A question I received: What is “sin” from the perspective of Kabbalah?

My Answer: Sin is separation from the Creator regardless of a person’s spiritual level. He might have gone through 99% of the spiritual ladder or just 1%, but no matter how powerful his connection is with the Creator, if he disconnects from this connection, it is considered sin. He falls into reception instead of bestowal, where bestowal is synonymous with connection.

There are several levels of sin. The smallest sin is when a person separates from the Creator but does not yet lose his connection or similarity to the Creator. A greater sin is when the Creator disappears; this means that a person’s qualities are opposite to the Creator. A sin that’s greater yet is when a person submerges into darkness and senses the opposite side of the Creator. But the greatest sin of all is when a person becomes opposite to the Creator and unites with the Pharaoh through his hatred for the Creator. Thus, there are different degrees of sin, from simple distancing to total opposition.

The opposite of sin is “commandment” – unity, adhesion, closeness. It also has different degrees, just like the three phases of conception, feeding, and adulthood, which are degrees of adhesion. Both sin (separation) and commandment (closeness) can only take place and be experienced in a group, because the group is the unity of desires or souls. And through them, these qualities are felt in relation to the Creator. All good and evil are measured inside a person’s connection with the environment. This is the only way to check and correct any state (spiritual or corporeal), and the only way to always preserve and strengthen unity and love.

A woman’s sin is to think that there is no difference between the spiritual work of men and women, and to be of the opinion that everything must be completely equal, down to erasing all the differences and boundaries. My advice is to try and develop the inner feeling of unity and love for other women in Bnei Baruch, even to the point of loving them. See how much you are capable of this. This will enable you to understand what nature really demands from a woman: to help and support the men, because they are capable of attaining the unity of souls.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - 1 Comment →

When reading The Zohar, we have to aspire to feel as one man with one heart in order to be similar to the Upper Light, because we desire to evoke its influence upon us. The great Kabbalist Moshe Cordovero (the Ramak, 15^th century CE) writes the following in his book Ohr Yakar:

“When we study The Book of Zohar, we awaken the force of the souls of the righteous men and renew the Light that was revealed at the time of this book’s composition. Thus, the Shechina – the assembly of all the souls – shines and illuminates us with this Light. And all those studying this book return and awaken the Light which Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his friends had revealed at that time…”

Therefore, we too expect for the Light that was revealed by the authors of The Zohar to influence us through all the systems they had gathered after the breaking. They prepared these systems for us in order to influence us through the corrected system from the World of Infinity itself.

These great Kabbalists were acting toward us similar to how we act in this world toward our children, wishing to leave them a good inheritance. This is why they prepared the corrected system for us, as well as the Kabbalistic books and all sorts of “study materials.” They also left us advice on how to build a Kabbalistic group and what its statute should be.

All that remains for us to do is to try to cling to them like little children to the best of our ability. Then the system they prepared for us will begin to affect us.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 1 Comment →

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 →

The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 57: And He planted that seed in one righteous man, which is Yesod de Zeir Anpin.

I have to imagine that I have this quality – Yesod of Zeir Anpin, which is called a righteous man, and this is where my seed is planted, being the point from which I grow.

He is the garden’s gardener. And the seed in the garden, which is Malchut, is the concealment and hiding of that Light. This means that the concealment is not absence, but on the contrary, it is a seed of blessing. The concealment itself will become Light once more, like a plant that buds from the seed.

In his article, “Freedom of Will,” Baal HaSulam gives this example: We have to try to plant ourselves in a Kabbalistic group like planting a seed in the soil, where we annul ourselves completely before the environment. Then we will become a seed that has to disintegrate completely and “rot” in the soil in order for a tree to grow out of it.

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

At every new moment in time, a damaged Reshimo enters us and our task is to fix the world that exists inside of us. To help us do this, The Zohar is written to be a ready made instruction manual. We just have to read it and search for the properties it tells us about within ourselves. We have to translate everything that is written in The Zohar into our desires and the relationships between them. The whole book is about this, and that is how it was written.

The Torah and all other sacred books are written the same way because they were also written by those who sensed spirituality. However, The Zohar was wexternal ritten with exceptional skill; its authors knew how to explain every minute detail to us. It teaches us how to bring our image of the world into ourselves. This is what our work is all about.

Once we do this, the whole world will begin to awaken as well, because we are all connected. If some people still don’t feel this interconnection, then it’s only temporary. It’s like waking up in the morning with your leg still asleep. You’re unable to feel it, but gradually you begin to regain the feeling in your leg. The same is true for the rest of the world.

The Kabbalistic group is a set of desires that exist outside of me and support me in my goal to connect my external and internal parts together. The group helps me by trying to get inside of me, pushing me from the outside to return myself inside. We act collectively because the group is ready to become one person with one heart – together with me.

It is as if this “external” piece moves in my direction all by itself. These desires seem foreign to me, but the more I want to sense them as my own, they will in turn approach me and get closer to me. Meanwhile, the Creator is hiding within those desires, making them seem alien to me in order to force me to look for and recognize Him within those desires.

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

When a person joins the group, he works on unifying the desires of all the friends and aiming them towards one goal. Inside the united desire, they reveal the quality of mutual connection and love – the quality of the Creator. A person “flies” forward together with everyone, riding on the impulse that is created by reading The Book of Zohar.

Whoever does not join this inner movement will be thrust outside by the force of The Book of Zohar. This is because The Zohar selects only those who aspire to unification, those who will stay on the path and aspire to the goal even more with time, becoming stronger and more focused. One who doesn’t aspire to unification in order to reach the goal will be thrust outside by the force of the movement, and thus, will be pushed away from the group.

The Zohar contains a force that attracts a person to the center. Its force creates a group because it was written by a group of the greatest Kabbalists in history.

Therefore, before one starts reading The Book of Zohar, one should check his inclusion in the group and his position in relation to the goal. As it is written regarding the reception of the Torah, “To be as one man with one heart” – this is the necessary condition for revealing the spiritual world.

Otherwise, it is written, “Here will be the place of your burial,” which means you will be thrown out by the same spiritual force and will return to your dead world.

During the previous years, we did not feel this strict selection in the process of studying Kabbalah because we were still in the period of preparation. However, now that we are studying The Book of Zohar, its force immediately reveals who is for it and who is against it. A person is judged “to live or to die” (spiritually) by this principle only.

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 →

In spirituality, an action is valued by its strength and the help rendered. For example, a mother takes care of her child, trying with all her strength to fulfill the child’s desires. The same happens in a group: I am trying very hard to unite with my friends in order to fulfill their desire.

By doing so, I will feel that the friends also lower themselves before me. They have a great spiritual goal, and they are willing to step on themselves for the sake of it and to help me as much as they can. The goal compels them to do so the same way as love compels the parents.

From this we can understand how we can begin attaining the Creator. Initially, we do not reveal Him as great, but as small. This is because He intentionally lowers Himself to help us attain the spiritual advancement. A child also sees in his mother as “a maid,” since she puts herself at his complete disposal.

This is also how we reveal the Creator. But then we gradually begin to understand that the Creator intentionally expresses Himself modestly to us and lowers His greatness to teach us how to bestow.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

The period of preparation does not mean that we have to prepare to be very patient and wait for this period to pass. It won’t pass unless we do everything in our power for it to be over the very next moment. The right way to “wait” means that at every moment we are ready to put efforts into this, again and again, without ever despairing of it. And at every moment we expect that we will receive a reward now – the force of bestowal, which we demand. We do this over and over again at every moment, without ever getting tired of it.

If we are capable of this, if the states (the entrances and exits) quickly come to replace one another, this is a sign that we really are able to merit a higher, deeper level. The more sins and mistakes we reveal during the preparation period, the more we advance later on when we enter the single and double revelation after the Machsom. That is how we achieve our correction.

During the preparation period, the group has to provide every person with the force of consistency, persistence, confidence and patience, as well as the understanding that we have no choice but to advance in this way. That is how we continue year after year, until we are ready to refuse immediate gratification at every moment and to work even without it. At that point we are worthy of passing the Machsom.

We must have such a great aspiration for the following level that by virtue of our tremendous, passionate, burning desire for bestowal, we are ready to give it up and continue the preparation period. If the Creator wants to give us only this preparation, and we only want to attain bestowal, then we are satisfied with this and we don’t need the Machsom. It is then that we receive it.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Your will to enjoy is split into two parts: the uncorrected part (love for yourself) and the corrected part (love for the Creator or your neighbor). We advance from this world to the End of Correction by nurturing the corrected part and reducing the uncorrected part in all the desires of our soul, from the first to the 613^th desire.

If our level of love for ourselves is at 100%, but we still talk about loving the Creator, that’s what we call religion. People don’t even realize that their love is completely egoistic and they don’t have a critical approach, which is the left line.

If a person acquires a left line, then he starts doubting whether he loves the Creator or not, and tries to analyze whether he loves himself or his neighbor and whether he even needs this kind of love or not. These discernments are made in the relationship to oneself and other people. If a person doesn’t receive support from his environment in order to be able to work with it, to invest his energy into the environment and receive the right influence from it, then the revelation of the left line can actually harm him on his spiritual path – his questions will steer him away from the spiritual path and bring him back to a common life.

This happens when a person doesn’t try, by using all possible means, to connect with the group in order to gain a greater sense of the importance of the spiritual goal (to receive this importance from group), so that this goal will be higher than anything, including all earthly, egoistic goals.

Only the value of “what’s more important” defines whether a person will stay on the spiritual path or will leave for a number of years or even several lifetimes, while leading a common life. “Is there a more important goal in life?” This is the question that every person will have to answer continuously throughout his life.

If a person doesn’t get support from the environment, it will seem to him that there are more important things in this life other than love for the Creator, such as family, career, and the opinions of other people. He will get stuck on his way to the goal and will stand still until he gets enough fuel to move forward, either from suffering or from a new source of inspiration.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →