Concealment and revelation are in us. These are the only things we can influence. After all, we exist in a constant and eternal universe, which has no beginning and which will never have an end. Although we talk about and imagine within the bounds of time that creation emerged and about reaching correction and executing the plan of creation by becoming fully included in the Creator, this is incorrect.

We are situated within a unique system, which is called “Nature” or the “Creator,” where no changes occur. Only we change in our sensations! So how can we begin to change ourselves consciously and according to our own choice in a controlled manner so that we would not experience any unpleasant and undesired changes?

There are certain changes in my inner desires, which alter my view of reality in such a way that I perceive them as problems, wars, and suffering. On the other hand, there are changes that are kind, but who knows how to control them?

This is taught to us by the science of Kabbalah. It is clear that if reality is invariable, then only by controlling our own qualities can we affect our picture of the world and decide which “soap opera” we wish to watch under the title of “My Life.” However, this does not mean that I am free to watch any movie` of any genre that I wish.

A program is already put together, and it advances me to revelation of the true picture, where all the concealments will fade and I will reveal the eternal and perfect state in its true form. Then I will see that reality is constant and invariable. If I understand all this, I can advance by the kind path. And if I don’t understand it, then I will be forced to move ahead by the path of suffering.

However, we are only talking about changes inside of a person that exists in some environment that is still unknown to him. This environment is called the Creator or Infinity. It is not in our power to change the order of our degrees; this order is already implanted in us. Who are we to know what this order should be?

However, we can hasten the process of going through it by tuning into it according to our own desire and by exerting effort. And the speed of the advancement will give us a different sensation. After all, it is one thing to advance toward a fatal event without agreeing with it but being unable to avoid it. And it is another thing to aspire to a desired goal! Then I will like the path, and I will advance toward it in joy.

In other words, everything depends on our preparation to the next states, which inevitably will come. However, my readiness determines my perception and the speed of my advancement. This is why we need the science of Kabbalah so much. By studying Kabbalah, we will be able to go through our development via a positive, pleasant, and short path instead of a long path through suffering.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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“Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item.61. “A Great Rule in Time and Place,” Know that everything in the wisdom of Kabbalah that expresses time and place do not refer to the imaginary time and place in corporeality, since everything in spirituality is above time and above space. Rather, “before” and “after” refer to cause and consequence. We refer to the cause as “before” and to the consequence as “after,” since every cause precedes its consequence…Аlso “above and below” and “ascent and descent” are measures of coarseness and purity of the desire because “ascent” means purification of the desire, and “descent” means the coarsening.

And when we say that a lower degree rose, it means that the lower one has been purified and became as pure as the Higher Degree. Hence, it is considered to have clung to it because equivalence of form attaches the spirituals to one another…Study them in this manner, that is, in spiritual meanings, according to the issue.“

Kabbalah uses the language of roots and branches, which uses words from our world to describe what takes place in the spiritual one, the Upper World. In the spiritual world, meanings of our world such as time, motion, space, distance, and direction don’t exist. But the very same names that we use to identify some objects and actions in our world signify, in the spiritual world, forces, qualities, and their actions.

Therefore, we need to do our best to try to imagine spiritual actions behind these words. Such efforts are very useful because they create a request (MAN), the desire, the need to understand and perceive the Upper world, and begin living in it. Through such actions we help ourselves to enter it.

Thus, in Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155, it is written that even though we don’t understand what we are studying, due to our strong desire and will to understand the studied material, we draw the light that surrounds our souls. As a result, it brings to us qualities that we need in order to perceive the spiritual world.

It doesn’t mean that some new external picture is revealed to us. But our desire brings about a change in our perception, in our inner qualities, in which we begin to see what we are reading.

It’s all right if you don’t know what purification and coarsening of the desire means or what the ascent and descent of the screen is, but you must try to imagine this in the form of desires and intentions. This is all there is: a desire, its intention, and the Light which works on them. This is how I should connect these words with what I know and how I should be impressed by what is written.

This is already enough to connect with this system. Let it be incorrect; it doesn’t matter! What matters is my effort, my desire to enter this system however artificial it is. Granted, I don’t feel a sensory connection, but it’s natural, and Above, nothing more is expected of me.

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

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Kabbalistic books tell us about our future states that we have to discover within ourselves by ascribing them the names of the spiritual worlds, Sefirot, and Partzufim. By combing our desires to achieve this, we will create a demand for correction that will draw the reaction of the Light. It will add the intention of bestowal to our desire, and we will start perceiving what the Kabbalists describe to us.

All these future states that we wish to attain and sense – AB, SAG, Abba ve Ima, Zivugim, and Partzufim – relate only to the connection between us, that is, to various types of bestowal. This connection begins at the level of this world (this is what our current connection is called) and extending over the steps of the spiritual worlds, reaches the connection called Infinity (limitless connection among everybody).

Infinity means the absence of boundaries when all souls are corrected to such a degree that they unite as one whole. Although we’re not in this state yet, it should be our immediate goal. We should aspire to be as “one man with one heart” and anticipate it happening.

It’s very important to transition from the external perception to the internal one where all the worlds and everything that there is exist within a person. We don’t understand what “within a person” means, so we imagine geometrical space, but we should constantly work on the correct picture. In the beginning of the path, a person imagines his inner work, spirituality, and the group in a very peculiar way. However, as he advances, he should assure that all the pictures, forms, approaches, transformations, and the goal itself align themselves into a single point. Besides this point, there isn’t any other space.

Thus, you begin to imagine everything only in the point of your perception, and thereby return to the point of creation, “Yesh Mi Ain” (existence from absence). This is not a fantasy. In fact, now we are constantly living in a fantasy for everybody exists in his own imaginary world.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Item 114: There are five abstentions on the day of atonement—eating, drinking, bathing, lubrication, wearing shoes, and intercourse—to be assisted by the five upper sides, HGT NH, which the day of atonement, Bina, brought out, and which are her gates.

Since we must transition from the perception of reality in the egoistic desires to the perception of reality in the desires of bestowal, the authors of The Zohar (like all other Kabbalists), tell us about the various corrections we must make in our desire; we move from one rung to the next, in order to further advance each of our five senses toward spirituality. All five senses are connected with each other, and for this reason we always have a spiritual Partzuf, meaning a definitive perception of reality with limitations.

In order to transition from the current perception of reality to a more advanced one, we must increase our desire and attract the Reforming Light to it. In this way, we will build the next Partzuf that is our self on a higher level. We do this by opening more and more of the senses, the perception of reality. This is the way we advance.

All of the obstacles that the The Zohar describes, such as the “scapegoat,” the “five prohibitions,” and so on, are solely limitations. We perform these limitations according to the Kabbalists’ recommendations, and as a result, we come to corrections faster. After all, they tell us in advance what is worth doing on every step, in order to direct oneself to the perception of reality on a more complex, inner, and deeper level. Then, without fail, we advance with greater speed and certainty.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Item 102: …When it was said, “Fetch two he-goats, one for Me and one for that delator, the Sitra Achra, so he will think that he has eaten from My own meal, and will not know of the joy of our other meal. He will take that part,” GAR of the left, which is sent to the desert, to the place of ruin, to give him back his dominion, meaning to the middle point of the ruined world….

We read in all the Kabbalistic books about actions that we need to do in order to reveal the real world by having proper vision and perception. For example, when I don’t know where I am, I try to make my senses more acute, I clean my glasses to clear the fog before my eyes. I try different things to help orient myself to the strange place that I can’t make out.

Kabbalists give us the same kind of prescription: the things that we need to do in order to clear our sensory channels: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch (five Sefirot), in order to orient ourselves in the new space and to be able to discern it. This is why The Zohar tells us that if there is a disturbance in our perception, the so called “GAR of the left,” then we need to stop using it, and “send it to the desert.”

In other words, The Zohar describes the way we are to work with our senses and what we need to do in order to become closer to the proper orientation in the space where we exist. Essentially, the entire wisdom of Kabbalah only speaks about attaining the perception of a new reality instead of perceiving this imaginary world.

After all, we’re not actually going anywhere, we don’t fly or move, we remain in the same place and state. We simply keep perfecting our senses. This is why Kabbalah is called the science of reception, the science of perception (in Hebrew, the word “Kabbalah” comes from the word “Lekabel” – to receive).

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Does the Creator hear my prayer? Can He change for me?

My answer: No! He is unchangeable, but still you ask Him to change. In essence, you tell Him: “You know, yesterday You weren’t very nice to me. Today, I beg You, please be good!” But how is He going to change?

If you don’t understand, then why do you pray? If you pray, ask Him to change you, then you will receive a different attitude from Him.

Look at the example of parents and young children. Do parents change their attitude to the child? They always treat him with love, but sometimes the child says: “Mom is bad!” What makes the mother change in the child’s perception from being “bad” to “good”? How does the child make it so that the mother is good? The child changes.

The example clarifies what needs to change: Change yourself!

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/10, Shamati #8

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Our entire work amounts to making the shift from perceiving reality inside egoistic senses to perceiving reality inside altruistic senses. This is the whole difference between perceiving this world and perceiving the Upper World. It is the difference between our current perception of reality (where we are living a lie, far away from the Creator, without knowing where we exist) and the understanding, perception, and knowledge of where we exist, or rather, inside Whom and with Whom we exist.

The switch in perception happens by virtue of a person’s effort. There must first be a desire to change one’s perception; this will occur only if we desire it. That is why we have to strive to imagine a higher reality and to create its image in ourselves according to how Kabbalah Books tell us to, as well as to build such relationships between us in the group.

Then when we read about this higher reality during our studies, we will demand for a force to come from Above and open these senses, to unlock the locks on our perception, to allow us to reveal where we truly exist, instead of remaining in this deceptive, imaginary, made-up picture, which is presented to us today in our clouded senses. Therefore, our whole work lies in finding the right definitions, which are called the true reality.

Each of us should use all his strength, to the extent that it is possible, to try to imagine and depict a higher image where we are all united in our desires together with the Creator, and there is no difference between us. There, the Creator (the quality of bestowal and mutual love) dwells among us, within us.

In reality there is nothing except this state. There are no imaginary pictures. We should ask this reality to affect us and to be embodied in us. This should be the result of our efforts. This is what a person should aspire to constantly while reading The Zohar and other Kabbalistic books. This is also the reason why these books tell us about the true reality. Otherwise, we could read other books, written in a different style, or there would be no sense reading them at all.

Thus, when we read about the Upper Reality in these books, we should try to attain it. As Baal HaSulam writes in Item 155 of “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“: “…through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.” The Lights come to us from the single state that exists, and in this manner we correct ourselves.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why do 90% of the obstacles I get pertain to my physical body (I’m hungry, I’m tired, and so on)? After all, corporeality is far less important than spirituality and contains only a small spark of life.

My Answer: You’re asking why we weren’t given the opportunity to work with spiritual desires, lights, and screens, instead of the corporeal ones. But to the extent that you begin to view the world in waves of bestowal, you naturally stop noticing this world. It stops being the determining world for you. You continue to exist in this world and connecting with people, but without this world being connected to the spiritual world, it loses its meaning. It is merely a consequence, a reflection, of the spiritual worlds that project reality to you.

There is a special technology that projects three-dimensional, holographic images in the air via laser beams. They make all kinds of figures appear in empty space. In a similar fashion, this world is presented to you in illusory images, for this world is but an imprint of what exists in spirituality.

It is our egoistic desire that projects this world for us. For the time being, it can only exist in this form that does not disappear until the very end of correction. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai could be sitting here with us and he would be seeing our corporeal world despite being fully corrected himself. Indeed, this world will only disappear from our senses following the general, final correction.

This world pertains to the general desire to receive pleasure. It is an egoistic desire, yet it is not against the Creator. It is simply a desire to lead an animal life and receive pleasure.
Therefore, it is not considered criminal and does not require correction. You simply need to use it like an animal and shape it into a desire to bestow – the soul.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/10, The Zohar

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All comes out of HaVaYaH (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey), the universal, singularly existing system, and everything takes its beginning in the root, the tip of the letter “Yod.” This is Keter, the “essence of the essence” (Yesh mi Yesh). There is the, “existence from absence” (Yesh mi Ain), which are expanding together. The Light affects the desire, and it takes various forms; that is, the will to receive constantly changes its properties in similarity with the Light.

The Zohar explains how all properties come from the Light which created the will to receive, “existence from absence,” and how the Light works on it. This is truly a symphony of development: the impact of the Light on the desire, the lack of filling that changes under the influence of the Light and acquires different forms and properties, including the properties of the Light and its own previous forms that influence the next states even several steps ahead.

The Zohar explains to us how from only two forces – the will to bestow and the will to receive – come all the diversity of the creature. And all of it is directly connected with us since in our world there is also nothing, except the two forces: black and white, one and zero, good and bad. It doesn’t matter what levels we are talking about – all of creation, all of our impressions, sensual images and pictures of the perception of reality – all of this consists of two forces.

The Kabbalists were able to describe these two forces beautifully in the form of letters. As a result, when we look at these shapes, they come alive and get filled with the spirit of life. You begin to recognize inside each letter: How these properties, the Creator and the creature, are connected with each other; how they are mutually intertwined and penetrate each other, in which direction, in what way; where they merge together and where they don’t yet, and what restrictions there are.

We don’t have the words to express these relations. But a letter, a symbol, gives you a model. And then, by absorbing this model, you enclose within yourself the entire accumulation of feelings, relations, and everything that exists within the letter. But a letter contains everything. It only seems a simple form, but this simplicity encloses thousands of previous forms that it was acquiring during its descent from above downwards.

In Kabbalah, everything derives from the vital necessity. By observing nature, the content of man and his perception, the Kabbalists saw that there was no other way to express the connection between the Creator and the creature except with the help of such symbols, these letters.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Items 147-149: The Yod of the Holy Name connects in three ties. For this reason, there is one tip in it above, one tip below, and one tip in the middle, since three ties hang down in her. The tip above is the upper Keter, above all the upper ones, the head of all the heads and stands atop all of them…The bottom tip is the other, bottom tip of the Yod. It is Bina, the head to water the garden, Malchut. This is the fountain of water from which all the plantings are watered, since all the Mochin of ZON and BYA extend from the Bina….

The letter “Yod” is Hochma of the world Atzilut, its “hidden mind.” Through the upper point enters the Light of the Infinity, and through its bottom point exits the Light of Bina, flowing through Zeir Anpin; it waters the garden, Malchut.

It would be possible to describe the entire system in details like this, but we are studying The Zohar in order to arouse the Light that Reforms, not to study some dry theory. We study The Zohar not to gain theoretical knowledge of spirituality, but to actually experience it! When we begin to feel what The Zohar is telling us, we will feel bestowal and reception within us and the difference between them; only then will we be able to read and unveil the whole picture, which will appear as sensations. We will study The Zohar in order to understand what we are feeling! Then I will start studying Kabbalah as a science; I will add mind to my feelings.

But first I have to receive the sensation! The mind follows. Otherwise, it would simply be theoretical reasoning without practical comprehension. We would get stuck in these diagrams and remain in this world to intellectualize, as if we know what is going on “there” in the spiritual world.

But we don’t need to know what is happening there: We have to be there! There is a great difference between those who are perceiving the spiritual world and the theorists who are just learning about it in The Zohar. The latter are the type that Baal HaSulam encountered in Jerusalem when he arrived in Israel. They were studying The Zohar and knew all its books and writings of the ARI by heart. But when he asked whether they perceive it, they replied: “There is nothing to perceive here! We just memorize the text.”

But for us, first and foremost, it is important to achieve the ability to perceive the spiritual world: The Zohar has to enter us, and we must begin living in it. Then, we will study what we feel and how to change these feelings, how to walk in spirituality.

We cannot research what we don’t perceive. Since we are the matter of the will to receive, we must perceive the reality within it. Only then we will be able to study what our perception. consists of.

Bina derives from the word “Havana,” understanding, as it is written, “the heart understands.” This is why we study The Zohar, in order to be able to bestow and perceive the Creator. Later, you and I will discuss every page of The Zohar, and we will see how much it contains, the entire symphony of feelings.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar

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