I see reality with the help of forces that depict the whole world to me like a movie playing  on a screen in my brain,. These pictures are three-dimensional, animated, and sensual. At least that is how I perceive them and the kind of impression they make on me. However, in actuality they are just forces or desires.

At the end of the day, I am the one that perceives everything. I perceive the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels within my desire. All these forms are within me, on different levels of my desire. I perceive the inanimate nature in my inanimate desire, vegetative nature in my vegetative desire, and so on.

The Creator’s force depicts various forms within my desire, and I perceive them as my world. This force depicts the world within me, on the screen in my mind. This force that draws the world for me is the force of bestowal, the Creator’s force. I receive all the forms from Him, the Giver.

There are forms that are similar to Him and others that are opposite to Him. Altogether they constitute my world. This is why this world is so multifaceted and the reason that I see all kinds of objects within it. There is something positive and something negative in each object. Where does this come from? It’s because the Creator clothes into matter and creates all these forms within me, which are imprinted on the four levels of my matter – the desire to enjoy. In this manner He gradually teaches me the matter and the form of the matter (Haskala Homrit and Haskala Tzuratit).

This world that I see, with its multitude of forms, was given to me by the Creator. This is how He illustrates the world to me within my matter. The world that appears before me is the Creator’s form, but relative to me and according to my state. The matter is mine, and the form is His. This is why I can attain the Creator from within myself.

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Three questions I received on studying The Book of Zohar:

Question: Baal HaSulam’s regular texts don’t leave us room to get confused, but when we read The Zohar with his “Sulam Commentary” without your clarifications, we begin to imagine images of this world. Why is that?

My Answer: This depends on one’s training and practice. When I read the Torah, I don’t perceive it as a historical novel. The whole Torah talks only about a person’s inner world, the spiritual world that is within me. My spiritual world is formed by my desires for bestowal; they give me a perception of a new world.

Right now I also perceive all of reality within me. What I feel in my mind and feelings is called “this world.” However, since my intentions are egoistic, “this world” that I perceive is a limited, defective, and only a temporary state. If I change my intention from reception to bestowal, then I will perceive the spiritual world, which is boundless, perfect, harmonious, and an eternal state.

The Book of Zohar is meant for those who desire and are ready to change their intention from reception to bestowal. It is now being revealed to all the people in the world who feel a need for this, and the global suffering will cause everyone else to feel a need for this.

Question: Why do the authors of The Zohar, the Torah, and the Talmud confuse us by describing our world instead of the Upper World, and instead of spiritual actions, they seem to describe corporeal actions, such as jobs in the Temple and the history of the Israeli nation? Why do they use this medium to tell me about what is happening in me?

My Answer: By confusing you, they direct you to change your perception, to start perceiving through the intention to bestow instead of the intention to receive.

This world, all of history, the Temple, the laws of the Talmud, the Sefirot and the worlds do not exist. They are all parts of my desire. However, in order to change this desire from the intention to receive to the intention to bestow, you need to perceive it and the precise images in this form. You have to make efforts in order to see the world through the quality of bestowal and to transfer yourself from one type of perception to another. It is precisely the effort that brings about changes in all of us and brings us to a completely different, previously unfamiliar perception.

There is nothing artificial about the perception of this world or the spiritual worlds. All their images are created in us by the natural, direct interaction of the Light and the desire (the vessel, Kli). Nothing else exists except these two things.

Question: After all is said and done, how do we really attune ourselves to studying The Zohar?

My Answer: You have to:

1. Constantly try to feel that everything in this world and everything described in The Zohar is inside of you. Everything happens only within you.

2. Remember that everything written there is about you and your qualities.

3. Try to find the qualities inside you that are named by the words of the text of The Book of Zohar. Which of your qualities do you relate to the words “flood,” “Creator,” “creature,” “Noah,” “wicked,” “righteous,” “sons of Noah,” “animals,” “ark,” “the waters of the flood,” “skies,” “earth,” and so on.

4. Who am I? This is something I don’t know either. I have to expect to reveal myself, to reveal another world and everything filling it. Everything will be new. I need to be ready for any revelation because right now I exist in a lie and in the dark. There is a hollow space inside of me, and inside of which I build a new world from my searches and revelations, like a baby gradually pieces together a picture of our world from his impressions.

I don’t understand the words that I read. I am like a baby, wishing to reveal everything “from scratch.” Gradually I will begin to see myself and the world in another form, as it is written in The Book of Zohar: “I saw a reverse world.”

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A human being begins his path like a little animal that can only sense whether it feels well or poorly. This is how one feels the Light in the Kli – in his desire. However, gradually new Reshimot (informational data) are revealed in him, and in addition to feeling good or bad, these Reshimot cause a person to make an additional analysis of true and false.

The feeling of good or bad is natural for the created being. All forms of creation react to negative or positive influences: they contract or widen, the way inanimate objects open and close, a flower lives and dies, and so does an animal. This is matter’s natural reaction to the Light’s presence or absence.

However, when the created being begins to reveal its dependence on the environment and to connect it to the feelings of good or bad, then an additional perception of “true and false” begins to appear in him. Thus, he begins to have two different approaches or analyses of his state, which depends on the environment and on himself. We make the assessment of true and false with respect to the benefit of the society, and good and bad (sweet versus bitter) with respect to our own well-being. Based on this clarification between the external and the inner desire (Kli), we develop the “human being,” Adam (similarity to the Creator) in us.

A human being differs from the animal in us because the human being’s perception takes place “outside,” in the society that surrounds him. A human being is able to feel the Creator, the Upper One, that which exists outside of one’s body. But actually, the environment, the society, and the Creator are the same thing.

This is because in regard to our egoism, everything that exists outside is the same. The perception of the external compared to the perception of the self is what separates spiritual development from corporeal development.

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When we read about the structure of the Upper Systems in The Book of Zohar, the most important thing is to always think about where these systems are found. They are inside each one of us, and we have to reveal them.

When we hear the names of the Partzufim, Sefirot and various actions (such as Atik, Arich Anpin, Parsa separating one from the other, ascents, descents, unifications, divisions), we should be waiting for just one thing to happen: “When will I feel that this is all happening inside me!? Where are these qualities and actions within me, within my sensations? Oh – here’s Atik, and there’s Arich Anpin, and here, in the middle, is Parsa. And it’s the Parsa that isn’t letting me feel it!”

All of this has to be revealed inside us, because spirituality is inside of us. We think that the spiritual world is somewhere far away, in some kind of other realm. However, when we study about perception of reality, we learn that all of reality is perceived inside us, and spirituality is perceived as the deepest, innermost layer within us.

That is why each one of us has to be like a surgeon that is going inside in order to discover the Upper System described by The Book of Zohar. We are trying to find it at the very depth of our sensations. Then, when reading phrases like, “the Upper Plan,” “RADLA,” “Atik,” “Arich Anpin,” and “ascent to Keter,” we will be able to feel how all of it is happening inside us. You have to desire for every word written in The Book of Zohar to evoke a response and sensation in you. When you constantly work on this, it means that you are really trying to reveal spirituality. We should never forget about this!

Before every lesson and every excerpt we read in The Book of Zohar, we have to return to the right intention and remember that we are now studying the inner part of the Torah, the Torah’s internality, which becomes revealed inside a person. We have different thoughts, desires and qualities, and the spiritual reality that we read about in The Book of Zohar becomes revealed at their very depth. That is why all our attention and all our expectations should be focused on what we are about to reveal inside us. This should be our primary concern and we should always be thinking about this, trying to discern inner movements and reactions to the words we read. Even if you just imagine them – it doesn’t matter; the most important thing is to try and feel these inner movements inside you.

This aspiration in and of itself is already a prayer. First we have to get used to treating the text in this way, and later we will add to this habit a connection among us. In the end, The Book of Zohar was written only in order to create a connection between us. But this connection does not take place between the bodies; it transpires inside each one of us – between the points of all the souls, which are all inside me as well. I have to build this connection inside me: a connection between the image of “myself” and the image of “everyone else.” Inside this connection, which I create within, I will build my spiritual vessel of perception (Kli), and in it, I will reveal spirituality.

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Everything occurs inside the desire to receive pleasure that was created by the Creator. As it develops, this desire goes through changes. Initially I agree with that desire and am not in conflict with it. In fact, what conflict could be there if I don’t separate myself from the desire and act according to its orders?

I still have no clue that it is not me who wants anything, but rather it is the desire commanding me. I don’t yet realize or distinguish myself separately as:

1. A desire
2. A human being

When the point in the heart (the Creator) awakens in me and gives me the aspiration to bestow, then I realize that the desire is not my own. Now there is:

1. A desire
2. Me (the point in the heart)

By attempting to change the desires, I separate them from myself more and more and begin feeling that I am enslaved to them. Regardless of whether I enjoy my desires or suffer from them, I begin to understand that desires are being sent to me. My reality then seems to consist of three elements:

1. The Creator
2. The desires sent by Him
3. Me

Kabbalah explains that I have free choice to raise the importance of the spiritual goal above the interests of my body and my current life. This can be done under the influence of the group and the Upper Light. I can then change my desires in order to reach the goal. In this way, I will build my equivalence to the Creator, bestowal.

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A question I received: Physicists also say that we perceive only a small portion of everything that exists in the universe. How are the parts of reality that we don’t perceive different from spiritual space?

My Answer: Scientists can create tools to recognize everything that we don’t perceive with our bodily senses. With the help of these instruments, we expand our senses. However, all the data that we discover with these tools still has to go through our senses and be transformed into signals that we can perceive inside us.

We perceive everything inside the desire to receive, in an egoistic form, because we are egoists within. Therefore, no matter how many new phenomena we reveal in nature, we will not reveal the spiritual realm. We will only reveal more of our material world.

The spiritual world can only be revealed by changing the method of how we perceive our surroundings (nature). We have to change our perception from reception to bestowal, making our perception altruistic.

But in order to have this kind of perception, we need a new method of relating to the world. We have to feel the world “outside of us” rather than “inside us.”

This is why a completely new science about the world – Kabbalah – is emerging to replace the sciences that examine nature through our egoism. No matter how much we examine nature through our egoistic desire, we will not reveal the spiritual world. That is why regular science is now in crisis; it cannot give us anything qualitatively new.

People feel oversaturated by the material things because they do not fulfill us. That is why they are starting to ask the question: Where do we go from here? The only answer is to shift to a different way of using our desire.

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All of our perception is based on a comparison of what we perceive now with what we perceived in the past. When we are born, our parents and relatives give us various models of perception and according to these models, we are later able to recognize the world and everything existing in it.

These models stay in our memory and enable us to tell what different pictures of reality are similar to and what they may be. In this way, whenever we encounter something new, we compare it to everything that is already stored in our memory.

So how then can we perceive spirituality if we don’t have the inner models for it? Spirituality is in front of us even now, but we don’t feel or perceive it because we have nothing to compare it to. Perhaps it is going through us and passing through all our senses, but we don’t recognize it because our memory does not hold the appropriate models or images. We have nothing to compare it to and therefore we cannot identify it.

When we read The Book of Zohar, it starts to influence us; its text shows us inner spiritual images or models. We don’t see the spiritual world yet, but we begin to understand what different spiritual qualities are like, what is above and what is below, what is inside and outside, what is weaker or stronger, what is red and what is white, and what is a quality such as Hesed.

The Book of Zohar starts lifting us up with these models, similar to how we lift up children. This enables us to understand the spiritual picture and divide it into familiar elements.

We then see something very interesting: we were seeing this picture before as well, but we did not recognize anything in it. And that is simply amazing! Spirituality was right here, but we could not perceive it because we did not have the inner models for it.

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It is impossible to enter into a new reality with the old egoistic approach. All kinds of “green” movements call upon us to love nature and take care of it because the whole planet is our house. However, we are unable to relate to it like that. Man cannot conceive that the entire world belongs to him and that all humankind is within him.

Man needs to reveal the Creator and receive strength from Him in order to build a new system of relationships with the surrounding world above his own egoism. In other words, today hatred divides us, but by transcending above this hatred, we reveal this new system of relationships, a system of love.

This can be done only by the Creator, whom we attract so He will establish this connection between us. The One who makes peace in the Upper World will make peace within us!

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The science of Kabbalah is not just a description of all reality, but rather it is the operating program of the whole of creation, instructions for the creatures as to how to use this whole reality. The program is written in such a way that it is an entire reality all by itself. When we read Kabbalistic texts or when we talk about them, when we think about or feel them,  we involuntarily absorb the Light within ourselves, in our not yet formed desire. The Light molds this desire, leading us to a new reality.

We need to understand that the science of Kabbalah includes everything within itself, the material (the desire, the creation) and the Light (the Creator). In fact, the Creator in Hebrew is written as “Bo-Re”, which means “come and see” what is revealed in the vessels of perception of the creature.

It is a program of creation that includes the whole of creation from beginning to end and includes everything that we are able to perceive, along with the primal force that created us and governs everything. There is nothing that is not covered by this science. By default, we think that science is a description of some field of creation and its properties.

But Kabbalah is not a description. Its letters themselves are the vessels of perception. The actions that the science of Kabbalah talks about are actual actions, and if we were able to read these lines as they were written, we would have performed these actions while reading. In reality, we are reading inside our desire and our desire would have done this action immediately and simultaneously with the reading of the text.

The science of Kabbalah is the actual realization of all the material of reality and not a description of the structure of creation and how it operates. The science of Kabbalah by itself sets in motion all reality. Kabbalists write their books for those who already possess an anti-egoistic screen on their desire to receive pleasure and can immediately complete all actions.

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Question: What is the meaning of life and why are we here?

My Answer: Imagine that everything happening now is happening in a dream, that you are dreaming of this, that you are at a congress, and that I am speaking with you. But soon you will awaken and realize that you are at home.

This is what our entire life is like – it’s a long dream, followed by awakening. But while we are sleeping we feel like our dream is reality.

The meaning of life is to realize that this is a dream and to want to wake up as soon as possible. If we wait for the dream to end on its own, we will never wake up. We need to awaken ourselves and this can only be done if your friends and a ray of Light from within arouse you from your sleep.

Once we awaken, we will find ourselves in a beautiful world without boundaries that is one large, delightful adventure. The meaning of our life is to wake up to this  new world.

(From the Children’s Lesson at the North American Congress  10.17.09)

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