When you connect with other people on the level of spiritual desire, corporeality gradually loses its value. Of course, you still have to help people to live by the laws of society, but you start to see that there are deeper reasons and a purpose for everything taking place.

All your sensations start to focus on your connection and relationship with the Creator. You reveal that others also desire the Creator and they really need your help with this. You are all in one boat and you help each other navigate and arrive to the common goal.

This is what the Creator desires as well. He is the One that determines all our actions from the beginning. We have to leave our own desires behind and connect to the Creator and His desire as much as we are able to grasp and understand Him. We can only act to the extent that we can carry out His desire.

Everything else goes against the process of spiritual development, no matter how “cruel” or “inhuman” this statement seems to us. Indeed, it’s not human – it’s divine! But in the meantime we aren’t able to understand it.

Therefore, we shouldn’t abandon our studies and seek to help all those who suffer. We should understand that we can’t help them this way. There is only one thing that can help, because everything comes from Above, from the Upper Light: this Light is lacking a desire to clothe into, and that is why we are witnessing so many disasters in our world.

We have to create a vessel in our world that is able to accept the Upper Light. Then, instead of all the catastrophes we experience, we will feel positive changes of the same force or even greater.

Life teaches us that there is no other way to overcome these tragedies. With every passing day, life on earth will become more dangerous. So if we don’t take the right path, we might see tectonic plates shifting in the near future, with all that this implies.

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The whole world is parts of my desire, of myself. However, I don’t feel that others are part of me and therefore I’m not concerned about them whatsoever. Let the whole world burn, I don’t care!

The science of Kabbalah teaches us to reveal the truth – to see that everything “outside” of us is us, our desire. What we perceive as ourselves as well as the external world must all merge within us into one desire.

The Creator created only the desire, which is where we exist. We cannot see or sense anything beyond that desire. We reveal the Creator within our desire, which is why He is called “the Creator” – Bo-Reh, “come and see.” This world is what we feel right now, and the world to come is what we will feel a moment from now.

Everything takes place within the same desire, but we begin to perceive more and more things within it. We experience countless impressions, but in fact, this external reality doesn’t exist; it is merely the various phenomena that appear within our desire. This place we are in, this world, and this whole reality are imaginary. Once we discover the world of truth, we will exclaim: “We were in a dream!”

We must reveal the truth in order to awaken to the true reality, much like a person awakens from unconsciousness. This is the purpose of the science of Kabbalah – to return us to consciousness. Until then, it’s no use speaking to a person because if he currently exists in an unconscious state, he must first be reanimated back to life.

Therefore, when we open The Book of Zohar, we must imagine that nothing exists other than our desire. This world, myself, and everyone around me – none of these things exist. They are all my illusion.

There is only one desire to enjoy, and everything that can possibly happen takes place within that desire. This world and the world to come, life and death, the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature – there is no other place for any of them to be other than my inner desire to enjoy.

The Book of Zohar allows us to enter a state of feeling everything within our desire. That is what the Kabbalists call the spiritual world.

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We are now working on developing the right approach to The Book of Zohar. This is the greatest challenge facing us because we do not understand this book. We have to look at the narration differently than we’ve ever done before. After all, we have never looked inside ourselves, but always outside. We always pointed to something outside of us, trying to discern it and learn what it is. But now we have to conduct an inner observation and point inside ourselves, which is a very unusual thing to do.

When we read the words, “Job, Pharaoh,” and so on, we immediately think of history, geography, relationships between people, and all kinds of other external things. But Kabbalah says, “No, on the contrary, you have to look inside yourself and search for these things there.” Yet, we don’t understand how to do this and where to look for all of this inside us. It would be easier if we at least experienced some inner sensations while reading about “Pharaoh,” for example. But this doesn’t happen; instead, we suddenly begin to think about a person that lived in Ancient Egypt 5000 years ago. This is our problem.

In reality this false perception was arranged deliberately so that while imagining all of these things externally, we would force ourselves and make efforts to imagine it inside us. We go from the imaginary world to the world of forces, desires, and qualities by trying to look inwards of our own accord and searching for the Creator there. This helps us come out of our current, illusionary world and focus on the inside in order to see and reveal the Creator there.

Then we reveal that this world does not exist, and neither do Pharaoh, Bilam, Balak, Job, and all the other impressions that The Zohar evokes in us. None of it exists; these are all forces that the Creator awakens in us in order for us to recognize Him – the single existing force. Then all of these numerous forces and qualities disappear and you remain one on one with the Creator. To get there, however, you had to raise yourself, expand, and build yourself to such an all-enveloping size that enables you to understand Him, to feel Him, and to be fulfilled by Him.

This is the unity between the Creator and the creation which we have to achieve through equivalence of form. And The Book of Zohar teaches us all of this.

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A person must be his own spiritual psychologist; he always has to keep track of which way his “scale” is leaning – towards goodness or evil. As well, he must analyze all of his qualities and work on them. He must check every one of his qualities to see what it is and where it belongs because through these qualities, he will begin to feel the Creator.

The Zohar talks about the system that governs and controls our qualities. In this system, the Creator is the One who implements all the actions within these qualities. He invites us to get to know Him through all of these qualities, their actions, and this entire system. This is the only place where we can meet Him. In The Book of Zohar, He is telling us a story through which we can start to recognize Him, the qualities He created, how He connected them with one another, and how we can start checking them.

In this way we discern the system, its structure, and its functionality, as well as the force that operates it. This is how we will get to know the Creator, since this system is a connecting link between us and the Creator.

This system will disappear at the End of Correction because there will be nothing left to conceal and connect. There will be an absolute, universal connection.

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We shouldn’t strive to correct the world or ourselves; we just need to study the actions which the Upper Light performs on us. It’s as the Creator told Moses: “Let’s go to Pharaoh!”

Moses is small and frightened – meaning this is a very weak quality in a person. There is a creature of monstrous proportions standing opposite to him; this is all of creation, the whole world, egoism, which holds all the power, nourishment, and oxygen. I receive all of these things from Pharaoh; he is my whole reality. Meanwhile, a tiny quality or desire called Moses rises up against it wishing to escape, to come out from its control and begin to live in a different world!

We almost don’t feel this tiny opportunity within us to rise and come out of our egoism. We don’t know how to come out of this Egyptian slavery or where to run from it. However, the Creator tells us, “Let’s go to Pharaoh together!” And like a little child who takes the adult by the hand, Moses and the Creator walk together.

From the side of the human being, all that’s needed is consent, a request, a demand to the Creator for help. One does not need to battle evil on his own. However, people don’t understand this and think that they are able to do something on their own. But whoever thinks himself a hero is a fool.

All the religions and allegedly “spiritual” methods err with regard to this, teaching people to eradicate the evil inclination. Kabbalah, however, says that the left side (egoistic desires) is given to us precisely in order to help us adhere to the right side (bestowal) – after all, this constitutes the whole goal of attaining the Creator through our efforts in the middle line.

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The picture of this world has to last throughout the entire process of our spiritual advancement until the World of Infinity. Our correction is possible only under the condition that we perceive the reality of this lower degree, our world.

We must continually attain roots that are above the picture of our world which we now perceive. This picture doesn’t change; it’s only that its roots become higher or deeper, meaning that we attain the Creator (the root of our desires) to a greater extent.

The picture we now see is just His branch that is depicted by our desires on the background of His desires. The world is the picture of our desires’ dissimilarity to Him.

Through the process of attaining, our language doesn’t change either, because the picture of the lowest world doesn’t change. We speak the same words regardless if we are on the first level, in the middle, or at the end of the path. Kabbalists don’t have any other possibility of communicating with each other besides “the language of branches.”

The lowest state is the same for everyone, and the connection from the branch to the root extends from the World of Infinity through the same line which we continue from one world to another, through all 125 levels and in all 613 desires.

Thus, we can talk about any desire on any of the 125 levels by taking the corresponding name of the branch from this world. This is why Kabbalists chose “the language of branches” – because it remains invariable along the entire path of spiritual advancement. It is a perfect language, and if we only knew the connection between the root and the branch, we would be able to understand it.

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Shmini (On The Eighth Day), Item 25: The right line and the left line are mercy and judgment. Those who aspire to the Creator go right, while idol worshippers go left.

He who aspires to the Creator, even should he sin and surrender, he remains on the right side, without connecting to the left or ever mixing with it. Therefore it is written: “Rescue with Your right hand and answer me.” For when the right ascends, he who is tied to it ascends and is exalted by it.

Then the left side obeys, and all those who walk from this side, as it is written: “Your right hand, the Creator, crushes the enemy.”

We shouldn’t focus on the left line, because if we begin to do this, we will analyze our desires and it will seem that we’re making discernments and actually standing up against our evil qualities. But in actuality we’ll be mixing with them, and that isn’t good.

We have to try to ignore them as if they don’t even exist. We shouldn’t desire to deal with them, but only aspire to the right side. When we aspire toward the spiritual goal, adhesion with the Creator, the Upper Degree, bestowal, then its Light will correct us and our egoistic qualities, the left side.

On our own we will never be able to withstand these qualities, so it’s best to just stay away from them. The left line awakens in us only so we cling to the right. This is our path. If, however, we turn to the left side, we will think we are heroes, capable of working with and defeating these desires. But that will never happen! Only the Creator can defeat them for us. This war is waged by the Creator, not by us.

We don’t have the strength for it. One who aspires to the Creator is little, weak, and unable to withstand the egoistic qualities on his own. All of this is arranged by the Creator, and all we need to do is desire for it to happen. We just have to reach the right request.

That is why our work is called “the Creator’s work”; it’s because the Upper Force, the Upper Degree, the Creator, carries out all the actions, while we merely express our desire for it to happen. Our entire work comes down to wanting for it to happen. This is called “I awaken the dawn,” when the horse (us) moves obediently on its own, guessing its rider’s (the Creator’s) wishes in advance.

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A question I received: How do you tell if a person is ready to study Kabbalah or if it’s too early or potentially harmful for him yet?

