Kabbalists tell us that we exist in an invariable state called “the World of Infinity.” The Creator wishes to fulfill us infinitely, to give us infinite pleasure, and to bring us to a sensation of Him. Then we will feel perfect harmony, a luminous and perfect world where we are filled with the Upper Light. In addition, we will understand and feel the world in its entirety.

We are in this state even now, but are unaware of it. This is our only problem – that we are insensitive to it due to not having the sense that can feel this reality.

I have one sense, which I perceive as my physical body. This body has five senses of its own: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. With the help of this cumulative sense called the “body,” I feel myself and the world.

Besides it, there is also another body called “the body of the soul.” If I reveal it, I will discover five senses there as well: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut, which can also be called “spiritual vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.” Through the body of the soul, I perceive the spiritual reality, myself, and the world.

So what is the problem – why is it so difficult for us to reveal this spiritual sense and through it to feel that we are situated in the World of Infinity, that everything around us is filled with Infinite Light and there is no life, death, or any other limitations? The problem is just one thing: the lack of the Light of Hassadim. The only way for our soul to develop from the point that we currently have, for that point to expand and burst open, is by acquiring the Light of Hassadim – the quality of kindness (Chesed), love, and bestowal, the ability to come out of ourselves. We are situated in an ocean of Light – the Light of Hochma, the Light of the Creator, but we will only be able to reveal it if we open up to the outside by means of the Light of Hassadim.

Therefore, the darkness that is revealed in us is the pressure of the Light of Hochma in the absence of the Light of Hassadim, which comes from the soul. Our soul is still incapable of opening up and revealing the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim – of seeing “day” instead of “night.”

We see the spiritual world, our spiritual life, in greater or smaller degrees of the Light of Hassadim. The entire process of our spiritual development and formation occurs between these two Lights – Hochma and Hassadim, or between two desires where these Lights are revealed – the desires of reception and bestowal.

Stated more accurately, there is one desire, but it can be implemented by us in two different ways: with the intention “for myself” or with the intention “for others.” Therefore, developing the Light of Hassadim, the quality of bestowal and love, the ability to come out of oneself, is the same as revealing the soul. We reveal the Upper World, the World of Infinity, to the extent that we develop the Light of Hassadim, the intention of bestowal inside us.

There are five levels of Aviut (thickness of desire) inside the point in the heart – the drop of semen of the soul, the Reshimo that is in us. By acquiring the Light of Hassadim on each of the five levels of desire, we reveal five parts of our soul and thereby open up an opportunity for the Light to enter it step by step, through the five degrees called five worlds (degrees of the Light’s revelation).

This is how we gradually ascend along the degrees of the worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon – until we reach unlimited revelation, called “the World of Infinity.” Everything in this process depends on how much we acquire the quality of bestowal because through the quality of bestowal, we reveal the point in the heart and it becomes the soul, the Shechina, the receptacle for the Light.

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I contain desires of all the levels of development: the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human. The human level within me contains desires of all types of people that I see in our world. Therefore, in reality the whole world is inside me. All the robbers, liars, kind and righteous people, sages, and fools are inside me. In reality, this is all me.

It only seems to me that this huge world exists, but in actuality it is just imagined by my inner desires and qualities. They are depicted inside me in the form of inanimate, vegetative, animate, or human images in my four levels of desire.

Depending on how I see the world, I can understand to what extent I am corrupted or corrected, good or bad. In other words, I can understand which of my desires I need to correct.

If I correct my attitude towards the world, I correct myself. This is because when I see the world outside of me, I am better able to tell what is evil and egoistic in me, and how to attain goodness and bestowal to what seems external to me. When I correct myself, I see that the whole world becomes better.

In reality, there is no world. It only seems to me that all of this exists, but I am watching it as if I was watching a movie on a screen.

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Our broken desires enumerate to a total of 320 (8x4x10). They are separated into 320:10=32, which is Malchut, as well as the other 320-32=288, which are the nine Sefirot up to Malchut. Stated differently, there are “288 spiritual organs” that we can work with, and the “stone heart” (Lev HaEven) – the 32 parts of Malchut. The correction of the stone heart amounts to not working with it. We don’t need to conquer these desires or implement them for the sake off bestowal. We just need to discern them and reject them.

However, we don’t perform this discernment on our own. It is done by the Light that comes to us. It colors the desires that pertain to the first nine Sefirot, 288 spiritual organs, into all the colors of the rainbow, and makes the 32 desires of the stone heart black, showing us that we cannot touch them. We can’t use them, since we have no power for this. As soon as you touch such a desire, you immediately fall under its power – into the hands of the evil angel Hatata, who “stands waiting for you at the entrance” into the spiritual world and leads you astray.

The first nine Sefirot are also not corrected by us, but by the Light. However, we can ask for this correction, whereas we are unable even to request for the stone heart to be corrected to bestowal. That’s because it holds such great pleasures that when we find ourselves before them, we are incapable of asking to be rid of them and to give the pleasure to someone who seems like a stranger to us. Therefore, we cannot touch these desires.

This is instilled in our nature; these desires are our primordial material. When we undergo correction, we adopt the Creator’s qualities. But our own material is incapable of correction. For example, imagine that I am situated in a place (a desire), where I can “hold the Creator’s hand.” The Creator says, “Let’s go to Pharaoh!” Then, even though I am small and weak, I hold His hand like a child holds an adult’s hand, and I’m not afraid of anything! I feel strong like a child who knows that the adult will give him anything he wishes.

However, the desires of the stone heart are for the sake of “Me and Me alone!” They lack the first nine Sefirot and the Creator’s “hand.” He is not present with me in these desires, and on my own, I am unable to do anything. The minute I am separate from the adult, I am incapable of anything, and by trying I will immediately cause damage to myself. This is the meaning of the desires of the stone heart.

Therefore, our work is to check all of our desires, qualities, situations and actions to the maximum and to clarify where we exist together with Him, in adhesion. We also need to discern the desires where we cannot be together with Him in order to avoid touching them or using them. By doing so, we will correct them.

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Preparation to the Lesson
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYishlach (And Jacob Sent),” Item 121
The Zohar lays out the spiritual anatomy of my soul. It is a guide to working with my desires.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 90, Lesson 37
The lower degree shows the Upper Degree that it’s willing to grow by annulling itself. This obliges the Upper One to take care of the lower one.
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“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 15
The world won’t find a solution to its problems until it stops confusing the desired with the reality.
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A question I received: Will I always feel darkness while being in the preparation stage, where my desires are not corrected yet?

My Answer: How can you feel darkness if you don’t know what Light is? The darkness you feel now comes from the fact that you feel bad from not having fulfillment in your desire to enjoy. However, this darkness is egoistic, rather than spiritual.

The Zohar talks about a different kind of darkness. It’s when you want to ignite your desire with love for the neighbor, bestowal, and a connection with others. It’s when you desire the Upper Light in order for it to reveal the connection between you and others. This is what Kabbalah means by Light and darkness. It’s when you reveal evil within yourself, work on yourself and want to connect with other people in order to bestow upon them, but you are unable to do so. This sensation is called “night” because you sink into the darkness of egoism.

However, if while being in this dark state, the night of egoistic desires, you make efforts during the study and you desire the Light to come and correct your attitude toward other people, and you believe that love for others is Light and day, then the night gradually dissipates and a tiny luminosity called “dawn” begins to emerge. You begin to feel your attitude to others changing,  you really want to bestow upon them, and you start to feel much closer to them.

Suddenly, you understand that Light means bestowing upon others. Light is kindness, the feeling that all others are parts of you. Previously you wanted to feel love and goodness inside these desires, but you couldn’t, and that’s why everything was so dark. But now in these same desires, you feel that you can be kind to others, and this means that the Light is shining from them upon you.

The difference between darkness and Light is only your attitude, whether you can bestow inside your desires or not. This is called spiritual Light. In order to attain it, the Surrounding Light has to come and correct your perception, thoughts, attitude, and definitions of good and evil, as well as what is Light and darkness, night and day. In spirituality, everything is measured relative to the force of bestowal.

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A question I received: You say that I need to hold on to my friends for support, but what can I do if I am studying virtually and cannot connect with friends live in person?

My Answer: You can attend any of our Congresses; this way you will be able to connect with friends at least once every 6 months to a year. Actually, there are examples of this from ancient history. A few thousand years ago, a person who lived in the Negev desert would come to Jerusalem to study the Torah only once a year for one day. He couldn’t stay there longer because he was a peasant and had to work in the field. When there was a break between the seasons he would come to Jerusalem riding his donkey, would study for one day, and in the evening he would head back home.

He was called Bar BiYoma – a student for one day, or more exactly, a master for one day, because in a single day, his desire granted him such a powerful connection with the study, the friends, the Source, and spirituality, that he became a great sage.

Therefore, if you attend a Congress nearest you once a year, this will be equal to studying and sitting together with everyone for a whole year.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYishlach (And Jacob Sent),” Item 99

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A question I received: What should I do practically during the process of correction?

My Answer: We have to realize that our current state is a result of the breaking of the quality of bestowal within us and the resulting exile from the sensation of the spiritual space (the Creator). This happened due to the loss of the quality of bestowal. Because of the breaking and the exile, we hate each other, yet we depend on each other. Because of this interdependency, I cannot demand correction for myself; I can only demand it for everyone. I have to desire to correct the relationships between all people.

We have to understand the essence of our mutual inclusion in one another. Nobody is an independent individual. But in order to see this truth, we have to correct our sensations. We have to ask the Upper Light for this; only it can help us to acquire the vision in order to see the real picture.

Because of the mounting problems, humanity today has to reveal that it is a broken vessel, and it has to come together. This involves discovering the components of this state: the mountain of hatred (Mount Sinai) on one hand, and the importance of the goal (a connection to the Creator) on the other hand.

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If I feel evil forces, it means I am able to understand what good forces are, which are situated across from them. However, I am not under the influence of the good forces; I instead fall into the domain of the evil forces.

For example, I have a home, which is a good, warm, and safe place. But at night I find myself in a dark forest, where I feel scared and miserable because I have something good to compare it to. However, if I did not have a good, warm home, I would not suffer; I would simply accommodate myself to living in the forest. It would not seem dark and scary to me, but would be my regular life. In the same manner, we have gotten used to life in this world – the worst of all worlds.

This understanding should help us avoid being confused by the images that The Zohar describes. When we read about the scary characters, we have to tell ourselves that “all of this exists inside me.” These are my desires, in which I want to receive pleasure. All of these demons, spirits, and hell are right here.

We have to clearly understand this. Otherwise, we will picture all sorts of material images of hell and heaven, which are customary in religions that tell us: you are forbidden to go here, and allowed to go there. This is why Baal HaSulam created the commentary to The Book of Zohar; it was in order to help us get rid of all these made up images and to search for all of this inside of ourselves.

We are studying the inner part of the Torah, which tells us that everything is inside a person and a person is a small world. All of this is me, and there is no one except me in existence. The only thing that exists inside me is the Creator (the Light), or the opposite perception of Him. There is only He and I, and He tells me how to reveal Him from His own concealment. He purposely arranged everything this way, where as a result of my effort and my search, I would reveal Him.

By correcting my desire, I come to know Him, the One who created me in this form. By attaining the Creator, I attain myself – all of my qualities and capabilities. How do I attain this correction? I constantly ask for His help in collecting and understanding some parts of my soul. In response, He comes and reveals Himself to me, and we begin working together and uniting through this work.

This system that we work with becomes my soul, where He and I exist together. And The Zohar tells us about all of this.

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