Our inner work is revealed to us piecemeal, in parts that pertain to its execution. We aren’t given the ability to see the entire sum total of all the work we have accomplished, lest it pose an obstacle for us.

A person is constantly consumed by the desire that is revealed in him at the present moment. He forgets about everything he did in the past and constantly feels empty. The more he works, the more the things he has already done become concealed from him.

Even though he has performed many corrections and nothing disappears, he is given the feeling that he has not done anything. This happens so he always has the opportunity to do more, so a new desire can be revealed just like the first time. This continues until he carries out a certain volume of work. Then, in one final action called "Rav Paalim UMekabtziel" he will reveal the entire correction that he has accumulated.

However, along the path we are obligated to forget about all the states we have gone through in order to receive a desire for the next action. Otherwise we would stop and be unable to keep advancing. As long as a person hasn’t completed all the corrections, his entire previous work is concealed from him, as if he has not done anything. Yet, everything will become revealed at once, at the End of Correction!

Everything repeats over and over again, but since a new desire constantly comes to us, it seems like it’s a completely new state. "It is as if we begin everything anew every day." We reveal a new appetite and new tastes in the material world just like in the spiritual world.

Therefore, even if it seems like we have not done anything in spirituality and that we did not attain anything, we will reveal later that this is not so. But until the very End of Correction, we cannot ask or demand for anything that we deserve for the past. On the contrary, we have to be grateful for the fact that the past is concealed from us because this way it does not blind us and prevent us from moving forward. It allows us to begin all the work anew every time.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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A question I received: How do I know that I am advancing by the path of Light and not the path of suffering?

My Answer: The sign of following the path of Light is joy. It is written that “joy is the outcome of good deeds.” If I am connected with the others, I am always a part of a healthy common body and receive from it strength and inspiration. They are constantly circulating in our collective organism, flowing from one to the other; hence, I never fall or get disappointed. I don’t even feel tired! Granted, I can sometimes feel sore in my corporeal body, but I never feel tired mentally.

I keep receiving new desires and their fulfillment from the others, which flow from them to me and vice versa non-stop. So, in this condition a person ceases to feel ups and downs. For him, everything is one whole.

In fact, the day begins in the evening, but I don’t perceive it as a dark night. I feel that this is my preparation for the next spiritual step. I now need to gain more of an appetite and get hungry in order to become more receptive to perceiving spirituality.

This night is not the darkness we imagine. This is the darkness within egoism. It is the time of the construction of the vessel (Kli). In our earthly life we go to bed at night; however, in the spiritual one, we labor diligently in the night. We are making, creating, and building ourselves. It is as if at night we are assembling our car, and in the morning we drive it. Don’t think that in spirituality “night” is a dream separated from reality. We break off the previous reality in order to attain a new one. And we build it with faith above reason.

At “midnight,” the merging (Zivug) of Abba ve Ima takes place to create new desires (Kelim). I need to work in the dark because darkness conceals the old desires from me (since I don’t need them any more and must ascend to a new spiritual step). It also hides from me the new desires so that I can find them, connect them to myself, and understand where they are and why.

It’s similar as to how we play with our children. We first prepare a game for them, but later, they have to play by themselves. We pick a toy that consists of different parts (for example, cubes), not a toy with a single piece because we want the child to put it together by himself. Our spiritual work at “night” is the same.

Therefore, a person who is closely knitted into the environment doesn’t feel separation from the spiritual path when he falls. On the contrary, he sees that he is given an opportunity to work and experience a new adventure, like a child, whom nature pushes to grow. So, he loves such games of building and putting together.

Additionally, if the environment pushes us to this game, like nature does a child, we will feel as if we are on a wondrous journey. But if the environment doesn’t provide such inspiration, we don’t want to play as if we are a sick child who didn’t receive such a desire from nature and lags behind in his development.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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Kabbalistic books tell us about our future states that we have to discover within ourselves by ascribing them the names of the spiritual worlds, Sefirot, and Partzufim. By combing our desires to achieve this, we will create a demand for correction that will draw the reaction of the Light. It will add the intention of bestowal to our desire, and we will start perceiving what the Kabbalists describe to us.

All these future states that we wish to attain and sense – AB, SAG, Abba ve Ima, Zivugim, and Partzufim – relate only to the connection between us, that is, to various types of bestowal. This connection begins at the level of this world (this is what our current connection is called) and extending over the steps of the spiritual worlds, reaches the connection called Infinity (limitless connection among everybody).

Infinity means the absence of boundaries when all souls are corrected to such a degree that they unite as one whole. Although we’re not in this state yet, it should be our immediate goal. We should aspire to be as “one man with one heart” and anticipate it happening.

It’s very important to transition from the external perception to the internal one where all the worlds and everything that there is exist within a person. We don’t understand what “within a person” means, so we imagine geometrical space, but we should constantly work on the correct picture. In the beginning of the path, a person imagines his inner work, spirituality, and the group in a very peculiar way. However, as he advances, he should assure that all the pictures, forms, approaches, transformations, and the goal itself align themselves into a single point. Besides this point, there isn’t any other space.

Thus, you begin to imagine everything only in the point of your perception, and thereby return to the point of creation, “Yesh Mi Ain” (existence from absence). This is not a fantasy. In fact, now we are constantly living in a fantasy for everybody exists in his own imaginary world.

From the Talk about a New Internet 6/4/10

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According to the Kabbalists, The Zohar is the most effective part of the entire Torah and of all Kabbalah books. Why? These books are called holy (the property of Bina) because they are written from the heights of spiritual attainment. Therefore, by reading them, we can attract upon ourselves the Light that brings us back to the Creator (to similarity to Him).

However, we can correct the desire to receive only by the desire to correct ourselves for there is no Light, no fulfillment without a desire. Hence, we have to demand for the Light to act upon and transform us. This Light is called the “Surrounding Light” because it shines on us from afar. Under the influence of the Light, our “evil intention” turns into a good one. Then, to the measure to which the desire resembles the Light, the Light fills it.

Hence to prepare for the study of the Torah means to acquire the desire for correction. This desire is preceded by realizing that our nature is evil (for us). The evil in our nature is our inability to unite with each other! Our unification is precisely the vessel where our Upper, spiritual life can be revealed.

For this reason, we have to try to establish a connection with each other and to unite together. This is described in the writings when Israel stood at the foot of  Mount Sinai: “as one man with one heart,” “all of Israel are friends,” and  “love thy neighbor as you love thyself.” After we discover our inability to unite and start feeling what prevents us from achieving our good state, then MAN, a true prayer, the wish to become corrected, will emerge within us.

That is, preparation for studying the Torah amounts to our efforts to unite, feeling how incapable we are of doing it, and realizing this state as evil, as an obstacle on the path toward good. That is, the Torah study comes after the correct preparation; MAN emerges itself.

We can think and clarify all of it already while we read The Book of the Zohar. Meanwhile, the Light will help us in our work.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What are the three lines?

My Answer: The left line is the uncorrected desire that must first be restricted (Tzimtzum Aleph). The right line is the force of bestowal, the force of Light. And the middle line is the result of the work of combining them, connecting the two lines.

Our entire work lies in the middle line, and all of Kabbalah’s materials speak of this. The right and left lines are given to us from Above, from nature or the Creator. If we don’t work in the middle line, we remain as animals, acting by compulsion of these two reins: the right and the left lines. However, when we receive the first spark from the middle line, called the point in the heart, it is an opportunity, an invitation, to gain control over our lives, and to stop moving like a horse, maneuvered by two reins from above.

We need to assume these reins and to become “human.” The point in the heart is the beginning of the human within us that will rein his animal, and move toward similarity to the Creator. The spiritual work consists solely of driving oneself, from within the point in the heart, toward merging with everybody else.

Then we relate to all our qualities as conditions given us from Above. We no longer identify ourselves either with our body and its inherent qualities, or with the Light, given to us to correct this body. That is, we relate to these two lines, the right and the left, as perfection created by the Creator, as an invitation extended from Him to begin to build ourselves.

I no longer worry, rejoice, or get distressed over the left or the right lines, instead I relate to the states given to me as an opportunity to properly combine these two lines and move forward, driving my animal and aiming it straight to the goal.

At every moment my animal throws itself this way or that, in a direction unknown to me. And I have to imagine the goal to myself: the Creator, merging with Him, and being equal to Him in properties as much as I can imagine it to myself. I have to try see my environment as a perfect, balanced system, linked and interconnected with all parts equal and in mutual guarantee, so as to be filled by the Upper Light.

Having clarified the goal, I have to correct my animal, so as to guide it in the proper direction via the two reins. This work does not stop for even a second. Every time I imagine the spiritual goal more clearly and in greater detail, and, accordingly, in greater confusion, for light is known only from darkness. I have to always strive toward this goal, that is, to plant myself in the general system as its inseparable component.

Therefore, when I read The Zohar I need to act like a car driver, pushing the gas pedal, watching the road, steering the wheel, and feeling the brakes, all at the same time.
Similarly, when I listen to what The Zohar speaks of, I want to imagine all of it before me. As though being on a tour, I try to move along with The Zohar and participate in it.

In other words, I want to know what it is that I study, to connect to this material, to be in this process. To know is to merge, as it is written: “And Adam knew Eve (his corrected desire).”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/10, The Zohar

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Since we are created from the will to receive pleasure, all our spiritual work is done at night. Without feeling pleasure (in the dark of night), we can test ourselves: Are we able to do something moved by some other “fuel” so that it isn’t the reward that defines how much work we do, but rather the work itself does? Can we work without attainment of the Creator, but just with our faith that we will bring Him delight?

To work for the sake of delighting Him and not ourselves can only be done during the night, in the states where we don’t feel pleasure. Therefore, layers of uncorrected desires that demand filling with rewards for ourselves are purposefully and continuously awakened in our will to receive pleasure.

This gives us the opportunity to work on this uncorrected will to receive for ourselves. The struggle to work in the will to receive appears so that we can work not for the sake of a reward, but in order to delight the Creator; not to work for the reward of attaining the Creator, but just to be working for Him. Success results from our ability to acknowledge the greatness of the Creator.

When a person discovers that he is not able to do this, he demands assistance from Above. The strength from Above comes to him through the group since a person doesn’t have a connection with Above. As he starts seeking this “Above,” after numerous failed attempts to grasp something, he reaches a point of desperation and begins to understand that “Above” means “through the group.”

At this point, if he enters the group, then through it, he will be able to receive the very force that will change his nature from receiving to giving. Then he will be able to work during the nights while blessing the Creator. Then, a person works not for the sake of fulfilling his demanding egoistic desires; with the aid of the night he ascends to bestowal.

We don’t demand for the night to go away since “day” consists of working for the sake of bestowal. When we don’t feel “light” in our desires and we work above this, not for the sake of filling our desires, then we perceive day. Therefore, in the perception of our receiving desires, we exist in the night, but in the perception of our bestowing desires, the “light” shines.

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

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What is the difference between the World of Infinity and our world? In the World of Infinity everything exists inside one closed space, where we are all together, everything is shared, everything belongs to all and to every person, and there is no difference between myself and others, or between what belongs to me and to others. Everything exists without any boundaries.

In our world everything is the opposite. Everything is absolutely divided and a person is always guarding his boundaries whether he wants to or not. He has to break down these boundaries in order to come close to another person even slightly. Then he once again closes himself off inside as if nature is pulling him back. And then he once again wants to come closer to others and after that he escapes inside himself again.

Therefore, as long as we don’t attain Infinity, there is a very important principle for our spiritual work. It is the same principle that guides the functioning of an oscillatory circuit which consists of a condenser and an induction spring connected into an electrical chain.

If we supply energy to the circuit it first passes through the condenser, then through the spring, and then it again enters the condenser, and then once again the spring. That is how it oscillates between them.

This principle operates elsewhere as well besides electrical chains because whatever takes place in one of nature’s mechanisms also works in all of nature and all of its parts. However, it takes place in different forms depending on the type of system it is (whether physical, biological, or social, meaning a person’s relationship with society).

Therefore, my relationship with the group must be built on the same principle: When I feel inspiration and the importance of the goal, I have to pass them on to the group; and when I feel empty, I receive inspiration from the group which I contributed to it before. It becomes multiplied by the might of the group. That is how we take turns working within a closed chain.

From the 9th lesson of the World Zohar Convention 5/9/10

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A question I received: What is a song? Is it a prayer (MAN), an awakening from below?

My Answer: The entire process of the spiritual work is included in a song. Similar to our spiritual work, a melody always contains the collision of different sounds with altering pitches and pauses without which we wouldn’t hear a melody but only noise.

Why does a melody give us a feeling of harmony and awaken our emotions? Why is it that a particular sequence of sounds is capable of suddenly making us laugh or cry? A sound is but an aerial wave of a particular frequency that affects the eardrum. What is this inner mechanism whereby mechanical actions and electrochemical reactions inside the brain turn into emotions? Moreover, emotion isn’t contained in the sounds themselves, but the sounds awaken the emotions in us.

How can somebody else convey to us a feeling via this essentially inanimate mechanism, via this inanimate process, which penetrates inside our living, animate organism and awakens in it feelings on the human level?

This is a complicated process. All this is possible only because a melody contains separate sounds of varying pitches and breaks or pauses between them. That is, it contains the same qualities present in our work with the three lines: right, left, and middle.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, The Zohar

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The cornerstone of spiritual work is a constant concern about the environment. The greater its importance in my eyes, the more I will strive to attach myself to it, to absorb myself inside it. Every time, these external circles will enter me more and more, like waves that accumulate, until I extend over the whole Malchut of Infinity, and perceive everyone as myself. The whole huge desire (Kli) will become my own, and the Light or the Creator will be revealed inside this single desire.

Everything depends on the intensity of a person’s work within his environment, their influence on each other, and a mutual demand. This is how we determine the speed of our development.

A person is unable to advance on his own. The environment is the only means for advancement. Every time a person moves closer to it, he ascends with its help.

It is necessary to completely realize the importance of the environment. The construction of the whole desire (Kli) comes from the separation of internal and external parts. All the clarifications are made between these parts, between a person and the environment.

For the time being, we are unable to reveal this and we are still unable to understand exactly where the correction of the desires occurs. However, when we draw enough Surrounding Light to ascend to the spiritual world, we certainly feel that spiritual work between the environment and me has already begun. The clarifications and corrections occur only there.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/10, Shamati #225

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A question I received: Why is work forbidden on the Sabbath?

My Answer: If a person prepares himself by working the six weekdays, he reaches the understanding that the Sabbath is a state of perfection, and there is no need to interfere with it. If he hasn’t prepared himself properly during the week, he doesn’t see perfection in the Sabbath, and thereby corrupts it. He doesn’t realize he is spoiling the Sabbath, thinking mistakenly that he is adding to perfection by correcting his life and state.

On the contrary, after proper preparation and correction during the weekdays, a person suddenly sees that everything was perfect from the beginning. He only corrected himself in order to see this perfection. He did nothing but correct his own vision or perception, and in so doing, revealed the perfection of an additional part of creation or Infinity.

Then it is obvious that there is no need to do any further work now; there is nothing to interfere with. Therefore, a person works on every level, corrects himself, reveals a part of Infinity, and sees it as perfect. Then he works again, reveals another part of Infinity, and again he sees it as perfect. This is why on the Sabbaath he is called righteous.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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