A question I received: How do I know that I am advancing by the path of Light and not the path of suffering?

My Answer: The sign of following the path of Light is joy. It is written that “joy is the outcome of good deeds.” If I am connected with the others, I am always a part of a healthy common body and receive from it strength and inspiration. They are constantly circulating in our collective organism, flowing from one to the other; hence, I never fall or get disappointed. I don’t even feel tired! Granted, I can sometimes feel sore in my corporeal body, but I never feel tired mentally.

I keep receiving new desires and their fulfillment from the others, which flow from them to me and vice versa non-stop. So, in this condition a person ceases to feel ups and downs. For him, everything is one whole.

In fact, the day begins in the evening, but I don’t perceive it as a dark night. I feel that this is my preparation for the next spiritual step. I now need to gain more of an appetite and get hungry in order to become more receptive to perceiving spirituality.

This night is not the darkness we imagine. This is the darkness within egoism. It is the time of the construction of the vessel (Kli). In our earthly life we go to bed at night; however, in the spiritual one, we labor diligently in the night. We are making, creating, and building ourselves. It is as if at night we are assembling our car, and in the morning we drive it. Don’t think that in spirituality “night” is a dream separated from reality. We break off the previous reality in order to attain a new one. And we build it with faith above reason.

At “midnight,” the merging (Zivug) of Abba ve Ima takes place to create new desires (Kelim). I need to work in the dark because darkness conceals the old desires from me (since I don’t need them any more and must ascend to a new spiritual step). It also hides from me the new desires so that I can find them, connect them to myself, and understand where they are and why.

It’s similar as to how we play with our children. We first prepare a game for them, but later, they have to play by themselves. We pick a toy that consists of different parts (for example, cubes), not a toy with a single piece because we want the child to put it together by himself. Our spiritual work at “night” is the same.

Therefore, a person who is closely knitted into the environment doesn’t feel separation from the spiritual path when he falls. On the contrary, he sees that he is given an opportunity to work and experience a new adventure, like a child, whom nature pushes to grow. So, he loves such games of building and putting together.

Additionally, if the environment pushes us to this game, like nature does a child, we will feel as if we are on a wondrous journey. But if the environment doesn’t provide such inspiration, we don’t want to play as if we are a sick child who didn’t receive such a desire from nature and lags behind in his development.

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

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A question I received: What are the three lines?

My Answer: The left line is the uncorrected desire that must first be restricted (Tzimtzum Aleph). The right line is the force of bestowal, the force of Light. And the middle line is the result of the work of combining them, connecting the two lines.

Our entire work lies in the middle line, and all of Kabbalah’s materials speak of this. The right and left lines are given to us from Above, from nature or the Creator. If we don’t work in the middle line, we remain as animals, acting by compulsion of these two reins: the right and the left lines. However, when we receive the first spark from the middle line, called the point in the heart, it is an opportunity, an invitation, to gain control over our lives, and to stop moving like a horse, maneuvered by two reins from above.

We need to assume these reins and to become “human.” The point in the heart is the beginning of the human within us that will rein his animal, and move toward similarity to the Creator. The spiritual work consists solely of driving oneself, from within the point in the heart, toward merging with everybody else.

Then we relate to all our qualities as conditions given us from Above. We no longer identify ourselves either with our body and its inherent qualities, or with the Light, given to us to correct this body. That is, we relate to these two lines, the right and the left, as perfection created by the Creator, as an invitation extended from Him to begin to build ourselves.

I no longer worry, rejoice, or get distressed over the left or the right lines, instead I relate to the states given to me as an opportunity to properly combine these two lines and move forward, driving my animal and aiming it straight to the goal.

At every moment my animal throws itself this way or that, in a direction unknown to me. And I have to imagine the goal to myself: the Creator, merging with Him, and being equal to Him in properties as much as I can imagine it to myself. I have to try see my environment as a perfect, balanced system, linked and interconnected with all parts equal and in mutual guarantee, so as to be filled by the Upper Light.

Having clarified the goal, I have to correct my animal, so as to guide it in the proper direction via the two reins. This work does not stop for even a second. Every time I imagine the spiritual goal more clearly and in greater detail, and, accordingly, in greater confusion, for light is known only from darkness. I have to always strive toward this goal, that is, to plant myself in the general system as its inseparable component.

Therefore, when I read The Zohar I need to act like a car driver, pushing the gas pedal, watching the road, steering the wheel, and feeling the brakes, all at the same time.
Similarly, when I listen to what The Zohar speaks of, I want to imagine all of it before me. As though being on a tour, I try to move along with The Zohar and participate in it.

In other words, I want to know what it is that I study, to connect to this material, to be in this process. To know is to merge, as it is written: “And Adam knew Eve (his corrected desire).”

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

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Since we are created from the will to receive pleasure, all our spiritual work is done at night. Without feeling pleasure (in the dark of night), we can test ourselves: Are we able to do something moved by some other “fuel” so that it isn’t the reward that defines how much work we do, but rather the work itself does? Can we work without attainment of the Creator, but just with our faith that we will bring Him delight?

To work for the sake of delighting Him and not ourselves can only be done during the night, in the states where we don’t feel pleasure. Therefore, layers of uncorrected desires that demand filling with rewards for ourselves are purposefully and continuously awakened in our will to receive pleasure.

This gives us the opportunity to work on this uncorrected will to receive for ourselves. The struggle to work in the will to receive appears so that we can work not for the sake of a reward, but in order to delight the Creator; not to work for the reward of attaining the Creator, but just to be working for Him. Success results from our ability to acknowledge the greatness of the Creator.

When a person discovers that he is not able to do this, he demands assistance from Above. The strength from Above comes to him through the group since a person doesn’t have a connection with Above. As he starts seeking this “Above,” after numerous failed attempts to grasp something, he reaches a point of desperation and begins to understand that “Above” means “through the group.”

At this point, if he enters the group, then through it, he will be able to receive the very force that will change his nature from receiving to giving. Then he will be able to work during the nights while blessing the Creator. Then, a person works not for the sake of fulfilling his demanding egoistic desires; with the aid of the night he ascends to bestowal.

We don’t demand for the night to go away since “day” consists of working for the sake of bestowal. When we don’t feel “light” in our desires and we work above this, not for the sake of filling our desires, then we perceive day. Therefore, in the perception of our receiving desires, we exist in the night, but in the perception of our bestowing desires, the “light” shines.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/10, The Zohar

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What is the difference between the World of Infinity and our world? In the World of Infinity everything exists inside one closed space, where we are all together, everything is shared, everything belongs to all and to every person, and there is no difference between myself and others, or between what belongs to me and to others. Everything exists without any boundaries.

In our world everything is the opposite. Everything is absolutely divided and a person is always guarding his boundaries whether he wants to or not. He has to break down these boundaries in order to come close to another person even slightly. Then he once again closes himself off inside as if nature is pulling him back. And then he once again wants to come closer to others and after that he escapes inside himself again.

Therefore, as long as we don’t attain Infinity, there is a very important principle for our spiritual work. It is the same principle that guides the functioning of an oscillatory circuit which consists of a condenser and an induction spring connected into an electrical chain.

If we supply energy to the circuit it first passes through the condenser, then through the spring, and then it again enters the condenser, and then once again the spring. That is how it oscillates between them.

This principle operates elsewhere as well besides electrical chains because whatever takes place in one of nature’s mechanisms also works in all of nature and all of its parts. However, it takes place in different forms depending on the type of system it is (whether physical, biological, or social, meaning a person’s relationship with society).

Therefore, my relationship with the group must be built on the same principle: When I feel inspiration and the importance of the goal, I have to pass them on to the group; and when I feel empty, I receive inspiration from the group which I contributed to it before. It becomes multiplied by the might of the group. That is how we take turns working within a closed chain.

From the 9th lesson of the World Zohar Convention 5/9/10

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A question I received: What is a song? Is it a prayer (MAN), an awakening from below?

My Answer: The entire process of the spiritual work is included in a song. Similar to our spiritual work, a melody always contains the collision of different sounds with altering pitches and pauses without which we wouldn’t hear a melody but only noise.

Why does a melody give us a feeling of harmony and awaken our emotions? Why is it that a particular sequence of sounds is capable of suddenly making us laugh or cry? A sound is but an aerial wave of a particular frequency that affects the eardrum. What is this inner mechanism whereby mechanical actions and electrochemical reactions inside the brain turn into emotions? Moreover, emotion isn’t contained in the sounds themselves, but the sounds awaken the emotions in us.

How can somebody else convey to us a feeling via this essentially inanimate mechanism, via this inanimate process, which penetrates inside our living, animate organism and awakens in it feelings on the human level?

This is a complicated process. All this is possible only because a melody contains separate sounds of varying pitches and breaks or pauses between them. That is, it contains the same qualities present in our work with the three lines: right, left, and middle.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, The Zohar

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The cornerstone of spiritual work is a constant concern about the environment. The greater its importance in my eyes, the more I will strive to attach myself to it, to absorb myself inside it. Every time, these external circles will enter me more and more, like waves that accumulate, until I extend over the whole Malchut of Infinity, and perceive everyone as myself. The whole huge desire (Kli) will become my own, and the Light or the Creator will be revealed inside this single desire.

Everything depends on the intensity of a person’s work within his environment, their influence on each other, and a mutual demand. This is how we determine the speed of our development.

A person is unable to advance on his own. The environment is the only means for advancement. Every time a person moves closer to it, he ascends with its help.

It is necessary to completely realize the importance of the environment. The construction of the whole desire (Kli) comes from the separation of internal and external parts. All the clarifications are made between these parts, between a person and the environment.

For the time being, we are unable to reveal this and we are still unable to understand exactly where the correction of the desires occurs. However, when we draw enough Surrounding Light to ascend to the spiritual world, we certainly feel that spiritual work between the environment and me has already begun. The clarifications and corrections occur only there.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/10, Shamati #225

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A question I received: What does it practically mean “To value the inner part of me more than the external part?” Baal HaSulam writes that this is necessary in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

My Answer: To value the inner part of you means to respect your mission and responsibility to attain mutual bestowal and to unite together “as one man with one heart” through brotherly love, for the sake of revealing the Creator, the general force of bestowal and love that rules in nature. This has to be the most important thing to a person. We are talking about the Upper Force of bestowal, which fills everything, but which we don’t feel because we nullify its manifestation with our egoism. The right intention for us to have is for this force to become revealed within us to the fullest extent.

I make a simple calculation: that this is the only thing that is important to me in this life. This is why I was born and what I live for. This is what I have to achieve as long as I live in this world. In addition, all of humanity depends on the work I do in this regard, because we are all connected together inside one net.

Baal HaSulam writes that “a person from the nation of Israel,” meaning a person who has a point in the heart (Isra-El means the aspiration to the Creator) determines the direction and state of the whole world with his intention. He can say, “I don’t want anything right now. I’m in a state of descent so leave me alone. I don’t want to hear about spiritual work. I’m going to rest!” In that case, where is his responsibility and the understanding that there are millions and billions of people who depend on him? He is now determining their fate and how they will advance toward correction – whether through painful blows or through realization and goodness.

If these people depend on you, then you have a very strict responsibility to make the right choice because you are leading everyone, be it in a good direction or a bad one. You have no choice about the matter; this is how the worldwide network is built and this is the place you have been allotted in it. Therefore, you must always be in a state of upper fear and remember that you decide what will happen to the whole world.

Later you will reveal that all the people are your children, the closest thing to you! But you have to think this way even now, by faith above reason. Everything that you do is not being done to you, but to the whole world!

How important we deem spirituality directly determines the fate of all humanity. What’s important for us will be important for everyone else. That is the structure of this entire system, in which we are connected with strict connections. A person without a point in the heart does not have the ability to change anything. Only you do, who are called “Isra-El,” or “Li-Rosh” (I am the head).

From the Independence Day lecture 04/20/10, “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statues),” Item 5: Balak was wise. In his deeds he was the greatest of the wizards, greater than Balaam. I learned that everything that one wishes for in this world in the work of the Creator, he should awaken with an act below. This is so because with the act below, the act above is awakened….

It appears as though we depend on the desire from Above, for the Light to awaken us. However, when we begin to work below, we bring the awakening from Above.

Concerning the “awakening from below” and “awakening from Above,” it is written, “I am the first and I am the last.” This means that all is done by the Creator. It’s obvious that everything begins with the Creator; however, it is necessary for us to become involved in the process. At the beginning of one’s spiritual work and at the very end, a person receives help from Above, but everything else depends on him.

This is exactly the place where we usually become lost. When a person is at the lowest point of his fall, he is unable to climb out of it by himself, about this it is written, “A prisoner cannot liberate himself from the prison.” But if he is thrown the end of a life-line, then the rest depends on him (he has to grab it himself). He is accountable as to whether or not he has used the opportunity correctly.

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A question I received: On March 16 there will be a preparation event for the mini-Congress devoted to Passover. Is this preparation really necessary considering that the Congress will only last four hours? Can’t we just attend and experience everything there?

My Answer: It’s actually the other way around: If I were getting ready for a three day long Convention such as the one that was held in February, then I wouldn’t need to go through a very big preparation because I would have enough time at the Convention to prepare. For example, I would spend the first half a day or a day on the preparation, and then I would have time to absorb everything over the next two days.

However, if I’m coming for just four hours and I haven’t prepared ahead of time, then those hours will fly by without bringing me any benefit. Therefore, the shorter the upcoming meeting is, the greater and more meticulously we have to prepare for it.

I strongly advise you to enter the mini-Congress site and familiarize yourself with what will happen there, as well as to start thinking about it ahead of time. Everything depends on the preparation; during the actual event it will no longer be possible to change anything. Therefore, the most important thing is how we prepare for it.

The same applies to all of our spiritual work. Before a person passes the Machsom and enters the spiritual world, all his work lies in preparing for that passage. It won’t happen until one completes the preparation.

All of the difficult and tiring work that causes us to suffer in the “Egyptian slavery” is necessary in order to prepare for the escape, and the escape takes place only once the preparation is fully complete.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 150: When one begins to build a house, he should mention in his mouth that he is building it for the work of God.

The Zohar speaks about our spiritual work. Not a single word of it pertains to the realm of this world with its material objects, such as houses, rocks, animals, or plants. The Zohar explains the inner work of a person needed to reach the revelation of the Creator in the part of the soul called “human,” the “point in the heart.”

It is a new sense that we need to reveal and build, replacing senses of reception with a bestowing sense, called a “soul,” “home,” or “collection of the souls of Israel” (Malchut). This sense has many names depending on what property we want to discern and highlight.

The Zohar explains this through the example of building a house, that very sense in which we reveal spiritually. A spiritual sense (a vessel, Kli) that we need to build should be flawless. If there is a flaw inside this Kli, meaning, there is an intention for the sake of reception rather than for the sake of bestowal, the Light vanishes immediately.

Such a state is called an “afflicted house” (Nega). Then we need to correct this Kli by burning, destroying, or, in case it is possible to cleanse it and make it fit for use, by correcting it. As a result, Nega (curse) turns into Oneg (delight).

A person that built his Kli improperly, by mistake or negligence, needs to understand where it comes from. In this manner, one advances through corrections.

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