Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Lesson 2

Last time we discussed general issues – how we sense the world. We discussed how humanity evolves during thousands of years and reaches a state in which some people, a few individuals in each generation, begin to long for the perception of something that is beyond this world. This is called the awakening of the point in the heart. They sense that something is drawing them into the unknown. Eventually, their desire grows to such an extent that a sixth sense opens in them and they begin to sense a higher reality.

When they attain this reality, they begin studying it, researching it, out of which they write books, and from those books we study, even though we are not like them; they attained spirituality without studying. That applies to Abraham and all his children, Jacob with all his sons, and later on Moses, who draws the entire nation of Israel with him.

Already, beginning with Moses and beyond, this method was written and grew to include the Mishna, Neviim, Ktuvim, different books using different languages to describe spiritual attainment, the Upper World, how it is possible to elevate into it. When we read these Writings, we usually perceive them as all sorts of prohibitions and limitations.

Why limitations?

Why can we not reach the Upper World, see it, know it, at least as we know this world, by research, just as a scientist studies the world? Moreover, since we are dealing with the Upper World that is so enlightened and good, then why do we need to get rid of so much of our nature on the path to it? Our nature is opposite from the beginning and it disturbs us. We have to suffer, and it is very difficult…

Why is it so difficult?

The difficulty is that the Creator created a being with a desire to receive, which to begin with, is opposite to Him. In addition, in order to attain wholeness, to become similar to the Creator, to be like Him, because less is not whole, we really need to reverse our nature.

Is it possible?

In order to understand what is required of us, we need to study the entire creation. Indeed, it is written that Kabbalists, even up to the Ari's time and beyond, the time of Baal Shem Tov, had to study all the other sciences, and that helped them understand the entire creation, whatever was possible. Later, they could move on to the sensation of the Upper World.

This is because it is impossible to agree, to do anything with oneself, without sensing this world, meaning creation itself, and its opposite – the Creator. Only through the oppositeness of these two worlds does a desire form in a person, in which he or she truly feels wholeness and eternity.

The path is this: we learn that the Creator emanates light and builds a desire to receive. The light itself is actually the Creator. We do not know what is above the light. We name what ever is above the light Atzmuto – His Essence. We have no words to describe Him; we cannot sense Him. What we do sense is the light that enters the vessels. Therefore, what the Creator created is the desire to receive.

The light that we do sense is included with the beginning of the created being in the form of thought only. That is Behinat Shoresh (root aspect). Further down this thought is implemented; that is why that is called Behina Alef (first aspect). The desire to receive that has been created, Behina Alef, is equivalent in size to the Behinat Shoresh. The Creator created a desire to receive everything that He wanted to give, and that desire is actually the created being.

Nevertheless, we still have a long way to go before we get to the actual created being. The created being that we discussed up to now was created directly by the actions of the light, and all that is in this created being comes directly from the light; the created being does not sense itself as existing in a reality by itself. It only senses the light that fills it.

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As the pleasure fills entirely this created being, it begins to sense the source of its pleasure. After initially sensing the light, it eventually senses the giver, meaning the Behinat Shoresh that is in it. It is similar to me, somehow receiving some kind of pleasure, feeling it, enjoying it in its entirety, and then feeling the source from which it came. That is the sensation – the light enters, gives pleasure, and eventually the created being reveals the nature of the light, the nature of the giver. That is how each spiritual vessel is constructed in us.

Remember this from now on: every spiritual vessel is made of two parts – the first part is bestowal from the upper, what the upper wants to give. The second part is the result of the sensation of the light in the first part. First, we have a sensation of pleasure in the desire to receive, later the sensation of the giver, from whom the light came.

That is why this vessel is variable, due to the sensation of the giver of the pleasure and the desire to change and become similar to the giver of the pleasure, the desire to become a giver as well. This desire is different from the previous one; the previous Behina is actually completely opposite to it, and that is why it emanates out of that previous Behina as a separate, independent desire – a desire to bestow that we call Behina Bet (second aspect). This new desire is similar in size to Behina Alef, to the desire to receive, but it really is like Behinat Shoresh. This means that the desire to bestow in Behina Bet is the same as in Behinat Shoresh. Out of its desire to bestow, Behina Bet learns what Behinat Shoresh is like, by being similar to it in its desire to bestow. Behinat Shoresh itself desires to bestow; it bestows, gives. Therefore, in order for Behina Bet to be similar to Behinat Shoresh, it must receive something in order to be able to give. For that, a new desire to receive awakens in it.

So again, Behina Bet thinks – how can I give? Just like Behinat Shoresh does. How can Behinat Shoresh give? Behinat Shoresh gives because it has light. However, in the desire to receive, there is no light; it has nothing to give. The giving can be very simple, by just learning that Behinat Shoresh wants to give to me. But how can I be similar to it? How can I give it pleasure? I can give it pleasure by receiving from it. Consequently, I now draw for myself a desire to receive. From the desire to give comes a desire to receive that is equal to Behina Alef. Just as Behinat Shoresh wants to give and builds Behina Alef, now the created being's desire to bestow builds a desire to receive that is equal to Behina Alef.

