We are inside a system of souls that are interconnected and exist in a corrected state, which was initially created by the Creator. It is written, “The end of the action is in the initial plan.” The Creator does everything with His Thought. He had a plan, and it all came true.

We have to attain the same state through our own work. Why? It is in order to be able to differentiate all the nuances, qualities, and components of that state. We have to feel that we own, sense, and attain it.

That is why we are in the same state, but totally unconscious. What should we do? We should ask for consciousness. I want to see, discover, and feel where I am! Which state in the world I feel is similar to the spiritual state that the Creator made? That state is the connection among people who aspire toward Him.

Right now the corrupted connection among us gives me a sensation I call “this world.” I experience our connection this way because I feel only myself. I am entirely immersed in myself. However, if my senses start to work in the opposite fashion, from within to the outside, then I will feel the true reality where I exist.

This change of the sensation “from within to outside” takes place gradually, along 125 levels, by virtue of our work, our efforts, and our request for it to happen. Where do I implement this entire process in order to avoid living inside illusions, getting confused, and making mistakes? I do it in the group and in my current state. That is where I have to implement it in practice.

This is exactly what I ask for. Everything is very tangible and simple: There is a group in which everyone aspires to attain a connection among them. This is what we ask for while reading The Zohar. Why? Because by reading this Book, we awaken our true connection with the force that rules us, the force called “the Creator.” Then our expectations have a chance of coming true, even if they are inauthentic and artificial. Concerning this it is written, “We will do and we will hear.”

This attitude to our state, to the studies, and to what should happen is called “intention,” and our work is man’s inner work, the work of the Creator. The use of this system through a book and through the force that rules inside us is called the science of Kabbalah.

These are all phases of revealing the Creator to the creation. What is the meaning of “the revelation of the Creator?” It is the revelation of the force of bestowal inside us. That is why the Creator (Bo-reh) means “Come (Bo), See (Reh).” At the end of the day, we are doing the Creator’s work, and that is the entire science of Kabbalah.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/10, The Zohar

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The Worlds of ABYA, through which we ascend upward like a ladder, emerge in a manner that the upper spiritual object (Partzuf) selects the “lightest” (those least damaged during the breaking) Reshimot (informational records). The upper Partzuf thereby corrects these Reshimot, giving birth to the next lower spiritual object. Similarly, at some level I choose Reshimot that I’m now able to correct, and they become my new reality, my world. It is like putting on a sharper pair of glasses, where I begin seeing a lower layer of these informational records.

The Light from Above begins to reach not only my lightest Reshimo, but because I have already realized it and created my new spiritual Partzuf according to its data, then through it, the Light begins to penetrate deeper, into the records of the next Partzuf. Thus, layer after layer the desire becomes fit to receive the influence of the Upper Light. The upper Partzuf constructed at the previous level serves as a lens, a magnifying glass that focuses the Light on the lower layer of informational records.

The records of one layer are selected and serve as the foundation for the spiritual Partzuf;  through it the Light transmits more deeply and opens informational records related to the next lower spiritual Partzuf. Hence each time, the formation of the upper spiritual Partzuf gives the Upper Light an opportunity to adapt to the lower layer of the will to receive, thereby coming in contact with it. Until then, they simply don’t perceive each other since they are too distant from one another in their attributes.

However, the upper Partzuf that is emerging becomes an adapter between the Upper Light and the informational data located in the next lower layer. Thus degree after degree, the correction takes place. Everyone who finishes a correction passes the entire package of Reshimot on to the next spiritual object selected, separating out that particular record. And after having completed one’s correction, whatever is left to correct is passed one step further.

This is how we should perform our work in spirituality: We select the lightest Reshimo-desire and work with it. As for the rest, we shouldn’t worry because it will become revealed later.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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Man’s egoism hates the wisdom of Kabbalah since it talks about love of others. Yet, in order to nevertheless bring man closer to the state opposite to his ego, religions were invented. This provided an opportunity to use the “wisdom of Kabbalah” (as it were) in various false forms, which allowed people to develop egoistically.

Religion elevates a person above his animalistic existence by espousing that there is a Creator, punishment and reward in this world and the next one, and eternity of his soul. It gives a person a glimpse into something higher, no matter how false it may be. However, people begin to build around it various theories, philosophies, and methodologies, and thereby develop art and culture, striving to become greater. Thus, through religions, humanity develops in its ego, in order to finally realize, during our time, that it is in exile from true spirituality.

