To be fulfilled by the Light of Infinity depends only on our connection. It is for this reason that before we begin to read The Zohar, we must imagine connecting our points in the heart in our desire to unite into one soul and merge with the Creator, the One. And in doing so, then the only thing remaining will be: He and His Name as a single whole. We do not see physical bodies, only individual aspiration towards the Creator which binds us into a single desire. If we were to unite this way, we would discover the Light of the World of Infinity amongst us.

The tighter we come together in our connection, the higher we ascend in the spiritual world. This is because there is no top or bottom there. These words only represent our attitude towards the value of bestowal.

We now need to discover that everything happens in this one common desire and that there is nothing other than it. The only thing that exists is Malchut of the World of Infinity which divides into worlds, Sefirot, Partzufim, and different states. But all these things are located in the same place, the same desire. The Zohar is only concerned with revealing this desire, while we wish to connect to it and to imagine what happens within it.

Connecting to the desires of others does not mean that I am connected to these people with binding strings. Rather, I incorporate and embrace their desires as my own, and I then become the entire Malchut of the World of Infinity.

It’s like a mother who receives her child’s desires while he is physically inside her until he is born. This perception of your neighbors’ desires as your own, where you internally don’t differentiate between yours and theirs is called “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 2 Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 201: “And the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to the God who gave it.” When the Creator created Adam, He took his dust from the place of the Temple and built his body from the four directions of the world. And each of them gave him strength. Afterwards, He poured over him the spirit of life, as it is written, “And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Then he rose and knew that he consisted of above and below, and then he adhered to the Creator and knew the upper wisdom [Hochma].

The four spirits of the world are Hochma, Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut. They are called the four corners of the world, and they are also divided into the right and the left lines: Hochma and Bina; Tifferet is the middle line with Yesod at the end of it, followed by the place of adhesion with Malchut. This is how everything is divided into the right side, left side, and the middle, and the top and the bottom. Such is the structure of our soul, within which we reveal reality.

Even now we reveal our reality within our soul, but we call it our body only because this soul is small, uncorrected, and acts egoistically for the sake of receiving pleasure for itself. But in reality it is the same structure, the same desire, since the Creator only created one desire and not several. However, it is merely revealed to us to a very small extent, in a very uncorrected, tiny form. What we perceive within it is called “this world.” We must reveal this desire, make it bigger, change it slightly, and make it similar to the Light. Then, in it, we will perceive the soul or life in the future world.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: What is the advantage of the breaking of the common soul?

My Answer: We can use a television set at home to illustrate this. Although it is a complicated device, anyone knows how to press buttons and use it; its operation does not pose any problem whatsoever for children. But let’s suppose that the TV completely breaks into all its tiny pieces, and with no other option, I need to fix it. Just think how smart I will become after I reassemble it! I will need to know its whole structure: all its plastic and metal parts, all the wires and components, their circuitry and connections, and all the laws governing how the components interact. We are talking about a complete and total breaking, so I need to know everything about it in order to repair it.

Accordingly, with respect to the breaking in spirituality, I come to understand how it is arranged and Who created it. He put all of Himself into His creation, and so I come to understand and comprehend the Creator Himself. In other words, before the breaking, the common soul of Adam HaRishon is completely different than after the breaking and the correction. Due to the breaking and reuniting, instead of instinctive knowledge about how to “press buttons” and make actions on the level of an animal, which nature compels me to perform, I collect the whole creation on my own, achieve the End of Correction, whereby the whole creation becomes mine, and by that I acquire the mind of the Creator.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

There are many people living in our world who have no idea how it operates. They are unaware of the structure of social and governmental systems, the laws of nature, the orbiting of planets, and the various connections that exist between people. People can live a very simple life, knowing only what is needed to get along day by day and never burning with desire to know more about how the world functions. In contrast, in our world, some people are more interested and curious to know more, and they research the systems that operate on the world.

The same is true about spiritual existence. Not all people who acquire spiritual perception endeavor to delve deeply into it. They are naturally limited by the root of their soul, which does not demand any more than its level. In other words, it performs its function at its intended place and nothing more is required.

The root of the soul demands more of others who are meant to research the spiritual world. These are Kabbalists. Similar to scientists who examine our world, Kabbalists investigate the entire system of the spiritual world in detail. Kabbalists are meant to come to complete spiritual attainment and perception. This is according to the root of their soul, which compels Kabbalists to include everyone within them and to scrutinize all the details in the spiritual world through synthesis and analysis in order to correct their souls. It is to the extent that one’s soul demands correction that the general reality is perceived by that person.

And it is the degree to which one corrects himself by which he is judged. If one’s correction is 100%, then he is equivalent to the great Kabbalists and is equal to them in all ways. In spirituality, there is no division of people by important and unimportant. It matters that one has done all that was required of him.

Spirituality is a world of bestowal. The approach is a bit different than what we’re used to; a person enters spirituality, looks back, and realizes that he hasn’t done anything! There is nothing left of what a person once fought for or the actions he had performed. Hence, one becomes surrounded only by pure bestowal.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - 1 Comment →

A question I received: What kind of spiritual advancement did we gain at The Zohar Convention 2010 that was held last week?

My Answer: We went through enormous changes. I felt that the nation of Israel did not simply receive The Book of Zohar, but returned to it. It wasn’t the reception of something new, but the joy of people who found what they once lost.

Maybe they can’t even give themselves an explanation of what happened to them, but I saw that this is exactly what their souls experienced. They felt that they found what they lost two thousand years ago. They aren’t studying The Book of Zohar now, but are remembering it.

Indeed, this is the case: They aren’t finding out something new, but are rejoicing about the return of something that was once lost. Therefore, I think that the nation of Israel went through a great, wonderful spiritual ascent. Moreover, this doesn’t apply just to the people who were with us at the Convention. It was a step forward for the entire dissemination of the science of Kabbalah among the nation of Israel, which will later be joined by all humanity. Thus, all of Babylon (all of humanity) is returning to its spiritual source.

There is reason to hope that all the souls will unite into one soul of Adam in our lifetime and we will attain the state of the Final Correction, the World of Infinity, the corrected common soul. I believed in this and waited for it, but our success exceeded all my expectations. I think that we are being given great opportunities from Above to correct our nature.

There is still a lot of work ahead of us, which is special and yet difficult. At the same time, it is extremely important and exalted, and we have to be grateful that the Creator has chosen to fulfill His great plan through us.

Now all we have to do is continue to disseminate Kabbalah among the nation of Israel with the help of all the people who took part in the Convention together with us. By virtue of the wisdom of Kabbalah and the force of the Light of The Book of Zohar, Israel will unite into a single nation, as Baal HaSulam writes in the newspaper “The Nation” and Item 70 of “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.” This is possible only by uniting the hearts, and that can only happen by the force of the Light that Reforms, which raises us above our egoism.

I would like to thank all the people who came to the Convention from many different countries all around the world. Together we will be able to carry out this great correction, and judging by the speed of its current dissemination, it is bound to happen very fast.

The time has not yet arrived to reveal the true depth and greatness of what is unfolding, but I can say that we carried out exalted and mighty inner corrections. And this will soon be expressed inside us and in the world.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

What does The Zohar teach us? We know from the science of Kabbalah that the Creator created one desire, within which all further development occurs. This one desire encompasses a great multitude of individual desires, connected with each other into a single system called “Adam,” the common soul.

Then, according to His program, the Creator began to ruin the connection that existed between the parts of the same desire. Thus, they began to lose connection with each other, and like a sick organism, the organs stopped interacting with each other properly. Similar to an imbalance when our body is ill, we experience symptoms such as increased blood pressure or temperature, or chemical changes of the blood. It is an illness where the body is unable to balance itself out.

Why does the Creator act this way with regard to the souls? It is in order for us to feel the corruption and then correct it. This illness or corruption of connection between us as parts of one system permeates into our initial state, and we begin to feel less and less connected to each other. This loss of connection between us comprises 125 degrees of descent from Infinity, the state where we were infinitely connected to each other and until a state where this connection vanishes completely. Moreover, during the descent through 125 degrees, on the level called “Parsa,” (division), an even greater corruption arose, and instead of the positive connection that was once present, a negative connection emerged. Therefore, each person now wishes to use others for his own benefit. The organism doesn’t simply die, but completely devours itself.

This descent into a desire for the sake of receiving and using others continues until it reaches a state where we absolutely lose any connection to each other, including a positive connection for the sake of bestowal, as well as a negative connection for the sake of reception. We exist in a state of complete disparity to spirituality, lacking any realization or knowledge of it, which is a consequence of our separation from each other.

Therefore, what we feel is “this world,” an imaginary reality. Why is it imaginary? It is because the Creator created it specifically for the purpose of creating an illusion of His absence for us. We are given the opportunity to understand that we need to correct the connection between us. To the extent that our connection increases, our soul ascends from the feeling of just our world to the World of Infinity occurs. Thus, re-establishing a connection between us creates an ascent.

For that reason, to the extent that we can imagine our states in connection with all the souls (all individual parts of creation together), we will gain a greater appreciation of The Zohar. After all, The Book of Zohar is written from the level of Infinity. The authors of The Book of Zohar wrote this work from the height of all 125 degrees, where they were connected together. Likewise, when we study The Zohar, we need to feel a desire to unite within. We don’t need any special tricks, but must only remember that everything is attained inside our connection with one another.

In actuality, The Zohar talks only about the unification of souls. It explains our connection in the general system, called “Adam,” with all the other souls, and how we can connect them all together into a corrected, healthy, and properly functioning system. This is the only thing that The Zohar speaks of.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Studying Kabbalah, I know that you yourself would not want to study, except from one greater than you. And you will not find it except in studying The Book of Zohar. However, prior to each study, resolve within yourself to not make it a habit, but only for the Creator. And not all times are the same: at times you will be able to study for the Creator fervently, if you are rewarded with praying with a pure thought; and sometimes with a small thought, but all with a thought to benefit the Creator.
–The Rav Meshulam Feibush,
Yosehr Divrey Emet (Sincerity, Words of Truth), p 25

If one merits it, he will study The Book of Zohar at dawn, because by its power Israel will come out of exile as out of darkness.
–Ohr Tzadikim veDerech Seuda, Volume 1, Chapter 15

Study in a book of Kabbalah, and even if you do not understand them, say the words of The Zohar, for they can purify the soul.
–The Rav Yaakov Kapil Prayer Book, Section “The Intention in the Study”

It is true that we accept that even for one who knows nothing, the words of The Zohar can still cleanse the soul.
–Rav Tzvi Elimelech Shapira (MAHARTZA),
The MAHARTZA Additions, Item 9

Each and every letter in The Book of Zohar and the writings of our great teacher, by Rav Chaim Vital…are great corrections for the soul, to correct all the incarnations.
–Rav Yitzhak Yehudah Yehiel of Komarno,
Notzer Hesed (Keeping Mercy), Chapter 4, Teaching 20

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

It is difficult to feel and understand what a soul is, yet Kabbalists tell us that a soul is a part of the Creator, who is the quality of bestowal. When the desire to receive pleasure assumes the form of bestowal, it begins to work as a bestowing desire. As a result, it feels similarity with the Creator, as though it is a part of Him.

Every time we feel a change within, we have a new and different soul. During each of our actions of merging with the Light, twenty-five new spiritual Partzufim, or souls, are born. So how is it possible to identify ourselves in the spiritual world? In this material world we identify ourselves by everything we currently perceive as our own, such as by our body parts (the arms, legs, head, and so on). As long as we’re alive, the same body will remain with us now and tomorrow, and the next day, and so forth.

However, what is “ours” in the spiritual world? What remains with us from the previous state if we constantly receive ten new Sefirot and a new depth (Aviut) of desire, with new qualities, a new screen, and new Light? Is there something that remains in order to feel that it’s “us” who advance instead of the birth of some other soul?

The truth is that in spirituality, every day and every instant, you are a new person. Nothing ever remains with you from the past. It is contrary to our material life. In spirituality, everything is constantly renewed, except the initial point in the heart.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

What is the Light that Reforms? In what way does it reform us and how? Imagine the common soul as a circle consisting of broken pieces that are unconnected. We have to restore this connection in order to feel eternal life within the common soul.

Imagine that a sculptor has made a statue of a person and then broke it into pieces. Instead of a whole statue, there is now a pile of broken pieces. These pieces are living souls that desire to assemble back together into a whole statue, but they just can’t manage to “stick” to each other. When they attempt to unite, they discover giant forces of repulsion among them.

They are trying to come closer to each other and to recreate the statue of a person who is similar to the Creator, but they aren’t able to do it. And that’s because they don’t have the glue that will make them stick together.

After numerous attempts to come closer and stick together, the parts become convinced that they are unable to connect together on their own, yet only unity will save them. They then realize that only the Upper Force, the force that created the statue in the first place, and the force that deliberately broke it, will be able to glue these parts back together into a single whole.

However, it will do so only when the parts request it. This request is called asking for the Light that Reforms.

If we desire to unite and ask for help in doing this, then we are asking the Creator to be the force that will unite us like glue. This is how we return to the initial form of the statue – the common soul of Adam HaRishon.

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

In relation to me all the other souls are in the corrected state. I have to recognize that I am the only uncorrected element in the whole universe. However, if they are all corrected and I am not, then doesn’t it mean that I am the only one who needs to correct myself? No, it doesn’t, and the reason is because my lack of correction is inside of me, since we all belong to one system.

If I am a sick organ in the body, then the whole body suffers because I do not carry out my work. Suppose I am a very important part of the body – say the kidneys, where my role is to cleanse everything there is in the body, but I am not functioning. Then the whole body cannot exist because this part is included in all the others and must serve them, providing its part of the common work. Without it, all the other parts are unable to function correctly either.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter if the whole rest of the body is healthy; I still make it sick to the extent that I am uncorrected. I have to realize that I am the only one who is uncorrected, and this ruins the whole body. Without me, they would all be perfectly healthy.

Therefore, my work is to connect with everyone and to see how flawed they are because of me. This is the meaning of the verse, “Every person judges others to the extent of his own flaws.” Then I will desire to correct myself and to elevate everyone along with me to the height of the final, corrected state.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →