Viewing the world correctly is called “Reflected Light,” and this is genuine bestowal. The moment we begin relating to the world with true bestowal (as opposed to egoistic kindness customary in our world), we immediately see complete perfection – an infinite world that is in harmony and eternity. We reveal this inside us, and at that instant we begin living in a perfect world.

This is a true miracle because we actually change our world by it. Moreover, it is not only the relationships between us that change, but we ourselves are the ones who change. It is not about trying to do less bad or more good. Rather, by changing ourselves, we find ourselves in an altogether different movie and begin living in a completely different way.

We are used to changing ourselves under pressure from the environment. We give to others either in order to receive more, or to avoid making enemies. However, this is simply an egoistic adaptation of giving for the purpose of feeling better.

The real change occurs when we awaken the influence of the Upper Light on ourselves for the first time. Right now we don’t even know what this is. We may occasionally feel elevated when something is suddenly revealed in our mind’s understanding or in the feelings of our heart; or on the contrary, a black cloud drifts over us and throws us down.

In this manner, before the revelation of the spiritual world (the world of bestowal), we are allowed to feel the changes that occur in us while we are still in our current state . For this reason, the Light is called “Surrounding,” since it shines to us from afar.

However, through these examples we begin to imagine genuine changes with the help of the “Light that Reforms.” And this makes something completely new out of us. It is a completely new person with a new view of the world. It is no longer me.

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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: You said that The Zohar can only be studied when you become a part of the vessel of the common soul. How do I become a part of it?

My Answer: A person cannot do anything on his own; it is the Creator’s work. You must only expect for Him to do this, meaning to desire, hope, and influence things in such a way that will make this happen, as much as you are able. You have to put all your energy into this and hope that the Creator’s salvation will come. That is all we can do.

We are standing around Mount Sinai and screaming, as it is written, “The sons of Israel cried out from the work.” The unity of the common desire attracts the Surrounding Light according to the principle of equivalence of form, because the Surrounding Light comes from one source. When we desire to become as one man in order to reveal the common vessel of the soul (the Kli), then it becomes revealed.

We have to prepare for the The Zohar Convention 2010 in February so we will be able to unite our desire and reveal one, common desire. It can only be revealed inside everyone together, inside the whole nation, which includes men and women. This is what we read in the story about the reception of the Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai, as well as the exodus from Egypt. It is written that this became possible thanks to the righteous women.

All of our desires have to unite, whether they are coming from the left side or the right, whether they are great or small – they have to become as one. We hope that when we undertake this mutual action, we will reveal a sufficient desire to be influenced by the Surrounding Light.

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Through The Book of Zohar the Creator shows us all kinds of examples that are intended to give us different impressions. Meanwhile, we don’t know what this is, similar to how a baby doesn’t know anything but still tries to imitate the examples he sees.

If you don’t want to or cannot do it, then turn to the group and the books for help. Either way, you have to look for something that will push you forward and help you unite with the states and actions that The Zohar tells you about, despite not being able to understand any of it. What’s important is that you want to understand.

The Zohar is talking about higher states of spiritual bestowal, which you desire to feel and experience. How can you do this? These are the questions that should constantly worry you.

It doesn’t matter if you can’t remember any of what you read. If you want the text to influence you so you will enter its world, so you will feel what it is talking about, then you will feel a very powerful sensation of how the reading influences you even though you don’t understand a word of it. You will experience a change in mood, in various qualities, and in your outlook on yourself and the world. You will start to feel different changes happening every day until one day, you will make the leap.

All of this will happen as a result of the reading, even though you have no idea what you are reading about and what it wants to tell you. You have no connection with the book besides one desire: You want the book to be revealed to you!

This is how the Surrounding Light works; it is a wondrous, miraculous force. The influence that affects us from the Upper World is nothing short of a miracle because it works despite you having no connection with it. There is no connection between the will to receive and the will to bestow. The whole connection is realized through the Creator, who is the root of both qualities. This concealed connection is called a miracle (Segula).

This follows a strict law of the Light and the desire (Kli) according to a fixed formula of their interaction. However, this form of connection is concealed from you, and that’s why it is a miracle in relation to you. You push the button in one place and something pops up in a different place. The entire system is concealed from you and you don’t understand how this connection works.

You were simply told that you have to read and desire – and the rest happens by itself!

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A question I received: We have just completed the virtual 2010 World Mega-Congress in which many countries took part, and in February 2010 there will be a large Zohar Convention 2010 in Israel which will be supported by the whole world Kli. What is the best way for us to combine the study of The Book of Zohar with our gatherings and Congresses?