When 2000 years ago we lost our spiritual ways, having fallen from love of others to unfounded hatred to all, we didn’t feel the fall because people were used to the presence of the Creator in their existence. But humanity needs to feel the bottomless depth of our downfall and the total disconnection from spirituality! To achieve this, it needs the Light to shine on it and reveal its state as darkness.

Since we do not have a desire for love of others, instead of being given the Torah (the Light that Reforms), we are given the Torah in the form of religion of this world, which is when we use the Torah with egoistic intentions and not in order to attain love for the others.

Studying the Torah with egoistic intentions, a person only more deeply immerses into the darkness of his egoism, until he reaches a state in which he becomes aware of the darkness and the fact that instead of loving the others, he is conceited and hateful towards them. We have to undergo this process in order to realize the evil nature of our egoism. The Creator says: “I created the evil inclination,” and we have to find it within ourselves.

Then I will be in need of the Torah, as a remedy for the correction of my ego, and I will lament. This won’t be a mere religion but the Light that Reforms and brings us to bestowal and love.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/10, Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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Karl Marx, Wage-Labour and Capital, Chapter 6: Our wants and pleasures have their origin in society; we therefore measure them in relation to society; we do not measure them in relation to the objects which serve for their gratification. Since they are of a social nature, they are of a relative nature.

My Commentary: The difference between Kabbalah and Marx’s methods for attaining a perfect society is as follows:

According to Kabbalah, a person is transformed with the help of the Torah (the Light that Reforms). According to Marx, human nature can be changed only by the influence of the surrounding environment and social relations.

It is possible that Marx was aware that he was only describing the first stage of correction: unification. And that afterward, in the attempt to unite, people would understand their inability to overcome their nature. Then they would reveal that they can use the Upper Light to unite. (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Criticism of Marxism,” in the “Hauma” newspaper.)

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There are two forces in nature: reception and bestowal. These two forces depict pictures on our desire to enjoy like on a computer screen. They project the picture of the world that consists of me and everything around me. As Baal HaSulam writes, in the posterior part of our brain there is a screen through which we perceive a picture of the world.

This picture is created with the help of two forces: a receiving (left) force and a bestowing (right) force. The combination of these two forces on my egoistic material depicts the whole picture of reality for me. I feel it, I see a picture, as it were, and it seems to me that this picture, this reality, exists outside of me. I, myself, project my inner picture in front of me. This is how I “see the world.” It’s as though I retrieve it from within myself and project it outside.

Why am I built this way? Why do I see my inner world in an external form? It is in order for us to treat it egoistically with neglect and hostility. Thereby, we receive an opportunity to study our inner world and to correct ourselves.

If I sensed it as being inside of me, I would never be able to correct myself because I would relate to everything in a positive manner with goodness, but solely in an egoistic manner. But now, since my ego comes out to the outside and I feel that it is foreign, I relate to my “external self” like to a foreigner, egoistically in a negative way, rather than positively and like it is my inner part. Therefore, I have an opportunity to understand what “external” and “internal” mean for me.

The world was split into two parts: me and the others. I cannot convince myself that something which exists outside of me is my own. I am given an opportunity to see my inner essence in the outside picture: “Come and see who you are and how you treat those around you. This is how you are inside.” You say, “Look how ugly this one is, how lazy that one is, how dumb another one is! I hate them so much!” Meanwhile, all these qualities are yours and not those of others.

These revelations help me. Otherwise I would never be able to relate to them, to completely reveal the “evil inclination” (egoistic desire, hate for everyone) and later to understand that these are my inner qualities that are projected on the outside.

Then I begin to understand how the Creator helps me by giving me such a perception of reality: to see my insides on the outside. I begin to understand how much this helps me, and that without this, I would be completely locked within myself and I would never be able to understand what the “I” is. Meanwhile, there is something here, “something in me that I do not consider to be me.”

Therefore, our entire work boils down to the unification of our inner self with our outer self, with the outside world, and particularly with the group. We can practice with the group. After all, when I begin to work with the group and try to treat the friends like myself, I see that I am incapable of uniting no matter how much I try to convince myself that all this outside of me is also me. I can’t even treat a small part of humanity, the group, whose goal is close to my own, like myself. I can’t relate to it above my egoistic mind.

