Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar:”  Do not be surprised that one person’s actions bring elevation or decline to the whole world, for it is an unbending law that the general and the particular are as equal as two peas in a pod. And all that applies in the general, applies in the particular, as well.

In spirituality, the general and the particular are absolutely equivalent. Every person individually and all people taken together carry the same weight. In the material world we can’t grasp how can it not matter whether there is one person or a million. However, in the spiritual world, the calculation is different. We don’t understand that one person can either complete or ruin perfection.

It’s not just adding one to all the rest. Because every person includes everybody else in himself, his contribution does not simply add 1% to 99%, filling a certain niche. When one person is missing in the general, he is missing in each part of the general. No part of a general body can function and feel healthy if it’s lacking a single element. That is why everyone is equivalent to all the rest in his or her importance.

It’s hard to understand it while living in this world because we act according to the laws of matter, not qualitative properties. But in the spiritual world, one – and any – person can put the entire world in motion.

What we really differ in, however, is the sequence of corrections. There is a strict hierarchy in spirituality, whereby the lighter desires are corrected first, followed by the coarser ones. Also, there is a certain order between the right, left, and middle sides. Yet, the correction of every person is equally important.

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A question I received: How do I learn my place in the general system of souls?

My Answer: For that you would need to return to the root of your soul. It is only when a person completes his individual correction and ascends to his root that he learns his place in the general system. And even that is relative, since the entire system has not yet reached complete correction.

It is pointless to ask about such exalted states now. It’s equivalent to a little child asking who he will be when he’s fifty years old. Even thinking within the boundaries of this world we are unable to comprehend such things.

In the spiritual world, the gap between degrees is so enormous that all qualities become inversed, so that a person cannot even discern his next degree. It comes to him when he cancels himself and accepts a state that he initially cannot agree with. Such is the nature of spiritual degrees.

Therefore, presently it is pointless to ask about the root of your soul, about the conclusion of your work. Instead you should correctly carry out what needs to be done here and now. And then we will advance. Gradually we will gather experience and stop asking such questions because we will understand that every new degree is a whole new world. While all our questions pertain only to our current level.

We are incapable of understanding the spiritual world. Even its first and tiniest degree, which exists right above us, is concealed from us, and we are utterly unable to detect it. It is right there before us, but we must first correct our qualities, step by step, by bringing all of our 613 desires in congruence with this degree.

Then we will make contact with the Upper Light, which will be called our next degree. And then we will attune our 613 qualities to a more advanced state, and together with the Upper Light we will reveal an even greater degree. This is how we ascend.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 203: When a person is destined to account for his deeds, before he leaves the world, this day is a day of reckoning, when the body and the soul report. Afterwards, the soul departs the body and parts with it, and the body, which was created from dust, returns to dust and everything returns to the place from which it was taken. And until the time when the Creator revives the dead, everything will be concealed from it.

Equally in our spiritual advancement, we don’t know what the upper rung means, or what it is that constitutes our next state. Today as well, none of us know what the next minute will bring to our lives. We can try to predict, but it won’t help. Nobody can grasp the future. The next rung is always concealed and it is revealed either through the path of suffering (Beito, in time), or through the path of goodness (Ahishena, accelerated time).

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statutes),” Item 45: “I will never again curse the ground on account of man.” “I will never again,” meaning I will not give addition to the litigants to destroy the world, but only add as much as the world can bear. It is written about that, “then I will [chastise you] more,” meaning add what the world can bear.

This describes how we advance. The whole process consists of Malchut rising to Bina and then descending back from Bina. Then it rises to Bina again, and descends back again. All these movements, these oscillations, are meant to give us sensations.

After all, we cannot feel our reality in Malchut or in Bina; we can only feel it in the connection between them. We feel reality in the coefficient of their connection; that is, in the changes of Malchut’s inclusion into Bina and Bina’s inclusion into Malchut.

More simply, we feel ourselves only under the condition that we move between Malchut and Bina. When the relationships between them change in us, then the variable correlation between Malchut and Bina also changes in us, and it is these changes that we perceive as life.

Conversely, if this correlation ceases to change or becomes still, we would feel this as death. In this state, all the sensations and gradations of qualities vanish. Therefore, on one hand, we feel life in the process of change of Malchut’s inclusion into Bina, and Bina’s inclusion into Malchut, and the unifications between them. On the other hand, this gives us heavy and unpleasant sensations, and the lack of patience. However, this is precisely where we feel life. Therefore, in order to live, we are forced to survive. We are unable to part with life and so we prefer movement.

In spirituality this movement reaches a state within which we reveal the Creator. It is the state, from which life comes to us and provides movement, strength, and the changes in the connections between Malchut and Bina and in the ascents of Malchut into Bina.

When we reveal Who does this, Who creates these changes, and for what purpose all these changes occur in us, we rise above these movements, above the changes in us, and we merge with the Giver of life. Thereby we begin to feel at rest. After all, we then feel that this movement is necessary for creation, and without it creation is unable to feel the Creator.

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Everything we have done until today was just a game where spiritual forces influenced us from Above, leading us through all the historical phases that we have gone through. These forces caused the development of nations, souls, and civilizations, and they governed us without asking whether we wanted it or not.

However, now we have completed our preparation for correction, and from today on, we must start to carry out the correction. This is why for the first time in history, the science of Kabbalah is becoming revealed to the whole world. It is the method of correction, of revealing the Creator, the Light, the force of correction. It is now becoming revealed because this is the first time that we must lead ourselves to correction.

From now on there are two paths laying before us: the natural path (Beito) and the path where we accelerate our development (Ahishena). If we participate in our own correction, then we will take the good path, but if we don’t desire to carry out the part incumbent upon us, then we will lag behind and will perceive our laziness as suffering.

Then, instead of feeling the Upper Forces as good and helpful to us in our correction, we will feel our own uncorrected desires in the form of various problems. These can range from minor troubles with our families and health to world wars and self-extermination. This is what all the Kabbalists have warned us about, as well as the prophets before them. All the prophets spoke about the age of the Messiah, which has now arrived.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Pekudei (Accounts),” Item 15: When the Creator said unto Moses, “Make the Tabernacle,” Moses was bewildered; he did not know what to do until the Creator vividly showed him, as it is written, “And see and make them after their pattern, which is being shown to you in the mountain.” “In their pattern” means that the Creator showed Moses everything in its higher, spiritual shape, and each of the spiritual shapes above was making its shape similar to the fictitious shape that was made below, on earth. This is how Moses knew.

This is what our work consists of because the spiritual world doesn’t have a form and we don’t know what Upper Light is by itself. This notion doesn’t exist at all separately from the creation. We can attain and define it only in relation to ourselves and through our sensations. However, our sensations are imaginary because we always feel reactions to an outside influence. We will never find out what actually is happening outside of us because we can’t extract ourselves from our perceiving senses.

It turns out that one can perceive properly only to the extent of the similarity of his properties to the spiritual properties. When the properties of man and the Creator coincide, man reveals the Creator to the extent of that similarity. Initially, we only perceive the imaginary form of this world. Our work consists of rising above it and asking for the Upper spiritual form to clothe in it. Once we have these two forms where one is confined within the other, we will acquire the proper perception of the world.

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As long as we exist in the perception of this world alone, we cannot understand that it is imaginary. Right now matter is the only reality we know, and we don’t feel anything else. Yet, our objective is to start to clearly perceive the world on two levels: the material and the spiritual. Then we will understand that one of them is imaginary. This doesn’t mean it does not exist; “imaginary” means it is a reflection of the true form, whereas the second, spiritual form is the real thing.

There is something that’s authentic, and then there is a reflection of it, like in a mirror. You can’t say that the reflection doesn’t exist. Moreover, it is precisely the reflection that enables us to come to the perception of the true, spiritual form.

One never perceives the spiritual form separately, by itself. On the path of correction, a person continually develops a greater spiritual perception of the forms of the Creator, but he reveals them within the imaginary form of this world. Therefore, we cannot detach from it until we ascend all 125 degrees of the spiritual ladder.

Along the entire path of correction, on all the phases of attainment, one’s spiritual perception constantly grows stronger while being based on these two forms: the imaginary and the real. The imaginary form is only called imaginary. But do we really imagine our world? After all, we live in it – this is our current reality.

The true reality is the realm from which forces, decisions, and facts come to us, while only their reflection exists in this world in order to help us attain the true reality. When we begin to attain it, we call this world “imaginary.” Yet, it isn’t some non-existent fantasy, but is necessary for us to discern spirituality.

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A question I received: You have me completely convinced, but what specifically should I do from this moment on?

My Answer: From this moment forward you must understand that the future depends on you, to the extent of your dissemination of the science of Kabbalah in the world. This is because it is the method of correction for the whole world: It is for us to connect with each other and with the Upper Force.

If we will come to widespread dissemination of this principle, as a cure for all our problems, then we’ll succeed. We only need to make attempts to achieve it and the Upper Light will do everything else for us. To the extent of our efforts it works through us, on ourselves and the whole world.

Thus, I strongly recommend everyone who has the opportunity to come to our convention on March 24th, 2010 in Israel, as well as to our World Zohar Convention 2010 that will take place in New York, May 7-9, 2010 (registration is already open). These events influence spiritual advancement very effectively.

Baal HaSulam attempted to disseminate Kabbalah to the people some time ago, but he had no success because the time had not come yet. At that time, all that he wanted to do didn’t work out. However, everything that we now do in this direction is successful. It is evident that we are receiving a blessing from Above, and everything depends on us.

Let us hope that together with all our groups and friends around the world, we will bring the world to correction.

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A question I received: What inner transformations should I expect during the The Zohar study, and how can I open myself to the influence of the Light more?

My Answer: The best way to test how The Zohar acts upon us is to examine our readiness to unite with everybody to be in Malchut of the World of Atzilut together. This is the condition for attaining the Light that Reforms.

The condition for the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai is becoming one man with one heart. The condition for being in spirituality is being like brothers who are sitting together. “Sitting” means that a person annuls himself, that he is ready to be together with everybody. People standing differ in height; people while sitting are all equal.

Therefore, if after studying The Zohar for a few weeks or months a person feels that his attitude toward the connection with others is changing; if he feels that he is willing to listen more, that a certain inclination to unite appears in him; if he reveals the importance of unification, begins to sense that everything really works this way, and he is ready to accept it, this is the sign of advancement, an indication that the Light is acting upon him.

Spiritual progress is determined only according to one’s willingness to unite with other souls. This is the test. Everything else bears no relationship with the science of Kabbalah, with the advancement toward the goal.

The goal is attained in uniting. The difference between us and the World of Infinity is that in the latter, we are totally, unlimitedly connected together. All the stages on the path to Infinity are defined by our connecting with each other more and more. This means that there are 125 degrees of connection, which are increasingly compressed and adjoining.

Therefore, a person can determine his advancement only by his readiness to unite with others. All other tests are completely wrong; everything else can occur in the egoistic properties as well.

Our movement toward spirituality is also egoistic. We aspire to attain spirituality, to unite with the others in order to reach the goal. However, this happens in the intention Lo Lishma (not for bestowal). We already understand that we have to let go of our ego in order to deserve something more exalted. For the time being, egoism still motivates us, yet it already acts toward the goal.

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The holiday of Pesach (Passover) is an exodus from our ego. Our ego locks us in a capsule called “this world” and prevents us from seeing the reality outside. In order to break free from this shell we must perform a “circumcision,” by drawing the Light of Hochma from Above. It acts like a sharp knife and removes our great egoistic desires that cannot currently be corrected. We are given the opportunity to rid ourselves of them and to not use them, in essence to become free!

To be a “free people in our own country” (the word “country” comes from the Hebrew word “desire”) means to escape the rule of our desire. When we become free from our desire and can rise above it, we are ready for the exodus from Egypt.

We then exit our evil inclination (Yetzer HaRa) out of Egypt (Mitzraim – Mitz Ra, concentration of evil) and toward freedom. Having been slaves to our desires, we now come out of slavery and become free of them, meaning we refuse to use them egoistically.

Presently we are drowning in our ego, in our desire to receive for ourselves, and immersed in this world, we are subject to waves of all kinds of problems and desires. Suddenly we receive a strong desire to rise above this world, this life, and to feel a spiritual life.

This doesn’t mean we discard all of our corporeal desires; rather, with the help of The Book of Zohar, we receive the strength to rise above our desires and become masters over them. The moment we ascend, we immediately stop feeling trapped within an egoistic capsule with its sensation of this world, and we begin to feel the spiritual world. That is the real meaning of the exodus from Egypt.

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