We yearn and desire to reveal everything inside our matter, inside our desire. But the surest place to reveal the breaking is in our attitude to our neighbors. If you want to find out what you have to correct and where to get the Surrounding Light, then start checking your relationships with the neighbor. You will soon see that this repels you and that you want to avoid this in every way possible; you constantly forget about it and don’t want to know about it. That is how you can immediately discover the place where the Light has to shine and  make a correction.

Spirituality is right here; it is right next to you! The place of the breaking is right here. This is so simple – the breaking is right in front of you and you can see and reveal it right now. But to correct it you have to imagine and envision it correctly, and understand what the corrected you has to be like. Try treating others with the same love that you treat yourself, no matter how repulsive, unwanted and inappropriate this seems to you. Then you will know how much you are repelled by spirituality, the Creator.

Nevertheless, we begin to change under the influence of the Surrounding Light and start to see everything differently. We start to understand that in reality there is greatness, unity and holiness concealed here. However, this change is impossible without the Surrounding Light.

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The Zohar: When darkness comes and Malchut connects to it, she governs and shines in Hochma, which is her governance. And since she lacks the Light of  Hassadim, all her openings are blocked from all sides, for all the Lights freeze within her and there is no vent in her, through which any Light can appear.

She is filled with Light, but the vents are blocked. Afterwards, when the middle line awakens in her and opens the vents, they will receive the illumination of Hochma from her, which was blocked within her at that time. It is written that they crave to permeate the Nukva precisely when she is discerned as small ways and blocked vents, since only then is the Hochma in her complete.

The night is actually full of Light, but we are unable to see in the night since we lack the Light of love and bestowal (Hassadim) to see the Light. Only in the Light of Hassadim can we compel the Light of Hochma to reveal itself and to shine in the Light of Hassadim. The greater the Light of Hassadim, the greater the revelation.

Night or darkness is a state where I am in an ocean of the Light of Hochma, but I have no Light of Hassadim. If I begin developing inner qualities of love and bestowal (the Light of Hassadim), then the Light of Hochma begins to shine for me little by little. This means that I awaken dawn, the Light of morning, and then the day.

From noon and further on, the Light of Hassadim, my force of bestowal, weakens and I begin descending from the level of Hassadim that I once had. It is as if dusk, a lessening of the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim, sets in. That is when evening comes, followed by night. Stated differently, my desire to enjoy has grown and it leaves no strength for me to remain in bestowal and love (Hassadim); it gains more and more power over me. The dark forces of night seize me and I give up, descending into the darkness and becoming incapable of love and bestowal.

But then, while in this dark, I again accumulate the strength to give, and starting from midnight, I begin combining Hochma and Hassadim, so that one Light shines within the other. This is how I reveal the Light.

All of this is done by a person if he overcomes his desire to enjoy through his aspiration for bestowal; then he sees the Light. And vice-versa, he sees darkness to the degree that his egoism overcomes him. That is how we advance through our spiritual development, from day to night, again and again. Everything depends on the person alone, since on the part of the Creator, the Light permanently surrounds us, as it is written, “I did not change My HaVaYaH,” and, “The law is given and one cannot break it.” Everything is already given to you, and from now on you are welcome to do whatever you want.

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A question I received: I am sitting here in Australia in front of a computer screen. How can I adopt the group’s desire and tune into the group?

My Answer: Desire knows no boundaries. Only our material bodies are limited by place, movement, distance, and time. However, our soul or desires are in a different dimension where there are no boundaries or limitations.

The spiritual world is a world of forces. The Book of Zohar describes it through stories about Abraham and Jacob, Pharaoh and Moses, and others, which are all talking about forces that a person discovers within. He reveals them beyond time and space.

If I want to unite with the friends, what difference does it make where I am located? In ancient times, Kabbalists were also not physically near each other, but this did not pose an obstacle for them. It was not perceived as a barrier to advancement.

If I wish to advance spiritually, the body cannot help me do this. Therefore, we shouldn’t pay attention to the external things. We need the inner desire of our friends, their points in the heart that aspire to attain the Creator and a connection with Him.

The Creator is an all-encompassing force that fills all of reality. If my friends and I strive toward Him, we can unite our efforts by rejecting our egoism. It doesn’t matter where my friends are located. I don’t even need to talk to them. The action of the desire itself is enough to come closer to the Creator, but it will only happen to the extent that I nullify myself before my friends.

However, since we are living in the material world, we have the ability to connect through the Internet and at Congresses. These allow us to establish more than just an inner connection. Therefore, it pays to attend a Congress once a year, as it can become a great training wheel for us to tune into the common desire.

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In spirituality, when I complete my work on a certain degree, I receive more than I earned. Let’s say I corrected my desires on the still level; is this really enough to make the qualitative leap to the vegetative level? This is where you find something extra, a kind of a “bonus” that is necessary for you to have the strength to advance.

We do the same in our everyday lives by “filling” a child ahead of time with different knowledge and abilities, which he will need at a later time. Likewise, we begin our spiritual development at the lowest, worst degree, and this is why I am entitled to additional strength, since I could never manage without it.

It seems like I receive it for “free,” and later I return my “debt” as I correct myself. The Creator created the evil inclination, and we ask Him for help with our correction. However, wasn’t it Him who put us in this situation? So why then do we have to ask Him for this?

The thing is that by asking for help, we organize ourselves and begin to understand the kind of correction that we need, what an intention for the sake of bestowal is, and what we need in order to come to the next stage. Thus, we are compelled to turn to the Creator and thus establish a connection with Him.

“I am listening,” He says. “I need to correct this,” you say, “But I can’t do it on my own.” Thus, you become a “supervisor” of your own construction, and through this you begin to understand the Creator’s actions, mind, program, and His quality according to the principle: “I shall know You through Your actions.”

It turns out that your appeal to the Creator forms the future you – and He will do all the rest.

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In spirituality, an action is valued by its strength and the help rendered. For example, a mother takes care of her child, trying with all her strength to fulfill the child’s desires. The same happens in a group: I am trying very hard to unite with my friends in order to fulfill their desire.

By doing so, I will feel that the friends also lower themselves before me. They have a great spiritual goal, and they are willing to step on themselves for the sake of it and to help me as much as they can. The goal compels them to do so the same way as love compels the parents.

From this we can understand how we can begin attaining the Creator. Initially, we do not reveal Him as great, but as small. This is because He intentionally lowers Himself to help us attain the spiritual advancement. A child also sees in his mother as “a maid,” since she puts herself at his complete disposal.

This is also how we reveal the Creator. But then we gradually begin to understand that the Creator intentionally expresses Himself modestly to us and lowers His greatness to teach us how to bestow.

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The Zohar: It is known that there is World, Year, and Soul in everything. In the stony heart (Lev HaEven), too, there are World, Year, Soul. World is the primordial serpent (Nahash Kadmoni), which Samuel rode; Year—the ninth of Av; and Soul—the thigh-vein sinew (Gid HaNasheh).

The Zohar tells us that there are two ways of perceiving the reality that we feel. There is the perception “for one’s own sake,” where one feels an egoistic “year, world, and soul,” which belong to the stony heart (Lev ha-Even). There is also the altruistic “world, year, and soul,” where one’s perception of reality is directed in the opposite direction, away from oneself. One perceives through bestowal rather than reception, and therefore one perceives the Upper “World, Year, and Soul,” because it is perceived through bestowal (sanctity).

What’s the difference between the perception of reality by way of absorption and reception, when one separates the perception into world, year, and soul; and the perception of reality by way of bestowal, when one also separates the perception into world, year, and soul? This is, in fact, a big difference between these sensations, because by absorbing into oneself, one is limited and feels that he exists in rigid boundaries of time. One feels that he lives and dies; he feels suffering and problems. One constantly wishes to fill himself, but this fulfillment fades immediately. One’s whole existence in these egoistic bounds of “world, year, and soul” takes place in reception, in the stony heart (Lev ha-Even), in absorption “into oneself.” However, in spite of the suffering, one is forced to continue existing in this manner because one’s environment conditions him that this is how he has to live. The environment obliges a person to strive to be successful at this egoistic absorption, and one is compelled to listen to them and thereby to kill oneself.

