A question I received: How can I bestow to the others if I have to feel their desires as my own? Won’t I be giving to myself?

My Answer: No, I will feel them specifically “as” my own. The distinction between us, the hatred, will remain, and above this hatred I will build the bridge of love. Within me, there is an egoistic desire against the others, and above it, the screen and the Reflected Light, a desire to fulfill them rather than myself. When I fill these desires, it will be with the intention to bestow.

Sensing myself and others opposite to me, as well as  sensing their desires as my own, turns into a spiritual Partzuf of my soul. All desires that were outside of me enter the “body” of my soul now, because I fill them for the sake of bestowal. As the head or “Rosh of the Partzuf,” I can only fulfill these desires. The rest of my body is the desires of others.

If we were to picture a spiritual Partzuf, the head is the original “I,” while its body is the desires of all other people. Otherwise, who would I be fulfilling, myself?

I attract the Light to pass it on to the others; that is, I am the head which decides to take this action. When I fulfill the others, I become similar to the Creator in relationship to them.

This is why I feel that the Creator manifests inside the soul’s body, inside the desires that have become my own. This Creator is me, and it means that I merge with Him. The desires belong to the others and by fulfilling them I become similar to the Creator.

This is how a spiritual Partzuf is built: The head contains its thoughts, desires, the desires of the others, and the decision of how to act, while the body consists of desires of the others that have become as its own. Loving "thy neighbor as thyself,” it feels the merging with the Creator and its new world.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/10, Article “Matan Torah”

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A question I received: Why are people so preoccupied with sex?

My Answer: In the spiritual world, the soul is in the state of “Zivug” (coupling, merging) with the Light. This is the unity of two parts of creation, a male and female, which brings the greatest pleasure there is: filling the soul with the Light. A prototype of the spiritual merger in the material world is physical coupling. That’s why (attraction to the opposite sex) is considered a foundation, a root of all desires and pleasures of our world, and preoccupies us so much.

Sexual pleasure in our world beautifully demonstrates the difference between the spiritual and physical merging. A person (a man) thinks about sex all the time and envisages enormous pleasure that awaits him, but after the peak, the satisfaction immediately disappears. A chase after another pleasure begins again….

Why? It is because the Light and desire annul each other. In other words, by filling the desire, the Light neutralizes the sensation of pleasure, similarly to how plus and minus cancel out each other. The disappearance of both leads to double emptiness. That’s why it’s written, “Dying, a person does not receive even a half of the desired.”

Spiritual pleasure works within us differently. To be in the spiritual world means to have the intention (screen) – an ability to receive pleasure (Light) into a desire (vessel, Kli) in order to bring pleasure to the other (a friend, the Creator). That requires a person to acquire the property of the Creator, the property of love and bestowal. Then a person reaches the spiritual coupling, ceaseless merging, which continues and intensifies constantly, giving one the sensation of eternal life.

Essentially, somewhere deep inside, in the soul, we all unconsciously aspire to this particular merging, and are created for it.

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A question I received: What is the spiritual meaning of tithing (Maaser)?

My Answer: The tithe is the separation of the tenth part of Malchut. The Torah instructs us to set aside the parts which instead of being used for the sake of bestowal directly can only be used through society. This calculation is performed only with regard to the Creator, for the sake of bestowal to Him.

The Torah describes many types of taxes, but all of them are based on one principle: Because I am unable to bestow with certain desires that I have within me and the Light that comes to me, I pass these desires to the general desire (Kli). In a common desire, through a society, I’m able to carry this out.

My Kli is partial, meaning that for the time being, the screen covers only a part of my desires, in which I’m ready to receive for the sake of bestowal. How can I correct the part in which I’m incapable of bestowing?

I receive the Light for that part and transfer the desire to receive pleasure along with the received Light to an outside Kli. Thereby I prepare it for correction. By not using Maaser today (the tenth part of Malchut, which cannot be corrected), I prepare this part for correction through society.

In the science of Kabbalah, we study our desires called “garments” and “house.” They become corrected by my first seeing them as external to me, and then transferring them to my internality.

The same applies to Maaser. I seemingly transfer it for external usage, but then it becomes my internality and returns to me with the desires I did not previously consider my own. For the time being, in my sensations, I cannot correct that part in order to use it, by receiving for the sake of bestowal.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why is it that we have to wait so long and suffer so many negative lessons that wound us before we finally realize which is the right path?

My Answer: We don’t wait! Every single moment we evolve, step by step. But our ego, our desire to enjoy, is simply infinite. Its depth is enormous: an enormous creature. Imagine to yourself our endless Universe; well, the human desire is billions of times greater than the entire universe.

Now we need to begin our correction. And my desire to enjoy contains a thousand qualities in which I need to feel blows so as to react with an “Ouch!” And then it will need another thousand blows to make me go “Ow!” This is no joke; our entire lives go by exactly like this. Finally, I will need yet another thousand blows to resolve for myself: “That’s it, I can’t handle it anymore! Something must be done.”

Every quality is comprised of four levels (Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet). And until we reach the final, fourth level, we will continue to receive blows and suffer without stopping to think about our predicament. It is just like if I feel pain in one part of my body and then another, I endure it and tell myself that it’s no big deal, until finally I realize that something must be done. The same principle applies here. But that is exactly how it’s supposed to be, because we are made out of a complex, multi-layered material which develops out of a point. There is no choice in the matter.

Only at the end of correction will all that we’ve passed through merge together and produce perfection of attainment, fulfillment, and understanding.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, Article “The Giving of the Torah”

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A question I received: What game is the Creator playing with us and what is its purpose?

My Answer: As it is written, all of creation is a game. The Creator made the universe and man in it so that through the correct connection with the surrounding universe we would develop and reach similarity with the One (Creator) who created them both. This is called a game because in developing we grow and rise to a higher level of development rather than just simply accumulating knowledge.

We all have to rise to the first spiritual degree. We don’t see it. It’s like in a game: We play and we don’t know what is happening. The outcome of the game is unknown.

The same process is occurring in the development of plants and animals. Everything develops in the form of a game. A game means that one exists on a certain degree, but he cannot discern the next one. However, one makes all possible efforts in order to attain it.

Children, too, play all the time, and through their games they suddenly become smarter and begin to talk and understand. They don’t study a language or science the way we do. They absorb the surrounding world with their desire to understand it.

This is the same for us in relation to the spiritual world. We only need the desire to sense it, and after feeling it, we have to understand and perceive it within ourselves. Suddenly, the spiritual world manifests within us – and we feel it. After all, we are a vessel of sensation, a desire. The understanding and intellect follow the desire.
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From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/21/10

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A question I received: Why were Aba ve Ima so blind to not have noticed the “stony heart” in the world of Nekudim, and consequently to have performed an action that resulted in the breaking of the vessels? Why wasn’t it clarified to begin with?

My Answer: Clarification is only possible when one requires it. If one doesn’t feel a necessity for it, what is there to clarify? Clarification follows the breaking of the Kelim, when they have all intermixed, when we find ourselves in front of fragments of desires, and don’t know how to sort them.

It is then that the Upper Light descends and illuminates what is what: which desires belongs to the right line, which to the left, which desires are on top or at the bottom, and so on. The desires are assigned Sefirot in accordance with the screens they lost, the Lights that departed from them, and with the Aviut that remained in them.

Everything was prepared for this action for the sake of bestowal; however, it wasn’t known in advance what would happen. This is because the property of Malchut de Malchut, which refuses bestowal, has never been revealed in creation before.

Malchut de Malchut reveals itself at this point because it meets GAR of the Light of Hochma (an enormous Light of the End of Correction). The desires, which were “built from nothing” (Yesh mi Ayin) and constitute the most inner core of creation were not revealed until that time because the Upper Light had always ruled over these desires.

“The breaking of the vessels” means that the Upper Light ceases to control the desires. As an example, imagine that you are constantly under my influence and control; I ruled over you and dictated to you how to act for the sake of bestowal. Suddenly, it is clear to you that I no longer control a certain quality of yours. In other words, you found a point of independence from me within you. Hence, you revealed something that doesn’t depend on and relate to me.

You’re not a slave; the Upper One doesn’t have complete power over you. He cannot control your stony heart by obligating your desire to act for the sake of bestowal. It is the beginning of your point of independence. That’s why the breaking is not a bad thing; it opens the door to the correction and ascent of humanity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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A question I received: If I hate the “Egypt” within me, how do I handle this, since it is also a part of me?

My Answer: The whole world is a part within me. I need to examine with what desires, aspirations, inclinations, and forces I can work now in order to advance to the goal; and with what desires, thoughts, and qualities I need to part, to separate myself from, in order to come closer to the goal. I need to elucidate what to draw away from and what to draw closer to. My movement is determined by what I separate myself from and what I connect with.

Since we are talking about our whole, common desire, which I don’t know what to do with, I need to clarify with which desires I wish to unite and which I do not. Our picture of the spiritual world, which we imagine to ourselves, seems similar to our world where we move from one object or place to another. However, in the spiritual world, I exist within one huge desire comprised of many different desires. I am situated in a space filled with desires with no empty spaces between them. There is no space without desires. Therefore, while I am in the uttermost depth of this field of desires where nothing except them exists, I merely need to sort through those desires: which do I wish to connect with and which I do not. This is called movement.

After all, the whole reality is a desire, a Sefira, within which I exist. There is nothing else. There are some desires, with which I am more connected, and others with which I am less connected, and some desires I reject. This is movement in the spiritual world. As I clarify more and more desires and unite with them, this is an “ascent.”

I exist among all of these desires, within matter where I was placed along with a small spark of Light. This spark allows me to scrutinize the desires. Our whole work consists of clarifying the desires within which we exist: which desires I can use for the sake of bestowal and which desires I am incapable of using for the sake of bestowal and need to reject using.

After all, we cannot come out of this field of desires; there is no empty space between them. Free space is what we call a desire that is not clear that has not been elucidated, which you do not see and cannot make out anything in it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: The whole nation existed in spiritual attainment during the First and the Second Temples. Why wasn’t it possible to go through the destruction of the Temples only in spirituality and to reach the Third Temple without the material manifestation of destruction?

My Answer: All descents and ascents of the souls have to be reflected on the lowest inanimate level – our world. Up until the end of correction, ups and downs of the souls have to go through all layers of the desire to receive, through its entire depth, ending in this material world.

Therefore, we have no possibility to escape events that occur in this world, meaning in our egoistic desire which we feel as “this world.” Our big or not so big successes in the spiritual world, in our relations with the Creator, will always be felt as events happening in this world.

It is impossible to separate occurrences in the spiritual and material worlds because they are the same. A desire to receive with its different layers of Aviut (coarseness) covers the entire depth from this world to the World of Infinity.

A person who is at the bottom of the spiritual ladder raises his MAN to the World of Infinity. Thereby he determines the Light which descends from the uppermost level through all layers (worlds) of the desire to receive pleasure to his rung and further below. When a person exists somewhere in the middle of the spiritual ladder, the entirety of the Aviut of the desire below him is included in his MAN. Then the Light that comes as a response to the prayer goes through a person and spreads out further below to the very end. This is why every person has an impact on the entire thickness of Malchut of the World of Infinity.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, The Zohar

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Throughout all of history we, humanity, developed on the still, vegetative, and animate levels. This is the most that humanity has achieved until today. It developed its egoistic desire, which perceives the world through five material senses.

There was nothing unnatural about this development. We simply carried out the program that nature instilled in us, following our natural instincts and desires that awakened in us. But what next?

Now we are finding that all of that development was only to our own detriment. Yet, on the other hand, we are discovering a new, inner, spiritual desire that we did not notice before. We don’t know where it is aimed, but it demands fulfillment. Otherwise we are left feeling empty and feeble, not knowing what to do with our lives from this point on.

That is when the science of Kabbalah comes to the rescue, explaining that this additional desire that we feel “above” all the other material attainments, belongs to the human level, whereas previously we were only fulfilling our animalistic necessities. Obviously, we weren’t just regular animals, but very developed ones – animals that like good music, pretty pictures, delicious food, and a soft bed. Yet, today we are sensing an additional necessity that is beyond the body.

Besides, the entire world around us is becoming more and more threatening. We thought that scientific and technological development, along with self-actualization, would enable us to attain a good life from the viewpoint of the consumer. But even though our bodies do have certain benefits in the modern world, such as several pounds of meat in the refrigerator and some smart electrical devices, nevertheless on the human level, even in the simplest sense of it, we are experiencing greater emptiness and suffering than before.

It’s as if the carnival costumes have fallen down and we find ourselves more unprotected and naked than ever, facing life without knowing what to do with it. Humanity feels lost. All attempts to attain perfection, power, and prosperity (at least in the material sense) have only led us to greater problems.

What we need is a new, higher-level understanding of ourselves and our lives. Otherwise we won’t be able to advance. This is why the science of Kabbalah is coming and offering us a solution.

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What is the Egyptian exile? It is the revelation of love for yourself. Accordingly, the exodus from Egypt is when you are able to feel love for your neighbor for the first time.

I can “come out of Egypt” only if I really desire to acquire love for others. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “For Yehuda,” the essence of the forthcoming redemption must be clear while one is still in exile. You have to understand what you desire. What do you consider to be exile? What are you exiled from?

If you see that exile means that you are enslaved to self-love, and redemption is when you acquire the force of love for others, the ability to unite and become a single soul the way it was before the breaking of Adam, in order to reveal the Creator inside the unity, then you really feel the exile and are ready for redemption. And then it comes to you!

If you have prepared your desires, then the Light that Reforms comes to you and leads you out of egoism. Everything depends on your desire to come out of your egoistic concerns to freedom. This is the purpose of the exile, and this is why we are not ready for redemption – because it consists only of this. Spirituality is bestowal. If we desire it, it means we are ready to be freed.

Right now we are prolonging our exile because we don’t consider it exile and slavery. We feel good in it. We only want more money, power, and other sources of fulfillment. We want to be left alone and not be told about love for the neighbor. We don’t want that love!

Hell is the inability to bestow. Heaven and hell are very different from people’s regular notions about them. People don’t want either of them, and don’t feel either within. This means that a person is not wicked or righteous; he is simply an animal that is not in exile.

A person who is wicked knows that he is an egoist and desires to become righteous, bestowing. Therefore, he calls his uncorrected state, “hell.” One who is righteous has attained the quality of bestowal and love and feels that he is in heaven.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/12/10

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