A question I received: In a few days we will be getting together for an international virtual Kabbalah Congress, where we will try to feel the desire of all the millions of people that aspire to attain spirituality. But how is it possible to feel the pain of others from lack of spirituality if we are incapable of even sharing another person’s material pain?

My Answer: We will try to achieve this together. Each of us feels a slight pain caused by the desire for spirituality, but it is constantly subdued by the fact that our desire to receive pleasure is perpetually growing.

The solution is that we need to increase our desire for unity rather than our desire for spirituality. Although it is the same thing, our egoism presents spirituality as a personal acquisition, while unity is presented as a corporeal action.

Question cont’d: Is this how we return to the state in which we existed as one soul, the World of Infinity?

My Answer: Yes, we can reach that state only by uniting with each other. However, it has to be a unification of souls rather than of bodies or corporeal goals.

Question cont’d: But we are incapable of achieving this state.

My Answer: We only need to ask for it, to raise MAN for the Light to give us the force of unification.

On one hand, we all need to reveal the egoism in us, our mutual aversion and indifference to one another. However, on the other hand, we have to understand that only the Light can correct all of this, and to cry out to it to correct us.

Question cont’d: But I don’t even have a desire to correct myself.

My Answer: This is why it is called “a prayer that precedes the prayer,” or a desire that precedes the desire. We begin with simple things: let’s dance, sing, and do everything together. Consequently, these simple, primitive, physical actions of our world will give us a taste of unity. They will awaken our material heart more and more until we reach the highest degree of spirituality.

There is a story about a Kabbalist who use to pay street musicians (Klezmers) to play for him. He would listen to their music and be inspired by spirituality. His wife scolded him: “There is nothing to eat in the house, and you are giving our last pennies to these drunkards! They’ll just drink it all away!”

However, he replied, “That’s irrelevant. I cannot live without their music. They could be drunkards who don’t understand anything else, but I need to awaken myself now and I cannot come out of this state on my own.”

This is a story about a great Kabbalist who would give his last money to street musicians just to hear them play a little. Otherwise, he was unable to continue his corrections.

And now we will do the same thing.

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