By acting upon us, the Light divides within us the receiving and bestowing desires, and we start feeling rejection between them. It becomes clear that the bestowing desires gravitate to a different perception and fulfillment from those of the receiving desires.

Each of us possesses desires of both kinds, and the question is which of them prevail. In the souls regarded as “Israel,” the bestowing desires, GE (Galgalta Eynaim), rule over AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh), whereas in the souls of the “nations of the world,” the receiving desires, AHP, rule over GE.

The first type of souls is closer to the Light which illuminates them with Ohr Makif (OM) and causes them to undergo corrections first. Until “Israel” corrects itself, it is impossible to begin correction of the “nations of the world.” First, “Israel” corrects itself in GE (the right line), then adjoins AHP (the left line) to it, and finally builds the middle line from them, thus correcting the “nations of the world” within itself. As a result, “Israel” is able to continue the correction of the collective group, the “nations of the world,” since its corrected Kelim (vessels) are connected with the uncorrected Kelim of the rest of the souls waiting in line.

Work in the two lines with the receiving and bestowing Kelim, in their correct combination creates the middle line. Such are the steps of our correction in both parts of the collective soul. Furthermore, major corrections take place in AHP or the receiving Kelim of the “nations of the world” whereas GE that initially descended from Bina exist in AHP solely in order to correct it.

Hence, all our corrections that precede the correction of the “nations of the world” in the collective soul are merely a preparation.
[22107]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/28/10, “What is Silver, Gold, Israel, the Nations in Work”

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600,000 souls are parts of a single soul created by the Creator. This single created being was divided into parts which we call "600,000" souls. However, this number does not indicate quantity, but rather the quality of the connection between them.

When the Creator gives rise to the desire to receive pleasure, everything is a single whole; the Creator, the vessel, and the Light are like one. But in this state, both the desire and the Light sense neither separation nor connection; they don’t feel whether the creature exists or not. There is a complete absence of any sensation because any sensation in the creature can be detected only through the opposition between the creature itself and what it feels.

For that, it is necessary to distinguish between the Light and the vessel and to feel their complete oppositeness and connection. However, when the vessel and Light connect, their difference doesn’t vanish since love emerges above hatred.

Both qualities have to emerge. The distance between hatred and love, darkness and light (hatred is revealed as darkness and love as light), gives the creature the sensation of its existence and understanding of where it exists and with whom it is connected. This is the reason why the World of Infinity is not enough to outline the creature and make it independent.

Only after the creature goes through the entire process of its development, meaning that it starts at the first stage, descends to the second, and then rises back to the third, does it begin to understand what the first state was about. The created being becomes independent and similar to the Creator. That’s why it is called Adam.

In the beginning (Stage 1), the creature was just a drop of semen. Then, it realizes that the breaking has occurred and corrects it. By doing so, the creature attains perfection. It is not considered a drop of semen any more, but rather, it has the power of 600,000 souls and represents one, big, autonomous soul.

“Six hundred thousand” stands for six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin multiplied by ten Sefirot in each of them and then by ten thousand, the power of the ascent of Zeir Anpin to Arich Anpin which governs all corrections. 60 x 10,000 = 600,000. Hence, the common soul (the general, final, corrected state) is called 600,000 souls.
[21991]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/10, "600,000 Souls"

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The Zohar, Chapter "VeYechi (And Jacob lived)," Item 442: At the end of correction, when the whole of Malchut is corrected, the Zivug of GAR de GAR will return, meaning that [the Creator will enter] Jerusalem above, and this explains, “I have sworn to David My servant,” the oath that the Creator will not enter Jerusalem above until Israel enter Jerusalem below.

This is talking about the correction in three lines. We receive two lines or forces from Above. But the ability to cut off the left line and attract the right line, and then to combine the right and left lines the right way in the middle line – all of this happens only through the model or formula that we reveal between us.

I don’t know what the middle line is. No one brings it to me ready-made and it does not come to me from Above because otherwise I wouldn’t have a place in which to recreate myself, to conduct my search, to make efforts, and to make revelations on the path.

The middle line is very unclear. You were given two forces and they are at your disposal. However, you can destroy the world using either one. How then do we reach the state where we find the right combination of two lines – in the screen de Hirik, from below upwards? How do we even start to connect these two opposite lines?

