Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
lowercase italics: emphasized words
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
This is the last talk of this congress and therefore it should be devoted to what precisely we have to correct and carry out when we aren’t together in such a large group, but are physically separated from each other.
Everything the Creator created, every existing thing, besides the Creator’s attribute of bestowal, is the desire to enjoy. The desire to enjoy (in Kabbalah it’s called the “will to receive,” which means to fill) is neither good nor bad. Everything depends on how it is used. The method of how to use it is called the “sacred science.”
It’s because at first a person has no idea at all that he has some intentions and how to use the desire. He wants to do something and does it, as a small child. Then he grows and starts understanding that there are intentions and desires, which are to be concealed, and which, on the contrary, can be used openly. In our world he is taught various wisdoms of how to fulfill himself in the correct, comfortable and maximally optimal way.
This is the essence of the science of a human being. This science covers everything, starting with and including any human relations, eating habits, right behavior, usage of natural resources, creation of various objects of fulfillment; all of which concern development of culture and science. Practically everything a person does is aimed at fulfilling himself. This is a primordial call from inside the nature.
Still, vegetative and human natures act the same way. Atoms rotate, matter keeps itself in a certain construction, crystals unite into molecules, then certain kinds of formations are urged to greater fulfillment, which is achieved via development, propagation, etc. This means that the whole nature at any level, including us as its integral part, which is inside the laws of the nature, is engaged in fulfilling itself.
One should thoroughly understand that it’s the law of nature and it’s an absolute law, just like the law of the Creator is the law of bestowal. Similarly only one law acts in a person – the law of reception. This law of reception is neither good nor bad. It’s the law! It’s the nature! Working against the desire to receive or trying to do anything against it means simply going against the nature.
For this reason, when a person chooses any of his actions or how to treat himself, his own or the other people’s actions and attributes, he has to understand clearly what he is analyzing at the moment: whether it is a desire or an intention. We confuse this all the time. This is the sacred science, Kabbalah – the science of reception. We don’t quite understand where the nature is and where the intention is. The intention isn’t the nature; it’s what is worked out in us as a supplement over the desire to be fulfilled.
Thus, all the correction is the correction of the intention. A person should first study his intentions, and then he should somehow receive an instrument of possessing the intentions and separate the intentions from the desires. Intentions can be only of two kinds: for the sake of one’s own pleasure, fulfillment or for the sake of bestowal, of the other one, the one who is outside of a person. Outside of a person means either humanity or the Creator, which is the same.
There can be any amount of desires. Altogether there are 620 desires, but one can’t clearly define and separate them. There are 248 observant desires and 365 restrictive desires with which it’s forbidden to work, and seven additional, final desires. One doesn’t know it, but these desires are sorted out by their usage regarding the intention.
This means that at first a person should clearly analyze the intentions: what for, why, for which purpose. After that he should start correlating with actions and desires.
There are a lot of questions about various physical actions, such as commandments or some other actions. Actually, there is no need to carry out any actions. It doesn’t matter whether a person is in a body or out of it, because a desire shouldn’t be necessarily realized via any movements or physical actions. It simply emerges, and the intention is analyzed and corrected regarding it: what for, for which purpose, for whom, for the sake of which goal. Physical actions are absolutely unnecessary here.
Actually, in an ideal situation, here in our world, a person could exist in a cave. However, considering the planet’s population, there wouldn’t be enough caves for all the people. But, on the whole, a person can live earning just the necessary amount of money for food and for providing existence of his body. All the other actions, besides the ones aimed at supporting the body, are just the correction by the intention, which isn’t physically expressed via anything.
That’s why it is said: “HaKol Be Machsheva Itbareru,” which means that everything is cleared up, analyzed and corrected only in a thought, in an intention. That’s because it’s the only thing which distinguishes a human being from animals at the next level – the level called “a human being,” and the intention is the only thing we can change.
In any case, one shouldn’t interfere with a desire. It’s the nature: a set of desires and a succession according to which they emerge. One should leave this to the Creator. It’s a spiritual gene, which constantly evolves in a person. He doesn’t have the right to treat it in anyway or to interfere with it. It’s the initial state which the Creator makes for a person within him every time, “You should work upon this” and then the same happens in every next state.
One should perceive the state itself as optimal for his evolvement, “The Creator is absolutely kind, He acts by absolute good. Everything He creates in us and with us at every moment is what we need to come closer to the Goal, to teach us, to give us an opportunity to become like Him”. For this reason, no one should criticize the circumstances. One should accept everything; lower his head and be concerned with the intention of how he accepts the circumstance which descends to him, every time.
This doesn’t mean that a person agrees with everything. This doesn’t refer to how one should act in the physical world. This refers to how one should perceive, work out, analyze and treat what the Creator sends him every moment.
Once I had a terrible problem with a skin disease. Pieces of skin peeled off me baring flesh under it. This began suddenly. I could simply take any piece of skin and peeled it off like a plaster cast. This terrible state lasted for several months. And I asked my Rav, “When will this cease, I simply can’t bear this, I can’t sleep, can’t cover myself with a blanket?” I had special hoops to keep a blanket above me. I couldn’t speak, because my skin was peeling off me. I could hardly move, couldn’t put on anything as clothing stuck to me. It was a terrible state.
And when I broke down and asked him, “What should I do with this?” I remember, he was about to cry, as he spoke the following words, “You don’t imagine what work upon yourself you can carry out now, how you benefit from this.”
The circumstances a person is sent, as a rule, including his personal ones, are unpleasant. That’s because he should learn how to elevate above these circumstances and try to justify the Creator through this concealment: illnesses, problems, various blows and troubles. This way He teaches a person how to elevate above egoism. It isn’t simply an action when a person closes his eyes, because the circumstances, which He gives, are his inner uncorrected states, which the Upper Light illuminates, and this way he sees his contrast to the Light. This contrast to the Light is expressed in these unpleasant states.
But in this case one can ask, “But what happens to great, righteous people?” “We heard how they suffered, what terrible sufferings they underwent already being at such spiritual steps.” The point is that it’s impossible to understand clearly the reason why one or another action or any circumstance descends to a person, whether he suffers for himself or for his relations with the collective Kli, with all the souls or for them. It’s impossible to understand this as well. That’s why the entire science is called sacred.
This means that the connection between the souls, sensations and the path of each soul will be revealed only at the end of correction. As a person evolves, he’ll start sensing how perfect it is, how it’s integrally united into one collective organism. But anyway it’s possible to justify this completely only when everyone is included into the entire corrected Kli in the World of Infinity.
Before this, all the corrections are in the intention only. This means that in his attitude to what is sent by the Creator, a person should keep himself in the intention towards the Goal, in systematic studies and in connection with the environment. With his own small environment, with the group and with the whole world group. A person should make notes during the day, use an alarm clock, have a friend call or a tape-recorder or something that would intentionally return him to the work over analysis: where he is, what he is, for which purpose he exists, why he reacts to what happens to him in such a way, from whom it comes, for which sake and what for.
On the whole, our entire path is a path correction of the intention, which means the relation to what one senses at every moment of his existence.
Our state is the lowest one; altogether there are four stages which lead us to the Goal. They are the following: the double concealment, the single concealment, the single revelation and the double revelation. We are in these two states: the double concealment and the single concealment. When we pass Machsom, the spiritual world then starts.
What does the “spiritual world” mean? It’s justification of the Creator. The extent of justification means adhesion with Him, merger with Him and existence as an integral unit. Because in the spiritual world there are no distances or no opposition. A person can stand next to another one and be against him. It’s possible in the physical world. In the spiritual world, in the spiritual space two spiritual objects move regarding one another only to the extent of similarity.
So to what extent a person understands the Creator, what He does with him or to the extent he can justify Him, that is, understand His plans, to realize their usefulness for a certain goal, to accept this goal as a person’s own, necessary one. A person needs to start loving Him for what He does with a person, contrary to the concealment. It doesn’t matter that this leads a person to terrible states, probably to fears, troubles, various falls and humiliations.
The circumstances may be of any kind. One may say that he deserves what happens to him or that he doesn’t deserve it; this doesn’t matter at all. We are speaking about a certain time span, a certain period where a person is taken at any given moment. Past or future aren’t considered here. One shouldn’t imagine any preconditions, “This happened to me because of something which happened to me in the past or is to happen in the future.” It’s a pure speculation.
Try to free your head from your customary thinking. The spirituality is detached from our world, it doesn’t obey the same laws. Stop analyzing what your Teacher tells you now, from the point of view of what you were taught before.
One should consider the state he’s in and try to agree with the Creator, analyzing it from the viewpoint of Kabbalistic knowledge, especially from using the articles of Shamati, not by some social knowledge, psychology or philosophy he was taught by his parents’ advice. As a result of his customary way of approaching, estimating and analyzing life based on the point of view of Kabbalah, a person should correctly realize the necessity of his every state.
For a person to attain such realization, one should follow a Kabbalists advice who has used only Kabbalistic materials (contained only in the articles and letters of Baal HaSulam and Rabash) on the basis of this material a person examines his circumstances every moment of his existence, when his goal is to justify the Creator – then to this extent a person comes closer, merges, even unites with Him.
The state of double concealment is when a person doesn’t sense the Creator Himself and that His attitude is kind, that the good comes from the Creator. A person doesn’t reveal the Creator Himself and likewise he doesn’t reveal that this is good. This means that a person feels bad to such an extent that this completely overshadows the Creator from him, as if He doesn’t exist. A person forgets and loses sight of the fact that he is under His governance. The Creator is the governance and the good is the attribute of His governance.
A person needs to work with himself seriously, via the group, books, Teacher and various reminders. This will accustom him (meaning that all the time he tries not to fall from the level of thought) to being in the world governed by the Upper Force, while existing in this world. He then gradually comes to the next level of his existence (the single concealment), when he already senses as if inside himself he is in the world governed by the Creator.
This means that his perception of the governance is becoming more evident, so he accepts that it exists. He accustomed himself to it and gradually accepted that it’s so. He doesn’t see clearly yet, but agrees inside himself and all the time keeps himself in the thought that he exists in the world of the Creator.
But he doesn’t sense the good yet. He still perceives the attributes of the governance as negative. He estimates various troubles and illnesses, everything which happens to him (not what happens to him, but the way he estimates this) negatively. He understands that all this comes from the Creator and, probably, has a certain goal or reward and punishment, which means punishment for the past or some punishment at present, but the reward in the future and so on.
All our life, all our work is in this state of the double and the single concealments. These two stages are called Zman Ha Achana (preparation or preliminary preparation).
One can spend many years in these states. It’s necessary to speed them up. A person can spend fifteen, twenty or thirty years in these states and he can even finish his life still being in them. This is based on my own observations of people and students who aren’t able to come out of these states.
Here one should work with himself very seriously. Here, in the double and single concealments, reminders are mainly connected with the group: to the extent a person simply closes his mind and enters the group and makes efforts so that it fully influences him. A person completely annuls himself by thinking, “what shall be shall be,” and makes a quick decision. If he behaves like this, then he’ll constantly sense the necessity to analyze his intentions. In spite of the actions, which will happen to him or of what the other people will see happening to him (it doesn’t matter), he’ll be constantly in the analysis, “my attitude to the Creator, my attitude to His governance, and, generally, my attitude to His existence.”
The group is necessary here, as well as the books and Teacher. But, actually, the purpose of the group is to bind a person with the Creator. And this occurs everywhere. There is another extreme point, when a person enters the group and completely forgets what he is to go towards and with whom he is to merge.
When a person is working with all his 620 desires and is unaware of the number being corrected and when he passes double and the single concealment (this can occur at any moment as we don’t know when we complete something), then he becomes a spiritual rudiment. Here revelation of the Creator starts.
The revelation starts from a point, a rudiment, and it means that the Creator becomes revealed to a person as it was before. The quality alters. This means that he starts estimating himself and actions of the Creator from the point of view of reward and punishment. He starts analyzing every action and circumstance: whether it brings spiritual profit or, on the contrary, damage. Thus, the quality of correction is also meant here. Anyway it’s good, which is concealed behind either reward or punishment.
Thus, a person passes all his 620 desires, all his past states when he cursed the Creator in the full extent and, hence, was called a complete sinner; or the states when he cursed the Creator not in the full extent, but at the same time justifying Him, “The Creator exists, but He leads me to the Goal not by good.” This means that he’s a single or incomplete sinner.
He passes his past states of a complete and incomplete sinner and starts justifying these states in a form of reward and punishment, which means that there are rewards for the past states. In this case he’s called a righteous person because he justifies the Creator. But he justifies Him because he clearly sees reward for all the past, for all his terrible states in the past and for everything, which becomes revealed to him now.
He then comes to the next stage of acquaintance with the Creator. The Creator and His governance are also good, but in this state a person already sees and estimates that the governance of the Creator, the Creator’s attitude to him is absolute. It’s simply love, which was earlier in all these states as well, but he didn’t discover it. He may have discovered a bad attitude of the Creator and didn’t even see Him. Or he discovered the Creator in his world, “Yes, He, probably exists (probably, because it’s still the state of concealment), but influences me negatively – I feel bad in this world.”
If a person feels bad,it’s bad, he can’t lie. A person can’t say that he feels good when he feels bad. His sensation itself determines his state.
The same with the states when a person felt like this: “The Creator punishes and punished him in the past, but now he is rewarded for this” (this is in the state of single revelation). All these states in the past (now he starts seeing it) proceeded from the absolute love, the Creator never treated him bad, not for a second, though at the same time he could undergo terrible physical and moral states, blows, falls, disdain, powerlessness and all possible states.
You can’t imagine what a person is to undergo. As a result, he fully justifies all this. He becomes, not simply a righteous person, but a double righteous person because he sees that all this comes only from one pure light, from one pure love, from the attribute of bestowal, which has no interests for itself. When he finishes this stage, then he enters the World of Infinity and adhesion with the Creator.
Baal HaSulam speaks about this and tells about this scheme in detail, in the Introduction to TES much deeper and more beautifully than I do. I told you this so that now, after we part, you’ll have a certain picture in front of you: where we are, what you should work with. Now we received a certain portion of knowledge, spiritual energy, the energy of adhesion with each other in our communication. This means that we received a lot of positive fulfillments and now we have to work this out.
If starting from today we don’t passively wait for what will happen to us in the future, but will actively apply our knowledge, start establishing greater organization, greater connection, increase intensity of studies, then we’ll benefit from what we received here and it will contribute to better organization of Kelim, to advancement. If we sit passively, then various unpleasant circumstances will appear to hurry us to this.
And another thing. Under no conditions can a person progress alone because his progression by the stages of single and double concealment depends on greater revelation of the collective Kli. Where does a person reveal these stages of attaining the governance, sensation of the Creator, adhesion with the Creator? A person reveals them in greater, more transpiring collective Kli.
When a person attains the attribute of love, then it is expressed in such a way that the whole collective Kli – Adam – becomes clearly revealed to him, and by correcting his attitude to all the souls, revealing the sense of absolute love towards them a person reveals the Creator. He does this out of the attribute of similarity.
When a person is at the lower stage, the stage of reward and punishment, he then estimates himself in relation to the other souls and the attitude of the Creator to them as reward and punishment. In the state of the double revelation or the love, a person estimates, he has to accept every soul, to integrate them within himself, to join them to himself completely, to be in a place of Adam and to sense that the Creator treats this union of souls, this single creature with absolute love. Only then a person can be an absolute righteous man. All this is described in the Introduction to TES.
This means that one’s attitude and estimation of the Creator always comes through this collective Kli because it is what He treats. Even in the states of the single or double concealment a person estimates himself (the Creator is concealed here) in relation to the others only. Via his attitude to the others he sees the back influence of the Creator.
That’s why it is said that correction regarding the society, the group and the neighbor precedes correction regarding the Creator.
What does “precedes” mean? At first a person finds a connection with the group, with the others, attunes himself to them correctly. If the model a person imagines is spiritual and correct, then he annuls himself in relation to them, he wants to receive their spiritual inspiration. He suddenly discovers a small group of people, but inside them the spiritual state exists. It doesn’t depend on them; they may not understand or estimate it, but since they try to unite with each other the spiritual state emerges between them from above. They don’t sense it, but this force is present, and if a person treats the group correctly, he then starts perceiving this force.
That’s why it’s said, “A person’s commandments regarding his neighbor are more important than the commandments regarding the Creator,” which means that they are the preliminary and necessary stage.
You should increase intensity of your studies and become more united in each small group. Stop being involved in minor problems. Work over the statue of the group. On our Internet site there are lots of materials on these topics. Work with these materials besides our lessons. It’s necessary, it’ll attune you correctly.
Yesterday and today we talked about a person in relation to the group, to what happens to him, and in relation to the singularity of the Creator’s governance, that every moment he has to say, “if not me, then who is for me.” One should try to connect all this at every moment of his existence. Then he’ll be correctly attuned to entrance to the Upper World.
The “I” and “if not me, then who is for me” is what really depends only on a person at the moment. “There is None Else Besides Him” refers to everything, what happened in the past, meaning that all the circumstances in which a person is placed, come from the Creator. Till this moment, starting from this moment, to the next moment, which is between the past and the future, there is only a person and none else but the person governs it. By this a person doesn’t exclude existence of the Creator; he excludes only His influence on him.
Only now, at this moment a person has the freedom of will – in every moment. It’s expressed only in the direction, the action, which leads to the Purpose of Creation. If this action, intention or thought doesn’t lead to the Purpose of Creation, then it isn’t free. This means that the Creator corrects a person by additional blows in order to lead to this point.
When a person is at this point, where does his free action lie? What does he have to do? He has to match himself with the group correctly. If he matches himself with the group in the maximally correct way, then he correctly attunes himself to the altruistic property in advance. After he has positioned himself in the group correctly, has oriented himself more or less, then he starts correlating with the Creator.
This means that the neighbor, the commandment regarding the neighbor, comes first, and then the Creator. That’s because when a person orients himself to the group, he can hardly deceive himself. If he lowers himself, then it helps him to find the sight to the Goal. If a person doesn’t lower himself, then the Creator will lower him from above if he deserves to continue progressing correctly, towards the Creator.
We’ve discussed the issue of how one should act with the Creator: whether He’s revealed or concealed, whether one senses His good or evil and how he correlates with all this, to the extent he has to sense that he completely agrees with Him, thanks Him and is happy in his state. That’s because the Creator exists, because He treats a person with good, evoking in him responsive, altruistic intentions – towards Him and the others.
When a person worked thorough this state, came to nearly the same state I described, then at this he finished this stage. The next task is more complicated, more confused, perhaps, in more unpleasant circumstances, so that a person works out all his 620 egoistic desires, which means desires with an egoistic intention.
The same occurs every moment: regarding the past a person should think, “there is none else besides the Creator”; regarding the present – “everything formed is formed by Him so that now I advance independently.” A person should form his attitudes via the group and towards adhesion with the Creator and justification of Him. One’s advancement is based on this. A person won’t attain complete adhesion until he is above all the circumstances, which means above all his desires and their combinations and justifies the Creator completely (until the state of the double righteous man).
Every person has his own set of problems, everyone has his uncorrected soul, and naturally he’ll have to endure all of the necessary circumstances. Everything depends on how quickly and effectively a person works them out, accepting, quickly analyzing and justifying each of them.
The path may be very short. Everything depends on the intensity of the work. Intensity of the work fully depends on support of the group only and on nothing else. A weak person is able to go through everything with a group, while a strong person won’t do anything alone.
Here everything is based on the principle that as a result one is to unite with the other souls. This means that in the state of the double concealment a person senses them as opposite to him; in the state of the single concealment a person can perceive them as brothers-in-arms or fellow sufferers. People in the group feel like this: they gathered, everything is bad with them, they want to go somewhere, they lack something, they have to be together and overcome the egoism, which is between them, and nothing can be done about it. Then, in the state of the single revelation people start seeing that the fact that they are together is a blessing, that they can help each other is happiness, that they are together is, really, the best thing; until they come to the absolute love.
To the extent a person relates to the others, to this extent he relates to the Creator, because in his egoistic state he doesn’t perceive anything out of the limits of his “self.” That’s why it may be whoever and whatever; if this doesn’t relate to a person, to his “self”, then it doesn’t exist for him. That’s why for his egoism the group and the Creator are the same.
This is practically our entire path. Here the worlds can be added: the last world is the World of Atzilut and AK; the Worlds of Atzilut and Beria are revelation by reward and punishment; the World of Yetzira is the single concealment; and the World of Assiya is the double concealment. In general, these are the worlds by which we advance. And, finally, there is the World of Infinity. All our 125 stages, which we are to pass, may be added here, because, actually, this is our path.
Below this there is our unconscious state, this world. It’s the state when a person exists in our world without relating himself to the Creator somehow or to some goal, path or advancement. Then it’s considered that he’s below this boundary, Sium, which means the end.
It’s very advisable to read an article of Baal HaSulam Mitzva Echad (One Law). It covers this topic.
Question: How does passing Machsom occur in the group?
I can’t say for sure for the future, but I think that passing Machsom in the group occurs with the whole group. Nothing like this ever occurred during the whole history. We are the first large Kabbalistic group. Kabbalistic groups didn’t exist before us at all. There were people who studied together and helped each other in it, but they studied according to a different method, personally receiving from Rav. This study method is called Peh le Peh (from mouth to mouth).
Presently this method is almost nonexistent. We have passed to a different level of dissemination, evolvement and correction. During our time, a different path has appeared. There is no great Kabbalist such as Baal HaSulam, Baal Shem Tov, Rabash, Ari and so on, who would lead his only student and traditionally pass on him the whole Kabbalah, as this occurred from generation to generation.
I’m not a great Kabbalist, but I’m the one people presently have, the one who teaches the masses. It’s impossible to say for sure what it will be like, because nothing of this kind ever happened in our history. According to the principle Ein Le Dayan Ma She Einav Raot, which means that we can relay only on a clear fact, on the experience.
Until now all overpasses of Machsom were individual. Presently they have to be with the group. This means that it cannot be a whole group, for instance a group of two hundred, but some people inside that group, who make up the group not physically, but by their aspiration, who want to unite together to reveal the attribute of bestowal in their connections, in their unification: “I bestow to the others” and so they all do. When these mutual bestowals to one another become concentrated, then this spiritual net between desires of each one emerges. When this net of the forces of bestowal, by everyone to everyone appears, then the attribute of bestowal, called the Creator, appears immediately in it.
Only a person carries out all this. This doesn’t exist yet. Nothing is given from Above in advance. A person creates this attribute. He makes the Creator by himself. In other words, he becomes similar with Him, makes the Creator out of himself by himself. He discovers that this attribute exists, and he reveals it out of his altruistic intentions. It exists, lives between people, but to the extent they start actively creating their attribute of bestowal between them, they start seeing (then it as if reveals itself according to the law of resemblance of attributes) that it already exists.
It seems to me it should be revealed collectively. But none, even the greatest Kabbalist, if he were at my place, could state for sure that it is so. That’s because Kabbalah is a practical method of attaining the spiritual reality. Thus, there is a strict law in Kabbalah, which says that a person doesn’t have a right to speak about what he doesn’t attain. Here the problem appears: what he attains for sure and what he thinks, adds to the picture for himself.
Question: If yesterday a person felt bad, but today he feels good, then does it matter for him what was yesterday?
When a person ascends by the spiritual degrees, in the state of the single concealment, he commits enormous sins and is considered to be a sinner. What do “enormous sins” mean? He can’t justify the Creator in the certain circumstances. He then starts justifying the Creator.
The stages of justification and adhesion with the Creator, the stages of single and double disclosure, and the stages of the first and second disclosure of the Creator (can be called accusation of the Creator) are recurrent. This means that everything may be added to this scheme: by correcting the stage of the single concealment a person attains the single disclosure and by correcting the stage of the double concealment he attains the stage of absolute justification of the Creator, the state of love.
A person always has only his 620 inner attributes, desires, and they are just gradually worked out in the states: Malchut, ZA, Bina, Hochma and Keter. A person is a mere egoistic desire. A person comes back and at each stage this egoistic desire becomes more similar with the higher, more spiritual attribute. This way he approaches the genuine attribute of bestowal – Keter.
But who approaches? Our egoism, our desires. In the state of the single concealment it’s like Malchut. The only thing it wishes is to consume everything. Then, in the state of the double concealment, it becomes like ZA, but inside Homer, the matter is located. This is our egoism. We don’t become ZA, we become similar with his actions, his expressions. Then follows Bina (the single revelation) – our material becomes similar to Bina as well, then similar to Hochma (the double disclosure) and similar to Keter.
Question: Is fear an obstacle for the spiritual progress?
No circumstances or sensations are obstacles, one has to advance precisely from them, from inside them, “If not me, then who is for me?”, and to justify everything inside and around him – it’s the consequence of the revelation. One can’t simply justify, saying that everything is all right and everything comes from the Creator, while at the same time he feels bad. To justify means to attain an inner absolute consent with the Creator.
