A question I received: How do we imagine the processes that take place in spirituality and that are described in the wisdom of Kabbalah? Where and when do they occur or have they already happened?

My Answer: All these processes have already happened in our spiritual roots. All we do is reveal them by ascending from below upwards and in this way approach them. Yet everything has already “happened.” Time in spirituality is a sequence of causes and effects.

The Creator created the desire to enjoy. Then, this desire received the Light. Afterward, it started to experience shame, restricted itself, made a decision to start receiving anti-egoistically (using a screen/intention), and began to receive in order to bestow according to the degree of its ability, and so on. In other words, we study a sequence of actions that happened before we began sensing them ourselves.

Here I am being born, and from this moment, I begin to sense myself. I know that before I was born there were other people alive, but I don’t know what “before me” really means. I begin to perceive reality only from the moment I am born. “According to my perception of reality,” it appears that there are other people around who were born before me and even some who were alive and died before I was even born. But all this exists only in my reality into which I was born and currently live. “They” are something I conceive as images in my head. We all work only with our inner desire which needs clarification.

That is why my reality begins at birth. Everything that supposedly happened before I was born is a preparation to my current sensation. It relates to the Creator and His actions within me. He performed  them to prepare me to perceive the world and the reality around me the way I do starting from the moment of my birth. Who are my father and mother and all the people surrounding me? Why do they act this way? It is the Creator who prepared this system of caring for me. The whole world that I see is made by the Creator for the sake of my work.

Therefore, our life is connected with the spiritual processes that are meant to bring us to spiritual awakening and revelation of new sensations. Did you really think that there is even one useless moment in your life?

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The spiritual world is a world of qualities, forces, desires, and intentions. There are just two forces or two desires: reception and bestowal. Everything else comes from their interaction and inclusion inside each other. When the desire to bestow joins the desire to receive pleasure, it evokes the force of opposition in it, a screen, Aviut (thickness, coarseness of desire), Zakut (purity, fineness of desire), and so on.

Yet, there are only two forces operating in the entire universe and they are mutually incorporated inside one another. This is what we learn in the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light. Nothing else exists. “Existence from existence” (Yesh Mi Yesh) is the force of bestowal, and “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ein) is the force of reception that was created inside it.

Everything else forms from the opposition between these two forces. It is forbidden for us to imagine anything besides them since we imagine everything else detached from the true sensation. If you desire to return to the true sensation, then you must make efforts to try to return to the authentic picture, as if you are gaining consciousness from an unconscious state.

Therefore, when reading Kabbalistic articles or The Book of Zohar, and even when going about our business in this world, we have to try to reveal the forces that govern us, the roots of what we perceive in this “seeming” world. When reading The Zohar, we must constantly make these efforts. If you are always trying to reveal, using this book’s text, the qualitative picture, the picture of qualities, forces, and desires, then by so doing you evoke upon yourself the force from that state, from two forces, reception and bestowal, and this influences you.

The Zohar speaks about how to find the connection between the two forces. This is all of reality. It doesn’t matter what exactly I am reading: Aba ve Ima, ZON, ascending, descending, the state of adulthood (Gadlut), the state of smallness (Katnut), and so on. In actuality, there are no words in the sensation of the spiritual world. There is just a combination of two forces in all sorts of forms, and that is the true reality, the only one that exists.

One quality belongs to creation and the second one to the Creator. It is impossible to speak about one without the other, but only about the connection between them, ranging from nearly total disconnection to total unity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: In a state of a descent, how can I hold onto the goal so firmly that I can turn the descent into an ascent and fall on my own rather than have the Creator hurl me?

My Answer: I need to control this descent and decide on my own that a downfall is necessary. I have to prepare myself for the descent beforehand like one prepares for a surgical procedure. What will help me not to “lose my head” during a descent and fall under the authority of my desires? A connection to the goal will help me feel the descent and rise instead of losing myself. I am unable to guarantee this for myself and therefore, I require the right environment to support me when I lose control as a consequence of the desires that are too big for me to handle.

When the time comes for a spiritual embryo to be born, to transition to the degree of feeding, it loses its current degree completely by turning over “head down.” So how is it able to connect these two states during the birth? How does it secure itself from becoming a miscarried fetus, and instead, adhere to the Creator on a higher degree in order to be born into a new world? For this we are given different Reshimot (spiritual records, genes): de-Aviut and de-Hitlabshut (from desire and from the Light).

It turns out that I will always be able to connect to two degrees simultaneously! This is what helps me to be born.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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A question I received: In our world, an embryo has to grow day by day at the right speed in order to be born on time. If it comes out earlier or later than it is supposed to, it’s harmful for it. How can we know that our point in the heart is growing at the correct speed and will arrive at its spiritual birth on time?

My Answer: The right speed means to constantly aim at one goal. The goal is to grow and mature in order to be born in spirituality and to continue evolving until you become completely equivalent to the Creator like Aba ve Ima, Hochma and Bina.

You are evolving at the correct speed if you keep at this singular objective, align all your intentions and desires solely with it, and use them as the means to draw closer to it. However, if you withdraw from the goal, you bring your evolution to a standstill. In spirituality, time is the quantity of actions you have taken; it is not a mechanical meter.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot, Item 5: Now you will understand what is written in The Zohar: “With this composition, the Children of Israel will be redeemed from exile.” Also, in many other books, it is written that only through the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the masses will we obtain complete redemption.

The sages also said, “The Light in it reforms him.” … Both the individual and the nation will not complete the aim for which they were created, except by attaining the internality of the Torah and its secrets. … Consequently, the expansion of the wisdom and the coming of our Messiah are interdependent.

Stated differently, it is impossible for us to achieve correction without the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah. A person is built such that he is incapable to connecting to the Upper World on his own because he is opposite to it. He can only do it “artificially.”

We exist in this world, in an egoistic desire that wants everything for one’s own sake. But within this desire it is possible for a small egoistic desire for the Upper World, the point in the heart, to awaken. In our heart, meaning the desires of this world, we feel emptiness and disillusionment. But in addition to this sensation of emptiness in our world, a point in the heart awakens within us, a vague aspiration that longs for something higher.

These two desires together, the emptiness of this world and the aspiration for the Upper World, are the preparation for perceiving the Upper World. This is the most a person can receive inside him in this world to further his spiritual advancement. He receives the rest from outside, from artificial means in this world: a Kabbalistic group, teacher, and Kabbalah books. These means have been prepared for us from Above, and this opportunity does not exist in our world.

It turns out that an embryo of the future, the point in the heart, is present inside a person. Outside of it emerges the embryo of the future environment: the group, teacher and books. Through this environment a person connects to the spiritual world.

Abraham revealed the emergence of the following in man: a point of the soul and the environment (the books, teacher, and group). This enables one to attract Light from the spiritual world, which develops the soul from the point. Once the soul develops, a person is able to ascend into spirituality.

The point and its environment constitute our smallest spiritual state which has been broken, meaning it became egoistic. By using it we are able to correct the point – the broken, egoistic embryo of the soul.

This is why the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah is absolutely necessary, since without it none of us would know what to do and how to develop the embryo of the soul, the point, with the help of the environment (the books, teacher, and group). When we develop and correct it, then inside it we perceive the spiritual world.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/10, Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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A question I received: What is the point that emerges in the heart, in the empty desire of this world?

My Answer: All of a person’s desires are called his heart. The point in the heart is the connection that the heart previously had with other hearts, and which has remained from the breaking between us. Once we were all connected through our desires and hearts together into one system of Adam. But these mutual connections among us have disappeared and only the broken shards remain.

When we were connected together, we constituted a spiritual vessel, a unified desire filled with Light. When the connection among us was severed, the Light disappeared. The Light that disappeared has to return and restore the previous connection, making us bestow to one another, “returning us to the Source.” This is why it is called “The Light that returns to the source,” to goodness. It returns us to a mutual connection which is called goodness.

This connection is the Creator. He is present in the connections among us, while the desire itself (the heart) is just the matter of creation. It does not change. It can be great or small, but regardless, our state depends on the degree of the connection among us.

For now not everyone feels this point in the heart. Our egoistic desire has to develop to a specific level in order for the point in the heart to surface in it. At first the desire feels emptiness from this world, and then it reveals an inner aspiration for a different fulfillment. This fulfillment or Light is not present in the desire, but shines upon it from afar. That is why it is called the Surrounding Light.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/10,  Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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A question I received: If presently I don’t feel shame before the Creator, does it mean that I still don’t have the need to become independent?

My Answer: Obviously, at present, we still do not feel the need to become independent because we do not yet sense our dependency on Him. For that, we have to undergo a gradual, cause-and-effect development, the process of developing the creature.

We see an example of this kind of development in our children. They want to develop, but refuse to listen to their parents since they aspire to do everything themselves. Nature compels them to act this way since otherwise they would not grow. The same principle applies to us.

However, our spiritual development  is under the condition that we feel our dependency on the Creator and He does everything instead of our doing it ourselves. When we sense this condition, we don’t want to remain in this state; we wish to become independent, big, and do something ourselves!

For this reason, the creature begins to feel shame, its dependency on the Creator, and detaches itself from Him. That is, we are willing to take upon ourselves the concealment; we want to feel and protect it and make sure it does not disappear. Above the concealment, we build our similarity to the Creator. Meanwhile, this concealment, the First Restriction, does not go away. We adopt it on ourselves. We do not want to become annulled in front of the immense force of the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/10, “The Need For Love of Friends”

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A question I received: Who is our “Upper One” in spirituality?

My Answer: We don’t know that. We exist in the womb of the Upper One as a mere point, a droplet of semen, our spiritual Reshimo (record, gene). Beyond this Reshimo, we have nothing else!

In fact, our corporeal body, mind, and feelings have no relation to the spiritual world and cannot be seen there. In the spiritual world, there is only a womb of the Upper One (Malchut of Infinity) and us inside it. And each of us is a Reshimo (0/1, Shoresh Aviut/Aleph Hitlabshut) or in other words, a point in the heart.

Our task, as a point in the heart, is to try to cling to the wall of the spiritual womb! Beginning with the three days during which the semen is absorbed, the first problem for the embryo (us) is to attach itself to the wall of the womb. Attaching to the womb is establishing the very first contact with the Upper One.

In order to do this, we must annul ourselves before the Upper One. But where is this Upper One, this wall of the womb? What is it exactly? The Upper One is the Kabbalistic group, my environment! This is how the Upper One reveals the Creator for me.

Thus, there are the group and me, who adheres to it, despite all the obstacles. I accept the entire force of the group’s desire for bestowal, and I am willing and ready to take it all in through annulling myself before them.

When I attach myself to the group, my Aviut, which is the strength of my will to bestow, begins to grow and cause unpleasant sensations in me: disappointment, growth of egoism, and burdening of the heart. But I must go even deeper in, like a leech, clinging to the group which is the “wall of the womb.”

Then, between us, the first connection will appear, not through a point, but through the tube through which “blood” will start flowing into me. This connection, so far, is on the inanimate level (“Dam”- blood, from “Domem” – inanimate), but I will have already received spiritual sustenance from the Upper One.

All of this takes place through my connection with the group. There is no other “wall” through which I can enter the spiritual world!

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, Article “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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From the articles of Rabash: Malchut’s guidance is called “Chukat” (corpus juris/code of laws). But it is only the law of the Torah, not the Torah itself. This means that in order to attain the Torah, we have to accept the laws it bestows on us. Otherwise, it is impossible to receive the Torah. When a person accepts Malchut’s governance over him, he is called Israel.

We all are the desire to receive pleasure. This desire is similar to a mountain, hill, or a pile of sand that has no form. From this “sand,” with the help of water (Hassadim), we must build a shape in the likeness of the Creator much like we are able to shape the sand on the seashore.

This is our work, the process in which we build the correct form from shapeless “sand” as we study the qualities of the Creator, copy them, and mold ourselves from it – called “chukat” (the code of laws). The forms that we acquire ourselves are called “chukat.”

Ultimately, the cause, effect, and the forms of bestowal that we are building, one by one on the foundation of the will to receive, will all join together. Nothing disappears in spirituality; the foundation remains, and ultimately this construction will transform into an image of the Creator that we create by ourselves.

It follows that the creatures create the Creator. This is written in The Zohar. Therefore, all the great laws that we receive from the Light, along with the revelation of the Creator, exist for us to realize them on our own.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 6/14/10

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 59: “And behold, the Lord stood above it.” Here in the ladder, Jacob saw the connection of faith, the Nukva, tying all the Sefirot as one. “Stood above it” is as it is written, “A pillar of salt,” a mound, since all the degrees as one are on that same ladder, the Nukva, connecting everything in one knot because that ladder was given between the two sides.

It is written, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac.” Those are the two sides, right and left—Abraham is right and Isaac is left.

Malchut is an image, a picture of the Creator. We are within Malchut. Actually, we are Malchut and we sense everything within as a picture of this world. In fact, we always sense the Creator and nothing but Him. The problem is that we sense Him in accordance with our properties and to the level of our similarity with Him.

Sensations always come from the Light, but the desire (the vessel of its perception) senses itself as a certain object depending on its opposition or similarity to the Light. That’s why the Higher Sefirot constitute properties that are present in Malchut and include the Creator’s attitude toward Malchut’s attempts to become similar with them. They are called Sefirot since they illuminate inside Malchut which “lights” them because of its corrected desire to receive pleasure in order to bestow. That’s why it is luminescent.

The Upper Light doesn’t illuminate itself; it is hidden. Only to the degree that the lower one advances and attempts to become similar to the Upper One do the properties of the lower one light up and then are called Sefirot.

Everything we feel begins and ends within Malchut. Anything we can imagine existing prior to Malchut is an illusion of our perception. Similarly, we envision a certain reality around us, but in fact there is nothing at all; everything is within us. We simply divide all of reality into “me” and “something outside of me.”

The same happens in spirituality: We divide all of reality into a soul that as of yet has no sensation of itself and something that is outside of it. But when our correction is complete, everything comes together and there is no difference between “external” and “internal”; everything merges into one point.

As a person advances, he begins to see that even though the whole picture around him becomes wider, more intense, and complicated, at the same time, it concentrates and organizes itself into ten Sefirot. This allows us to arrive at the conclusion that everything depends on our perception, that is, on the measure of our similarity with the Light.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, The Zohar

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