The Path of Kabbalah

Chapter 1.1 - The Great Illusion “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness” (Exodus 20, 3). Judaism forbids idolatry and any kind of fetishism. This prohibition hides behind it the most fundamental principle in Judaism, which states that everything we see is only a figment of our imagination. Over the years, this principle has been consciously and sometimes unconsciously adopted by many of us after realizing that the ability to change our perspective might serve as a good tool in coping with our day-to-day problems. That perspective determines our reactions, our feelings, and ultimately our reality. What then is the actual reality around us? After having been concealed for thousands of years by Jewry, Kabbalists can now state that there is no reality at all, but something called “His Essence,” the “upper force.” That force operates in such a way that one sees Him as an image of a certain reality, which we denominate “my world.” One can see and feel varying images and sensations depending on one’s sensory organs and inner properties. All our sensations are subjective and exist only with regards to our feelings. In the sensory organs of a different creature, such as an alien’s for instance, that world would appear completely different. It is possible that that creature’s sensory organs are so different to our own, that it might exist here, but in a different dimension, without colliding with us. All this is stated only to stress the fact that all our sensations are personal and might change in time. The closer one’s properties are to the properties of the upper force, the closer the imaginary image of ‘my world’ comes to the actual reality and the less distorted it is by one’s egoistic attributes. Since the property of the upper force is altruism, when one attains that property and bonds with the upper force, one learns to feel reality as it is. The only way for us to approach the right perspective of reality is by studying Kabbalah, since it is the only study that deals with that part of reality that humanity has yet to attain. But it is not enough to merely study the text, because we are reading about the unknown. We must also direct ourselves to the right vision, and be prepared for a truer and as yet concealed feeling. Everything exists inside us. Outside us there is only the upper force, the Creator. We cannot feel Him in anyway. What we do feel is only how the Creator works on our sensory organs. Only by the consequence of these sensations can we guess anything about the Creator. In fact, it is not about the Creator, but about how He appears to us, how He wants to be felt. Hence, the study of Kabbalah must be correctly aimed; the thought must be focused on studying the inner attributes that we still cannot see in us. All the world, Partzufim, Sefirot, names, everything the Kabbalah speaks of exists in us and will be revealed in us, depending on the degree of our correction. We will find our inner Moses and Aaron, King David and the angels, the evil, the righteous and the
7 of 273 degrees of attainment called “Jerusalem,” the “Temple” and more. Every word in the Torah speaks of our own forces and the levels of our sensation of the Creator. That is the only thing that the Torah discusses. That is also the only thing we speak of in our daily lives, because we talk about our feelings. All we feel is the influence of the Creator. Every thing around us is no more than the influence of the Creator on each and every one of us. Hence, in order to feel the actual picture of the world we must find what we read inside us, as we read, because every written word exists within us, it just hasn’t been discovered yet. We feel what the books speak of in accordance with our spiritual growth, hence the importance that is ascribed to the study from genuine sources of Kabbalah: the Zohar, the writing of the Ari, and the writings of Ashlag. This is the safest way to attain the correction of our feelings and attributes and spiritual ascent. The one means for progress is the study with the thought that these books actually speak of me, that all this exists somewhere inside me. All these worlds and Partzufim are things that I must discover inside me, they are my own properties. The more I acquire control over these attributes, the more I will feel how the Creator operates inside me. I will never be able to feel Him ‘outside’ me but only how He operates inside me, because “By your acts we know you.” And since we sit together as a group, studying our (as yet concealed) real properties, we are collaborating in the study of the operation of the Creator inside us. We have a common goal and a common thought, and one experimentation field – our own feelings. This results in a collective goal, thought and desire that in time creates the feeling of one body, common properties, a feeling that there are no separate entities, but only one, called “Man,” and before him, the one Creator. The thought must be directed inwardly, toward changing our attributes in search of the Creator inside us. Instead of the ordinary reading in the torah we discover the Torah “as a spice,” as a means for correction also named a “potion of life,” for it pours in us the sensation of the Creator, the light of eternity and wholeness. People who study from the wrong books, are denied of this remedy and remain with their properties, they do not discover the Creator and their Torah becomes dry and conceals the purpose of creation even more than before

Chapter 1.2 – Between Creator and Creature The question “Who am I?” exists in everyone. But when that question can no longer be put aside, then it relates to the Creator: “Who is He?” because the Creator is inside us, He is the source of the human “self.” Hence, no matter how many times we ask ourselves “Who am I?” that question still relates to the Creator. The “self” is a consequence. Our desires, our every movement, everything we do is in fact, created by the creator. We cannot perceive that notion. Everything we say, think, even what we say about the Creator and ourselves, all these are the Creator’s operations. So where then is the “self?” There is no “self.” It is all the work of nature, created by the Creator. It clothes us and everything we do is actually His doing. The question “Who am I?” can only exist outside the Creator. We are different to the Creator only in wanting to resemble Him and attain His degree. The will to receive is essentially the desire of the creature to enjoy, corresponding to the abundance and pleasure that come from the Creator. We feel that will to receive and the Creator wants us to enjoy it. If we feel an abstract will to receive, it is not a creature, it is nature, God. If it works according to nature’s guidance, it is like a beast that hasn’t even a spark of a Godly soul. Only if we have an aim clothing our will to receive that tells us how to use it correctly, can we regard ourselves as creatures, created intentionally by the Creator, and not just another rock, an animal or a bird. But that depends on us. Our desires to drink, eat, sleep, marry and have children, all those are natural and come from the Creator. We can’t escape or altogether change them. However, we can construct an aim over the will to receive and build a correct way to use that desire. The extent of this aim, its depth, depends solely on me and that is what we call “creation.” I have to search for the right way to use my nature, my desires. Nature comes from the Creator, and my job is to know how to use it. The point in the heart is the way we relate to the nature the Creator gave us and to our ability to use it correctly. The heart itself consists of our desires, our yearning for pleasure. Anything that is not the Creator is regarded as the creature, limited by nature, divided by four degrees of desire: still, vegetative, animate and speaking (man). Man is the only degree that can use nature with a special aim that he creates by himself. It is called the “point in the heart.” The first phase is the “fetus,” Root coarseness: when one nullifies oneself completely, melts, so to speak, in the Creator. After that, the creature must gradually rise to the degree of the emanator and overcome that difference that exists between them by himself. Using the aim, we seemingly build the Creator within us, but all along we feel our “self,” because our “self” is really the Creator. By attaining the Creator and equalizing in form with Him, we attain our own “self.” The Creator wants to create creation in such a way that when it feels the Creator, it will still remain independent, and by that there will seemingly be a ‘dual Creator’: the first being the Creator Himself, and the second, creation, operating precisely like the Creator. The creature’s will to receive is completely identical to the Creator’s will to bestow, also named “bestowal in order to bestow.” The will to receive does not vanish, it is not lost, and the creature retains its independence by using the desires that it wants to return to the Creator. That is where they are equal. The purpose is for the creature to
9 of  273 attain complete wholeness, while retaining its nature. The Creator couldn’t have created an incomplete creature, He had to create a creature that is equal to Him. And the way to do it is by creating a creature and give it the possibility to attain the degree of the Creator by itself. That is the meaning of perfection. When that is attained, there is a clear sensation that there is nothing other than the Creator and the creature. The creature discovers that he doesn’t exist without the Creator, but the Creator cannot be called a Creator if there isn’t a creature, just like a woman cannot be called a mother if she doesn’t have a child. It is only possible to attain spirituality when there is a desire for it. But where do I find it if I don’t even know what it is? Let’s say that we are pushed a little to awaken in us an interest in spirituality, but in the end, the truth is that we still know nothing. If we did, and would still want it, at least to a certain extent and things would have been easier. But it is purposely hidden from us. If we were to enter spirituality with our current will to receive, we would never be able to change it. In order to enter spirituality, we must want it. But wanting means knowing, trying, feeling how good it is. There is a law that states that “The expansion of the light and its departure, make the vessel fit for its duty.” In order to attain spirituality one must turn to the Creator with a special prayer to discover spirituality, but not for self-gain, but for the will to bestow. After that, that desire must be used correctly through the group and the teacher. Thus, there must first be a great desire for spirituality. It is not given as a choice, it extends from the Creator. There comes a time, when more and more souls will be ready for spirituality. Man always follows his desire. Before the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah one is led from above, and when he opens a book, the Creator seemingly steps away from him, like an infant whose mother teaches it to walk. At first she holds it, but she slowly backs off while it is pacing toward her. We approach spirituality in much the same way, gaining more and more independence. There are things we can and  cannot work with. I can’t say that something doesn’t hurt me when it does. I rely on my feelings and no philosophy will help me in this case. This is the limit of my “self.” It is impossible to realize my desires if I only rely on my feelings, without any concrete basis. One’s actions should correlate with one’s state. When one attains spirituality, it is a different feeling altogether. We discover that our inner feelings are a consequence of the actions of the Creator, but in fact, man and the Creator are one and the same thing, there is no contradiction between them, they want the same thing, and there isn’t even a cause and consequence. This is called the “unity of the degree.” Yet we have to act as we actually feel. On the one hand, we read those beautiful essays that say, “He is one and His name is one”, but we still have to act according to our current degree in our spiritual life. It is impossible to behave in the group by the rules of the End of Correction, because we cannot live by these rules. Therefore, the framework must suit our exact state. We mustn’t mix the desired with the actual. The purpose is for life in the group to promote spiritual progress. Otherwise we will ruin ourselves and the group. We have no choice. Life demands that we correct ourselves individually so as not to bring down the entire group. Keeping the framework of the group too rigid will produce a collapse. We see it happen in many groups. There are groups all over the country and every one should have the knowledge for comparison and choice. Even if only five students remain,  they should know that their place is here. We don’t feel how our decline influences
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the entire group, if we all follow the path of pain then there are still life-cycles ahead of us. We must place ourselves in a state of constant lack, which will produce the need for inner improvement. For instance: if Baal Hasulam had any money left in his pocket at the end of the day, he would give it to others in order to get up the next day completely broke. Even at the immense height of his degree, the additional lack helped him advance. We do not understand how these things work in high degrees. We should at least set a framework in our own degree, so that the limitations will promote us to spiritual advancement. Each new degree is built on the ruins of its former and the construction of the new; this is how it always works.

There is nothing missing in spirituality. When something leaves me, it still remains although it is no longer present in my current feeling. It is called “there is no absence in spirituality.” Any situation that is experienced remains and is stored until the end of correction. In fact, I am already at the highest degree, or the lowest, depending on my feeling. I cannot imagine any other situation, let alone feel it. Our beastly nature should know that redemption can only come from above. Then we can advance. There is a typical example that the Ari writes of: He once told his students that if they would go up to Jerusalem today, it would bring the Messiah. The wives of one of the students wouldn’t let him go, another had a sick child and another had torn shoes. In the end they didn’t go and the Messiah never came. It can happen to us, and then another group would have to do it in our place.

We have a will to receive. That will comes from above and is constantly increasing, growing farther from the Creator, through the impure worlds and acquiring its final shape of egoism. That state is called “our world.” One begins his advancement within the impure system, acquires the aim to bestow and with it begins to correct his will to receive until he comes to his Bar Mitzvah age (thirteen years old, a certain spiritual degree). The light comes from above depending on the correction of his desires and fills him. This means that the soul – the light of correction – clothes the body, i.e. the will to receive. The soul – light – passes through the holy worlds, and this is the time of correction. If we render pleasure to the Creator in the act of reception, it is called bestowal. The Talmud states that if a respectable man marries, he doesn’t have to give a ring to his bride. On the contrary, his willingness to marry her is how he gives her, because she respects him. That kind of reception is tantamount to pure bestowal. If man works that way toward the Creator when he receives from Him with the aim to bring contentment to the Creator, it called “equivalence of form.” At first, one restricts oneself, saying, “I don’t want to receive anything for myself, unless the Creator wants it and it pleases Him.” Only under that condition is he willing to receive pleasure. The desire that the Creator created and the pleasure that He gives serve as a condition, which the relationship with the Creator is based on. Man agrees to receive from the Creator only if he is certain that he will please the Creator by receiving from Him. But in order to do that, we must first meet the Creator, feel Him, and build a connection with Him. There is an inconceivable difference between reception for self
11 of  273 gratification and reception in order to bestow to the Creator. Such a contact is a gift of God. Two things come from the Creator: body and soul, or light and vessel. The light helps the body receive the soul, becomes the giver, and turns the will to receive into bestowal, until the will to receive is filled with light. The situation one goes through over the 6,000 degrees promotes us at any given moment toward the end of correction. At the end of correction we will attain eternal and perfect pleasure and unity with the Creator. Without equivalence of attributes with the Creator we will only be able to experience pleasures of the “still” degree, but not of the “vegetative, animate and speaking” degrees. The impure system is necessary for increasing the will to receive so that afterwards, using the aim to bestow it will be filled with light precisely according to its intensity.

Chapter 1.3 – The Evolution of the Soul A person in this world has no soul. There is only one thing to do if we want to understand and realize our true essence, and that is to embark on a spiritual quest, with all the zest, the eagerness and willingness to change we can recruit; a quest to discover the soul. The journey begins at the exact place where we felt our very first desire for spirituality. It is called the “point in the heart.” That place is the embryonic soul that demands our return to our spiritual roots. The soul is drawn to the Creator and takes man along. We don’t know where we are being pulled because the Creator is as yet concealed from us. But this point in the soul urges us on somewhere, even though it is still not a ‘real’ soul. When one begins to work on the spiritual side of himself, one’s point gradually expands and grows. However, it remains dark, because one feels a greater and greater desire for something, hence the darkness. And when this point finally grows to the right size, he acquires a screen to surround it, the aim to give, and then the light enters this point. The light sorts the desires in the point to five parts which correspond to the attributes of the light: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut. Thus one acquires a soul. The smallest desire is in Keter, and the greatest is in Malchut. The attribute of reception is smaller in Keter and Hochma than in the other desires, therefore Keter and Hochma are considered ‘giving’ desires. When one is in that state it is called Katnut (smallness, infancy). If a person in this world has no more than beastly and corporeal desires, then he lives like everything else on earth. His next state begins only when the point in the heart appears in him. Then he begins to feel some unexplainable attraction to spirituality that he cannot ease, although he does not know what spirituality is. If he studies Kabbalah at that state, he crosses the barrier. This is the third situation. At that stage, he receives a screen with Aviut Shoresh (root coarseness) instead of the point in the heart. It is called Galgalta with the light of Nefesh. That state is regarded as the “embryonic state.” Much like an embryo in our world, he doesn’t want anything; he just lies inside his mother’s womb, i.e. inside a higher Partzuf that raises him devotedly. After that, the embryo takes nine months to develop; meaning develops his own nine Sefirot in Malchut, from Nefesh of Nefesh (Keter of Malchut) to Yechida of Nefesh (Malchut of Malchut). At this point he stops being an embryo, he is born and acquires a vessel of Hochma with the light of Ruach (NRNHY of Ruach) with Aviut Aleph (1st degree coarseness). This period is called “infancy”. It lasts two years, 24 months. By that the Partzuf attains a state called Katnut, or Galgalta and Eynaim, a complete screen in firstdegree coarseness. The infant is different to the embryo in that the embryo wants nothing, but the infant sucks the light with his own independent desire, like the baby that sucks from its mother. How does the milk become food for the baby? When menstruation stops, the mother’s blood is used for the development of the embryo. During labor the blood of labor pours out, it is an ‘impure blood’ that can’t be corrected. It becomes impure desires, denied of any desire to give, to bestow. But there is a part of the blood that turns into milk after labor. It rises from the Sefira of Yesod, where the womb is to the Haze (chest), which is in the Sefira of Tifferet of the Partzuf.
13 of 273 Every thing that happens in the spiritual world and all the spiritual laws automatically apply to our world. Thus, by studying the processes of impregnation, the evolution of the embryo and labor, as well as the infancy and the growing of the spiritual Partzufim, we can accurately understand the processes that occur in our world and their causes. The state following the infancy is the state of Gadlut (adulthood). The Partzuf receives Mohin (light of wisdom) in its vessels of Bina in the AHP (Awzen, Hotem Peh) of coarseness 2, 3 and 4. They are filled correspondingly with the lights of Neshama, Haya and Yechida. We needn’t do anything, just stay out of the way and let the Creator do His work in us, regardless of what He does. We mustn’t exit the boundaries of the Creator’s government under any circumstances. If we can do that, then we have attained a state called the “spiritual embryo.” In a state of infancy, a person can already make requests; have a dialog with the Creator. After two years of infancy, one needs the guidance and the education of the Creator and can receive some light of wisdom, the first of which is called the “light of Neshama.” The entire spiritual relationship between the Creator and the creature in the state of Katnut is built exactly like the corporeal relationships in our world between mothers and children. We can solve all the problems that arise in corporeal relationships by knowing the root relationships that exist in the spiritual world between the Creator and the creature. The Creator sends us obstructions on purpose, so that we will begin to want to approach Him through our efforts. Without obstructions in our corporeal life, we would not feel any need and desire for Him and would never be able to advance. If the soul of the First Man hadn’t been broken, it would remain a single soul, uncorrected and with very little chance of correcting itself. The correction is the reunification of the broken pieces. Only after the unification will the pieces unite with the Creator. The work is basically the correction of our approach to what we receive from the Creator, and the consequence of that work is the unification with the Creator, the justification of His every move. A group of students can attain total unification between its students. They begin from the preliminary state, build a framework that is comfortable for ‘egoists’, meaning one that suits all those who come for the sole purpose of attaining connection with the Creator. No one should suffer because of this framework, it shouldn’t be turned into a cage or a prison. The framework should keep changing and improve according to its members’ inner state, and always support the goal. The tighter and stronger the connection between the members of the group, the stronger the foundation is for connection with the Creator. When man begins to advance to spirituality, he loses the desire for it. It would be more correct to say that he is given additional egoism, such will to receive that he can no longer resist. In that case there is nothing he can do except time and again move the egoism from the corporeal to the spiritual level by studying and by the collective work with the group. All our thoughts must be analyzed and marked as ones that came from the Creator. They must be cataloged and verified that they don’t contradict the goal that we aspire for. I must ask myself: “Do I follow that thought or do I resist it?” Is the Creator now
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calling me by this thought, or does He want to provoke me by rejection? There is a difference, but in both cases He still wants to bring me closer to Him…

Chapter 1.4 – The Awakening of the Point in the Heart About body and soul The study of the wisdom of Kabbalah is a research of man’s relationship with the Creator, our every thought, desire and in fact, the entire reality we attain with our senses. Even in our world, below the spiritual world, there are degrees of attainment. At the start of the time of preparation for spirituality we begin to understand the connections and relationships between the spiritual objects, although it cannot be compared with the actual sensation once you get there. When the Zohar says, “Go and ask Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Abba” it means that you should ascend to their degree and ask why they present things the way they do. When the Zohar writes that a certain person met Rabbi Shimon it means that that person rose to the degree of Rabbi Shimon and because of that can see and understand what Rabbi Shimon can. This is how a degree gets its name, and when a person climbs to it, he is called by that name. If he attains only a part of that degree he is regarded as a son to it. That is why we are considered the sons of Adam, because we are all parts of the degree called Adam, and our task is to attain that part individually. A person who rises to a certain degree feels what happens in it. He attains its characteristics and sees the Creator accordingly. If he climbs higher, the picture that he saw in the previous degree changes too. It is not like a movie theatre playing 125 different films, one for each degree, because there is only the upper simple light and the person rising to a certain spiritual degree. We acquire certain spiritual attributes and thus feel a part of the upper light. That part is what we denominate “world.” We can even feel a tiny part of the upper light in our egoistic attributes, which we call “our world.” All that really exists is the will to receive this or that attribute of the Creator. The acquired attributes present us with a certain image. Different people who attain the same attributes of the Creator see the same picture despite their different desires, but from different angles. It is like a debate where the number of opinions is equal to the number of participants. Because of the different thoughts and ideas we also have different perspectives on the world. However, the general picture remains the same. It is also the same regarding the personal and different experiences we feel though we agree about the appearance of things. We are unable to understand one another with our attributes or our will to receive, because we only grow farther from each other. We can understand each other only by the attributes of the Creator that we attain in spiritual degrees. The First Man was created with nothing but altruistic desires, meaning vessels of bestowal. He tended to all the trees in Paradise because he could use all his altruistic desires. If so, then how could he have corrected his egoistic desires (vessels of reception), if he didn’t have them, or to be more accurate, if he didn’t feel them inside him? The sin of the First Man was premeditated. He had to sin, to taste off the tree of knowledge and mingle with the egoistic desires (vessels of reception) in order to
