We are starting to talk about the development of soul. In order to sense the spiritual world, we use a sense called “the soul.” However, we presently don’t have this sense. In order to obtain it, we must have the desire to develop this ability from a point and by using it, begin to sense all the images that The Zohar tells us about, such as Noah, Leah, Elokim, Yud Hey Vav Hey, the ark, a house, the Light and many other things. We know nothing of their true spiritual meaning yet, just as a baby that’s newly born into this world starts out with a blank, white page. Nothing is yet written on that page!

The baby must become acquainted with this world; little by little, he begins feeling more through his senses. We often do not notice how he prepares himself for this or how he expresses a desire to learn something. He appears closed inside himself and we simply give him nourishment and take care of his basic needs. However, as he grows, he begins opening up and reacting to things more.

In the spiritual world, however, we develop differently than a newborn body does in this world, because there is a soul developing from a point of desire that is inside us. If we read The Zohar under the influence of this point, we absorb all sorts of impressions from the study and this point begins to develop and swell. When it grows into a sphere of a certain size, we will begin sensing the spiritual world within it.

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By studying The Book of Zohar, each person discerns precisely what is necessary for his soul. When reading The Zohar, each of us receives his own impressions, which are distinct from another person’s.

The entire narrative of The Book of Zohar has to pass through us. However, a person’s development does not occur by virtue of the influence of the narration itself, but from the Light that Reforms. The Light illuminates a person’s desire, his matter, which contains informational genes, Reshimot. This is similar to the work of stem cells – the foundation of all the cells in a human body.

As the Light influences our matter, it awakens the Reshimot that are inside the matter and which are unique and specific to each person’s soul. With the help of the Light, these Reshimot build a certain structure, a part of the soul, out of the matter. As a result, every person has his own construction of the soul.

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It is impossible to achieve equal and fair distribution without knowing the inner nature of each person. This cannot be achieved in any other way, such as through different social support systems and other “crutches.”

Social systems might be effective for some time, but eventually the entire system collapses as soon as society becomes more interconnected. We have lost the ability to regulate it, since we need to establish equality and fairness on a global scale. Here the desires of mercy, fairness and peace cannot replace truth, and it is then that the crisis emerges.

The crisis in economics is a result of people wanting to receive without limit. They inflated financial bubbles beyond rational limits, neglected the formula that balances giving and receiving in a reasonable proportion, and forgot that it is necessary to give and do something for others.

It is now being revealed how much the situation is out of our control and how we are powerless to balance society. This is how Nature pushes us to the revelation of the truth and attainment of souls.

A soul is the inner part of a person, the basis of life. If it is possible to attain another person’s soul, one will attain all the properties of that person, and then will naturally relate to him knowing what he is capable of and what can be reasonably requested from him.

We are now coming to the great principle of the Torah – “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which is a means for us to connect together. We can then understand and feel each other and are are able to share fairly. Humanity will not solve the problem of its survival without learning and acting by this principle!

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We have many desires and we have to sort them out. We can connect a part of the desires to bestowal, to the neighbor in the following way. Even though I understand that all of my desires are aimed at self-gratification, and I don’t have any other desires besides this, I am still able to use them for the sake of connecting with other souls – I can work with them in the middle line, in the screen De Hirik.

On one hand, it is a desire to receive pleasure, but on the other hand, I can work with it for the sake of bestowal. I connect the right and left lines, using their connection for the sake of connecting with the neighbor. This is called “praying for the public,” a prayer that I raise up and receive in response a force from Above enabling me to create the right connection. It is within my capability to desire for this to happen; I can raise a MAN and receive a force called “the key” (Miftecha) that lets me reveal the heavens – the Upper World.

Besides this, there are other desires or parts of desires that I cannot connect to others. I can only do so to a limit, but no farther. That is why I sever these desires or parts of desires and throw them out. I don’t work with them for now, even though later on I may have the forces to do so because I will see that by not using them for the sake of connecting with other souls, I lose out greatly and cause harm. For now however, I don’t realize the evil in them; I only see that I am unable to work with them and therefore, I simply discard them.

As for the desires that I am able to use for the sake of connecting with the neighbor, I work with them in partnership. This partnership is called “the screen De Hirik.”

This is how a person always works inside himself, sorting out his desires, forces and qualities, and unifying them into different groups in order to constantly create a special attitude to the neighbor from them. But while it seems to him that he is relating to the neighbor, he always reveals that in reality this is a part of him. This way, he tries to ascend from this imaginary picture to the spiritual world, where he reveals that we are all connected into one body of the common soul.

This is the condition of revealing the Creator, the Upper Force – we have to become “one man with one heart.”

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Two questions I received about coping with serious physical ailments:

Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for several years and doing dissemination. I have lupus, an illness that affects the connective tissues of the body. The illness is controlled but lately I have suffered falls or accidents and this is the fourth time I have developed a luxation (displacement) of a shoulder, having suffered two of them in the past three months. My doctor says I need an operation to stop these luxations. Is this only the result of my physical condition or do you think the Creator is trying to tell me something?

My Answer: You should consult with a few doctors and follow their advice.

Question: If someone has a life threatening illness, should they tell the group or use it as an impetus to unite and correct themselves and try to inspire the group in this way?

My Answer: Let everyone know of it so they all pray for you, because everyone is connected with you in one soul.

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A question I received: When the entire world reaches its final correction and ascends, merging with the Upper Worlds, then it will turn out that we haven’t yet enjoyed life in this world but have already passed to the Spiritual World?

My Answer: You are worried that you will never get the fame you are entitled to, or the glory, money and power over everything? You are afraid that you will correct yourself and get rid of these desires, ascend to another world where the Creator will meet you, hug you and ask, “Well, tell me what you want?” But you will have nothing left to ask for!

You already don’t want money, glory, power, or anything else. So what do you do then? What do the righteous need? A sip of water and a handful of berries for a week. And this is called the final correction, to which we all aspire?

But don’t worry, the higher a person ascends, the greater his desires become. Today’s material desires relative to the spiritual ones are a billion times less than the desires of an infant relative to an adult. In fact, we are completely cut off from the spiritual world, while an infant lives in the same world with us.

But as the child’s desires grow with age, he already wants to enjoy life as adult – the same way the desires of the soul grow within us. When we cross the barrier separating us from the Upper World and enter the spiritual world, there we find entire layers of impure desires, which we need to correct. By correcting them you rise above them into the Upper World!

How much can you lose here compared to what the system of the spiritual impure worlds can give you? It gives us such huge desires that our universe is nothing compared to them – they comprise all the worlds and not just our world, which is like a small grain of sand next to them.

Therefore, don’t worry, our desires grow all the time. And the greatest desires of this world, all its wealth, fame and power are just worthless minuscule feelings compared to spiritual fulfillment.

Besides, now the world is in such despair and depression that a person doesn’t even desire such minuteness.

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A question I received: If this world is imaginary, does that mean that all our actions in this world have no connection to the goal of creation?

My Answer: No, because you have to function, support yourself, and build your life in our world in order to exist. In order to reach the spiritual world, you must first become disappointed with your corporeal existence. This will make you think about how to perform a spiritual action, and you will then begin to connect your life in this world with spirituality. Your whole existence here will then be directed at developing the soul.

Everything you do in this imaginary world will become spiritual. Consequently this world will disappear, since you will have retrieved everything you need from it for your eternal state. It disappears because it dissolves completely and wholly in the process of assisting the point in the heart.

This constitutes this world’s correction. However, it does not change in and of itself, since it is incapable of acquiring the quality of bestowal directly. Our protein body and physical matter cannot exist for the sake of bestowal. Although all of its components on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels give to each other for the sake of leading a common existence, they don’t do this consciously.

However, if I use this whole world in order to exist so I can develop my soul, I will thereby utilize this world in the correct manner and will fully deplete it. The other levels of nature (inanimate, vegetative, and animate) are unconsciously connected to each other with a global and harmonious connection. Meanwhile, human beings use these levels, including their animate selves, in order to perform an action of bestowal in the soul on a higher level. A human being thereby elevates the whole corporeal creation along with himself.

One does not need to correct the inanimate objects, plants, or animals  in nature; they are already corrected. Rather, while existing in the animal body, a human has to use only what is essential for him to live, and to direct everything else to correcting the point in the heart. Then everything on the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels of this world will be in balance with the spiritual level.

It turns out that the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels are mutually included in each other and are controlled by the Creator, without their personal intention. We humans must also provide our animate bodies with everything necessary for them to exist for the sake of spiritual development. Our animate bodies are already prepared for us to use them in a spiritual form.

We cannot make our bodies bestow, and we cannot change its laws. However, while it exists on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, we can add an intention of using it the right way – for the existence of the body and the development of the soul. That way, it participates in the whole correction. With this kind of attitude on our part, the whole of creation will reach perfection and correction. Consequently, there isn’t a single part of the desire, even in this imaginary world, that does not undergo correction.

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We came into this world thanks to our parents. But many of our qualities were determined and instilled in us even before we were born. We inherited them from our former states or reincarnations, which we lived through in this world.

As we develop, we accept everything that happens as self-evident. First a person simply perceives himself and the world in which he exists; then come words, cognition, and understanding. Everything unfolds slowly and naturally, and we do not realize how peculiar and unnatural this process really is.

But we deem the entrance into the Upper World as unnatural, even though we reveal it in the same exact manner as we have revealed this world for ourselves! First we receive a desire to be born in the Upper World – “the seed of spiritual semen” (the point in the heart – the embryo of the soul). Then we are led to a place where we can develop our point; this place is called the womb in our world, or a group in the spiritual world.

We are not speaking about people that we encounter and who are our companions, but rather, we are talking about other aspirations to the Creator, similar to my own. By correctly building my attitude to them, I provide myself with the right environment for spiritual growth.

When a person is born into our world, his development occurs forcefully. No one asks for our consent and we are filled with knowledge, impressions, examples of behavior, and definitions of “what is good” and “what is bad” without any freedom of will whatsoever. However, in our spiritual development, the spiritual force that develops us, called “Father and Mother” (Aba ve Ima of the World of Atzilut), requires us to make an independent decision to develop spiritually. We have to decide how to do this, what future state we desire, and what goal we want to reach.

We are required to use our freedom of will, to understand and realize what we are doing and where we are heading. The stages of spiritual growth and formation are similar to physical development, but they are activated by our desire. This is the difference.

Therefore, in our world we are slaves (like animals), whereas in the spiritual world we are free creatures (people, Adam, meaning similar to the Creator). I create the “motherly womb” around me on my own. This is the group in which I become absorbed like a drop of semen. I receive from it everything I need in order to develop, including nourishment, strength, understanding, and examples.

When the desires of the group become my own and I am ready to outgrow them, then I am born into the Light. Thus, I advance from Aviut 0 to Aviut 1 and become a spiritual embryo. From now on, I can use the force of the Creator to form myself. I proceed to apply my own effort on the path, and gradually I begin to understand how the Creator raises me. With time, I become grown-up and wise like Him, based on the principle, “I will know You from Your actions (by becoming like You).” This is how a person becomes equivalent to the Creator.

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A question I received: Why is it that despite my ability to feel other people’s desires, I continue to think mostly of myself? How do I resolve this conflict?

My Answer: You only think of others because you want to use them for your own benefit. Therefore, it’s obvious that you feel them and would even like to strengthen this ability.

If I want to deceive someone, I have to have a good sense of that person and understand them well. In order to trick someone I have to become a good psychologist and penetrate into their mind and heart. Then I will know how to manipulate them to my benefit.

The ability to sense others doesn’t necessarily indicate anything. What matters is whose desires are more significant to you – yours or theirs?

It is written: “Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you,” which means that you should not use your neighbor for the purpose of advancing your own interests. But later it was written: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Does the phrase “as yourself” mean that half of the profit should go to me and half to him? No! It means that you should love only your neighbor the way you previously loved only yourself.

From now on, you have to start treating yourself the same way as you previously treated your neighbor when you took advantage of him. You have to start thinking about how you can use yourself in order to be of service to him.

You switch places: He takes your place and you take his. Your neighbor becomes more important to you than yourself. That’s what we call “bestowal.”

There is just one example of this interaction between people in our world: a mother and her child. When we make the transition to sensing others, we acquire the ability to begin sensing our own soul. This is actually the only way to feel it, since our soul consists of desires that are outside of us. By feeling those external desires, you can begin to feel the Creator within them.

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A question I received: It seems like most people don’t think about their body and soul, or about who and what they are.

My Answer: That’s not true. Everybody thinks: “I will die, but my soul will continue to live.” Subconsciously we all know that we are eternal, and we are preoccupied with the thought: “What will happen to my soul?”

No one thinks of himself as just a physical body. Even the most primitive materialists, regardless of their convictions, unwillingly and subconsciously think they are eternal. This idea is built into our very foundation and interlaced in the matter of which we are made. This lies at the very core of our desires, which were created by the Light and over which a human being has no power.

Our desire to be fulfilled consists of five layers, one of which is our need to connect with the Creator. As a result of the shattering of vessels, each of us is connected to the spiritual realm. That is why at our very depth, even without our conscious awareness of the fact, we feel that we are eternal and that life will not end at the time of our natural death. If not for this idea, we would not have energy to live.

Some people think that we continue to live through our children, or by devoting our lives to service to our country or society at large. But that’s not true. If we had clear knowledge that when this life ends, that is the end of our existence, and in addition, the earth will stop rotating in a little while, or in other words, if we only realized that we are not eternal, we would not have the energy to live.

We are all created with the subconscious understanding that we are eternal. We originate from the Creator and thus possess a part of Him which is everlasting. On one hand, we are also similar to “mortal animals,” but we are able to advance above their level to the higher level called “human” (or “speaking”) because we have the sensation of being eternal. Without this sensation, we would never have evolved to a higher level than animals that walk on all fours.

In order to develop as “human beings” and reach the “speaking” level, we must perceive ourselves as immortal creatures. The Creator provides this sensation to us, and that’s what makes a human being different from an animal.

A person’s inner world starts with his subconscious connection with the Creator and his sensation of eternal life. Being “human” – Adam, means “similar to the Creator” (in Hebrew, Adam means “similar”). That is why all our decisions, aspirations, strategies, and even attempts at suicide originate from our inner belief in our eternal state.

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