Question: The mechanics of the development of desire in our world is simple, and we have accumulated thousands of years of experience in it. What new knowledge does the science of Kabbalah offer regarding the use of desire?

Answer: Kabbalah offers the intention; nothing else is necessary! The Creator created the will to receive pleasure and He drives it to evolve. This desire is egoistic, making us constantly run after whatever might fill it. Such behavior characterizes the still, vegetative, and animate levels of existence. However, in our time, after millennia of growth, we have finally evolved to the “human” level (Adam), which is a totally different state of existence. A human is independent of the still, vegetative, and animate ways of existence.

To a human being, the most important thing is the intention, or the reason “why” do I possess the still, vegetative, and animate levels? What do I live for? He wonders about the purpose of life, and when a person has this question, he comes to Kabbalah. This is a totally new inclination where I don’t depend on the previous evolution of my desire. I have evolved, but what now? Now something completely new, mysterious, and unknown lies ahead of me.

Today’s human crisis is the crisis of the formula of our previous development which doesn’t work anymore! The previous period of evolution has ended where the only operating forces were Light and desire, pleasure and hunger. Now I see that there is fulfillment and I feel a need for it, but I don’t understand how the two are connected.

Previously it worked very simply: the greater my desire, the greater its fulfillment. But today even though my desire is enormous, I grab and enjoy what I want for an instant and then it’s gone. As a result, I don’t even want to run after pleasure any more. However, I still have to fill myself with something. Yet, I have nothing to do it with. Do you realize what a disaster this is?

Mankind does not know what to do with the situation. This leads to wars, crime, brutality, and terrorism because the moment man experiences emptiness and longing, he is willing to do whatever it takes to find at least some small fulfillment even for an instant!

We are now going through this transitional time. The egoistic desire has completed its evolution on the still, vegetative, and animate planes of existence. Now it has to grow as a “human,” which means “similar to the Creator.” This is an absolutely new form where one works in bestowal, the reverse of everything that one did before.

We neither comprehend this action nor where to get the strength for it. We do not have the mind, the desire, and the environment for it. We only have the science of Kabbalah, and even that is available only for those who have already discovered it. That is why we are making such great efforts to disseminate it because we would like to accelerate evolution and offer a remedy well in advance before the next blow strikes.

Otherwise no one will know what to do with this life: neither politicians, nor sociologists, nor psychologists, or any other scientists. Mankind will give up and agree to any sort of existence, hoping to conceal what is really happening and to continue living at least somehow.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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We exist in an ocean of the Light of Infinity which contains all the sacred names of the Creator. These names have to become revealed in our desires to the extent of their similarity to a particular quality of the Creator included in this Infinite Light. This general force, the Light, is called the “Torah.” Of course, today we are unable to value and know it. This is beyond our capabilities and desires.

However, here is what we can do: If we desire to become similar to the illumination that reaches us from this infinite Light, we can reach some partial similarity and feel it within us as the revelation of the “Creator’s sacred name.” Sanctity is above the “body”; it is bestowal or the quality of Bina. After all, the “Creator’s name” is a spiritual vessel, a “Kli,” or a corrected desire (meaning desire with the intention to bestow).

Due to the power of the Light, our desire acquires such a form (intention) that it can establish a connection with the Creator, which is to say, with the Light or the Torah (names of the Creator). In this way, by being influenced by Ohr Makif (the Surrounding Light), we gradually reveal separate qualities and actions within us that are similar to the Light or the Torah.

All this is perceived and measured within us and in relation to us (the receivers) to the extent that we are similar to the qualities of the Light according to the law of equivalence of form. Only by becoming similar to the Light will we be able to feel it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, “You Should Always Discern Between Torah and Work”

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It is written that it is prohibited to study the Torah without intention because thereby one doesn’t draw the Light that Reforms and immediately turns the “potion of life” into the “potion of death.” This point of choice is our only choice in life. Hence, when dealing with The Book of Zohar, the only weapon against evil or egoism, we should try to use it correctly.

Obviously, we can’t push the “red button” that would lead the world to harmful irreversible results, but we might step into the states of suffering, which had already happened in the past (see “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Items 70, 71). This is why before reading The Zohar, a person should review a supply of Kabbalistic aphorisms, adages which impress him, which help him to start awakening from the animate level (desire for oneself) to the human level (aspiration toward unity, bestowal, and love).

The human level amounts to the desire to unite with the others. The corrected system of souls is called “Adam” (man). As soon as this system breaks and crumbles into multiple pieces, each of them turns into its solely animate part. The human level (equivalence to the Creator, “Adam” comes from “similar to the Creator”) appears in us only when the broken parts (souls) begin to unite and experience a unified desire.

It turns out that the souls live not within themselves but in the connection among them. It is called life “above reason,” that is, in the relationships among the souls, in mutual bestowal. The sum total of these relationships of bestowal is the Creator who connects us. This unifying force that is dawning in the distance is called “The Surrounding Light.”

Thus, the Creator is the force that actually unifies us, and the Surrounding Light is its manifestation from afar. There is nothing but the Light and the desire (Kli). We assign various names to them, but ultimately, there are only these two forces.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 250: But he did not go on his way immediately. Rather, he was detained and worked six years in Laban’s flock, since as long as Rachel was not conceived with Benjamin, he was detained there. When the time came that she was impregnated with Benjamin, he fled and did not ask Laban for permission so he would not be detained there, and so that Jacob would unite with all the tribes in the required place, in the land of holiness.

The science of Kabbalah utilizes a special language called “the language of branches.” If in all our feelings, thoughts, and properties our intention remains “for our own sake,” we sense only the reality of this world. Even the words of the Torah signify to us something that is happening in this material world.

But if we keep the intention “for the sake of bestowal,” each word of the Torah naturally transforms within us into descriptions of spiritual roots and forces. It becomes clear to us that the Torah isn’t saying a word about material objects (like herd, Leah, Rachel, Jacob, and so on) or their physical actions. Rather, it is all about the forces (desires and the Light) with which we sense and interact.

We feel this very clearly without any doubts since the upper sensations and thoughts are much stronger than lower ones. That is why when we read the Torah it never occurs to us that it describes this material world. We perceive everything to the degree of our inner level of correction.

At this point in time, we sense only the lower material world. That is why everything we read or hear about triggers images of this world like sheep, a well, women, men, and various actions that we are familiar with and that are part of this world.

Our efforts while reading The Zohar have to include the following thoughts:

1. The Zohar talks exclusively about the measures of connection among us;
2. We aspire to differentiate between the spiritual forces (desires to bestow) within ourselves, which are named using the words of this world.

We have to imagine them and try to search for them as a little child who tries to grasp the rules of a new game that allows him to grow. By doing so, we rise from the branches of this reality to the roots of the Upper World. Step by step, we try to distinguish the Upper roots; these efforts develop us like children.

That’s why we don’t merely listen to the sound of the words while reading The Zohar. Rather, as Baal HaSulam writes in Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 155, “Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.”

The effort we make brings us understanding and attracts the Light that Reforms which corrects us. Within our corrected desires we begin to understand and sense what The Zohar is telling us.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/10, The Zohar

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We are inside a system of souls that are interconnected and exist in a corrected state, which was initially created by the Creator. It is written, “The end of the action is in the initial plan.” The Creator does everything with His Thought. He had a plan, and it all came true.

We have to attain the same state through our own work. Why? It is in order to be able to differentiate all the nuances, qualities, and components of that state. We have to feel that we own, sense, and attain it.

That is why we are in the same state, but totally unconscious. What should we do? We should ask for consciousness. I want to see, discover, and feel where I am! Which state in the world I feel is similar to the spiritual state that the Creator made? That state is the connection among people who aspire toward Him.

Right now the corrupted connection among us gives me a sensation I call “this world.” I experience our connection this way because I feel only myself. I am entirely immersed in myself. However, if my senses start to work in the opposite fashion, from within to the outside, then I will feel the true reality where I exist.

This change of the sensation “from within to outside” takes place gradually, along 125 levels, by virtue of our work, our efforts, and our request for it to happen. Where do I implement this entire process in order to avoid living inside illusions, getting confused, and making mistakes? I do it in the group and in my current state. That is where I have to implement it in practice.

This is exactly what I ask for. Everything is very tangible and simple: There is a group in which everyone aspires to attain a connection among them. This is what we ask for while reading The Zohar. Why? Because by reading this Book, we awaken our true connection with the force that rules us, the force called “the Creator.” Then our expectations have a chance of coming true, even if they are inauthentic and artificial. Concerning this it is written, “We will do and we will hear.”

This attitude to our state, to the studies, and to what should happen is called “intention,” and our work is man’s inner work, the work of the Creator. The use of this system through a book and through the force that rules inside us is called the science of Kabbalah.

These are all phases of revealing the Creator to the creation. What is the meaning of “the revelation of the Creator?” It is the revelation of the force of bestowal inside us. That is why the Creator (Bo-reh) means “Come (Bo), See (Reh).” At the end of the day, we are doing the Creator’s work, and that is the entire science of Kabbalah.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: When is it considered that a person is in a state of Galut (exile)?

My Answer: Galut (exile, deportation) refers to the exile from the spiritual world and the property of bestowal and love. That is, one needs to wish for this property, and the measure to which one does not have it, one feels Galut, the exile from it.

For instance, in his article “A True Prayer,” Rabash says that Galut is when a person is not given an opportunity to hold the intention for his actions not to be in order to receive a reward, which is against our nature.
(רב"ש. מאמר "תפלה אמיתית": הגלות – היינו, שלא נותנים לו לכוון, שעבודתו תהיה בשלא על מנת לקבל פרס, היות שהוא נגד הטב)

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.

…all the worlds, Upper and lower and everything within them, were created only for man [to attain complete equivalence to the Creator]. This is so because all these degrees and worlds came only to complement the souls in the measure of Dvekut [equivalence in properties of love and bestowal] that they lacked with respect to the Thought of Creation [as the Creator said: I have created the evil inclination in man].

In the beginning, they were restricted and hung down degree-by-degree and world after world, down to our material [egoistic] world, to bring the soul into a body of this world, which is entirely to receive and not to bestow [the desire to receive with the intention for oneself. The desire to receive with the intention to bestow is considered to be bestowal. It follows that the intention determines the nature of the action or desire], like animals and beasts. It is written, “A wild ass’s colt is born a man.” This [the desire to receive with the intention to receive] is considered the complete will to receive, which has nothing in the form of bestowal. In that state, a man is regarded as the complete opposite of Him, and there is no greater remoteness than that.

Afterward, through the soul that clothes within one, he engages in Torah and Mitzvot. Gradually and slowly, from below Upwards, he obtains the same form [intention] of bestowal as his Maker, through all the discernments that hung down from Above downwards, which are but degrees and measures in the form of the desire to bestow.

Each Higher degree means that it is farther from the will to receive and closer to being only to bestow. In the end, one is awarded being entirely to bestow and to not receive anything for himself [after one corrects all the intentions on all of one’s desires]. At that time, one is completed with true Dvekut with Him, for this is the only reason why man was created. Thus, all the worlds and everything in them were created only for man.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 9

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Items 132-133: “And boughs of thick trees” are three, three lines, HGT…“And willows of the brook” are two, NH, which have neither smell nor taste, like people’s thighs.
The Lulav [palm branch], Yesod, takes them all and includes them, like the spinal cord in the body….
With these kinds, which correspond to HGT NHYM, man should be seen before the Creator. The leaves in the palm tree imply to all the other armies, which unite in these appellations by which the Creator is called.

The Zohar is intended to help us achieve attainment rather than understanding. Attainment means the realization of corrected desire and the beginning of sensing and seeing the spiritual reality. Understanding comes only afterward. That is because we don’t have the Kli for understanding, we don’t possess the properties which The Zohar describes.

It’s not about a palm branch or other plants that we know in this life. The Zohar tells us about forces that acquire the shape of particular branches in our world. It explains the spiritual roots that we can’t understand since we are unaware of where they are and what they look like.

That is why we listen to The Zohar without the slightest understanding. We only realize that it describes the reality that we don’t yet perceive. In error, we visualize pictures of this world which is the wrong approach.

Our only resort is to think about our unity and how to reveal what’s written in The Zohar within the connection among us. It is a story about connections within the Upper system and the revelation of the Creator through it.

That is why Baal HaSulam writes in Item 155 of his “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that Kabbalists wrote their books not only for themselves in order to share knowledge, but also for all of us as a “miraculous remedy” (Segula). Even if we don’t understand what we read, but keep the intention of attaining the Upper reality that the Kabbalistic books talk about, we attract the Surrounding Light which returns us back to the Source, to the Creator.

The Light directs us and provides us with the intention to bestow instead of the intention to receive for our own sake. Then we start sensing the Upper reality that exists within the property of bestowal. That is, we attain the spiritual world.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/10, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot that if a person is engaged in the Torah (and Kabbalah) for the sake of some reward for his egoism, then it is like “a maid who inherits the mistress.” What does this mean?

There is an opportunity to draw the Surrounding Light upon oneself through engaging in the Torah. But its impact could be two-fold, depending on my intention. Instead of correction, it can make me even worse—“a handmaid who inherits her mistress.” Instead of ascending and becoming similar to the Creator, the quality of bestowal, I submerge myself deeper and deeper in egoism and love for myself.

Why are we given these opportunities? Isn’t it enough to simply study Kabbalah or the Torah? It isn’t enough to simply study; the intention defines what will become of a person. And it is the most important. It is here where the freedom of choice lies—where to switch myself under the influence of the Upper Force: downward, to the reception, toward my egoism, or upward, toward bestowal, toward the Creator?

The Torah itself (the Upper Light) is neutral—it can be either the elixir of life or the potion of death (a person doesn’t perceive that he is spiritually dead). As you decide and choose—so it will be!

It all depends on my attitude to the Upper Force—as with, for instance, the force of electricity: It can heat, and it can cool. The choice is mine. You can study Kabbalah (the Torah in general) only if from the very beginning you establish an objective to attain bestowal (Lishma). Otherwise, you should not even open the book. Naturally, everybody starts this studying egoistically (Lo Lishma), but we don’t have another choice; we were born in this egoism. Yet, we must be clear that we desire to attain bestowal. The Torah is given to us solely for this purpose: “I created the evil inclination and handed down the Torah for its correction.”

This is what we must teach first of all. This is the prime directive in the upbringing of a person: in kindergarten, school, and society. He has to understand that he is growing up in order to unite with all the others as equals, in absolutely mutual bestowal. And when, gradually, his desires become disclosed, he has to start learning Kabbalah in order for him to learn how to correct his egoistical intentions into altruistic ones. This is called to come from Lo Lishma to Lishma.

This concerns adults and children alike. Primarily, we must explain to a person that Kabbalah and the Torah are handed to us solely to change our nature. There isn’t any other purpose! Otherwise, a person will only increase his egoism with its help, wishing to receive this world and the future one for himself.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A question I received: The chapter we’re reading in The Zohar is called "Command" (Tetzaveh). What does "command" mean in spirituality?

My Answer: This refers to the command that has been assigned to us. To join the work of the Creator, we first have to try to recognize our desire and the reason for our creation. We need to feel our state as being opposite to the Creator in order to become "creatures."

However, this isn’t enough. This is just the first recognition of one’s nature. After that, a person has to try to become similar to the Creator. Then, he’ll discover he’s incapable of doing so. When he nevertheless presses forward and strives to reach the next level of recognizing himself, he discovers that he has no desire to become similar to the Creator. Besides being opposite to the Creator and unable to become similar to Him, he doesn’t even want it.

Yet, while undergoing this process, each time a person raises the significance of the Creator, the importance of the goal, and sees his own state as low and insignificant, he continues to search until he finally realizes that there is a system of connection between the souls, and from it, he can receive additional strength. Then, he indeed will desire and be able to reveal all his opposition to the Creator, his lack of the desire, and the opportunity to become similar to Him. Along with it, he will feel a pressing need for correction, for attainment of bestowal for the Creator, which will exceed many times the one he could have reached by himself.

Then, equipped with this "heavy ammunition" which he obtained through the power of the group with the property of the mutual guarantee (within which the Creator exists as a guarantor and supports all this system), a person comes and appeals to Him. He now has something to appeal with. Before this, he couldn’t make a correct appeal.

This is the way a person reaches the influence of the Light that Reforms. He has realized his free choice and has come to the state in which the Creator grants him the strength. Then, within that Light, he begins to see what he needs to correct, as it is written, "In Your Light we will see the Light." A person begins to see the Creator’s command: to correct all his 613 uncorrected properties, one by one.

Now one understands how each property, force, and desire is corrupted, how it can be corrected, what he gains by this correction,and how he influences the entire common system.  Through the common system, the Creator is revealed. Thus, he gradually goes through the entire process of the Torah and commandments. He corrects all his desires by the intention to bestow for the sake of bestowal and even by the intention to receive for the sake of bestowal, which is not for the sake of pleasure, but rather, for the sake of the Upper One.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/31/10

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