During the spiritual ascent, it’s as if a person wakes up, inhales, and becomes full of inspiration. This is a sign of being close to spirituality. One doesn’t feel the Light yet, but it seems the dawn will break soon.

It is the time when one can discern and grasp many new things in the same study materials. One should use this time for the maximum bestowal; one should scoop it out completely without wasting a single moment. Otherwise, it’s as if he disregards what was given to him from Above.

It doesn’t matter what books a person reads during this time as long as they are close to his soul. After all, even without understanding what he reads, he exerts efforts in joining his desire and mind with the Light that comes upon him. He wants the Light to penetrate his desire, and then the collision between them advances him.

Our world, atoms, molecules—all of it does not exist. There is only the power of desire. When one’s desire is close to the Light, he should try to work with it as much as possible.

The aspiration to the goal that becomes revealed in a person’s heart is the appeal for correction. The efforts put forth during the spiritual ascent on the studies, dissemination, and work in the group, lead to the desire that deserves the revelation of the Light.

The spiritual world doesn’t have boundaries, walls, or prohibitions. The Light and the Kli exist next to each other, but they don’t intersect much like waves of different frequencies. It’s only if a person switches from the wave of receiving to the wave of giving that he tunes in to the Light and becomes fulfilled with it.

For this, a person needs a strong and whole desire which is similar to the Light at the minimal level. This desire can be very small but it should be completely focused on the goal. It is similar to how a child wants something small, but with all his might this desire seizes him completely, even if for a short time.

The minimum similarity to the Creator will immediately allow us to sense Him. The sensation of the Creator is our soul. Then, we discover the eternal and perfect life at His level and not at the level of our body. The desire to bestow corrected by the Light brings us to the Creator, to the common property of Nature, and we merge with its level and might.

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Two questions I received on why the study of Kabbalah is necessary:

Question: Can you please elaborate on why you see the study of Kabbalah as essential and as a condition for the ego to have the common soul shine in it? In my view, this is not essential. One can have the same effect through Tikkun Olam (correcting the world, in whatever form it may take, be it practical or spiritual), even if one does not study Kabbalah.

My Answer: You have not tried everything that’s out there yet, and what you do is your choice. Continue with your various attempts while you have the possibility and while the world still exists. Meanwhile, suffering will make you wiser and eventually you will choose Kabbalah.

Kabbalah invites you to find a rational proof, a precise theory, practice, and power to correct yourself, instead of choosing a technique with your eyes closed.

Question: You refer to how we will be pushed to spirituality and Nature will give us blows until we accept your teachings, not to mention the secretive ways you use in instructing your students to disseminate Kabbalah. To be honest it sounds like threats, and to be horribly blunt it sounds like “Nature” is violating its own laws. If the Creator violates his own laws, then why should we obey them?

My Answer: What are you talking about? There are no secretive methods. Come to our center and see for yourself.

There are no magic forces and secrets in the world. Everything is open to you. You just have to grow up.

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A question I received: Why can’t I reveal the Light of Hochma?

My Answer: Because you don’t have the Light of Hassadim. You have only the desire to receive, which doesn’t feel good in the Light of Hochma because it cannot receive pleasure from it. The Light of Hochma cannot be felt in the egoistic desires. It can be revealed only to the extent of the presence of the Light of Hassadim, your intention to bestow (Bina of the four stages of the Direct Light).

You can have an infinite Kli with infinite Light of Hochma in it, but if you don’t have the Light of Hassadim, you will experience complete darkness, a state called “hell.” Even a tiny spark of the Light of Hochma without Hassadim feels like suffering, illness, disaster and crisis.

We are given a tiny feeling of the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim by the Creator’s mercy. This gives us a feeling of life so we would be able to exist and develop with free will, in order to acquire the Light of Hassadim and reach the full revelation of the Light of Hochma.

The Creator develops us by “playing” with us. When He shines upon us with the Light of Hochma, we feel bad, but it is done in order for us to understand that we need the Light of Hassadim (a screen, Ohr Hozer, the Reflected Light, the intention to bestow and love). Then we will reveal the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim, reflected by the screen.

Over time, as one receives blows depending on the amount of luminescence of Hochma, one starts asking the question, “Why am I suffering? What is going on? What is the meaning of my life?” That person is then brought to the group, the teacher, and the studying of the science of Kabbalah where he gradually finds out that the only thing he needs is the Light of Hassadim.

That is why the science of Kabbalah teaches us how to build a screen of bestowal (the intention to bestow and love, Ohr Hassadim). To the extent we are capable of bestowing, the Creator will also be revealed to us as One who Bestows, like in the example of the guest and the host.

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Despite my egoism, evil qualities, and bad states I go through, I am able, ready, and entitled to receive a force from Above that will help me reveal the Upper World. My job is to aspire to the goal as much as I can. Even if I am very far from having pure intentions, even if my spiritual “qualifications” are doubtful – all of this is not important. This is who I am now; these are my present properties and my current state.

If a person, no matter what his situation, wants to receive the strength for correction and for spiritual advancement, then he deserves it. The Creator says, “Appeal to Me and I’ll pay for your efforts.”

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A question I received: What is the difference between darkness and Light in spirituality?

My Answer: When a person brings the Light of Hassadim into the darkness, he reveals that that darkness is the Light of Hochma. This is how Kabbalah defines the difference between darkness and Light.

Night is when the Light of Hassadim is absent, and day is when the Light of Hassadim is present. The Light of Hochma is always present because Hochma is essentially the Creator.

Therefore, it always shines 100%. But after Tzimtzum Alef, the Light of Hochma is revealed only to the extent that the Light of Hassadim (the intention to bestow) is generated by a person.

Therefore, the darkness and suffering that we feel today are also coming from the Creator. They signify that the Upper Light is coming closer to us, but we feel it as darkness, evil, and problems because we are still opposite to it.

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All our troubles in life are caused by the Upper Light that influences us. We feel it as darkness instead of Light inside our egoistic desires (our uncorrected Kelim), and we find ourselves asking, “Why do we feel so bad?”

In essence, we are asking about the reason for our state. To find the answer, we have to reveal that the reason is the opposition of our qualities to the Upper Level (the AHP of the Upper One). As we advance spiritually, our question gradually changes until we finally ask the Upper One, “Show us what to do!” And we accept any conditions He gives us.

Today, for the first time in history, we have become connected inside one global egoistic connection, which has made us opposite to the Creator. Prior to this, each of us developed individually for thousands of years and we weren’t opposite to the the Upper Level (the AHP of the Upper One), because He (the Governing Force) is one and indivisible, whereas we (those who are governed) were disconnected from one another.

Now however, having become connected as one system, we are revealing our opposition to the the Upper One (or the AHP of the Upper One). He is one, and we have also became as one, but opposite to Him. He is an expression of our corrected form, which we are seeing against our uncorrected, egoistic form. It is because of our opposite nature that we feel the crisis and suffering.

It’s up to us to desire to change and ask the Upper One to correct us and make us similar to Him. We will then be filled with a sensation of the Light (a feeling of bestowal and love) and will rise to the level of the Upper One.

Our success on this path and our ability to make it quick and pleasant depends on how meticulously we keep in mind that everything that is going on in the world is the Creator playing with us; a game of the Upper with the lower.

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A question I received: Baal HaSulam writes that attainment is the highest degree of understanding. What is the highest degree of understanding?

My Answer: Understanding refers to Bina. It is written, “The way to understand is with the heart,” where attainment is vision, Hochma.

Bina and Hochma together bring a person to Keter – the Light of Hochma clothed in the Light of Hassadim. That is when one achieves attainment. The level of attainment is defined by one’s ability to attract the Light of Hassadim inside the Light of Hochma and thus to illuminate the darkness.

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A question I received: I am sitting here in Australia in front of a computer screen. How can I adopt the group’s desire and tune into the group?

My Answer: Desire knows no boundaries. Only our material bodies are limited by place, movement, distance, and time. However, our soul or desires are in a different dimension where there are no boundaries or limitations.

The spiritual world is a world of forces. The Book of Zohar describes it through stories about Abraham and Jacob, Pharaoh and Moses, and others, which are all talking about forces that a person discovers within. He reveals them beyond time and space.

If I want to unite with the friends, what difference does it make where I am located? In ancient times, Kabbalists were also not physically near each other, but this did not pose an obstacle for them. It was not perceived as a barrier to advancement.

If I wish to advance spiritually, the body cannot help me do this. Therefore, we shouldn’t pay attention to the external things. We need the inner desire of our friends, their points in the heart that aspire to attain the Creator and a connection with Him.

The Creator is an all-encompassing force that fills all of reality. If my friends and I strive toward Him, we can unite our efforts by rejecting our egoism. It doesn’t matter where my friends are located. I don’t even need to talk to them. The action of the desire itself is enough to come closer to the Creator, but it will only happen to the extent that I nullify myself before my friends.

However, since we are living in the material world, we have the ability to connect through the Internet and at Congresses. These allow us to establish more than just an inner connection. Therefore, it pays to attend a Congress once a year, as it can become a great training wheel for us to tune into the common desire.

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A question I received: What should I do practically during the process of correction?

My Answer: We have to realize that our current state is a result of the breaking of the quality of bestowal within us and the resulting exile from the sensation of the spiritual space (the Creator). This happened due to the loss of the quality of bestowal. Because of the breaking and the exile, we hate each other, yet we depend on each other. Because of this interdependency, I cannot demand correction for myself; I can only demand it for everyone. I have to desire to correct the relationships between all people.

We have to understand the essence of our mutual inclusion in one another. Nobody is an independent individual. But in order to see this truth, we have to correct our sensations. We have to ask the Upper Light for this; only it can help us to acquire the vision in order to see the real picture.

Because of the mounting problems, humanity today has to reveal that it is a broken vessel, and it has to come together. This involves discovering the components of this state: the mountain of hatred (Mount Sinai) on one hand, and the importance of the goal (a connection to the Creator) on the other hand.

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A question I received: When the entire world reaches its final correction and ascends, merging with the Upper Worlds, then it will turn out that we haven’t yet enjoyed life in this world but have already passed to the Spiritual World?

My Answer: You are worried that you will never get the fame you are entitled to, or the glory, money and power over everything? You are afraid that you will correct yourself and get rid of these desires, ascend to another world where the Creator will meet you, hug you and ask, “Well, tell me what you want?” But you will have nothing left to ask for!

You already don’t want money, glory, power, or anything else. So what do you do then? What do the righteous need? A sip of water and a handful of berries for a week. And this is called the final correction, to which we all aspire?

But don’t worry, the higher a person ascends, the greater his desires become. Today’s material desires relative to the spiritual ones are a billion times less than the desires of an infant relative to an adult. In fact, we are completely cut off from the spiritual world, while an infant lives in the same world with us.

But as the child’s desires grow with age, he already wants to enjoy life as adult – the same way the desires of the soul grow within us. When we cross the barrier separating us from the Upper World and enter the spiritual world, there we find entire layers of impure desires, which we need to correct. By correcting them you rise above them into the Upper World!

How much can you lose here compared to what the system of the spiritual impure worlds can give you? It gives us such huge desires that our universe is nothing compared to them – they comprise all the worlds and not just our world, which is like a small grain of sand next to them.

Therefore, don’t worry, our desires grow all the time. And the greatest desires of this world, all its wealth, fame and power are just worthless minuscule feelings compared to spiritual fulfillment.

Besides, now the world is in such despair and depression that a person doesn’t even desire such minuteness.

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