Spiritual Search

How can a person perceive the desire? In order for a person to know what he wants he must first try it, since by doing so it leaves a pleasurable perception or taste inside of him. The pleasure was sensed and now it’s gone, at which point the person aspires towards it. This is what the real Kli must consist of. Meaning, the light has filled it in the past, and the Kli has tasted the entire force of the sensation of pleasure from the light’s presence. Then the light disappeared and now the Kli passionately longs to feel the taste of the light once again.

Now we will look at the way in which the soul is constructed and the reason why we need to work with it. The soul is the only thing created. Through its five filters, the soul receives the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile sensations inside of itself. The support behind these five sense organs is similar to a computer program. It translates that which is located outside into a language that we can understand, namely: pleasure and pain. We perceive whether something is good or bad in the most central point of our soul.

If the computer is running on a natural program then its program is designed to satisfy the egoistic intake of good and bad. However, if it is running on the altruistic program then the notions of good and bad are not evaluated relative to itself; rather they are evaluated relative to what is outside of it, and this is the light or the Creator.

Now we see that there are two programming possibilities for the soul’s evaluations and choices: a) egoistically, for its own sake, or b) altruistically, for the sake of the Creator. After all, besides the Creator and the creation, or the light/pleasure and the desire/vessel, nothing else exists in the universe.

In the natural process, a person is born with the egoistic program. Therefore, on the “backboard” of our consciousness or brain, a reverse image is imprinted or projected egoistically. This image is called “our world”.

We do not perceive anything other than the light. However, if the light goes through the egoistic processing, then it manifests in us as “our world”. Our egoistic desire performs its processing, adding obstacles by selecting everything good and discarding everything bad. This is the organism’s self-preservation program, and if we did not have it then our picture of the world would be a totally different one. Without it, the picture would become imprinted on the front side of the soul and it would show a person everything that exists on the outside in an objective way, rather than what is on the inside, subjectively and with a benefit for itself. That which is on the outside is called “the light” or “the Creator”.

In order to reprogram the computer from the egoistic to the altruistic program, there exists the Science of Kabbalah, which helps us to receive the external image that exists genuinely, without the egoistic coating. We will be able to feel the genuine universe that is outside of us. This state is called “unification with the light”, when there are no obstacles between the soul and the light.

This is slightly reminiscent of what people feel when they are in the state of clinical death and they have become partially separated from the egoistic body (or the animal organism). They see the light ahead of them and they aspire towards it, but they are unable to reach the light because they have not yet ridden themselves of the spiritual egoism. Since a person can only rid himself of it together with the animal egoism of the body, thus all of the work takes place over the course of one life or several lives in the egoistic body.

We can rid ourselves of spiritual egoism very easily if we know what obstacles egoism adds to our internal computer. All information enters through five filters, called the “five parts of Malchut”, or “five parts of egoism’s governance”. These five channels process all information from outside, converting it to information that suits egoism by separating what is good for the egoism from what is bad. All signals pass through a specific width of filters (Aviut), which is different in every person.

The more reincarnations our soul goes through, the bigger its Aviut becomes. Meaning, the person becomes coarser, more goal-oriented, and more ready for correction. On the other hand, those who are less egoistically developed do not need very much, as they are satisfied by little. Hence, a big egoist is ready for correction because he feels a greater necessity to fill himself with the light.

How does the need to correct the computer program arise? It arises due to the Aviut’s development in a person to it maximum size. This happens over many reincarnations or lives in our world. Not only man’s life but animals, plants, and inanimate nature as well. All of nature, except man, ascends together with him and depends on man’s state.

Once a person’s Aviut has developed to its maximum size, it causes a maximum difference between the light and the image he perceives. This results in an inner switch turning on, giving a person the feeling that he can no longer fulfill himself with anything now or in the future.

When this signal takes place, a person stops looking for something inside of himself or on the “backboard” of his soul, and instead he aspires to perceive the outside. He turns to various philosophies and methodologies, until he finally comes to Kabbalah. This is specifically where he is able to find what he has been looking-for for so long.

Kabbalah is the methodology that changes those filters. It does not remove them, but only rebuilds or retunes them from the egoistic intention to receive pleasures into the altruistic intention to give pleasure. More precisely, the altruistic intention is to receive pleasure for the sake of bestowal, since everything is relative to the Creator. Meaning, we have nothing to give to Him except to receive pleasure for His sake.

This way, the same filters can be used to receive, but only for the sake of the light or the Creator. Then, the information entering from the outside will not be distorted in any way. Rather, it will appear to us in just the way it exists in reality, or on the outside. When this happens, the entire program of creation comes to an end, since the program now allows us to exist without any obstacles for our “ego”. That is, to exist, perceive and live in the genuine universe. All the pleasures of our world, which humanity has perceived and will perceive in the future, are only a 1/600,000th piece of the pleasure contained in the smallest possible light (Nefesh).

Even a single corrected soul, fully receiving the entire light without limit, is located in front of all of the souls. It observes everything until the information or pleasure enters into all of the other souls.

The Aviut is placed in a person at his soul’s first descent or incarnation into this world. However, Kabbalah is able to develop it dozens of percent, shortening his number of lives or descents into this world. That is, it is able to accelerate the process of a person’s ripening for the assimilation of the spiritual realm.

Human suffering is the external expression of what is missing. Suffering does not disappear, but Kabbalah replaces the animal suffering with the spiritual. This is the suffering due to the lack of the spiritual perception. This qualitative change in suffering leads to the rebuilding of the internal Kli or the rebuilding of the soul. Corresponding to the aspiration, the perception of the light develops. The result: what naturally would have occurred to us over the course of several generations, now occurs in several years.

You may ask: “why is it sometimes impossible to ask and formulate a question?” It happens because a person does not feel what we are talking about inside him. If it has not become revealed in him yet then he does not respond to what he is hearing.

The structure of the soul is the following: The light that emanates from the Creator creates the desire to take pleasure in it. This desire is called Malchut. Before Malchut, the light passes through nine stages as it changes, until it finally becomes suitable to create Malchut. The nine stages the light goes through are called Keter, Chochma, Bina, Chesed, Gvura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod and Yesod. Then it builds the final stage, which is called Malchut. The six stages from Hesed until Yesod are called Zeir Anpin.

In total there are ten Sefirot, that is: nine levels of the light plus one Malchut, which is the desire to receive. Malchut is the soul or the real creation, which feels that it wants to receive and to take pleasure in the light. Malchut begins to receive the light and, along with the light, it receives the light’s properties. Even in our world, we know that any influence on us creates our own reflection inside of us. The same thing happens in Malchut when it receives the light from the nine upper Sefirot.

We see that a single egoistic structure, Malchut, has acquired nine more additional altruistic attributes of the light in itself, by receiving the light from the nine Sefirot of the light. The external information of the light does not become distorted as it passes through the nine altruistic attributes of Malchut, since there are no egoistic barriers. This light only becomes slightly smaller. It decreases in order for the soul to become optimally filled by it and also to prevent it from becoming overfilled, which would cause suffering as well.

However, there is one more part in Malchut that has received altruistic attributes from the light and has become equivalent to it in its desire to bestow, which is not the tenth part. Further, there is one more additional part in Malchut that is completely unable to perceive the light’s attribute, and therefore cannot change. This part is called “Lev ha Even” or “the stone heart (see the drawing).

Our work consists in leaving this part of Malchut behind, which is called our “I”; to stop working with it because it will always remain egoistic, until the end of correction and the arrival of the Mashiach. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a restriction (Tzimtzum Alef) on this part of Malchut; That is, not to use it in any way.

Malchut, or the tenth Sefira, is that part of Malchut that received the light’s attributes and was able to feel the attributes of the light that had filled it. Therefore, it is able to change – it has to gradually transform and to begin to act in the same way as the light. In order to effectively drive the light’s attributes into the Malchut, the action called “Shvira” is performed, meaning the breaking or the blow. As a consequence of this action, the attributes of the first nine Sefirot penetrate into Malchut.

But it is insufficient only to understand that the light’s attributes and those of Malchut are opposite to each other. The Malchut has to act the same way as the light does; it needs to become equivalent to the nine Sefirot. However, how can it do this if the light does not enter inside of it at all? To achieve this goal, the breaking (Shvirat) of the Kelim takes place, or the breaking of the desires. This is done by way of the “blow of the light”, which goes through all nine Sefirot and enters Malchut. Now, Malchut is mixed and intertwined with all of the other nine Sefirot. This is called “Shvirat ha Kelim” or the sinful downfall.

After the Shvirat Kelim took place, four kinds of desires were formed. These are: a) the purely altruistic desires that were present in the first nine Sefirot, b) the altruistic desires that have become mixed with the egoistic desires, c) the egoistic desires that have become mixed with the altruistic, and d) the purely egoistic desires. This way, two kinds of desires, the purely altruistic and the purely egoistic, having fallen during the Shvirat Kelim and having mixed with each other, have now turned into two more kinds of mixed desires.

Only now does it finally become possible to create a soul in which Malchut is corrected in the same way as the first nine Sefirot are. This is because any egoistic desire now contains a spark of altruism. With this, a special kind of a force is needed, namely the force of correction. This force causes each altruistic spark to become the prevailing part of the desire, capable of correcting the whole egoistic desire.

How does this happen? We take the corresponding book on Kabbalah, written by a Kabbalist who has already corrected himself in correspondence with the light. When a person reads this kind of a book, what takes place is the transmission of the instructions about how to build the inner Kli inside of oneself, in correspondence with the light. By reading the lines in the book, even without understanding what we have read, we nevertheless attract the surrounding light to ourselves, which gradually cleanses and corrects our desires.

Studying under the clear direction of a teacher-Kabbalist, while in a group of people who want to reach the goal of creation or equivalence to the Creator, is bound to be effective!

Studying Kabbalah also explains the order in which the parts of our soul will become corrected, if we direct our desire correspondingly to the corrected desires of the Kabbalist who wrote the book.

As a person corrects himself, he gradually begins to feel that his desires are broken. He learns to differentiate them, sort them out according to the quality and quantity, combine them in a specific order, and gather them. This path is a long one, but it is special and interesting. A person begins to elucidate new attributes in himself, perceiving that he is the creation and becoming aware of his connection to the Creator and to the other parts of the universe. What takes place is the understanding of how our whole external system is constructed and how the upper governance works.

The Creator’s goal for us is to first begin having control over ourselves and then over the whole world, therefore replacing the Creator. In our world we chase after particular manifestations of the light, such as the pleasure we get from knowledge, power, sex, food and children.

When the light comes and fills us completely and boundlessly, it is immediately perceived as complete perfection and pleasure. There are no desires left in a person. The process of becoming filled by the light is gradual, and it is called “Sulam” or ‘ladder’. Baal HaSulam wrote about this, and it is called so in honor of the system of spiritual ascent which he worked out called “Sulam” in his commentaries “Sulam” on the book of “Zohar”.

The Creator created one collective soul called Adam, which broke into 600,000 parts, each of which consists of four desires. A person’s task consists in correcting not only himself, but also his part in the collective soul. Each soul must correct its relation to all of the 600,000 souls, for this is how it corrects itself; since every other soul, in turn, consists of 600,000 parts, and the nine first Sefirot enter into each one of them.

The souls are able to become corrected only through the bodies, and the bodies become corrected in the group by way of various mechanical actions, directed at the achievement of a single goal. There are two such mechanical actions: a) studying, and b) doing common work for the sake of the soul’s spiritual correction.

A person does not have the ability to correct his desires, since the light created them. It is only necessary to change the direction in which these desires act, or, to what end does he want to fulfill these desires. If I temporarily do not fulfill one of my desires, then it will come back to me later in a more distorted form.

We need to work on how to correctly use this desire. We cannot starve or torture ourselves, or run away from something. What needs to be corrected is the intention with which we use our desires. If we do this, then we will see that all of our desires are necessary for us in order to reach our goal. This is why they say that the person who is more egoistic has big desires. Another thing said is that since the fall of the Temple, only Kabbalists still have a taste for the earthly pleasures.

According to the thought of creation, we have to come to the state where we can live and exist according to the spiritual laws. All of the misfortunes that occur for each of us, as well as all disasters and catastrophes, take place in order to bring every person and humanity as a whole, to carry out the spiritual commandments during their life in this world. This is what Baal HaSulam writes.

Kabbalah is the instruction for the Creator to become revealed to the creatures living in this world. Kabbalah does not write about what will happen to us after death, but rather what should happen to us during our life in this world. Kabbalah talks only about what a person in this world needs; what he must achieve in order to avoid living his life in vain, only to involuntarily come back again and complete whatever was not finished before. Therefore, Kabbalah is the most indispensable and practical science in the world.

It is impossible for us to run away. Life itself obligates us to perform this completion, and as a result of all our suffering, come to full correction or Gmar Tikkun. What is “Gmar Tikkun”? The world will continue to exist; everything will continue to take place just as before: the same universe, the same stars, birds and trees.

Only man’s awareness will change in the way he perceives the environment, because man himself will change. Nothing else changes, continuing to act by the laws of nature, according to the directions it receives from the Creator. It is man who transforms from an animal to a real man.

Kabbalah explains how to achieve this completion. It is achieved by studying in a specific group, according to the right books, and under the supervision of an authentic Rav or teacher. In addition, Kabbalah teaches that the more a student begins to understand what to do, the more he perfects himself, the group, and the lessons. Baal HaSulam writes about this, and also depicts for us a picture of how the corrected world should appear.

The first thing that we study is the expansion of all of the worlds, Partzufim and Sefirot, starting from the highest point and descending downwards. The second stage consists of ascending the spiritual levels. In order to correct himself, a person must ascend along the spiritual levels that have been prepared for him, beginning with the lowermost point and ascending upwards, while continuing to live in this world. There are a total of 125 levels we have to go through on the path of ascent into the spiritual world. They are the total number of levels separating us from the Creator, meaning, there are 125 levels of the attainment of the Creator.

Right now I act according to my understanding of my egoistic nature. Something is good for me, and something else is bad. I learn from my environment and act accordingly. The more I adapt to my environment the more comfortable I feel in it. Further, while in my nature, it seems as if my environment changes as the people around me change their opinions as to what the world should look like.

Each generation is characterized by the souls in it, differing from the previous and following generations. We can see the degree to which two contiguous generations, such as our parents and our children, differ from ourselves.

The souls descend into our world in each generation, and from one generation to the next they accumulate their experience. In connection to this, the souls’ desires become greater than the souls’ desires of the previous and earlier generations. Therefore, every new generation aspires for new discoveries, assisting in humanity’s development.

When a person begins to study the spiritual world, he is being pushed to change his environment and the world to greater resemblance to the Creator. In the last stage of this change, the world becomes completely equivalent to the Creator. This generation is called “the last generation”. Not because everything will perish, but simply as a consequence of this generation’s perfection, no further correction is necessary.

Kabbalah does not talk about development after Gmar Tikkun, because this relates to the secrets of the Torah. It speaks only about how to bring a generation to the level of “the last generation”. The entire Torah talks only about how to go through the 125 levels of the Creator’s attainment.

On one hand, a person’s environment serves him in realizing the spiritual laws, enabling him to change the environment. On the other hand, by changing the environment, there are opportunities to change himself. Further, to the extent a person changes the environment, then the changes in that person are by a force equal to the number of members of the given society.

In short, our group is the place of correction and, simultaneously, the source for correction of each person who is in it. Even if someone in the group is still weak and is unable to do anything in it, nevertheless, he receives the force for his correction from the group in advance.

Therefore, each person has to build the correct environment for himself, in order to derive strength for spiritual correction and to ascend after a fall. Alternatively, in a group unable to give the strength for correction yet, many people are in the state of depression, or bad mood with the absence of the strength to advance. These states sometimes occur within a wholesome environment as well, but they do not endure.

Each level is built in the following way: “on the right” is the altruistic force of the Creator; “on the left” is the egoistic force of the desire that He created; in the middle between them is man, that is, he perceives himself this way. A person has to take the correct amount or necessary proportion from the right and left forces, and use them to ascend to the next level. Obviously, the right and left, just like other terms, are approximate, but we simply do not have any other way to refer to the attributes of the upper world.

A person continues this process until the 125th level. These 125 levels are divided into 5 worlds. Each world contains 25 levels. The lowermost spiritual world, called the world of Assiya, is located above our world. What t hen follows the world of Yetzira, then the worlds of Beria, Atzilut and Adam Kadmon. Our world is beneath the lowest level of the world of Assiya, and is separated from it by the Machsom (a barrier).

These right and left lines mutually help a person overcome all of the difficulties involved in passing from one level to the next. However, when a person initially begins to work against his egoism, the desire and strength to ascend emerge while he is present in the right side (the forces of the Creator). This is the first stage. Being on the right side in the initial state does not depend on the person, but rather on the Creator.

In the second stage, a person passes into the left side and adds egoism to himself. His mood here is totally opposite to his mood on the right side. He experiences a bad mood, depression, and weakness, and nothing seems worthwhile to him.

Being in the left side is necessary in order to feel our own egoism, and the amount of time a person spends there depends on the person himself. He can diminish the amount of time he is present there to a minimum. All of the bad that a person experiences depends on the amount of time he spends in the left line. If a person understands that his current bad state is happening with the goal of furthering his advancement, then he will no longer evaluate this state as bad, but rather as good. He will perceive suffering a necessity and consequently, good.

In this way, the perception and understanding of good and bad change. The group or environment can help in correcting these perceptions. A person can derive spiritual strength from the group while not yet in the spiritual world. All of the creatures are the single body of Adam and are separated by their bodies/desires due to the uncorrected desires.

When egoism becomes annihilated, we are able to receive information from the other souls and to feel them, since each person is willing to do something for another. It is necessary to build a group with one single goal. The group has to be a single whole, with one spirit inside. It is necessary to ensure the state of the group is always on one level, with each person always ready to help another. Each person must become integrated into the other and into everyone as a whole. The degree each will be able to lower his “I” relative to the others and the group as a whole, is the extent of how much more he will receive from each person and the group as a whole. A small person is able to receive from a big one. For this to happen, one needs only consider another person as being above himself.

The group must maintain the state where the most important factor is the exaltation of the Creator. This goal must determine every action. Then each person will be able to receive a spiritual charge from the group, and the downfalls will be unnoticeable. Each level of the souls builds its own environment for itself, that is, an environment that corresponds to it. Everything depends on the souls’ internal level. The environment must be built according to different laws in each world.

The group is built according to the principle of flexibility and the ability to change easily. It is even appropriate if the group constantly changes; this means it is advancing. Life, work and family in this world, as well as the animal life in the physical body, will change in the future according to the spirituality of members in the group. This is specifically what the Creator demands from us.

Our body will be in this world, while the soul is in the spiritual world. The more spiritual actions the soul performs, the more our body will follow the spiritual laws in the material world. That is, at the end of development, family relationships and those between group members must be built according to the upper laws of the world of Atzilut.

Adam HaRishon was created specifically in this way. His body/desire consists of the desires of the nine Sefirot, but Malhut is the part called “Lev haEven” (i.e. stony heart), meaning, the part of Malhut that was not able to absorb the attributes of the first nine Sefirot or the Creator’s attributes.

Thus, he was forbidden to arouse this tenth desire in himself, or to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as all of the evil is contained in this part. Therefore, if he breaks this rule, then that evil enters the world, intermixing with the other parts or the first nine Sefirot.

Nevertheless, Adam sinned, hoping to receive the light of the nine Sefirot into Malchut for the sake of the Creator. But since Malchut is unable to undertake the altruistic intention, Adam received for his own sake, causing the soul to break into 600,000 separate parts. These parts do not feel they were once a single whole soul and do not feel each other.

Each part of the general soul is the desire to receive pleasure. Each part is called “I” and needs to be corrected by elevating 125 levels up. That is, there is a need each time to correct a 1/125th particle inside of each of the 600,000 souls/desires. Every time each particle goes through the right side and then the left, it then becomes included into the middle line; taking the force of the Creator or the desire to bestow from the right line, and acquiring the desire to receive from the left line, their sum emerges in the middle line, resulting in a desire to receive for the sake of bestowal.

We are only given the forces that allow us to counteract the egoism of the left side from above, that is, to correct the necessary egoistic part in order to receive for the sake of bestowal. A person is given only what he is able to bear. If a person did not receive a force from above then he would not be given a bad state.

If a member of the group wants to advance spiritually, he continually needs an opportunity to receive both spirituality and egoism from the group. Therefore, these two attributes must coincide together in the group. Being in the group means to be connected with it, in the inner sense.

A person who comes to Kabbalah is very egoistic, autonomous and independent from others. He needs time until he begins to wish for the Creator and understand the importance of the goal of creation. Only then will he be able to lower himself in relation to the group, in order to give to it and to receive from it.

In the beginning, a person may not have the desire to do anything for the group, but the common goal must obligate him to do this. If each person understands that there is nothing more important than the goal of creation, then it will be easy for him to be useful to the group in many ways.

However, if the pleasures of this world are still worth more than the goal to a person and he cannot separate himself from those pleasures, then his time has not arrived yet and there is no place in the group for him. His soul is not ready to undertake the spiritual laws. When a person has gone through all pleasures of the world, he is then given a push towards the spiritual. In order for this to occur, he does not necessarily have to be in all circumstances of this world and then reject them by discovering their insignificance. Rather, he achieves this by receiving from above the necessary grounds for the insignificance of the earthly search for pleasure.

Today, spirituality attracts us with a greater pleasure compared to the material world. Therefore, we want it, and this is not a lie. Our entire world lives on and is supported by the tiny spark of the spiritual light that has broken through the Machsom and has penetrated into our world. Now imagine the spiritual world, which in its entirety is nothing but the light that is many billion times greater than the spark of pleasure of our world. What pleasures exist there!

But how do we enter the spiritual world? We know in order to achieve this we have to change our egoistic essence from the desire to receive into the desire to give. However, we do not understand what this is, and there are not enough words to explain this concept. We do not have the convolutions in our brain necessary to understand this because our brain works within the system of egoism.

Kabbalah teaches us that in order to feel pleasure it is sufficient to only change the direction of the desire rather than the desire itself. The pleasure will correspond to how much the desire’s goal-orientedness will change. Here we are talking about a purely psychological concept; a person still receives pleasure, but the important thing is for what or for whom he will be receiving it.

A question emerges: where is the knob that we need to turn in order to achieve this?

It is located at the boundary between the egoism of our world and the altruism of the spiritual world, and is called the “Machsom”. This means I am already willing to do anything to pass into the spiritual world with my perceptions. The group is necessary for a person to reach this state, as well as constancy with regard to studying. The group is necessary in order to develop the desire to receive the spiritual into the necessary size. Then an inner click occurs… and a person begins to receive the spiritual force and spiritual awareness from above.

There exist five worlds between the Creator and our world. They are called: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. Beneath the world of Assiya there is the Machsom, and our world is below it. Our goal while still located in our world is for our soul to attain the level of the world of Ein Sof, meaning, to attain complete unification with the Creator. That is, when our soul is clothes the body of this world, to change the attributes of egoism into the attributes of the Creator on each spiritual level until our entire egoism is replaced by altruism. When that occurs, our soul’s attributes will become fully equivalent to the Creator’s attribute.

In our world, the following two egoistic attributes are enacted: “to receive for the sake of reception” and “to bestow for the sake of reception”. The spiritual worlds are built on the following attribute: “to bestow for the sake of bestowal” or “to receive for the sake of bestowal”. The first task of a person who wants to pass into “the world to come” is to restrict the use of his desires, or to perform Tzimtzum Alef. This means to stop working with egoism or with the egoistic desires.

We are not able to change our “desire to receive” because this is the only thing created by the Creator. However, it is possible and also necessary, to change the intention in the desire from “to receive for one’s own sake” into the intention “to receive for the sake of the Creator”. Hence, we can see that the action does not change outwardly; rather it is only the intention that changes.

Therefore the methodology of changing the intention (something that no one can see and that is hidden from everyone) is called the secret Science of Kabbalah. It is the methodology of how to receive by changing the intention. The important thing is what I am thinking when I perform any given action, and what goal I am pursuing when I act. All 125 levels are degrees of gradual correction of the soul’s intention, from receiving for one’s own sake to receiving for the sake of the Creator.

The five worlds are levels of the desire to receive, beginning with the weakest desire (Keter) and ending with the strongest (Malchut). These are built starting at the top (the Creator) and descend downwards to creation. As the light comes from the Creator and passes through the worlds, it becomes weaker and therefore suitable for being perceived by the weaker altruistic desires. When the soul receives the light of correction from above, it begins to change the intention “for its own sake” into the intention “to receive for the sake of the Creator”, or “to bestow”.

The soul reaches the Machsom line only if it performs the Tzimtzum Alef on all the desires it perceives in that state, that is, when it totally refuses to work with egoism. However, it is not yet able to receive anything for the Creator’s sake.

When the soul corrects its intention to bestow on the level of Keter, it enters the world of Assiya located above the Machsom. That is, when it is able to counteract the weakest possible egoism by not receiving anything and nullifying itself in the light of the upper. If the soul is able to counteract its egoism in the light of Hochma, it ascends to the level of the world of Yetzira.

The soul continues this way by increasing its ability to work against greater egoistic forces each time, ascending to the next (higher) spiritual level, until reaching the world of Ein Sof. The soul acquires its essence as a spiritual substance only after crossing the Machsom and ascending further.

In the spiritual world a person is dealing with pure naked desires that are not clothed in various appearances of our world. A Kabbalist who is in the spiritual ceases to investigate our world because he correctly perceives it as the natural result of the branch from the spiritual root. For him, it is more interesting to see the cause, or the beginning root, rather than the consequence, located on an incomparably lower level than the root, from which all desires and causes originate.

A person who ascends, thereby changes all earthly desires into the desire for the Creator. At first he wants to possess the Creator egoistically, in just the same way he previously wanted to receive everything in our world. As it is said: a person wants the Creator so much that this passion does not allow him to fall asleep!

Gradually, a small light called Ohr Makif, which constantly surrounds a person, begins to shine for him, whereby he reaches a request for the spiritual with the help of this light, using a desire stronger than all other desires. Finally, with the help of the same light, a person passes the Machsom and receives the intention of bestowal.

Only the Upper light of the Creator is able to raise a person in this way; to provide the answer to all his human efforts for the spiritual, to bring him to the state where desire for the spiritual is so great that it does not let him fall asleep and suppresses all other desires.

All souls go through the same stages during their path, but each soul’s assignment in this world is different. Also different is the speed with which different souls to go through the same path.

Every thought, every desire and every movement a person makes in our world, regardless of the person, is given to him with one single goal: to ascend and to come closer to the spiritual. However, the majority of people go through this advancement in a natural way on the unconscious human, animal, vegetative and still levels.

Everything is predetermined and pre-programmed by the goal of creation. A person’s free choice consists of whether he agrees with everything that happens to him, whether he begins to understand the goal towards which everything is directed, and whether he himself wants to be an active participant in all of the events happening to him.

All thoughts and desires in the world of Ein Sof pass through a person. However, a person “picks up” only thoughts corresponding to his level. On today’s level, a person is able to not think about new discoveries. However, when he increases the level of his knowledge and concepts, he suddenly begins to dream of something complex. This means that he is meant to feel and perceive a more complex realm of perception.

The realm of a person’s activity is constructed in this way, or his picture of the perception of the world in which he lives. If a person develops further, even deeper thoughts come to him with a different connection between things. Everything depends on a person’s level of development, because this determines his bounds of perception or the part of the world of Infinity a person perceives.

There is no other way to develop the desire for the spiritual, to evoke Ohr Makif, to personally take part in fulfilling the goal of creation, and to shorten the natural path of achieving this goal, other than studying in a group under the direction of a teacher. Only the light that begins to shine can help change the egoistic properties (being the only obstacle on the spiritual path) into altruistic properties.

Ohr Makif changes our desire to receive into the desire to bestow and takes us past the Machsom. We say that we do not want anything from the material world and that we want only the spiritual. If we knew that going through the Machsom means changing the intention with regard to who and what we think and worry about, we would run away.

To continue, we now enter the territory above the Machsom where we encounter an ocean of light. This is the light of the Creator, which shines on us to the degree that our exaltation of the Creator is greater than our egoistic desire. This gives us the opportunity to gradually acquire the property of the light itself, or to bestow.

The most important thing is to pass the Machsom. A soul that has received the light knows the entire path after passing it, because the light teaches it. There already exists an unraveled map and instruction for each subsequent step and every action. These are the instructions that Kabbalists have described for us in their books.

Every bad thought is opposite to the Creator’s good thought, but how can we change a bad thought into a good one? First, we have to understand that the thought is bad; to realize its evil in order to then come to the decision of correcting it. We can see this evil only in the Creator’s light or in His greatness. However, if light does not shine for a person, then he is blind and exists in the dark, under the Machsom where light does not penetrate. A person exists in this world and believes that all his thoughts are good.

When a person becomes illuminated by the light of the Upper or surrounding light called “Ohr Makif”, he begins to see his own entire essence. This is called “the realization of evil”. Without this illumination by the light, a person tries to justify himself and he is always correct in his own eyes. However, the realization of his own ego in the illumination of the light pushes a person to turn to the Creator for help. Moreover, thanks to the illumination, a person already sees the source of the illumination and he precisely knows to Whom he has to turn.

If the person’s plea is genuine, the Creator alters his nature. However, the desire to receive does not change; the only thing that changes is the intention from “receiving for his own sake” into “receiving for the Creator”, which corresponds to bestowal. This is how the gradual change of a person’s attributes into the Creator’s attributes takes place on each of the 125 levels.

Each level includes several processes:

• the realization of evil: how much worse than the Creator one is in the left line;

• what help one should receive from the Creator from His right line;

• the combination of the right and left lines: how much can one receive from the right line, that is, to pass into the middle line.

As a result of these actions, another part of a person’s desire becomes equivalent to the Creator, enabling him to pass to the next level. This continues on each level, until all of a person’s attributes become equal to the Creator’s attribute.

A person’s desires determine his action. It is impossible to perform actions without desires! For example, tomorrow morning I have to wake up early, therefore I am going to sleep early today. Am I doing this against my desire? No! No one in this world is able to perform actions without the desire and without fulfilling this desire with pleasure. The desire is the energy or moving force that gives a person the opportunity to do something.

Sometimes it seems to us that we are doing something against our desire. This is not the case. We simply perform a calculation, that it is beneficial to do something even if opposing the desire. If beneficial to a person, he undertakes various unpleasant and undesired actions.

By choosing, a person is able to bring another desire closer, to create it and to realize it. Not a single one of us would be able to move even a finger without receiving the moving force for this or bringing another desire closer.

A person who does something good for another person thinks that this is really the case and that he truly does this action unselfishly. However, if he enters the whole depth of his thoughts he will see that he does everything with just one goal: to do something good for himself only, and everything else is his own lie.

If in addition a person studies Kabbalah, he is able to see how all of this works; that each is an absolute egoist and does not think of anyone other than himself, not even his own children. Simply, in the current stage the entire system of thoughts is faulty, and it seems impossible to a person to do something for another’s sake.

It is only possible to give to someone when receiving something in return, or benefiting in some way. One should not be ashamed of this fact. This is our nature. We either receive for self-gratification, or give in order to benefit from it in some way. This is no one’s fault. The only thing we need to do is aspire towards changing our attributes to the Creator’s attributes.

Kabbalah teaches people to accept a person just the way he was created. We cannot hate someone for this or get angry because we see these attributes in him. Nevertheless, it is difficult to communicate with the external world and to have the patience to observe the petty egoism of someone you may encounter. However, each person is created the way he should be. We should only try to help each other to change the attributes we have been given into the altruistic attributes.

What is suffering? It is everything that opposes our desire. As the Talmud says, if a person puts his hand in his pocket and takes out one coin, but he wanted another one, then he experiences suffering. Suffering is everything in life that does not correspond to our desire. We perceive suffering whenever we are in a bad mood, sick, or when we do not want to do something.

However, everything being done is happening for our good. One way or another, everything that happens advances us towards reaching the goal of creation. Except, in our distorted perceptions, good seems bad and sweet seems bitter.

In reality, it is possible to feel what is good only after passing the Machsom. Right now, however, everything is perceived as suffering. This happens due to the lack of fulfillment by the light. After all, light remains outside as long as our desires have not received the altruistic intention.

While a person is not getting closer to the spiritual, the will to receive is the angel of life for him. However, by studying Kabbalah and attracting the surrounding light to himself, the person gradually sees how much his will to receive for himself is an obstacle to changing his egoistic nature into altruism. He sees that this is a real enemy of advancing forward, and his desires become the angel of death instead of the angel of life.

When a person comes to realize the evil of his own egoism in comparison to the attributes of the light that he has perceived, a huge desire emerges to remove these chains at any cost. However, since one is unable to do this on his own, in despair he cries to the Creator for help. And he receives this help, if this is his only plea and it is authentic.

A person who wants to come closer to the spiritual has to be like everyone else: he has to work like everyone else and to have a family and children. The important thing is what he does in the two-three hours that are free from work and responsibilities at home. Does he spend them in front of the TV or in a restaurant, or does he put efforts into achieving the spiritual goal?

In either case, a person cannot talk about his spiritual work to anyone else; he has to thoroughly conceal what he feels with relation to the Creator. This is done in order not to damage another person’s spiritual path. Every person has a different path. Once reaching full correction, everything will become revealed since there will be no place for obstacles of egoistic jealousy.

When a person begins to study Kabbalah, it seems to him that he is moving backwards or standing in place. But in fact, this is a major sign that he is moving forward. The reason for this is that he evaluates his states in his not-yet-corrected perceptions.

Each consequent correction brings a student closer to acquiring the intention “for the sake of bestowal”. However, in order to do this, a person has to go through dozens of kinds of changes. He has to find out who he is and what exactly he wants, what the desire to receive means, what the material of creation is, and the meaning of “life” and “death”. A person comes to the conclusion that life means to feel the light, and death is the perception of the darkness, or the Creator’s absence from his perceptions. Before a person comes to the genuine understanding of what is good and what is bad, he first goes through many different states.

The Machsom is the barrier that blocks the light from entering our world. How is the Machsom different from the Masach (the screen)? The Masach is characterized by an attribute that is totally different than the Machsom. In front of the Machsom, there is the light in its entirety, and nothing conceals it. There, the person himself pushes the light away with the force of his desire to not receive the light for the sake of self-gratification.

The barrier - Machsom is outside of me and blocks all of the upper light from me. On the other hand, the Masach is something that a person places inside of himself by way of his inner realization and by his desire to not allow the light to enter him egoistically, but rather to accept it only for the sake of the Creator. When a person has the Masach, then the barrier is no longer necessary, because the person is able to oppose the light himself.

How is our path divided along the 125 levels?

We know that there are 125 levels of attainment between us and the world of Ein Sof. However, we only need to reach the world of Atzilut in order to become corrected, that is, we have to go through the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira and Beria. Each of them is counted as 2000 years, so there are 6000 years altogether. After that there is the correction above Tzimtzum Bet, or a correction in a different dimension called Tzimtzum Alef.

Our soul consists of five parts: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin (Z”A) and Malchut. They differ due to an increasingly greater desire to feel pleasure. They are divided into two parts: Galgalta ve Eynaim (Keter and Hochma) and AHP (Bina, Z’A and Malchut). In other words, Keter is called Gulgolet, Hochma is called Eynaim, Bina is called Ozen, ZA is called Hotem and Malchut is called Peh. The first part of the soul experiences pleasure from bestowing, and the second - from receiving. This is how every soul is constructed.

The only thing we have to correct is Galgalta ve Eynaim, or Kelim de Ashpaa, meaning the bestowing desires. Our spiritual path begins when we ascend from our world. To ascend means to gradually correct GE. By ascending through the worlds of BYA to the world of Atzilut, we are affirming that our Kelim de Ashpaa are corrected. We are not able to correct the Kelim de Kabbalah or the AHP.

What are we able to do, in this case? We are able to gradually elevate our Kelim de Kabbalah or AHP from the worlds of BYA into the world of Atzilut. This begins with elevating the least egoistic AHPs from the world of Beria, and then elevating the more egoistic AHPs from the world of Yetzira. This work concludes when the most egoistic Kelim from the world of Assiya have ascended. We do not correct the Kelim-desires themselves. Rather, we simply attach them to the Galgalta ve Eynaim that corresponds to them, that is, we plug them into the bestowing desires.

Every time we ascend, we receive a specific additional amount of the light. Therefore, this action is called “ascent”. There are three ascents altogether. To be more precise, an ascent from three different places takes place: from the worlds of Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. The AHPs that ascend into the world of Atzilut are not the genuine desires to receive (Kelim de Kabbalah), meaning, they are not a person’s “I” or the “Lev ha Even”. This is the part which a person cannot correct himself. The only thing that becomes corrected is a small part called “AHP de Aliyah”. However, a person does not have to perform a huge correction. As soon as the above correction will be completed, the Creator Himself will correct the Lev ha Even.

In order for a person to know what he needs to correct, he has to see and feel what it is that needs to be corrected. This is the reason for the existence of the ascents that do not depend on a person, which are called “stimulation from above”. There are the Shabbaths, holidays and new months. This is given to a person only because he has already corrected his Kelim de Ashpaa, that is, he does not want anything for himself and he is located in the world of Atzilut.

The first action or the first ascent will be the attachment of AHP de Aliyah of the world of Beria. The second ascent takes place when the AHP of the world of Yetzira becomes attached. The third, with the attaching of AHP of the world of Assiya. When a person has ascended these three levels, then the correction of “Lev ha Even” takes place, and this is known as “Gmar Tikkun” or “the end of correction”.

There are two kinds of desires to feel pleasure. These are desires to feel pleasure from receiving, or from bestowing. The pleasure from bestowing is perceived in Kelim de Ashpaa, and the pleasure from receiving is perceived in Kelim de Kabbalah. Both of them are un-corrected in us. The easiest thing to correct is Kelim de Ashpaa in such a way that I will give everything for the sake of the person to whom I am giving, rather than for my own pleasure. This is easier to correct because the action (bestowal) and the direction (for the sake of another person) have the same direction.

Kelim de Kabbalah (AHP) allow a person to feel pleasure only when he receives. It is much more difficult to correct them. In order to correct them, a person has to give pleasure to another by receiving, and to receive only for this sake. To do this, a stronger connection with the Creator is necessary, because this correction passes through the very essence of the human “I”.

Therefore the AHP becomes corrected after G”E, and it becomes corrected gradually. In other words, it is not as difficult to ascend to the world of Atzilut with the corrected Kelim of G”E, as it is to attach the AHP afterwards. The reason for this is that the latter action is opposite to the intention.

All of the five worlds serve as barriers for the Creator’s light. The lower a world is, the more light it conceals. The worlds or barriers end at the Machsom, which positively conceals the light from our world, and only a small spark penetrates into it, which is necessary to support life in our world. This spark is called “Ner Dakik”. The Creator did this in order for us to be able to live without the Masach. The Masach is not necessary when there is no light but there is Ner Dakik.

This weak light or Ner Dakik is divided into a great multitude of parts. It “spins” the atoms, moves the molecules, and compels all of matter to exist, moving it towards development and giving life on all of the levels: the still, vegetative, animal and our level – the human level.

If, with the help of study, a teacher, and the group, a person nevertheless acquires a screen on his tiny egoism or on Aviut Shoresh, then this means that he is already able to withstand the smallest light, Nefesh, which is greater than Ner Dakik. That is, in this case a person is able to be in this light and not to receive it for his own sake. The Masach or screen is doing that which the Machsom did before. This is the passage from this world into the spiritual worlds, and the Machsom is no longer necessary. However, the Masach is blocking only the smallest light, Nefesh.

This is analogous to an example from our life. Suppose a person was brought up “not to steal”, and if we place $100 in front of him then he will not steal this money. However, if the amount of money that appears before him is greater than that which he was brought up “not to steal”, then he will not be able to withstand the temptation and his upbringing will be insufficient to prevent him from not stealing.

The same thing transpires in the spiritual. Wherever there is Ohr Nefesh, a person easily acts for the Creator's sake, easily perceives Him, has contact with the light and receives pleasure for the sake of bestowal. He is able to do this because he has a Masach for that level, which prevents him from receiving for his own sake. This state is called the world of Assiya.

After that, with the help of studying and additional efforts, a person then acquires a Masach on a stronger egoism or on Aviut Alef, and now he is already able to receive the light Ruach for the sake of bestowal. Correspondingly, in our previous example, a person has acquired the shield to “not steal” up to $1000, for example. In this case, a person can go from the world of Assiya into the world of Yetzira. Analogously, when a person acquires the Masach of Aviut Bet, then he is able to pass to the world of Beria.

This way, the barrier is eliminated during the passage from one world into the next. This means that a Masach becomes acquired in place of the barrier, which corresponds to the Aviut of the given world. The barrier goes inside of the person because he no longer needs it. A person becomes capable of carrying out the law of the given world on his own, that is, the law is simply not necessary for him because the person is above it, he is higher than the law, and he fulfills it or carries it out by way of his convictions.

Since our soul consists of five parts, we therefore have to acquire Masachs of five different levels and strengths, in accordance to the egoism’s weight:

- When a person acquires Masach with Aviut Shoresh, he crosses the Machsom and enters the spiritual level of the world of Assiya;

- Masach de Aviut Alef gives a person the opportunity to ascend to the level of the world of Beria;

- Masach of Aviut Bet elevates a soul to the level of the world of Beria;

- Masach with Aviut Gimel elevates the soul’s level from the world of Beria to the world of Atzilut;

- and finally, Masah Dalet Aviut elevates a person (that is, it elevates a person’s soul, since a person is considered a soul in Kabbalah) to the world of Adam Kadmon.

After that, the soul ascends to the world of Ein Sof from the world of Adam Kadmon.

Since each world contains five Partzufim, and each Partzuf consists of five Sefirot, a person acquires a new level with every five Sefirot. For example, in the world of Assiya, the first five Sefirot allow a person to reach Malchut of the world of Assiya; the second five Sefirot elevate him to Z”A of the world of Assiya; five more elevate him to Bina of the world of Assiya, and the next five - to Hochma of the world of Assiya. The final five Sefirot allow the soul to reach Keter of the world of Assiya.

When the soul moves along the path, it gradually acquires Masach from Aviut de Shoresh until Aviut de Alef of the world of Yetzira. This continues each time, until the soul goes through all 125 levels by going through all of the worlds.

When a person is in the world of Assiya with Aviut de Shoresh, it is considered that his soul is going through the process of conception (Ubar) in the mother's womb (Bina), and this period lasts for "nine months”. That is, the soul goes through the corresponding number of levels of development, called “intra-uteral”, which corresponds to the amount of time a woman is pregnant in our world.

The passage into Aviut Alef and, correspondingly, into the world of Yetzira, is called the birth of the soul, which corresponds to a person’s birth in our world. Presence in the world of Beria corresponds to growth and feeding over the course of two years, when the soul has to receive the light that gradually grows the Masach in it.

There, the soul is still in the state of Katnut (Kelim G”E). On the other hand, passage into the world of Atzilut already symbolizes the beginning of the gradual Gadlut of the soul (the acquisition of Kelim AHP). This continues until 13 years (adulthood or Bar Mitzvah), when the soul becomes independent in the world of Atzilut. That is, it already has the Machsom that allows it to begin to receive for the sake of bestowal (or to attach Kelim de-Kabbalah with the help of AHP de Aliya).

The world of Atzilut contains Zachar (Z”A) and Nekiva (Nukva). Relative to each other, they are in various positions, depending on the soul’s state (Katnut or Gadlut); various Zivugim transpire between them, and so on.

In the spiritual world, there is a notion called “Eretz” or earth. This is the place where you are located or where you are going. Eretz comes from the word “Ratzon” or desire. Our entire soul consists of one huge desire (Eretz), which contains various small desires (Artznot or Retzanot) as well as desires of the “nations of the world”, which are called other nations.

Eretz is closer to the Creator than the spiritual “other nations”, which are Ever ha Yarden (Jordan), Mitzraim (Egypt) and Suria (Syria). These are our neighbors and they want our earth, or Eretz Israel, because this is where the Creator is located, or this is the desire closest to Him.

All of correction must begin with us, or from the purer desires. On one hand, they are the closest to Eretz Israel; on the other hand, they are the farthest away from it, because there exists a reverse dependency between the light and the desires.

In order to return to the Creator, a person must be at his most egoistic state, that is, he has to feel that something is missing from his life. On one hand, he is an egoist according to his Kelim, meaning that he is far from the Creator according to his egoistic desires. On the other hand, when he alters his Kelim or intentions with the entire force of his desire to come closer to the Creator, then he is closest to Him.

When a person begins to study, he gradually learns to separate his desires into their various components according to the degree of their Aviut, and he begins to evaluate which of his desires he should begin working with and correct. In addition, when he works with his desires he also understands where he located, according to his internal spiritual map.

My teacher wrote down everything that he heard from his father. When I came to study with him and started asking difficult questions that bothered me, he would always avoid the answer, until finally one day he offered me his notes to read. Here I would be able to find what interests me and understand what I have to understand by rereading them when I am in different states. This would be enough to last me for my entire life, even when he is gone.

Our conversation took place in 1981, and he gave me his notebook. I made a copy of it and, for ten years, I read from the copy. In 1991, on the day before his death, he gave me the original. He said: “Read it. It’s for you”. He asked me to come earlier the next day. He knew what would happen before-hand, but I did not know. I arrived late, and when I arrived he was almost unconscious and he died as I watched.

The articles and notes that he gave me are very important and deep. Every time a person reads them he thinks that he understands something, but when he reads it again he sees how wrong his previous comprehension was, and he constantly continues to reveal newer and newer depths in it. How one comprehends that which he reads depends on what state he is in.

These articles were written from the highest point, or from the height of attainment. However, a person can read them while he is on any of the lower levels, including the level of our world. Every person is able to find his personal state in these articles, as well as what he needs to do in this state and what the author wants to say to the reader during this moment.

I recommend for everyone to read these articles; even a few lines a day is sufficient. My Rav used to open the notebook before he went to sleep for only a few seconds, and this was sufficient to allow the light to expand into the soul.

Right now you and I will read one of the deepest and most serious of Rav’s articles, which must become a desktop manual for anyone who wants to unify with the Creator. This article contains Baal HaSulam’s entire Torah, his entire approach to creation, and everything that a person should constantly hold inside of himself and perceive.

This is the first article in the book entitled “Shamati”, which I have published. It is called “There is None Else Beside Him”:

"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?"

The Creator is the only ruler of creation and it was He who created man with specific attributes and gave him all of the necessary strengths. He surrounds man with an environment that optimally helps him to advance towards the goal of creation. Nevertheless, we can see that despite this fact, the Creator Himself does not only not help man directly, but He also constantly confuses him with various problems, such as making him lose his job, have problems in his family, be afflicted by various illnesses, misfortunes, suffering and many more things.

This kind of a relationship with the Creator lasts for a long time, but a person has no other way to advance than to go through these states and thus to acquire the experience that will later give him the ability to receive perfection, eternity, infinity and unity with the Creator.

This period comes to an end when a person arrives at the decision that only the Creator can personally help him. This decision causes the genuine demand to be established in the person’s heart; a demand for the Creator to open his eyes and heart and to really bring him closer to eternal union with Him.

The Creator wants for man to acquire all of the worlds’ attributes by ascending to those worlds from our world and by replacing the Creator in each of the worlds. However, there is no possibility of doing this without the Creator’s help. A person is not able to do anything on his own. All suffering and misfortunes happen to us because our desires or attributes are opposite to the Creator’s attributes, that is, they are opposite to the light.

As a result of the opposition of attributes, everything that we see in our world does not exist in reality, but it is merely the projection of our attributes onto the light. We are seeing our own attributes. When the light comes from above, a person does not feel the light, but rather he feels his own negative attributes in the light. In order to feel the light itself, a person must rid himself of the egoism’s evil or of his obstacles.

When a person cries to the Creator for help, it suddenly becomes clear that: “all the rejections he had experienced had come from the Creator.

"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 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 Creator gives a person painful blows in order to return him to the goal of creation. Usually, if a person feels good, then he delights in it and does not care whether the Creator exists or not. However, it is important for a person to be one with the Creator specifically when he is in a good state. This is why the Creator sends us blows - in order for people to be reminded of Him. When a person feels bad, then, one way or another, he begins to think about the Creator. However, all of the work consists in being with the Creator when you feel good.

You can see that Kabbalah talks about the most refined of the souls’ perceptions. People do not expect a blow. It comes unexpectedly, when a person is cut off from the Creator. Each one of us is under the personal governance of the Creator. This governance becomes expressed when we forget about Him. In order to remind us of Himself, He sends us special signals in the form of fate’s blows, and this is His way of saying that we must always direct our thoughts in the direction of the Creator. Nothing more is required.

"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."

There is not one single thought that comes to our mind, that does not come from the Creator. This was predetermined in the goal of creation, and we cannot change anything. In this case, who am “I”? “I” am the one who feels that which is happening up above. At first, we perceive all of this as confusion, and this is because the spiritual that is above is entering us or into the material.

However, gradually this begins to find its place in a person and it begins to work, and then we understand that things cannot be any other way. “Ascent” is when a person agrees with what the Creator is doing, and thus a person feels fulfillment, perfection and eternity; he separates from his body and relates only to the spiritual.

"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.)

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."

The Creator sends only goodness to a person. However, when it passes through egoism it becomes perceived as bad, such as disease, stress and various life misfortunes. When a person feels bad, he is unable to thank the Creator at the same time. If a person knew and felt regret and sorrow for how bad the Creator feels from feeling the difference between the goodness He sends and the bad a person perceives, then the person would behave differently. Or, if the person was able to feel the Creator’s joy when the person himself feels good.

In other words: all of the thoughts, all of the actions, and everything that happens, must be directed at the Creator. This is the only way a person is able to exit out of his “I” or his body, and this signifies his entrance into the spiritual.

A person of our world does not have a soul. However, when he begins to desire the spiritual he acquires a “point in the heart” or an embryo of a soul that demands a person’s return to his spiritual root according to his nature. The soul yearns for the Creator and pulls the person along with it. The person does not know where he is being pulled because the Creator is still concealed from him. However, this point of the soul is pulling him somewhere, even though this is not yet the real soul.

When a person begins to work on himself, his point in the heart gradually increases. It becomes bigger and bigger, but it still remains black because a person perceives the darkness and the feeling that something is missing increases even more than before. When the point finally reaches a specific size that is sufficient for him, he acquires a Masach (screen) around this point, which is orientation towards bestowal. When this happens, the light is able to enter into this point, and it orders all of the desires into five parts according to the light’s attributes. These parts are Keter, Hochma, Bina, ZA and Malchut. Thus, a person acquires a soul.

The desire to receive changes from the smallest (Keter) to the biggest (Malchut). The desire to receive is smallest in Keter and Hochma, and this is why they are called the “bestowing desires”. This state in a person is called “small”.

If a person in our world has only animal desires, then he is a two-legged animal. The next state after this is when a “point in the heart” emerges in him, that is, an aspiration for the spiritual emerges in a person. It does not allow him to rest even though he does not know what it is. If a person continues to intensely study Kabbalah then he arrives at the third state and crosses the Machsom, thus acquiring the screen with Aviut de Shoresh. This state is called “Galgalta with the light Nefesh”, and it emerges in a person to replace the black point.

This state is also called the “fetus” (Ubar). Equivalently to the earthly one, it does not want anything and it is located in the mother’s womb, or in the higher Partzuf that carefully raises it. After that, the fetus develops for nine months, that is, it has to go though nine particular Sefirot that are located within Sefira Maclhut, from Nefesh de Nefesh (Keter de Maclhut) until Yehida de Nefesh (Malchut de Malchut).

When it reaches the latter point, it is no longer Ubar. It becomes born and acquires Kli Hochma with the light Ruach (from Nefesh until Yehida) with Aviut Alef. This period is called “feeding” (Yenika) and lasts for two years or 24 months. At this point, the Partzuf reaches the state of “Katnut” (Galgalta ve Einaim) and the full Aviut Alef. Yenika differs from Ubar, which did not desire anything because it received the light.

How does a baby receive milk for nourishment? When a mother’s menstruation ends, her blood is used to develop the fetus. During birth, the birth blood or the unclean blood comes out, and it can be corrected. This blood becomes the unclean desires, or the desires that do not have the intention for bestowal. In addition, there is another part of the blood that turns into milk after the birth. It ascends from Sefira Yesod, where the womb is located, to the breast (Haze) or to Sefira Tifferet of the Partzuf.

After our world has emerged, everything that happens in the spiritual world and all of the spiritual laws are naturally carried out in our world as well. By studying the spiritual Partzufim’s entire process of conception, development, birth, feeding, and growth into adulthood, we are able to understand precisely what is happening, and, most importantly, why this happens in our world.

After feeding follows the Partzuf of growth into adulthood. The Partzuf receives the light Hochma, or Gadlut (Mochin) into Kelim Bina AHP (Ozen, Hotem, Pe), Aviut Bet, Gimel, Dalet with the light Neshama, Haya and Yehida.

Each one of us should not do anything other than refrain from interfering with the Creator’s work with us, no matter what He is doing to us. The only thing we should do is avoid going beyond the boundaries of the Creators’ governance. If a person is able to make this kind of an effort, then he will be called Ubar in the spiritual. In the state of “Yenika” (feeding) a person already has the ability to ask for something, that is, he enters into a dialogue with the Creator. After two years of Yenika a person needs upbringing and he can already be given a small amount of Ohr Hochma, which begins with the light Neshama.

In the state of “Katnut” the entire system of the spiritual relations between the Creator and creation is built in just the same way as the relations between a mother and a baby in our world. All of the problems that emerge between the latter can be solved from the point of view of the equivalent state in the spiritual.

The Creator sends obstacles or problems to a person on purpose, in order for the person to begin to come closer to Him by making specific efforts. Without obstacles and problems in our lives, we would not have desires and would never be able to advance.

If Adam’s soul did not break, then it would have remained a single uncorrected soul, and it would have been very difficult for it to become corrected. Correction consists in connecting one part of the soul to another part. Only after this happens do they both connect to the Creator.

Work consists in correcting a person’s relation to the circumstances, or to that which he receives from the Creator. The result of this kind of work is unity with the Creator and the justification of all of the Creator’s actions.

Full unity with each other can be accomplished in a group of students. People begin with the smallest possible state and they build boundaries that are comfortable for egoists. That is, they create boundaries that are suitable for everyone who comes to the group, in order to enable mutual closeness and the achievement of a single goal.

No one should suffer from these boundaries; they should not become a prison or a cage. On the other hand, the boundaries constantly change for the better according to the inner state of the people who enter them, and they constantly help everyone reach the given goal. The tighter the connection within the group, the more reasons for the group to have a connection with the Creator will emerge in it.

When a person begins to advance in the spiritual, he loses the desire for it. To be more precise, more egoism is added to him, or more desire to receive, against which he is not able to withstand. In this case, nothing can be done, besides once again transforming the animal egoism into spiritual egoism with the help of studying and mutual work in the group.

A person has to analyze every thought that comes to him and to remember that it comes from the Creator. He has to sort it out and to check whether it is opposite to the goal towards which he aspires: will I go together with this thought or against it? Is the Creator calling me in this case by attracting me to Him, or does he want to awaken me by pushing me away? There is a difference in the two, but nevertheless, in both cases He wants to bring me closer to Him.

When we are in this world and we begin to study the spiritual world, we first learn to build our inner attitude according to the spiritual world, and then we gradually learn the external attitude. The Creator wants us to live in this world according to spiritual laws. The more a person is able to exit out of his “I” to the outside, the more he acquires the ability to feel the spiritual and to rid himself of his body, which is the cause of all his problems.

For example, by studying the world of Atzilut, we are able to use it as a model for how society should be constructed in our world. By doing this, we immediately become influenced by the spiritual forces. They protect us, take care of us, and direct us by giving each person the amount that he is able to perceive with his uncorrected Kelim.

These two worlds, our world and the spiritual, are parallel to each other. The spiritual forces and the light descend upon us from above. However, they are not able to clothe our world, because our world is opposite to spirituality due to its desire to receive for its own sake. Yet, if we build even a small society that is equivalent to the laws of the spiritual world, then all of the positive forces from above will be able to clothe the members of this society, elevating them to a height of the spiritual level from which these forces descend.

We are required to seriously prepare and to build the spiritual borders. This is the best thing a person can do for himself, his family, the people around him and the whole world. Gradually, the whole world will be able to feel something that is more exalted, if even a small society will be created in the world that lives by the spiritual-altruistic laws. We have to want this very much, and then we will receive help from above.

The Creator created the soul that has the desire to receive. The amount of these desires is 600,000. If the soul is divided into this many parts, then each one of them will be called a person’s soul. What is the difference between the parts? The difference is in the quantity and quality of the desires. I am created in such a way that I aspire for one kind of pleasure, while a different person aspires for another one. There are different desires and different pleasures, but the upper light is only one. The difference is only in our desires, which are different in every person.

It is impossible to substitute one desire for another. Therefore, the common soul contains all of the desires that were created by the Creator. Each desire is a specific kind of light, and every person separately perceives each pleasure in a unique way. Moreover, this person is not able to feel a different kind of pleasure.

Originally, we were created different from each other with regard to the kind of desire we have and the quantity of a desire. We should not complain to anyone or about anything, because this is what the Creator wanted. Therefore, every person has his own path and his own incarnations in this world, until we ultimately arrive at the final goal of creation.

Nevertheless, there is a common and unifying factor within all of us. This is the collective goal of creation: to correct the desire to receive for our own sake, which was created in us, into the desire to receive for the Creator’s sake. This will allow every person to unify into one with the Creator and to connect with the others within Him. And in doing so we acquire the eternal, infinite and huge collective soul, receiving the full and perfect pleasure within it.

The egoistic Kli in which we were created is very small, and the pleasure it is able to receive is limited in the quantity, duration and quality of the pleasure. We chase after something, and we suffer when we do not have it. We look for it, and as soon as we achieve it we lose interest in it. Next, there follows a new suffering and the chase for a new pleasure, and this continues until we finally end our life in this world without having fulfilled even a part of our desires.

If only there were no time difference between our desire and the pleasure we receive! Just imagine: I suddenly want something, and I receive it right away. This is called perfection. And of course, I am not talking about the attainment of a small animal pleasure, but rather about the attainment and perception of boundless pleasure that immediately fulfills any spiritual desire.

Every person, with his small egoistic desire, is able to change his intention into “for the sake of the Creator” and thus to increase and eternalize his desires, as well as the huge and boundless pleasure that he will receive in them. This pleasure is equal to the unified collective soul, and this means that it will become equal to the Creator.

Firstly, every soul has to become connected with all of the other souls. Then, each soul’s tiny desire will grow to become the size of the collective soul and it will receive accordingly. The famous communist motto that says: “from each person according to his ability and to each person according to his need”, comes from the spiritual and relates only to the spiritual.

The part, “To receive according to one’s need” – depends on a person’s spiritual level or his screen. The more a person wants to receive, the more desires he still needs to correct. His desire to receive for his own sake does not allow him to correctly receive according to his need, and it limits him even more. In addition, if he is not corrected yet, then he will not be able to bestow according to his ability.

Only by changing his intention from reception into bestowal, that is, by passing into the spiritual, does a person begin to correctly understand the meaning of the call to “bestow according to one’s ability and receive according to one’s need”. When a person understands this correctly then he decides once and for all to be completely fulfilled, and to be eternal and perfect.

When a person is in the spiritual, he learns to bestow more and more and to receive only the minimum he needs for life. When a person unifies with the Creator he becomes the same as Him, that is, he bestows everything without receiving anything for himself. However, this is precisely the reason why he becomes fulfilled by everything. Ultimately, bestowal becomes the reward, and this is the reason why that kind of life is eternal; the light does not have any interruptions and it is constantly inside of the Kli. After all, death is precisely when the light exits out of the Kli.

We begin with the state connected to the pleasures of this world, such as money, social status and family. That is, everything relating to the animal level and a small amount related to the human level. In this state it is impossible to sin or perform a commandment. We can only do so in the spiritual. If a person is ready to restrict the use of these desires or more precisely, ready to direct one's use of the desires for the sake of the spiritual, then we acquires the ability to enter the first level of the spiritual world. The light on this level is much greater than that of our world.

A person asks for a screen in order to withstand the animal pleasure and to receive it only for the sake of the Creator. When we receive the screen, we correct at the first level and proceed to the second. There we are given an even greater desire to receive and an equally greater light. By acquiring the Masach with a greater anti-egoistic force, a person also corrects the second level and ascends higher.

Let us consider the line corresponding to our world as “zero”. In this case the first increase of the desire to receive on the first spiritual level will be equivalent to “-1” and this corresponds to ascent. The distance between “-1” and “+1” is equivalent to the size or height of the Partzuf. Next, we receive the egoism “-2”. In order to overcome it we need the Masach “+2”. This is how ascent to the second level takes place. And so forth. The higher one ascends, the lower the fall in order to ascend even higher.

Malchut of the world of Infinity received light “for the sake of the Creator” in the world of Nekudim, and subsequently broke. The breaking of Kelim occurred, causing the intermixing of all the egoistic and altruistic Kelim. Sparks of the Creator’s altruistic attributes fell into each egoistic desire, and this enables the desire to become corrected attaching it to the spiritual.

The greater one's predestination is and the higher Kelim of the soul located within a person are, the greater descents and ascents are predestined for one. Therefore, we can never judge another by their actions, since we can never know what corrections they are undergoing at the time.

IImagine the earth as the egoistic level. We are located on it, with the sky above from which the light descends. If the light does not fall on us then we are unable to tear away from earth. Such are our attributes. However, if the light shines on us then, figuratively speaking, we tear away from earth towards the light. The light’s strength is equal to the height of the elevation or the height of a person’s soaring over the earth, meaning over our egoistic desire “to receive”. As soon as the light ceases to shine on us, we immediately fall down to earth as if we had never ascended. We do not possess any positive forces in order to ascend. It is only the Creator’s light which elevates us.

The higher the spiritual world is located the greater the distance between fall and ascent. In the world of Atzilut, the fall can nearly reach the level of our world. The great Kabbalist Rabbi Shimon, who was on the penultimate spiritual level, suddenly felt himself to be “the simple Shimon from the market”. That is, all of his knowledge, corrected attributes and attainment suddenly disappeared and he became equivalent to a simple and primitive fool. This is how the book of Zohar describes his state.

This happens to all of us, even when beginning our spiritual ascent. How can we return from a fall? We can plug into the group even without having the slightest desire, by performing actions automatically. Sometimes it is impossible to open a book and read, and at times the only way out may be to sleep, that is, to disconnect ourselves from everything and to let time do its work…

The most detrimental situation can occur when one is in the highest point of spirituality and begins to selfishly take pleasure in the good feeling of being there; safe, balanced, clear, pleasant, and eternal. It is precisely at this moment, and for this reason, one falls. During this state it is very important to continually realize it has been given to us in order to keep our thought and intention “for the sake of the Creator”. However, it is impossible to stay with it. The reason for this is that in order to advance further it is necessary to fall. Besides falling, there is no other way to acquire additional desires to receive which allow us to ascend once again.

The Partzuf is our inner moral state in relation to others, and is our level of development. It is impossible to attain the light without first acquiring the desire for it. It is also impossible to apprehend the good without the bad. For example, one can ascend for 15 units and then fall on the 16th, because the person has seen their true attributes in their worst form. By ascending we become illuminated by a great light and can see ourselves in comparison to the best attributes of the higher level.

All previous levels continue to live in us. A person is able to see the bad when on a high spiritual level. The greater the light that shines on a person the worse one sees their self in relation to the light. This rule applies until we arrive at the final level, or full correction.

Rabbi Baruch Ashlag writes in the letter to his friends and students (“Shamati. Igrot”, 2; the italics are the translated text):

According to the ARI and the Commentary to TES, it is said that during Shefirat HaKelim (breaking of the vessels) in the world of Nekudim, Melech Daat that existed at the level of Keter had fallen first out of all other Malachim. It is so because that which was initially coarser but had reached the highest level of correction by acquiring Masach, is regarded as the worst and thus falls lower than other Malachim at the moment of the breaking of vessels and loss of Masach.

This can be explained in the following way: people who are following the path of the Creator have a double desire to receive: they desire the material as well as the spiritual. Therefore, people who were close to Baal HaSulam possessed a Masach on their Aviut while they were close to him. However, now that he is no longer beside them because he has died, they no longer need to create a Masach. Their entire work consists in appearing to be “holy men” or “righteous men”. They are left with Aviut without Masach and they have lost everything they possessed before. The more a person enters the spiritual the more he should beware of these kinds of people and stay away from them. I wrote this in a concise way, because I do not want my thoughts to linger on them. It is known that a person is located in the place where his thoughts are.

In order to understand the aforesaid better I will provide a small example. It is known that there exists an intermediate state between any two levels. This intermediate state includes that which is common for both of the levels. For example, the middle state between the still and vegetative states is corals. Between the vegetative and animal levels there exists the so-called "Kelev Sade”. These are animals whose belly buttons are connected to the earth and feed from it. Between the animal and human levels there is the ape. What is the middle state between truth and falseness? What is the state that consists of both of these notions together?

Before I explain this I will add one more rule: it is easier to see a bigger thing than a smaller one. Therefore, the less falseness there is, the more difficult it is to see the truth. That is, to see the extent to which a person is mistaken when it seems to him that he is following the right path. There is a piece of truth in this, because a person does not yet see the entire falseness in order to see the truth in spite of it or because of it.

If you ask anyone on the street who has no connection to Kabbalah, they will tell you that they do nothing bad and are no different from anyone else. According to the minimal realization of evil one possesses, a person thinks that the path being followed is correct. However, when falsehood accumulates in us, then if desired, it is possible to acquire the opportunity to see our true state. When we see the complete falsehood, we understand that we have been following the wrong path entirely. It is then that we are able to ascend to the path of truth. When we come to realize that our current state is no longer endurable and that it is unbearable, we arrive at the final point of tolerating this evil. This is when we ask the Creator for help.

This point, meaning the point of truth that shows a person that he is following the path of falseness, is the middle or the connecting link between truth and falseness. It marks the end of the falseness, meaning that from this moment on a person begins the path of truth.

Now we will be able to understand what Baal HaSulam said: that before we arrive at “Lishma” (for the sake of the Creator) it is first necessary for “Lo Lishma” (for your own sake) to become as great as possible, and only then we can go on to “Lishma”. According to the above, we can say that “Lo Lishma” is the falseness and “Lishma” is the truth. When the falseness is still small, meaning that there are still very few good deeds, this means that “Lo Lishma” is still small and it does not allow a person to see the truth. In this state, it seems to a person that he is following the correct path of “Lishma”.

However, when a person studies the Torah and commandments day and night, he is already able to see the truth due to the fact that his entire falseness has collected into one great lie and it helps him understand the extent to which his path is false. In this case the person begins to correct his actions, knowing that all of his previous actions were “Lo Lishma”. This is precisely what the middle point is. It is the starting point for the passage to the truth, that is, to “Lishma”. And it was only yesterday that the person still considered his previous path to be directed towards “Lishma”. This is how a person’s state and his path become changed, in the case that a person’s egoism as well as his evaluation of it, increase.

The Creator is performing work on us in every circumstance we are in, regardless of a bad or good state. We do not have power to make decisions and do not decide anything. We can only organize the path of development, not change it. If we look at this path through the eyes of an egoist then we will be afraid. If, however, we see our egoism from the outside, realizing it as an evil that needs to be annihilated, then we will immediately want to remove it and replace it with altruism.

It seems that right now you and I are sitting here in the group, and someone out there is determining our fate for us. However, this is not the case. It is true that we do not determine anything. If we already understand this and we are ready to suffer through the next advancement, this means that we have slightly distanced ourselves from the animal state and we are ready for the spiritual state. In this case, we will receive it. However, if we do not yet have this kind of readiness, then we will not receive anything from above.

I strongly hope that we will be safeguarded by the upper forces. We can never know how to take the next step. We do not know what the soul is, what the Creator is, what our final goal is, and in which direction it lies. The same thing applies to our lives. We do not know how to act and what will happen tomorrow, no matter how much we may try to make our lives safe.

A person must perceive all obstacles placed before him as the signal for the next step. We have to know how to act in each particular case and how to get rid of the current difficult state. If a person is working in this direction, then he prepares himself for the next state. All bad things we encounter along our path, and all suffering and misfortunes that we overcome and that we perceive as an integral part of advancement, prepare us for the good.

The path forward consists of two components: the left side and the right side. The left side is the desires (Kelim) of the next level. They are manifested as various obstacles, problems and difficulties we must overcome, and we must endure in spite of them. This too is a step forward, but from the opposite side. The Creator sends us these states in order to enable us to take a step forward with their help.

If a person perceives absolutely everything that happens to him as good, then he immediately acquires a connection with the Creator. A person maintains this connection as long as he perceives all difficulties that come to him as an opportunity to advance and to justify everything, no matter how difficult it is.

The Creator created a desire that allows us to perceive everything surrounding us as either good or bad, depending on the fulfillment of our desire. If I suffer, this means that my desire to receive is not fulfilled. More correctly, if my desire is not fulfilled then I suffer. If I feel pleasure, then this is because my desire to receive is satisfied.

How can we separate ourselves from our dependency on the fulfillment of the desire to receive? How can we make things work in such a way that, during any state – regardless of whether our desire receives pleasure or not – we will not perceive emptiness (or lack of pleasure) as suffering?

This is possible only with the help of the intention or the orientation of the pleasure. The desire cannot be altered or corrected. It is an animal attribute; it is nature that was created by the Creator. If a person does not check whether his desire is directed at the goal of creation, and instead he acts according to what the desire itself is telling him, then he still relates to the animal level of development rather than the “human” level. As long as a person fulfills all his desires without checking his motivation or his goal of receiving fulfillment, he remains an animal. That is, he is located beneath the Machsom - in our world.

On the other hand, when a person begins to check and sort out his desires (for what sake is he fulfilling them, to what end does he receive pleasure and why) and to ask various questions about the reason for his pleasure, then he begins to be a person. He understands that there is a source of all of the pleasures and, if this is the case, then it is possible to demand of his nature to do something to achieve correction. Then, a person takes the desires that were created by the Creator and, with the help of the intention “for the sake of the Creator,” he fulfills those same desires, transforming them into a source of bestowal.

Why do we need bodily suffering? Does it disappear as we begin to perceive spiritual suffering, such as the perception of lack of love for the Creator? At the end of his life, Baal HaSulam endured severe suffering and people asked him why he did not rid himself of it. He replied that if a person knew how much he benefits from it, then, even if he could do so, he would not run away from suffering. Our soul needs everything that we experience and then this passes into the Kelim for receiving the light…

Does this mean that we have to ask for more diseases and blows on our heads, in order to then receive more light? No. A person has to perceive everything as a means to correct the Kelim of his soul that are not yet corrected.

Every suffering corresponds to the correction of a specific part of the soul. Sometimes the correction takes place due to the study of Kabbalah. Sometimes it occurs when people take care of the aged or children. Other times, various illnesses and suffering serve as correction. Along with suffering we receive various means that accelerate the correction, such as progress, medicine and mutual help.

In the spiritual, the intention is action. Our actions only alter our attitude towards the Creator’s actions and towards His governance. It is not by chance that a person’s spiritual work is called “Avodat ha Shem” or “the Creator’s work”, because it is precisely the Creator who does all of the work, and we only observe His work and justify it to the degree we are corrected. If our attitude is incorrect then we do not see anything. However, if a person is able to observe what is happening to him, without any connection with himself, he passes the Machsom. In the spiritual, the name “action” refers to the very orientation of the action.

If a person receives the ability to see with the suffering also the source of the suffering, then this person is beginning to have a connection with the Source. These people then become religious; they begin to believe in the Creator, to pray to Him and to thank Him. How can this be so? A person receives something bad, yet he blesses the Source?

This occurs because when a person reveals the Creator, he simultaneously receives the ability to justify Him. If we agree with the fact that the Creator exists, then we are able to justify Him. The levels of justifying the Creator, meaning the degree to which a person views the Creator’s actions as righteous, are called “the levels of the worlds”. I can only come as close to the Creator as how much I justify Him. The Creator adds a negative perception to the left or egoistic side, but a person is able to take forces from the right side in order to justify the left side. As a result, he ascends to a higher level.

According to nature, our body naturally works according to the principle “maximum pleasure with minimum efforts”. This principle is preserved on all levels. Without having awareness that we are doing so, we are constantly carrying out our desire to receive and feel delight. Naturally, our intention corresponds to our desire. We do not control whether this is good or bad, and we do not ask ourselves the question of why and what for do we carry out all of our desires. To carry out that which we desire is the basis of egoism.

Where is the boundary of attaching intentions to my actions? There is no boundary. If I ascend to the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) then I clothe my intention “for the sake of the Creator” on the tiniest action of this world. In this way, I come to reveal all of the Creator’s actions, from the biggest to the smallest. Increasingly lower desires constantly become revealed to a person, desires that he did not even suspect were there.

These desires become revealed to him because he has the ability to form the correct intention over them, and thus to correct his attitude or relation to them. If a person lacks the required intention, he remains an animal. The presence of an intention over a specific part of the desires transforms that part of an “animal in a person” into a “person in a person”. The more intentions of bestowal a person acquires, the bigger part of his desires becomes “a person” or “human”.

All of the levels from our world until the Creator are levels of increase of the intention “for the sake of the Creator”. A desire does not increase or decrease on its own. Simply, not all desires are immediately revealed to a person. Rather, they become revealed only to the degree of a person’s ability to form the correct intention over them.

The Creator knows what the person must correct right now. Reshimot are records of a person’s previous states, or states he was in prior to his soul’s clothing into the body. Gradually, one by one, the Reshimot become revealed or manifested in a person, and he must successively make efforts in order to create the intention “for the sake of the Creator” over them. The person himself should not think that he needs to correct something right now. Rather, he should pay attention to what he receives from above.

You asked me to comment on the first part of the “Introduction to the book of Zohar”. The book of “Zohar” contains this, but let us try to add explanations. (The italics are the translated text.)

In this introduction, I would like to clarify matters that are seemingly simple. Matters that everyone fumbles with, and which much ink has been spilled over in attempting to clarify. Yet we have not reached a concrete and sufficient knowledge of them. And here are the questions:

1) What is our essence?

2) What is our role in the long chain of reality, which we are but small links of?

3) When we examine ourselves, we find ourselves to be as corrupted and as low as can be; and when we examine the worker who has conceived us, we are compelled to be full of praise. Is it not necessary that from a perfect worker will come out only perfect works?

We are creations and He is the Creator. If He is so good and perfect, then how could He have created creatures so corrupted as us? If the Creator is absolutely perfect, then how could He have had such a bad thought? After all, the thought is equal to the action. And vice-versa. Does this mean that He Himself is this way? And what do we constantly receive from Him? It is impossible to correlate goodness and the manifestation of the creation’s results in our world, in any way.

4) Our mind tells us that He is utterly benevolent – beyond compare. How, then, did He create so many creatures that suffer and agonize all through their lives? Is it not the nature of the good to bestow, or at least not to harm so?

According to Kabbalah, there must first be a Kli or desire, and this means suffering. Then, there must be the desire’s fulfillment or pleasure. However, why should there first be suffering and blows, and then pleasure? Is this the way perfection is supposed to be?

5) How is it possible, that the infinite – with no beginning and no end – will extract from itself finite, mortal, transient creatures?

In order to clear all that up, we need to make some preliminary inquiries. And not, God forbid, where it is forbidden, meaning in His essence, of which we have no conception whatsoever and thus have no thought of Him. But where the inquiry is required, meaning an inquiry in His deeds, as the Torah tells us: "Know thou the God of thy father" and, as it says in the poem of unification, "By your actions we know you".

It is forbidden to investigate the Essence of the Creator. More correctly, our brain is not capable of attaining this, and this is why it is forbidden. In Kabbalah, “forbidden” means “unattainable”. Therefore, everything that is attainable is desirable for us to attain! We are not only able to, but we are obligated to investigate and correct all of the Creator’s actions, which He does to us. Correspondingly, we have to investigate and correct our attitude or relation to these actions.

Inquiry No. 1: How can we picture a new creation, meaning something new, that is not a part of Him?

How can we understand this: the fact that there is something that did not exist before? We learn that in the beginning there was the Creator. Then, with a single thought, He created the creation. What is creation? It is the desire to receive. The Creator is entirely “bestowal” and He does not contain the desire to receive. He created the desire to receive out of nothing. How can something be created out of nothing? How can something be created that was not present before in any form? For example, gas has existed before and we were not able to see it. Under pressure, gas transforms into a solid body, which can again be transformed into a gas by heating. However, creation did not exist before in any form at all, not even in any thought. Thought emerged later. How is this possible?

It is obvious to anyone of right mind that there is nothing that is not a part of Him…

If there is something that was not previously present in the Creator, then how can it be that He is perfect? Was He compelled to create something that would complete His thought? Even the most primitive mind is able to say that there is nothing that is not contained in the Creator.

Inquiry No. 2: If you say that from the aspect of His almightiness, He certainly can create existence from existence, meaning something new that is not in Him, there arises the question - what is that reality, that can be conceived, which has no place in Him and is completely new?

What is this thing the Creator needs so much, that He created it out of nothingness?

Inquiry No. 3: Deals with what Kabbalists have said, that a man's soul is a part of God, in such a way that there is no difference between Him and the soul, but that He is the "whole" and the soul is a "part". And they'd compared it to a rock carved off a mountain. There is no difference between the rock and the mountain, except that He is a "whole" and the rock is a "part". Thus we must ask: a stone carved from the mountain is separated from it by an ax made for that purpose, causing the separation of the "part" from the "whole".

But how can you picture that about Him, that He would separate a part from His essence to become separated from Him, meaning a soul, to the point that it can only be understood as part of His essence?

Inquiry No. 4: Since the chariot of the Evil Side and the shells are at the other end of His holiness, that nothing farther remote can be conceived, how can it be extracted and made from holiness, much less that it will sustain it?

There exist forces that are completely opposite to the Creator in their essence. They hate the Creator’s holiness and they are at war with it. How could the Creator have created such a terrible foe? And the most difficult thing to understand is the fact that, in addition, the Creator takes care of this foe and of his existence, and constantly gives him the light of life. This can not be apprehended by any mind. Such an eternal and perfect Creator creates something that is base, flawed, and absolutely opposite to perfection. This must mean that He needs it?

Inquiry No. 5: The matter of the rising of the dead: Since the body is so despicable, that immediately at birth it is doomed to perish and be buried. Furthermore, the Zohar said that before the body rots entirely, the soul cannot ascend to its place in Heaven, while there are still remnants of it. Therefore, why must it return and rise at the revival of the dead? Could the Creator not delight the souls without it? Even more bewildering is what our sages said, that the dead are destined to rise with their flaws, so that they will not be mistaken for another, and after that He will cure their flaws. We must understand why God would mind that they would not be mistaken for another, that for that he would recreate their flaw and then would have to cure it?

Inquiry No. 6: Regarding what our sages said, that man is the center of reality, that the upper worlds and this corporeal world, and everything in them, were not created but for him, and obliged man to believe that the world had been created for him. It is seemingly hard to grasp, that for this small human, who grasps no more than a wisp of this world's reality, much less of the upper worlds, whose height is immeasurable, that the Creator troubled Himself to create all this for him. And also, why would man want all that?

When and for what purpose will a person ever be able to utilize all of this unattainable grandeur? We do not know anything about our very selves, about our lives, about what is around us; not about the generations that preceded us and that will come after us. All of this is concealed from us and we continue to live as before. In addition, here we are obligated to attain, and knowledge about the whole universe awaits us…

In order to understand these questions and inquiries, the trick is to start by looking at the end, that is, at the purpose of creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end. And it is clear that there is no act without purpose, for only the insane can be found to act purposelessly. I know that there are those who cast over their backs the burden of Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), saying the Creator has created reality, then left it alone; that because of the worthlessness of the creatures, it is not fitting for the exalted Creator to watch over their petty little ways. Indeed, without knowledge they have spoken, for it is not possible to comment on our nothingness and lowliness, before we decide that we have created ourselves with all our tarnished natures.

We really do not feel the hand of the Creator in our lives. He is concealed from us. He created us and seemingly has left us to the mercy of fate. Our entire problem lies in the fact that we are not able to see the end result of the thought of creation until we correct our Kelim. That is, until we replace our desire to receive with its opposite – the desire to bestow.

It is not sufficient for you to love the Creator and to desire to attain union with Him. You must also hate the evil within yourself and hate your own nature, which is the desire for self-gratification a person is unable to rid himself of. This realization of evil occurs when a person observes the state he is in, sees the entire evil that is in him, constantly suffers from it, understands how much he is losing, and sees that he is unable to get rid of it on his own.

At the same time, a person cannot accept the position he is in. He perceives all the losses that evil causes him and at the same time he sees the truth, or the fact that, on his own, he is unable to find forces inside himself that will allow him to get rid of the evil. The reason for this is that this attribute was introduced from the Creator’s side, by way of the forces of nature.

In order to exit out of our world into the spiritual world, a person needs to fulfill several conditions with regard to his perceptions. Firstly, a person has to feel that the state he is in is unbearable and unendurable. A person is able to do this when, even slightly, he feels what the spiritual is; when he feels that it is opposite to his own nature and that everything in the spiritual is good, that it is perpetual pleasure, peace, perfection and eternity. In addition, he must feel that it is the force pulling him towards itself.

On the other hand, here in this world there exists a second force. This force pushes you away from the state that is becoming more and more unbearable and hateful to you. When these two forces reach their maximum (meaning the attracting spiritual force and the repelling force of a person’s current state) and simultaneously the person understands his total inadequacy and impossibility of getting rid of his evil on his own; when all three of these conditions are fulfilled, an inner explosion takes place in a person, and the Creator saves him.

It is within a person’s power to hate his evil. In this case the Creator will liberate him from the evil. The Creator safeguards the souls, and His safeguarding consists of the fact that He saves them from the hands of evil. If a person has even the most fragile connection with the Creator, then he is already fortunate.

All the spiritual states that a person goes through do not disappear. Rather, they continue to exist on their own. It is always possible to come back to them, to correct them as much as possible, and to utilize them for further advancement.

Since the Creator is the Bestowing One, the creatures must try to desire the same thing and vice-versa, because the Creator hates to be the receiving one. He is originally perfect and does not need anything. Thus, the creatures must also hate reception for their own selves. They must hate evil with a goal-oriented hate because everything negative comes from it. The only way to correct evil and to fall under the governance of the Creator’s holiness is with the help of hate.

If a person experiences the state of feeling unsatisfied, indifferent, and perceiving something bad, this means that he already relates to the next level, but he has not yet corrected it. Any state begins with darkness. The 24-hour day begins with the evening. We begin with Kelim or desires to receive and then we correct them and receive the light into them. Therefore, with every new perception of “bad”, a person should be happy about the fact that the next phase will be the reception of the light. Advancement never takes place without this. The only thing that allows a person to arrive at the middle line is his presence in two opposite states.

In the book “Pri Chacham”, Baal HaSulam defines this movement as “Neshama” (breathing). How does breathing take place? At first the lungs prepare by becoming empty. Then a portion of air is breathed into them. Everywhere and in everything, there must first be a lack of something, and then the fulfillment of this lack.

There is not a single creature in the world that does not contain the Divine spark. The still, vegetative, and animal states do not experience a change of moods. Every person has to come to union with the Creator. This long path began many thousands of years ago and all souls continue this path during their many incarnations, according to the predetermined thought of creation. Within this giant computer of creation, nothing takes place without a cause preceding it. Everything is interconnected with everything else by invisible threads. All of this is a huge living organism, and the tiniest change in any of its parts causes everything to change.

Everyone must come to the final goal of creation, or the final correction. Together with the person, the animal, vegetative and still states will also arrive at that state. There exists a time for every person, as well as a condition and a place where he has to be. It is precisely by being in that place and without understanding why he is located there; by taking various steps and performing various actions, that each person comes closer to the goal of creation in his own natural way. Why do some people come to Kabbalah? This is very simple. Because they have already gone through enough life experiences and suffering in order to understand and to ask the question: who am I, and what am I living for?

These kinds of questions do not come from a normal life. No one asks why he feels good, thinking that he deserves this. However, when a person suffers, he does not understand why this is his lot in life, and he constantly asks about this. What we need is not for suffering to push us from behind, but rather to try to pull ourselves forward towards the Creator.

There is no difference between suffering of our world and spiritual suffering. These are all methods by which the Creator governs us. If a person is able to transfer his bodily suffering to the spiritual, he corrects part of his Kelim (vessels) and that part of him becomes equivalent to the Creator. This way a person accelerates his path. However, if he is not able to do this, then he advances (with regard to correction) by the natural path and speed.

An illness afflicting any Kabbalist makes him suffer physically. But since the body is unable to enter the spiritual, only a person’s inner perception becomes spiritual and undergoes correction, and this awakens the person. In the meantime, the body continues to suffer. When a person constantly ascends with his soul, his body becomes lower and lower.

Where is the correlation? It does not exist. The body cannot be spiritual at all. The spiritual is the soul’s inner elevation and it does not relate to the external part or the biological body. It has to die and be buried in the ground. Its correction consists in that. However, the person receives a new body in the same way as he changes into a new shirt.

A soul such as that of Rabbi Shimon, Ari, and Ashlag has already become corrected, and it descends into this world in order to correct it. It suffers because it absorbs the suffering of the whole world, but it no longer needs to descend for its own sake. The souls merge, get included into each other, in order to help the others.

We have to accept bodily suffering as a call towards the spiritual and a connection to the Creator. If a person listens to this call, then his suffering goes through correction and decreases. A person who enters the spiritual sees everything the Creator allows him to see. However, a Kabbalist wants to see that which will help him advance. Everything else is not important to him. Otherwise it is not the spiritual. He perceives every new state as a trampoline for further elevation. Therefore, for every level he is on, he takes the most positive and necessary thing for him to go on to the next level.

The “Introduction to TES” speaks of four levels: Malchut, Zeir Anpin, Bina and Hochma. These are levels of attaining the Creator (Keter). When a person achieves the Creator, He shows a person everything that was done to him over the course of the entire “history” of his soul’s descent into this world. A person sees how the Creator treated him during each phase, how the light disappeared, and what suffering a person endured, and he receives the answer about why this took place.

Only then a person is able to see that the Creator has always treated him well and without any calculation. The person had previously perceived this as bad due to his uncorrected organs of perception, which caused him to perceive the Creator’s kind treatment in a negative way. Everything a person now sees evokes a feeling of love for the Creator in him. Therefore, he must apprehend everything that has happened to him with his already corrected Kelim.

During the next and final phase, the Creator shows a person His relation towards all souls over the course of all generations and descents into our world. Here a person sees how well the Creator has acted and continues to act towards all His creatures. The result of this kind of apprehension is eternal and infinite love for the Creator. The only thing a person is unable to see is the way in which each person will come to the Creator. That is, whether each person will do it in his own (natural) way or with the help of the Creator; as well as when he will do so.

The correct quantity and quality of desire has already been placed into a person from the beginning. A person needs only to gain the ability to use it with the correct intentions. Either I use all of my desires in order to fulfill myself and derive the most pleasure with minimum efforts, or I want to please only the Creator with the maximum pleasure that I receive.

A person himself is unable to change his intention. Only the Creator Himself can do this. If during the use of all my desires, my intention “for myself” elicits hate for egoism in me, this means that I have already come to the realization of evil within myself. The Creator replies to this state by changing my intention into “for the sake of the Creator”.

This passage from “Lo Lishma” to “Lishma” signifies the crossing of the barrier (Machsom) between our world and the spiritual. This state is called “birth, “acquisition of a screen”, or “crossing of Yam Suf” that separates Egypt from Eretz Israel. There is only one source for acquiring the spiritual – the Creator.

Entrance into the spiritual only changes the intention. The desire to receive does not decrease, but it increases even more on each spiritual level. However, did we not say before that everything is already created and there is nothing new? This is true! Simply, before my entrance to the spiritual I was shown an insignificant piece of my desires. Now, on each spiritual level, the desires become revealed to me more and more. Each time, new and more egoistic desires appear before me, to the degree I am able to correct my intention on them.

If a person feels evil in himself, he should be proud of this. After all, this means that he has already come to deserve the evil to become revealed to him.

When a person is in a good state, he must prepare himself for the following bad state. During a bad state, the important thing is the intention or the person’s inner perception. It must be connected to the end goal of what is happening, to the final result or to the one who has given him this state and the purpose for which he was given this state. We have to know that egoism is equal to the Creator in size, and it is opposite to Him. On each level, egoism becomes more and more aggressive.

You cannot speak with other people about the states in your heart. This is forbidden, because the person you are talking to is also in an analogous state and he cannot help you. You will add your faulty state into him. You can talk to Rav or the teacher, but it is even better to talk to the Creator.

In order to enter the spiritual, you must exercise control over all your thoughts in this world, and realize their evil and the impossibility of entering the spiritual because of it. You must suffer through the opposition of your essence to the Creator’s essence, and hate this with the full volume of hate. Then the spiritual will become revealed.

The realization of evil is not simply a bad mood due to the absence of something during a given moment. To realize evil means to perceive the Creator and, next to Him, the entire opposition of your nature, of your 100% egoism in comparison to the Creator’s 100% bestowal; to perceive the entirety of how unbearable this state is, as well as the desire to correct it.

From the Machsom on, during the ascent along the spiritual levels, a person already perceives the Creator. On every level a person must correct his relation towards Him, or his intention. There, you work on realizing the evil or Klipot in comparison to the light, as well as correcting “Kelim de Kabbalah” into “Kelim de Ashpaa”.

In Kabbalah, a person is named according to his or her desire to receive. For instance, if a person wants to attain the Creator, sense Him, bond with Him, he is called “Israel”. This is so even if he just started his path, does not yet see the Creator, and has no idea where he is going to or what he will achieve. However, a person's desire determines everything. Thus, when a person carries out the Creator’s will, he is called a Kabbalist; a Kabbalist who attains a certain spiritual degree is called “He who attains” (Baal Asaga).

Gradually, a person realizes that there is none else beside the Creator. Wife, children, relatives, work, and friends – everything is but the Creator, standing behind all these different forms. The revelation of the Creator to a human being is called 'attainment' (Asaga).

The more a human being comprehends this, the higher his degree of attainment, up to the ultimate revelation that absolutely everything around him is nothing but the Creator. An even more profound revelation is when a human being sees that all of his inner desires, thoughts, sensations, and urges are also the Creator. So where is a human being? When a person comes to the ultimate conclusion that there is none else but the Creator and feels this inside, he is called a human being. This sensation, in particular, is what constitutes a human being. Revelation of this sensation is called 'adhesion with the Creator'.

What is the difference between comprehension and sensation? Man is created as a sentient being: we sense, not think. Our mind develops in a way as to attain and understand what we feel. Take a child, for instance. His desires are small and so is the degree to his mind’s development. The same goes for a person living in the wilderness: he utilizes the mind as much as it is needed in order to obtain the desired.

The more man desires, the smarter he becomes for his mind must resolve how to obtain the desired. Mind is the fruit of our desire's evolvement . To reach the desired, we contrive all sorts of tricks. A strong desire is the key to mind’s development. We shouldn’t concern ourselves with developing mind; rather, we should develop the desires. A Kabbalah student does not have to be clever: it is enough to desire and to sense the desired. One cannot see the spiritual world with his mind; one can only feel it with his soul.

A person has to suffer together with the entire world; he has to be aware of the suffering, get deep into it, so that later he could receive the light that applies to the entire world in his corrected Kelim. When a person finds out about someone else’s suffering, he or she should not worry about this suffering not coming his way, G-d forbid. Rather, he should always regret that these people haven't realized yet that the suffering is the revelation of the Creator, and this is because their Kelim are not corrected yet. People misconceive the Creator’s rule over the creatures.

Do we have to justify the Creator when we feel bad? Kabbalah is called the science of truth. This means that if one studies Kabbalah, his sensation of the truth gradually becomes sharper. He cannot fool himself in front of the Creator. He discovers that the truth is what he feels in his heart.

The very fact that a person feels bad shows that he blames the Creator for this. Feeling good is, in itself, gratitude to the Creator. We communicate with the Creator with our heart; words are useless. That is why, in order to justify the Creator, I have to feel good all the time.

When we hear about the world being inflicted with murder, war, violence, terrorism, we must work on ourselves in order to feel that this is the best possible thing in our world. For these things seem evil only to uncorrected souls. Hence, there is no other choice but to rise spiritually, correct our Kelim so that we perceive all the bad things that we heard about or witnessed as good. We have to concern ourselves with one thing only: correction of our Kelim and ascent to the level that emanates the spiritual pleasure. From there we will see how good this is for us and the entire world in general.

A person who climbs up the ladder of the first spiritual world, the world of Assiya, which, on its own turn, is called ‘complete evil’, still perceives the events as bad. Hence, he is called ‘a transgressor’. Afterwards, entering the world of Yetzira, called ‘half evil and half good’, sometimes he sees the events as good, and sometimes - as evil, as if existing in between them, and not knowing how to evaluate them.

The world of Beria is called ‘almost good’: as a person, correcting his Kelim, rises to the world of Beria, he increasingly feels that the Creator wishes good. He, who exists in the world of Beria, is called ‘not completely righteous’. And when a person rises to the world of Atzilut, which is called ‘completely good’, he sees only good without the slightest hint of evil. That is why a person in the world of Azilut is called ‘righteous’. The system is built in a way so that suffering would compel a person to rise higher and higher.

In any state one’s sensations are one’s attitude toward the Creator. Until a person climbs to the highest degrees, his attitude towards the Creator cannot be completely good; he is incapable of fully justifying the Creator. This happens only in the world of Atzilut.

On the one hand, a person should not remain in a bad state; rather, he should attempt to get out of it. On the other hand, he has to analyze his condition and then try going into a good state. However, the problem is that a person can never evaluate his situation when already in it. Only by going over to the next degree, being certain that he is really in a different state now, can he control and analyze the preceding state.

For example a ten-year old child who got angry at his parents for not buying him a bicycle, cannot evaluate his state correctly. Can he understand anything but his own resentment? But now, being a grown-up, he can evaluate all that happened to him a few years ago correctly. Most important is to try exiting the state in which one blames the Creator and entering into a different, better state.

We already discussed that the Creator created the world in order to delight the creatures. This does not mean that the Creator wants to delight us now because we suffered in the past. The Creator has no calculation and acts this way regardless of the amount of suffering a person endured before. Suffering never draws one closer to good. Only correction of one’s self leads to good. Mankind may suffer for many thousands of years; the amount of suffering only awakens us for correction; suffering itself never leads to correction.

As it is said in the "Preface to the Book of Zohar":

"…And here is where we must place our mind and heart, for it is the ultimate aim of the act of the creation of the world. And we must bear in mind that since the thought of creation is to bestow to His creatures, He had to create in the souls a great amount of desire to receive that which He had thought to give. For the measure of each pleasure and delight, depends on the measure of the will to receive it: the greater the will to receive, the greater the pleasure, and the lesser the will, the lesser the pleasure from reception.

So the thought of creation itself, dictates the creation of an excessive will to receive, to fit the immense pleasure that His Almightiness thought to bestow upon the souls. For the great delight and the great desire must go hand in hand."

If I'm a little hungry, my delight from food will be equally small. But if I'm very hungry, food will bring me an immense pleasure. For this reason, the Creator, longing to give us an ultimate pleasure, created for us in compliance with this delight – an equally strong will to receive it. But on the other hand, we suffer a lot, passionately desiring and having no opportunity to fulfill our needs.

How can we increase our desire for the spiritual? This is a very difficult question. Until we cross the Machsom, we cannot sense the spiritual. Only earthy desires directed to our own delight come to us. This is why when I begin sensing all of this, I realize that this is evil; I feel very bad. What's more, the distance between Him and me grows. I used to think that I'm not that rotten, so does this mean that I was closer to the Creator? And now I feel bad, so is the Creator pushing me away? On the contrary! The Creator is pulling me closer!

Our progress comes from feeling bad. While we are egoists and our Kelim are still uncorrected, seemingly unpleasant things turn us towards the right path faster than something pleasant and good, for such things, as a rule, makes us even more rotten.

To suffer because of egoism means to hate it, realizing that it exists inside of you. Hatred spurns us away from the object of suffering, creating a cheerful mood and aspiration to get closer to the Creator.

A person realizes that he cannot resist the temptation: even knowing about it beforehand, he nevertheless rushes forward to it. Or, seeing that it is coming his way, he does nothing to avoid it, but rather stands still and waits. All of that is ascribed to correction. We are incapable of doing anything by ourselves. We just have to learn from each blunder, each mistake that we make on each phase of our path. Sometimes, it seems to a person that he can cope with some life situation; however, the next instant it becomes clear that he is incapable of lifting even a finger.

Transgression, sin – they do not exist. A person must pass through these states in order to realize his nature set forth by the Creator; in order to feel the need to correct himself. If such is his attitude towards all the events in this way, a person performs an act towards the correction.

Take, for instance, the fall of Adam. The Creator created a soul with an anti-egoistical screen. Later, He filled the soul with pleasure that exceeded the power of the screen. Naturally, the soul was not able to resist the pleasure, took it in, and committed the 'sin', which is the reception for one's own sake.

The soul consists of ten Sefirot, divided into inner and outer ones. The part that is corrected is called 'inner'; the part that is not corrected yet is called 'outer'. The light, filling the inner part of the soul, gives us the sensation of 'self'. The still uncorrected outer part gives us a sensation of the surrounding world: Hence, the illusionary appearance that something exists around us. In reality, whatever is around me is inside of me. The illusionary reality around us is created by our uncorrected Kelim, and a person, who enters the spiritual, starts feeling this instantly.

When do we develop the need for the Creator? We develop the need for the Creator when He Himself sends us all kinds of suffering, showing simultaneously that He is standing behind them all. This is when we turn to the Creator for help. In our state, all the suffering is concentrated in a "point in the heart", where we feel darkness. The contact with the Creator starts precisely at this black point.

Until a person crosses the Machsom, he will always have questions. Of course, although each time the questions will be asked by the same person, he will have new Kelim and new insight. Nothing reverts, everything moves only forward. A person must pass through, experience all these states.

What we are going through is similar to the experience of when one is engaged in study that includes practical training. Sometimes, the surrounding world looks so gloomy that we see the situation as if it was the end of the world and there is no way out. But later, through training and study, we realize that this is not the case. These events are very precise and correct exercises given to us from above. We are only able to comprehend this later. Only after the events can we acknowledge how necessary they were at the phase we were in preceding the correction.

For this reason, we must endure our path, continuously retain the goal of our progress, and not lose our heads. If a person is put through a situation in which he sees that he is about to jump into a fire, yet is not able to do anything about it, this occurs to show a person that he has no rule over anything.

These states cannot be circumvented or avoided. However, they can be shortened so that they pass faster and less painfully. One has to immediately connect to the group, friends, and to common work. One can also study more, read more, and do everything possible to shorten these states.

A person is engaged in inner work. How does he react to his surroundings? Do others understand him? Occasionally, things that happen at work or at home make us feel hostile towards what we perceive as the source of fights and troubles. We blame a boss, colleagues at work, a spouse, children for everything that happens. We get nervous or angry; we think that everything is over. Afterwards, we realize that everything comes from above so we can experience a series of sensations and pass through them. We see that it is we who exaggerated everything and perceived whatever happened as the most terrible thing in our life. Now, everything is over. However, as time passes, this happens again and again. The sooner we escape from these situations and turn to a book or the group, the better it is for us. The worst thing that can happen is to stay in this condition, to linger in it, and experience it over and over again.

When a person feels good, he has to remember that he had some bad moments in his life, and to relate this as to cause and effect: good – bad or bad-good. This draws a person closer toward eternity and perfection. In everything that happens you see two sides of the coin, realizing that one cannot happen without the other. And you have to accept what happens the way it is. When a person does this, evil will be perceived as good. Then evil will have no less ground to be regarded as good, because it is perceived as darkness only in our uncorrected sensations (Kelim). In the corrected sensations (intention "for the sake of the Creator"), we would perceive both good (light) and evil (darkness) as light.

Until a person begins to suffer because of his natural properties (pride, passion for money, power, bodily pleasures), until he feels ashamed because of them, until he sees them as an obstacle on his spiritual path, these properties cannot be perceived as good. We have to suffer our way through these feelings and realize that until we receive the strength from above to master our desires, we will not feel good. We cannot get rid of desires; we have to use them correctly. Without our desires, it is impossible to reach adhesion with the Creator. The most important thing is to channel our desires properly. A person does not have a single negative property; he can only use the properties he has in a negative way.

The moment we face some life situation, we first of all have to say: "Look, what the Creator is doing with me," so that we do not lose the connection with the One, Who is doing this. If a person holds this thought, then this connection with the Creator prevents his descent and the lowering of his degree. On the contrary, if the Creator completely disappears from one's sensations, this is a descent. At such times a person has to cling to a book, work, or a group, and after some time he will feel a positive change. However, any state has to be interpreted as elevation to the next spiritual degree.

If the time has come for the soul to be corrected, it cannot run away from the correction. Each attempt to escape increases the time of suffering. Until a person crosses the Machsom, only animalistic desires are revealed to him. Right before the Machsom, on the Machsom, and while crossing it, the Creator's desires get revealed. Man is not present in any of them. The only desire, where man has a right to choose is to agree with the governance of the Creator.

The soul of Adam broke into six hundred thousand pieces. These pieces are interconnected, however, they differ in terms of their Aviut: from Shoresh to Dalet. Six thousand degrees (years) separate us from the Creator. The souls of Aviut de Shoresh are corrected in the first millennium. They just have to live in this world and suffer a little bit (contend with animals, enemies, famine, and the like). A person escapes from suffering and this is enough in order to correct Aviut de Shoresh. The second millennium corrects Aviut Alef in the souls; then Bet, later Gimel. Finally, in the sixth millennium Aviut de Dalet gets corrected. All of this is very conditional!

Presently, at the end of the fourth exile, the return to the Eretz Israel is taking place. We are entering the period of spiritual redemption, the period of the Messiah.

Introduction to the Book of Zohar:

"We find that the law of oppositeness of form operates in the spirituality. According to this law, souls whose properties differ from those of the Creator, separate from Him the same way as two objects in the corporeal world, cut apart by the ax. And the distance between them is proportional to the oppositeness of form."

If I could compare all the desires, all inner properties and qualities of my soul with the properties and desires of another soul, I would know the exact distance that separates them due to difference of form or unites them because of equivalence of form. Thus, if we want to build one big, collective Kli in the group, where the Creator would be able to reveal Himself, we must unite all group members’ thoughts, desires, and aspirations and to make them work for a single goal: revelation of the Creator and adhesion with Him. Only then will the souls, distanced from each other by the difference in form, manage to unite into a single soul of equal form.

"And hence understand that the will to receive pleasure instilled by the Creator into the souls, as we discussed earlier, is absolutely absent in the Creator, otherwise, from whom would He receive? And this difference of form acquired by the souls works on separating them from the essence of the Creator (much like the ax, carving rock from a mountain), in such a way that they exit the wholeness of the Creator as separate creatures. However, that what the souls attain from the light of the Creator emanated from Him as something that existed before."

And truly a soul is nothing but the light of the Creator. It differs only in terms of new property acquired from the Creator: the will to receive. When no longer distanced from the Creator by the will to receive, the soul bonds with the Creator again in perfection and eternity.

"It therefore turns out that as far as the light that they receive in their vessel (which is the will to receive) is concerned, there is no difference between them and His essence. That is because they receive, existence from existence, directly from His essence, and the difference between the souls and His essence is only that Kli - the will to receive, where the light of the Creator entered, is what separates the soul from the Creator through difference of form, as 'part' is separated from 'whole', similar to stone that is carved from a mountain. And scrutinize this meticulously for it is impossible to expand further on such a sublime issue."

We are talking about sublime matters. If a person understands, feels, and senses these matters internally, this sensation can serve as the means for spiritual advancement throughout the entire path. By simply understanding that the will to receive for oneself (egoism) is the only evil that separates man from the Creator, one can reach the Final Correction. We are incapable of annulling the will to receive; however, it is possible not to use it, but rather mend it, as if it does not exist. This happens when Malchut rises to Bina: Malchut starts to resemble Bina, as if becoming "Hafetz Hesed"; Malchut has no desires. But this is only part of correction. Using the will to receive, we can accomplish more: we can change the intention from "receive" to "bestow". Then, receiving the light of the Creator, we give our pleasure to Him, becoming like the Creator, Keter, for if He wanted us to remain at the level of Bina, He would not have created us. His goal in creation was that we would reach the level of the Creator.

TES, Part 1, "Inner Reflection":

"First, you must know that when dealing with spiritual matters that have no concern with time, space and motion, and moreover when dealing with Godliness, we do not have the words by which to express and contemplate. Our entire vocabulary is taken from sensations of imaginary senses. Thus, how can they assist us where sense and imagination do not reign?

For example, if you take the subtlest of words, namely Orot (Lights), it nonetheless resembles and borrows from the light of the sun, or an emotional light of satisfaction. Thus, how can they be used to express Godly matters? They would certainly fail to provide the reader with anything true. It is even truer in a place where these words should disclose the negotiations in the wisdom in print, as is done in any research of wisdom. If we fail with even a single inadequate word, the reader will be instantly disoriented and will not find his hands and legs in this entire matter.

For that reason, the sages of the Kabbalah have chosen a special language, which we can call “the language of the branches.” There is not an essence or a conduct in this world that does not begin in its Shoresh in the Upper World. Moreover, the beginning of every being in this world starts from the Upper World and then hangs down to this world. Thus, the sages have found an adequate language without trouble by which they could convey their attainments to each other by word of mouth and in writing from generation to generation. They have taken the names of the branches in this world, where each name is self-explanatory, as though pointing to its Upper Shoresh in the system of the Upper Worlds."

Everything that I think about, that happens to me outside and inside, everything that I want, all of this comes to me from Above. Nothing, starting from the smallest and ending with the greatest, is just born without the connection with the spiritual. But where is man himself? He does not exist. The sages took the names of branches in our world and prescribed these names to the spiritual roots, following the chain that connects roots and branches. All Kabbalistic books are written in this manner. Although written and stated about people, animals, dessert, abodes, wars, etc., seemingly about that which happened in our world, not a single word in these books relates to our world. All refers only to their spiritual roots in the Upper Worlds and whatever happens with their spiritual roots there. Thus these are called "sacred books." If we find the meaning of the spiritual roots of these words, we will be surprised when reading these books since reference is made to notions completely different from our world. Each line will serve us as a guide to the degrees of the spiritual worlds up to the end of correction. Each spiritual root has to manifest in a physical form of our world at least once.

We already discussed that the Creator created the will to delight and instilled it into the souls. This is a black fog that hides from us the true picture of existence, filling our entire body, heart, and mind. We do not sense the Creator; we do not even know that He exists. If we cast away this black fog from our sight and entire body, we will start feeling the Creator again; we will turn from being a ”part” into being a ”whole.” How can we achieve this? Our sages gave us a unique opportunity to attract Ohr Makif (the surrounding light) through studying Kabbalah, and thus gradually to correct our desires - Kelim. As we correct them, we attain the Creator, meaning, we bond with Him via corrected properties.

A person gradually enters into the spiritual world. Each degree that he attains includes two sides: the right line (properties of the Creator) and the left line, opposite to it (properties of creation). And as much as person is able to withstand the left line, transforming it into the right one, he masters one spiritual degree and rises to the next one.

Today if we were able to see how low our state is, and how opposite to the Creator our properties are, we would enter into such a dreadful state that we would not be able to lift even a finger. Sometimes we fall into depression, yet it is incomparable to the experience in such a state. To preclude inducing this experience, Kabbalists cannot reveal matters to a person all at once, but rather gradually time after time. It is impossible to be joyous all the time, and often we descend spiritually. We should carry on until we receive mercy from Above or get help from group and studies. Nevertheless throughout the entire path one feels how opposite he is to the Creator. And only when he attains the last degree does all evil turn into good.

All souls originated from one soul, Adam. Some souls are more egoistic, some less. After the end of correction this will be irrelevant, for all will receive equally. But until the souls are separated and reincarnate into our world, they differ among themselves. Purer souls reach the end of correction earlier than other, more egoistic ones. These souls also start studying Kabbalah and become Kabbalists earlier than others. This was the case with all the Kabbalists in all generations until the time of ARI. He, as he wrote himself, came into this world in order to give people an opportunity to start studying Kabbalah regardless of sex, age, and other characteristics. Starting from the time of ARI mankind entered into a new period, when the end of correction will be reached not by individuals, but by the masses. This is what leads to a bigger interest in Kabbalah: people feel inner emptiness and receive an impulse for spiritual attainment – a call for the Creator, - from Above to come study Kabbalah.

In "Preface to TES" Baal HaSulam says that he wants to break down the wall that emerged between us and the science of Kabbalah more than 2000 years ago, making our life so unbearable. If this barrier continues, we may forget about Eretz Israel all together. Yet if Rav spoke to the heart of a person concerning its study, he received an answer: "Why do I need to know about heavenly angels and their names?” In general, people used to believe that before starting to learn Kabbalah, one must first master Gmara completely. Moreover, there are those who state that not everybody should engage in study of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam advises us to disregard all arguments and reasons that advise against studying the science of truth. Those who have no desire to study Kabbalah can remain at the animal-like state. The rest should ask themselves only one question: "What is the meaning of my life?" Many people live their lives without ever receiving an answer to this question. And if they really want to find an answer, if this question makes them restless, they should study Kabbalah.

Why am I talking about this? It is impossible to explain to a novice what the spiritual is for he lacks the corrected desires. But if one feels bad and cannot fill himself with any pleasures, he has matured for Kabbalah studies.

All of us exist in the state called "double concealment" or "restriction inside of concealment." Its characteristic is that we do not see the Creator even from His back; it is concealed from us is that it is the Creator who makes us feel bad. We say that the Creator has abandoned us, that He does nothing, and that all the suffering we endure arises from nature because of our destiny. And we say that we should live the way we do. The more good deeds a person performs, the worse is his situation. When one does something evil, he thrives. All good people seem ill, pure and anxious, while the wicked ones, healthy and happy.

"Single concealment" is when a person sees the Creator from the back and realizes that all the sufferings come from Him, either because of transgressions that a person commits, or because later he will be repaid with good for the past suffering. He does not earn enough and has debts; he goes through endless troubles and suffers from illnesses. All that he plans does not materialize. He has no joy in life.

We see how even a small concealment of the Creator's light changes our entire life, worsens it. The external state remains the same, but we see it either as very bad, or not as bad. In reality, all these sensations are only imaginary, as in a dream. Suddenly, this state can change into a completely opposite one. Meanwhile, nothing really changed, not in salary, nor at work, nor in health. Yet, internally everything changes into good. This is inexplicable; a person simply strengthens his faith that the Creator rules over creation.

In the next state, "revelation of the Creator's face," one sees that which is received from the Creator is mostly good. He exists in inner harmony and satisfaction, earns well, is free of illness, and is respected by others. And if he lacks something, he prays and receives an answer instantly. Not a single prayer is sent in vain, nor remains unanswered. This is what a person feels. Only inner sensation has changed. This is how dependent we are on even the slightest change in the amount of light, presenting our reality as a completely different sensation. All acquaintances now seem to us as prosperous, joyous and carefree; they are clever and control the situation. And we are happy to be friends with them, to be close to them, even though before we were not able to stand their closeness.

And all who do not follow the path of the Torah seem to a person as troubled with life, by debts and insufficient earning, and by illnesses. Not a single minute is filled with happiness; they are bitter and hate everything around them.

What can be said about these examples? Our feelings and sensations are 100 percent dependent on whether we will receive a smaller or bigger amount of light from Above. If we are lucky enough to receive more light, then everything around us seems good; if not lucky enough, everything around seems black. It follows that we have to aspire for the revelation of the Creator's face and passionately desire this. Our best sensations are linked with the attainment of the Creator; all of our suffering, with the absence of light. One cannot suffer when the Creator's face is revealed. The Creator’s face is happiness, perfection, and joy. In the state "face to face with the Creator" a person instantly receives whatever he or she desires. Otherwise, it cannot be called "face to face.” On the contrary, when a person is in a state "back to back" in relation to the Creator, not a single desire is fulfilled, but rather only undesired states arise, even as if purposefully.

The Creator does not change His attitude towards us. Only we ourselves can sense Him and our position in relation to Him, the difference depending on our own state. But from the side of the Creator, we constantly swim in the pool of light. All evil that is revealed to me indicates that I have to correct it, regardless of what is given to me from Above.

Introduction to the Book of Zohar:

"And now we will reveal the opportunity to comprehend the fourth investigation. If the system of impure forces is so diametrically distant from the holiness of the Creator that we cannot even imagine it, how is it possible that they manifest and descend from the holiness of the Creator itself? And moreover, the Creator Himself executes and maintains this.

To clarify this question we have to understand the essence of the impure forces and know that this immense Will to Receive is the essence of the souls' existence from the standpoint of their creation. It is because they are ready to receive all the light with which the Creator intended to delight the creatures. This light did not remain in the creatures. For if it did, they would be detached from the essence of the Creator forever.

The correction of the reason, because of which the properties of creation are distinct from the properties of the Creator, He put upon the creatures themselves. For help, He made all the worlds and separated them into two opposing systems: the four ABYA worlds that are holy; and the four ABYA worlds of impure forces. Later, in the holy worlds, He instilled the desire to bestow and annulled the desire to receive for one's own sake, giving it over to the four worlds of impurity.

Thus, He separated them from Himself and from the entire system of holiness. That is why egoistical desires are said to be dead; and all wicked ones that follow them are called dead while living. This is because the Will to Receive that is imparted in them is opposite to the properties of the Creator, and separates them from the Life of Lives. They are diametrically opposite to the essence of the Creator, who receives nothing and only bestows. Egoism has nothing of bestowal in it, - only the desire for self-delight. And there cannot be any bigger contrast. We know that the spiritual distancing starts from the most insignificant difference and ends with their absolute, polar contrast."

If creatures are diametrically opposite to the Creator, how can the Creator support and nurture them? The Creator made the creatures, with properties that are so completely opposite to those of His, in order to instill in them the mission of correcting themselves. To help in correction, He created the system of two opposite worlds, which have to service the creatures. He who advances on the right side (holiness – the will to bestow) is said to be alive and righteous. He who advances on the left side (uncorrected desires – egoism), accordingly, is called dead and wicked. All these states apply only in relation to the spiritual, when the light is either inside of the Kli – the inanimate, vegetative, animated level, or extracted from it – on the inanimate level.

When we say "wicked" we mean people who already revealed the Creator, entered the worlds of BYA, and are on the path of 6000 levels towards the Creator; and by doing so, work for the sake of bestowal. But occasionally, it happens that they receive for the sake of reception, and fall into egoism. They have to pass through both of these states on each level. The state "wicked" compels a person to turn towards holiness, thus correcting the properties of the left line. But the more egoism one corrects at a certain level, the bigger is the portion that he gets on the next one. Then again he performs the same actions, ascending the spiritual ladder and correcting the recurring portion of egoism. The spiritual states are much sharper and deeper, but the strength to withstand them is greater as well.

Each time, from all the desires, we choose whatever gives us greater pleasure. This system is implemented in us from above and is unchangeable. However, we can change the intention, that is, turn the direction of our delight towards the Source, from which this delight is coming to us. Most important is for us to feel the Source!

The Will to Receive is not egoism yet. If I want to receive because the Creator gives this to me, and by receiving I delight Him, this is treated as bestowal. But if it makes no difference to me who gives me pleasure, and even if I know that it emanates from the Creator, but I accept everything only to receive maximum pleasure, then these are uncorrected desires. We are way below the state of impure forces, meaning the desires that are not corrected yet.

The worlds of holy and impure forces complement each other, so to speak. Spiritual progress is impossible without either of them. A person exists between them in the middle part – Tifferet. And only this place is neutral. Above it is the holiness, and below it – impure forces. There is nothing to correct in holiness; impure forces cannot be corrected. Only in the middle line – Tifferet – can we tie the upper and the lower parts, and correct it.

The desire to receive is essentially the desire of creation to delight corresponding to the abundance and pleasure emanating from the Creator. We feel this desire to delight and the Creator wishes our enjoyment. To simply feel the desire to delight cannot be named “creation”, rather it is referred to as nature, Elokim. Accordingly, if we act following commands of our nature, then we are similar to an animal, without possessing a spark of the soul, which the Creator imparts in us from above.

When can it be said that we are a creation, purposefully made by the Creator, and not a stone, an animal or a bird? If we intend on learning how to use this desire to receive above our desire to delight. And for this, we must accomplish the task independent of the Creator.

Our desires to drink, eat, and sleep, to have a spouse and children are natural, and are instilled by the Creator; we cannot escape nor control these desires. But if above our desire to receive, we build our intent on correct use of it, then the degree and depth of this intent depends only on the individual, and is referred to as creation. We have to find the correct method for using our natural desires. Our nature is given to us from the Creator, and we can only affect its use. Kabbalah’s term “a point in the heart” means man’s attitude toward his nature, which is everything given by the Creator that must be used as a corrected desire The heart itself is man's desires and urges for pleasures only.

Everything besides the Creator is called creation, conditioned by the limits of nature. According to its desire to delight, creation is divided into four parts: inanimate, vegetative, animated and human. Of these four, only the human can utilize nature, using special intent that we ourselves develop. And this is called “the point in the heart”.

The question “Who am I?” arises in all of us. But when this question is unyielding and without avail, then it applies to the Creator: “Who is He?” because the Creator is inside every person and serves as a source of the human “I”. That is why, no matter how many times we ask ourselves “Who am I?” - the question is addressed to the Creator. The "I" of a human being is the result; being all of our desires, motions, everything we do, are made by the Creator. We are not able to grasp it. Every thought, everything we speak, including all that we say about the Creator and ourselves, are in fact actions of the Creator. Now we may ask, ‘where is “I”?’ Truly there is no such notion as “I”. Everything is a result of nature, created by the Creator. The Creator clothes a human being and, in fact, performs all actions. It turns out, the question, “Who am I?” can exist only outside of the Creator. And this is precisely what makes us different from the Creator: Our will to be similar to Him- to reach the Creator’s level.

The first stage is called "embryo", Aviut de Shoresh. At this stage, we completely annul ourselves and dissolve in the Creator. At each step from here, creation must raise itself to the level of Creator, overcoming its difference from the Creator independently.

By the means of intent, we build the Creator inside of ourselves, feeling our “I” simultaneously, which is in fact, the Creator. By comprehending the Creator, becoming equal to Him, we actually come to know our own “I”.

The Creator wants creation to remain independent. Creation, so to speak, achieves the level of “twice the Creator”: the first time ‘He’, and the second time, creation acting like ‘Him’.

Creation’s desire to receive is absolutely equal to the Creator’s altruism: bestowal for the sake of bestowal. The desire to receive is not nullified or lost; creation remains independent, using all its desires that it wants to return to the Creator. In this sense, the Creator and the creation are similar to each other. The goal for creation, while remaining unique, is to achieve the true perfection. The Creator could not have made an imperfect creation; He made creation similar to Him. How do we recognize this achievement? He created a creation and provided for it an opportunity to achieve His level.

This is called perfection. What emerges is a clear feeling that there is nothing else besides the Creator and creation. Creation suddenly reveals for itself that it does not exist without the Creator, as the Creator cannot be called Creator without creation. In our world for example, a mother is named a mother only if she has a child.

We can enter the spiritual only if we have the desire for it. But how can we feel the desire without knowing what it is? Let’s assume that someone pushes us a bit, peaking our interest sufficiently enough to awaken this desire. Nonetheless, we know nothing and if we understood and somehow wanted it, things would be simple. However, the spiritual is deliberately concealed for us. This is so because entering the spiritual using our will to receive would make it impossible to change our desire. To enter the spiritual, we must crave it, and to crave means to know, to try, to feel - ah, how good it is! Then, when we are deprived spiritually, we develop a hunger for it. There is a rule: the propagation of light and its subsequent disappearance make the vessel suitable for use. How can we achieve it? We must appeal to the Creator with a special request-prayer, to reveal the spiritual only for the desire to bestow, and not for self-enjoyment. The desire must then be used correctly with the help of a Teacher and a group. Hence to begin with, we have to crave spirituality.

A man does not have an ability to choose spirituality. Such ability comes from the Creator. The time is approaching where an increasing number of souls are ready for the spiritual. We act according to our desire. Before we began studying Kabbalah we were guided from above, and when we open a book the Creator starts moving away from us, in a sense. It can be compared with a toddler who is taught how to walk by his mother. She supports him at first, and then steps back little by little, as the child moves towards her. In a similar way we move towards the spiritual, acquiring increasingly greater independence.

There are things we can work with, and others that we cannot. If something hurts us, we cannot say it doesn’t hurt. We start from our own sensations. No philosophy can assist here, since it is the border of our “I”. It is impossible to fulfill our desires according to groundless philosophy. Our actions should correspond with the place we are. For when we attain spirituality our sensations will be different with the discovery that our internal sensations result from the acts of the Creator. Here fundamentally, a person and the Creator are the same; there is no contradiction between them, both wanting the same thing, even cause and effect non-existent. They both reveal equally, and this is called the unity of the degree.

We have to act in life based on who we are. On the one hand, we read wonderful articles, where the Creator and His name are one. However, our spiritual work must take into account the level at which we exist. For instance, it is impossible to set up our group's life at the level of degree called "the final correction". We are incapable of living according to its laws. That is why limits must be kept strictly in line with the place we exist. It is forbidden to confuse the desired with the real if we want to ensure our group life facilitates spiritual progress. Otherwise, we risk destroying both the group and ourselves. We have no choice. Life compels each of us to undergo individual correction in order to prevent a downfall of the entire group.

Unless the limits are changed, it happens to many groups. There are groups here and there, one can go and investigate them - we are not holding anyone. Each of us must have information to make a choice. There can be five students remaining, but they will know that this is their place. A person does not feel how much he and the entire group are affected by a downfall. If we choose the path of suffering, we are up for a few more reincarnations. We have to elicit in ourselves the feeling of this necessity, which will bring us to the inevitability of inner improvement. If Baal HaSulam, for instance, had some money in the evening, he would give it away so that he could get up in the morning absolutely poor. Even at this immense level, additional need helped him to advance. We don’t understand how this works at the high degrees.

At our level, we should at least establish limits that would lie heavy on us and obligate us to advance spiritually. It is not the first time that we demolish our current life and build a new one over again. Each new degree involves the demolition of an old degree and building the new one. This continues until the last breath. We ourselves are a judge for our own condition. An opportunity to have a view from the side does not exist.

Nothing disappears in the spiritual. For example, when we go down a staircase in our world, does it disappear? If the staircase is still there, it means that it doesn't disappear; if it is gone, then it follows that it disappeared. And what happens in the spiritual? When in reality it disappears, but at the same time it remains (even if not in the momentary sensation), it is a principle that nothing disappears in the spiritual. Each passing state remains and accumulates till the end of correction. But in reality we either exist at the highest or lowest level; we don’t feel the other states and cannot even imagine them. Beastly inclination in a person has to know that its salvation comes from above, and then one advances.

The Ari gives a typical example. One day he instructed his disciples that if today they "rose" to Jerusalem, it would lead to the coming of the Messiah. One disciple’s wife held him back, another had a sick child, and the other disciple had torn his shoes. Hence nothing came out of this - Messiah did not come. This could happen with us, and then another group will have to carry this out.

"Introduction to the Book of Zohar", Item 11:

"And the worlds concatenated onto the reality of this corporeal world, meaning to a place where there is a body and a soul and a time of corruption and a time of correction. For the body, which is the will to receive for himself, is extended from its root in the thought of creation, through the system of the impure worlds… remains under the authority of that system for the first thirteen years, which is the time of corruption.

And by observing Torah and precepts from thirteen years of age and on, in order to bestow contentment to his Maker, he begins to purify his will to receive, and slowly turns it in order to bestow, through which he extends a holy soul from its root in the thought of creation. And it passes through the system of holy worlds and dresses in the body. And that is the time of correction.

And so he accumulates degrees of holiness from the thought of creation in the Infinite, until they aid him in turning his will to receive for himself to be reception in order to bestow contentment to his Maker, and not for himself in any way. And by that, one acquires equivalence of form with his Maker, because reception in order to bestow is regarded as pure bestowal.

As it is said, that with an important man she gives and he says - by that you are sanctified. Because reception that is in order to delight the giver is deemed absolute bestowal and giving. By that one buys complete adhesion with Him, for the spiritual adhesion is no more than equivalence of form…and by that a man becomes worthy of receiving the delight and pleasure and the gentleness within the thought of creation."

We have a will to receive that gradually descends from above down, increasing its desire to receive more and more. It distances itself from the Creator, passing through the system of impure worlds and acquires a final property – "the desire to receive". This state is called "our world". A person, who starts advancing from the system of impure forces, acquires the intention for the sake of bestowal. With its help, he begins correcting his desire to receive and reaches the age of Bar Mitzva.

The light comes to him from above and fills him according to the degree of his correction. This means that the soul, the light of correction, clothes the body, the will to receive. Soul, light passes the system of pure worlds. If, receiving, a person gives pleasure to the Creator, this is called bestowal. Gmara tells us that if a respected person gets married, he is not obliged to present a bride with a ring. If he agrees to receive from her, he is as if giving her, because she respects him.

Such reception is the same as pure bestowal. If we do it in relation to the Creator (receives from Him with the intention to bestow in order to bring Him delight) this is called the equivalence of form. At first, we perform the restriction, asserting that we want to receive nothing for our own sake. But, if the Creator wants this and it brings the Creator pleasure, then he is ready to receive fulfillment.

The lack, which is made by the Creator, and the delight, which He gives, serves only as the condition, above which the system of interaction between the person and the Creator is built.

We are ready to receive from the Creator only when we are convinced that by receiving, we bring Him pleasure. First, we have to know the Creator, to sense Him, so that we can later establish a connection with Him. It makes a big difference whether a person receives for his own sake or for the sake of the Creator, bringing Him pleasure. Such a connection is a Divine gift.

"Introduction to the Book of Zohar", Item 12:

"Thus we have clearly explained the correction of the will to receive that is imprinted in the souls by the thought of creation. For He has prepared for them two systems of worlds, one against the other, through which the souls pass and divide into two aspects, body and soul, and dress one in the other.

And through Torah and precepts they finally turn the will to receive to be as the will to bestow, and then they can receive all the pleasures in the thought of creation. And along with it they acquire a solid adhesion with Him because through the work in Torah and precepts they have attained sameness of form with their Maker, which is deemed the end of correction.

And then, since there is no longer a need for the evil Other Side, it shall be eliminated from the earth and death shall cease forever. And all the labor that was given to the world over the past six thousand years, and to each person for the duration of his seventy years of life, is only in order to bring them to the end of correction, to the above-mentioned sameness of form.

The issue of the formation and extension of the system of the shells and impurity from His Holiness is also thoroughly clear now, that it had to be in order to extend by it the creation of the bodies, which would then correct it through Torah and precepts. And if our bodies, with their corrupted will to receive, would not have been extended through the impure system, we would never have been able to correct it, for one cannot correct that which is not in him."

Two things emanate from the Creator: body and soul, or Kli and the light. And the light helps the body to acquire the soul, to become giver, that is, to correct the will to receive into bestowal, until the corrected will to receive is filled with the light. All states that one undergoes passing through 6000 rungs, at every single moment, corrects a person, bringing him closer towards the end of correction. In this way we attain the total and eternal delight and adhesion with the Creator. Without equivalence of form with the Creator, we can receive delight only at the inanimate level, not at the vegetative, animated, or human levels of existence. The system of impure forces is necessary to augment the will to receive, so that later it can be filled with the light using the intention on this magnitude of desire.

We can consider the desire to receive as the desire to bestow. If I know that you will enjoy the fact that I take your gift I will certainly take it. A taker within myself turns into a giver by giving you the pleasure from receiving your gift. Hence I use my own desire to receive but in a different direction. This new use of my natural desire to receive is known as “correction”. I become free from my desire, as though I stand away from it, I'm not subject to it. I prefer not to take anything rather than being a slave to my desire.

When accepting your gift, I should show an immense joy, so that later I could bring this joy to you. This way, my desire itself doesn’t change; the change is only in its use.

Desires are always sorted into lighter and heavier, according to their use, according to the enjoyment revealed, and to the possibility of turning reception into giving. It is important to separate a desire from its clothes, to see it in its pure condition. It opens up a new possibility to use this desire from the lightest part to the heaviest. But as each part starts revealing itself we first must perform a restriction on it, saying: “Yes, this is the enjoyment, but I can stop using it and resist it”. That’s how I draw a parallel between the host, the pleasure and myself.

And then it’s just a matter of a game. A certain desire comes to me. After I refuse it completely, I receive as much as I can take for the sake of the host. That’s why our work is named “mating while striking" when we stop our enjoyment by the means of a screen, push it away, and then accept as much as we can in order to give to the Host. I have to correctly use all the means at hand. But first, at least for a minute, I have to dissociate myself from everything that comes to me.

Then, discussing the purpose of creation, connection with the Creator, I have to direct each of my actions toward the Creator. That’s how I have to treat all my desires. Then the enjoyment received from them will multiply. And it means that I increase my vessel of reception for pleasure. It’s only necessary to use desires correctly, meaning to constantly analyze what is occurring at every single moment. In this process, the articles and letters of Baal HaSulam and Rav Baruch Ashlag provide great assistance.

Advancement consists in understating of what happens. I am not a master of my desires and pleasures. Only permanent analysis of the events leads us to the correct use of all our desires. We have to direct our thought at why such a desire is given to us, for what, how we should react, and why it is worth doing? And in some sense, we have to look at it from the outside. Through these examples a man learns why the Creator does all this to him. Sometimes he is given such desires that he cannot resist, and sometimes such desires that are not possible to fulfill.

It is only necessary to keep everything under control and to constantly monitor. Often what is important when handling a certain event is not the man’s reaction by itself but the experience acquired during that event. But we cannot give a correct evaluation to what is happening. It does not matter if it looks like a sin or a transgression in our eyes. Indeed, such an action could be very useful and wanted for us. The Creator gives us all such sensations for acquiring certain experience and knowledge.

As a result, the man will understand that he nevertheless feels pleasure without any connection to the Creator. This realization will put him into a terrible condition of realization of evil from his own egoism and will be so strong that he will then desire to sacrifice his personal enjoyment once and forever, to renounce it.

But the Creator wants us to enjoy, this is expected as the Goal of Creation, and the enjoyment must be genuine – with the intent to give it to the Creator, and not on the animal, selfish level. The attitude towards the enjoyment will change fundamentally.

All creation represents the desire to receive. That is, the feminine basis versus the Creator who is the desire to give, the masculine basis. Creation, in its turn, is also subdivided into male and female parts. If creation becomes similar to the Light and reaches its form, then it is termed as a masculine part. And if it remains outside of the Light, receiving, as an animal, then it is termed as a feminine part. This is how desires are classified from the point of view of the correction of creation. But besides correction, there is also a natural subdivision, where the masculine part is the first nine Sefirot, and the feminine part is Malchut.

In our world, everything takes place as a result of the division of Adam’s soul into 600,000 souls in the spiritual. These parts are in various degrees of correction, and each time they have to perform either male or female functions, that is, sometimes they have to follow the right line (giving, male), and sometimes – the left line (receiving, female). All the Names in Torah are spiritual attainments in the ladder of ascent. But for attainment of every Name it is necessary to play intermittently both male and female parts, which symbolize right and left lines. For example, at the levels of Pharaoh, Moses, Israel, Nations of the World, there are male and female sides, but each Name is attained only once at a certain level.

A man and a woman together represent a Zivug between Zeir Anpin and Malchut of the world Atzilut, whose essence and degree of connection give a certain name to the higher level each time. Male and female states are constant states at all 125 spiritual degrees.

So, how should we behave: me who was born as a man, and my wife who was born as a woman? All of us should act according to the opportunities we receive at any given state.

Despite that all of us are egoists and see only self-profit in everything, first of all, we should thank the Creator for giving us the opportunity to see the truth about ourselves, even though it is not very pleasant.

For a woman, it is easier than for a man to find inner strength for handling events at home or at work with her mind rather than feelings, even though some things may affect her heart and trigger a wild response. We need to learn how to take it easy with everything, look at everything from the outside.

That is all our work: to be a host of every situation, to control one’s feelings. Of course, one may explode, but then one needs to analyze why it happened, and what needs to be done next. This way, step by step, we separate brain from heart, mind from feelings.

Introduction to the book of Zohar says: “And the worlds condescended to the reality of our corporeal world, the place where the desire to enjoy acquired the shape of a body. And what was fulfilling a body became a soul. And this was the time of damage and correction.”

“Body” means the desire to receive selfishly, for one’s own sake. It propagated from the root of the thought of creation through the whole system of impure worlds, becoming coarser and coarser, and it was under the influence thirteen years. This time is named “the time of damage”.

Then, by the means of commandments directed towards giving to the Creator, the body starts purifying itself from the initially embedded desire to receive selfishly, and then it gradually acquires the desire to bestow. This enables the body to receive the Creator’s light, the soul that descends from the root of the thought of creation. The soul also passes through the whole system of impure worlds and clothes into the body. This time is named “the time of correction”.

Then man faces a ladder of spiritual steps that, as per the thought of creation, descend from the world of Infinity. This ladder is used to help him ascend, to acquire the intent “for the sake of the Creator” until all his actions become completely altruistic (receiving only for the sake of giving to the Creator and nothing for man’s own sake). By doing this, man reaches a complete unity of his properties to those of the Creator, merging with Him, because receiving for the sake of giving is equivalent to pure giving. Hence, man is honored to receive all the huge and infinite enjoyment, which was meant for him by the Creator in the Thought of Creation.”

It is not possible to turn the desire to receive into the desire to give; the desire to receive is something that represents man’s “I” and stays with him. It is only necessary to attach the intent “for the sake of giving” to this desire, that is, to alter the direction of his further enjoyment. Then the man’s body (i.e., his desires) starts improving (e.g., for 10 grams), becomes purified and able to accept to be fulfilled with the Creator’s light, which, in turn, when descending down from above, diminishes itself down to 10 grams of the corrected body, to be able to enter it. The two systems of worlds – holy and impure – work simultaneously and help each other in correcting a human. Each spiritual step acquired by a man helps him to climb another one and finally reach the last step, acquiring eternity, perfection, and a fresh view of birth and death.

Does our body remain after the Final Correction of the intent? Nothing is said about our biological body. It does not belong to the area of correction. Nothing changes in it except for the process of aging. Correction is necessary only for the desire to receive and enjoy. Our body is a piece of meat that needs sleep, animal pleasures, food, rest, etc. It has nothing in common with inner spiritual corrections. Therefore, no changes are being made in the body while the soul is changing. The character does not change either. My Rav was running all the time, even at the age of 80; he just wasn’t able to walk slowly. That was the character, which did not change. Today, we cannot even imagine how we will perceive the world when our soul is corrected. Our body will lose all its value. Will the universe and all around us be kept intact? Will we give birth to children at that time? Will we live and die? It is today that our life is full of suffering and troubles. We cannot imagine how our present animal existence could be fulfilled with spirituality after the Final Correction.

Illnesses result from inner corrections, and in some sense, they should disappear later on. We talk only about corrections up to 6000 years. Today, we cannot explain the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth millennia, as it is not possible to explain what it means to be without the biological body after the end of living in our world. In the same way it is not possible to explain how our body remains after the Final Correction. Because each of our present states is connected to its root as a branch, and the things mentioned above lack such connections.

We correct only those parts of egoistic desires which become united with and embedded into altruistic desires during the breaking of vessels. We do not correct the ego itself. Therefore, we cannot imagine the complete picture of conformity and similarity of the Final Correction. If we really felt this picture then on Shabbat, everyone would be absolutely healthy and no one would die on Shabbat. We have no possibility at all to imagine the state named “perfection”.

From Above, a man receives a response to his question but not at the same time when he sends his request-prayer. It could happen even after several months. In the spiritual space, a Kabbalist can feel the states of holidays and Shabbat on any other day.

If, for example, my soul joined someone else’s then that someone would feel the question I had. And I have another question already. And these questions change every time. This is named circulation of souls. How such leaps happen and why is beyond our understanding. But there exists comprehension in spirituality, such that starting with this comprehension and further on a man can see how connections and disconnections of souls occur. More precisely, such a process can be described as a flow from one soul into the other. But there is no precise definition to this. In any human, there is something collective and something private. The collective does not change while the private can change.

As soon as a person wants to receive something from the Creator and comes to the state of revelation of the Creator’s face, then his soul is ready to receive the Light of the Creator, and, of course, receives it right away. The instantaneous fulfillment of any desire is what makes the spiritual world so different than the corporeal one.

It is written in “Pri Hacham” that the property of Malchut, clothed in worlds, is named “Ani” – “I”. This property extends down to the world of Assiya, where each person senses it as some independent entity. “Ani” always stays within a person, but in a corrected state. As soon as a person corrects his “Ani” he starts feeling the Creator.

The breaking of vessels played a huge positive part in the further correction of desires. Without it we would have stayed in still, vegetative and animate states forever, and would have never been able to find even the finest connection with the Creator.

Our biological body contains sensations of every sort and kind. The spiritual body contains ten Sefirot instead. And there is no connection between them. It is not possible to say that my vision is a result of spiritual vision, which is named Hochma and reflects the sensation of a certain light in the corresponding spiritual vessel. For example, the sensation of light Haya in the vessel of Aviut Aleph by the means of a screen.

There is a field of waves around us. Each of our sense organs can perceive waves of certain frequency. The same takes place in spirituality. But there is a certain kind of light, which enters the pre-assigned vessel. However, there is no connection between the system of animal senses and the perception of spiritual Light.

While being in the left line, a man corrects it by the means of the right line later on, to build the middle line out of these two. The middle line enables him to become similar to the Creator, according to the degree of his correction. Thereon one can say the present step is passed. But then, again, I fall into the left line, and again, I have to correct it with the right line, building a middle line out of them later on. Again, through these steps, I take a certain portion of Creator’s Light in, which makes me even more similar to Him. And then, the next step is passed, etc., etc. It may seem boring from aside, but this is the spiritual ascent: constantly intermittent perceptions of deficiency and fulfillment. This is called “life”, and it is a magical feeling! Strong sensations of hunger and beautiful satiation go hand in hand with each other.

The maximum correct use of our desire to receive at each step is a must for a transition to the next step.

Can a person really say when he deserves a reward and when – a punishment? For instance, a piece of a balcony falls down, killing a man passing by; a natural disaster occurs, etc. Is there anyone we should blame or punish? Or, let’s say, a child breaks something. We can punish or even beat him, but we will discipline a child according to our animal perception of reward and punishment, that is, will transfer our perception and attitude to him. That’s how it was in Russia. If one did not acknowledge the communists they could even kill him. They had established their law and their justice, their understanding of good and bad. But indeed, there must be a direct objective system of reward and punishment, not for the benefit of this system’s authors, but for the benefit of its observers.

It is not possible to give a precise and complete explanation of the concepts of reward and punishment. The correct system should teach something to a human, besides the mere existence of such a system. But in any case, a human cannot be objective; he doesn’t know what really stands behind all of his actions. Because our vessels are not corrected, our actions run counter to the purpose of creation. From the Creator’s point of view, there is no reward or punishment. He does not possess such a desire that a human would act one way and not the other. The Creator has a task to lead man to a special inner state so that the man could receive from the Creator all the good and all the enjoyment that are set aside for a man as a result of achieving the purpose of creation. The Creator does not aim at punishing or encouraging a person for his past deeds; He constantly leads the person toward the purpose of creation.

Who is subject to punishment and reward; a child, or an adult? Starting with what level of consciousness? A person, growing up in this world, acquires the properties and qualities of this world, obeys its laws. If we knew a person as the Creator knows him we could predict his behavior in every situation. And then, where is the free choice of a man, and free of what? Is he free from the natural property that the Creator embedded into him, or from his environment? Where is the part in which a man will be free both from his nature and from the environment? If we knew this then it would be possible to designate punishment or reward for certain manifestations of his free will. This would be because all the steps he makes would be his personal steps based upon his free choice; free from both nature and the outside influence.

A man should understand that at each of his steps, at each of his actions, the Creator teaches him, sharpens his perception, and directs him to the path towards the purpose of creation. If a person starts seeing that then reward and punishment will acquire special direction and meaning, according to the stated goal. The person will determine everything that happens with him or comes to him, both good and bad, as a reward. And the ‘bad’ will be perceived not as suffering and pain but as a sign of teaching. All the perceptions will be only positive. Hence, such classification as reward and punishment simply do not exist; everything displays only positive and benevolent ways in which the Creator treats the creations.

However, a person does not immediately understand and sense the Creator, but rather goes through various concealments of the Creator. First, through the double concealment, then through the single one, then comes the revelation of the Creator. Finally, there is the comprehension of eternity, perfection and infinite love for the One Who always treats man and the whole of mankind with constant love and the desire to give the utmost enjoyment.

Let’s talk about Yom Kippur. This is the day when the building of a spiritual vessel is completed. We know that the whole reality includes only the Light and the vessel. The Light is the Creator, and the vessel is a creation, a soul, Malchut. The light stays at absolute rest and does not change. The only intent of the Light is to give enjoyment, that is, to bring a person to the feeling of eternal and infinite enjoyment.

Look at the whole process of building a spiritual vessel, from its lowest state, in which we find ourselves now, to the highest sublime, eternal and perfect state. This whole process is denoted by the Ten Days of Repentance. During these ten days, starting from the first day of Rosh ha-Shana until Yom Kippur a soul that has nothing in it besides the desire to enjoy, starts gradually acquiring the properties of Light. The desire to enjoy receives ten changes, ten Sefirot, which underlie the correction of souls.

During these ten days, the soul becomes completely corrected and ready for the reception of Light. On the tenth day of repentance, Yom Kippur, it is not allowed to show any desire to receive and enjoy, and in our world it is expressed in prohibition of food, drink, and other limitations on the day of the fast. On that day, the last correction takes place.

After Yom Kippur, a completely corrected vessel starts preparation for the reception of Light. The reception of Light corresponds to the seven days of Succoth, which includes fulfillment of commandments with the four species; Lulav, Etrog, and other things, which are necessary to attract the Light to the vessel. And finally, this whole process is crowned with the beautiful holiday of Simchat Torah, when all of the Creator’s Light fills the prepared vessel completely. The Torah symbolizes the Light of the Torah, and Simcha means reception of Light for the sake of the Creator.

In the spiritual, such correction does not necessarily take place during this specific period; it may happen any time when necessary. In our world, however, we follow the calendar dates.