Zohar, Chapter “BaHar (On Mount Sinai),” Item 66: …there are two creations in man, creation for good and creation for bad. With the Torah, he separates them and the Creator gives him a soul from Him, to dominate over both—the one that is good and light, the next world, and the one that is evil and dark, this world—as it is written, “And He blew into his nostrils the breath of life.”

Our entire reality stems from the separation between darkness and light when we can truly “filter” the qualities that pertain to this world and to the world to come. We begin to build ourselves through discernments, by distinguishing the qualities for the sake of bestowal and those for the sake of reception.

All that we study in our world is our animal existence, meaning our nature. Why animal? This is because an animal doesn’t grow, but always remains at the same level with respect to its perception.

Therefore, until we begin to use the Light so as to build ourselves, by distinguishing the bestowing qualities from those of reception, until we amass these bestowing qualities, desiring to dwell in them, and build ourselves out of them, we exist only in this world.

Just as drops of semen begin to form into an embryo in the mother’s womb, so we must try to utilize the group, the environment, the study, the intentions, and various actions to continually add and accumulate the qualities of bestowal within. This is how a spiritual body will be formed.

Every time we reveal yet another part in bestowal and wish to gather them all together, this is called our next reincarnation. Indeed, we see our new life every time and a new opportunity to keep gathering and adding to us the qualities of the human level that are similar to bestowal and the Creator (the word “man” in Hebrew is “Adam” which is from “Edome,” similar).

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why does it sometimes take many years before a person begins to hear about the need to unite?

My Answer: We exist in this process throughout all of history. From one generation to the next, in all our reincarnations, our entire development is meant to bring us to a state where we will be forced to unite. Our whole history began with the breaking of the common soul, our spiritual vessel. From that time on, all these fragments collide with each other, hate each other, and do not understand who they are, where they came from, and why they exist. The most important thing for these fragments is the constant battle between them.

Gradually, step by step, we must come to a thorough understanding that due to our hatred and egoism, we miss out on a lot, in fact, so much so that we must unite. Why? It is because gradually, in the process of our development, we discover that we are connected. We can either kill each other or live together in peace.

However, there is a problem for those who feel an aspiration toward spirituality. The whole world advances toward unity by the path of Beito (in due time). Out of hopelessness, by thinking logically, a person sees that the world must unite. Yet on the other hand, one reveals that we are incapable of it. This is what the whole world feels. Whereas those in whom a point in the heart has awakened begin to hear that we must unite, and that only by uniting can spirituality be reached. However, they do not feel a need for unity. It turns out that some reveal a need to unite, but don’t know how since they have no means for it, while others have the means with the help of which they can unite but lack the inner need for uniting, although the rest of the world has it.

It appears that these two groups, the outer and inner parts, will need to come together and augment each other. We present them with a method of unification, and they give us a need to unite in the same manner that a baby transmits its needs to the parents, and this helps the parents obtain what the baby needs.

Therefore, the external society is the carrier of an inner need for unification, and we are possessors of the method of unification. In this way, we complement each other.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What is a real spiritual vessel (Kli)?

My Answer: A real Kli is a desire that is ready for correction. My task is to fully discern which part of my desire I can correct for the sake of bestowal, and which part I can’t correct and must simply restrict.

Suppose I am given a desire and I discern that I can correct 20% of it for bestowal, and that I have to restrict the other 80% of it, making Sof out of it, meaning the end of the Partzuf. This means that I corrected that entire desire. Both kinds of desires are always present, and I have to understand what to do with them.

However, there may be desires awakening in me that are unclear. This is because the Light that reaches me is insufficient to illuminate all the desires and all their details. This is why I am left with desires that aren’t discerned, called Hash, Mal, and Noga.

It’s as if I am in a fog and I cannot touch part of these desires. I only have to revive them as Klipot in order to support life in them. I have to make these compromises due to my own weakness and inability to perform the correction.

The desires that I have discerned are called “root, soul, and body.” They differ from these other desires, called “garments and castles,” which appear as if they’re not my own, real desires.

Later, at the very end of correction, these desires will turn into my own, real desire. It will join that which is called “brain, bones, and veins,” and will become my unified spiritual vessel. I will then see that all of reality is inside me, as opposed to the way I see things today, when it seems that there is me and a world outside of me.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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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: In the Torah, a lot is written about death. Yet the Torah and the Creator are eternal and perfect; the reality that He created is also eternal and perfect. Therefore, it seems that “life and death” are states of the eternal process.

My Answer: We see how still objects lose their form; animals and plants lose their life. They are also born in a new form. We learn that nothing disappears; everything that exists only changes form. Since we do not perceive some of the forms, we imagine that they disappear or no longer exist.

A soul or a Partzuf loses the screen and the Light (Ohr Pnimi) leaves it. Its previous form remains, but it is hidden behind the new form that is born. However, at the End of Correction, all the previous forms unite and form a final corrected state.

Therefore, there is no death, just the disappearance of the previous form with respect to the observer since he is not on the level of his subsequent state. Yet if we were able to look at these states “from the side,” we would see the transformation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/10, The Zohar

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The environment and the teacher are the only factors that define the future of a person. At every given moment, a person should evaluate the state he is in as if he already has everything he needs and his only responsibility is to connect with the right environment. Such an environment is always nearby and available; our task is to make the right choice. This is the only freedom of choice we possess. The rest is consequential and results from the choices we make.

Hence we shouldn’t worry about anything except for where we receive “nourishment” from, who we connect with, and who influences us. In other words, we have to think not about ourselves but, rather, what environment we’re connected to. If a person wants to control his growth, life, and destiny, he has to think only of who he’s in touch with.

However, these thoughts aren’t natural for us. We constantly think of ourselves, "Who am I, why, and what will happen to me? What is the reason for my life?" We direct those questions within and all of them are correct. Yet how are we supposed to answer them? What do we connect their solution with?

Kabbalists explain that the solution depends solely on the environment. That’s why we have to turn our attention to external forces that control us since it’s their influence that defines our future.

In fact, they’re not “external” but, rather, comprise a unified system of souls, an integral part of our spiritual body. This is where the breaking of the vessels occurred and what needs to be corrected. It’s the only place where we can make changes since we are unable to alter our other desires. It’s similar to digging into an archive and reading a record of events that are already predetermined. We can only influence our environment in some way. It’s a pity to waste our attention on anything else except this.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Article “The Freedom”

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A question I received: How can I become similar to the Creator if He has no form?

My Answer: The Creator has no form as we usually understand it in this world. The Light has no form, and neither does the upper degree. Rabash writes that all the worlds, when they’re not revealed in our desires (Kelim), are the Light of Infinity.

There are no worlds that exist outside of man. In relation to one’s inner system or the Soul, the “worlds” is an external system within him. Because of this, we give form to everything including the Creator.

The Creator (Bo-Re) means “come” (Bo) and “see” (Re). By changing and improving our qualities, we build an external form out of our uncorrected desire to receive pleasure. As we correct our attitude toward this external form (that is, correct our egoistic desire), this external form connects into us.

Each degree initially appears as external to us. Then, through our work with our environment, we have to raise its value in our eyes and see it as supreme and desirable. In so doing we attain love for a new degree from hating it. We desire this degree and change our selfish attitude toward it to aspiration to give to it. Thereby we attain this Upper degree. We as though absorb it or “turn a hating one into a loving one.”

We do this again and again until we incorporate the entire universe into ourselves and start perceiving it to be ours.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/01, Shamati #225

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A question I received: Baal HaSulam writes that he asked the Creator to lower him from high spiritual levels in order to be able to bring Kabbalah to people. What does this mean?

My Answer: In order to bring Kabbalah to people, one must actually be on the highest possible level, but at the same time, be able to descend to the lowest levels in order to convey everything necessary to others. When I select a teacher for my children, I don’t pick some schoolboy, but a qualified pedagogue, even though all he has to do is teach them the alphabet. That’s because he is closer to the source of Light. Thus, if a Kabbalist asks to be lowered from his spiritual level, this does not mean that he refuses it, because refusal would mean refusing bestowal to the Creator. The higher a person is on the spiritual rungs, the greater is his bestowal to the Creator.

However, in order to bestow to the lower ones, he is willing to create an additional Partzuf Searot (“hair”). Yet, at the same time he himself does not descend, similar to how an adult plays with a child and behaves as a child at that time. When he comes down from his level, he does not lose anything. It’s only in relation to the lower ones that he is closer to them and is able to be in contact with them.

In the spiritual world, attaining a level is a very difficult action because it is opposite to movement toward the Creator, upwards. One has to connect with the uncorrected desires and prefer their correction over engagement with something higher. This requires inclusion into the general scheme of the souls’ connection; one has to feel the importance of their general correction.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/10, “Peace in the World”

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No one knows how much more work we will have to do in order to realistically see the new, corrected world. But the results of our work can already be seen by the awakening of the nation of Israel. As a result of this awakening, there will be great, qualitative changes and people will begin to feel the spiritual reality. But to achieve this, we will have to attain a common might called “six thousand souls.”

We have to achieve this might in quantity and in force, meaning according to the amount of people aspiring to the spiritual goal, as well as the might of their undertsanding, the connection between them, and the importance they attribute to this. As soon as we achieve this might of “six thousand souls,” the spiritual world will be revealed to us. This constitutes the goal of disseminating Kabbalah: to have as many people join this movement as necessary to reach “the first stop” in the spiritual world, which is the spiritual revelation.

When we unite together with this force and this quantity, where the quantity multiplied by the quality will give us the necessary might (P=UxI – power equals pressure times the force of electricity), then a spiritual vessel emerges, in which the Creator becomes revealed. Then, everyone who participates in this common vessel will feel the revelation of spirituality. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the creatures.

It depends only in the importance that we attribute to spirituality in relation to corporeality. We are already building this common vessel of revealing the Creator, but until we complete it, we won’t be able to discover it. It will become expressed in our sensations, along with the Creator inside it.

From the Independence Day lecture 04/20/10, “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

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The Zohar tells us about the connection among souls. From the Creator’s perspective, all the souls form a single system in the World of Infinity, where infinite Light fills everyone. This can be likened to a perfect, healthy organism, all the parts of which exist in harmony and proper interaction. On the other hand, The Zohar describes this system in respect to its parts called souls or people.

There are some who feel the souls and the connection among them. There are also others who do no feel it and perceive this system in its external form. They see it as consisting of our corporeal, animal bodies of this world that are somehow connected with each other.

The whole Torah describes only the types of the connection between us. The question is only how a person perceives it. We either feel the connection in the external form, as this constantly changing world that is moving toward some goal. Or we permeate within and, using this world as the basis, begin to feel the connection between us in the souls. Then we feel these two forms simultaneously.

The concepts of “world,” “year,” “soul,” and “procurement of reality” are forms of connection among us both on the material and the spiritual levels. All the concepts that exist in our world can be found in spirituality as well. However, in the latter they point to the form, the force, or the type of connection among us. This is precisely what we need to achieve.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, The Zohar

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