The desire created by the Creator is divided into a multitude of parts or desires; it then undergoes a series of changes until it stabilizes in a state where the desire called the “self” is revealed. This desire feels like an inner desire existing in an outer desire, in a world of alien desires, in images of people, animals, birds, fish, vegetation and rocks. However, these are all parts of the same desire that descended from Malchut of Infinity to a state where it begins to discern and feel that it stems from the inner point called Adam HaRishon after the breaking.

This is the “I” within every one of us – the lowest degree of the desire’s development. On this degree, the desire begins to gather all the fragmented desires that appear alien, thus returning to a state of wholeness and perfection. By uniting the desires together as one, we study our “self,” the way it was created, and our Creator. As a result, this “self” becomes similar and equal to Him.

However, I am not the desire. I am the point outside the created desire. Like myself, the Creator too exists outside the desire He created. He created this “I” and He created the desire opposite Him so that by studying this desire opposite Him, “I” would attain Him.

The desire between us is like food between a guest and a host: it allows them to grow closer, until reaching absolute love and unity. In other words, the desire created by the Creator is the means of my unification with Him.

The Creator exists outside this desire, as do “I.” The Creator has one point of contact with the desire, as do I. It follows that the two of us are equal! Between us is the desire He created as well as the Light that fills it. I am the sensation or consequence of the breaking, a spark existing outside the desire, which is given to me so that I could attain the Creator.

Within the desire, He constructed worlds, Partzufim and Sefirot – and my job is to reinstate its former wholeness and perfection, to bring back the One, Unique and Indivisible. Then I will be completely equal to Him and I will know Him according to His actions.

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A question I received: Who is an “idol worshiper” in Kabbalah?

My Answer: You are! Without even realizing it, you make idols every minute out of thin air.

If you don’t connect everything that happens to you with One force, called “The One, Unique, and Indivisible,” if you don’t always attribute everything to one cause and consider everything else besides it just a manifestation of that One force, then you are engaged in worshiping.

For example, your wife says something unpleasant to you. You have to realize that this came from the Creator and she is just a puppet demonstrating the Creator’s attitude toward you in this manner. If, on the contrary, you relate everything to her, then you are “making an idol.” You have to relate to the Creator through her rather than relating this to her. There have to be two components here.

We should understand that the director of this play is the Creator, and He presents Himself to us in this manner deliberately so we would unify all the different and opposite manifestations of Him into one form and one Source: the Creator. However, this is only possible under the condition that you use the whole world in order to connect it in your perception into one, and to tie it to one Source.

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It is written, “Reveal the Creator in fear.” But what is fear? Fear refers to inner changes, similar to the vibrations of a musical instrument such as a violin, a harp or a guitar. These inner vibrations enable the instrument to make sounds or to reveal the sound from within.

In order to reveal the Creator, we have to understand that “Every day His call comes from Mount Horev.” We have to be ready to perceive the call like a musical instrument that vibrates together with His sound in unison. This is the meaning of revealing the Creator in fear. Then we will hear Him.

We have to approach The Book of Zohar with the right preparation: with the sensation of an insistent need to reveal Him, and at the same time, the sensation of complete helplessness and inability to do this. These two impressions will force us to vibrate in unison with the Creator’s call, which is concealed in The Book of Zohar, and we will then reveal its sound.

A person will gradually feel that he is becoming the Creator’s instrument and the entire universe passes through him as enormous streams of energy, waves and revelation. However, he is not simply a numb piece of wood, the material the instrument is made of. Rather, being in unison with the Creator and producing the same vibrations, he becomes equal to Him. He is ready to nullify himself completely in order to participate in the same motions and changes as the Creator, who gives the person His knowledge and qualities.

Therefore, when we read The Book of Zohar, we have to nullify ourselves like an embryo and try to absorb the sounds of this book.

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A question I received: Is there such a thing as the Creator being perceived collectively by a group?

My Answer: There is the personal, individual attainment, and there is the group attainment. Presently we are at the phase of personal attainment, trying to advance to the level of group attainment. Therein lies the world’s future, beginning with our generation and on. The science of Kabbalah is being revealed today, specifically for this group attainment by the entire world.

This is why we are beginning to study The Book of Zohar, which was written by a group and can only be revealed in a group. You need that connection between people, which is the same connection that existed in Rabbi Shimon’s group that wrote this book.

The world stands at the threshold of a new age, an age when revelation must become collective. After all, the whole world is essentially one group. The same thing happened after the exodus from Egypt at Mount Sinai. There was great hatred (Sina in Hebrew) between people, but they were told: “If you don’t demand the Creator right now, then this hatred between you shall be the place of your burial.” In spite of this hatred, they were given a condition – to unite as one man with one heart. But that’s impossible! Everyone hates all the others so much that no one can bear to look at them, even under the threat of death!

It is in this circumstance that the Upper Force (the Creator) is revealed, bringing these two opposites in accord – the depth of the egoistic desire from below, the screen from Above,and the Upper Light that resides in them. That is the spiritual vessel, the Kli.

We need to come to a state when, on the one hand, we hate one another, on the other hand, we love one another, and in addition, we demand that the force of bestowal be revealed between us. This is what is in store for our generation. From here on, the process moves toward global unification, which is why we began the study of The Book of Zohar.

Undoubtedly, we are ready for it. As for the rest of the world – we hope that they will recognize the opportunity to achieve it through a peaceful path.

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I see reality with the help of forces that depict the whole world to me like a movie playing  on a screen in my brain,. These pictures are three-dimensional, animated, and sensual. At least that is how I perceive them and the kind of impression they make on me. However, in actuality they are just forces or desires.

At the end of the day, I am the one that perceives everything. I perceive the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels within my desire. All these forms are within me, on different levels of my desire. I perceive the inanimate nature in my inanimate desire, vegetative nature in my vegetative desire, and so on.

The Creator’s force depicts various forms within my desire, and I perceive them as my world. This force depicts the world within me, on the screen in my mind. This force that draws the world for me is the force of bestowal, the Creator’s force. I receive all the forms from Him, the Giver.

There are forms that are similar to Him and others that are opposite to Him. Altogether they constitute my world. This is why this world is so multifaceted and the reason that I see all kinds of objects within it. There is something positive and something negative in each object. Where does this come from? It’s because the Creator clothes into matter and creates all these forms within me, which are imprinted on the four levels of my matter – the desire to enjoy. In this manner He gradually teaches me the matter and the form of the matter (Haskala Homrit and Haskala Tzuratit).

This world that I see, with its multitude of forms, was given to me by the Creator. This is how He illustrates the world to me within my matter. The world that appears before me is the Creator’s form, but relative to me and according to my state. The matter is mine, and the form is His. This is why I can attain the Creator from within myself.

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It is written that everything depends on the desire. On the other hand, everything is created by the Light, and the desire is just an imprint of the Light. So how can this be?

The fact is that sometimes Kabbalah speaks from the Light’s point of view, and sometimes from the Kli’s. We shouldn’t forget that this duality is always present. We never talk about the Light separately from the desire, or about the desire separately from the Light. We talk about the desire which feels the Light as it changes form. The desire calls these forms, “Light.”

One form relative to another is called the Light against the Kli. The Kli of the Upper One in relation to the Kli of the lower one is considered the Light. We are talking about qualities that are relative to one another. The Upper One is one that bestows more, and is therefore called Light relative to the lower one. The lower one is the one that receives more and is therefore called the vessel or Kli.

We are accustomed to vessels that are metallic or glass and which are filled with something. But in spirituality this is completely not the case. The quality of bestowal, which exists inside the vessel, is called Light. The quality of reception is the Kli. But all of this exists as qualities of the desire. We are always talking about the desire alone, and about its ascents and descents. Its higher forms are called Light, and its lower forms are called Kli. Therefore the Creator (Boreh) is called Bo-Reh (come and see), because we see Him inside our own Kli. The form of bestowal that is imprinted inside the Kli is called Light, the Creator.

These are very important concepts because they correct us in the right direction, in order for us to cross the veil and enter the spiritual world by learning to relate to our desires correctly. They are all just different forms of reception and bestowal.

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Your will to enjoy is split into two parts: the uncorrected part (love for yourself) and the corrected part (love for the Creator or your neighbor). We advance from this world to the End of Correction by nurturing the corrected part and reducing the uncorrected part in all the desires of our soul, from the first to the 613^th desire.

If our level of love for ourselves is at 100%, but we still talk about loving the Creator, that’s what we call religion. People don’t even realize that their love is completely egoistic and they don’t have a critical approach, which is the left line.

If a person acquires a left line, then he starts doubting whether he loves the Creator or not, and tries to analyze whether he loves himself or his neighbor and whether he even needs this kind of love or not. These discernments are made in the relationship to oneself and other people. If a person doesn’t receive support from his environment in order to be able to work with it, to invest his energy into the environment and receive the right influence from it, then the revelation of the left line can actually harm him on his spiritual path – his questions will steer him away from the spiritual path and bring him back to a common life.

This happens when a person doesn’t try, by using all possible means, to connect with the group in order to gain a greater sense of the importance of the spiritual goal (to receive this importance from group), so that this goal will be higher than anything, including all earthly, egoistic goals.

Only the value of “what’s more important” defines whether a person will stay on the spiritual path or will leave for a number of years or even several lifetimes, while leading a common life. “Is there a more important goal in life?” This is the question that every person will have to answer continuously throughout his life.

If a person doesn’t get support from the environment, it will seem to him that there are more important things in this life other than love for the Creator, such as family, career, and the opinions of other people. He will get stuck on his way to the goal and will stand still until he gets enough fuel to move forward, either from suffering or from a new source of inspiration.

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In spirituality, decisions are made as if the present moment is the only moment there is. When I make a decision on my spiritual path to resolve a situation I face, I have to make it as if it were the last moment of my life. This is because resolving problems quickly and correctly leads to the next step in my spiritual path.

In the material realm, we are connected to this world and our egoism stretches out events and situations, thus creating the sense of time. In spirituality, however, each moment exists on its own and is unique.

That is why the screen of a Partzuf, as a result of the collision of the Inner and Outer Lights, weakens the Light and decides to reject it. When the screen rejects the Light, the Partzuf doesn’t know what will happen to it and which new condition it is approaching. The only thing the Partzuf knows is that it cannot remain in this situation for more than one moment, because it has lost its bond with the Creator. The Partzuf cannot remain in this new situation and it stops thinking of what will happen in the next moment. This makes its decisions and state in the spiritual world genuine.

Once in a while we see a video of September 11^th and we are reminded of how people jumped off the hundredth floor of a burning skyscraper. How can a person do that if he knows that he will inevitably fall to his death? The moment he jumps, he’s thinking only about escaping the fire. The next moment that he will spend in the air will be better than being burned in the fire, so he jumps! What will happen to him a moment later is not important for him.

The same applies to a Partzuf that realizes that it has lost its connection with the Creator. There can be nothing worse that this! It can make do without Light, but it cannot live without a link to the Creator! And thus, it rejects the Light.

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A question I received: Can I look at my friend in different ways: sometimes as a student, sometimes as a teacher, and sometimes as an equal?

My Answer: You can find all three relationships in any state.

1. If I want to unite with my friend, then I have to see him as a very important person, because only then will I have a desire to unite with him. That is why I have to see him as one of the greatest and most important people in the world, who will enable me to connect to the Creator. He has to be as important to me as the Creator. If the group gives me the strength and opportunity to attain the Upper Goal, then I will view its members as great people, on whom my fate depends. I would be willing to pay anything for them to accept me. I will be ready to lower myself in order to connect to them.
2. However, when I think about making the group stronger, then I look at them from above and think about how I can help them and inspire them. Then I see them as smaller than me. I want to influence them and give them more energy.
3. If we are talking about unity in the group, then everyone is equal. After I valued them as being higher than me, and after I was higher than them, we become equal and unite with each other. This is why we are called friends.

These are also the same relationships that I have with the Creator: He is greater than me, smaller than me, and equal to me.

1. He is great because He gives me the strength and determines all my thoughts and desires.
2. He is smaller than me because He depends on me. I can give to Him, I can make Him feel good, and in this regard He depends on me. So it turns out that He is smaller than me. This dependence is similar to how parents depend on their child.
3. He is equal to me because only equals can attain adhesion – unite with each other I order to receive from each other and bestow to each other.

Therefore, the states don’t change in one’s attitude to the group and to the Creator. The only thing that changes is the way one sees them: one can be big, small or equal, both with regard to a friend and with regard to the Creator. A person must always check how he can supplement each of these three attitudes, in order to advance even more – towards greater unity with friends and the Creator.

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We will never perform the right action unless we bring the Creator into the connections between us. We have to get the strength and the intelligence to execute the action from Him. In addition, throughout this whole process, from the beginning to the very end, we should always pursue His revelation to us. This is the subject of the science of Kabbalah.

Baal HaSulam writes the following in the article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: “The wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.” The Creator is a force that acts, gives us intelligence, feelings, and desires, and stirs our matter to move. He forces us to understand who we are and pushes us to develop, performing actions inside us and leading us toward the final goal.

Matter itself is merely a desire to enjoy; it is inanimate matter. It is like computer hardware that remains lifeless until provided the electrical power, programs, and data that it needs to produce an end result. We are the same: the “equipment” itself is invariable; what changes is its inner filling – the Creator’s force which clothes into the person. We are lifeless “equipment,” where everything besides the “hardware” – our mind, thoughts, desires, and feelings, as well as all their changes until the final result is achieved – all of this is the Creator that fills us.

Therefore, it is definitely not enough for us to unite with each other as elements of one mechanism, but it is important to know right from the start: by what program and for what sake we will act! The Creator is not just our companion who gets to have a part in our path and the outcome. He is, in fact, our entire fulfillment. All we can do is express our request for Him to reveal Himself, His program, actions, and qualities inside us.

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