A question I received: I read all the time that we need to reveal love for the Creator, but instead I reveal hatred within myself. What should I do?

My Answer: This is a wonderful discovery! But, in truth, it hasn’t forced you to scream yet; the situation does not seem unbearable to you yet. At times, you are shown how good you are, and sometimes hatred toward others makes you feel hatred towards yourself.

There is still the missing realization of the fact that your whole future depends on reaching this unbearable situation. You lack the feeling that the Creator is concealed precisely in the interaction between us.

The Creator says to Moses, “Let’s go to Pharaoh.” This means that we need to step up against our evil inclination (Pharaoh) and demand that it become subject to the good inclination (the Creator).

After we come out of our egoism (from Egypt) in order to reveal the Creator, we find ourselves feeling the necessity to unite and become like one man with one heart. This means that we find ourselves around Mount Sinai (mutual hatred) where we must unite and reveal the Creator, reaching a higher dimension through our unification.

Now everyone must to go to Pharaoh and demand of him to allow each person to unite with the others, since it is only in this unification that the Creator is revealed.

“Let My People Go”

When Israel was in Egypt’s land
Let my people go
Oppressed so hard, they could not stand
Let my people go

Go down
Moses
Way down in Egypt’s land
Tell ol’
Pharaoh
Let my people go

Thus said the Lord, bold Moses said
Let my people go
If not, I’ll smite your first-born dead
Let my people go

Go down
Moses
Way down in Egypt’s land
Tell ol’
Pharaoh
Let my people go

Your foes shall not before you stand,
Let My people go!
And you’ll possess fair Canaan’s land,
Let My people go!

Go down
Moses
Way down in Egypt’s land
Tell ol’
Pharaoh
Let my people go

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By studying Kabbalah, a person begins to understand that it is precisely the act of “coming out of himself,” that will allow him to find something special. Outside of his little world, there is something great, eternal, and perfect – a higher dimension.  All of this occurs due to a shift in priorities which raises the importance of spirituality over what surrounds a person here in this world.

The aspiration toward the goal depends on its priority in regards to the importance of everything else in a person’s life. A person is evaluated based on his scale of priorities and goals. Thus, if coming out of himself to attain eternity and perfection is more important to him than his surroundings (except what is vitally necessary), this means that he has placed his priorities and values in the right order.

The order of one’s values should be the object of one’s unceasing care and self-analysis that he makes inside himself. Food, sex, and the family are bodily (animate) desires, which are necessary for a particular kind of fulfillment. Money, fame, power, and knowledge are human desires. Furthermore, we have the desire for spirituality, which is higher and beyond the existence of our world.

If a person constantly worries about placing his desires in the correct order, he stays on track to the spiritual goal in any situation and thereby advances towards it.

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The screen (Masach) is an anti-egoistic force that blocks the way of the Light. It allows a part of the Light to enter the spiritual Partzuf (the soul), in order to become the “Inner Light,” while the other part of the Light cannot be received for the sake of bestowal and remains outside as the “Surrounding Light.”

The Inner and Surrounding Lights are opposite to one another, even though it is the same Light. The screen splits them by relating to each of them differently. It is like two friends that come to my home and wish to come inside. I let one of them in gladly and I turn the other away harshly. How will the two former friends feel about each other now, after I’ve separated them!?

The same thing happens here. The Light comes as a single whole, but is split into two parts by the screen. These two parts differ from one another, but only with respect to the screen’s attitude to each one. That is why the two Lights strive to cancel the screen so as to unite once again; they feel that the screen is in their way. The Inner Light wants to cancel the screen so that its friend would be accepted as well. The Surrounding Light says: “If you don’t want both of us, then you’ll get neither!”

Then the screen is left without a choice and revokes its decision. It ascends and expels all the Light. So what is the decision it revokes? It is the decision to split the Light in two. The barrier that has been put between them must now be removed. This process is called the weakening (or thinning) of the screen. The unity of the Light is stronger than the barrier that the screen wishes to lay through it, and thus the Light defeats the screen with the power of its unity!

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Preparation To The Lesson
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Shamati #12  “The Essence Of One’s Work”
Shamati #63  “I Was Borrowed on, and I Repay”
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 11, Lesson 14
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Introduction to the Book, From The Mouth Of A Sage
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A question I received: What will happen in human society when people reach the minimal level of existence in spirituality, which is bestowal for the sake of bestowal? How will they begin to think about and feel each other? What will change in such a world?

My Answer: I believe that we can already see changes in the world now. The world crisis is beginning to force us to reject the overindulgence and it shows us that it is much more comfortable to be content with a middle class level of existence. The craving for excessive overindulgence is fading, as evidenced in young people over the past few dozen years.

Humanity is beginning to reveal more qualitative needs. Instead of gold they need honor, instead of honor – power, instead of power – the meaning of life, the realization of the fact that we can find satisfaction only in our connections with other human beings. Overindulgence doesn’t give us this satisfaction.

Life itself teaches people, and economic power will bring nothing but disappointment. People are seeing that all of this comes and goes. After all, mankind’s development throughout history is akin to swimming in some turbulent ocean of the future, where huge waves thrust some countries upward while throwing others into an abyss. Everything changes so quickly, countries rise and fall, similar to how for example, we are now witnessing the decline of America and the rise of China.

People see that power comes and goes and great civilizations collapse – Babylon was replaced by Persia, then by Greece, then by Rome. On its own this does not teach anyone anything, since people do not learn from the past. However, the desires (Reshimot) are renewed, and they develop us so that we come to demand new qualitative fulfillment and perceive new needs.

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When a Kabbalist speaks, he creates worlds, since speech is the outer expression of our inner attainment. This explains why our level as human beings is called the “speaking” level. As correction happens at this level of desire we begin to attain properties of the Creator. This kind of attainment cannot happen at the “inanimate,” “vegetative” and “animate” levels of desire in the spiritual world.

Only after we attain the ability to “speak” can a soul connect and bond with the Creator. That’s why when a Kabbalist speaks he builds the worlds; he constructs links between all desires, properties and intentions. My 613 desires tie me to 613 Correcting Lights that fill my corrected vessels. This is how I sense unity with the Creator.

All this happens at the final “speaking” level where we gain the ability to correct ourselves. Only at this stage can the creation feel opposite to the Creator and only at this level can the creation attain similar properties to the Creator. This level is called “Adam” (from the word “adome” meaning similar).

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Rabash has prepared a “shock” for our time. Gradually he has uncovered that the most important thing for a human being is his essence and his attitude towards life. Gradually he has disclosed that everything depends on the desires of our heart and our relationship to the truth.

These concepts are in opposition to the routine practices of religious traditions and blind obedience to the commandments, which is typically the behavior of many religious people. We must separate our habitual behavior imposed by our upbringing (“Girsa de-Yakuta”) which makes us feel guilty if we don’t follow our regular routine and that of real prayer, which is a cordial, genuine and conscious call to the Creator for correction.

Judging people by their clothes or their actions does not lead us to an understanding of which person is closer to the Creator. Is it someone who senses emptiness in his life, or someone who seems to have all the answers and wears the clothes (way of life) of someone who is close to the Creator?

The Creator demands that we make corrections in our hearts. That doesn’t mean that we have to neglect any religious traditions, but the distance between a human being and the Creator is measured by the intensity of our aspiration to attain properties similar to His.

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It’s important to understand what a tremendous job Baal HaSulam did when he revealed the wisdom of Kabbalah. If he hadn’t done it, it would be impossible for the masses to attain spirituality.

Common people who do not possess extraordinary souls, as chosen Kabbalists do, would not be able to advance were it not for the methodology discovered by Baal HaSulam. This methodology connects the lower branches of our world with the roots of the spiritual world, the last step of the ladder with the first step of a higher level. Moreover, he actually teaches us how to grab hold of the next step.

When a person enters spirituality and starts climbing the ladder, his soul begins to guide him. But what should a person without a soul do? What if a person still doesn’t have the desire to bestow which connects him to the higher level? How can he proceed?

For that, Baal HaSulam wrote his commentary, which serves as a tool to connect branches with roots, the material with the spiritual. He explains how our current state (the lowest step) is interlaced with the higher root of the spiritual world.

He provides explanations from the point of view of philosophy as well as psychology and other sciences, and speaks to us through the languages of Tanach (the Bible), Talmud, and Hagaddah (tales); but mainly he gives clarifications by using the language of Kabbalah. Essentially he combines all the possible ways of explaining the spiritual world which we are capable of understanding. He uses all four levels of our desires in the material world to build a portrait of ourselves and our world. Thus, he connects everything into a single methodology.

This is where the strength of a great Kabbalist lies. He “organizes” all the different levels of information presented by his predecessors about the structure of our universe, and thus eliminates confusion. Our studies are based on this systematic material about the degrees of the parallel spiritual worlds.

This is particularly evident in the “Sulam” Commentary to The Book of “Sulam” CommentaryZohar, which carries our attention away from clear concepts and brings it toward those that are unclear. But at the same time, it gives us the opportunity to connect both of them, thus allowing us to progress.

The commentary is a guide that leads us from reasonable, obvious examples towards understanding more complex concepts. That’s why Baal HaSulam named his commentary “The Ladder,” since it allows a person to adapt to higher steps of the ladder and make his way up.

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