Question: What can I give the group during the study?

Answer: Your participation and aspiration to the goal, which has to be as strong as possible. This is the force of mutual guarantee by which we strengthen the group.

This is especially so during the study because that’s when we are able to unite and attract the Light that Reforms.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, The Zohar

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We should not forget about the influence of the Upper Light upon us. It is the most important component, yet we constantly forget about it. When the Light works on us, it gives us a certain sensation of the other side, the nature of bestowal, and that tiny spark within us begins to grow.

We are entirely immersed within our egoism, yet this miniscule spark of bestowal, the point in the heart, is granted to us. If we study Kabbalah books and work with the friends by trying to connect them to ourselves, we thereby draw the Surrounding Light that brings us back to the Source.

The point in the heart expands and grows bigger, and in this additional volume we begin to sense what bestowal is, that it is opposite to reception, our egoistic qualities. In this way we study one in contrast with the other, allowing us to check these qualities, like plus against minus.

It is similar to how in physics or chemistry, evaluations are made by comparing opposites for otherwise it is impossible to discern anything. There must be light against darkness, and only then do we begin understanding something.

This is why we sit down and study. And even if we don’t understand anything, gradually, by being with the group and close to authentic Kabbalistic sources, we draw the Surrounding Light.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/10, Shamati #99

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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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A question I received: The more you explain the structure of the spiritual worlds, the more confused I am. Why does this happen?

My Answer: Imagine that I go to a doctor and tell him about some of my external symptoms. He asks me to undergo medical tests, checks the results, and discusses them with another doctor. When they talk among themselves, I understand nothing although they are talking about me, my sensations, and my health. This is because their discussion about me is on a more internal, complex level, about what actually is occurring inside of me.

Then they give me a pill; its content is also unknown to me. I take it, simply trusting that they and the prescribed pill will help me. Of course, they have confused me with their technical medical discussion and I should have never listened to them. Yet, in our world the pill will work regardless of one’s understanding of what the doctor says.

Here during the study, I read what these Kabbalistic “doctors” write about me: one Kabbalist writes to another describing what happens internally to souls in the system where the souls have to correct themselves. Of course, I understand nothing about it! However, because I get involved in this story and want to understand and feel it, I connect to them and get closer to becoming like them.

If I want to become a “doctor” like them, I use my connection with them and learn. If I feel confused but want to grasp the essence, if I feel that the book explains the correction of my soul, I  have no choice. I must learn their language (like Latin used in the medical field) and then I understand what they are talking about.

Kabbalists wrote these books for their fellow Kabbalists. They talk among themselves in the language that they understand because this language explains different worlds and spiritual concepts. At this point, I don’t understand what they mean at all.

However, if I aspire to understand what they teach me, and I strive to live in it and feel it, then I open these books and try to enter them. The level of my understanding does not matter. What matters is my wanting to enter inside with my feelings, rather than to my attempting to understand it with my external mind. I have to ask for revelation.

I have to see what they write about. They describe what they see and feel, and I have to want to feel this as well. This is why my lack of understanding, vision, and feeling will only push me to advance.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Rabash, “The Meaning of Torah and Work on the Creator’s Path”: When one intends to study the Torah, he should keep the goal, the reason for which he intends to study, before his eyes. The goal, that is, the benefit which he wants to extract from the Torah is the Light that Reforms that’s in it.

Essentially, we don’t need anything else. We should imagine and attempt to feel that everything happens because of the Upper Light, that “there is none else besides Him,” that He is the ruler and the lord, and only He performs everything.

Therefore, we only need to desire and wait for His actions and their consequences. Our entire work consists of attracting His actions upon ourselves, feeling that we are the lower degree, while He is the Upper One, and becoming similar to the Upper degree, the Light. He will act upon us and make us similar to Him in as much as we will aspire toward Him, that is, desire to become like Him.

So it follows that our work is very simple. It’s not important what passage of The Zohar we are reading or what it is about; it’s not important how much we understand what we are reading. There exists a system of connection between us and the Upper Light, called “The Book of Zohar.” We have to utilize it and aspire to become similar to the Light during the study.

This desire will awaken the Light, and it will act upon us. Slowly, we will begin to feel the results of its influence.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Metzorah (The Leper),” Item 8: When the morning comes, all the armies and camps above praise the Creator.

Morning is a state where a person values the quality of bestowal. It is when one understands, knows, and feels that bestowal is the greatest thing possible.

Prior to that, love, bestowal, and connection with others appear as darkness because a person does not feel any benefit from them. He thinks, “What will I gain from this? It’s pointless, so why should I do it?” It seems tasteless to him.

However, if a person persistently continues to study and work in the group, then he is influenced by the Light that Reforms. This is called “working at night.”

This is followed by a new state: the quality of bestowal, the intention of giving. When this intention awakens in a person, it means morning has arrived.

Therefore, it is all talking about our inner states, rather than any external changes.

Then, several gates open to all sides (to the right and to the left), and Abraham’s gate, Hesed [mercy] opens in the assembly of Israel, Malchut, to summon all the people in the world to enjoy the Hassadim [mercies].

This is where we begin – kindness, Hassadim. How does a person achieve the state of morning? First he corrects himself through the quality of Hesed (mercy), and then he sees the Light of morning – the Light of Hassadim. Therefore, the morning prayer is called “Abraham.”

It is written, “And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba,” since Malchut is called Beersheba, and Abraham planted the tree of Hesed [mercy] in it.

All the changes that we see, such as day and night, the sun and the moon, occur only in regard to the person. Through our inner processes we awaken these forces one after another or all of them together, and in this manner we feel the passing of time.

“The sun comes up” means that a person is able to reveal the Light of Hochma which is clothed into the Light of Hassadim. If one is able to reveal only the Light of Hassadim, it is still morning, but before the sunrise. If one cannot reveal even the Light of Hassadim through his desires, it is called night.

We are situated in an infinite ocean of the Light of Hochma, but we don’t have the desires of bestowal, Hassadim, and thus we cannot reveal any Light.

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A question I received: When reading The Zohar, we are supposed to follow the text as though we are travelling within ourselves. However, don’t we also have to exert effort in order to demand our correction?

My Answer: The Zohar itself directs you to correction and the necessary thoughts. It will tell you what is good and what is bad depending on your specific state and what you in particular need to clarify.

The book itself will provide you with this approach. On our part, we must simply be able to adhere to it and its flow, to “swim” along with it obediently and to go wherever it wishes to bring us. We have to let our mind and heart swim smoothly along with the stream.

Everything is pre-assigned, including my desire, the Reshimot in it, and the Light which realizes the Reshimot. However, everything depends on my effort and my consent to give the Light access to the Reshimot.

I only allow the Light to act, but beyond that everything happens without my knowledge. I just witness everything that happens inside me. My effort is called “Avodat HaShem” – the work of the Creator; I am only an accomplice to it. The Creator said to Moses: “Let’s go to Pharaoh. I will do everything and you will watch how I act toward him.” This means that my point in the heart, the first spiritual Reshimo, brought me to the entrance into a new world, which I know nothing about. And now, through this point in the heart, I am hearing an explanation about this new world. To the extent that I learn about it and connect to it, I will be able to live in it.

Baal HaSulam writes that just like it is impossible for material bodies to live in this world without knowing its laws, rules, and conditions, so it is impossible for the soul to live in the spiritual world without receiving the necessary knowledge about it. Thus, right now we are trying to receive this necessary knowledge. When we receive it, we will feel that we already exist in the spiritual world, because in spirituality, knowledge and sensation is the same thing.

Right now I feel only my animate body – an illusory reality; but I also have a point in the heart which can potentially feel the Upper World. This point that I was given is a tremendous opportunity; however, it is the only thing I was given. I need to develop the rest on my own, which is why I am given The Book of Zohar, which provides an explanation for me.

I learn about the Upper World similar to how a baby learns about this world without knowing anything about it in advance. A baby cannot attain the world with his mind, by performing an analysis and a synthesis. I am the same in regard to attaining the spiritual world. I learn about it only by adhering to the book and attracting the Surrounding Light. This type of study is the most natural. We discover a new world in the same manner as we discovered this world when we were babies.

The Upper Level can never be attained with the mind, since we don’t feel, see, or understand it. However, we have to begin to feel it.

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A question I received: Why is it that when I’m home alone, I can’t make myself open a Kabbalah book and I spend my time watching soap operas on TV instead? But when I come to the class and study there, I wouldn’t trade a lesson even for the best film.

My Answer: When you leave the classroom, you find yourself in the midst of material life, an unconscious state relative to the spiritual one. It’s our will to receive playing with us and making us burn our lives in order to interfere with our spiritual progress.

On the other hand, it helps you by showing how your time is wasted, and how all the pleasures you receive disappear without a trace. You then realize that only the environment can help you. If the people around you think about supporting each other, then you won’t be able to watch soap operas when you’re at home because of the importance of spirituality that they will transmit to you. You will feel that this action is a fall, as if you’re reverting to being a child and building a house out of blocks.

You are not to blame for spending your time in front of a TV. Your only fault is the failure to build an environment around you that will influence you so you just couldn’t waste your time without a purpose.

It doesn’t mean, however, that you have to make yourself turn off the TV. Kabbalah is against this kind of coercion. A person has to work, study, and live life just like an ordinary person. You shouldn’t try to change anything about yourself forcefully, but only by receiving the sense of spirituality’s importance from the environment.

There’s no coercion in spirituality! You can’t bind yourself by the hands and feet and consider yourself righteous. This is not correction!

You will correct yourself only when you change your desires and rise above that TV series. The Light has to correct you, rather than intimidation or threats with the fire of hell after death. The science of Kabbalah is not a religion, and it speaks only of correction. The only means to do this is by increasing the influence of the environment on you. This is the only free choice you have and a necessary condition for spiritual advancement.

Now you can go and watch TV…

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Two questions I received about earthly love and desires:

Question: What should I do when I realize that love I feel toward another person is the game that the Creator is playing with me? Should I pray for the Creator to give me strength to love only Him and forsake earthly love in order to focus only on the Creator? After all, my love is a force that I feel inside me. Changing one love for another is not as easy as changing currencies. Such prayer too, requires a lot of strength. Can I play with the Creator, through such love?

My Answer: Don’t philosophize. Continue to study and the Light will put everything in its place. Leave it to the light. Above all – don’t leave your studies. That is the only thing that you have the ability to control.

Question: I’ve been studying for six months and would like to ask a question that really bothers me.  If I separate myself from the desire to receive, then who am I? If I am the desire to receive and my individuality is a collection of my Reshimot, what desire should I separate myself from? Do I have to leave only the necessary desires, and if so, how do I define them?

My Answer: You shouldn’t separate yourself from egoism, but instead, just aspire to  connection with the Creator. These are different tendencies! Let your egoism be. To the measure of your aspiration towards the Creator, His Light will act upon you and the Ohr Makif will make all the necessary corrections and changes within you.

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A question I received: I would like to receive and share the Light for the sake of the Creator, not me. So, I have been reading your essays, clues, and teachings very happily and thanking you all the time. If you don’t mind, I would like to get your advice on the must-do and must-not-do, or the key works that one must do in order to receive the Light and be a servant of the Creator. I don’t know how many of my 613 (+ 7) egoistic desires have been corrected by now. However, will it be a selfish request if I ask you to help me correct myself and receive the Light and reach the Thought of creation?

My Answer: All of one’s 613 desires become corrected simultaneously. It’s because the soul is always whole and never in parts, just like a drop of semen, an embryo, or an adult always have all the elements of a body.

Your task is to go through the 125 steps of correction. If you ascend to the first step, you will reveal the Creator to the degree designated by this step. I cannot help you do this in the way you are asking me to. I cannot do it for you. I can only nourish you and teach you to grow.

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