A question I received: In order to break down the wall separating me from the spiritual world, do I need to bang on it from both the egoistic and altruistic sides or can I just break it down from one side?

My Answer: The Light is acting on the spiritual side, repeating the actions we take on our side. If we don’t act on our side, the Light won’t come from Above and won’t do anything on the spiritual side. We are like a piece of metal which approaches a wall and makes another magnet work on the other side of the wall. Thus, we work together on both sides. The Creator can’t act in relation to us if we don’t desire it. Otherwise, where would we and our freedom of choice be? If the Creator were the only one working, then we would be simply an inanimate element. Therefore, we have to be ahead of Him and demand for Him to take action. That is how we can determine everything. The action takes place from both sides rather than just one side. On our side, we only activate the action, while its realization happens on the other side.

The force which works, acts, and realizes the correction comes from the Creator. The Light comes to us, begins to lift us, and transfers us over this wall. However, this happens only upon our request and to the extent that it corresponds to the common plan. A person can’t act according to his own program, but only together with the entire system around him which advances toward correction. He can only advance together with the entire system, and it doesn’t matter whether other parts of the system (other people) want the correction or not. In relation to the person, they adopt the form which is necessary for him.

Therefore, one’s advancement depends only on himself, while all others exist in the final, corrected state with regard to him. Yet, they are corrected with regard to him and work with him only to the extent that he wants to unite and advance together with them.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

The system of nature is organized in such a way that everything is aimed only at helping the human level develop. This is the only level of the desire to receive pleasure that has freedom of will. Only this level can raise MAN (a request to the Upper Level) and thus take all the other levels along with it (the inanimate, vegetative, and animate) so all of reality will reach the End of Correction. None of the other levels have freedom of will, but they still take part in the same kind of advancement. They will ascend to the level that the human being brings them to.

For example, according to our time in the year 2010, we should have raised our whole world, including all its levels of inanimate, vegetative, and animate, as well as ourselves on all the levels, and the spiritual world on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels (that is, the “chambers,” the “clothing,” the “angels,” and the surrounding souls) ten degrees higher in relation to the Upper Light. We were supposed to make this upgrade in spirit, connection, force, and fulfillment.

Because we did not do this, the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature are now pressuring us to correct ourselves. All the degrees of fulfillment that they failed to receive from us exist in them in a negative form. They pressure us on the human level since only we have freedom of will and therefore, we need to hasten the correction. Therefore, natural disasters, catastrophes, and disasters will increase in our world because we are not performing the right actions on the human level. We are not drawing all the other levels (the inanimate, vegetative, and animate) after us.

This is the case in the spiritual world as well as in the material world. Therefore, a person depends on everyone and everyone depends on him.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - 2 Comments →

A question I received: At the upcoming Zohar Convention 2010, how is it possible to carry out so much work and attain the spiritual level in such a short time, just three days?

My Answer: It does not depend on time at all. It will happen the moment we carry out an action of unity together.

When I was in Rabash’s group, we once went through a similar state. I asked him, “What do we need to do in order to realize this state?” He replied, “You need an attack!”

You have to do this yourselves; everything depends on each and every one of you. You have to go into this attack, aspiring to create a connection among you. Then it will happen.

Even people who attend the Convention just in order to take part in the general inspiration, to simply tune in to the common flow, by desiring to become part of it, they will perceive holiness on the first level. It is called the still level, Domem de Kedusha, because it doesn’t require any special abilities on your part. All you have to do is come there and “go with the flow.” Just by doing this, you can merit to come out of Egypt. A person who joins others will also run away from Pharaoh together with everyone.

When we hold a Convention such as this one, a special state emerges because even though we don’t feel spirituality yet, we greatly influence one another when we get together physically. It wasn’t an accident that the Creator made this world, where we are connected physically and can influence one another.

While we sit somewhere far away by a computer monitor or TV screen, we can’t feel each other so well because we don’t yet have the sixth sense. Therefore, coming together physically in one hall greatly influences us and awakens our inner aspiration to unite our desires.

This is why our world exists, because it is precisely the place where we can begin our spiritual work from scratch. In it, we don’t depend on spirituality and can discern and acquire every spiritual quality, making a free decision of wanting it or not.

We have freedom because we are outside of spirituality, and are able to connect with each other in the material world. From here we can begin our spiritual ascent if we desire to do so. If we don’t desire it, then we can keep living merely in our physical bodies.

It’s unrealistic for one person to do it alone, but together it’s easy.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Only the Light can reveal the truth to you; you cannot do anything on your own. The advice that Kabbalists give you is: Try to achieve love for your neighbor. As a reward for your effort, you will feel that you hate everyone!

And an even greater reward given is realizing your own evil. Following that, yet another, higher reward will come: You will understand that you are able to act in order for the Upper Light to correct you. We need to go through all such stages and it is impossible to do this alone. This is why we are brought into a Kabbalistic group. After all, we are able to feel all of these things only in the connection with others, by practicing mutual bestowal.

This initial stage of realizing one’s evil is the most important and difficult stage. Everything else, after the realization of evil, is carried out very quickly and relatively simply.

Therefore, the greatest challenge is to overcome the first degree. It is written that “a thousand begin to study and only one comes out toward the Light.” Everyone stumbles on this first degree; they fall, leave, run away, and are thrown off the spiritual path.The most difficult time is the time of preparation because this specific degree of preparation readies us for the rest of the path.

Right now, while we are in this world we are unaware that we are preparing ourselves for the degrees that will come later on, after a thousand different actions. And later when a person has attained high spiritual degrees, he receives freedom of will specifically by virtue of going through the preparation. It provides the foundation for all the other actions and gives us the ability to make those actions freely.

It is impossible for us to have freedom otherwise, while being on the degree of reception for the sake of bestowal.

It is only when we reveal the “transgressions” of the past – from the period of preparation – that we gain the opportunity to feel separate from the Creator, and therefore, free. This is an exceptionally high state where you are situated completely within Him, but in spite of this, you have the opportunity to say, “I can still be independent!” This is why our preparation today is so important.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Two questions I received on why the study of Kabbalah is necessary:

Question: Can you please elaborate on why you see the study of Kabbalah as essential and as a condition for the ego to have the common soul shine in it? In my view, this is not essential. One can have the same effect through Tikkun Olam (correcting the world, in whatever form it may take, be it practical or spiritual), even if one does not study Kabbalah.

My Answer: You have not tried everything that’s out there yet, and what you do is your choice. Continue with your various attempts while you have the possibility and while the world still exists. Meanwhile, suffering will make you wiser and eventually you will choose Kabbalah.

Kabbalah invites you to find a rational proof, a precise theory, practice, and power to correct yourself, instead of choosing a technique with your eyes closed.

Question: You refer to how we will be pushed to spirituality and Nature will give us blows until we accept your teachings, not to mention the secretive ways you use in instructing your students to disseminate Kabbalah. To be honest it sounds like threats, and to be horribly blunt it sounds like “Nature” is violating its own laws. If the Creator violates his own laws, then why should we obey them?

My Answer: What are you talking about? There are no secretive methods. Come to our center and see for yourself.

There are no magic forces and secrets in the world. Everything is open to you. You just have to grow up.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is A Science About The Soul
Laitman.com Post: Don’t Let Your Chance To Have Free Choice Pass You By
Laitman.com Post: Slowing Our Spiritual Progress Causes The World To Suffer
Laitman.com Post: Personal Sprititual Development Through Dissemination
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
What Can We Do To Change The World? (3:25)

Filed under: Spirituality - 2 Comments →

A question I received: Does the duration of the preparation period depend on the root of a soul? Can The Zohar speed up this period, which is said to normally take “three to five years?”

My Answer: If you use your freedom of will and work on achieving the goal, then The Zohar helps to shorten the preparation time, saving you several more lengthy incarnations. This is the meaning of the verse, “I labored and found.”If you make efforts, you will be rewarded.

How much of an effort should you exert? As much as necessary according to the root of your soul. No one knows how much he should exert in advance. It is written, “The salvation from the Creator comes in the split of a second.” It comes suddenly, like the exodus from Egypt.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: What is “Israel in exile” which The Book of Zohar talks about?

My Answer: “Israel in exile” is a group of Kabbalists whose members want to connect with each other, but their egos pull them in opposite directions and repel them from one another. They see that they are unable not only to connect, but do not even wish for that connection.

The connection itself doesn’t have to be achieved by their effort; that’s the work of the Upper Light. All they have to do is desire it; however, as of yet they are unable to do even this. That is why the people who stood at the base of Mount Sinai were told: “You must connect with each other and unite as one person with one heart. Otherwise this place will be your burial ground!”

When they realized they wanted to connect, but were unable to do so, the Creator revealed Himself to them in order to initiate their union.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: You said that while we are reading The Book of Zohar we need to search for definitions of each word inside us. But what should I do when I have times when nothing comes together?

My Answer: A person should accept everything as given to him from Above – both the worst and the best. It is written, “Man should be thankful for the bad as well as for the good.” Suppose I now feel that my feelings and my mind are blocked. I am confused in my feelings and thoughts, I can’t orient myself, and the words just don’t connect. When this happens, I should be like a little child who always observes adults, not understanding what they are doing. He just looks at the adults and learns by example. In fact, every adult is an example for him, showing him what to do to become similar to adults.

Every state I go through contains ten small Sefirot, along with all the information about all my future states. In order to develop, all I need is to add more matter or desire, similar to how a drop of semen develops.

Therefore, I am able to yearn for what’s written in any place in The Book of Zohar while being in any state. Each state includes everything, and my smallest ten Sefirot contain all the internal definitions, even though I don’t even know what and where they are.

Everything I read in The Zohar and in all Kabbalistic sources, and everything in general exists only inside me and not in any other place. Everyone around me and the entire world are inside me.

However, what The Zohar talks about is of utmost importance, because it talks about one of my spiritual degrees – a state in the Upper Dimension. And this is what I most want to feel inside me.

This state becomes revealed by itself to the extent of my yearning for that state and my desire to reveal it. In addition, it doesn’t matter how well I am able to recognize it; what’s important is my desire to reveal it.

This is how infants grow, moved by their desire. They don’t think about any inner definitions and they don’t try to find them. They have nothing but Nature’s force of development instilled in them, their huge desire to grow. However, in our spiritual development this does not happen by itself as with infants; it depends on our freedom of choice. Moreover, our only freedom of choice is to develop this desire to grow in spirituality.

If I don’t have a burning desire to reveal and discover within everything I read in The Zohar, and if I don’t have a tireless yearning to recognize things as an infant, it is a sign that I didn’t receive it from my friends. Nature gave me just the point in the heart and that’s it. I won’t have any more awakening except that initial drop that I received.

Besides this initial tiny desire, I have to get all the other desires from other people. The fact is that these desires are not foreign – they are mine. I just need to recognize that they are mine; I have to connect to them and attract them to me.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The greatest question facing us is how to obtain a desire for spiritual development, a desire to become similar to the Creator? How can we desire to become “givers”? Kabbalists answer that the best way to develop spiritually is through a means called “the group.”

Natural relationships with people in our environment (including feelings of envy, hatred, love, rejection, and the aspiration for power) can help us to acquire a greater desire for spiritual development. We can simply absorb the desire for spirituality from our friends. In fact, we will desire this despite the fact that it contradicts our own desire, because envy and other “negative” feelings toward others will make us desire this even more.

We are all part of a spiritual system where we are connected as one whole. Therefore, even if the society that surrounds me desires something unnatural and even harmful to me, I will also desire this involuntarily, in spite of my own nature. This happens because we were once connected, and this connection between us still remains. Therefore, I am influenced by others because at some time in the past I received my spiritual life from others, or through them.

This net of connection between us still exists now. I am connected to all other people, but I just don’t feel this connection and therefore there is no flow of life and Light in this net. However, if all of the other people begin to extol spirituality, then even though it is repulsive to me, even though I hate the thought of it and could think of nothing worse than to give to others and love them, I will still be influenced by them against my will. As a result, I will desire this state, which seems unnatural and contrary to my own nature, because there is an inner connection between us that has existed since the beginning of creation.

This desire that I receive from the right environment will, in fact, be the aspiration which I need in order to activate the system which controls and develops me. Therefore, if our friends feel that they do not feel The Book of Zohar, that they are unable to connect to this means of spiritual development, this is a sign that they lack the desire for it. Even though it seems to them that they have a desire for spirituality, it is just another type of egoistic desire.

And the reason they lack a desire to develop spiritually is that they cannot unite. This is what prevents them from receiving the strength and the desire for spiritual development from the group. Thus, the whole group and every person in particular have to work on this.

Initially, no one has a desire for spiritual development, for the quality of bestowal and love. Only the right environment can impose this on us. Our only freedom of will is to receive this desire from the group; this is our only chance to become human. The group should work on providing all the friends in the whole world an awakening for spiritual development, for bestowal and love.

On the other hand, we have to understand that this depends on every person, on every person’s ability to annul himself in order to receive this common desire for spirituality. This desire is present only in the group and can be received only from it.

This brings us to the most important point: that we have The Book of Zohar before us, as well as a ready-made system comprised of the group, the books, the teacher, as well as translations to other languages, television, and the internet. All we have to do is put our inner effort into one point, which is called “freedom of will.” In other words, we have to make efforts to unite with the group in order to receive the force of development from it.

Rabbi Yose ben Kisma said that if a person doesn’t have this force of development, then none of the forces of The Book of Zohar will affect him.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

When reading The Zohar, we have to try our hardest to pull away from all the corporeal images that might arise in our imagination. We have to fight the temptation to materialize the concepts, and think about the only created thing – the desire, inside of which there are only two acting forces: reception and bestowal, which come in a multitude of styles.

This general desire is separated into many individual desires because it is influenced by the Light, and this influence causes the emergence of various qualities, varying inclinations to bestowal or to reception. Different desires establish different connections among one another, such as opposition, adhesion, or conflict with one another. Yet, we are always talking about our one desire – the only matter of creation, the only thing created by the Creator. The Light influences the desire, and depending on the thickness (Aviut) of the desire, it comprehends the Light’s influence differently and adjusts to the Light.

The Zohar tells us precisely about the influence of the Light on the desire, although it usually doesn’t mention the Light as the original cause and only talks about what happens in the desire. It’s the same as how in our world, we see actions or consequences of the Light’s influence, and we treat everything as “that which is taking place,” without relating it to the original cause of the actions.

Many actions occur under the influence of the Light within the desire. However, there is a small portion of actions that stem from the desire itself; this is called freedom of will. We are able to discern this free desire out of the entire collection of all the actions, and if we direct it properly, it will be called the “human being.”

Therefore, we are only talking about the gradations of qualities within the desire. There are no imagined images.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →