A question I received: Who is that observer, who sees the Creator’s reality?

My Answer: It is the desire to receive. This desire in the fourth stage (Dalet) of its four-step development has the quality of being able to see itself in a way different from the desire to receive on the inanimate, vegetative, or animate levels. On these levels, the desire feels only itself, and sees all of its inner parts: the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and the human being in this world, from within itself.

The desire to receive, which has developed to the fourth stage, has another part, which is called “the point in the heart” – a “particle of the Creator above” from which it can also observe. This point of observation is new, and from this point, it sees itself as though from the side of the Creator.

It is only necessary to see this point to give it great importance, stamina, and scope. All this is carried out by extracting this point from within oneself and “gluing” it to others.

Those “others” merely exist in one’s imagination. In reality, nothing exists outside of the person. However, this is how we feel as a consequence of the breaking.

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Rabash, “The Meaning of Torah and Work on the Creator’s Path”: When one intends to study the Torah, he should keep the goal, the reason for which he intends to study, before his eyes. The goal, that is, the benefit which he wants to extract from the Torah is the Light that Reforms that’s in it.

Essentially, we don’t need anything else. We should imagine and attempt to feel that everything happens because of the Upper Light, that “there is none else besides Him,” that He is the ruler and the lord, and only He performs everything.

Therefore, we only need to desire and wait for His actions and their consequences. Our entire work consists of attracting His actions upon ourselves, feeling that we are the lower degree, while He is the Upper One, and becoming similar to the Upper degree, the Light. He will act upon us and make us similar to Him in as much as we will aspire toward Him, that is, desire to become like Him.

So it follows that our work is very simple. It’s not important what passage of The Zohar we are reading or what it is about; it’s not important how much we understand what we are reading. There exists a system of connection between us and the Upper Light, called “The Book of Zohar.” We have to utilize it and aspire to become similar to the Light during the study.

This desire will awaken the Light, and it will act upon us. Slowly, we will begin to feel the results of its influence.

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A question I received: What should we imagine when we read the words of The Zohar, which we do not understand at all? Should we picture the souls in unity, the Light’s influence on us, or something else?
My Answer: You need to imagine that we are all together in one desire, and that what we read about in The Book of Zohar will be revealed as filling inside this desire. And together, this desire and its fulfillment will reveal the Creator.

We are waiting for and expecting results from our studies. We really need to correct our connection to others because this will become our vessel for the Light. Then, my desire will receive the quality of correction, the quality of oneness – the Creator. The Creator is my correct desire for bestowal.

I need to imagine a state that I want to exist in. I may not know what the Light is or how it enters me, but I still need to picture the correct state that I want to achieve. Just like in our everyday lives, when we wish for something, we don’t think about the actions we have to make in order to obtain it, but only about the end result, about our desire coming true. I am then able to understand what I am lacking in order to attain the object of my desire, and where I can obtain the right example of the future state, meaning, which books can give me that example.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bamidbar (In The Wilderness),” Item 36: This explains the reason for the journeying of the banners, which were east first, which is the hidden Daat, the beginning of the light, the root of the light of Hesed that appears from AVI. This is why the south follows it, for it is its branch. And following it is the west, which is Malchut, whose face should turn to the south. And following it is the north, for the back of Malchut should turn to the north, as it is written, “Let his left hand be under my head, and his right hand embrace me,” and “under” always means Achoraim.

This passage of The Zohar speaks about the form in which the entire structure of a person develops and advances forward, and the order in which one’s qualities change. Every one of us is HaVaYaH, in addition to being divided into three lines, twelve tribes, four phases, and so on.

All of these qualities change in us during the period when we “wander through the wilderness.” So what is the form that is passing through our impure forces (desires), through our uncorrected qualities, which are called “wilderness”? Moreover, as we run into hardships, problems, and obstacles in this wilderness, how do we nonetheless continue clarifying our qualities so as to draw nearer to the “land of Israel” (desire for the Creator)?