In this regard, I begin to see this egoism like something that was artificially created by the Creator, particularly for its annulment. However, I am unable to do this on my own; I can only desire it and then ask the Creator for the disappearance of it (egoism). Why should I ask? In order to receive a connection with the Creator!

“How can this be?” Understand that they are you! Treat them with love, since they are parts of your soul!

“But I can’t!” They are your friends, your neighbors. They are advancing to the same goal as you! What separates you after all?

“The force of the breaking separates us. The Creator placed it as an obstacle, and I cannot overcome it.” And then you ask to correct this in particular. You ask for correction and incorporate the whole world into yourself.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Does it make a difference how a person is buried?

My Answer: First, Kabbalah engages only in the correction of the soul. When a person comes to a Kabbalistic group and begins working on himself in order to unite with the friends so as to reach the quality of a mutual guarantee, he realizes that he hates the others and is repulsed by them. This rejection of friends is, in fact, the egoistic quality that a person needs to correct by turning it into love toward them.

This is possible only with the help of the Light that influences a person while he studies Kabbalistic texts (especially those written by Baal HaSulam and RABASH). A corrected attitude to the neighbor, up to the point of loving him, is what forms a person’s soul, which becomes filled with the Light of bestowal and love: the Creator.

Second, the human body has no sanctity. This attitude to our animal body comes from religions which are based specifically on the concealment of the Creator and on the fact that people don’t feel the soul and mistakenly attribute it to the animate body. It seems to a person that there is something special or unique about the body since they don’t feel anything except the body and perceive everything only through it.

In ancient times, food, utensils, and slaves were buried along with the body of a dead master in order to help him in his future life in the same body. For that purpose, the body was embalmed. American Indians (Native Americans) still dig out the bones of the deceased from the grave, wash them, and return them to the grave as a token of respect. Hindus choose an infant for worship and make him holy. Christianity has an array of relics as well, which they argue about to this day.

Funerals are accompanied by a variety of  rituals. They all are based on ignorance and the adoration of the flesh. Muslims believe that the pleasures of our world also exist in the future world. Over the years, as Judaism descended from feeling the spiritual world and the Creator to the exile (Galut), Judaism became clothed in various external rituals. People began to honor graves and to practice fortune-telling and other “spiritual” manipulations. And although people are trying to re-build the Temple, they are doing so only in an external way according to their exiled spiritual state, and in this way it will be nothing more than an ordinary building.

Conclusion: There is no sanctity (eternity, perfection, and divinity) in our world (our thoughts, feelings, actions, objects, and rituals). Our whole world consists of three levels of nature: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. We need to reach the “human” level (from the word “Adam,” meaning Dome – similar to the Creator) through our work on correcting the mutual hatred among us into mutual love. Thereby, we will become similar to the Creator and thus feel eternity and perfection irrespective of our animate bodies.

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We are still unable to appreciate what Rabash had done for us. He was the first Kabbalist in history to have described man’s spiritual work in a specific and structured way. As a guide to one’s inner work in attaining the Creator, the works of Rabash have no equal.

There are various books that speak about this at various lengths, but none of them describe the entire path of one’s inner transformation in a systematic way. Rabash, however, gives concise and comprehensible explanations with clear examples. He supplements the method of Baal HaSulam with all that is missing for the practical realization of correction so that all humanity could accomplish it. We take the works of Baal HaSulam and the articles of Rabash and adapt them to the modern man by stripping away all that could confuse him.

These great Kabbalists created the two parts of the method of correction. Everyone needs them today in order to reach the purpose of creation. Baal HaSulam connects us to the source of the Surrounding Light, and Rabash teaches us how to prepare ourselves to connect to this source. He explains how I should organize myself step by step, and how to focus my thoughts and intentions. When I am ready, I then open the books of Baal HaSulam.

Baal HaSulam is like the Light that comes to me from Above, and Rabash prepares me through the work below upward, toward the source. If I make use of both these forces, I am guaranteed success.

From the Talk on Working on Rabash’s Articles 6/15/10

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A brief summary of the weekly Torah portion of “Chukat,” Part 1: The nation of Israel continues to wander around the desert and comes to Kadesh, which is situated in the desert of Tzin, where the nation begins to complain about the lack of water. Moses and Aaron turn to the Creator for advice and He tells them to ask the rock to give them water in front of the whole community. However, instead of asking the rock, they hit it. This angers the Creator, and He sentences them to die in the desert, and not to be among those who will bring the nation to the land of Israel.

A question I received: If the Creator gives us the point in the heart and takes us through all the states Himself, then why does He get angry?

My Answer: Obviously the Creator creates all the problems for us right from the start. He gives us obstacles every step of the way, no one else does. In the cruelest manner, He first performs evil, and then yells, punishes us, and later makes a suggestion: “OK, do it differently that will be better for you.” However, while we are in that “better” state, He once again makes it even worse for us and punishes us once again.

Why does He get angry? This wrath is correction. A person feels the Creator’s behavior inside himself; this is the way we are arranged. We cannot correlate this feeling to the Upper Force and to what happens inside It. After all, nothing happens in the Creator; He exists in absolute rest.

However, since we still don’t exist in a completely corrected state, our reality is separated into “me” and “outside of me,” “me” and “the world that surrounds me,” “me” and “the spiritual world,” and “me” and “the Creator.” However, everything that is seemingly external to me is in essence me; for the time being, it just seems to exist outside of me.

Therefore, the Creator’s behavior, which is presented to me in various forms, is really only the way I imagine Him through my own qualities. If I correct myself, I will see that love, nothing except love, comes from the Creator. But, while my external desires are not corrected, these desires bring me either a sensation of an evil world or a sensation of an evil Creator.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 6/14/10

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A question I received: Why is man given too much intelligence from Above? As a result, his reasoning outweighs and rejects his actions, stripping him of an opportunity to advance?

My Answer: People receive so much intelligence in order not to be animals. An animal has just enough intelligence as it needs for life and it doesn’t make mistakes. We are given excess intelligence so that we would make mistakes, build plans for the future, have egoistic intentions and along with them, the intelligence to aspire to a higher degree, to develop, and to suffer. After all, suffering pushes us ahead.

An additional desire, a point in the heart, awakens in a person and rouses dissatisfaction in him: “Who am I? What am I living for? What is life? What is death?” An animal doesn’t ask about these things. You don’t complain about being given all these questions instead of just living peacefully as does an animal, do you?

Too much intelligence isn’t a problem. The problem occurs if a person allows his corporeal mind to control him and stop him from acting. If an action isn’t coordinated with the mind, the mind wins and stops the action.

We need to tune into the group, to build good relationships there, and to “buy ourselves a friend.” This is called action, as it is written, “We shall do and [then] we shall hear.” This means that we’ll reach the degree of Bina. After all, through the action, we draw the Light of correction from Bina. It influences us and gives us its quality of bestowal. However, if the mind stops a person from acting, then the person can’t change.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, Article, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”

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People always aspire to reason and don’t understand that attainment comes only from above reason, that is, in the spiritual vessel of faith above reason. Only there will true knowledge be revealed. As we now study RABASH’s articles about the group and try to build our Internet community in accordance to the principles they describe, we want people to occupy themselves with it as much as possible. How much they understand these articles is not so important. What counts is that people work on them throughout the day as well.

One may get confused, not understand anything, curse all this, and want it all at the same time. It is most important for one to constantly occupy oneself with it. Thereby we will draw the Light that Reforms which will change our desires, and then we will understand.

However, understanding is not the goal in itself. The goal is to carry out correct actions which will bring us closer to bestowal. We don’t study in order to receive knowledge; we study in order to change. Otherwise it would be too easy, just as our egoism desires: to grab the Upper, spiritual world for itself also.

The whole Torah (Kabbalah) is given to us for a single purpose: to correct our egoistic nature. That is, the Torah works in the opposite direction, meaning against our ego. You do not climb into spirituality by yourself; rather, the spiritual Force of correction enters you. And you should desire and anticipate this force of correction. It is called your Mashiach (Messiah).

Of course we need to work on these articles about the group: make a plan, write a brief summary, take certain definitions, laws, and principles from them and use them to build our statute. Yet what matters most is being engaged in it all the time. The results will come as a consequence of this work and not from understanding. Everything will depend on how much we wish for this to happen. This is called the prayer (MAN).

Therefore, working with the articles is essential. However, it should not be work to acquire knowledge, but rather work to realize them.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, Article, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”

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