From Baal HaSulam’s article, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”: Now you can understand their words (Sanhedrin 98a): “The Son of David comes either in a generation that is all worthy, or all unworthy.”…

Indeed, we should thoroughly understand that this matter of redemption and the coming of the Messiah that we hope will be soon in our days, Amen, is the uppermost wholeness of attainment and knowledge, as it is written, “and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, saying: ‘Know the Lord’; for they shall all know Me, from the greatest of them unto the least of them.”

When the Children of Israel are complemented with the complete knowledge, the fountains of intelligence and knowledge shall flow beyond the boundaries of Israel and water all the nations of the world, as it is written (Isaiah 11), “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,” and as it is written, “and shall come unto the Lord and to His goodness.”

Every person has to attain the degree called “Messiah.” This degree can only be attained by disseminating the knowledge of the Creator, meaning circulating Kabbalah in the world and to the nations. This has nothing to do with the power of the nation of Israel, but with circulating the idea of the correction of human nature, the idea which will be understood by humanity and will capture its heart.

This is referred to as the “king Messiah,” the kingdom of Isra-El, the intention to achieve the Creator by the way of equivalence of form, when everybody unites as equals in mutual bestowal, thereby revealing the Upper Force and eternal life. This work must be done by every person.

However, there is an added responsibility to complete it for the group of people that received this method of correction in Ancient Babylon. This group called the nation of Israel has already gone through correction in the past, then fell to the state of the rest of the “Babylonians,” mixed with them, and now must undergo correction first because this group contains the record of its past corrected states.

Circulating the method of correction in the world is called the time of the Messiah.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: During the Mega Congress 2010, many new participants will face the force, the desire called the “World Group” (the World Kli) for the first time. Why should someone who studies Kabbalah in the Ukraine or New Zealand matter to me?

Answer: This wisdom has to spread to all of humankind for it is written, “And they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them.” The Torah was given in order to correct all souls. The “nation of Israel” is only a connecting link, as Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).” Correction has to take place in the entire world, but Israel is the first in line. This correction starts with Israel, manifests here first, and then “spills” over its borders filling the rest of the world.

Meetings such as this congress demonstrate how adoptable the method of Kabbalah is for all nations since it is the only wisdom that can bring all people to unity regardless of their corporeal, earthly differences of nationality, race, gender, and mentality. Within the spiritual system, we are initially connected through our “points in the heart.” Now, we only add to them our desire to strengthen this connection. I don’t pick with whom to unite. My “point in the heart,” my soul, is already tied with whom I belong. In fact, our relationship broke solely in our perceptions. We don’t wish to be related, but we already are. All we need to do is to see it and become its voluntary participants.

Therefore, we must awaken everyone in the whole world. And congresses such as ours demonstrate how close we are to the truth. Actually, if we disseminate the method of correction, a person who has this “point in the heart” will understand and feel our truth. He will join us as an equal part in all our actions. In this way, all nations will join together in collective correction. This is what is called the complete correction or “complete redemption” (Geula Shlema) from spiritual exile. “Complete” means not only for the nation of Israel, but for all nations.

The wisdom of Kabbalah was written down for our generation, and the history of human evolution is coming to its final chapter. The nation of Israel must complete this correction first and pass the Light on to the other nations. If we don’t strive to carry out our mission and correct ourselves and the world, we will become the object of hatred.

The dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the world is called the voice of the Messiah’s Horn. As soon as we come out into the world with this method of correction, we will immediately receive a sympathetic and kind response of love instead of hatred.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The Zohar, Chapter "VaYikra (The Lord Called)," Item 83: … as it is written, “Behold, your king will come unto you,” certainly, and not you to Him. He will come to you to appease you; He will come to you to raise you; He will come to you to complement you in everything; He will come to you to raise you to His palace, to bond with you in everlasting bonding, for all times, as it is written, “And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.”

Should we raise Malchut from the ashes on our own, or does the Merciful Creator raise the fallen tent of David for us? Do we need to wait in exile and then everything will become revealed from Above? Or do we need to recognize that the King has come, done his work, reaches out to us, and we need to grab on to Him and ascend?

There are people who say that everything will come and become revealed from Above, that the Third Temple will "fall down" from the skies, and we don’t need to do anything but just keep waiting. This is the "Galut" (the time of exile) type of thinking.

Kabbalists, on the other hand, explain to us that we had to force ourselves into exile (from the level of spirituality) for a specific period of time, until the end of the 20th century. Then, from Above, the Creator returned us to the Land of Israel and revealed the method of correction which is Kabbalah and The Zohar. He created all the conditions for the freedom of will, and the Giving of the Torah from the Above took place. Now, people need to receive the Torah and realize it in their correction.

This is what we call "the king has come to the queen." He gives her everything. However, now she must take a step toward the king and express a desire to unite with him, instead of merely continuously lying in the dust without making a single action on her own behalf. After all, the king compels her to act and reaches out to her, revealing his desire.

This is what those who study the external Torah, the religious, and those who study the inner Torah, the Kabbalists, argue about. There’s nothing to add to the external observance of the customs as the entire addition happens on the inside, that is, in the intentions, the discernments of the desire, and revelation of the evil inclination which needs to be corrected.

From the 1st of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, The Zohar

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What is a Jew? This question is not as strange as it may seem at first glance. Let’s examine this free creature that was insulated and oppressed, trampled on and pursued, burned and drowned by all the rulers and the nations, but is nevertheless living and thriving in spite of the whole world.

What is a Jew that did not succumb to any worldly temptations offered by his oppressors and persecutors so that he would renounce his religion and abandon the faith of his fathers?

A Jew is a sacred being who procured an eternal fire from the heavens and with it illuminated the earth and those who live on it. He is the spring and the source from which the rest of the nations drew their religions and beliefs.

A Jew is a pioneer of culture. From time immemorial, ignorance was impossible in the Holy Land, even more so than nowadays in civilized Europe. Moreover, at the time when the life and death of a human being was worth nothing, Rabbi Akiva spoke against the death penalty which is now considered to be an acceptable punishment in the most civilized countries.

A Jew is a pioneer of freedom. Back in primitive times, when the nation was divided into two classes, masters and slaves, Moses’ teaching forbid holding a person as a slave for more than six years.

A Jew is a symbol of civil and religious tolerance, “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” These words were uttered during distant, barbarian times when it was commonly acceptable among the nations to enslave each other.

In terms of tolerance, the Jewish religion is far from recruiting adherents. Quite the opposite, the Talmud prescribes that if a non-Jew wants to convert to the Jewish faith, then it has to be explained to him how difficult it is to be a Jew and that the righteous of other religions also inherit the heavenly kingdom. A Jew is a symbol of eternity.

The nation which neither slaughter nor torture could exterminate, which neither fire nor sword of civilizations were able to erase from the face of earth, the nation which first proclaimed the word of Lord, the nation which preserved the prophecy for so long and passed it on to the rest of humanity, such a nation cannot vanish.

A Jew is eternal; he is an embodiment of eternity.
Leo Tolstoy, 1891

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No one knows how much more work we will have to do in order to realistically see the new, corrected world. But the results of our work can already be seen by the awakening of the nation of Israel. As a result of this awakening, there will be great, qualitative changes and people will begin to feel the spiritual reality. But to achieve this, we will have to attain a common might called “six thousand souls.”

We have to achieve this might in quantity and in force, meaning according to the amount of people aspiring to the spiritual goal, as well as the might of their undertsanding, the connection between them, and the importance they attribute to this. As soon as we achieve this might of “six thousand souls,” the spiritual world will be revealed to us. This constitutes the goal of disseminating Kabbalah: to have as many people join this movement as necessary to reach “the first stop” in the spiritual world, which is the spiritual revelation.

When we unite together with this force and this quantity, where the quantity multiplied by the quality will give us the necessary might (P=UxI – power equals pressure times the force of electricity), then a spiritual vessel emerges, in which the Creator becomes revealed. Then, everyone who participates in this common vessel will feel the revelation of spirituality. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the creatures.

It depends only in the importance that we attribute to spirituality in relation to corporeality. We are already building this common vessel of revealing the Creator, but until we complete it, we won’t be able to discover it. It will become expressed in our sensations, along with the Creator inside it.

From the Independence Day lecture 04/20/10, “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

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A question I received: What does it practically mean “To value the inner part of me more than the external part?” Baal HaSulam writes that this is necessary in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

My Answer: To value the inner part of you means to respect your mission and responsibility to attain mutual bestowal and to unite together “as one man with one heart” through brotherly love, for the sake of revealing the Creator, the general force of bestowal and love that rules in nature. This has to be the most important thing to a person. We are talking about the Upper Force of bestowal, which fills everything, but which we don’t feel because we nullify its manifestation with our egoism. The right intention for us to have is for this force to become revealed within us to the fullest extent.

I make a simple calculation: that this is the only thing that is important to me in this life. This is why I was born and what I live for. This is what I have to achieve as long as I live in this world. In addition, all of humanity depends on the work I do in this regard, because we are all connected together inside one net.

Baal HaSulam writes that “a person from the nation of Israel,” meaning a person who has a point in the heart (Isra-El means the aspiration to the Creator) determines the direction and state of the whole world with his intention. He can say, “I don’t want anything right now. I’m in a state of descent so leave me alone. I don’t want to hear about spiritual work. I’m going to rest!” In that case, where is his responsibility and the understanding that there are millions and billions of people who depend on him? He is now determining their fate and how they will advance toward correction – whether through painful blows or through realization and goodness.

If these people depend on you, then you have a very strict responsibility to make the right choice because you are leading everyone, be it in a good direction or a bad one. You have no choice about the matter; this is how the worldwide network is built and this is the place you have been allotted in it. Therefore, you must always be in a state of upper fear and remember that you decide what will happen to the whole world.

Later you will reveal that all the people are your children, the closest thing to you! But you have to think this way even now, by faith above reason. Everything that you do is not being done to you, but to the whole world!

How important we deem spirituality directly determines the fate of all humanity. What’s important for us will be important for everyone else. That is the structure of this entire system, in which we are connected with strict connections. A person without a point in the heart does not have the ability to change anything. Only you do, who are called “Isra-El,” or “Li-Rosh” (I am the head).

From the Independence Day lecture 04/20/10, “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

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The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 250: And when the Creator saw the great joy of this world when it improved to being as above, He said, “Let not the twelve tribes mingle with the rest of the nations, leaving a blemish in all the worlds.” What did the Creator do? He shook all of them to and fro until they went down to Egypt to dwell in their abodes inside the obstinate nation, which despises their conducts and degrades them by not marrying with them or mingling with them, and by considering them slaves. The males were loathsome of them and the females were loathsome of them until everything was bettered by the holy seed without mingling with strangers….

There is a scrutiny of one’s state as one attempts to rid oneself of egoism, and then there’s a scrutiny of one’s state when one wishes to remain in (adapt to) his egoism. If I wish to remain in my egoism, then the egoism pushes me out through its hatred for me as it senses within me the point in the heart that is opposite to it. As it is written: “The Pharaoh brought the nation of Israel closer [via pointed oppression] to Israel,” and “I have created the ego as help against you.” It opposes you, and precisely therein is its help.

Similarly, when the Soviet government pushed a hard anti-Zionist agenda in the 1960s-70s, in so doing, it actually boosted Zionism. It is precisely the evil forces (the reverse side of the Creator) that help elucidate the evil, and not the Creator or the Upper Light, openly or directly.

Exile is one’s interim state between the degrees when both the Egyptians and Israel are revealed within him, opposite one another. He is in the middle scrutinizing these qualities. He is an exile, under the Egyptians’ command. On the one hand, he is drawn to Egyptians, but they reject him over the “seed of Israel” that is within him.

In other words, the desire to enjoy despises and rejects the intention to bestow for it wants only to act for the sake of reception. This is the hatred of the nations of the world toward Israel. And then there is the opposite discernment, when one has already advanced to the desire to bestow and identifies himself with it, as he nears the exodus from Egypt and is unwilling to mingle with the Egyptians (the nations of the world).

The Egyptians’ rule over him has ended; he no longer strives to be like them, no longer does he wish to unite with them, although he still lives among them, for now. In his eyes the Pharaoh receives blows, and these blows help him to rise above his relationship with the Pharaoh. Then he distances from the Egyptians, not because they spurn him, but because he is the one rejecting them as he nears the exodus from Egypt.

The Creator conducts these scrutinies in everybody (every person in this world) from both sides, in order to help us understand to which we are drawn more: egoism or bestowal. The nations of the world feel hatred for the spark of bestowal that has remained in the nation of Israel from its previous spiritual level. They reject Israel, which is precisely the reason the nation of Israel has remained intact.

Israel did not somehow manage to survive on its own; but rather, it is the opposition to Israel that held it together. As Baal HaSulam writes, Israel exists like nuts in a bag, united not by love, but forcefully, by the external hatred that surrounds them.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

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The division of people into the nation of Israel and the nations of the world, which Baal HaSulam describes in his articles, can be interpreted in two senses: inner and outer. When understood in the inner sense, it describes how qualities are divided within every person, with “Israel” designating one’s aspiration “straight toward the Creator” or the point in the heart that has awakened in a person, whereas the “nations of the world” are the desires of reception.

Any person whose point in the heart (aspiration to reveal the Creator) has awakened can be called “Israel,” which means “straight toward the Creator.” If one’s point in the heart has not awakened yet, then he belongs to the nations of the world, meaning to all other goals in life.

All the people can be categorized in this fashion and divided into Israel and the other nations. This is the same as what once occurred in Ancient Babylon.

When considering those whose point in the heart has not awakened yet, the science of Kabbalah must first and foremost be disseminated among the nation of Israel in the material sense. After that it should reach the other nations. In addition, the nations of the world include the ten tribes of Israel that fell to the level of “the nations of the world” from the height of the First Temple (Mochin de Haya).

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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“The people of Israel will not return to their land until they are completely united.” The people of Israel are a group that Abraham once organized by selecting them from among the Babylonians. He wanted to correct the whole world but managed to gather just a few thousand people in this group.

However, the Torah does not speak about historical events, rather about internal states through which a person passes. The property of Abraham within us takes a part of our desires and leads them to a partial correction, and then to a shattering (a fall of the Temple, or descent from the spiritual level to exile).

Exiles are required in order for desires that have been in spirituality (Israel), to mix with the rest of desires that did not go through spiritual ascent and shattering (called “nations of the world”). After mixing together and becoming included in one another, all of them are prepared for corrections. In other words, everyone now has a part that has been in spirituality, and a part that hasn’t.

Those who went through the ascent and shattering must be the first to undergo corrections because they contain Reshimot (data about previous states). After this others will awaken. Everyone must come to understand that the “Israel” within, meaning the desires aspiring to the Creator, will not attain their land (Eretz) or corrected “desire (Ratzon) “straight to the Creator” (Isra-El), in which the Creator becomes revealed, until they all unite to become “as one man with one heart.”

This is the requirement Kabbalists tell us about. We must implement it in a small part of the soul inside each of us, as well as in a big part of the soul among all Kabbalah groups in the world, and in yet an even bigger part of the soul, which includes all of humanity. Thus, this necessary requirement begins to be realized starting from a very material level.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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A question I received: If a person concludes that there’s no need for Kabbalah since he has a good job, a family, and everything is fine in this life, then how will that person reach spirituality?

My Answer: It means that the time hasn’t come yet. We disseminate the knowledge of Kabbalah for everyone, and anyone who needs it will use it. However, in order to aspire to spirituality, corporeal suffering is completely unnecessary. A person reveals spirituality only under the condition that it is the only thing one lacks.

The words “exile” and “freedom” differ only with the letter “Aleph,” which means “Ruler of the world;” a person only lacks the Creator and doesn’t take anything else into account. One could have endless possibilities in this world, but this has nothing to do with the desire to reveal the Creator. For example, I never had any material problems, yet the need to reveal spirituality gnawed away at me as though I had nothing at all in this life.

It’s written that Jews in Egypt built great cities of Pithom and Raamses. They had everything necessary on the material level, but they possessed nothing with which to revive their souls. Therefore, they cried out from that work since they couldn’t achieve spirituality.

Hence, the instrument for spiritual revelation is only the need to reveal the Creator so that a person would be governed by the quality of bestowal. If all that one lacks is bestowing to everyone, then such a person is ready for spiritual redemption. Redemption is when one is able to not think about himself, and to give to everyone else.

We’re approaching the Independence Day holiday in Israel and we need to know this. After all, we can only be independent from our egoism. A “free nation in its land” is freedom from our egoistic desire, which will be governed by the quality of bestowal. Only then we’ll be free.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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