal and love] was performed whereby at the moment of receiving pleasure, we must act for the sake of bestowal since otherwise the concealment extends to our actions.

– Rabash, Shlavei ha Sulam, “Sanctity and Purity in the Work,” 1991, pg. 28.

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Everyone knows what prayer is. It exists in all the religions and cultures. People turn to each other with prayer begging for something. Prayer can be directed at people or at the Upper Force (however a person imagines it).

Prayer contains great power because when a person feels that he is in a dead-end situation, a true prayer for help bursts forth by itself. This is a natural reaction that we call prayer, a plea, or a cry. There is also a prayer of gratitude that pours out of the heart. This action awakens enormous inner reserves of a person and brings about healing, the ability to overcome obstacles that seem insurmountable.

However, in Kabbalah “prayer” is not just any plea, but a request for correction, for attaining the goal of creation. Prior to our fall from the sensation of the Creator, we did not have prayer books because people felt the Creator and every person turned to Him from the heart, according to the verse, “A person’s soul teaches him. “Every person knew what he needed to discern and what he needed to do in order to come closer to the goal, to unite with the Creator and attain equivalence of form with Him.

This was the case before the destruction of the Temple because the entire nation lived in the higher sensation and felt what it needed to ask for. The sensation in people’s hearts was essentially the prayer. People lived by the principle, “Whatever one feels in one’s heart is what one speaks.”

People felt in their hearts an aspiration for bestowal, love for the neighbor, love for the Creator, and equivalence with Him. This was felt by the heart and therefore words were not needed. Expressing this verbally is often done for us, in order to hear ourselves and to understand what our heart feels.

This was a time when we were in a corrected state. However, then the Temple was destroyed in our hearts due to the general fall of people from “love for the neighbor” to “unfounded hatred for one another.” Thus, we stopped being similar to the Creator and lost equivalence of form with Him. Therefore, He disappeared from our sensation and we started asking for things for our egos instead of our own correction!

We ask for things that are requested by the new desire that has taken over us, our egoism. And what can egoism possibly want? It wants to feel good and for others to feel bad since then it will feel even better compared to them!

That is how our new heart, “the stony heart,” operates. Obviously, we don’t attain the true prayer until we correct our desires. But on the other hand, we still have to know what the true prayer has to be in order to understand it at least with our mind (if not with the heart), and to advance in this direction by correcting our qualities.

That is why Kabbalists composed a prayer book for us, so we would know what to ask for.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, “The Importance of the Prayer of the Many”

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A question I received: How does the spiritual correction happen?

My Answer: First, the Upper spiritual Partzuf descends to the lower one. The Upper One attaches itself to the lower one and assumes its form and qualities. Then, the Light comes, and, thanks to the bond formed between the Upper One and the lower one, as the Upper One ascends, the lower one is elevated together with Him.

It follows that the descent and the breaking provide the opportunity for the subsequent correction. First, the Upper One descends to the lower one, becomes corrupted, and thereby, equalizes with the lower one becoming one whole. Then when the Light comes, which is part of the Upper One that had fallen into the lower one, the Upper One can awaken because it is His Light which is the Light of bestowal.

The lower one cannot awaken from this Light because it is entirely uninspired by tales of love and bestowal. It carries only the desire for pleasure. However, thanks to their bond, as the Upper One ascends, He drags the lower one up with Him for they were in descent together. This is the miracle of correction.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/10, Rabash’s Article “Go Forth From Your Country”

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When I turn to The Zohar and begin to read, what am I coming with, what am I bringing in my hands for correction? I am bringing big piles of fragments and broken bonds with the other souls. To the extent I regret that they are broken, I can transfer to The Zohar my desire and my need for unity.

Herein lies our only free will: to increase this desire for unity in one another. None of us feel the need to do this, but by connecting to the group and the environment, I begin to desire what I have never desired before, something I couldn’t possibly come to desire on my own. I begin to feel the need to unite with others, and to ask for this unity.

Therefore, each time before we begin to read The Zohar, we must tune ourselves to feel the values of the group, to come under its influence, to “buy a friend,” to lower oneself before the group so that every individual and the group as a whole will be inspired by the need to unite, and will demand correction, which is the restoration of broken bonds.

