Two questions I received on mental and physical illness:

Question: How does Kabbalah explain mental illness and how can it be solved if not through conventional methods (which as we know do not seem to work)?

My Answer: Only the general correction will save us from these illnesses.

Question: Why does the Creator force us to be consumed with the physical body by giving us terribly painful conditions and deformities that we cannot fix in this world? He wants to raise us to Godliness, but forces us to live despicable lives where the troubles of the body prevent us from even functioning in this world. Why is this so?

My Answer: We cause all the diseases ourselves by our unwillingness to correct ourselves. See Items 69-71 of “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Disasters And Diseases Come To An End When Humanity Unites Above Selfishness
Laitman.com Post: We Must Rise To A Higher Level Of Consciousness To Solve Our Problems
Laitman.com Post: We Must Cure The Crisis By Any Means Possible
Interviews: “Psychological Counseling at the Time of the Crisis” (Part 2)
Introduction to the Book of Zohar: “Items 60-71”
Godliness – A Different Kind of Fulfillment (2:11)

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The Zohar, chapter “Shmini (On the Eighth Day),” Item 8: All those who engage in Torah cling to the Creator and are crowned in the decorations of Torah. They are loved above and below, and the Creator offers them His right hand, mercy. It is even more so with those who engage in Torah at night, for they have established that they partake in Divinity and join together. And when the morning comes, the Creator decorates them with a single string of grace, so they will be among the higher and among the lower.

There is no time in spirituality. Therefore, “day and night” refer to a person’s inner attitude to his state.

If one’s desires are still uncorrected and egoistic, with the intention “for the sake of oneself,” then he feels that he is in darkness, in the state of night. He cannot bestow and interprets this as the darkness of the night. However, if he can bestow, he immediately considers it day because this state illuminates him.

These states do not depend on how well or poorly one feels, the way we are egoistically accustomed to saying that the whole world is “dark” for us when we feel bad. In the spiritual world, the ability to bestow is called day or Light, and the inability to bestow is called night.

Some people strive to read the Torah particularly during the night, in states of darkness. In other words, they want to correct themselves while in the dark, since there is no correction during the day. During the day, one only performs an action within a desire that was corrected at night.

It is written that the Torah consists of 613 “do’s” (corrections) and 613 “don’t dos” (states of being filled by the Light for the sake of bestowal). Correction occurs particularly at night, during concealment. Meanwhile, reception of Light for the sake of bestowal occurs during the day, because that is when one gains this ability.

The Creator helps the souls that try to perform all of this work to unite by tying them all together with one common thread. When each soul unites with the other souls, it acquires this common big Kli and is therefore able to ascend.

The ascent from one degree to another depends only on the extent of the connection between the souls, which is increased by continually connecting inside a greater and greater desire or Kli. The Creator unites those who perform such corrections at night and continue these spiritual actions during the day. Then, due to their unification, He allows them to rise.

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A question I received: Why did Rabbi Shimon write The Book of Zohar allegorically, concealing the fact that it’s talking only about the connection between the Light and the desire?

My Answer: Did he really conceal anything? Think about how the book Tree of Life by the ARI begins: “Know, that before the worlds were emanated and the creatures created, an Upper Simple Light had filled the entire reality.” And then a point of desire appeared and proceeded to develop until the worlds and everything inhabiting them emerged from that point.

There is nothing other than the will to receive Light, and the Light. Everything else is a development of the connection between them, where the Light remains invariable and the desire changes in likeness to the Light. This connection is the subject described in the science of Kabbalah and particularly, The Book of Zohar.

If a person is on a spiritual level, then he sees the connections between our picture of the world and his spiritual level. He sees how forces and qualities descend from the Upper Level to the lower one, which we all see. All the names of qualities and forces on all 125 levels above our world remain the same as the names in our world, but when he reads each name, he sees its roots instead of the material objects.

When one acquires a screen and enters the spiritual world, passing the Machsom, one begins to reveal the source of everything that happens in our world. One sees the picture of this world and how it is projected inside him from a higher level, as well as how it divides into levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human.

This vision enables him to automatically name all the forces and qualities of the Upper World using the names of material objects, since they are the materialization of the Upper Forces that descend into this world.

When one finds all the connections between this world and his spiritual level, he ascends to the following, higher level. Meantime, this world remains unchanging and keeps the same form. On the new level one continues to search for the connections between the roots (qualities on the spiritual level) and their projection in this world. The search comes down to correcting one’s qualities; to the degree one corrects them, one sees a clearer picture of the Upper Level. Once he discerns all the forces, qualities, and connections, he completes that spiritual level and ascends to the next one.

Even though this process may sound monotone, it is actually enthralling, like an extraordinary discovery. The picture of this world remains the same until one reaches the complete correction (Gmar Tikkun), where he ascends to a state in which everything unites into one. All the forces, Lights, and desires unite into a single whole and one is fully united with the Creator.

When a person sees the connection between this world and the last, highest level, he connects two opposite axes: himself below and the Creator above. Thus, he attains the state of adhesion with the Creator and total equivalence to Him. Stated differently, one reaches the World of Infinity.

All the desires – whether the uncorrected desires of our world, or the most corrected ones, as well as all the pictures and images will turn into one unified reality called “The Creator and His Name are One.” There will be just one single desire, HaVaYaH.

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A question I received: Is order important when reading The Book of Zohar? What if I’ve only joined the study recently? Should I read everything you’ve studied up to this point?

My Answer: First of all, it makes no difference which part of The Book of Zohar we are reading. It is written: “There is no time in the Torah.” So it doesn’t matter where you start reading: from the middle, end, or beginning.

It also doesn’t matter how much you understand or don’t understand, or whether you’ve joined the study just now and this is your very first lesson, or you’ve been studying a long time. You may join the study from the very beginning or be tuning in midway through the lesson, when half of the material has already been covered.

Everything we study are processes that take place in Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut (AHP), where all the Upper Forces are located above Bina. That is to say, Bina is the Upper Forces’ relation toward us; Zeir Anpin is a system that conducts the forces of Bina to us along the three lines, and Malchut receives these three lines. We connect to Malchut and work on our connection to Zeir Anpin in order to connect to Bina.

The picture remains the same at all times – Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. There is nothing else. Therefore, no matter what Kabbalistic text you read, be it chapters of the Torah or parts of The Book of Zohar, the text invariably talks about the same thing – the correction of the soul in the system of AHP, ZAT de Atzilut.

This is why you will see a great deal of repetitions in The Zohar, which are all different descriptions of how the Light affects the soul. We do not know why the authors of The Zohar wrote it the way they did and why they chose those specific words and sequence of words. But they did it naturally; their writings reflect the correct actions of the Lights upon the desire as the soul ascends upward.

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If we don’t correct ourselves on time, we will have to experience suffering on the animate degree in order to cultivate the human degree in us. However, it is in our power to advance without suffering! All the illnesses and misfortunes are there to “force” us to come to correction, but why should we correct ourselves this way?

Let’s look for problems and illnesses in advance, like an old man who walks hunched over as through he has lost something. Even if we don’t feel in our present Kelim that there is a lack of correction, let’s reveal it. After all, no matter what, we will have to go through a great deal of correction until we reach the final correction.

So how do we go about revealing the corruption? We have to search for it on the border between “root, soul, body” and “garments and castles,” meaning our inner and outer Kelim, Galgata ve Eynaim and AHP. That is where all our problems lie: in the relationships between us and everyone else, rather than in us or in them.

We have to desire to attach the “garments and castles,” which are the external souls, to ourselves, to “root, soul, body.” That is how we will achieve a whole and perfect Kli, a single soul.

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I have this false perception that there is somebody existing outside of me, that there are people close and far whom I can push away, cheat, or exploit. But all of this is nothing but an illusion. It is an intricate game, an exercise that lets me scrutinize and invert my desire until I begin to love others more than myself. Then I will give others my last chair and my last pillow, because I will come to view their desire, which has been so abhorrent to me before, as more important than the one I used to regard as my own.

There are desires that exist in me from the beginning and which I perceive as my “self.” These are actually the weakest desires, pertaining to Aviut zero. The first level of Aviut appears as being separate from my “self,” such as my family and relatives. The second level is even further away, such as the people who provide me with all kinds of benefits and on whom my wellbeing depends on in some way – for example, doctors, scientists, and so on.

The third level is further still – these are people I want to exploit, but I’m willing to let them live. The farthest level is the fourth; these are my mortal enemies.

It follows that the further away the desire I perceive, the greater its power compared to my own desire. Therefore, when I attach these “external” desires to myself, I experience them as much stronger than those which previously appeared as my own. This is why I am so willing later on to give my “last pillow” to these desires.

I prefer them to my initial desire of Aviut zero because it is so weak. Indeed, what is really the extent of my current desires for food, water, family, money, and knowledge? They are truly insignificant when compared to my other desires, the desires of my “friends.” These are the desires that enable me to acquire the spiritual worlds and higher states.

If I manage to attach the desires of my friends to myself on the first degree by making them my own, this is called reaching the World of Assiya. What follows is the Worlds of Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut. These worlds represent the distance between me and my friends.

Therefore, “love your friend as yourself” is not a slogan for this world, appealing for world peace. It’s talking about the correction of the soul, where I attach the entire universe to myself, correct my vision and perception of all reality, and attain eternity.

All the worlds are me; I am Malchut of the World of Infinity – the whole of reality created by the Creator.
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The breaking of the Kelim had to happen in order to ensure that the desire to receive and the desire to bestow would not remain separated and incomprehensible to each other, but would intermix and learn to understand each other. The breaking of the only desire that was created, the soul, did not happen by mistake; it is part of a program that allows the creation to gain greater awareness by being forced to realize how mistaken its perception is.

For the Upper One, this is not “a breaking,” but a sacred action – a revelation to the lower one of how opposite he is to the Creator. It is therefore an essential action for attaining perfection and correction. It only seems to us that this is a breakage, similar to how a tailor might look to a child who thinks that the tailor is ruining the fabric by cutting it with scissors, whereas in actuality the tailor is doing it in order to create a suit from it. For the lower one, this looks like corruption, but for the Upper One, it is correction.

Imagine that in order to understand me, you have to descend to my level. I am a thief, a criminal, and full of various vices, and you are incapable of understanding my pattern of thought. Therefore, you need to descend to me and somehow familiarize yourself with my vices. Then you will feel how you can connect to me in order to rescue me from my state.

There is no other way to do this. You will have to “get dirty” and establish a real connection with me by descending to my lower state. This is why it is written, “I, the Creator, am situated with you in all your vices,” and “The Shechina is in exile.”

Only from this state can the Creator begin to raise both of us together. Therefore, the breaking was necessary, and our state is the best possible state from the point of view of freedom of choice.

Once we ascend to a high spiritual level and become great righteous men, we just might regret not being down below…

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A question I received: When I look in the mirror, I see my own image and it’s clear that I can’t communicate or work with it. But when we look at our reality, we essentially see ourselves, or images of our desire.

My Answer: This is why Baal HaSulam says that a person’s desire is divided into two parts – the part that is perceived within, and the other part that seems to be outside. In one part, a person perceives himself, and in the other he perceives the world. This false, opposite form of perception was created on purpose, so we would transfer the part that is outside into our “inner” perception.

The fact is that everything on the outside, as well as myself, is actually perceived inside of me. There is nothing besides one, single desire, one world.

We are not supposed to correct our corporeal reality or the sensation of this division into “myself” and “this world,” which is reality on its lowest level. Rather, we have to unite both parts of the desire by ascending up the steps of the spiritual ladder. The reality we are in now is the last, lowest level of reality, and it does not change when we ascend spiritually. It will change and disappear only at the End of Correction, when this world will enter the general correction, the unified sensation inside a unified desire – the World of Infinity.

Until then, the picture of our world does not change. The Light does influence it; however, it influences Malchut, the desire, in order to unite both of its parts – the inner and the outer, into one. The Light influences all the other desires as well – our spiritual desires, where we have freedom of will. These are the desires we work with and have to correct. But in our world there is nothing to correct. We only have to correct the connection between the souls. That is where our desire unites into one, and in it, we reveal the Creator.

The layer of desire, where I perceive myself and the world around me, remains until the End of Correction. Even the greatest Kabbalist who ascends to the last, 125^th level and attains the general Final Correction will still perceive this world the same way as you. He will have to go to a doctor to heal his body, and he will have to use this entire world and to see reality as divided into inner and outer. Even though he knows that in reality this is not so, nevertheless, he will still see reality this way through his corporeal senses because this level of reality does not change until the very End of Correction.

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 114: There is not a person in the world who does not taste the taste of death at night, and the spirit of impurity is over the body. Because the holy soul has parted from man, the spirit of impurity is over that body and it is defiled.

This means that a person had a screen, the Light of Unity, the Light of Adhesion, and the quality of bestowal reigned inside him. But then everything disappeared. The Partzuf was emptied; all the Light came out of it. This could happen for an external reason or an inner reason, such as when a person’s inner will to enjoy grows and new Reshimot begin to surface in him.

That is when a new, uncorrected desire awakens in him and reigns over him. A person submits to it, and guided by this desire begins to think about his life, about self-gratification and how to fulfill this desire.

Only if he prepared ahead of time for this darkness, for the night, the state when his desires rule over him, then he is able to gather all the forces that enable him to view the darkness as a means to ascend to a new level. Then he makes a true request upward, to Abba ve Ima, asking them to take care of him (this is called “adhesion at midnight”).

From midnight onward, he begins the corrections. A person begins to correct the entire additional desire to enjoy, which he had received and in which he felt the taste of death. But now he sweetens it.

This means that a person advances toward the morning, when he receives from Above the Light that Reforms, the first quality of bestowal. And then the dawn comes. A person begins to feel Light in his state, since he has acquired a screen over his previous desire to enjoy and he is now in the quality of bestowal.

This is why it had been necessary for him to experience the taste of death.

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A question I received: What is the fastest and most effective way to disseminate Kabbalah in the world?

My Answer: A variety of ways are required as we are now climbing stairs that no one has stepped upon before. Up to now, Kabbalists went their own way and taught their students using the same method that originated from Adam, the first Kabbalist. Later on Abraham established the methodology and the group that eventually became the people of Israel. However, they later fell from that spiritual level and for the past two thousand years Kabbalists have been transferring their knowledge from one to another.

Now, however, we are living in an era when millions of people around the world are waking up to the desire for spiritual ascent and are walking side by side with us. Studying Kabbalah on an individual basis has become a thing of the past. Today we are returning to Abraham’s original intention to offer correction to all Babylonians.

How should we disseminate Kabbalah under these new conditions? I can only say what I think and feel, but we won’t know for sure until we accumulate enough experience. Even Rabbi Shimon wouldn’t be able to give us advice since these new states of development have yet to be explored.

In Baal HaSulam’s time, he had hoped that his newspaper would change the situation, but it was shut down right away. He then published books and his disciples thought that these would cause a spiritual revolution and people would finally see that they are in the dark. But the world continued on as if nothing had changed.

This is why we presently are trying various methods and approaches to determine the most effective ones. One thing is clear: Dissemination has to be conducted as widely as possible in all languages and for everyone in the whole world. Abraham wanted to reach out to all of Ancient Babylon, and today, Babylon has expanded to include the whole world.

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