We see here that there is an action of the Creator, a desire to receive that He created, and later on there is an action of the created being, wanting to repeat the action of the Creator. Behina Bet is similar to Behinat Shoresh; it wants to do what Behinat Shoresh does, and it carries it out. It in fact builds a desire to receive that will actually receive, called Behina Gimel (third aspect), that is similar to Behina Alef of the desire to receive, which is the expression of the desire of the created being to bestow. Therefore, these two aspects belong to the created being.

In this, we still do not distinguish the created being itself. From the desire to receive – Behina Gimel - the created being, once having both the desire to bestow and the desire to receive, reveals that there is a unique requirement to which it must conform. What is that requirement? It is a requirement that the created being have the same size as the bestower.

Let us imagine a situation where there is a table, and by the table sits a person. Placed in front of the person are five servings of food, and there is the host. I am talking about this world. The host gives the person these five servings of food. In the person, there is a desire to receive these five servings. This desire to receive these servings is called Behina Alef. If the person is aware of the desire, knows it, and is ready to receive, that is called Behina Gimel.

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The difference between these two desires is that, in Behina Alef, the desire originates in the Creator, while in Behina Gimel, the desire to receive is already in the created being; the created being recognizes its own desire to receive. At this stage, the desire is still a desire to receive the servings of food that the host prepared. What the created being can add to this desire is a different desire – the desire of the host.

What it means is that the created being, Behina Gimel, after receiving from the host into its desire to receive eventually says – now I feel that I am receiving. I am receiving because the host has a desire to bestow and I want to bestow as He does; thus, I receive because He wants me to receive. When Behina Gimel emulates the action of the host, it begins sensing what the host senses of it. Then Behina Gimel eventually begins to feel the greatness of the Creator. Alternatively, we can say – it feels the pleasure that the Creator feels from bestowing. To the extent that it feels that the host is great and senses how much He enjoys the giving, a desire to receive opens up in the vessel.

This desire is to receive what? It is not the desire for these servings of food. It is a desire to receive the Creator. The created being desires the Creator’s stature; it wants to be like Him; it wants that state. The servings do not satisfy it any more by themselves. That is how the created being attains a great desire, which is called Behina Dalet, or Malchut.

What is the difference between Malchut and all that preceded it?

Everything that preceded Malchut, all the Behinot (aspects) that preceded it are still part of the evolution of the created being. Only Malchut is already considered as a created being because there is in Malchut a unique desire to receive. It is not just a desire for the light that brings pleasure, but it is a desire to be similar to the Creator. A created being desires to be in the stature of the Creator. It does not just want the pleasures from Him, but it wants everything that comes with the pleasures, the entire makeup called Creator. That is Behina Dalet, which is actually called the created being, which is actually - us.

I repeat: the wisdom of Kabbalah describes for us the entire process of creation from beginning to end. It explains how the Creator created the created being from a stage where it is still completely dependent and attached to the Creator, not yet an actual created being, up to the state where the created being reaches its end of correction, its goal. This entire path is explained by Kabbalah, including all that happens to us on that path.

The order is chronological: in the first act – there is light. Nothing before the light is discussed. We begin with the light. From there we study the entire path, up to the last creature and how this last created being returns to the beginning – back to the highest state, the level of the Creator. From that state, the created being begins to elevate further, rising above the point from where it started.

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Why can we not now discuss anything that is higher than that point?

We have no vessels, no language for it. These things are at levels that we cannot discuss for we have no perception of them. The means that we have now cannot help us express what happens above this point. It is like fish in an aquarium that are unable to discuss our life. That is simply how we are – we lack the discernments, the vessels. When we finally correct ourselves through this entire path and return to the first state, then we will rise above it and be able to comprehend what it is.

What is above that state is called “Sitrei Torah” (the concealments of Torah), and that is why it is indeed written that it is forbidden to study it. In Kabbalah, “forbidden” means impossible. Why is it impossible? Because there is no expression for it, it cannot be studied.

So we learn that, as written – “…Before the Neetzalim (created beings) were emanated and the creatures created, an Upper Simple Ohr (Light) had filled the entire reality.” We call it Behinat Shoresh, which is a desire to bestow. From it we begin (and not from above it, as we discussed). To the exact extent of its desire (to bestow), the Light builds the vessel – the desire to receive. The Light and the vessel are equal in size, in volume, in everything. Despite the fact that the Light consists of pleasure, and the vessel consists of lack, they are entirely matching, one inside the other, with the intention that when the Light enters the vessel then there is a 100 percent filling. Thus, the Light simply fills and rules the vessel entirely, making the vessel invisible. That desire is so similar to the filling because the filling is what constructs it. This is called Behina Alef.

This desire, which is definitely ruled completely by the Light, emanated from the Light. We still cannot talk about a created being; it is just something that is inside the Light. We can imagine a sea of Light, and in it is a small desire that the Light constructed, which is still not entirely separate, sensing itself.

Nevertheless, as we have said before, after the Light expands in the desire, the desire begins to feel the nature of the Light, to know the host, the One that fills it. The pleasure is not only felt as something good, but as coming from someone in whom there is something, and in this pleasure the Behinat Shoresh is felt. The giver is felt within this pleasure. At first, it is just a pleasure, and then due to the revelation of the Behinat Shoresh, the desire to receive wants also to be outside of the sensation of pleasure. Because it wants to enjoy, it desires to be like the Behinat Shoresh, for as it is higher, so too is the pleasure, greater, more abstract. Therefore, since the desire to receive becomes similar to Behinat Shoresh (Behinat Shoresh wants to bestow), it wants to bestow as well. It acquires a desire to bestow, and this desire is called Behina Bet. Each new desire, every development inside of the desire is called a new Behina (aspect / discrimination / feature).

Behina Bet also has a lack, but it is an opposite lack, a need to enjoy from bestowal. Previously, it wanted to enjoy from receiving, but now it wants to enjoy from bestowal.

How will it enjoy bestowal?

It will enjoy bestowal only if it bestows. How can it bestow? It looks at this root and observes what Behinat Shoresh does – it bestows, that is what brings it pleasure, giving. Out of that observation, it develops a desire to receive, similar to Behina Alef. Just as Behinat Shoresh creates Behina Alef, Behina Bet creates such a desire as Behina Alef, which we already call Behina Gimel.

What is the difference? The desire to receive that is in Behina Gimel comes from the desire of the created being to bestow, not from the Creator’s desire. From the Creator’s desire to bestow emanated Behina Alef, a desire to receive; from the created being’s desire to bestow emanated a desire to receive called Behina Gimel, which is similar to Behina Alef. What does Behina Gimel feel when it receives and enjoys? It begins to feel that it did exactly what the host did. The Creator, the desire to bestow, created a desire to receive. Now the created being replicates the same action in Behina Bet and Behina Gimel. After it replicates it through the repetition, it begins to understand Him – “who He is”, how much He enjoys. In this way, it develops a desire to be like the Creator, like what is being enjoyed in Behinat Shoresh.

An action is done by the Creator and an action is done by the created being. In this way, the created being reaches a state where it wants to be similar to the Creator, to the giver. A desire to be similar to the Creator appears, and that is called Behina Dalet.

It is not exactly a desire to be like the Creator, it is instead a desire to enjoy the stature of the Creator, a desire to receive all of the pleasure that the Creator has from giving. That is what it wants to equate with. The Creator has pleasure from giving and the created being wants that pleasure.

When the created being senses that it is filled with that pleasure, it begins feeling shame. Why shame? Since it desires pleasure from this stature, not from the Light that the Creator gives, it wants to take hold of the Host; it wants to use the Host, to take advantage of the Host who prepared the meal.

It means that I sit by a table with five servings on it. The fact that these five servings are there means that it is something that I deserve, because He created a desire to receive in me. That is why these five servings, my relation to them, are not discussed. What we are discussing is the fact that, with the exception of those five servings, I want to take hold of Him. I want to enjoy Him, his stature. I want the same pleasure that He has from giving; I want that pleasure in order to enjoy receiving from Him.

That is why there is shame. This shame comes because I have developed a desire that did not exist initially. If my desire had only been for what comes to me through the food, by the Light, I would not be ashamed by it - that is how I am made. I am not ashamed by having to breathe, to eat, to excrete. I do not have to be ashamed of my body; it is not me. It is He who created me and did all of that in me.

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So where is the “I”? The “I” is a desire in Behina Dalet that I developed after emulating the actions of the Creator. That is how I understood what He gets from it, and that is why this desire in me is called the created being. This desire does not come directly from the Creator, and I feel shame because of it. What is shame? Shame is the sensation that, specifically in this regard, He and I are opposite

That is why a extraordinarily singular action takes place here, once the created being senses that its desire is opposite to the desire of the Creator. The Creator bestows and enjoys it, while the created being wants to enjoy that stature egoistically. That is why the shame appears. The shame causes what is called Tzimtzum Alef – the first restriction. The created being restricts itself, decides not to use this desire.

Why? Again, as we learned – sensing what the Creator does causes a pleasure. The created being fills itself with the pleasure of the Creator, of the Creator’s stature. The created being then feels how this pleasure is opposite to what is in the Creator. That causes the shame, and the action that is caused by the shame is the First Restriction. What does the ‘First Restriction’ mean? The created being decides that it does not want to use its desire to receive.

This evolution is called the four Behinot (aspects or grades) of Ohr Yashar (Direct Light). It is a very complex process. Everything that will happen later on until the end of correction, the end of all actions, is derived directly from these four attributes, from the evolution of these four attributes.

These four attributes, or properties, cause all sorts of implications. There is nothing besides these four properties, and the last one – Behina Dalet, the way it is evolving now, is arriving at a state of true correction. What is happening to us is that once Behina Dalet feels the shame at its end it begins to correct itself. Its purpose becomes to bring itself to a state wherein the greatest desire to receive will change to a desire to bestow. Then, through all of its actions, its desire to bestow will come to the Emanator, the Creator, to the giver; so that its giving will be directly to Him.

