Miraculous Phenomenon of Sgula

Interview with Journalist Sharon Atia

July 7, 2003

Interviewer: We have already talked about the meaning and about the purpose of our life, and now let’s talk about a Light that Reforms. A person studying Kabbalah starts his spiritual path which is probably not so joyful, however it makes him better. How is this process realized? Can a bad person study Kabbalah? Or does Kabbalah allow a person to become better than he used to be and better than his surroundings? Does this mean that his material life will improve?

The question is how this special force acts and what is this miraculous phenomenon called “Sgula”, due to which a person studying the books on Kabbalah becomes better – not in the common earthly sense of this word; instead, a person becomes "a saint angel" in the spiritual sense.

The Kabbalistic sources aren’t just some books on traditions, rules of behavior and morals that make a person well-bread, intelligent and kind-hearted. As a person studies them, considerable changes and improvements really occur in him; however, they are on a higher level which is above this world.

A person starts obtaining attributes that draw him up and elevate him above this world. This phenomenon is called “the coming of the Power of Messiah”. What is that special force contained in “The Book of Zohar” and in other Kabbalistic sources which is able to act upon a person in a manner that the Kabbalists constantly talk about?

What happens is this. From the moment of his birth in this world, a person initially is made of two parts. He has all the attributes inherent to a human being who is living in this world that Kabbalah calls Malchut, and the spiritual world’s attributes, called Bina in Kabbalistic language. In the initial state a person’s attributes both of this world and of the spiritual world are uncorrected. Where does it originate and what is the root of the problem?

As Torah says, the Creator has created the first human being – Adam HaRishon (lit. the First Man) – as a righteous person. He was on the level called “the Paradise Garden” (Gan Eden) and possessed only the spiritual attributes – Bina attributes. Then the Creator made it in a way that Malchut attributes were joined to Adam – the receiving Kelim or in other words, egoistic desires to receive pleasure. As a result, the Bina force – the Adam’s initial nature became corrupted. He then fell from the spiritual level of Bina to the very depth of Malchut or into the attributes of this world. Such action is called the Adam’s fall, or in other words, breaking of Adam HaRishon, shattering of the Collective Soul, shattering of the vessels (Shevirat haKelim).

And it turns out that every person who was born contains a part of that very shattered Adam where material attributes of this world are combined with the spiritual attributes of the Upper World. However both are corrupt and egoistic. As a rule a person, while developing, wants to enjoy this world and uses the Kelim, the desires of Malchut. Thus he develops starting from the desires for food, shelter and sex, called the bodily desires.

And then due to the power of Bina or the spiritual force of bestowal, the evolution of the desire to enjoy for one's own sake emerges in a human being also the sense of his neighbor. This increases his own enjoyment even more. In a person there appear such attributes as passion, envy, and the desire for power which are built on the feeling of other people. And this sense itself comes from the Bina force – the spiritual force. Spirituality is based on bestowal, on the sense of one’s neighbor. However it works in us in the opposite way: feeling a neighbor we want to use everything he has for our own pleasure.

It means that by developing his corrupted nature a person increases his egoistic Kelim – the desires to enjoy this world. Later on, when he hears about something the other people have, he is eager to have all they have.

Thus a person becomes desperate of the endless chase for pleasure and of the absence of opportunity to be filled with it. As with a help of his desires he wants to fill the Kli of Malchut, which is in him. But as the science of Kabbalah teaches there occurred Restriction (Heb. Tzimtzum) on Malchut, and as a result it became impossible to fill this Kli with any enjoyments. And those rare, fairly perceived enjoyments, that sometimes reach her, are the result of the insignificant, slight contact of our Kli with the Upper Light that immediately disappears: quickly touches us - and immediately departs.

That’s why whatever we aspire to and whatever we attain by working hard, as far as we reach the desired pleasure, it disappears in several seconds, maximum in several hours. One could spend half of his life to get this enjoyment and cease feeling it in several hours, as the enjoyment doesn’t enter the egoistic Kli.

