The Zohar: It is known that everything is comprised of “world, year, and soul.”

One perceives oneself and the world through limitations called “world, year, and soul.” “World” is everything one perceives as the space surrounding him, in which he and everything else exist. “Year” is the sequence of actions, times, and states that one goes though, perceiving them as an order of cause and consequence. This gives one the perception of life and the flow of time. The soul is the person who feels that he exists and lives within space and time.

Thus, there is the person, the world that surrounds him, and the perception of a changing reality – world, year, and soul. This is how we all perceive our existence. However, in actuality, the limitations of “world, year, and soul” do not exist. They are all the Upper Force, which depicts these feelings, coordinates, and boundaries inside us.

In the science of Kabbalah we learn that there is Malchut and Bina. When we perceive our existence in Malchut, we feel that we are standing on earth; when we perceive our existence in Bina, we feel that we are in the clouds; and when we perceive that we are situated between Malchut and Bina, we feel that we are between the sky and the ground.

The Upper Forces depict for us the whole world that surrounds us and our existence in it. They are like vectors on a computer screen, giving us a sensation of time and space, which consist of many objects. However, all of these are just forces that illustrate a colorful, three-dimensional picture for us and within us.

All of this is, in fact, one force, but its influences are presented to us in a way that separates them into time, space, and motion, or, as The Book of Zohar says, into world, year, and soul. As a result, we feel that we exist in a world where everything moves and exists in a continuous fashion.

However, all of this is the influence of one force upon us. It is this force that creates all these various impressions, giving us a sensation of ourselves, a three-dimensional space, and time.

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

“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 9: As it is written in The Zohar concerning the Second Restriction, The Zohar does not speak of the World of Atzilut in and of itself, since it is regarded as the white background in the book. Rather, it studies only its illumination in the three worlds of BYA, which are like to the ink, the letters, and their permutations in the book, on the background of the World of Atzilut.

Everything happens within the desire to enjoy. All the letters are vessels of perception (Kelim); they are various forms of the desire to enjoy, which it takes under the Light’s influence.

As the Light influences the desire, it leads it through all the stages of development – Shoresh (0), Alef (1), Bet (2), Gimel (3), and Dalet (4). The result is Malchut, which is called the “Kli” – the vessel of perception.

A different way to express this is that there is Keter – Rosh (head), and from there “Taamim” (tastes), “Nekudot” (the dots beneath the letters, signifying the vowels), “Tagin” (the crowns above the letters), and “Otiyot” (letters) expanding downward. The letters are the last Reshimot (recollections) of the “Nekudot” (the disappearance of the Light).

In any case, we are only talking about the desire; this is the only thing The Book of Zohar talks about. We have to attune ourselves to precisely this kind of perception – that we are only talking about the desire and everything that happens in it.

The Zohar does not discuss how the Light plans its actions, how it descends to us, controls us, and works “backstage.” This is not our concern, because we cannot comprehend the abstract form and the essence. We are in a space called “the desire to enjoy”; this is where we live. It is ours, and we are its.

This should help us understand the right approach to studying the whole science of Kabbalah, including The Books of Zohar. Kabbalah never talks about anything except the soul.

The only thing discussed in Kabbalah is how Kabbalists reveal the desire to enjoy, which was created by the Creator, and which is called a soul, as well as what happens in this desire. Our entire study is done expressly for this purpose: to reveal the Creator within the created being, within the soul.

However, a person who studies the Torah or Kabbalah for any other purpose besides revealing the quality of bestowal within the desire to enjoy, is not really studying the Torah; moreover, he turns it into the “potion of death” and draws further away from the truth.

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

In the wisdom of Kabbalah we study the soul – the sense that reveals the Creator. As a matter of fact, the Creator only created this specific sense, this specific space, and nothing besides it.

Right now we also perceive our lives with the same sense, but in a concealed form. This is the reason we refer to our current life as our body, this life, and this world. However, in reality, the Creator only created one desire. And the entire Book of Zohar describes how we can work with this desire in order to recognize the place where we have freedom of choice, where we can work and apply efforts in order to reveal this sense or this desire, and then perceive true life in it. This will not happen without our participation.

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

Kabbalists gave us The Book of Zohar so that through it we would see the spiritual world and reveal the Creator. The science of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the created beings (see the definition in Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”).

The Book of Zohar talks about me. Although its narration is rather strange, it describes what happens to me inside – and only inside! Much like my animate body consists of many parts and systems, so my spiritual body, the soul, consists of analogous parts and systems.

The matter of my animate body is the desire to receive and be fulfilled. The matter of my spiritual body is the desire to bestow and to fulfill. Only the spiritual body or the soul is the human being in me because the animate body cares only for itself, the animal, and exists only as long as this animal is alive.

So who is the human being in me? It is someone I have to discover, expose, and examine; this is the only thing that the science of Kabbalah and The Book of Zohar talk about.

I have to try to recognize my inner desires and their forms (qualities), which are described in The Book of Zohar through various names taken from our world. For example, the human being in me contains qualities called “Yaakov” and “Eisav,” a “bull” and a “mule,” “birds” and “trees,” “Adam HaRishon,” “Noah” and the “ark.” These are all qualities that exist inside me.

What do I get from engaging in this inner search? Do I actually discover all of these qualities? In truth, I do not! I will not find anything by searching. However, by exerting effort, I awaken the Upper Light – the revelation of the Creator. My attempts to recognize the Upper Qualities in me elicit the revelation of the Light and its Source, according to the principle, “Higati ve Matzati” – "I labored and found.”

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

A question I received: How can another person’s desire become my own vital need?

My Answer: This can only happen if you really see that this is so. You shouldn’t force yourself to give out candy and flowers to people, or to smile at them all day long. And you shouldn’t hypocritically try to be a “nice person.” Rather, Kabbalah is talking about an inner correction that takes place consciously, as a result of you seeing the goal; you see how reality is arranged and you see yourself in comparison to it.

You then begin to move away from evaluating things by your sensations of good or bad, since they revoke your freedom of will and turn you into a helpless animal. Instead you begin to realize the greatness of the goal; it becomes the highest thing to you. However, you don’t value it out of the egoistic benefit it promises, but based on a completely different principle.

But how is this possible, if our whole life revolves around sensations of good and bad, fulfillment and emptiness? It’s because you actually acquire a new criterion of true and false which is not based on self-satisfaction, but on spiritual importance. It is brought to you by the Light, although you do not even realize this.

That is how the force of bestowal comes to you. It is something you have never felt before, and little by little, it begins to influence you, giving you the quality of Bina which is above all your current calculations. You acquire a different nature, one with which you are currently unfamiliar, and it becomes your yardstick for measuring all the actions and changes taking place.

However, in the meantime, everything you do is necessary only in order to awaken the influence of this force. The entire method of Kabbalah lies in learning how to attract the Light that will cause a change in you. Without its help, you will never change on your own. You will remain forever trapped in the labyrinth of philosophical intricacies. On the other hand, if the Light influences you, you will begin to see and will learn everything.

This is why we have begun studying The Book of Zohar: in order to give every person (even total beginners) an opportunity to be in contact with the Light, on which we depend completely.

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

The Book of Zohar describes only our inner qualities; this is why Kabbalah is called the inner part of the Torah. It only seems to us that the world develops and expands outward, but this is not true. It is our egoism that causes us to feel a spatial dispersion.

This outward perception is opposite to the correct focus and to the spiritual root. After all, the root is a thin line (Kav Dak), which passes through all of reality at its deepest level. Therefore, we have to concentrate within, focusing on our desires and qualities. We will then reveal a more internal degree.

In the science of Kabbalah we learn that our whole ascent lies in continually shifting to a more internal Partzuf. First the conception (Ibur – embryo) in the Partzuf NeHY occurs; then the inner Partzuf HaGaT is built inside, which is the suckling stage (Yenika). Then an even more internal Partzuf of HaBaD is built – the stage of adulthood (Mochin).

Thus, we complete one Partzuf – one of 125 degrees to complete correction. What now? Now a new Partzuf begins, which is a new degree of correction, like the next, higher floor, and it also consists of the same three stages – conception (or embryo), suckling, and adulthood.

In this manner, we constantly delve deeper and deeper until we reach the line of Infinity and suckle from this line. This is why one’s search should always be directed inside.

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

Authentic, practical Kabbalah means that we attract the Light of Correction that causes us to change. Our world is a world of results; we are influenced by Upper Forces that govern all life in this world. So we shouldn’t think that we can change anything in our world with our actions. There are no effective actions we can make in our world, besides one – raising a MAN (request) upwards. This is the only thing we can do. Raising a MAN is called practical Kabbalah.

If, on the other hand, a person hopes to change his fate and influence the Upper Forces with his material actions (including the observance of traditions and commandments), then Kabbalah says that this is impossible. Don’t do it – it won’t help. Sure, you can carry out the rituals in order to feel more relaxed and to have order in your life, but at the same time, you should know that you will not change your fate by doing so. These actions do not enable you to reveal your egoism; they do not make you to want to correct it. They might even make you feel the opposite way – more relaxed, as if everything is ok.

If a person hopes to change anything in this world by influencing it directly, rather than through the Upper World, this is called mysticism. If he isn’t asking to be made similar to the Upper Forces and to change, but is instead trying to change the forces and world that seems to be outside him, then he is engaging in mysticism. It means that one’s outlook on the world is incorrect. The only thing in reality that we can change is ourselves; or rather, we can ask to be changed.

All of our reality is the One and Only Creator, the Absolute, who is Good and does Good. There is no one besides Him. “There is a law and it cannot be transgressed.” This refers to an iron law that we cannot affect in any way. If we want change, we can only ask Him to make these changes in us.

All we have to do is discern how we differ from Him, and then ask Him to make us the same as He. We will then shift our entire fate to the path of goodness. As for everything else, no matter what we do it is all meant to show us that we are not acting correctly. It becomes expressed as pain in order to direct us to the “true path.”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Spiritual development through the method of Kabbalah is similar to our development in this world. Just as a child doesn’t understand how he grows, so we don’t understand how our spiritual development occurs. A child has to break everything, make mistakes, fall, cry, and go through childhood illnesses; without this he cannot grow up. This is a real and natural process, and it is the same with spiritual development. There is no place for mysticism.

Because the Upper Degree is hidden from me, I have to exert effort like a child, without understanding or feeling my following state. Then I will acquire or “find” the spiritual world. It is like a child who works, grows, and becomes smarter.

This is how we can intentionally activate the mechanism that connects us with spirituality, the Creator. This mechanism influences us indirectly, through alternative paths, in order to connect the spiritual and the material forms. We have to use this existing Upper Mechanism of connection between our world and the Upper Worlds.

The science of Kabbalah uses a strictly realistic, scientific approach. We invoke a real system; anything else would be mysticism.

When we look at how a child grows up, it might seem mystical. Show a newborn to someone from another planet and tell him that the newborn will grow up to be Napoleon; the alien creature won’t believe you because it seems illogical – how will that baby suddenly become smarter?

However, a child plays and learns through the game. Kabbalists have prepared a very similar kind of game for us. However, this is a very serious game that includes many stages, and it is not mysticism. In the science of Kabbalah, there is a connection that exists between the Upper Level and the lower level, between the one who develops and the one who develops him.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

A question I received: Kabbalah says that people should not practice mysticism, but should treat everything taking place from a realistic standpoint. On the other hand, the method of Kabbalah is based on “miracles” from Above – things that are incomprehensible and irrational, as you have explained. How do these two things mesh together?

My Answer: We are situated in one part of nature – the material part, which is severed from the other part of nature – the spiritual part. It takes efforts to unite with the spiritual part, but if we make them, we will make a “discovery” of the unity that is there.

This resembles a miracle because we do not see the connection between our efforts and the spiritual revelation. If we knew what this connection is, we would clearly understand how many efforts we have to make in order to acquire what we want.

However, this connection seems not to exist, because we exist inside the quality of reception, egoism, and we don’t feel the quality of bestowal in this state.

We don’t perform actions of bestowal and we have no evident contact with the spiritual world. Yet, there is a system that we activate with our egoistic actions which we make in order to reach the spiritual world; this system draws the Light that Reforms, Ohr Makif, upon us. This is a system of connection between ourselves – egoism, and the spiritual world – bestowal, and it is described by the verse, “I labored and found.”

We are cut off from spirituality and we don’t aspire to it at all. We imagine spirituality in the form of a profit or a great find rather than the quality of bestowal. However, even this kind of incentive is able to gradually draw the Light that Reforms upon us. As a result, we begin to have a greater desire for the spiritual quality of bestowal.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

The spiritual world is a world of forces that act according to laws that we partially understand, while some aspects remain unknown – just like mainstream sciences that explore the nature of this world. We understand parts of the spiritual world, while other parts remain hidden.

We have to exercise a strictly scientific and sober approach to spiritual research, just like we do when studying physical nature. What’s concealed today will reveal itself tomorrow. The science of Kabbalah provides us with research tools (Kelim), which can be likened to a microscope within us that we can use to see spiritual forces, the forces of bestowal.

However, we have to possess the power of bestowal in order to measure these forces, to see and discern them. A human being interprets all the knowledge and experiences he receives through himself.

After we develop our powers of bestowal, we tune them just like we would tune a sensitive microscope and use it to penetrate into the depth of matter (desire) where we observe various phenomena (giving and receiving) in accordance with the sensitivity of  each of our vessels of perception (Kli)

In any science we always serve as an instrument since we are the ones who ultimately receive knowledge, and to a certain extent we do so subjectively. When we study the science of Kabbalah, we do so consciously and we ourselves become an instrument of research. However, the research itself must be purely scientific. Our research becomes objective because it is in our nature to strive towards objectivity.

On many occasions, Kabbalists said: “I will know You from Your actions,” “Know your Creator and serve Him,” “For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know Me.”

There are only two forces (properties) in the whole universe: the Light (property of bestowal) and the desire to be pleased (property of receiving) that it created. Everything else follows from these properties.

The same applies in mathematics: we have a zero, and a value other than zero. Everything else follows from those values and is simply a matter of calculation. Physics is also the same: there are two forces which are different from one another.

This applies to the Upper Light as well. The moment a point that is a little darker than the Light appears, we have two different properties. That is when progress begins and the science of Kabbalah emerges.

As with any other science, Kabbalah studies discrepancies between two forces (phenomena). This becomes possible by enhancing the differences between them with the help of a microscope (analysis), or by finding points of connection (synthesis).

Science is based on finding the interactions between two forces – the Creator (bestowal) and the creation (receiving) on all levels of their manifestation within desire (matter). It’s impossible to identify and study one force without the other. With the help of analysis and synthesis, we study their interaction and then arrive at certain conclusions. “There is no Creator without the creation and there is no creation without the Creator.”

Contemplating only one force is wrong and won’t lead to scientific conclusions, but rather brings up deliberations about an abstract form. When I say, “The property of bestowal,” what do I mean? What is it? Who does it give to? Who does it influence? Where do signs of it show up? How do I know that it is bestowal? The answers is: by understanding the opposite.

You can tell the difference only by comparing opposites – by studying someone who is receiving. We cannot simply say that something is positive, because in relation to what is it positive? Where is the negative?

In other words, you cannot discern something on its own – you can do so only in relation to something else. The foundation of any science lies in comparisons. There is nothing in the universe except two forces.

This approach is strictly observed in the science of Kabbalah. If you distance yourself from matter and the form that defines matter, it becomes mysticism.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →