A question I received: How can I remain in the inner work and in the correct intention during the Zohar Convention 2010 when we will be in over our heads with various work like taking care of kids and other things?

My Answer: One has to understand that all the obstacles are for his own good. This includes obstacles like one’s spouse, kids, work, finances, debt, health problems, close or distant people who are against him, his own doubts, and not annulling himself completely in his heart and soul. This is the very oil which can’t light up on its own, but only when a person is constantly overcoming obstacles under continuous tension.

The spiritual world becomes revealed only by overcoming. If one abandons these efforts, the fire immediately dies. You have to be above the ego. You have to sense that you are in the right and left lines simultaneously in order to find the middle line. This is the very wick that ignites. It seems that the Creator ignites it, but this isn’t so. You have to rise in order to ignite it. It is written, “You will kindle the candles.”

The left line comes to give you the opportunity to exert the force of overcoming and reveal the Light. It isn’t revealed to humiliate you and throw you down. You always should be confident that the left line exists in you to the same extent as the right line in order for you to aim yourself toward goodness, Light.

If a person is put in a situation where he fails, this only happens in case he has a special role and the calculation in relation to him is being made from special levels. However, this shouldn’t happen to us. It is only possible during the preparation stages, which we already have passed and which include our previous life cycles.

Currently, we exist in the period of revelation. If we try as we are supposed to during everything we encounter, then there shouldn’t be any failure. Any possible failure can happen only if we fail to realize our free choice. It’s written that we should always see ourselves as half-sinner and half-righteous. We always have an opportunity to aim ourselves and the entire world toward the good. A person isn’t given obstacles that exceed his capabilities to aim the world toward the good.

Therefore, it’s not important what kind of work you’ll be doing during the Convention. It doesn’t even matter if you’ll attend the lectures. What’s important is how you’ll sense all the desires which come to unite and how you’ll “kindle yourself” from the connection. All our work is internal. It also doesn’t matter how many people will unite there and for how many days. With as many as are there, you should say, “If we unite as we have to, we will kindle the candle.” Therefore, everyone who can, should participate. It’s not realistic for one person to accomplish this fear, but together, it’s easy.

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 4: “It is as a bridegroom coming out of his Huppah (wedding canopy).” The sun, Zeir Anpin, spreads to the west, Malchut. When the west approaches, the north side, Gevura, rises up against her first, approaches the west, and mates with her in her place. This is so because the beginning of Zivug Zeir Anpin is in the left, Gevura, which is reconciliation and obtaining permission, as it is written, “Let his left hand be under my head,” and then the south side, which is right, Hesed, as it is written, “And his right hand embraces me.” Then, “He rejoices as a strong man to run his course,” to illuminate the moon from the middle line, Yesod.

As we are reading this, we have to try to feel that we are together. We should understand that this is the only way that we can receive the revelation. We are trying to find these descriptions within ourselves regardless of whether we understand them or not. Understanding isn’t that important because the main thing is the intention.

Sometimes, The Zohar describes very vivid, impressive pictures, but one should be wary of being carried away by these descriptions. He shouldn’t perceive them as fictional literature while completely forgetting about the intention. On the contrary, when the text is completely confusing and unclear, he has no other choice but to think about the intention. Since he doesn’t understand anything, he recalls that the most important thing is the intention. He’s happy that this is what he has to work on because his mind can’t grasp what is written. He doesn’t even understand how to connect these words. Therefore, in any state, we first should try to discern our reality which is the one common desire.

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In spirituality, “mutual inclusion” is an action that is carried out by a force that comes from the Creator. Although our qualities tune into each other, the mutual inclusion does not happen outside of us since it is impossible to accomplish on our level. I cannot take two qualities and fuse them together in one plate here on the table before me. I need to raise them to the source where they can unite into one whole in the Creator. I can work on their mutual inclusion there.

My desire to include these qualities is here in this world. However, in order to create their mutual inclusion, I need to raise them to the root (Keter) of the given degree and connect to the place where they exist as one whole. This is not a material unification where a few atoms unite into one molecule and create a compound through a chemical reaction.

In spiritual unification, nothing remains from the right and the left lines. The middle line is a completely new entity. It does not consist partially of the left line and partially of the right. Rather, mutual inclusion produces a new quality that supersedes the qualities of which it is made.