What is to be done here? These attempts make a person desperate of the absence of the possibility to be filled with a sense of pleasure, sense of life and its usefulness. Then he asks a question: "If I can’t fill myself, then what is the meaning of my life?" A person becomes depressed; he asks himself why he needs to live at all... And if a question about the life meaning really bothers him, then it leads a person to the second part inside his soul – to the Bina’s will.

Despite of the fact this desire in a human being is also corrupt, it is not directed to bestial enjoyments like food and sex and not to the human desires for money, fame and knowledge, attained through passion, envy and the desire for power. It already refers to the desires above this world. A person starts to understand that it is worth seeking the enjoyment in the spiritual world, worth obtaining it by elevating above this world and attaining something extra than anything existing in this world.

A person arrives on this path, and it seems that things become better. Now he is eager to throw the door to the spiritual world open either with the help of knowledge or with the help of different miracles. And thus, a person comes to Kabbalah. In the lessons he is told that by studying the science of Kabbalah it is possible to feel the Upper world, to get to know endless enjoyments, eternity, to elevate above life and death, to unite completely with the Upper Force and to know the past and the future. Certainly his egoistic desire to enjoy aspires to this without any hesitation. It is as if a person starts neglecting this world and thirsts only for the spiritual.

And here, this special force called “Sgula” which is contained in all Kabbalistic books starts operating. While writing their books the Kabbalists who were on one or another spiritual step, were filling the souls with the Light of the level where the book was created. The Kabbalist who is writing a book corrects his Kli on the height where the spiritual world is revealed to him. What does writing a book mean? The Kabbalist explores the spiritual world, the spiritual nature, contacts with the Upper Light and gets filled with it.

When people who wish to aspire to the spiritual, start reading books on Kabbalah, desiring to comprehend the Upper Lights, we draw them upon ourselves, and as a result under their influence the desire to enjoy increases in us more and more – the part of Malchut which is inside us.

Along with it are the Lights we draw upon us, wishing that they fill us, enter our part of Bina. Actually this part of Bina is a desire from the spiritual world; however it is positioned in us in its uncorrected form. Notwithstanding that I draw the Light by the part of Malchut as if for the sake of my own pleasure, it also acts upon the part of Bina in me and, by correcting it, brings it back to its initial form which is typical of the spiritual world.

Afterwards a person suddenly starts feeling the enchantment of Sanctity (Hen De-Kedusha). In his part of Bina he feels how good it is to bestow, like the Creator, and to rise above the egoism, the bestial part in himself. Now he doesn’t want to obtain, to take all the worlds for the sake of his own enjoyment, no, he wants to become more spiritual and pure.

Where do such feelings originate in a human being? He wasn’t aimed at them at all! If he knew beforehand, when he was an egoist, what awaited him, he would run away from this. Such enlightening comes to a person because using egoism he has drawn upon himself the Upper Light which had corrected the part of Bina in him.

At this point, a person really starts aspiring to live in the spiritual world. It is not to grasp the spiritual world, in order to enjoy here in this world through becoming the predictor of the future or the possessor of the upper forces that govern everybody – a person wishes to elevate above this world and devote all his earthly life to the spiritual. Then he really ascends to the spiritual world and becomes the Kabbalist. All this happens due to the miraculous influence of the Light coming to a person at the time of studying the right books written by those who know the truth, – by people who are called the Kabbalists.

Question: Does it mean that if egoism knew beforehand what awaits it, it would never agree with this? So does it mean that egoism kills itself?

Yes, thus egoism kills itself in spite of the fact that it doesn’t agree with this. It happens without his knowledge.

Such a process reminds me of a tutor who has to educate a group of juvenile (let’s say 15 years old) delinquents who just begin to commit bad actions, intentionally spoils himself, as if becoming worse than his pupils in tutelage, and penetrates into their company to grasp the leadership in it.

