A question I received: The whole nation existed in spiritual attainment during the First and the Second Temples. Why wasn’t it possible to go through the destruction of the Temples only in spirituality and to reach the Third Temple without the material manifestation of destruction?

My Answer: All descents and ascents of the souls have to be reflected on the lowest inanimate level – our world. Up until the end of correction, ups and downs of the souls have to go through all layers of the desire to receive, through its entire depth, ending in this material world.

Therefore, we have no possibility to escape events that occur in this world, meaning in our egoistic desire which we feel as “this world.” Our big or not so big successes in the spiritual world, in our relations with the Creator, will always be felt as events happening in this world.

It is impossible to separate occurrences in the spiritual and material worlds because they are the same. A desire to receive with its different layers of Aviut (coarseness) covers the entire depth from this world to the World of Infinity.

A person who is at the bottom of the spiritual ladder raises his MAN to the World of Infinity. Thereby he determines the Light which descends from the uppermost level through all layers (worlds) of the desire to receive pleasure to his rung and further below. When a person exists somewhere in the middle of the spiritual ladder, the entirety of the Aviut of the desire below him is included in his MAN. Then the Light that comes as a response to the prayer goes through a person and spreads out further below to the very end. This is why every person has an impact on the entire thickness of Malchut of the World of Infinity.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, The Zohar

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The most important thing while reading The Zohar is to unite with the text. If we remember that the Light influences us, this is sufficient.

A small child lives among adults, but what does he understand from their conversations and behavior? Does he know their world? No; it’s all a secret to him. We are built by nature like a child among adults: Without understanding anything or being ready for it, a child perceives everything by means of the “surrounding glow.”

This is the manner in which development takes place: gradually, indirectly, from outside, a child begins to absorb everything from adults and tunes into them without understanding what is happening ahead of time. By entering them through his desire, he begins to feel and then to understand. This develops new senses and desires (Kelim) in him, and then the mind.

When we are adults, we don’t develop, but merely fill ourselves with knowledge and sensation. Our senses no longer develop. They can only develop on the condition that a person enters an “area” where even without understanding or feeling anything, he desires to become similar to it. By means of his desire and drive, without understanding or knowing anything, he begins to absorb forces from this area and that develops him.

Adults do not undergo the same inner development as children. They merely fill their previous desires. Both in our world and the spiritual world, new desires can only grow when you want to feel and discover where you are.

When I read The Zohar, I don’t know what it is talking about. But because I desire to reveal this picture, I develop the senses through which my soul perceives. This is why it is written, “The study does not happen through reason” (Lo HaHacham Lomed).

Our spiritual development takes place in exactly the same way as a baby develops in our world. It can only happen when the lower level completely annuls itself before the Upper Level. After all, we are learning to feel a whole new world!

Kabbalists write about this in many articles. Baal HaSulam writes in “A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar” that a student has to cancel himself before the Rav just as children do before adults. That is the only way you can attain a higher state.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/10, The Zohar

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The more the Creator awakens us, the bigger His expectations. The Creator woke several million people who at this time study The Zohar and He waits for their correct, conscious, and voluntary reaction that would manifest their readiness to “wake up.” “Awakening from below” (Itaruta de-Letata) has to become equal with the “awakening from Above” (Itaruta de-Leila). When these two processes coincide, the Light of the Creator fills us.

First, the Creator sends us an impulse from Above to inspire us; we open the book and begin to read and to study. Later on it becomes too difficult for us. But why, what is the reason? It’s because this sensation also originates from the Creator. He stops inspiring us and gives us a chance to “awaken from below.”

The Creator imposes a burden that is equal to our initial inspiration. He seemingly says: “Wait! I don’t need you. I didn’t call for you. Forget it, it’s not for you. Calm down!” He plays this game on purpose after He already “woke us up.” It is as if He made a mistake and then changed His mind: “No! Stay asleep, don’t wake up.”

By slowing us down, He wants us to replace His awakening by our own voluntary effort to wake up. Otherwise everything happens “at His expense” rather than through our own effort. What good does that do? This way, our spiritual vessel doesn’t get ready for the Light.

That’s why we feel like we reject spirituality. However, was our previous desire really ours or were we just granted the chance to go through such circumstances from Above? Now that you’re convinced that you don’t want spirituality – that is the real you, your desire to receive pleasure to which you can add the same sense of awakening that you first experienced.

The Creator woke us up, we turned His awakening into “our own”; we acknowledged and made it available to other people. Then together with others we make attempts to attract the Upper Light. We use this situation as an amplifier: Our request grows in direct proportion to the number of people to whom we managed to transfer this knowledge by working against our own egoism. We receive “620 times” more in return; this is how many times stronger our own advancement toward the next degree becomes.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/10, The Zohar

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We’ve gotten used to the fact that when we wish to achieve something in our ordinary lives, we exert effort and receive a result. In order to reap a harvest for example, one needs to plow the land, plant seeds, care for crops, and so on. The fruit of the labor is a direct consequence of the effort a person invested.

Spirituality is also impossible to achieve without effort, but for a different reason: the effort builds a spiritual desire (Kli) within, where spiritual fulfillment can be felt. Spiritual fulfillment exists in abundance, but we are unable to sense and perceive it. Man’s efforts cause an influence of the Upper Light, which forms the person, adjusting him or her to its fulfillment. The Upper Light performs all of the work. Therefore, I put in effort to “desire Him,” and the Light works; the Creator and I are partners.

We constantly forget about our Partner, thinking that we need to change and correct ourselves while performing different changes in the society single-handedly, as if everything is centered around and performed by “me.” We forget that we only need to scream out and ask like a little child, and then it will happen. The Light will influence and do everything. The Creator will do “what is necessary,” while we need to guess “what is necessary” and ask Him for this, according to the principle “Make your desire as His.”

We advance too slowly because we constantly forget about correction through the Light by presuming we can win using our own strength. We attempt to transform ourselves and the world, connect the cause and consequence, do the work of the Light and see the result of our work.

At the outset, we forget about the main component, the Light, which gives us the desired form. Subsequently we believe that the outside needs changing and forget that the outside changes only as a result of our inner changes.

The outside world doesn’t change. Rather, our view of the world changes along with our inner qualities, our desire to receive pleasure. As a consequence, a new picture of reality emerges. Therefore, if we fall short of attuning ourselves correctly to spirituality, we can waste years without feeling advancement.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 4/2/10

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A question I received: If a person concludes that there’s no need for Kabbalah since he has a good job, a family, and everything is fine in this life, then how will that person reach spirituality?

My Answer: It means that the time hasn’t come yet. We disseminate the knowledge of Kabbalah for everyone, and anyone who needs it will use it. However, in order to aspire to spirituality, corporeal suffering is completely unnecessary. A person reveals spirituality only under the condition that it is the only thing one lacks.

The words “exile” and “freedom” differ only with the letter “Aleph,” which means “Ruler of the world;” a person only lacks the Creator and doesn’t take anything else into account. One could have endless possibilities in this world, but this has nothing to do with the desire to reveal the Creator. For example, I never had any material problems, yet the need to reveal spirituality gnawed away at me as though I had nothing at all in this life.

It’s written that Jews in Egypt built great cities of Pithom and Raamses. They had everything necessary on the material level, but they possessed nothing with which to revive their souls. Therefore, they cried out from that work since they couldn’t achieve spirituality.

Hence, the instrument for spiritual revelation is only the need to reveal the Creator so that a person would be governed by the quality of bestowal. If all that one lacks is bestowing to everyone, then such a person is ready for spiritual redemption. Redemption is when one is able to not think about himself, and to give to everyone else.

We’re approaching the Independence Day holiday in Israel and we need to know this. After all, we can only be independent from our egoism. A “free nation in its land” is freedom from our egoistic desire, which will be governed by the quality of bestowal. Only then we’ll be free.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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Lately, as the systemic global crisis becomes more apparent, there is a sense that it’s necessary to create a proper system of global functioning. Baal HaSulam writes that we have to transform our society according to new conditions, which are nature’s demands. The crisis is making it apparent that we have to become similar to nature or the general interconnection.

I see that it is possible to gradually implement relationships of love and bestowal which are similar to nature. This can be done in the virtual realm; there all the people in the world can feel connected with one another and experience their existence together. Out of all the existing means of communication, only the Internet can serve as this place of connection; it can’t be done through television, newspapers, or books.

Only the World Wide Web, the Internet, can satisfy the demands of dissemination and unification in order to create a global system of upbringing for children and adults alike. Only it can provide the global connection in order to form a common force of unity. Then we will all feel each other through the channels of connection, and reach a spiritual connection.

From A Talk about a New Internet 4/4/10

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The articles in the book Shamati (I Heard) were not written by Baal HaSulam as works in which the writer examines every word, but rather, these articles were delivered as talks during meals with his students, which RABASH (Baal HaSulam’s son and first student) heard and later recorded on paper.

Baal HaSulam did not allow students to write anything down in his presence, including during the lesson. Until today, this approach existed throughout the entire history of Kabbalah. Throughout all generations, none of the Kabbalists recorded a single word during the studies, since it was forbidden to write.

After all, a student received the “oral” Torah, “from the mouth” of the teacher. One perceived in accordance with what he heard and comprehended. This is because when a person writes, he doesn’t comprehend. Whereas when a person listens, the material is absorbed; it enters one’s desires and qualities, thus raising him.

Moreover when one enters spirituality, every word that the teacher spoke including the minutest details, will be remembered. One remembers the form in which it was said, along with everything in its deepest meaning.

Nothing vanishes in spirituality. Our entire “movie” already exists and is premiering before us. We only need to learn to move from it and live in an absolutely new informational space.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/10, Shamati 59

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In order to reach spiritual life, there is no need to feel badly in our material life. We see this through the example of Egyptian slavery, where Jews had everything necessary for a good life. A new king came to power in Egypt and the seven years of famine began; however, this is spiritual rather than material hunger.

They built wonderful cities for Pharaoh: Pitom and Ramses. What do we mean when we say “for Pharaoh?” It was done for their egoism! They built a great life for it. However, suddenly it was revealed that all is empty…and we need to run from such a life, in spite of all its sated well-being.

I feel that spiritual life is more important than material life, and it is better to die than to live without it. I cannot live this life anymore; I need to reveal the spiritual. Therefore, I am willing to run into the dark and the desert.

This state is called coming out of Egypt. It is when a person needs to change his priorities and make them opposite to what is commonly accepted. However, the world doesn’t need to expose itself to corporeal suffering at all. Rather we should suffer only from the lack of spirituality, not from material problems.

A person cannot be driven into the spiritual world with a stick. People turn to religion and psychologists from corporeal problems. One needs to lack spirituality. This depends on how quickly his point in the heart is revealed and how broadly we are able to disseminate the science of Kabbalah.

Without the dissemination of this knowledge, spiritual deliverance cannot occur. A person is incapable of inventing a method of revealing spirituality on his own; one needs to receive it somehow. Therefore, Baal HaSulam called the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah "The Messiah’s Horn," since without this the world has no chance to change for the better.

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

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Spirituality is the quality of bestowal that is revealed in the bond between souls. This is the only thing the Kabbalists write about, as there is nothing else. There is no other reality.

We exist in a universe and the space between us is filled entirely with bestowal. This whole system with all its internal connections is called “the Creator.” And every one of us who wants to uphold this system and observe its laws is called the “creation.”

Presently we are not creations, and we do not pertain to the Creator’s system. Indeed, a creation is one who desires to be connected with others. He wants to actualize the system just as it exists from the standpoint of nature, which is concealed from us.

We currently exist in this system and observe its laws 100% of the time though we are entirely unaware of this fact. Even now, we exist in a completely corrected state called “1,” which is a state before the descent into our world.

Everything is already working perfectly but only from the standpoint of the Creator. We have lost perception of this state and must now bring ourselves to consciousness: To desire to return there and reveal our true location and function. The return of this system to this previous state depends on our desire, preparedness, and efforts.

Then we will reveal the same state wherein we already exist, but this realization will enable us to feel it as state “3.” It will appear to us as clear, deep, and full of perfection. This state is 613 times greater than the original state. We only need to correctly understand this system and ourselves within it so as to begin the work of revealing our true state, our true life.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 4/2/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: In the spiritual world, a day, a month, and a year are not our calendar days. How can I reject the egoistic desires if the seven days can last for years according to our calendar time?

My Answer: In our world, we live according to the regular astronomical calendar that corresponds to the revolutions of Earth, Moon, and Sun. This defines our whole life.

Kabbalists, on the other hand, tell us what happens “inside” a man with our self-awareness and awareness of the world. A spiritual year, week, or day is in no way related to astronomical time. A person can pass a spiritual year in a few minutes or be in the state of Shabbat (Saturday), symbolizing the end of correction, in the middle of a week. Passover, when a person comes out of Egypt, can happen to him at any time.

There are spiritual roots and there are their consequences, the material branches are reflected in processes happening in nature. It is written, “Israel is above the stars and signs of fate.” A person that aspires toward the Creator (Isra-El means “straight to the Creator” in Hebrew) is above all these considerations in his spiritual development. This is why he advances without any relation to the astronomic calendar.

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