A question I received: From what part of the spiritual world does the Light of The Zohar come down to us?

My Answer: It comes from Rosh de Arich Anpin in the form of the Surrounding Light, for the Light of The Zohar is the Light of Infinity, the upper shining. This Light does not “come to us,” but rather shines upon us “from afar” and brings us back to the Source. It shines upon us through all the worlds that reduce it, and illuminates our desires that are opposite to it.

This is not the “direct” system of connection based on the screens and the Inner Light received, whereby the Light is revealed to the measure of one’s ability to bestow. Rather, since I don’t yet have the screen, the Light acts upon me from afar, and not to the measure to which I can receive for the sake of bestowal, but in the measure I can heal myself with its help.

Sometimes a person comes to a doctor who tells him: “What can I do? You need a very strong medicine, but your body won’t be able to endure it.” It happens with older people or with people who were seriously hurt. The cure exists but one’s body is too weak to take it; it can’t digest it. It may harm a person rather than help him.

The same applies in regard to the Surrounding Light, which acts upon me only to the extent to which it can heal me, that is, to the extent that I can endure it. This is because I receive the Light, the property of bestowal, as poison, as death to my egoism.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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A question I received: I’m amazed at the profound changes that are taking place these days. Numerous new Kabbalistic groups are surfacing like mushrooms after a rain. How did we manage to bring forth such results through our inner work?

My Answer: It doesn’t depend only on us. You see how many new, serious people are joining us. This means the time has really come and the Creator is drawing people to Kabbalah. After all the twists along the spiral of evolution, they’ve finally arrived at the spiritual gene (the point in the heart), and the Surrounding Light has started working on them. We only need to help them arrange their own environment, group, and entire support system. When we start demanding the Light that Reforms all together, they won’t need the three to five years of preparation that Baal HaSulam wrote about. The correction will come quickly and easily.

Imagine the difference between a person waking from an unconscious state with all of his systems still asleep and not functioning and one waking with many parts and body systems already functioning with only the need to complete the processes. Today, it’s not only one organ that wants to wake up in the non-animate body, but many parts are being revived. So, it is understandable that now there is a greater possibility to regain consciousness. I’m sure that in the near future, we’ll see tremendous changes in the entire world.

The world is in a very dangerous state as the crisis still looms. What a horrible oil catastrophe it is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. We don’t even realize yet its potential consequences. It’s impossible to stop this geyser of oil. Can you imagine what could happen? Right now, a sea of oil is pouring from deep within the earth leading to catastrophic pollution. It will impact not only Florida and America, but the entire world. They’re now considering a nuclear explosion to interrupt the oil passage, but they’re afraid that it may open in other places. We have released evil forces into the world.

Therefore, I hope that, with the help of all our Kabbalistic groups that are forming around the world and the individuals who are joining us, we’ll be able to awaken the forces of good in order to counter the exposed evil. We have to act and correct ourselves. Then, we will definitely succeed. We’ve received the power of the Torah, the Light that Reforms; everything depends on us now.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A question I received: What does it mean to “engage in the authentic Torah”?

My Answer: As Baal HaSulam writes, to practice Kabbalah means to realize it in oneself, to experience it. The Light that corrects us is called the Torah. It is opposite to me and shines from afar onto my Reshimo (my spiritual, informational gene). I evolved in the previous generations according to the chain of Reshimot and arrived to a Reshimo called the “point in the heart.” It awakened under the influence of the Light, and gives me a feeling that there’s something higher than the life I’ve been leading in this body.

All the work is done by the Light that Reforms. It’s the Light that awakens me. Initially, the Light developed me at the animate level. However, now the time has come for me to become human.

I, myself, am not able to act, so I appeal to the system of souls (a Kabbalistic group) and from it receive additional will and additional importance of the Creator, that is, I start feeling His importance and my own insignificance. The difference between one and the other creates additional desire called MAN (prayer). I raise this MAN upward. Basically, my work lies mainly in this. When I raise MAN, the desire to attain the Creator, to a magnitude 10 times greater than it was initially as my point in the heart, I have done my work.

However, this is not yet “studying the Torah”  or “engaging in the Torah.” So far, all this has been preparation. But now, the Light begins to illuminate me with greater power. This is now Surrounding Light – 2. It shines on me differently, in a straight line, and to the measure of my yearning.

