Everything depends on the desire; everything is revealed within the desire. Therefore, we only need a properly organized, formed, and goal-oriented desire. In order to mold our desire, to give it the right form, which is ready to be fulfilled by the Creator, the Creator plays a “hide and seek” game with us: He alternately conceals and reveals Himself. A person doesn’t always recognize this game, but it occurs constantly with every person until one is corrected.

It is necessary to recognize all the time that the whole world is no more than the manifestation of the Creator in various images: people we hate, people we love, people that help, people that interfere, ones that are close,  ones that are distant from us, friends, and completely unknown people. Everything comes from the Creator: all these people as well as inanimate nature, vegetation, animals, and all the thoughts and desires of a human being – everything except the point of our “I.” This point, this “I,” is the point of view, from which a person wishes to grow and become similar to the Creator.

The Creator uses all these manifestations of images, thoughts, and desires in the game He conducts with us. As He conceals and reveals, He brings us closer or further away; however, the Creator does both only with one intention: to stir us, as it is written, “The Upper Light stirs and evokes desires.” If, despite the fact that we are thrown from side to side all the time, we use all our strength to try to keep ourselves in the thought that everything comes from the Creator, since “There is none else beside Him,” and the Creator is undoubtedly “Good and does good,” our desires become broader and deeper this way.

If one truly “holds on with his teeth,” not allowing himself to turn away from the thought and the sensation that it is the Creator who carries out all the actions in regard to him, then a person sees how to properly use every minute of life. After all, every opponent is actually not an opponent, but rather a helper to allow one to hold onto the Creator in extreme states.

A person can advance in this manner until he reaches a state, where he is willing to do anything and can withstand everything only to not part with the Creator. This is the only thing he asks for. He sees very important exercises in these obstacles, which are sent to him with love by the Creator. The Creator just awaits a person’s willingness so that He can reveal Himself to him.

A person advances in this manner until he completes this whole process, which is called concealment or the  period of preparation and then he achieves Lishma (for bestowal) from Lo Lishma (not for bestowal). When the Creator sees that a person has completed this whole process, He reveals Himself, and the “escape” (Brach) turns into a blessing (Barech) of the Creator.”

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A question I received: Why is it that in spirituality men need to go through circumcision (Brit Mila) even though men embody the quality of bestowal in the spiritual world and not women who correspond to the quality of reception?

My Answer: Indeed, if we’re talking about Malchut’s correction, it follows that it is the female (receiving) part that should be corrected. So, why is it that the correction (circumcision of three impure desires or Klipot) is done in Zeir Anpin which is the symbol of male qualities?

Before the End of Correction, my intention to bestow only applies to the desires above Tzimzum Bet (Second Restriction). These are the desires connected to the qualities of Bina while all the other desires still can’t be corrected. For this reason, they are cut off from use and become usable again only at the End of Correction.

The intention to bestow within me is called “man” and desire is called “woman.” This intention to bestow is called Zeir Anpin, man, or “overcoming.” I see how I need to arrange and cut off this intention and I see which form of bestowal to apply to make it suitable for the Creator. Malchut, the receiving part within me, is without form. However, the “bestowing” part in me must be given form, specifically to the extent of and depending on what I am willing to bestow. Then, I realize that I’m unable to work with my intentions and that my screen doesn’t cover the full depths of Malchut. It follows that I must reduce my intentions to some degree.

The part within my soul called “man” is the intention to bestow in my soul. It is this part that the circumcision applies to. We’re not talking about anything external; this is my inner “bestower” whose form must correspond to the Creator. That’s why I perform this correction of Brit Mila, meaning I restrict myself in the usage of certain parts of Malchut, and thereby advance in the spiritual world. Accordingly, this is why this commandment doesn’t pertain to “women.”

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 258: The Din (judgement) that the Creator executed in the flood and the Din in Sodom were both Dinim of hell, since the wicked in hell are sentenced by water and by fire.

Item 259: Sodom was sentenced by the judgment of hell, as it is written, “And the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” One was sentenced with water, one was sentenced with fire. And both are sentences of hell. And the wicked in hell are sentenced by these two discernments, for there is hell of snow, which is water, and there is hell of fire.

We have to understand that we make all the discernments within us, while reality itself does not change. I am in the World of Infinity even now, and nothing can ever change in the existing reality. The only thing that changes is my own perception, sensation, awareness, understanding and assessment. These changes are what I feel.

It is written, “Every person judges to the degree of his own shortcoming.” In other words, I depict a picture within me according to my assessment of the World of Infinity. This is why heaven and hell, good and evil, and judgment by fire and water are different levels of my attitude to a static, unchanging picture. It is written, “I did not change My HaVaYaH.”

We depict our own reality inside ourselves with our attitude to a constant state. Everything depends on our qualities, perception, and assessment of the World of Infinity, the Creator, the Light, absolute bestowal.

Heaven, hell, and different kinds of judgment are all states that I reveal inside myself. Nothing changes on the outside. Everything is determined by the change that takes place in my consciousness or my vision. In other words, everything depends on me and my inner values, qualities, and foundations.

It follows that everything depends on education and a society that will help me to change my foundations. That is how I can develop a more accurate attitude to the unchanging reality. The faster I will be able to change my inner qualities, the faster I will go from one “frame” to the next.

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Preparation to the Lesson - Shamati #14 “What Is The Greatness Of The Creator”
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 224
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“Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 49, Lesson 16
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Article – “The Individual And The Nation,” Lesson 6
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A question I received: Do you have any recommendations to enhance the effects of reading The Zohar text while listening to the simultaneous translation during the daily Kabbalah lesson?

My Answer: People who gather around a Hebrew text reader unite even though they have no command of any other languages other than their native tongues; they sense how much the words of The Zohar influence, correct, and fill them.

We stay within a system that is called “The Zohar.” The Zohar is not just a book. Each of its words “presses” some buttons and triggers its elements to move. This is how we launch it. We have no idea what this system really is. Even if we knew the correct, clear, and accurate translation of each word, we wouldn’t know a thing. We don’t know what we activate by pressing the buttons.

Therefore, an accurate and beautiful translation into any language won’t help much. For a person who speaks Hebrew and for whom it is his/her native language, it becomes even more complicated. They listen to the familiar words, but don’t know what they mean.

If you heard a translation of my current words you would hear some abstract sounds, and yet you would strive to reach the spirituality that is hidden behind my words. Those who hear these sounds and at the same time understand what I say feel as if they are already satisfied. It is as if their desire to be pleased has been filled and they have received something. For them, it is much harder to penetrate deeper into the inner meaning of the words. They think about the “earthly” meaning of words in The Zohar like “banners,” “people,” “animals,” and “colors.” They listen to the text and draw pictures in their imagination.

But you don’t. You hear an alien language without any understanding of its meaning. That’s why you can link anything you want to the words you hear. You can be sure that we talk about the soul, the spiritual conditions under which it becomes filled with the Light, and about the revelation of the spiritual world. Imagine! It is the best!

After you learn Hebrew, it becomes more difficult for you. There is an advantage in NOT knowing the language. The mixture of the languages happened specifically to help us connect with each other. This “perversity” triggers the connection among us. In fact, it is not a perversity; but rather, a revelation of the remedy that helps to establish a union among us.

It seems to us that the mixture of the languages happened for the sake of separation. It is not true. It occurred intentionally to make our connection possible at the spiritual level rather than at the level of “everyday common language.” It is worth confusing our worldly relations to the extent of being unable to communicate with each other if, as a result of this confusion, we wish to attain a “heart-to-heart connection.”

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A question I received: How can we connect the articles from the book of Shamati, which we are studying during the preparation to the lesson on The Zohar to The Book of Zohar itself?

My Answer: Everything we study in the science of Kabbalah is meant to keep us in constant connection with the Creator. In order to be connected to the Creator, to hold onto Him, to know how to properly and purposefully work out all of our states and situations, and to remember that they are sent to us by the Creator, we need the Light that Reforms. This Light needs to constantly illuminate for us that everything comes from the Creator and that it is given to us in order to advance. I evoke this Light again and again, repeating this cycle.

Importantly, The Book of Zohar connects me to the source of the Light. The Zohar is protection, it is our life buoy.

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A question I received: I feel bad right now, while it is written that the Creator is “Good that does good” and “There is none else beside Him.” How do I turn this negative feeling into a positive one in order to truly feel that the Creator is good that does good?

My Answer: If you turn your desire into a good one, you will feel that the One who caused all this for you is also good and does good, according to the law of equivalence of qualities. It is written: “Even when a sharp sword is raised over you, you will not despair in His kindness.” After all, this all comes from the Creator and every person receives a “hardened heart” (like Pharaoh whose heart was hardened by The Creator) in order to come out of his state of Egypt.

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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 201
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A question I received: How does the Light that Reforms work when we read The Book of Zohar?

My Answer: I have a desire to understand what is written in The Book of Zohar. I ask the Light to give me this opportunity. What does it do? It changes the intentions over the desire in me. This change works so that within this desire I begin to understand what is written in The Zohar. Everything I feel, hear, see, and think now is presented in my desire. The whole reality is carried out in it.

If I read a book and I don’t understand it, it is because my desire or my sense (Kli) does not perceive what is written in the book. How can I perceive it? This is possible only if some force comes and changes my desire. After all, my reality is clothed in my desire. The Light that shines within the desire creates all these forms for me. My perception and understanding change only if my desire changes. Therefore, all my aspirations, all my appeals are to the Light, for it to change these forms for me. In response, it changes them by changing the desire.

Within an improved desire I begin to feel new, more perfect qualities, the next degrees. Always the Light itself is constant. To the extent that our desire changes, we will begin to perceive a new and different reality. This is precisely what we need. After all, everything is a result of a change within the desire. And this change is performed by the Light.

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