[Issue 10] July 2013

The Wisdom Of

Kabbalah

The whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah is only to know the guidance of the

Higher Will, why It has created all these creatures, what It wants with them,

and what the end of all the cycles of the world will be.

Ramchal, Pitchei Hochma (Doors of Wisdom), Door no. 30

Special magazine for inmates

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EDITORIAL ................................................................................................................................................. 3

INTENTION ................................................................................................................................................ 5

ARVUT ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

Standing The Test Of Strength ............................................................................................................... 6 How Can We Scream So We Will Be Heard? .......................................................................................... 7 The Starting Point Of The Spiritual Line ................................................................................................. 7 Four Steps to the Clear Path of Light...................................................................................................... 8

UNLOCKING THE ZOHAR ......................................................................................................................... 10

Chapter 1: The Wisdom of the Zohar ................................................................................................... 10

ATTAINING THE WORLDS BEYOND .......................................................................................................... 16

The Way of Kabbalah ........................................................................................................................... 16 The Desire to Receive Pleasure ............................................................................................................ 19

AUTHENTIC KABBALAH TEXTS: SHAMATI ................................................................................................ 24

The book “Shamati”: Introduction by Rav Laitman .............................................................................. 24 Shamati, Article 1. There Is None Else Besides Him ............................................................................. 25 Shamati: Lessons and Commentaries .................................................................................................. 28

DAILY LESSON & RAV’S BLOG: SELECTED EXCERPTS ................................................................................ 49

Above Hatred, Toward Love ................................................................................................................. 49 An Honorable Task Of Becoming Righteous ......................................................................................... 50 The Place Where Sinners Retreat ......................................................................................................... 50 “A Thousand Times the Righteous Will Fall And Rise Again” ............................................................... 51

FEEDBACK ............................................................................................................................................... 52

SMILE! ................................................................................................................................................. 55

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EDITORIAL

Dear friends,

Greetings!

The 10th issue of the magazine is opening its pages once again for us to connect through the wisdom of Kabbalah. Let’s prepare ourselves as this issue is going to be special.

It has been two years since we have started our communication through the magazine. Today we are excited to see how much has been achieved over the course of the two years. To start with, we had completed the beginner course in the fundamentals of the science of Kabbalah. Our prison student group has evolved to become a collective with the number of the friends studying together exceeding 1200 people! A strong core of the group has formed of those sharing an unconditional aspiration towards the Upper nature, the source of life. We are gaining deeper understanding of where we are standing as a unique Kabbalah group. More and more people who are joining us these days are brought by word-of-mouth, drawn by the power of your message. Some of our students who get released from prison have chosen to stay with us so to offer their knowledge of the system and personal experience to further the project’s development. The work with state officials toward establishing on-site local prison Kabbalah groups is fully underway. These are all the indicators of our progress as a Kabbalistic group.

At this stage we are prepared to take a step higher and begin a whole new chapter of our studies and our life as a group. This issue of the magazine launches the intermediate level Kabbalah course that is going to prepare us for the most serious inner work as a group.

We are entering a higher level of the science of Kabbalah with the help of a book that will serve as a manual to teach us about how to operate our human nature. This book is “Shamati”. “Shamati”, a collection of texts written by Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (the Rabash), is often referred to as the most valuable book in the world.

Among all the books of Kabbalah, this one is unique. Shamati contains 243 articles that talk about the inner processes that a Kabbalist goes through on the path to the spiritual attainment. The composition and the language of the book are such that they have power to attune one’s mind to the right wavelength from any starting point. Whether you are sad, frustrated, and confused, or, on the contrary, elevated and excited – reading Shamati will give you an insight into what is taking place inside of you and will direct your inner quest correctly towards the adhesion with the Upper force.

An introduction to the book Shamati by Rav Laitman opens today’s “Authentic Kabbalah Texts”, setting the stage for the original text of the article by Rabash. The detailed lesson that follows “translates” this text from the Kabbalistic “language of branches” in which Shamati is written into the language that is more suitable for our understanding.

This issue features the first and, probably the most important article “There is None Else Beside Him”. This is the article to read and re-read; we return to this text very often as it is a major tool to clear one’s mind of the superficial thoughts and desires and keep the very foundation of your spiritual search in check. Delving into the depths of emotional meaning hidden in this piece of work will always help you regain your vigor and vitality.

Another line of a study that we are starting today is a course that will prepare us for reading the book of Zohar. The Zohar (“radiance” in Hebrew) is a very special book. It was written by a group of Kabbalists led by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), who lived in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE as a collection of commentaries on the Torah, intended to guide the readers to attain the origin of their souls.

However, the book cannot be understood and felt directly. The Zohar is built in such a way so that only those who have already achieved a certain spiritual level can benefit from what

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they read in it. Before one approaches the book, certain preconception of spirituality has to be attained. This is why one needs to start by studying other texts that will teach how to properly approach the text in The Zohar.

We are about to start approaching the Zohar with the help of the book “Unlocking the Zohar” that will be presented chapter by chapter in a section of the same name. As you are going to learn, the condition on which the Zohar reveals itself is studying together with a group of friends and striving to become closer to one another internally, “as one man with one heart”. The Zohar was born out of love; if we wish to discern it, we must try to build among us a connection, similar to that which existed among the students of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

Friends, the importance of the bond that we are developing between us cannot be stressed enough. Even though we might not see each other and the web of ties connecting us, we are linked to each other at the highest level of human existence, at the level of souls. Together we represent a single spiritual system, a separate organ of the common soul/Shechina. This is why only by connecting to each other can we activate the Upper system and attract the Upper Light that comes to heal and revive this organ whose shattered parts we all are.

For the same reason one’s spiritual progress depends entirely on the progress of the group. No matter how desperate my individual desire to reach the spiritual is, it is simply not potent enough for me to break through. No one can accomplish this on one’s own, because to breach the boundaries of the corporeal world the power beyond human is needed. Only together can we produce this power - if we reach the required intensity of our common desire to the Upper. It is written that the Light enters the common vessel/desire when this desire comes to reign between the souls.

This is why our only true freedom is to create a strong environment that will raise the importance of the spiritual over everything else and bring together all those yearning for the Creator. For each one of us to accomplish a mission entrusted to him or her we have to become one people, that one called Israel in the Torah (“Isra-El” or “Yashar-El” stands for “straight to the Creator”).

What steps should we take in order to achieve this state? How can we help each other see the Upper force acting behind a picture of a broken reality of this world? What support can we provide to each other in justifying the given conditions of self-correction as the most benign? It is for us to figure out. One thing is clear: only united can we succeed. Joining our thoughts and intentions towards the Light creates a vessel/common desire to be filled with fulfillment and nourishment from the source, where strength and a taste of life are abundant.

Check and see for yourself: it is amazing how empowering the words from the friends’ letters are! It is said that “…things that come from the heart enter the heart”. Indeed, an impression that was born in you yesterday is becoming mine now as I’m reading what you have written, with your feelings echoing in my every emotion, and your words turning undistinguishable from my own, through your inspiration lighting up my heart and making us both strong, enduring, and standing up against the surges of Ego! This is the foundation for a practical method of Kabbalah to work on! Friends, we have no choice but to learn how to use this method quickly - for the sake of our survival.

Meanwhile, a new issue of the magazine is waiting for you. Let’s sharpen our focus, define the goal in front of us and get to study. May everyone reach the right request so our prayer will be accepted.

In one thought and one intention, Editors of the “Wisdom of Kabbalah” magazine

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INTENTION

The Outlines of Darkness and Light

Source: www.laitman.com

In our work, preparation is extremely important. It determines the outcome. It does not matter what you study or how much you know. The main thing is to prepare oneself, that is, to change one’s vessel, the desire, so as to feel the upper world instead of this world.

Nothing changes but yourself, and then you find out that the upper world is here, that it has always been here. Do you want paradise, here you go. Do you want hell, here you go. Take what you want, it all depends on your vessel.

It’s as if there is a “control” before you which you can rotate in either direction, and it changes your world from one extreme to another, from one end of the scale to the other.

It is always at “night,” in detachment from spirituality, that we have to prepare the vessels of the “midnight” interaction (Zivug) of the parental Partzufim Aba ve-Ima, in order to come to the “morning” state.

II aamm nnoott ssiimmppllyy wwaaiittiinngg ffoorr tthhee ddaawwnn.. II’’mm pprreeppaarriinngg iitt.. II aacccceepptt tthhee

ttiimmee ooff pprreeppaarraattiioonn wwhhoolleehheeaarrtteeddllyy aass nneecceessssaarryy ffoorr tthhee pprroocceessss ooff

bbuuiillddiinngg ooff oouurr nneexxtt ddeeggrreeee..

RRiigghhtt nnooww,, eevveerryy mmoommeenntt,, II aamm ggooiinngg ttoo ppeerrffoorrmm aann aaccttiioonn ooff

uunniittyy iinn mmyy hheeaarrtt aanndd bbuuiilldd iitt wwiitthh lloovvee aanndd ppaattiieennccee aass iiff II pprreeppaarree

ffoooodd ttoo sseerrvvee iitt oonn aa ffeessttiivvee ttaabbllee..

II ffoorrmm tthhee ssttaattee ooff ccoonnnneeccttiioonn bbeettwweeeenn uuss iinn wwhhiicchh tthhee UUppppeerr wwiillll

rreevveeaall iittsseellff..

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ARVUT

Standing The Test Of Strength

Baal HaSulam, “Letter 19”: But not in one time will a person be ready for the high, sublime pairing, called complete coupling. But “only goodness and grace will follow me.” Therefore He intervenes, which is the beginning of the coupling, which means, “a righteous suffers….

The Creator wakes a person, which means that He doesn’t push him forward but arranges him by many tricks, as if flirting with him. We see that even in nature in the animal world there are mating games before the coupling. It’s a whole process in which each side has to show the other that he is ready for the connection and is responsible for it, able to care for the next generation.

It’s the same with a person who is rejected from the coupling by the Creator because he does not have a strong enough desire. A person thinks that the Creator doesn’t want to connect with him and so he suffers because he wants to connect so badly, and is so ready for it having done everything he could in order to attain it. So why doesn’t the Creator reveal Himself to him?

It seems to a person that he is ready to bestow, but we understand that he only thinks of how he can use the revelation of the Creator for his own pleasure. These are not vessels of bestowal yet. If he had a desire to bestow, his sorrow would be different. The sufferings would immediately turn to goodness, to pleasure

But “time will do what the mind doesn’t do”… If a person follows this path persistently: working in the group, studying, doing everything that he can, his successes and failures are already in the hands of the upper Providence and his only goal is to continue. He should try to make the best of every state that he experiences.

It isn’t enough to drag oneself from one phase to the next. Thanks to all the awakenings, all the stings from the Creator, and since he feels bad as a result, he must desire to run forward, to break all the barriers along the way, and this is clearly impossible without mutual guarantee.

A person thinks that he has made such great efforts and has not received any rewards yet! His great passion is unanswered, which means that the Creator does not respond. As a result, he despairs: How long can he chase the Creator without any results? Is there a limit to this or not?

He begins to ask: Where have all his efforts, all his exertion, and all his yearning gone? And he is left with a feeling of great longing. Actually we have to connect all our successes, failures, and disappointments. On the one hand, we should feel a great disappointment, but on the other hand we should rise above it in “faith above reason.”

The times in which the ego power pushed me forward are over. Now I have to break through all the hostile barriers along the way; now I have to feel how many such barriers are inside me and how to rise above them in “faith above reason.”

I have to feel the full depth of my ego, to feel totally disappointed in my powers. Then suddenly I understand that I can’t cope with these enemies and to break through, only because I am trying to do it with my ordinary egoistic powers (the corporeal mind and feeling) by brute force. Suddenly from this disappointment I see the solution and I understand that this isn’t the way to advance: I have to rise above reason and then everything will suddenly work out. This means that there must be a feeling of disappointment

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and heaviness in which the solution, the new approach, is born. But in order to reach that, we have to reach a full measure of disappointment.

And the one who knows the mysteries knows how much a person desires to be close to the Creator, a desire that may cease. And so the Creator increases His interventions, which means the beginnings of couplings. This is to the extent that a person can bear them.

It depends on the environment. If the environment is strong and sustains a person internally and constantly evokes him, he can go through this process very quickly and end all the preparation stages for the coupling.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/712, Writings of Baal HaSulam

How Can We Scream So We Will Be Heard?

What we are creating between us is interconnection, interdependence, mutual guarantee, love, and a definite necessity to be together. This is the connection (or the "place") we have to create so that inside it we will reveal the Creator who hides from us. He will speak to us from this place we create, "the tent of revelation."

Without having this communication system between us and the Creator, we are just crying out into empty space. We can only turn to the image that we form through our connection: the Creator’s Temple.

It is written that love for the Creator can only be attained through love for others. That is why we are building a spiritual system of mutual guarantee and mutual support among us. Its purpose is to reveal the Creator.

Therefore, our primary necessity is to work on building the group. The first condition for receiving the Torah, the Light of Correction at the foot of Mount Sinai (the state of revealing mutual hatred) was the impossibility yet the willingness to bond together as one man with one heart, and to work on this unity by the principle, "we shall do and we shall hear."

No matter how small our willingness to do this, if we have it, then we have a common point, a "window" through which we can turn to the Creator. This common point is already Malchut of the World of Atzilut, the Shechina.

That is how we should understand the preparation for the reception of the Torah.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, Writings of Rabash

The Starting Point Of The Spiritual Line

Question: How can I want connection with others so that I feel that this is truly something I require?

Answer: You will want to connect with others only on condition that you despair of attaining the goal alone. Exactly as in our world, when I must move a five hundred pounds block and I don’t have the strength to do this, but I have no choice, I must move it, and so I am forced to turn for help.

Therefore I go to someone and say: “Please, until now I thought that I didn’t need you. I agree that I was disrespectful to you. I am not trying to justify myself, but it was natural for my ego to behave like that. But now I need you, I have no choice. Therefore I come to you begging that you will become my friend and will help me to carry this load. And if you need something like this, then I could also help you!”

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We begin all this from the ego. But after this, through egoistic efforts, we see that we require true reciprocal connection on a permanent basis. And if we persevere in our work through the group, we begin to feel how from this permanent reciprocal connection something new is born. If we do not retreat and we overcome the coldness that appears from time to time, eventually we will discover that we can use this model of the group as a tool, as a means, as leverage.

This is the fundamental compulsory means; this is a “point in the heart” that includes everyone, from which we begin our spiritual line upwards if we relate to this in the right form. And then we require from the connection between us more and more qualitative results. Everything is born from connection only and all the rest, the teacher, the books, they only help this. But the main thing is the connection within which ascent is realized.

Therefore it is not necessary to wait for me to bring you spirituality on a platter. You will discover it only within your connection with the group as you build it in your heart.. For every condition that appears in my life, it is as if I am discussing it with the friends in this endless workshop. It is as if I am found in dialog, in discussion with them at every moment, and in this manner I clarify all the questions.

I have no other way out of any situation besides the center of the group! For everything in life I relate only from this point of our connection, from our collective consciousness, in which all of us nullify each other, are linked with each other, and complete each other. Only in this way will there be realization of the correct and precise point that is my point in the heart that connects with all the rest.

And so through the friends I try to develop the importance of the goal, to be “ignited” by their enthusiasm. I appreciate them as great and am happy that I merited a connection with the greatest of the generation. I thank the Creator that he sent them to me so that I would surely be able to communicate with Him.

Indeed I still don’t feel the Creator, but I already have a connection with him through this group. Perhaps the connection is still not that good and it is still egoistic from my side and therefore I don’t hear the voice of the Creator in the earpiece, but this telephone already exists and it works. I speak into it and believe that the Creator hears me. Because I have prepared the Kli, this apparatus, we are connected together, have nullified ourselves; I appreciate and respect the friends and am sure that the Creator is the One who arranged this group for me, put my hand on the good lot and said, “choose for yourself”.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/04/13, Writings of Rabash

Four Steps to the Clear Path of Light

There is the path of suffering and the path of Torah (the Light). The entire world is moving by the path of suffering, and we are moving by the path of Torah. However, in its turn, the path of Torah is also divided into the path of suffering and the path of Torah. If a person is not able to awaken the dawn himself and the dawn is compelled to awaken him, then he advances by the path of suffering. That is, he descends into the darkness of the night, exposing himself to blows, earthly and spiritual, and remains in this descent until he climbs out from there. In this case, this also is called the path of suffering, but nevertheless, it is suffering on the path of spiritual development rather than the usual earthly development.

In contrast, there is the path of Torah when a person moves due to taking the desires from the environment. On this path, there is also a division on the path of suffering and the path of Torah. Entering the path of Torah, a person needs to pass the four stages of internal HaVaYaH, after which he enters the clear, true path of the Light. There, we already are ascending straight up by the beam of the Light.

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Until then, you need to go through many clarifications of what the path of Light is. It is said about this, that if you are worthy, your work will be done at the expense of others. This does not mean that you take advantage of them as is done in our world, but you really use the ready vessels that the Creator prepared for His revelation and placed them in your friends.

Now, we need to understand that our spiritual tools are in others. Preparation determines everything because we want to advance by the path of Light (Achishena), ahead of blows that approach us from behind: earthly and spiritual problems, various descents and detachment, and loss of interest.

It is said about this path in the Torah—about the people who did not listen to Moses—that, all the time, there were disagreements, frictions, disputes, and clashes between them to such an extent that Moses tells the Creator, “Leave me alone. I’m tongue-tied and cannot talk to them. They don’t understand me! They will not believe me!”

Already, after coming out of Egypt, in the wilderness, they constantly had problems and arguments. Moses would be glad to be free of his mission, but, on the other hand, he constantly protects the people, that is, the friends. Moses is an example for every one of us, showing what one should be in relation to others: Take care, and tell them everything that you have in your heart to awaken others and to straighten their path.

This is the way everyone should behave in relation to others. On the one hand, you must be great relative to the group, the giver, giving them everything that you have—inspiration, joy, the greatness of the goal—like Moses, the leader of the people. On the other hand, there is no more modest a man than Moses. That is, you become the smallest from the highest. This is the example of the attitude toward the group that the Torah gives us.

If you have found yourself in this state, do not believe that it is possible to labor and not find. You must find the desire suitable for the revelation of the Creator. The desire is your duty and revelation will happen immediately. The Creator, the upper Light, is just waiting for your smallest equivalence of form with Him to become revealed in your vessel at once.

He is already within you. As it is said, “I am the Creator, I dwell in you and in all your sins.” He is already here. Just reveal His first manifestation, the first HaVaYaH.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Shamati #117

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UNLOCKING THE ZOHAR

Chapter 1: The Wisdom of the Zohar

The Zohar is to be concealed ... until the arrival of the last generation at the end of days, and then it will appear.

Rav Isaiah Horowitz (the Holy Shlah)

The Zohar is THE book of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of truth. It is surfacing today to lead us forward to a higher dimension. Yet, what is so special about The Zohar and about the Kabbalah? Why is this wisdom taking center stage specifically for those living today?

Humanity is ever developing. In ancient times, people’s needs were very basic: food, shelter, and procreation. These are natural desires, as well as existential needs. In time, greater needs and greater desires have arisen in us: for wealth, domination, respect, and knowledge.

Throughout history, we have been trying to satisfy the needs that emerged in us. We have been trying to find within these changes happiness, love, and a good life. Today, we see that this chase was futile. While each generation is more advanced materialistically, each also suffers more. The ubiquitous use of drugs and antidepressants as an escape are symptoms of our generation’s internal emptiness.

At each given moment, the media is presenting us with more and more temptations, which we then rush to satisfy. It may be a new piece of clothing, a car, a house, a better job, an academic title, a trip overseas, or even a good restaurant. But each time we obtain something, the pleasure dissipates shortly afterwards and we are left wondering, “What’s next?” Then the chase begins anew.

For how long? Today, more and more people are asking this question. And not only, “For how long?” but also, “Why?”. Why are our lives unfolding as they are? Why are we in a constant race, never actually finding any rest? Why does everything become dull and tasteless once we have obtained it? And in general, if this is what life is about and there is nothing we can do about it, why do we need it anyway?

There has never been such a state where questions about the purpose and meaning of life have arisen in so many people. In the past, we simply didn’t ask. We lived because we were born. But today, such questions that suddenly arise within us leave us restless, prodding us forward, and after years of searching we come to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom that teaches us how to receive much more from life.

Previously, we had no need for Kabbalah, hence its concealment. But today, our need for it is the primary reason for its appearance in our generation.

The second reason is the special situation we are in today. The development of technology and media has turned the world into a small village in which we are completely interdependent. Yet, at the same time, our egos and our hatred of one another are increasing.

It is becoming barely possible for us to tolerate others, beginning on the most personal level, where each member of a family needs a personal room, a personal car, and

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virtually a personal home. People find it very difficult to maintain relationships, and divorce rates are soaring. The family unit is falling apart the world over.

We are living together, cramped on a tiny planet, antagonistic towards each other and unable to get along. The amount of weapons of mass destruction accumulated worldwide have brought us to a perilous state where everything around us is unstable and unpredictable. It is safe to say that we have lost our ability to govern the world.

Looking forward, if we continue on our present path, it is unclear how we will survive. What kind of world are we leaving for our children? Today’s generation is the first in which people have stopped believing that their children will have a better life than their own!

With all this in the background, The Book of Zohar and the other sources of Kabbalah are appearing. They explain that the situation we now face has long been predicted.

The first time such a state occurred was thousands of years ago in ancient Babylon. The Biblical story about the Tower of Babel described people gathered in one place, wishing to build a tower whose top reached the sky. This was an expression of the great egoism that appeared among them, and the hatred combined with interdependence. It was precisely in that place and in that state that the wisdom of Kabbalah appeared.

The wisdom offers a very simple thing. It says that in addition to the reality we currently sense, there is another, more expansive reality, a higher one. From this higher reality, forces extend to our world and govern it. The development we have achieved over the generations was intended to bring us into recognizing the forces that operate on us and govern us.

When we discover this higher reality, we will understand that our development over thousands of years has taken place only to bring us to acquire and experience a more expansive sensation of reality. Thus, we will not remain in the confined state in which we live and die, live and die. Instead, we will know life in its eternal, broad, and boundless form.

Man was made to raise the heavens.

Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Kotzk

In ancient Babylon, it was Abraham the Patriarch, a resident of Ur of the Chaldeans,

who discovered that humankind’s program of development was prodding it toward discovering a new reality. Abraham realized that in the end, the material evolution of man on earth would exhaust itself, and humanity would discover that something beyond satisfying corporeal desires was required, and that without it, life on earth would be futile and meaningless.

Abraham discovered that at the end of the material evolution begins the spiritual evolution. once he himself exhausted the desires we all possess, a new desire appeared in him—to understand the purpose of his life.

In Kabbalah, all of one’s earthly desires are regarded as “the heart,” while the desire to discover the meaning of life is described as “the point in the heart.” The point in the heart is a desire that awakens in our hearts and pulls us “upward.” That new desire led Abraham to discover the complete reality, the spiritual reality.

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Abraham’s wisdom is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah,” and it describes the network of Nature’s forces and how we can study the program by which they affect us. The wisdom of Kabbalah describes rules, forces, and work formulae of the upper worlds.

Kabbalah explains how reality began to expand from the world of Ein Sof [infinity], through the worlds of Adam Kadmon [ancient man], Atzilut [Emanation], Beria [creation], Yetzira [Formation], and Assiya [Action], down to our world. It speaks of how souls come down and “dress” in bodies in this world, and how we can cause our souls to rise from here back to the world of Ein Sof.

Abraham was the first Kabbalist to teach people how to discover the soul and gradually experience a higher world through it. There are five higher worlds, each with five degrees, each of which are then divided into five additional degrees. If we multiply 5x5x5, we will arrive at the 125 degrees by which we ascend in our feeling, understanding, and attainment until we discover the whole of reality.

That process takes place while we are here in our material bodies. When we achieve these higher worlds, reality becomes much broader and we feel the forces that operate on the world we are in. It is like a picture of embroidery. In the front is a picture, while the back displays all the connections among the threads that create the picture on the front.

When we observe our world and what is happening in it, we are merely observing the superficial picture. The wisdom of Kabbalah helps us see the depth of the picture. This is how we begin to understand the connections between things—why things happen and how we can affect one element through another element.

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In other words, we not only see the image of this world, but we also begin to see the operating system. only then can we control our lives and our fates, and arrive at the perfect state.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that our lives are built in such a way that troubles of all kinds present themselves before us, leaving us no other alternative but to know the operating system. If we do not achieve the higher dimension, discover the forces that affect us, and begin to manage our lives through them, we will not be able to cope in life. This is why this wisdom is manifesting itself—so we can know the upper worlds.

Kabbalah explains everything that has happened in human history: why we have developed one way and not another, and why all the wars and changes we have undergone took place. It also relates to the future and describes how we can evolve from this point on.

There are two paths before us:

1. To escape from the bad—to evolve through a negative force that prods us from behind, as we have been doing throughout history: We would discover that something was missing and that we had no other choice but to exit the negative state and make a change.

2. To be drawn toward the good—to evolve through a positive force that pulls us forward. This is what Kabbalah offers us: to evolve by discovering the good life and then understand how to achieve it through a wondrous adventure.

The sages of the Kabbalah have predicted our state in advance. They knew that without the Kabbalah we would not be able to survive. They pointed to the end of the 20th century as the time when its wisdom would appear to all. They explained that if we did not shift from negative advancement to positive, we would be goaded into it mercilessly.1

But we are faced with problems not only on the social level, but also on the ecological level, including volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, fires, intense heat waves, and cold spells. All these will come only to compel us to continue our

1 Kabbalists refer to the two paths toward knowing the upper worlds as the “path of Torah”

[path of light] and the “path of suffering.” In his “Writings of the Last Generation,” Baal HaSulam explains it in the following way: “There are two ways to discover the completeness: the path of Torah and the path of suffering.

Hence, the Creator eventuated and gave humanity technology, until they have invented the atom and the hydrogen bombs. If the total ruin that they are destined to bring is still not evident to the world, they can wait for a third world war, or a fourth one and so on. The bombs will do their thing and the relics after the ruin will have no other choice but to take upon themselves this work ... If you take the path of Torah, all will be well. And if you do not, then you will tread the path of suffering.”

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development. Nature is shaking us up through a negative force so we will take the positive force into our hands.

To advance, we must first discover the forces that come down to here and affect us. We must learn how to penetrate Nature’s higher system if we are to govern these forces. Even when we wish to develop technologies to improve our lives, we must first study Nature and discover which hidden laws exist in it and how it governs. But because Kabbalah speaks of even higher forces, more concealed, the process of discovering them is far more complex. It is truly a fascinating process, and we will expand on it in the next chapter.

This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and consequence, by fixed, determined rules, interweaving to a single, exalted goal described as “The revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.”

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Since Abraham’s time some 3,800 years ago, until approximately 2,000 years ago, the wisdom of Kabbalah was known only to the people of Israel. Since the ruin of the Temple approximately 2,000 years ago, through our generation, Kabbalah has been hidden from the public and has been secretly passed on from generation to generation among Kabbalists.

During the period when Kabbalah was concealed, various stigmas were attributed to it. It was considered mysticism, witchcraft, magic, etc., but no one knew what it was really about, hence the false notions. Also, the thriving present-day industry that uses the name “Kabbalah” to market services and products has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual essence of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

But the time of concealment has ended. Today, the original wisdom of Kabbalah is resurfacing for all people, regardless of age, sex, religion or race. Kabbalah is a higher science. It does not belong to any religion or faith, nor does it pose any boundaries or limitations to one who wishes to study it. Any person who wishes to understand the world he or she lives in, to know the soul, to know one’s fate and to learn how to govern it is welcome to study Kabbalah.

“If my people heeded me ... they would delve in the study of The Book of Zohar ... with nine-year-old infants”, said Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak Yehuda of Komarno as early as the 19th century.

Following him, other Kabbalists recommended teaching this knowledge to children from a young age, giving them an explanation of the world that surrounds them, the connections among its parts, and the forces that affect it. Through such education grows a confident human being connected to the source of abundance, feeling in control of one’s life. Such a person knows how to best use these forces, and understands that life is unlimited.

The holy Zohar connects to Ein Sof [infinity].

Rabbi Moshe Israel Bar Elijahu, The Residue of Israel

The Book of Zohar is the seminal book of Kabbalah. It was written precisely when Kabbalah shifted from being an open doctrine to becoming a hidden one. The authors of The Zohar knew that the world would need this book thousands of years later, hence they concealed it immediately after writing it.

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The Book of Zohar was actually written for this generation, to deliver us from a state of “spiritual exile,” the inability to perceive the upper force and the expansiveness of reality. If we wish to improve our situation, we must make The Book of Zohar the keynote book of our world, since The Zohar is more than a book, it is a means to connect us to the upper force.

When we learn how to read The Zohar correctly, we will discover that it is a means of receiving abundance, and we will see how, with its help, everything changes. gradually, we will begin to feel that another force is present, a higher and good one, engulfing us, and the air is “imbued” with that force.

In conclusion: Nature has brought us to a special point in human development, a step before a new degree of existence. We are about to make a qualitative leap to the spiritual degree, and this is why the springboard—the wisdom of Kabbalah and primarily The Book of Zohar—is appearing before us.

In the depths of the human soul, the voice of the Lord is ever calling. The commotion of life may daze the soul so it does not hear that calling voice for the majority of one’s life, but it can never uproot the basis, the root, and the essence of that voice, which is indeed the very heart of human life ... Even in those who strain to escape it and to silence it, the fleeing and the silencing only further disclose the inherent connection of the soul to that mighty voice, which never ceases to hum and to crave in their hearts, too. Indeed, all efforts to escape it and all tactics to silence it are in vain.

Rav Raiah Kook, Treasures of the Raiah, p 113

The greatest Kabbalist of our time was Rav Yehuda Ashlag (1884-1954). Thanks to his work, The Book of Zohar began to become known. Rav Ashlag is known as Baal HaSulam [Hebrew: owner of the Ladder] for his Sulam [Ladder] commentary on The Book of Zohar. In his latter years, Baal HaSulam wrote what is known as “Writings of the Last generation,” which begin with the following words:

“There is an allegory about friends who were lost in the desert, hungry and thirsty. one of them had found a settlement filled abundantly with every delight. He remembered his poor brothers, but he had already drawn far off from them and did not know their place. What did he do? He began to shout out loud and blow the horn; perhaps his poor hungry friends would hear his voice, approach and come to that abundant settlement filled with every delight.

“So is the matter before us: we have been lost in the terrible desert along with all mankind, and now we have found a great, abundant treasure, namely the books of Kabbalah in the treasure.

“... Now, distinguished readers, this book lies here before you in a closet. It states explicitly all the wisdom of statesmanship and the behavior of private and public life that will exist at the end of days, meaning the books of Kabbalah...

“open these books and you will find all the good comportment that will appear and the end of days, and you will find within them the good lesson by which to arrange mundane matters today, as well.”

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ATTAINING THE WORLDS BEYOND

The Way of Kabbalah

The way of Kabbalah is a long, difficult period of reevaluating one’s goals in life, of reassessing the self, clearly defining the direction of one’s desires, truthfully assessing the motivating forces of one’s actions, attempting to overcome the desires of the body and the demands of reason, as well as completely grasping the power of one’s egoism. The way of Kabbalah is, at the same time, a hard, prolonged period of suffering to search to satisfy one’s desires; it is a period of disappointment that one is unable to find a genuine "focus" of one’s aspirations; it is the time of realizing that the only escape from the ultimate source of suffering (egoism) is the shift to altruistic thoughts, which will exclude any thoughts about the self, and will gradually lead to thoughts about the Creator. The latter will, in turn, bring about such pleasant feelings of serenity that one will not want to think about anything else.

Only after we have passed through all the stages of initial spiritual development—the way of Kabbalah-- do we begin to perceive the Upper Light—the Light of Kabbalah-- which shines more and more strongly upon us as we ascend the steps of the spiritual ladder that lead to our ultimate merging with the Creator.

Thus, our entire path is comprised of two parts: the way of Kabbalah and the Light of Kabbalah.

The way of Kabbalah is a period of preparing for new thoughts and desires, during which we experience feelings of suffering. But once we move over this bridge that leads to the dwelling of the Creator, we enter the world of spirituality, the kingdom of Light. At this point, we reach the final goal of creation—the ultimate perception of the Creator.

The generation of the flood is called “a period of work of the heart,” whereas the generation of building the Babylonian Tower is regarded as “the period of working with one’s intellect.” Each of us strives to satisfy every desire from the first moment of life up to the very last moment.

The difference between us is in the object from which we want to receive pleasure, whereas the pleasure itself is always spiritual. Only the outer shell creates the illusion of a material nature of pleasure. For this reason, subconsciously, we strive to change the outer "garments" of pleasure, hoping to receive pleasure in the pure form of the bare Light of the Creator.

However, since the difference between us is in our aspirations to different outer casings of pleasure, we judge people in accordance with the different names of these casings. Those casings, or “garments” of pleasure assumed to be “normal” are widely accepted, such as the love for children, for food, for warmth, etc. Other “garments” are much less acceptable, such as drugs, murder, or theft, so we must conceal our aspirations for these kinds of pleasure.

However, all of humanity accepts that within certain set boundaries, egoism can be utilized without any shame. Moreover, the acceptable boundaries within which egoism can be used constantly vary, as does the fashion that dictates which boundaries are better.

Each of us, in the course of our lives and under the influence of age, meaning under the general Providence of the Creator from Above—nature, also changes the “garments” we use to satisfy our need for pleasure.

Even from one individual to another, the change from one casing to the next is dramatic. For instance, a girl receives pleasure from a doll, but is not able to receive

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pleasure by caring for a real baby. On the other hand, her mother cannot receive any pleasure from a doll, just as she is unable to convince her daughter to find joy in taking care of a real child.

From the girl’s point of view, formed in accordance with her own perceptions, her mother works very hard looking after a real baby, and gets no pleasure from it. In the girl’s mind, no pleasure can be derived from a real child because it is not a doll. She is convinced that her mother will be compensated for her hard toil in the world to come, whereas the girl desires to receive pleasure in this world, and, thus, opts to play with the doll.

A child thinks in this manner, and one is not going to disagree with her because she is not of the age when she can derive pleasure from the real objects in this world. Therefore, she derives it from toys—from illusory, unreal objects.

All of us, being godly creations, only aspire to pleasure that emanates from the Creator. All of us can have a desire only for Him, and we all perceive life only in this aspiration. In this, we are no different from our souls prior to their descent into this world, when they garbed themselves with our bodies.

Nor are we different from our souls after they passed all the cycles of life, and finally returned to the Creator.

We are created so that we desire to be gratified by the Light that emanates from Him, and this cannot be changed, nor should it be changed!

All that is required of us is that we change the outer "garments" of our pleasure and that we replace the doll with the real baby, and thus attain real pleasure! A human being is like a child during feeding time, wishing to receive only what is desired. We humans will exert a certain effort if convinced that pleasure will follow as a result of the effort.

But if we want to engage in self-improvement and study Kabbalah, then the body immediately poses the question: Why is this necessary?

There are four answers to this question:

1. In order to spite others. This is the worst of all possible reasons because it aims to cause suffering to another.

2. In order to receive a good position, honor, and money; to find a promising match for oneself. This goal is better than the first because it will bring something useful to others. This is regarded as “working for others,” since other people will compensate the person expending the effort.

3. In order to let only the Creator know about one’s studies and efforts to improve oneself, but to keep it secret from others, thus avoiding being honored by others. Only a reward from the Creator is desired.

This is regarded as working for the Creator, because one awaits the reward only from the Creator.

4. In order that the Creator will accept all the fruits of one’s labors, while the laborer expects no reward in return. And only in this case will egoism pose the question: “What will you get for this?” There is no reasonable answer that can be given to oneself, so the solution is to proceed contrary to one’s reason and feelings; that is, above one’s reason and feelings.

In this manner, one’s entire task comes down to a single effort to separate reason

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and feelings from the process of critically evaluating one’s own state. Consequently, one places complete trust in the Creator.

All personal efforts should involve concentrating all thoughts and feelings on the Creator and on the grandeur of spiritual life. But should the inner voice of reason challenge one, advancing arguments for refocusing on the issues of daily life, that person should answer. “All that is required is indeed being fulfilled.”

At the same time, every thought and desire should be for the benefit of the Creator. Moreover, one must refuse to accept the whole criticism of this inner voice, even when one finds oneself as if suspended in midair, without any concrete rational and mental foundation. Such a state is known as being “above reason and feelings” (lema’la me ada’at).

The greater the pleasure received from a certain possession, the more valuable one considers that possession. The more one values something, the more one fears losing it.

How can a person arrive at the realization of the importance of the spiritual without having experienced spirituality? This realization comes to one precisely while in the state of a spiritual vacuum, when one is troubled by the lack of even the smallest perception of the grandeur of the spiritual. That is, one feels far removed from the Creator; and unable to change oneself.

The efforts of one in such a state, regarded as one’s “daily work,” give rise to the importance of attaining spiritual perception, known as the Sabbath. This is a time when one no longer needs (and is actually forbidden) to work on oneself, but is only obligated to observe the Sabbath, so as not to lose this gift of the Creator.

If an individual has a personal stake in something, then that person can no longer objectively judge anything connected to it. For this reason, if one person attempts to tell another person directly that certain behavior is wrong, it is unlikely that the person will agree with these insights, since the behavior in question is convenient, and thus one is convinced that one is acting properly.

However, if that person agrees to behave in accordance with instructions from others, time will reveal that the truth lies not in one’s past actions and thoughts, but in the behavior that is suggested at present.

Since the goal of the Creator is to benefit His creations (meaning us, since everything else is created by Him only for auxiliary purposes), then until a person discerns the quintessence of receiving pleasure and stops seeing deficiencies in quality, level, etc., that person still has not attained the goal of creation.

But in order to receive pleasure, which is the goal of creation, one must first undertake the correction of one’s own desire to be gratified. One must be gratified simply because the Creator desires this.

We need not worry about receiving pleasure, since as soon as this correction is made, we will immediately feel the pleasure. Thus, we should concentrate on the task of correcting our desire to receive pleasure--our vessel.

This can be likened to the process of acquiring an apartment. We should not worry about how to get it. The concern should be how to pay for it, and how to earn the money needed for it. As soon as the financial aspect is arranged, we will own the apartment.

Therefore, all the efforts should be concentrated on the money, not on the apartment. The same can be applied to perceiving the spiritual. All efforts should be directed

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towards creating the conditions necessary to receive the Light, not on the Light itself. When we focus on cultivating altruistic thoughts and desires in ourselves; then we will feel the spiritual pleasure immediately.

The benefit of the progress of humanity, despite the fact that humanity appears to err constantly and never seems to learn from its own mistakes, is in the process of amassing suffering, which takes place in the eternal soul, as opposed to the temporal bodies. In this respect, not a single act of suffering is lost. It will eventually lead, in some cycle of life in this world, to realizing the necessity for turning to spiritual elevation in search of salvation from suffering.

It is correct to denote the Higher Spiritual Worlds as “anti-worlds” in relation to us, since in our world all the laws of nature are built on the basis of egoism, on striving to grab and to understand.

In contrast, the nature of the Higher Worlds is absolute altruism—the striving to give and to have faith. The foundations of the spiritual and the material natures are so diametrically opposed that there is no similarity between them.

Thus, all our attempts to imagine what takes place in the other world will not yield any result. Only by converting desires of the heart from "to grab" into "to give," and changing the desires of the intellect from "to understand" into "to believe" contrary to reason, will we receive the spiritual perceptions.

Both desires are connected to each other, even though the desire to grab is found in the heart and the desire to understand is found in the brain. This is because the foundation of both is egoism.

Kabbalah explains that the birth of the spiritual object is initiated when "the father takes the mother outside" in order to give birth to a son; the perfection "displaces" reason from analyzing the surroundings in order to receive a new, higher reason that will be independent of any desires, and, therefore, truly objective.

Mere faith in the Creator is not sufficient. This faith has to exist for the sake of the Creator, rather than for an individual’s personal benefit. A prayer is regarded as turning to the Creator in order to arouse a desire in Him to help the seeker, through prayer, attain a feeling of reverence for, and the grandeur of, the Creator.

It is only such turning towards Him that makes the Creator react by elevating the praying person to the highest world, and by revealing to this person His whole grandeur. In this way, one can receive the strength to rise above one’s own nature.

Only by receiving the Light of the Creator, which enables having sufficient strength to overcome one’s own egoistic nature, does a person have the sensation of having reached eternity and certainty.

Nothing can now change in the person. In fact, there can be no return to egoism, but instead, there will be eternal existence in the spiritual world. For this reason, such a person will perceive the present and the future as equal, thus producing the feeling of having attained eternity.

The Desire to Receive Pleasure

Since the Creator always remains in the state of absolute rest, we, as His creations, also strive to attain the state of rest in order to reach that which is desired. The Creator has created two forces for the sake of our development: the force that pushes us from behind-- the suffering that forces us to escape from the unbearable state we are in; and the force of

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attraction, which draws us by the pleasures anticipated ahead.

But only the combination of these two forces, rather than each one of them separately, can advance us. Therefore, under no circumstances should we complain that the Creator has endowed us with laziness, thus implying that it is the fault of the Creator that it is so difficult for us to start advancing.

On the contrary, the fact that we are lazy means we do not impulsively and thoughtlessly follow every little temptation in life, but instead evaluate whether the object of temptation is worth the effort needed to follow it. And we do not attempt to escape suffering immediately. First, we attempt to assess the purpose of any suffering we have received, and learn how to avoid it in the future, as suffering coerces us into action and motion, which we are trying to resist.

In all situations in life, we would prefer to use our entire egos. However, people around us prevent us from acting in this manner. The rules of social conduct are built on everyone’s tacit agreement to use egoism in a manner that causes others minimal damage.

This arrangement results from the fact that we expect to receive maximum benefit from any social contact that we engage in. For instance, the seller would prefer to receive money without parting with the object of sale. On the other hand, the buyer would like to receive the goods for free. An employer dreams of free laborers, while the laborers want to get paid without working.

Our desires can be measured only by the degree of suffering resulting from the absence of the desired. The greater the suffering from a lack of the desired, the greater the desire for that object.

It is said: "The Creator desires to dwell in lowly creations." Our goal in life, as well as the purpose of creation, is to create in ourselves the right conditions for the Divine to dwell within us.

Idol worship (avoda zara) is the adherence to the egoistic desires of the body. In contrast, spiritual work (avodat Hashem, avodat haKodesh) follows from the adherence to altruistic desires or goals, if desires do not yet exist.

”Spiritual attachment” results when the qualities of two spiritual objects are completely similar. “Spiritual love” is the feeling of complete attachment of two opposite qualities: a human being and the Creator. If human beings do not have the desire to regain the power to return to rule their own desires, then they have attained true love of the Creator, rather than a mere subordination to Him.

The congruence of qualities implies that just as the Creator experiences joy from having a positive influence on His creations, so human beings experience joy from recognizing that it is possible to give something back to the Creator.

The return, teshuva, implies our return, while living in this world, to the spiritual state of existence at the time our souls were created, that is, to the state of the first Adam prior to his Fall.

We have two sources of action and two beginnings: the intellect and the heart, the thought and the desire. Both should undergo a transformation from their egoistic foundation into an altruistic one.

All our pleasures are experienced through the heart. Therefore, if we can refuse any earthly, or selfish, pleasure, then we deserve to receive the real pleasures from Above,

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because we no longer use our egoism.

On the other hand, the intellect does not receive pleasure from understanding what it is doing. If we can engage in a particular action from sheer faith, rather than from our own understanding, and can proceed contrary to the arguments of reason (go “above reason”), then we have eliminated egoism in the mind and can follow the Creator’s reason, rather than our own understanding.

The Light of the Creator permeates all creations, including our world, even though we do not feel it.

This Light is called “the Light that invigorates the creation.” It is due to this Light that the creations and the worlds exist. Without it, all life would cease, and the material dimension of the world would disappear.

This life-giving Light displays its effect in various material "garbs" of the objects and in different phenomena of our world that take place before our eyes. Everything that surrounds us, including ourselves and the crudest of the creations, is nothing else but the Light of the Creator.

We perceive it as many objects, since we respond to the outer shells, to the garb of the Light. In reality, it is the one and only force that acts within each one of the creations—the Light of the Creator.

The majority of people do not perceive the Light of the Creator, but only the external garb. There are people who perceive the Light of the Creator, but only in Kabbalah.

But there are also those who see the Light of the Creator in everything that surrounds them. This latter group perceive that everything surrounding us as the Divine Light, which emanates from the Creator and fills everything with itself.

The Creator decided to place a human being in this world so that the human being would rise spiritually from the depth of the original state to the level of the Creator, and thus become like the Creator. For this reason the Creator created the quality of egoism—the desire to receive pleasure.

In the beginning of creation, the Light (pleasure) filled the entire created expanse (egoism). It also completely filled all kinds of desires to receive pleasure. These were created as part of the conceived egoism.

Then, the Creator restricted the progression of Light and concealed it. In place of the Light, which existed in the creation, in the desire to receive pleasure, and in egoism, there came pain, emptiness, darkness, sorrow, and everything else imaginable when pleasure is absent.

In order to maintain in one a minimal desire to live, and to prevent suicide from lack of pleasure, the Creator endowed human beings with the desire to be gratified with a small portion of Light (ner dakik), This is enclosed in different objects of our world to which we aspire.

Therefore, subconsciously and automatically, we persist in the constant pursuit of the Light of the Creator, and are slaves to this natural aspiration. We must believe that the concealment of the Creator, and the feeling of hopelessness that results from the lack of pleasure, are purposely given to us by the Creator for our benefit.

If the Light of the Creator filled our egoism, we would lose the opportunity to exercise our free will, no longer able to act freely and independently. Instead, we would become

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slaves to the pleasure that fills us.

Only when separated from the Light of the Creator do we experience His concealment, causing us to perceive ourselves as entirely independent, self-sufficient beings. This allows us to make decisions with regard to our actions. But even this kind of independence demonstrates itself only in certain circumstances, because despite the fact that the Creator concealed Himself from us, we still possess egoism, which directs all of our thoughts and feelings.

Therefore, true freedom will arise only when: 1. An individual does not experience the bestowal of the Creator, and 2. An individual can act independently from the desires of the body.

An opportunity to exercise our free will exists only in the earthly life, which is precisely why we exist here.

Every individual must believe that there is nothing else in the world but the Creator.

One perceives in one’s "I" a certain degree of independence only because the Creator endowed our perception with egoism. However, if we were to rid ourselves of this quality, we would once again become part of the Creator.

We must believe that the Creator is concealed only because we cannot perceive Him, and that this concealment was designed only for our benefit. Thus, until we are ready to face the truth, we must believe that the truth is very different from the way we perceive it.

The truth can only be grasped gradually and only to the degree that we have been able to attain perfection. Hence, any spiritual work is possible only as long as the pleasure of the spiritual realm is concealed from us. Only then will we be able to say that our loathing towards the spiritual was purposely sent by the Creator, and that, in fact, nothing is more perfect than the spiritual.

If, contrary to feelings of gloom, depression and emptiness, and contrary to the arguments of reason, we can search for the perception of the Creator and proceed above our own reason in accordance with the principle of "faith above reason," then the Creator will reveal Himself to us, since in all states of being, we await that revelation.

A true desire to perceive the Creator is born in us in the manner described above, and this constitutes a necessary condition for the revelation of the Creator. The power of faith in the ability to perceive the Creator is measured by the depth of our spiritual fall, from which we can call out to the Creator.

However, we must understand that without proper preparation to perceive the Creator, we will unwillingly gain egoistic pleasure from experiencing such unworldly phenomenon. Thus, we must ask the Creator:

1. For preparation for the experience of higher pleasure.

2. For the necessary strength to retain faith above reason, even after the revelation of the Creator.

There are two kinds of obstacles deriving from the impure forces (klipot) that operate in us: restraint (ahizat klipot) and drawing nourishment (yenikat klipot). When we experience no pleasure from learning or from self-improvement, and advance forward with great difficulty, then the klipa demonstrates to us various shortcomings of the spiritual existence.

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As a result, we feel that there is no value in the spiritual. Thus, the klipa receives an opportunity to hold us back from our studies, since we see no greatness in the spiritual. Such a state is known as “the revelation of the Creator in ashes” (shchinta be afra).

But if, with the power of the will, we persist in advancing, then we begin to receive the taste of working on ourselves. At that point, the klipa begins to feed off our spiritual accomplishments. It wants to appropriate everything that we have earned from our efforts (the pleasure from the spiritual).

The klipa achieves this goal by instilling in us the desire to continue to work, However, the motivation behind this work is personal pleasure, rather than the fact that this work is desired by the Creator. If we acquiesce to this tendency, then the entire pleasure is surrendered to one’s ego. This is known as “the drawing nourishment” of the klipot. In such a case, we must ask the Creator for help in withstanding the temptation of harmful thoughts.

In conclusion, at first we must ask the Creator to provide pleasure from the Kabbalah, and then we must implore Him that this pleasure should not be absorbed by egoism. The protestations of the body against the spiritual work, which brings no pleasure for the body and gives no assurance that a reward will follow in the future, is known as "a mean tongue."

In order to escape the temptation, we must pretend to be blind and deaf to the calls of the body, as well as to imagine that the Upper Light exists, but is invisible. Only then will the Creator open our eyes and ears to be able to perceive His Light, and be able to hear what the Creator is telling only to us.

The efforts that we allot to every task of perceiving the spiritual gradually add up to a sufficient quantity to form the vessel (kli) or the garment (levush) needed to receive the Light of the Creator—our spiritual souls.

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AUTHENTIC KABBALAH TEXTS: SHAMATI

The book “Shamati”: Introduction by Rav Laitman

The book “Shamati”, a collection of works of Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (the Rabash) is the most precious text that Rabash left behind.

Shamati is the most valuable book in the world, because it has the power to bring a person to the purpose of his life. Shamati is the main Kabbalistic source text. It contains all the foundations of man’s spiritual work. The articles contained in this book summarize everything one needs to enter the Upper World. They encompass the infinite depth of all 125 degrees that a person can and must go through in his spiritual path, whose summit is the goal of creation. This book is the most special book in the world, because no book in the entire history of mankind has gone deeper into man’s spiritual work.

Where did the book Shamati come from? Here’s a brief history. Among all the books and manuscripts that my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag, used for study, there was one special, personal notebook, whose cover held the inscription “Shamati” – Hebrew for “what I heard.” He never parted with this notebook and always made sure to take it along anywhere he went. He never stopped studying it, and used to read it over and over again.

One day, late at night, he suddenly gave it to me and said: “Take this notebook and use it.” I immediately understood that his path was soon to reach an end. And indeed, he passed away the very next morning. His pure soul ascended into the unknown heights as soon as the night was gone.

The notebook he gave me was rather thick, and its contents revealed lessons by my teacher’s father, the great Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag – Baal HaSulam.

Baal HaSulam integrated all of the Kabbalistic knowledge that was previously passed down in secret, from teacher to student, from generation to generation, and thus for millennia. In doing so, Baal HaSulam prepared for us a method of mass spiritual ascension.

Rav Baruch Ashlag recorded his father’s lessons word for word, because he heard them directly from his father and Teacher. Hence, we have to follow these words just as they appear, and abide by the exact form that Baal HaSulam chose for his words. One should strive for his thoughts to go through the very same path as the text lays out, following Baal HaSulam’s thought. It’s more important to adhere to a great Kabbalist than to pay attention to the beauty of the linguistic nuances in the text. One should strive to see the inner beauty of the text, and then, as one will continue reading it, his understanding of the articles will undergo constant transformation, penetrating deeper and deeper.

In these articles Baal HaSulam often relies on quotes by other Kabbalists, written from the heights of their attainment. These quotes should give us an understanding of how profound the topic at hand is. They should also help us realize that we are receiving the method of adhesion with the Creator from the entire lineage of Kabbalists, and this method is being passed to us by the very last Kabbalist in this lineage – the great Baal HaSulam.

All of these texts should be regarded as one article, because they all speak about the same thing. They describe how the creature searches for its Creator and grows closer to Him, until it attains adhesion with Him. Essentially, these articles describe all the work that a person has to do in order to attain equivalence of form, adhesion and union with the Creator. In all of reality, there is no other reason for existence besides this one goal. According to this goal, man enables the entire reality, all the worlds and everything that inhabits them, to rise and incorporate in the Creator.

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Hence, we have to understand that the entire universe, all the creatures, and all the worlds, are inside one person. Every person has to imagine that he is that person, and that he has freedom of choice and freedom of action. He, and only he, is standing opposite the Creator, and he has the responsibility and the privilege of doing the work necessary to attain equivalence of form, unification and adhesion with the Creator.

This is what all the articles in the book Shamati are about.

The clock has started ticking and time is flying by. In every part of the world there are people who are starting to feel an interest in spiritual ascent and to ask the question, “What is the meaning of my life?” In light of this, I understood the uniqueness and importance of the Shamati articles, and this is why I decided to publish this book and to reveal it to the world.

Shamati, Article 1. There Is None Else Besides Him

(I heard on Parashat Yitro, 1, February 6, 1944)

It is written, “there is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what man sees, that there are things in the world that deny the Higher Household, the reason is that this is His will.

And it is deemed a correction, called “the left rejects and the right adducts,” meaning that which the left rejects is considered correction. This means that there are things in the world, which, to begin with, aim to divert a person from the right way, and by which he is rejected from Sanctity.

And the benefit from the rejections is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for the Creator to help him, since he sees that otherwise he is lost. Not only does he not progress in his work, but he sees that he regresses, that is, he lacks the strength to observe Torah and Mitzvot even in Lo Lishma (not for Her Name). That only by genuinely overcoming all the obstacles, above reason, can he observe the Torah and Mitzvot. But he does not always have the strength to overcome above reason; otherwise, he is forced to deviate, God forbid, from the way of the Creator, even from Lo Lishma.

And he, who always feels that the shattered is greater than the whole, meaning that there are many more descents than ascents, and he does not see an end to these states, and he will forever remain outside of holiness, for he sees that it is difficult for him to observe even as little as a jot, unless by overcoming above reason. But he is not always able to overcome. And what shall be the end?

Then he comes to the decision that no one can help him but the Creator Himself. This causes him to make a heartfelt demand that the Creator will open his eyes and heart, and truly bring him nearer to eternal adhesion with God. It thus follows, that all the rejections he had experienced had come from the Creator.

This means that it was not because he was at fault, that he did not have the ability to overcome. Rather, for those people who truly want to draw near the Creator, and so they will not settle for little, meaning remain as senseless children, he is therefore given help from Above, so he will not be able to say that thank God, I have Torah and Mitzvot and good deeds, and what else do I need?

And only if that person has a true desire will he receive help from Above. And he is constantly shown how he is at fault in his present state. Namely, he is sent thoughts and views, which are against the work. This is in order for him to see that he is not one with the

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Lord. And as much as he overcomes, he always sees how he is farther from holiness than others, who feel that they are one with the Creator.

But he, on the other hand, always has complaints and demands, and he cannot justify the Creator’s behavior, and how He behaves toward him. This pains him. Why is he not one with the Creator? Finally, he comes to feel that he has no part in holiness whatsoever.

Although he occasionally receives awakening from Above, which momentarily revives him, but soon after he falls into the place of baseness. However, this is what causes him to come to realize that only God can help and really bring him closer.

A man must always try and cleave to the Creator; namely, that all his thoughts will be about Him. That is to say, that even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater decline, he should not leave His domain, namely, that there is another authority which prevents him from entering holiness, and which can bring benefit or harm.

That is, he must not think that there is the force of the Sitra Achra (Other Side), which does not allow a person to do good deeds and follow God’s ways. Rather, all is done by the Creator.

The Baal Shem Tov said that he who says that there is another force in the world, namely Klipot (shells), that person is in a state of “serving other gods.” It is not necessarily the thought of heresy that is the transgression, but if he thinks that there is another authority and force apart from the Creator, by that he is committing a sin.

Furthermore, he who says that man has his own authority, that is, he says that yesterday he himself did not want to follow God’s ways, that too is considered committing the sin of heresy. Meaning that he does not believe that only the Creator is the leader of the world.

But when he has committed a sin, he must certainly regret it and be sorry for having committed it. But here too we should place the pain and sorrow in the right order: where does he place the cause of the sin, for that is the point that should be regretted.

Then, one should be remorseful and say: “I committed that sin because the Creator hurled me down from holiness to a place of filth, to the lavatory, the place of filth.” That is to say that the Creator gave him a desire and craving to amuse himself and breath air in a place of stench.

(And you might say that it is written in books, that sometimes one comes incarnated as a pig. We should interpret that, as he says, one receives a desire and craving to take liveliness from things he had already determined were litter, but now he wants to receive nourishment from them).

Also, when one feels that now he is in a state of ascent, and feels some good flavor in the work, he must not say: “Now I am in a state that I understand that it is worthwhile to worship the Creator.” Rather he should know that now he was favored by the Creator, hence the Creator brought him closer, and for this reason he now feels good flavor in the work. And he should be careful never to leave the domain of Sanctity, and say that there is another who operates besides the Creator.

(But this means that the matter of being favored by the Creator, or the opposite, does not depend on the person himself, but only on the Creator. And man, with his external mind, cannot comprehend why now the Lord has favored him and afterwards did not.)

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Likewise, when he regrets that the Creator does not draw him near, he should also be careful that it would not be concerning himself, meaning that he is remote from the Creator. This is because thus he becomes a receiver for his own benefit, and one who receives is separated. Rather, he should regret the exile of the Shechina (Divinity), meaning that he is causing the sorrow of Divinity.

One should imagine that it is as though a small organ of the person is sore. The pain is nonetheless felt primarily in the mind and in the heart. The heart and the mind, which are the whole of man. And certainly, the sensation of a single organ cannot resemble the sensation of a person’s full stature, where most of the pain is felt.

Likewise is the pain that a person feels when he is remote from the Creator. Since man is but a single organ of the Holy Shechina, for the Holy Shechina is the common soul of Israel, hence, the sensation of a single organ does not resemble the sensation of the pain in general. That is to say that there is sorrow in the Shechina when the organs are detached from her, and she cannot nurture her organs.

(And we should say that this is what our sages said: “When a man regrets, what does Shechina say? ‘It is lighter than my head.’”). By not relating the sorrow of remoteness to oneself, one is spared falling into the trap of the desire to receive for oneself, which is considered separation from holiness.

The same applies when one feels some closeness to holiness, when he feels joy at having been favored by the Creator. Then, too, one must say that one’s joy is primarily because now there is joy Above, within the Holy Shechina, at being able to bring her private organ near her, and that she did not have to send her private organ away.

And one derives joy from being rewarded with pleasing the Shechina. This is in accord with the above calculation that when there is joy for the part, it is only a part of the joy of the whole. Through these calculations he loses his individuality and avoids being trapped by the Sitra Achra, which is the will to receive for his own benefit.

Although, the will to receive is necessary, since this is the whole of man, since anything that exists in a person apart from the will to receive does not belong to the creature, but is attributed to the Creator, but the will to receive pleasure should be corrected to being in order to bestow.

That is to say, the pleasure and joy, which the will to receive takes, should be with the intention that there is contentment Above when the creatures feel pleasure, for this was the purpose of creation—to benefit His creations. And this is called the joy of the Shechina Above.

For this reason, one must seek advice as to how he can bring contentment Above. And certainly, if he receives pleasure, contentment shall be felt Above. Therefore, he yearns to always be in the King’s palace, and to have the ability to play with the King’s treasures. And that will certainly cause contentment Above. It follows that his entire longing should be only for the sake of the Creator.

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Shamati: Lessons and Commentaries

Lessons on the Article 1. There Is None Else Besides Him

by Rav Michael Laitman, Bnei Baruch, Israel June 19, 2006

Bold and indented: Original text of Baal HaSulam

Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman

lowercase italics: emphasized words

Capitalized Italics: transliteration from Hebrew

We are beginning to read the articles of Shamati. Those are very special articles. Baal HaSulam didn’t really write them. Rabash wrote them down while hearing them from the mouth of Baal HaSulam. The articles were not written, but said.

We have to understand that the entire work of a person, to reach equivalence of form, Dvekut (adhesion), connection with the Creator, is actually the topic of these articles. There is no other purpose in the whole of reality but this purpose. Through a person, the whole reality, all the worlds, and everything in them, rises and is included into the Creator.

In this work, a person should understand that within him, he contains the whole reality: all the creatures, all the worlds, everything is incorporated within one person. Each and every one of us should picture it this way—as me being that person. I am the one who has the choice, the one who acts, and the one who works opposite to the Creator, for the time being—opposite to Him. It is me who must do the job of reaching equivalence of form, a connection, Dvekut with the Creator. This is what all these articles are about.

It is written that “there is none else besides Him.”

What does “it’s written” mean? “It’s written” means that the Kabbalists, those who attained, didn’t know anything before because “the judge has only what his eyes see.” We are speaking only out of clear attainment of what a person feels, only out of that sensation, only out of our own Kelim, because we, if we can say that, believe only them—what is in them.

It’s not faith in the way people usually think of it. Actually “faith” in Kabbalah means “attainment,” the attainment of the Creator, because faith is the force of Bina and the Creator is the force of bestowal. Therefore, to the extent that there is a force of bestowal in a person, to that extent he feels the Creator, the Giver. Hence, the important thing is to obtain faith.

But at our level, before we attain it, the word “faith” has another depiction, an unreal one: that I should accept things that others say as facts. If I accept them as facts, then I too should reach the level where they become facts to me.

Say, it is written, “there is none else beside Him.” Meaning that some people did attain it and they tell me that this is the case. They are setting a goal for me that I should aspire to. Therefore it is correct and I take it as a goal.

To the extent that I understand that “there is none else beside Him” in my present state, to this extent, I accept it. If I only use it as a fact, and it is already my fact, then it stops me from evolving. That’s the difference between common faith and faith in the sages, which is what the Kabbalists, those who want to reach the purpose of Creation, accept as the goal. People who reached it, set it before them, and helped them to obtain it.

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We will try to interpret it as simple as possible for the beginners who are reading of these articles for the first time. Let’s hope that we’ll succeed.

It is written that “there is none else beside Him,”...

What does “there is none else beside Him” mean?

This means that there is no other power in the world with the ability to do anything against Him.

Why is it defined that there is no other force opposite to the Creator or against Him? Because we are built opposite to the Creator, we attain Him from the opposite states—corresponding or opposite states. It seems opposite from the final state where He exists alone, the state that we are incorporated in Him, but other than that state, nothing else exists.

From the state we are in now, until we attain the last and final state, we are in an opposite state. It seems to us that we exist with free choice, with our strengths, decisions, and freedom of action. It seems to us that people, the world, nature, and more forces—Upper forces, or it does not matter what kind, all kinds of forces can make decisions, act, and influence us.

All these forces will later come together into a single force, and that will be the Creator. He said first “there is none else beside Him.” But right now it appears differently to me, as if there is me, and many more around me, who act, decide and influence me.

And what man sees, namely, that there are things in the world, which deny the household of above...

This means that one sees many forces in the world, not just one. He does not feel the Creator, he does not understand Him, he can’t see Him, and he can’t unite all these forces from the Creator.

…is because He wills it so.

The Creator deliberately plays with a person in such a way that from all sides, through all kinds of incidences, He operates on a person to confuse him as if there are many incidents, many forces, and many reasons that can influence a person.

Why does He do it? Why does He create this confusion?

And it is deemed a correction…

It’s to correct a person. Meaning, we should always remember that everything that happens to us when we are confused, while erring and going through many unpleasant states, happens to us in order to reach the right scrutiny. If we don’t experience them we will not have the right tools to come to the sensation of His unity—the goal. All of the actions we experience have one purpose: to discover the unity, to be integrated in Him.

If we don’t experience any of these incidents we will not have a complete Kli to reach Dvekut. That is why we have to accept every single state as a worthy, proper, desirable, and necessary one. We need to relate to it, as much as we can with understanding, love, and the right attitude, the desirable one—the one we have to experience and be integrated in for the general correction.

[This correction is called] …the left rejects and the right adducts...

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This means the Creator relates to us from both sides, so to speak, from the positive and the negative; that’s how it seems to us. It appears as though there is a good force and a bad force, bringing us closer or rejecting us, and it seems to us as reality. Our whole reality is very clearly divided into opposite forces, if we pay attention to both parts: right/left, male/female, negative/positive, light/darkness, etc. In every incident, we have one thing and its opposite. It stems from the Upper Force, the Creator, who created the creature in existence from absence, and that’s all there is—these two. From that it turns out that the creature is affected by two forces: the left, which is called rejecting and the right, which is felt as adducting.

...meaning that which the left [don’t err in saying] rejects is considered correction.

It’s also an adduction and it brings you closer, but it’s in such a way that you have to determine that it is such and understand the need to mirror it and relate to it correctly. Then you will see that there is no right and left, just one force that tends to you and pulls you forward.

This means that there are things in the world, which from the beginning...

There were things that the Creator deliberately created opposite to a person, opposite from the goal.

In order to divert a person from the right way, [Why?] and they reject him from holiness.

If there were only one force operating on a person, we wouldn’t discern anything because we are opposite from the Creator. One time we only feel ourselves, and the next time we feel the Creator and the gap between us. This is how we equalize and balance. Only by being in two opposite states can we build our selves in between them.

Later on, we will study about the three lines and how we progress by stepping on the middle line, which is built by us, through our efforts and through our scrutiny with the two lines. These two forces—adduction/rejection, right/left, this is where we build our understanding, the awareness which we didn’t previously have.

We can compare it to a person who was born and grew up alone in the world: no one taught him, pulled him, pushed him, and he remained a savage. But when he is under all kinds of influences, tutoring, and education, he builds himself. Meaning, we build within us a person, out of these two forces that operate on us.

Only when these two forces operate, will we progress and have to use them correctly. A person evolves by combining these two forces and the right attitude toward them. This is what the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is meant for: how these two lines (right-adduct, and left-reject) should be joined in a person in such a way that a man, a human, will grow from out of it.

Because of the left line, it seems to a person that he’s rejected from Holiness. He does not feel the benefit because he feels rejected and he grows thicker. The world is not friendly to him and suddenly all kinds of forces obstruct him and others. Suddenly he has enemies and feels all kinds of interferences around him from Above.

And the benefit from these rejections [A person must resolve this.] is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for God to help him...

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This means that there’s only one reason for all of the problems that we run into: to reveal to us the necessity for God’s help. If a person doesn’t come to this conclusion, but instead, he errs and begins to work against these problems by himself, thinking that he should remove them or push them out of the way, then, it is considered that he doesn’t believe that “there is none else beside Him.” He does not believe that the Creator deliberately set this up for him so that through these obstructions a person will come to understand that it all comes from Him and ask the Creator to remove them.

Why ask the Creator? If I remember that it’s the Creator who placed them before me, and I go against them, choosing to fight them anyway, it is like the king’s son who received the shield and the sword. Do you remember this from the letters of Baal HaSulam? He fights as if he were facing real obstructions, instead of obstructions that were created by his father. It’s the wrong attitude, he doesn’t understand that he should relate to them only in order to unite these obstructions with his father and himself, so that they will be the link in teaching him what he needs in order to see the Creator and connect to Him.

Hence, the attitude should not be against the obstructions, but rather against those thoughts that obstruct me from reaching unity, from uniting all these situations, all these circumstances into one. All the obstructions have but one goal: to come to a state where only the Creator operates before me, opposite to me, in order for me to discover that it’s only Him, but not just that it’s only Him, but that nothing will help me except turning to Him. Turning to Him isn’t about crying for help the same way the world is crying. We see that over thousands of years none of them have been given any help from Above—life didn’t get any better. Yelling is not the state we should reach.

...since he sees that otherwise he is lost.

A person should feel that without God’s help he’s lost. Lost doesn’t mean that he’s suffering and that these obstructions are now killing him or destroying him. It means that he’s lost from reaching unity; that these obstructions are so great that alone he cannot unite "me," these obstructions, and the Creator as one. They are so confusing and obstructive, that I cannot unite everything together; I need the Creator’s help. He is the force that arranges this unity and not me.

This means that all my effort should end with the conclusion that I’m a total loser, a failure, and only the Creator can make this unification. Meaning, The Creator, "me," and these obstructions exist—everything comes from Him. It is arranged by Him and in "me" there is nothing but the resolution that the Creator can unite all of us: the Creator, "me," and these obstructions.

Other than that decision, everything else—my character, the reasons, the forces, the obstructions —everything is arranged by Him. This decision is what emerges in me as an independent thing that I have reached, out of my efforts that I have engendered. This decision is the important one.

It’s not “Creator help me, take away these obstructions because I’m feeling bad, and help me discover You behind these obstructions.” This is normally what a person wants in the beginning. But after all of these efforts, he should come to a simple resolution that everything comes from Him, including me. I want everything to unite in the end—all those forces, reasons, and influences from within, as well as, from outside of me. The whole world and me will unite into one point: the revelation of the force, the one root to everything that I’m now feeling.

Along this way a person feels that…

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Not only does he not progress in his work [It means that he feels lost that he cannot reach unification.] but he sees that he regresses [He distances and becomes confused even more, and in general, forgets about the principle that there is only One acting force], and he lacks the strength to observe Torah and Mitzvoth even if not for Her name.

This means that he forgets his livelihood, his strength, the force that leads and corrects him is called “Torah” and the corrections of all the thoughts and desires in him in order to unite them to the Creator is called “making Mitzvot.” He is (unable to act) either for the Creator, or for himself, and cannot unite these benefits, Him and “me.” He falls into such confusion because of these obstructions that he forgets about the One who controls him. Because of this, he’s left to scrutinize, precisely from the most difficult obstructions, the most problematic ones.

That only by genuinely overcoming [What does “genuinely overcoming” means?] all the obstacles above reason [meaning in opposition to all of the calculations that he sees.]…

All of these calculations are results of different obstructions, meaning different forces that as if work around him and if he wants to go against them, to do something against them. That’s within his reason: “He influences, he obstructs, this is so; I, me, myself” and so on. Transcending these calculations (by understanding) that there’s only one force that operates, and it operates clearly and openly is called “going above reason.”

[Hence only by doing this]…can he observe Torah and Mitzvot [in a true form].

This means through the Light, called Torah, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice” because the Light in it reforms a person.

Why? Our desire is egoistic. This is our nature. Since we are built as a result of the breaking of 620 desires and in each and every desire, the Upper Force appears to us as a force against a desire. Meaning, we feel the influence of the Creator theoretically, as 620 forces that operate on “me.” These 620 forces are disconnected. I discover each force within my tiny broken desire, which is not connected to all the other desires. That’s how my soul is broken and contains 620 parts—620 desires.

Hence it seems to me that there are 620 sources of influence on me. How do I unite them? If I unite all these desires in one direction, discovering in them the one source that influences me, to this extent, I also reach equivalence with that source because it is possible to unite my desires only on the condition that I unite them together in bestowal.

Then he reaches the decision that no one can help him to observe Torah and Mitzvot, but the Creator Himself. Meaning, to correct his desires, which is called “keeping Mitzvot” through the Upper Light, the Upper Force, the One, unique and unified that will come and correct each and every desire in order to unite with all the other desires.

But he doesn’t always have the strength to overcome above reason [to ask for it to happen]...

If this doesn’t exist on the part of man, and if he doesn’t awaken and ask, or is unaware and doesn’t admit the need to correct himself so that the whole world will seem corrected to him, then…

…he’s forced to deviate from the way...from the way of the Creator...

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If he doesn’t have an understanding and a connection between what he is made of—different forces, different desires, through which he sees the Creator as a scattered force that influences him from many directions, (if he thinks) that he corrects himself not through Torah and Mitzvot, but, seemingly, through his own strength, then he comes to a state where he completely leaves the right attitude needed to progress. And this is called “being forced to deviate from the way of the Creator even not for Her name.”

And he, who always feels that the shattered is greater than the whole…

“The whole,” meaning that one stands in the middle line, a line called “the line of Ein Sof,” that brings a person from this world, through all the worlds to the Dvekut—endless Dvekut.

“The shattered” means that he breaks from this line in different directions, where he doesn’t work to unite with all the forces of the Creator, and doesn't believe that everything comes from Him. Instead, one begins to tend to life's obstructions by himself. This is what humanity has been dealing with for thousands of years. That’s the difference between the method of Abraham, who discovered that everything in life happens only in order to unite it with the Creator.

This is what we have to progress to in our lives, instead of tending to forces and apparent reasons why we’re in this imaginary reality. We should not continue to develop technology, culture, and education, etc., just to move on in life, trying to work against all kinds of forces that come from a variety of sources and seem to work against us in different situations for all kinds of reasons…

That was the argument between Abraham and the residents of Ur of the Chaldees; this is why he left. They developed the belief that a person arranges his own life. Abraham said, “No, there is only one force that arranges our lives and we have to work on unity; we have to work on discovering Him in all situations.”

They couldn’t accept this method because as the will to receive grew, it started showing them more than one force, it showed them many forces. They started to bow to many reasons and many forces while Abraham passed this phase and discovered that there is only one force that operates in the world.

That’s the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and everything else that exists in the world, it doesn’t matter if it’s religions, others beliefs, or man’s work in life, it’s all the same. Everything works only to distract a person from the unity, which has to be obtained de facto.

In order to bring a person out of his broken big, opposite egoistic desire to the goal, he must come to a state of despair since he is unable to unite these forces around him. He begins to feel…

…that there are a lot more descents that ascents.

For him, this is as if descent and ascent. He is completely confused by the descent, and the ascent too, it is something incomplete to him. During the ascent he perhaps remembers that there’s a Creator, but it seems to him that he can create the unity himself, and that he is able to do something on his own, that he is able to make an effort to reach the goal.

These efforts that he makes will eventually show him that only the Creator can do this. That he should turn to the Creator, to raise MAN, to build his MAN. Only this will help him in these states. But for the time being, a person…

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…does not see an end to these predicaments…

He sees that there is no end to this. He despairs in his strength, effort and understanding. He is unable to see his own effort and even if he succeeds, he is unable to see that these apparent successes promote him.

…he’ll forever remain outside of Holiness...

He is unable to correctly interpret what Holiness is. For now, coming closer to the Creator appears to him in all kinds of different ways. Holiness is interpreted through his corrupted vessels and his egoistic desires, as a higher force, an understanding of bestowal and attainment, in scrutiny and perception. It seems to him that this is Holiness. In this too, he needs to go though failures in order to understand exactly what Holiness means. The real Holiness, if one is able to reach this, if he has a true desire for this. It is called “MAN.”

...for he sees that it is difficult for him to observe even as little as a jot, unless through overcoming above reason…

This means above one's own nature. These are very high discernments, when a person understands that he cannot make any correct effort or attain anything with his own strength.

...but he is not always able to overcome. And what shall be the end of it all?

This means that through all the incidents, each time, while trying to discover unity and determining that he is unable, though various angles, methods and incidents, he discovers what he wants. He has different pictures of what he wants every time, and he is unable to reach it.

Then [as a result of this] he reaches a decision…

Since our broken desires, with respect to the One Upper Force, appear as many forces that come from all kinds of disconnected directions, when he rejects of all these manifestations, then he comes to the state of deciding. Meaning, a decision comes out of the final scrutiny of a person. He must scrutinize everything, it is impossible to come to a resolution if there is anything left to scrutinize. That's why our work is accelerating the revelation, the scrutiny. And what is the decision that he reaches?

…that no one can help him, but God Himself.

It means that there is only one force that can bring a person out of this state, and there has to be a huge desire to come out of it, in order to not forget about it, or fall asleep and somehow leave it. There has to be a great desire to progress despite the obstructions and the despair about one's progress in order to enter this new state.

These are two completely opposite sensations. One sensation is that I feel despair about my own strength; and the other sensation is that I have to reach it. Normally, one crushes the other. If we scrutinize in an ordinary way for a person in this world, this is how it happens. But if a person progresses correctly, it doesn’t happen. Why? Because he receives the attraction to it from Above and the despair comes from himself. These two forces appear to come from two sources, and therefore one doesn’t extinguish the other.

In us desires die out, we despair, leave them and eventually die. This is the reason that our body dies, because everything comes from one source. Nature is egoistic and that’s it. As much as I want to receive and use this source, this force, I live. When I despair, I die. The will to receive stops desiring and no longer finds any livelihood for itself.

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Why is spirituality eternal? Because it is nourished by two sources; two contradicting things exist in it. That’s how it is with respect to us, but not with respect to the Creator. For us, it is “existence from existence”—the point of Light, and “existence of absence”—this is me. If desperation comes from only one source, then it doesn’t extinguish the other source. I feel despair within myself, but if I’m feeling despair correctly, then I am able to increase the other point from that—the source of Light. That is why my despair doesn’t kill me, doesn't put me in the grave.

On the contrary, it increases my desire and my resolution that the Creator can, and is able to do this. This is why a person should test and see that he’s progressing correctly, making sure that his despair doesn’t extinguish his forces for progress. If his despair simply drains the strength out of him, then it’s a sign that he’s inside the will to receive only. He didn’t work correctly; these two lines do not operate on him, the right and left. He didn’t arrange his connection with the other force correctly—the force of bestowal.

You need two forces: one opposite the other: a feeling of hopelessness with one's own strength and the need, readiness, conviction that the Creator indeed is able to do this, that I can force Him to do it. Meaning, the despair is one force, and a desire for the Creator is another force. These are the two big forces that should be there. Despair is not a weakness; it is interpreted in us as a revelation of the true state of who I am, what I’m capable of. It’s very important.

This causes him to make a heartfelt demand...

This is called “a real demand,” when these two forces—one's despair and the discovery that only the Creator can do it—both operate equally. The despair is very strong and it doesn’t appear as a loss of strength; it appears as a decision in knowledge and scrutiny, the awareness that I with my own strength cannot do it. So what can be done? Correspondingly, it appears that the Creator can do it. I discover that there’s another force operating here that is able. And now I operate that desire, which is now doubled from the previous one.

We can picture it for the time being in our egoistic understanding, as me constantly wanting to work with my own strength, and then I discover that someone can do it, but will not until I ask him. I approach him with a demand, with cruelty, with assertiveness, and I compel him and I pressure him, and I get mad at him; I double the appeal.

[He has a real demand of the Creator] to open his eyes and heart, to bring him nearer to eternal adhesion with God.

We can’t talk about the nature of this demand, but it has to be in full concentration of all the desires and forces that a person is in at that moment. His whole life, all his efforts, all his decisions and discernments are now all concentrated in this plea, in this cry, in this demand. And then it happens.

It follows then, that all the rejections he had experienced…

It seemed to him in all kinds of ways that the Creator was rejecting him. He felt that others were obstructing him throughout his life, that he was unable, stupid, forgetful and so on—all kinds of reasons, and the Creator was there with them—now he is discovering that all…

…had come from the Creator.

That means that the rejections he experienced were not because he was at fault [and thus faced obstructions]…

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This is the way we need to unite everything in our life, and not because I’m to blame. I’m at fault because He created me this way.

…for not having the ability to overcome [No one can overcome. Now he discovers this by himself], but because rejections are for those who....

If the Creator created a person in order to bring to Dvekut (adhesion), then because the Creator wants this, a person really desires closeness with the Creator, for the Creator gave him this desire.

And in order for such a person not to be satisfied with only a little [leave everything half way], namely, not to remain as a little child [insufficiently evolved or in the middle of the way] without knowledge [Knowledge means Hochma, Bina, and Da'at (the attainment of Godliness). In order to draw him closer], he receives help from above [How does the Creator help a person?] so that he will not be able to say that Thank God, he observes Torah and performs good deeds and what else could he ask for?

He doesn’t have the Torah, he doesn’t have Mitzvot, and he’s unable to do any good deeds, meaning that nothing comes and makes any changes in him. Until he turns to the source, this does not happen.

It seems to us while sitting down with the book to study, I’m aiming for the Surrounding Light to operate on me and influence me during the study in order to rise and progress. What could be more egoistic than this demand? “We are together with the group; we can reach it, we can obtain the goals, we can be great, we’ll be strong, we, we, we” It’s even more egoistic.

And you can’t avoid picturing these thoughts or objectives. But gradually, it should come to a sense of despair and the understanding that here you should discover unity that all the desires, thoughts and prayers within us are not our own, and the One Who operates, discloses, discovers, and pulls us—is all one force.

First of all, a person discovers, “I have the Torah and Mitzvot, I have everything, I am not lacking a thing.” He feels that he’s in an ascent; he interprets it as an ascent. But then comes what appears to be a descent. This is when the Creator begins to show him all kinds of obstructions. A person begins to feel, “Oi vey, what did I fall into? Why is the Creator doing this to me, or why do I deserve this? I was in such a great state.”

Actually he was in a very egoistic state. Now he gets help from Above to shake him up and remove some of his egoism, and he begins to complain about why this was done to him.

And only if that person has a true desire [which, of course, the Creator planted in him from the start], he will receive help from Above. And he is constantly shown how his faults in his present state [after the ascents, when he feels as good strong and successful]; that is, he is sent thoughts and views, which work against his efforts. This is in order for him to see that he is not one with the Lord.

He discovers only one thing in his ascent. When you feel an ascent right now, do you feel the Creator, or is it your pride and your ego? One is shown what he’s missing and that’s the state of ascent, so he will then begin to feel himself as opposite to the Creator. This is so that he will discover the unity, the true ascent.

As much as he overcomes, he always sees how he’s found in a position farther from Holiness…

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Meaning that all his successes bring him to a state where particularly from success he realizes that he doesn't see the Creator in seemingly good states. He begins to see how the Creator arranges everything for him.

[And how far he is] from Holiness than others, [Meaning that when he looks at others, to him it feels like they] feel one with the Lord.

That’s how it seems to a person, but in reality it’s not the truth to those other people. We look at the whole world and everyone seems relatively okay, quiet. We are the only ones that seem to have doubts and problems; we’re frustrated and we thrust from one state to another. The rest have some sort of perception and they easily progress, they live nicely.

But he, on the other hand, always has his complaints and demands, and he cannot justify the behavior of the Creator, how He behaves toward him. And it pains him that he is not one with the Lord…

You see how Baal HaSulam describes the progress of a person, what ascents and descents, what kind of scrutiny he’s in, how he progresses from scrutiny to scrutiny. First it's me, then maybe it's someone else, next maybe the Creator, and finally, maybe everything is from Him. These are my decisions, these come from Him and what should I obtain from all of that, etc, etc?

(Baal HaSulam tells) how a person, through this spiral, through these ups and downs, constantly continues to progress, and ascends in his scrutinizing, realizing that there has to be the Upper Force, his attitude towards It, how the Upper Force unites everything and how it all comes from Him. It positively comes from Him, and it’s just me who interprets it negatively, etc.

Then he comes to a state in his sensations where he questions why he doesn't feel that the Creator is always operating on him as “Good and Benevolent.” Meaning, since it comes from Him in both the positive and negative, then why am I not feeling it? Why then do I have two sensations in me? I always want to be in a positive sensation, feeling that “There is none else beside Him,” feeling a single source of goodness.

It pains him that he is not one with the Lord, until he comes to feel that he has no part in holiness whatsoever. [Meaning he cannot unite everything into one force – the good force.]

Although he is occasionally awakened from Above, which momentarily revives him…

The Creator doesn't show him the true states according to good sensations which he interprets as ascents, but rather he interprets ascents according to the correct discernment of Dvekut.

But soon after he falls into an abyss.

If the Light sustains him, he scrutinizes everything correctly, and if the Light leaves him, he falls into his own nature.

However, this is what causes him to come to realize that only God can help him [in what?] and really draw him closer.

This is the basic article about all of man's work. That's why I put it in the book first. I received it when I began to drive the Rebe, while I was still studying with Hillel Gelbshtein. I came to Rabash in February, well, a short while after Pessach, between Pessach and Shavuot. I remember that we were driving to a doctor once in Tel Aviv. It was before he went

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into the hospital because of his ear. He told me, “I'll give you something” and he gave me this notebook Shamati and I immediately photocopied it. Well, he probably thought that I would photocopy it, since I had no choice, if I had to give it back to him.

This article was the first article there. I could hardly understand much from it, except for the idea of unity. Generally, it is clear globally, that we have to reveal this. In various ways it operates on us in order to reveal it in different incidents, and in what process of development—this is revealed later on, from one's experience.

We said that the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is intended to bring a person to the perception of the actual reality, because all a person needs to do is to feel the state he is actually in. One's tools of perception only perceive a small part of reality and they even corrupt its perception. That small part of reality that one incorrectly perceives is called "this world."

The goal of the method of Kabbalah is to correct this perception and expand it to a state where one will feel himself in full perception, will sense where he actually is and what force he is connected with. This is the purpose of all our actions: the studies, our efforts in the group and in dissemination. All of this is to correct one's tools of perception, to reach the revelation of actual reality or the revelation of the Upper Force, the Creator.

This process is like a calibration where a person has to do all kinds of actions without knowing in advance what the benefit will be. First he corrects his tool of perception and then feels a new phenomenon within it. Next he makes some other correction or change within himself and then he feels something new again.

Since a sensation comes as a result of correction, of change within a person, then while one is changing himself during the correction, the calibration, the inner work, he doesn’t feel the need for it. He doesn’t know why he does it, or what it adds to himself. That’s why it is so difficult, and it is said that he goes from disclosure to revelation every time. In all these articles, Kabbalists explain to us, as much as possible, what the steps are, the discernments that one experiences in this gradual correction that a person puts himself through.

What does Baal HaSulam write?

"A man must always try and cleave to the Creator..."

It’s a tip. If a person makes all kinds of efforts and arranges all kinds of support systems around him to help remind him that one has to go back to that one thought, that everything depends on the One Force within which we exist, then he will correct himself more quickly and discover the next state. This is because a person is in a reality where the present reality affects him and compels him to act accordingly, and if he relates only to the reality which he feels now, he’ll remain in it forever.

The condition for coming to a new state, a new degree, is for him to picture himself already in it. That is why a person needs the writings of Kabbalists who describe the next state to him. When a person reads about it and somehow tries to picture it, to want it, to ask for these states to come onto him, to clothe him, to already be in that state, through this, a person activates forces from the next state to influence his present state and pull him forward. This is the whole trick, the principle of progressing from degree to degree.

Baal HaSulam also explains in Item 155, in the Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot. Here he gives us the same rule, "a man should always try and cleave to the Creator"—try. It’s not that he is presently in this state, but as much as he can, he should picture what it

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means to be more connected to the Upper Force that operates on him on a higher degree, in a more advanced state.

What does adhere more to the Creator mean?

[It means that] all one's thoughts are about Him.

But that is already the Gmar Tikkun (end of correction). No, it's not the Gmar Tikkun, because every time a person discovers only the desires that he is able to work with. Only to the extent and way that these desires and attributes appear in him can he cleave to the Creator. Therefore the height, the depth of the desires, the corruptions that appear in them, the measure and the various ways within these desires and thoughts that pull a person in all kinds of directions in order to obstruct him and show him the principle that he is in One Force and that "there is none else beside Him," appear in such a way that if a person overcomes them and tries to connect all of them to One Source, he can reach it for a moment. These efforts build a foundation in him for the next degree or the next state.

That is to say, that even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater descent…

A person forgets that he is in One Force, that One Force operates, that It is benevolent, and It wants to promote him to the goal. Instead he is confused by the forces that the Creator operates on him, and begins to forget about the Creator. He thinks that these forces have their own authority and that they operate on him. He begins to defend himself against them and becomes confused, thinking that he should just move on, like every person in our life, who feels life as he is born and lives in this human society. This is called the worst descent.

Still, within this descent, sometimes he has a tiny thought about the One Source that operates on him. Then he should muster the forces, the efforts to "...not leave His domain." What is this domain?

…to think that there is another authority which prevents him from entering into holiness…

(He should think) that the Creator confuses him and arranges all of these obstructions in thoughts and desires through all kinds of people and all kinds of incidences, and that there is no other force...

…which has the power to either benefit or harm.

That is, he must not think that there is a matter of the power of the Other Side (Sitra Achra), which does not allow man to do good deeds...

That is, one should not think that there is another force or source besides the Creator. We learn about ABYA de Kedusha and ABYA de Klipa, that there’s Kedusha (sanctity) and there’s Klipa (impurity) and they are seemingly struggling with each other. That’s what people think in this world, because they can’t connect good and bad together. They (these forces) are so opposite in our world and the whole of reality, they seem hateful to one another and so far apart, and a person is in between them.

Therefore our whole work is to connect both of them to One Source. The good (that appears) as the bad, and the bad (that appears) as the good, they both come from the Creator in order to work on a person. There is no evil, but this is how the Creator relates to a person in order to shake him up through his uncorrected attributes.

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Through strength and through attention, one should connect the bad and the good influences to Him, through all kinds of incidences and disguises, and "follow God’s ways."

What does this mean? That "all is done by the Creator." There is no other force, including a person himself who can do anything. What is a person? A person has only a point that can unite all of these influences to One Source. That is the only role of man, his entire existence, all that he should worry about, everything that should happen as a result of his efforts in life.

The Ba’al Shem Tov said, that he who says that there is another power in the world [besides the Creator]. Namely shells, [even the evil forces that are opposite to the Creator who is good] is in a state of "serving other gods," [When one believes that there is another force, it is said that he is an idol worker.] that it is not necessarily the thought of heresy that is the sin...

In other words, (that is not necessarily a sin) when he says that there is no Creator, that there is the power of nature. No. If it seems to him that there is something else, say, a friend or a country, forces, rulers, natural forces, the still, vegetative, animate levels that are working on him; and these forces have an independent authority and are not operating through the Creator, then that person is considered to be committing idolatry. He does not see the Creator as the One who operates on him through them, but instead believes that they have some kind of independence, their own authority, meaning that they have their own strength to decide what to do, to harm him or to benefit him.

This produces many questions, such as how one should relate to the environment, to others, to friends, to anyone. But if a person begins to systematically try to see this One Force through all the disguises that appear to him in his world, in his life, then through these efforts he begins to discover the right way to connect things and how to behave in this new philosophy of life, in this attitude toward life, toward reality without being confused and without erring.

The effort is what’s important. The effort in itself builds the right attitude. It’s not like those who say: "The Creator does everything; I don’t care what happens, good or bad. And whoever works on me, it is not a person's actions, it is all the Creator. A person who treats me badly should beat me again; if someone harms me, it’s not that bad"—this is also incorrect. That attitude creates all kinds of mistakes in behavior, and all that was done in religions by those who do not perceive that "there is none else beside Him."

But the effort in connecting to the right source, through the right guidelines of genuine Kabbalists, allows a person to progress, leads to the discovery of this One Force, and builds in him the right attitude.

…but if he thinks that there is another authority and force separate from the Creator, by that he is committing a sin.

This means that he is already erring from the attainment of the goal. That’s the meaning of a sin. It isn't that he sins in doing something bad to the Creator. How can one do something bad to the Creator if He doesn’t have a will to receive? Sinning means that one is not correctly headed toward the attainment of the goal.

Furthermore, he who says that man has his own authority, meaning that he says that yesterday he himself did not want to follow God’s ways; this too is considered to be committing the sin of heresy.

A person who commits heresy is someone who thinks for one minute, for one instance, that it doesn’t come directly from the Creator only.

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Meaning that he does not believe that only the Creator leads the world.

"Believing," in Kabbalah means "feeling," "discovering." Why? Faith is the force of Bina. Bina is the force of bestowal. When a person has the strength to bestow, according to the equivalence of form, he discovers and feels the Creator as being entirely the Force of Bestowal. Then a person believes that only the Creator leads the world.

We also learn this from the wisdom of Kabbalah itself. We learn that the Creator created the will to receive, a point of desire, existence from absence. And afterwards everything that happens with this point is its evolvement through the Light, bestowal. If the Force of Bestowal had not connected to that point of desire, that raw point of existence from absence, then that point would be unable to move.

In other words, all the changes within the desire always come through the Light. The Light shakes up the Kelim. The Force of Bestowal is the only one that acts within matter. If it weren't for the breaking of the vessels, when the sparks of Light that entered the will to receive, then the will to receive would be motionless, dead, since what force could make it move? All the forces to move come from the Reshimot, the Lights that left some impression in the desire, and then the desire rises, to want something or to do something, because in the desire itself there is no power to do anything.

We also learn this from Dalet Behinot de Ohr Yashar (four phases of the Direct Light). The more the Light connects and enters the desire by filling it, by showing the desire the Source of Light, the attribute of the Creator, the Host along with the refreshments, through this It plays with the guest. The guest only wants to enjoy, but he can’t move in any direction without the pleasures that the Host introduces to him, and the appearance of the Host before him.

The Creator leading the world means that He leads through pleasures with respect to one's will to receive (which is called "Liba" (heart)) and through this awareness, the sensation of the Source, the purpose, and the process (that’s the way of "Mocha" (mind)). The Creator is the Force that manages one through these channels, through the pleasures and their recognition, and without Him there is no other Force.

But when he has committed a sin [Meaning he becomes detached from this perception] and he must certainly regret it…

Why did one commit a sin? What is the reason that a one becomes detached? Why did he forget about the Source of Life, the source of reality?

… but here too we should place …[this] …in the right order…

Who did this to him and what the reason was that the Creator did this to him? This also comes from the Good and Benevolent Source. Besides relating these things to One Source, arranging them this way, there is now another discernment: "Why should I perform these acts of unification? Do I perform these acts in order to be happy, secure, and to feel good? Thank God there’s One Eternal Force that cares about me. There is none else beside Him. He operates on me, and I am within him like a fetus in my mother's womb. I'm under His control, and thank God whatever happens, everything happens for the best, etc."

Either a person increases his confidence by this so that he is able to soothe his Kelim, thus ending up being a user, a receiver. Or the same pain that one feels from being detached from thinking, feeling and perceiving the Creator as the One Single Force is because through this a person causes Him sorrow. That is, these efforts should not be for the person himself.

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Why should a person perceive reality correctly? What’s the result? What does one want to happen? Say, a person perceives reality correctly: the Creator operates alone, He comprises and controls everything. Then what? Why should one do this work, make all these efforts? It is to feel comfortable, confident in control, in a state of "thank God He does everything. I relaxed my heart and felt that everything is okay in my mind, and I'm at peace"? Is this the goal? What would be the result of these efforts?

Baal HaSulam says that now one has to arrange the pain and sorrow that he feels because he previously couldn’t do it. The fact that a person was unable to arrange this before is because the Creator arranged these states for him so that he was unable. What does one regret? A person regrets the Creator’s bad attitude toward him or he regrets not being able to arrange his previous states, the state that he was in a moment ago when he was connected to the Creator with his mind and heart, and with that he was still unable to do good to Him. That’s what Baal HaSulam says.

…here too we should place the pain and sorrow: where does he place the cause of the sin, that it is that point he should be sorry for.

In the end, one either regrets it, or on the contrary, one is happy. Who gains and who loses? Why does a person, advancing, make the unification of "Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one" as Baal HaSulam explains this in the Letters on page 64?

And a man should then feel sorry and say: "I committed [I committed] a sin because the Creator hurled me down from holiness…

In other words, it wasn’t man's doing, but His. He threw the person out of sanctity. Of course if the person was outside the unification with Him called "holiness," even for a moment, is because He did it.

[He threw me] ...to a place of filth, to the lavatory, where the filth is."

The filthy things are all alien thoughts that a person has, which he cannot tie with the Creator as thoughts that connect him to the Creator directly.

That is to say that God gave him a desire and a craving to amuse himself and breathe air in a place of stench.

What does that mean? At that moment, a person was not controlled by the attributes of bestowal. They are called Fresh Air.

(And one might say, as it says in the books, that sometimes a man incarnates in the body of a pig, that he receives a desire and craving to take livelihood from things he had already determined were litter, but now he again wants to revive himself in them).

This means that he vomited these things before, but now he eats them again.

And also when a man feels he’s in a state of ascent, [Not in descent, as Baal HaSulam was talking about in the previous section] and tastes some good flavor in the work, he must not say: "Now I am in a state where I understand that it is worthwhile to worship God." [Where does one get these thoughts, that nice pleasant sensation?] Rather he should know that now the Lord has fancied him [that now the Creator arranges these sensations and states in him now.]…

To a person it seems like a good state or a bad state, a place of stench, or a place of holiness. The Creator takes him through all these states.

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What is the reason that it is sometimes the Creator treats him like this, and sometimes like that? We cannot calculate it accurately because a person is only a tiny particle of a huge system of souls interconnected in the single body of Adam ha Rishon (the First Man). It’s impossible for one corrupted person, one corrupted cell to calculate this with respect with the whole body, to which it should provide its correct participation. That’s why a person is unable to calculate this in any way. That will only be possible at the end of the general correction of all the souls, of all of these cells, when a person comes to sense the general life of the body. It’s a huge degree.

This whole body is corrected already. It’s in the Gmar Tikkun (end of correction). Aside from the person who is now making the effort to unite these things to the One Source that operates in this general body, everything is corrected. When a person progresses and attaches himself to all the cells; when he prepares himself to serve the whole body, taking only what’s necessary for his existence and (using) everything else to participate in the life of the general body, in bestowal for everyone, he comes to the degree, when he participates in this general life of the body more and more, until he reaches the last degree called the Gmar Tikkun.

Only then can he make the right calculations, because he discovers everything, and he now belongs to the system, he is now integrated in all the cells correctly. Only then can he know why the Creator previously treated him in ways that were seemingly bad or seemingly good. It was as if he was fancied by the Creator one time, and as if the Creator kicked him out another time. Only from the degree of the Gmar Tikkun does a person begin to see.

But then a person can’t say that once the Creator didn’t love him, that He rejected him, and another time He brought him closer and loved him. Obviously, these are the words of a person who is still on the way, talking about his impressions from the changes that he senses on the part of the Creator.

Baal HaSulam writes that in any case…

…he should be careful never to leave the domain of holiness, [What’s the domain of holiness?] and say that there is another operating force besides the Creator. (But this means that the matter of finding favor in the eyes of the Lord, or the opposite [not finding it], does not depend on man himself, but everything [comes from Above] depends on God. And man, with his external mind, cannot comprehend why now the Lord likes him and after that He does not).

"External mind" means that a person is still not integrated in the system, he is not an inseparable part immersed in the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form, which enables him to understand all of the Creator’s actions and thoughts. Without this, he cannot justify or even understand what happens to him and why is it so.

We said more than once that a person divides the influences on him into good and bad from within his own attributes, according to the sensation in the desires, as it is said, "Everyone judges by his own defect." If the desires are egoistic, a person feels good when the desires are filled; if desires are altruistic, one feels good when he can bestow, give.

Accordingly, a person determines how the Creator treats him. If "there is none else beside Him," then One Force arranges his corrections, gives him the possibilities to feel the phenomena in the desires this way. Only to the extent that a person corrects his desires according to the Creator, does he acquire, together with the desires, along with them and according to their correction, the right intellect to understand why it happens this way in spirituality, in bestowal.

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Interestingly, then, he connects all the previous states that he’s experienced to the present states as well, and they all operate as one. He sees and feels that the Creator never treated him badly. But it seemed that way to him because he was detached from uniting everything to "there is none else beside Him."

This principle of "there is none else beside Him" is the source of all evil and all good in the mind and in the heart, in the sensations and the confusion that we have in life.

And likewise when he regrets that the Creator does not draw him near, he should also be careful not to feel sorry for himself…

It other words, a person asks, "Why doesn’t the Creator bring me closer? Where are You? Why don't You finally do something?"

It seems to us that prayer, raising MAN is seemingly when a person gets mad and shouts and cries. It also written that, "The people of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage." But what’s this sigh? What is the weakness and pressure that a person should discover so that something will happen to him? With respect to what discernment? Baal HaSulam says that…

…he should also be careful not to feel sorry for himself [a person shouldn't want to improve his own state for himself], for having been distanced from the Creator, for by so doing he becomes a recipient for his own benefit ["I want to come closer, I want to feel good and justify the Creator"—"I." So then what?], and he who receives is separated from the Creator.

Of course, this demand doesn’t get the response from Above. It is separated from that very force "there is none else beside Him," which can influence him, open up and correct his Kli. This is because that demand is still not the right Kli for correction. When a person cries, it’s as if he is not heard, because his cries are still for that will to receive that he’s in. What’s to correct if a person complains about not having anything in his box, in his vessel of reception.

Rather he should regret the exile of the Divine Presence…

He should be entirely detached from his Kelim, whether they’re filled with the understanding and perception or not. He should not ascribe any results or phenomena of rising to the next phase to himself so that his request is entirely detached from him. It is like a cell in the body that cares only about the other cells and how to benefit them.

...meaning, for inflicting sorrow upon the Divine Presence [anguish to the Creator]…

Why should one think that way? Can the Creator feel sorrow? He is in bestowal. He is in superiority and Godliness. He doesn’t have vessels of reception. How can He feel good or bad from anything that a person can do or induce to His state?

We are talking about the Host who loves the guest and wants to give him. With respect to giving to the guest, we say that the Host is happy if the guest is happy, and the Host regrets if the guest is sorry. It’s not that the guest does anything to the Host, but with respect to the guest, that’s how He expresses His state.

That’s what we call the joy of Divinity or the sorrow of Divinity. Divinity comes from the Hebrew word Shochen (dweller) in the creatures. If It dwells in them, this means that He is happy with them for being given the chance to dwell in them, like the Host who is happy to give what He has to the guest. If the guest cannot do this, then the Host feels sorrow.

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…meaning, for inflicting sorrow upon the Divine Presence.

One should take as an example when a small organ of a person is sore [say a little finger]. The pain is still felt mainly in the heart and mind…

If a person has a little thorn in his little finger, that’s it. He can’t think about anything else, or be happy about anything until he gets rid of that little pain. It only shows how much a little pain can influence the whole body.

If a person is a small cell in the whole of Adam ha Rishon, the common soul, and he is corrupted, then that corruption is felt in all the other cells, within the whole system. That cell suffers not because there is a little thorn in it, but because through it, the pain goes to all the other cells. If a person suffers not for himself, but for the pain that he causes the whole body, the corruption he causes within the entirety of souls, and because the Creator can’t unite with them and dwell in them, then this is called the real, correct sorrow. This is what he should really regret.

A person should not take into account his own little pain, but try to be connected to all the other cells in such a way that he feels the pain that he causes in them with his own corruption. Then his corruption will not seem so small to him or only at his own expense. "Why am I so corrupted? Shouldn't I deserve to have something?" He should feel his corruption and the kind of corruption that he causes others. He should feel how he is unavoidably in them since the whole system is built like that, and how he causes pain to the Creator who can’t connect, clothe in this system, be in all the souls because of this corrupted Kli of a private person.

The pain is still felt mainly in the heart and mind, which are the generality of man. [It’s the same with the general system of the souls.] And certainly the sensation of a single organ [a little cell] cannot resemble the sensation of a person’s full stature, where most of the pain is felt.

Likewise is the pain that a person feels when he is detached from the Lord…

Even when he doesn’t relate it to himself, but to how much he would like to do good to the Creator, if he thinks only of himself and not about the whole system, that too is a Klipa. In this too, he is considering his own perception rather than acting from within a general system, in respect to the Creator.

…since man is but a single organ of the Divine Presence [the entirety of all souls. Divine Presence (Shechina) is the Kli where the Creator (Shochen) dwells.], for the Divine Presence is the soul of Israel in general. [Meaning that those are desires that want Dvekut (adhesion).] Therefore the sensation of a single organ does not resemble the sensation of the pain in general. That is to say that the Divine Presence regrets that there are parts of it that are detached from it, which she cannot provide for.

There is a general desire of the system of Adam ha Rishon that must be corrected and be a Kli for the reception of all the Upper Light.

(And that might be the meaning of the words: " When a man regrets, the Divine Presence says: " It is lighter than my head" ). And if man does not relate the sorrow at being distant from God to himself, he is saved from falling into the trap of the desire to receive for himself, which is the separation from holiness.

The best means for a person to know whether he is in the right direction with respect to the Creator, to judge, decide and progress, is when his sensation and understanding of how the Creator treats him and his feelings toward the Creator go through the system of the

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souls. That’s the only solution to be correctly connected to the Creator and to calibrate himself in the right direction toward Him, and not toward some imaginary goal to something else.

The same applies when one feels somewhat closer to holiness, when he is happy at having merited favor in the eyes of the Lord…

He feels happy because of this. It is not because he controls or decides this. What is this joy? Is this joy from the vessels of reception or vessels of bestowal?

…he must say that the core of his joy is that now there is joy in the Divine Presence…

One should discern and see if he is happy because he is detached from the result of happiness in his Kelim and happy for giving the Creator an opportunity to clothe within the rest of the souls in the general system, and that gives him joy. If he sees himself as a worker, who operates the general system of the souls toward the Creator, then this is sacred joy; otherwise it’s for oneself.

In this too there can be an incorrect thought that, "I did this act, and I made the Creator happy." This too, should be tested to see that it doesn’t increase his pride, and causes even more corrupted desire than before. The more he serves others, meaning takes the results as joy or worry of others instead of his own, by that he is saved from being a receiver.

[He is happy] …that now there is joy in the Divine Presence, from being able to bring her private organ [a person] near her [to give in such a way that he will make a place for the appearance of Light in the general Kli], and not send it away.

That is, (the Divine Presence is not) detaching him from the sensation of the whole system, when a person doesn’t feel the system, doesn’t think about it and is detached from it. His calculation is not for the individual, but for the general system and the Creator that dwells in the system of the souls.

The system of the souls is entirely corrected and a person sees that his participation, whether correct or incorrect, operates the whole system. By correcting himself, he allows the Creator to enter the Kelim, and by not being able to correct himself for whatever reason, he causes sorrow.

And man rejoices at having been endowed with the ability to please the Divine Presence.

Joy is a result of it, and then it’s not for himself. He is happy with the joy of the Kli that appears in a seemingly unfamiliar, another Kli. But how can he be happy about it? It’s because he connects as an element within that Kli and becomes a partner integrated within it.

And this goes by the same token, because the joy that individual feels is only a part of the joy that the whole feels. And through these calculations he loses his individuality…

(It happens) to such an extent that he becomes detached entirely from himself and stops feeling it. He feels himself immersed in all the other souls and in them he feels his life. It's like a mother and her children. She doesn’t have desires for herself, but only to serve, raise and fill them.

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…and avoids being trapped by the Other Side, which is the will to receive for himself.

He doesn’t have any thought of himself. He entirely loses this calculation, but all these calculations are in seemingly foreign Kelim, wherefore now he connects them to himself. In his attitude toward them he is now in a state of "Love thy friend as thyself."

Although, the will to receive is necessary…

That is, a person works only out of his own nature. He doesn’t become an angel. On the contrary, he needs all of the natural forces in him.

[Thus he has to work from within the will to receive] …since that constitutes a person, since anything which exists in a person apart from the desire to receive is attributed to the Creator. [The Creator gives him these corrections, these additions on top of his will to receive.] Nevertheless, the will to receive pleasure should be corrected to a form of bestowal.

In other words, the pleasure felt within the will to receive, which is actually the whole Kli, is the means that a person has: "What do I feel, good or bad? How do I work now with all that I have in my mind and heart as with my tool, with my weapon?"

[We should come to a state where] …the will to receive pleasure should be corrected to a form of bestowal. That is to say, that the pleasure and joy, taken by the will to receive, should be intended to bring contentment above, because there is pleasure below.

It means that a person is willing to feel the pleasure in him if by this he brings pleasure to the Creator. A person first of all takes His Kli. If he feels His Kli and is certain that he is connected to it, then to the extent that he tests himself and knows that he can now bring Him pleasure through his own enjoyment, to that extent he allows himself to enjoy. Then his enjoyment, his Kli becomes a means to fill the Creator’s Kli.

Does the Creator have Kelim? Does He have a will to receive? Of course not. So how can He regret or enjoy anything that a person can give Him? What does He need: money honor, knowledge? He needs to fill with love, because "it is the nature of Good to do good." Giving Him a chance to do good is called filling Him.

[We should rejoice that it is] to bring contentment above because there is pleasure below. For that was the purpose of creation, to benefit His creations. And this is called the joy of the Divine Presence above.

For this reason [when a person corrects his attitude and has the right connection with the Creator], man must seek advice as to how he can cause contentment above.

That is, (man should seek advice as to) how much he should cleanse himself of all kinds of calculations and sensations so that they become detached from him, but through the general system of the souls, become the cause for the Creator to fill them. Then, that will be his only goal. He’ll operate himself and accordingly, he’ll enjoy in order to bring pleasure to the Creator through the system of Adam ha Rishon.

And certainly, if he receives pleasure, contentment shall be felt above. Therefore, he should long to always be in the King’s palace…

It's not because one is happy to be there, in eternity and perfection. A person should interpret what it means to be in the King’s Palace. It is the vessel of bestowal, "Bina," which controls the will to receive, and then a person reaches Keter, the King’s Palace.

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…and to have the ability to play with the King’s treasures. [That is, with all the Lights that work on all the desires that Creator created in existence from absence and that came to a state that "there is none else beside Him."] And that will certainly cause contentment above. It follows that his entire longing should be for the sake of the Creator.

As we learn, besides the will to receive that was created, yearning is the additional force which a person obtains. We learn about the World of Ein Sof (Infinity), that Malchut de Ein Sof came out of the evolution of the four phases of the Direct Light.

What separates, what is the difference between Malchut de Ein Sof, which is Behina Dalet (Phase Four) and Behina Aleph (Phase One)? Behina Aleph is a desire that was created by the Creator and Behina Dalet has a desire and a yearning. This yearning is the additional force, which Malchut discovers by discovering that there is a Host, the Creator, the Source for the pleasure. The desire feels the pleasure. The yearning is an additional desire with respect to the Giver of the pleasure.

Baal HaSulam says here that "his entire longing," the additional forces that a person discovers by discovering the Creator as the Source, as "There is none else beside Him," everything that he finds "should be for the sake of the Creator," in order to bestow.

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DAILY LESSON & RAV’S BLOG: SELECTED EXCERPTS

Above Hatred, Toward Love

The Book of Zohar, “VaYiera” [And the Lord Appeared], Item 453: Man is created in utter wickedness and lowliness, as it is written, “When a wild ass’ foal is born a man.” And all the vessels in one’s body, meaning the senses and the qualities, and especially the thought serve him only wickedness and nothingness all day. And for one who is rewarded with adhering unto Him, the Creator does not create other tools instead, to be worthy and suitable for reception of the eternal spiritual abundance intended for him. Rather, the same lowly vessels that have thus far been used in a filthy and loathsome way are inverted to become vessels of reception of all the pleasantness and eternal gentleness.

Moreover, each Kli whose deficiencies had been the greatest has now become the most important. In other words, the measure that they reveal is the greatest.

The more we work, the more deeply we penetrate the thickness of the desire and discover more problems, an entire complex of interferences. All this is in order to give enough “flesh” to the evil that is inherent in us and between us. In other words, it is to reveal the breaking.

We are now working on unity and discover the forces that are oppose it until we reveal the breaking on the first, lowest level.

Then, we will have to overcome it. How? We restrict all the forces of separation and darkness. At the same time, they remain because it is impossible to cancel evil. We just rise above it. There is no need to correct everything that we have. It will only get worse. No, we lock our evil within and rise above it. It is said about this, “Love covers all transgressions.” It does not correct flaws, but covers them.

Evil must remain. It is not turned into good, but good is built above evil. Everything is arranged in nature in this way, and this is the key to perfection.

We want to get rid of evil. We do not understand what good is in the wolf eating the sheep. A person reflects on his qualities, lamenting what he has done in life. Don’t eat yourself up. On the contrary, one needs to accept the facts and think about something else: How can he form the opposite properties above it? This is the question: Where is the Light that Reforms? If evil has been revealed, then, obviously, I can build good above it.

In this case, good and evil must be of the same size, and then the middle line appears between them. We will achieve nothing without it and will not come to spiritual interaction (Zivug).

Therefore, we need to identify the necessary state more and more, looking for a way to achieve the first contact with the Creator.

As we make a decision to fully devote ourselves to this effort, we will face all sorts of obstacles, distracting circumstances, external impressions, or we will “soar in the clouds” instead of carrying out the right work. We will be sent various surprises from above, according to the order of our states, and, even if we all strive for unity, we still will face a descent. We can feel in a stronger form provided that we have prepared ourselves well. It is very good because, then, we will have to work on ourselves, to “kiss the rod” that hits us and bless the evil as good.

Hence, one sees the extent to which he is worthy to build the screen (Masach) now. After all, the screen is formed above all the senses, interferences, and troubles that are manifested, and the main thing in this set is hatred. This is what love covers. Without these “transgressions,” we will not come to true spiritual love. It is built only above hatred.

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That is why the technology of virtual communication is flourishing in the modern world. It is in order to reveal hatred. However, to prevent it from turning into a war, we must simultaneously provide people with the method of correction. Everyone will know and understand what is to be done under the circumstances.

This is the only means: unity above separation, love above hatred.

From the 3rd

part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, “From Hatred to Love by the Light that Reforms”

An Honorable Task Of Becoming Righteous

Question: How can we switch from the state of a “sinner” who is unable to justify the Creator to the state of a “righteous man”?

Answer: To feel as a “sinner” is a very good, beneficial, and unavoidable state. While egoism is waking up in you, you are “under the protection of the Torah,” meaning that you have something to lean on: You have the Light that helps you understand that you are experiencing a downfall and descent.

You fall because you haven’t corrected your new desire yet, which is unfolding in you now. Hence, you see yourself as a “sinner.” A “sinner” is a spiritual degree, and a very honorable one. This means that I have reached a state when the Creator realizes that He can load me with an even heavier burden and I will be able to correct it! He seems to be inviting and assigning me a more meaningful, additional job.

But I haven’t corrected this additional load yet; I cannot aim myself at bestowal regarding it yet, so in this state I consider myself a sinner so far. But I don’t blame myself for it; I justify the Creator, thank Him, and rejoice in the opportunity being revealed to me right now.

This is radically different from how ordinary people interpret the word “sinner.” It is a very respectable state. The commander singled me out of the entire company and said: “Only you are capable of carrying out this task!” In other words, I am granted additional burdening of the heart, and I take it on a new combat mission. But for now, I am a wicked man, until I complete it and become righteous.

Pharaoh understood he was a sinner and the Creator was the righteous one. In other words, every state along the spiritual ladder is spiritual. The wicked are exalted degrees preceding the righteous. And so these states come in turns: One time you are a sinner, another a righteous man, and once more, a sinner and a righteous one, over and over again. It’s as though I am walking on both legs: One leg is that of a sinner, and the other of a righteous man.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/2011, Shamati No. 6

The Place Where Sinners Retreat

We work above our matter, the will to enjoy. It has to grow all the time in order for us to grow, creating the form of bestowal and equivalence to the Creator above it.

That is why we don’t experience the growing desire as a disaster. It comes when a person is ready for it. It is written, “The woe that comes to the sinners starts with the righteous.” In other words, the negative forms become revealed in those who used to be righteous, who made an ascent and prepared themselves.

Beginners who don’t understand the method yet are taken aback by this, “Why is it that after all the efforts I made, I am experiencing such negative states?” Suddenly the inspiration is gone and one feels indifferent to everything. However, with experience comes wisdom and a person realizes that the path forward lies through descents and opposition to the egoistic inclination.

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The spiritual goal will always remain a question for me, “Why do I advance? Is it worth it for me to go against my egoism, my nature? Is it normal to work in such great descents, without any aspiration or motivation?” A person feels miserable and helpless, and experiences his state as unworthy and undeserved.

This is precisely the place about which it is written, “The righteous will walk where the sinners will retreat.” The entire matter is that we have to come out of our nature. We shouldn’t nourish it or tend to it, but raise it in order to ascend above it. Every time a person has prepared himself for an ascent, he is sent a new “burdening of the heart” so he would ascend even higher. That is how he advances on the spiritual path.

“A Thousand Times the Righteous Will Fall And Rise Again”

Question: Why is it that my mind understands that the Creator is worthy of being justified for what He is doing to me right now, but I am feeling bad nonetheless? Why can’t I affect my inner state with external actions such as a prayer?

Answer: What your desire is feeling at the moment is, in fact, you. In spirituality, you can’t pretend and say something you don’t feel. You have to come to the correction of your heart. And before anything else, we still have to figure out what exactly is in our hearts.

If you are crying, what is crying in you: your eyes or your heart? That’s the difference! The problem is that everything we do is on the outside, while the science of Kabbalah is the internal wisdom, the inner part of the Torah. You must dig into the heart of hearts, study, and test it.

Then you’ll understand that external actions only stand in your way and cover the authentic image up; they deceive and confuse you. You need to bare your heart and work with it without any outer theatrics, laments, and tears!

If you take a sedative and stop raging, will it really turn a sinner in you into a righteous one? No, everything is evaluated by the inner feeling in the heart. And we know what it is like. We think that all we have to do is to become embittered and make ourselves cry. Kabbalah doesn’t cancel external actions, but it wants them to reflect the internal state since without it being true, our work is pointless, and we won’t fulfill our designation.

Therefore, don’t fear that you’ll have to become a “sinner” at one point and “righteous” at another. They are two stages of the same spiritual degree, as it is said: “One cannot carry out a Mitzva (commandment) unless one breaks it first.” This means that one first undergoes the burdening of the heart (an additional load of egoism), and he is regarded as a “sinner” who broke the “Mitzva” and feels to what extent he is unable to do it.

And then, he gets stronger with the help of the environment, demands the Light that Reforms, corrects his desire, and becomes “righteous,” only to fall again. After all, he receives another dose of egoistic desire and turns into a “sinner” once more, in order to keep correcting himself in order to become “righteous.” It is said: “A thousand times the righteous will fall and rise again.”

Every spiritual degree starts with a new load of egoism, and you start it as “a sinner.” Afterward, you finish correcting it and reach adhesion with the Creator at this degree, and then you are regarded as the righteous.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/2011, Shamati No. 16

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FEEDBACK

From your letters:

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much for the free of charge material. My mother from time to time orders me books, she happened to order me Rav Michael Laitman PhD book “Kabbalah Revealed” which is truly enlightening and he is a brilliant sage. I also read the book you sent me “Kabbalah for Beginners”. It really shined a light on my inner subconscious that controls our behavior that I have been working on, as we know egoism as stated in said book. Yes, it is really something when it can cause one to automatically make up lies just to satisfy our ego, unknowingly until one can become conscious of such and learn to control it (Steve from California).

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...I can’t say it comes as a surprise, yet I am delighted beyond words to read about the way of cause and effect featured in the 9th Issue of your magazine… May the force from above continue its blessing upon each of you for sharing with myself and fellow inmates The True Wisdom of Kabbalah! (Jimmy from California).

…I just want to say thank you and to everybody that collaborates with you. May Hashem bless you with a long life, health, and with everything you need to keep doing your labor in this world, for through your teachings of Kabbalah you are transforming this world. Your studies of Kabbalah are changing my mind and consequently my life. For now I see life

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in a different perspective. I’m concerned with my Ego and now I see I have the intention to change, for I’m sure that Torah and Mitzvot are essential to attain the highest levels of spirituality and wisdom. I see Kabbalah as the ladder to ascend to the Creator. Everything depends on our actions (Francisco from California).

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Friends, thank you for such beautiful words!..

Only together!

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SMILE!

Friends,

We have been actively seeking collaboration with prisons administrations in order to arrange the opportunity for you to get organized into local in-prison groups of Kabbalah students and have a chance to gather together to study.

We have learned that one of the factors that could facilitate this process is the number of students in each facility, i.e. the more students there are the more willing the administration is to talk about a possibility of special arrangements.

We are asking for your help. Please let us know about newspapers/papers/bulletins that are most read in your facility, and we will place our information there. Please don’t hesitate to advise if you are aware of other efficient ways to reach the population of inmates.

*Our friends from Connecticut: your ASAP reply will be highly appreciated as we are currently discussing this issue with the officials in your state and your info would help!

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Friends,

If you want to acquire further books on the wisdom of Kabbalah

read the information below! 1. Please send us the information about the library in your facility; we will start sending

the books there right away (please include a postal address and any other additional info that you think we need to have).

2. Direct your request and the library information to the address: Bnei Baruch USA Kabbalah Research Institute 2009 85th Street, Suite 51 Brooklyn, NY, 11214

3. Don’t send your requests to the Publisher because all the correspondence is

being redirected back to us.

Students from Pennsylvania: We have already sent the first collection of the books to all the libraries of the Pennsylvania prisons. Those of you who are housed in these facilities – request the book from your library!

We are going to do our best to provide you

with as many titles as we can afford

Friends,

It's important for us to know that those of you who get released from prison still stay in touch with us.

You can start by visiting the website of Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center at http://edu.kabbalah.info where you'll be offered a number of self-study courses of different levels

The center broadcasts live classes and provides students with other services like access to the library of authentic Kabbalah materials as well as to a lesson archive and Question and Answer Forum.

When you feel that you are prepared enough to move on, our main informational internet resource at http://kab.tv/ will be your next step. Here you'll find Kabbalah TV Live Stream with daily lessons of Rav Laitman and more.

Also you can join one of our local Kabbalah groups. Let us know about your location upon discharge and we'll hook you up with the closest group in your area.