“Banners” are our primary qualities with which we try to advance, changing them one at a time. Just as with an embryo, first the arms develop, and afterwards the legs, brain, heart, kidneys, and then the eyes are formed (there is a particular order by which a drop of semen develops into a human being); similarly, there is an established developmental order concerning spirituality. The Zohar explains the order by which we develop after being born from our egoistic desire.

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A question I received: Why is it that in the process of correction some people actively strive toward spirituality, aspire to teach and create the method of correction, whereas others have enormous earthly desires and merely take a passive part in this process by helping in some way?

My Answer: This division does exist, but it isn’t so clear cut because even the people who aspire to spirituality are divided into different levels. We know that in our world, too, there are people who simply “do” as well as others who want something greater. As a result, each person occupies a certain position that is sufficient to satisfy him and does not want any more responsibility beyond that.

There are many reasons that seem to justify why this is so, but in essence everything is determined by one’s desire. All of humanity is built as a pyramid, including the part of humanity that aspires to spirituality. Some people are willing to keep going until the end and won’t stop for anything until they attain equivalence with the Creator. They won’t settle for anything less. Every person finds his own place according to his desire, work, efforts, and inner aspiration. Everything is determined by the root of one’s soul because this is what one has to realize.

There is no soul higher than Moses; he is the spiritual leader who led the entire nation out of spiritual exile to freedom, thus performing a great correction in the souls. However, this correction only occurred within a part of the souls, whereas now we are awaiting the Messiah who will perform the general correction of the whole world. The Messiah is not a person, but the Light that will bring all of us out of spiritual exile (in Hebrew the word Mashiach originates from the word Moshech – to pull out).

Perhaps there will be a spiritual leader in the form of a person because people are able to perceive the method of correction and to see an example precisely in this form. Alternatively, it might be a group that will hold the spiritual leadership over the world and set an example of how to work together while rejecting one’s personal egoism and elevating the Creator. They will be able to explain the goal of creation to everyone, to show what the Creator demands, and to set an example of love and bestowal, a spiritual union. This will constitute the Sanhedrin, the world’s spiritual leadership.

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We can see that the science of Kabbalah expands and enters the world from the center, from the source. In our generation the source of knowledge and the method of correction is here, in the central Bnei Baruch group.

If any group in the world or any person thinks that he is able to lead himself or the group to the goal correctly, he is deluding himself due to misunderstanding the structure of the system of souls upon which our world is clothed. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that everything always expands from the internality to the externality, or from the Upper Level to the lower one. The same applies to the influence upon our world as well as one’s attainment: First a person ascends to the Upper Level, and from there he can see and influence the lower level.

Therefore, dissemination, influence, correction, and lessons must come only from here, the center. The role of the different groups is to take part in creating materials and disseminating them while submitting to the center in every way, similar to how all parts of an organism act in a coordinated fashion under the governance of one head shared by all. Nothing can start in the middle of the ladder, the pyramid, or some particular group similar to how the structure of the universe is strictly fixed and described.

Baal HaSulam writes in Item 57 of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that if a thousand blind people are led by one person who can see, then they will all be able to follow him; but if there is no leader, they will all perish. Similarly, we observe a special mission on the part of humanity called “Isra-El” (meaning “straight to the Creator”) because the Light of Correction passes through it to all of humanity. Baal HaSulam describes this strict and unchangeable hierarchy in the above article.

Therefore, every person within this system must be connected to the Upper Level as well as the lower level. Above us are our Teachers, the sources, the forefathers, and the Kabbalists of previous generations from whom we learn and by whose teachings we live. Beneath us are our students, all those who come to us wishing to connect to us. This hierarchy must be maintained because we are all able to receive only from the Upper One (see Baal HaSulam’s article, “Faith in the Teacher”).

