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Introduction

Kabbalah has always been taught through books. The first books about Kabbalah were written thousands of years ago. Adam HaRishon (the First Man) wrote the book, “The Angel Raziel,” and Abraham the Patriarch wrote the book “ Sefer Yetzira” (Book of Creation). The Zohar was written some 1900 years ago.

All of these books are still for sale today. Through them, we can study the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The principal, fundamental book that we study by is called “ Talmud Eser HaSefirot” (The Study of the Ten Sefirot). It consists of six volumes and more than 2000 pages that depict the laws of the system of creation in scientific terms. When we study them, we receive a special illumination, a special Providence from Above.

Even if we still do not understand a single word we read, even if we haven’t got a clue about the spiritual world, approaching the Creator begins from the very first lesson. But we can only learn by studying from books, or listening to the recorded lessons-there is no other method.

When Kabbalists write books, they have already reached a certain spiritual level. When we read the books, wanting to somehow come in contact with that world from which the Kabbalist wrote, we are enfolded in an illumination from that place. We do not feel it, but it slowly prepares us for the phase when we begin to feel more and more of what the books describe.

This is how one enters the spiritual world. Of course, it is not as simple as I present it – there is a whole system here, involving studying specific articles and lessons and following a specific syllabus.

The system of creation is everything around us, both perceived and imperceived. Our emotions contain what we perceive in our five senses, and what we cannot feel today; however, we will feel in the “sixth sense”- an additional sense that will be developed in us in the future. We call that information “the system of creation.”

Our fathers had a much closer connection with the Upper World than we do. However, once we do go into the spiritual world, we will obtain a stronger and more effective bond because we are more selfish, more evolved and more corrupt. Precisely because of that combination, we have a chance to turn the evil into good, experience deeper feelings in our world, and reach places our fathers never could.

In the beginning, they were closer to spirituality than we are because they were less egoistic. Moreover, we have drifted so much farther from spirituality than they did, that if we did come back to it now, we would have to go that much deeper into the system of creation.

The Goal

Q: Why do Kabbalists such as the holy Ari, Rabbi Kook and Rabbi Ashlag maintain that it is necessary for any person to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, regardless of age, sex, or nationality?

A: The reason studying Kabbalah is important is that there is a great power in the study of Kabbalah that can be of benefit to everyone.

When we study Kabbalah, even if we do not understand anything we study, but seek only to understand, we awaken within us an influence of the Upper Light.

In one of our lives, we must attain the completion of our souls. If we do not achieve this, through the Upper Light, our torments will gradually increase until they finally make us realize the reason for our pain. It is our souls’ need to reclaim the Light that filled it before it came down to our world.

The soul of man starts its existence in the world of Ein Sof. It then descends through five higher worlds, before finally clothing our physical bodies. Those worlds are: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. The result of the descent is that we are completely dependent on the components and characteristics of that spiritual system. Thus, we must study that system in order to function according to its laws, instead of roaming blindly through our world, beaten time and again but not knowing why.

The principal law of that system is “altruism.” It acts whether we are aware of it or not, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Disobeying that law produces disasters and tragedies, both individual and collective.

That law is not canceled, although we are stopped as soon as we break it. We will only be able to understand when and how that law works by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. If we do not use that information, we are headed for disaster.

Q: Who can study Kabbalah?

A: Anyone can study it who relentlessly asks, “What is the meaning of my life?” Kabbalah can be studied only from an inner need, not through coercion. There are ups and downs in one’s desire for spirituality. This explains why sometimes one begins to study, and later leaves satiated. It is possible that the same person will return with the same question as before, but this time from another level of development altogether.

Q: How can we know that we are now ready to study Kabbalah?

A: When Rabbi Kook was asked who was permitted to study Kabbalah, he replied: “Anyone who wants to.” If a person really wants to, it is a sign that one is ready. If not, studies should not commence.

We will continue to reincarnate into this world until we decide to study Kabbalah and attain the necessary knowledge to understand and work with the system of creation. This is regarded as the highest degree, the last degree that any person, any soul can and eventually must attain in this life or the next. The method of Kabbalah prepares a person to enter the Upper World with knowledge and powers, without harming self or others. One enters the spiritual world only by the extent of one’s correction.

Consequently, there cannot be a situation where a person enters prematurely and inflicts damage. The measure of correction is the measure of the penetration to the Upper World, and the degree of cooperation with Providence.

What to Study and How

Q: What exactly do you learn in Kabbalah? Is it only about the aim, or is it a real “academic study?”

A: Kabbalah is a very real and accurate system, by which a person begins to gradually feel the Creator in mind and heart, to a greater extent than we feel our current environment. The Creator is sensed a lot more clearly, without any self-deception, and through controlled and systematically repeated actions.
Kabbalah is subject to all the requirements that exact sciences are subject to - you can measure emotions and translate them to numbers, you can conduct experiments, repeat them and transfer the acquired knowledge to others. Because of all that, Kabbalah is regarded as a science.

We use everything we’re given in this world freely. We do not feel where and from whom it comes. If we were to feel the Giver, even slightly, we would instantly receive a different sensation, a different position, and a different relationship with anything or anyone.

That would immediately place us in a completely different situation. Our whole problem is the absence of the sensation of the Creator. That is why the single most important goal in our world is to feel the existence of the Creator, to establish some sort of contact with Him.

After that, contact will become much easier. When you attain even a little bit of the sensation of the Creator, you hang on to it, and can return again and again to deepen and broaden it.

Once you have achieved the ability to turn to the Creator, you can comprehend the kind of response you will get. This is what is meant by the phrase, “One’s soul tutors one.” This means that man is led by his own soul, and his own feelings tell him how he should proceed.

But before attaining this, one needs the meticulous guidance of a teacher, a group and books. One also needs to trust others who have already achieved that state.

A Way of Life

Q: How long is a course in Kabbalah?

A: The wisdom of Kabbalah is a science and a way of life that enables us to live correctly. How long does it take to learn how to live correctly? That depends on the soul. But when we begin to study, we soon feel that we can no longer do without it, because life without it is so strange and narrow that without connecting it to the Upper World, to the soul, and to eternity, life loses its meaning.

When we begin to feel like that, it is no longer possible to detach ourselves from Kabbalah and remain confined to our world.

The Kabbalistic Approach

Q: How many methods are there for the study of Kabbalah and which is the most efficient for our time?

A: Generally speaking, there were two systems in the study of Kabbalah: one was called the “Kabbalah of the RAMAK” (Rabbi Moshe Kordoviro); the other is the “Kabbalah of the Ari.”

The first was in use until the 16th century, when at the beginning of that century, the Kabbalah of the Ari was established. The Ari described it in his books, and all the Kabbalists after him followed in his footsteps. Baal HaSulam is strictly a Kabbalist of the system of the Ari Known as Lurianic Kabbalah.

The souls that descended to our world before the Ari were from the “old type.” But from his time on, there was a drastic change in the souls that descended, and some of them began to demand spiritual elevation.

Q: Is it possible to change the future through Kabbalah?

A: The Kabbalah is meant for precisely that purpose.

Study Requirements

Q: Can I study Kabbalah by myself?

A: Studying without a teacher is impossible. The teacher should set a spiritual example, explain about the spiritual structure, how it works, how to approach it and how to raise ourselves to it.

Teachers should also explain how we can lift ourselves to a higher spiritual degree and how to control that spiritual level. There has never been a case in history when someone rose without assistance. It was always a case of a rabbi and a disciple working together.

I myself searched for many years before I found my rabbi.

Q: How important is it to choose your teacher in Kabbalah?

A: This is a routine question that I hear often. “How will you prove to me that you are the teacher that I need?” This is a very good and just question. It is your life, it was given to you just once and you want to make the most of it. But there is nothing I can tell you. How can I prove to you that I am better than anybody else?

The Kabbalah has a very simple answer: one should study where one’s heart desires, where one feels one belongs. It is not a place that you are being persuaded to think is your place, or that you’re pushed toward. When you detach yourself from persuasions, from anything external, from your upbringing and from everything that you have heard in your entire life, and feel in your heart that it is the place for you, then you should stay. That is the only test!

Q: How much does group study accelerate the spiritual progress of a person who studies alone?

A: Millions of times. A person who studies alone can only use one’s own vessel to receive the Light of the Creator, meaning spirituality. People who study in a group, even if they sometimes argue, create a kind of spiritual vessel that consists of all the participants, and everyone begins to enjoy its illumination. Let us assume that there are ten participants. The illumination that is received is not ten times as much as a single individual can receive, but millions of times stronger.

The reason is the incorporation, meaning the soul of each and every one of the participants consists of 620 parts, with each part joining the others. The mixture of the parts together creates one collective vessel.

Q: What – if any – effect does language have on the study?

A: Kabbalah can be studied in any language. But Hebrew is the natural language because the Jews are the group that should lead humanity to spirituality. They are the descendants of Abraham, the first Jew, the first to have crossed the barrier and entered the land of Israel. This is why he is called a Hebrew ( Ivri, from the word Over), and his language was Hebrew.

Most Kabbalists wrote in Hebrew because they were the heirs of Abraham, meaning his sons, his children. But in principle, Kabbalah is a study about the creation of the world and can be expressed in any language.

Q: Can Kabbalah be taught in other languages besides Hebrew?

A: If you open the Zohar, you will see that it is written in Aramaic. Aramaic was the spoken language in ancient Persia and the everyday language of Mesopotamia. Therefore, the Zohar was written in the language that was then the most prevalent.

At that time, Israel was under Greek occupation, which is why there are quite a few Greek words in the Zohar , which remained as Kabbalistic terms and names, like Italian words in music.

It makes no difference in what language we study Kabbalah, because when we attain insights about the surrounding world, we attain the emotional form and discover that there are no words, letters or sounds in that form. Even when we feel something in our world, we do not feel it in words and cannot always find the right words to express what we feel.

Words are completely external clothing; their sole purpose is to convey information. This can be done in several ways, which is why language itself has no meaning. Knowledge can be conveyed in English, Russian or any other language, even though the writers of the Kabbalah wrote in Aramaic, Hebrew and some Greek. There are also Kabbalah books in Arabic, and Kabbalists in the middle ages wrote in ancient French.

Again, a language is only an outer dressing to help convey information.

Q: Can a gentile study Kabbalah?

A: Anyone who is interested can study Kabbalah. Kabbalah books have been available for everyone’s scrutiny for thousands of years. You can go into any store and purchase any book you want on Kabbalah. No one will ask who you are.

No secrets are taught in Kabbalah. The wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of the hidden,” not because it is secret in and of itself, but because it reveals things that were hidden before we began to study. It reveals everything that surrounds us.

However, the wisdom of Kabbalah is comprised of two parts: “flavors of the Torah” and “secrets of the Torah.” The flavors of the Torah investigate the structure of the spiritual worlds, man’s soul, and how one should correct oneself. Everyone is permitted to study that part. This material is written about in books of Kabbalah sold all over the world and translated into English, Russian and other languages. Anyone can learn the flavors of the Torah.

The “secrets of the Torah” is the hidden part of the Torah. Nothing is written about it in any book. That part is taught only after a person has acquired the flavors of the Torah, attained the structure of the spiritual worlds as well as one’s own completely, and recognized and partaken of the process of creation.

A person who has attained that level, where physical life and death do not exist, sees the entire process from beginning to end and is above our world. Then the secrets open up like innermost fountains, and we understand the laws that are at the basis of that system. Before that, we will not understand the meaning of those secrets, even if we heard or saw them.

Q: Can you explain Kabbalah to the non-Jews by using general terms, without using the terms of Kabbalah?

A: There’s no reason to explain or refrain from explaining anything. Our goal is to make the books of Kabbalah and all the knowledge about it accessible for everyone, all over the world. In principle, gentiles should come to Kabbalah in masses only after the Jews do, but if there are those among them who’ve already ripened, they’ll follow the same path as Jews. After all, Kabbalah is a method for connecting with the Creator, who is unique. A gentile who walks toward the Creator is called “Jewish,” and a Jew who doesn’t is called a “gentile.”

Q: What is the best age to start studying Kabbalah?

A: There is no age limit for the study of Kabbalah. I have a student who is eighty years old, and I have students who have just finished high school. When you study, there are no differences between age or origin. The soul doesn’t make such discriminations.

Women Studying Kabbalah

Q: Are women allowed to study Kabbalah?

A: The holy Ari said that everyone could study the wisdom of Kabbalah, provided they have the desire. A desire is when a person feels an inner need to answer the question, “What am I living for?”

If such a desire does not give us peace of mind, then we must study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah exists only for that. Rabbi A.Y. Kook was once asked, “Who could study Kabbalah?” He replied simply: “Anyone who wants to.” If there is a real desire, that person will study Kabbalah.

Q: Is there a different curriculum for women?

A: There is no discrimination in spirituality. Women, like men, must attain adhesion with the Creator, the highest degree in creation. But women study differently from men, and so are the ways in which women can approach the Creator.

Q: Can any woman rise to the spiritual world, and if so, to what degree?

A: Yes, any woman can, and no less than a man, provided she has the desire from Above and the devotion from below, the exact same requirements as for men.

Q: Is it the will of the Creator that women will study Kabbalah?

A: Every soul should reach its destiny. All souls should reach equivalence of form with the Creator and become a part of Him, male and female souls alike.

Men and Women

Q: Is there a difference in the study of Kabbalah between men and women?

A: No. Man or woman, it doesn’t matter. Women must also develop spiritually. The only difference lies in the method. The beginning of the learning process is the same. That is why in our introductory courses there is no difference between the method provided for men and for women.

Later on, if a person goes deeper into the study of the actual Kabbalah, the difference in the method becomes apparent. Men and women begin to feel the world differently, because men and women are indeed two different worlds and have a different perception of creation.

Inner Listening

Q: I’ve begun to take an interest in Kabbalah. I want to start studying, but I’m told it’s dangerous. What exactly is the danger in studying Kabbalah?

A: A great many people tried to deter me from Kabbalah: they were religious, secular, Jews and non-Jews alike, and strangers and relatives. I tried to fight the craving to know the purpose of my life, and I couldn’t picture a day when I could get up in the morning without asking the same haunting question over and over again. I couldn’t imagine a peaceful, thoughtless day, where I could sit down quietly and enjoy my life…
If there’s no cure for it, it’s like a curse. But the cure exists. If you feel that question burning in your gut, leaving you restless, you might be losing precious time listening to the advice of others and living by their reason, because ultimately you’ll go back to what your soul craves.

“A person learns from his soul,” so listen to yourself and you’ll know what it is you want. If you can rise above the level of those who advise against study, there is nothing that can stop you. Sooner or later you’ll come to Kabbalah. I suggest that you read Introduction to The Book of Zohar.

Readiness for Kabbalah

Q: Should I rush to study Kabbalah?

A: When a person truly wants something, that person goes out and does it. Therefore, if your soul is ready for ascension, you’ll study Kabbalah. And if your soul is not yet ready, you’ll remain for awhile on the outskirts of Kabbalah and after some time you’ll drift away from it and go on ripening elsewhere.
Keep in mind that you do not find Kabbalah on your own, you are brought here from above…

Kabbalah Prohibition

Q: My friends suggested that I don’t study Kabbalah. They said it was too soon for me. Why do they think that?

A: Before the 1920s, people did not need to study Kabbalah. Only a chosen few studied in each generation. They received a desire to attain the Upper Reality, the Creator, from above. At the end of the exile, with the reacquisition of the land of Israel after the holocaust, the last era began. It was a return by equivalence of root and branch, a return to the corporeal land of Israel, and at the same time, a return to the spiritual land of Israel. That is why the prohibition of the study of Kabbalah, set up by the Kabbalists themselves, has been completely lifted in our time.

However, people who are completely ignorant of Kabbalah still advocate the old approach, and cannot see that everything has changed in our world. Now there is a comprehensive change in our entire reality. You might say that if, until recently, Providence was dictated from Above, then from our time onward, Providence demands our conscious participation, made by our own choice.

If earlier we were still passive in the process, now we are compelled to partake in the process. The only condition is that we show a desire to partake in the leadership. Otherwise, the Spiritual Force will force us to want it.

There is not a quiet place left on earth. No one will be calm anywhere, especially the Jewish people, because the spiritual law that takes us to the center of creation affects the Jews first.

We are the first who must join in the leadership, and all the peoples will follow us. But it is the other peoples who feel that push, and the Creator urges us through them. It is not to our advantage that we are being struck without understanding why. If we begin to realize the reason for the blows, our situation will improve because then we will know what it is we must do.

Q: Why were we forbidden to study Kabbalah for such a long time?

A: There was no need to study Kabbalah before the return to the land of Israel. The Kabbalists themselves decided on these laws and it was they who hid the books. Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, for example, hid The Book of Zohar and it remained hidden until many centuries later. The same holds true regarding the writings of the Ari. When he died, all his writings were buried along with him. It was not until three generations later that new texts were dug out of his grave and handed over for print.

Kabbalists have hidden the wisdom of Kabbalah since the ruin of the second temple until our days, and passed the information only to a very few.

But now, the exile is over and we have been brought back to Israel. Now we must reacquire the spiritual degree we have lost with the ruin of the second temple. Its loss led to the ruin of the temple and the exile, and only by reacquiring it can we be reestablished here.

Prerequisites

Q: Do I have to study the Pentecost and the other scriptures before I begin to study Kabbalah?

A: You don’t have to study anything before you begin to study Kabbalah, because Kabbalah is “contact with the Creator.” A person who wants to study Kabbalah is like an infant emerging wet and naked from its mother’s womb. What would an infant need to know at that point? When we want to learn about the Upper World, we do not need anything that we learned in this world, because it is the Upper World we wish to enter.

In order to be interested in Kabbalah, you don’t need any preconditions other than finding the right sources of information.

Anyone Can Study Kabbalah

Q: Everyone knows that before you start studying Kabbalah you need very serious preparation. It is said that before one studies Kabbalah one must also be proficient in Torah, forty years old or more, and so on. The Book of Zohar can only be studied with at least one other person, say a disciple and his rabbi. Which should I choose?

A: Bans regarding the study of the Kabbalah existed only until the time of the Ari. Kabbalists themselves enforced them because the souls did not yet need the Kabbalah to progress toward the purpose of creation. But since the time of the Ari (end of the 16th century), he himself and other Kabbalists have lifted the ban that they had set up. It was done because souls have reached such a level of development that they’ve begun to feel within them the need for spiritual, exalted content.
The time of barbarism has ended. Millions of people are beginning to feel the need for the wisdom of the Kabbalah, and those who are worthy will study it. You cannot stop this process. The desire of the entire creation toward the Creator is the very basis of nature, and now it is becoming evident.

Because man’s desire is the force that determines his development, if a person wants to study, it indicates readiness mentally and spiritually, and no ban can stop that person from studying.

We should use the very means that we were born with to approach the Creator, and believe that in each given moment, the means that are at our disposal are the very best there are. Despite that, we must never stop searching for better ones.

Kabbalah is an understanding of the Creator, of the purpose of creation, a revelation of the Upper Light (within you, in your emotions), by changing your intentions. It is much like the Torah, in the sense that it, too, is not a historical tale, but a description of the universe and a method to understand the Creator.

In Kabbalah, concepts such as “forbidden” or “impossible” actually mean, “it cannot be done.” For example, when it was said that it is forbidden to see the Creator, it means that it is forbidden to receive Light in order to please yourself.

Therefore, the words, “forbidden to study Kabbalah” actually mean, “It cannot be studied because of a lack of will.” The statement is still correct today as far as the general public is concerned, but the souls that descend to our world today reach such a level of spiritual development that all their thoughts and earthly desires become aspirations for the Creator.

When that happens, we will say that we are “permitted to study Kabbalah” because we have reached a developed enough desire for it.

Q: Does a person have to be religious in order to study Kabbalah?

A: No, anyone can study. If the Creator gives us the desire, we will begin to feel a new attitude toward life, toward the people around us, toward ourselves.

Our genuine development from matter to spirit should evolve gradually, to the extent that we understand the world we live in. The more we discover the meanness and corruption in our world, the more we will be ready for an inner change. The law of the Upper World defines it in the words: “There is no coercion in spirituality.”
Only the Creator can change our desires and intentions, so if we study diligently, the change will come.

The Study Method

Q: You write that the first phase in the study of Kabbalah is to read as much versatile theoretical material as possible. If during reading questions arise, should I continue reading, or stop until the material has fully“sunk in?” If I feel fatigue or lack of will to continue the study, must I push myself to study the full amount planned? Should I set up a strict schedule and stick by it, or take into consideration the difficulties that arise from time to time?

A: If you’re in the initial stages of the study, you should read a lot, but only what you can understand. Read a lot and don’t stop. Avoid difficult parts because what you can understand easily now will help you later understand the harder parts.
In fact, it’s actually good to study when you feel you’re not in the mood for it. At such times, it is best to study the structure of the worlds. There can be great benefits to studying“against yourself,” and against your current mood.

For example, if I’m in despair, I should read about yearning for the Creator. We have to experience all the emotions. After all, we are built from combinations of all the feelings and attributes that exist in the world. In Kabbalah you experiment on yourself.

The learning material in Kabbalah is divided in two:

1.A study of the creation of the worlds, the Partzufim and the Sefirot, the concatenation of the degrees of the concealment of the Creator. That part is crucial to the understanding of the system of creation and its activity. It is studied in the following order: “Preface to the wisdom of the Kabbalah,” The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” selected sections of the Zohar (Idra Raba, Idra Zuta, Safra DeTzni’uta) and The Tree of Life. This material must be studied systematically, regardless of your inner state.

2.The ascent of the soul through the degrees of the spiritual worlds from below upward. Man must read and reread freely the parts that are of most interest. These are studied through the articles and the letters. They were not written in the same language as “The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” but in the language of emotion, ethics, analysis of actions and so on. It is not really the wisdom of Kabbalah, but how it is used for the ascent of the soul. You’ll read about it in the books of Baal HaSulam, Rabash, as well as in my own books. The study is comprised of an acquaintance with the material, meaning a systematic scan of the material in order to be able to find references, since people who study Kabbalah for the purpose of spiritual ascent are under perpetual changes, and must pick the material they read according to the state they’re in at that moment.

Contemporary Study Books

Q: Why do we study only, or mostly, the Zohar, the writings of the Ari and the writings of the Ashlags?

A: Because these are actually one writer, one soul that reincarnated from the first man, through Abraham, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, the Ari and finally, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. It is a soul that came down only to show humanity the path for correction. Although there are Kabbalists who know more, they were not given permission to write books meant to teach and correct people, especially not the newcomers to the spiritual path.
Thousands of books have been written throughout the history of Kabbalah, but my rabbi instructed me to study and teach only through these sources:

• The writings of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai

• The writings of the Ari

• The writings of Baal HaSulam

I advise all of you to start studying these sources. Later on, when you have absorbed the material, you’ll be able to understand other writers. This will give you a solid basis from which to examine other sources to see if they suit you as well.

By no means do I devalue other sources. Many of the Kabbalists were at an even higher degree than Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai or the Ari. However, they were not permitted to write, or if they were permitted, it was with minor implications that were meant for those who were already in the Upper Worlds.

Q: The articles that we study rely a great deal on the Ladder commentary. What is the Ladder commentary?

A: Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) named his commentaries on the Zohar “The Sulam” (Ladder), because reading it helps one in our world climb the ladder toward the Creator, spanning every degree in between. That is the purpose of creation.
Note that the Zohar commentaries can be understood only after studying all the introductions, the most important of which is the “Preface to the wisdom of Kabbalah.”

Too Much Study

Q: Can Kabbalah drive someone insane? Can over-exploring Kabbalah have a negative effect on a person with strong emotional responses?

A: No, this is impossible if you study correctly. The learning consists of two parts: reading essays and letters of Kabbalists and the study of the science itself: the structure of the system of creation. Those two must be studied following a certain ratio, in order to sustain their balance in man.

Superfluous Sources

Q: I feel confused by your principle of restricting alternative sources. If I understand you correctly, all beginners are strongly recommended to use only a number of selected sources. But the book “Al Pi Sod” states that absolutely everything points to the Creator, whether it’s the Psalms, Agadot, Tanya, the literal Torah, even mathematics and physics, our daily life routine or even Buddhism. Everything is seen in a new way, reminding us of the Creator.

Why is“superfluous material” out of bounds?

A: Although everything in the world does point to the Creator, we are unable to see it. In order to see, we must know the right direction, have a correct approach to reality, and learn the fundamentals of the universal design and the rules of its development, its goal, and the limitations of our perception.

Once this is accomplished, we may“travel” anywhere, though we will lose interest in such travels, since we’ll immediately discover the limitations of other approaches to life compared with that of Kabbalah. We will see that everything else is just common psychology devised by ordinary people, not by Kabbalists.

Genuine texts such as the Psalms can be read today, but one should try to interpret them in view of the Kabbalah, since this is what David intended while writing them.

Knowledge and Attainment

Q: It is natural for man to aspire to knowledge. Why, then, has he not satisfied that aspiration over thousands of years?

A:The aspiration to know is wonderful, although it mustn’t be an aspiration for knowledge alone, but rather for attainment: in order to attain the studied material from within you, on your own flesh, to discover who my “self” is and where within me lie the matters the books write about. After all, everything that’s written there is written from “within,” from personal attainment.
Therefore, when we read books about Kabbalah, the authors speak to us from exactly the degree they are describing. There is no “time” in spirituality. As the greatest Kabbalist of our time, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag says, “…but out of the great desire and yearning to understand what they are studying, they awaken upon themselves the lights that surround their souls” (Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, item 155).

Out of a great desire to attain what they are studying, the readers awaken in themselves a surrounding Light from the same spiritual degrees they’re reading about.

The Intent During the Study

Q: You always recommend reading more. But how is a person who simply reads different from another who is interested in philosophy and mysticism, or one who wants the title, “professor of Kabbalah?” Such people do not make even a single step forward in spirituality.

A: Logically speaking, you’re right. But the problem is that a person cannot force the right intent on himself. That aim should come from the heart, provided the heart really wants it. This will occur if there is a need to attain something higher, if your soul has developed to the point where it needs the Creator and not the material things in this world.

Only the soul can sense its true desires. We ourselves do not feel it. We may think that a certain desire is burning within, and actually be deluding ourselves.

Yet the soul is what will finally lead us to our goal, as it has led us thus far. It is not through our wisdom or conscious thought that we have come to aspire to the Upper Light.

In order to develop the necessary attributes for growth within, it is advised that “Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength that do.” This means, do everything you can to absorb as much material as possible. Read, even if only to enrich your knowledge and brag to your friends about it. In time, the sheer quantity of your studies will bear fruit.

This is also true regarding the first stage of your studies. In order to absorb as much as possible, it is all right to lie to yourself and set goals, specifying self-benefit. But afterwards you will realize that the result depends on the quality of the material, meaning your approach and your intentions. That is why it says, “the Light in it reforms.”

Q: I don’t have any desire to give, but I know that it’s probably within me. How do I awaken it? Do I have to give up something very dear in order to attain it?

A: By no means should you do so! That would only be an egoistic measure from within you. The only way to elevate yourself spiritually is to awaken the influence of spiritual degrees upon you, study with the right aim in mind, and help circulate the Kabbalah. Start, and you’ll see how this simple act will change you.

Inner Understanding

Q: How do we attain the acts of the Creator? Do we understand in our hearts or in our minds?

A: Anything we attain and speak of is what we attain within ourselves. What we hear, see and feel are not external objects, but our own responses to those objects. When we attain the Creator, we realize that nothing really changes outside us. Only we change inwardly, and we relate to those inner changes as external ones.

Kabbalah is a study of how to sense the Creator. You cannot understand Kabbalah with your mind. It’s been said, “Wisdom in the gentiles--believe; Torah in the gentiles--do not believe.”

Torah is a Light from Above revealed only to those who have corrected their physical desires to enjoy for their own delight and have acquired a screen that can perform Zivug DeHakaa (spiritual coupling) with the Upper Light.

People make every effort to absorb everything around them and take in as much as they can with as little effort as possible. In such a state, we experience only our internal responses, as complete egoists. But when we succeed in restricting our intentions to please ourselves, we begin to want to please the Creator, to feel what is outside us without the aim for ourselves. We begin to feel what is outside us because our desire is for something outside us.

Then, to the extent that we want“not for ourselves,” we feel the Light of the Creator. To the extent that we get to know the Creator, we feel a desire to give to Him, which results in the buildup of a reciprocal bond between man and the Creator.

The extent of the revelation of the Creator is called a “degree.” In man’s emotions, these degrees are organized in five groups called “worlds.” These are the measurements of the discovery and concealment of the Creator.

Senses Beyond Reason and Thought

Q: Is it enough to use reason and logic in order to understand Godliness?

A: No reason in the world will help us understand spirituality, because it is above our reason and our minds. This is why we can’t feel it. Our senses can only examine things they can grasp and analyze, a knowledge that we generally refer to as “this world.”
In order to feel the Upper World we must acquire other senses, which we call a “screen.” Only with a screen can we feel what is above us, beyond our material sensation, which our natural senses cannot detect.

When we are able to sense the upper World, we also receive a different mind and a different reason. First, we get the wisdom and the reason of the Upper World. Only then do we begin to feel it. The only way to acquire a screen is through the wisdom of Kabbalah.

A Good Sign of Progress

Q: When I was studying the system of the worlds, I got to the point of the creation of Malchut and the first restriction. After that, I stopped understanding and I can’t make any more progress.

A: It is actually a good sign if you cannot understand the simplest things. It means that your soul demands to be filled with the sensation of the Creator. This suppresses the need for intellectual understanding. As a result, you do not fill up your brain because your soul will not let you!

However, without a screen, the soul cannot be filled up either. As a result, one tries to learn but can’t understand anything. In fact, this is a good sign that shows one’s inner demand for spiritual development.

Those whose souls do not motivate them toward inner sensations, but toward knowledge, study well and gain a tremendous amount of knowledge. However, their souls remain empty. At the same time, their knowledge is revealed to be shallow; they don’t understand the inner processes because the Creator made a vessel of desire, not a vessel of understanding, so knowledge of Kabbalah can stem only from emotional scrutiny.

Desire, not Talent

Q: Can a person with limited talent advance in spiritual degrees by oneself, or does one need additional help?

A: In the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot (“Breaking the Iron Wall”), Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes that, unlike a business that demands skills, memory, technical abilities, agility, rhythmic sense, and strength, the study of Kabbalah demands no talent, because all the talents are attributes of the body that is in this world. In other words, these attributes pertain to the nature of this world, which are not involved in attaining the Upper One.
There must be an initial desire for the Creator. If it’s there, you need nothing more! If you have been endowed with such a desire, the whole process is in your hands from that moment on, because all the forces you need are already in your soul. All it takes is to develop them, and that’s your work.

It is in your power to do so because your unique body was created specifically to allow you to attain the purpose of creation. Therefore, no one can say that they were incapable, that circumstances prevented them from attaining the goal for which they were born in this world.

If You Study, You’ll Get Wiser

Q: Will the study of the Kabbalah increase my intelligence?

A: A person’s desires are very small at birth. Then they begin to develop to a slight degree. How much these desires develop determines how much the mind develops. The brain can develop only to the extent that it must in order to satisfy our desires.

But when we embark on the study of Kabbalah, our desires grow and we become more and more egotistical, and therefore smarter.

But there is no need to worry: when you study, you will get everything you need for your development from Above. You will actually feel something new within you—a gift from the Creator.

When the Goal Disappears, Continue Moving Forward

Q: Why is it that after years of studying Kabbalah, the goal of life becomes “routine?” Those special thoughts seem to disappear, and it sometimes feels as if there is no movement or attainment. Sometimes the goal itself disappears. Is this a temporary state?

A: Yes, this is temporary. In fact, it is when we feel absolute emptiness, which occurs only when we strive for attainment with all our might, that we make real progress.

Our struggle may be made under the most desperate of situations and after years of disappointments and perpetual reawakening of aspirations for the goal. Then, gradually, it becomes clear that only the Creator can change our situations.

However, such a situation can occur only by total devotion despite the fact that the shells, meaning the egoistic desires to enjoy the Light of the Creator, constantly tell him that he can still do things by himself. Only then, and without any warning, comes the help of the Creator, like a dream come true, at the least expected moment.

Here is what Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes in his book, Pri Hacham - Igrot Kodesh, page 161: “… There is no happier moment in a man’s life than the moment he finds himself in complete desperation with his own strength, meaning when he has already toiled and done everything he possibly could by himself, but found no remedy.

Because then he is worthy of an honest prayer for His help, for he knows for certain that his own work will bring him nothing, and as long as he feels that he has some strength of his own, his prayer is not complete. That is because the evil inclination always puts itself first and tells him that he must first do anything that is in his power, and only then will the Lord welcome him.

It’s been written in that regard: “The Lord is high and the low will see” (Psalms 138, 6). This is because, once man has toiled in all sorts of works to no avail, he becomes truly low. He knows he is the lowest of men; that there is nothing good about his body, and then his prayer is sincere and His generous Hand answers him.

The writing refers to this as follows: “and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry rose up to God….” (Exodus 2, 23), because at that time, Israel was desperate from the work, as he who draws water from the well in a punctured bucket. He draws water all day long and still has not a drop of water with which to soothe his thirst. So were the sons of Israel in Egypt; everything they built was buried right there in the ground.

So it is with those who have not attained His love. Everything they do for the purification of their souls the day before, is lost entirely today, and each moment and each day they must start anew as though they had never done anything in their life. And then, “The children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage” because they clearly saw that they were incapable of ever benefiting from their work. That is why their cry was complete, and thus rose up to God. God hears all prayers, but He waits for the sincere one.

In fact, anything, small or large, is attained only through prayer, and we work and toil only to discover our lack of strength and our lowness, that we are worthy of nothing on our own. Only then can we pray an honest prayer to Him.

We cannot simply declare that we are not worthy of anything and therefore should not trouble ourselves with toil. There is a rule in nature that there is none wiser than he who is experienced, and without trying to do what we can, we cannot achieve true lowness in the required measure.

Therefore, we must toil in purification and holiness, as our sages say: “Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength, that do.” Understand this, for it is most profound.

I have not revealed that truth to you in order to weaken your heart, and you must not give up on mercy. Although you cannot yet see a thing, when the work is done, then is the time for prayer.

And until that point, believe in our sages who said, “You toiled but haven’t found, do not believe.” And when the work is done, your prayer will be complete and the Lord will respond generously, as our sages said, “You labored and found, believe.” Before this, you are not worthy of the prayer, and the Lord hears only the prayer.”

Thoughts and Feelings that Result From the Study

Q: You say that the most important thing is to attain the screen. I try to attain it day and night. I’ve become indifferent to the pain, but still I suffer.

A:Let me relate first to the screen that you’re“growing” on your own. The screen is born and develops in us without any intent on our part, because we don’t know what it is. All the new things that appear in us are solely the direct result of our studies. We cannot know what should appear in us the next minute. It will always be something new and unfamiliar, so how can we know about it in advance? How can we anticipate it?
“New” means something from a higher degree than my current one. Therefore a screen cannot be cultivated intentionally.

Your lack of joy from your environment is a temporary state. Keep studying and your alienation from society will soon be replaced by the opposite situation: you’ll feel that there are more pleasures around you than you ever felt before. Then, you’ll discover within you a greater will to receive than before, and it will happen in order to give you something to correct.

My advice to you is to read a lot, and only the material that I suggest you read, those parts that your heart desires. Divide the study between the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (with the drawings), and articles and letters. Do not prefer one study to the other.

In the morning, before work, study the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah for an hour. Before you go to bed, read the letters and articles that speak of internal work.

Your moods will change many times along the way. It is a natural thing and it shows you’re making progress. You have a lot of feeling ahead of you, but you are making an encouraging start. The articles you’ll read will show you that your feelings and thoughts are typical of one who is making progress.

Run by Yourself

Q: You tell us to read our books in order to reach our correction. Is that all we have to do? This way it could take a million years before I reach the Upper World!

A: If you study the material correctly, you’ll soon find that many tiny changes happen within you. You’ll find you are being led, that there’s a soul within you, and that something affects it from the outside.
You’ll find that your soul and the Light of the Creator, which affects it, lead you, and not your physical brain. Your mind contains knowledge of the present, whereas the future remains unknown. But even before the future is revealed to you, you want to do more than just fantasize about it; you want to act as if you are in it, as if you have risen to the next degree of awareness.

The surrounding Light that is awakened when man studies Kabbalah correctly, works on the soul and initiates the next spiritual state. That state will then come by itself and replace the present. By making considerable efforts in the study of Kabbalah, a person can accelerate personal changes. That, in fact, is the only freedom of choice we have in this world.

Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot that the Creator rests man’s hand on the good fortune and tells him: “Choose this for yourself.”

So where, then, is the choice? The choice is, in fact, that either we are pushed from behind, which we will feel as pain, or we run forward by ourselves, ahead of the pain. This is our only freedom of choice.

Anything that happens in our world, anything that people do, is all predetermined, because all the characteristics of man and his environment, both internal and external, are predefined by the Creator. Only for people who crave spirituality and only in their personal efforts is there freedom of choice.

Hastening Time

Q: How can I accelerate my spiritual progress and thus spare myself agony?

A: You can do this in the following ways:

• Read the books of Baal HaSulam, Rabash and my own.

• Join a group that aims to discover the objective of creation. Be active and do things for the members of the group and the spiritual leader.

• Begin to write everything you know about spirituality. That way, you can correct your current spiritual degree more quickly and create a need to attain the next degree.

• The most effective means of all is to take an active part in circulating the wisdom of the Kabbalah.

Personal Care

Q: At first I thought that bad situations came to us so we could try to overcome them. But apparently, there is a specific kind of “bad situation,” whose purpose is to show that nothing depends on us, and the final outcome is solely in the hands of the Creator. Can you explain that?

A: There are no “bad situations.” The Creator gives us everything for the sole purpose of correcting us. There is the Creator, there is us and there is what we receive from Him. It is said “The Torah makes one weary.” It shows man who and what he is, that he’s only a tiny egoist.
But the Torah, meaning the Creator, shows man his weakness-his enslavement to his ego--only to the degree that he can bear what he sees. The more we develop and correct, the more obvious it becomes that we are lowly, and far different from the Creator.

We are shown this in order for us to correct ourselves by simply recognizing our own nature and rejecting it.

You are experiencing the beginning of your personal relationship with the Creator. The good and right thoughts came because you felt what you were supposed to feel, but new attainments will come and go every time. Each time you read the right books, you will realize more and more deeply who you are and who the Creator is.

Beyond Private Providence

Q: Does the collective Providence still influence a person who’s begun to study Kabbalah, or is he now only under private Providence?

A: What is the meaning of the study of Kabbalah? When we begin our studies, according to our progress in life, we begin to aim his actions toward the goal, which is to attain a spiritual contact with the Creator. We go under private Providence exactly to that extent, which is the purpose of our search, though it is still unconscious.

If we read only genuine books about the spiritual world, if that is what we find interesting, we are already under the private Providence of the Creator. The Creator guides everyone, but he guides us personally.

Every soul receives the Light from above with growing intensity, and therefore develops in accordance with the purpose of creation. It is called “collective Providence.” But when He takes us out of the ranks to promote us faster and pull us toward Him, that is called “private Providence.”

In a state of “private Providence,” we begin to feel ups and downs. These will be expressed in our sensation of the Creator or its absence, according to our own attributes. We will stop looking at life as others do.

While others say, “Thank God another day went by. I stayed healthy, I did a few things,” we, on the other hand, will start evaluating ourselves in greater detail: “Am I closer to the Creator today? Do I have a desire for Him?” Even if our evaluations are negative, they are nonetheless a testimony to our progress.

Kabbalah Vs. Asceticism

Q: If I understand correctly, the spiritual path begins with the formation of the screen within me, meaning with the restriction on reception of pleasures. Does that not lead to self-oppression? If I have to give up on pleasures, won’t that bring me to asceticism, which Judaism forbids?

A: Contrary to all other religions and philosophies, Kabbalah states clearly and unequivocally that spiritual ascent means increased pleasure. The beginning of the path includes the study of the Kabbalah, while the reader maintains a regular way of life without change or limitations. But since our desires influence our acts, if we want to achieve something sublime, we must act accordingly.

Thus, we see that the correction is a process involving the effect of the Upper Light on man, not of restriction by coercion. That is precisely the difference between Kabbalah and religion: Kabbalah activates the power of the Creator; it is not an oppressing force from the outside. Therefore, when we receive more and more strength from Above, it opens up the channels for greater desires, which can then be corrected and used appropriately.

We cannot live without pleasure. After all, our very essence is the will to receive delight and pleasure, and the purpose of creation is the attainment of perfect pleasure. There’s nothing wrong with the pleasure itself; it is only for us to correct its objective, not the desire itself.

Preferring Spirituality

Q: What do I do with my desires? I want a big, beautiful house, though a small one will do just fine. I want a new car, though the old one still runs. As for my job, I’m still interested in one that bears responsibility. Do I have to clear out these desires in order to make room for more study? (My relatives are already unhappy about the whole situation).

A: Anything in our lives-our choices, the steps we take, our preferences, and the way we evaluate our lives—is defined by how necessary we feel these things are. It is said that “All that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2, 4).
On the one hand, this quote can be interpreted this way: a person would sacrifice everything for life, health and the possibility to go on living. On the other hand, you can say that one would give everything away (life included) for something without which one’s life would be pointless.

We can find examples of this throughout history. Even in our materialistic time, everything depends on our appreciation of material and spiritual values. These values change with our development, making self-coercion unnecessary.

In the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag explains that in the past, at the dawn of history, one who wanted to study Kabbalah and be introduced to spirituality had to restrict self and live on meager bread and water. But today, after corrections have been made in the world by more recent Kabbalists, and due to the development of the souls from generation to generation, all it takes to reach the Upper World is the study of Kabbalah.

Therefore, today asceticism and restrictions that people used to practice are no longer necessary. Kabbalists have drawn the Upper Light toward us, especially since the time of the Ari (16th century), as it says: “the light in it reforms,” meaning the study of Kabbalah awakens an invisible illumination of Upper Light that corrects man.

Kabbalists explain that the study of Kabbalah awakens that illumination within the disciple more intensively than any other study. Therefore, they advise anyone who wants to attain spirituality and the purpose of creation to study Kabbalah.

Of course you can go on building houses, buying cars and giving expensive gifts, but it’s important to maintain regular studies, read any time you can, and read only the writings of genuine Kabbalists. That study will bring you new internal situations, new values, by which you’ll make your decisions.

The primary and the secondary in your life will gradually change, but it must come from within you, not by coercion. There is no coercion in spirituality, and the source of the coercion in our world is the shells.

My advice is to keep studying Kabbalah and be yourself at all times. In time, your soul will guide you and tell you how much energy to put into spirituality and how much to expend on this world.

Spirituality - a New Way of Life

Q: I have no desire to do anything anymore. Things that used to give me pleasure - theatre, friends, even vacations – no longer do and I’m losing contact with old friends. What pains me now is my inability to understand the full structure of the world.

My question is: although I feel a lack of excitement, I must still function in this world. How should I utilize the external world for the study of Kabbalah?

A: What you are feeling is the beginning of your receiving new values and your reaction to what is happening to you. This period takes some time; you cannot perform significant changes all at once because your mind, your fundamental and essential systems, your nervous system, and the reciprocal relationships with your environment, make it very difficult for you to do so.

However, the good news is, you have already begun the initial process of inner change. Keep studying and asking questions. You’re just like any other person who feels the initial effects of correct study on your inner world. A person who studies Kabbalah does not descend from a previous state, but climbs to a higher one, so there’s no reason for despair, much less depression.

Of course, what excited you before now seems unimportant, childish and superficial. Naturally, everything around you changes: you work only for the pay, your contact with the relatives diminishes and exists only to the extent that it’s necessary, and your friends are no longer close. These are the external expressions of your inner change.

But externally, you must continue to work and not change a thing! No matter how much your interest drops, you must not follow your desires, but your duty. You must act against your new desires; you must keep working, be with your family, and enjoy sports. All the secondary interests and hobbies are redundant. But you have to maintain contact with your relatives.

Giving up work, even if you have enough money to sustain yourself for the rest of your life, may jeopardize your spiritual progress! And while you must maintain in contact with your relatives, you’ll have to gradually detach yourself from your friends. This happens naturally.

There’s a law in nature called “the law of equivalence of form.” That law makes objects with similar attributes draw nearer, and objects with opposite attributes distance themselves from each other. When signs of spiritual attributes arise, that law begins to act on us to the degree that we have attained these attributes.

How do I Change My Aim?

Q: I feel that I’m learning for myself, which makes me feel ashamed. There are struggles within me, and I have reached a dead end dealing with them. I feel miserable because I don’t know how to change my aim, how to invert it, so that none of the things I do will be for me. What do I do?

A: All those feeling are good at the beginning of the study. They show that you’re progressing toward spirituality, toward the barrier, toward the sensations of the Upper World. Each degree, each spiritual situation you experience, must die, or disappear.

In other words, you have to discard the previous degree as unworthy of your new state. As long as the crop does not rot, as long as what remains of it is more than just the knowledge of it, the new stalk will not begin to grow. The same applies to souls: death is the beginning of a new life.

Therefore, the current situation ends when it becomes intolerable. The desire to move on to the next phase is formed out of the intolerable present state, out of shame in the present state. Disagreement with the situation brings with it a new situation. Therefore, the solution lies in focusing solely on the quantity and the quality of the study. You should read a lot (quantity) with the thought that each and every word should bring you new powers and change you from within (quality).

