The Surrounding Light influences a person only to the extent of his desire for spirituality. He receives this desire from a Kabbalistic group. The group is his environment which exists on the same level with him; from it he absorbs everything, like a seed planted in the ground.

The seed itself is dead. It comes alive only when the seed is introduced into suitable soil. The enlivening happens only as a result of the environment. Without a proper environment the seed is merely a lifeless informational gene. In the appropriate environment where it begins to be influenced by the sun and other forces of nature, the seed comes to life.

The seed must interact with the environment in order for the general Upper Force to operate on it. The same holds true for a person. A person is influenced by his or her environment, just like a seed will grow and thrive only when planted in the appropriate soil with favorable surrounding conditions.  If a person does not place himself in the right environment, he shouldn’t expect any spiritual advancement.

This is a fact that ought to be clear to everybody. Only to the degree that a person absorbs from his environment does he receive the "sun" and "oxygen," (the requisite forces) which begin to cultivate him into a "tree." Then this force will be felt inside him even by those who are unable to clearly see it with their physical eyes. Since we are all connected within a single general system, other people will feel that within us lives a true and clearly felt spiritual charge: the Light within the vessel.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/10, Article “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend”

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When we read The Zohar, we should expect salvation. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155:  “Indeed, there is a great and marvelous quality concealed in Kabbalistic books, worthy of being publicized.” In other words, by studying The Zohar we can unite with the Source, the Creator, Who exists in other dimensions.

We exist in our dimension, in separation from Him, while The Zohar creates a connection between us and Him, the higher dimension. From there, to the extent of our aspiration, we receive the Light, the remedy that flows into us one drop at a time, like an infusion.

The Torah does not demand anything unrealistic. After all, the Upper One knows us better than we know ourselves; what is expected of us is measured according to the way we’re created. One is told: “Sit down with a book. You must connect with your environment because that is your spiritual form.”

Currently a person is on his or her own level. One is an egoist and doesn’t care for anyone, wanting nothing except egoistic pleasure. A person doesn’t even know what exactly is wanted, but the Upper One knows it well. It is He who creates these desires, even the most disgusting qualities in a person. And only occasionally do we slightly feel what He does.

Having created all of this in within us, the Creator expects just one thing: “Try to unite with Me just a little bit, based on all the things given to you from Above.” A person has to reveal the present state, and just wish to become like the Upper One.

However, in order to become like the Upper One, one needs to imagine the state when he and the group are together in a state of mutual bestowal, mutual guarantee. Imagining our self and them as one whole means we want to feel this state of the Light already operating between us in a single whole. We want to feel that we’re together and the Light is fulfilling us because we become like the Light to the extent of our unity. This is the state that we need to imagine.

It is clear that we are not together or connected with one another, but we are trying to connect, which means we want to grow spiritually and become like the Upper degree. Thus, to the extent of one’s aspiration, The Zohar creates a connection between that person and the Upper degree, injecting this infusion, which are drops of Light called “drops of luck” (Mazalot) that flow towards him.

There is no other difference between a person and the Upper degree, aside from the fact that one is better connected with others on the Upper degree. Try to imagine this upper state, the inner connection of mutual bestowal with everyone, which is called the “Upper Light.” This force, the Surrounding Light that rears a person like an infant, influences from that same state that one imagines, dreams of, and aspires to.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/13/10

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A Question I Received: You said that there are three components of the intention while reading The Zohar: 1) Everything I read in The Zohar occurs inside of me; 2) I feel that I’m studying The Zohar together with my friends, and I feel them; and 3) Unification between us is possible only due to the Upper Light. How is it possible to maintain these three intentions simultaneously and continuously;  which should be given priority?

My Answer: The intention should always consist of all three components together. As Baal HaSulam writes, a person constantly should be in the intention, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.” If one singles out one of them over the others, he strays from the path.

We’re talking about a single reality called the World of Infinity where the Creator, creature, and the entire universe with all of its qualities (the good and the evil, the past, present, future, and everything that we can possibly imagine), are revealed in one point which is the connection called “adhesion.” Thus I should think only about this state, constantly feel as though I exist in it, and aspire to it. All the interferences that are revealed are only meant for me to direct myself more and more correctly to this point of adhesion where all the qualities complement each other.

Therefore, the group, the Creator, The Book of Zohar that I’m reading, myself, and everything happening inside me become included into Infinity together. We wish to reveal one reality which is the only one that exists. We exist in it even now, but, in order to reveal it, we need to aspire to this picture.

Every degree or each of my states is the same Infinity. We reveal it only as we draw closer to it in increasingly higher resolution and with greater precision. However, every degree is the same ten Sefirot which are revealed more: from a drop of semen (a point) to a full Partzuf.

The intention should consist of the fact that everything is situated in the state of Infinity where I, too, exist. I just desire it to be clarified to me and for its minor details to become larger and to complement each other so that the group, the Creator, all the states, and I are revealed as being one whole. All that is needed is the effort, and it will come. We shouldn’t think about how to connect all the components. On the contrary, we should try to see the final, perfect picture where we exist.

The Surrounding Light comes from this picture with which you wish to be connected. It’s precisely what we need in order to reach revelation. Any deviation to the individual components of this picture just weakens the Surrounding Light.

We need to strive to “learn” as Baal HaSulam writes in Item 155 of “The Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” To “learn” means to reach adhesion, a connection with that same picture that I’m trying to imagine now. As it’s written, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, The Zohar

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We always have an impression from a desire (Reshimo de Aviut) and from the Light (Reshimo de Hitlabshut), which don’t match each other. We feel that we can receive a bigger Light than we currently accommodate, and it’s actually good! All of our properties – jealousy, ambition, aspiration toward power and honor – stem from this.

If I am a sensing “cell” that feels the desire for something definite ("A," the Reshimo de Aviut), I see around me only what relates to “A.” If I have an additional data ("B," the Reshimo de Hitlabshut), within me, I observe something related to “B.”

The discrepancy or difference between the Reshimot (informational records) of the desire and those of the Light (pleasure) makes me see “my neighbor’s grass” as being greener than my own. In other words, I have the ability to envy, understand more, compare myself with the others, and recognize that there is somebody who is greater than I am. This ability to perceive and acknowledge new additional levels is a human property.

This divergence triggers our development. There is no such discrepancy in the Reshimot of the still, vegetative, or animate levels. Only man possesses this quality because of his special spiritual form.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/30/10, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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The Creator created us with the desire to receive pleasure. The fulfillment that we feel in it (either within it – egoistic fulfillment, or in others – for the sake of bestowal) is in fact, called our life or to be more precise, “our book of life” since it constantly needs to be renewed.

This “book” is renewed according to the data (Reshimot) that are instilled in us. If they are revealed on their own through natural means this is called that we are advancing through life “in due time” (Beito). However, if we ourselves rouse the force that hastens the revelation of new occurrences (Reshimot), this means that we are advancing through life by “hastening time” (Achishena).

Whether we wish to be successful in this world or in spiritual development, we need to hasten the revelation of the corresponding events (Reshimot). Spiritual development starts when a “point in the heart,” a spiritual Reshimo, awakens within us. Then gradually a person switches from natural development of this Reshimo due to help from Above to beginning to hasten the development of this Reshimo on his own with the help of an external force, the influence of the environment. In this manner, one switches to the path of “Achishena,” the path of Light.

We do not reveal a “new book.” The whole book already exists and it includes the whole World of Infinity, a desire that is infinitely filled with the Light. Yet everything depends on how quickly we “read” it, meaning to what extent we reveal the Reshimot of this infinite reality, which is called a “book.” And I become its “author,” since in order to open it I need to “write” this “story of “life” in my heart, meaning on my desires.

The “story” means revelation. I demand the Surrounding Light which rouses the next Reshimo in me, and I advance myself to the goal on my own. Therefore, I see everything in the Light of development, rather than as forced steps due to lack of choice, through darkness.

From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/10, Shamati

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“Exile” is a state in which a person lacks an anti-egoistic screen and has no contact with the Light. A person is unable to correct himself and perform the act of sacrificing.

“Sacrifice” stands for a corrected desire. Time after time, a person has to take a part of his desire of the still, vegetative, or animate level and elevate it to the speaking level. But while in exile, a person has no strength to correct any of his desires. This is because he is totally deprived of spiritual powers until the Surrounding Light reaches him and leads him out of his state.

Getting out of exile and obtaining the power to withstand a desire, to rise above it and work for the sake of bestowal, means that a person has reached the “desert” (a state in which desires are still small like in a desert) or that he has arrived at the “land of Israel” (a state of higher desires and work on a higher level). Where a person arrives after he gets out of exile is solely dependent upon the size of the desire that he is able to overcome and rise above in order to work with for the sake of bestowal.

After 40 years of its correction and redirection towards bestowal, the desire that previously was a “desert,” turns into a desire that is called the “land of Israel.” It means that the desire becomes suitable to work with for the sake of bestowal.

So far we don’t have the power to correct, and therefore, we stay “away from the land of Israel” (land – “Eretz” is derived from the world “Ratzon” – desire). We don’t have the power to work with our desires for the sake of bestowal; we only imagine what “correct spiritual work” is.  It signifies that instead of sacrificing we pray. We replace the real work with our desires by our request to be granted a power to perform real correction.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: How can I fulfill someone’s desire if every person likes something different?

My Answer: It has to be an inner attitude to another person: You have to care for them the way you previously cared for yourself. You should demand for the Upper Light to make your friend just as important as you deemed yourself in the past, egoistically, for your own sake.

Don’t do anything artificially. We have to let the Upper Light do all the work. It makes the corrections. All we can do is ruin things! We don’t have the strength or the understanding to do anything. Therefore, if we try to change, we only do so externally and artificially, and that is not correction.