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create a complete mixture of the vessels of bestowal with the vessels of reception. Only afterwards will there be a gradual correction of the vessels of reception. There seems to be no sin here, because it was premeditated. But in fact there is still a breach of the rules whether knowingly or unknowingly. Did Man know? No he did not. Did he want to commit a sin? No he did not. But did he break the law? Yes he did. A corruption in spirituality is no coincidence, everything is always done for one purpose – to correct the egoism and unite it with the altruism. If an altruistic spark, a vessel that appeared there at the moment of the sin of the First Man would not be in every egoistic desire, the egoism would have been incorrigible and spiritual ascent made impossible. Thus, Man’s sin was a necessity. We live in complete spiritual darkness. The surrounding light shines on the outside and awakens the egoism, the will to receive, yet cannot penetrate the egoism. This is how we are awakened to spirituality. To further awaken us, not necessarily to spirituality, but to any personal achievement, a part of the surrounding light must (seemingly) be inside us. For that purpose the “point in the heart” is inserted into our selfish hearts. This point is a gift from above. It is the lowest point of a higher spiritual object, the posterior of a higher Partzuf. Looking from above, there is nothing but a vessel, screen and Reshimot (reminiscence). But if we look from below, we find that the soul has three lines: right, left and a middle line. Man must gradually overpower each of the lines and unite them. This process consists of the suffering of the left line, the ability to cope with it through the forces of the right line, and the reception of the light of the Creator in the middle. There is a certain duality here. From the Creator’s perspective everything is clear and foreseen, including the sin of the First Man and its detailed process of correction. Everything has its place and time. In fact, everything is already at the end of correction. But for us, it is all a secret. Man has yet to discover the regularity in the hidden. We must pace ahead with faith above reason with the unknown pressing and encouraging us to strain to find the Creator and maintain the constant contact with Him of our own choice. But we and the Creator have opposite characteristics to the Creator, and because of the egoism we are afraid to connect with Him, because we don’t know what the good inclination is, let alone pure altruism! From the perspective of the Creator nothing ever changes – everyone is at the end of correction, delighting in the light of the Creator. What changes is the anguish that man begins to feel as a result of his egoism and his repeating attempts to correct it from the starting point, to the world of Ein Sof, from reception to bestowal. If a person in our world does not get this altruistic point, this spiritual attribute from above, he cannot perform any spiritual acts. It is written that at the moment of one’s spiritual birth, he immediately gets the “posterior of the holy soul,” meaning the last (and lowest) degree of the soul, referred to as a “point” because of the restriction. It is placed in our hearts, in the midst of our selfishness. Without that point people remain in the animate degree. Their desires do not reach beyond the level of this world. Such people can be attracted to pseudo spiritual ideas and philosophies, predict the future and be extremely sensitive, but there is nothing that connects them with spirituality. Only the point in the heart can bring us out of the
17 of 273 beastly state and raise us to the spiritual. These people may appear alike on the outside, but only if you have equivalence of spiritual attributes, when the point in the heart becomes a whole Partzuf can you see the differences between them. Sometimes such a point can remain dormant in the heart for many lifecycles. If that point is absent, a person can study Kabbalah for years and be with a group, he can write everything down and do everything necessary, but to no avail. He might join a group to become a teacher, be proud of his knowledge and so on, but if he hasn’t the inner desire for unification with the Creator, he will not last long, the group will push him out spiritually. Thus, everything depends on the presence of the point in the heart. When Rabbi Laitman asked his teacher if the point in the heart could be acquired if it isn’t there to begin with, his teacher replied that if a person enters a group and sees that everything revolves around a single desire to find the Creator, and sees people coming from afar, talking and studying only that, if they study only with the right books and the right teacher, that person can ‘catch’ the general desire, though he knows he doesn’t have this point. However, it is known that an extremely strong desire can awaken the point in the heart. Even the Ari mentioned it. In order for a single person to be included in the united desire of the group, he must be absolutely in agreement with it, because even when this point does exist, it is different in its attributes from person to person. For instance, it is known that Rabbi Yosef Karo, who wrote the Shulchan Aruch (the Jewish code of laws), a priceless piece of work, slept during the Kabbalah lessons with the Ari. Of course, there were people who absorbed the Lurianic Kabbalah (the Kabbalah of the Ari) naturally, and there were people who could not understand it and had troubles disconnecting themselves from the Kabbalah of the Ramak (Rabbi Moshe Kordoviro). The Ari introduced a fundamental change in the method of the study of Kabbalah, which enables us to study Kabbalah from the perspective of the vessels, the souls, meaning from below. Ramak’s method of study examined the world from the perspective of the lights, meaning from the perspective of the Creator, whereas we study it from the perspective of the screen, which helps the light expand. Rabbi Laitman says he studied Kabbalah with many teachers, but could find no answers until he was shown the books of the Ari and Baal Hasulam. The upper degree is the Creator, my own future state. The lower degree is the creature in his current state. The degrees are like an accordion, they open up to us as we progress. What is time? Is it a changing, living concept? And if so, how does it exist outside or inside us? Does each degree keep its own time? The concept of “time” is a consequence of the work of the shells. A person continues to feel “time” just as long as he refuses to agree with the Creator about everything that happens to him. But time disappears after the complete correction, once the correction of man’s soul is completed, when nothing further needs to be changed and everything is in complete peace. The root of time is the discovery of the deficit and the need for correction. The first restriction created an empty space that is intended for correction. The restriction happened because the desire that is opposite to perfection and the contradictions cannot be reconciled immediately. That is what created “time” and “space” in our world. These two contradictions can be brought together by changing either time or space. Before the first restriction there were no “time” or “space.”
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If there were a special timer that could be connected to man’s heart, we could see the axis of the spiritual life in different people. Some live a thousand years, and others live only for a minute. Our ordinary clock shows only the ‘still’ time, meaning the pace of progress of the still toward the purpose of creation.

Chapter 1.5 – Kabbalah as a Means Kabbalah revolves around the spiritual worlds. Therefore, the student attracts spiritual lights during the study. Studying other parts of the Torah also awakens a certain spiritual illumination, but the intensity of the light during the study of Kabbalah is much stronger than when studying other writings. However, one must make sure one is studying in the right path of instruction, otherwise he is liable to achieve the opposite result – the more he studies, the more he’ll feel himself to be righteous instead of feeling his own evil (which is the desired result). That would make it easier for him: just imagine studying for several months, each month feeling that you become meaner and meaner, can you call that sensation pleasant? Not at all – but this is nonetheless the truth! If you keep feeling better about yourself, then you are learning a lie, a pleasant one, but still a lie. On that basis society can be divided to two opposing groups: “Homeowners” and “Torah Owners.” Homeowners are those who study Torah and are content with the study. They feel that they accumulate merit for the world to come. This world already smiles at them and they are confident that they will be happy in the next life. The Torah owners however, are people who wish to do something with themselves. These two groups are in complete opposition to one another. Though their outward appearance is the same. They consist of an entirely different spiritual filling, just as two computers can appear identical but use two different operating systems. All religions relay on one’s efforts for reception of reward in this world and the next. A Kabbalist however, can only be a person who ascribes no significance to reward but strives to find the truth. It is true that there are very few such people, but the numbers increase significantly with each passing generation. There are cases where one comes to a certain point in his quest for truth and then gradually leaves. The reason for that will be explained in further detail in the study of reincarnation. All the worlds (this world included) are inner states inside us. We will find them nowhere outside us. In other words, it is not us who are inside the worlds, but the worlds are inside us. Outside us there is only the Creator, the simple upper light. People in our world are convinced that they are inside some kind of existence, a reality that was created before we came inside it. But this is an illusion. There is nothing outside us but the light of the Creator. That light affects our senses in such a way that we feel it as solid, liquid or gas, as vegetative or as animate. Everything we can imagine and can see around us is built inside our own senses, making us feel as though everything exists outside us. But the truth is that there is nothing outside, only the Creator. This world is the lowest point that a Kabbalist attains. It is the total opposite of the Creator and is denominated the “exile in Egypt.” The natural power that works on us in that state, the power of our egoistic nature, doesn’t allow us to advance anywhere except to care for ourselves. This is called the state of Pharaoh. The egoism doesn’t let us feel the sublime and perfect state. It is the egoism, man’s inner and vicious force called Pharaoh that the Torah speaks of at length, whereas the force that makes one exit that state is called Moses. Pharaoh, Moses and everything that is written about the exodus describe spiritual states and emotions. Our current state is the lowest possible. It is a state of absolute slumber, unconsciousness. We have no sensation whatsoever of who or where we are. It is even
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a lower state than “this world.” It is so low that we cannot feel any spirituality, not even as good or bad. The Torah is not a historic epic, though there is a correlation between the text and human history. But this is only because the construction of the worlds is based on the same principle: everything that happens in one spiritual world is reflected in its adjacent lower world, down to our own. Everything that humankind will have to go through during its ascent in the worlds must be felt by each and every individual in each of the worlds, especially our own. The ascent in our world is done in our current state and with our egoistic substance of this world. There is a law for the spiritual nature that states that, “Every spiritual root must touch a corporeal branch.” This means that every spiritual origin, spiritual force, must hang down and build its final corporeal manifestation in our world. For instance: there is a negative force in the world of Atzilut named Pharaoh and a positive one named Moses. These forces must materialize at least once in our world. In principle, everything that happened or that is happening in the spiritual world has already happened in ours, everything except the coming of the Messiah, the ascent and the exit to the spiritual world. This is all that still waits to happen. But the times to come before the ascent are also the hardest, darkest and most painful. A person who ‘works’ on himself with Kabbalah enters a state called the “exile in Egypt.” During this process, he feels that he is declining in his virtues – that he was better before and now he has become worse. This is how he discovers his nature. As he continues to study and be influenced by the light and the correct study of Kabbalah, he develops a strong desire to cross this barrier and enter the spiritual world. He longs to resemble the Creator in as little as his smallest attribute.
21 of 273 Chapter 1.6 – Land Marks A person might be amazed to find along his spiritual path that not only is he not evolving, but has come to a halt, or is even retreating. He will find that the chances to enter the spiritual are rapidly dimming. But it is at that precise stage when we feel our inability to cope with the obstructions that indicates an impressive progress. If we only stop for a moment, we will see that we are in fact advancing in a growing speed, but we are trying to measure our progress with senses that are only just beginning to evolve. Any correction and change that we perform brings us closer to the acquisition of the aim to bestow. But for that we need to go through a great many changes and in many different ways. We must discover what is our “self” and what exactly does it want from us, what is the will to receive, what is the substance of Creation and what is the meaning of life and death. A person comes to the conclusion that life means feeling the light, and death is the sensation of darkness, the absence of the sensation of the Creator. We go through many different situations until we come to know what good and bad really are. The barrier is a curtain that hides the light from our world. How is the barrier different to the screen? The attribute of the screen is completely different than the barrier in that the entire light stands before the screen and there is nothing that hides it but man who rejects it with the power of his desire to not receive for self-gratification. The barrier-curtain, unlike the screen stands outside me, covering the upper light. The screen is something I put up inside me, as a result of an inner understanding and consciousness of the desire to not let the light enter in an egoistic form. And if I do let the light in, I want it to be with the aim to give to the Creator. When there is a screen there is no need for the curtain, because the screen can resist the light. What is the division of the 125 degrees that our way consists of? There are 125 degrees of attainment between our world and the world Ein Sof. But all we need for our correction is to reach the world of Atzilut, meaning the end of the second restriction. We have to cross the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira and Beria, each consisting of 2,000 years (states, degrees). Thus, the sum total of the corrections we have to go through is 6,000, after which we enter the corrections that belong to the first restriction. Our soul consists of five parts: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut. They are divided by the intensity of their will to receive, and form two groups: Galgalta and Eynaim (Keter and Hochma), and Awzen, Hotem, Peh (Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut). Keter is called Galgalta (skull), Hochma (wisdom) is called Eynaim (eyes), Bina (intelligence) is called Awzen, Zeir Anpin is called Hotem (nose) and Malchut (kingship) is called Peh (mouth). The structure of all souls is identical: the first part of the soul enjoys giving, while the second enjoys receiving. We should only concern ourselves with correcting our Galgalta and Eynaim (GE), our vessels of bestowal, the desires to give. Our spiritual path begins with an ascent above our world. An ascent is a gradual correction of our Galgalta and Eynaim. By ascending to the world of Atzilut we confirm that our vessels of bestowal are corrected. We cannot correct our vessels of reception. So what can we do? We can gradually raise our vessels of reception (AHP) from the worlds of BYA to the world of Atzilut. We first raise the AHP from the world of Beria, which is the AHP with the least amount of egoism. After that we raise the AHP from the world of Yetzira, which are more egoistic, and finally we raise the AHP from the
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world of Assiya, the most egoistic of all vessels. We don’t actually correct the vesseldesires, only connect them with their corresponding GE, and combine them with the altruistic desires. After every correction we receive more light. The correction is called an “ascent.” There are three ascents altogether, or better phrased, there is an ascent from each of the places of the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. The AHP that rise to the world of Atzilut are not ‘real’ desires to receive (vessels of reception), they are not our “self,” our “stony heart.” We are incapable of correcting that part. The only part we can correct is a small portion called AHP DeAliyah (raised AHP). But no greater correction is needed either. As soon as this correction is through, the Creator Himself will correct the stony heart. In order for us to know what we must correct, we have to see and feel what it is that needs correction. For that there are ascents and descents that do not depend on us called an “awakening from above”: they are the holidays, the Shabbat (Saturday, the seventh day of the week) and the beginnings of the month. Those are given to a person only for the reason that he has already corrected his vessels of bestowal, wants nothing for himself and is already in the world of Atzilut. The first act – the ascent – will be the joining of the AHP DeAliyah of the world of Beria; the second will be done by adding the AHP of the world of Yetzira, and the third – the adding of the AHP of the world of Assiya. When a person has already climbed these three degrees, there is the correction of the stony heart, constituting the End of Correction. We can either feel pleasure from receiving or from giving. The pleasure from giving is felt in the vessels of bestowal while the pleasure from receiving is felt in the vessels of reception. But both types of vessels are corrupted in us. The easiest to correct are the vessels of bestowal. The correction is that I give not for my own pleasure, but in order to please the receiver. Those vessels are easier to correct because the act (giving) and the purpose (for another) are in the same direction. The vessels of reception allow us to enjoy only by an act of reception. They are much more difficult to correct because we have to please another by receiving. That correction demands a much tighter connection with the Creator because it runs through the core of the “self,” the human ego. For that reason, the AHP are corrected gradually following the correction of Galgalta and Eynaim. Thus, it is not so difficult to ascend to the world of Atzilut with vessels of corrected GE, as it is to add the AHP to them, because the correction of the AHP contradicts the aim. All five worlds are like curtains that hide the light of the Creator. The lower the world, the more it covers the light. The world-screens end at the barrier, which hides the light completely from our world. Only a tiny spark called “minute light” enters our world. It is just enough to sustain life on earth. The Creator made it so we can live without a screen. In the absence of light and having only a minute light, there is no necessity for a screen. That feeble light is divided to many particles. It turns the atoms, moves the molecules, creates every substance and promotes it to development and growth and revives every degree of existence, the still, vegetative, animate and speaking – our own degree. And if we acquire a screen over even the smallest will to receive, through the study, the group and the teacher, a screen over root coarseness, then we are already able to resist the dimmest light – the light of Nefesh, that however small, it is still far greater
23 of 273 than the “minute light.” At that point we are able to stay in that light without receiving it for ourselves. The screen, in that case, functions like the barrier (the transition from this world to the spiritual world). For example: if a person has been taught not to steal and we put a $100 note before him, he will not steal it. But the minute we place before him a larger sum than the sum he’d been taught not to steal, he will not be able to resist the temptation; his education will be insufficient for that sum. The same applies to spirituality: where there is the light of Nefesh, we work for the Creator without any difficulty, feel Him, maintain contact with Him and enjoy ourselves because we want to please Him. We have a sufficient screen for this degree that protects us from receiving for ourselves. That state is called the world of Assiya. Then, as a result of the study and the additional efforts we make, we acquire a screen over a greater measure of egoism, that of Aviut Aleph (1st degree coarseness) and can now receive the light of Ruach in order to bestow. Accordingly, we have protection against stealing for a larger sum of money, say $1000. In such a case we pass from the world of Assiya to the world of Yetzira. In the same way, when acquiring a screen for 2nd degree of coarseness, we ascend from Yetzira to Beria. By passing from one world to the next, the curtain falls off the previous world and instead we place over it a screen that suits the coarseness of that world. The screen is swallowed inside and becomes redundant. When that happens, we become able to keep the law of the world we are in and therefore do not need the law; we rise above it and keep it of our own conscious decision. Since our soul consists of five parts, we must acquire five separate screens in power, according to the coarseness of the egoism: We cross the barrier when we acquire a screen of root coarseness, and attain the spiritual degree of the world of Assiya. A screen for 1st degree coarseness raises us to the degree of the world of Yetzira. A screen for 2nd degree coarseness raises us to the degree of the world of Beria. A screen for 3rd degree coarseness raises us to the degree of the world of Atzilut. And finally, a screen for 4th degree coarseness raises us to the degree of the world of Adam Kadmon. Above Adam Kadmon the soul ascends to the world of Ein Sof. There are five Partzufim in every world, comprised of five Sefirot. Each time a person acquires five new Sefirot, he acquires a new degree, a new Partzuf. If it is in the world of Assiya, the first five Sefirot give us the ability to attain the Partzuf of Malchut of the world of Assiya. The next five Sefirot raise us to Partzuf Zeir Anpin of the world of Assiya. Five more Sefirot and we come to Partzuf Bina of Assiya, five more and we are in Partzuf Hochma of Assiya, and the last five Sefirot render us Partzuf Keter of the world of Assiya. This is how the soul acquires the screens in the root coarseness of the world of Assiya and goes over to the first screen of the 1st degree coarseness of the world of Yetzira. The soul continues this way until it crosses all the worlds and all 125 degrees. When we are in the world of Assiya with our root coarseness, our soul evolves through a number of degrees like a ‘fetus’ in its mother’s womb (Bina). The conception lasts ‘nine months’, the same time it takes for a woman in our world. The birth of the soul is the transition from root, to 1st degree coarseness, from the world of Assiya to the world of Yetzira, which corresponds to the birth of a baby in
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our world. In the world of Beria the soul undergoes a ‘two year’ phase of ‘sucking’, during which the soul evolves and receives light that gradually increases its screen. But in the world of Beria the soul is still in a state of Katnut (meaning its only got vessels of GE). Beyond the world of Atzilut begins the gradual process of the growth of the soul, the acquisition of the vessels of AHP. The growth continues until the age of ‘thirteen’ the Bar Mitzva age, when the soul becomes independent in Atzilut, and has got the screens with which it can commence receiving in order to bestow, by adding the vessels of reception denominated AHP DeAliyah. There are two Partzufim called Zeir Anpin and Nukva (Malchut) in the world of Atzilut. They relate to one another in various ways, depending on the situation of the soul (Katnut or Gadlut). These situations are called Zivug (spiritual mating). The term Eretz (land) in the spiritual world refers to the place you are or the place you are headed for. The word Eretz comes from word Ratzon (desire). Our soul consists of one big desire (Eretz) with many smaller ‘lands’ inside it. There are desires called the “nations of the world” or “abroad” and there is the Land of Israel, which is the closest desire to the Creator. The neighbors of this Eretz – Jordan, Egypt and Seria want the Land of Israel because that is where the Creator is. The correction process begins with the finest desires called “Israel” or Galgalta and Eynaim. On the one hand, they are the closest desires to the Creator, but on the other, they are the farthest. It happens because of the law of the oppositeness between lights and vessels. For a person to return to the Creator, he must be the greatest egoist, because he must feel that there is something very important missing in his life. On the one hand, egoistic vessels are far from the Creator, but on the other hand, when he inverts his intentions, he will become the closest to Him. When a person begins to study Kabbalah, he slowly learns to sort out his desires in order of coarseness. When the sorting is done, he determines which of the desires he can begin to correct. When he begins the work with his desires he begins to see where he is on the spiritual map.