A question I received: Why does spiritual work always have to be done joyfully?

My Answer: Joy is a sign that you are acting for the sake of bestowal and that you are not doing it by coercion, because you have no other choice or because you are afraid of bad things happening to you. We know how happy a mother is when she succeeds at feeding her child well, because she receives pleasure from this. Bestowal that comes from love, like with the case of the mother, always comes with joy. Joy is a sign and a consequence of good deeds (bestowal).

However, if a person is under the power of his ego, he feels tense and is angry at the Creator. Therefore, the force of kindness and faith is expressed through serenity, rejection of oneself in the face of the Upper Force, a willingness to receive its influence and its correction, which will change your qualities to bestowal. Then the Upper Force comes and gives you strength, and all of this is accompanied by joy.

A true plea to the Creator cannot occur without joy. If a prayer is heard by the Creator, it is called “the gate of tears” (Shaar ha-Dmaot), which means that a person wishes to be similar to the Creator (from the word “Dommeh” – similar). Therefore, he “cries,” meaning that he really wants to become similar to the Giver. However, these are not tears of sorrow; rather, a person feels joy because he has reached this great desire.

An appeal to the Creator cannot be sorrowful. If you cry, it means you blame Him for arranging all of this for you and are unhappy about your path, which you follow out of hopelessness. Then you cannot be righteous. Therefore, if a person does not feel joy in every state that comes to him (be it the greatest state imaginable or the worst possible state), this means that he is in his egoism and has no way to appeal to the Creator.

A person has to ascend in order to always remain in joy. Then he won’t care what is happening to him, since his only request is to acquire the force of bestowal. In that case, he will receive it.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - 1 Comment →

The Zohar: All the ways of the Creator are right, and His ways are true. Hence, “the just do walk in them,” since they know the ways of the Creator and engage in Torah, and anyone who engages in the corrections of the Torah knows the ways of the Torah and walks in them, and does not stray right or left. But transgressors do stumble therein.

This is not speaking about the material world, but only about a person’s soul if he uses all the possible means and his entire strength to try to attract the Light of Correction in order to merge with the Creator. A person wants to walk the right path, but along the way he sometimes experiences night and sometimes day.

That is why all of the “transgressors” described in the Torah (Esau, Bilam, Balak, Ahasuerus, the primal Serpent, the Pharaoh), as well as the “righteous” (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David) emerge in a person. He falls into a state of darkness, fear, war, troubles, and then he awakens, succeeds and advances forward. Then he goes through the same cycle again and again. He “sins” numerous times on the spiritual path because he has to reveal his entire uncorrected desire and feel how opposite it is to the spiritual goal. Only after that can he learn what kind of Light he needs in order to correct his desire and turn it into a bestowing one.

We don’t have any other matter through which to study what the Creator made and how He is acting inside us; we can only do so through the desire to enjoy, through empty, evil shells that are revealed in us. We can then convert the evil to goodness with the help of the Light to the degree that we gain knowledge about how to do this. A person has to sin first in order to understand that he uses his desire to enjoy for the sake of evil – against everyone and against the Creator. He then sees that he is full of egoism and it rules over him. While going though these states he is called a “transgressor,” and by correcting them he becomes “righteous.” So let us hope that we will become the transgressors about which the Torah is telling us, since these are elevated spiritual states.

These states come to a person who is ready to see his evil, provided that he does not submit to it but rather feels and discerns it. A special Light shines upon him, allowing him to discern the darkness inside himself. Similar to how we check Chometz with a candle light before the holiday of Pesach, a person should descend into the dark cellar within and, aided by the light of a candle, begin checking where is Chometz and where is food that is fit for Pesach.

Only the bestowing Kelim are good for Pesach, while all the rest is forbidden. We need at least a tiny candle light in order to go down to the cellar and begin checking it. That is how we prepare ourselves to exit from our inner Egypt. By revealing and checking the evil within, a person takes a step forward and comes out of the exile from the Upper World.

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

We yearn and desire to reveal everything inside our matter, inside our desire. But the surest place to reveal the breaking is in our attitude to our neighbors. If you want to find out what you have to correct and where to get the Surrounding Light, then start checking your relationships with the neighbor. You will soon see that this repels you and that you want to avoid this in every way possible; you constantly forget about it and don’t want to know about it. That is how you can immediately discover the place where the Light has to shine and  make a correction.

Spirituality is right here; it is right next to you! The place of the breaking is right here. This is so simple – the breaking is right in front of you and you can see and reveal it right now. But to correct it you have to imagine and envision it correctly, and understand what the corrected you has to be like. Try treating others with the same love that you treat yourself, no matter how repulsive, unwanted and inappropriate this seems to you. Then you will know how much you are repelled by spirituality, the Creator.

Nevertheless, we begin to change under the influence of the Surrounding Light and start to see everything differently. We start to understand that in reality there is greatness, unity and holiness concealed here. However, this change is impossible without the Surrounding Light.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

In preparation to The Zohar lesson, we have to attune ourselves so as to want to perceive, understand and feel The Zohar within us, inside our matter, so the Light will be revealed to us and we will open up as well, instead of being calmed by our fantasies. Besides, we shouldn’t forget that all the forms of the Light’s connection with the Kelim are attained inside our unity and connection, by restoring the connection among us in the place where it was broken.

Our Kelim are broken and we have to reveal the broken connection among us, as well as to feel how to correct it. The corruption as well as the correction are both inside of us, and both of these feelings must be expressed in us as darkness and Light. They have to define for us the forms of the letters, the form of our connection with and sensation of the Upper Level. The words express a special relationship between the broken Kli (vessel) and the corrected one. From these two forms one attains oneself, the Creator, the relationships between the two and the unity.

“Nothing disappears in spirituality” is a law which means that my previous, broken forms are revealed to me through my mistakes, transgressions, problems and obstacles; and they never disappear. This enables me to make efforts in order to reveal these things and to attract the Surrounding Light, which corrects what had occurred before.

However, the corruption remains inside me so that I would be able to build the correction above it. Both of these states have to exist. It’s impossible to have just serene perfection, since then I would not be able to feel or understand anything. The corruption always continues to exist, and the correction happens above it, but both of these states support one another. The darkness is below and the Light is above it, and this is what produces understanding and sensation within me, the relationships between myself and the Creator, as well as everything that follows from this.

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

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - 2 Comments →

A question I received: If hell is the revelation of my own evil, which rules over me and separates me from the Creator, and this is felt like a consuming fire, then what is heaven?

My Answer: Heaven is the feeling of fulfilling another person. This is the state of the Creator, the force of bestowal and love that rules over all of nature. If this force reveals your opposition to it, then you feel hell, and if this force is expressed directly, then you experience a sensation called heaven.

Every state we go through includes all the possible states because everything consists of ten Sefirot. Therefore, heaven and hell, as well as all five worlds, include all the states. Otherwise it would be impossible to perceive them. A baby, for example, consists of all the same parts as an adult, even though he has no need for his legs yet.

Right now I perceive the world within my five senses: smell, taste, touch, vision and hearing. All information enters me through these senses and is united in my subconscious, which creates the picture of the world that I see. As a result, I perceive myself – a sensation that comes mostly from the sense of touch, which causes me to feel external and internal pressure on my body. Besides this, I experience myself and the world around me through hearing, vision, taste and smell. To the degree that my desires increase or wind down, I experience myself in different states.

When my desires become more revealed, I begin to feel the influence of the surrounding world. But in reality, the external world does not exist; it is my own desires that are divided into internal and external ones. More specifically, they are divided into five levels: Shoresh, Neshama, Guf, Levush, and Heichal (root, soul, body, clothing, and castles). Alternatively, they can be called Keter, Hochma, and Bina (which are my inner desires), and Zeir Anpin and Malchut (these are the external desires).

In my inner desires (root, soul, and body) I feel myself. The desires called clothing and castles are also my desires, but ones that I am unable to bring closer to me and to absorb; I cannot attach them to myself so firmly that they will be inside me. This is why it seems to me that the entire world exists around me. “Clothing” refers not just to clothing, but to anything that is outside of me yet close to me, whereas “castles” refers to the entire rest of the world, which is more distant from me.

However, this entire division exists only in my perception. If I correct my desires so they all unite inside me, bound by one screen (one anti-egoistic action), then I will find that the entire universe is inside of me. I will no longer feel as if there is something taking place or existing outside of me.

The sensation that I live in an enormous, spacious and multi-faceted world comes from the fact that my desires are uncorrected. After all, I live inside my desire, since it was the only thing created by the Creator.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

A question I received: If charts are a language, and letters are charts, then what is the significance of vowel points (Nekudot)? What is their role in perception?

My Answer: Vowel points are much more than additions to the letters. The most important thing for us are the vessels of perception (Kelim, the letters), since we talk about the perception of Light. Nekudot (the points beneath the letters) and Tagin (the crowns above the letters) create a flow that is necessary for us to understand the connections between the letters.

We cannot pronounce words without vowels. We have to add vowels (represented by vowel points, Tagin and Nekudot) between the consonants, since they enable us to flow from one Kli to another – from one letter to the next.

It is impossible to get along without the whole TANTA (Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, and Otiyot). One TANTA follows another, and then is followed by a third one, and so on; their flow creates a word. By themselves, however, the letters are not words and we cannot define them as states.

You cannot define a state unless you connect it with a cause and effect, with a sequence of other states. This is called a “word.” You have to know where this state comes from and who determines it; where is the Creator in this situation, what does He want from you, how are you acting, what are you doing, and at the end of the word – how will you come out of this state.

Therefore, a word is a specific action, and it contains everything. It includes qualities, and therefore it cannot consist of just one letter, but must have at least two.

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

So far we have developed “automatically,” because Reshimot awakened inside us and thus continuously pulled and pushed us toward different goals. In spirituality, the mechanism operates differently; there, everything depends on your awakening.

You have been awakened and have felt a burning desire. Thus you applied efforts and advanced accordingly. But if you don’t add pressure now, you will remain in the same place. Years of study do not guarantee you success if they are not accompanied by efforts on your part.

In regular life we rush for success as soon as we get up in the morning without anyone urging us to do so, but it does not work the same way in spirituality. Even though you receive an awakening, this is not enough. Now you have to add something of your own to it. You have to acquire a burning desire from the books and the group in order to strengthen your initial impulse using your friends’ desires. That is the only way you will move forward.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

The Zohar: When darkness comes and Malchut connects to it, she governs and shines in Hochma, which is her governance. And since she lacks the Light of  Hassadim, all her openings are blocked from all sides, for all the Lights freeze within her and there is no vent in her, through which any Light can appear.

She is filled with Light, but the vents are blocked. Afterwards, when the middle line awakens in her and opens the vents, they will receive the illumination of Hochma from her, which was blocked within her at that time. It is written that they crave to permeate the Nukva precisely when she is discerned as small ways and blocked vents, since only then is the Hochma in her complete.

The night is actually full of Light, but we are unable to see in the night since we lack the Light of love and bestowal (Hassadim) to see the Light. Only in the Light of Hassadim can we compel the Light of Hochma to reveal itself and to shine in the Light of Hassadim. The greater the Light of Hassadim, the greater the revelation.

Night or darkness is a state where I am in an ocean of the Light of Hochma, but I have no Light of Hassadim. If I begin developing inner qualities of love and bestowal (the Light of Hassadim), then the Light of Hochma begins to shine for me little by little. This means that I awaken dawn, the Light of morning, and then the day.

From noon and further on, the Light of Hassadim, my force of bestowal, weakens and I begin descending from the level of Hassadim that I once had. It is as if dusk, a lessening of the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim, sets in. That is when evening comes, followed by night. Stated differently, my desire to enjoy has grown and it leaves no strength for me to remain in bestowal and love (Hassadim); it gains more and more power over me. The dark forces of night seize me and I give up, descending into the darkness and becoming incapable of love and bestowal.

But then, while in this dark, I again accumulate the strength to give, and starting from midnight, I begin combining Hochma and Hassadim, so that one Light shines within the other. This is how I reveal the Light.

All of this is done by a person if he overcomes his desire to enjoy through his aspiration for bestowal; then he sees the Light. And vice-versa, he sees darkness to the degree that his egoism overcomes him. That is how we advance through our spiritual development, from day to night, again and again. Everything depends on the person alone, since on the part of the Creator, the Light permanently surrounds us, as it is written, “I did not change My HaVaYaH,” and, “The law is given and one cannot break it.” Everything is already given to you, and from now on you are welcome to do whatever you want.

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: Baal HaSulam writes that attainment is the highest degree of understanding. What is the highest degree of understanding?

My Answer: Understanding refers to Bina. It is written, “The way to understand is with the heart,” where attainment is vision, Hochma.

Bina and Hochma together bring a person to Keter – the Light of Hochma clothed in the Light of Hassadim. That is when one achieves attainment. The level of attainment is defined by one’s ability to attract the Light of Hassadim inside the Light of Hochma and thus to illuminate the darkness.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Purpose Of The Human Imagination
Laitman.com Post: Expanding The Limits Of Reality
Laitman.com Post: Spiritual Growth Is Analogous To The Stages Of Human Growth
Laitman.com Post: Our Entire Life Occurs Between Two Lights – Hochma and Hassadim
The Path of Kabbalah: “Entrance and Exit of Lights in the Partzuf”
Shamati #149: “Why We Need to Extend Hochma”

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →