If we were to bestow to the Creator due to the desire that He had instilled in us, could there be love more superficial than that? Essentially, we would love Him because He made us love Him. Love is possible only if the desire originates in us.

That is why it wasn’t an option to create us with a ready desire to love Him, for that would have been disgusting. Love must be completely genuine in its root, it must blossom in an empty space, absolutely selflessly and independently of any received pleasures.

How can we attain such an absolute, pure, and eternal love, utterly selfless without demanding any reward? How can the creature attain the same attitude toward the Creator as He has for it? This desire, the need for bestowal, must be developed by us. Herein lies our entire development from this world and to the World of Infinity: to attain the need for love.

Because we develop it within ourselves, this need for love does not disappear. We hold on to this lack, thanks to which we can love and bestow. For this reason, the spiritual vessel can never be overfilled. It cannot be filled; we merely cover it from Above, as it is written: “Love will cover all sins.” The act of covering only increases the lack. We cover it, but it keeps growing, continuing to blaze brighter and brighter.

That is why the process we undergo cannot be any different, as it stems from the end goal. Indeed, if the Creator wishes to bring us to mutual love, the same love He has for us, then there is no other choice. The entire spiritual ladder has already stretched from the end point to us, to the beginning of the path, and we must continue our journey all the way to the end.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/10, Article “Matan Torah”

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A question I received: This weekend there will be a convention in North America, titled The World Zohar Convention, where our friends from the whole world will gather. You once said that when you were in a similar situation of general inspiration, you asked Rabash, “What do we lack for attaining the goal?” He answered, “An attack!” What is an attack and how can we attain this state this weekend at the Convention, or even now, at this very moment?

My Answer: During a spiritual attack, one does not think about when will it finally be completed. An attack is when I gather all my forces and act with them.

In our world an attack is a concentrated blow, followed by a chance to rest. However, spirituality is perfect and therefore it cannot be transient. If your desire is authentic, then it is eternal! Therefore, a spiritual attack means a mobilization of forces, where you must continually concentrate them more and more, without a break or a breather. (Actually, you do receive a “breather” from Above, such as the state of “Hanukkah,” which comes from the words “Hanu-Koh,” stop here. This happens during a shift in one’s means for further advancement.)

This Convention offers great opportunities of advancement to all the students all over the whole world. Although we are getting together at the Convention in North America, there will be a direct broadcast of all the lessons. And of course, they will be devoted to the unification of this entire great desire, the spiritual vessel (Kli).

Let us hope that everyone will understand that the science of Kabbalah speaks precisely of this unity, rather than red strings, spells, and so forth. Through the unity of our desires we attain life in the eternal dimension. Let us hope that we will succeed!

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/10, “Matan Torah”

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A question I received: The World Zohar Convention is starting in just a couple of days. In relation to this, many people write to us about various obstacles that prevent them from coming, and about their fear and sudden reluctance to come. What can be done about it?

My Answer: If a person has an opportunity to come to our meeting, no reason should prevent him from doing so. One should come even if it involves spending a considerable sum of money or sacrificing vacation time. I can’t imagine what could be more important then spending a few days together:  It is a purely spiritual investment.

We don’t realize how such unification among people furthers our spiritual progress. Now we are experiencing the “hardening of the heart,” and receive an additional portion of egoism. And that’s great! This is precisely the state in which we need to act.

That is why one has to be aware of the reason for which he cannot come. Herein lies his or her free choice to advance spiritually or not. Only if someone is locked up in a prison and can’t get out of it, then it’s possible to understand his not coming.

People ask me, “What if I ‘ve been studying Kabbalah only for 2-3 weeks and there is no group nearby, isn’t it too early for me to come?” Even if a person encountered Kabbalah just by finding out about our convention, it’s still worthwhile for him to come. Who knows what will happen to him tomorrow? At least he will manage to get something out of this life.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/10, Article “Matan Torah”

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It’s essential for a person who wants to reveal spirituality to try to achieve that “everything would be in your eyes as new,” as if I was just born and I’m starting from scratch. I don’t know what world I‘m in, or who I am. While reading an article, I have no idea what it speaks about, as if I know nothing about these things. I erase all previous views, like I landed here from another planet without understanding a thing about the order of the universe. I want to perceive it anew.

Why? In their teachings, Kabbalists wish to show us that there are spiritual phenomena in our world. However, they are concealed from us, for if there was nothing of spirituality in our world, spirituality would not be called concealed. This is why we have to try to discern spirituality in our reality. But how can we do it? What kind of a special light, what illumination can help me see the spiritual reality? I don’t know; I have to master this.

Kabbalists tell us the following: If you want to recognize spirituality that is concealed here in this world, you can perceive it in a new relationship between you and the environment. Herein lies the entrance into the spiritual world, and you can penetrate it. Through your discovery of this opening, you will begin to see a new world. Its entrance is in your relationship with the environment, but it is a new relationship that you’ll unexpectedly reveal.

Suddenly you’ll see that an entrance into another world is from the world that surrounds you. No one recognizes it. It’s as if you’re walking down the street and right around the corner you are in the spiritual reality. This entrance opens when you look at our world in a different way, as if totally unfamiliar with it, with a fresh approach you perceive the reality of “I and the environment” anew.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/30/10, Rabash, Article 17, 1986

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 90: …“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” means with both your inclinations—the good inclination and the evil inclination, so the bad qualities of the evil inclination will become good… Then there will certainly be no difference between the good inclination and the evil inclination and they will be one.

In our world we aren’t aware of the qualitative difference between good and evil, and therefore we don’t understand that they define and support each other and cannot exist one without the other. We would like to immediately annihilate all the evil and leave only the good, meaning whatever we consider good at this moment.

Spirituality, however, is revealed upon the contrast of opposite qualities, rather than through attempting to eliminate or destroy one of them. Both qualities exist in order for us to discern both of them, and the spiritual state is built from both of them – the Light and darkness together.

Initially we do not have the right inner definitions; we don’t understand what is Light and what is darkness. Once we identify them and can tell what is Light and what is darkness, and once we choose the Light over the darkness, we can then fully use all of the Light and all of the darkness to build our spiritual state.

We do not erase either one because if we were to remove one of them, the other would disappear as well. We build the middle line from both of them. In our world this structure does not exist. This phenomenon, the middle line, is unknown to us. We always strive to eliminate anything we don’t desire or feels unpleasant to us. It seems to us that there is no room for them in the world.

However, in spirituality, there is room for everything and everything has to remain forever. Only when both things unite with each other in the right way, is there room for the existence of both and one does not exist without the other.

Therefore, the wicked and the righteous, reception and bestowal, faith and knowledge are all built one upon the other. Therefore, they are equally important for attaining the goal. It is written, “A person must be grateful for the bad just as for the good.”

The correction of evil lies in using it correctly, together with goodness. Then the two participate equally and together to reveal their Source, the Creator. The middle line, the soul, is created from both of them. It is the revelation of their Source, the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 6: …each degree comprises GAR and ZAT, which is ZA, and there is attainment only in ZA of each degree, even in ZA de [of] GAR, called Daat. However, no one can attain in the GAR of each degree, even in the GAR of the degree of Assiya.

We perceive everything inside of Malchut. Malchut is called “the Creator’s image.” Presently we do not see the true picture of the world, but only what enters our five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch) and is presented in our brain. We receive an impression from the information delivered to us by our senses, and sense reality that seemingly exists before us within, in the back of our brain.

The same happens to Malchut. Baal HaSulam explains in “Preface to the Book of Zohar” that along with Malchut, there exist the first nine Sefirot; however, Malchut does not know what those nine Sefirot are. She attains these Sefirot after including them within herself, sensing them as something that appears before her.

Thus, Malchut discovers the first nine Sefirot to the extent that she is able to act like them, from below upward. When Malchut becomes like Keter by repelling the Direct Light and forming the Reflected Light, from within the Reflected Light, she attains the fact that before her are the first nine Sefirot, that is, the lower one begins to act outside of itself, outward, and sees what is happening in the Reflected Light.

The same applies to us in this world. We see something that exists before us in accordance with our ego, depending on what is beneficial to us and what isn’t. Whatever doesn’t affect our ego, cannot bring us benefit or cause harm – we do not detect.

This stems from the spiritual roots: Malchut senses the first nine Sefirot only to the measure of the Reflected Light, which the Direct Light imprints within itself. This is the picture that appears to Malchut as though existing before her. Nothing else exists as far as she’s concerned, for she doesn’t sense anything above that.

If Malchut were to have the desire to enjoy of the Root (0) phase, she would not detect before her anything other than the Root phase. If Malchut were to have a greater desire to enjoy, she would see before her a wider picture of reality. Everything is determined by the thickness of our desire (Aviut) and the Light it reflects. That is why nothing in Kabbalah speaks of what truly exists in reality, for everything depends on the measure of one’s attainment.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/28/10

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The World of Atzilut is separated from the Worlds of BYA by a special screen called Parsa. This is not just the end of one world and the beginning of another, but a special shield the World of Atzilut has from the lower worlds, separating them and not enabling them to connect.

The protective shield has the quality of Bina, the quality of bestowal, mercy. If anyone wishing to receive approaches this boundary from below, the sensation of this quality throws him back because he is an egoist.

This is how all the qualities of Bina operate (such as Noah’s Ark, womb, city walls, and the letter Samech). They indicate what is spirituality: that it is “for the sake of bestowal.” That’s why a person who is an egoist runs away from it if he is not ready for it.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, Beit Shaar HaKaVanot

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A question I received: Do I feel just my reaction to the Light and never the Light itself?

My Answer: That’s right. “The Light” is my reaction to bestowal and I don’t know where or from whom it comes from. The Light is what I feel within me; it is my desire to bestow, the impression inside my will to enjoy.

The same thing is true in our world: I don’t know what causes my pleasure. I take a piece of cow, make a steak out of it, put it in my mouth, and enjoy it. Can you explain that? The cow is surprised, thinking, “I have half a ton of meat, so why don’t I enjoy it?”

In other words, everything depends on the desire, not the fulfillment. The spiritual vessel is HaVaYaH (Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey) or desire, and the Light in it is designated by additional letters, meaning other desires. Yet, we use them to designate the Light, the desire. I never feel the “meat,” but only my impressions of what I call “meat.”

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, “Matan Torah”

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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: It’s been said that if one goes to a convention their spiritual advancement is about the same as what they would have advanced between that convention and the last convention. Why is that? Why does someone advance so much during that short, little period of three or four days?

My Answer: Because we come together, we are leaving our work places, our homes, and our families, we take vacation from work, and we spend money for that effort in order to bond. We make efforts in order to acquire something that is beyond this level of life, something higher. It is a fulfillment that is beyond this life.

People, who are willing to give up on so many things, in order to bring themselves to spirituality, simply deserve it. Besides that, they come to unite, so everyone absorbs the strength and forces of everyone else. That kind of embrace is worthy of months and months of studying and even then it is impossible to attain it. I don’t think that a person who doesn’t come to a convention like that is capable of achieving a similar result. It doesn’t matter what he tries to do in life unless on the condition that he is, let’s say in prison or in some situation that doesn’t allow him to come. I have a student, for instance, that is in the North Pole; so, he works from there, and he can’t, really can’t come. Some people are really even in prison and they study with us. They are in prison (because of mistakes they made in the past), so they really can’t come.

But because they are incapable, they will receive whatever we receive from that convention. But if a person has the opportunity to come, even if it requires meeting difficult conditions, if he has the opportunity, I don’t think it’s worthwhile to stay home. It’s just a shame to miss this kind of intense opportunity to make such great advancement.

From an Interview with the Learning Center Director 4/5/10

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