A question I received: You say that books on Kabbalah speak about the spiritual world. However, currently I can only perceive the material reality. How can I switch over from the material perception to the spiritual one?

My Answer: This can only be done with the help of the Light that Reforms. This is why Kabbalists advise us to read Kabbalah books despite the fact that we don’t understand anything they say.

You have to read them with the desire to feel and see what is written in them, to enter the hidden world they describe. It is concealed from your senses, as if you are in a state of sleeping, of concealment, and your senses are numb. You have to desire to sharpen your senses of perception.

You will start to feel that the spiritual world is right here. You will begin to feel the spiritual forces and will discover that the spiritual world is completely connected to you, rather than separate from you. You will feel that all these forces act inside you and belong to you. This is an issue of revelation, and revelation occurs by way of the Light’s influence, even if you don’t know what the Light is.

There is a special force. With the help of a book, when you aspire to the reality that the book is speaking about, that force will influence you, gradually bringing you to perception of that reality. First it enters your feelings and then your understanding. This is how we are born into the spiritual world.

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A student studying the science of Kabbalah has a problem: in order to understand what the teacher is saying, he has to be on his level. The teacher may be talking about very high spiritual levels, but since all the levels are similar to each other and each has the same details as all the others, the student can at least understand what is being said according to his present spiritual level.

However, if the student still hasn’t ascended to any spiritual level and exists only in this world, then he cannot understand the language of branches. The language of branches means that a person attains the things existing in this world, the branches, as well as their roots on the spiritual level. Then he has a clear understanding of the connection between the two and he can attain what the teacher says.

But if the student does not attain the roots, then he cannot attain what the teacher is telling him. The teacher will be saying words that the student cannot identify. When a person attains only this world, he does not attain the branches because he does not know their roots. The branches are what descend from the roots. There cannot be a branch without a root or a root without a branch. The language of branches cannot even start unless one attains the spiritual essence, the roots of the branches.

Therefore, a student cannot understand the teacher until he attains the spiritual roots. Only then will he be able to attain all the connections between the roots and branches based on his teacher’s words. Unfortunately, this is a fact. Therefore, the study of the science of Kabbalah is only for those who possess spiritual attainment.

As long as a person doesn’t have spiritual attainment, he has to be clear on the fact that he is not studying the science of Kabbalah. He is only using its “wondrous quality” (Segula) in order to reveal the roots. This is the only reason we study.

Therefore, we shouldn’t get confused by trying to collect knowledge about “something,” but should focus only on the fact that we need the Light that Reforms, and we need it as fast as possible. If we attain the roots with the help of the Light, then we will understand what Kabbalah is talking about. Then, when we study the concepts described in the books, we will be studying this science. Currently, however, we are not studying it because we don’t know the connection between the roots and branches, since we haven’t yet attained the roots.

The science of Kabbalah starts with spiritual attainment, and not before that. Before it, you can only aspire to evoke the influence of the Light upon you (Segula).

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In the material world, a mother knows when it’s time to feed her baby. But when it comes to our spiritual ascent, a baby (a person who is in the initial stages of becoming a Kabbalist) has to ask the mother for food himself. He has to know how to turn to the Upper Level in order for It to raise him up to It and fill him with Light.

Everything happens according to the lower one’s (the person’s) desire to become similar to the Upper One (the Creator). In the spiritual world, all actions take place either according to Reshimot (informational records which determine one’s state), which are realized in us without our choice, or by us adding our desires for correction to the Reshimot. That is to say, we can add our own prayer or plea for correction.

We don’t have to ask for this artificially. That won’t help. If one’s desire is ripe, then it will elicit the influence of the Light of Correction upon it.

The Upper Partzuf (the Creator) is in the state of absolute rest and never changes. Only our inner Reshimot (the data about our state) undergo changes. This is why we feel that we exist in a changing world, but actually, it is changing inside us relative to an unchanging background – the White Light, the Creator.

Reshimot that awaken in us without our participation do not advance us in the spiritual world. We simply tread in one place, until repeated suffering makes us smarter and forces us to look for spiritual development. Our problems are caused by Reshimot that unravel naturally.

However, if you join a society that engages in spiritual development, then you will receive Reshimot from it, which come from your connection with other souls. You will receive these Reshimot by virtue of your own efforts, and they are the Reshimot that you have to correct in order to reveal the Upper World. How? By raising them through your prayer for correction.

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A question I received: How can I overcome feelings of hate and confusion along the spiritual path?

My Answer: During our spiritual development, we feel a great deal of hate and envy, as well as the desires to rule and to destroy anything we don’t like. The spiritual Kli is built above these material passions, including love for power and envy.

The only way to do this is by giving more importance to the Creator and the connection with Him, even if that connection is one-sided (from your end) and it seems like He doesn’t even know you exist. This has to be enough for you to rise above all the pleasures of power and fame.

This point of connection is called the point in the heart. A person doesn’t need anything besides this contact with the Giver, which he attains by virtue of the other desires he has.

Many people had been given the opportunity to have this point of contact with the Creator, yet they let it go by and did not acquire that connection. If you’re starting out on the spiritual path, you should be afraid and careful for the same thing not to happen to you.

Even though the whole world has become global and the spiritual path is open to everyone today, there are no compromises when it comes to spiritual attainment and revelation. It is operated by the law of equivalence of form between the desire and the Light, and therefore it’s impossible to neglect any condition in order to ascend to the level of revelation.

It’s true that time is becoming “denser,” but nevertheless, every person will have to go through the correction he is due.

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A question I received: You spoke about the concept of “attack” several times. Who or what are we attacking? Can we reach this state here and now, particularly at this Congress, and how can we help each other do it?

My Answer: Actually, the spiritual world is attained through an attack, when pressure from Above is immediately followed by pressure from below. The the crossing into the spiritual world happens like the birth of a child. When the fetus develops, it turns over head down and then it is born.

Turning over means that the person completely changes his conception of himself and the world. What is more important and less important switch places. To turn upside down means a person changes his values. As soon as a person is ready to do this, his spiritual birth occurs. In other words, there has to be pressure from the person (the fetus) and the mother (the Creator).

Through our attempts to become similar to the Upper Level and to find the right unification between friends, we draw pressure from Above, similar to labor pains (Tsirey Lida).  In Hebrew the word “contraction” (Tsar, Tsirei) comes from the words “narrow” (Tsar) and “suffering” (Tsarot). This means that the contractions of the birth create such a narrow state and so much suffering that we are “pushed” out through the Machsom into the spiritual world.

The Machsom is that narrow place through which a person is born. Therefore, we shouldn’t be afraid of the “narrow” state and the suffering. We should simply turn ourselves upside down and be born.
[5369]
From the Lessons at the Eurasian Congress  10.23.09

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It’s a known fact that if you leave a small child alone in the woods, he will grow up into an animal. Similarly, if you place a child in a certain society, that is how he will grow up. A person grows and develops under the influence of his environment. The environment gives a person specific behavioral models and examples, and he does everything according to them.

How do we perceive our world? We do it according to how we have developed and what we have been taught to focus on. In other words, we do it according to our desires. This makes us see specific pictures of our world and to perceive them in a specific way, as well as to process them within and react to them.

However, when it comes to the spiritual world, we don’t have any behavioral models, images, sensations or understanding of what it is. So even if the picture of spirituality would somehow emerge before us, we wouldn’t be able to perceive it. And that is how things do stand: in fact, everything is already here in front of us, but we perceive only a small part of what exists, because we don’t have the appropriate models or images.

This is why Kabbalists write books for us telling us about the Upper World. They pull us up to that world, or to be more specific, they bring the spiritual world down to us so when we read about it and try to feel and understand it, we become filled with its models even if we don’t feel or understand them.

This happens by virtue of a special quality called Segula – miracle. We evoke these spiritual images upon us from afar even when we don’t clearly feel them. That is how we prepare ourselves for feeling them.

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What is a human being? A human being is a mountain of egoism and hatred towards everyone. If the Light influences this mountain of hatred (the mountain of Sinai),  it raises a person onto the mountain.

Precisely due to the egoism, a person has something to rise above, then under the influence of the Light, the egoism is ready to receive pleasure, using itself for the sake of bestowal.

The Light does everything. One can be the most righteous person, who has ascended high into the degrees of the worlds, but if the Light stops affecting him, he will immediately fall into his initial egoism. There are no other alternatives – either we are controlled by our egoistic nature or we are controlled by the Light.

This will never end, since while I am in any spiritual state, I must always hold onto the Light in order for it to influence me. If I let go of it, I will fall immediately.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Cannot Change The World Until We Change Ourselves
Laitman.com Post: The School Of Desires Teaches Us How To Build The Spiritual World Inside Us (Advanced)
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: 14.”Transforming Egoism to Altruism”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”
Video: How Do We Get Rid Of The Ego? (5:03)

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When we enter the spiritual world we will feel the spiritual parameters (time, space, one’s self, and life) in the same way we feel them in this world.

Long before Einstein and modern physics, Rambam wrote in the 11^th century that our entire material world exists below the speed of light, which means inside Earthly time and below spiritual time.

Today, it is not a problem to talk about space, time, and movement as temporary variables, which are relative to the observer and can even move backwards. Objectively, there are no time, movement and space as these are just impressions in our desire. If our desire is limited by receiving we feel ourselves in the boundaries of our world.

If our desire is not limited by absorbing into itself and acts outwards to bestow, than these parameters lose their limitations and there are no limitations in our perception.  This means there is no time, no movement and  no space.

(From the Daily Lesson 10.19.09)

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A question I received: You said that when a person reads a text written by a great Kabbalist, he may suddenly see additional words appearing in the text, as if they are printed in the book. Does this effect also happen when the text is translated from Hebrew into other languages, such as English, Spanish and Russian?

My Answer: It makes no difference how the book was printed and what font or language it is using. As long as the original text was written by a person with spiritual attainment, then even when the book is translated into another language by a regular, professional translator, you will still see all of these phenomena. That’s because they depend on your aspiration to attain what is written there.

According to your current desire, you are seeing a book and certain words printed in it. If your desire changes, then instead of the book with printed words in it, you will see a source or system that brings you Light. You will see it as a spiritual fulfillment.
(From the second lesson at the North American Congress in Buffalo)

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We have no chance of attaining the spiritual reality with our egoistic mind. It simply can’t perceive it! Spiritual perception is called attainment (Hasaga), which comes from the saying, “Attainment in the hand,” where the “hand” is the corrected egoistic desire.

This is why there are certain rules in the science of Kabbalah: “From Your actions, I will know You,” “The judge has no more than what his eyes can see,” and so on. These sayings indicate that the Upper World has to be revealed through clear attainment.

We go through 125 degrees of attainment, from the beginning to the end. Each degree consists of 25 individual Partzufim or states (see Baal HaSulam’s “Beit Shaar HaKavanot”). It turns out that each of the 125 degrees, called a “Sefira,” includes 25 of its own forms, and each of those also includes 25 of its own sub-forms, and so on, until Infinity.

This is impossible to calculate. There is no specific number that can designate them. Only on a higher level, where there are no letters or numbers, can we comprehend all of this diversity, because we will have new qualities and a new mind. Then, the number of forms will turn into a higher quality and we will perceive it naturally and simply.

Therefore, an infinite number of Partzufim, Sefirot, worlds or degrees of spiritual attainment, only seems infinite to our current mind. However, for a spiritual mind, everything is reduced to a simple desire for bestowal and love, where we feel adhesion with the Creator as one whole “I, where we, the Light, and the Creator are One!”

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