“The people of Israel will not return to their land until they are completely united.” The people of Israel are a group that Abraham once organized by selecting them from among the Babylonians. He wanted to correct the whole world but managed to gather just a few thousand people in this group.

However, the Torah does not speak about historical events, rather about internal states through which a person passes. The property of Abraham within us takes a part of our desires and leads them to a partial correction, and then to a shattering (a fall of the Temple, or descent from the spiritual level to exile).

Exiles are required in order for desires that have been in spirituality (Israel), to mix with the rest of desires that did not go through spiritual ascent and shattering (called “nations of the world”). After mixing together and becoming included in one another, all of them are prepared for corrections. In other words, everyone now has a part that has been in spirituality, and a part that hasn’t.

Those who went through the ascent and shattering must be the first to undergo corrections because they contain Reshimot (data about previous states). After this others will awaken. Everyone must come to understand that the “Israel” within, meaning the desires aspiring to the Creator, will not attain their land (Eretz) or corrected “desire (Ratzon) “straight to the Creator” (Isra-El), in which the Creator becomes revealed, until they all unite to become “as one man with one heart.”

This is the requirement Kabbalists tell us about. We must implement it in a small part of the soul inside each of us, as well as in a big part of the soul among all Kabbalah groups in the world, and in yet an even bigger part of the soul, which includes all of humanity. Thus, this necessary requirement begins to be realized starting from a very material level.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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A question I received: If reality depends on the environment, then what do reincarnations of souls mean in this context?

My Answer: Reincarnations of souls are changes in the desires. After all, nothing exists but the desire and this desire changes. Within this transient desire, we perceive ourselves in one reincarnation or in the next one, within the intention for the sake of receiving or for the sake of bestowal.

The difference between this world and the future world, between the Creator and the creation are all different states of the desire. The desire that is in the state of bestowal is called “the Creator.” The desire that is in the state of reception is called “the creation.”

Currently we perceive within our desire that we are living here, in this world. The desire will change, and we will begin to feel that we are living in a different reality. A change in the desire determines everything. But, we cannot imagine states in which we do not yet exist.

However, for Kabbalists who exist in the desire to bestow as well as in the desire to receive, both parts of reality are above corporeal life and death, since they are in control of both types of phenomena in the desire.

Certainly, a person who has not corrected himself yet goes through reincarnations or various changes of the desire, until he completes his path by acquiring control over all the desires, all the qualities that can possibly be revealed.

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A question I received: In the spiritual world, a day, a month, and a year are not our calendar days. How can I reject the egoistic desires if the seven days can last for years according to our calendar time?

My Answer: In our world, we live according to the regular astronomical calendar that corresponds to the revolutions of Earth, Moon, and Sun. This defines our whole life.

Kabbalists, on the other hand, tell us what happens “inside” a man with our self-awareness and awareness of the world. A spiritual year, week, or day is in no way related to astronomical time. A person can pass a spiritual year in a few minutes or be in the state of Shabbat (Saturday), symbolizing the end of correction, in the middle of a week. Passover, when a person comes out of Egypt, can happen to him at any time.

There are spiritual roots and there are their consequences, the material branches are reflected in processes happening in nature. It is written, “Israel is above the stars and signs of fate.” A person that aspires toward the Creator (Isra-El means “straight to the Creator” in Hebrew) is above all these considerations in his spiritual development. This is why he advances without any relation to the astronomic calendar.

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After the destruction of the second Temple (the destruction of the quality of bestowal and love of the level of Neshama), people stopped feeling spirituality (the quality of bestowal). Then instead of performing actions of bestowal and love (commandments), all that was left for them were corporeal traditions, the copies of the spiritual actions. From the time of the destruction of the second Temple, people have continued to follow these traditions.

Kabbalists, who were leaders throughout these generations, supported following these traditions and customs in the nation. Gradually, as egoism grew and there was a descent of the generations, people lost the understanding of the connection between the traditions and their desired spiritual execution. They simply carried out mechanical actions, thinking that this was what the Creator demands from a person. They were promised a reward for this in this world and in the other world.

It is written in the Talmud that if there is no connection between the corporeal and spiritual performance, the corporeal actions are lifeless and they kill a person. The corporeal actions that are not connected to spirituality distance a person even more from spirituality and from the Creator because they satisfy the person. It is also written in the Talmud that “the Creator does not care how an animal is killed (meaning, whether or not it is done correctly according to rituals) since the commandments are given in order for a person to be corrected through them.”

If a person seeks a connection between his material actions and their spiritual roots, then when he performs these actions, he reminds himself about spirituality, and in this case it pays for him to perform them. However, if this connection is not there, then carrying out mechanical actions can distance a person from spiritual development, since he becomes satisfied by corporeal actions, “commandments,” and does not feel that anything is lacking in them.

Without the connection to spirituality, the Torah will become a deadly poison for a person. Instead of loving his neighbors, he will feel that he is perfect and will become full of pride in regard to others, thinking that everyone owes him, and this is the poison of spiritual death.

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Every person in this world is governed from within by two forces: egoism and altruism. The egoistic force pulls everything inside a person, making him the center of the universe, while the altruistic force enables him to give to the outside, to other people.

However, even though this force is called altruistic, it’s clear that with the boundaries of this world, it, too, can only act egoistically. Thus, even if I give to another person, it is not a selfless act; I still expect to receive something in return. I don’t have any possibility of giving without compensation being the motivation or “fuel” for my act.

This is how man is built: he’s a machine that can only work on egoistic fuel, the benefit he expects to receive. I cannot work as an eternal engine, Perpetuum Mobile, without receiving any energy and satisfaction from outside. I have to receive energy from outside because I’m not the sun that shines with its own light.

Only the Creator possesses the true quality of bestowal since this is His nature. In order for creation to be able to bestow selflessly, it has to receive fuel from the Creator in the form of the sensation of the Creator’s greatness. This is the only opportunity to attain bestowal – to use the Creator as the source of the driving energy.

This constitutes the whole problem of the communists, socialists, kibbutzniks, and altruists of all kinds who desire to correct the world: they don’t understand that man does not have the energy to bestow. He does not have the fuel to implement this idea. Not one person will object to the fact that life will be better if everyone becomes altruists. But the problem is, no one knows how to make this happen; no one besides Kabbalists, that is, because they have access to the Source of energy!

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Kabbalists who revealed the Creator, wrote books about this, starting from Adam, the first person to attain the Creator, through Baal HaSulam. There are many Kabbalistic books mentioned in The Book of Zohar, which we aren’t familiar with. Apparently, these books have been lost. All the books written by sages from the nation of Israel up to HaShla HaKadosh (17th Century) were written from spiritual attainment.

Later, as a result of the descent of the level of the generations from the 17th Century on, not all authors of books on Kabbalah were in spiritual attainment. For this reason, a question arises regarding the authenticity of some books. We have at our disposal hundreds of books by authentic Kabbalists who wrote them while they were in our world and simultaneously had the perception of the spiritual world, a connection with the Creator. Hence, they were able to transmit their attainments to us in the form of texts, so that we, in turn, would obtain contact with what they attained.

However, The Book of Zohar is the only authentic Kabbalistic book about which it is written that through it we will come out of exile and rise to the level of those Kabbalists – the authors of these books. Indeed, The Book of Zohar truly has a special Light. The fact that there are other books, through which we can acquire a greater impression or understanding, is irrelevant when actually attaining the level of connection with the Creator.

There are many Kabbalistic texts, such as: “The Tree of Life” by the ARI, the Tanakh, the Gemara, and the Mishna, which are written in a rational, logical language that we understand. In contrast, when we read The Book of Zohar, we don’t understand what is written. It carries us into various directions. However, the special connection that it creates between our souls, between us who are beginning this path, and the source of Light that is able to correct us – is not present in any other book.

Therefore, of all the books, only about The Book of Zohar is it written that due to it we can come out of exile, to deliverance, and reveal the Creator. Other Kabbalistic sources also contain a connection, since the Kabbalists writing them possessed spiritual attainment. Their connection is expressed in their compositions. Nonetheless, only The Book of Zohar, can help us.

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In order to enter and become part of the system that Rashbi has created for us, one first needs to experience the state of a spiritual embryo (Ibur). I try to cancel myself in that state. With the help of the current Kabbalistic group, I cancel my egoism. Together with this group, I wish to attach myself to the Upper System that the Kabbalists speak of and to grow there.

I begin to find myself in a group higher than my own to the extent of my ability to annul myself before the group. Then, I begin to see forces of even higher systems operating between myself and my friends to the extent of my strengthening my connection with the others.

The system of Rashbi helps me with this. In this system, the same group of Kabbalists that had corrected itself to the 125^th degree during the times of the breaking of the common soul, at first serves as the mother’s womb for me (in my state of Ibur), and then nurses me (Chagat), and carries the Light of Mochin to me (Chabad). All the Light that passes through the three lines to the broken souls is passed through this carrier which connects us to the World of Infinity.

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A Question I Received: If the gap and the hatred between us remain, then what do we correct?

My Answer: Correction is above the gap and the hatred. We don’t understand this since we exist in one world. We see either black or white, as we cannot see both black and white at the same time. When we begin to enter another reality, and two worlds emerge before us, then suddenly we are able to see that there is no contradiction between good and evil, darkness and light. We see that these two lines unite in a third line, which is neither black nor white, contrary to the way it is perceived in this world.

We are approaching the end of our egoistic development, and as the global nature of the world is revealed through quantum physics, the contradictory forms of the world are revealed, yet our mind is incapable of putting them together to form one picture of the world. Our minds do not agree with the fact that the opposites are connected, that one object can exist in two forms, two places, and so on. In other words, new, spiritual concepts or time, movement, space, and the existence of reality, emerge in us, but still our minds cannot assimilate this; our minds don’t have the capacity to do so in this world.

Therefore, we are unable to comprehend how there can be revelation of evil, and how we build goodness above it without destroying it. We may object that we can imagine this somehow for ourselves, but this is not the true picture since we still lack the senses for perceiving these two worlds – love and hatred, separation and unification, together at the same time. We are unable to imagine this properly. We can only be in one of two opposite qualities.

In order to attain this ability to see both at the same time, we need revelation in the sensations (Kli), and only through this will we understand what Kabbalists are talking about. This is why the science of Kabbalah is called “the hidden wisdom.” After all, it is hidden from me as I am unable to sense what they are saying until I am ready to feel it, before the Light comes and forms the spiritual sense in me.

Then, as the sensation develops and new qualities are revealed in the desire, I will also begin to understand. When I reach the fourth, the last stage of development of each quality, I will already have a sensation and an understanding of spiritual phenomena. But it cannot happen prior to this.

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Kabbalists who lived before the author of The Book of Zohar Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) performed corrections in the common system of souls on a higher level. Rashbi’s system is connected to us directly, and for this reason we treat The Book of Zohar as our primary source. By carrying out corrections in the system of broken souls, Kabbalists created special connections in it, preparations for a general correction. They revive this system, bringing Light to it through the channels of connection that they have established within.

Therefore, we can now rise and correct ourselves within this system. By correcting itself, a soul not only changes itself; it also brings about its corrections into all the other souls. Yet, there are certain souls, like the soul of Rashbi, which play a principal role in correction: They complete a specific stage and prepare the foundation for all the corrections that follow.

It seems to us that a corrected soul is some isolated part of the system. However, this is incorrect. The whole system of souls is integral, like a holographic picture, each part contains the whole picture. On the other hand, every part is present in the whole picture as well as in each of its parts. I am part of the system of souls, the whole system is within me, and I am also included in each part of the system.

The soul is not a unit of the whole – it is “dispersed” into the whole system of creation. It penetrates the entire Malchut of the World of Infinity, with its qualities. This holds true for every one of us. When each person supplements everyone else, we get one large sphere of souls, where the system of Rashbi acts in providing correction for it. It is through this system that we receive the Light that corrects and fulfills us.

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Everything we have done until today was just a game where spiritual forces influenced us from Above, leading us through all the historical phases that we have gone through. These forces caused the development of nations, souls, and civilizations, and they governed us without asking whether we wanted it or not.

However, now we have completed our preparation for correction, and from today on, we must start to carry out the correction. This is why for the first time in history, the science of Kabbalah is becoming revealed to the whole world. It is the method of correction, of revealing the Creator, the Light, the force of correction. It is now becoming revealed because this is the first time that we must lead ourselves to correction.

From now on there are two paths laying before us: the natural path (Beito) and the path where we accelerate our development (Ahishena). If we participate in our own correction, then we will take the good path, but if we don’t desire to carry out the part incumbent upon us, then we will lag behind and will perceive our laziness as suffering.

Then, instead of feeling the Upper Forces as good and helpful to us in our correction, we will feel our own uncorrected desires in the form of various problems. These can range from minor troubles with our families and health to world wars and self-extermination. This is what all the Kabbalists have warned us about, as well as the prophets before them. All the prophets spoke about the age of the Messiah, which has now arrived.

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