A Question I Received: You said that there are three components of the intention while reading The Zohar: 1) Everything I read in The Zohar occurs inside of me; 2) I feel that I’m studying The Zohar together with my friends, and I feel them; and 3) Unification between us is possible only due to the Upper Light. How is it possible to maintain these three intentions simultaneously and continuously;  which should be given priority?

My Answer: The intention should always consist of all three components together. As Baal HaSulam writes, a person constantly should be in the intention, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.” If one singles out one of them over the others, he strays from the path.

We’re talking about a single reality called the World of Infinity where the Creator, creature, and the entire universe with all of its qualities (the good and the evil, the past, present, future, and everything that we can possibly imagine), are revealed in one point which is the connection called “adhesion.” Thus I should think only about this state, constantly feel as though I exist in it, and aspire to it. All the interferences that are revealed are only meant for me to direct myself more and more correctly to this point of adhesion where all the qualities complement each other.

Therefore, the group, the Creator, The Book of Zohar that I’m reading, myself, and everything happening inside me become included into Infinity together. We wish to reveal one reality which is the only one that exists. We exist in it even now, but, in order to reveal it, we need to aspire to this picture.

Every degree or each of my states is the same Infinity. We reveal it only as we draw closer to it in increasingly higher resolution and with greater precision. However, every degree is the same ten Sefirot which are revealed more: from a drop of semen (a point) to a full Partzuf.

The intention should consist of the fact that everything is situated in the state of Infinity where I, too, exist. I just desire it to be clarified to me and for its minor details to become larger and to complement each other so that the group, the Creator, all the states, and I are revealed as being one whole. All that is needed is the effort, and it will come. We shouldn’t think about how to connect all the components. On the contrary, we should try to see the final, perfect picture where we exist.

The Surrounding Light comes from this picture with which you wish to be connected. It’s precisely what we need in order to reach revelation. Any deviation to the individual components of this picture just weakens the Surrounding Light.

We need to strive to “learn” as Baal HaSulam writes in Item 155 of “The Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” To “learn” means to reach adhesion, a connection with that same picture that I’m trying to imagine now. As it’s written, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, The Zohar

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Zohar, Chapter “BaHar (On Mount Sinai),” Item 66: …there are two creations in man, creation for good and creation for bad. With the Torah, he separates them and the Creator gives him a soul from Him, to dominate over both—the one that is good and light, the next world, and the one that is evil and dark, this world—as it is written, “And He blew into his nostrils the breath of life.”

Our entire reality stems from the separation between darkness and light when we can truly “filter” the qualities that pertain to this world and to the world to come. We begin to build ourselves through discernments, by distinguishing the qualities for the sake of bestowal and those for the sake of reception.

All that we study in our world is our animal existence, meaning our nature. Why animal? This is because an animal doesn’t grow, but always remains at the same level with respect to its perception.

Therefore, until we begin to use the Light so as to build ourselves, by distinguishing the bestowing qualities from those of reception, until we amass these bestowing qualities, desiring to dwell in them, and build ourselves out of them, we exist only in this world.

Just as drops of semen begin to form into an embryo in the mother’s womb, so we must try to utilize the group, the environment, the study, the intentions, and various actions to continually add and accumulate the qualities of bestowal within. This is how a spiritual body will be formed.

Every time we reveal yet another part in bestowal and wish to gather them all together, this is called our next reincarnation. Indeed, we see our new life every time and a new opportunity to keep gathering and adding to us the qualities of the human level that are similar to bestowal and the Creator (the word “man” in Hebrew is “Adam” which is from “Edome,” similar).

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Do we attain the properties that we read about in The Zohar during the preparation period or after crossing the Machsom?

My Answer: We begin to discern within ourselves various reactions to all these names and terms even before crossing the Machsom. To the extent that we want to rise above our desire to receive pleasure, we begin to differentiate between the giving and receiving desires. Ultimately, there is nothing more to scrutinize.

It is said, “In the future the angel of death will become an angel of sanctity.” This means that there are no bad or good desires, only the desires for the sake of bestowal or for the sake of receiving. Everything depends on the way we use them. “Haman,” “Terah,” “Abraham,” “Elazar,” “Rachel,” and “Laban” differ only in their intention  and in strength.

Therefore, by trying to keep one’s intention for the sake of bestowal – to learn, understand, and discern it through the group – a person will also react differently to every name and definition, so much so that that he will reveal their “tastes” or sensations: pleasant and not so much, shining and irritating. He will start discerning various shades in them.

However, after the Machsom, a person attains them in a clear and precise manner. Then they are clothed in him and he discovers them in practice.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: If a person is higher than his environment, can he influence and correct it?

My Answer: A person cannot rise above his environment. He totally depends on it. Even if his environment consists of simple people and he is a great Kabbalist, they will nevertheless influence him.

Imagine that you take a magnificent fruit bearing tree, pull it out of the ground, and plant it in the center of the desert. What will happen to it? Will it turn the desert into a blossoming garden? Similar to the tree’s dependence on its environment, our soul depends on our environment.

The goal of the creation, the group, our personal work, and the Creator are positioned inside one point. Imagine that your whole life depends on this one point that you have to clarify. It determines your life and death every given moment. To draw an analogy, say you can’t breathe unless you push an oxygen button. If you don’t do it (and connect with the others), oxygen is not supplied for you.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Article “The Freedom”

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A question I received: What should a person do, if he feels that the environment which he chose for his spiritual development does not promote his growth?

My Answer: Today, two conditions make our physical association with a particular group unimportant. The first condition is that, at this time, the whole world has to attain correction. Because of this, the second condition is that a virtual connection among us gives everybody an opportunity to contact us through the Internet, books, and television. That’s in addition to having an opportunity to connect to or join us physically for training, coming to a convention in order to participate in various activities together, or studying at one of our campuses.

It’s not like in prior times when a person was limited by living in one place and could bond only with his immediate surroundings. Today, you can stay connected with the whole world. You can see and hear us, or come and visit us; the rest depends on you.

Today is the time when everybody in the world has to attain correction. Places and distances do not limit us at all. We desire to clarify who we are and what we belong to, under whose influence we live.

Everybody is granted freedom of will and, thus, everything depends on an individual. At this time, we’re in the process of building a virtual system on the Internet for Kabbalah students that will enable everybody to stay truly close.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Article “The Freedom”

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Before we begin reading The Zohar, we need to prepare ourselves with an internal feeling that we are within the group. We will then be similar to that same group of the Kabbalists who wrote The Zohar and will have an easier time understanding what they convey to us.

Understanding comes as a result of the Light’s influence. The Light acts upon us from within the connection between the souls of ten Kabbalists who together existed in the final corrected state, meaning in the final corrected connection between one another. When they corrected the connection between them to such a degree that nobody had a single uncorrected desire to receive pleasure, then between themselves they revealed the Upper Light called “Zohar,” the Light originating from the Rosh (head) of Arich Anpin, which is the Light of Infinity.

Hence, if we try to reach the same relation between us as the authors of The Zohar had, we will attract the Light from the same state which they attained. This Light can also create the connection between us as it is said, “One who makes peace in the Upper One, makes peace in us.” This is precisely what we should expect from reading The Zohar.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, The Zohar

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The nation of Israel originated in Babylon, where Abraham revealed nature’s Upper Force and then started to disseminate this knowledge about the Creator, the goal of creation, and the purpose of man and society. It was all done to enable us to ascend above our world, rather than be like all the animals that merely live and die, over and over again.

Abraham discovered how to ascend above this world and the life cycles of the mortal animate body. He attained the Upper, spiritual dimension, which is above this entire animate life. Abraham then began to disseminate this knowledge to all the inhabitants of Babylon, gathering thousands of people around himself. The group that he gathered came to be called “the house of Abraham.”

This group went through a lengthy path and grew until it came to be called “the nation of Israel.” This is not a regular nation like the other nations of the world that unite in a natural manner. “The nation of Israel” can be joined by every person who aspires to unity in order to reveal the Creator – the force of bestowal and love.

Therefore, this group (or nation) can be in one of two states: exile, which is when they want to unite, but they haven’t yet attained it; and redemption, which is when they attain unity. They then attain the state of being as one man with one heart through a mutual guarantee (Arvut). Thus, they reveal the Creator within themselves (in Hebrew the Creator is called Boreh, which comes from the words Bo – come and Reh – reveal). They proceed to ascend up the ladder, reaching greater and greater unity and attaining greater bestowal until reaching the Final Correction of the ego, transforming it to love for the neighbor. This is the state of adhesion, Dvekut.

Eventually, all of humanity will have to join this group and join the Creator together with them. Today we have already gone through four exiles and three redemptions. We are now standing before the final redemption, meaning the final, full revelation of the Creator to every single person in the world.

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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As Baal HaSulam states, the whole world is one family. Hence the on-line system that we want to create must work on each person like a Kabbalistic group that helps him build new connections and new attitudes about himself, his friends, and the world at large.

We would like to lay the foundation of this structure on the Internet so that we all connect in one system regardless of user language, location, or any other factors whatsoever. It should be an independent self-driven structure that helps all of us advance spiritually.

In other words, we need to create an artificial system of spiritual connections among us, which is identical to the union that exists between our souls. Kabbalists advise us to join a group and begin to build relationships with it as if you were already in spirituality.

From A Talk about a New Internet 4/4/10

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I am trapped in my skin which cuts me off from the Creator who is situated “outside.” I am a slave and I cannot break out. At every given instant, a force influences me and automatically returns me to my own self, to the egoistic center.

How do I force myself to pay attention to what is happening on the outside in order to understand that it is also me? My true reality is “outside”; there, I am together with the Creator; there, I am outside of my animal; there, my soul is outside of the egoistic “I,” which I currently imagine myself to be.

These are two forces that act in nature. I need to arrange them in such a way that the second force (centrifugal) would influence me in the same natural manner, instinctively and inevitably, as the first force (centripetal). Let it occupy my mind and heart and drag me out by force. Let it force me to think about others and worry about them. I need this since this is the only way for me to find my soul.

In this regard, the force of a Kabbalistic group helps me; only the group can convince me to come out of my circle and turn my attention to what is “outside of it.” When I change my attitude from the “intra” (within) to the “extra” (outside). I stop worrying about the body and begin to be concerned with the soul.

I understand that the external reality, which seemed foreign to me and which I was completely indifferent to, contains the real me. This external circle is actually much more valuable to me than the inner one since it contains my soul which is eternal. Meanwhile, the inner circle is merely an animal, which is allotted some 70 years.

However, the concealment does not allow me to see all this. When I begin to realize this, I am amazed to what extent the Creator plays a joke on me.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 4/1/10

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We can’t come into contact with the Light unless we utilize the corrected souls of the Kabbalists and the authentic books that they wrote. The Kabbalists of the past are the owners of the system which delivers the Light to us.

How can a person achieve this contact with the Light considering that it is the most important thing? The Kabbalistic group and books create the contact for him. The books connect one with the system of the corrected souls.Through the group, when one tunes himself correctly to the spiritual goal, he can annul himself and ask for the Light of Correction.

The group serves as a filter for us. If we can put our desire, our appeal through this filter, it means that our appeal is correct. It then corresponds to the Upper system of the corrected souls and it will deserve the answer from Above.

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