A question I received: Why do women devote so much time to their appearance? Why is it so important for a woman to be beautiful in her own eyes and in the eyes of a man? Does this phenomenon have a spiritual root?

My Answer: A woman’s desire to dress up and beautify herself stems from the Upper root. “To beautify” means “to correct oneself” and to attain similarity with the Creator, the power of love and bestowal.

This aspiration finds its root in the depth of the soul. Our “point in the heart” forces us to beautify ourselves and decorate our “disgusting” egoistic nature. To be beautiful means to be similar to the Creator. A person becomes handsome when the Light of the Creator illuminates him.

Why particularly do women beautify themselves? It is because in our world women symbolize Malchut, the root of creation. A man and a woman, a bride and a groom serve as an illustration of the relationship between the Creator and the creation. The creation is a woman, the Creator is a man.

Thus it follows that each of us (both men and women) have to beautify their souls and become good-looking!

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A question I received: The authors of The Zohar wrote the book for our generation. I just started my spiritual path. Why do they so scrupulously describe such high degrees? What meaning can I derive from these commentaries for myself?

My Answer: The degrees and the states described in The Zohar are in fact the states of the World of Atzilut. These states bear a relationship to every degree, even the lowest, when a person is merely reading this book without understanding any of it.

It is not important exactly what we read about in The Zohar. A person who opens this book for the first time can read about the most remote systems of the spiritual world. Most importantly, a person’s desire connects him with the Upper Root. From there, he needs to attract the Light upon himself and let this Light elevate him to its Source.

That’s why Baal HaSulam didn’t confine himself to only one book on Kabbalah that one could read and refer to over and over again. Rather, he wrote two thousand pages of Talmud Eser Sefirot to describe the Upper Roots and convey all that’s necessary for our ascent.

However, it doesn’t mean that a person needs to read all the books. By being connected with the text, he awakens the influence of his Upper Roots upon him. Hence, it’s worth reading any text regardless of whether we understand it or not.

In the course of preparing The Zohar for All for publication, we present the whole Zohar except for the parts that describe the research and comparison of sources. We do so because this can be of interest only to researchers, but not to those who strive to attain similarity to the Creator.

Our primary concern is to help people “enter” spirituality, to reveal the Upper Light, and to establish contact with the Creator. This is the reason we prepare The Zohar in a slightly simplified version, but nonetheless, a version certainly sufficient to allow one to enter spirituality.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: If a person is higher than his environment, can he influence and correct it?

My Answer: A person cannot rise above his environment. He totally depends on it. Even if his environment consists of simple people and he is a great Kabbalist, they will nevertheless influence him.

Imagine that you take a magnificent fruit bearing tree, pull it out of the ground, and plant it in the center of the desert. What will happen to it? Will it turn the desert into a blossoming garden? Similar to the tree’s dependence on its environment, our soul depends on our environment.

The goal of the creation, the group, our personal work, and the Creator are positioned inside one point. Imagine that your whole life depends on this one point that you have to clarify. It determines your life and death every given moment. To draw an analogy, say you can’t breathe unless you push an oxygen button. If you don’t do it (and connect with the others), oxygen is not supplied for you.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Article “The Freedom”

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The science of Kabbalah defines life and death only with respect to merging with the Creator. A state similar to the Creator is called life, while one that is opposite to Him is death. Therefore, egoistic desires (Klipot) are considered dead, whereas the “poison of death” refers to the force that separates the creature from the Creator.

Death is not a loss of existence, as we observe the disappearance of one’s form in this world (at our degree). All that is created (desire) changes only with respect to drawing closer to or further away from the Creator in its intention to bestow; in everything else (in its desire), the creature remains the same. Hence distancing from the Creator, losing the state of adhesion with Him, is called “death,” whereas adhesion with Him, acquiring the quality of bestowal, is called “life.”

In his article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Baal HaSulam writes that the science of Kabbalah is a means for the creature to reveal the Creator in this world. To reveal the Creator means to assume His qualities.

Although we exist in a world of the still, vegetative, and animate matter, by acquiring the human level of similarity to the Creator, we come to feel ourselves and our existence as perfect and eternal, like the Creator. The science of Kabbalah changes us to facilitate our ascent to the next level (degree) where we begin to see that we do not disappear, but simply change the level of our existence.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/21/10

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The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 368: When Rabbi Elazar was sitting while fasting, he was praying and said, “It is revealed and known to You, the Lord my God and the God of my fathers, that I have sacrificed my fat and my blood to You, and I boiled them with the warmth of the weakness of my body.”

