Question: Where was Adam when the serpent was tempting Eve? If he were by her side at that moment, he might have chased the serpent away or have protected Eve from it by asking her not to listen to the evil “seducer.”

Answer: He veered off to the left, to the serpent’s wife.

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Question: The ARI was the “Messiah son of Joseph.” Who will be the second Messiah, the son of David, and when will he appear?

Answer: Baal HaSulam calls the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah “the call of the Messiah’s horn” across all the nations. The Messiah is a force that corrects souls. Will it manifest through the actions of a certain individual or will it take place at the level of governing forces? Does it matter? The fact is that this whole process is called “Messiah ben David.”

Nowadays the knowledge of Kabbalah is spreading across the whole world and this is leading the world to the general correction. That is why this period of time can be called “the time of the Messiah.” It has already begun. The people of the world have to realize that all problems and catastrophes are caused by our lack of correction. The realization of the cause of the events that happen to us is by itself a revelation of evil inclinations, but it occurs under the influence of the Upper Light. Therefore, it is related to the time of Messiah.

Spiritual liberation (Geula) is in fact a revelation of the united force of bestowal. It is written that “the Messiah will lead the whole world to Jerusalem to teach the Torah.” “The Torah” is a force that releases the property of bestowal in us and “Jerusalem” is a desire through which we attain contact with the Creator. Revelation of the Light that corrects this desire is implemented through the Messiah’s power (unless we all achieve total liberation) through the power of the Light that progressively reveals itself.

However, the Messiah will not come until we achieve a certain level of dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the world. He cannot descend until the world as a whole fully understands the necessity of correction.

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

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We reside in the only existing reality, the World of Infinity, but we are “unconscious” within it and don’t realize where we are. In order to bring ourselves to perceive this singular reality instead of remaining unaware of it, we must exert effort like a maturing child does or a person who is coming back to consciousness.

What are the conditions required in order to feel this reality? They are: stepping out of self into oneness, mutual guarantee, and love. In spite of our egoism that doesn’t allow us to meet these conditions individually, we must fulfill them all together. As a result, we will find ourselves in the corrected system, the World of Infinity.

Understandably, we hate working against egoism, but we must make an effort to complete this job as if we are children playing a game. “Playing” means I imitate the Upper One as if I already possess His quality. Making efforts to obtain it is called playing. It brings the hidden forces to light and that is how I progress. I aspire to a higher degree and my effort draws the Light which reforms me so that I become equivalent to the degree of its source.

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From the Weekly Torah Portion 8/13/10, “Shoftim“

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out) – Part 2,” Item 373: With all the offerings, it does not say, “Observe,” as it is written, “Shall you observe to offer,” since observing [(Tishmeru) is ”keep,” (Shamor)] is the Nukva, who should bring closer above, to ZA, as it is written, “Shall you observe to offer unto Me,” offer the Nukva in its time, in the right and left [lines] of ZA, who are Abraham and Isaac.

The whole essence of sacrificial offerings is to come closer, to build the middle line by classifying desires. Whenever possible, desires should be used for merging and connection. The ones that are impossible to use that way should be removed as obstructions and filed. One should connect the right and the left lines so that the “fire blazes” and the Returning Light rises to the Creator. All discernments are performed only through the “sacrificial offerings” of one’s egoism.

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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

A corrected desire acts in accordance with the formula, “Israel, the Creator, and the Torah are one.” Israel is me. More precisely, it is my internal desire to attain the Creator and become similar to Him (“Isra-El” in Hebrew means “straight to the Creator”). The Creator is the goal I am trying to attain. The Torah is a corrected mechanism of connection among the souls, of love among them.

In order to illustrate this, let’s have a look at a human organism. All of its parts interact correctly and help each other by being related, mutually responsible, and united. This is how the souls have to function. The system of their reciprocal bonding and love (complete interaction) is called the “Torah.”

It includes 613 (Taryag, six hundred and thirteen) correct connections between each soul and all other souls as well as among all souls in general (the latter type of connection, commandment, links all of them into one whole through love). If there is no connection between the souls through love and, on the contrary, if they are linked together through hatred, it means that the Torah is corrupt and hidden.

Souls that do not sense connection between them are defined as being in “exile” from the Torah and the Creator. They lack this property because they are disconnected from the correct type of link among them (the Torah) and from the Creator who fills the correct connection among them. It is similar to the difference between a healthy body and a sick organism that is deteriorating because its systems do not function properly.

Internal corrections that we make within our desire in order to transform it from corruptness into correctness are called “commandments.” This is why it is said that “love thy neighbor as thyself” is the main rule of the Torah since it includes the whole system of correct connections between the souls.

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Ki Tetze,” Selected Excerpts
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There are two steps along our ascent to the spiritual world, and the first one is to obtain a desire (Hissaron). In our corporeal world, we are born with a desire to reveal this world and to rule, take advantage of, and connect with it. But in the spiritual world, it is different since we need to earn this desire.

It is the Light that helps us with this. We use it to arrange our egoistic desire in an opposite, altruistic form that enables us to obtain the desire for bestowal, that is, a spiritual Kli (a spiritual vessel is a desire to bestow).

In our world, we are given the desire to receive, understand, and feel. Likewise, in the spiritual world, there is a desire to bestow, love, connect, and unite. How are we able to obtain it? Clearly, we can receive it only from the Light that Reforms and nothing else. And for this we need at least some initial desire to receive the Light’s impact. This tiny initial desire is called free will which is given to us in a very simple and distinct form: as one singular point that we can find and discern within our current state.

This can be achieved solely through the connection between us and our collective effort, provided that we have the desire to bond and depend on each other. If such relationships are found between the souls (or people that carry them), then according to our efforts, the Light reveals itself, begins to give us a new desire, and passes its own desire to us.

This is the only real work that a person has as Baal HaSulam explains it in his article “The Freedom”: We need to exert the minimum effort, in a selective, narrow, and clear-cut direction in relation to the environment, and as a result of the measure of this exertion, the Light descends upon us. It clarifies our desires (their opposite side), gives us the sensation of a lack, according to which we reveal all the holy names of the Creator until the full revelation of the Light (all the names of the Creator).

Thus, a person attains a spiritual state where “Israel (the soul yearning for the Creator), the Torah, and the Creator become one,” meaning all of man’s desires become equivalent to the Light that reformed them. Through these sacred names a person attains all the general Light called the Torah and the Creator (the purpose of creation “to delight the creatures”) which is revealed in this Light.

All this is revealed within a person’s desire. The Torah is the revelation of the spiritual world attained through a person’s individual, partial revelation of the Creator’s names.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, “You Should Always Discern Between Torah and Work”

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We exist in an ocean of the Light of Infinity which contains all the sacred names of the Creator. These names have to become revealed in our desires to the extent of their similarity to a particular quality of the Creator included in this Infinite Light. This general force, the Light, is called the “Torah.” Of course, today we are unable to value and know it. This is beyond our capabilities and desires.

However, here is what we can do: If we desire to become similar to the illumination that reaches us from this infinite Light, we can reach some partial similarity and feel it within us as the revelation of the “Creator’s sacred name.” Sanctity is above the “body”; it is bestowal or the quality of Bina. After all, the “Creator’s name” is a spiritual vessel, a “Kli,” or a corrected desire (meaning desire with the intention to bestow).

Due to the power of the Light, our desire acquires such a form (intention) that it can establish a connection with the Creator, which is to say, with the Light or the Torah (names of the Creator). In this way, by being influenced by Ohr Makif (the Surrounding Light), we gradually reveal separate qualities and actions within us that are similar to the Light or the Torah.

All this is perceived and measured within us and in relation to us (the receivers) to the extent that we are similar to the qualities of the Light according to the law of equivalence of form. Only by becoming similar to the Light will we be able to feel it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, “You Should Always Discern Between Torah and Work”

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At some point we come to realize that our entire life can be divided into two periods according to how the Upper Governance, the Creator, treats us. The first “half” is our childhood, when nature (everyone around us) protects us in every way, and the second “half” is when this protection ends. I become an adult and nature starts pressuring, demanding, and loading me with responsibilities.

It is difficult to understand why things are this way as well as why a human being is born absolutely helpless, falling into the arms of his mother and father and becoming a burden on society. And why in the second part of his life, as soon as he becomes self-sufficient, he has to work hard and worry about how to protect others and provide a happy childhood for them just like it was provided for him.

This is a reflection of a spiritual law where the lower part (AHP) of the Upper Partzuf descends to the upper part (Galgalta Eynaim) of the lower one in order to push him forward. This happens because our qualities and the Creator’s qualities must penetrate one another, and this occurs in the reverse form, by way of the breaking, known as “Adam HaRishon’s original sin.” With the help of the original Evil (the snake), we acquire a special hollow area within ourselves, the place for the future soul. It is the place where we will find ourselves merged with the Creator and attain His height, having known good and evil.

This is the path we will have to walk. For now we still don’t possess this point of independence and we are governed with the help of “angels” from Above (Upper Forces). In other words, everything we have comes from Him. The Light acts first in everything and we are just derivatives of it.

How, then, do we make the creature primary and the revelation of the Creator, the construction of the Creator within the creature, secondary? If I existed in this world without any support and there weren’t any Kabbalists before me, where would I gain an opportunity for free will, this profound point?

The Creator can give me everything else, but this freedom mustn’t come from my will to receive pleasure because even though this desire is completely opposite to Light, it is still fully governed by the Light, only in the reverse form. The Light acts, and my will to receive jumps to the opposite side, like on a swing. So where does my independence come from, without which all creation would have no purpose?

We receive it precisely from the primordial Evil. We have nowhere else to get it from.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Shoftim,” Selected Excerpts
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