My Answer: All of this combines together wonderfully. All of our gatherings, our regional and worldwide Congresses are intended to unite us together. By uniting with each other, we allow the Light to be revealed according to the law of equivalence of form. The Light is one, and it needs only one desire, one vessel. When we unite in practice, bringing our union to life and making it real, then to the degree we make efforts and desire to actualize this, the Light comes closer to us.

For now the Light shines upon us from afar. It is Surrounding Light rather than Inner Light because we still aren’t united even in the smallest degree in order to be able to perceive it as Inner Light. If I cancel myself completely, then I pose no obstacle to unity since I nullify myself before the others. This means that I enter the spiritual womb, composed of all the other souls. They are all corrected in relation to me; I am the only one who’s uncorrected. If I cancel myself and my egoism before them, desiring to unite with them, then I will be like a drop of semen in a womb.

If a person attains this minimal state, then he enters spirituality as an embryo. The Creator is revealed inside the union among us, as it is written, “I dwell among the people.” He dwells inside His people – in the unity among the souls. When I am alone, I am like a foreign body in relation to the others, while all the other souls are connected together.

Therefore, one must first and foremost cancel oneself relative to the other souls by connecting with them. This is what each of us is trying to achieve at all our gatherings and Congresses, including the upcoming Congress whose focal point will be Israel.

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When we return to the World of Infinity, everyone, every cell of the common soul becomes infinite as everyone else is connected to and included within me. Through me I bring them the World of Infinity. I don’t have any Light myself. Every cell connects to the Surrounding Light and receives from it. In other words, I have a personal connection with the Creator, and His Light or love flows through me to everyone else; I fulfill and serve each one of them. I complete my own piece within them from the breaking of the vessels. They didn’t need this fulfillment before as they existed in the World of Infinity as separate cells, connected in a simple existence provided by the Creator. There they had no sensation or understanding of others; everything was almost completely inanimate with only a glimmer of life – the Light of Nefesh in the desire of Keter.

Aside from my individual self there’s also the “I” that’s included in all the others since we are now all included within each other. I exist in each one of them, whether they like it or not. My individual self is my “central workplace,” the central department that is connected to all of my representatives in all the other souls. Through my inclusion in all of the souls I influence every one of them, providing for them the part I am responsible for. Everything functions like a whole-interconnected system.

Our physical body works according to the same principle. If a particular cell fails to understand the brain’s orders, then it cannot function properly. Part of the brain is also included in every cell allowing it to understand the brain and carry out its orders. And if that part of the cell doesn’t sense how it is connected to the function of all the other organs and stops functioning according to the center’s commands, then it becomes a cancerous cell or simply dies.

In other words, the breaking of the vessels gives us an opportunity to return to the World of Infinity and create a real infinity, where everyone is included in all the other cells of creation, acting like the Creator in relation to the others. In this state, I will have attained my personal likeness to the Creator since I give to all the others and they are unable to exist without it. And this is true with everyone. That is why we return to the World of Infinity, which is 613 (TARAKH) times greater. It is only a number, and we cannot actually measure its scope, as it denotes the force of interconnection of all the souls.

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I receive many questions about studying The Zohar from old-time students as well as total beginners. People write, “We used to understand what we were studying. Talmud Eser Sefirot and “Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (Pticha) gave us knowledge about the structure of the universe. Articles about the group made us think about unity and the goal that the group has to reach. Baal HaSulam’s articles explained Kabbalah’s connection to other sciences and its attitude to religion, philosophy, and freedom of will. It was clear that these articles dealt with the structure of the external society as well as man’s inner structure, which are questions related to psychology. But what the heck are we studying in The Book of Zohar?”

These questions indicate the wrong attitude to the study because everything must eventually unite into one. For example, the group is a collection of souls that have to unite together. It only seems to our vision and sensations that there are different, foreign souls and desires around us, and that we want to attach them to us in order to see the true picture.

It is impossible to study Kabbalah theoretically; this wisdom can only be attained practically. This is the whole point of studying the science of Kabbalah: it is intended for revealing the Creator to the creatures in this world.

The Creator (Bo-reh) means “Come and See” – come experience the quality of bestowal by revealing it inside you, by going from “love for the neighbor” to “love for the Creator.” The true perception of reality is when reality is no longer divided into “myself and others,” but everyone is united together into one whole. But how can we attain this unity and perception if we are still unable to feel all the souls as one man with one heart, to unite them with the Creator, and to feel this whole world inside us? How can we discover and understand it?

All of this has to be done to us by the Upper Light. The Light must bring us to the state where “There is none else besides Him” and “He is Good that does Good,” despite anything that happens to us. These two forms of concealment have to come together and unite; we just don’t know how to make it happen.

This is exactly our purpose when we start studying The Zohar: we have to desire for it to reveal the true reality to us, for the Creator to become revealed to the creation here and now, for the desire to be revealed together with the Light in it! In addition, we have to add a bit of sensitivity, concern, and fear to this approach. Each one of us should ask himself: Am I doing everything that has been allotted to me? Am I making the required amount of efforts that I am supposed to? This, in turn, depends on our sensation of the spiritual goal’s importance and a constant inner concern about it. Then we are guaranteed success.

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It is nothing less than a miracle that the Creator created us with a split perception. Thanks to it, we are able to see our own ego as something alien to us. Because it seems alien to us, we don’t regard it indiscriminately, like a mother who looks at her beloved child and thinks that he can do no wrong.

But after we discern all of its flaws, we suddenly realize that they are all inside us. We are suddenly forced to recognize all the evil that we see on the outside as our own, and thus to shift our view from the outside to within. This is nothing less than a miracle.

All this stems from the initial oppositeness between the point of creation, which was “created from absence,” and the Light. This point compels my perception to be split in two: the inner and the outer. I am thus forced to regard myself from the outside as though it is not me at all, and later to accept that it is all within me.

Meantime, within me there is only the point in the heart. When I recognize the hatred and the evil that I see on the outside as my own, and connect my point in the heart to these qualities, I end up with a corrected Kli! It works a bit like a device that prints photographs – it turns a negative into a positive. In the same way, the only thing that needs to change is my outlook, which will allow me to see everything in the “Reflected Light.”

My entire perception is built according to this principle, including sounds, sensations, tastes, visuals, odors, and everything else perceived by my physical sensory organs. The same applies to all the degrees of desire – whether for food, sex, money, power, or knowledge. They are all seemingly external fulfillments that I must reveal within. So, the same principle applies not only to Kelim, but to Lights as well.

This is a difficult thing to understand at this time, but everything will be clear when we enter the spiritual perception and see the world this way.

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The Light can correct us in one instant, but in order for this to happen, we have to show it the place that needs to be corrected and the corrected form as we see it. However, this can only be achieved by making many attempts to seek out this place and to correct it on our own.

Even though our attempts and efforts are fruitless, they draw the influence of the Light, and as it shines upon us, we begin to desire to unite with others. This is something we never thought about before. In addition, the Light’s influence makes us realize that we are unable to achieve this in any way.

That is when we become ready to reveal the right desire and the place that needs correction – and then the Light corrects it for us.

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A question I received: What is “desire”?

My Answer: Desire is the entire matter of creation, everything except the Light. Desire is “something created out of nothing,” and all the different derivatives of desire are created under the influence of the Light.

You might ask, “So is a pen also a desire?” No, it is already a form clothed into a desire. And the plastic from which the pen is made is not a desire either; it also has a form instilled in it – namely, it consists of molecules and atoms which have taken that form under the influence of the Light. This is no longer matter in a pure form; it is not just a pure desire.

This is precisely the basis of creation that quantum physicists are trying to find through experiments with the Large Hadron Collider and other research. They want to find that “stem cell” which constitutes everything. Yet, the more they strive toward this, the more additional, secondary particles they reveal. However, they will never reveal this fundamental “particle” since it is not matter.

Eventually they will discover that it is not matter; it is desire. However, they will not be able to reveal what desire actually is because to make this discovery, one has to enter the spiritual world. Human beings try to find precisely this basis of creation through all their investigations of nature, but the basis is desire.

Yet, at the same time, they will be able to discover why we feel the desire in a specific manner and why it is revealed to us in the form of  particles. However, at the end of the day, what are these particles? They are us, our qualities. This is why we reveal the desire in all these various forms.

When these desires collect together, they form unions which possess additional qualities that we artificially subdivide into physical, chemical, biological, and others. In essence, however, all of this is desire in its pure form, which takes on various additional forms and qualities under the influence of the Light.

The problem that science cannot solve arises on the border between desires. There are levels of desire called inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, and we are unable to turn one into another; for example, we cannot turn an inanimate object into a living thing. What’s the difference between an inanimate object and a plant? The difference is that a living thing is influenced by additional, life-giving Light, and that is something we can never add to inanimate matter. This is why science is reaching its end.

It is necessary to understand that the only thing that exists is the desire. Everything else is merely conceptions of this desire.

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