If the lower one cannot receive anything, the Upper One restricts Himself. The Parsa is a very special place where the restriction of the Upper One occurs. It causes a great difference between what is above the Parsa – the World of Atzilut, where the Light can be disseminated, where Bina – bestowal dominates; and what is below the Parsa – the Worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, where Malchut, the desire to receive, dominates.

One unified structure is thereby separated into two parts that are opposite to each other. The upper one is governed by the Creator and the lower one is governed by the created being. This is the first step towards creating a connection between the created being and the Creator.

Until this occurred, the created being did only what the Light ordered it to do. The Light canceled me out and I was only able to give because it ruled over me. However, now there are two kingdoms in me and they are absolutely opposite to each other. They are the kingdom of Light and my kingdom, where I am the ruler.

The Light left me, and I performed a restriction on my desire. However, then, in this empty place of restriction, new desires come: egoistic desires, Klipa. And then we are separated like two opposite worlds! Above the Parsa, in the World of Atzilut (where “Etzlo” means “He has”) there is complete correction, infinite Light. And below the Parsa, everything is the opposite: a shattering, evil, and every offense imaginable.

Hence, He and I become clearly opposite to each other and begin to hate each other. We become distant, even though we are separated only by a very narrow division, the middle third of Tifferet, Klipat Noga, where my whole freedom of will is concentrated.

On one side, there is the Creator, the Upper Sanctity, and on the other side, below, beneath the Parsa, there is the corrupted created being, the ego, and filth – and I am an intermediary between them, in the middle. My whole existence, my “I,” lies in this narrow strip.

I was given an opportunity to wedge myself into a narrow corridor between these two huge armies: the force of reception and the force of bestowal, in order to become an intermediary between them, bring them to a compromise, and then to connection and love. By uniting them into one, I build myself consisting of both of them.

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When a person correctly arranges the three qualities inside him called “candle,” “oil” and “wick,” he reaches a state called Hanukah, which comes from the words “Hanu Ko” – “stop here.” He thus reaches a short breather in the middle of the path.

The “oil” is our matter, the will to enjoy, the contents of the vessel or Kli. It is unable to light up on its own using the Light we attract from outside. It can only light up with the help of a wick. The wick has to be immersed in the oil, but a part of it has to reach outside, because the wick symbolizes the screen that we build outside our egoistic desire (outside the oil).

The only part of the egoistic desire that is able to shine (to be in contact with the Upper Light) is the part we are able to include inside the screen. Stated differently, only the oil that has saturated the wick can be lit up. This can only happen under the condition that the oil does not just permeate the wick, but also rises above the level of the rest of the oil (egoism), rising towards Bina – the Light, bestowal. Only then will it be able to shine!

The Light emanates from the upper end of the wick, the place where the wick comes outside and loses contact with the oil, egoism. The Reflected Light is the fire that ascends from below upwards, there attaining Keter of the ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light. At that point there is hardly any connection between the Reflected Light and the force of the desire to receive, egoism, which provides the power for the burning to take place. The oil ascends upwards along the wick, and that is the only place where contact is achieved, or equivalence of form between the oil in the wick and the Light. They can only shine together. The Light cannot manifest until it connects with the wick and the oil inside it.

By imagining a burning candle, we can understand the inner work of a person on the spiritual path and what we have to do in order for our soul to attain equivalence with the Light, the Creator. The desire does not disappear; rather, it must be entirely attached to the screen, the wick. From it we create the middle line inside us, to the degree we are able to bring the oil (desire) inside the wick.

The screen can include only a small part of the desire. The wick symbolizes this shaft, the thin line that is the measure of similarity between our desire and the Light. The screen, or the middle line, is built from these two forces – the oil and the wick, the right and the left lines. The right line is bestowal and Light, and the left line is reception, the oil. The middle line, which we create from the two Upper Qualities of reception and bestowal, is called the soul.

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Three questions I received regarding moving through a descent and acquiring the desires of others:

Question: I know you say we must leave a descent as soon as possible. It is true and I agree. But when you are in a descent, people around you notice your lack of energy, for example, in the workplace where you have to be alert and taking calls and you are under management. Are there any tricks for concealing your emotional inner state from people to avoid them influencing you negatively?

My Answer: 1. You should learn how to get out of your descent through spiritual work in a circle of friends and by participating in group activities.

2. People around you see that you are tired, sick, and annoyed when you are in a descent, but they do not understand that this comes from your spiritual states. Don’t worry, in relation to you they are like an animal that only understands your external appearance.

Question: In the preparation to one of your lessons, you mentioned the difference between rapid spiritual advancement and actual inversion of the desires. My question is: How is there advancement without inversion?

My Answer: There is no advancement without inversion, and we have already discussed how to approach it.

Question: You mentioned the following: “However, if you want to bestow to others, you must first acquire all of their desires. You must make everyone’s desires become your desires. You will then transmit Upper Light to these desires, connecting them to the Creator. By doing so, you will be unique, like the Creator.”

How does one accomplish this? How does one acquire all of the desires of others? Above all, how does one transmit Upper Light to these desires?

My Answer: All correction happens only when there is a desire to attract and receive the Upper Light and then see its effect within yourself. We do not feel the Light itself, we only see its effect.

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The Kli (vessel) is a form imprinted by the Light inside desire. It is the vessel’s attempt to reach a special state in order to attain fulfillment. If I’m looking for some specific form of fulfillment, that means my desire has already acquired the “form” and property of what I desire.

This Light is already present in me, but it exists in the shape of an informational record (Reshimo), in the form of emptiness, a hollow figure.  I don’t feel it as fulfillment, nor do I sense pleasure.

In spirituality, these states are adjacent to each other. The same applies to the material world: when I want something, and I can see it and sense it, then what else do I need to do in order to get it? I have to make an effort!

In other words, I have to add a new twist to my already existing desire so that it becomes possible to reveal the “big Light” which we call fulfillment within the small Light called “Reshimo.” The size of the Light depends on the size of the desire.

I feel a deficiency in fulfillment because the Light already exists and is shining on me from a distance, waking my Reshimo and forcing me to strive towards it. The difference between Reshimo and fulfillment depends only on my desire, since the Light is eternal and permanent. Reshimo is the Light within me that has not yet manifested within my desires.

I must accelerate my efforts to increase the intensity of my desires and reveal the fulfillment that already exists within me. Because of the low intensity of my desires, I sense them as Reshimo, as a lack of fulfillment.

I exist in an ocean of eternal, constant and endless Light, but I can’t feel it since I don’t have contact with it, nor do I possess any common qualities with it. If even the smallest bit of desire towards the Light arises in me, I start feeling the Light.

On one hand, the slightest of feelings confirms that the Light exists, but on the other hand, it makes me regret the fact that I don’t sense it to its full capacity. The regret that I feel as a result of not sensing the Light at its ultimate level is called “Hissaron” (a lack of fulfillment), and it pushes me to try harder to reach the Light.

When I start increasing my level of effort, the Light that I felt in my weaker desire as Reshimo turns into fulfillment. The Light is unchangeable, but as my desire grows, what I desire becomes real.

I am always inside an ocean of Light, and the entire difference is whether I can expose myself to it on a smaller or larger scale.

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The screen (Masach) is an anti-egoistic force that blocks the way of the Light. It allows a part of the Light to enter the spiritual Partzuf (the soul), in order to become the “Inner Light,” while the other part of the Light cannot be received for the sake of bestowal and remains outside as the “Surrounding Light.”

The Inner and Surrounding Lights are opposite to one another, even though it is the same Light. The screen splits them by relating to each of them differently. It is like two friends that come to my home and wish to come inside. I let one of them in gladly and I turn the other away harshly. How will the two former friends feel about each other now, after I’ve separated them!?

The same thing happens here. The Light comes as a single whole, but is split into two parts by the screen. These two parts differ from one another, but only with respect to the screen’s attitude to each one. That is why the two Lights strive to cancel the screen so as to unite once again; they feel that the screen is in their way. The Inner Light wants to cancel the screen so that its friend would be accepted as well. The Surrounding Light says: “If you don’t want both of us, then you’ll get neither!”

Then the screen is left without a choice and revokes its decision. It ascends and expels all the Light. So what is the decision it revokes? It is the decision to split the Light in two. The barrier that has been put between them must now be removed. This process is called the weakening (or thinning) of the screen. The unity of the Light is stronger than the barrier that the screen wishes to lay through it, and thus the Light defeats the screen with the power of its unity!

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A question I received: Why isn’t the Surrounding Light necessary to study regular sciences, but absolutely necessary to study the science of Kabbalah? What is the difference between Kabbalah and other sciences?

