Two questions I received on the arts:

Question: I know that the arts are a manifestation of the ego. But being a person who dabbles in poetry and music, I can’t help but ask: What is the spiritual root of poetry? Can I (a person who hasn’t developed a spiritual Kli nor crossed the Machsom) write poetry and songs about Kabbalah and the Creator? After all, I don’t receive the Light into my soul yet. Should I try it anyway?

My Answer: Actually, the root of the arts is power and ambition. It doesn’t matter over whom – it may even be yourself. Follow the example of the great Kabbalist King David: the Psalms he wrote are still recited today by the entire world. Do as he did!

Question: Kabbalah fights egoism. But at the same time you reject philosophy, history, and the arts. Why?

My Answer: I do not reject anything. I only want to arrange everything according to its level of importance. Since Kabbalah speaks about man’s correction, connection and union with the Creator, eternal existence, and how to replace suffering with pleasure, hence it is incomparably more important than anything else in our lives. After all, what else can compare to Kabbalah when its purpose – and its capability – is to deliver man to a happy existence in this world, and to add an eternal and perfect existence on top of that?

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Music Inspired by Kabbalah

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A question I received: Lately I feel that many of my actions are not performed by me. It is as though I observe my actions from outside. This realization – that certain actions are not done by me – makes me wish to obtain freedom of choice. But the only free choice I have before the Machsom is the choice of the correct environment. What are these states and how do I work with them?

My Answer: Everything you say is correct! Keep doing what you’re doing, and continue strengthening your connection with the common Kli.

The technique of the process is as follows:
1. By pressuring yourself, put yourself under the influence of the environment (see the article, “Freedom of Will”).

2. The environment will exert a direct influence on your “heart,” and you will begin feeling the importance of bestowal and connecting with others.

3. During the lesson, don’t forget what is important to you, and you will then attract the influence of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) upon you.

4. Under the Light’s influence, the quality of bestowal will be created within you.

If you constantly proceed along this chain, then after a period of time (3 – 5 years at most) you will cross the Machsom, entering the perception (attainment, revelation) of the Upper World.

Related Material:
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Talk: Five Worlds – Five Levels of the Will to Receive
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (“Pticha”) – Item 1, summary:

1. The Creator’s plan is to create the creatures in order to delight them. This is why He created the will to receive pleasure – the pleasure that He wishes to bestow. This desire is the creation that was created.

The Creator’s desire to fulfill is infinite, and therefore the desire to enjoy He created is also infinite.

The pleasure (the Light) creates a matching desire (Kli or vessel) for itself. Hence they are completely interconnected from the very beginning. Nevertheless, the pleasure is primary, and the desire it created is secondary. The pleasure determines the desire, although both stem from the Creator.

The Light exists in the Creator from the very beginning, whereas the will to receive (pleasure) He created is something essentially new, which never existed before. That’s because the only desire the Creator has is to love and bestow.

Desire is the essence of the creation, its matter. All of the various creatures originate from it; they are different “portions” of the desire. All the events happening to them are changes in their desires.

Everything that the desires or creatures have, everything that fulfills their desires, is Light or pleasure which comes directly from the Creator.

Therefore, everything that exists is comprised of the Light and the Kli, and comes from the Creator. It either comes directly – as Light, or indirectly – as the desire, which is absent in the Creator, but was created by Him for delighting the creatures.

Related Material:
Download PDF version of Pticha

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Questions I received on the virtual society of the future:

Question: Which technical means (Internet, TV, radio, and so on) can be used to create the virtual society of the future? Does the necessary technical support exist today? What other things are necessary that haven’t yet manifested in our world?

My Answer: We are starting to really focus on this now, and it is becoming our highest priority project – to create a virtual meeting space for all those who aspire to unite, who strive toward the Creator. As soon as this common aspiration will acquire the needed goal-oriented force, it will begin radiating with similarity to the Creator. He will then become revealed to everyone within this unity.

Your advancement upwards depends on the efforts you make to disseminate Kabbalah outwards – to add more souls to the correction. Hence I recommend not missing the opportunity to participate in the development of the virtual Kabbalistic community.

You can send your ideas to bbstate@gmail.com

Question: Since the internet is developing so fast, is there any point in hosting distance classes for beginners? Maybe we should have fewer classes like this?

My Answer: I think that soon this will come to an end on its own. However, as long as there are people who desire this, we should continue doing it. You should continue developing only the virtual education, communication, and even congresses.

Question: Your blog is already a virtual group for those who “enter” it. However, don’t real groups have a very big influence on the world Kli, while the influence of an internet participant is much smaller? Yet the combined influence of a large number of virtual participants is much bigger than the influence of real groups?

My Answer: Everything adds up to a combined effort until it will reach the necessary size, and then – inside this common mass – everyone together will start to feel the Upper Presence.

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Tenth Commandment” (abridged)

237. The tenth Commandment (law of nature) is to put on Tefillin (correct one’s egoism) and thereby to attain equivalence with the Creator, as it is written, THE CREATOR CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE. He opened (the way for the Light of Rashbi) and said (passed it on to his students), “Your head upon you is like the Carmel.” This text refers to the Supernal head – the Tefillin worn on the head of the Holy, Supernal King HaVaYaH (the governing force), written in separate letters (specific actions). Each letter (action) in the holy name (program) HaVaYaH corresponds to a certain paragraph in the Tefillin (a certain correction). Thus, the Holy, Supernal Name (the Creator’s quality) is written in the scrolls of Tefillin, in the secrets of the letters (is revealed through the correction). For THE NAME OF THE CREATOR IS UPON YOU, AND THEY SHALL BE AFRAID OF YOU (your enemies are your uncorrected desires) refers to the head Tefillin, which contains the Holy Name HaVaYaH.

238. The first passage in the Tefillin corresponds to the letter Yod of the name HaVaYaH (Hochma) and refers to the Commandment, “Sanctify to Me all the firstborns.” This is because Hochma is the firstborn (the first correction) of all the Supernal Ones (qualities). It opens the place of conception for the future firstborn with the help of a thin line of Light that emanates from Yod, which opens the womb (Bina) and impregnates it.

239. The second passage (correction) in the Tefillin (equivalence to the Creator), WHEN YOU COME, corresponds to the first letter Hey of the name HaVaYaH, the hall (Bina) that opens up under the influence of the letter Yod (Aba) in fifty entrances, passages, and chambers concealed within it. The revelation that Yod made in that hall was done so as to hear the voice of the Shofar (a ram’s horn), Bina. The Shofar is closed on all sides, but the letter Yod came and opened it so that its sound could be heard. And since it opened the Shofar and derived sound from it, Yod led all to freedom.

240. At the sounds of the Shofar, the sons of Israel were delivered from Egypt. And so shall the Shofar be blown in the future, the next time at the end of days. And all deliverance originates from this Shofar, which is Bina. This is why the deliverance from Egypt is mentioned in this chapter of the Torah, for this Shofar stems from the force of the letter Yod, which opens the womb and delivers the captives to freedom. And this is the letter Hey, the second letter of the name HaVaYaH.

241. The third passage in the Tefillin is the secret of the Unity in “Hear O Israel,” the letter Vav in HaVaYaH, which includes all and designates ZA, who contains the unity of all. Everything merges in unity within him, and he receives all. The fourth passage that reads, “You shall hear,” includes two sides, Hesed and Gevura, which unite with the Assembly of Israel, called the lower Gevura or Malchut. And this is the last letter Hey of the name HaVaYaH, which takes and includes them all.

242. Tefillin are the letters of the holy name. Therefore, “Your head upon you is like the Carmel” refers to the head Tefillin. The letter Dalet refers to the hand Tefillin, Malchut, who is depleted of Light, compared to the head Tefillin, ZA, but she contains the perfection of the Upper One.

The hand Tefillin designates Malchut. And she is poor in comparison with Bina, the Upper World. Yet, she has her own perfection, for she now receives it from Bina thanks to the unity between Nukva and ZA in “Blessed be His great name for ever and ever.”

243. “The King is held captive in the tubs” means that he is tied down and held in those four compartments of the Tefillin for the purpose of being properly united with that holy name. And he who makes this correction, exists in image and likeness, TZELEM, with the Creator. Just as the holy name is united in the Creator, the holy name is united in him. “Male and female he created them” refers to the head and the hand Tefillin. And it is one.

“The King is held captive in the tubs” signifies ZA, who is bound and unified in those compartments of the Tefillin. The compartments of the Tefillin, which contain the passages from the Torah, are called “tubs” or “troughs,” just like the tubs from which sheep drink water, for the waters of Ohr Hochma and Ohr Hassadim are bound and restricted by these Kelim, the compartments of the Tefillin. And it is the Creator who is bound tight and held in these Kelim, so as to be unified in the holy name.

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Dear friends! On November 14th – 16th, the St. Louis group will be hosting a Congress to continue our exciting journey together and reveal new levels of unity!

We invite the World Kli to join us, and we extend a special invitation to our new friends in the Bnei Baruch Learning Center to come experience your first taste of the vital work that is being done.

• Click here to see photos of the congress site
• If you have any questions, write to this address

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Two questions I received on inner work:

Question: As parts of one soul, we all depend on each other whether we’re aware of it or not. But every person contains the whole world. What is the measure of the dependency between us? Should we increase it or should we see ourselves as individuals and only unite our points in the heart?

My Answer: We should only unite our points in the heart, because all our other desires are for corporeal things. By uniting our aspirations for spirituality, we create the vessel in which the Light, the Creator becomes revealed.