The same thing happened during the fall of Adam HaRishon, when Bina was shattered together with Malchut. It means that the spiritual force was shattered together with the bestial, material force. And then it happens as if the spiritual force says to the material: “If you use me, in addition you’ll also get the spiritual world for the sake of your own pleasure”. It is as if the Bina force tells Malchut that there is a possibility to enjoy in a selfish manner much more than she, Malchut, wishes it herself.

Actually, Malchut was created only to enjoy from sex and food – from things that are necessary for the body even if a person is some place remote from the surrounding society. And the power of Bina, which is the desire to give in the spiritual, gives an uncorrected person in this world the sense of the neighbor. As if it tells him: “You can use the others, play tricks on them, deceive them, and through various ways benefit from them, besides food and sex. You can govern them, feel your superiority, and this will give you a great pleasure”. When Bina tells Malchut such things, it seems to be even crueler than Malchut.

Just like a tutor, who has penetrated in a group of juvenile delinquents, behaves even worse than they do. But then the same tutor, having grasped the leadership in a group of under-aged criminals, using intricate means gradually starts showing them that finally such life leads to defeat, problems, and disasters, that even now it is worth seeking how to escape them: to escape not the life itself, not the enjoyments, but various disasters. This means to escape the enjoyments of that kind, which, in essence, aren’t enjoyments at all and will never be.

The same way our part of Bina urges us to make great human achievements of various kinds: “Become great, famous, become a powerful gangster, a president, take possession of the whole nation, the whole world, be a respected person”. It is the Bina part in us – the sense of the neighbor, that plants, animals or primitive people lack. They don’t have impulses of this kind.

Later on, exactly at the moment when a person attains various positions, titles and regalia, each time he feels more and more acute that he gets nothing from it. And thus, persuading Malchut, Bina leads it very quickly to the decision that actually it’s impossible to get filled, to attain pleasures and a sense of life. Malchut becomes desperate and then Bina tells her: "There is also another life where you can succeed, get all the pleasures existing in the world and enjoy them".

In the same way a tutor addresses his under-aged pupils in tutelage: "We cannot rob a bank, let’s do it another way. Let’s enter the University, study the economy, become good economists and legally win at the stock exchange the same money that we can’t steal. Let’s deceive, cheat the whole world without violating its law".

What actually happens? Bina leads a person to understand that it’s impossible to attain real pleasure in this world; there is nothing valuable in it, while, on the other hand, the spiritual enjoyments are something worth aspiring to. Why? Such enjoyments are above this world; they are huge and eternal... Bina pulls Malchut to spirituality: "We will be able to get them legally, in an egoistic way also; but it’s quite real as it will happen in the spiritual world which is above this world".

In the same way the tutor says to the under-aged criminals: "Let’s become lawyers, economists... We’ll swallow up the whole world on the legal grounds. Otherwise we’ll steal a little money and will be taken to prison immediately".

Just like a person grasps something in this life: some food, some sex, something else..., and the pleasure has disappeared. In contrast, in the spiritual you can have much more and constantly.

Question: And does Malchut learn then?

Malchut learns; she is longing for spiritual enjoyments; she runs after Bina. Thus a person comes to Kabbalah wishing to get all the spiritual enjoyments, comprehend the spiritual worlds, grasp absolutely everything... He studies the books in a right way, draws the Light from them wishing to get it for his own sake. When the Light comes to a person at the time of studying, it corrects Bina in him. Then Bina becomes stronger than Malchut.

It is like a tutor who begins to give his friends-pupils important advice that, for example, “it’s really good to be a great economist; it’s really good to be a great lawyer”. Such things by themselves give pleasure, bring fame and respect. It’s useful to bind oneself with such an occupation, to succeed in this field. It is exactly the thing that gives pleasure and leads to well-being, but not making money illegally.

