A “friend” is not just any person; he is a companion who stands opposite me. I gradually acquire love for him in order to reach love of the Creator. This formula is rigid and doesn’t change. First I appeal to the Creator, and in order to connect to Him, I have to unite with my friends.

I labor in love of friends because that is the necessary condition for attaining love of the Creator. A friend and the Creator are linked because with respect to my desire to receive pleasure, they are equal. The Creator and my friend are equally distant from me, and I relate to them in the same way.

The Creator is pure bestowal. I hate my friend as much as I hate bestowal, and therefore, I reject them both. If I don’t achieve this attitude and view my friend and the Creator in the same way, then I can’t work properly. It is similar to aligning one’s eye to aim at a target. If my aim is more toward the Creator, or more toward my friend, then it is no longer precise. I must aim precisely at the target, so that he who aspires for the Creator (Isra-El – straight to the Creator) and the Creator (the Light of correction) merge into a single whole.

A Kabbalistic group is a spiritual vessel, a system of souls, while the Creator is the One who fills it. The vessel becomes just like the Light. Then I realize that it is one and the same since there is no Light without a vessel (Kli).

Everything merges into one. The group becomes the model of the Creator for me. In my attitude toward them, I learn how to relate to Him, whether to love or to hate him. Certainly the only way to relate to the Creator is with bestowal. So, I am presented with the group to test how much I can bestow. My ego is what creates the distance, the disparity of form between the Creator and the group. If it weren’t for my ego, then there would be no difference between them.

So why do I feel a difference now? It is only because I receive pleasure from the Creator and nothing from the group. That is the only difference.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/10, Article, “What does ‘Love Thyself as Thy Friend’ Give Us?”

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A Question I Received: For whom do I request the Light that Reforms? Is it for my corrected friends, as it were, or for myself?

My Answer: A person’s request comes out of the depth of his inner need, his desire. The desire has to be for the society. Indeed, if we are talking about attaining spirituality, there isn’t any individual reckoning with anyone there.

There isn’t a case where I exist in the spiritual world. I is the collective of the souls that includes me. Therefore, one can’t remain there alone in separation from the others. So, for what life does one asks for strength? Strength of life is for the common body of the unified soul. Hence, one has to request the strength in order to give it to this body. All his life is defined by how much he gives to the common system.

Therefore, even if one’s prayer is motivated by the will to receive strength, it’s a prayer to have the strength to bestow to the common body of the soul. This is why, whether he’s asking for everyone or for himself, it’s the same prayer.

When we say that there’s “a prayer of one” and “a prayer of many,” it’s still an uncorrected prayer. There is no other prayer but the “prayer of many” which is the prayer for the society. However, as long as a person isn’t in the fully corrected state, he asks partly for himself and partly for the society. According to this, he gets reformed and corrected in his aim so that he begins to feel where it’s better and where it’s worse. In this way, he is led to the correct prayer.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, On Major Corrections

Adam was the first person to reveal the order of actions that lead to spiritual success. He passed on this wisdom to his disciples “mouth to mouth.” And everyone can add to his friend (Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”).

One: The Creator is One, all of reality is included in Him at all times; everything stems from Him; He is perfect despite the seeming imperfection of creation. Kabbalists call this investigation “One.”

Abraham laid down the basis of this investigation. In his Book of Creation, he arrived at the conclusion that there are not two different authorities of good and evil, but rather everything is ruled only by good (Baal HaSulam, “The Character of Kabbalah”).

The Book of Zohar, Preface (abridged)

1. Abraham is the root of mercy in the souls. That is why he corrected the common soul (Shechina) and made it suitable for fulfillment by the Light of Mercy.

But if the Light of Mercy (Hassadim) stayed in the souls of Abraham’s disciples (the “people of Israel,” the group he created), they wouldn’t be able to exercise their desire to receive pleasure. That is why the correction of mercy didn’t bring the Thought of Creation to completion. This is because the main idea behind the Thought of Creation is to please the creatures specifically by receiving fulfillment from Him.

2.  This is the reason why Abraham (the property of bestowal) gave birth to Isaac (the property of receiving). As a result of Abraham’s correction, Isaac discovered the existence of the common soul which was in the state of a complete perfection filled with the Light of Mercy. He then sensed its desire to receive the entire perfection that was pre-determined by the Thought of Creation.

In other words, Isaac awakened in it the desire to receive from the Creator for the sake of bestowal which means that the desire to receive emerges only because of the desire of the Bestowing One; if the Bestowing One didn’t desire it, the soul wouldn’t possess even the tiniest desire to receive anything at all from Him.

This type of receiving for the sake of giving is considered bestowal since it is a quality that is not supported by egoism. It completely corrected the general desire (Shechina) to receive the entirety of abundance that was programmed at the time of creation.

3.  However, since the world was not ready for complete correction, the villain Esau appeared and corrupted the process of correction.

Esau didn’t follow “receiving solely for the sake of bestowal” as per Isaac’s correction; he sinned by receiving “for his own sake.” Even when he came to understand that the Bestowing One didn’t want him to receive, he still continued to receive pleasure for his own sake and that’s why Klipot “bonded” with him.

Since Jacob was aware of Esau’s “defect,” he corrected the Soul within the property of trepidation. That’s why it is said: “his hand grasping Esau’s heel.”  As a result, the corrections of Abraham and Isaac were united and no wrongdoing occurred.

4. But this correction was not final since it resulted from fear of sin that comes from “Esau’s heel.”  When complete correction takes place, the fear of “Esau’s heel” is annulled, and trepidation appears out of the greatness of the Creator. Jacob’s fear serves to correct all generations of the people of Israel until complete correction is attained.

5. Everybody has to go through correction, and by doing so perceive the soul created by the Creator. This means obtaining the “qualities of the forefathers.”

Only after the acquisition of such properties, correction of the soul commences; it takes off from the same place which Jacob left for us, meaning elevating trepidation to a degree at which it depends solely on the greatness of the Creator. Afterward, the Upper Light is attracted through this elevated property of trepidation to guide us towards complete correction.

6. The reason for all afflictions that emerge in this world is exclusively to correct the desire to receive within souls so that they become ready to receive all of the abundance included in the Thought of Creation.

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Arvut (mutual guarantee) takes force when I swear that from now on my part in all others will always be fulfilled. It seems rather simple, but for me to achieve this I need to spiritually adhere to everyone and sense their desires. Since we are connected in our souls, I have to discover where my part lies inside the desire of the other and he certainly must receive something through my soul, like it works in a common physical body.

Where then is that hollow area which I have to fill according to the system that exists in the World of Infinity? I have to take care of it, and so must each of us with regard to the others. There is no soul where I don’t have a part and need to fill the space. Nobody can fill it except me; it’s a special space, a unique range, which only I can fill. And I assume responsibility for it, just let me do it!

I don’t need anything but that. Like a mother who takes care of her baby who desires one thing only: an opportunity to provide care. Try telling a mother to pass her child to someone else. Even if she is a queen and has numerous attendants who would be happy to assist her, she still enjoys feeding her offspring. She receives pleasure from doing it herself. We too have to perceive our bestowal onto others as pleasure.

Thanks to our bonding with each other, within each soul there is a space that I must fill. My soul contains 7 billion parts; outside of it, there are an additional 7 billion souls, and in each one of them I have to fill my space (as do each of us). From my point in the heart, I fill in my parts in all other souls, and each of them has to fill his part within me.

This is called the mutual penetration of souls. Each has a root from which one acts. And all other desires in me except the root are foreign. They are present in me only because I contain them all.

Originally, I am just a point. I need the others to give me fulfillment in all these desires and only then will I live! As for me, I have to use these desires to understand the others and repair the hole in them that only I can fill. When I plug these other desires into me, I see their needs and fill them from my point in the heart. You feel me through my desire plugged into you, and you fill in your space within me from your point in the heart. This is called Arvut. There isn’t any other opportunity for all of us to be fulfilled. It is the only way.

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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When the souls unite together, a person discovers a new reality. Currently we experience ourselves as living in this world, which is at the level of individual existence; each part is disconnected from the entire organism. Yet, despite the fact that all these parts are alive and

aware of their individual existence, there is a difference between a body that is whole and a body whose parts are disconnected.

Right now, each disconnected individual is receiving a lifeline and life support, like an organ extracted from the body for transplant into another organism. Consequently, they are like “ready-for-transplant organs” on life support, which ensures they don’t descend below the animalistic existence. These organs perceive themselves as living in this reality. That’s who we are.

If we, a group of such organs, desire to unite and we ask for it, then our collective desire (the prayer called MAN) draws from Above (from a higher level) the force that unites us. Subsequently, in our unity we perceive the spiritual reality, as a body whose organs begin to connect with each other.

Thus, the entire organism experiences a different life, not the existence each of them once lived separately by striving to survive on its animalistic level. We ascend from the animalistic level of existence to a new level called human.

The sensation of this collective life of all “bodily organs” (the collective soul) is called the spiritual world. We will no longer even be able to perceive the previous existence as life because we’ll no longer live to survive, but instead will support each others’ lifeline. The Light gives us a completely new and different reality.

Our previous life on the animalistic level will look extremely low and undesirable. We’ll need it solely in order to absorb the desires of others who are still living in our world as animals; these are the desires that haven’t joined our connection yet. Gradually they will also begin to ascend. However, once having attained our spiritual life, this lower level will be unnecessary since we will all have ascended to a higher dimension.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, The Zohar

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Rabash’s article, "The Purpose of the Association:" We have met today to establish an association of those interested in following the path and method of the author of the “Sulam” (Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag), the path of ascension from the level of an animal to the level of man.

We have to deduce the fundamental principles from this article:

1. What does it mean "to assemble"?

2. What is "the method of Baal HaSulam"?

3. What is "the human level"?

4. Was man created to experience pleasure or fear before the Creator?

5. The condition for attaining all of this is equivalence of form with the Creator.

6. The will to enjoy by itself is not bad. It is the matter of all creation. The evil inclination (Yetzer Ra) is our unwillingness to unite and to correct the breaking of the common soul into parts, our individual souls.

7. We must not destroy the egoistic desire, but only correct its intention from "for myself" to the intention of bestowal, "for others." Inside our desire to receive, we are always opposite to the Creator, but inside the intention to bestow, we join Him.

8. Adhesion with the Creator takes place through equivalence of form with Him. The way to attain the intention to bestow is by working with the group. This task is achievable and verifiable, and the common desire to bestow that we create together is our common soul, which the Creator fulfills.

9. Any state we are in consists of two opposite states, and as we advance, the gap between them increases. On one hand, I continually reveal how insignificant I am, and at the same time, I continually reveal the greatness of the goal.

I have to unite all of this inside one point. Thus, I will feel the breaking between the souls which will force the Upper Light to correct me. Then bestowal will reign between myself and other people.

This is called "the giving of the Torah, the Light of Correction." After that the One Who Gives the Torah becomes revealed as well inside our corrected attitude to our neighbor, inside the common spiritual vessel (Kli).

From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, "The Purpose of the Association – 1"

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 20: And one appointee was established on the gate from the outside, and his name is Gazriel. With him, there are twelve appointees surrounding him—three, three to each side, on four sides. The [lower] general Merkava is twelve—Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael—in each of which are three lines, HGT, which are twelve. Individually, each contains twelve.

In spirituality, every creation consists of twelve parts. Every element including the smallest and the entire spiritual reality, has the same structure and the same properties. If we carved out even a tiny portion, it would contain all the properties of the whole structure. Therefore, there is no difference between the general and the particular in spirituality, contrary to our world where parts are added together to form the whole.

In the spiritual world, quality rather than quantity is important; the whole is not created as a sum of its parts. Rather, every part is already the general; however, it is revealed at the qualitatively new degree. The spiritual reality is revealed only in a person’s attainment, within one’s desire. This means that we attain the forms of desire, which are called the soul and the Light, acting inside the desire and giving such forms to it.

It turns out that the entire reality is one soul Adam HaRishon. All of the worlds, spiritual objects (Partzufim), angels, and forms are the four levels of the desire (still, vegetative, animate, and speaking). The entire creation has the same structure. Besides it there is only Atzmuto, the essence of the Creator, which is unattainable. We can only guess that it is the root of everything that we reveal, but we cannot attain Him.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/13/10

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Question: What is the spiritual root of dissemination and why is it so important?

My Answer: The root of dissemination, spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, lies in the connection among souls. After the breaking of the vessels and separation due to mutual egoism, the souls have to reunite. It’s a “puzzle” that we have to reassemble; this is how we will come to know the Creator of the common soul.

Question: Why do religions and other beliefs also want to disseminate?

My Answer: They all want to spread their influence and strength; they want to be stronger, more powerful and rich, and to absorb more followers from other belief systems. It is a natural egoistic desire of any teaching.

Question: Then what is the difference between Kabbalah and egoistic teachings?

My Answer: We don’t recruit anyone. We don’t need to. We pursue only one goal: that a person will know the purpose of his existence and the way to make his life good, eternal, and perfect. That’s it! What would you call such a person? He wouldn’t be called anything, neither a Jew, a Christian, or a Muslim, nor a follower of anyone or anything. He simply will be kind and loving to everybody.

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I don’t lack problems in life. Sometimes it seems that I am so sick and tired of everything, I have no desire left for any of it. Thus, I have to set aside for a moment all that is animalistic and earthly and discern the most important thing: What are my current relationships with those around me? I hate them, I don’t care about them one bit, they might as well disappear for all I care… This negative, which I aim at the environment, is my evil inclination.

It is being expressed as a result of the breaking of our souls: We were once united, but now we are discovering the reverse – total disconnection. This discovery is extremely important; it is what I need. I mustn’t discard these negative moments, but collect them. They show me how much I hate others, and it’s wonderful that this is being revealed! Yes, I hate them and scorn them, they make me sick to my stomach, we are mindboggingly distant from each other – and that’s wonderful. Now I have an opportunity to begin the correction.

Thus, I start moving toward them. I make efforts, participate in the study and dissemination in order to feel out at least some sort of connection, to bend down anywhere I can. If I feel that today I am powerless even to look at my friends, then I have to take on some sort of mechanical work that benefits the goal, until I gradually return to the general flow.

Every person can be cast down into a state from which he cannot rise on his own. That is why he is simply obligated to receive support from his group and from our entire world community, like someone who has lost consciousness and needs outside help.

On their part, the groups have to identify these cases and immediately offer emergency, professional help to the "victims," like doctors that save the patient’s spiritual life. When doing this, we don’t "stomp out" the evil in a person, but offer support in order to awaken him and bring him to the middle line, which will build him up. Then all the evil will turn to goodness.

From Lesson 5, World Zohar Convention 5/8/10

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In the News (From Top.rbc.ru): “According to Professor Dimitrios Karussis, member of the Executive Board of the Israel Society of Neuroimmunology and the Head of the Multiple Sclerosis Center, Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, scientists were able to identify a soul in a human being by using MRT technology (magnetic resonance tomography).

Research indicates that Kabbalah study activates a part in the brain which the researches called “faith apparatus.” It activates brain activity and increases manyfold an organism’s resistance to diseases that have left modern medicine helpless.”

My Comment: How can we reveal the soul? It depends on what we want to discover. If that’s the force activating an animal body, then surely it’s doable. Back when I was a student, research about “the weight of the body before and after death”was already being conducted in the world, to define the weight of the soul that allegedly leaves the body.

Everything depends on how we define a soul. Sometimes a man and a woman address each other as “my soul-mate.” If that’s how you define the soul, then you can weigh it. But if we understand that the soul is a part of the Creator from Above, the force of bestowal, then, similar to other forces of our world, it can be identified only by the results of its actions. By perceiving the force of bestowal within the property of bestowal (the desire to give, Kli), we thereby reveal the Creator within us and thus call Him Bo–re, from the words "Bo" -"Come" (attain it with your property of bestowal) and "Re" – "See" (discover).

There is no Creator without the creature. We are unable to say anything about Him, as He is outside of us, since that’s the essence or the abstract form which we can’t discuss. Kabbalah, being a purely experimental science, forbids us to engage in such philosophical reasoning, as Baal HaSulam states in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “the judge has nothing but what his eyes can see.”

We need the material on which this spiritual force could act. This material along with the force acting in it will be called the “soul.” Why? It is because the material itself – a part of the Creator from Above that possesses the same property of bestowal – would resemble the Creator.

How can the scientists discover the soul if it exists in the property of bestowal? What kind of devices can they use? What can help them? To discover the soul, one needs the material that would have the property of bestowal.

That could only be when a person has reached such a correction. Then, whatever clothes that material would be called the Light of the soul. The Kli itself, the desire, the material that has the property of bestowal, would be called the soul’s body. Without possessing such qualities, a person of this world is unable to perceive neither the body of the soul nor its Light.

Hence, if we define the soul according to Kabbalah, as a part of the Creator from Above, then scientists have no way of approaching it. One can attain the soul only the help of Kabbalah.

Everything depends on our intention. If we aspire to reveal spirituality, the Light will come and correct our material (desire), so that it becomes bestowing. When the material will resemble the Creator, become the Creator’s part from Above, the soul will arise within us.

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