Question: When does faith turn into attainment?

Answer: If it is faith above reason, then it becomes a vessel or Kli for attainment. After all, faith is a name for the Light of Hassadim.

Faith above reason is the quality of bestowal that rules over the desire to enjoy. The desire to enjoy with the intention of bestowal becomes a vessel or Kli for the Light of Hochma.

Then the Light of Hochma, clothed into the Light of Hassadim, starts to rule inside the desire to enjoy, and that is attainment.

The fulfillment of the Light of Hassadim by the Light of Hochma is called “total or complete faith” (Emuna Shlema).
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Engaging in Kabbalah Requires No Preliminary Excellence

The purpose of creation belongs to all creations without exception. It concerns not necessarily merely the strong and skillful, the brave people who can overcome, but all the people.

In “Midrash Rabba,” [The Great Commentary] sages wrote: “The Creator said unto Israel: “Regard, the whole wisdom and the whole Light are easy things [for those who protect themselves from egoism]. He who fears Me and does deeds of Torah [acts only for the sake of bestowal and love], [in that case] the entire wisdom and Light are in his heart.”
- Rabash, Steps of the Ladder, “Love of Friends- 2”
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The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride),” Item 138: …and the iniquity became as a mistake to him, as it is written, “If the Lord had not been my help, my soul had almost dwelt with Dumah.” But the rest of the people should fear that they will not be able to say before the angel that it was a mistake, and will fall into the hands of Dumah, to Hell.

When we manage to correct some parts of Malchut, a thin thread still remains that connects the parts that are impossible to correct to us. We have to “nourish” them and allow them to stay alive so that we can correct them later.

There is always a “catch” that holds us “tied up” to egoism. It is similar to the “gates of hell” through which we can suddenly submerge into egoistic intention. This is where a problem hides.

Are we capable of retaining the screen that prevents us from getting pleased for our own sake? If we cannot retain it, the Lights will disappear, and we will stay in the darkness of “hell.” Do we have a chance to preserve a little portion of egoism without opening the gates and ensure minimum illumination that is vitally necessary for its existence?

The Book of Zohar speaks about the ways of achieving this. We are correcting our mistakes, whereas intentional evil will be corrected only at the last stage of our work.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

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Question: On the second day of the Convention, I started to feel that all people, all “points,” as though, are within me, and feeling them as part of me, I could truly love them as myself. Is it correct to perceive the entire group within myself?

Answer: It is precisely how we start to form the place where later the property of bestowal called the Creator becomes revealed.

Question: I witnessed how during the Convention, people completely devoted themselves to work. Do we really need such external actions? Perhaps they actually distract us from the goal? After all, aren’t they just vaguely related to the truth?

Answer: Possibly, we need to distribute duties more evenly, but there is no doubt that we have to fully care for and perform all these duties ourselves.

Question: Suppose, we start hating the friends. How do we distinguish between this, let’s call it “divine” hatred that obstructs the connection of the broken vessels and simple hatred caused by nasty character or mental disability?

Answer: If, in order to reveal the Creator, a person exerted efforts in connecting with the friends, then a strong common effort exposes hatred toward the obligation to unite. The Zohar talks about it as well. But if a person did not exert effort in trying to unite, he will not feel true hatred.
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In the beginning, a person grows like an embryo inside his mother’s womb, thus far, at the “still” level; he simply nullifies himself. Then, he becomes as a little child who exists next to a grownup, and this is the “vegetative” level. After that, a person is an adult which is the “animate” level.

All these levels are staged by the forces of nature, meaning that we don’t need to exert effort in order to evolve since Nature turns on the forces and desire to grow in us from within. In other words, it raises a request for development, MAN (Mayin Nukvin – female waters), on our behalf; it awakens in us on its own.

The Creator (Nature) acts from two directions. From within, the embryo strives to develop and nullifies itself in relation to its mother, and from inside, the mother’s organism nourishes the embryo and doesn’t treat it as a foreign object. Both are driven by basic instinct, mutual love for each other, a grown up to a child, and the child to the adult.