Rabash gives an example using a parable about cats that were supposed to be trained to be noble and important waiters, in order to prove that it’s possible to change one’s nature. But when the cats saw running mice, they threw away their trays and rushed to catch them. We are the same: We perform externally beautiful changes until we blow up and violently jump on each other. These are certainly not the changes that Kabbalah speaks about.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 04/27/10, “Matan Torah”

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A question I received: Why were Aba ve Ima so blind to not have noticed the “stony heart” in the world of Nekudim, and consequently to have performed an action that resulted in the breaking of the vessels? Why wasn’t it clarified to begin with?

My Answer: Clarification is only possible when one requires it. If one doesn’t feel a necessity for it, what is there to clarify? Clarification follows the breaking of the Kelim, when they have all intermixed, when we find ourselves in front of fragments of desires, and don’t know how to sort them.

It is then that the Upper Light descends and illuminates what is what: which desires belongs to the right line, which to the left, which desires are on top or at the bottom, and so on. The desires are assigned Sefirot in accordance with the screens they lost, the Lights that departed from them, and with the Aviut that remained in them.

Everything was prepared for this action for the sake of bestowal; however, it wasn’t known in advance what would happen. This is because the property of Malchut de Malchut, which refuses bestowal, has never been revealed in creation before.

Malchut de Malchut reveals itself at this point because it meets GAR of the Light of Hochma (an enormous Light of the End of Correction). The desires, which were “built from nothing” (Yesh mi Ayin) and constitute the most inner core of creation were not revealed until that time because the Upper Light had always ruled over these desires.

“The breaking of the vessels” means that the Upper Light ceases to control the desires. As an example, imagine that you are constantly under my influence and control; I ruled over you and dictated to you how to act for the sake of bestowal. Suddenly, it is clear to you that I no longer control a certain quality of yours. In other words, you found a point of independence from me within you. Hence, you revealed something that doesn’t depend on and relate to me.

You’re not a slave; the Upper One doesn’t have complete power over you. He cannot control your stony heart by obligating your desire to act for the sake of bestowal. It is the beginning of your point of independence. That’s why the breaking is not a bad thing; it opens the door to the correction and ascent of humanity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Everything consists of just two components: desire and fulfillment. In Kabbalah, fulfillment is called Light. It is all around and inside us, unlimited in scope. We are in it like in an ocean. All the changes in how we perceive ourselves and our surroundings depend on the changing of our desire. Our desire, in turn, either changes under the influence of the Light or under the influence of our efforts. The desire is called a vessel and the fulfillment is called Light. The Light is constant, and the only thing that changes is the desire or vessel; its change alters the constant Light that it perceives.

Kabbalah teaches us how to change our desire so we feel an additional, spiritual world within it. This is the meaning of the verse, “You will see your world in this life.” This happens when a person creates one more inner desire. Inside it, he feels the Upper World, and then even when the desire in which he feels this world disappears, it does not influence his desire and sensation of the Upper World. It always remains in his sensation. Yet, even if one was unable to create a new desire, the Partzuf of our world eventually disappears and is replaced by a new one. Thus, a person is “born” into the sensation of this world.

Every sensation in the desire has its period of existence. When a certain level or Partzuf runs it course, it disappears and is replaced by the following one. However, on the level of this world, it remains as long as we don’t create an inner desire (Partzuf) of the Upper World, the desire of bestowal and love.

In essence, all the generations are Partzufim on the level of this world, existing within the quality of reception. They are limited by their inner perception because this kind of development takes place within a single plane: We return to the same level or the same world in various life cycles. We see our reality in different forms, but always on the same level – this world.

The Upper World, however, is the sensation within the quality of bestowal, the sensation beyond oneself and development upwards. That’s why we are summoned, “See your world in this life.”

From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Shamati #69

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The cornerstone of spiritual work is a constant concern about the environment. The greater its importance in my eyes, the more I will strive to attach myself to it, to absorb myself inside it. Every time, these external circles will enter me more and more, like waves that accumulate, until I extend over the whole Malchut of Infinity, and perceive everyone as myself. The whole huge desire (Kli) will become my own, and the Light or the Creator will be revealed inside this single desire.

Everything depends on the intensity of a person’s work within his environment, their influence on each other, and a mutual demand. This is how we determine the speed of our development.

A person is unable to advance on his own. The environment is the only means for advancement. Every time a person moves closer to it, he ascends with its help.

It is necessary to completely realize the importance of the environment. The construction of the whole desire (Kli) comes from the separation of internal and external parts. All the clarifications are made between these parts, between a person and the environment.

For the time being, we are unable to reveal this and we are still unable to understand exactly where the correction of the desires occurs. However, when we draw enough Surrounding Light to ascend to the spiritual world, we certainly feel that spiritual work between the environment and me has already begun. The clarifications and corrections occur only there.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/10, Shamati #225

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