A question I received: There’s a saying in the Torah that’s become very popular worldwide: “A Life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” What does this mean from a Kabbalistic standpoint?

My Answer: Where there was a breaking, now a correction is needed at the same degree, on the same level, and in the same form. Where the desire was corrupted, we must now correct it, make it suitable to use.  We need to discern correctly where the breaking took place, and correct it in the exact same place. Why? In so doing, we study what the Creator has done, the cleverness of His plan, and how He trips me up in every state so that I would demand His help and learn from His work.

The entire work in correction is called the Creator’s work because I discern the corruption, take Him by the hand, bring Him to that place, and ask Him to correct it. I imagine ahead of time how this state must be corrected. Once He corrects it, I complement Him, and thereby, He and I walk together. In this way, we are connected to the Creator.

If I were capable of making this correction on my own, I wouldn’t have a connection with the Upper Force. If the Creator were able to do it without me, then who would I be? What would be the point of my existence? This is the only way He and I can work together as partners.

The Creator mourns for the broken desires (Kelim). On one hand, He wants to correct them but, on the other, He’s unable to do it in the general system without my request, my demand, and precise instruction as to what to correct and where. Thus, He and I become true partners in this work.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/10, The Zohar

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If there is any evil happening in the world, it means that we are still unable to bring correction to the world. If people are still waging wars, destruction, and terrorism, scorn one another, lie to another, and try to profiteer of each other by any means, it means that we are failing to correct the world.

If the Light shone more, none of this could happen. People would be unable to behave this way and nature on the still, vegetative, and animate levels would not give us these unpleasant “surprises.”

We exist inside the all-inclusive nature, but our balance with it depends on us, on man’s level. That is why we have to build an enormous spiritual vessel (Kli) among those studying Kabbalah. We have to unite with a strong connection so people all over the world will feel this power and be compelled to unite with each other.

That is how it happens. After all, where do all the different thoughts and desires come to us from? We don’t know about it, but they emerge from within and pass from one to another along the net of connection among us.

We are living at a special time. Baal HaSulam writes that we have to be very grateful to the Creator for living in a generation that has received the opportunity to disseminate the science of Kabbalah, which has reached us from antiquity.

We are the first generation that is able to use this science and attain eternity, to rise above this entire life, to come out of the boundaries of all the earthly limitations and enter a new dimension, the spiritual world.
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From the 6th lesson at the World Zohar Convention 5/9/10

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A question I received: The World Zohar Convention is starting today. How can we prepare ourselves so as to receive as much as possible from this meeting?

My Answer: All participants will gather together, and the hall will be filled. We all will start thinking and feeling simultaneously.

At the moment, it’s still not happening. It usually takes about a day, and the change occurs the next day. There is certain inertia in the relationships between people and their ability to feel each other. It always takes time. It resembles a symphony orchestra tune-up: each player is fine-tuning his instrument before the concert and one can only hear an incoherent cacophony of sounds. In the same manner we have to fine-tune ourselves and start feeling something together.

The success of the convention depends on us getting inspired from the same things, increasing more and in coordination with each other. Usually, the state is completely different on the second day of the congress. I hope that by tomorrow evening, we will play in complete coordination with each other. Let’s work hard till the end of the convention, and I anticipate a huge success.

The situation is truly unique. It can be felt sharper every single day, especially here, in America which has to come to the spiritual development as soon as possible. If this happens here, it will certainly spread throughout the entire world, and the whole humanity will reach a state of the final correction which we must attain. It may happen within a couple of years or even months instead of years. It all depends on us.

Everything will unfold in the way it is described by the science of Kabbalah. We only determine the speed and the manner by which we will reach the final correction; whether or not we will go through these states in a good and pleasant way.

We have to feel that the connection between us reveals to us a new sensation, a new reality. We will start feeling a new force that acts upon and activates everything. We have to start feeling it in practice at least to some small, initial degree. Then we will have something to give to the entire world.

This is what I expect from this convention. There should be a group here, not just a thousand people – a group with one desire, one thought, one goal, and one inspiration. Unity is a force. If it transpires even for a smallest, initial measure, we will start feeling the spiritual dimension. We are very close to it.

However for it to be not a simply beautiful sensation, but the spiritual revelation we need to unite together into a single spiritual substance, in common bestowal where we will be able to reveal the single force – the Creator. It is very realistic and timely today. Let’s look forward to it!

From Lesson 1, World Zohar Convention, 5/7/10

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A question I received: I came to the science of Kabbalah, the science of reception, in order to receive. But suddenly I see that it teaches about how to increase one’s desire. Where is the reception here?

My Answer: This is reception. I receive a special force from the Creator called “love,” which is something completely unknown to us. With the help of this force I attach all the desires existing in reality to myself. They all become my desires and I receive them along with their fulfillment.

This is called the science of Kabbalah, which is about how to receive desires full of goodness. They are all yours. All you need is to feel love for them. Then you will discover that they are in the state of the End of Correction, and all of it is yours.

When you acquire the force of love, you start to feel the desires of your neighbor better than he does, and you then fulfill him according to your sensations. It’s like a mother feels what her child needs.

In spirituality the Upper One knows best what the lower one needs. The lower one simply screams, revealing his desire to you. But you know all the components of his desire, even though he does not. That’s because you are the upper one. If you are the one who bestows and you fulfill him, then you are the upper one in relation to him and you know more about him than he does.

This is the law of upper love, which does not have anything in common with the notions we attribute to the word “love” in our world.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/10, “Matan Torah”

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 90: …“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” means with both your inclinations—the good inclination and the evil inclination, so the bad qualities of the evil inclination will become good… Then there will certainly be no difference between the good inclination and the evil inclination and they will be one.

In our world we aren’t aware of the qualitative difference between good and evil, and therefore we don’t understand that they define and support each other and cannot exist one without the other. We would like to immediately annihilate all the evil and leave only the good, meaning whatever we consider good at this moment.

Spirituality, however, is revealed upon the contrast of opposite qualities, rather than through attempting to eliminate or destroy one of them. Both qualities exist in order for us to discern both of them, and the spiritual state is built from both of them – the Light and darkness together.

Initially we do not have the right inner definitions; we don’t understand what is Light and what is darkness. Once we identify them and can tell what is Light and what is darkness, and once we choose the Light over the darkness, we can then fully use all of the Light and all of the darkness to build our spiritual state.

We do not erase either one because if we were to remove one of them, the other would disappear as well. We build the middle line from both of them. In our world this structure does not exist. This phenomenon, the middle line, is unknown to us. We always strive to eliminate anything we don’t desire or feels unpleasant to us. It seems to us that there is no room for them in the world.

However, in spirituality, there is room for everything and everything has to remain forever. Only when both things unite with each other in the right way, is there room for the existence of both and one does not exist without the other.

Therefore, the wicked and the righteous, reception and bestowal, faith and knowledge are all built one upon the other. Therefore, they are equally important for attaining the goal. It is written, “A person must be grateful for the bad just as for the good.”

The correction of evil lies in using it correctly, together with goodness. Then the two participate equally and together to reveal their Source, the Creator. The middle line, the soul, is created from both of them. It is the revelation of their Source, the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/10, The Zohar

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On Lag B’Omer we celebrate the passing of the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, author of The Zohar. He was a special person and the revelation he made signifies the giving of the Torah, the science of correction, to the whole world.

Humanity developed from one generation to the next in birth pangs until it reached Abraham, who revealed the science of Kabbalah above the crisis that developed in Ancient Babylon. Then the nation of Israel waited for the Egyptian slavery and the Exodus from it, followed by the construction of the First and Second Temples, as well as other ascents and descents. All the horrible events that befell this nation and all human history in general appear to be one never-ending trial.

However, the entire path that we went through until the arrival of Rabbi Shimon was just our preparation for correction. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the nation of Israel finally lost the sensation of spirituality and entered exile from it. But then we received this gift from the heavens, marked by the arrival of a sage from the times of the Temple (a Tana), a Kabbalist of great stature. His special soul incorporated all the previous souls and united them within itself. That is why, together with his students, he was able to attain an extraordinary height, the final correction in his generation.

Baal HaSulam writes that never in history has there been any attainment higher than the one achieved in the times of Rashbi and his generation. The likes of it can only happen again at the End of Correction, and we are now standing at its threshold.

Zohar is the name of the Light that becomes revealed in GAR of the World of Atzilut, in its root, which is a special place – the "concealed mind" of the system of Arich Anpin. Rabbi Shimon was unique in that he was able to connect this incredibly high level with our world. His attainment placed him on the level of the Final Correction, just as before the destruction of the Temple, yet at the same time, he lived a regular, material life in the times after the destruction of the Second Temple. This was when the nation fell completely from the level of brotherly love to unfounded hatred, and this fall caused a complete disappearance of the spiritual sensation.

Because Rabbi Shimon united these two entirely different poles within him, he was able to write this great Book, meaning to make a revelation. Without it, we would not have the opportunity to correct our souls and attract the Light that Reforms.

