Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Lesson 4

In our first lesson we had an introduction, in the second we spoke about lights and vessels, and in the third we spoke about the four Behinot (discernments) of Direct Light. Today we will learn about the overall plan from beginning to end, the way Kabbalists discuss it, and how it is implemented.

We have learned that the goal of creation is to bestow upon His creatures. From the Creator emanates Light. This expansion is called Behinat Shoresh. Shoresh (root) creates Behina Alef, which is already a desire to receive, and that desire is filled with Light. Out of attaining the root and its depth, Behina Alef begins to sense who is filling it - who the giver is. It attains the root - the giver. That is what Behina Alef senses and out of that sensation it wants to become similar to the giver. That means that Behina Bet is similar to the giver and then begins to equalize itself to Behinat Shoresh. How? - By its actions.

What does Shoresh do? It gives. So Behina Bet feels that it needs to give. That is why once it attains the Behinat Shoresh it transforms into a giver. Then it in turn builds Behina Gimel, which is similar to Behina Alef – it receives.

But what is the difference between Behina Gimel and Behina Alef? Behina Alef was created the way it is (a receiver) by the Creator. Behina Gimel was created by the created being. Here, the created being, being Behina Bet, repeats the action of the Creator.

There is a giver and a receiver, and then another giver and receiver. First the giver and receiver are the Creator, and the second time the giver and the receiver are the created being. Then, Behina Gimel begins to discover that it is similar to Behina Alef. But who is actually giving to it? It feels that the one giving to it is Behina Bet. It attains Behina Bet, and then from there it attains Behina Alef, and from Behina Alef it attains Behinat Shoresh. It actually attains the difference between Behina Bet and Behinat Shoresh.

 

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How can we say this? Behina Gimel attains Bet minus Shoresh; it attains the difference, the delta, Bet minus Shoresh. It then senses the nature of the giver, the difference between them. Meaning, that after the created being repeats the same action that the Creator did – Behinat Shoresh - the created being feels inside what the difference really is between the Shoresh and between being similar to it. The result is the created being’s desire to be like the Emanator. Behina Dalet desires to be in the stature of the Creator. Behina Dalet is a desire to receive, which desires to be at the stature of the Creator. It is a desire to receive the stature of the Creator. That is Behina Dalet.

 

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What is the difference between the desire to receive in Behina Dalet and the desire to receive in Behina Gimel, or Behina Alef? In all of the other Behinot (Alef, Bet, Gimel) the desire to receive is for the Light. In Behina Dalet the desire is not for the Light, but it is a desire for the stature of the Creator.

As in the example of the table - I look at this table and I see on it five servings that the Creator wants to give me, five pleasures through five senses. The five senses we have are vision, hearing, smell, speech (taste), and touch. In spirituality the five senses are – Keter, Hochma, Bina, ZA, and Malchut – NaRaNChay. On the other side is the Creator.

My vessel for pleasures, my desire for the pleasures that are on the table, is a regular vessel. It is a vessel of Aviut (coarseness) Alef, or later on, as I attain more it grows to Aviut Bet, and Gimel. But at Aviut Dalet my desire becomes greater. It becomes a desire to be like the Creator. I want to be in His place, I want to be just like He is, and not just experience the pleasures that come from Him. The difference between these desires is very large, and that is the desire of Behina Dalet.

 

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Is this desire eventually also a desire for pleasure?

It is a desire to enjoy the stature of the Creator. We will discuss this desire more extensively later.

What happens to us next? We work with Behina Dalet, which is the greatest desire. Behina Dalet starts to receive. Before it there are Behinot Shoresh, Alef, Bet and Gimel. Behina Dalet receives. We said that receiving is the attainment of what precedes. So, Behina Dalet attains – first Behina Gimel enters it, then Behina Gimel descends and Behina Bet enters it, then Behina Bet descends and Behina Alef enters, and then they all descend and Behinat Shoresh enters, and then all of them descend.

And in this way Behina Dalet includes all of the other Behinot. Behinat Shoresh is where Behina Dalet senses it, Behina Alef is where Behina Dalet senses it, and so on. It is all Behina Dalet itself. And in this Behina Dalet, it turns out, that these components that are before Behina Dalet are where Behina Dalet senses the properties of the Creator. In its last part, where it senses itself, is where Behina Dalet senses the properties of the created being, and then it senses a great disparity between the properties of the Creator and the properties of the created being that are both in it. This disparity in it is called shame.

The created being feels a deep gap between itself and the Creator, in actual properties, in a single vessel. It is a terrible sensation, which causes it to make a restriction. Behina Dalet says: “I do not want to feel anything, no light” and restricts itself. It performs an action called “The First Restriction”. What is the First Restriction? In order to get rid of the sensation of shame and of the feeling of the gap between it and the Creator, it expels the Light and remains empty.

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So what happens? That same created being, which is Behina Dalet only, feels how opposite it is from the Creator.

Now, after the First Restriction, it has a goal. Once it performed the restriction it already knows that as long as it remains in this form nothing can be done. So it says this: “There are five parts in me, and there is the Light of the Creator that wants to come to me. If I receive it then I am totally opposite to Him, and that is a terrible sensation that I cannot tolerate. What can I do? How can I fulfill my desire to really enjoy the stature of the Creator? I can do it this way – I will push back all of the pleasure that comes to me, reject the Direct Light that arrives to me, and then if I will receive this pleasure inside myself it would already be an action similar to that of the Creator. How can this be? If I reject, and then receive only because He wants to give to me, then I will be receiving because He wants to give. My intention will be to return a favor to Him and to give to Him, and so my action, even though I will be receiving, will be an act of bestowal.”

In this way, the Light that will enter here will include the pleasure of Behinot Alef, Bet and Gimel, the Light itself (because it has to receive and enjoy), and it will also have pleasure from the stature of the Creator. And so the created being achieves double the pleasure and becomes completely similar to the Creator in this way. That is because it performed the same action as the Creator – the Creator gives, and the created being gives to Him.

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How does the created being give to the Creator? In the section of the previous Behinot it receives these portions; it receives pleasure that comes from Behinat Shoresh, Alef, Bet and Gimel. But in the last part it actually receives and senses what the Creator senses. In the last part it is in the state of the host. And so if the created being will go through its entire development and complete it, then even though it is something from nothing, it can attain a state that is eternal, and whole, and which is not at the level of a created being but at the level of the Creator. That is the purpose of creation. That is what the created being desires to come to.

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Now we will see how this is implemented.

We are all parts of this Behina Dalet – Dalet of Dalet, which is us. So we definitely should study what this part is and how it is included with all other parts. All of the other parts that exist, also as desire to receive in us, are called ‘our nature’. The upper worlds, including this world, all of the discernments that are in us, these are all preceding parts. But we, our souls, are parts of Behina Dalet of Dalet – the souls are parts of Behina Dalet.

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After Behina Dalet senses how opposite it is from the Creator and performs the Restriction, it then invents this trick – being able to receive in order to bestow, and then it starts to construct this process.

Behina Dalet is divided into five parts – Shoresh, Alef, Bet, Gimel, and Dalet. Preceding it there is something called “screen”. What is a screen? It is a power of resistance, of impact. A pleasure comes (Light) and the screen rejects it, not wanting to receive. All that is below the screen is the created being – desire to receive. There is nothing in the created being besides desire to receive, but in this desire to receive the created being feels all sorts of phenomena. Some of them it feels as nature, and some it feels as its own character.

This action of rejecting all of the pleasure that comes to it is called the enforcement of the First Restriction. If the pleasure comes to me and I am able to reject it, it means that I can do an act of bestowal with it – disregard my desire to receive. If the created being does this, it tells itself that it is doing an act of bestowal towards the Emanator - the Creator.

Then the created being checks how much Aviut (coarseness) there is, how much desire to receive there is, and how much screen – Kashiut (hardness) there is, and accordingly, how much of its desire to receive it can use in order to bestow. The result of the calculation is that it can use only a limited amount of its desire, and that is what it uses. If the result is twenty percent according to its calculation, then it only uses this twenty percent to receive, and rejects the rest. In these acts the created being is always in balance with the Creator. Meaning that I receive from Him exactly as much as I can receive in order to be in His place. This is how all of the Partzufim and the souls are constructed in the spiritual world.

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So what happened after the First Restriction? We will now draw the Malchut, not as a vessel, but as a straight line divided into three parts. After the Restriction, the first thing that happens is that Light arrives to Malchut and Malchut rejects it. The second event is that Malchut performs a calculation of how much it can receive out of the Light that comes to it. After making a decision, it begins to receive the Light. The place where it makes the decision is called Rosh (head). Where it receives the Light is called Toch (interior), because there the Lights enter the vessels. The part where it cannot receive is called Sof (ending).

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Why can’t it receive? What is preventing Malchut from receiving all of the pleasure and enjoying it? What stops it from attaining the goal of creation? If Malchut would have done so we wouldn’t be here in this world, and there wouldn’t be any upper worlds, any correction, ups and downs, nothing. We would simply have been in a good, perfect state, in complete and absolute knowledge and unending pleasure.

So why are we here? Because Malchut is not able to receive all of the Light that comes to it in order to bestow. What does ‘all the Light’ mean? The Light that comes to it is the Light of the three first Behinot – Shoresh, Alef, Bet, and Gimel, as well as the Light of Behina Dalet.

The Light of Behina Dalet cannot be received by Malchut in order to bestow. Why? We said that the Malchut itself is ‘something from nothing’. It is called the actual created being –something from nothing. It has no possibility of being included in the properties of the Creator. It has no ability to feel who the Creator is. It can only feel that the Creator is opposite to it, but it cannot perceive any of His attributes.

Therefore, it turns out that Behina Dalet cannot receive Light, and when Malchut decides how to receive, it receives only in the part, which is made of the previous parts, from the Peh to the Tabur. The Light is only received in that section. The part that is the actual Behina Dalet remains below. I am drawing this part large on purpose, according to its desire, which is much greater than the previous Behinot. So Behina Dalet remains empty below, and the created being, although it receives from the Creator, does not receive in itself, and is completely empty since it cannot be included in the Creator’s properties.

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When this general Malchut (the created being) performs the First Restriction, and later decides to receive a portion, as much as it is able to, this work is called, ‘the work in the world of Adam Kadmon’, or ‘Akudim’. We will now learn how Malchut receives in them. This is the first part of the study, called, ‘The World of Adam Kadmon’. The second part of the study, the most important one, is how we fill this Malchut, (the Dalet) which is the actual created being.

In order to fill Behina Dalet we need to build worlds here: Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Asiya. We need to build souls and then perform a correction in the souls. The souls are just a part of that Behina Dalet. Later we correct each and every part and then we perform a unification of all the souls and again have Behina Dalet the way it was in the beginning. The path of correction has to be taken by us.

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Everything besides this – the world of Adam Kadmon, the worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Asiya, the souls preceding us, their division, (the souls preceding us are called Adam) – is not for us to do. We just need to do the correction. Meaning that Behina Dalet divides into many parts, 600000 parts, that need to be corrected one by one. Later on these parts have to be collected back into Behina Dalet the way it was initially. So these parts also receive the worlds of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya, and the souls, and then we again have the entire created being, the entire creation that existed initially, but corrected. That is the plan that we will learn.

The main thing is to learn about the corrections, because that is where we discuss the states that we encounter in our lives, everything that we go through, the reason why we evolve for thousands of years up to our times. It all belongs to this part about the correction.

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But the rest we need to learn because we correct ourselves according to all of the components of Malchut. Why? Behina Dalet cannot correct itself. The created being, which is something from nothing, has no part of the Creator. The created being doesn’t even know what it is like to be a bestower.

So how is it possible for the created being, who only wants to enjoy, to ever become anything higher, to be a Creator? In order to correct the created being so that it will attain the stature of the Creator a mutual part was created. This is called “the Breaking”. What is the breaking? The barrier between the Creator and the created being breaks down and so part of the created being enters into the Creator, and part of the Creator enters into the created being. It is a very unique action.

I am now talking about the overall plan. Later we will study each and every part and eventually see how it all works together.

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By merging a part of the Creator into the created being (it is called the merging of Malchut with Bina), now there is a section of the created being which is in the Creator and can supervise the created being and correct it. In the created being there are also parts that are included in the Creator and so the created being can act similarly to the Creator. All of these things are within the limits of correction, during the correction.

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Now we will go back to the world of Adam Kadmon, the manner in which we build an environment called worlds. After the Light expanded and Behina Dalet was created, Behina Dalet performed the First Restriction, and later decided to receive only in order to bestow. In order for the created being to reach a state in which it is entirely similar to the Creator a certain environment is needed. This will be the environment of Behina Dalet, which will constantly supply Behina Dalet with all sorts of disturbances so that by them, Behina Dalet will be corrected.

How is it done? We learn that Malchut receives all of the Light from above and is filled. Before it senses the shame it is called Malchut de Ein Sof. Out of being filled with Light, receiving from Shoresh, Alef, Bet, Gimel and Dalet, there are two parts. One part is the desire to receive called a vessel. The second part is the Light that fills it.

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Later, when Malchut performs a Restriction upon itself and remains empty from the state it was in, there remain Reshimot. What are Reshimot? From a previous state I was in, there is left a desire. The desire remains the same but there is a restriction on it. Inside the desire there is a Reshimo (reminiscence) of the Light that filled it before, which remains there after the Light leaves.

Because the entire vessel received into the entire coarseness, the coarseness that was in the vessel was Aviut Dalet. The Light that filled it was a very extensive Light, which is called Hitlabshut (garbing). This Light used to fill Behina Dalet, and both the Light and the vessel were in their wholeness at the state of infinity. From this state remained a Reshimo in Malchut after the restriction.

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Later, Malchut begins to work with this Reshimo. We again return to the action of Malchut: It divides itself into two parts, and makes a calculation according to Dalet de Aviut and Dalet de Hitlabshut – “how much Light did I have and in what desire? In a desire of a hundred percent, because I received it as I was – with no limitations”, that is why it is called infinity.

“Now I receive the Light only in order to be like Him.” Meaning that the screen that is placed in the Peh makes a calculation how much Light can be received in order to become similar to the Creator. If it feels that it can receive just twenty percent in order to bestow it means that those Reshimot – Dalet de Hitlabshut and Dalet de Aviut - can only be implemented by twenty percent.

I already gave an example of this earlier. If I am a guest, and the host brings me food, then I have a dilemma. I feel shame from the host, and I feel the pleasures that can fill me from the food. I make a calculation – how much can I receive while being with the host? If I can avoid the feeling of the host then I can receive a hundred percent of pleasure. But in such a way, if I can receive a hundred percent of the pleasure, then I stop feeling the pleasure itself. If I look only on the host then I make a restriction, because every action I do would be disconnected from the host. A vessel simply makes a calculation of how much it is possible to receive while still being in compliance with the host.

We make the same calculation in our desire to receive. When I am a guest, I look at the host and sense inside myself how much I am allowed to receive from the table so that this receiving wouldn’t cause me shame. If I make a correct calculation I eventually can receive something, and with this reception I do a favor to the host. The host enjoys the fact that I receive from him or her, even if he or she meant for me to have a hundred percent. I know that I received the maximum and caused pleasure for the host and for myself.

The vessel experiences these same situations. What does the vessel get from it? It gives the vessel a sensation of spirituality, a sensation of reality equal to the host. The vessel discovers that it can only receive twenty percent in order to bestow.

The Light that arrives to the vessel is called Direct Light. The Light that enters the vessel is called Inner Light. After the vessel receives everything it can receive, the rest of the Light (eighty percent) arrives; a portion that is equivalent to the portion that remained empty. This Light that remained outside, pressures the vessel to receive it, the remaining Light.

What does it mean that the Light pressures the vessel? Nothing pressures the vessel but its own desire to receive, which is empty. This desire pressures the vessel and forces it to continue receiving. The vessel senses that it only receives a portion. It felt how great the pleasure of receiving twenty percent was and this feeling weakened it, made it desire to receive even more. We can feel this when we start to eat and taste something good; we cannot stop any more. The same happens here.

Here in the Peh, before the reception of Light, the vessel could resist receiving the Light inside the Tabur, but now, the vessel can not resist any more. It must either continue receiving or get rid of reception altogether, and that is what it does. At that point the Inner Light is expelled from it. This expulsion of Light is called Nekudot (points). The reception of Light inside is called Taamim (flavors). Lights that enter the desires are called Taamim. Lights that exit the desire are called Nekudot. Why are they called Nekudot? They are called Nekudot because Malchut is called ‘a point,’ a black dot, or a point of something from nothing. Due to the fact that there is a limitation on Malchut, there are Nekudot, and Partzufim of Nekudot that will emerge.

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After the vessel remains empty, once the Light that was in it left, then, instead of Taamim there remain Reshimot, called Tagin. Instead of the Nekudot there remain Reshimot that are called Otiot (letters). These Otiot that remain in the vessel are called “the vessels”. That is the main thing for us.

We cannot grasp Taamim or Nekudot or Tagin. All of our information comes from the Otiot – the letters - meaning from the withdrawal of the Light. And even then, along the entire path, the main thing for us, if we want to attain spirituality, is to attain Otiot. When Light expands in us, when we feel some pleasure, when we feel good, when we feel some impression, excitement, something happens and we sense some higher reality – that is Taamim. These things do not leave vessels in us with which we can work. And it is exactly after such good states that the impressions leave and the person feels the opposite state of emptiness - all exits the person. The results of this are the best results. From that the Otiot of work are constructed – the vessels for corrections.

In general, what we need in order to reach correction is to collect the letters, the vessels. That is why the path, although it is the path to the best state, goes through unpleasant states, because letters have to be collected constantly - empty vessels.

Why can’t a vessel that received twenty percent remain in the Tabur?

First it stands in the Tabur. I received twenty percent and the host is pressuring me. I am in a dilemma – what do I do next? If I continue to work only in this way, meaning that it is about me only, I will never reach the goal of creation. This state is not beneficial.

If I remain in the same state, then anything that is spiritual stops changing. If I don’t add to it, it disappears. That is because pleasure has to be constantly felt through lack. If the lack doesn’t renew itself, then the pleasure disappears. It is like having tasted something, sensing that its taste is good, and then thinking, ok, what now? If you don’t renew the desire you will stop feeling pleasure. The pleasure has to constantly be renewed. So you add things to your food, you do all sorts of actions in order to renew the pleasure a bit more.

That is what we do in life – we constantly search for things. Look at today’s advertisements. It is all in order not to let the vessel remain as it was a moment ago. If my vessel remains as it was a moment ago, I die. The greatest pleasure I received becomes zero. Suppose I bought a Rolls Royce. After a short while I stop enjoying it. Why? Because the vessel has to be renewed, a new pleasure is needed.

The same occurs here. Even if it would have remained in the Tabur, the twenty percent that it received would have been felt as zero. Also, we need to realize: all of the actions from the First Restriction and on are actions towards the end of correction. The vessel constantly wants to attain the stature of the Creator. It felt in infinity that it only receives what comes from the Creator. That is a state of complete inequality, it is zero compared to the stature of the host. The truth is that we can receive everything from the Creator.

If we go back to the example of the table with the five servings on it: I can receive everything from the table, but by doing so I will be filled, and will not be able to receive any more. My vessel will simply be annulled. Nothing will remain for me. I will not feel anything new, no pleasure. As soon as I filled myself, everything disappeared as if I had not received anything.

That is why the Creator inserted Himself into the Light, into the pleasure that comes to me. He did it so that I would sense Him. What is the point of that? What does He gain from this? He gains the fact that it enables me to constantly renew my relationship with Him. He has a desire to give pleasure. I have my desire, which is eliminated immediately, not letting me feel pleasure. But if I join His desire to my desire, if I can feel pleasure from the fact that He feels pleasure from me, then I enter a closed circle: the more I enjoy, the more I feel that He enjoys. The more He enjoys the more I desire to give Him more enjoyment, and so on.

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I can constantly renew the desire this way. That is the trick. Therefore, the problem is not in reception, the problem is to learn this trick, how to receive so that the desire will always renew itself. The desire can only be renewed if I catch “Him”, if I feel “Him”, because His vessel is unlimited and so in that way my desire is renewed every time.

The vessel reached a state where it received twenty percent. It saw that if it would continue to receive below the Tabur it would only be in order to receive, meaning that it would be reception without any connection to the host, to the Creator. It would be reception of the five servings.

So what happens? I have some pleasure. I received only a portion of it, twenty percent. Why didn’t I receive more from the table? If I would receive more it will be with no connection to the host. I receive twenty percent because I feel the pleasures, the delights, and I sense the host. The presence of the host does not allow me to receive a hundred percent. I feel shame. The host pressures me and says: “Yes, take it, I made it for you, come on…” After the host pressures me, I see that I did him or her a favor, and so my reception is not really reception, I do it for the host. So I take. How much? I calculate how much I can take in order not to become a receiver, to be like the host, to do the host a favor, to feel how much the host enjoys what I receive. Whether we want it or not, we build this loop constantly in our relationships. That is how it works in spirituality.

I make a calculation and see that I cannot receive more than twenty percent. If I would receive more it would not be related to the host anymore, but it would be direct reception. From the Reshimot that remained in me from infinity, I already know that through direct reception I will stop enjoying the filling and will not feel any fulfillment. For me, to receive anything under the Tabur is not right. What can I do? I can only do one thing. If I want to remain in contact with the host I must return to the previous state.

But what remains for me out of all this? Out of filling myself and then becoming empty again, I remain with letters, vessels that contained Light, which was evacuated. The impressions of my connection with the Light remain in me. After already having been in contact with the host in the twenty percent, having used my vessel and His vessel by twenty percent, the connection has been made. That is what I have attained. Anything that is attained in spirituality never disappears. There is no lack in spirituality. What does this mean? If there ever was a connection between me and the host through my vessels, if I ever performed any action with the screen (screen is a connection with the host) it remains, leaving letters, vessels in me.

These vessels later on give me the ability to receive all of the Light at once. We will study it later. There is an action called “rav peamim mekabetz El” – meaning that multiple times accumulate, that all of the letters form the entire process gather together and then it is possible through them to receive the entire Light, a process called “the coming of the Messiah”.

Why do we remember the expansion of the Light and its retraction?

It is important that we gather these letters. Just like we read according to letters, we feel according to letters, words, and spoken letters. We hardly express any other signals in the spoken language except for letters. Why are letters important for us? Within a letter there is neither vessel nor Light, but just a certain relationship between them. We will later learn what letters are, what their shapes are and why they are built as they are. After studying about a few more Partzufim it will be possible to learn about that.

The letters are built from the relation between Lights and vessels. A letter actually tells me how much I am still not like the Creator.

How are letters created? A vessel is not able to sense Light, to connect to it, to hold it, so the vessel expels the Light. Out of the expelling of the Light remain Reshimot in the vessel about the fact that the Light was there; about its departure and the way it departed, about the leaving of the pleasure and the sensations of the difference between the Creator and me during the departure. All of these are called letters. That is how a shape of a letter is constructed.

This is the bitterest sensation in the vessel. The desire that remains from it is a desire in which, later on, it will be possible to receive the Light in order to bestow. In this specific desire the Zivug (mating), Hibuk (hugging), Yichud (union), and Dvekut (adhesion) will take place.

We are discussing here desire, or sensation. Even though we are talking in technical concepts about what happens in our feelings, it is the same psychology; those are the same things that we go through, only with the Kabbalah, for each desire, for each state within us we can assign a measurement, a name. When Kabbalists write a certain formula, the formula enables us to return to a certain state, to replicate it. A Kabbalist can give another Kabbalist some note with some scribbles on it and the second Kabbalist will be able to return to the exact state that the first one was in. That is the whole issue with the language of Kabbalah.

What do Kabbalists write in all of their books? They write for us how we can attain the sensation that they attain, experience what they experience. But in the mean time, while studying this language, it seems to us dry and meaningless because we are not able to see behind all of these actions what really is happening in us, in the soul.

Now, we are saying that besides the Light and a vessel there is nothing else. And that is true. The Light is the Creator, and the vessel is the created being, a desire to enjoy the Light. What else is there besides the Light? There is a screen, through which the created being wants to create a certain special relationship between itself and the Creator. Besides that there is nothing. There is just the Creator, the created being, and the screen in between them – the relationship between them. That is all. If we will later get to the point where we will see the entire reality, the spiritual as well as the corporeal, and I hope that those who will continue to study will get there, then you will see those three things everywhere – Light, vessel, and the screen between them.

You may ask, if we say that the created being is desire, then how come we discuss the created being as existing in all kinds of places, using different concepts?

The thing is that the desire has to open up. It needs to be revealed to the created being. After going through all of these phases, the four Behinot, the created being reaches a state in which it is full of Light, before it performs the Restriction, called Malchut de Ein Sof (Malchut of infinity). Later, Malchut divides this state into a few parts – as we said – we are parts of Behina Dalet. Behina Dalet includes all the other Behinot as well. Each one of us is a part of Behina Dalet. But we don’t feel it this way, we feel ourselves much lower, further from that state. Why? Because Malchut de Ein Sof is situated below the four Behinot of Direct Light, and even below it there are the worlds: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yertzira, Asiya, and then the barrier. Below the barrier is this world, and in this world exists some kind of vessel, desire, in each one of us.

In this desire we have five desires to receive pleasures from our five senses. And then, once these five senses evolve to a certain degree, there appears in us a point, which begins to develop called ‘the point in the heart’. This point in the heart is actually part of Malchut de Ein Sof, but it is still just a point.

For example, anyone who is here already has some desire for spirituality. This point in the heart is already in the person. But that is not enough. In order to work with this point each person must reach a state where the person will eventually become the entire Malchut de Ein Sof. Why? Behina Dalet (called Adam) divided into 600,000 parts, or individual souls. Its correction is in the connection of each part with all of the others. In this way each part has to become equal to Adam. That is why each of us is called Adam.

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The desire to receive in each of us has to eventually become revealed as it was in Malchut de Ein Sof. That is why we call these desires simply ‘desires’, both in the four Behinot of Direct Light and in the worlds and the souls. How does the created being start correcting itself in order to be included with the rest of the desires? It accomplishes this through the letters. It connects with more and more parts and through them receives Lights. Lights enter and exit repeatedly, building letters. When a person, meaning each one of us, collects all of the letters, the person reaches the Light of infinity, the end of correction.

We can sum it up in this way:

A person has to go through all of the states, until all of the letters called “letters of the book of Torah” will connect within the person into one vessel. In this vessel the entire Light, called ‘Torah’ is then revealed. According to how the person connects the letters, these letters form words and as the person forms the letters into words, he also attains Nekudot, Tagin, and Taamim. That is all that there is in the book of Torah. During the work the person collects all of these things, all of the information, all of the Reshimot, and then the entire Light is revealed in the person, indicating that the person reached the end of correction.

What was it that caused Behina Dalet to realize that if it would perform a Restriction and attain a screen with returning Light it would become similar to the Creator?

The answer is, equality of form. The Creator is the giver. The vessel is the receiver – the opposite of Him. As we said before, if the vessel receives, as soon as it fulfills a desire it stops feeling the desire, and then stops feeling the pleasure as well, since a desire can only exist as long as it is empty. As soon as it fills up, the desire disappears.

Suppose I now want something. As soon as I receive it, I stop wanting it. So, if I receive something directly from the Creator into my desire to receive that He created in me, the desire immediately disappears and the pleasure is gone. It means that we can never enjoy while receiving directly.

What are we doing in this world? We constantly need to run after new pleasures in order to live. A feeling without pleasure means death. It drives me to constantly look for new lacks and new fulfillments. It is very difficult.

We don’t really need to search for pleasures. We need to search for vessels with which we can enjoy. Even an empty vessel is better than nothing because it gives me a desire to enjoy, a reason to run, to achieve, to feel alive. If I do not even feel a vessel, a desire to enjoy, it is as if I am dead. It is depression. A depressed person does not desire to enjoy. Even if the person has pleasures, the person does not want them. The person doesn’t even feel a lack or a vessel.

To feel a lack means that there is Light, but that it has not reached the vessel yet. I can feel it at some distance from me and I know that I will soon receive it. We, on the other hand, have a problem. What do we do in this world? What are all the advertisements trying to do to us? “You should do this or that… you will be better off, you will enjoy…” But eventually when the pleasure comes in a direct way, it annuls the vessel as well as any sensation of enjoyment. We end up feeling nothing.

So the trick is not to constantly search for new vessels and their fulfillments. That is endless. That is how we run our entire lives; never really enjoying except in the moments the pleasure touches our desire to receive. The trick is that if I could receive in one place and feel the pleasure in another place, then the pleasure wouldn’t disappear. You have a lovely child, you are never bored loving the child. Why? Your enjoyment is in the child. When the child lives and enjoys, you feel the pleasure. But the source of the pleasure is separated from the pleasure. It is in a different subject. That is why it doesn’t disappear. This is a trick that we keep forgetting. We sometimes feel it when we love someone, but as a person becomes more and more egoistic (and we all are becoming more egoistic through the generations) these things disappear. And indeed, each generation is worse than the pervious one. People have nothing to enjoy, they become more and more self- involved. We stop sensing each other and indeed the pleasure disappears. As much as it is possible to enjoy the world today, people are actually enjoying less than before. What can we do? I have to invent a trick for myself, so that I would be able to receive pleasure into my vessel, but in a way that would not annul the lack with the Light, with the pleasure.

How will I do it in a way that wouldn’t cancel my vessel? I have to attach myself to someone else. In the same way that you attach yourself to the child: you enjoy from the fact that the child feels pleasure. This circle then helps you constantly enjoy the child’s existence. You give the child something and the child enjoys, and you enjoy that the child enjoys, and that is how it works all the time.

Now we are not discussing small pleasures. We are discussing infinite spiritual pleasures. The vessel that is in the Creator is larger than the one that is in your child; it is infinite. And so in the created being as well, the vessel becomes infinite, with an ability to develop infinitely. So the solution is simple. We have to attain a trick of working with the screen, meaning that when I receive pleasure, I feel the giver. I receive on one hand, but I also feel the pleasure He has, which I cause with my receiving.

Drawing Nr 20

So what happens in me is that the pleasure I receive is never annulled, it only keeps growing. It is called that I am in eternal life, as we say – spirituality is eternity, wholeness, and infinity. What does it mean? It means that if I increase my connection with the Creator it automatically increases my ability to enjoy because I join His vessel to mine.

Imagine your child enjoying some small thing… If the child would enjoy something great, and you can provide the child with this great pleasure, then the more the child enjoys the more you sense the child’s pleasure and enjoy yourself. That is how this works. It is actually very simple. We just cannot grasp it. When one subject has both pleasure and desire, these two annul each other. When there are two subjects, it constantly grows and lives. Since there is nothing other than the Creator and the created being in reality, I only have one way of attaining eternal life, of renewing the pleasure in an infinite, unlimited way – to connect with the Creator, to find a link to Him, to sense that the pleasure comes to me from Him, to feel that when I enjoy the pleasure, then He enjoys the fact that I enjoy. I need to desire to enjoy only because He enjoys the giving. Then I enter a relationship with Him in which each one benefits the other and we roll this wheel endlessly. We both benefit from it. We become partners - lovers.

In our reality only one thing is missing – the perception of the Creator. We can never attain such a relationship with anyone in this world, because the vessel we each have is limited. We can only get pleasure from another person sometimes, and even then the pleasure comes to us from the Creator, through that person.

There is only one solution – to reach the sensation of the Creator. Whoever attains it really starts to receive. That is why that person is called a ‘Kabbalist’. He really attains the possibility of living in an infinite way. The sensation of pleasure is infinite, giving the person a sensation of the never-ending eternal life, because all is within the desire to receive, within the sensation. All we are is a desire to receive. We have to understand that besides this vessel, we have nothing. What there is besides this vessel is a brain, an intellect, which is only a support, helping us use the desire to receive and nothing more.

If a person could reach a connection with the Creator, the person’s desire to receive would fill in an unlimited way. The person would exit to what is called eternal life, spirituality. All we lack is the revelation of the Creator, the sensation of Him. As soon as a person senses the Creator, this connection between them builds automatically.

Just like us – as soon as I see something tasty in front of me I want it. As soon as I see the host I immediately begin to arrange my desire to receive according to that. In between the pleasure and the host of the pleasure I somehow start to manage my desire. It is arranged that way in my nature.

Therefore, all of our study, our work, needs to be only for one purpose – to reveal the Creator. The moment we reveal Him there are no problems and no questions. It becomes unnecessary to study all these wisdoms. It is all felt inside. Out of feeling, we begin to understand how it happens.

A person who begins to attain spirituality doesn’t need to study what Taamim are, or what Nekudot are. The person senses them within.

On the other hand, through the study we draw upon ourselves the sensation of the Creator. We bring Him closer. Our study is just in order to begin sensing Him. That is what each of us needs to think about during the study – how to attain the sensation of the Creator.

The sensation of the Creator in a person is called faith. It gives the person an ability to work not for his or her desire to receive, but for the Creator. That is why it is called faith – it is a power that enables me to start giving. In the fourth article in Shamati called “What is the cause of the heaviness that a person feels while annulling towards the Creator in the work,” this is exactly what is discussed. All of our difficulties, our heaviness, is caused by the fact that we do not sense the Creator. If the world, the sky would open and we would sense the divine, we would certainly and immediately perform all of our actions correctly. We wouldn’t ever feel any distress or any problem. What we would feel in our desire to receive would be what is in the Creator. A person starts experiencing inside his or her desire to receive, filling him or herself with NaRaNChai Lights, with what is inside of the Creator. In this way no lack can be felt, only fulfillments and their intensification.

The principal is very simple, but still, every time I teach it, even people who study for many years discover it once more. Until we get to the point where it will actually occur in us, this will always be an innovation for us.

If my problem is only that I don’t sense the Creator, then what is the means to do it?

This is already a question related to us and to our life. Everything we do, all that the Kabbalists write for us, all of their advice is only for one purpose – to reveal the Creator, nothing more. It is called ‘to pass the barrier’ – the only thing we should desire.

The first thing we need to do is to unite with more desires aspiring to reach the same actions. There is no choice because the desire of each individual is small. We can see it in every action that we perform; with screens or without, that our individual desire is very small. If I can unite a few of these desires and work with them, I will surely be able to reach what is called eye opening - the sensation of the Creator, faster.

I have no choice. I must be connected to other desires, to more people who have the same desire towards the same goal. This goal has to be as clear as possible and we need to be in this desire, connected in order to achieve this goal. It does not mean that we feel good or that we help each other in concrete ways, in corporeality. It only means that we want to attain this specific goal. The desire has to be very clear, connected at the point of desire of each one.

If we gather our efforts in this way, then the power we have grows significantly. It grows exponentially, meaning that if there are ten people, and each of them desires to connect with the others, then each one receives not one tenth, but the desires of all the others - ten times his desire. Then the sum of desires of ten people, each having ten times the desire, becomes a hundred times greater.

By connecting with a group of ten people, the desire of each person for spirituality and the chance of attaining the revelation of the Creator is at least a hundred times greater then the individual desire. It is actually even greater.

Let’s return to Malchut. The vessel, Malchut de Ein Sof, is located from the screen down to the Sium (ending). Between these two points is the entire Behina, the entire desire to receive that the Creator created. How much can it be filled? Let’s suppose by twenty percent of its volume. It fills itself with twenty percent. What’s next? If it will remain in twenty percent then the pleasure that fills the desire will eliminate the desire. The lack will be eliminated because it received what it desired. To remain in that state is similar to doing nothing. To continue receiving will be without the sensation of the Host, so even if the process would continue, it would be according to the same principal; that the Light eliminates the vessel.

So what does it have to do? It has to reach the goal of creation. How? It only has one solution – to return to its previous state. What does it gain from returning to its previous state? It is as if it remains with nothing… but something does remain – the experience of going through the process. We also, each one of us, went through ups and downs, all sorts of states, sensations of good and bad about the Kabbalah… All of these experiences are the beginning of the sensation of the entry and exit of Lights. Every person who will advance further will feel these processes more powerfully. There will be greater ups and downs, greater falls in which the Light really wanes and when the person is left without wisdom, without taste - with nothing, completely empty.

Later, when the Light arrives, everything opens up. There is new life. A person sees all the worlds, feels the whole reality. That’s how it goes until all of the work – letters - gather in the person. There is no choice. That is the path. Whoever can survive it, can hold it, eventually will discover all of the Light within him or herself. Whoever cannot (it is difficult) should wait until sufferings push him or her to it. We do what can we do. There is no choice.

What I want to say is that the revelation of divinity to the created beings in this world is called Kabbalah. What is Kabbalah? The wisdom of Kabbalah is “the revelation of His Divinity to His creatures in this world”. That is how Baal HaSulam defines the wisdom of Kabbalah, that is what we are doing here and what we are discussing now, so that it will provide us with a key into a new reality, a new world, a solution of all life. NOT just here but in general, at all times.

Through the wisdom of Kabbalah we arrive to a state where the Creator opens up, and then a person sees and senses what he or she should do next. So, in our activities, whether we are studying, eating a meal together, holidays, everything has to be preceded by the question – what am I doing it for? – I am doing it in order to reveal the Creator to me.

Can you explain more about the ups and downs?

First of all, we are not talking about things that happen to us in our life here. We are discussing actions with a screen. I am just using similar expressions from our life in order to make it more understandable.

Anyone who begins to study begins to feel closer to, or further away from spirituality - feels better or worse through this idea, through spirituality, through the divine. That is what we call, for now, ups and downs. Later on will come a state where the Creator will be revealed, and that will be an “up”. Then the person will feel that everything disappeared, and that would be a “down”. Later, the person will interpret ups and downs differently. Once the person will have a screen, then the ability to give, to bestow to the Creator will be considered as “up”, and the inability to bestow will be considered “down”.

Each individual, according to his or her particular rank, state, level, will interpret ups and down differently. The interpretations will constantly change according to the individual level of correction.

For beginners, simply a good feeling about what one studies and about being here, about Kabbalah, is called an “up”. A bad feeling is called “down”. It can be this way during the first few years.

Do we need to act in the group so that we cause pleasure to others?

I don’t have to be concerned with anyone else’s pleasure. I don’t need to be concerned with anything except for connecting with the Creator and being in a relationship with Him. If I worry about someone else’s pleasure then I am simply in the framework of this world. What do I get from worrying about someone else?

What is our state now?

Our state now is that I take care of myself. You are saying this: “Let’s create in this world that same relationship between people”. The thing is that if I am in a group where everyone else desires the same goal as I do, we help each other; we give each other in order to get there. This is considered as doing for the Creator, because my desire is to reach Him and that is the purpose of my giving to the friend. In such a way the friend becomes for me a means. The friend becomes for me just like the Creator. I still cannot give to the Creator, so through the friend I implement my desire. Through the friend I want to reach it. If the friend does the same for me, then we are definitely in mutual action. To reveal the Creator means that, through these actions, the Creator is between us.

But if I do not place his goal in front of me, and just desire to build a nice, good society, in which everyone will give each other, I actually cause damage. I eradicate divinity completely. In such a case, as I try to increase my vessel by joining with more and more people, the result can be terrible, because I will increase my vessels and I will want to receive from them, thinking that I will receive some great revelation, while actually what will be revealed for me is total darkness. I will reveal destruction instead of construction. Instead of constructing a vessel and filling it with a connection to the divine, I will discover suddenly that I have connected with all of these other people, they wanted to give me and I wanted to give them, we all formed such great vessel and each one has this large vessel, but the pleasure which is supposed to fill the vessel – disappeared.

That is what happens in Kibutzim. That is what happened in Russia. Baal HaSulam writes about it. These things bring destruction.

If the relationship, the connection with the other people does not include the Creator, striving together to reach Him, the situation only causes the creation of a larger vessel, which is empty. In such a case it is better not to even start anything. That is why in the society in which we act we have to constantly have the right intention. We must know whether we do what we do in relation to the final goal. Of course we make mistakes. No one really knows what his or her desires are exactly. We do not know ourselves, but somehow, whatever is revealed to us has to be revealed in such a way for there to be any development.

So we learned that the first action after infinity is the First Restriction, then a screen, and now the created being wants to begin receiving the Light. This is called “the five Partzufim of Adam Kadom”. This is what we are now beginning to study.

After that we will learn about all the other worlds, all the way to the barrier and this world. Later we will learn how man was created and how this world manifests in man. We will study how man goes back up to the state of infinity, to the Creator. Each time we discuss this descent from above to below, through these drawings we will also discuss a little how it acts in us and what the result of it is in us.

Drawing Nr 21

What does this study give us? We spoke about this. It doesn’t give us much besides surrounding light, which we awaken during the study. I am in this world studying about Galgalta. By that I draw upon myself surrounding light from above. Why? Because my soul, which descended here and is in my point in the heart, is also in infinity, and in Galgalta at the same time, as well as in every state it descended to this world through.

Drawing Nr 22

So by being here in this world, studying about what happens in Galgata, in the first action, I come into contact with my “I” which is at the level of Galgalta, of the world of Adam Kadmon. From there I draw this surrounding light upon myself. It is not that I turn to someone else, asking for it, but I turn to a higher level of my self, and from that high place I draw upon my self my internality. It is as if I pull myself, elevate myself to that place where I was once before. That is what happens through the study, and that is why while studying we need to feel it, to try and sense that what we receive descended to us from a very high level.

Sometimes a person who starts to study thinks that studying should give him or her good sensations, but suddenly feels emptiness, dryness, and a lack of interest. In such a case the person needs to remember that every action that passes on to us is composed of four states: Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin and Otiot. Each and every action includes within it changes of states. The initial state within each action is that a person feels no Taam (flavor) in it. We will learn many things until you will construct the vessels, until you will sense something in these sates. It can take time. We need patience.

Are you saying that it is actually good that we don’t feel flavor?

A person does not realize that the fact that he or she doesn’t sense the Taam is good too. We act according to our feelings. We are desire to receive. The Creator has not created anything except the desire to receive. If the desire to receive doesn’t feel the fulfillment then it feels accordingly.

What is the difference between corporeal and spiritual actions?

The reality is a single reality. The Creator created a desire to receive and this desire was filled with the light of infinity. Then this desire said: “I do not want to sense the Light of infinity”. This is called the expulsion of the light of infinity. The light of infinity did not withdraw, but the desire, even when filled, doesn’t want to sense this filling. That is called Restriction.

Later, this desire filled with infinity says: “I want to receive twenty percent of what I felt back again, then some more, then more…” Meaning that the actions that we study about are simply impressions of the desire to receive within itself, getting further and further from the state it was in previously.

In the first state it is filled with light and in the second, it is empty. In the third – twenty percent, then less, then less, until there are so many impressions, and the last one is you in this world, as you now feel yourself to be.

All of these states are inner states within you, through which you distanced from the first sensation. As a result of your distancing from that state, you now go through the same path back, to be immersed back into infinity, to feel it again. Nothing is done from the outside - nothing even changes. Nothing changes in you either. You are filled with light of infinity and the Creator is revealed in you. You just reveal him in your feelings, in your vessels. That is what happens.

The actions that we are talking about are inner actions in us. Once we begin to discover these inner actions, we begin to discover how, what seems to us as being outside, is actually happening inside of us. Outside there is nothing. This entire world, everything you feel as if from outside is simply your inner impression of the Creator. Everything disappears except Him.

What we do is actually to correct our sensation so that it would be more real and more correct. These are our actions. There is only a vessel, a screen, and Light. There is nothing else. This wisdom simply gives a person the ability to feel the reality that he or she is in, in a real way.

Did the spiritual “I” discover what I had in corporeality previously? Is there some communication?

You are actually asking where is the “I”? Is the “I” what is here, or what is there? The "I" is located where I sense myself. It is everywhere. The “I” is in infinity, at the end of correction, as well as in all of these steps of descent. The question is where do I sense myself now. If I had the ability to change anything and feel myself in the middle of the worlds BYA or even higher, I would still be in the same place where I placed myself through my correction, my perception.

The whole issue is my inner correction; what I am able to perceive from the infinite state that I am in. If I perceive out of infinity the smallest perception possible, it means that I am in this world. This world is the same infinity, only I receive it with completely blurred senses. If I correct my senses a little, then the state will be called the world of Assiya. If I correct some more – the world of Yetzira, and so on.

This means that it all depends on the extent of correction of my senses. There is nothing else. Where am I really located? Where ever I feel myself, that is where I am. It is only in my sensation.

In each lesson there will be some part, which may be boring. I say this in advance. I am also telling you that if you will not go over the material at home you will not comprehend what we will learn next, and then it will become more and more boring. It will be impossible. We will not have a common language later. We won’t be able to talk about the soul, its components, its levels, how they are corrected, how I can be in contact with other desires, other parts that are outside of me, children, people, everything there is.

So I am asking you – we need to know this. It is a language, there is no choice, and we need it in order to communicate with each other. You need to understand what I am saying and so you must learn it. There is a booklet of these lectures. Please review it during the week.