This is the work done between the souls because it can be actualized only in the connection between them. The right and left lines exist in the form of natural forces, while the middle line can only be created in the connection between the souls.

This can be called "group psychology." Here, through the search between us, we have to find how to create the eternal state, the right combination of these two lines through the connection between us.

The way to check our work is by revealing the right intention between us, "for the sake of the Creator." Then revelation takes place, we attain the middle line, and acquire the opportunity to use these two lines correctly.
[22051]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, The Zohar

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It seems so easy to just let the force of the Light come and correct us, making us love our neighbor! So why is the process of correction so difficult? The difficulty comes from the fact that this entire process is concealed, and that is in order to give us the freedom of will.

To be free means to go against my desire and understanding, when I don’t want it directly! My animalistic body does not aspire to this and my egoism does not help me do this. I have to find a new motivation to advance, which does not stem from my qualities. Otherwise I would just be increasing my animate egoism.

The reason for my advancement must be outside of me, in the environment. In order to advance, I have to use something that does not belong to the egoistic desire, and therein lies the entire difficulty. If not for this, every person would aspire to correction. Who wouldn’t want to receive perfection and eternity, feel the Creator, see all of his fate from beginning to end, and control it!?

Any person would agree to exchange this temporary world for an eternal one. However, people feel that this is too exalted, too difficult, and unattainable. And it’s all because we have to reveal the point of our free choice, called "the middle third of Tifferet."

We understand what love is and what hate is, but it’s not clear what a neutral state is, "the middle third of Tifferet." On every degree we have to make our choice while in that state. Otherwise we won’t be independent of the Creator.

What’s the point of creating a miserable creature that suffers in this world, and then giving it the knowledge that there is a perfect state and one must only use a means called the Torah to go from a bad state to a good one? In fact, any machine could do the same thing if there is good and evil, and a means to go from evil to good. There is no free choice here.

Religions operate according to this scheme of two lines. The difference between Kabbalah and religion is free will, the third line. A person has to find the point where he can carry out actions independently of himself and his earthly choice, so he won’t look for self-benefit.

If we find this point and act based on it, it means we freely build ourselves and are independent of our previous nature. We cut ourselves off from it and give birth to ourselves, instead of having the Creator do it.

This point of independence poses the difficulty. It constantly confuses us and erases everything we understood and felt a moment ago, immersing us into a "fog" all over again. But it is happening because we are being led into a completely different dimension of life where we will reveal the true reality instead of the unconscious state we are in today.
[22062]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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In the beginning, the Light created the will to receive. Then it developed and removed it from itself in order to give it independence, an opportunity to govern itself and to be equivalent to the Light. In this process, the Light was primary; it was the cause, whereas the will to receive was secondary, the effect.

Every action occurs through the impact of the Light on the will to receive (the desire). The desire itself is unable to act. Only the presence of the Light in it gives the will to receive the opportunity to ask the Light for a certain kind of effect.

Once the Light has prepared the desire for independent correction, giving it the ability to become similar to itself, the Light is no longer primary with regard to the actions done by the desire. It remains solely a motivating force. It awakens the will to receive to action, creating all the necessary circumstances for its correction so as to enable its attainment of equivalence with the Light.

The process of the Light creating all the necessary conditions for the desire’s attainment of equivalence with itself is called the descent of the Light and the will to receive from above downward. The desire’s gradual maturity to equivalence with the Light is called ascent from below upwards. During the descent from above downward, the Light establishes the degrees of ascension from below upwards, leaving the desire with free will (freedom of choice and action). That free will amounts to forming the aspiration for similarity or closeness with the Light by turning to the Light.

The Light programmed the stages of ascension to lead the desire through the forms it must acquire in its gradual correction. All we must do is to be able to comply with the form of the specific spiritual degree at each stage and ask for the Light of Correction, which will make us similar to the Light.

In order to comprehend the Light’s work on us and its program of our correction and to desire this program’s implementation on us, we gather in the group, study Kabbalah, and inspire each other to give importance to gaining equivalence with the Light and to not resisting it. In this process, I must first annul myself by making a “restriction” (Tzim Tzum), as if I don’t exist. I have to just let the Light come and do the work. This passive participation allows me to “find the path to the Light.”

After that, I need to actively desire the impact of the Light since by doing so I increase the pressure of its flow with the agreement I received from the group. By agreeing to receive a powerful effect of the Light (by saying, “Let it be”), I gain the quality of bestowal, similarity to the Creator. I put in my minimal desire (agreement), but, thanks to the powerful stream of the Light, I receive an enormous property of bestowal (intention to bestow) at the output, and that is my new “self.”

The Light enters my initial “point in the heart” (Netzotz, the spark) and “blows” it up. By agreeing with its actions, I “grow" until I reach the 125^th spiritual degree, the Creator, and acquire the same might.

This is what the holiday of Sukkot symbolizes. In fact, all the holidays in our world are symbols of what happens to us in the spiritual world.
[21914]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, “Waste of Barn and Winery”

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Why is it that after a soul (Nukva) completes a stage of its development, limitations still apply to it? The analysis of the desires (realization of evil) occurs on 100% of all the desires (Kelim), and the correction, meaning the implementation of the desires for the sake of bestowal, happens to the extent that it’s possible, that is, only on some of the desires. The Nukva restricts the other desires by limiting itself.

We know that some of the desires pertain to the “stony heart” (Lev HaEven), and they cannot be used to receive for the sake of bestowal until the very end of correction (Gmar Tikkun). However, why is it necessary to wait? Why can’t this “stony heart” be corrected right now, along with the other desires?

The fact that we constantly correct only a part of the desire (leaving the “stony heart”) pushes us to obtain an additional desire, and thus this limitation acts to our benefit. A person is forced to separate his desires, making a decision in regard to every desire and every detail. Where is the GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim), where is the AHP, which desire is to receive in order to bestow, and which desire is to bestow in order to bestow?

One sees such differences in all the desires precisely due to the fact that the “stony heart” is partially present in them, and this helps a person determine the boundaries of the desire. Precisely at the border of clarifying our capabilities do we acquire the sensation, the contrast of qualities according to the law of “to prefer the Light out of darkness.”

These limitations, when we feel that we can proceed only to this boundary but cannot cross it, give us the ability to perceive different qualities and their combinations (inclusions). We reveal new qualities, the Creator above creation, at the border line between desires.
[21674]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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After going through many life cycles, a person reaches a point when he experiences the initial spiritual awakening – the point in the heart (Reshimo). It is comprised of two forces:

– Emptiness due to the futility of his transient, perishable life, and from the despair of not being able to find fulfillment in this world

– An inner “spark” that pushes him to some unknown place that’s beyond this world.

On one hand, the despair pulls him down, and on the other hand, the spark pulls him upward. Eventually a person chooses his route. These two forces as a whole cause a Reshimo to form inside him or a new direction in his existence.

This Reshimo brings him to a teacher and a group of people studying Kabbalah. After that he gradually realizes that only by uniting with other Reshimot that are similar to him will he be able to build, together with them, the force of bestowal that’s similar to the Creator. Therein lies his only freedom of choice in life and his only free action.

His success depends on how much he will be able to increase his spark with the help of the group in spite of all personal problems. If he increases it, then he will feel the need for faith (bestowal) and for others (the means). Everything is determined by how well he can receive (or absorb) the influence of the spiritual environment (the advice of his teacher and the general opinion of the group).

The environment is not just the group or friends, but the Shechina. The connection with them that I acquire is my connection with the Shechina, Malchut of the World of Atzilut, the common soul of Adam.

When the friends unite in order to annul their egoism and to attain the quality of bestowal, their unity evokes a reaction from the Shechina and they receive the Light of Correction (Ohr Makif) from it. That is how a person starts to interact with the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), which brings him closer to revealing the quality of bestowal (faith) within, and the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi) inside that quality.

All of our work comes down to increasing our desire for the quality of bestowal and increasing its importance; the way to do so is with the help of the right environment. It is impossible to learn to do this. It can only be done according to the verse, “We will do and we will hear.”

A person makes efforts to connect with the group even if he does not feel a need for it, and in response he receives support and a general necessity. It is a desire which the friends accumulate among each other – the need for faith or bestowal.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/10, “Who Testifies for Man”

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Question: What do the “four species” of Sukkot (Arba’at HaMinim) mean?

Answer: The four symbols of the celebration of Sukkot are: 1. Lulav (one closed frond from a date palm tree, Yesod), 2. Hadassim (three boughs with leaves from the myrtle tree, HGT), 3. Aravot (two branches with leaves from the willow tree, NHY), 4. Etrog (a fruit from a citron tree, similar to a lemon or grapefruit, Malchut).

