A question I received: I study The Zohar every day, but I don’t feel anything besides my growing desire. Am I advancing in the right direction?

My Answer: This is very good! If your desire is growing from one day to the next, then you don’t need anything else! Even though a growing desire brings you disappointment, you have to see it as a reward. This is because desire or lack of fulfillment is the force that moves you forward. When you have an empty desire, you feel that you lack unity with the Creator, the feeling of connection with Him, the quality of bestowal.

Therefore, the right desire is a reward. In our world you have to earn fulfillment, but in the spiritual world you have to earn a spiritual vessel, a desire. The fulfillment is always there, you are welcome to come and take it! But what will you take it into? That is the question.

Right now there are spiritual treasures all around you: “diamonds,” “gold,” “money,” and anything else you can possibly wish for. You just do not have a desire for them, which is why you don’t recognize them. The space around you seems empty! All the best things you can possibly wish for are already present, but it is as if you have been gagged and your arms and legs have been tied, and then you are placed in front of this treasure and told, “It’s yours!” But, how is it yours if you can’t take it?

It is necessary to develop or prepare the desire, the spiritual vessel. That is all we have to do. Therefore, our reward is desire or aspiration, and it has to be created by the Light. We have to change our perception, our attitude to reward and punishment. In our world punishment is desire or the sensation of lack, whereas reward is the fulfillment that calms you down because you live inside the will to enjoy.

However, if you are inside the will to bestow and you have the desire to bestow, this is a reward. Why is the difference so great? It is a result of the restriction. The restriction was performed on reception, but there are no restrictions on bestowal.

If you already have the desire to bestow, then everything lies open before you and everything becomes revealed to you to the same degree. Inside your desire to bestow, you begin to see in the Reflected Light everything that is around you, and you are welcome to take it!

That is how gradually, from one day to the next, The Zohar changes our vision and the direction of our thinking, by building a new, different attitude to life and to the phases of spiritual advancement.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/10, The Zohar

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One’s work must be as far from the body as possible. We can discern different stages in the work:

• First a person aspires only for fulfillment, whether in this world or in the world to come.

• Then, besides thinking about the fulfillment itself, he starts to think about “who is he dealing with,” who does this fulfillment depend on? He then begins to connect the fulfillment with the source of fulfillment, the Giver. He starts to have an attitude toward the Giver because the fulfillment depends on Him.

• At the next stage a person starts to respect the Giver for the fact that he is Giving, for His quality of being Giving, rather than for the pleasure that he receives from Him.

That is when he reaches an inner divide: On one hand he feels that fulfillment is important, but on the other he aspires to become similar to the Giver. Is the fulfillment important because it gives him energy for work, or because of the fulfillment itself? Where exactly does he get his energy and what is his goal: fulfillment or a connection with the Giver?

In this manner he gradually reaches a state of thinking only about equivalence of form between him and the Creator. However, this is also not so simple. Equivalence of form is not the same as the desire to give pleasure to the Giver. The aspiration to reach equivalence of form still involves a consideration for oneself. Even though I desire to give, to delight someone else, and to love, it is still something that I want; I am present in this consideration.

Yet, isn’t the same thing true for giving pleasure: Won’t I be giving it? Or perhaps there is someone who will do it better than me? How well can I do it without receiving anything in return?

We see that the work involves many levels. It encompasses five entire worlds where a person reassesses his entire motivation and principles: For what sake is he willing to make efforts? What fulfills him, and what is his attitude to the Giver? This is what causes his state to change and helps him rise from one world to the next.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/10, Writings of Rabash

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A question I received: What is bestowal for the sake of bestowal?

My answer: Bestowal for the sake of bestowal is when I don’t feel pleasure as fulfillment of my personal desires but when I use it solely as fuel to fulfill the act of bestowal.

Question continued: How then does this fuel differ from pleasure if the only thing that exists is the will to receive (Kli) and its fulfillment (Light)?

Answer: If I am using the fuel solely to accomplish my work in fulfilling the other, then my own fulfillment is just fuel for me. If, however, I am going to use the fulfillment to please myself, it means that I am receiving pleasure. Ask yourself: “What is my vehicle working for? What underlies my actions? Who is the benefactor of my efforts?”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, Article “The Matter of Bestowal”

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There is no Light without a vessel, and no fulfillment without a desire. The Upper Light is in a state of complete rest; it fills and surrounds creation entirely. Everything depends solely on our desire, our vessels of perception. If we yearn for this particular fulfillment, we will perceive it. However, if our desire does not correspond precisely to the frequency or quality of the fulfillment (meaning there is no equivalence of properties between the desire and what fills it), then we don’t feel fulfillment. Multiple examples of the corporeal world attest to this.

We have to bring our desire to the Upper Light to be filled. To do this correctly, the desire has to correspond to the Light, that is, to be in bestowal. How are we going to acquire this force of bestowal? Kabbalists say that the power of bestowal exists in every person, but is very small and remains this way in the person alone.

It can grow only if a person unites with the others. If he wishes to attain bestowal and is willing to do whatever it takes in order to receive from the group and the friends their desires to bestow, then he acquires from them many such desires. He does so in the degree in which he annuls himself and exalts the friends in his own eyes. In this way he is able to receive from them a greater desire to bestow, in both quality and quantity. And if a person possesses the desire to bestow, then the Light during the reading of The Zohar will work on him; it will begin to organize his desire and fill it.

Therefore, preparation to reading The Zohar should take place in the group, in the mutual “incorporation” into each other, in order to form a strong desire. In this case, we will succeed. We can accelerate time and shorten it, without the need to submerge ourselves in prolonged corporeal suffering. We can transform earthly suffering into the torments of love, which means suffering from not having the qualities of bestowal, from not having the desire to give that we must attain. We can work with the group and friends, and in doing so acquire such a will.

As we see, everything is in our hands. We can actually condense time to zero. The Creator created only the point “existence from absence.” The rest He handed to us, so that we increase our desire from the size of the point in the heart to the expanse of Malchut of Infinity. This is only possible if we unite. Therefore we only have a single opportunity to attain the desire for the Light: to strive to be together within our small desires to bestow.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: We have to rise MAN (Mayin Nukvin, a prayer). Is this action performed within the desire?

My Answer: MAN means that I’m asking for the force of bestowal. From within Malchut, I turn to Bina and ask Bina for the ability to bestow. However, I have to reach the state whereby becoming filled with this prayer (MAN) is enough for me; I feel joy from being able to rise MAN.

How does the Torah describe this state? It is when you come into the “daylight.” A “day” is when you have nothing and have been wandering in the desert, looking for MAN (the desire to bestow), and you find it. When you do, it enlivens you, satisfying all of your tastes. It contains everything that you desire.

What kind of “taste” is it? Where is it coming from? What is MAN? It comes to you from Bina. It is when a mere possibility to make a plea to the Creator is enough for you: “I have the connection with Him. I can ask Him. Nothing else is important to me.”

Yet, don’t I want to have the desire within which I can reveal the Creator? No. I’m satisfied by merely having an aspiration to Him. This constitutes my fulfillment now. The connection with the Creator through the group fulfills me.

"But what kind of connection is it? How can you have anything? You have nothing." True, but can I appeal to Him by rising MAN? When this is possible, that’s enough. This is called “wandering in the desert,” acquiring the properties of “Hafetz Hesed” (he who doesn’t want anything). In the desert you are deprived of everything, you truly desire nothing for yourself. Yet thereby, you acquire the correction by the property of bestowal, similarity to the Creator, and this is your fulfillment.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, The Zohar

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All words are names of the qualities of Malchut; this is the only thing we read about in Kabbalah books. You might object because the letters originate in the following way: nine come from ZAT de Bina, nine come from Zeir Anpin, and just the last four letters of the alphabet are contained in Malchut . So why do all the words come from Malchut? It’s because we receive everything as an imprint in Malchut, no matter where it comes from.

Every name is the will to enjoy through the action of bestowal, meaning through reception for the sake of bestowal. The intention to bestow is what gives the desire a specific form. We don’t name the desire and the Light themselves, but their connection, the relationship between desire and Light. Only it has a name.

For example, a “plant” is not just a desire to enjoy, but a desire that contains the force of the Light that forms it into a plant, which is a desire of the vegetative type. The original Kli HaVaYaH is not yet a name, but just its basis. Names are fulfillments that are contained inside this name, or the Lights that can clothe inside this matter according to equivalence of form. This is why all the names come from Malchut.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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We can demand from the Light all the necessary corrections and fulfillments. All that we can possibly imagine already exists in the Light, since it is our source which has created us.

When we draw the Light via our actions (study, group work, dissemination of Kabbalah), the Light starts working on us, and after some time we begin to feel as though we face something unknown. That means the Light is approaching us; although we don’t yet see it, we feel its “breath” (Ruach) on us. Then we begin to take certain actions, afraid of losing the sensation of this Light.

Being afraid that the Light will vanish, we begin to build a relationship with it. It is a relationship of bestowal for the Light lets us know that if we don’t want to lose it, we must bestow. We begin to constantly check ourselves, striving to hold the intention and qualities that let us exit our ego. We then feel the Light’s presence, either around or inside of us.

That is how a person begins to build a “shadow” on his innate, natural desire to receive pleasure. The Light conducts an exercise on us by seemingly telling us: “Do you want to feel me? Then this is what you have to do. Otherwise I will vanish from you…” Gradually this game teaches a person to remain “in the shadow” until it becomes his second nature.

After acquiring a second nature, a person already wants to stay “in the shadow”; he feels that it is a special state, an ascent over his individual calculations. Thus one comes from “Lo Lishma” to “Lishma.” He sees that this state exudes eternity and perfection, meaning it is good for him. He begins to value the state itself, the very quality of love and bestowal toward others.

All this is done to us by the Light via this game when it draws closer and pulls away, casting a shadow from the side of the Light, and then from the side of the person. First the person conceals his egoistic desire, then the Light conceals itself, taking turns. This is how a person gradually builds his anti-egoistic screen (Masach).

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, Shamati #39

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The Creator’s goal is to elevate us to His level. The desire to receive pleasure that was made by the Creator is a channel through which we sense our life. This is the only property that exists outside of Him.

For this reason we always experience a shortage of fulfillment. We constantly feel as if something is missing and we continually aspire to a new fulfillment. When the Light fills the desire to receive pleasure, it disappears immediately. The Light cancels the desire and thus the desire no longer feels fulfillment.

That’s why the life that we sense through the desire to receive pleasure seems temporary and transient. Each passing moment erases itself instead of staying and supplementing the following moment.

When the desire and the pleasure meet, they neutralize each other even if the pleasure is minimal. Our life is built of digital contacts and minimal meetings between the desire (Kli) and the Light that immediately disappears; this process happens throughout our whole life and ends with our death.

Let’s say, one has a certain number of desires (a “quota” for life) consisting of several million small portions of the desire to receive pleasure that reveal themselves one after another. Against each of them there is the Light that fills them. The moment they meet together, they disappear. When we utilize all the desires in our “life allowance quota,” our life ends.

If we manage to arrange for the Light and the desire to “catch” each other at the time of their “meeting” and make them “stay” together, we start sensing the Light caught in the desire as our eternal infinite life. The moment stops sliding away; it stays and elevates us above time. We stop the moment and by doing so manage to attain eternal existence!

This is “the patent” of spiritual eternity and perfection that we attain with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

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The Creator’s goal is to raise man to His level. What does this mean? We perceive our lives within the will to enjoy, which was created by the Creator. This quality is the only thing that exists outside of Him, which is why we always feel lack of fulfillment. We always lack something and aspire to some kind of pleasure. But the Light that comes to the will to enjoy immediately disappears. It nullifies the desire, and the desire does not feel fulfillment.

Therefore, because we perceive our life inside the desire for pleasure, our life is perceived as temporary and transient, where everything disappears. Every moment goes by and disappears, instead of remaining and becoming supplemented by every subsequent moment. On one hand there is the desire, and on the other hand – the pleasure. When the two meet, they are neutralized, even if the pleasure is minimal.

That is why our entire life is built out of these tiny point encounters between the desire (Kli) and the Light, which immediately disappear. And this continues until our life comes to an end. For example, suppose you have a quota of desire – several million small portions of the will to enjoy, which become revealed one after the other. Opposite each one of these portions, there is Light which brings that portion fulfillment. Then they meet – and disappear. Once you exhaust your quota, your life is over, and your whole existence along with it.

However, if over the course of these encounters of the desire and the Light, you were able to attain a state where the Light and the desire “catch” each other and remain together, then you begin to feel Light that is perceived inside the desire as eternal, endless life. That’s because the previous moment stays with you as well. You then ascend above the sensation of time. You stop the moment and acquire eternal existence! This is the entire patent of spiritual life, which is eternal and perfect. This is what one can attain by applying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

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Regardless of whether we understand The Zohar or not, we have to desire the Light of Correction to shine upon us during the study and expect a miracle to occur as a result of it. A miracle means there is no connection between the result of the reading and what I am now reading, understanding, and feeling. There is no logical connection between my action and the result because this connection is concealed.

We can speak to no end about the fact that The Zohar is an Upper System that conducts Light to us, and that we activate this system by tuning into it with our desire, similar to how a baby in this world makes efforts and grows without understanding how he grows. Nevertheless, he gradually matures and becomes a person. Yet, no matter how much we talk about this, it still doesn’t explain the essence of the miracle that is happening.

I might be imagining that I am in the spiritual world already and just don’t feel it. I can imagine that reality is unified and I cause it to influence me like a baby who doesn’t understand what he is doing. Yet, there are connections and influences upon me that are impossible to convey in words. All that remains is for us to take this like medicine.

It is written that the Creator created an egoistic desire in a person and created the Torah as a “spice” (Tavlin) for it. The Torah is the means to correct the egoistic desire because the Light contained inside it. Spices such as salt, pepper, and mustard are unpleasant to the taste on their own, but when combined with our egoistic desire, our nature, they create pleasant fulfillment.

Similarly, it’s impossible to use our egoistic nature because instead of pleasant fulfillment it brings us bitterness. This is why we have to connect the desire with the intention; then our life will become eternal and perfect in the Light of the Torah.

As long as we cannot use these two ingredients together correctly, we will suffer from our egoism and the “spice” to it. This state is called Lo Lishma; it is the time of preparation, before the food and the spices connect inside us correctly, pleasantly, and sufficiently. We constantly add more spice to the food and then taste it to see how pleasant it is; thus, in the middle line we can eat and enjoy.

However, as long as we haven’t attained this wonderful result yet, we have to patiently wait for the “food” to cook and be mixed with the “spice.” Then we will feel a pleasant taste from the study. Thus, The Book of Zohar is all about truly delicious and healthy “food.”

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