The created being has to construct such a system, and once the system is made, it will attain the level of the Creator and then the Creator and the created being will be together in a state called 'adhesion'. That is the goal. All of the actions that are done now with the created being are in order to equalize its form with the Creator, to adhesion with the Creator. That is what we are studying.

On the path to self-correction, Malchut has a few actions that it must perform. Its correction, the path to equivalence with the Creator, includes the building of a scheme called ‘the system of worlds’. It attains this great distinction called – worlds. These are five stages, five worlds, through which it improves itself at the level of each world. This is referred to as Malchut de Ein Sof dividing itself into souls – all of its components, and beginning to route each part on the path upward, eventually gathering all of the parts back together.

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Baal HaSulam uses the allegory of a great king who had a treasure. He wanted to deliver the treasure to his son who lived in a remote country across the sea, but he was afraid to give this treasure to anyone or even to a small group of people because it could be stolen. Therefore, he decided to divide the treasure into small parts and to give each small part to a different person, according to that person’s screen – ability to overcome his or her desire to steal. Meaning that if someone can resist stealing ten dollars then I give the person no more than ten dollars, and I can be certain that he or she will return them. In this way, he distributed the treasure in small parts and gave each part to someone else. That is how he sent the messengers and each of them arrived to the end of the road, connecting there with everyone else, and the treasure arrived safely.

That is the path and that is how we go through it.

Malchut first builds the worlds, the path, and then advances gradually. This treasure, every part of it, must eventually arrive at its destination. Each part has a unique content that needs to arrive, and the path has to be traveled.

So there are levels and there are souls. During the study, every person begins to understand, to know the root of his or her soul, meaning the desire to receive for him or herself. The person begins to see where he or she is within the universal soul called – Adam, how this desire to receive is different from all other desires, what is unique about it, what self-corrections he or she must perform. Now that the person begins to perform corrections, the extent of the correction (the screen) determines how much the person senses this treasure that is given, the Light that comes into him or her. With this Light, the person rises and approaches an equivalence of form with the Creator. That is the path.

This evolution of creation – I can say that I know it and that it seems natural to me, but the path of returning does not seem natural to me; it is like some kind of a reversed movie…

Each time you study, it will be as if you study the same thing, but at a deeper level. From studying deeper, you will also begin to comprehend the beginning. In the first lesson you will realize that “the result of an action is determined by the preliminary thought”. That is how it is; there is nothing we can do. That is why an impatient person who does not understand that it is only from the end that we can comprehend the beginning has difficulty.

You are saying that while the evolution from above to below seems rational and clear to you, the way back up does not. We are, for now, discussing reality in general. Things have to be understood only in general, later we will go into the details. I usually do not rush into specific subjects in lessons.

We have a vessel from above. We have to correct this vessel, which is in its entirety a desire to receive. First we need to reach a state where this desire to receive will recognize itself. What does it mean? It needs to feel that it is opposite to the Creator; that its properties are completely contrary, that it is completely lacking wholeness. That would be referred to as the vessel being in “this world”. We are still not in “this world”.

We need to reach a state of true recognition, awareness. From that state, according to the level of our desire, we gradually ascend back.

In order to do this we have to create for ourselves certain conditions. I need to make sure that I will have in this world all the possibilities of elevating myself all the way through. I need to be here, to have a vessel, and to have the Light that would fill the vessel. I need to have the means. What are the means? They are the right environment, books. Through this environment, I should be able to elevate myself and connect with the Light. All of these things are created from above to below. I just put all of these components together, bring them into myself. I discover that the whole environment, the books, the means, this whole world actually are in me, in my desires.

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This is called a breaking, and I reassemble it. ‘Breaking’ means that to me it looks as if the whole environment is divided into – you, me, walls, world, everything. It seems as if each thing is separate, distinct. When I begin to receive a screen, I start seeing how these things connect. I lose the external view of things and start to see that the desires – the essences of things are all connected. The entire world becomes one single system, the bodies disappear, and the desires outside the bodies start to be connected. This is called the correction of the breaking, the correction of the screen.

Is it impossible to ascend when you get really down?

In spirituality there is no up or down – meaning that the person determines where he or she is. Now we are neither up nor down. We do not even know where we are. We are completely disoriented. We can see that this is how the entire world is, and eventually the world will reach a state of not knowing even how it is living from one moment to the next. It will happen soon…

Why? Because then we begin to understand that without connecting all of these parts we never attain a vessel with which we can survive. This is part of the breaking of Adam HaRishon (The First Man).

Let us return for a moment to the Behinot – how is Behina Bet similar to Behinat Shoresh?

Behina Bet is not similar to the Creator because of its desire to bestow. Being similar to the Creator is being like Him in action. How is the action of Behina Bet similar to the Creator? It discovers at the end of Behina Alef that there is someone filling it and from that, it wants to be similar to that someone. Similar in what? In giving. Therefore, this desire to bestow that is in Behina Bet is not in use, Behina Bet does not carry it out.

Why do the preceding Behinot not feel shame?

The vessel does not feel shame because the desire to receive is not actually its own. After replicating the actions of the Creator in Behina Bet and Behina Gimel like Behinat Shoresh and Behina Alef, the created being starts to sense how the Creator enjoys. That is the problem – it begins to feel His content. The Created being starts to sense not only what is done, but also what precedes it – who the one is doing the action. That is what the created being wants to receive, and this desire to receive is not for the Light that created the vessel, but for the giver. That is why it feels shame. Otherwise, there would not be any shame.

There is no shame in response to any of the direct actions of the Light. That is how I am made, as is written – “go to the artist who made me”. He created me; it is His problem. He is the one that did this, not me. This desire to receive (Behina Dalet) is the “I”, because it is distinct, it is not a result of the Light; it is a result of the stature of the Creator, the existence of the Creator.

Meaning that what sets Behina Dalet apart from all the others is that there is someone above it and that it senses who He really is, what his essence is. That is what it desires to receive, and that is why the constriction only occurs in Behina Dalet.

Where am I located?

We are all located here. You are here, I am here, and he is here.

This is a very good question.

We have not really started our course yet. I am still giving introductory lectures in order for us to know each other and get used to the atmosphere and surroundings. I also said in our previous lesson that it is important to feel as one group, to feel connected so that we will be able to enter the sensation, that in addition to the intellect we would fill the feeling part, and through this feeling part open a sixth sense and really feel what we are discussing. I may start this course three or four lessons from today, and in the mean time, we are just… beginning to be closer.

So you are asking –where are we? The answer to this is actually the entire course. We learn it like this: From the Creator Light emanated, and after the four Behinot of Direct Light that we discussed, Malchut is created, Behina Dalet. It is called Malchut de Ein Sof (of infinity) because it is filled with Light. It was filled with Light and sensed shame, so it performed the First Restriction – it does not want to feel this state of being opposite to the Creator. Therefore, it begins constructing the five worlds: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya.

The five worlds were actually created as steps through which Malchut de Ein Sof distances itself. Distances to where? It distances itself to a place where it would be able to stand far from the Creator, so that the Light would not reach it. It is because the shame causes it so much suffering, oppositeness of form, that it prefers to distance itself to a state where it can stand and not be so close.

After building for itself a ladder of steps behind which it can stand, Malchut de Ein Sof builds itself into a form called “Adam HaRishon” – The First Man, a soul.

After the first restriction, Malchut de Ein Sof builds itself as a structure called Adam HaRishon, and this Adam HaRishon goes through several processes that are called 'The Breaking'. It falls; it distances itself to a state called “This World”. This First Man is also called Soul, and is the real Created Being. When this soul descends into this world, it manifests into 600,000 parts. One of them is you.

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Each one of these 600,000 parts goes through incarnations during several generations, until it begins to feel a spiritual lack. We discussed this already – humanity has existed for millions of years; it does not matter how many. This number – 600,000 - is not a regular number like we usually count; it is a spiritual concept. Initially there is only corporal development, evolution in the realm of bestial desires. What does bestial mean? It is the same as animals: pleasures from food, sex, family, a home, everything that a beast wants as well. This lasted for thousands of years. Later, the evolution of the desires for money, honors, and knowledge followed, and then the spiritual evolution eventually begins.

The spiritual evolution is actually taking place in our days, from 1995 and on. It began actually, using what is called our calendar, 5700 years ago. That was the revelation of the first man, the first time that the point in the heart was revealed in humanity. From that time on, this point in the heart occasionally manifested in different souls, until it was revealed in Abraham. Starting from Abraham a method was founded. He wrote a book and all of his offspring followed that method until they reached a state of self-correction. Then the rest of humanity followed. The difference between Abraham and his group and the rest of humanity is that the more pure part of the souls, Galgalta Ve Einayim, is called Jews, while the coarser is called the nations of the world. The first part is corrected first and the latter second.

You said that Behina Alef does not feel… but eventually begins to sense the giver…

Not every Behina is an entirely defined thing, not simply a desire to receive. A Behina is a desire to receive, which perceives something. When it perceives the Light, the Light enters it and begins changing it, organizing it, creating in it a reaction.

The best example would be the one Baal HaSulam gave: you go to visit a friend and the friend gives you some food. There is some relation to the food and some relation to the friend. When beginning to relate to the food itself, to eat from it, the relation changes both to the food and to the giver. In the food, you begin to sense the giver’s relation and it changes everything inside of you. In one single Behina, as the Light enters it and acts in the vessel, there is a vast process that takes place, an emotional process. A vessel is a desire, it feels the filling, and when it does, it evolves in relation to the giver of the filling – it realizes what it is and what the giver is. This happens according to the pleasure that I feel and understand, and according to what He wants from me.

The issue is that we are just a single point. The Creator created a single point, something from nothing. He has a desire to bestow and He created something from nothing, a single point that is different from Him, exactly the opposite of Him, it is all that is NOT in Him. It can never be like Him, so how will we ever be like Him? He wants to transform us so that we would be like Him, how will we do it?

This point – something from nothing, is called Malchut, just at the point in which it contracted. It knows that it cannot be similar to the Creator. When it reaches the state in which it is down here it senses itself in a state that we call – Lev Ha Even – “heart of stone”, which is opposite to the Creator. Now, as I study, as I perform all sorts of actions desiring to come closer to spirituality, I will constantly see myself as opposite. I will see how much I do not belong in bestowal, how much I want to receive, that I do not care about anyone but myself. We are brought into situations with people close to us, with children, that make us discover how terrible we are, we realize what a person really is. This issue needs to be recognized all the way through in us. Once I comprehend this point, I perform a restriction on it – I do not want to use it. So what will I work with, how will I become similar to the Creator?

I begin to construct a vessel above this point. I need to receive the other attributes from the Creator, above this point. I cannot be similar to the Creator with my point, with my something from nothing, because it is from nothing. Therefore, once I regret what I am, I perform upon myself that same First Restriction at my state down here, I begin to request from the Creator to have His attributes. The Creator’s attributes are called Tet Rishonot – the Upper 9 Sefirot.

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What it means is that our vessel, the one we receive from, is made of ten Sefirot – Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut (Zeir Anpin includes six). I request from Him to correct my vessels of bestowal first, called Galgalta VeEnayim, or Israel, and after that, I request from Him to correct my vessels of reception, called “the nations of the world”, the gentiles, or AHP.

‘Vessels of bestowal’ means that I receive from Him the properties of the bestower, and that I feel that it is good that I bestow. By receiving these properties from Him, I still do not touch the point of my First Restriction, the point of my heart. I just give. That is why these vessels are easy to correct, and are corrected first, which is called Israel, meaning that we need to be corrected first.

Later, the properties of the Creator that belong to the vessels of reception, the AHP, come to me, and I have to transform them into “in order to bestow”. How? The Creator gives to me, and has pleasure from giving to me. I now learn how to be like Him. When I bestow as He does, it means that I work with vessels of bestowal. When I sense how much He enjoys giving to me and I enjoy it too, it means that I am sensing His vessels of reception, and then I have to stand against my point in the heart.

Out of receiving from Him, I begin to feel how He enjoys me, how much pleasure He has from giving. Once sensing that pleasure, I begin to desire it for myself, so vessels of receptions are formed in me, and I have to work with them “in order to bestow”. That is called “correcting the nations of the world”, or the AHP de Ima – vessels of Bina (which we will discuss later). We go through this whole process starting from this world and going up.

Once the vessel feels the shame it wants to bestow back to the Creator. Where is the actual place where it reveals the “in order to bestow”, where is the place where it wants to give to another created being?

It is not possible to give to another created being without it going through the Creator. We are one single soul; that is what the Creator created. The created being is a single soul that is divided into parts. The division between us is purposeful. It was done in order for us to bring every part to adhesion with the Creator. If we relate at this level to each other, we are not correcting anything. For example, people now want to help Africa; people are starving there. It is hard to see people suffering, but it will not help in any way. We cannot connect with each other in any other way than becoming similar to the Creator.

Only at that level, to the degree that we can be similar to Him can we connect, not at our level. That is why it is written – “a husband and wife – the Divinity is between them”. Baal HaSulam writes in his articles that the mistake we made until now was that people wanted to create a Kibbutz, a social group in order for everyone to benefit from it. We never understood why these types of society do not work.

The connection between souls can only exist to the degree of equality with Divinity. That is where they are connected. We are at the end of correction even now, but we need to reveal this level, and that is where we are connected. We cannot connect at the level of this world, it is impossible. He writes this in the article “The Last Generation” as well.

So just bestowing to each other, without an intention to become like the Creator, causes the opposite of what we want, it brings disasters. Baal HaSulam writes that the supposedly good things are those that caused Nazism and Stalin. The ideas are essentially good, it is about the connection of people, unity of everyone, but eventually they cause destruction because they do not connect us to the goal.

How can the created being sense the pleasure of the Creator?

In this world, we cannot really sense it; it depends on the person. If a person goes to his friend and receives food from him, or a gift, then the person has to connect to the gift itself and feel it, and the one giving the gift really fills the vessel of his friend. Meaning that there has to be a match, I need to know what my friend needs, and bring him or her just what he or she needs, in both quantity and quality. When my friend observes that I have filled his or her need exactly according to his or her lack, then the person understands that I feel him or her, that I understand him or her, the way he or she sees him or herself. By observing how close to him or her I am through the gift the person begins to know me. In our world, it does not happen as much, but there has to be an external match, the gift has to be fitted to the vessel, so that the receiver can be impressed by the matching and see how much the giver feels the person, understands, and knows his or her desire.

What does the gift itself, the Light, express? The Light that fills the vessel expresses how much the giver is inside the desire of the receiver. It shows how much the giver suffers from the fact that the receiver desires, wanting to fulfill that desire. It is as a mother towards her baby. The gift itself that is not felt by its correspondence, rather the love is. The sensation of the love is what causes a response. That is why it is difficult to find place for this in our world.

Do all people who study Kabbalah feel a need to bestow in order to receive?

No. To bestow in order to receive is already a degree.

Children do not usually feel it. Why? They do not feel that by giving they can gain anything. For that, there has to be some development; it is already above the level of living, at the level of speaking. We see some primitive people who know how to steal, to take, and there are others more developed who steal in a more sophisticated way that is permitted. In our world that is considered good, it is called a person.

So bestowing in order to receive is sophistication; it is already using properties of the Creator within the created being. When we tell a person in this world that he or she is egoistic, even if the person is giving to others and tries to benefit others, the person would not understand why we say that. If one gives to another, why is that person an egoist? The person gives because he or she feels the pain of the other, and wants to quiet that pain. That is why the person gives. If we would eliminate the pain, the person would stop giving.

The goal of creation on the other hand, obligates adhesion of one to another, which is true giving. Because giving passes through the Creator, there is a third party, the Creator, which obliges me to have a certain attitude to another. It is not about my desire to receive any more, but about the other’s desire. Then it is really called bestowal. Otherwise, when doing it directly from me to another, it is always out of the desire to receive.

Malchut constructs itself in Israel, in Glagalta VeEinayim. In the AHP are the nations of the world. The Creator bestows on us through the Upper 9 Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Chesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. We receive the Light, and along with it we receive the envelop of the Lights, called “Gracious, Merciful, Beautiful, Wealthy, Great, Wise”, all kinds of good impressions through which we sense the giver. The sum of all these properties is called for us “the Creator”. I do not know Him personally, I know His properties. I need to be like Him; that is the goal, whether I want it or not, I will want to be like Him; it is arranged for us through suffering. My correction then is first to become equal in my desires called Galgalta VeEinayim (GE), and then in the desires called AHP.

What does it mean? There is one part in the Creator’s desires called GE – small desires, not very egoistic, not mean. Then there is another part made of very coarse, heavy desires – AHP. Inside myself, I first simulate His actions of bestowal: the nice, easy actions. Later, I simulate His actions of receiving as well – the coarse ones.

Now, at our level, the group in this world called The Nation of Israel must start the action of being similar to the Creator. This is considered as easy, because when the gentiles begin the work after us, it will be much harder. We think we are the greatest egoists in the world, and it is really so, because now it is revealed, for we now need to make corrections, so our egoism is revealed in us, our coarseness. Moreover, we are really the worse ones. We want more than anyone else does; we run after everything. That is because these attributes are being revealed and we will correct them. However, this is only the GE, just the beginning. Once the gentiles start correcting with their AHP, it will really be terrible, many times worse, coarser than our will to receive. It is only now that they seem primitive to us, self sufficient, good and quite compared to us. It is because their desire to receive is still not revealed; they do not have to perform a correction yet.

Inside a person there are GE and AHP as well. When a person begins to correct him or herself, first the small desires awaken, even causing them a bad sensation. One who starts to study experiences all sorts of inner actions, depression, and weakness. The desire to receive starts to prevent the person from advancing, even though it is only the GE. Later it will be the AHP. About that it is written: “And the people of Israel cried from the work”, before the exodus from Egypt. That means that before a person breaks out and exits into the sensation of spirituality the person goes through a very hard period. The person is in serious trouble, the ten plagues are in the AHP. No one is saying that the path is easy. However, we can simply make it shorter and more comfortable by studying together, although it still involves many inner efforts that are sometimes very difficult.

This is the true process. First, there is the similarity to the GE, meaning to the Creator’s property of bestowal, and later to the attributes of reception. What are the attributes of reception? He does not have attributes of reception, but He enjoys giving to me. Therefore, I desire this pleasure, but I later correct it, turn it into “in order to bestow”. What the Creator causes in me I repeat toward Him. We will discuss it more.

How are the 600,000 souls divided?

The 600,000 souls divide into thousands and billions more; it does not matter how. A soul is a very fluid thing, passing from body to body while souls exchange among themselves. There can be an exchange in any person at any time. It is not defined as each soul belonging to a certain person for the entire life of the person. These are dynamic processes. A person who attains screens can attach to him or herself souls of other people in order to help them, or penetrate into other souls and work in them.

We look at bodies and see that they are separated from each other, and we think that there is no other possible way. If you exclude the bodies you will see desires, properties that are combined together belonging to a single system, where it is impossible to say who is who. It is very different from what we see.

That is why the higher a person rises above the spiritual barrier, the more the person loses his or her “I” and is included in all of the other souls.

It is our original structure; everything is inside of us. We need nothing but motivation. We are located in this world; in front of us are all the worlds from the Creator to us. All the worlds are here. I have a path in which I descend, and on that exact same path, on those same steps I need to climb back up. I do not need to invent anything, for all the properties are within me, so I do not need anything, I do not lack anything except –

Surrounding Light.

What is Surrounding Light? It comes from the step that is above me, and I need it in order for it to give me the illumination that will pull me, give me desire, and give me the sensation of how different I am from that level. Our problem is that on each level we only sense our level; we do not sense the higher level. The higher level has to pull me toward it. How do I awaken it? Through books, a group, study. When we connect together as a group, that power is greater.

Drawing Nr 10

What does a corrected vessel enjoy exactly?

A corrected vessel enjoys the correspondence of form with the Creator. There is no more perfect state than that. We do not realize; we just begin to understand through our troubles, out of our egoism, how good it is to be rid of the egoism, of the trouble, of everything, to exit from them for a little while, and fly away.

Eventually all of these states cause us to feel and understand how good it is to be included in the upper one. That is the cause of all trouble, in order to get the person out of them, to make the person want to jump a bit higher. The pleasure at each level is not from the five servings but from the giver, from feeling equal in form to the giver, since there is nothing higher than the state of the Creator. This sensation gives the person wholeness, eternity, attainment, all knowing.

There was a Kabbalist named Rabbi Kaplan, who wrote that at high levels there are some meditations…

I do not know Rabbi Kaplan or anything about meditations. In Kabbalah, there is nothing of that kind. There are intentions but no meditations. Intentions means – to which property of the Creator I now want to be similar. It means that I equalize between a property of the Creator and my desire to receive. There is no word about meditation in any Kabbalistic writing.

What is the year 1995?

The year 1995 is a year that was noted by many Kabbalists as the year from which the point in the heart starts to reveal itself in the souls, causing many souls to desire to come closer to the purpose, the goal of creation. Starting from this year many people are beginning to feel that there is no meaning in their lives in this world, that there is no point in existence without attaining the purpose of creation. Our role accordingly is to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah and somehow bring it to them. We still do not know exactly what or how to do this.

Before us, before our groups that started in 1990-1995, the study was individual, like Rabbi Shimon who took ten pupils and taught them, or like the ARI who took five or six pupils and taught them. Ramchal had seven or eight students. They studied in small closed groups. That is how I studied with my Rabbi. From 1995 and on, the breakthrough began, and that is written in the Zohar – we are remaining in this world without Kabbalists, without guidance, just books that are very hard to understand and to follow. The current generation is not built to use these books. When you look at TES you see that it is written in a very old-fashioned way, the concepts are not understood. That is why the Kabbalists were excluded from religion at certain times. Today, out of the people that are interested in Kabbalah you see that 90% are women, 10% men, none of which knows Aramaic or the Hebrew that was used in these books. There is no clear method either.

That is the situation we are in, our starting point. These are actually very good conditions that correspond to our inner lacks, so that is what we need to work with.

I remember when I arrived to my Rabbi, when I entered a lesson for the first time, I saw five or six old men sitting, talking Yiddish, reading Zohar in Aramaic. I sat there for a few minutes and could not understand a word.

We are building a new method for ourselves. I have given this opening lecture several times, and each time it is different. There is no procedure for the lessons and I do not think there will ever be because the souls are always new souls. This morning I had a new group, and the people’s perceptions and questions in that group were very different; they have a very different mentality. Today even young secular people, twenty or thirty years of age sit and study; it is hard to explain, hard to develop a method this way.

How much can a society facilitate the process?

We lack nothing but the Surrounding Light. All of the properties are already within each one, the desire to receive, the point in the heart. Our problem is only that we need to draw this force from above to illuminate on us “the Light that brings correction”. The Surrounding Light depends on how great the desire is, how much I desire to advance to the goal. The greater the desire the more this Light illuminates. This Light is constant and unchanging around me. I am in this Light, but its perception, its reception, depends only on my desire. So how can I increase my desire? Only through connecting with more people. How many? As many as possible. Baal HaSulam wrote about this in his articles about society and in “Matan Torah”. We have no choice; we must connect.

That is why I wanted to begin the ‘Opening’ only after a few lessons, so that people here would sense each other more, know more, be more able to really study, to create an atmosphere where we all desire the same thing. The general feeling needs to be that way. Then I will talk differently and be able to put more inner essence and emotion into things, which you will feel inside yourself. Otherwise, it will be very dry, just concepts. It depends on the students, and we need to think and be concerned about it.

How can I rise from where I am?

It is very simple – if I am in some higher place, I radiate from it the Surrounding Light. So when studying with a student while being at a higher level than the student, I project Surrounding Light toward the student. There is nothing more than Lights and vessels; there are no actions or anything else. If you ever get confused just go back to Lights and vessels; there is nothing simpler. When we study the same material, if the student desires to be like me, to be connected to me, I project to the student the Surrounding Light, our desires connect together. This is “acquire yourself a friend”, when we use each other, “make yourself a teacher”. All of these actions are only in order to transfer surrounding Light, to bestow on each other. There are no actions besides those. If we look at things that we do in our life between us, among people, even without knowing anything about screens, desires, Behinot, even here we are acting according to the same law, we just do not notice it. Nevertheless, if we want to reach anything through study, it is only through Lights and vessels. What I need is Surrounding Light. In addition, here we have a laboratory, an opportunity; there is a large audience and we can succeed. If we study separately, the success would be very limited.

When there will be twenty or thirty people here studying who are well connected, all the rest will receive impressions from them. It is also a psychological issue, but I am talking about spirituality. It is very important and so I think that before the next lesson you should read something about the society so that during the lesson we will have such a connection that will help us draw more Surrounding Light. That is the only reason why we need to be together more, and have fun activities together.