The Zohar, Chapter "Shemot (Exodus)," Item 250: For fear that they would mingle the tribes with the rest of the nations… He exiled them to Egypt, who were proud and despised and loathed Israel. And they were there until the iniquity of the Amorites was full and they came to their own land, for there was no longer fear of mingling with the rest of the nations.

How do we draw closer to the desired state when we build the middle line within ourselves? The middle line which is our similarity to the Light, to the One who bestows, or the Creator happens precisely due to the state called "the Egyptian Exile" that becomes revealed within us.

My egoistic desire becomes so big that I feel that I am locked in it and that it controls me. Then, I begin to discern between myself and my nature, between myself and my egoism, or between myself and my properties.

I would like to change my properties, but I’m incapable of doing that. I see that they harm me; I realize that I corrupt myself, my life, the lives of those who are close to me, and the entire world. I put myself and everyone else in danger because I exist in this endlessly growing egoism that I can’t temper. Yet I’m unable to do anything with it.

Then, there comes a state where a person begins to realize that the force acting in him is an alien force. He doesn’t identify himself with it any longer. He begins to perceive it as his bitter enemy. This is called, "Now a new king arose over Egypt” (Exodus, 1:8). A person begins to feel that a new dominion has been revealed, and that this is not him but someone else who sets up all this for him. It could be Nature or the Creator, but it’s not him. He doesn’t know how to free himself from it.

As if from the side, a person now sees his desire to receive pleasure as something alien to him. He begins to discern the Creator as the one Who organizes all of this for him. He already has the same attitude both to the Pharaoh and to the Creator.

He then experiences an internal split, the realization that there exists the Upper Force which determines everything that happens with him. However, this revelation doesn’t happen on its own, but only after multiple hours of study, uniting with friends in the group, and working in dissemination during which the person is practically engaged in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Journey From Nothingness To Perfection
Laitman.com Post: Everything Depends On Us
The Way to Yourself [23:55]

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Zohar - No Comments →

What did the Kabbalists of the past prepare for us? They built the system that connects all of the broken souls with the Light of Infinity. They joined their corrected souls with a net that is reminiscent of  a fishnet. Through it, they pass the Light on to us, lowering it to our level.

If, by reading The Zohar, we attune ourselves to the reception of the Light of Infinity, it descends upon us. If not for the Kabbalists of the past generations, this net of Light we can connect to, would not exist. There would be only simple abstract Upper Light.

However, the Kabbalists performed the corrections by creating the web of connections among their souls. This way, they built the entire system of weakening and adapting the Lights, as well as passing them down toward us, degree after the degree, generation after generation. This makes the Light fit for our souls.

We can help the Kabbalists of the past by raising upward our prayer, MAN, our desire, in response to which the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that Reforms comes to us from Above. The prayer is born as the result of the recognition of evil, as it is said, “I created the evil inclination and Torah (the Light) for its correction.”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Filter For Desires
Laitman.com Post: There Is Only One Source Of Spiritual Desire
Video: Connecting With Kabbalists – Kabbalah Moments (1:56)

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come unto Pharaoh),”… And the Lord your God brought you out of there..Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt…And brought thee out with His presence, with His great power, out of Egypt…The Lord brought you out from this…Fifty times is the exodus from Egypt mentioned in the Torah….

Fifty is the full degree, the ten Sefirot of Malchut together with the forty Sefirot of Bina. Malchut in its entirety needs to rise above itself, to its full degree. These two forces need to be felt inside of a person – one against the other.

Therefore, salvation will not come until we end the exile, after reaching a horrible sensation that we have no strength to exit our egoism, and feeling at the same time, it is absolutely necessary for us to do this! When we will feel this opposition to the full extent, the waters of the Red Sea (in Hebrew called the Final Sea) will open up, and we will cross it.

A person doesn’t know how it is revealed. This is called a miracle. However, this miracle is caused by the person himself, when he comes to a dead end. On one hand, a person doesn’t understand how it is possible to exit – he has no power or strength for this. Furthermore, he doesn’t understand that there can be some force from Above, which can somehow change his nature. On the other hand, this force that exists above nature is revealed.

This occurs only like a miracle. It occurs above that state, that nature, which is called “Egypt” and comprises the whole inner sense of a person.
[11930]

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 247: Sixty is Malchut, the mighty ones above, from the side of Gevura that cling to carvings, meaning to the externality of the holy Haya of Israel, which is Malchut. This is why they are named after her, sixty queens [Malchuts]. Those are angels appointed over the nations. Eighty maidservants are the angels appointed by the carvings of Malchut, beneath the sixty queens. This is why they are called maidservants and not queens. And there is no number to the maidens….

Everything that we read in The Zohar transpires within desire. There is nothing else but desire. We are reading about its inner phenomena, changes, and various relationships between its parts.

It is a great device, collectively called Malchut, which needs to change, each time bringing itself to greater equivalence to the Light. Therefore, all the names and terms written in The Zohar exist within Malchut, within our desires, in their various interrelationships.

Hence, we need only think of how to draw the Light to the desire described by The Zohar. Though we don’t understand specifically which qualities or changes are being depicted, or anything that’s going on there, still we await redemption: for the Light to influence this desire, for us to understand and sense the desire and the Light that fills it, and to feel them together. Indeed, it is impossible to feel one without the other, but only if there is contact between them, even to the very first, minimal measure.

That is what we are waiting for. And all the words and letters that we read in The Book exist only in this desire – in our soul.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 126: …In the beginning, Rabbi Aha thought that there was Dever in the city, for which a prayer is required to bring the Nukva back to the quality of Rachamim. This is why he told them to pray. But when he heard that there were multiple deaths, when he was told that so and so have died and so and so were about to die, he saw that it was a plague, and a prayer does not help with a plague. This is because this does not require the mitigation in the quality of Rachamim. Rather, the incense is required, to reveal the middle line in it and to incorporate the lines in one another.

The inner sensations of a person who recognizes his numerous properties and acknowledges how far away he is from the state of correction are called “infection,” “epidemic,” “occurrences of multiple deaths” or “near-death conditions.”

The “plague” (Dever) is counteracted by a “sage” that lives within each of us; this unique quality is called “Rabbi Aha.” The authors of The Zohar are, in fact, the source of superior qualities, all of which are present in every soul – you have them too!

This is because we dwell in a holographic system where each of us is included in all of its other parts. Hence, Rabbi Aha is also present inside of my soul; he fights the “plague” and cures multiple “sick people” who sometimes die and at other times manage to survive.

My task is to imagine and sense exactly where they are positioned within me. Where are all those qualities? I strive to sense them. If I am “a small world” then I have to locate those qualities within myself. I am eager to reveal them.

As soon as I reveal the reality that is described in The Zohar, I begin to live in it. I want to identify myself with the righteous men and even with the sinners. I want to unite with everyone. Anything and everything in this world is mine and manifests itself within my soul, which is hidden from me. Unless I manage to reveal at least a little part of it, I won’t sense what is described in The Book of Zohar.

Even a partial revelation makes it possible for me to “read” and sense myself better; my self-awareness emerges and I become able to explain who I am. But so far, The Zohar is completely concealed from us. We are waiting for the Light to impact us and begin the process of revelation of a new reality within each of us.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Zohar - No Comments →

When we read The Zohar, we need to connect everything there is into one reality that already exists within our soul. The soul is what we call the Malchut of the World of Infinity (Atzilut), meaning all the worlds incorporated together, “I” or “the whole world and I.” All that belongs to my soul since my soul is a tool of perception.

Who is the Creator? It is the inner power that acts within my soul; it is the reason for my existence, the cause that forces me to pursue revelation of the universe and the Creator as the source of my life.

The Zohar tells us about the soul and its various parts as well as the states and processes it goes through. Because of my desire to learn more about the soul’s states and processes, the soul is revealed; I find the tools of perception with which I feel the actual world I live in, but which has, thus far, been concealed from me. Kabbalah is called a “hidden” wisdom since it is the study of the concealed world and the process to reveal it.

In addition to the study of Kabbalah, the group is given to us to help us disclose this world. The parts of reality which I call the “Kabbalah group” or my “fellow-group-mates” can help me with this task. They are the active parts of reality, the only active parts of reality. I can feel the group and want to connect them with me. Together with them, I can work to bring them closer to me.

I can’t work with the rest of reality this way because I don’t sense the same kind of feedback that I can get from the group. These active parts of reality are given to me by the Creator so that by working through them I can bring myself closer to the rest of reality as parts of my own soul.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 1 Comment →

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shmot,” Item 246
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 94: Of course he [Abraham] saw them, since they came down to earth in the form of people. They were certainly holy spirits, but when they come down to the world, they clothe in air and in elements of cover and wrapping and seem to people precisely in their form.