The perception of the importance of the Creator is called Keter and one’s own insignificance is Malchut. This means I’m now acting in accordance with the goal of attaining the Creator by arranging my desires into one line. Its two outermost points are Keter and Malchut. The Creator and bestowal are above, and I and reception are below.

Now, the Light comes to me in another, direct form, and begins to collate my properties. It shows me what is more and less important within me by putting everything in order. That is, the Surrounding Light – 2 is well-ordered, and according to this order, it begins reforming me. This means that I’m now “studying Torah” since I’m studying what modifications the Surrounding Light is making within me.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A question I received: What does it mean to justify the Creator? How does this process manifest inside a person?

My Answer: One justifies the Creator, all of creation, the entire process of development, and the Upper Governance when one goes through all 125 degrees behind which the Creator conceals Himself. When a person takes the concealment upon himself, he nullifies the Creator’s concealments and sees that the concealment was there for his own good, in order for him to build his own screen.

By virtue of working above the concealment, a person acquires revelation, understanding, sensation, and knowledge. Thus, he rises from the animate level to the human one. A person conceals himself so that the Creator does not need to conceal Himself. It is written, “Because Moses hid his face, he merited the revelation of the Creator’s face.”

The Creator can only be seen in the Reflected Light. When you conceal your will to receive pleasure, you perform a restriction on it, and thus create the Reflected Light. Then, in the Reflected Light you reveal the Direct Light.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 1 – 1920

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A question I received: How can I conduct my point in the heart through the group, which functions as a spiritual amplifier?

My Answer: There are external means that we use: books, the group, the teacher, our study system, and connections around the whole world. These are the conditions that Kabbalists have fixed for us. If we realize them by building external boundaries for ourselves, and bring our desire for spirituality into this system, then this desire begins to grow.

Initially, I have just my single point in the heart. Then, I give it to my friends, thus receiving from them the points that belong to them. This system of connection between us, the souls, already exists. Everything is already prepared in advance during the descent of the worlds from above downwards, in order for us to ascend from our world to the World of Infinity.

All I have to do is tune into this system: Lower myself, see all others as corrected, and desire to receive the Light of Correction through them. Then I will receive desires for bestowal from all the other people, which will increase my desire. This will happen even though I initially had only my own small point in the heart, which probably wasn’t even aimed at the right goal. Yet, I invested in the group, desired to be a part of it, and therefore, I performed an act of bestowal. In response, I received a real force from others, a real desire to bestow.

You suddenly see that you really desire and value this. And then you start to experience fear: “Will I be able to attain bestowal to the Creator or will I complete my life in vain?” These are still egoistic thoughts, but they are already concerning how to attain bestowal. This is called “Lo Lishma“: When one a) aspires to give, and b) thinks about profiting.

It turns out that through the group you receive a more internal direction – to the Creator. But when you aspire to the Creator, you come closer to faith, and thus begin to draw the Surrounding Light upon yourself. It’s not that the Light changes, but it’s you who change, and therefore, the Light influences you differently. Now it can give you the quality of bestowal. When you acquire this quality, you begin to rise above your egoism.

This is what you wanted to achieve from the very beginning, but the Light arranged everything so that it happened according to your own desire, rather than by force. Suddenly you feel how you are filled by the quality of faith, meaning the quality of bestowal, Bina. It gives you freedom from your ego! And it’s not that it liberates you from your egoism, but it gives you the power to ascend above it. That’s when you rise above the Machsom.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/10, Article, “Love of Friends”

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A question I received: Many people in the world now suffer from depression; they don’t leave their homes for months, and require psychological help. What can help them?

My Answer: Depression is the most common illness in the world today. Only one remedy can be advised for it: the Light that Reforms. No psychologist can help in this regard for it is due to the Creator being revealed to us in the opposite form that is prompting rampant depression.

Once each of us felt that he or she was one little person around which the world was revealed in different layers of our egoism: 1, 2, 3. As our ego grew bigger and bigger, we developed in accordance with it by creating a new environment: a world of new technology and social relations. This is how we developed over the course of our entire history, stage by stage, 1 – 2 – 3, toward wealth, honor, and knowledge.

However, today we have come to the fourth level, which is a special one. At this level, what is becoming revealed is the Creator, the quality of “bestowal,” and not our developing ego, our property of “receiving.” This is the fundamental difference of our epoch, which is the epoch of revealing the Creator.