However, if one person or group decides to act independently, they would be preferring the externality to the internality. They will thus replace the upper with the lower, in which case it would be necessary to immediately correct them or remove them from the common system. From studying the structure of the worlds we see that there is no “democracy,” but a strict subservience to the Upper Level, to the Upper One’s (the Creator’s) example.

Through the connection among the groups and their structure, we are currently implementing the construction of a system that will expand to the whole world, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Last Generation.” Then our world will become similar to the Upper World. So where is every person’s freedom? It lies in choosing the right connection with the environment and submitting to it in order to attain similarity to the Creator. This is attained only if one is connected to the Upper One, receives from Him, and carries out the same actions along the same chain of degrees. Thus, every person’s freedom of will lies in preferring the internality over the externality in spite of one’s personal egoistic disturbances or those occurring to the group.

As Baal HaSulam writes in Item 60 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” every person’s action corrects or ruins the entire system. Obviously, this is a dictatorship; however, it comes from Above, from the Creator, and all of us must carry it out by submitting to the Upper One and becoming similar to Him. In addition, we attract the lower one according to a fixed hierarchy. Absolute equality emerges only in the final, corrected state where everyone becomes equal through mutual bestowal.

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A question I received: What is the difference between the states called “seven fat years” and “seven years of famine”? How do they apply to our world?

My Answer: “The seven fat years” (seven good years) is the time humanity strove to reach prosperity. We wanted to accomplish a good life through the technical, scientific, social, and political revolutions. Just a few years ago, Americans claimed that they were the most successful in achieving prosperity since they were a consumer nation. The more people consume the greater the overall affluence. Now we discover that a consumer culture is not sustainable; we are destroying ourselves and our planet. We cannot continue on the path of consumerism because there are limits to everything.

Forecasts for the future when I was a child painted a much different picture of our current state of affairs. I was told that when I grew up I would work only four hours a day instead of eight, I would use the rest of my time for cultural pursuits, I would have a two month vacation, and children of the future would be well educated and more culturally developed.

However, people today work a twelve hour day and barely take vacation. Education and culture are in dire crises. Families break apart. The majority of humanity exists in desperation and depression dependent on antidepressants and “recreational drugs.” We have come to the state where “the seven fat years” have ended and “the seven years of famine” (the seven bad years) have begun. The “seven years of famine” occur in order to bring humanity to the decision that it no longer wants to continue such an existence.

So now what should we do? The people in ancient Babylon faced the same dilemma when their egoism exploded, as ours has now. And the advice given by Abraham at that time is applicable today.

“There are two possible solutions here. Do you want to spread out around the entire world, while the purpose of creation is to bring us to similarity with the Creator?” “Do not escape your mission,” Abraham warned, “It is inevitable that you will come back to it in four and a half thousand years.” And of course, Abraham was speaking about our time.

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People often ask, “Why am I studying for so long and putting in effort, but not receiving revelation?” The fact of the matter is that the state cannot change while that is what is still important to us.

People should ask: What is my attitude to spirituality? Do I consider it just an addition to my material life? Am I willing to settle for this life, or do I feel that I am in exile? The feeling of exile is unpleasant, and a person instinctively draws away from it. We don’t want to think that our lives are spent in vain and that time passes without any result. We try to forget about this, or we begin to eat ourselves up without doing anything to change.

However, the feeling of being in exile does not come from feeling bad in this life. It comes from the fact that spirituality is so important to me that I aspire to it in spite of having a pretty good regular life. After all, anyone can criticize his life, but mere criticism has not brought anyone to the spiritual world. It is paramount to realize the importance: of spirituality, of achieving the sensation of the Creator, of merging with Him, of feeling bestowal and love for the neighbor, and of attaining the connection between us within which we can reveal the Upper Force.

In other words, we can only run away from exile if we feel the importance of salvation. The word “salvation” (Geula) differs from “exile” (Galut), as it is written in Hebrew, by just one letter: “Alef,” which means “the Creator.” If we begin to value and desire the connection with the Creator, the force of bestowal, and love for the neighbor, it indicates that we have reached the right preparation and the exit from exile is really happening.

We also need to understand where it is we want to exit to. We prepare for this by correctly imagining the spiritual state. If a person correctly imagines spirituality as bestowal, love, connection with others, connection with all other parts of the universe within which the Creator is revealed, then he becomes worthy of coming out of exile and being free.

Then the exit occurs quickly; we only need to attune ourselves correctly. We can’t just run away from an unpleasant life; we need to work on receiving the correct and clear impression about spirituality and desire it. The exit from exile depends only on feeling the importance of the quality of bestowal.

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A question I received: It usually takes time to enter the flow of The Zohar’s text. How can we speed up this entrance?

My Answer: This depends on a person’s state. It takes me at least 20 minutes, sometimes up to 40, to begin feeling The Zohar and connecting to it, to begin working together with it in one shared breathing, floating on its waves.

One has to keep reading and wait for it to happen. But the time of preparation is not a waste. It is great work, a time when a person must have faith that The Zohar will soon be revealed to him. You already have experience and you know how it happens. You understand that all you have to do is continue and eventually some sort of connection will open up.

By virtue of this connection, we begin to feel The Zohar, to perceive it closer to us. We begin to receive a greater illumination from it as the text “plays” with us, awakening inner changes.

This takes time; the time of preparation is necessary to establish contact with the book. This time is very important and you have to be patient, giving it as long as necessary. After all, it is very important for this to happen, and one has to be certain that it definitely will happen. You have to wait for it and desire it; by so doing you will connect with the book.

Later on you will feel that it isn’t just some picture becoming clear to you, but that you are entering an ocean of sensations and inner changes. You start to experience many ascents and descents as The Zohar makes you shift to the left or the right (with regard to your spiritual sensations). You will feel very clear and drastic phenomena taking place within you and will feel how the Upper Force operates within your matter.

Throughout it all, one’s advancement lies in the fact that one waits for the study to correct him, meaning to bring him to unity, love for the neighbor, and unity with the Creator. It is for this sake that one reads and makes efforts. In that case, one moves along in one intention with the Light.

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The Creator does not send me suffering. The desire that is not similar to the Upper Light awakens within me and I feel this dissimilarity as suffering with respect to health, money, honor, power, security, spouse, children, and the whole world. I feel pressure, hardship, and various problems.

Who or what is at fault? My desire that is opposite to the Light. It arouses the sensation of suffering within me. This sensation does not come from the Light. The Light is at absolute rest; it is good and brings goodness both to the wicked and to the righteous. It is me that is not similar to the Light, my qualities that are different from the Light.

For example, if a desire of 10kg awakens in me,  I have to become equivalent to the Light in those 10kg. That is, I have to build the “intention for the sake of bestowal” upon that desire and then I will find myself in my “little” World of Infinity. Afterwards, the desire will increase to 12kg, and I will have to correct my intention for bestowal for the additional 2kg, and then I will feel myself in a greater World of Infinity, and so on.

My egoistic desire increases day after day. However, if I only want to use the increased desire more  by exploiting others for my own benefit instead of connecting with them and bestowing to the Creator with other parts of the common soul,  then I feel suffering in that desire. Egoism suffers from its own opposition to the Light that surrounds it. We create suffering for ourselves; it is not the Creator. He is perfect, so how can He change?

I’m immersed in the sea of Light now. Yet if I don’t try to become similar to Him, to the degree of the thoughts and desires revealed to me now, I will feel bad, and tomorrow, I will feel even worse than today.

Try to become similar to the Light every single moment. The Light is bestowal and love for the other; it is universal unification. All private desires, individual souls, will unite and this single big desire will become similar to the Light.

How can I accomplish it? How can I help in this process? Start thinking about it and you will see that your suffering will cease. Suddenly you will realize that your desire that is aspiring toward the Light is actually similar to it. In this part, you will feel yourself as the Light, as the Creator. You have the method and all the means for it.

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