The Path of Kabbalah: Revealing the Hidden Wisdom

2005

Part One: The Beginning

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 envelops the most fundamental principle in Judaism: that everything we see is only a figment of our imaginations.

Over the years, many of us have consciously or unconsciously adopted this principle after realizing that, by changing our perspective, we might be able to better cope with our day-to-day problems. This perspective determines our reactions, our feelings, and ultimately our reality. What, then, is the actual reality around us?

Today, Kabbalists can state a principle that Jews concealed for thousands of years: that there is no reality at all, but something called His Essence, the Upper Force. This Force operates in such a way that one sees Him as an image of a certain reality, which we call my world.

We are all able to see and feel varying images and sensations depending on our sensory organs and inner properties. All our sensations are subjective and exist only with regard to our feelings.

However, because the sensory organs of non-human creatures would differ from ours, they would see the world as completely different from us. In fact, it is possible that another creature’s sensory organs would be so different from ours, it might exist in a different dimension without ever encountering us.

The closer one’s properties are to the properties of the Upper Force, the closer the 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 quality and bonds with the Upper Force, one learns to feel reality as it is. All of the above is mentioned only to emphasize that all our sensations are personal and might change in time.

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 the 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 any other way than by how He works on our sensory organs. Only through these sensations can we guess anything about the Creator.

Hence, the study of Kabbalah must be correctly directed; thoughts must be focused on studying the inner attributes that we are still unable to see in ourselves.

All the worlds, 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 degrees of attainment called Jerusalem, the Temple and more. Every word in the Torah speaks of our own forces and our levels of ability to sense the Creator.

That is the only topic of discussion of the Torah. That is also the only thing we speak of in our daily lives, because we talk about our feelings. In fact, all we feel is the influence of the Creator. Everything around us is no more than the influence of the Creator on each and every one of us.

Hence, to discern the actual picture of the world, we must find what we read inside us, as we read the Torah, because every written word exists within us—it just hasn’t been discovered.

We feel what the books speak of in accordance with our spiritual growth, hence the importance of 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 our spiritual ascent.

The best way to make progress is to study while remembering that these books actually speak of what is within me, that all this already exists somewhere inside me. All these worlds and Partzufim are things that I must discover within. They are my own properties.

The more we acquire control over these attributes, the more we will feel how the Creator operates inside us. Although we will never be able to feel Him outside us, we will understand how He operates inside us because, By your actions we know you.

And since we sit together as a group, studying our still-concealed real properties, we are collaborating in the study of how the Creator operates inside us. We have a common goal, a common thought, and one area of experimentation—our own feelings.

This results in a collective goal, thought, and desire that in time creates in the group the feeling of one body and common properties—a feeling that there are no separate entities, but only one, man, and before him, the One Creator.

This thought must be directed inwardly toward changing our qualities in search of the Creator within us. Instead of the ordinary reading of the Torah, we discover the Torah as a spice, as a means for correction. It is also called a potion of life, for it pours into us the sensation of the Creator, the Light of eternity and wholeness.

People who study from the wrong books are denied this remedy and remain with their properties. They do not discover the Creator, and their Torah becomes dry, concealing 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? This is because the Creator is inside us, the Source of the human self. Hence, no matter how many times we ask ourselves, Who am I? the 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.

The notion that everything we say and think, even when we speak of the Creator and ourselves, is the work of the Creator, is virtually impossible for us to perceive.

So where is the self? There is no self. The self is the work of nature, created by the Creator. The self clothes us, yet everything we do is actually His doing. The question, Who am I?" can only exist outside the Creator. We are different from the Creator only in wanting to resemble Him and to attain His degree.

The will to receive is essentially the desire of us creatures 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 one works according to nature’s guidance, one is like a beast that hasn’t even a spark of a Godly soul.

Only if our will to receive is clothed with an intention that monitors its use and corrects it, can we regard ourselves as creatures enlivened intentionally by the Creator, and not just another rock, animal or bird. But that depends on us.