There is a tremendous difference in whether I read these words from a prayer book, or something happens inside of me that causes an explosion from within, an outburst toward the Creator.

The feelings form inside of me, and they build into the words and phrases. I may not even know this language. I don’t know how it happens, but it is the consequence of my effort to equalize my desires with the Light and unite with It. The reaction of the Light and the desires occurs in the soul. These words are realized in my brain, the brain transmits the orders to the organs of speech, and I utter the words without knowing where they came from.

This is what true prayer should be like, when everything comes from within. From the union of the Lights and the Kelim inside the depth of creation, gradually with the fulfillment of the desire by the Light, the whole TANTA (a full Kli – Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot) is built, until it reaches an expression through the organs of speech.

It is clear that Rabbi Elazar did not read this prayer from a prayer book, but he uttered it while existing in this state about which he spoke to the Creator. Before the destruction of the Second Temple, the nation of Israel was connected with the Creator, in the qualities of bestowal and love, thus the feeling in Rabbi Elazar’s heart, in his desire, constituted a prayer. It is written: “What is a prayer? It is work in the heart.”

However, the sages of the Great Assembly (Anshei Kneset Agdola) were aware of the imminent descent into egoism and concealment of the Creator. Thus they gathered a collection of prayers – states that a person needs to reach. They called it “Siddur,” the order of spiritual states that we need to go through inside, in our hearts, in our desires.

But since we are incapable of doing this during the exile, without a connection to the Light or the Creator, while the Upper Force is concealed, we read the words from a prayer book mechanically. Some people try to imagine what it could mean spiritually. Yet only while studying Kabbalah will the Light provoke the feelings, thoughts, sensations, words, and phrases of our prayer inside us, as work in the heart, rather than work in the organs of speech.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: How can I become similar to the Creator if He has no form?

My Answer: The Creator has no form as we usually understand it in this world. The Light has no form, and neither does the upper degree. Rabash writes that all the worlds, when they’re not revealed in our desires (Kelim), are the Light of Infinity.

There are no worlds that exist outside of man. In relation to one’s inner system or the Soul, the “worlds” is an external system within him. Because of this, we give form to everything including the Creator.

The Creator (Bo-Re) means “come” (Bo) and “see” (Re). By changing and improving our qualities, we build an external form out of our uncorrected desire to receive pleasure. As we correct our attitude toward this external form (that is, correct our egoistic desire), this external form connects into us.

Each degree initially appears as external to us. Then, through our work with our environment, we have to raise its value in our eyes and see it as supreme and desirable. In so doing we attain love for a new degree from hating it. We desire this degree and change our selfish attitude toward it to aspiration to give to it. Thereby we attain this Upper degree. We as though absorb it or “turn a hating one into a loving one.”

We do this again and again until we incorporate the entire universe into ourselves and start perceiving it to be ours.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/01, Shamati #225

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A question I received: It is written that the Creator, the Upper Light, is good and merciful. Where does this idea come from?

My Answer: In order to reveal the Creator’s kind attitude, a person has to make efforts and carry out great work to correct himself. Then the quality of bestowal (Bina) comes to him. However, this does not mean that if you cry for a while, then the Creator will act like a loving mother and have pity on you, pleasing you in some way. There is a strict law operating here: “One is rewarded in accordance with one’s efforts.”

If we so desire, we will advance along the good path, and if we don’t desire it, then we will face a Third and Fourth nuclear world wars. Our entire program of development depends on how much we oscillate between two paths: Beito (naturally, in due time), and Ahishena (accelerating time). To the extent we follow the program of development, we sweeten our state, and to the extent we don’t, it catches up to us with suffering.

In truth, we don’t understand the meaning of life without suffering. We are used to suffering, disease, and hard work, and we don’t understand what it means to exist in the spiritual world, like an angel, where everything is good, perfect, and harmonious. We have never tasted this, as it is written, “Taste and see how good the Creator is!”

Therefore, we consider life with a bit less suffering than usual to be good. But is it really good if we always have to labor and struggle for our existence? We don’t know what it means to be in the spiritual field, inside the perfect Light. That is why it seems merciful to us when the troubles afflicting us are slightly reduced and we get a short break.

Yet, we have to understand that there is a strict law operating in the world: “I did not change my HaVaYaH.” We will have to work and carry out our entire program, whether in a good way or a bad one. This is entirely up to you; there won’t be any leniency from Above.

It is idol worship to think that the Creator changes. The Creator never changes; He is Absolute. He is perfect, and something that is perfect cannot change either for the better or the worse.

