The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 16: But now, after the Vav illuminated, meaning the middle line, when all four lights in the letters Yod–Kof–Reish–Aleph were opened, he [Moses] could come to the tent of meeting.

Only in the middle line can one enter the tent of meeting (Malchut) and pass the Lights into these desires (Kelim) through the three lines. This points to the main principle: One can receive the Light only by repelling it from oneself. If the Light of Hassadim, the Reflected Light, rises from the screen from below upward, we can receive the Light of Hochma into it.

In other words, if I desire to fill another person, and I give everything that goes through me to him (I push everything away from myself), then all the Lights can go through me, and I too will receive them. However, this will already be reception from below upward, with the help of a screen, which is in opposition to my ego. Then, as it is written, “Moses could come to the tent of meeting.”

If we wait for the Lights to be revealed in our desires, this will be for the sake of reception, and the revelation of the Lights will not be permitted. Therefore, the condition for receiving the Lights is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Everything can pass through you if you act for the sake of the neighbor. Then you delight by receiving both what comes to you and with what you fill the whole Malchut of Infinity. All these Lights are yours. This is the only way to receive them.

Herein lies the wisdom of receiving – the science of Kabbalah, a science about how to receive the Light by reflecting it. We are now situated in the Light of Infinity as well; it is present here and now. However, we do not see or feel it since first we have to acquire an ability to repel it, to arm ourselves with the Light of Hassadim. Only then will the Light of Hochma be revealed in the Light of Hassadim.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/5/10

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Everything that we read about in The Zohar becomes revealed in the connection among us. The Zohar talks about the connection among the souls rather than about a soul per se. A soul by itself is a desire; there is nothing else to it.

The uniqueness of a soul is in its ability to obtain a screen and attract the Reflected Light, and with the help of both of them connect with other souls. The Light (the Creator) emerges within their mutual desire to unite above egoism. That’s why we try to imagine that we have a screen (against our egoism) and the Reflected Light (our aspiration to connect into one whole.) We join our aspirations (Moses in each of us) above Mount Sinai (hatred.)

Each of us is a small spiritual vessel (Kli), an egoistic desire that with the help of the screen and Reflected Light works like a bestowing entity. This allows all separate souls to unite together into one soul.

Egoistic desire is our nature. When we create a screen above it and attract the Reflected Light, it becomes a soul, a desire that is similar to the Creator.

The Creator is then revealed within our mutual Reflected Light. The Reflected Light of each Kli is the Light of Hassadim. Within the shared field of the Light of Hassadim the Light of Hochma reveals itself.

If our mutual Reflected Light reaches a certain degree of power called “six hundred thousand,” the Creator (the Torah, the Upper Light or the Light of Wisdom – Hochma) reveals Himself in it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: I’ve studied the Torah, speak five languages, listen to your lessons, and have become more or less familiar with the Kabbalistic terminology. Typically when a person studies a language and learns the words, reading something in that language is enough to understand it. Yet when the lesson is on The Study of the Ten Sefirot, I read the text and don’t understand a thing even though I know all the terms. It might as well be Chinese to me. What’s going on?

My Answer: You need to continue learning this language. The word “language” originates from the notion of a “weighing scale” with the measurement pointer located directly in the middle. As you continue to attain spiritual concepts, your language will continue to take shape, in between good and evil.

When we build the middle line within ourselves, we begin to understand and feel the different gradations of qualities. Until we attain a sensation of the spiritual, we never retain anything from the study, no matter how long we keep at it. It’s as useless as repeatedly explaining the taste of a dish to a person who has never tasted it.

Each and every one of our perceptions is a taste. From the Light that entered the desire (Toch Kli) with the intention to bestow, the Kabbalists have “tasted” (Taamim) every concept existing in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, in accordance with the law of equivalence of form.

The First Restriction is at work, preventing us from receiving the Light since we have no similarity to it. Without the screen, the intention to bestow, we cannot sense the Light. Therefore, as long as we are missing the screen, it is impossible to understand the text, for everything is attained via sensation. Hence it is written: “Taste and see that the Creator is good” (Psalm 34:8). We have to “taste” Him, and this attainment takes place within.

This is why it is a genuine problem. No matter how long we study here, this language invariably escapes us. Yet on the other hand, it prepares us to start sensing it. Subsequently, these sensations begin to appear within us and we begin to understand the text. Eventually we will no longer need to study, and will suddenly know the names for everything even without reading about it in the books. We’ll know the name of a spiritual phenomenon simply by feeling it. How, who will teach it to us? No one.

As the Light clothes our desires, it transfers its impression to them in four phases, Taamim (tastes), Nekudot (vowels, dots accompanying the letters), Tagin (crowns above the letters), and Otiot (letters), building a Gematria within us (the numerical value of words).

This Gematria then turns into a word. We “read” and suddenly realize that one desire is called “tree,” another desire is called “sun,” and so on. Moreover, we come to know this for a fact, regardless of where we live in the world or whether or not we speak the language. Thus, we begin to understand it.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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Until we limit ourselves according to the conditions set forth by the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet), we continue to live without a screen and stay “shattered.” That’s why we’re subject to the influence of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph).

It’s mandatory to bring our desires into compliance with the conditions of the Second Restriction, the state we were in before the shattering of the vessels occurred. The desires that are associated with these conditions symbolize the “exodus” from ourselves into other souls. Who are those “other souls?” They are my own desires that were cut off from me as if I had already been circumcised. It wasn’t me but my Upper Father and Mother (Aba ve Ima) who performed this circumcision on me before I even started to sense myself, my soul.

Since anyone who lives in this world has to reach the correction, Aba ve Ima decided to facilitate this task for us by cutting our spiritual vessel into two pieces: our inner and outer desires. This was in order to give us a chance to work with only our outer desires and thereby prevent us from making a mistake.

Hence, our world is clearly divided into two parts: me and the world outside of me. Even though my inner desires seem more important to me, I still have to work on my outer desires since they are my desires of the higher, “speaking” level. Staying within my desires, I have to learn how to make a preference toward the desires of others which means that I correct myself and work with the desires at the level of the Second Restriction.

The desires of the Second Restriction are located outside of me whereas the desires of the First Restriction stay inside. My whole desire is split into two parts, outer and inner, and it really is of great help to me.

We have to be grateful to the Creator for granting us the dual perception of reality that shows us how to act and how to avoid making mistakes. Our desires at the Second Restriction level have been cut off from us and clarified already: they constitute the reality outside of us. Our work consists of changing our attitude toward an “outside part” of us and enhancing its importance with the help of the group and the Upper Light.

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 118: …After he explained the first two banners, which are the middle line and the right line, he now explains the third banner, which is the left line, called “the face of an ox” in the animals, and “Gabriel” in the four angels. It is known that after the middle line decided and united the right line and the left line with each other, only the light of Malchut remained in the left line, which is the illumination of Hochma from below upwards, meaning VAK, while the GAR disappeared.

Two full lines, the right and the left (Hassadim and Hochma), come to us from Above. The breaking of the vessels occurred because the creature tried to fully unite Hassadim and Hochma, to receive all the Light of Hochma clothed into the Light of Hassadim for the sake of bestowal. However, it was unable to do so due to the absence of such a big screen. Therefore, the intention for bestowal (Kli) broke and the screen vanished.

Now we need to correct this breaking. By correcting it, we also begin to understand what happens within the creature, why the Creator created it this way, and what He wished for when doing so. The breaking isn’t something negative; it’s a way to prepare for putting our world together into one whole with understanding, realization, and sensation. After all, if we existed in a world that was ready for us, we wouldn’t understand it.

However, since the Creator created the World of Infinity and then broke it, He gave us an opportunity to gather the World of Infinity once again as one; to tune into the Act of Creation (Maase Merkava) and the Primary Act (Maase Beresheet) ourselves, thereby to understand Him, feel Him, and become like Him.

We certainly aren’t building all this from scratch, or from nothing, since we ourselves are created “from nothing.” However, the parts that we gather into one whole give us a full understanding and sensation of what we need in order to become similar to the Creator. That is, they give us all the information about all the parts, elements, and the depth of the universe.

Therefore, the entire Book of Zohar, all the commentaries, and the entire science of Kabbalah, tell us how to correct the broken desires (Kelim), how to connect them properly to each other, and bring them back to one whole desire (a spiritual vessel or Kli), the whole Light that previously filled the World of Infinity.

But the creature needs to carry this out with its own effort. Thereby, it achieves an understanding, sensation, perception, and power over the whole universe.

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All this external buildup with its output to the “computer” monitor is made only for myself, since I can only discern the externality. However, in reality all events are happening on the hard drive. It is from there that some form is reflected onto the screen. I am capable of understanding this form and accordingly I send an order back to the hard drive.

That external form reflected on the screen is what our world is. The Zohar wants to take us inside the system, that being the Creator (the hard drive), to the place where all events are unfolding and all forces are acting.

I am unable to change anything by interfering with the actions on the screen itself. It’s like trying to erase from it or to draw additional details onto to the screen’s picture. The screen is required only for the purpose of conveying that which is happening inside.

Therefore, the most important thing is to try to enter inside, to penetrate beyond all these outer pictures. In doing so, we will reveal the form of forces, information, and reminisces (Reshimot) in the spiritual world that are on this “hard drive.” Then we will be able to work with all parameters and change everything in order to receive fulfillment. However, this will happen under one condition: that we go deeper inside.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter what pictures The Zohar depicts for us. What matters most is we want to reveal that inner picture where everything is happening. Our desires act inside of this as there is nothing else in the universe besides the desire and the Light.

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A question I received: Prior to the reception of the Torah, the people of Israel performed a special preparation for three days. How can we prepare in the best possible way during the three days preceding the Zohar Convention 2010?

My Answer: These three days are called “days of restriction”; it is when you completely detach from everything you had before.

We know from the science of Kabbalah that the screen, which rises with the Reshimot when the Light exits the Partzuf, ascending from Tabur to Peh, needs to go through three stages. Once it reaches the third stage, it loses all connection with the first stage.

In the same way, a person who is in the first stage raises to the next degree, where there is an emanation of Reflected Light, which descends to the previous degree – the first stage. When the person rises one degree higher, he also emanates these Lights onto the two previous levels.

After going through these three stages or three days (limitations), one reaches a state where he has no connection to the “transgression” of the past. Therefore, we need to detach from everything we had or knew before and prepare for the correction of our desires. This is how we’ll be able to reveal the Upper Force inside us.

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In spirituality, “mutual inclusion” is an action that is carried out by a force that comes from the Creator. Although our qualities tune into each other, the mutual inclusion does not happen outside of us since it is impossible to accomplish on our level. I cannot take two qualities and fuse them together in one plate here on the table before me. I need to raise them to the source where they can unite into one whole in the Creator. I can work on their mutual inclusion there.

My desire to include these qualities is here in this world. However, in order to create their mutual inclusion, I need to raise them to the root (Keter) of the given degree and connect to the place where they exist as one whole. This is not a material unification where a few atoms unite into one molecule and create a compound through a chemical reaction.

In spiritual unification, nothing remains from the right and the left lines. The middle line is a completely new entity. It does not consist partially of the left line and partially of the right. Rather, mutual inclusion produces a new quality that supersedes the qualities of which it is made.

The desire to enjoy (which connects to the screen) and the Reflected Light (the intention to work for the sake of bestowal) are depicted as a desire below and a screen above (the intention to bestow), as if the intention and the desire exist separately. They are depicted as if these are two separate components rather than one whole.

However, this explanation is only provided in this manner when using the terms of our world. In the spiritual world, the intention and the desire are forced to be completely inseparable, intertwined, and merged inside one another. The intention can completely change a desire by using it for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal.

Therefore, the work we do on the “third day” lies in merging with one another and creating one common body. Each person does the inner work of uniting his qualities from the right and the left sides into one whole in the middle line, tuning in to the Creator as a result. After all, the source of all these opposite things is situated in Him, where they all exist in unity. This is why on the third day, upon ascending to the Creator, a spiritual quality opposite to the Creator was revealed, which is the spiritual death of desires such as Shachem.

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A question I received: How could Aba ve Ima (father and mother) allow the shattering of Kelim, since it was their fault that it occurred? In other words, did they allow the Light to descend because of too much love?

My Answer: No, this wasn’t a case of too much love, or the lack of understanding or weakness associated with a mother who is over-caring. The reason was the lack of knowledge of the one and only factor which was impossible to predict ahead of time.

Aba ve Ima (father and mother) didn’t know that when the connection with the Creator was revealed it would bring such tremendous pleasure to the creature. However, the creature didn’t have a screen (the correct intention to receive it).

Let’s recall the example of the guest and the host. The host wants to treat the guest from the bottom of his heart because he loves him. The guest, however, refuses and finally agrees to be treated only to please the host. In this way the guest expresses his love to the host rather than simply satisfying his own appetite, even though he is very hungry.

A person who wants to love the Creator and give everything he has to Him sees the treats laid out before him and knows he’ll get them; all the pleasures from this table have already been tried. However, he repays the Host with everything he received from Him.

By doing so, a person uncovers who he really gives back to. One reveals the Creator’s greatness as well as tremendous pleasure originating from the connection between that person and the Creator. And he has no power to resist that pleasure. This state is impossible to imagine before we receive the Light (the treat). By acting so, a person gradually rises to the level of the Creator and comes to receive the status of the Host.

Moreover, this sensation cannot be revealed from the start because the Creator wanted the creature to make this revelation independently in order to achieve this status on its own. All other actions of the creature are not independent, since they simply unfold through the chain of Reshimot (one’s inner informational genes).

The point of free action on the creature’s part lies in attaining the Creator’s status as well as making all the revelations that accompany this process. This point of free action is revealed precisely by virtue of the shattering of vessels (Shevirat Kelim).

The Creator cannot give this attainment directly to the creature, but only by way of a “detour”; so that the creature makes this discovery on its own and shatters. Shattering means that one understands that he can’t do it himself because it is beyond him. A person is unable to give away that much and sacrifice such tremendous pleasure. Thus, a shattering occurs.

After the shattering, a person acquires the chance to attain this status. It happens gradually, in small portions, with the exception of the “stoney heart” – the point at which the pleasure of attaining the status of Creator is concentrated at the moment of the shattering. However, eventually even this point is corrected.

In other words, the shattering is the great revelation of the chasm which separates the Creator and the creature, which the Creator doesn’t allow the creature to feel directly. This is why the creature must shatter and reveal its evil.

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When a person correctly arranges the three qualities inside him called “candle,” “oil” and “wick,” he reaches a state called Hanukah, which comes from the words “Hanu Ko” – “stop here.” He thus reaches a short breather in the middle of the path.

The “oil” is our matter, the will to enjoy, the contents of the vessel or Kli. It is unable to light up on its own using the Light we attract from outside. It can only light up with the help of a wick. The wick has to be immersed in the oil, but a part of it has to reach outside, because the wick symbolizes the screen that we build outside our egoistic desire (outside the oil).

The only part of the egoistic desire that is able to shine (to be in contact with the Upper Light) is the part we are able to include inside the screen. Stated differently, only the oil that has saturated the wick can be lit up. This can only happen under the condition that the oil does not just permeate the wick, but also rises above the level of the rest of the oil (egoism), rising towards Bina – the Light, bestowal. Only then will it be able to shine!

The Light emanates from the upper end of the wick, the place where the wick comes outside and loses contact with the oil, egoism. The Reflected Light is the fire that ascends from below upwards, there attaining Keter of the ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light. At that point there is hardly any connection between the Reflected Light and the force of the desire to receive, egoism, which provides the power for the burning to take place. The oil ascends upwards along the wick, and that is the only place where contact is achieved, or equivalence of form between the oil in the wick and the Light. They can only shine together. The Light cannot manifest until it connects with the wick and the oil inside it.

By imagining a burning candle, we can understand the inner work of a person on the spiritual path and what we have to do in order for our soul to attain equivalence with the Light, the Creator. The desire does not disappear; rather, it must be entirely attached to the screen, the wick. From it we create the middle line inside us, to the degree we are able to bring the oil (desire) inside the wick.

The screen can include only a small part of the desire. The wick symbolizes this shaft, the thin line that is the measure of similarity between our desire and the Light. The screen, or the middle line, is built from these two forces – the oil and the wick, the right and the left lines. The right line is bestowal and Light, and the left line is reception, the oil. The middle line, which we create from the two Upper Qualities of reception and bestowal, is called the soul.

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