Our desires to drink, eat, sleep, marry, and have children are natural and come from the Creator. We can’t escape or altogether change them. However, we can robe the will to receive with an aim and build a correct way to use that desire. The extent and depth of this aim depend solely on us. That is what we call, Creation. We must search for the right way to use our natures, our desires.

Nature comes from the Creator, and our job is to know how to use it. The point in the heart is the way we relate to our nature as given to us by the Creator, as well as 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 and divided by four degrees of desire: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (man). Man is the only degree that can use nature with a special, self-created aim. It is called the point in the heart.

The first phase is the fetus, the 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 Creator and overcome the differences that exist between the Creator and the creature.

Using this aim, we seemingly build the Creator within us, but all along we feel the self, because the self is really the Creator. By attaining the Creator and equalizing in form with Him, we attain our own unique self.

The Creator wants a Creation that can retain its independence even when it feels the Creator, seemingly producing 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 or becomes 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 creature’s purpose is to attain complete wholeness while retaining its nature. The Creator couldn’t have created an incomplete creature. He had to create a creature equal to Him. And the way to do it was by creating a creature and giving it the possibility of attaining 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 it doesn’t exist without the Creator, but the Creator cannot be called a Creator if there isn’t a creature, just as 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 does one find it if one doesn’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 knew what it was, and still wanted it, at least to a certain extent, things would have been easier.

But spirituality is purposely hidden from us. If we were to enter it 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 task.

In order to attain spirituality one must turn to the Creator with a special prayer to discover spirituality, not for self-gain, but for the will to bestow. After that, that desire to discover spirituality must be used correctly through the work with the group and the teacher.

Thus, there must first be a great desire for spirituality. It is not given as a choice, but extends from the Creator. There will come 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 one opens a book, the Creator seemingly steps away from the student, like a parent teaching an infant to walk. At first, the mother holds her baby, but she slowly backs off when the child begins stumbling 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 for me to realize my desires if I only rely on my feelings without any concrete basis.

When one attains spirituality, it is a different feeling altogether. We discover that our inner feelings arise from the actions of the Creator. We learn that 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 must act as we actually feel. On the one hand, we read inspiring essays that say, He is One and His name is One, but we still have to act according to our current levels of spirituality.

There is nothing missing in spirituality. For example, when an experience is over, it still remains, although it is no longer present in my current feeling. This 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.

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 one’s advancement within the impure system and acquires the aim to bestow. With this aim, one begins to correct the will to receive until reaching one’s Bar Mitzvah age (thirteen years old, a certain spiritual degree).

The Light comes from Above, depending on the correction of one’s desires, and fills the creature. This means that the soul—the Light of Correction—clothes the body (the will to receive). The soul, or 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 sufficient because she respects him.

Such reception is tantamount to pure bestowal. If man works in this way toward the Creator when receiving from Him, with the aim of bringing contentment to the Creator, it is 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 man willing to receive pleasure. The desire that the Creator created and the pleasure that He gives serve as a condition upon which the relationship with the Creator is based. Man agrees to receive from the Creator only if he is certain that he will please the Creator by receiving from Him.

However, 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 receiving for self-gratification and receiving 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 situations we go through over the 6,000 degrees move 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 attaining 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. An impure system is necessary to increase the will to receive, so that afterwards, using the aim to bestow, it will be filled with Light exactly according to its intensity.

CHAPTER 1.3

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL

Aperson 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, eagerness, and willingness to change that we can summon—a quest to discover the soul. The journey begins at the exact place where we felt our very first desire for spirituality, the point in the heart.

This point is the embryonic soul that demands our return to our spiritual roots. The soul is drawn to the Creator and takes us 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 to an unknown destination, even though it is still not a real soul. When we begin to work on our spiritual side, the point gradually expands and grows. However, it remains dark because we feel a greater and greater desire for something, hence the darkness.

When this point finally grows to the right size, we acquire a screen to surround it, the aim to give, and the Light enters this point. The Light sorts the desires in the point to five parts that 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 we in this world have only beastly and corporeal desires, then we live like everything else on earth. Our next state begins only when the point in the heart appears in us. Then, we begin to feel a mysterious attraction to spirituality that we cannot ease, even though we do not know what spirituality is.

If we study Kabbalah at that state, we cross the barrier and enter the spiritual world. This is the third situation. At that stage, a screen with Aviut Shoresh (root coarseness) replaces 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, the seeker wants nothing but to lie inside the maternal womb, inside a higher Partzuf that will raise the developing spiritual seeker. After that, the embryo takes nine months to develop its own nine Sefirot in Malchut, from Nefesh of Nefesh (Keter of Malchut) to Yechida of Nefesh (Malchut of Malchut).

At this point, the fetus 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 and lasts two years, or twenty-four months. In infancy, the Partzuf attains a state called Katnut, or Galgalta and Eynaim, a complete screen in first-degree coarseness. The infant is different from the embryo in that the embryo wants nothing, but the infant sucks the Light with its own independent desire, just as a baby 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, blood pours out; this blood is impure and cannot 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 Chazeh (chest), which is in the Sefira of Tifferet of the Partzuf.

Everything that happens in the spiritual world and every spiritual law automatically applies to our world. Thus, by studying the processes of impregnation, the evolution of the embryo, and labor, as well as the infancy and growth of the spiritual Partzufim, we can understand the processes that occur in our world and their origins.

The state following infancy is the state of Gadlut (adulthood). The Partzuf receives Mochin (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 governance under any circumstances. If we can do that, then we have attained a state called the spiritual embryo.

In a state of infancy, we can already make requests and have a dialog with the Creator. After two years of infancy, we need the guidance and 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 relationship in our world between mother and child. We can solve all the problems that arise in physical relationships by understanding 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 or desire for Him, and would never be able to advance.

If the soul of the First Man hadn’t been broken, it would have remained a single soul, uncorrected and with very little chance of correcting itself. The correction is the reunification of the broken pieces, after which the pieces can unite with the Creator.

Our work is basically to correct our approaches to what we receive from the Creator, and the consequence of that work is our unification with the Creator, the justification of His every move.

A group of students can attain total unification between themselves. Beginning from the preliminary state, they can build a framework that is comfortable for egoists. Such a framework would suit all those who come for the sole purpose of attaining connection with the Creator. No one should suffer because of this framework, and it need not be turned into a cage or a prison.

The framework should keep changing and improving, according to its members’ inner states, and it should always support the goal. The tighter and stronger the connection between the members of the group, the stronger the foundation for connecting with the Creator.

When we begin to advance spiritually, we actually lose the desire for it. It would be more correct to say that we are given additional egoism, with such a will to receive that we can no longer resist it. In that case, there is nothing we can do except continue to move our egoism from the corporeal to the spiritual level by studying and working with members of the group.

All our thoughts must be analyzed and marked as having come from the Creator. They must be catalogued and determined that they will not contradict our goals and aspirations. We must ask ourselves, Do I follow that thought or do I resist it? Is the Creator now 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 us closer to Him.

CHAPTER 1.4

THE AWAKENING OF THE POINT IN THE HEART

The study of the wisdom of Kabbalah is research into man’s relationship with the Creator. It explores man’s every thought, desire and in fact, the entire reality one attains with one’s senses. Even in our world, below the spiritual world, there are degrees of attainment. At the beginning of our preparation period for spirituality, we begin to understand the connections and relationships between spiritual properties, although this understanding cannot be compared with the actual sensation when spirituality is attained.

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 can therefore see and understand what Rabbi Shimon can.

This is how a degree gets its name, and when we ascend to it, we are called by that name. If we attain only a part of that degree, we are 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, attains its characteristics, and sees the Creator accordingly. By climbing higher, the pictures that were seen in the previous degree will change, as well.

It is not like a movie theatre playing 125 different films, one for each degree, because there is only the Simple Upper 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 call, 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 will 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 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 our varying personal experiences, although we agree about the appearance of things.

If we try to understand one another with our attributes or our will to receive, we only grow farther from each other. We can understand each other only through the attributes of the Creator that we will 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 within? The sin of the First Man was premeditated. He had to sin, to taste of the Tree of Knowledge, and mingle with the egoistic desires (vessels of reception) in order to create a complete mixture of the vessels of bestowal and the vessels of reception. Only afterwards would there be a gradual correction of the vessels of reception.

There seems to be no sin here because it was premeditated by the Creator. But in fact, there is still a breach of the rules, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Did Adam 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.

Even corruption in spirituality is no coincidence; everything is always done for one purpose—to correct egoism and unite it with altruism. If an altruistic spark, a vessel that appeared there at the moment of the sin of the First Man, were not in every egoistic desire, egoism would have been incorrigible and spiritual ascent made impossible. Thus, the First Man’s sin was a necessity.

We live in complete spiritual darkness. The Surrounding Light shines on the outside and awakens our egoism, our will to receive, yet cannot penetrate this 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 (reminiscences). But if we look from below, we find that the soul has three lines: right, left, and middle. 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 rules governing the hidden. We must move ahead with faith above reason, with the unknown pressing and encouraging us to strain to find the Creator and maintain constant contact with Him of our own choice.

But we and the Creator have opposite characteristics, and because of our 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 we begin to feel as a result of our egoism and our continuing 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, it will be impossible to perform any spiritual acts.

It is written that at the moment of one’s spiritual birth, one 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. This 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 beastly state and raise us to the spiritual.

These people may appear alike on the outside, but you can see the difference only when you have equivalence of spiritual attributes, when the point in the heart becomes a whole Partzuf. Sometimes such a point can remain dormant in the heart for many life cycles. If that point is absent, a person can study Kabbalah for years and be with a group, write everything down, and do everything necessary to attain spirituality, but to no avail.

Even if one joins a group to become a teacher and takes pride in the knowledge attained, if there is no inner desire for unification with the Creator, the group will spiritually reject this person. Thus, success in achieving spirituality depends on the presence of the point in the heart.

Rav Laitman asked his teacher if the point in the heart could be acquired if it wasn’t there to begin with. His teacher replied that if a person enters a group and sees that everything revolves around one desire—to find the Creator—and if that person sees others arriving from afar with only this objective, then, with the right books and the right teacher, the person without a point in the heart can pick up the general desire, even if the point has not yet been awakened.

However, it is known that an extremely strong desire can awaken the point in the heart. Even the Ari mentioned it.

In order for an individual to be included in the united desire of the group, that person must be in complete agreement with that desire. This is because even when this point does exist, its attributes vary 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 his 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, enabling us to study Kabbalah from below, meaning from the perspective of the vessels, the souls.

Ramak’s study method 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. Rav Laitman 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, our own future state. The lower degree is the creature in his current state. The degrees are like an accordion, opening up to us as we progress.

What is time? Is it a changing, living concept? And if so, 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. We continue to feel time just as long as we refuse to agree with the Creator about everything that happens to us. But time disappears after our complete correction, when nothing further needs to be changed and everything is at complete peace.

The root of time is the discovery of deficit and the need for correction. The First Restriction created an empty space intended for correction. The restriction happened because the desire, which is opposite to perfection, and the contradictions could not 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 was no time or space.

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 OF ATTAUBUBG SPIRITUALITY

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, we must make sure we are studying in the right path of instruction, otherwise the opposite result may be achieved: the more we study, the more we will feel righteous instead of feeling our own evil (which is the desired result). Feeling our own evil would make it easier for us: just imagine studying for several months, each month feeling that you are becoming meaner and meaner. Can you really call that sensation pleasant?

Not at all! However, this is the truth! If you keep feeling better about yourself, 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, although their outward appearance is the same. They consist of an entirely different spiritual substance, just as two computers can appear identical but use two different operating systems.

All religions rely on one’s efforts to receive rewards in this world and the next. A Kabbalist, however, can only give no significance to reward, striving instead to find Truth. Granted, 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 one’s quest for Truth, and then gradually loses interest. The reason for that will be explained in further detail in the study of reincarnation.

All the worlds (this world included) are states that reside within us. We will find them nowhere outside us. In other words, it is not we who are inside the worlds, but the worlds that are