Previously, nature (the Creator) forced us to develop, that is, to grow and become smarter, more knowledgeable, understanding, and powerful. But now human beings have completed their development at the level of this world. People are recognizing the pointlessness of new discoveries, and everything gradually fades, the development of science, space research, and so on. We have completely depleted ourselves.

Today, in contrast to this, the Creator – a new nature – is revealed. And here we need to proceed in a different manner. We cannot enter a new stage with our egoism; we will only harm ourselves. We need to realize that a completely new approach has begun, and neither our strength, nor advanced technologies and scientific discoveries can help us.

Suddenly we will discover that all the systems that we built in this world have stopped working. All the former goals (money, power, knowledge, family, education, and culture) have lost their value. Darkness and despair are coming into the world, but this is because the Creator, the Force of bestowal is being revealed in it. We don’t want it, since it cancels out our egoism, our nature, and all our desires!

It is like a child who ran around wanting to play, and suddenly he is told “That’s enough. Now you have to give and to love. Go play with your little sister.” This is contrary to his nature, and hence his life becomes dark; he immediately loses all his energy.

Therefore, we can understand why people are sitting around depressed, unable to leave their homes for months at a time. Antidepressants are the most popular medicine today. However, I can advise that the Surrounding Light is the only medicine.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Shamati #16

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A question I received: Is bestowal an act or a desire to give?

My Answer: What can you give to the Creator if He doesn’t lack anything except your attitude toward Him? He doesn’t need even this. The only thing He lacks is for you to become like Him. This will delight Him. Why? It’s because, then, you’ll exist in the most comfortable state. “But I don’t want to be in the most comfortable state. I want to think only about bestowal!” If you’re thinking about bestowal, you’re thinking about how to attain the most comfortable state.

What motivates you is essential. If it is to give to the Creator,  for this sake you attain the perfect state, or if  you desire this state because it’s the best and giving to the Creator looks like a reward? What are you working for?

You can’t have the will to bestow without realizing it. If you have this desire, you must fulfill it. The act of bestowal and the desire to bestow are the same. In the spiritual world, there aren’t physical actions. To attain the will to bestow is our entire work. Indeed, what can we give to the Creator? It is the will to bestow onto Him.

We discover the Light of Hochma. In regard to whom must we uncover this Light, the creature or the Creator? The Light of Hochma fills the entire system. You only discover yourself or your own perception by sensing that you enjoy, bestow, and become infinite. Your will (Kli) is the only thing that changes.

“I am bestowing onto the Creator.”  What are you bestowing?  Did He really lack Light before and now He’s got it? You’re giving Him your attitude. Your attitude to Him is called action. Your will is already an act. However, this will must be complete. Otherwise, it isn’t considered a will.

The desire has to evolve through all four stages. Then, undoubtedly, from the 4th stage, its Reflected Light reaches Keter, and this is bestowal. However, where is bestowal in Keter? One feels the he is bestowing onto the Creator, and this is enough. The Creator has no desires (Kelim) for either reception or bestowal. He has nothing.

Yet, when you perceive that you are bestowing to the Creator, it is His pleasure because He’s within you. You allow the Light to shine.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/10, The Zohar

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We are created from matter which cannot receive Light. Therefore, the only way for us to exist is to enter Bina, the Creator. Bina works on us and raises us up to Her. Her lower part (AHP) descends to us and seems as darkness, which feels undesirable to us. She shines on us with the Light of Bestowal and Mercy (Hassadim), but since we don’t wish to bestow, we perceive it as darkness.

We prepare ourselves to view bestowal as desirable with the help of the Surrounding Light when we work together. Gradually we begin to recognize that there is the Upper One within us. We realize that He is truly the Upper One and we begin to value the quality of bestowal as spiritual. Then, we are prepared to unite with Him and annul ourselves. We are willing to forget about our egoistic desires and attach ourselves to the Upper One like a drop of semen in a mother’s womb.

Then, the Upper One can bring us up; can raise our desires that are ready to adhere to Him. Up where? In the spiritual world is there some other place, higher or lower? No; it is here within us where He begins to cultivate the qualities of bestowal more and more.

