A question I received: How should a person feel after the lesson?

My Answer: A person should come away from the lesson with a few main impressions:

• I haven’t achieved anything yet!
• I have just received a very powerful, potent medicine which will bring me much closer to the goal. These hours of my life were eternal because their benefit is priceless. I will never lose what I have gained just now and no one can take it away from me.
• It is good that I feel empty. If I felt fulfilled, it would mean that I am content with my present egoistic desires.
• It is written, “Your heart will delight in the Creator,” which means that when I am corrected, I will feel fulfilled by fulfilling the Creator. This is the kind of correction I should expect to come to me.
• All the reception and all the bestowal should come “from me” in the middle line. The right line is where I receive the Light of Correction, the Light of Bestowal, from above downward. This Light corrects me if I am completely open to it, if I let it enter me. In the left line, I use my egoistic desires to the extent that they are connected to bestowal. This means working with the Light of Hochma from below upward.
• All the changes that I expect to take place within me will bring me closer to bestowal. If I think this way, then it is impossible to feel bad.

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In the News (from Time): “The ’00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell” The dreaded millennial meltdown never happened. Instead, it was the American Dream that was about to dim. Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post–World War II era.

My Comment: In the past, suffering pushed us to develop and so we saw a brighter future ahead of us. Now, since egoism has reached its peak and we have become globally interconnected, egoism doesn’t need more growth. It only needs correction.

Therefore, suffering will not push us forward (in other words, there is no future), but will worsen our current state, until we agree to correct our nature.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Merciful Tsunami Sent By The Creator
Laitman.com Post: A Phenomenon Of Connection In The 21st Century
Laitman.com Post: Egoism Has Reached The End Of The Line
Kabbalah Today Article: Connecting the Dots (the Kabbalistic Version)
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Eradicating Egoism”
Video: Why Disseminate Kabbalah?-5 Minutes Of Light (5:05)

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We have lived through thousands of lives, and now we are situated in a special reincarnation where we are beginning real spiritual work for the first time. For the first time we are no longer acting like the inanimate, vegetative, or animate levels of nature, but are performing personal, individual work that only a human being could, according to his own free choice. This is the first time that this is happening in all of creation, in all the generations, after all the states and past lives that we have gone through.

This period is not easy by any means. We still don’t understand what it means to begin living in a new world, to adjoin the whole world to ourselves, to enter a different dimension, and to develop a new desire (Kli). We think that something needs to happen right now, in our old egoistic state. However, a new reality has to come and clothe into us; it is a reality that we do not expect, know, or take it into account. And the only way this can happen is gradually, with our consent, and the consent must also be reached gradually.

At the same time, we have to expect the revelation to happen any minute now. But on the other hand, we should understand that even in our world, where we don’t experience such great changes, it takes many years and much effort to change anything, and here we are talking about something much bigger – changes that have to be performed in us by the Upper Light. We are, indeed, about to enter a new dimension!

The Light is always ready to perform the corrections to us. However, we have to provide this opportunity for it, and that is where we usually stumble.

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The Light can correct us in one instant, but in order for this to happen, we have to show it the place that needs to be corrected and the corrected form as we see it. However, this can only be achieved by making many attempts to seek out this place and to correct it on our own.

Even though our attempts and efforts are fruitless, they draw the influence of the Light, and as it shines upon us, we begin to desire to unite with others. This is something we never thought about before. In addition, the Light’s influence makes us realize that we are unable to achieve this in any way.

That is when we become ready to reveal the right desire and the place that needs correction – and then the Light corrects it for us.

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A question I received: Yesterday we held a worldwide women’s conference which was devoted to women’s spiritual development and questions of upbringing and education of the younger generation. What would you say to a woman studying Kabbalah to help her implement Kabbalah in the world?

My Answer: I am very happy that this gathering took place. I was also happy to have the opportunity to speak to women there. I have always said, and I continue to reiterate, that spiritual advancement is impossible without women. Whenever the Torah tells a story about a man, it always mentions the word “Et,” which refers to his female desire, Nukvah. That’s because without a woman, Nukvah, the Shechina, the desire, there is nothing we can accomplish.

We always talk about the Light, but it has to have a place to come and clothe into. This is why women’s desires, their connection with the science of Kabbalah, and their participation are so important. I really hope that even more women will come to Kabbalah and take part in the process of the world’s correction. Then we can be sure that the correction will really happen, and happen quickly.

It is written that the nation of Israel came out of Egypt by virtue of the righteous women. The same is true for all the corrections, and the same was written about the reception of the Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai. Whenever men accomplish great deeds in the world, they do it because women obligate them to do it.

Therefore, I hope that this will happen to all of us together and that we will hold many more such meetings and many more women will attend in order to help all of us and to fulfill this holy work together of revealing the Creator to all the people in the world.

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Nukvah (the female desire) receives everything from Zeir Anpin (her husband), including the Light of Correction that turns her into a vessel (Kli) at night, and the Light of Fulfillment that fills her when she attains the state of adulthood and receives Light for the sake of bestowal, a state called day. The daylight hours are different states when she receives Light for the sake of bestowal to varying degrees.

Time is a change of illumination inside Nukvah, depending on her ability to unite with Zeir Anpin and the amount of Light of Correction that she receives from him. Time is the stages of Nukvah’s correction, which she must gradually go through. Nukvah does not determine what stage she is going through, but only the rate at which the changes take place.

Morning is always followed by afternoon, and afternoon is followed by evening, and then by night. This order is impossible to change. However, the rate of how quickly these states will come to replace one another depends only on her request (Hitaruta de-Letata – “awakening from below). Nothing will come from Above unless she desires it.

This is the law operating in the spiritual world, governing the relationships of the Upper Level with the lower level, the Creator and the creation. And we observe the same thing in our world. It seems to us that the male desire rules the world, but in reality, everything is determined by the woman’s desire. It is her desire that causes all the changes in the world.

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The Zohar: All the ways of the Creator are right, and His ways are true. Hence, “the just do walk in them,” since they know the ways of the Creator and engage in Torah, and anyone who engages in the corrections of the Torah knows the ways of the Torah and walks in them, and does not stray right or left. But transgressors do stumble therein.

This is not speaking about the material world, but only about a person’s soul if he uses all the possible means and his entire strength to try to attract the Light of Correction in order to merge with the Creator. A person wants to walk the right path, but along the way he sometimes experiences night and sometimes day.

That is why all of the “transgressors” described in the Torah (Esau, Bilam, Balak, Ahasuerus, the primal Serpent, the Pharaoh), as well as the “righteous” (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David) emerge in a person. He falls into a state of darkness, fear, war, troubles, and then he awakens, succeeds and advances forward. Then he goes through the same cycle again and again. He “sins” numerous times on the spiritual path because he has to reveal his entire uncorrected desire and feel how opposite it is to the spiritual goal. Only after that can he learn what kind of Light he needs in order to correct his desire and turn it into a bestowing one.

We don’t have any other matter through which to study what the Creator made and how He is acting inside us; we can only do so through the desire to enjoy, through empty, evil shells that are revealed in us. We can then convert the evil to goodness with the help of the Light to the degree that we gain knowledge about how to do this. A person has to sin first in order to understand that he uses his desire to enjoy for the sake of evil – against everyone and against the Creator. He then sees that he is full of egoism and it rules over him. While going though these states he is called a “transgressor,” and by correcting them he becomes “righteous.” So let us hope that we will become the transgressors about which the Torah is telling us, since these are elevated spiritual states.

These states come to a person who is ready to see his evil, provided that he does not submit to it but rather feels and discerns it. A special Light shines upon him, allowing him to discern the darkness inside himself. Similar to how we check Chometz with a candle light before the holiday of Pesach, a person should descend into the dark cellar within and, aided by the light of a candle, begin checking where is Chometz and where is food that is fit for Pesach.

Only the bestowing Kelim are good for Pesach, while all the rest is forbidden. We need at least a tiny candle light in order to go down to the cellar and begin checking it. That is how we prepare ourselves to exit from our inner Egypt. By revealing and checking the evil within, a person takes a step forward and comes out of the exile from the Upper World.

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In preparation to The Zohar lesson, we have to attune ourselves so as to want to perceive, understand and feel The Zohar within us, inside our matter, so the Light will be revealed to us and we will open up as well, instead of being calmed by our fantasies. Besides, we shouldn’t forget that all the forms of the Light’s connection with the Kelim are attained inside our unity and connection, by restoring the connection among us in the place where it was broken.

Our Kelim are broken and we have to reveal the broken connection among us, as well as to feel how to correct it. The corruption as well as the correction are both inside of us, and both of these feelings must be expressed in us as darkness and Light. They have to define for us the forms of the letters, the form of our connection with and sensation of the Upper Level. The words express a special relationship between the broken Kli (vessel) and the corrected one. From these two forms one attains oneself, the Creator, the relationships between the two and the unity.

“Nothing disappears in spirituality” is a law which means that my previous, broken forms are revealed to me through my mistakes, transgressions, problems and obstacles; and they never disappear. This enables me to make efforts in order to reveal these things and to attract the Surrounding Light, which corrects what had occurred before.

However, the corruption remains inside me so that I would be able to build the correction above it. Both of these states have to exist. It’s impossible to have just serene perfection, since then I would not be able to feel or understand anything. The corruption always continues to exist, and the correction happens above it, but both of these states support one another. The darkness is below and the Light is above it, and this is what produces understanding and sensation within me, the relationships between myself and the Creator, as well as everything that follows from this.

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In spite of our egoism, the unpleasant states we go through, and the poor qualities we have, we are capable, ready, and justified to receive the force from Above that will enable us to reveal the Upper World. If we aspire to the goal to the best of our ability, then even though we may be far from having pure intentions and even if our spiritual “proficiency” is doubtful, all of this is irrelevant. This is how we are now; there are our current qualities and our present state.

If a person in any situation wishes to receive the forces needed for correction and for spiritual advancement, then he deserves them. The Creator says, “Turn to Me, and I will repay your effort.”

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In spirituality, when I complete my work on a certain degree, I receive more than I earned. Let’s say I corrected my desires on the still level; is this really enough to make the qualitative leap to the vegetative level? This is where you find something extra, a kind of a “bonus” that is necessary for you to have the strength to advance.

We do the same in our everyday lives by “filling” a child ahead of time with different knowledge and abilities, which he will need at a later time. Likewise, we begin our spiritual development at the lowest, worst degree, and this is why I am entitled to additional strength, since I could never manage without it.

It seems like I receive it for “free,” and later I return my “debt” as I correct myself. The Creator created the evil inclination, and we ask Him for help with our correction. However, wasn’t it Him who put us in this situation? So why then do we have to ask Him for this?

The thing is that by asking for help, we organize ourselves and begin to understand the kind of correction that we need, what an intention for the sake of bestowal is, and what we need in order to come to the next stage. Thus, we are compelled to turn to the Creator and thus establish a connection with Him.

“I am listening,” He says. “I need to correct this,” you say, “But I can’t do it on my own.” Thus, you become a “supervisor” of your own construction, and through this you begin to understand the Creator’s actions, mind, program, and His quality according to the principle: “I shall know You through Your actions.”

It turns out that your appeal to the Creator forms the future you – and He will do all the rest.

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