With this desire, we will draw the Light of Correction. The Light will not come without a reason. We must know precisely what we want; otherwise it will be hypocrisy and not a prayer.

If we come together to reveal this singular desire for the correction prepared for us by the Creator, we will pray for the correction of the shattering. This plea will be answered from Above, and the bonds between us will be mended. Then, together, we will reveal everything The Zohar wishes to reveal to us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, The Zohar

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Correction begins with the realization of evil, as it said: “I created the evil inclination and Torah as a means for its correction.” If the evil that the Creator purposefully created was not revealed, who would want to correct himself? The sensation of evil and suffering pushes us to change. At first, we want to change everything on the outside; we want to change the entire world. Later, we do agree that we need to change ourselves. Every person, nation, and society, and our entire civilization as a whole needs to go through this change.

Correction cannot begin without the need for it. In other words, I need to feel that I’m miserable without correction. This is why we must develop and cultivate our egoism, experience in it various blows and problems such as emptiness, loss of hope and fulfillment, and be completely unable to change it. We search for ways to change the world until we discover that the evil in us is to blame for everything. Then, seemingly by accident, we discover Kabbalah.

However, someone had to prepare it for us in the form of books and websites because our nature, confined in the desire to receive and fill itself, is incapable of contact with the Upper World and directly feeling the Creator. In order to do this, we first need external methods: a teacher and books.

Usually this knowledge is passed from one person to another through people who have already acquired the connection to the spiritual world. This connection with the spiritual world has to be already present in our world. Otherwise, we, being complete egoists, would never be able to even think of the spiritual world. We would search for a way to free ourselves from suffering only on the level of this world.

This is why it is necessary to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah. The people who feel empty in this world will discover it as the method of absolute fulfillment. Then, the following two conditions of the beginning of correction will be carried out: 1) people feel bad, and 2) it is revealed to them that there is a method which will make things well. Gradually, people will begin to correct themselves and realize the purpose of their creation.

Our generation is still revealing the first condition. People are looking at different methods and techniques in order to fulfill themselves. Sometimes they even turn to drugs and alcohol, but gradually, this passes. Soon, even the desire for drugs, violence, and fanaticism will disappear. People will feel and understand that they are not able to fill their inner emptiness this way.

The desire for pleasure changes. It rises to the next level, and it is impossible to continue as before. People can no longer find comfort in drugs. They begin to search for a deeper solution. But we need to develop until we reach the state when people will be left with no other solution but the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We can shorten their search by spreading this method so everyone will understand more quickly that we have to reveal the Upper Force that governs us. Only this can help us.

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Our inner work is revealed to us piecemeal, in parts that pertain to its execution. We aren’t given the ability to see the entire sum total of all the work we have accomplished, lest it pose an obstacle for us.

A person is constantly consumed by the desire that is revealed in him at the present moment. He forgets about everything he did in the past and constantly feels empty. The more he works, the more the things he has already done become concealed from him.

Even though he has performed many corrections and nothing disappears, he is given the feeling that he has not done anything. This happens so he always has the opportunity to do more, so a new desire can be revealed just like the first time. This continues until he carries out a certain volume of work. Then, in one final action called "Rav Paalim UMekabtziel" he will reveal the entire correction that he has accumulated.

However, along the path we are obligated to forget about all the states we have gone through in order to receive a desire for the next action. Otherwise we would stop and be unable to keep advancing. As long as a person hasn’t completed all the corrections, his entire previous work is concealed from him, as if he has not done anything. Yet, everything will become revealed at once, at the End of Correction!

Everything repeats over and over again, but since a new desire constantly comes to us, it seems like it’s a completely new state. "It is as if we begin everything anew every day." We reveal a new appetite and new tastes in the material world just like in the spiritual world.

Therefore, even if it seems like we have not done anything in spirituality and that we did not attain anything, we will reveal later that this is not so. But until the very End of Correction, we cannot ask or demand for anything that we deserve for the past. On the contrary, we have to be grateful for the fact that the past is concealed from us because this way it does not blind us and prevent us from moving forward. It allows us to begin all the work anew every time.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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