Question: What is the collective and individual governance?

Answer: We reside in reality the essence of which is the desire to enjoy, the force of reception. In addition, the force of bestowal, the force of the Light, acts in this reality.

What is the formula of their interaction? Suppose one force is X and the other Y, and they are equalized by a quotient K. In truth, the formula is this: The two variables, X and Y, are the will to receive and bestow pleasure, respectively, and the screen, K, is between them.

In the beginning of our reality, the desire to receive pleasure (0) opposes the desire to bestow (1). However, in the end, upon the completion of the 125th spiritual action, they become equal (1-1).

Hence, the formula is simple: From mutual opposition, we have to bring these desires to equivalence of properties. The will to receive has to acquire the attribute of bestowal.

Now, we know the rule and its result. The point is that two opposing yet interacting forces act in reality, and every instant of their interaction must lead to the final outcome in the most efficient manner.

Hence, Nature operates in everything there is according to the rule of "minimal input with maximal output." This mechanism affects us, and by experiencing the effects of its impact, we regard them as “governance.”

Governance can be individual and collective. The individual one applies to each cell of the organism and defines how a certain part has to advance by acquiring its individual form to fit the advancement of the collective system. We can see this type of governance in the example of the step-by-step formation of an embryo’s organs. Its body grows according to the collective governance that establishes the order of development of all other parts.

Then, from the general governance, the individual ties branch off, which get connected with each part in its respective place in accordance with its role in the process of the collective evolution. Thereby, the common program of development underlies the individual programs that govern us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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From the will to receive, which was created as existence from absence, the Creator created the World of Infinity. There, the desire remains in adhesion with the Light in its final form that He had wished for and established. It is His influence that holds this entire perfection together.

After that, the Creator divided this structure into parts, the will to receive and the Light, and handed them to us to use. Now, we have to utilize the desire and the Light so as to reach the goal, meaning to equalize ourselves with the Creator. Everything is in our hands: Having understood what is required of us, we are able to do it.

So go ahead, you start building it. You have all the necessary settings to gradually re-create the state of the World of Infinity. Yet, it takes a while to comprehend and feel this work. What is the Light? What is the will to receive: a thought or an act? What is an act?

A person gets confused and becomes more ignorant than a little child in the beginning stage of his life journey. It takes years to understand even the basics: the essence of the matter which the created being is made of and the essence of the force that is needed to make changes.

Our current state has been given to us for the most intensive and effective advancement. The world that we find ourselves in isn’t comprised of some artificial conditions, but is a natural outcome of all stages of evolution. From it, we may begin constructing ourselves and forming something totally new with the help of the will to receive and the Light.

Existing at the animate level, I have an opportunity to build a created being that is related to the next, human level of existence and has a spiritual rather than corporeal form. I use the two forces, desire and Light, and combine them so as to give birth to some third element.

Specifically in me, just as I am, has been lain a capacity to accomplish this. How? It is possible by way of arranging an environment. “The environment” is my impression of a utopia that I desire to manifest. I need to visualize a corresponding image and desire with all my might for it to become true reality. By chiseling its details, sharpening its image, and discerning connections and contradictions in it, I eventually “reach the standard.” And then, it manifests in reality.

Therein lies the essence of my “game”: I exert effort, greater and greater, until it finally occurs. And thus every time, ascending higher and higher, penetrating deeper and deeper, I understand and feel more and more.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/10, “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends”

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Question: What does adhesion with the Creator imply?

Answer: Adhesion is a great correction, unification on the basis of equivalence of properties or “form.” We don’t need to change the substance of the will to receive itself. Yet, this substance has an egoistic form (intention) that is regarded as “evil,” opposite to the Creator.

The will to receive in itself isn’t considered bad and opposite to the Creator, just as the still, vegetative, and animate nature aren’t considered bad and opposite to the Creator. And until a person gets to feel that he is opposite to the Creator, he isn’t considered to have the “evil inclination” either.

First, it is necessary to recognize that your intention or the “form” of desire is opposite to the Creator. If not, a person has no evil: He simply acts in accord with his instincts. In Kabbalah, evil is defined as a property opposite to the Creator, the Good, or the Light. A person can sense evil only when the properties of goodness, connection, and love are revealed to him, and he can see himself as opposite to the Creator.

At that point, a person becomes a “human,” no matter how bad this human is at the moment. And this occurs only with the studying of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Before then, there is nothing to correct in a person and in all egoists of the world. It isn’t the form which requires correction.

Only the breach between me and the Creator demands correction. I must transform the form that is opposite to the Creator to a good one, similar to Him. And when we become equal with Him in mutual bestowal, then, as it is written, we attain connection called “adhesion” (Dvekut). This inner work (revelation of evil or brokenness and its correction) occurs solely by way of the Light that is drawn during the group studying of Kabbalah.

In one of his incarnations (Gilgulim), a person suddenly feels a “shot” into the heart, a “spark” that draws him to some new, non-materialistic life. He wants to rise above the mundane, earthly existence and comes to the studies and the group. As time progresses, he begins to feel how inadequate he is to bestowal. From that moment on, he realizes that his nature is opposite to the Creator. Only then can it be said that the “awareness of his evil” has surfaced in him.

But people usually think that “evil” means being just a bad person in the society, and not being against everybody’s unity with the Creator. Kabbalah doesn’t correct the earthly evil (not helping an old lady cross the street or not giving money to the beggars). This evil cannot be corrected at all; it only keeps growing untill we get rid of the spiritual evil.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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We don’t yet fully comprehend what a serious task has fallen into our hands. Billion of years of the evolution of the Universe, all of Earth’s nature, and the accumulation of human history up until our time are pressing on us so that we (with the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature standing behind us) establish a connection between the Creator. The whole mass of this will to receive must merge with the Creator through a tiny hole: the quality of bestowal that we must attain. The responsibility to pull all of the egoism created by the Creator through the “eye of the needle” has been laid upon us.

We sense that we are facing the wall of our egoism, but we don’t yet understand what kind of wall it is. This wall is the force of the Creator. Our ego is the force of the Creator! We think that it is an ordinary vice that we can beat or discard. That won’t work. We will have to recognize that only the Creator can change our egoistic nature. He must do it, but only at our request, our prayer.

In fact, the entire path of the descent of the spiritual worlds from the very World of Infinity, from Above downward, including all the human evolution in the corporeal world that followed, is now coming to the point of culmination, to merging with the Creator. It is our duty to draw it to the Light. Just imagine how much creation has gone through, and now we must implement this merger.

Our mission seems too grand, but the Creator has placed it on all of us. How many times in the Torah does Moses complain to the Creator that he is incapable of completing his task, but the Creator orders him to continue? Today, we are in Moses’ shoes; we have received strife to rise above our nature. We are to play his role for our generation. ("Moses" or "Moshe" comes from the verb “Mosheh,"  to pull.)

This is why we have to understand that our task is extremely delicate and subtle; it works through the eye of the needle that we can barely discern. However, if we focus the efforts of all who are studying within our system around the world, we will succeed.

We are given all that we need for this from Above; there is no doubt. We just need to have a clear vision of our goal and ask the Creator to assist us. We are that very creature that must come to adhesion with the Creator, and through that, we give all souls an opportunity to ascend to the state of perfection. Unlike the Kabbalists of the past who were only preparing the path for us, we must complete this path by realizing it on ourselves and the others.

The wall before us is the Creator Himself. He stands and waits for us to "break" Him in order to rejoice that “His sons have defeated Him.”

From the Talk during Friday’s Festive Meal 6/25/10

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A question I received: Why is it written that ascension from one spiritual step onto the next one takes place through the thickening (Aviut) of the screen since Aviut is a characteristic of the vessel (Kli) and not the screen?

My Answer: The screen is the spiritual vessel. After the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the will to receive cannot serve as a vessel. The spiritual vessel, the Kli, is that which I can pay with.

If I come into a restaurant and say I am hungry, they won’t look at my desire to eat; they will be looking at how much money I have, in other words, at my screen. This means I will be measured by what the thickness (Aviut) of my screen is, or what my ability to receive in order to bestow is, what my power of intention is, and what amount of my former egoistic desire I am able to attach to my anti-egoistic screen and to the intention to bestow.

With a screen that doesn’t have any thickness, nothing can be received; it is merely a restriction. A restriction is a screen with a zero thickness which means that I don’t wish to receive anything for myself and I don’t know how to receive in order to bestow.

How much can I receive to bestow? I can receive the amount that equals the thickness of my screen. If the power of my screen is 20 grams, I will be allowed to receive exactly this amount in order to bestow. Both actions must unite in the screen, as the reception and so the bestowal. When they are united, it will be for the sake of bestowal.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, Article “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item  129: …The offering of the poor is the lightest: two turtledoves or two young pigeons. And if not, he brings a little flour and is thus forgiven. At that time, it is declared and said, “For He has not despised nor abhorred the lowliness of the poor,” since the offering of the poor is the most praised.

This is talking about a person, with what degree of desire (Aviut) he can work in order to bestow.  In the measure that his will to receive is revealed to him, he takes parts from it, the thicker and coarser ones, and if he is able to work with them in order to bestow, he is called rich. And if he can take only the smaller, weaker ones from his will to receive and bring them as a sacrifice, that is to bring them closer to the Creator, he is called poor.

The word “sacrifice” (Korban) derives from the word “bring closer” (Lekarev). According to what part of his will to receive a person brings closer to the Creator in order to use it to bestow, he is called rich or poor.  The rich brings more, and the poor less; each one to the extent that he is able to work with his will to receive in order to bestow. “Sacrifice” is called the will to receive that I previously used in order to receive but now bring closer to the Creator, and in doing so transform it from a receiving to a bestowing one.  Because of this new will to receive, I came closer to the Creator and made one step forward on the ladder to adhesion with the Creator.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/10, The Zohar

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Our entire difficulty lies in the fact that we exist in a world of matter, and from this we need to reveal the spiritual world. In order to reveal it, we need to come prepared with a desire, a vessel which already consists of the two lines together so that they can be united into a middle line, for it is precisely the middle line that expresses our extent of similarity to the Light.

Without the two lines, the left and the right, it is impossible to unite them together in harmony and to build a quality of the Light between them. Neither the right nor the left line has the quality of the Light – it should come from me, so that “darkness would shine like the Light” – the will to receive should become similar to the Light!

Therefore, even “self-rejection,” when I enter the state of a spiritual embryo, the smallest spiritual degree, already occurs in connection of these two lines, which affect me in harmony and connection between them.

Never on our spiritual path will we be able to feel the Creator anywhere else but in the middle line. I am thrown into other states, but in that case I tear away from the Creator. I can feel Him only if I am situated in the middle line, by forming it in me. This is like balancing the vertical needle of a scale. A “scale” (Moznaim) comes from the word “ear” (Awzen), hearing, Bina.

I must be on this vertical, middle line – only there do I feel Him. This is the line of Zeir Anpin, the Creator. And if I shift even slightly to the side, He vanishes!

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/10, The Zohar

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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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A question I received: Would you be kind enough to explain the reason that the Creator created us in this form, with only the will to receive. Why do we have to go through this process at all? Why couldn’t we be created more like the Creator? Doesn’t the whole creation look like a game to you?

My Answer: You are perfectly right: the whole of creation is the Creator’s game with which he plays with His creation! The purpose of creating us in a quality that is opposite to the Creator is exactly for us to remain creatures that are different from Him, so that when we attain Him and become equal to Him, we will not vanish into Him.

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A question I received: Kabbalah says that there are 230 years left until the end of the world. Will babies still be born in 231 years – in the world to come?

My Answer: We think of time in terms of our perception of reality and therefore we can’t grasp the way a person alters reality by changing his or her attributes. Reality is what I feel within. By changing my inner attributes, I discover a different picture of the world.

Take a computer screen, for example. When you press a button, you change the pictures that appear on the screen. That is how you are now living in different pictures, jumping from one movie into the next.

The 230 years that you are talking about, and babies that are or aren’t born, are not real issues. That is because when you rise to the spiritual dimension, you will suddenly sense that everything you used to perceive, all these bodies, people, men, women and children, this entire world, including you who eats and drinks, simply don’t exist.

You will suddenly realize that what you saw before was just an image on the screen, while in reality this picture was drawn by the two real forces standing behind it all – the will to receive and the will to bestow. The “reality” you sense now, simply does not exist. It exists only on your screen.

What does it mean to give birth, to build a house, and to live in this world? It is a certain combination of these two forces, which create such a picture for you. And that’s all! So, you don’t have to wait 230 years to experience the sequence of images that will come one after another.

What does it mean to live in the world? Is it my body that lives? I exist in a specific form of the will to receive, until I complete all of my corrections, whereby I will attain the will to bestow.

I have to rise from the lowest point, called this world, until I reach the highest point, adhesion with the Creator. Then, at the last stage of the correction process, the Lev HaEven (heart of stone) will also be corrected.

What happens after that? The picture changes, altering everything along with it: all the attributes, awareness and comprehension. If you ascend spiritually even a little bit, you will already begin to sense that this world is what you feel within. The sensation will shift, and something different, more internal, will emerge to take its place.

Everything takes place inside your desires. This is why it is written: “I saw a reverse world.” And that is why there won’t be anyone left in 230 years that will still perceive the world the way you do today.

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