All corrections of the souls that are uniting in Malchut of the World of Atzilut (Shechina) occur under the Light of correction that descends from Zeir Anpin (ZA) into her since he is a higher Partzuf (system) in relation to Malchut.

Zeir Anpin, in order to correct the souls in Malchut, groups in three lines, unifying their Sefirot Hesed-Gevurah-Tifferet, and sends the Light of correction from them into Malchut, the souls. In order to evoke such an act from ZA to Malchut, we, the souls who are willing to be corrected (to unite in Malchut), rouse in her its collective desire for correction. Malchut passes this desire to ZA. This desire evokes in Zeir Anpin a desire to merge with Malchut in spiritual coupling (Zivug) and pour the Light of correction into her.

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On the Day of Atonement we read the story of Jonah, the prophet whom the Creator had instructed to travel to Nineveh in order to awaken the people there to do good deeds. However, Jonah decided to run away from the Creator. He boarded a ship and decided to sail far, far away. But the Creator made the sea stormy, and when the sailors on the ship learned that Jonah was the cause of the storm, they threw him into the sea. A whale swallowed Jonah and brought him to shore, to the city of Nineveh.

Jonah went into the city and after he spoke to the people, they turned away from evil and attained love for one another. That is how Jonah carried out the Creator’s decree against his own will.

Jonah, boarding the ship, is a soul descending into a human body because a person in this world is like a ship in a stormy sea. A soul comes into a body in order to reach its correction by connecting with other souls. It is exactly through the egoistic desire to receive pleasure that it can correct itself by using egoism and the inclination to reject others specifically to connect with others and love them. That is how the soul develops from the “point of bestowal” to the Creator’s level and greatness.

This “point of bestowal” gradually connects greater egoistic desires to itself. The desires that are not yet able to be used for the sake of bestowal are left unused (restricted). This happens gradually, 125 times, until the point transfers all the desires to receive pleasure to itself.

The Creator sends the “point of bestowal,” the root of the soul (the prophet Jonah) into this world and into the desires of a person (the ship). The sailors and the captain are angels, meaning the Creator’s agents that surround man.

Jonah needs to awaken his desires for correction, connect with all the souls (the city of Nineveh), and awaken them to correction. He must turn their evil inclination into goodness and love for one another. Otherwise, they will fall into egoism and hatred, which will bring them to death.

In order to do this, we need to attract the help of the Light. This is what we mean by asking or screaming for help. Depending on how "loud" we scream, the Light elevates a part of our desire to receive pleasure and connects it to the action of bestowal.

In this way, we transfer all our desires from our world, from the desires “for our own sake,” to the world to come, the desires “for the sake of others.” By doing this we enter the Creator’s world where we perceive ourselves and the world through the quality of bestowal, experienced as eternal and perfect existence.

The story of the prophet Jonah speaks of how the Creator will force us, either through the good path or the path of suffering, to disseminate Kabbalah around the world, the method of the world’s correction. That is why it is written, "Therefore choose life," which is what the Day of Atonement is about.

[21382]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/2010, Selected Excerpts for Yom Kippur

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Sometimes the language of The Zohar appears to be very odd, but in fact the story behind it is extremely simple. There is my “neighbor” and “myself.” There is a distance between us that is divided into five parts. The most remote part is felt as “this world.” If I connect with my neighbor completely and attain total unity with him, I will sense the “World of Infinity.”

My drawing closer to my neighbor occurs in five steps: I ascend into the worlds of Assiya, then Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon. Five worlds with 25 steps in each make up 125 steps of us drawing closer together. Before starting this process, while I am still in this world, I have to fully realize that I am separated from my neighbor (the realization of evil).

I perceive myself and the world around me in the connection between me and my "neighbor." The Zohar speaks exclusively about what is happening between us: The still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature described in The Zohar, in fact, represent my desires of the still vegetative, animate, and speaking levels in relation to my neighbor (other souls).

The entire Torah speaks only about the ways of building the connection between me and my “neighbor.” It is what is called the “method of correction.”

The Torah is the Light concealed in the text, and I can derive it to the measure that I desire to unite with the other. The moment I connect with the other, I reveal the Upper World within this connection and exist in spirituality to the extent of this connection.
[21379]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/10, The Zohar

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