Zohar – Laitman.com

All the Work Is in Clarifications

galinas — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 05:43:00 +0000

Question: How can you check how much you have advanced after a lesson?

Answer: The main thing is to clarify: What do I want—for my own sake or for the sake of bestowal? Do I have a connection with my friends in this? Do I need them or not? Do I work from my egoistic desire or from the intention to bestow, from the side of the Creator or the creation, above my egoism or within it? All advancement is based on such self-analysis.

It may be that after a good lesson, these clarifications reveal my bad state to me, but they will be more precise, and that means that I am advancing.

Every day should bring a simple result: tomorrow or by the next lesson, I must come with a more clarified desire.

It does not matter whether I have a desire or not; it is given from above. The question is whether this state becomes clearer.

It is possible that the clarification will lead me to a dead end where everything becomes unclear, as if shrouded in a fog. But this also means greater clarity and a more precise clarification.

The light that comes to me during the lesson provides me with discernments; it does not matter whether they are positive or negative. It allows me to make a more precise analysis in order to evaluate myself, my state in relation to the Creator and the goal in all directions.

The light affects the desire; when it illuminates the desire for me, I see more within it.

Even if I suddenly stop distinguishing anything in it at all, and I feel complete confusion and fog descends unlike anything I have ever experienced before, this is also called seeing more. These are also degrees of understanding.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/10, The Book of Zohar

And the Counter Goes Click…

galinas — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 05:54:00 +0000

Every morning before the lesson we rise to our feet anew and open a fresh page. The same can happen during the day as well.

It is said: “Let the old things you have already heard appear in your eyes as new every day.” Each time a person must feel like a new creation, again and again entering into contact, beginning the spiritual work, and drawing closer to the Creator.

With each such renewal, he realizes Reshimot until a sufficient number of them accumulate. This number is not known in advance, but the counter keeps ticking, the gears keep turning, and the digits after the decimal point change; at some moment the main wheel on the left will click over from one number to another.

So it is with us. Therefore, should be glad to renew our contact, our intention, and our striving toward the goal.

It is said: “The end of the action lies in the initial thought.” Already now I must hold in my mind the goal that I hope to reach in the end. Where am I heading? What exactly do I want? Each time I must imagine this anew more precisely, more clearly, more understandably, more tangibly.

In the final goal all my thoughts and efforts, desires and disappointments converge, fuse together, and become complete. My work ends at the point of the final contact, and this point is called the “drop of unity.”

In it, I myself, the entire reality that I feel, and the Creator, that is, the quality of bestowal, the upper force, all become one whole. This is the state I must already imagine now.

Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) offers another formulation: A person must direct himself toward the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. Call it whatever is convenient for you. The main thing is that we think about the final point of unity.

And the more clearly that I imagine it in feeling and in mind, the greater joy it should give me. Because then I undoubtedly realize the current Reshimo and consistently advance toward the end of the action.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/10, Preface to The Book of Zohar

The Most Real Language

galinas — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 05:20:00 +0000

Why did the Kabbalists choose the “language of branches” for their explanations?

Let us assume that I have attained the connection between the root and branch at the very first degree, and someone else understands it at a higher degree, and a third person at an even higher one. It does not matte; the branch remains the same branch.

A child knows that if you put a plug into an electrical outlet, the toy will work. I know that there is electricity in the outlet that comes into the house through wires. And a person who is even more technically educated knows that there is a power station somewhere, and so on. But we are all speaking about the very same process regardless of how much each of us understands it and how far each one “looks into the root.”

The roots continue in the same direction toward their upper source, but the branch, in our world, remains a branch. The “language of branches” is taken from reality itself; it is impossible to invent another language. And this one does not need to be invented. It turns out that this language is prepared for us by nature for communication within ourselves, between us, and with the Creator.

Moses, in his book The Torah, was the first to describe the entire path of spiritual ascent, at all degrees, in this language. The Book of Zohar gives commentary and supplements the language of Moses with its own language.

Rabbi Shimon passed through the same degrees as Moses, which every person must pass, and in his description, he added a greater connection between branch and root. Therefore, The Book of Zohar is so effective in drawing the light (the surrounding light, Ohr Makif) from the root to its branch (to us).

Baal HaSulam described the connection between the root and the branch even further by adding Kabbalistic definitions and the connection in the three lines.

All of them speak about the same visible picture and its roots, but each Kabbalist adds the description of the connection in his own way, thereby increasing the power of ascent (the descending surrounding light, Ohr Makif), and also paving a path for us to pass through the degrees of the upper world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/10, Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 6, “Shmini”

Should We Believe in the Sages?

galinas — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 05:17:00 +0000

We must take upon ourselves faith in the sages (RABASH, Article No. 4, “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?”).

Suppose I am ready to believe the words of wisdom, but what does that mean? Do I understand the words of the sages? What is their message?

First of all, in the wisdom of Kabbalah we do not deal with bodies. There are no bodies, there are souls. The bodies that appear before us are images of an imaginary world.

I exist within desire, which manifests itself in various forms: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Sages are corrected souls that exist within the shattered system of Adam HaRishon. They can serve as help and support for me; they can be guides and educators for my shattered soul.

Accordingly, this is how we should receive their advice. For example, The Book of Zohar tells us about the ten sages of Rabbi Shimon’s group, as well as about the prophet Elijah, Moses, Aaron, King David, King Solomon, and others.

We do not perceive them as people who lived in our world, but as corrected desires, corrected souls. They exist within the shattered system that is gradually beginning to revive. They themselves are already corrected partially or completely, and they participate in the correction of the entire system.

“Rabbi Shimon said… Rabbi Abba said…” I read in The Book of Zohar. For me, these are not people who attained and speak about the upper world; for me, these names are degrees of attainment.

Through these words I study the ladder of spiritual degrees: on one level reality appears one way, on another differently. It is as if the Kabbalists are telling me this, but for me they are forces, vessels of perception.

Each sage embodies a certain spiritual concept, power, force, or quality for me. Before me are not the names of historical figures, but the names of spiritual phenomena and degrees.

“Faith in the sages” means: I want to attain the same bestowal as on the degrees about which I read. “Faith” means bestowal.

During the study, a person must include himself in this and strive to understand how it will influence him. Whatever the book speaks about, I want to penetrate the spiritual essence of every word. This is what it means that I believe the words of the sages.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Rabash, “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?”

The Upper Logic

galinas — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 05:20:00 +0000

Question: What is the logic in faith above reason?

Answer: In faith above reason, there is the logic of the upper. The logic of the lower is when I look at the world through my own mind and feelings, and thus exist. But in this way, I move along a plane only on my own level, and I can never rise above it.

This is called faith below reason or faith within reason, and faith, the quality of bestowal, is not above reason and does not determine my actions.

In faith above reason, it is as if I remove my glasses from my eyes and see nothing but the upper. I am ready to join the upper in everything He wishes.

I want to acquire His feeling and His knowledge through the force of adhesion with Him. In this action, I am ready to completely annul myself, to part with my own “settings.”

When I attain His degree, I already have His faith (His quality of bestowal) and knowledge that are higher than what I had before.

By the force of greater bestowal, I also acquire upper reason. This is called faith above the previous reason. In this way, I attain a higher degree.

Therefore, those who walk by faith above reason actually add reason, because they acquire new vessels of perception, since reason, attainment, the light of Hochma spreads only within the light of Hassadim (bestowal, faith).

And those who cannot rise above their reason within an animalistic mind cling to the same state in which they are, want nothing more, and are unable to annul their opinion before a higher degree, before the teacher; they attain nothing and remain animals.

They may be clever and intelligent within the limits of their own reason, but they will not even understand that the upper wisdom exists. After all, the upper wisdom always seems as though it has no foundation beneath it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/10, Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 4, Shmot, “And a New King Arose – 1,” p.82

A Fantasy that Helps You Grow

galinas — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 05:55:00 +0000

The Creator makes us believe that we are not the only ones who feel ourselves from the inside, but that there are other people around us who perceive and evaluate us. This is an illusion, a deception! There is nothing outside, everything is only within me.

With these additional impressions, He expands our Kelim, builds our new level, and lifts us above the animal level to the level of “Adam” (“like the Creator”) in order to become like Him.

It seems to us that the Creator is outside and we are talking, interacting, and cooperating with someone outside of us. I imagine Him before me, and then bring Him in and merge with Him. Then there is nothing before me, He and I become one.

But for now, I imagine Him outside myself. This is a deceptive fantasy, but because of it, as I consider my Kelim to be “external,” I gain additional Aviut of desire, egoism (a desire in which I feel myself relative to others or others relative to myself), which helps me achieve the upper property and become like the Creator.

I just need to bring this image from the outside in, and I will merge with Him!

What happens after this final correction called Gmar Tikkun? Kabbalists say the end of our correction is only the beginning of a new state. Once I have corrected my desires, a new stage will begin. Let us wait and see.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 1/4/10, Baal HaSulam, Preface “Foreword to The Book of Zohar”

The Great Illusion on the Scale of the Entire Universe

galinas — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 05:48:00 +0000

Every soul is connected to the world of infinity by a chain, a ladder of spiritual degrees, with a gradual weakening of the lights and the Kelim (vessels). The moment I establish a connection with infinity, I awaken this system. In fact, it exists within me, and only seems to be external to me.

There are two in the universe: man and the Creator, and it is necessary to somehow give man the sensation that he exists outside the Creator so that I may understand what separation from Him is, opposition, distance, rapprochement, and adhesion with the Creator. Therefore, I was deliberately created in such a way that I perceive reality as divided into what is inside me and what is outside.

Then it becomes easier for me to understand what “I” and the Creator are, what breakage and connection, an unconscious state and concealment are, or conversely, what approaching Him and adhesion into one whole are.

The Creator throws out everything that I feel within myself, and it turns out that my perception is divided into two: the inner, which is everything that I receive, and the outer, what I give, but without the correct intention. Thus, the external world is my Kelim that are deliberately presented to me as alien and foreign so that I may understand what bestowal is. If I begin to relate to them as a part of myself, then I will understand how distant bestowal is from me and how opposite and undesirable it is!

Try to love your neighbor as yourself; it is not simple at all. I cannot. And this means that I cannot bestow, I cannot draw closer to the Creator. No wait, I do want the Creator! But how do you want Him? You must demonstrate it, and this is precisely the only correct way.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/10, Baal HaSulam, Preface “Foreword to The Book of Zohar”

Effort Is the Reward

galinas — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 05:29:00 +0000

One who works in the darkness without feeling any taste should understand that this is very beneficial for advancement because you are advancing toward bestowal to such an extent that you do not want other states, because the efforts are the reward if you have love for the one who creates these conditions for you.

You are given the opportunity to make efforts, and you do not feel any taste in this work, you have nothing with which to enliven your ego, the evil inclination, your pride, understanding, reason, and sensation, but precisely under these conditions, you have the opportunity to gather all your strength and with monstrous efforts advance at least in something. In bestowal without a reward.

The reward is the opportunity to come into contact with holiness in the darkness. Then it is clear that you have not been bribed by your desire for pleasure. Therefore, it is necessary to rejoice precisely in these states in which there is no taste at all. A person grows in them.

And here the support of the group is essential, the shared inspiration of the entire global Kabbalistic community. Such mutual support helps.

It is exactly when you do not receive it either from the Creator or from within (which also comes from Him), and you strive to receive support from the group, this is the best and most reliable guide toward the goal.

Specifically here is the point of making the correct efforts and the opportunity for a common prayer.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/09, The Book of Zohar, “VaYishlach”

Make the Secret Obvious

galinas — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 05:18:00 +0000

Question: In The Zohar lessons you explain very subtle, hidden, one might even say secret things.

Answer: They are secret and concealed from our senses because we are too coarse and unable to discern them. That is all!

This does not mean they are a mystery. They seem like a secret to me because they are concealed from me, imperceptible to me.

I have to sharpen my perception, make it more precise and capable of differentiating finer gradations of properties. Then I will suddenly start to sense a completely different, true depiction of reality, in a higher resolution.

For this to happen, we must introduce the property of bestowal into our perception. By sensing it, we will sense the upper world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/10, The Book of Zohar, “VaYechi”

“Hear, O Israel!”

galinas — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 17:19:00 +0000

A “day” is not when there is sunlight, but when spiritual light is revealed to a person. This may happen once in several months, once in a lifetime, or every single moment.

And each time a person attains a revelation, it must be complete and perfect. Therefore, one is obligated to say: Hear, O Israel, the Creator is our God, the Creator is One!

This means that he has attained “One,” that is, the understanding of the one, unified force of nature.

“Hear” means the degree of Bina (hearing, ear). “Israel” means one who aspires “straight to the Creator,” Malchut rising into Zeir Anpin, and together with it ascending to Bina. The Creator is our God; the Creator is One means that everything unites in Bina into a single whole.

The souls that unite together in Malchut join Zeir Anpin, then Bina, and all together are included in the word “One.”

The word “One” sums up all the corrections a person has made, arriving at the state “He and His revelation are One” (Hu veShmo Echad). Therefore, the prayer Hear, O Israel, the Creator is our God, the Creator is One is a sign of the correction of the degree and its fulfillment.

This is how we must reveal our state at every degree, i.e., every “day.” “To say” means not only to attain, but also to be able to express what has been attained.
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Preparation for the Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/10, The Book of Zohar, “VaYakhel“

A Prayer That Runs Through All the Firmaments

galinas — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 05:38:00 +0000

A man’s prayer is the work of the Ruach [spirit], work from Behina Bet, which depends on the speech.It is in high secrets and people do not know that a man’s prayer breaches airs and breaches firmaments, opens doors and rises up (Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 5 “VaYakhel,” “The Ascent of the Prayer”).

It is written that prayer should be offered near a pillar. This does not mean, in fact, a pillar near which one should pray. The point is that all the Partzufim from the world of infinity to our world are arranged in the form of a pillar, where the AHP of the higher Partzuf is located inside the Galgalta ve Einaim (GE) of the lower Partzuf, and so they are all nested into each other.

There is not a single Partzuf that is arranged differently. Each Partzuf is positioned so that its upper part is inside the higher Partzuf, and its lower part is inside the lower Partzuf.

That is, the upper part of my Partzuf is together with the lower part of the higher one, and the lower part of my Partzuf is together with the upper part of the lower one. It turns out that in my upper part (GE) I form the ten Sefirot together with the AHP of the highest, and in my lower part (AHP) I am in the ten Sefirot with the GE of the lower.

It turns out that in the ten upper Sefirot, I am connected with the higher one, and in the ten lower Sefirot with the lower. But where am I? I myself am the part that divides me into two halves; it is called Klipat Noga. It divides the Partzuf in the middle.

Klipat Noga is all of our free choice. If I decide to connect with the higher in the ten upper Sefirot (1) now in order to lift the lowest up (2), and I am working only for this, it means that I am exercising my free choice in Klipat Noga that is in the middle.

The free choice is that I connect with the Creator, with a higher level, in order to correct the lower one. That is how we work.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/11, The Book of Zohar

Infected By the Virus of Bestowal

galinas — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:18:00 +0000

“And the wise shall shine as the radiance of the firmament.”

Thus, with the correction of the firmament, the Parsa, KHB TM of Atzilut were split and divided, and twelve Partzufim emerged from them:

1. Keter was divided into four Partzufim: Atik and Nukva, AA and Nukva.

2. Hochma and Bina were divided into four Partzufim: upper AVI and YESHSUT.

3. Tifferet and Malchut were divided into four Partzufim: the great ZON and the small ZON.

Hence, these twelve Partzufim are called the “radiance of the firmament,” since they were made and came out by the force of the firmament.

The first radiance is the radiance of those who shine in the lighting up of the radiance.
The second radiance is the radiance that shines and glitters to several sides.

The first radiance is Partzuf Atik, and the second radiance is his Nukva. Atik himself is from the unsweetened Malchut, above the firmament, which is the matter of not fissured. However, this Malchut is the root of the sweetened Malchut, and she lights the lights of Bina after they have been quenched (RASHBI, Zohar for All, Vol. 3, VaYera “And Behold, Three Men – 1”).

The Zohar is the totality of the light that passes through Atik and Arich Anpin to ZON and enters Nukva.

The souls that ascend from the worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya) and enter Malchut of the world of Atzilut reveal this light there, and therefore it is called Zohar (radiance).

The entire system is activated by our desire, intention, and prayer (MAN) when we engage in the study of the Zohar.

Our request rises upward, reaches Atik, and from there the light begins to descend toward us. This light is called Zohar.

This light corrects us and fills us.

It also sustains and animates the entire system, brings it into motion, and returns all its parts to the purpose of creation.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/10, The Book of Zohar

The Path to Upper Harmony

galinas — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 05:44:00 +0000

The Creator created only one state, called the world of infinity. All changes happen only within us. We exist in that same world of infinity, yet instead of perceiving infinity, we perceive only ourselves.

Once, in my perception, I was united with all other souls and felt the world of infinity— boundlessness, eternity, and perfection. Then my state, my perception, changed; I began to feel that I exist in a dark, corrupted world, full of suffering, problems, chaos, pressure, and limitations.

Things kept getting worse until I reached the lowest state in which I felt myself existing among others like me, in our world, in the surrounding reality.

All this occurred solely within me, in my subjective perception of reality. Nothing changed outside. It is as if I take off my glasses and see no one around, or put them on and begin to see a completely different world.

Thus, our inner qualities changed from the level of the world of infinity to such an extent that instead of it, we now perceive this world, which bears no resemblance to the world of infinity. Yet we can return to that very same state, called the world of infinity, where everything exists in upper harmony, eternity, and perfection, where the light reigns, the good and the benevolent.

What do we need for this? We must reach the perception of that state by awakening it within ourselves. The world of infinity is concealed within us, behind many layers of concealment. Gradually, as we move from a deeper concealment to a lesser one, we reveal the world of infinity.

The stages through which I return to the perception of infinity are called worlds, concealments (“world,” “Olam” is from the word “concealment,” Ha’alama). Step by step, this concealment diminishes, and I rise above it.

This means ascending the ladder of degrees, climbing the rungs of the worlds, rising above concealment, and feeling more and more of reality.

How do we do this? We awaken the state called the world of infinity. Together, we read The Book of Zohar, which describes the connection within the world of infinity, and this very desire awakens that state within us.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, “The Book of Zohar“

From the World of Shadows to the World of Light

galinas — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 17:36:00 +0000

Our entire world is made up of images of receiving because in our desire to enjoy, in our dark material, there is nothing. When a little light shines into it, and this desire is slightly impressed by the light, then various fluids, waves, and shifting currents arise within this desire.

These build within us, within our feelings and mind, the sensation of this world. After all, our world is not the true reality, but what we imagine in our feelings and minds from the light that faintly illuminates desire within in such a tiny, weak, unreal form, since there is no connection between desire and light.

When we unite and a desire is formed that has the power of unity from all its parts, then light manifests within the desire as it unites above the separation that exists between its parts. Accordingly, the light is revealed within it, and then within desire, within the heart and mind, the true forms of light, of bestowal, are revealed.

Whereas in our world, false forms of bestowal unfold within our desires and thoughts, like dark shadows that paint images on a wall. Therefore, we must strive to attain a true picture of reality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/11, “The Zohar”

MAN that Contains Everything

Rita — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 05:33:00 +0000

Question: We must raise MAN (prayer). Is this an action in desire?

Answer: MAN means that I am asking for the power of bestowal. From Malchut I turn to Bina and ask from Bina for the ability to bestow.

But I have to reach such a state that I am filled with this prayer (MAN), and this is enough for me. I feel joy that I am able to raise MAN.

How is this state described in the Torah? You go out into the light of day. Day for you is when you have nothing; you walk in the desert, and search for MAN, the desire for bestowal, and when you find it, it revives you, and it fills all your tastes. Everything you desire is in it.

But what is this taste? Where does it come from? What is this MAN? It comes to you from Bina, and then it is enough for you to have the very possibility of asking the Creator: “I have a connection with Him. I can ask Him. And I need nothing more.”

But do I not want to have a desire in which I will reveal the Creator? No. I am content even with the very aspiration toward Him. This, for me right now, is fulfillment. The connection with the Creator through the group fills me.

But what kind of connection is this? From where do you have anything? There is nothing. But can I turn to Him in this way? That is enough. This is called “walking in the desert,” acquiring the quality of “Hafetz Hesed” (desiring nothing for myself).

For in the desert you have nothing; you truly do not want anything for yourself. But this is the attainment of correction by the quality of bestowal, similarity to the Creator, and in this is your fulfillment.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 06/06/2010, “The Book of Zohar“

Let’s Open the Path for the Light

galinas — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 05:41:00 +0000

The source of the upper Light created a point of desire “from nothing,” began to develop it with His pressure, until it reached the state called the world of infinity. In this state the point is no longer a point but a sphere filled with the light that created it, and it performs a restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), and expels the light from itself. We are under this restriction.

The condition of the first restriction is very simple: above there is light, pleasure, perfection, eternity— everything, and below there is desire, darkness, emptiness—nothing! And between them lies the boundary of the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), a condition that can never be revoked. If the desire (Kli) is not similar to the light, this gap remains between them.

That is, you will not feel anything except what you feel now. And this is called an unconscious spiritual state or “this world.” This is the smallest measure of life that we are today, below any awareness, in darkness, as if in an imagined reality and in the deepest sleep that could possibly exist.

Once I saw a science fiction film about how people were placed into some capsules with a special liquid to be sent into space over distances of thousands of light years. And they slept, each in his capsule, until they arrived at another planet and began to awaken there. It is in a similar state that we find ourselves in now, asleep, cut off from true reality!

The condition by which I can receive the light is the intention for the sake of bestowal. The desire to be filled, to enjoy, does not change, only the “for what,” the “why,” the “meaning” changes.

If I want to receive the light, the fulfillment, for myself with the intention for myself, egoistically, against the condition of Tzimtzum Aleph, this is called receiving “from above downward.”

If I want to receive the light (in both cases I only receive, since within me there is only the desire to receive, and only the intention, the condition of reception, changes), but with the intention to bring pleasure to the one who gives to me, then this is called receiving “from below upward.”

Only in such a case will the light, the revelation of the upper world, fill me. It is not clear to us how one can receive the upper light from below upward; what is meant is that you return pleasure to the giver. This condition opens the path for the light! Fulfill this condition and the entire world of infinity is yours!
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From the Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/09, The Book of Zohar

Up and Down—From One Height to Another

Rita — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 05:17:00 +0000

Question: When a spiritual descent comes, can I immediately understand that
I need to go through it and immerse myself in it?

Answer: You strive for a corrected state, and only then you fall.

Otherwise, if you have not tried your best to achieve a good state, you would not be able to reveal your egoistic fall.

After all, a descent is not a mistake along the way, but a revelation of additional new egoism in you.
You took a barbell, pushed it up with all your might, lifted 100 kg, and suddenly the barbell fell! What happened? You suddenly discover there two more discs of 10 kg each were added.

This is why you broke and fell, you felt their weight, but now you know to ask for the force of correction! After all, you fell with these desires, with the extra 20 kg.

Now you have these desires (Kelim, spiritual vessels, tools), they were revealed against your will, you have felt all this heaviness.

If you ask for extra strength for them now, you can lift 120 kg.

That is, you cannot get the heaviness of the heart until you succeed! And only when you succeed do they add the weight of egoistic desire to you, and you fall!

This is a sign of your success! You managed to gain additional strength to use for correction now.

You can ask: how am I ever successful if every time I rise, I am immediately thrown back down again?

Let me stay at the top for a while, enjoy my achievements, get my medal! Then you can continue.

But no, that is impossible. This is done on purpose so you could learn to enjoy the work
itself, and your reward is the opportunity to give a little more.
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From Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/10, The Book of Zohar

Don’t Look Back…

Rita — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 05:16:00 +0000

Question: You always warn us not to look back, like Lot’s wife who looked back at Sodom and turned into a pillar of salt. So when we are filled with great inspiration after a congress or a dissemination event, does it mean we should not recall it, but instead strive forward to the next degree?

Answer: Not looking back means not wanting to remain in a previous state. But it does not mean that a person should cut himself off from the past as if it does not exist. One must learn from yesterday in order to continue today in a better state.

A person should not want to be in the state of yesterday, but in the state of tomorrow. That is what it means, “to not look back.”

But this has nothing to do with Sodom. Sodom is when one truly wishes to return to a previous degree, which has already been revealed as a corrupt state. One cannot return to it anymore.

If I have decided that my previous state was corrupt and unsuitable for correction, for advancing toward the goal, toward bestowal, then I have no choice: I must finish with it and move forward.

There are people who look back, return, and wish to remain in past states, to be “small.” This contradicts development, and we are forbidden to do so.

The means for this is the group. If I try, even a little, to integrate into the group, then I will always receive my future state from it, regardless of the state of the group or of myself. Therefore, we always have the possibility to move forward and not backward.
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From Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/10 on The Book of Zohar

The Work of the Creator

galinas — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 05:47:00 +0000

When we open The Book of Zohar again and again and after some time the initial inspiration fades.

This inspiration is given to us from above, just like the point in the heart with which a person comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah. This awakening from above (Itaruta deLeila) is given to us by the upper force.

Naturally, with this “fuel,” with the desire of the upper one, a person rushes forward with shining eyes and wishes more and more to feel what lies hidden inside the book, what exactly is being said about him. After all, he is awakened from above to a connection between himself and the book.

And then this inspiration fades. It fades because new desires come to a person, desires for which there is no awakening from above, from the Creator.

He is obliged to add an awakening from below to them from himself, and thus advance each time through his own search for answers to the questions: “What do I need this work for? Why?”

The Creator wishes that a person would each time reveal by himself the importance of the upper one, the urgent necessity of connection with Him, and the significance of all the means of attaining this connection, The Book of Zohar, so that he would again and again search within himself for all these inner definitions.

And here the person comes to a state in which he must understand that he is engaged in the “work of Bezalel,” to build the spiritual vessel, the Temple, with all its contents, within himself. This is immense, gradual work that requires extensive preliminary preparation.

In truth, the person himself does not accomplish anything; all that is required of him is readiness, desire, and intention.

Everything was carried out by the power of Bina from above, but through awakening from below. This is precisely a person’s work. This is what it means that he performs it.

Therefore, our work, on one hand, consists of making efforts and carrying out clarifications at every step.
But on the other hand, this work is called “the work of the Creator” because it is performed by the Creator, and not by man.

A person must only reach a desire, a request, a prayer, “half a shekel,” and the rest is done by the Creator, “the Creator will complete it for me”).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/10, The Book of Zohar

Noah’s Ark for Humanity

galinas — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 05:57:00 +0000

It is known from the science of Kabbalah that as a result of all our development in this world within the framework of beliefs and religions, in the field of technology, public and social life, in the field of government and international relations, we must come to complete disappointment in this development, stop and admit: “We do not know what to do next.” We tried to achieve something, to fulfill our desires, and we did not achieve anything. This endless race has led to nothing.

Of course, when a person sums up such a result for himself, he is not happy about it. But it is precisely this anxious state that makes him stop and think about what to do next.

But it is precisely this anxious state that makes him stop and think about what to do next. Then, in hopelessness and impotence, he begins to discover that there is another form of development. But it cannot be revealed until a person has reached complete disillusionment with the present and hopelessness in the future in this whole life, given to us supposedly by chance on this globe where we live like animals, without understanding why and what for. And indeed, if you look at us from the outside, from anywhere in the universe, our whole life on this planet will seem very strange, because we consistently destroy ourselves. For what?

When pondering, “Why do I need this whole life,” a person begins to realize that he needs a guide who could guide him and direct him along the way. And then he comes to the true books, whose authors have already comprehended a new form of life, not on the thin, fragile layer of the Earth’s crust covering this planet where we exist in complete dependence on it in everything, but life in a completely different dimension. After all, besides our Earth, our universe, and other galaxies, there is a breakthrough into another, higher dimension.

Of course, this requires a guide who will guide us along the way. But it is as if all of humanity is in Noah’s Ark, which must now break away from this world and break into the next dimension.

This guide is a special force from above, which The Zohar calls the “donkey driver.” Donkeys, Hamorim, (this is us), from the word “Homer” (material, the desire to enjoy), which needs to be developed, that is, to lead forward, showing him how to achieve a different form of existence.

Therefore, “The Donkey Driver” is a special article in The Book of Zohar. As we read this article, we should try to connect with this force, our driver, who leads us forward, provided that we can grab onto him and want to follow him.

The Zohar allegorically tells of this force, the donkey driver, as a man who goes ahead of those people whose donkeys he leads, pricking them with a sharp stick to keep them moving forward. After all, the donkey understands only one thing: it hurts, it goes forward; it does not hurt, it stops. This is how our material behaves.

And that is why we need this external force that will “tingle” us, and then we will need to move forward; otherwise, we will stay in place. After all, we are created out of a desire to enjoy and are not able to “stab” ourselves or summon this force from the outside. How can I willingly bring suffering upon myself?

Therefore, according to The Zohar, this external force is sent to people who are already able to ascend to a higher dimension, and in addition to life in this world that they feel in their body, in their “donkey,” to acquire an additional life, in the spiritual dimension.

This is quite possible, but you need to listen to that donkey driver who is sent from above to every person. This driver awakens within us and moves us. We just need to be sensitive to his actions.
So let’s find it in ourselves and wish to rise up!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/11, Introduction of The Book of Zohar “The Donkey Driver”

Three Steps to the Creator

galinas — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 05:26:00 +0000

We are in a state called “this world.” The reason for us being in this world is to rise, through our own efforts, to the level of similarity to the Creator, to reach His level, as it is said: “You will see your world during your lifetime.”

The science of Kabbalah is a method of revealing the Creator to creation in this world. How do we reveal Him? By becoming similar to Him. Only if I acquire a desire like the light, my spiritual vessel, will I be able to reveal the light, the Creator, in it.

How can I make myself into a vessel for revealing the light so it would fill me? We have been given two tools for this. The first is the material, the desire I acquire to the extent of absorbing outside desires, desires of other people.

There is only a point in me, which wants to move toward spirituality, although I do not know what it is. I just feel that something is missing. It is only a point of desire. I have no volume at this point, no top, bottom, right or left sides.

I cannot feel anything there, except an unquenchable desire–I want something, but I do not know exactly what. I can try to imagine spirituality, but no matter what I come up with, it is all fantasy from the realm of this world, not true reality.

How can I add volume to this point? I have to connect with a special, whole, perfect organism, with a great desire created by the Creator: Malchut of infinity. For me, it is a group, but in fact, it is the whole of humanity. But since I do not know what the whole of humanity is, a group is enough for me. This is the first component.

If I try to connect with a group and am able to connect with some part of it, as if cutting off a certain area from it, it becomes mine. It turns out that I am already gaining volume, and this volume is my desire. If I already have such a big desire, and not a point, I can start to feel something in it. What am I missing then? I am lacking this desire to be like the light. That is, the first stage is the acquisition of desire, the second is the correction of desire, and the third is the fulfillment of desire. That is it!

To obtain the desire, I have to annul myself before the group, before their unity, be connected to them like a drop of semen stuck to the wall of the uterus. This is the first stage.

The second stage is being with my friends, I must try to make my entry into the group, my connection with them, for the sake of giving so the desire I am now gaining is similar to the light.

I achieve this by using surrounding light (O”M), the light that returns to the source, what is called the “Light of Torah.”

After that, the desire becomes filled with the light of Hochma.

Therefore, when reading a source such as The Book of Zohar, which has great power, we must: feel ourselves in a common desire and want for our common desire to be corrected, to become as giving as the light.

In order to bring about such a correction, we must expect it while reading The Book of Zohar so that our desires, our union, would be for the sake of bestowal, so we would feel like a single whole and truly become a Shechina, a “place” where the upper light, the Creator, is revealed. If we correct this “place” for the sake of giving at least to some extent, to this extent the Creator will be revealed in it.

That is, I connect with the group as one whole, in mutual giving, mutual guarantee, unity, with the help of light that returns to the source, giving us all a sense of a common integral connection. Then, to the extent of unity between us, we reveal the quality of bestowal, the light of the Creator reigning in us.

Therefore, let us try not to forget about this task and realize that constantly remaining in these efforts to build such a picture for myself is my inner work, which I am now going to do as we read The Book of Zohar. After all, during the reading of The Zohar, a great light comes. Are we preparing the right desire for it so that it corrects and fills it?
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/11, The Book of The Zohar “Mishpatim”

How to Build the Temple

galinas — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 05:17:00 +0000

All of the Creator’s works are not as people’s works. When people build the Temple below, first they make the walls of the city and then the Temple.

First, the walls of the city, to protect them, and then the construction of the house. The Creator builds the Temple first, and finally, when He lowers it from the sky and places it in its place, it will build the walls of Jerusalem. This is why David said, “By Your favor do good to Zion” first, and then, “Build the walls of Jerusalem” (Rashbi, Zohar for All, “The Old Man [The Grandfather]”).

Question: What is the difference between building walls and building the Temple in spiritual work?

Answer: Our work lies in the fact that within the vast desire to receive pleasure that is revealed to us, we define a certain area where we are able to connect only with thoughts and desires aimed at bestowal, and we can relate them to others: friends, the group, the Creator.

All the rest of our desires we are not yet capable of using for the sake of bestowal. Therefore, our desire is divided into many parts, including the stony heart.

This is why we first build boundaries, screens, and only afterward, with the help of those screens, when we already know how to act correctly, we perform Zivug (coupling) and construct a Partzuf.

The building of the inner part of the Partzuf, from Peh to Tabur is called the construction of the Temple (in Hebrew, the word for Temple means House of Holiness). The Rosh (head) of the Partzuf is used for planning; this is called the “work of Bezalel.” The Sof (end) of the Partzuf is not yet properly engaged.

But in essence, it is with these parts of the Partzuf, which serve as boundaries, that the Temple is built, because we can construct something only from its opposite, good and evil, light and darkness; it is only by comparing opposites can we create boundaries and build a structure.

Whereas the Creator builds differently, not through limitations or calculations of “how much there is” and “how much is lacking.”

On the contrary, the upper light builds holiness, bestowal, the Temple itself within the desire, and the remaining part of the desire, which the upper light does not enter, is what forms the “walls of Jerusalem” erected afterward, in the final act.

This is the difference between constructing the Temple from below upward and constructing it from above downward.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/11, The Book of Zohar, “Mishpatim”

The Patent for Infinite Pleasure

galinas — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 05:46:00 +0000

Question: What does it mean “to receive from the Creator in order to bring Him pleasure”?

Answer: Baal HaSulam explains this in the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” using the example of a guest and a host.

A guest comes to the host. The host has laid a table full of food for him because he loves the guest with boundless love, without any calculation, and wants to give him pleasure very much.

The guest feels how the host loves him and wants to bring him pleasure. But suddenly the guest feels such shame that he cannot accept anything from the host.

The host loves him so much and so deeply desires to bring him pleasure; he already knows how much the guest wants to receive and what dishes he likes. He has prepared everything exactly according to the guest’s wishes, both in quantity and quality.

But the guest feels shame. What should he do? The guest refuses to accept the meal:

“I do not want to receive anything! I want to bestow like you do! You have shown me your love, and I feel it. How can I do the same to you?” The guest begins to think: “But if I do not accept anything, I will give it back to the host. Is this how I respond to his love?! What can I do?!”

And then he finds a solution: “I will receive only for the sake of the host. Since the host has the desire to bestow and wants me to receive, I must first enter into his desire so that it becomes my goal. I enter his desire and feel how he loves me, how much he wants me to receive, how he suffers from my refusal to accept his offering. I work with his desire and think only about how I can fulfill it.”

Through being inside his desire and striving only to fulfill it, I discover the ability to do so within myself by accepting the meal and enjoying it, because only through the pleasure that I feel can I bring pleasure to the host. I am obliged to receive and enjoy without limit because I feel how this fills him.

In this way, each one works with the other’s desire. The host thinks about how the guest will receive from him and enjoy. And the guest thinks about how he will receive and enjoy in order to fulfill the host’s desire to bring pleasure to him. Each uses their own desire to fulfill the other’s desire.

At the same time, each benefits doubly, or even more, because each exits themselves outward, and thereby experiences infinite, boundless pleasure.

This “patent” seems very simple at first glance. But when we begin to contemplate it, it appears difficult to implement.

However, ideally, if we understand it, this is the only way to fill ourselves with infinite pleasure, because I use the desire of the other, outside myself.

The Creator is an infinite desire, and I am merely a tiny point. But if I begin to attach myself to Him, I thereby acquire an infinite desire for myself that I can fulfill. And I begin to feel how I fill it and how that desire is enjoying itself.

It turns out that by treating Him with love, I receive infinite desires, infinite life, eternity, and perfection. I receive all of this if I relate to the Creator as the goal that I must fulfill.

Therefore the wisdom of Kabbalah is truly the science of reception (the word “Kabbalah” in Hebrew means “reception”), of how to receive and how to enjoy myself without any limitations.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/10, The Book of The Zohar

The Path to the Revelation of the Creator

galinas — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 05:18:00 +0000

When we read The Book of Zohar, we try to create a common space where we desire to unite all our points in the heart within it; this is what it means to study the Torah. Without such an intention, there is no study of the Torah.

The point in the heart is Israel (Yashar–El), meaning the desire aimed toward the Creator. Through study, we strive to attain the Torah, the light that reforms us. Then, within the connection between us, we reveal the Creator.

Within this connection between us and thus within the revelation of the Creator, there are 125 degrees, or 5 worlds, the 5 lights of NRNHY.

The complete absence of connection from which we begin our efforts to unite is called this world. The final point of unity between us is called the world of infinity.

This is how the entire system of the collective Soul is revealed, called Adam HaRishon, Shechina, or Malchut of infinity. The form of this spiritual vessel (Kli) is called the Creator (Kadosh Baruch Hu), the quality of bestowal and love that we reveal.

Everything exists within this system. The entire wisdom of Kabbalah speaks only of how to reveal the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form, as it is said: “From the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.” By connecting together, we form a system of connection between us that is similar to the upper force of bestowal.

This image must always be before our eyes as we read The Book of Zohar. I must constantly examine where I am on this ladder of connection between us, what The Zohar is speaking about at this moment, whether I desire to connect with others or resist it, and what hinders me.

I must constantly think only of this: how I (Israel) am connected to others by the force that unites us (Torah), and how within our correct connection, the original quality of bestowal (the Creator) is revealed.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, The Book of The Zohar

What Is Torah?

galinas — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 05:53:00 +0000

Question: What is the Torah?

Answer: It is the force that corrects us, connects us, and comes to us in its many manifestations. This force is capable of bringing us the recognition of evil, its correction, connection with the good, and shows us examples of unity; that is, the entire system of our correction is called Torah.

ZA (Zeir Anpin) of the world of Atzilut is called Torah because I try to resemble this image, this system, by assembling all the souls in Malchut of the world of Atzilut in such a way that the connection between them resembles the structure of ZA of the world of Atzilut.

In this case, all the souls included in Malchut of the world of Atzilut unite and enter into adhesion (Zivug) with ZA of the world of Atzilut, with the Creator. This is how we reveal the connection and adhesion between us.

Everything happens, begins, and ends in ZON (ZA and Nukva) of the world of Atzilut. Malchut of the world of Atzilut goes through seven states until it reaches the level of ZA, similarity to it in full. At the end of correction, they become like two great lights.

Therefore, ZA of the world of Atzilut, called Torah or the Creator, serves as an example for us in its structure, power, and influence.

And we must first of all strive to unite with each other, in the darkness, and reveal the need for His help.
When we discover in all our efforts to unite that we are incapable of it, then like little children, we begin to cry and demand correction from Him, an example.

Then the upper one will show us an example and will give us the power to unite. But our request and demand must come only from our efforts to unite with each other. Otherwise, we will not be worthy of an answer. Otherwise, we are not in the connection of Malchut with ZA of the world of Atzilut, we are not in Malchut. Malchut feels only the connection.

And we are all below, in the worlds of BYA (Beriya, Yetzira, Assiya). In Malchut, only our desires to unite with one another in order to reveal the Creator and attain the quality of bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, The Book of Zohar