All our efforts to unite our desires in a Kabbalistic group should be directed at our desires toward the Creator. All the efforts should be made only for the sake of revealing the Creator and uniting with Him. Then we will not repeat the mistakes made by the Soviet communists and Israeli Kibbutzniks, who considered the unification of “proletarians of all countries” a worthy goal, and it was to this end that they changed the society and viewed this as the necessary condition for perfection.

People don’t understand that the world, as well as ourselves, was created for the sole purpose of revealing the Creator’s qualities inside us, in order to reach His level of existence. This goal should be pursued in every action we make, both in the heart and the mind. For example, what is wrong with me simply doing something for the benefit of my friend, the environment, or the world? Although these actions seem good, the problem with it is that any action that does not initially include the final goal, the Creator, does not merit His forces. It is therefore not an action of correction, but on the contrary, it brings about our general crisis – the result of our “development.”

In order for any action to be successful, it must be done for the right purpose; it has to include the Creator as the initial cause, and the One that causes me to perceive myself, the world, and the situation at hand. It has to take into account the fact that He determines the action’s beginning, the need for the action, and its outcome, as it is written, “I am the first and I am the last!” A person is just the matter over which the actions are performed. However, he is not the master or the executor of the action.

Therefore, our only task is to clarify how to relate to what happens. Yet, by so doing, we do actually determine the extent of our desires’ correction, and hence the perception of this world and the spiritual worlds.

If we don’t accept the Creator as a partner, we will not succeed in any action. We will instead go into greater concealment and veer off the right path. When that happens, then it will take a great deal of effort and subsequent despair in order for us to begin to understand why this is happening to us. And then we will find the cause of the suffering inside the suffering.

The fact is that the Upper Force is everything! It determines every situation, creates it, participates in it, arranges everything about it, realizes it and provides the whole reward and fulfillment. Therefore, if we do not focus on the Creator, who is always present within our matter and all our actions, and if we don’t make Him the main purpose of all our efforts, then this will be a grave mistake that will prove very costly for us.

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The Zohar: The soul says to the Creator: “Let me in on the secrets of the Upper Wisdom. Tell me, what do You see and how do You govern the Upper World? Teach me the secret wisdom that I had never known or learned, so I won’t feel ashamed walking on the Upper Levels.”

The phrase, The soul says to the Creator indicates that a person has already attained a connection with the Upper Force and therefore he feels how the Creator acts and awakens him. Let me in on the secrets of the Upper Wisdom is a request to know how I can attain the Light that will correct me, so I would be able to reveal the entire Upper System.

We reveal everything inside our desire. Nothing was created besides this desire, and therefore it is the place where everything becomes revealed, including this world and the world to come, the Creator, creation, the worlds and all the spiritual levels. Everything takes place inside the desire and we can only ascend by correcting it.

What do You see and how do You govern the Upper World? At this point we might wonder: why is the soul so curious? It’s because knowing the Creator is the same as bestowing to Him, as it is written, “Know your Creator and work for Him.” Our objective is to come to know the entire universe on the level of the Creator, and to become equal to Him in every way.

That is why the soul asks, Teach me the secret wisdom that I had never known or learned! We ascend to higher levels with the help of the Light that Reforms, and on every new level a person has to reveal a new inner desire for the secret wisdom – the wisdom of how to use all of your qualities in order to bestow to the neighbor.

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The Zohar: The wisdom that a person (every person without exception) needs is to know and see the Creator’s secrets, to attain who he is, how he was born, where he came from, where he is going, how he can correct himself, and what awaits him when he appears at the court of the world’s Ruler.

We have to attain knowledge, as it is written, “And Adam knew Hava.” Knowledge is attained when you unite with the Creator, thus uniting the only two things in existence. Thus, attainment or knowledge is formed when the Light of Hochma clothes into the Light of Hassadim – into one’s corrected desires (Kelim). This is the true unity.

When a spiritual Partzuf receives Light inside, this Light is called the Light of Knowledge. This is both wisdom and mercy, the Light of Hochma and the Light of Bina, the Light of reception and the Light of bestowal united together.

If I want to include my soul in Malchut – the sum of all the souls, the only created creation, known as the soul of Adam, then my desire to be together with everyone makes me part of Malchut. Malchut then raises this desire to the level of Daat (knowledge), and then Aba and Ima (Father and Mother, Hochma and Bina) give me this knowledge. This is how the Upper Mechanism operates.

(From a lesson on The Book of Zohar, the chapter, “The Wisdom That A Person Needs”)

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The Zohar: And the Creator said: “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.” And they came from the East, from the ancient days of the world.

And they found how to use the secret wisdom of the first people, the generation of the flood, so they wouldn’t have to submit to the Creator. And they built a city and a tower.

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens.” They decided to act according to their ego and to rule all the way up to the heavens themselves.This is completely opposite to elevating oneself over one’s ego in order to reveal the Creator and life in the Upper World.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. This was the situation in Babylon: Even though they were egoists, their ego was so small and undeveloped that they lived as one people, in complete understanding, as though they were speaking one language.

And since they all had one heart and one desire, and they spoke the holy language (the language of bestowal and love), they were able to accomplish anything they put their mind to. And there was no one who could stop them.

These people are opposite to the Creator and want nothing to do with Him, but because they are bound by bonds of love, they are invincible. They are like a band of criminals who are staunch friends and look out for one another to the bitter end. Their connection is loyal and true, but their goal is egoistic – to build a city with a tower.

They do not use their connection to become similar to the Creator, yet they created their connection upon the quality of bestowal, which makes it indestructible! That is what the Creator “complains” about.

This connection is equal and opposite to Him, and that is precisely why the people had to attain it. It is in order to then tear it asunder and recreate it once again, but this time in likeness to Him.

It is very similar to the world’s situation today. It’s the same as if we now decided to liquidate the crisis and reject all our egoistic interests by establishing a connection between all the nations, yet we would do so without thinking of the Creator or the goal of creation. We would then return to the state of Ancient Babylon. Today we are discovering that the world is global, that everyone is interconnected, and that we must treat each other well lest we will destroy one another. However, if we begin to establish good relationships with one another without thinking of how to connect to the Upper Force and without an objective of achieving the goal of creation (to reveal the Creator), this would lead us to self-destruction, just as it happened in Ancient Babylon.

The Creator would shatter our connection just as He had done in Babylon when He “mixed the languages” (meaning, when egoism emerged between the people) and people stopped understanding one another. This would happen in order for us to understand that our connection requires another component – the Creator. Only He can bind us with a true connection and allow us to feel life on the Upper Level – a life that is perfect and eternal.
From a lesson on The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Noah”

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A question I received: Does a Kabbalist become religious once he reveals the Creator?

My Answer: A Kabbalist is concerned with just one thing: how to attain a connection with the Creator. Everything else falls into place depending on this. Everything that is happening to you right now is happening in your uncorrected desire. Your attitude to the whole world, to yourself, and to the Creator is completely wrong. So how can you have the right attitude to Him?

If you correct yourself, then it doesn’t matter what your connection with the Creator will be like. The most important thing is that it will be real and true, and this is what the Creator is waiting for from us.

Therefore, we don’t ask what form our religions will take in the future, or how people will behave, what their lifestyle will be, and whether this world will exist at all. The most important thing is that it will be the truth.

If I am uncorrected right now, then everything I feel, see, think and understand now is incorrect, both in my mind and my heart. Therefore, none of it will remain in the future; all the broken things will be replaced by corrected ones.

So what will life be like? I don’t know, and I cannot imagine this within my corrupted qualities. I can only tell you that everything will turn into its opposite, as it is written: “I saw a reverse world!” You only have to be ready for the changes that the Upper Light will perform to us.

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The only thing that our world needs is the revelation of the Creator. Then, our world will become the spiritual world, and all the forces of the spiritual world point to only one thing – their Master.

Even in our world, light and darkness, as well as all their different shades and any other pictures we see – everything depends on and comes from the sun. Without the sun, there would be nothing but utter darkness.

The same is true for the spiritual world. Essentially a person reveals only one thing in addition to this world – the Upper Force, “There is none else beside Him.” But this force shows us all kinds of pictures and qualities of the Upper World.

What we reveal is not the actual Upper Force, but its manifestation and governance over the network that binds all the souls. That is why we never speak of the Creator’s essence, but only of His giving quality.

However, a giver must have someone to give to; He must be in a place where His giving can be revealed. He cannot reveal Himself, but only His actions with respect to someone else. Therefore, the Creator can only be revealed where He acts and governs – in matter, the desire that He created, which is the souls that are connected to one another. And the stronger their connection, the greater is the Creator’s revelation.

He created our matter and resides within it. On our part, we are brought to a Kabbalistic group where we must reveal unity. Once we reveal that unity, within it we will reveal the Creator, the force that unites us.

There is nothing else for us to reveal. We can never attain the force in and of itself, but only its manifestations – the matter and form of bestowal that it assumes. It’s similar to how in our world we only attain matter – the desire to enjoy and the form it assumes.

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If we search for the revelation of the spiritual world in the right place – in the connection we build between us, and if that is where we wish to reveal the Creator, then we will demand this connection and it will be revealed to us. On the other hand, if we don’t focus on this goal alone, then we are engaged in a multitude of calculations, and thus we will advance in all possible directions except in the direction of the truth.

But there’s a catch: Even when you try to hold onto just this one direction, various interferences begin to show up, throwing you off aim and trying to distract you with other goals. This happens in order to show you the areas where you lack the precision and sensitivity to keep the right aim. The interferences work to constantly raise your sensitivity, helping you to be directed more precisely toward the right point, rather than just “toward the sky.”

All the various calculations we make are egoistic desires of this world, such as for money, honor, power, and knowledge. These are the various interferences that constantly come to us, and when they do, we should strive not to lose sight of the goal behind them all. We should try to make the goal out through the fog and the derangement of feelings. We will then see that this whole confusion was created for our own benefit.

Our egoism is help against “us” – against our egoistic selves. Therefore, when we change and acquire the quality of bestowal, the interferences will vanish. During the period when spirituality is concealed, there is no other force to help us besides egoism, which directs us toward the goal (the Creator) through interferences.

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A question I received: How can someone without spiritual attainment find a true Kabbalist in order to study with him?

My Answer: How can you find a true Kabbalist? Well, what is a true Kabbalist? Baal HaSulam writes that a true Kabbalist is someone who strives only toward the Creator and toward nothing else, such as anything related to this world or himself.

The only means that makes it possible to reveal the Creator, the Upper World, and the quality of bestowal is a Kabbalistic group. The group is a connection among people’s aspirations to reveal the quality of bestowal among them. This quality is called “the Creator.”

You aren’t trying to learn a Kabbalist’s earthly habits from him. What you learn from him is how to cancel yourself, where “cancelling yourself” means to cancel your egoism in relation to the goal – the attainment of the quality of bestowal. You have to accept this goal without any resistance to it, with full trust and no criticism, as if you were a baby.

Criticism and verification have to take place before you accept the teacher as your instructor. However, if you have a point in the heart, then you have nowhere to run from an instructor who is showing you the truth.

But what is “the truth”? It is the force of bestowal, deemed the Creator, and it becomes revealed inside your love for friends and then for the whole world. If you see that the other students and the teacher are trying to accomplish this, without considering anything besides the Creator important, this means you have found the right place to study.

Yet, this still doesn’t give you any guarantee that you will attain the goal. From here on, everything depends on you; this is where your freedom of will starts. But at the very least you have found a teacher and a group, which is the place where the Creator can be revealed.

A teacher is not the flesh and blood person you see in front of you, but attainment of the Creator and experience along this path. What you should be absorbing from him is not the earthly things, but his connection with the Creator.

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A question I received: How does love of others transition to love of the Creator?

My Answer: There is no transition. Love of the Creator does not put an end to love of others; it’s just that the system of connections among all desires in the universe becomes revealed to me and within me.

But this system is me as well. The concept of “another” stops being “outside” and is discovered “inside,” as part of me. In the World of Infinity, we were all one single desire, which then descended along the spiritual degrees as the desires became distanced from one another. That is how all the people in the world feel now.

We think that we are different and distant from one another. But as I correct myself towards unity, I discover the truth: that we are all part of one system. And the fact that I used to perceive us as disconnected was simply an error on my part. From unconsciousness I revive myself to consciousness and become aware of this wholeness. Nothing at all changes except for my outlook, attitude and perception, as I discover that there is no “I,” but only “we.”

“Others are part of my soul” isn’t just some lofty rhetoric. As I clamber out of my present self, I discover my soul existing in all the external desires. After all, the soul lives outside of me, since the soul is the desires of “others,” and within these desires, I discover the spiritual me and my eternal state.

Presently my perception of self is imaginary, a sham. However, as I discover the desires of others, I suddenly realize that these desires are mine, that they are my soul. Whereas previously I was being shown a “movie,” showing me that I existed in a body that I must care for.

It follows that my true desires are outside of me. They make up the vessel of my soul, and the Light that fills them, the Light of the soul – is the Creator.

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A question I received: I read all the time that we need to reveal love for the Creator, but instead I reveal hatred within myself. What should I do?

My Answer: This is a wonderful discovery! But, in truth, it hasn’t forced you to scream yet; the situation does not seem unbearable to you yet. At times, you are shown how good you are, and sometimes hatred toward others makes you feel hatred towards yourself.

There is still the missing realization of the fact that your whole future depends on reaching this unbearable situation. You lack the feeling that the Creator is concealed precisely in the interaction between us.

The Creator says to Moses, “Let’s go to Pharaoh.” This means that we need to step up against our evil inclination (Pharaoh) and demand that it become subject to the good inclination (the Creator).

After we come out of our egoism (from Egypt) in order to reveal the Creator, we find ourselves feeling the necessity to unite and become like one man with one heart. This means that we find ourselves around Mount Sinai (mutual hatred) where we must unite and reveal the Creator, reaching a higher dimension through our unification.

Now everyone must to go to Pharaoh and demand of him to allow each person to unite with the others, since it is only in this unification that the Creator is revealed.

“Let My People Go”

When Israel was in Egypt’s land
Let my people go
Oppressed so hard, they could not stand
Let my people go

Go down
Moses
Way down in Egypt’s land
Tell ol’
Pharaoh
Let my people go

Thus said the Lord, bold Moses said
Let my people go
If not, I’ll smite your first-born dead
Let my people go

Go down
Moses
Way down in Egypt’s land
Tell ol’
Pharaoh
Let my people go

Your foes shall not before you stand,
Let My people go!
And you’ll possess fair Canaan’s land,
Let My people go!

Go down
Moses
Way down in Egypt’s land
Tell ol’
Pharaoh
Let my people go

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