There are different ways to interpret this. We perceive reality in the desire to receive pleasure. Everything that we perceive as existing is the desire to receive pleasure that is manifested in matter. What does it mean that it’s “manifested in matter”? It means that reality is perceived in those senses in which I exist on my level.

To perceive beyond this level requires changing one’s properties. I perceive the Light in my desire to the extent of my similarity to the Light. It depicts various images and forms for me. What does it mean that, now, I exist in this world? It means that the Light shines in my properties and what I observe in them is my reality.

If the Light shines for me more and my properties change, I will rise to a higher level which is higher in quality and closer to the Light. By shining in my more corrected and improved properties, the Light will give me the perception of the upper rung or the Upper World. Everything is pictured in a person’s properties.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

A Question I received: What’s the connection between the merging of Malchut with Bina and our uniting through The Book of Zohar?

My answer: If we want to unite with each other, we have to believe that the force of Bina, the Creator, HaVaYaH, dwells among us. Everything is revealed among the souls. This is why our unification above everyone’s individual egoism is the power of unification between Malchut and Bina.

Bina is the Creator, the Upper Mother (Ima Ilaa), the Upper Force that dwells among us. Therefore we cannot unite together on our own. We will only discover emptiness, darkness among us, and see unity as unfeasible.

However, if we acknowledge the existence of Bina, the Upper Light or the Creator among us, we only have to reveal Him, to call for Him to unite us. Accordingly, the Creator can unite us only if we desire to become like Him – the force that dwells and fills all the empty spaces among us.

For us to reveal the Creator, He created us in such a way that we “float” in Him like bread crumbs in a broth. If I come out of myself (of egoism) and desire to connect to Him, to the attribute of bestowal, it signifies that Malchut begins to connect to Bina.

Once I’m ready to be outside of myself, Bina, the Creator or the force of the Light that Reforms, acts upon me, enabling me to do it. Then I can truly come out of myself and start connecting with the others. Yet by doing so, I don’t connect with them directly (it’s impossible), but do so through the Light, Bina.

How? I connect to Bina, and then the power of Bina “comes back” to me. It means that Malchut begins to receive into itself the property of Bina and can then work with the intention for the sake of bestowal. To the extent that Malchut has such a power, it starts feeling the powers of the others.

My coming into Bina and receiving the property of bestowal from it is called “repentance from fear.” Coming out of myself with my corrected Malchut and beginning to work with the others is called “repentance from love.”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 61: …“And the wise shall shine as the radiance of the firmament.” Thus, with the correction of the firmament, the Parsa, KHB TM de Atzilut were split and divided, and twelve Partzufim emerged from them.

• Keter was divided into four Partzufim: Atik and Nukva, AA and Nukva.
• Hochma and Bina were divided into four Partzufim: upper AVI and Ysrael Saba and Tevuna.
• Tifferet and Malchut were divided into four Partzufim: the great ZON and the small ZON.

Hence, these twelve Partzufim are called “The radiance of the firmament,” since they were made and came out by the force of the firmament.

• The first radiance is the radiance of those who shine in the lighting up of the radiance.
• The second radiance is the radiance that shines and glitters to several sides.

The first radiance is Partzuf Atik and the second radiance is his Nukva. Atik himself is from the unmitigated Malchut, above the firmament, which is not fissured. However, this Malchut is the root of the mitigated Malchut, and she lights the lights of Bina after they have been quenched. It is written about the importance of Partzuf Atik that his radiance shines with the lighting of the radiance. It lights the radiance of Bina, which is the root of all the Mochin, and had it not been for that lighting, there would have been no Mochin of Gadlut in Atzilut.

He adds about the importance of Partzuf Nukva de Atik that she lights and shines both in the unmitigated Malchut and in the mitigated Malchut, since she has already been established with the firmament, having been fissured. For this reason, she shines to all sides….

The Zohar is the entire Light that comes through Atik and Arich Anpin to ZON and enters Nukva. The souls that ascend from the worlds of BYA and enter Malchut of the world of Atzilut reveal that Light there. Hence, it’s called Zohar (radiance).

We put this entire system in action with our desire, intention, and prayer (MAN) when we study The Zohar. Our request ascends, reaches Atik, and, from there, a Light begins to descend to us called The Zohar. This Light corrects and fulfills us as well as supports and activates this entire system.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →