A question I received: How can I make the most of the Surrounding Light – through the Daily Kabbalah Lessons, the television programs or other types of media?

My Answer: Right now the most powerful means for this is the Daily Kabbalah Lesson. Especially for beginners, the only way to receive the Surrounding Light and to attain the force of unity is through studying. Nothing else comes close.

Baal HaSulam writes in Item 4 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot” that the Creator puts a person’s hand on the spiritual path and tells him: “Choose this path!” He brings a person to the group, the books and the teacher in order for him to realize the purpose of creation. But this is only possible if a person uses the Daily Kabbalah Lesson as a means.

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Our world is like a single spiritual body that develops and goes though correction over the course of 6000 years. This time can be divided into three periods, each lasting 2000 years, starting with the first man – Adam.

The first desires (or Kelim) to be revealed are the thinnest, or the egoistically weakest ones; they are called ChaBaD. They are followed by the desires with a medium strength of egoism – HaGaT. And during the final 2000 years – our time, the most egoistic desires – NeChY – are revealed.

The thin Kelim were very elevated souls – the Patriarchs, the nation of Israel that came out of Egypt (Galgalta Eynaim). However, they could not reveal greater depth, wisdom, and the Light of Hochma, because they lacked the depth (thickness) of desire.

On the other hand, over the last 2000 years, we were in exile from the quality of bestowal and love, in egoism, and we are now approaching freedom from the power of egoism over us, even though our egoism is actively developing now.

It turns out that our most egoistic desires (Kelim NeCHY) can draw the most powerful Light – Hochma – into the system of One Soul of Adam. In spite of the fact that our minds and feelings are very limited, when we make a slight effort and perform a correction on our low degree, we draw an enormous Light into our higher Kelim – HaBaD, and great corrections occur there. This is how the system of souls of Adam works according to the law of reverse correspondence of Lights and Kelim.

Therefore, while we make great changes in the system of souls, we don’t even know or understand what we’re doing. We are like infants who just smiled or put two blocks together, and the grown up parents rejoice over our small success.

So, we don’t know what Light we draw into the higher souls; this will only be revealed at the End of Correction, when everyone begins to feel this Light. Our souls are the worst, most egoistic, but that is why through our correction, we bring the most powerful Light – the Light of Hochma – into the world. This is a Light that the world has never experienced before.

This is why our correction is called redemption. Through our simple and small work, we carry out the redemption and bring life into this whole system! The whole past, our whole history, and all the great Kabbalists of the past – all of this was only the preparation for the correction that you and I now have to perform.

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The fatigue we feel is deliberately sent to us from Above. It seems to us that there is nothing good about spirituality and today’s lesson is talking about the same thing as yesterday. And this fatigue we feel will only get stronger. If a person does not receive energy from his environment (the group and books), then he will not be able to continue advancing spiritually.

However, the greatest forces come from disseminating this knowledge to other people. When you do, you will come out of the lesson revived and much stronger than before. It’s because you connect to the desires of many people and you all experience the material together.

Inside your new desires, you reveal the world on a deeper level, and you experience this revelation as new energy and strength, a revival of your soul.

However, if you do not feel pleasure and the force of life from the lesson and dissemination, then you are not connecting with the desires of the friends. The correction lies only in unifying the broken connection between the souls. We have to correct what was broken. As soon as we attain the first connection with one another, to this degree we will immediately feel the Upper World.

The Light, the sensation of connection, bestowal, and love does not appear from some place, but it appears inside us as soon as we attain this quality. This quality comes from the Creator and envelops us.

The fact is that we are always immersed in an ocean of Light! That’s why we don’t feel that there is water all around us. We can only feel it inside our glass. So connect several souls together; you will then form a vessel and will feel the spiritual world!

This is so simple. When it finally becomes revealed to a person, he is taken aback because he sees that it was always right under his nose, and he wonders: why didn’t I do this ten years ago?

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Spiritual advancement is built upon descents: as they become corrected, they serve as the material for the spiritual Kli. If you turn your sensation of being far away from spirituality into a spiritual ascent, you will thereby build your soul.

Think of an electronic converter that straightens out an oscillating, off-and-on current, making it constant. The oscillating current enters the diode bridge where the positive phase passes through one contour and the minus phase passes through another. As a result, a constant current is produced at the exit. This is very much like the spiritual processes, where the descents turn into ascents.

The Light acts as the positive phase, and the Kli is revealed as the negative phase, and they work together. Practically speaking, I affect my environment and the environment affects me. I project two feelings onto the environment: the feeling that it is important, and that I am worthless. In response, the environment impresses me with the feeling that bestowal is important and reception is worthless.

If I take care of these four channels, then I will receive strength. When I am in the state of ascent and I have a lot of strength, I have to give to the environment. And when I fall and have no strength, I receive strength from the environment.

This works in exactly the same way as the device that straightens out the oscillating current: sometimes I give to them, and sometimes they give to me. As a result, I always have strength.

In fact, this is why the soul was separated into two parts: me and everything that’s outside of me. It was to enable me to treat others like myself.

Everything outside me is also mine. It’s just that I work with it in this oscillating manner – sometimes I give strength, and sometimes it is returned to me. However, what I receive is many times greater than what I put in.

In virtue of the darkness (the new Kli) that is revealed in me, I am able to receive enough strength from the environment to turn to the Force (the Light) of Correction. I am then always able to move forward, like a constant current that is always being straightened out. And thus, I rise higher and higher.

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When I build a Sukkah above me – a covering for my egoism, and when I hide my egoism in its shade, I conceal 99% of my desires to enjoy from the Light,  and I am then able to see 1% of the Light. I leave just one thin ray of Light (Kav Dak), and in it, I see the Creator. I then begin to gradually reveal new inner qualities that are illuminated by this ray, which are called Ushpizin – Guests. These are my corrected qualities, which have been attached to bestowal.

That is how gradually, over the course of seven days of Sukkoth, all my qualities undergo a change. I realize that besides the studies and many other activities I have to do, I was supposed to unite with other souls, but somehow I always forgot about this. It just always seemed unimportant, like the garbage or leftovers of my spiritual work.

But if I raise the importance of these “unnecessary things” above all else, above my own head or knowledge, and if I make them important by building a “ceiling” from them that will rule over me, then inside this tent, I will be like an embryo that is preparing for birth and turning upside down. By flipping over into a “head down” position, I change my values.

I am then able to enter the Sukkah – the covering for my will to enjoy. This is a covering that a person builds over his own egoism, instead of the Creator having to conceal Himself from the person.

The Sukkah, the canopy that we build on the holiday of Sukkoth, symbolizes the concealment (screen) that a person has to build over his desire at the first stage of the spiritual work. He does it by collecting all the “leftovers” and raising them above him, thus pacifying his ego. Now his ego is in concealment and he is ready to sit (to be in a state of smallness) in this Sukkah for all seven days of Sukkoth (designated HaGaT NeHY), until all his desires will come under that canopy.

What takes place there is a revolution, similar to how a baby turns head down in the mother’s womb preparing for birth, or like the earth is ploughed by turning its lower layer inside out and bringing it to the top. This means that the things that used to be important for egoism now lose their importance, while the things that were unimportant – bestowal and unity – become the most important. That is how the leftovers of the previous state are used to build the new level. In this manner, we use the Light to build one level after another out of our desires.

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A question I received: You said at a lecture that the soul of a man consists of 613 egoistic desires and that one has to correct them to bestowal by attracting the Light during Kabbalah studies, thus coming to the quality of “loving one’s neighbor as oneself.”

This correction of the 613 desires is called observation of the 613 commandments. You also told that the soul is like a pomegranate that consists of 613 seeds in the same manner as the soul consists of 613 desires. But who checked this?

My Answer: You have described it correctly. There was an article written about the pomegranate which recounts a project where the researchers took a number of pomegranates from different countries and counted their seeds. Each pomegranate had a different number of seeds – some less than 613 and some more, but the average number of seeds was 613.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Faith Above Reason Is Bestowal Above Reception
Laitman.com Post: Discover The Correct Desires Within You, And You Will See Where You Really Are
Baal HaSulam Letter: “Igrot (Letters) P. 63”
Shamati #13: “A Pomegranate”

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A question I received: Where does the Upper Light reside?

My Answer: The Kli is filled with the Light of Hassadim (love and mercy), the force of bestowal, which contains the Light of Hochma (wisdom). The Upper Light is the Light of Hochma clothed in the Light of Hassadim. This is the Light that is always working.

We are always turning to Malchut of the World of Infinity, for that is the only existing state. The substance of Malchut of Infinity is the will to receive. The creature imparts to this desire an intention “for the sake of bestowal.” At that point the Creator’s Upper Light clothes in the creature’s intention to bestow.

That is how the Creator’s love and the creature’s love are revealed together, inside of our desire. This state is called the World of Infinity. This state already exists, and we only have to apply our efforts to reveal it! This cannot be done individually, but only through our collective efforts, by uniting all the spiritual sparks (points in the heart).

Our collective effort awakens the Light that fills the World of Infinity, and draws It to us in the form of the Surrounding Light, which shines on us from afar. The Surrounding Light, in turn, makes us similar to Malchut of the World of Infinity.

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A question I received: What should a person feel if he is advancing correctly?

My Answer: He should see that he is constantly gaining a deeper understanding of the material, and that the Kabbalistic texts he is reading are talking about qualities that he actually discerns within.

Even if he still hasn’t revealed the spiritual world yet, he already has a sensitive system within, wherein he feels a response to what he reads in the book. It’s as if his inner realm of meanings and sensations expands. This happens because while we’re in the state of concealment, the Surrounding Light influences us, exposing our vices. We then see that all our desires are for ourselves, the only ones we love!

A person then discovers an inner space where he senses various phenomena and reactions in response to Kabbalistic texts. And even though this space is still one of concealment, it is such that the person actually senses the concealment! The stages of concealment should be sensed as degrees.

I walk along a path and can’t see anything to my right or to my left, or even a step ahead. There’s a lot I don’t know, and I don’t even understand how to take the next step. Will I be able to take a step forward or will I fall?

Yet, I feel that there is a space inside me where I reveal different qualities and reactions. So, even though I am in the darkness, it isn’t so pitch black that I cannot discern anything. In fact, I receive various impressions from it – sometimes more and sometimes less.

The Light that shines upon me determines whether the darkness – my opposition to bestowal – seems stronger or weaker to me. So, one must find this place within himself and understand the true meaning of “crime” and “sin.” They pertain only to one’s attitude to others. This becomes that dark place wherein I recognize the darkness.

The darkness is one’s lack of connection with others. It is like an electric circuit where the links between the elements are broken, and therefore, the current cannot flow. If we will truly desire to connect, we will turn on the Light!

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A question I received: How can I check to see if the Light is really correcting me?

My Answer: There are three specific signs indicating that a person is advancing:

1. A person begins to understand the material better, not just “dryly,” with his mind, but with his feelings. What’s important isn’t to study and memorize the material mechanically, but to feel it. It is written: “The way to understand is with the heart.”
2. A person begins to understand how important the environment is, because it is the only place where he can attain his spiritual goal.
3. A person understands that he has to use all the available opportunities for advancement. He then tries to better organize his studies, until he finally begins to reveal spirituality through his environment.

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What are the desires or the souls that were shattered? At one point, there was one screen that united us.  But then the Light came and revealed to everyone how we are all different. Although we all strive towards the Creator, each of us bestows in their own way.

It’s like a bunch of family members all trying to feed one baby. The mom gives him the porridge, the grandma wants to give him milk, while the grandpa insists that only bread will make the baby healthy. Each one wants to give something to the same baby, but in the process they all argue with each other.

The desires become shattered because the connection between them breaks, and due to this breakage, they also lose the chance to bestow to the Creator!

We have to understand exactly what is shattered.  Only then will we know what needs to be corrected. We will find that the only way to build a human being (the middle line) is by reuniting all the pieces of the soul which have lost their connection with each other and it will become clear that the only way to unite the pieces around them is centered around that very same baby that first connected them.

Imagine that the whole family starts hating each other.  The mother, father, grandmother, grandfather and everyone else all wish the baby “well” according to their own criteria, while denying the opinions of the others. So, what will bring us back together? Only the love toward the baby. Each one of us will then be willing to rise above his own egoism and lower his head for the baby’s sake.

This is why unity between us is possible only if we wish to reach the state of bestowal towards the Creator. We will then unite all together with Him into one whole.
(From Part 2 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”)

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