If I rise above my egoism and come out into the desires of other people, I receive an endless spiritual vessel where I can sense the entire Light of Infinity. This works very simply. It’s like a big pipe and the Light flows in it. There is a valve on top of this pipe with which I can significantly change the flow of the Light by opening it fully. This is how it works in our world where even a little child can turn the faucet and change the flow of the water. In relation to spirituality, I can do the same.

I have only a small desire for spirituality. It’s a single point in the heart. However, if I turn to the desires of other people and include myself into the common body of the soul as one of its cells, then I bestow to this common body, and in response, it begins to take care of me. Then I receive all of its endless capabilities.

Hence, this is not a coincidence that Kabbalah instructs us to come out of our desires and enter the desires of others. By doing so, we receive “613” times greater capabilities, spiritual vessels, and desires, compared to what we had before. Previously we only had a point in the heart, but now each of us receives the entire body for our use.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A question I received: What is unity? Is it an internal sensation or the revelation of some force?

My Answer: Unity is a new reality that we have no idea about. It is a new matter that we haven’t sensed before and that has the properties of the spiritual world: the properties of bestowal. When we become included in this matter and live in it, we start revealing a different, new dimension as if finding ourselves on a different planet. We reveal this dimension within the properties of this matter: in bestowal.

Thus, unity doesn’t simply mean mutual connection, good relations, or confidence. It is revelation of the new property which doesn’t exist in our world. When we obtain this property and become similar to the Creator, we reveal everything in our mind and feelings, in unity with Him.

There is nothing else for us to do except to reach unity. It is within our power to do so. With regard to this it is written, “We shall do and we shall hear.” This means that we can perform various actions, put forth our effort, and do everything in our power. We can study together and unite as the Kabbalists recommend and as RABASH writes in his articles.

However, we won’t succeed in this. We have to reach the state described as “And they screamed from this work.” It’s an internal scream that we have to unite but are incapable of doing so. Only with this state of this internal scream will it happen. It must be a true prayer, a true cry.

We have already built the entire foundation. Now we only have to reach the property of unity. The new matter which will become revealed as the connection with others is the spiritual matter. It is already to some extent a spiritual vessel which existed before the breaking. At the instant that we reveal it, that we reveal the spiritual existence, the Creator will be revealed.

Therefore, throughout the day, each of us and all of us together have to try, as much as possible, to care only about this.
[15553]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10, The Zohar

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Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 58: With this we understand the words of our sages: that one who repents from fear is rewarded with his sins becoming mistakes. …the sins one makes extend to him from the reception of Providence through double concealment, namely concealment within concealment….
One concealment means that he believes in the Providence of reward and punishment. Yet, because of the accumulation of suffering, he sometimes comes to thoughts of transgression.

Why did a person make a mistake? It’s because he didn’t see that he was at fault. Yet he wasn’t even supposed to see it, was he? Our entire work amounts to acquiring a new vision by faith above reason. Thus, at the beginning, we do not perceive spirituality so that later we could see it in the light of bestowal. Spirituality cannot be seen in the egoistic light.

Nobody concealed spirituality or fenced it off from us. We hide it from ourselves by our egoistic desire. That’s why we start perceiving spirituality only by rising above our egoism. It’s similar to me facing a wall, a barrier. By rising above it, I can have a glimpse of what lies beyond it.

This is how we can picture to ourselves what faith above reason is. While I’m “within reason,” below the barrier, I cannot see the spiritual world. My organs of perception are different; meanwhile, I have to start perceiving the reality in the desires to bestow. When the Reflected Light shines upon me, it reveals to me the spiritual reality, which I can see in this Light.

That’s why naturally I erred and committed crimes while not seeing spirituality. How could I not have erred? However, why aren’t they called “transgressions”? That’s because thanks to revealing and correcting my mistakes, I corrected myself. In this way, I reached the degree of “repentance from fear,” that is, I built the screen for bestowing in order to bestow.

I learned from my mistakes for it’s impossible to correct anything until one reveals the entire evil of egoistic desire. This is called identifying a mistake. By correcting a certain measure of the mistake that has been revealed to me, I perform a commandment.

Hence, upon completing one’s repentance, one corrects all of his mistakes. It’s precisely because of them and thanks to them that he reaches bestowal. All of these errors were the result of concealment.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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How do we build a spiritual vessel from the point in the heart of every person, which is contained in his egoism? How do we elevate this point from the egoistic heart to the outside? How do we make it more important than all our egoistic desires and become concerned only with what happens in this point of spiritual aspiration?

To achieve this, we need the influence of the environment. We first have to lead our points in the heart to freedom from egoism, to the outside, and then to unify them. Their unification is crucial. The points in the heart are the means of connection among us; in this connection, we will feel the Creator. The stronger it will be, the more Light will be revealed in it.

This connection resembles an electrical resistor since we resist and do not wish to unite with each other. But, if we nonetheless unite, we feel how the Light begins to ooze through this resistance. The Upper Light influences, warms it up, and I feel the manifestation of the Creator in it.

In other words, I do not destroy my ego as practiced by different “spiritual” methods which tear a person away from reality. I use my ego and precisely through the ego, I reach attainment. Thus “the higher a person rises, the more his egoism grows.”

It will be significantly harder for you to unite with others on the next degree. It seems that it should be the opposite since you have already done this work. But suddenly you will begin to feel, “Who did I get involved with? Who are these people?” This means that the real work has begun.

The more resistance there is among you, the higher you can rise and the greater the Light that you can reveal. Instead of the Light of Nefesh (a minor Light that fills a small, few watt “light bulb”), you unite despite of a huge resistance (R2 instead of R1) and reveal the Light of Ruach, which is billions of times greater than the Light of Nefesh. It’s like a small light compared to a huge fire.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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A question I received: If I sense everything that happens in my regular life from “within,” is it a sign of my advancement as a result of reading of The Zohar?

My Answer: No. There is no such thing as “regular life” when you read The Book of Zohar. I have an embryo of the soul, the point in the heart, through which I stay within the Upper system that The Zohar describes.

How can I sensibly and rationally connect all these properties (the three lines, ascents and descents, and spiritual actions) with this tiny point in which there is nothing? This is exactly what I am striving for. How can I stay with them, sense them, and experience them at the level of ZON in the World of Atzilut?

I don’t expect anything from this world (from myself or my group friends) in the way that I perceive them or the entire world within my five senses. Why do I need it? This world doesn’t exist; I only imagine it within my ego (the desire to receive). If I climb to a higher degree of bestowal and “faith above reason,” I’ll perceive everything in a totally different way.

I have no desire to deal with this world. All I want is to rise and merge with the Upper One! However, I exercise a realistic approach and I don’t abandon this world. But I study The Book of Zohar as well as the rest of the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to reveal the Upper reality rather than to pull it down into this world. It will never happen. Never will the spiritual world clothe into the material one.

On the contrary, our material world will rise to its roots: the spiritual world. Through this material world I’ll eventually see the Upper World, but first I have to perceive spirituality. That’s why I have to detach myself from all my worldly possessions since at this point I am learning about perfection, spirituality, and the Creator.

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

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A question I received: Why did Kabbalists prohibit others from studying Kabbalah until very recently?

My Answer: There were several reasons for the prior prohibition of the study of Kabbalah for the general public:

1. The souls of Israel, which used to be in spiritual attainment, separated for the purpose of intermixing with the other souls that remained unchanged from the times of Babylon. The souls of Israel descended to the level of this world and have become equal to the other souls. That is, the souls of Israel had to descend to the level of this world since the intermixing gives the other souls an opportunity to become corrected.

2. Humanity had to go through all the stages until it reached complete disappointment from its egoistic development and saw itself empty, worthless, and situated on the threshold of the destruction of all its systems through which it hoped to achieve happiness.

3. Meanwhile, human beings developed internally, intellectually in their egoism, and this gave us the ability to grasp abstract forms that exist beyond time, motion, and space. We have only begun to speak about such things in the 20th century. Although it was written in The Book of Zohar almost two millennia ago that the Earth is a round sphere (The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 142), people were burned in bonfires for such words even five hundred years ago.

Time was required for humanity to develop its mind and feelings, to come closer to understanding what the science of Kabbalah tells us about: an Upper dimension. Even now this is not easy to comprehend, but the next generation will enter a new vision of the world if we prepare the foundation for it. And the next generation is us in our new reincarnation. An ability to perceive in this way is already emerging in us. The current development has brought everyone to the same level, and it is possible to reveal the science of Kabbalah to everyone at the same time. People of all nationalities are coming to study it.

However, in order to truly understand it, we need to unite. First we can understand and feel what Kabbalah is talking about through our egoistic minds and feelings. But then attainment begins, and it is perceived only in the unification of souls. Unification gives birth to a new organ of perception: the soul. If we unite, the mutual inclusion will give each person his soul for perceiving the Upper World.

If Baal HaSulam had not received guidance from Above, he would not have disclosed the science of Kabbalah. A Kabbalist exists in contact with the Creator and carries out His orders, serving as a binding link between the Creator and humanity. Therefore, the decisions of Kabbalists to conceal or to reveal the science of Kabbalah comes out of necessity, from the obvious (to them) connection between the Upper Light and the readiness of people’s desires for correction and perception.

Today also there are certain limitations. There is an opportunity Above to open wider the flow of the Upper wisdom. However, people are not yet ready for this. I feel the opposition to new information. This is because it is opposite to egoism and we do not desire it. For this reason, there is a law in Kabbalah: “The desire should precede fulfillment.” Our primary task is to create a spiritual vessel. Meanwhile, the Upper Light is already ready to be revealed in it.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Items 132-133: “And boughs of thick trees” are three, three lines, HGT…“And willows of the brook” are two, NH, which have neither smell nor taste, like people’s thighs.
The Lulav [palm branch], Yesod, takes them all and includes them, like the spinal cord in the body….
With these kinds, which correspond to HGT NHYM, man should be seen before the Creator. The leaves in the palm tree imply to all the other armies, which unite in these appellations by which the Creator is called.

The Zohar is intended to help us achieve attainment rather than understanding. Attainment means the realization of corrected desire and the beginning of sensing and seeing the spiritual reality. Understanding comes only afterward. That is because we don’t have the Kli for understanding, we don’t possess the properties which The Zohar describes.

It’s not about a palm branch or other plants that we know in this life. The Zohar tells us about forces that acquire the shape of particular branches in our world. It explains the spiritual roots that we can’t understand since we are unaware of where they are and what they look like.

That is why we listen to The Zohar without the slightest understanding. We only realize that it describes the reality that we don’t yet perceive. In error, we visualize pictures of this world which is the wrong approach.

Our only resort is to think about our unity and how to reveal what’s written in The Zohar within the connection among us. It is a story about connections within the Upper system and the revelation of the Creator through it.

That is why Baal HaSulam writes in Item 155 of his “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that Kabbalists wrote their books not only for themselves in order to share knowledge, but also for all of us as a “miraculous remedy” (Segula). Even if we don’t understand what we read, but keep the intention of attaining the Upper reality that the Kabbalistic books talk about, we attract the Surrounding Light which returns us back to the Source, to the Creator.

The Light directs us and provides us with the intention to bestow instead of the intention to receive for our own sake. Then we start sensing the Upper reality that exists within the property of bestowal. That is, we attain the spiritual world.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/10, The Zohar

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The environment will keep me thinking about the spiritual goal, if I, in turn, care that everyone is thinking about our unity and doesn’t abandon these thoughts. Thus, everyone will receive this impression, grow stronger, and advance. This is called “mutual guarantee,” whereby everyone cares about others having everything that is necessary for spiritual advancement. If instead of worrying about receiving from the environment, I worry about how to strengthen the bond between friends, as a mother cares about her children, then this is sufficient for this environment to begin influencing me.

First of all, I have to take actions in the direction of giving, connection, and care. I should view myself as being bigger than them in this regard, in order to influence them, strengthen them; I should search for additional ways of how to provide this for them. And after this I have to be able to humble myself in order to receive from them.

This will come to you, because by putting efforts into something it becomes dear and important to you, and thus influences you. It is similar to parents being both impressed by and dependent upon their children.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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If I stay alone for one moment, without the support of the group, I will immediately fall. By myself I have no grip on spirituality, the Creator, or bestowal. I can either be within my spiritual vessel while I am connected with the others and receive support from them, or outside of it. As soon as I lose their support, I fall.

One cannot advance and achieve something on his own. He won’t be able to keep himself in spirituality even for an instant. If a person thinks that he can advance on his own through reading Kabbalah books, performing some actions, and keep on the spiritual path, then it is self-deception. One will be lying to himself and only hoping in vain for advancement. Without participation and connection with the group, called the mutual guarantee, we have no chance to stay in spirituality even for a moment.

Besides, to be present in the spiritual environment doesn’t mean to be in it physically. What matters is how strongly a person desires this environment to impact him since that testifies to his desire to put himself under the influence of the Upper Force or the Creator. But if a person simply reads Kabbalistic texts in solitude, he will not be under the Creator’s influence because everything one reads passes through his egoistical filter. A person will perceive the book as he understands, feels, and desires to see it!

Thus, I’m under the influence of the Creator only if what I read comes to me through the group. The Creator or the Light “dwells amongst his people,” meaning within the group, the assembly of the souls.

Individually we have no chance for spiritual advancement. We have to understand very clearly that our only instrument to unveiling the Creator is our unity.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYigash (Then Judah Approached),” Item 2: However, everything was created in the Torah, and everything was perfected in the Torah. And as the Torah begins with Bet, the world was created in Bet. This is so because before the Creator created the world, the Nukva, all the letters came before Him and entered one at a time in reverse order, in the order of Tav-Shin-Reish-Kof and not in the order of Aleph-Bet-Gimel-Dalet.

Item 3: The letter Tav came before Him and said, “You wish to create the world with me.” The Creator replied, “I do not, since many righteous are destined to die in you. …This is why the world will not be created in you.”

Item 4: The three letters, Shin-Kof-Reish, approached each on his own. The Creator told them, “You are unfit for the world to be created in you for you are the letters used for reading Sheker [deceit/falsehood], and a lie is unworthy of rising before Me.”

This can be compared to how we ask the Creator to help us unite the desire (Kli). The letters are the formation of Malchut. Essentially, it is her that we are trying to construct from our points in the heart.

Hence, if we come to the Creator with our desire (although we don’t presently realize it), crying like infants not knowing exactly what to ask, it works as though we are appealing to the Creator in all kinds of forms and letters. Yet we get nothing in return until we discover the correct desire or the correct letter.

Item 5: The letters Peh and Tzadik approached, and so did all of them until they reached the letter Chaf. When the Chaf descended from the Keter [Keter written with Chaf in Hebrew], the upper ones and the lower ones were shaken, until everything came to exist in the letter Bet, which is the sign for Beracha [blessing], and in it, the world was perfected and created.

We have to attain a desire, a state where only the blessing from Above can give birth to our spiritual vessel. Only if we join the force of blessing and become one with the Creator (and not by any other efforts of ours) can we acquire the spiritual Kli.
[#15242]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, The Zohar

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