Question: What is the secret of life?

Answer: The secret is to change the direction of this life from reception to bestowal, to “love for the neighbor” or at least to the principle, “Do not do to another what you yourself hate.”

As soon as you start to go in the direction of bestowal, you come out of your narrow world where you are locked and operate like a robot, following specific, deterministic laws that are set in advance. Nothing can escape the boundaries of the law. We only think this way because of concealment and lack of knowledge.

For example, suppose I am looking down at what is happening from the 10th story and I see how a car is about to turn the corner, whereas a person who is entering the street does not see the car and therefore gets run over by it. Or I see how a person leaves his car in a place he isn’t supposed to, but there is already a policeman coming in his direction in order to give him a fine.

I see all of this from above, but the people below don’t see any of it! But does this lack of knowledge enable them to say that this event is pure coincidence? For me it isn’t a coincidence because I see how everything was interconnected ahead of time. This is not just a fantasy, but a certain revelation.

Sometimes we look at a baby and understand that something is about to happen as a result of what he is doing. We already know it ahead of time, but he does not know because he lacks knowledge about himself. Therefore, we have no freedom of choice; there is only lack of knowledge.

The deeper we reveal this world, the more we feel how we are bound in iron chains. There is no freedom – not in thought, nor in desire, nor in action. The only thing we can do is change our direction. Our current paradigm is entirely aimed at reception for our own sake; it is completely limited and it is limited by ourselves or our desire.

However, we are able to change it to the opposite, from minus to plus! Start bestowing and you will see what you can do through it! You already have the root of that future altruistic desire, “the point in the heart.” You must only attract the force that will develop it. Then you will no longer be limited in this regard because you will come out of yourself to the outside!

After going through all of our development we will eventually reveal that the animate body we are placed in contains nothing “human” besides one single point! If you focus on the body, then you are an animal, and if you are focus on this point in the heart, then in it you reveal the human.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/10, “Body and Soul”

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Understand that you did not fall, but rose to the next degree and received a new desire, specifically because you did such a good job! Now, we simply need to join forces in order to turn this darkness, this apparent barrier (Machsom) into Light. And then you will receive an even stronger inspiration than at the convention.

We received some initial impression there, and now we need to realize it in a clear and practical form. Now, we need to methodically break that wall, the Machsom between us, which we have felt slightly. We need to keep hitting it in one place, and it will collapse after several blows.

This happens suddenly, “in a blink of an eye,” as it is written about the coming of the Creator’s redemption. Revelation occurs suddenly: Efforts keep accumulating and, all of a sudden, the escape route opens for us to run in extreme haste.

We need to do all of this now, but instead we keep remembering how nice it was at the convention, unlike here, where I am now. However, this is the actual time for work. We did not work during the convention. It was the result of everything we had accumulated in the past, which combined all the efforts, hopes, money, and nerves.

The time to work has come again. The work is always the same. Our ego, the desire to receive pleasure, constantly keeps growing and shows itself in different ways. You need to recognize it and understand that this is “help against us,” that this is sent to you for a specific purpose, out of great love.

The Creator is playing with you like with a small child who is given small obstacles on purpose in order for him to learn to overcome them and grow up. This is how we advance.

However, a child has a natural instinct that pushes him to develop, and he never sits in place, as he is constantly trying to overcome something, do, understand, feel, or break something. Meanwhile, you need to work on your desire yourself.

Imagine the fate of an indifferent and bored child who is too lazy to play with toys, and he sits in class like you, all sleepy with his eyes closed. Will he develop and grow up? This is exactly what is happening to you now.

However, the Creator will not deviate from His program. He must raise you to His level until you become equal to Him. So, what is there to do when you sit with your eyes closed? He will have to beat you until you wake up.

Yet, if you want to do the walking instead of going down the path of suffering, there is one simple law: “He who chooses the best environment every time, advances.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, “Body and Soul”

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We exist inside a system of forces, in the only place that the Creator created – Malchut of Infinity, which is in a completely corrected state (Gmar Tikkun). We are opposite to it and are in concealment behind 125 levels that conceal this true state from us. I do not feel the true state I am in, and because of my sensation I am behind 125 degrees of concealment, filters that lower everything, placing me inside fog and confusion.

I have to remove these concealments and do it in such a way that I will absorb them inside, turning them into revelations. I have to do this with every state, every veil, and every degree.

After going through all of these concealments I became completely opposite to the true state due to the opposition of my inner qualities. Yet, if I take this concealment upon myself and desire to ascend above it with the help of the Light, then all of the concealment transforms to knowledge, sensation, revelation, and attainment.

That is how we advance from total detachment (with the exception of the spiritual spark that awakens in us) until the highest level. However, the concealments do not become revealed to me from within this world. I have to leave this world completely. These concealments become revealed between myself and the Light, or between me and the Creator.

That is why Kabbalists say, “Leave this world alone, don’t correct it! It is not subject to correction!” You have to correct only your attitude to the Upper One, the Creator. You have to turn the disturbance you see between you into revelation. This disturbance is a layer of matter, your ego, separating the two of you. That is why we do not correct this world and, in fact, we do not have to do anything to it. The more you work on your connection with the Creator, the more the Light will shine for you and you will see a different, reverse world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, The Zohar

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There is nothing new in the world, we only reveal everything in relation to us as we are on lower degrees. If we were on a higher degree, then a phenomenon would not have to be realized in the material world because we would have already perceived it on the spiritual level. Once we understand what it is from the informational gene (Reshimo), there is no need for the realization even on the spiritual level.

When man requires greater materialization, however, it speaks of his low degree. That is, the realization of an action indicates a lack of perfection.

In reality, there are no new discoveries. What happens is that we ascend to higher degrees, gradually revealing the higher roots of the phenomenon that we have discovered today. It is like saying: “Wow!” as you climb the stairs and look out the window. With each step you say, “Wow!” continuing to look out the window while you ascend higher and higher. This is what we call a revelation!

In other words, there are no revelations happening outside of you. You develop, and then something becomes revealed to you. No wonder Einstein used to say that he feels like a child playing in a sandbox or with pebbles on the beach.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, “From My Flesh Shall I Know God”

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The only opportunity to be in connection with the Upper Force that corrects us is by reading The Zohar. Certainly, the other books also help in this regard, but The Zohar has the greatest force to connect us.

If we could keep the right intention for a longer period of time, we would read The Zohar more often. As a matter of fact, we are still unable to maintain the right intention for more than 45 minutes. For the duration of these 45 minutes, however, we must concentrate on exactly what we desire from it and how we imagine our future state described by The Zohar. It is very important.

In our world a child takes examples from adults, wanting to become similar to them in everything he sees. Nothing else is important to him. He has no understanding, attainment, or anything else and just repeats the examples that the adults demonstrate to him.

In a similar way, we should desire to feel the reality that The Zohar tells us about and imagine that everything is the connection among us. The Zohar constantly describes the connection between us: Zeir Anpin, Malchut, the three lines, limitations, and so on. We reveal all of this among us since our shared desires is the only “place” where revelation can happen. Therefore, we don’t need anything except for a shared, strong desire for the Light to come and reveal the connection among us. All these phenomena that we read about in The Zohar are to be found there.

The action itself is quite simple, but it is not easy to accomplish. It takes time to achieve a state in which I sit in front of a book, imagine that it is talking about the connection among us, and in it, I reveal all these words and actions. Everything is in the connection among us; this is where the Creator is revealed.

It is quite difficult to combine all this, but when you achieve it, the desire to reveal the connection among everyone becomes the only link with the Upper Force. And you have no other means except for the holy Book of Zohar which describes the states that you will reveal.

Then, like a baby that strives to be like an adult, you desire revelation and aspire to it with all your might.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/10, The Zohar

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Question: Who are people with a broken heart?

Answer: The heart is all of a person’s desires. When a person discovers that all these desires are for the sake of self-gratification, he sees that they are broken.

What is the breaking? Once upon a time, initially, they were connected by the force of bestowal, the force of connection among them. This happened naturally due to the Light or awakening from Above since that is what the Creator created.

Then the Creator concealed Himself and the Light disappeared. For this reason the connection among them disappeared. The revelation of a lack of connection among us is called breaking. All of this is talking about the creatures.

The absence of the revelation of the Creator or the quality of bestowal caused disunity. This disunity may be felt the way we now feel: “It’s not so bad. Everything’s OK. I just wish others would stop bothering me, and I also won’t harm anyone.” This is called the revelation of the breaking.

Besides this, there is a state where we feel that we are in the state of breaking and there is no connection or unity among us. This can also involve varying degrees of the realization of evil: Without a connection among us, I will not attain a good material life; or through the absence of connection among us, I bring about natural disasters; or due to the absence of this connection, I do not attain the Creator, spirituality.

In other words, it is possible for a revelation to happen above the exile (meaning the lack of connection among us), or it is possible for a revelation to happen from below, which is what humanity is now gradually attaining.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/10, The Zohar

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Question: Is the whole process of the creature’s development and the measure of its bestowal predetermined?

Answer: Nobody is restricting you in any way! You have free choice and every opportunity. Even the prophets could not predict the way we will advance. In all the prophecies of the days of the Messiah and the war of Gog and Magog, the revelation was only in the left line, the line of natural development and not in the three lines.

Nobody knows ahead of time the extent to which we will be able to sweeten this path. That is, we cannot predict what may happen at the Mega Congress. It is entirely possible that we will cross the Machsom and continue our spiritual ascent!

Or we can rise over it for some time and fall again, needing to cross it several times so as to ultimately stay in the spiritual world. Everything depends on how we organize and realize our connection.

The other essential factor is how we will accept this revelation. If we have prepared ourselves to accept it only for the sake of bestowal, and do not yield to the pleasure it offers, then together through mutual guarantee, we will be able to use all the revelations, pleasures, and states that will come and continue our path upward in spirituality.

But everything is in our hands. Everything is ready!

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/10, Article “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out) – Part 1,” Item 127: For this reason, Leah did not appear but Rachel, to attract Jacob’s eye and heart with Rachel’s beauty, so he would set up his dwelling there. And thanks to her, Leah, too, was coupled with him and bore all these tribes. How did Jacob know who Rachel was? After all, he did not know her? The shepherds told him, as it is written, “And, behold, Rachel his daughter comes with the sheep.”

All these properties -  “well,” “water,” “Haran,” “Jacob,” “Lavan,” “Rachel,” “Leah,” “shepherds,” and “herd” -  are within us. The Torah explains how to distinguish and sort these forces within ourselves.

It can be likened to a construction set. We have to discern our inner desires and, by referring to the picture that the Torah draws for us, position each of them in the right place. We continue doing so until we get the whole internal picture that shows the connections between all the desires and properties that the Torah describes, between – the “herd,” “well,” “water,” and so on – at their inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, in the entire spiritual reality.

As soon as I organize this picture correctly according to the Torah instructions, I am captured in a film sequence and I move to the next frame. This is how we advance from one sequence to another one, one degree after another. At each step, the Torah tells us how to develop from one level to another through inner changes.

By changing our internal forces and properties in accordance with the Torah story, we advance along with the Torah narrations. This is when the Torah stories turn into revelation.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What is “faith” before crossing the Machsom (barrier to the spiritual world)?

My Answer: Before a person crosses the Machsom and enters spirituality, he has no faith. The concept of faith in Kabbalah is totally different from what is customarily referred to in ordinary life. In Kabbalah, all of these concepts are defined at a completely different level.

Faith is sensing the Creator. If I sense the Creator, I believe in Him. Note how different it is from what I thought before. In our regular lives faith is something that we don’t see or know, but believe in as though it actually exists in reality.

Kabbalah says that this is not faith, but merely a fantasy. Kabbalah relies exclusively on realistic, true inner sensations: To the extent I feel the Creator, I receive the strength to work against my ego. One force against the other; positive against negative. This is what we call “faith above reason,” that is, faith above egoism and the sensations within it. I rise above all this because I am able to use the Upper reason and sensations. Yet if I don’t have them, how can I work? Based on stories told by someone else?

This is not what we call faith. It’s a game people play in this world because they don’t know of a better way to reassure themselves. To attain faith, we have to reach revelation. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the creatures, and this is called “faith.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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We should be very grateful to the Creator for concealment. Without it, we would remain animals, constantly chasing after pleasures that have been revealed to them.

Concealment helps me stay in the darkness, even though it’s unpleasant, I build myself through the concealment. That’s why it’s impossible to see whether we advance correctly or if our actions will be rewarded. The reward is to walk in concealment attempting to perform actions of bestowal. The best reward is not seeing a reward for this.

Otherwise, we won’t come out of the Creator’s rule. Only in concealment can we seemingly not be subject to Him. He watches us, yet gives us an opportunity to reveal Him and the greatness of His actions in the concealment that has been formed after the restriction in the World of Infinity.

We don’t’ ask about revelation. That would mean that a person, motivated by his natural aspiration, wants to return to the beastly state. Knowing is the worst thing that could happen to us. If we acquire knowledge after “faith above reason,” we then reveal the new knowledge in the properties of bestowal and not reception. This is already Divine knowledge.

However, we first have to perform a restriction, to pass to the other side, and reveal the new knowledge there and not before.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10, The Zohar

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