My Answer: A person’s own desires will show him his path, as it is written, “Let a person study where his heart desires.” Therefore, Kabbalah never lures people in; it actually even pushes them away to determine if their heart’s desire is genuine.

Even when a person feels that he is finding all the answers in Kabbalah, it still doesn’t mean that he is in fact studying Kabbalah. Most people join our studies not exactly understanding why they have chosen to do so, similar to how in our world most people live by “whatever happens, happens.”

Such a person participates in the studies and even succeeds in acquiring knowledge. However, this knowledge is external because he doesn’t aspire internally to change his likeness to that of the Creator. And that is about 99% of the people coming to study Kabbalah. While they do carry out the intense job of correction, only a limited number of them have a persistent internal concern about the question regarding the goal – the precision and execution in attaining it.

Therefore, even those who engage in Kabbalah with a question about the meaning of life often remain entrenched as others in facing normal life challenges. They might even settle for religious observance or secular dogmas.

No matter who comes to study Kabbalah, we need to understand that the pyramid of desires in people is structured this way and therefore, it’s enough to have a limited number of people attain unification with the Creator. They will pave the way to Him for the others.

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I receive many questions about studying The Zohar from old-time students as well as total beginners. People write, “We used to understand what we were studying. Talmud Eser Sefirot and “Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (Pticha) gave us knowledge about the structure of the universe. Articles about the group made us think about unity and the goal that the group has to reach. Baal HaSulam’s articles explained Kabbalah’s connection to other sciences and its attitude to religion, philosophy, and freedom of will. It was clear that these articles dealt with the structure of the external society as well as man’s inner structure, which are questions related to psychology. But what the heck are we studying in The Book of Zohar?”

These questions indicate the wrong attitude to the study because everything must eventually unite into one. For example, the group is a collection of souls that have to unite together. It only seems to our vision and sensations that there are different, foreign souls and desires around us, and that we want to attach them to us in order to see the true picture.

It is impossible to study Kabbalah theoretically; this wisdom can only be attained practically. This is the whole point of studying the science of Kabbalah: it is intended for revealing the Creator to the creatures in this world.

The Creator (Bo-reh) means “Come and See” – come experience the quality of bestowal by revealing it inside you, by going from “love for the neighbor” to “love for the Creator.” The true perception of reality is when reality is no longer divided into “myself and others,” but everyone is united together into one whole. But how can we attain this unity and perception if we are still unable to feel all the souls as one man with one heart, to unite them with the Creator, and to feel this whole world inside us? How can we discover and understand it?

All of this has to be done to us by the Upper Light. The Light must bring us to the state where “There is none else besides Him” and “He is Good that does Good,” despite anything that happens to us. These two forms of concealment have to come together and unite; we just don’t know how to make it happen.

This is exactly our purpose when we start studying The Zohar: we have to desire for it to reveal the true reality to us, for the Creator to become revealed to the creation here and now, for the desire to be revealed together with the Light in it! In addition, we have to add a bit of sensitivity, concern, and fear to this approach. Each one of us should ask himself: Am I doing everything that has been allotted to me? Am I making the required amount of efforts that I am supposed to? This, in turn, depends on our sensation of the spiritual goal’s importance and a constant inner concern about it. Then we are guaranteed success.

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As we open The Book of Zohar again and again, our initial inspiration eventually subsides. This inspiration was given to us from Above, like the point in the heart that brought us to the science of Kabbalah. It is called an “awakening from Above” (Itaruta de-Leila), which means it is given to us by the Upper Force.

The desire for the Upper Level acts as fuel, naturally giving us aspirations to push us ahead as if we’re on fire. More and more we want to feel what is hidden within the book and what exactly it speaks of. We are awakened from Above to seek contact with the book.

But then this inspiration passes as we are overtaken by new desires that lack the Creator’s awakening from Above. That is when we must add our own awakening from below in order to continue to advance. We must independently search for answers to questions like: “Why do I need this work and what is it for?”

The Creator desires for us to continually reveal the importance of the Upper Level, to develop a persistent demand to connect with Him, and to realize the importance of all the means of attaining the connection, with The Book of Zohar being the main means. He wants us to keep searching for these inner discernments, over and over again.

Next, we come to a state where we must realize that we’re engaged in “Bezalel’s work” – the construction of a spiritual vessel inside ourselves, a Temple with all its contents. This great work takes time and requires a great deal of preparation.

In truth, we never actually do anything; all that’s required of us is the willingness, desire, and intention. However, beyond that, everything is realized by the Upper Force, Bina, although its influence is prompted by an awakening from below. Therein lies our work.

Therefore, on one hand, our work lies in exerting efforts and making discernments at every step. But on the other hand, it is called “the Creator’s work,” because it is done by the Creator, not by us.

Indeed, we only have to achieve the desire, the appeal, or the prayer; everything else is done by the Creator. This is the meaning of the verse, “Give half a Shekel and the Creator shall complete the rest.”
[8145]
From Daily Kabbalah lesson on Zohar for All “”VaYeshev,” 148,  1/7/10

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