Question: Since I came to the convention I am talking with the “Pharaoh” in me; I ask him questions and he answers me. He says: “whatever you do, you are enjoying it.” I go to work in the kitchen, Pharaoh says: “it doesn’t matter, you are still enjoying it.” If I clean the toilets, I enjoy that too. Finally I say to Pharaoh that I have one goal for which I came to the convention, another goal to reach the state in which everyone is connected. Pharaoh in me says that even this connection I am waiting for, is eventually for me. If so, what should I do?

Answer: Enjoy! I say this seriously. If I can do different things for the society, both physical and mental, to think about them all the time and to enjoy it, that’s wonderful. Who says that we have to suffer?

But after several such actions, you will suddenly see that you don’t enjoy it anymore. Suddenly you will ask: “What do I need all this for, why?” and so on. Then “Pharaoh” is revealed.

At first there are the “seven years of satiation,” everything is nice in an egoistic manner. Indeed, your Pharaoh is right, he says that whatever you do, you do it for him. So do it for him, like in Egypt in the first seven years of satiation where everyone works doing everything for Pharaoh and then eventually discover that it is the force of evil.

Why does the evil Pharaoh suddenly appear instead of the good Pharaoh? It is because we advance toward the Creator. As we advance, the desire that previously looked good begins to seem evil. The group is good, the study is good, the friends are good, I want to be with them and to be on duty, to clean the toilets, to work in the kitchen, everything is nice and I enjoy every minute that I am in this society—this is how every beginner who comes to the group feels. Then suddenly he begins to feel disrespect, to explode, not to care about anything, he doesn’t feel like doing things and doesn’t want anything: “What duties? What for?”

Why? This is because the “seven years of hunger” begin. What is hunger? A person doesn’t feel pleasure in being in the group, in being with the friends—and this is advancement.

Everything is revealed according to the order of the degrees. We should be happy and serious and follow that line carefully, and accept whatever is revealed along the way. The Torah tells us about it; after all, the Torah is an instruction (they have the same root in Hebrew); it tells us where you will get stuck and what you should do on the way to the revelation of Godliness.

So you have no choice, you have to enter Egypt, you have to do this kind of work, and you have to come out. Only then do you receive the Torah, the instruction of how to advance more clearly.

This is because the Torah is only about the correction of the desires. You correct your 613 desires from the intention of “in order to receive” to the intention of “in order to bestow,” and then you discover the Creator.
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From the Arava Arvut Convention Lesson #2, 2/23/12

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “HaShavua,” Selected Excerpts
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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “HaShavua,” Selected Excerpts
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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Mishpatim,” Selected Excerpts
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot,” Item 97: For that reason, our sages warned us in many places concerning the necessary condition in the practice of Torah, that it will be specifically Lishma, in a way that one will be awarded life through it, for it is a Torah of life, and this is why it was given to us, as it is written, “therefore choose life.”

This is a very important condition and I would say a very scary one. There is a very serious warning in it that it is forbidden to use the Torah, meaning the method of Kabbalah, in the wrong way. After all, there is Light in all the Kabbalah books, and if a person uses them the wrong way, instead of the potion of life he receives the potion of death. It is a very strong weapon that is like radiation which can be used beneficially in different techniques and in medicine, but which can also kill. Fire too can be destructive on the one hand while on the other it can help us and warm us.

The power of the Light is the greatest power in nature. We have to know how to use it. Therefore the sages first forbade the teaching of the wisdom of Kabbalah to everyone, except for those who had the altruistic intention of Lishma (bestowal).

But how can one switch to this intention? There are several preliminary conditions here.

On the general human level, people have no need to study the method of Kabbalah. But sometimes the question comes up: “What is the meaning of life?” and then I turn to Kabbalah. Then another question comes up: “What am I studying for; is it in order for me to feel good or so that I can come to Lishma?

At first a person wants to know what the meaning of life is. He doesn’t know much about intentions yet. Baal HaSulam says that only the intention of Lishma, which is in order to bestow, is the condition that enables one to teach a person the method of Kabbalah. In such a case, there’s no doubt that he will study correctly. Although no one starts from this level, he should reach it!

Therefore a person should join a group where he finds a teacher and books. If all these factors come together correctly, then although a person isn’t worthy yet, he may be allowed to connect with the method of Kabbalah, which then can bring him to the intention of Lishma.

So there must be a very clear framework: friends, a teacher, and the study. Then a person won’t be confused and won’t get off track. Otherwise, the “elixir of life” will become the “potion of death” for him.

As far as the rest of humanity is concerned, they don’t feel the need for that. Abraham in his time gave the sons of the concubines “presents,” which were the Eastern practices that suited their level of development. He then sent them to the East to do those things that we now call “New Age.”

From here we should understand how things developed. As a result of the shattering, the Torah was disseminated among all the peoples and remained with the people of Israel. But what kind of Torah is it? How can the method of Kabbalah be studied during the exile, in the egoistic intention?

Finally, since we went into exile, we haven’t had the true Torah, but its “mock-up.” We continue to call Kabbalistic books “holy books,” but there is no Light in this Torah. Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote about this and so did Baal HaSulam.

But if a person needs the Torah in order to switch to the intention of Lishma, he is drawn to the wisdom of Kabbalah in which there really is the Reforming Light. It was forbidden to use this wisdom during the time of exile so as not to bring the Light to a person with the possibility of it becoming the potion of death for him.

It is only now when we’ve reached the general shattering and the last layer of the egoistic desire that we can discover the wisdom of Kabbalah and study it. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the articles “Time to Act,” “Messiah’s Shofar,” and others. It is about that part of the Torah that transmits the Reforming Light. Our generation is already in the “days of the Messiah” when we have to use this method.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Why does Baal HaSulam write in “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” about the forbidden part in the wisdom of Kabbalah: that Kabbalists can reveal what belongs to “Flavors of the Torah,” but cannot disclose the part that belongs to the first three Sefirot or the “head of the Partzuf?”

Answer: Even if Kabbalists tell about something that is “forbidden,” we won’t understand anything. It is like talking about anything next to a baby without needing to be careful because the infant still will not hear or understand anything anyway. He doesn’t connect the words he hears to any meaning. Just like when we read The Book of Zohar, single words are understandable, but for us they add up to senseless sentences

“The secrets of the Torah” are not information that is carefully hidden from us. It is simply our brain, which at the moment is on an ordinary beastly level, cannot perceive them. So for us it remains a secret, as does all of reality. Please, it is all revealed to you, look! Do you see anything? Who is to blame that you don’t have the means to perceive? Develop them and you will see reality. It is the same when it comes to the “secrets of the Torah.”

We study in “The Study of the Ten Sefirot” about what belongs to the head of the world of Atzilut, the head of Arich Anpin, and we know that there are the parts of RADLA (Reish delo Eiyada), parts of its “brain” (Mocha de Avirah, Kruma de Avirah) that are concealed from us in the upper Light. But we study everything that belongs to the “flavors of the Torah” and not its “secrets” in this system. The difference is that the “flavors” relate to the thoughts of the created being and the “secrets of the Torah” relate to the Creator’s thoughts.

There would be no point mentioning all this, if there weren’t people who claim that it is forbidden to study the wisdom of Kabbalah because it is a secret. There are no secrets in it; on the contrary, the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals reality to us! It doesn’t reveal some “forbidden secrets”: In order to reveal the secrets you have to reach them yourself by preparing your vessels, your desires, your vessels of perception. If you prepare all the desires that belong to the seven lower Sefirot (ZAT) in the full height of the spiritual ladder, then you begin to discover their upper part (GAR). You will be ready for this revelation and will discover this secret yourself. [Read more →]

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Question: How should I relate to the fact that there are “flavors of the Torah” that can be revealed and “a secret” that must not be revealed, in my work?

Answer: You shouldn’t worry that you might discover some forbidden secret by chance. You should think about the correction of your desires now. When you correct the desires that belong to the lower part of the Partzuf, then the Light called “flavors” will be dressed in them. In this Light you will be able to understand the head of the Partzuf and will begin to reveal the “secrets.”

The secret is not your calculations in your head about how to fill the “body” with the help of the Masach (screen). “To attain the mind of the Partzuf” is to attain the thought of creation, the attitude of the Creator to us, His intention, and not only His desire to bestow good.

As for now, we don’t have such a mind, we don’t have the vessels for this kind of attainment. You will need to build a new logical tool for decision making, which at the moment we don’t have.

After we correct all our desires and adhere to the Creator, this adhesion will raise us to an upper level about which Kabbalists do not write. The wisdom of Kabbalah only speaks about the correction of the desires that must be made in 6000 years.

During these 6000 years the correction ends and the worlds of BYA rise to the world of Atzilut. Then the world of Atzilut together with the worlds of BYA spread downwards from the Parsa until this world. But they don’t tell us about this in the books because this belongs to the correction of the “stony heart.”

We study about how we have to rise to the world of Atzilut. After all the souls that belong to “Israel” and all the souls that belong to the “nations of the world” who cannot rise by themselves but only thanks to the fact that they join “Israel” (and there are such parts in every person) rise to the world of Atzilut and receive the Light there—this is where our work ends.

When we raise all the souls, until the last one, an upper action, called “Zivug Rav Pealim Mekabtziel,” comes, which is intended from the start for the time when all of the AHP de Aliya rises. Then the Light of Gmar Tikkun is revealed—”Rav Pealim Mekabtziel.” This means that it takes all the desires with all their Lights and gathers them into the whole ten Sefirot, and they spread from the head of the world of Atzilut until this world.

This is how the correction of the desires takes place. But what will happen afterwards? The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t tell us. Well, you’ve corrected the desires, what next? You’ve finally fixed the car, where will you go now?

We are only at the beginning of the road; what’s next, we are not told—not because it is forbidden, but simply because it is impossible. We don’t have the mind or the feeling to understand what will happen next. Undoubtedly, however, this future awaits everyone. Our role is only to hasten our development!
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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