If we attain a state where all parts of the desire that was created by the Creator unite together, then we will feel the general harmony within them. We won’t only stop feeling illnesses, misfortunes, and problems, which are caused by a lack of connection between the parts of the common desire, but we will feel our existence as perfect and eternal. According to the plan of creation, we will definitely reach this state. The only question is: When? And the answer depends on us.

Right now it’s difficult for us to understand the meaning of “eternal life” and what will happen to our bodies then; will they continue to exist or not? Our desire won’t disappear, but the body is a manifestation of a desire on a specific level. We will feel that this desire acquires its eternal form.

The harmony of the connection among all parts of reality will give us a sensation of a perfect, eternal world. The entire existence of the single, great world, as well as each one of us, depends only on the correct connection among us. Whether we are talking about a separate individual, society, or the whole world, we must only establish the right connection between the parts and the whole. This is what the science of Kabbalah teaches us to do.

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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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Regardless of whether we understand The Zohar or not, we have to desire the Light of Correction to shine upon us during the study and expect a miracle to occur as a result of it. A miracle means there is no connection between the result of the reading and what I am now reading, understanding, and feeling. There is no logical connection between my action and the result because this connection is concealed.

We can speak to no end about the fact that The Zohar is an Upper System that conducts Light to us, and that we activate this system by tuning into it with our desire, similar to how a baby in this world makes efforts and grows without understanding how he grows. Nevertheless, he gradually matures and becomes a person. Yet, no matter how much we talk about this, it still doesn’t explain the essence of the miracle that is happening.

I might be imagining that I am in the spiritual world already and just don’t feel it. I can imagine that reality is unified and I cause it to influence me like a baby who doesn’t understand what he is doing. Yet, there are connections and influences upon me that are impossible to convey in words. All that remains is for us to take this like medicine.

It is written that the Creator created an egoistic desire in a person and created the Torah as a “spice” (Tavlin) for it. The Torah is the means to correct the egoistic desire because the Light contained inside it. Spices such as salt, pepper, and mustard are unpleasant to the taste on their own, but when combined with our egoistic desire, our nature, they create pleasant fulfillment.

Similarly, it’s impossible to use our egoistic nature because instead of pleasant fulfillment it brings us bitterness. This is why we have to connect the desire with the intention; then our life will become eternal and perfect in the Light of the Torah.

As long as we cannot use these two ingredients together correctly, we will suffer from our egoism and the “spice” to it. This state is called Lo Lishma; it is the time of preparation, before the food and the spices connect inside us correctly, pleasantly, and sufficiently. We constantly add more spice to the food and then taste it to see how pleasant it is; thus, in the middle line we can eat and enjoy.

However, as long as we haven’t attained this wonderful result yet, we have to patiently wait for the “food” to cook and be mixed with the “spice.” Then we will feel a pleasant taste from the study. Thus, The Book of Zohar is all about truly delicious and healthy “food.”

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A question I received: At the last Convention I saw some long-time students who were irritated and in a bad mood. Why? Is this is a sign of one’s advancement if they feel hate instead of love?

My Answer: The Zohar says that when the students of Rabbi Shimon were getting ready to study, they would conceal their hatred for each other and would look for ways to feel love above the hatred. This love is the result they demanded from the study (see The Zohar, Chapters “Ki Tissa (When You Take),” Item 54 and “Aharei Mot (After the Death),” Item 65). And indeed, the miraculous force contained inside the Kabbalistic texts brought them that love and they rose above their initial, natural hatred. Moreover, the hatred was not revealed to them accidentally, but as a result of their study and great efforts.

When a Kabbalah Convention takes place, it is a very significant event that causes a person to go through many states. One cannot always be in a state of ascent where he deems bestowal and spiritual ascent above all the earthly things.

A large assembly of people attracts a powerful Light by virtue of their common desire, and this Light begins to “shake them up.” This is why the people there go through many contradictory states: love and hate, understanding and confusion, joy about how fortunate you are to be there, and the next moment, you find yourself wondering what you are doing there at all. This is the manner in which spiritual states are quickly processed within us. You go through more states in one day of the Convention than in half a year of study during regular life!

Nevertheless, in order to use the time of the Convention most effectively, one must go through these states consciously and be ready for them. Thus, everything depends on one’s preparation to the Convention.

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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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Our entire life is a spell, a great deceit. The egoistic desire constantly manipulates us, forcing us to work for it. Meanwhile, we are in love with this impure desire of ours and actually desire to be deceived by it.

It lies to us about the end of our path, promising us pleasure and Light when we get there. And along the way it seems like we do receive some kind of pleasure. Even though we don’t have anything besides empty promises, we enjoy them. We think about what we are about to gain and start to feel as if we already have it in the present. We receive sparks of pleasure and they give us hope.

However, there is no Light behind these sparks because the Light does not descend beneath the Parsa, the boundary that separates the World of Atzilut. The Light shines for us from there and awakens these sparks, making us feel hopeful that we will receive the Light. And this goes on throughout our entire lives.

Even though we are always disillusioned and never see any Light, just the sparks, we have no other choice but to keep looking for them in order to feel pleasure. We hope to enjoy ourselves by gaining a little more money, fame, power, knowledge, food, and sex. And thus, we are always on the path, with all our hopes aimed at the future. But the moment the Light is supposed to come to the spark, it does not come and everything immediately disappears.

This constitutes the work of the egoistic desire: to attract us with promises of pleasure, making us constantly desire it and always being on the path, thinking that we are enjoying ourselves. But we never reach the actual pleasure. We only reach disappointment and everything disappears.

In the material world a person’s entire life is based on hopes for the future and he supposes that this is happiness. He believes that all kinds of egoistic pleasures are waiting for him up ahead and tries not to think about the darkness and death that await him.

However, today humanity has developed to a level where it begins to understand that egoistic promises are groundless. But in that case, what are we to do? After all, we can no longer keep living just on hope! We no longer believe in socialism or a beautiful future where everyone will be happy.

As a result, depression and disillusionment are becoming very common; yet, we have to keep living somehow. As a result, people start to lie to themselves even more. They deliberately enter a drunken stupor in order to force themselves to believe. All the mass media channels work for this sake; it is a universal spell that is kept up by society.

This will continue until the lie reaches the breaking point, beyond which it will no longer be possible to keep going.

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We are being influenced by the Upper Light, which raises us above our egoistic desire. However, later on we will have to continue coming out of that desire on our own. When the Light elevates us, it makes it seem like we are escaping Egypt. Yet, can we really escape Egypt if it is inside us, if it is our very nature?

This brings us to the question: What does it mean that we are in the desert? It’s when Egypt returns to me and I have to come out of every part of it. This is referred to as the 40-year journey through the desert. It’s when I sequentially increase and discern my desires, like a human embryo whose organs develop in a sequence, one after another. First one part develops, then another; and the development moves in one direction followed by another, while overcoming various obstacles and problems. The process of the soul’s growth and development is similar to that of the embryo in a mother’s womb.

We have to appreciate the fact that we have The Book of Zohar because it is the means of salvation that changes us from one day to the next. However, we won’t feel the result until this means starts to act in the full measure. It works gradually, like medicine that has been prescribed to a sick person who has to take it take every day, but will only start to feel better several weeks later.

In the meantime, he continues taking the medicine every day, but feels even sicker. The same happens with our spiritual development. Therefore, we must be patient and constantly add more efforts, even though it seems like the medicine isn’t working – until our cup overflows.

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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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A question I received: What is the “Surrounding Light”? Is it a mystical force?

My Answer: The Surrounding Light is the Upper Light present within the connection among us. It just so happens that we don’t feel this connection; on the contrary, we feel separated. It’s as if we are asleep or unconscious and do not sense our corrected state. I am connected to others, but I am no longer aware of it, as if I had fainted after a hard blow to my head.

At this very moment the Light is present within the connection among us. The more I desire to regain my “lost” connection with others, the stronger the Light acts upon me. That is, the Light is as strong as my desire.

I remain inside the system filled with the Light where everyone is united into one whole, but I don’t realize it. Then I start to apply efforts to get back into this system. In a physical world, if I feel dizzy to the point of fainting, I try very hard to shake myself up and to hold on. Similarly, I apply all my inner effort to regain the perception of the spiritual world and recover the sense of my connection with others.

The Light that influences me in accordance with my desire to attain the corrected state is called the “Surrounding Light.” Currently I am in Malchut of the World of Infinity, completely connected to her. The problem is that I have 125 layers or steps of “lost consciousness” compared to the real state in which I am already present.

This desire impacts me only in the event that I want to regain my consciousness. We are like a child who dreams of becoming an adult and because of this desire he grows up.

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The following is an excerpt from Rabash’s article on the holiday of Purim, “Concealment and Revelation”:

“Darkness is the Babylonian exile, which the nation of Israel brought upon itself because the Creator (Zeir Anpin) was asleep. The sinner Haman, who was a great astrologist, cast lots (Pur) to determine fate. Haman and his ten sons are the ten Klipot (impure forces) because he knew that the Creator slept and thus His upper governance did not protect the nation of Israel (those who aspire toward the Creator). Therefore, Haman thought that the time has come to annihilate the nation of Israel.”

Haman is our entire will to enjoy, which stands opposite the entire Light of Hochma. He knows that the Light is about to be revealed. However, he doesn’t know that this can only happen in the middle line, and that later even that will be revoked when the transition to the state of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Alef) takes place. Malchut unites with Zeir Anpin in the middle line and they ascend to Bina, where they attain the state of the End of Correction.

Annihilating the nation of Israel means annihilating the intention of “for the sake of bestowal,” which holds a person back from receiving the Light of Hochma egoistically. Mordechai is the intention of bestowal, but if he acts alone, without the desires of Haman, then it is just bestowal for the sake of bestowal. That means he blocks the Light of Hochma, preventing it from being revealed.

In other words, if a person does not work in the middle line, then even his best actions of bestowal will block his path of development. This is why Mordechai needs a connection with Haman. When they start to argue with each other (an argument between the intention of bestowal and the egoistic desire), they come to understand how they are able or unable to unite.

The intention of bestowal enables the desires of Haman to be used. However, these actual desires will not be fulfilled, and this is why a clash occurs between Haman and Mordechai. This story is talking about how a person can create the right unity between two conflicting forces or two opposite intentions. It is also describing the battles, confusion, and doubts that await us on the path of correction until we find the right method.

This is what “Megillat Ester (The Scroll of Esther)” tells us about.

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