What does “consent” mean? This means that if a person were at His place, he would do the same; if he were given any other state, he wouldn’t wish any other state, only this one, and so on.
Question: Is the double concealment the sensation of a child in our world?
No, it isn’t. Sensations of people in our world who know and understand nothing are called simply our world. The double concealment is the state when a person already understands that he doesn’t realize that he’s under supervision and strives to adapt himself to it somehow.
From Sium upwards it is already said about people who aspire.
Question: About physical actions. If I see that a person suffers, what should I do then?
We’re engaged only in ourselves and only in the inner correction. One shouldn’t go out in to the world and look for people who suffer; to correct the circumstances the Creator has placed them. It’s an absolutely incorrect outlook. Let the UN help starving people, none will benefit from this: neither starving people nor the UN, none. All this never helped. The point is that a person, because he egoistically suffers seeing sufferings of the others, fears that the same might happen to him as well. So he wants to render aid to the others.
It’s impossible to render aid this way. It’s possible to do it only by drawing the Upper Light to this world. Nowhere people become happier from this.
This is a very complicated issue.
Question: A moment comes when I have to work according to the principle “everything depends on me.” How can I make myself do this? Where can I get power?
In the group only.
If a person just sits at home saying, “Now everything depends on me,” then what is next? Even the thought about what to do won’t come to him. If a person works in a group, then these thoughts will happen automatically, smoothly, gradually and in the order he has to carry them out. That’s because this collective altruistic attribute is revealed in the group. It isn’t altruistic yet. But this bestowal is already something, which is more spiritual than a person is. Thus, the next, better aspirations and states won’t emerge in a person, if he isn’t inside this organism, which is a bit higher than he is.
At that, the small group may consist of people, who understand and know nothing. But do they have a desire? This is just like in the example with Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma. This righteous man was offered, “Come from your city to our city, we’ll give you everything you want.” He answered, “I can’t. If I move to your place, then I’ll lose my environment.” They told him, “Why do you need this environment, you’re their teacher, you’re greater than them, what will happen to you?” He answered, “If I leave them, then I’ll also fall.”
Question: How can one deserve respect in the eyes of the Creator? What does He value?
None of your prayers or physical actions, none of your words and not even tears will reach the Creator. This means that everything a person expresses from himself will not get to the Creator. Soon people will make sure of this. However many candles one lights, however much he prays or beats with his head on the Western Wall or some tombstones, kisses a cross, prays Allah or something else – this doesn’t matter, this results in nothing. During the entire history these actions resulted in nothing and today these actions will result in nothing.
The Creator perceives only the movement to come out of oneself. All the rest are purely egoistic methods of a person, “Perhaps I’ll have luck from Above.” But nothing occurs in response to this.
This means that the action, which is sensed and perceived by the attribute of absolute bestowal, which is the Creator, is only in advancement in the group in mutual bestowal, in mutual aspiration to annul oneself and to create one collective spiritual Kli of adhesion with the Creator.
Question: Intention is a heart, so can we manage our intentions?
The heart is a person’s desires, and what is above the heart, for what the heart beats is a person’s intention.
We can’t generate the intention out of ourselves; we aren’t a generator of intentions. The same with the desires, they emerge from inside, out of our Reshimo (reminiscence, record). Every time new Reshimo comes to our consciousness from within, it somehow urges us to something. If an empty Reshimo comes out, then a person dies. If a person has some kind of need, fulfillment, then in this state he’ll feel himself more or less existing, living and interested in one or another thing.
This means that we don’t master Reshimot, which will emerge in us at the next moment, direct us, how, where to, to which fulfillments. We can’t generate intentions out of ourselves. All this emerges to the extent of working in the group. There is no other way out. Because the group is a model of our adhesion with the Creator.
One should clearly understand what the shattering of the vessels means, and that their correction is in uniting together. To the extent a person aspires to unification with the others, to this extent the intention of bestowal appears in him (actually it happens if a person carries this out in the group and doesn’t deceive himself, because it’s difficult to deceive oneself in practice – one immediately sees, controls and corrects), and at the same time to this extent a person approaches the Creator, receives intentions and works them out better. A person pays attention not to the desires, for him it doesn’t matter which desires emerge in him at the moment. It’s absolutely unimportant. One shouldn’t blush, turn pale or get scared of them. Every moment he should immediately throw himself to the group.
When one gets such a correct connection with the group, bestowal, such an intention for the connection, then after this he may gradually start paying attention to his desires, only to such an extent so that they don’t spoil his intention. This is already called calculation, working with one’s desires to the extent of one’s correction. This is what the screen does. It’s already elements of advancement, of the practical Kabbalah.
Question: Is it enough for a person in bad situations to think and to agree that this comes from the Creator or are any additional actions needed?
No actions are needed. One may do not a stitch of work.
Is it enough to think and agree? No, it isn’t. Any action, which is out of the group, out of unification with the others, isn’t an action and can’t lead to anything, can’t do anything for a person.
Now we have to collect all the souls into a single construction the way it was created by the Creator. But now we have to do this by ourselves.
Before us there is a huge mountain of all the souls. One doesn’t know how they are to be collected, into which organism, how they should interact between each other, but he has to do this. Each of us has to do this. That’s because each of us is to be instead of this huge mountain of souls, are simply disconnected single parts, and one has to connect them. Connecting them, finding correct interrelations through one’s love to them, “love thy neighbor as thyself,” a person connects them correctly, breathes life into them.
In this action he becomes similar with the Creator, this is what He did. He created this model, triggered it and then completely destroyed it for a person. Now a person has to create it. This is all our similarity with the Creator.
Question: What do we lack to reveal the Creator here and now?
Last time, when we were on an excursion around Odessa, we saw a tramway on which it was written with large letters, “Where are we heading?” This is what we lack, this clear question. We lack practice, exercise of this system. Besides this, we have everything.
One should realize that the Creator provided us with everything – “There is none else besides Him,” and He made everything for a person, and in no case should one accuse, condemn or blame or wish to change anything of the circumstances he is in. One should agree with this. This comes from the Creator. One should start acting above it.
There will be no good circumstances. The more a person rises, the worse the circumstances will be. But he’ll be able to cope with this. These worsening circumstances are one’s uncorrected egoism, above which he’ll create his intentions.
We should stick to the group, hold on to the end of the rope. This is the mutual bond, without which it’s impossible to advance or to do anything.
Question: In which intention, in which thoughts and desires do we have to unite?
The goal is to be clear, “Where are we heading?”
Question: What is an investment into the group? Where is an effort: in an intention, in an action?
An investment into the group means that a person tries to do his best with the only purpose: to make the souls integrate. In the connections they’ll establish between each other, to the extent of similarity with the Creator, Who fills everything, we’ll reveal the Creator.
The single, unique power of bestowal exists around us. It’s like a force field, which fills everything. To the extent we’re similar with it, we’ll start sensing it. Thus, an investment into the group is to make it start revealing itself.
This means that we reveal this. We’re like resistance on the way of an electric current. If there is resistance, then the current starts working in it. It starts heating, declining or increasing and so on. This way we have to reveal this electric current in all its attributes regarding us: inductions, various capacities, resistances, various elements, in which this current reveals itself.
It reveals itself only as a result of some resistance to its actions. For this reason we were initially created opposite to the Creator, but in similarity with Him we start shining with the same light.
Question: Is it true that in our world a person is given sufferings as sufferings, and in the spiritual world, as corrections?
In our world a person is also given suffering to urge him to correction. But if these sufferings aren’t conscious, if they aren’t worked out in the group, then they are of a very little use.
In no case should a person pray about sufferings. This means that he receives, but doesn’t love this state. If he loved it, then he wouldn’t be able to progress further. A person’s state is given him by the Creator, but this doesn’t mean that he agrees with Him. A person justifies the Creator, because it’s maximally good for his advancement.
A person doesn’t simply come and kiss something or show thanks in some other way, “Everything You do is good.” If a person talks like this, this means that he can’t advance. This is the way people are educated in all the religions. A person should praise God for everything which happens to him. Thus a person calms down, stops evolving psychologically; he doesn’t need anything anymore, and justifies the action. A reward is somewhere, everything is good.
This is good for those who don’t have an awakening to correction. That’s why it’s a religion.
We aren’t a religion. We’re an active movement towards revelation of the real world, its practical attainment. That’s why we don’t agree with what is in us today and with the state we are in. The only thing we agree with is that each state of a person is optimal for his advancement. But it isn’t good, otherwise how will he move forward?
Question: If one says, “There is non else besides Him, and all the obstacles come from Him,” then does this mean that in this world one shouldn’t eliminate them or solve problems with his own forces?
One should continue solving problems in this world with his own forces. If these problems are his personal ones, then he should solve them: one should work, be in a family, with children and solve problems with money, health, at work and so on. He should solve them at the level of this world. It’s said, Nitan Le Rofe Reshut Lerapot (a doctor is given a right to treat). A person shouldn’t wait for mercy from God; he has to go to a doctor.
At the level of our world there are no spiritual obligations for the necessities of this world. Necessary is obligatory.
“Love to a neighbor by all means”: for example someone comes to a person and wants to behead him, but this person loves him. It’s absolutely incorrect. “Everything comes from the Creator,” so should one sit and wait for manna? No, because he’ll die from starvation. A person walks into a cage with tigers, they’ll do him nothing – all this is the Creator, all these tigers are the Creator’s toys. In reality they’ll eat him.
The world acts according to the same laws of the Creator. In this world there is a set of laws, which are clearly revealed to us, and we have to exist in them: one has to get married, have children, work and interact with the others to the extent he supports his body. It isn’t considered that this is related to the spiritual work somehow. That’s because a person has to stand on some neutral, non-spiritual base to start his spiritual work, his spiritual advancement, spiritual action and growth from it, above it.
The “I” is something above this world, it isn’t a body. One can eat ten meals a day. People may consider him to be a sinner. Why a sinner? How can they know his intention, his connection with the Creator?
Judging by my Rav, for example; when we planned to go to Tiberias for two days, my wife cooked for us twenty cutlets, two chickens and other various dishes, and gave us a bottle of brandy. We easily ate all this. He enjoyed eating, drinking and the life in general.
This has no relationship to the spiritual; a person builds his spiritual above this. The necessary is obligatory. How can one define what is obligatory for him and what isn’t? If one’s head or one’s heart is here, his thoughts are directed to the Creator, and when his head is above, then he should give his body everything it needs: wash it, fill it, treat it and so on. One should give everything necessary to himself, his neighbors, children, family and so on. This is considered to be obligatory.
This is checked precisely by the intention. If the intention is upwards, then everything a person considers to be necessary in our world is necessary. We have to solve all the problems with our own forces. In our world a person shouldn’t give way to such aspirations, which new comers usually have, for example, “I’ve found Kabbalah! I don’t care about this world and fly away!” and he flies away.
Question: What is the difference between a prayer and a demand? A demand envisages coercion, how can this be correlated?
Both prayer and demand don’t depend on a person. They are formed inside him, in his soul, in his heart; one can’t escape it. If a person feels bad, then by this sensation of bad he curses the Creator; if he feels good, then with this sensation he thanks Him in his heart. But everything a person will pronounce may play some part in relations between people, they hear him. But the Creator doesn’t hear him, He senses him from inside.
You’re the system, which He launches, and launching certain signals in us He knows the answer in advance. For Him it isn’t necessary to hear this from you. Your aspiration to adhesion with Him is what you add to the system He launches, this is what He can’t do by Himself. You do this independently.
And as for all your prayers and pleas – you may cry, this won’t help. Humanity has been doing this for thousands of years; there is no use of it.
Question: What’s to be done, if at the moment one feels bad, and the group is weak or there is no group nearby?
Actually, I don’t know why you feel bad now. I don’t think you should feel bad.
You received quite a lot of information, maybe some sensations, connections with the others, you’ve heard how one should advance, according to which method. Why should you feel bad? Now you have arms, means of attaining eternity and perfection. Everything is before you: the large developing world group, which is already quite developed and is still developing, surely there is a method which suites you.
Perhaps you wish to criticize me. I’ll try to say again what I can’t say correctly. Check me upon the original: Baal HaSulam, Ari, the Book of Zoar, upon everything you wish. We’ll clarify together whether something is right or not. I’m extremely interested in this. I want you to make sure that you advance correctly, that you’re under reliable guidance or instruction.
You have everything. Why do you ask, “Why do I feel bad now, and the group is weak or is absent at all?” You have the enormous world group. Yesterday you were given disks. Even those who don’t have the Internet can study.
You have everything. The spiritual has no boundaries. You can be connected with us, just wish for it.
When people physically move here to Bnei Baruch, they see how hard and impossible it is, and they go back broken. It isn’t so good to aspire to move here and to be at our centre Bnei Baruch. From afar it seems to you that it’s some ideal. If you come closer to me, the same will seem to you: earlier it was some ideal and now you’ll find out that it isn’t so.
The Creator shows various things. We don’t see the real picture. Each one sees only what is necessary for his correction. That’s why it isn’t advisable for a person to accuse the Creator of what he has. He already in advance places himself into an incorrect state for progression.
Everything a person has now has come from Him. Everything, which will happen at the next moment, depends on a person. The Creator gave a person his present, current state as the most optimal, so that he makes the next step. He doesn’t have to change anything in it, in what he has: diseases, confusions, ignorance, perplexities, fears, threats, it doesn’t matter what. This is precisely that combination, with which he has to make a correct movement. If something is changed in it, then a person won’t be able to advance correctly. It isn’t accommodation, it’s understanding of the necessity to advance from one’s genuine state.
For this reason, those, who forcibly try to transfer themselves to other circumstances, will find they don’t benefit. We see it from our experience. “I’ll move there or will do something else.” A person shouldn’t do this. When something becomes a necessity, he’ll really feel it. It’s another thing altogether. Then this will come.
As in my situation, while being in lessons with my Rav for a year and a half, I lived over 30 minutes away. Even though I drove this several times a day, he didn’t allow me to move near him. Then one day he told me, “you need to relocate;” he then found me a flat about one hundred meters from him.
When it is necessary for you, it will appear, and there will be a necessity and help, and everything will be settled down.
Question: Rav, can you err in the spiritual issues?
Rav can err in the spiritual issues. Not the level he’s passed, this level he can’t err, because he’s already passed them, which means has worked out and corrected.
The extent of one’s rise is the extent of similarity with the Creator; it’s the extent of knowledge of His law, the extent of one’s fulfillment, because he is like this from inside. This means “not to err.” This means that at the level a Kabbalist constantly is (so called Matzav ha Kavua) he can’t err anymore.
It’s said, “Yesh Aliyah be Kodesh, Ein Yeridah be Kodesh” (there is only an elevation in sanctity; a descent doesn’t exist). There are various short-time falls, inner outbreaks, confusions, but these are particular fluctuations for each movement forward. And there is a constant state, called Torah. There is Mitzva (precept) and there is Torah. Mitzva is an action, advancement, and Torah is one’s constant level, at which he stays on as a basis. Below this level one can’t err anymore, but above it one can err. Every next state is a new stage, an immense one, which means that it isn’t yet included into a Kli, and thus is boundless. It’s boundless in attributes, variations and in all possible things.
This means that one will err in any new state for sure. One will be mistaken by one hundred percent because one can never understand the Upper state from the lower one. A great deal of experience is required just to acknowledge that we never understand the Upper degree of the next state correctly. For this reason it’s impossible to justify the Creator, as well as it’s impossible to justify one’s friends and a teacher. Everything seems to us to be absolutely reverse. Nothing can be done about it: it’s the nature of the spiritual degrees, because each degree is higher than the previous one, in the matter of errors.
What is good in the spiritual world is that one clearly knows to which state he sees, senses, understands, realizes and manages, and from which state and further he doesn’t have this. For a Kabbalist it’s clear and distinct, because he works at this level, at this edge and moves it forward all the time. That’s why there are states about which I say in advance, “I don’t know them.” I’m not Baal HaSulam – I’m not in Gmar Tikkun, when the entire universe and the entire collective soul are already in a person, he senses and understands all this, all this is his, he’s completely similar with the Creator, all His laws are a person’s laws of behavior, sensation and comprehension.
But this is what you have. What can be done about it? By looking for someone else. I’d do that myself, I’d like to find someone who is bigger than me. It’s not because I’m overly modest, it’s a fact. At our time we’re in such a condition. There was my Teacher, but he was taken away. Of course, it’s impossible to compare me with my Rav. Before him was Baal HaSulam; he was a great sage. This is what we have. It’s evident, that this is what we need for progress and, actually, this is said in the Book of Zoar and in the other books.
When the advancement has to be that of masses of people, then a problem arises. First, the masses, meaning hundreds or thousands of people, shouldn’t fall from the genuine path. This means that they have to receive instructions only from the stage, which is above them. But, of course, not from the stage, which is only one level higher than they are. That’s because otherwise such a Kabbalist or a teacher won’t adjust this instruction for masses.
It’s written in the prophecy of Baal HaSulam. He had such a prophecy, an insight, where he saw the world in the future. In these states he reached such a high level, that he simply couldn’t be in a contact with people. So he was always asking the Creator to lower him down to such a level that would permit him to write his books, to tell the material, which is close to us, especially this concerns his articles.
For a Kabbalist it’s difficult to write while being of two worlds: matters, form, philosophy, Kabbalah as a science, religion, etc. These things are insignificant for a Kabbalist, he has no connection with this. He’s in absolutely different conditions, worlds, degrees; absolutely different forces act there. This world doesn’t exist, this vision doesn’t exist; he’s physically here, but perceives everything differently.
How will the Kabbalist be connected with people, people who are currently in these states only? If you try to speak to people in this world about what we are talking now, even though you aren’t in the spiritual attainment, they won’t understand you. This is with your small, even purely theoretical knowledge, not practical knowledge.
This means that to be connected, to be in some similarity of attributes it’s necessary that one’s AHP is somewhere here. For this it’s necessary to descend, and thus Baal HaSulam prayed, asked and received this.
In my opinion, when the time is right, when it’s necessary to elevate masses, there can’t be any great Kabbalist to carry this out. It can be a Kabbalist like me; otherwise, he won’t be able to adapt this method for such initial stages. But I’m not sure yet. It’s my general answer about why today this happens like this. I try to explain this logically.
Privately, inside of me there is some understanding of my own why this is so.
Perhaps, this will change. The future is concealed from us. Concerning the future states, which we didn’t come through, we don’t know in what form they’ll realize in our world. That’s why, it’s possible that some great Kabbalist will appear, and all of us will rush to him at once and expose ourselves to his influence with a great pleasure. But as of now I don’t see this.
Question: What’s the difference between a soul of a man and of a woman, what’s the reason for such a difference in the spiritual progress?
The difference is really enormous. We speak about the group all the time. It seems that our poor women are deprived of this only possibility to advance. What can they do in our world?
Men have to work in a group because they are bad. They have such egoism and have to work it out in a group and achieve similarity with the Creator in a group. A woman doesn’t need this scheme. By helping, supporting the male part of the group, whether the local or the world one, women do the same work and absolutely the same flows to them.
The collective soul consists of the male and the female parts, like any family, like the entire human society. Women aren’t thrown overboard. Men also can’t carry out their spiritual work without women. We need the female part for dissemination, for moral support, for satisfying our various needs in creation of groups and conditions around all this, for works that need to be carried out. Just like a man simply can’t normally exist without a woman: to build a house, to create a family. A woman mainly does all this. A man provides the energy, and a woman gives a form to this.
That’s why women should reveal their field of activity without thinking that men have something while they, the poor ones, have nothing. This field of activity isn’t in the group. Women themselves know that they can’t and won’t be able to create any group. Only via support and help. But it’s all the merit of women and their necessity for men.
When we enter this collective, mutual Kli, we see that the female part carries out the most necessary work: it establishes connections, as if developing this part. Women carry out all this just like in our world.
Question: Every day you say practically the same, what new things should we get out of a lesson every day?
A person shouldn’t get anything out of the lesson. What entered him will stay in him, he’ll carry this away.
Question: How can a person find out, what is his mission?
Our mission is to love the fellow men. To love one’s neighbor means to be similar with the Creator. To love one’s neighbor in our state means to bring him the best thing in the world, the means for attaining eternity and perfection, this means dissemination of Kabbalah.
Question: What does the “virtual group” mean?
Every group is ‘virtual.’ Even if a person sees faces of 20-30 other people in front of him and is familiar with all of them, it doesn’t matter, because virtually, spiritually all of them change. Every day they are new. It only seems like that to a person when he sees them, that, perhaps, they are the same. It absolutely isn’t the same. None of my lessons are similar to another one, at least I sense it differently, but the same people are present. That’s because all of them change all the time. Their combination is new every moment.
If a person hears the same things over and over, then this means that he doesn’t change internally, is unyielding and is not pressing himself.
The Kabalistic group can’t be of another kind, it’s always ‘virtual.’ It is something above us or inside us, it’s a general scheme of interrelations of our desires, souls and aspirations. This virtual connection between one another is a group. It’s not a certain amount of people who sit here – this doesn’t correspond to what is inside. When you see this inner connection and each one inside it, then you’ll see who is in it and who isn’t.
Question: If a person falls asleep during a lesson, then is it worth waking him up? To which extent does it hinder progression?
Actually, this doesn’t hinder. If a person falls asleep, then, perhaps, he faces difficulties, not getting enough sleep, working too hard, that days lesson is difficult and not interesting for him, he isn’t in such a state of spiritual excitement, as you are.
You should love and act on this basis. From this you’ll sense the law or the rule, according to which we should treat one another. That’s because this attitude is absolutely different from the attitude in our world.
Question (cont’d): But what if he snores?
What if he snores? If it’s in our centre, while the lesson is being broadcast to the whole world, then, of course, a person should be woken up. But people in our centre feel the responsibility, the discipline is strict, especially now, once we started broadcasting lessons on television. It’s an enormous means for progression and a person really works for the external world.
But I speak about my attitude and I know this by myself: during the twelve years I spent with my Rav, sometimes I underwent such periods, when I fell asleep. These lasted for weeks. My Rav sat next to me and shook me slightly.
But there are states, which a person can’t withstand. Such sleepy presence at the lesson is also presence. A person woke up, came here and fell asleep, but he has to be here. Sometimes this happens, we should understand it.
This means that it’s good to criticize friends, but you should understand to which level it will help a person. If by this he doesn’t harm the group in an action or in an intention. We speak mainly about the intention.
Question: You recommend working over the statute. How often is it worthwhile to reconsider the statute?
All the time. Not often, but all the time.
What does the “statute” mean? The statute is the rule of interrelations between us. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you should sit and discuss the statute item by item. When in the morning we discuss our relations based on some article, it’s also working over the statute. The statute is the law of our connection between each other.
It doesn’t matter whether this will be written down (if it’s possible to write this in words at all), or this won’t be written down.
Question: How should one work out his inner problems or states in the group?
One shouldn’t do this. As a result one will find out that neither inner problems nor problems in a family, at work or any other problems exist. All of them are one big problem, which the Creator gives a person, so that he goes forward above it. He’ll make for a person various obstacles and states, and he should close his eyes and go above. Only then he’ll start understanding how His supervision is organized, not by earthly measures.
Question: What’s the matter how we acted in this world if everything is determined for us?
It’s nonsense that everything is predetermined.
Question: How can one distinguish an intention from a desire?
A desire is what emerges from inside. An intention is what a person creates above a desire, to a desire.
Question: Where should one look for a source of joy on the path to the Creator, for Kabbalah is the path of joy?
It’s really the path of joy, but not when one feels that he suffers.
This means that joy is a consequence of the Kli’s similarity with the Light. To the extent the light fills the Kli, to this extent its joy. But when this state doesn’t exist yet, then joy can come only from complete elevation above one’s desires, above one’s Kli in the attribute of bestowal, which means in Ohr Hassadim. On the whole, Ohr Hochma is joy.
But before it comes and fills, there is only Ohr Hassadim, which means the faith above reason, separation from egoism in clinging to the Creator, not in similarity, but simply in clinging.
Question: It follows that at the level of our world there is no sense to worry and interfere with the actions of the Creator?
No action in our world is free. We don’t manage anything, which happens in our world. It’s said, “Lev Sarim ve Melahim be Yad Ha Shem” (Hearts of those who manage this world are in the hands of the Creator). All this comes from the Creator.
Question: If someone from the World Kli passes Machsom, will I sense it?
I don’t know. Let’s hope that together we’ll do and sense it. It’s close to us; all this is in our power.
I tried to explain what we should do now. I’ll be glad to answer and clarify any questions.
But, anyway, you have to be connected, to watch the lessons systematically, to stay systematically connected with us. It’s at the physical level. At the spiritual level you should work out the materials I teach. All the time I tell you that it’s necessary to imagine this spiritual connection between us, to develop it all the time until we clearly sense it and revelation of the Creator in it.