Any state is defined by two parameters: the Light and desire (Kli). In addition, when there is no Light and no desire for it (which is why the Light left), then what remains is a “record” (Reshimo) of both the Light and desire.

Suppose I had a desire and enjoyment within it, but now the state has changed: There is neither that previous Light nor the desire for it. In the new state I have a new desire, but how can I determine what Light to accept within it? I have a distinct desire that I sense right now, but I have not yet received the Light within it because the Light has to come from outside. In this case I use information (Reshimo) about the Light from my previous state and information about the desire from my current state.

Supppose I was in a restaurant yesterday where I enjoyed a meal costing 100 dollars. Today I come to the same restaurant with only 80 dollars and don’t know what to order with this money. Although I understand that I cannot order as much as I did yesterday, now I have to figure it out what to order based on what happened yesterday. I have to order a bit less and must determine precisely how much less. I remember the enjoyment (the Light) from yesterday, which is my only reference since enjoyment always comes from outside. There is only money (Kli) in my pocket and I know that today I have less of it.

Every spiritual state always contains information about desire (Reshimo de Aviut) and information about the Light that was clothed in the previous desire (Reshimo de Hitlabshut). Based on these two Reshimot it is always possible to understand what is occurring. Without these Reshimot (reminiscences) a person would lose his memory and reason. He would not know what happened a moment before and would not understand how to behave in the following moment.

We act only according to Reshimot. This data is built into us; we make all our comparisons and calculations based upon them.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/10, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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A question I received: What game is the Creator playing with us and what is its purpose?

My Answer: As it is written, all of creation is a game. The Creator made the universe and man in it so that through the correct connection with the surrounding universe we would develop and reach similarity with the One (Creator) who created them both. This is called a game because in developing we grow and rise to a higher level of development rather than just simply accumulating knowledge.

We all have to rise to the first spiritual degree. We don’t see it. It’s like in a game: We play and we don’t know what is happening. The outcome of the game is unknown.

The same process is occurring in the development of plants and animals. Everything develops in the form of a game. A game means that one exists on a certain degree, but he cannot discern the next one. However, one makes all possible efforts in order to attain it.

Children, too, play all the time, and through their games they suddenly become smarter and begin to talk and understand. They don’t study a language or science the way we do. They absorb the surrounding world with their desire to understand it.

This is the same for us in relation to the spiritual world. We only need the desire to sense it, and after feeling it, we have to understand and perceive it within ourselves. Suddenly, the spiritual world manifests within us – and we feel it. After all, we are a vessel of sensation, a desire. The understanding and intellect follow the desire.
[13112]
From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/21/10

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Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your neighbor as yourself; that is the great rule of the Torah!” Why is love for one’s neighbor a great rule, the foundation that categorically divides us into two halves: animate and human? If I love myself, then I am an animal, and if I love my neighbor, then I am human. As an animal, I only feel this material life, but when I begin to love others, I feel the Creator and the spiritual world.

Spirituality is felt inside the force of love that is called my spiritual vessel or Kli. Right now my vessel is egoistic love, the desire to love myself. The world I feel today is felt inside this desire. In this egoistic reality, I reveal only that which is good or bad for me.

I reveal the world and the entire diversity of its shades only in relation to myself. All of the colors and sounds in the world depend on what is useful to me and what is harmful. I am afraid of one thing and I desire something else. I repel one thing and attract something else. Every influence is revealed inside my senses, which operate in relation to my love for myself. Therefore, I don’t see anything that does not pertain to my self-love; I simply don’t perceive its existence.

The fact is that I am facing infinity, but I don’t feel it. In relation to me it seems not to exist at all because it does not make me feel good or bad. Egoistic love determines the volume of the universe that I feel. Thus, out of the entire World of Infinity, I feel just a tiny sphere, my world.

When I start to come out of myself, then in my previous desire I feel what is good for others. In other words, I start to love my neighbor. This is called the Upper, spiritual world. When I reveal it, I reveal an entirely different universe.

If I tune out of egoistic thoughts about myself, even in a purely material sense, and start to think about my friend, then I will feel a completely different world, with completely different problems and solutions. When I reveal what is good for someone else, then in relation to me it will be called the Upper, spiritual world. That person will see the same thing as his material, egoistic world, but when I desire to dress into his reality and reveal his world from within him, it will turn into my spiritual world.

This exercise enables me to come out of myself and feel the Creator. I will feel Him inside of you, as it is written, “The Creator dwells inside His nation.”

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, “Matan Torah”

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A question I received: How can we imagine human life in the spiritual world, completely devoid of suffering?

My Answer: We are unable to picture this since anything that we would imagine would be egoistic. The notion of the spiritual world is finding pleasure and inspiration in bestowal, in love for the others. However, it’s not for personal pleasure or inner peace, but for the greatness of the action itself.

So how can I feel the greatness of bestowal? I plead that the Light will let me feel it since I am incapable of doing it myself. However, I am even incapable of wanting it and asking for it. So what do I do? The environment can compel me to do this; it can force me to have a desire for something that is unnatural and generally opposite to me.

The environment can oblige a person to do anything. A person is even ready to commit suicide in order to look great in the eyes of the others. Everything depends on the environment. It can instill desires that are against a person’s ego, and his ego will go along with it.

This is due to the fact that the human degree within us is higher than the animal degree, and in order to achieve one’s desire on the human degree, to satisfy one’s ambition, a person is willing to kill the animal in him. An animal is incapable of this, yet man is. It’s because within him, there is a human degree upon which influence can be exerted. It is completely dependent on the environment.

The environment needs to influence each person in such a way that he will desire to ascend above his egoism. By influencing each other in this manner, they both will ascend constantly.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, Article “Peace in the World”

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A question I received: Kabbalah says that a person must always strive to be in a better environment. So what specifically should I do?

My Answer: You have to try to worry at every moment about the fact that you are entirely dependent on your environment. Within this worry you will start to have thoughts and desires to connect with others, and you will reveal that the environment contains everything.

Even though these people are still uncorrected, they contain the corrected system. They don’t even feel it themselves yet, but you will reveal it through searching. Spirituality already exists in its corrected state, but its revelation depends on our desire, as it is written, “Every person judges others to the extent of his own defect.”

You have to strive to feel the influence of the environment. This influence carries energy, understanding, and the need to turn to the Light, the importance of the goal. It has everything you need to attain the spiritual goal. Thus, everything depends on your attitude to the environment; everything depends on you!

The whole world and all humanity were created by the Creator in order to give every person the opportunity to advance independently by creating the right inner attitude to the group. Otherwise, you will move toward the goal by the path of suffering.

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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A question I received: If I hate the “Egypt” within me, how do I handle this, since it is also a part of me?

My Answer: The whole world is a part within me. I need to examine with what desires, aspirations, inclinations, and forces I can work now in order to advance to the goal; and with what desires, thoughts, and qualities I need to part, to separate myself from, in order to come closer to the goal. I need to elucidate what to draw away from and what to draw closer to. My movement is determined by what I separate myself from and what I connect with.

Since we are talking about our whole, common desire, which I don’t know what to do with, I need to clarify with which desires I wish to unite and which I do not. Our picture of the spiritual world, which we imagine to ourselves, seems similar to our world where we move from one object or place to another. However, in the spiritual world, I exist within one huge desire comprised of many different desires. I am situated in a space filled with desires with no empty spaces between them. There is no space without desires. Therefore, while I am in the uttermost depth of this field of desires where nothing except them exists, I merely need to sort through those desires: which do I wish to connect with and which I do not. This is called movement.

After all, the whole reality is a desire, a Sefira, within which I exist. There is nothing else. There are some desires, with which I am more connected, and others with which I am less connected, and some desires I reject. This is movement in the spiritual world. As I clarify more and more desires and unite with them, this is an “ascent.”

I exist among all of these desires, within matter where I was placed along with a small spark of Light. This spark allows me to scrutinize the desires. Our whole work consists of clarifying the desires within which we exist: which desires I can use for the sake of bestowal and which desires I am incapable of using for the sake of bestowal and need to reject using.

After all, we cannot come out of this field of desires; there is no empty space between them. Free space is what we call a desire that is not clear that has not been elucidated, which you do not see and cannot make out anything in it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: How will the method of correction and dissemination of Kabbalah change when the entire world is transitioning toward a virtual connection?