My Answer: Regular sciences are studied using one’s egoistic desire, and the researcher is not expected to do anything beyond this world. Regular sciences do not go beyond examining the egoistic material, our desire to receive pleasure. It is this desire that makes us believe that there is an enormous world around us that we are examining. But in truth, what we are examining is our inner desire on the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels, which exist within us.

All the animals, vegetation, and inanimate objects, and generally speaking, all the things we attain through the earthly sciences, are actually depicted to us in our desire to receive pleasure. This is why at the end of the day, we only discover our own desire. This is what all the sciences do, such as physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, and others. All of this is inside us.

And what about the wisdom of Kabbalah? It is also within us. The only difference is that regular sciences examine our egoistic desires in their original form, which was initially given to us, whereas the wisdom of Kabbalah examines our desires after an “upgrade” – once they have the intention to bestow. However, we first need to acquire this intention in order to perform the research.

This is why the examiner of our corporal desire to receive pleasure does not have to change. The phenomena that he studies are those that appear inside his own egoistic desire. The only thing he needs to study them is reason and logic.

But a person who wants to examine what happens in the desire to receive pleasure with the intention to bestow – a Kabbalist, must acquire the intention of bestowal, because that is his research tool.

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A sensation is an impression of a desire, the matter of creation. We think that sensations are only feelings, like love or hate. But in fact, sensations are reality itself!

Vladimir Lenin once gave his own particular definition of matter: “Matter is objective reality, perceived by our senses and existing independent of our consciousness.” He couldn’t be farther from the truth with regard to matter’s objectivity and existence outside our consciousness.

Every object exists relative to us and only in our consciousness, to the extent that we perceive it with our consciousness. Matter is the desire to receive (be filled with Light) created by the Creator (Light, the quality of bestowal).

At different levels, matter aspires to different forms of fulfillment. For instance, the still level wishes to preserve its form, the vegetative level already wishes to attract the beneficial and repel the harmful, and so on.

The Light did not create anything besides the desire that perceives itself.

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Two questions I received about the growth of egoism:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for almost two years now, and there is something bothering me. It seems that the more I learn about my own nature, the more I’m disgusted by it. I feel as if I’m getting even more bothered than I already was. I simply can’t focus on the goal and the beauty of it, while I’m feeling so disgusted by my own nature, and that of everyone around me. What should I do?

My Answer: You have to be glad that egoism is being revealed within you. It’s the Upper Light that reveals it, and you must appeal to the Creator without getting deeper into the egoism. You must rise above it and be thankful for it as it will continue to grow as the soul uses it to develop.

Question: Please give us your advice on how can we find the strength to make the efforts toward connection when our egos are so strong that we feel like we can only surrender to Him and not make those efforts that we must make?

Sometimes we feel like “We know we must do this, but we don’t want to at all and we have no strength to do it.” These are frustrating moments, as our egos seem like the strongest power that exists!

My Answer: This is because you don’t invoke the power of the Creator! The Creator is the one that has to stand against Pharaoh while we have to be like Moshe, standing in the middle letting them fight!

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Even if you still don’t have a screen or a desire to bestow, but want the desire to do so, then you can try to instill your point in the heart inside spirituality and attach it to the Upper Level. That is how you will become as a drop of spiritual semen placed into the mother’s womb, the AHP of the Upper Level. By desiring to be there in order for the Upper One to raise you, you will start developing as a spiritual embryo.

You have to cancel yourself and desire to turn into a tunnel through which the Light will flow onto the whole world.  In this way you become a conduit and not an obstacle for the Light. Right now you are locked inside yourself, and you have to open yourself up! This revelation happens with the help of the Light, Ohr Makif.

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A question I received: Your goals are beautiful: Happiness, freedom, consciousness of the people and harmony in the world. Am I right?

My Answer: Yes, you are,

Question cont’d: Your methods for reaching these goals are very effective: You use people’s ego to make them free from their ego and illusions. Am I right?

My Answer: Yes, you are.

Question cont’d: The consequences are exactly what you want them to be: People are attracted, the circle of your followers grows, and your power and influence grow too. Am I right?

My Answer: Yes, you are.

Question cont’d: Don’t you think that for the sake of creating more power sooner, you might have become slightly distracted from the true goal? Don’t you think that your followers are somewhat distracted too?

My Answer: Even if you were right, we still don’t move on our own. We are moved by the Light, and therefore we can never tell ahead of time what it is “to be distracted” and what it is “to go straight,” because we are move in a desert! See Baal HaSulam’s letter, “The Path to the Creator’s Hall, page 63.”

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