He is good and does good unto the wicked and the righteous, where the latter are those who want to attain Him. It doesn’t matter what state they are in now, good or bad. They will reveal that the Creator is good and kind.

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, “Peace in the World”

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Revelation is a result of efforts. When we read The Zohar, we only need to exert effort. By trying to discern the properties The Zohar is talking about within ourselves, we penetrate toward a more inner screen within us, toward a deeper picture of the world. This is where the revelation of the Creator occurs.

Personal interpretation and commentaries of the text do not bring revelation. To feel a new world within, to interpret The Zohar internally, in sensations, a person needs to direct himself toward an increasingly inner state when reading the text.

A more internal state means that a person connects the text with his internal properties to a greater degree. He sees them in himself; he discovers that every word points to a property or action within him such as the “twelve tribes,” “Jacob,” a “desert,” and a “well.” As a result of his efforts, he reveals their true meaning.

This is why Kabbalah is called “Torah Emet” or the true Torah. Such understanding of the text cannot be conveyed in words. Rather, it can be revealed only within a person, in his new properties which appear as a result of efforts.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/10, The Zohar

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No one knows how much more work we will have to do in order to realistically see the new, corrected world. But the results of our work can already be seen by the awakening of the nation of Israel. As a result of this awakening, there will be great, qualitative changes and people will begin to feel the spiritual reality. But to achieve this, we will have to attain a common might called “six thousand souls.”

We have to achieve this might in quantity and in force, meaning according to the amount of people aspiring to the spiritual goal, as well as the might of their undertsanding, the connection between them, and the importance they attribute to this. As soon as we achieve this might of “six thousand souls,” the spiritual world will be revealed to us. This constitutes the goal of disseminating Kabbalah: to have as many people join this movement as necessary to reach “the first stop” in the spiritual world, which is the spiritual revelation.

When we unite together with this force and this quantity, where the quantity multiplied by the quality will give us the necessary might (P=UxI – power equals pressure times the force of electricity), then a spiritual vessel emerges, in which the Creator becomes revealed. Then, everyone who participates in this common vessel will feel the revelation of spirituality. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the creatures.

It depends only in the importance that we attribute to spirituality in relation to corporeality. We are already building this common vessel of revealing the Creator, but until we complete it, we won’t be able to discover it. It will become expressed in our sensations, along with the Creator inside it.

From the Independence Day lecture 04/20/10, “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

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A question I received: What does it practically mean “To value the inner part of me more than the external part?” Baal HaSulam writes that this is necessary in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

My Answer: To value the inner part of you means to respect your mission and responsibility to attain mutual bestowal and to unite together “as one man with one heart” through brotherly love, for the sake of revealing the Creator, the general force of bestowal and love that rules in nature. This has to be the most important thing to a person. We are talking about the Upper Force of bestowal, which fills everything, but which we don’t feel because we nullify its manifestation with our egoism. The right intention for us to have is for this force to become revealed within us to the fullest extent.

I make a simple calculation: that this is the only thing that is important to me in this life. This is why I was born and what I live for. This is what I have to achieve as long as I live in this world. In addition, all of humanity depends on the work I do in this regard, because we are all connected together inside one net.

Baal HaSulam writes that “a person from the nation of Israel,” meaning a person who has a point in the heart (Isra-El means the aspiration to the Creator) determines the direction and state of the whole world with his intention. He can say, “I don’t want anything right now. I’m in a state of descent so leave me alone. I don’t want to hear about spiritual work. I’m going to rest!” In that case, where is his responsibility and the understanding that there are millions and billions of people who depend on him? He is now determining their fate and how they will advance toward correction – whether through painful blows or through realization and goodness.

If these people depend on you, then you have a very strict responsibility to make the right choice because you are leading everyone, be it in a good direction or a bad one. You have no choice about the matter; this is how the worldwide network is built and this is the place you have been allotted in it. Therefore, you must always be in a state of upper fear and remember that you decide what will happen to the whole world.

Later you will reveal that all the people are your children, the closest thing to you! But you have to think this way even now, by faith above reason. Everything that you do is not being done to you, but to the whole world!

How important we deem spirituality directly determines the fate of all humanity. What’s important for us will be important for everyone else. That is the structure of this entire system, in which we are connected with strict connections. A person without a point in the heart does not have the ability to change anything. Only you do, who are called “Isra-El,” or “Li-Rosh” (I am the head).

From the Independence Day lecture 04/20/10, “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

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