From the lecture in honor of Lag B’Omer 5/01/10

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A question I received: What is the spiritual meaning of tithing (Maaser)?

My Answer: The tithe is the separation of the tenth part of Malchut. The Torah instructs us to set aside the parts which instead of being used for the sake of bestowal directly can only be used through society. This calculation is performed only with regard to the Creator, for the sake of bestowal to Him.

The Torah describes many types of taxes, but all of them are based on one principle: Because I am unable to bestow with certain desires that I have within me and the Light that comes to me, I pass these desires to the general desire (Kli). In a common desire, through a society, I’m able to carry this out.

My Kli is partial, meaning that for the time being, the screen covers only a part of my desires, in which I’m ready to receive for the sake of bestowal. How can I correct the part in which I’m incapable of bestowing?

I receive the Light for that part and transfer the desire to receive pleasure along with the received Light to an outside Kli. Thereby I prepare it for correction. By not using Maaser today (the tenth part of Malchut, which cannot be corrected), I prepare this part for correction through society.

In the science of Kabbalah, we study our desires called “garments” and “house.” They become corrected by my first seeing them as external to me, and then transferring them to my internality.

The same applies to Maaser. I seemingly transfer it for external usage, but then it becomes my internality and returns to me with the desires I did not previously consider my own. For the time being, in my sensations, I cannot correct that part in order to use it, by receiving for the sake of bestowal.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why is it that we have to wait so long and suffer so many negative lessons that wound us before we finally realize which is the right path?

My Answer: We don’t wait! Every single moment we evolve, step by step. But our ego, our desire to enjoy, is simply infinite. Its depth is enormous: an enormous creature. Imagine to yourself our endless Universe; well, the human desire is billions of times greater than the entire universe.

Now we need to begin our correction. And my desire to enjoy contains a thousand qualities in which I need to feel blows so as to react with an “Ouch!” And then it will need another thousand blows to make me go “Ow!” This is no joke; our entire lives go by exactly like this. Finally, I will need yet another thousand blows to resolve for myself: “That’s it, I can’t handle it anymore! Something must be done.”

Every quality is comprised of four levels (Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet). And until we reach the final, fourth level, we will continue to receive blows and suffer without stopping to think about our predicament. It is just like if I feel pain in one part of my body and then another, I endure it and tell myself that it’s no big deal, until finally I realize that something must be done. The same principle applies here. But that is exactly how it’s supposed to be, because we are made out of a complex, multi-layered material which develops out of a point. There is no choice in the matter.

Only at the end of correction will all that we’ve passed through merge together and produce perfection of attainment, fulfillment, and understanding.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, Article “The Giving of the Torah”

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The Zohar, Chapter “BaHar (On Mount Sinai),” Item 78: And even though he is called “a son,” a firstborn son to the Creator, as it is written, “My son, My firstborn, Israel,” He should not exclude himself from being a slave, serving his father in all the works that glorify his Father. Thus, every person should be a son to his father, to search in His secrets and to know the secrets of His home, to exert for them and to be as a slave to his father.

Everything depends on one’s properties and desires. In small desires, when a person doesn’t have anti-egoistic screens, he is a slave. Upon acquiring big desires and the screens, he is a son. Yet not a single spiritual degree, no matter how great it is, erases the previous ones. Nothing disappears in spirituality: the degrees co-exist without cancelling one another.

What’s the benefit of preserving small degrees (Katnut) on a big degree (Gadlut)? In the Final Correction, they all come together into one picture that contains all previous degrees and attainments.

The reason is that once we begin to understand our previous states and correct the “wicked” (sins and transgressions), they don’t disappear. We see how wrong or right we were on these degrees, how we blessed or cursed the Creator. The entire scale of properties – both extreme right and extreme left, from the past or the future – join together, offering us the full might and richness of revelation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “BaHar (On Mount Sinai),” Item 63: “You may use them as slaves forever.” It is a Mitzva [commandment] to enslave a Canaanite slave. They are from the side of Ham, who performed incest, as it is written, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brothers…”

To be a slave is also a correction. A desire that could be forced to obey the power of the corrected desires is called “a slave that is close to his master.” Slavery is the form of its correction, a proper way of its existence.

For the time being, I am unable to be free within a certain desire, nor can I work with it for the sake of bestowal on my own. I can only attribute it to my other desire. Such a desire can also be called “a child,” “a woman,” or “an adolescent;” it is not a “man” yet, not a “hero” who is able to “overcome” (a man, “Gever” is derived from “Itgabrut” – overcoming, surmounting).

A  form of desire that is able to work only under the authority of another desire is called “a slave.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, The Zohar

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