A question I received: Why can’t everyone understand The Book of Zohar?

My Answer: First of all, your mind won’t help you reveal anything. If we read The Book of Zohar trying to understand it with our minds, then we will see nothing more than a system of Musar (ethics), repeated warnings, instructions and strange tales.

It is only by opening up a new sense inside you, called the point in the heart, that you will begin to see a whole world when reading that same story. The Book of Zohar will suddenly begin to reveal itself within you.

Remember, there’s nothing outside of you. We think that the spiritual world is somewhere out there, but actually it becomes revealed inside us. When a person begins to attain qualities and definitions inside him, he enters deep inside the text of this book. The book itself begins to clothe within him, and the person reveals everything he is reading inside of him.

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A question I received: How should a person work when he receives a spiritual awakening?

My Answer: He should work on his connection with his environment, provided that it is comprised of people similar to him. You will feel the spiritual world inside your spiritual desire, which is built out of the desires of other people, which you attach to your desire – the point in the heart.

Besides this “point,” you don’t have any other spiritual desire. You are like a cell in the general organism: By itself, the cell cannot feel life or perception. This is why you have to establish a connection with the other cells.

The entire universe is one organism called Adam. Your task is to find your connection with this common organism. The life that you will feel inside this common spiritual body will be the higher, eternal and perfect life (the Light). The source of this life is called the Creator.

All of this is perceived inside the general body, which consists of points or cells – individual aspirations for spirituality. If you don’t unite with them, you will never feel the spiritual life.

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If a person isn’t joyful, then he is not in the spiritual state. In spirituality, if you want to go on to the following state, you have to complete your present state. That means you have to attain joy in the present and agree with it, as if you’re putting a seal on it. Then you will ascend to the next, higher level.

If you don’t attain joy in the present state, then you will never complete it, and you might even slide lower down. Even if you have already begun to awaken to and feel the spiritual state, if you don’t reach the sensation of joy about it, then you will be thrown back down, to a place where you did not feel any spirituality.

The sign that you have completed your current state is the feeling of emptiness in your egoistic desires, and the feeling that you want to be above them, in a state of greater bestowal. And if you are joyful, this means that you really desire bestowal – the next level. You are then ready to receive an additional desire.

It doesn’t matter what is happening to you on the path of correction – ascents or descents. You should always be happy, like a small child who tries to do something and is happy regardless of whether he succeeds at it or not. The most important thing is the efforts he makes. This is what enables him to grow.

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On the spiritual path, we always advance through states that consist of two opposites simultaneously. This really bothers a person, since he exists in just one quality – egoism, or the intention, “only for my sake.” A person just cannot agree with the fact that two opposites can be together.

However, in the spiritual state, opposites coincide. After all, we are opposite to the Creator and we have to attain adhesion with Him. We are able to attain adhesion with Him while keeping our initial nature; this is called spirituality. We do it by adding the spiritual nature to our nature, by combining the two. We thereby exist in both worlds.

However, right now we only have the desire to enjoy, and therefore we don’t understand how it is possible to have a unity of opposites. In fact, this state cannot be described or conveyed using our earthly language. Our language is an expression of our nature, and therefore it is only able to convey what we understand. But in the spiritual state, even the cause and effect change places: what seemed to be the cause turns out to be the result. This is why spirituality is concealed.

But it’s not because someone is concealing the spiritual state from you. Rather, you simply don’t recognize spirituality because you are built according to the material world, which consists of just one component rather than two opposites together. It’s as if you walk right by the spiritual world, in a different dimension, and you never encounter it. You simply don’t have the sense to perceive it.

Spirituality can only be perceived within two opposites. It’s when the Creator and the creation unite together through creation’s equivalence of form with the Creator. When you create this equivalence between yourself and the Creator, between your intention and His desire to bestow, while your desire to receive remains, then you have two opposites within and are able to perceive spirituality.

You begin to understand it, and you can start researching and measuring it. You are then able to understand how it is possible for there to be something above the speed of light: two opposites together, which don’t contradict one another.

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If a person engages in spiritual work, then he doesn’t feel overwhelmed by material troubles, because the sensation of corporeality becomes pacified and balanced when influenced by the spiritual sensation. Our world is a result of spiritual forces, which descend from the spiritual world to our world. Everything that exists in our world is governed by forces from Above. If we bring these Upper Forces to balance, then everything will work out in our world as well.

If we begin building the right connection among us – one that’s similar to the spiritual connection, then our entire world, including our earthly life, will start being balanced out. On the other hand, by acting on the level of our world, we won’t be able to correct or improve anything in our earthly lives, because our world is governed by forces from Above.

So, only when we work on our correction, on becoming similar to the Upper Forces, will the forces descending from Above bring our entire world to harmony. And we will immediately feel this.

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A question I received: In recent years, especially in times of crisis, the study of Kabbalah is offered as the only means to ensure continued existence of mankind in general, and to overcome the economic crisis in particular.

You must understand that this is likely to cause a backlash, because everything that is not a natural human need causes rejection. Moreover, is the science of Kabbalah itself ready to open itself to universal learning? It is clear that spiritual advancement is universal, and everyone will find their path by means of study, however this is what it is, a path, and a distant one. You are already beginning to voice the need for a differentiated approach to learning.

Most importantly, should all of humanity study Kabbalah, or is it enough to reach a certain critical mass of humanity in order to advance humanity? Who then should be studying? Who has need of this? In this case however, the science of Kabbalah, in all probability, needs to come up with different ways to study.

Certainly Kabbalah should be open to all who seek it, but doesn’t such massive missionary work devalue the science in the eyes of those exposed to it? In my opinion, such, excuse the term, “vulgarization” of Kabbalah, that is, an attempt to explain such concepts as “mutual love” or “union of souls,” at a primitive level, is unlikely to succeed. The wish to find a simple explanation of these eternal truths is to every person, of course, understandable. But don’t you yourself mention that such understanding is possible only after correction, and in such case, doesn’t it harm dissemination?

My Answer: One of the easiest answers is the following:  I follow the instructions of my Teachers. Read what they wrote and you will agree with me.

Kabbalah is a practical science that reveals the Creator to every person in the world (definition of Kabbalah from the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” by Baal HaSulam). Therefore, there is a need to bring it to each and every person. Who are we to judge who is capable of implementing it, for all will gradually come to this necessity? My role is that of a circulator.

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A question I received: Who should I ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur, if we learn in the science of Kabbalah that there is no one outside of me?

My Answer: First of all, we have to ask our friends for forgiveness. If a person doesn’t have everyone’s forgiveness, then he won’t have anything with which to turn to the Creator. But what is forgiveness in spirituality?

Forgiveness is the revelation of my current state, which I can correct, in contrast to the desires I couldn’t even fathom being able to cope with and to ask for their correction. I have to discern my desires gradually and advance step by step.

Forgiveness (Slihot) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) mean the revelation of our broken vessel (Kli) or soul. We check it and compare it with the state of the full correction – Purim. This is why we call the opposite, uncorrected state that we reveal, Ki-Purim – Like Puirm).

Therefore, Yom Kippur symbolizes a time when a person truly asks to be forgiven for all his “sins.” But he doesn’t want this because it is written somewhere, but rather because he reveals how opposite he is to the final state, which he is able to envision. This state is the unity of all the souls for the sake of equivalence with the Creator, the force and desire to love and bestow.

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There are two forces leading us to our goal. One force is our desires and the desires of the environment, which develop us in this world. But the second force does not pertain to this world; it pulls a person toward the unknown and brings him to a special, spiritual environment – a teacher, a group, and Kabbalah books.

If one connects with them properly, then he builds the spiritual world for himself, which is his future world. One’s body remains in the material world, while one’s soul becomes born in the spiritual world. This is the only realm where a person has freedom of choice.

A person is always inside the field of these two opposite forces, and he has to balance them out. However, he shouldn’t try to replace one with the other; one needs his life and the desire to enjoy in this world also.

On the spiritual path, one always finds oneself between two opposite forces. By balancing them within oneself, a person uses his free choice to build his “self” between these two forces. He does this freely and independently.

A person receives everything else from Above: his desires, mind, strength, and examples, but he builds himself on his own. It turns out that he creates a creature out of himself, becoming equivalent to the Creator!

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The spiritual world is not in a different dimension or up in the clouds. It is something you find inside your attitude to other people, when you see that your neglect toward them becomes replaced by attentiveness toward them and a feeling that they are important. This happens because you wish to reach spirituality, and you start to see that they are your partners on this path.

You then begin to worry about them and to take care of them just as you would with anyone who is important to you. At first you do this egoistically, but you gradually start to feel that you want to give to them.

That is when the Light begins to work, making you feel that there are qualities inside you that you have to correct. You wish to treat others with love, and you also feel that only the Light can carry out this correction. If you really want this to happen, then the Light will come and correct you.

However, this Light works only inside the connection between people, turning hatred into love and correcting the breaking which once turned love into hatred. Inside this new attitude to others, you begin to reveal the spiritual world that was lost during the breaking. You realize that your connection with others is a connection of souls, of your inner desires, and inside it, you reveal the Creator.

All of this occurs precisely inside this net of desires that bind all of you. They create a vessel (Kli), in which your spiritual life becomes revealed. Meanwhile, the material life turns out to be but a dream, like an imagined world.

Deep inside the connection among people, you reveal the quality of bestowal, and you realize that it is the only thing that exists in the world. Everything else was a fantasy, a concealment of the spiritual world, which was necessary in order for you to reveal it.

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The most important thing is to reach a complete desire at every moment. Be like a baby: even though he will want something else the next second, right now, at this moment, he absolutely has to receive the thing he wants. This is very important: to ask and to scream for just one specific thing, and always try to live with a complete desire, taking it to the end.

When it comes to spiritual progress, a complete desire is the guarantee for success! If our desire isn’t complete, then it isn’t perfect, and that means it doesn’t match spirituality, which is perfect and complete on every degree. Therefore, if a person desires spirituality, but is still willing to compromise or give in in some way, then he could stay stranded between the heavens and earth all his life. He will not receive help from Above.

If you are able to feel inspired for just a moment, then try to enter this feeling deeper and develop it “beyond the possible.” These efforts will create your prayer (MAN) for ascension.

Be like a child who always wants to grow bigger than he is today and who always tries to do what he could never do before! He is always doing something for the first time, always adding something new and thereby advancing.

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