On the animate level, at a more mature age, we still have to nullify ourselves in relation to each other in order to learn from the others. Yet, again, all of this is controlled by instincts.

As for the development of the soul on the speaking level, the level of Human/Adam (Adam or Domeh in Hebrew), man, himself, must initiate the raising of MAN, the plea for correction. In other words, there has to be a desire coming from man himself.

We receive the initial point of this first desire as part of the Creator, from Above, which is our “point in the heart” given to us from Above, along with all the other necessary instruments of the Kabbalistic texts, the teacher, and the group. Using these tools correctly, we need to achieve the desire to demand equivalence to the Creator. (The force P1 comes from the Creator, and P2 must come from you.)

I have a desire to evolve, but I am unable and don’t understand what and how to do that. Everything is concealed from me, yet, to figure it out, I am given the group, the environment. This is why the collective soul broke.

Attach them all to your point in the heart; you will receive the power necessary for the act. Your point in the heart is backed up by the group, and, if you receive assistance from it, you will be able to raise MAN to the Creator (who, in truth, also resides within the group).

As a result, you will receive a response, MAD (Mayin Duchrin - male waters), the force of development, the Light that Reforms, from the Creator. It doesn’t matter where you work all day long; what matters is where your thoughts are as that’s where you are as well.

However, your thoughts can be defined with the help of the environment. So, let’s agree that we will do our best to make sure none of us forgets, even for an instant that we must stay connected, thereby awakening each other.

Let’s make this wish and together with all our friends around the world draw the Upper Force, the Creator, to this desire. Let’s force Him to help us think solely about oneness, only about mutual responsibility, the Arvut.

If you don’t wake up, the others won’t wake up either, and if the others don’t wake up, tomorrow, I, myself, will be asleep during the lesson. There is no way out of this unless we take responsibility to provide the basic desire, having received it from the group, and with it, appeal to the Creator.

Anything that Nature does with the embryo, a child, and any creature living in this world by pushing them toward growth, we must accomplish with our own free will and consciously start our own evolution.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, Baal HaSulam “Body and Soul”

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Question: How can we reach revelation so we would see the spiritual world as realistically as we now see our reality?

Answer: I don’t know whether the things I’m seeing now are reality or not. What if I am dreaming and cannot wake up?

It seems to me that I am now inside of a certain reality, but how do I really know whether or not this reality is just a dream compared to the next reality? Maybe there such a level of wakefulness is awaiting me that everything I felt in the past will seem like a dream?

Inside my current reality there are also periods when I tune out from it and go to sleep. So how do I know: Maybe I am sleeping now as well?

In other words, I have to discern how to go from one state to the next and acquire a new consciousness. And that is why Kabbalists have given us a means.

Until you acquire that new consciousness, you will remain inside a dream and you won’t even find out that it is possible to wake up and start living! We all understand what it means to dream. I was sleeping, I woke up, and now I am considered awake. And that is exactly how we exist in relation to the spiritual world, the world to come.

There are many states like this, one above the other. Kabbalah gives us the means to keep ascending from one state to the next. If you correctly use the means given to you in your current state, then you will be able to ascend to a state that is called “life” in relation to your current state, and what you feel today will be called a “dream.” It is written, “We were as dreamers.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

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Question: How do we acquire the ability to advance “above reason”?

Answer: “Above reason” is above our “matter,” the will to enjoy; in other words, “above reason” is inside the quality of bestowal. We are unable to rise above our egoism ourselves. This is possible only with the help of the Upper Light, Ohr Makif.

“Reason” means my desire. Inside of my desire I am able to feel, see, and make calculations depending on the probable benefit or harm, or on whether it’s worthwhile for me to use a certain desire or not. As a result of these calculations I reach certain conclusions and then realize my desires. I do not have any problem in this regard. That is how I live in this world.

I am certain about part of these calculations and I have doubts about another part of them. In our earthly sciences we also use the theory of probability whenever we do not have reliable information. However, in any case we have something we can rely on.

On the other hand, “faith above reason” or “above knowledge” is when I don’t have any instruments or means of perceiving. In addition, I don’t even know what “higher” is. If it were simply opposite to reason, then I might be able to calculate how I should act according to my reason and then I would act exactly in the opposite manner. Yet, this would also be a rational calculation.

However, I don’t have the slightest idea of what “faith above reason” is; I don’t know what reason it follows, what sensation and calculation it entails, and in relation to what. It is a certain approach, tendency, or paradigm that does not exist inside me.

Therefore, only the Light can come and give us this approach because “above reason” means “for the sake of bestowal,” meaning not according to the calculation inside the Kli, the desire to enjoy. But if it’s not inside the desire, then I don’t know what it is. How can I find out? I don’t know. And inside what desire?

Kabbalists say: If you start to perceive the desire of your neighbor as your own, if you can make a calculation in relation to his desire, one that is for his good, then that will be above your current knowledge. However, to do that I have to receive super powers that I don’t have. If I receive them, I will be able to go “above reason.” However, for now you cannot jump higher than yourself.

Only the Light that created us can change us. Therefore we have to use the “miraculous means” (Segulot) and perform various actions that awaken the Light so it will influence us. That is how our success will be measured. The mind and the sensations that you accumulate inside your desire to enjoy for now are unable to help you. They can only help you in the opposite form. If you make a daily assessment of what you have attained in spirituality, you will see that in reality you haven’t attained anything even though you put in many efforts.

And the same thing will happen tomorrow. On the day after that, you will get confused in addition. Another day later you will suddenly feel confident that you have become smart. And so on. Every day you add more negative phenomena due to the fact that you reside inside the desire to enjoy for your own sake and you think that only the Light can help you, but it does not come and does not help you.

So what should you do? Start waging war against reason, as it is written about the Egyptian exile.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

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Question: I am a Muslim who has been studying Kabbalah for several months. Is it possible to observe the laws of my religion and correct my soul at the same time?

Answer: Kabbalah was born before Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Torah speaks of Abraham “bestowing gifts” to the sons of his concubines and sending them East, thus laying the foundation for Eastern teachings. Everything stems from one source.

The collective desire is divided into many parts, and each part has its own individual path of correction. Certain parts can commence with correction immediately. They constitute the group that Abraham had taken out of Babylon. The other parts have scattered around the world, with each part developing individually in accordance with its unique set of qualities.

Their means of advancement are the various religions, faiths, and cultures. A person can easily remain in his faith and follow the spiritual path at the same time. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his Writings of The Last Generation:

“The religious formation of all the nations should first and foremost obligate its members to bestow upon their fellow man the concept of another person’s life coming before one’s own, a formation of ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’… But otherwise, each nation may pursue its own religion and traditions, and one must not interfere with the other.”

That is, we must not meddle in the affairs of other nations and cultures. Let them have these things; people need them. This whole “territory” has nothing to do with the spiritual world. As a person advances, it turns into a cultural platform for him, a set of traditions, and does not get in the way.

If I want to rise above my nature so as to unite with everybody, even the relationships between religions appear to me in a new light. As a Muslim, I suddenly understand that I can advance toward the goal alongside a Christian, and, truly, what can stop us?

Everyone is used to their own home cooking, and nobody is taking that away from you. As Baal HaSulam writes, everyone can remain in their religion, and nobody has the right to meddle in your affairs precisely because this has nothing to do with the spiritual path. Ultimately, in our world, religions constitute culture, tradition that corresponds from the beginning to the nature of the various parts of Malchut and conforms to the root of the soul.

Recently, we read the weekly Bible chapter about the Creator bidding Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, but at the very last moment commanding that a baby goat, not Isaac, be sacrificed. In Hebrew, the word “sacrifice” is Kurban, from the word Karov (to draw closer). Here, the right line (Abraham) sacrifices its ego, Kurban, the left line (Isaac), thus drawing closer to the Creator (Karov).

We hear that Muslims celebrate the holiday of Kurban to honor Ibrahim who had sacrificed a goat instead of Ishmael on Allah’s bidding. Allah is derived from the word Alla (Elyon or the Upper One).
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

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Question: When I served in the army, I saved money and waited for my service to end, so that I could start traveling. Now I can talk about what I have seen in various places, my adventures of pleasures received. What kind of impressions do we receive journeying through the Upper World?

Answer: From the place where we receive “the point in the heart” and begin to dream about ascending to Malchut of the World of Infinity, accordingly we descend lower and lower into a sensation of hatred, which separates the parts of Malchut.

The more hatred we reveal, the more we can correct and rise above it. This is what is meant by ascending from world to world: negative Assiya → Assiya → negative Yetzira → Yetzira → negative Beria → Beria → negative Atzilut → Atzilut → negative Adam Kadmon → Adam Kadmon (AK), until we reach the World of Infinity.
Your point in the heart receives the desire to journey through the “land,” that is within the desire (“land” in Hebrew is “Aretz,” from the word “Ratzon,” “desire”). And then you set out on the path.

You take the Light of Hassadim, that is the anti-egoistic screen (“money/cover”), penetrate the desire, and thanks to this cover/money you select the pleasure/Light of Hochma. You have the desire and the “cover,” meaning you can pay for it, and so you make the payment and receive the pleasure. This is your journey!

It is a journey within your desire! The entire world is your desire, and all the lands you’ve visited are parts of your inner desire as well. You have tested your desires and clarified which inner pleasure you can receive in Thailand, Europe or somewhere else.

The same applies to the spiritual world, except it is no longer an illusory picture, where it only seemed to you as if you’re traveling in this world. Now you really see that these are parts of your soul, and you discover that you exist together with them, in unity, revealing the light (pleasure) within this adhesion!

This pleasure is thousands of times greater than your past travels, where you might have seen or heard something, or eaten something that later gave you indigestion. The spiritual world is where you truly take pleasure! After all, this is a journey within your desire, only it seemed to you as it existed on the outside.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, Baal HaSulam “The Gate of Intentions”

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Question: Spirituality requires completeness and joy, but in the group we sometimes deem it as gaiety. How does it fit in?

Answer: You drop into the group after your mundane, “civil” life. There, you would enjoy food, sex, family, wealth, respect, power, and knowledge. Here, however, you are placed before a goal that you don’t achieve and people you didn’t pick.

In the outside world, you would individually decide with whom to work and spend leisure time, but here you see the faces of the friends. Look, would you invite them into your circle? You have no choice. Moreover, there is no benefit. You find neither a reason, nor place, nor ways to feel the joy you used to experience in the outside world.

Now, you need to replace all your ideas. What am I here for? Why do I need all these people? How do I find fulfillment? What is the goal? How important is it? Having gathered and arranged these questions and their answers correctly, you must simply burst with joy, and soar to the seventh heaven because you are so happy.

After all, you are in the only correct place, in the company of the right people who yearn for the same exalted goal as you do, which cannot be reached on one’s own. Look, they all came together just for you. They exist solely for you to attain perfection.

Then, looking at the friends, you start loving them. They become important, close, dear to you, and the goal isn’t that distant any more. If we all unite, we will find it among us. It isn’t in some distant galaxy, but right here behind the partitions separating us, which we must crush.

The goal is to reveal the Light in us, but it cannot flow as long as there is a gap in the net. Because of the torn wires, the spiritual current doesn’t pass through any of us. So, let it shine; close the circuit. Everything is ready for us, and, if you see the events correctly, you will definitely get filled with joy.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, Rabash “The Matter of Schechina“

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