Question: How does the system of mutual guarantee of the World Kli become expressed in practice, at times when one is not involved in the group work (study, dissemination, congresses, and so on), but is occupied with the necessities (work, family, and so on)?

My Answer: If a person takes proper care of his spiritual advancement in his spare time, then he provides himself with support that will sustain him on the right track during the rest of the time as well. Our world formed as a result of the descent of the Upper Forces, and it completely corresponds to the thought of creation and its purpose, provided that we use it correctly. That is, if we connect the thought with the goal, or in other words, implement the goal, going from the thought to the goal.

We have been given all the conditions – the body and its short life, including all the conditions of existence such as family and the efforts we have to make to sustain the life of the body, as well as all the disturbances and developmental forces. All of this only seems corporeal to us, but in reality this is how spiritual forces present themselves to us at their minimal level. We only have to “blend” into this picture correctly and complete the “empty space” in it with our free actions. At the end of the day everything comes down to uniting our aspirations to the Creator – to bestowal or love for one’s neighbor. We try doing this and then see that we can’t. We then ask for help, and the Creator corrects us!

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdhALkWRg6s]

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Fourth Commandment” (abridged)

208. The fourth Commandment (the basis of the universe) is to know (to attain in one’s corrected properties) that HaVaYaH (the One who created you and your desires, inside which you are now attaining the Light) is Elokim (the One who loves and bestows, the properties of Bina), as it is written: KNOW THIS DAY (in your mind) AND LAY IT IN YOUR HEART (in all of your desires) THAT HaVaYaH (your Kli, the soul’s body) IS ELOKIM (Bina, love and bestowal). That is, the name Elokim is included in the name of the HaVaYaH, and there is no distinction between them. HaVaYaH is ZA, and Elokim is Nukva. It is essential to unite ZA with Nukva by making their properties similar, so there is no distinction between them. Thus, the name Elokim of Nukva will be included in the name HaVaYaH of ZA, so that Nukva (man) herself will become as HaVaYaH (the Creator).

209. Hence, it is written, “Let the stars in Heaven shine upon the earth.” This means that both stars, the two names, HaVaYaH and ELOKIM, are as one. This way, Malchut (Elokim) should merge with the name HaVaYaH (ZA). The black Light (Malchut) with the white Light (ZA), as one, without distinction. The white cloud by day (ZA) with the pillar of fire by night (Malchut); the property of day (ZA) merged with the property of night (Malchut), so they shine as one star.

210. This is the sin of the primeval serpent that unites below but separates Above; hence, it caused what it caused to the world. What should be united Above, should be separated below. The black Light, which is Malchut, should be united Above with ZA into a single whole and then separate it from the “evil side.”

211. Nevertheless, one should know that Elokim and HaVaYaH are one, without distinction. HaVaYaH is Elokim. If man knows that all is one and does not cause any separation, then even the opposite, impure forces disappear from the world, instead of descending below.

212. The secret behind the word Me’orot, which consists of the words Mavet (death) and Ohr (Light), is that the impure forces follow knowledge, understanding, and thought. And this is Light, which is the opposite of death – Mavet, for the Light (Ohr) is inside death – Mavet (spelled as Me’ot) in the word ME’ohrOT. This alludes to the fact that Light separates death, but when Light disappears, the letters unite and form the word “death.”

213. Chava started with these letters, and brought evil into the world. As it is written, the woman SAW that it was good to bring the letters of the word Me’ohrot back. From there she took the letters Vav–Tav–Reish–Aleph, leaving only the letters Mem and Vav. And they took with them the letter Tav, thus forming the word Mem–Vav–Tav (Mavet – death). And they brought death into the world.

214. And look: Rabbi Elazar said, “My father, I have learned that after Chava had removed the letters VeTiR’E from the word Me’ohrot, the letters Mem and Vav did not remain. Only the letter Mem remained, for the letter Vav, which is the letter of life, turned into death. This occurred because it attached the letter Tav to itself, thus forming the word MaVeT.” He replied: “Blessed are you, my son!”

Related Material:
Article: From the “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

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Questions I received on male and female roots in the spiritual world:

Question: Are there male spiritual roots for the word “sister”?

My Answer: Every spiritual creation (every soul) can act as a receiver – female, or as a bestower – male. Of course, in either case it acts with the intention of bestowal. For example, suppose that I receive from the Creator – then I act as a female Kli, and if I pass that on to others – then I act as a male Kli.

Female actions are described with various female names, and male actions are described with male names. The names are taken from our world, according to the vocabulary of “Root and Branch.” See Part 1 of Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Inner Reflection (Histaklut Pnimit).”

Question: What is the meaning of the women’s Niddah, how does it reflect in spirituality, and is there any reason for it in corporeal life?

My Answer: Everything that exists in our world descends from above. Our world is the world of results, not of beginnings. Everything begins exclusively in the Upper World. In the Upper World, a Nukva’s Niddah is the part of the desires that could not be corrected or turned into an embryo.

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