The desire to enjoy (which connects to the screen) and the Reflected Light (the intention to work for the sake of bestowal) are depicted as a desire below and a screen above (the intention to bestow), as if the intention and the desire exist separately. They are depicted as if these are two separate components rather than one whole.

However, this explanation is only provided in this manner when using the terms of our world. In the spiritual world, the intention and the desire are forced to be completely inseparable, intertwined, and merged inside one another. The intention can completely change a desire by using it for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal.

Therefore, the work we do on the “third day” lies in merging with one another and creating one common body. Each person does the inner work of uniting his qualities from the right and the left sides into one whole in the middle line, tuning in to the Creator as a result. After all, the source of all these opposite things is situated in Him, where they all exist in unity. This is why on the third day, upon ascending to the Creator, a spiritual quality opposite to the Creator was revealed, which is the spiritual death of desires such as Shachem.

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The Zohar, Chapter ”Metzorah (The Leper),” Item 20: “She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who support her.” The tree of life is the Torah, a high and mighty tree. It is called Torah (teaching) because it instructs and reveals what was hidden and unknown. She is called “life” because all the upper life is included in her and stems from her.

The “Torah” stands for the Light of Correction, which is the Light that Reforms. This Light is attracted through the study of Kabbalah. It influences our intention and changes it from the natural, egoistic one to an intention of giving. By changing our intention, our desire is redirected from “for my own sake” to “for my neighbor’s sake,” or in other words, from receiving to giving.

The desire itself is neither receiving nor giving. Desire is defined by the intention. To the extent of our similarity with the Creator, we reveal Him and the Light that fulfills us.

Correction of our intentions is referred to as carrying out the commandments or the Creator’s directions. When we correct the 613 intentions that are “for my own sake” by transforming them into “for the sake of bestowal,” it is called the execution of 613 commandments. The 613 Lights or “613 advices” (Tariag Eitin) correct us by filling the 613 desires.

“Isra-El” (directly to the Creator) refers to a person who strives to attain the Creator by correcting himself. Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut is called the Tree of Life because it brings the Light of Correction to us.

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A question I received: How should we prepare throughout the day for reading The Zohar, especially now that the Zohar Convention 2010 is approaching?

My Answer: We should aspire to the Light that Reforms together. This is a very simple motto where “being together” means uniting. But what are we uniting for? It’s in order for each of us to be influenced by the Light that Reforms, which will correct our evil nature, namely, our lack of desire to unite.

Everything can be found inside one notion. There is Malchut, the assembly of souls, and we have to unite within it through a common demand to Yesod, asking it to give us the Light of Correction and the Light of Fulfillment. That is all. This should be our intention at the upcoming Congress.

If we think about this and understand that our entire future depends on this unity because it makes us similar to the force of bestowal, then we don’t need anything else. We should reread the story about the reception of the Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai because we are in the same exact situation. It is written that every person should see himself as standing beneath Mount Sinai and receiving the Torah.

The Torah is given every day. But we will only be able to receive it if we all unite as one man with one heart, standing opposite the Creator, who is also One. We will then establish contact with Him and receive the Surrounding Light.

We have to prepare for this state where our souls refuse their individual egos and connect together in order to attract the Light of Correction. The Light will make our unity happen and inside it, we will reveal the Creator.

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A question I received: What should we think about while reading The Book of Zohar in order to be more sensitive to it?

My Answer: I actually don’t have the answers to any of your questions, because all the answers are provided by the Light that Reforms. My job is only to try and direct you toward this Light.

Some people ask me about sensation, wondering, “Where can I get more of it?” Others ask about the mind, “When should or shouldn’t I use it?” Other people ask me questions like, “When will I start to see and feel everything we study? Why do I feel one way now and later I feel differently?” The answer is that I don’t have the answers to these questions – and I shouldn’t have them, either. An answer is a manifestation of the Light inside a person; it is one’s corrected state which stands opposite the question – one’s previous, uncorrected state.

A person should have just one concern, “Am I directed toward the ray of Light called the Light that Reforms, so it will shine on me?” One shouldn’t think about fulfilling one’s sensation and mind with answers to any other questions besides the one question about the Light that Reforms. Incidentally, this is why Baal HaSulam was laughing at the “Kabbalists of Jerusalem” who knew The Book of Zohar by heart, but rejected its inner essence.

The only thing one should store in one’s memory is the basic concepts of the science of Kabbalah, because they direct a person toward bestowal, giving him the correct, spiritual interpretation of the words. They elucidate the goal and direct a person toward it. If a person is studying correctly, then he will receive answers to all his questions, both in the sensation and the mind. He will advance and understand what is happening, and eventually he will be satisfied by this. He will see how he is advancing day by day.

We are now studying The Book of Zohar intensely. If a person tries to prepare for the lesson and to seriously participate in it, then in a very short while he is bound to feel qualitative changes happening inside him. He will become more sensitive to his connection with others and will feel a change in his attitude to the environment, the studies, the quality of bestowal, and the Creator. But he has to become more sensitive in order to discern what is useful and what isn’t.

All of this takes place as a result of the study. Besides this, there is nothing for us to work on. This is why I always talk just about the intention –  exactly what we want from the study and what it should give us.

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat) ,” Item 125: Anyone who delved in the Torah in this world is rewarded with engaging in it in the next world.

This is talking about two degrees or two states in the desire. In our world we exist only in one quality: the desire to receive or be fulfilled for our own sake. In the spiritual world we also exist in the desire to receive, but we don’t use it. Our intention there is “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” Hafetz Hesed, also known as the desire to receive for the sake of others.

The desire always remains since it was created by the Creator. It is the invariable building block of creation. However, it can have two different intentions. The intention to use it for ourselves is the natural intention we are born with and through which we perceive this world. The spiritual, corrected intention in which we perceive the Upper World is the intention to use it for the sake of others

Our spiritual development occurs when our corrupted desire evolves, but we correct our intention from “for my own sake” to “for the sake of others.” Thus, we continually discover new states inside the new intention. Our desires need to change so that we can have the opportunity to change the intentions over them. We don’t have access to the desires themselves, as they are foundational matter and not in our hands.

Even if we are successful on the present degree, when we enter the state of an embryo of the next degree, we don’t know what happens there and we are unable to orient ourselves.

In our world a person’s desires also grow, but they always have the same intention – for the sake of oneself. Therefore, the states one experiences in different desires is similar because the intention is always the same: for the sake of himself. However, in the spiritual world since the intention over our desire to receive is “for the sake of others,” the feeling of fulfillment entails a contradiction: We fill ourselves, but we do it for the sake of others and we feel the world through others. Therefore, each spiritual degree is completely new with unexpected desires and sensations.

Our efforts in a given degree provide us with a good beginning for the next degree, in spite of the fact that the new degree always begins from the absence of realization, meaning a very limited understanding of our present actions. However, the efforts in our present degree are necessary in order to prepare for the next degree. After all, everything we actually attain in the next degree comes from our attainment in the present degree. This is from the perspective of preparing our matter, the will to receive.

Let’s say we finish sixth grade and begin seventh grade. In seventh grade we learn about new subjects which we never studied before or heard about. However, since we prepared ourselves well in the previous grade (degree), we already have experience and various forms of perception that dressed over our matter.

We know exactly how our matter perceives new forms. We know that we can work with the group and receive help from it. We can influence our friends and they will influence us, and this mutual influence will enable us to take on new forms. We know how to work with the books, with the study materials, and with the teacher.

In other words, the work in this world – the degree in which we are situated and which we perceive now, prepares us for the “world to come” – the next degree or perception. Of course, it doesn’t give us any understanding of what will happen in the world to come, but after all our efforts, we become worthy of its revelation and have a foundation upon which to continue our path.

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A question I received: How will The Zohar affect our unification in anticipation of the worldwide virtual Congress and other such meetings?

My Answer: The Zohar will do everything. We just need to add our intention and desire to see ourselves in a more advanced state. The Zohar will perform this work, but only according to our desire.

You can’t just sit there and read this book, even though the fact is that it will affect you by just reading it as well. If you come to a lesson and see that you have no desire – that your heart and mind are deaf, then you will still receive this influence, since you are sitting among everyone else and are connected to them. Even if you are unable to connect to the friends now, you still have a connection with them from past days, like a sick person in an unconscious state who is cared for by other people since he is human.

However, in any case, we have to try our hardest to place ourselves under the influence of The Zohar.

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Kabbalists tell us that we exist in an invariable state called “the World of Infinity.” The Creator wishes to fulfill us infinitely, to give us infinite pleasure, and to bring us to a sensation of Him. Then we will feel perfect harmony, a luminous and perfect world where we are filled with the Upper Light. In addition, we will understand and feel the world in its entirety.

We are in this state even now, but are unaware of it. This is our only problem – that we are insensitive to it due to not having the sense that can feel this reality.

I have one sense, which I perceive as my physical body. This body has five senses of its own: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. With the help of this cumulative sense called the “body,” I feel myself and the world.

Besides it, there is also another body called “the body of the soul.” If I reveal it, I will discover five senses there as well: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut, which can also be called “spiritual vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.” Through the body of the soul, I perceive the spiritual reality, myself, and the world.

So what is the problem – why is it so difficult for us to reveal this spiritual sense and through it to feel that we are situated in the World of Infinity, that everything around us is filled with Infinite Light and there is no life, death, or any other limitations? The problem is just one thing: the lack of the Light of Hassadim. The only way for our soul to develop from the point that we currently have, for that point to expand and burst open, is by acquiring the Light of Hassadim – the quality of kindness (Chesed), love, and bestowal, the ability to come out of ourselves. We are situated in an ocean of Light – the Light of Hochma, the Light of the Creator, but we will only be able to reveal it if we open up to the outside by means of the Light of Hassadim.

Therefore, the darkness that is revealed in us is the pressure of the Light of Hochma in the absence of the Light of Hassadim, which comes from the soul. Our soul is still incapable of opening up and revealing the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim – of seeing “day” instead of “night.”

We see the spiritual world, our spiritual life, in greater or smaller degrees of the Light of Hassadim. The entire process of our spiritual development and formation occurs between these two Lights – Hochma and Hassadim, or between two desires where these Lights are revealed – the desires of reception and bestowal.

Stated more accurately, there is one desire, but it can be implemented by us in two different ways: with the intention “for myself” or with the intention “for others.” Therefore, developing the Light of Hassadim, the quality of bestowal and love, the ability to come out of oneself, is the same as revealing the soul. We reveal the Upper World, the World of Infinity, to the extent that we develop the Light of Hassadim, the intention of bestowal inside us.

There are five levels of Aviut (thickness of desire) inside the point in the heart – the drop of semen of the soul, the Reshimo that is in us. By acquiring the Light of Hassadim on each of the five levels of desire, we reveal five parts of our soul and thereby open up an opportunity for the Light to enter it step by step, through the five degrees called five worlds (degrees of the Light’s revelation).

This is how we gradually ascend along the degrees of the worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon – until we reach unlimited revelation, called “the World of Infinity.” Everything in this process depends on how much we acquire the quality of bestowal because through the quality of bestowal, we reveal the point in the heart and it becomes the soul, the Shechina, the receptacle for the Light.
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The period of preparation is the most important and special time because it is particularly during this time of concealment and darkness that we try to discern all of our qualities, goals, means, and inner definitions. Later, when we rise above the Machsom, we only correct the evil in us which we exposed and prepared for correction during the period of preparation.

Baal HaSulam explains that during the period of preparation, we “perform” (reveal in ourselves) Zdonot (intentional transgressions) and Shgagot (unintentional mistakes or negligence). We correct these mistakes and negligence after the period of preparation, during the stage called “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” and even later, we correct the intentional transgressions during the stage of “reception for the sake of bestowal.”

The period of preparation is a time of revealing all the “sinners” inside us. We reveal them gradually, to the extent that we are capable of doing so. But most importantly – we expose them to the extent that we are able to tolerate them in us, as much as we are able to reveal them without running away from the spiritual path! And until we awaken all of them, we will not be able to cross the Machsom.

We cross the Machsom under the condition that we rise above the transgressions and negligence. We should not engage in trying to correct them, but instead, to rise above them. Then, above the Machsom, we correct them and acquire the intention of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal.” We use them as they are, and we are willing to remain in them, but for the sake of bestowal. This means that we cross the Sinai Desert.

Then we correct them with the intention of “reception for the sake of reception,” which means that we enter the Land of Israel (the revelation of the Creator). It turns out that inside the very qualities that we revealed inside us before the Machsom, we later reveal the Upper World, the Creator.
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