However, it is possible to perceive reality different – through bestowal, by exiting out of oneself. There, “world, year, and soul” are infinite dimensions, not limited by the considerations of how a person can fulfill himself. One feels the spiritual world, eternity, and perfection.

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When I reveal the wicked forces of the spiritual worlds, called Klipot, and the forces of goodness opposite them (as it is written, “The Creator made one against another – wickedness against holiness), then I attain a level of existence inside these parallel systems of good and evil worlds. Thus, I feel heaven and hell opposite to one another. It’s impossible to feel one without the other.

Let us hope we will attain all of this and become the “sinners” of which the Torah speaks. To be a sinner means to exist opposite to your “righteous” state; it is when you toddle between “sinner” and “righteous,” alternately becoming one and then the other. By “zigzagging” in this manner, one advances higher.

All of this refers to the system of the spiritual worlds that we are facing. There is nothing there resembling the colorful pictures of heaven and hell that religion has frightened us with. We have to free ourselves from all these primitive superstitions and realize that nothing can happen to our body after death besides disintegration, since the body is no more than a protein-based matter.

We have to understand that there are only two forces acting inside us – reception and bestowal. However, they can be called by many different names. Everything consists of them and everything exists only in us.

A name is a desire (HaVaYaH) with the Light (Ohr Pnimi) in it, which was attained by a human being. A holy name refers to a property of bestowal, and a wicked name refers to a property of reception. Even the name of the worst villain described in the Torah refers to a revelation of the Creator, but from the opposite side; it refers to the property of egoism inside a person. All the good names refer to the revelation of His “face,” goodness, the property of bestowal inside a person. All of this talks about the revelation of the Creator inside man.

All the good and evil forces acting “above this world” are the revelation of the Creator’s forces either from His front side or His reverse side, as Moses was told, “And you will see My back but will not see the face.”

Nothing exists besides the creation and the Creator, and the Creator can either be concealed or revealed to creation. Our task as creation is to reveal the Creator – the only acting force in the universe. All the rest that we now perceive as an “external world” is also inside us, but in our desires that have not yet been revealed.

This is the picture we have to imagine. We have to understand that nothing is worse than our current state, the state of complete separation from the Creator. Namely, our world is the worst of all worlds (states).

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While studying The Zohar, we are not trying to explain every phenomenon that we study; instead, we want to feel it. How is it even possible to explain something that a person doesn’t feel or see? That’s why we are talking only about the effort that a person makes when he wants to reach something he doesn’t know, see or grasp, but would do anything to move closer to it.

I am teaching you how to focus on the spiritual world. When you acquire spiritual vision, you will feel, and later on you will also understand. This is the meaning of the verse, “A judge has nothing but what his eyes see.” What’s the point of trying to memorize names if you don’t know what they refer to? We are now learning how to attain them, because attainment is when you feel something with utter clarity in all of your senses and heart. You exist in it, are completely immersed in the spiritual world, and actually become one with it.

We are talking about how to enter the sensation of a new world, like a baby that’s starting to perceive this world simply and naturally. We don’t explain anything to the baby from the beginning. He must first be filled with various impressions about our world, and then, by being able to differentiate between different qualities (cold vs. hot, light vs. darkness, hard vs. soft), he begins to form a mind that understands what he should aspire to and what he should move away from. He starts to discern what is pleasant and unpleasant, what is good for him and what is bad, what is true and what is false, what he likes and what he doesn’t.

However, with regard to spirituality, all of this comes only after we have revealed a fragment of the Upper World in our sensations. Right now we desire to attain this revelation, and therefore we don’t want to explain what is inside it; we only want to facilitate these new sensations in us.

We have to “unfocus” our vision from this world and stop seeing it in order to start seeing through a new focus, by concentrating our attention on something else. It’s like those 3-D pictures that first appear like a chaotic collection of disorderly shapes. But if you change the focus of your vision and stop concentrating on the surface of the image, if you try to peer inside, not focusing on the picture itself, but deliberately penetrating inside – then you begin to see it. We have to make the same effort – but through feelings rather than vision – when reading The Book of Zohar, and then through the sensations of this world, we will feel the Upper World.

