Preparation to the Lesson
After I receive an awakening from Above, I have to add something to it on my own by getting inspired by a book and the group, and by strengthening my initial inspiration through the desires of my friends.
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Shamati #47 “In the Place where You Find His Greatness“
Desire knows no boundaries. Therefore, our spiritual desires are always able to unite, regardless of where we are physically.
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Shamati #63  “I Was Borrowed on, and I Repay“
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 17, Lesson 10
In the spiritual world, my desire for pleasure no longer plays a significant role. It becomes a means of connecting between myself and the Creator.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYishlach (And Jacob Sent),” Item 137
The Creator gave us the good and evil inclinations so we could independently choose to form the middle line.
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Kabbalists explain that the desire is the only creature that the Creator created. It consists of 613 (Taryag) different desires with all their different manifestations. We live precisely within these desires. They are all us.

The Light of the Creator shines on these desires. In reality, it is He who separates one common desire into a multitude of particular desires, because the desire becomes divided and made more complex under the influence of the Light. This is why it divides into different pieces, even pieces that are opposite to one another.

Among these desires, some desires are contrary and opposite to the Light, and others support and are similar to the Light. The evil desires in us pull us away from the Light and alienate us from it; they are called “the evil inclination” (Yetzer Ra), “evil forces” (Kohot HaTumaa), or the opposite side (Sitra Achra). The good desires in us, called Yetzer Tov, pull us closer toward the goal and help us attain it. They are called “forces of sanctity” (Kohot HaKedusha).

There are also desires in us on different levels of development: still, vegetative, animate, and human. In addition, there are desires called “angels,” “demons,” “spirits,” and so on. There is an enormous multitude of different kinds of desires, but they are all inside us; we consist of them.

However, we relate to our desires and qualities in different ways. We treat some of them as if they are closer to us and useful, whereas others seem farther away from us, opposite to us, and harmful. We treat them one way or another depending on our goal, on our way of working with them, and other considerations.

Nevertheless, regardless of what we say, think, or name, we are always referring to our desires. The people we see around us are also expressions of our desire, a desire that has taken “our” form under the Light’s influence.

Some desires are big and relatively constant; if they change, they do so slowly. These desires are on the still level of development. Other desires are more flexible, and they are on the vegetative and animate levels. They change faster or slower according to their type and strength. All of these desires depend on a higher level of desires – the human level, also called “the soul.” The “animate” desires that are smaller than this level are called “spirits” and “angels.”

In addition, “chambers” are different kinds of spaces or cavities; these are desires of the still level that have their own characteristics. Some desires operating inside these chambers are more active and flexible, and they are referred to as “spirits,” which are on the vegetative level. Desires that are even more active operate inside the spirits; these are “angels,” the animate level. Finally, on an even deeper level there are souls that help one another.

In this manner, The Zohar reveals the entire word to us. But this entire world is within me and my desires. It is as if I am traveling among them, like a tiny person in a cartoon wandering inside his own body, penetrating different organs and spaces between them and seeing how his entire organism operates.

The Zohar describes something very similar. It tells us what we are like in the spiritual world and that the entire spiritual world is our desire, which appears to us as being on the inside or on the outside, in all kinds of different states. And all of this is intended for us to work with.

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The Zohar: And though the essence of the heart of stone (Lev HaEven) cannot be corrected, its color nonetheless becomes corrected, for its black color is included in the three colors of holiness (bestowal) of the first nine Sefirot and receives luminescence and correction from them, This enables it to exist and be fit for being discerned in the future (at the End of Correction).

As I increase my desire to become similar to the Creator through my actions, by using my desire (Malchut) to be like bestowal, I sense the actions and qualities of the Creator in the first nine Sefirot of my soul. Meanwhile, I neutralize and cease using the desires belonging to Malchut (the heart of stone). As a result of this analysis and my effort to avoid working in the desires of Malchut (the heart of stone), Malchut becomes permeated by a tiny luminescence.

Later, once I become completely similar to the first nine Sefirot in my desire to bestow, by correcting my desires as much as possible and making them “for the sake of bestowal,” I discover that even the heart of stone can be used for the sake of bestowal. I find that it is precisely because I’ve always rejected and distanced it from myself and was unwilling to use it that it received an impression of bestowal. Thus it came to include within itself all the shades of the colors that I’d used in the first nine Sefirot.

There are only several colors – white, red, green and black, and I can use all of them except for black. Because I do not use the color black, the other colors allow it to include them within itself to a certain degree, and as a result it becomes fit for use. This is the meaning of the verse, “In the future the angel of death, egoism, shall become a holy angel, the quality of love and bestowal.” In other words, at the End of Correction the notion of “forbidden” will be revoked, as we’ll have the strength to use all of our desires for the sake of others.

Then all the restrictions and prohibitions will vanish in all axes of time, motion and space. This state is called the World of Infinity – a world without limits, where my existence is unbounded and I have unlimited opportunities.

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I am a small word, and I perceive everything within myself. As Baal HaSulam explains in the “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” there is a “camera” within me that projects the picture of this world on a screen in the back of my head. Thus, the world is presented to me through the following system of coordinates: “world, year, soul.” Therefore, in order to see the true picture of the world, I have to properly arrange my desires, through which I perceive the world.

By correcting every one of my desires from reception to bestowal, I gradually begin to convert the pictures of this world, presently perceived in the light of reception, to a picture of the world in the light of bestowal. Then, step by step, I will draw closer to the true picture of reality – one that is outside of me and independent of my corrupted vessels of reception (Kelim). I will see reality in its true form, outside of me; stated differently, I will “see” the spiritual world.

All I have to do to accomplish this is to change the method of utilizing my desires from reception to bestowal. Therefore, I must first and foremost imagine that the whole world that I presently feel and seem to dwell in is actually my desires; it is in these desires that I dwell, which are all aimed at consumption (reception).

As I gradually begin to convert them from reception to bestowal, to exit out of them to the outside, the picture of the world will change. This is very difficult for me to understand because I am accustomed to perceiving the world as it appears to me at this moment. However, the whole picture of the world is created by forces descending from Above, like a picture on a computer screen. I can change my desires, and then I’ll perceive a different reality.

We are living in a special time, when all the forces, all the conditions, and all the states that we go through help us to discard our current perception of the world, a perception of the corporeal reality, and develop the desire to acquire a different perception of reality – that of the spiritual world.

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When I reveal the wicked forces of the spiritual worlds, called Klipot, and the forces of goodness opposite them (as it is written, “The Creator made one against another – wickedness against holiness), then I attain a level of existence inside these parallel systems of good and evil worlds. Thus, I feel heaven and hell opposite to one another. It’s impossible to feel one without the other.

Let us hope we will attain all of this and become the “sinners” of which the Torah speaks. To be a sinner means to exist opposite to your “righteous” state; it is when you toddle between “sinner” and “righteous,” alternately becoming one and then the other. By “zigzagging” in this manner, one advances higher.

All of this refers to the system of the spiritual worlds that we are facing. There is nothing there resembling the colorful pictures of heaven and hell that religion has frightened us with. We have to free ourselves from all these primitive superstitions and realize that nothing can happen to our body after death besides disintegration, since the body is no more than a protein-based matter.

We have to understand that there are only two forces acting inside us – reception and bestowal. However, they can be called by many different names. Everything consists of them and everything exists only in us.

A name is a desire (HaVaYaH) with the Light (Ohr Pnimi) in it, which was attained by a human being. A holy name refers to a property of bestowal, and a wicked name refers to a property of reception. Even the name of the worst villain described in the Torah refers to a revelation of the Creator, but from the opposite side; it refers to the property of egoism inside a person. All the good names refer to the revelation of His “face,” goodness, the property of bestowal inside a person. All of this talks about the revelation of the Creator inside man.

All the good and evil forces acting “above this world” are the revelation of the Creator’s forces either from His front side or His reverse side, as Moses was told, “And you will see My back but will not see the face.”

Nothing exists besides the creation and the Creator, and the Creator can either be concealed or revealed to creation. Our task as creation is to reveal the Creator – the only acting force in the universe. All the rest that we now perceive as an “external world” is also inside us, but in our desires that have not yet been revealed.

This is the picture we have to imagine. We have to understand that nothing is worse than our current state, the state of complete separation from the Creator. Namely, our world is the worst of all worlds (states).

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Kabbalists have a rule not to talk about anything except what they have actually attained, where attainment means the highest degree of understanding. In other words, until we achieve an absolutely clear realization, until the knowledge passes from the first nine Sefirot into Malchut, it is not called attainment.

Then what is the role of imagination and fantasy? Why are we given these qualities? Without imagination, advancement is impossible, and we see this from regular science. You can use your imagination, but the most important thing is not to take it for something that is really happening. However, without the imagination you would be an animal, not a human being.

Man’s entire merit over animals comes from our ability to feel the first nine Sefirot, to fantasize, and to make conjectures beyond one’s actual perception and attainment. An animal lives only inside Malchut, matter, and it feels only the forms that are clothed into it. We, however, are able to imagine an abstract form and essence, and this allows us to develop further and be called human beings.

However, we are prohibited from using our imagined knowledge until it enters our matter, just as it would with animals. This constitutes a paradox. We are always proud of being human, of having a mind that is above our animate body. However, we cannot rely on it until it acts for the benefit of the body, inside the desire.

In the spiritual Partzuf, we check our desires under a screen, and the head merely performs a calculation. Then everything occurs according to the matter that is able to take on the form of bestowal. Everything else is our external desires, and we cannot use them since we are not in control of them.

First we have to adjoin them to ourselves and accept all of the Light into them. Then the whole of reality will become unified and we will be able to use those desires. This will constitute our correction.

Until then, abstract forms only help to move us toward the full correction. With their help, we are able to connect to the Upper Level because we are able to see and check things; however, we cannot use them practically.

Our greatest problems in life come from the fact that we attribute what we desire to actuality and build plans based on fantasies, thereby separating from matter. Kabbalah advises us to fantasize in abstract form about the Upper Level and the future, but then work on ourselves in order to “pull up” our desires and matter to the level of that fantasy. Then the abstract form will clothe into matter; we will change instead of simply mistaking our fantasies for actuality.

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The most important thing for us right now is to formulate the correct approach to the study. Indeed, there really isn’t anything to study in the books of Kabbalah, since we can study only what we can sense with our feelings and investigate with our reason. However, what we’re presently doing is waiting and counting on a miraculous force (Segula), the Upper Light, trying to draw it to ourselves.

We exist in the state of concealment (single and double) until we cross the Machsom and begin to sense the Upper World. For now, our task is to come out of the unconscious state and start feeling that we’re in the state of concealment, that something is being concealed from us. This discovery (or sensation) of concealment is what will bring us to revelation.

We should feel as though we’re in the dark, and there is someone waiting close by, watching us through cracks and windows, “Metziz Aleynu Mi Halonot.” When we reach revelation, the first stage will be “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” the qualities of Bina, Hafetz Hesed.

At this stage there’s no investigation; we merely acquire the quality and force of bestowal. That’s the state of single revelation. We then advance to “reception for the sake of bestowal” where we are able to conduct investigations. That’s the state of the double revelation.

If we relate this to human stages of growth, then the first stage of concealment (in which we presently exist) is like infancy. Then we rise to the level of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal” and acquire spiritual qualities – the qualities of Bina. This can be likened to the stage of accumulating knowledge and learning, or in other words, adolescence, youth, and formation (school, university).

After that we begin to receive for the sake of bestowal. At this stage we are like scientists that investigate and learn about the world, making new discoveries. That is where the science begins; it is when we’re working with desires actively by receiving inside them for the sake of bestowal. Therefore we are able to investigate them on account of being similar to the Creator.

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The Zohar: “Hence they shall not eat… the femoral vein (Gid HaNasheh). It is forbidden even for pleasure, and it is forbidden even to a dog.

Why is it called “Gid HaNasheh”? Because it causes movement (“Menashe”); it moves people farther away from serving the Creator. And therein the evil inclination is instilled.

Here The Zohar explains which desires out of the sum total of our desires we can use, and which we cannot, as well as how to correct them and connect to them with one another. All these desires are egoistic, for the sake of self-enjoyment, and therefore, we have to place certain restrictions in effect when using them.

We can correct desires with Aviut (coarseness) below a certain level by using them for the sake of bestowal – that is, to receive for the sake of bestowal. As for desires with Aviut above that level, we can use them only by bestowing for the sake of bestowal.

Besides this, there are other desires that we mustn’t use at all, but only restrict them. The words “mustn’t” and “impossible” mean “unable to.” This is the only kind of prohibition that exists in the spiritual world.

However, because our desires are corrupted to begin with, as it is written: “I have created the evil inclination,” the first step on our path is exposing the evil. After that we advance by correcting our desires – by changing our intention of using them from “reception” to “bestowal,” from the easy to the difficult, from the simple to the complex.

The Zohar explains that we are given the change to reveal the full picture in every state; however, we can only reveal it to a small degree, as if it were compressed, as if we are zooming in on it. Therefore, in every state we have all the desires, the complete soul. In other words, the same World of Infinity is continually being shown to us at a different measure or resolution.

But whatever the case, we must discern every desire in every state. Therefore, although we haven’t yet attained the state of being able to correct great, lofty, and special desires, nevertheless by reading about these desires, which haven’t yet been revealed to us in our individual spiritual work, we awaken the Lights at those levels, and these Lights in turn correct us.

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Baal HaSulam writes that “There is nothing higher than the truth and nothing lower than falseness.” But how can we know what is the truth and where to find it? Things only seem true in our imagination and fantasies, but we know that whatever seems true today will turn out to be a lie tomorrow. This is because our desire changes, and when it does, all the facts that we perceive, also change. Because the matter changes, the form that was present in matter yesterday is no longer visible to us today.

It turns out that today we are operating according to a form clothed in matter, and we consider this to be the truth. But tomorrow we will discard it and say that it was a lie, depending on what we see tomorrow. We always have to act based on the desire and the form in which it is clothed during the moment we are in that form.We don’t care that we used to think differently a hundred years ago, and that we will think differently two hundred years from now. Everything will be new – we will have a new life, a new sky and a new earth. Nevertheless, today we have to make all decisions based on today’s facts.

It follows that we have no right to judge others – those who are above or below us. How can we judge someone on a level beneath us if he is not yet corrected? After all, he is right in relation to his position.

All the mistakes, problems and punishments are given to us in order to “stuff” us into a form clothed in matter, so we won’t separate from matter and engage in abstract reasoning. It is extremely important to keep this in mind while studying The Zohar. After all, The Zohar is intended to lead us into the spiritual world, and in this area we are very tempted to give in to fantasies and mysticism. Our body really desires this since it will feel less suffering that way.

We have to make efforts to keep ourselves grounded within the framework of matter. By doing so, we will be performing a correction. We have to insert the form of bestowal into our egoistic form of reception, but they don’t fit one inside the other; they are absolutely opposite, and therefore our task is extremely difficult!

This is why The Zohar takes so much effort to be watchful of what is happening to us and what forms are clothing into us. After all, by separating from matter, we might imagine that we are already in the world of bestowal and Infinity.

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While studying The Zohar, we are not trying to explain every phenomenon that we study; instead, we want to feel it. How is it even possible to explain something that a person doesn’t feel or see? That’s why we are talking only about the effort that a person makes when he wants to reach something he doesn’t know, see or grasp, but would do anything to move closer to it.

I am teaching you how to focus on the spiritual world. When you acquire spiritual vision, you will feel, and later on you will also understand. This is the meaning of the verse, “A judge has nothing but what his eyes see.” What’s the point of trying to memorize names if you don’t know what they refer to? We are now learning how to attain them, because attainment is when you feel something with utter clarity in all of your senses and heart. You exist in it, are completely immersed in the spiritual world, and actually become one with it.

We are talking about how to enter the sensation of a new world, like a baby that’s starting to perceive this world simply and naturally. We don’t explain anything to the baby from the beginning. He must first be filled with various impressions about our world, and then, by being able to differentiate between different qualities (cold vs. hot, light vs. darkness, hard vs. soft), he begins to form a mind that understands what he should aspire to and what he should move away from. He starts to discern what is pleasant and unpleasant, what is good for him and what is bad, what is true and what is false, what he likes and what he doesn’t.

However, with regard to spirituality, all of this comes only after we have revealed a fragment of the Upper World in our sensations. Right now we desire to attain this revelation, and therefore we don’t want to explain what is inside it; we only want to facilitate these new sensations in us.

We have to “unfocus” our vision from this world and stop seeing it in order to start seeing through a new focus, by concentrating our attention on something else. It’s like those 3-D pictures that first appear like a chaotic collection of disorderly shapes. But if you change the focus of your vision and stop concentrating on the surface of the image, if you try to peer inside, not focusing on the picture itself, but deliberately penetrating inside – then you begin to see it. We have to make the same effort – but through feelings rather than vision – when reading The Book of Zohar, and then through the sensations of this world, we will feel the Upper World.

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