A question I received: What is so special in one’s effort? What does it change in a person?

My Answer: What counts is not the effort within our desires, but rather the effort in our aspiring to clarify the difference between us and the Light, the creature and the Creator. That is, our effort is directed only toward the point within the creature where the difference between “existence” (Yesh Mi Yesh) and “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain) is revealed.

We are constantly clarifying the gap that initially appeared between the Creator and the creature. That is why our exertion is directed only toward the clarification of who He is and who am I?

Such is the inner essence of this process. However, for us, it manifests as more tangible things, such as receiving the Light, ascending the degrees, or a new sensation in a more external form of our desire. Yet within us, only this point of qualitative difference between the Creator and the creature – the only act of Creation performed by the Creator – is at work. This is the supreme secret of how existence (Yesh) gave rise to existence from absence (Yesh Mi Ain).

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

A question I received: Does a person who completed the prior stage of spiritual development and acknowledged its death realize that the “dead” stage became his “grave” and that he will be reborn again?

My Answer: A person won’t be concerned about that at all. He is simply unable to continue to stay within his old desire. It feels disgusting to him. His old desire died and he simply cannot stay alive at that same stage any longer. This is because it becomes “receiving” for himself while he is still striving to reach the stage of bestowal. He is not preoccupied with what awaits him; he simply cannot stay where he is any longer since it means death for him.

The sensation of death that is associated with the previous level is what brings the person to a new stage. The grave transforms into his spiritual, mother’s womb and the whole process starts all over again…until the womb turns into the grave. This is how our lower level transforms into the upper one and we advance.

We don’t get anything that is “ready-made” for us; we must make efforts to discover and attract the Light. At each stage, we work with the same desires by investigating them each time at a deeper level because the Light we attract progressively returns us back to the Source. We come to understand that we are unable to stay within the old desire and that we have to be re-born at a newer level, whatever it demands of us.

This transition is similar to the exodus from Egypt. We escape into the darkness. We don’t see the Light ahead of us. Like in the exodus, we are preoccupied with escaping and in a hurry. Our current situation becomes totally intolerable to the extent that even death seems more preferable than life. At this point we are being born in the new spiritual level.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

A question I received: We have a guy in our group who is stuck in a state of hatred like a billiard ball in a pocket for several years now. After all this time it is clear that he won’t be pulling himself out. How can we help him, what advice can we give? What can he do with such hatred?

My Answer: Sometimes years are necessary to realize the necessity of replacing hatred with love, and another few years for the Upper Light to make that happen within us.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

The spiritual goal is unity – the unification of a person who aspires to the Creator, the Light of Correction, and the Creator into one whole. A person has to remain inside this goal in every state and at every moment. Then he will advance toward it.

But how can he advance if he is already inside the goal? Where can he keep advancing if he has already “caught” the goal right now, at this very moment? The answer is that a moment later he will receive a greater desire to enjoy, and then he will have to “catch” the goal once again. That is how we advance, step by step.

Don’t think that the goal is shining for you from somewhere far ahead and you will reach it one day. You have to attain it right here and now, and not a moment later.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson — Shamati #12: “The Essence of One’s Work”

In the beginning a person wants to bestow because he receives pleasure from it and later he wants to bestow for the sake of bestowal, without any connection to himself.
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 112
All Kabbalistic books describe how to build a middle line; how to build yourself out of receiving and bestowal, the two forces that come from the Creator.
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

“Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 43, Lesson 14
The entire correction is concentrated in the world of Atzilut where the qualities of Malchut and Bina are joined together for the purpose of completing one another on the way to a mutual goal.
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Article — “The Individual And The Nation,” Lesson 4
Each nation’s uniqueness must be used for bestowing to others.
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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

A question I received: If the Creator is the quality of bestowal, how can we bring delight to a quality? Does He really need anything from me?

My Answer: The Creator needs you to enjoy. The host wishes only one thing: for the guest to enjoy. However, He places a condition before you; you can enjoy only when you become like Him.

After all, we don’t want a child to receive pleasure only on his tiny level. We want him to continue growing, to become more mature and smarter. In order to help him develop, we surround him with toys that cause him to advance, rather than to just bring him pleasure. We seek an additional benefit in the activities for children.

The Creator treats us in much the same manner. He does not want us to remain as little animals. At the level of receiving for ourselves, we merely feel a brief life, and even over the course of this life we are never really able to enjoy.

However, if we enjoy while fulfilling the Creator, it does not vanish. We continuously feel even the most minor pleasure that we give Him in His desires to which we connect ourselves.

Why is it that all the pleasures that we feel in our life vanish? We want them to stay. Why should they fade? It is as though we consent to this, but why?

The spiritual world is called eternal. If you feel pleasure there once, it remains and fills you all the time. This is because the pleasure does not annul the desire, since the pleasure exists in one place while the desire exists in another. Therefore, you do not face any problem, you simply add more and more all the time. By this, there is an ascent by the spiritual degrees.

Meanwhile, in this world, everything occurs in one plane, where you move from one loss to another, until life ends, and that’s it.

Let’s hope that we will understand the unique opportunity that is contained in the science of Kabbalah – a science on how to receive infinite and eternal pleasure, and that we will realize it.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statutes),” Item 5: …and the awakening of the act above depends on the words of the mouth. As we need to evoke the higher holiness with deeds and words, those who come from the side of impurity should awaken their side with deeds and with words.”

Item 6: And although Balaam was the greatest of all the wizards in the world, Balak was a greater wizard than him, since in magic, Balak was greater than the sages….

What does it mean “to awaken impure forces with our deeds and words”? Isn’t it better to keep silent, inactive and not to awaken the “sleeping dog”? No! Our advancement finds its path between our actions and words that in turns appeal to impurity and sacredness.

The “magic” means using the power of the Creator for the sake of confusing people and showing them their true evil nature. Those are the forces that are hidden within us and without which we won’t be able to reveal our egoism.

Angels of evil who work within us are: Balaam, Balak, Azazel, Aman, and others. These names imply the forces of the shattering of the soul; they represent its separated parts, not some “outside powers” since the only power that ever works outside of us is the Creator.

Before shattering, all souls were interconnected within one whole, harmonious system and were merged with “the One, the Single, and the Only.” After shattering, these parts obtained a new type of connection that brought them certain “benefits” and at the same time prompted them to “kill” each other.

Similarly, one nation becomes allies with another only to conquer “the third party.” This force is called “impure” because on one hand, it is a miraculous power of unity that comes to us directly from the Creator, on the other hand, we use it with a wrong egoistic intention – to harm others.

If we knew how to use this power, we would be able to thrive for a short period of time, but it is obvious that this prosperity will come to its end shortly. All evil people and dictators begin with encouraging people to unite, to help each other, and to build socialism because an evil force cannot attain power over a human being if it doesn’t hide itself behind a “good” mask.

The evil force “buys” a person by presenting with him “a partial truth” that serves as a cover for a big lie. It seems to us from the outside that we are getting a great “offer,” but in fact this “offer” is a well concealed lie with the purpose of deceiving and using us.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Before creation reaches a state of fulfillment, there is a prerequisite process of obtaining a desire to get fulfilled. Everyday examples of this preparation for the anticipation of fulfillment are animals’ mating rituals or our “saving our appetite” for a special meal. The preparatory stage that creates a desire to get fulfilled is always more important that the fulfillment itself because it defines the measure and kind of pleasure we eventually experience.

In spirituality, everything depends on the desire since the Light (Pleasure) is everlastingly unlimited and absolutely tranquil. It completely fills the space around us at each given moment. What we lack is a desire to receive It and the tools to perceive It.

However, a desire to get the Light is being built in us gradually by adding “spices”: “pepper,” “salt,” “mustard,” and other “seasonings” that stimulate our appetite. It’s similar to a game of “flirting,” that the Creator plays with us by repeatedly letting us taste the pleasure and then taking it away from us. This “game” builds and refines our right attitude towards our future fulfillment.

The Torah is called “a spice” (Torah Tavlin) because it reveals to us the desire, teaches us how to grow it, and then how to correctly fulfill it. Specifically, it leads us toward the right pleasures and fulfillments that await us in the future. At present, we are trying to shape the correct desire with the help of the Torah; without it we won’t be able to sense the Light even though it is all around us.

We don’t have desires that target and help us to reveal the Light yet. It is like a radio that needs to tune into a certain frequency (wavelength) in order to receive the transmitted signal. The radio has to create a wavelength that sufficiently matches the one that exists outside of it, in order to attract the outside wave.

Due to our studies, we receive a small “taste of spiritual flavors” and attract the Light that elevates us, and then it lets us fall. Sometimes it feels good and other times not so good. However, this is how we build a vessel for the Light, a tool for its perception. In other words, we create “a wave” that is similar to the Light that exists outside of us; it is only then that we become able to attain It.

As soon as the “instrument” is ready, it starts to receive the Light. There is no secret to this. It seems a mystery to us only because we don’t see it and our desire is not ready for it yet. This is our only problem. There is nothing that is hidden outside of us; the concealment is within us.

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

The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statues),” Item 5: Balak was wise. In his deeds he was the greatest of the wizards, greater than Balaam. I learned that everything that one wishes for in this world in the work of the Creator, he should awaken with an act below. This is so because with the act below, the act above is awakened….

It appears as though we depend on the desire from Above, for the Light to awaken us. However, when we begin to work below, we bring the awakening from Above.

Concerning the “awakening from below” and “awakening from Above,” it is written, “I am the first and I am the last.” This means that all is done by the Creator. It’s obvious that everything begins with the Creator; however, it is necessary for us to become involved in the process. At the beginning of one’s spiritual work and at the very end, a person receives help from Above, but everything else depends on him.

This is exactly the place where we usually become lost. When a person is at the lowest point of his fall, he is unable to climb out of it by himself, about this it is written, “A prisoner cannot liberate himself from the prison.” But if he is thrown the end of a life-line, then the rest depends on him (he has to grab it himself). He is accountable as to whether or not he has used the opportunity correctly.

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

The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 220: …‘I said that you are all angels and sons of God,’ meaning upon the reception of the Torah. And since you damaged yourselves, meaning sinned, you will indeed die as humans. Hence, that evil serpent that darkened the world cannot govern anyone who engages in the Torah.

Because we study Kabbalah, the Upper Light holds us up like a magnet, while the serpent, the egoistic desire that takes life from us, remains below, and is unable to rule over us. Man rises above his animate life and does not even feel it. We only need a desire for the Light to change us while we are reading The Zohar.

Kabbalah is a wisdom that explains everything that happens in our world and our entire path, but if we want to rise above it, we need a force to raise us to a higher degree. Our mind and our feelings will not help us; we must acquire a new development from the higher degree. We are unable to understand what it is like to live in spirituality, just like a rock is unable to think like a plant and a dog or a cat is unable to understand what it is like to be human; it is the same thing. This is why we need the Upper Force to make this change within us. And we will acquire it from The Zohar.

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