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Kabbalists tell us that we exist in an invariable state called “the World of Infinity.” The Creator wishes to fulfill us infinitely, to give us infinite pleasure, and to bring us to a sensation of Him. Then we will feel perfect harmony, a luminous and perfect world where we are filled with the Upper Light. In addition, we will understand and feel the world in its entirety.

We are in this state even now, but are unaware of it. This is our only problem – that we are insensitive to it due to not having the sense that can feel this reality.

I have one sense, which I perceive as my physical body. This body has five senses of its own: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. With the help of this cumulative sense called the “body,” I feel myself and the world.

Besides it, there is also another body called “the body of the soul.” If I reveal it, I will discover five senses there as well: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut, which can also be called “spiritual vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.” Through the body of the soul, I perceive the spiritual reality, myself, and the world.

So what is the problem – why is it so difficult for us to reveal this spiritual sense and through it to feel that we are situated in the World of Infinity, that everything around us is filled with Infinite Light and there is no life, death, or any other limitations? The problem is just one thing: the lack of the Light of Hassadim. The only way for our soul to develop from the point that we currently have, for that point to expand and burst open, is by acquiring the Light of Hassadim – the quality of kindness (Chesed), love, and bestowal, the ability to come out of ourselves. We are situated in an ocean of Light – the Light of Hochma, the Light of the Creator, but we will only be able to reveal it if we open up to the outside by means of the Light of Hassadim.

Therefore, the darkness that is revealed in us is the pressure of the Light of Hochma in the absence of the Light of Hassadim, which comes from the soul. Our soul is still incapable of opening up and revealing the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim – of seeing “day” instead of “night.”

We see the spiritual world, our spiritual life, in greater or smaller degrees of the Light of Hassadim. The entire process of our spiritual development and formation occurs between these two Lights – Hochma and Hassadim, or between two desires where these Lights are revealed – the desires of reception and bestowal.

Stated more accurately, there is one desire, but it can be implemented by us in two different ways: with the intention “for myself” or with the intention “for others.” Therefore, developing the Light of Hassadim, the quality of bestowal and love, the ability to come out of oneself, is the same as revealing the soul. We reveal the Upper World, the World of Infinity, to the extent that we develop the Light of Hassadim, the intention of bestowal inside us.

There are five levels of Aviut (thickness of desire) inside the point in the heart – the drop of semen of the soul, the Reshimo that is in us. By acquiring the Light of Hassadim on each of the five levels of desire, we reveal five parts of our soul and thereby open up an opportunity for the Light to enter it step by step, through the five degrees called five worlds (degrees of the Light’s revelation).

This is how we gradually ascend along the degrees of the worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon – until we reach unlimited revelation, called “the World of Infinity.” Everything in this process depends on how much we acquire the quality of bestowal because through the quality of bestowal, we reveal the point in the heart and it becomes the soul, the Shechina, the receptacle for the Light.
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While reading The Book of Zohar, we must instantly translate all the words and names into two notions (or qualities, forces, categories) that comprise everything; these two notions are the Light and the desire. Every person has to say to himself: all of these words are different desires and qualities inside me. I have to recognize them inside me and use them as an example, because through them, the Creator is showing me the structure of my soul, my world, my inner structure, and everything in existence, which He created. He thereby reveals my eternal state to me.

That is how we have to try to see what The Zohar is talking about. And we shouldn’t despair because everything is attained through efforts. As soon as each of us exerts the needed sum of efforts, he will reveal his Upper World.

No matter how confused we are during the lesson, how “numb” our state is, how incapable we feel in our mind and heart (in the understanding and sensation), none of these efforts depend on us. We have to thank the Creator for giving us the opportunity to be in front of this book.

Kabbalists call The Book of Zohar simply “The Book,” emphasizing that there are no other books besides it. That’s because a book refers to a structure, system or method that reveals the Creator to the creation.

It does not depend on the person how prepared he is for reading this book; it depends on his soul. Nevertheless, he is now placed in the best possible state for him and is sitting in front of this book and starting to listen to the lesson on The Zohar. That means he is capable of revealing it.

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