My Answer: We need to quickly build a system of disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah through the Internet, a system that will exude warmth and give a person a feeling of universal connection. This system needs to teach us how to be connected with one another, and to provide virtual education for both children and adults. Presently our Learning Centers focus more on theory and intellectual development, but now we need to put greater emphasis on educating and “forming” a person.

A spiritual connection is when I feel another person within me as my inseparable part, even closer than a mother feels her child through her maternal connection. A spiritual connection is even tighter.

A virtual connection is a stepping stone to the spiritual one. Additionally, we need to accumulate a certain might by uniting together a multitude of desires. Indeed, our success depends on a global awakening, and the primary means of achieving that goal is the Internet. It was created for this very purpose. The Internet didn’t develop in order to disseminate sales or other petty nonsense, but to create a connection between people. That is the purpose of the world-wide web.

This connection may only be one of love. Therefore, as soon as we begin to create this web and wish for these electronic cables to transmit a feeling of connection and love, we will understand how to properly construct it.

Subsequently, humanity will feel that the Internet is changing, that is possesses an Upper, spiritual force, and it will truly become a web covering the world – a spiritual web, and not simply a means of conveying information or reaping profits. The Internet will cease to use people for profit; instead it will be used to elevate people to a new degree.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/10, Article “Exile and Redemption”

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The wisdom of Kabbalah rejects the concept of death thereby revealing the only action that we are able to perform. In everything else we are totally dependent on nature and act involuntarily. We spend our entire lives trying to ignore death, as if medicating ourselves in order to avoid the truth. It is a game we play, chasing money, honor, and power within an imaginary reality.

What do we do with the help of Kabbalah? Kabbalah provides a solution to this fundamental human dilemma by explaining how to reach eternal life here and now. We are shown how to gradually transition into an additional dimension without leaving this life; in fact, we become fully integrated together with it.

This is the meaning of “freedom from the angel of death,” described in the Torah as the covenant carved on stone tablets. Torah offers: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life… (Deuteronomy 30:19).”

However this opportunity was concealed, and people learned how to distract themselves. Therefore, the dissemination of Kabbalah has to include the explanation of this choice. In other words, Kabbalah not only leads to a good life on this earth, but also helps attain everlasting existence. When masses come to this realization they will no longer hide from the idea of death.

The practice of spiritual advancement proves that a person begins to acquire this realization (presentiment) only after initial studies, which bring the influence of the Upper Light. Then one is granted a chance to sense eternity to the extent one moves closer to the property of the Creator (bestowal, Hafetz Hesed). By doing so, a person enters eternity and is already present in the infinite flow of life. This opportunity is available to everyone.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/10, Article “The Freedom”

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A question I received: What should I do if after the lesson, I am unable to stay focused on spirituality throughout the day?

My Answer: Each person goes through different time periods. There is a time when we want to study Kabbalah for hours and can’t get enough of it. Other times, we distance ourselves and stop striving toward it.

However, in the long run we see that everything is organized in the best possible way for each of us, and if we use our free time correctly, the Creator arranges more hours that can be utilized for the realization of what we studied. We encounter all sorts of problems: distractions with our work, problems with our boss, unsympathetic surroundings, as well as distractions in our thoughts and desires. Yet we feel that in spite of all these troubles, we have to stay connected with spirituality.

After the class ends, we have to go back to the “big world” that erases the impressions that we got from spirituality and confuses us, but these are the most effective circumstances for our advancement. We have to try to stay tuned with the spiritual world and to keep in mind the source of all these troubles and why they were sent to us. As well, we are to remember what we are supposed to adhere to and why, meaning that “There is none else beside Him, Who is Good and does good.”  We have to constantly feel our inner connection with the Creator as if staying in touch with someone we love and cherish.

Try to retain this state throughout the day. You’ll start to feel that all those unfortunate circumstances are brought to you by the Creator within some imaginary world which gives you a chance to seek connection with Him through all the hassles and illusions you get.

You’ll see that this world is “invented,” and that it is just an outer shell; you’ll sense that the troubles simply constitute the shapes of your desires that convert within you all the time. Those are the desires that you have to “link” to the Creator; if you do, they will turn into their spiritual forms.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/10, The Zohar

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