And here the egoism obeys the attribute of Bina to such an extent that soon Bina starts using it only for the sake of good – only for the sake of bestowal, to make it possible even to elevate the egoism to the spiritual world. This is the state when all the egoism joins the corrected Bina and is called the Final Correction or the coming of Mashiach.

Question: This is a very cunning design!

For sure it is very cunning! What a trick the Creator has prepared for us!

Question: You say that actually Bina and Malchut are like two kinds of fish in the sea: one kind of fish can live on the land, while another can’t live without water. Bina can live both on the land and in the sea, but Malchut can live only in the sea. But Bina persuades her that outside there is also lots of good food, and kills her by doing this. When Malchut leaves water, it dies immediately, but Bina continues to live.

No, Malchut does not die, it joins Bina. Later on Malchut starts understanding that in any case the filling is the most important thing, and if she will be close to Bina, she will be filled with the bestowal.

Question: Does it mean that Malchut supplements Bina as Bina satisfies her?

Yes, it does. If we manage to present this idea to people in a simple form, then each person will be really able to perceive the picture of the whole reality.

Question: If Malchut becomes hungry again, does it mean that Bina has lost?

No, this never happens.

Question: If Bina wins at least once, Malchut can’t get the power anymore, can she?

No, Malchut will not rule anymore. Bina overcomes Malchut to some small extent and uses it, then again overcomes her, and continues to use a bit more, etc. – each time in small portions.

It’s like a process of bringing up. At first, I, as a tutor, should show that I’m right in some insignificant issues. After a person has already agreed with me a little, on this basis I prove something else...

So Bina works in such a way – by small portions. The portions passed to Bina, according to which Malchut agrees to join Bina, are called the spiritual steps of a person’s correction.

Question: How does this manifest in our inner world?

All these attributes are inside a person.

Question: In other words, does a person who is using Bina inside himself win twice: both Malchut and Bina are secured, or in other words, a person’s spiritual world? It is said: "The Creator has blessed the place for Abraham".

Torah says in the story of Nomi and Ruth: "Go together". It means that Bina and Malchut should go together. As a result, King David was born and the Kingdom of Israel was formed. If Malchut and Bina are combined, a new attribute of the soul, called Israel – "Yashar El" (straight to the Creator), is born in a person. And then a person really comes straight to the Creator and, having united with Him, stays on the highest spiritual step – in the state of eternity and perfection.

Question: Is this a trap that Malchut can’t escape from anymore?

Neither Malchut nor Bina can escape anything. Any composition of Malchut and Bina mixture, formed after the shattering of Kelim, determines how the succession of the events will be realized. It doesn’t depend on a person; it depends only on the soul construction. It depends on the individual combination of Bina and Malchut. What a person can really influence is nothing but the speed of his development, the speed of revealing this mutual connection, in order to realize his reshimot as fast as possible. Israel only compresses the time, but doesn’t change anything.

Question: Does Torah actually speak about the transitional stage in the realization of evil?

Gradual realization of evil is the realization of the attributes of Malchut in comparison to the attributes of Bina.

Question: Does Malchut feel each time that there is greater enjoyment than she is able to reach, and does the previous pleasure turn into bitterness?

Yes, absolutely correct.

Question: Does it mean that there are people in whose souls the Bina part prevails, and there are people in whose souls prevails the part of Malchut?

Yes. But generally it’s impossible to say, which part prevails in each person... Every person contains a unique and very specific combination of various attributes. Malchut contains 620 attributes, including Bina. Part of them – 248 attributes – refers to Bina, in other words, to Galgalta Ve-Einaim. These are the so-called executive commandments. There also exist 365 prohibiting commandments which is actually Malchut itself.

When we correct one, on the basis of another, in a very special manner, it means that by using the Light we correct parts of our soul – our desires. Then we receive spiritual desires – the desire to bestow, to be filled with the Upper Light. It is exactly the way the soul is corrected and filled.

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New Life. Excerpts 839

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Copyright © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah L’Am Association, Tutti i diritti riservati