This means He is raising us up because we view the quality of bestowal as ascension. Every step we complete results from our more closely uniting with one another and building a system from ourselves that we can present to the Upper One for correction. In this way, we ascend to Bina, and the Light contained in Her expands downward to this world.

Thus, the desires that attach to the Upper One are now not only able to annul themselves, but also to receive and realize the quality of bestowal, to absorb and use it. Obviously, the will remains as receiving, but it changes its intent. So does our world, which is created from the will to receive pleasure; it also begins to gradually receive Effulgence from Above—since the will to bestow appears in it.

From the 2nd Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/10, “The Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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Preface to the Sulam Commentary, Item 1: First, we must know the names of the ten Sefirot: KHB, HGT, NHYM. These are acronyms of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, Malchut. These are also the ten coverings of His Light, established so the lower ones can receive His Light.

This is like the light of the sun, which is impossible to look at unless through darkened glass that diminishes its light and make it suitable for the eyes’ ability to see. Similarly, had His Light not been covered by these ten coverings, called “ten Sefirot,” in which each lower one further covers His Light, the lower ones would have been unable to obtain it.

In order for us to exist, the Upper Light had to reduce,to restrict itself, and clothe itself in ten concealments. Due to this, we can feel our existence, be independent, and gradually draw closer to the Creator by assuming His form and adopting His qualities. In other words, we can attain Him gradually, not instantly.

We are separated from the Upper Light by as many as ten degrees. This is precisely how the Light reveals the desire to receive, which can exist opposite to it. Contact between the Light and the desire is possible only through these ten coverings, called Sefirot.

However, one can object that the word “Sefira” doesn’t stem from the word “coverings.” Quite the opposite, it means illumination. A Sefira shines on us if we are in congruence with this Sefira, that is, if we exist in the same conditions and have the same qualities. We ascend the same degrees of the Sefirot that the Light had descended from above-downward so as to be with us, and now we ascend so as to be together with the Light. We meet the Light at a particular degree of this ladder and in accordance with it we count off the Sefirot – the ten garments which the Upper Light uses to conceal itself.

Each new day renews the initial Act of Creation, awakening the ego within us through the ten coverings, and doing so more and more. We must feel ourselves opposite to the Light, for otherwise we will not be creatures.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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The more we strive toward the Light, the better our future will be since we rouse the revelation of the Light ourselves. The Light illuminates this world more and more, and those who head toward it perceive this state as good, while others perceive it as bad. First the Light develops the whole world (our Universe, the terrestrial globe, and everything it contains) according to the inanimate, vegetative, and animate degrees, cultivating only the egoistic desire. This is material development, at the maximum of which is the animate level; in this manner, the Light develops matter.

However, when egoism grows to the animate level, there is nowhere else for it to grow. It feels its complete powerlessness; it feels that it has reached a dead end and there is only darkness ahead. This is how the world comes to crisis and despair. However, all this occurs under the influence of the Light which shows us that there is nothing else with which we can fill the will to receive. Actually, we never could fill it; we only hoped for the future and aspired to it constantly.

However, once the future stops shining before us, and we have completely depleted our desire on the animate degree, we do not feel any possibility of development ahead. Why? What for? At this point, humanity finds itself at a dead end without any goals or hope for the future.

This is why the science of Kabbalah is being revealed today. It explains to us the purpose as to why all this is being done. It is so that now we can become partners with the Light on our own and reach the degree of Human, which is similar to the Creator. Rising from the animate level to the human level is our next stage of development.

This is impossible without the realization of the Upper plan. Malchut of the World of Infinity is finally reaching the conclusion of the purpose of creation as conceived by the Creator who wanted creation to come to know Him, meaning to become independent yet similar to Him. And creation is currently beginning to realize this Upper plan.

We are the first generation in which this special informational gene (Reshimo) is being revealed. It pertains to the human degree and we must realize it. Therefore, the Light which is now acting in this world will always be to the detriment of the egoistic desire expressly for the purpose of helping us to ascend.

At the same time, the Light will help those people who wish to realize this “gene of bestowal” in them. The Creator has come closer to us…He has revealed to us the informational gene (Reshimo), the science of Kabbalah, the world crisis, the whole situation, and all the means that allow us to discern this new direction of development and to execute it. We only need to reach for the Light on our own and we will see His Goodness.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/10, Shamati #241

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