Spiritual Fatigue

Q: Why do we sometimes reach a state where the Torah wears us out to the point of physical fatigue? Does it mean that we lack desire for spirituality?

A: Only those who learn Kabbalah, who study and work with a rabbi and with books in accordance with the principle, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice” (I’ve created the will to enjoy and I’ve created the Torah - Kabbalah - in order to correct it), are regarded as those who learn Torah. Only then will the Light of Correction (called Torah) shine on them.
But if we study without the aim to be corrected, only to gain knowledge, or to perform some physical acts, it is said that “wisdom in the gentiles – believe; Torah in the gentiles - do not believe.”

Those who do not set before their eyes the correction as a goal are called“gentiles” because they do not feel the need for the correction, but only for the benefits that come from the Torah in this world and the next. The Zohar says about such people, “The leech has two daughters that bark like dogs – Have, Have. Let me have this world, and let me have the next world.”

Only those who learn the Torah in the Kabbalah find that their strength grows weaker. This is because they study it to receive strength from Above, to be corrected and to resemble the Creator. They do not want to stay at the level of the satisfaction of their corporeal needs. As our sages say, “You are called man, and not those who commit idolatry.”

Those who commit idolatry are those who worship their evil inclinations and bow before their egos. You can either bow before the Creator, or before your ego, because only those two possibilities exist.

Bowing before something indicates the desire for it, or for the attribute it symbolizes. Bowing before the ego means a person places the ego above self; there is no desire to suppress it, but to feed on it.

The surrender to the ego is called “bowing before an alien god.” In the Kabbalah this is called, “idolatry.”

If the disciple studies Torah in order to become a “man,” the evil inclination sees that it has nothing to look for here and the natural forces weaken. But at that time, the person still does not have the spiritual powers of bestowal, and therefore is still not attracted to the Creator, as there is not yet the knowledge of who He is.

Being between the two worlds is the state that causes the indifference. It is a necessary phase. After that phase, the Creator gradually appears. Higher spiritual goals appear and the person moves on.

Regarding your question: If your fatigue stems from the lack of genuine desire for spirituality, it is important to understand that there is a work, Lo Lishma (not for Her name - not for the Creator) and Lishma (for Her name - for the Creator). Working Lo Lishma is spiritual work that first entails working with the intent for self.

In order to understand that you’re working Lo Lishma (and not everyone attains even that), you feel at least slightly-as though from afar-the meaning of working Lishma, so that you can compare the two and realize that you’re working Lo Lishma.

You should be aware that these are only mechanical acts. You must not delude yourself that you have reached anything substantial. Then, gradually, you must ask the Creator to plant in you the power to perform a genuine spiritual act, just for Him.

But all that happens gradually. A temporary physical weakness is a result of the passage from doing things for yourself, to doing them for the Creator. However, you have not yet acquired the strength to do it for the Creator-the aim Lishma.

When there’s an urge to do something for yourself or for the Creator, nothing is too difficult to achieve. But now, you are right in the middle, in between the situations, and it is a sign of progress toward the goal!

A Spiritual “Drop”

Q: When I first started my studies, I was very excited whenever I went into the classroom, as though I were floating. Now, I feel almost indifferent. Why does it happen and what do other participants feel?

A: Let me remind you that I do not suggest that people who study with me share their emotions--only their knowledge. I do encourage you to share the text that describes the structure of the worlds, the Creator and their activity.

Q: But I still don’t feel the line between what I feel and what I know and understand. Does this advice relate to that unique feeling--the prayer, which can only be shared with the Creator?

A: Although you do not understand what is happening to you, if you keep changing, you’re making progress! The situation you’re describing is a positive one. In general, the more your moods change, the better. This is the only way for man to progress.
If the desire for spirituality hadn’t been taken from man, he’d be left with no room for self-work. His will to receive (egoism) would snatch for itself all the fruits of the spiritual work. The majority of our spiritual work should take place during those “drops” when spiritual work is tasteless (like dust).

At that point, we might think that it is our sentence from above, in order to prevent us from working for our egos. Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag describes it beautifully in the article, “There is None Else Beside Him.”

Talking To Strangers

Q: When I speak of Kabbalah to other people, I suddenly feel very tired, almost ill. Is this a natural reaction of the body?

A: The giving away of knowledge, especially as opposed to discussing personal feelings, can only do good to people with whom you come in contact. You should not talk of your own emotions and experiences, but you can and should speak of your knowledge. When you express your emotions, others seemingly enter your situation, which might harm you. But you can teach others, and that is completely harmless to you.

You are a very sharp and sensitive person, so during the teaching process you feel the enthusiasm, which is hard for you to let go of afterwards. However, this is a psychological response, not a spiritual one.

Sharing the Spiritual Work With Friends

Q: The other day I felt bad for no apparent reason. Prayer helped for only five minutes. I shared my pain with my friend and everything was okay, but the next morning I felt that he was in torment. Perhaps I should have suffered alone?

A: You should never share you inner sensations and emotions with anyone except the Creator and your rabbi. That is because other people are not higher Partzufim (spiritual entities) than you, and do not lead you. Therefore, even unintentionally, they will project their egos onto you, and you will lose your mental strength for some time.

Although you might feel temporary relief, you will temporarily lose the ability to climb to a higher degree when you share your feelings.

Q: I quote from one of your books: “It is forbidden to discuss inner situations with friends, because it can harm both you and your friend.” I remember your saying it can harm me, but what can it do to my friend?

A: The danger is that you impose your feelings on your friend. These include your internal impressions with spirituality and your relationship with the Creator. These are all things that your friend must acquire independently from the Creator and from the books.

Q: I still want to understand what I can and what I cannot tell my friends. The more I try to understand it, the greater is the disorder in my head. It seems that anything a person says contains some portion of emotion toward the Creator. Even if two people speak of the text, they both have thoughts that are similar and that they understand. So how can people who study together be close to one another?

A: It is a very natural thing for us to speak only from ourselves, and in our words, we always include our egos. It doesn’t matter if the ego is concealed or revealed--the most important thing is not to talk about spiritual feelings toward the Creator.
You can talk about Sefirot, Partzufim and about the wisdom of Kabbalah indefinitely, just don’t show your feelings, because in doing so, you harm both you and your friend. The same applies for your spouse, children and even complete strangers. Study the books, but never talk about your feelings.

To Do, or to Study?

Q: When is a physical act more beneficial than pure study? Is it when a person still does not understand the purpose of the study? How is there progress, if the physical act is“below reason?”

A: Physical actions for the benefit of the group, organizing lectures and Kabbalah study groups, are more beneficial than the study itself. Serving the rabbi is also more beneficial than studying with him.
In his “Speech for the Completion of the Zohar,” Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes the following: “Make for yourself a rabbi and buy yourself a friend.”

In other words, choose a man that you think is important and make a rabbi of him, meaning your teacher, and try to please him because he is important to you. That way, you’ll get used to doing for others, and by the force of habit you’ll be able to do for the Creator. By being spiritually close to your rabbi, you’ll receive the degree by which the rabbi appreciates the Creator, and that will give you a chance to do at least something for the Creator, and enter the spiritual world this way.

At the same time, you will acquire the sensation of the greatness of the Creator and you’ll be able to advance to complete adhesion with Him.

Observing the rabbi’s requests with the aim to please him allows you to attain spiritual resemblance with him. You’ll be able to receive his thoughts and knowledge, and above all, attain his love and attraction for the Creator, which would give you the ability to develop and progress spiritually.

The study with the rabbi itself, however, is always motivated by the desire to attain personal knowledge for yourself. As a result, the study does not bring with it spiritual nearness with the Creator. In other words, by doing things for the rabbi, you attain his thoughts and through the study you only attain his words.

But this occurs only if the motivation to serve the rabbi stems from the desire to please the rabbi, and not the student. In the opposite situation, when the motivation is the will to serve for self-gratification, the study is the goal and becomes more important than serving the rabbi.

If the environment around a person does not praise the glory of the Creator, as it should, a person will never be able to attain a spiritual degree. Therefore, it is always recommended that the disciple regard self as the lowest (spiritually) compared to one’s group. In this way, the student can adopt the state of mind of the collective. The environment is necessary to attain the purpose of creation, which is why you should “buy yourself a friend.”

Reading Without Understanding

Q: Lately I’ve been going through a“cooling off period.” At first, I was reading your books and I understood everything. Later on, various thoughts began to appear in my mind during my studies. Then, I had to make substantial efforts in order to follow the text. Later still, when I tried to understand what was written, I began to fall asleep over and over while reading the same line.

How do I overcome this obstacle? Should I continue reading without understanding and wait for this to go away, or must I change something?

A: First, I assume that since you’ve written to me, a lot of things have changed. Even the fact that you could write shows that you are not yet at the bottom of the spiritual drop, or that you have already passed it. You must make an effort to keep reading. That is precisely the effort that will carry you to salvation, to a higher degree. It may be a good idea for you to try listening to audio lessons.
Efforts in circulating Kabbalah help a lot, and will accelerate the changes more than anything. Things will change anyway; the only question is how long the process will take: a day, a month, your entire life? The next degree is right around the corner, and it is in your power to soar to it right now! It depends on you alone and no one else!

It’s been said of such situations that “Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength, that do.” Therefore, go and search for all sorts of acts relating to Kabbalah.

If you cannot study, translate. If you cannot translate, listen to cassettes or audio lessons, try and explain Kabbalah to someone else, try to start a group, spread books. Those are the most effective things you can do.

Changes Outside Our Senses

Q: Every now and again new insights appear in me, and quite surprisingly. How does it happen?

A: In the attainment of the Spiritual World, the time factor is of crucial importance, because man has to grow accustomed to spiritual concepts and definitions, and live in them. By “time,” we mean that changes occur in us consistently and at a great speed. We don’t feel them; in fact, we feel as though nothing is happening. Only afterwards do we suddenly and very profoundly realize the changes that have occurred.
This is a result of those little inner changes that we do not feel. Our sensitivity threshold is very high and only from a certain degree onward do we begin to feel those changes. Everything that goes through you leaves its mark on your soul, and after some time the change suddenly appears. Therefore, the most important thing to do is to read, all the time, no matter how much of the text is absorbed.

Thoughts During Sleep

Q: If I study a lot in the evening and I continue to think about Kabbalah in my sleep, is that part of the spiritual work and progress, too?

A: What you describe is not a spiritual phenomenon, but a psychological one. The same thing will happen with any text you delve into before you go to sleep. Nonetheless, the fact that you study before you go to sleep and continue to feel the text during sleep is very beneficial. We usually study Kabbalah (the structure of the worlds, the Sefirot, phases, light, vessels) between 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM before we go to work in the morning. I recommend that you learn that material one hour in the morning and read the letters and articles “for fun” in the evening.

Reading Before Sleep

Q: What should I read before going to sleep?

A: My teacher read Shamati before sleep. That last night before leaving me he gave it to me, and, falling asleep, said: “Take it and study it.” After receiving it, I decided that the time has come to reveal it to all and had it published. Now you, too, have something to read before you go to sleep…

Getting Overtired

Q: If a person gets very tired and wants only one thing - to sleep - is there spiritual work in that situation, or should he simply go to sleep?

A: In a situation like that, you should go to sleep. But it’s a good idea to read a few lines from Baal HaSulam’s Shamati.

Q: I’m ashamed to admit it, but sometimes when I read the Kabbalah books that you refer me to, I fall asleep. It is not because I’m not interested; it happens despite my wishes. Even if I don’t want to sleep, it’s as though I fall under a hypnotic spell. What do I do? Why does this happen to me?

A: First, it is the influence of a Supreme Energy, the surrounding Light. Second, when a student comes to the lesson despite fatigue, it is better than being in a state of simple mental wakefulness when one is well rested. The Light of the Kabbalah is affected by the amount of labor a person puts in, not by the number of pages a person knows.
You can thoroughly explore the whole of The Study of the Ten Sefirot and still have no clue as to what spirituality is. Similarly, you can enter the spiritual world and attain the purpose of creation without knowing The Study of the Ten Sefirot at all.

If you study the right texts and follow my instructions, you’ll be more and more convinced that everything goes according to the master plan. When you no longer want to sleep, you’ll feel that those times of sleep contributed to your spiritual development. The Creator leads us; all we have to do is open ourselves to Him.

Time to Feel and to Contemplate

Q: In his article, “The Time of Ascent,” Baal HaSulam writes that during the spiritual ascent, it is good to read the articles hundreds of times. Is there any indication of how well I absorbed this or that article?

A: There are texts that have to be read and reread according to the general curriculum, and there are texts that one should read only when in the mood, be it letters or articles about the feeling of the spiritual.
It is said that during the ascent, when one feels close to the material, it is good to read just the things that touch one’s feelings; i.e., where understanding will come through the heart.

The problem in attaining the spiritual is that we do not have the correct senses. They can be acquired slowly and gradually at just such moments. Thus, there is the time to use the brain, and there is time to use the heart.

Spiritual Games

Q: Why is it that each time I hold a book of Kabbalah, I immediately get all sorts of disturbances that “crawl” into my mind, until I just want to drop it all and leave? But as soon as I’m sent pain from Above, I take a Kabbalah book in my hand and then I have no problem focusing on it?

A: All that the Creator created is a desire to enjoy. In humans, that will is developed more than in all other animals. The goal of the Creator is for man to be like Him: complete and eternal. But that goal can be attained only through the influence of pleasure or pain.
Because we are made to enjoy and to feel pleasure, we cannot not feel anything. We feel the scarcity of pleasure as agony. When pleasure comes, we accept it as something natural and take it for granted, thinking,“I deserve it.”

When pain comes, we resent it and feel, “I don’t deserve this.” Again, this stems from the fact that we are born of a substance called “desire to enjoy.”

Because the Creator has a desire to bestow upon His creatures, He created us with a desire to enjoy. But if we were influenced by pleasure alone, because we are made solely from a desire to enjoy, we would turn into such egoists that we would become stupid.

Thus, only the search for pleasure forces us to develop. In order to bring us to the complete development, meaning to be like the Creator, there is only one option: bestowal.

When we receive pleasure, we think we deserve it, but as soon as we feel pain, we begin to search for its source. Thus, we gradually come to the Creator, the origin of both the pleasure and the pain.

Pain creates in us a desire to find its source, to know the Creator. Otherwise, we would never know the Creator and would never be able to equalize with Him.

If we are told that studying Kabbalah is good for us, how can we strengthen ourselves on the way? The Creator sends us disturbances so we will learn by overcoming them how to approach Him. And if the disturbances are not enough to give us the strength to overcome them, we are sent more agony to force us to make an extra effort to overcome them.

At that point, the disturbances no longer frighten us because the fear of pain forces us to be on constant alert. And this is the way!

You, after all, want to attain the greatest thing there is, not just in our world, but anywhere! So keep up your efforts, and success is sure to come.

Kabbalah at Work

Q: Is it a good idea to study Kabbalah at work? Sometimes there’s free time and a possibility to escape to the Internet and read the texts instead of programming. In a way, it is cheating, although the boss will get his work done anyhow. I know that it’s important to “come clean” to the study, so what should I do?

A: Let me tell you two stories:

The first: Awhile back, my rabbi - Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag - and Rabbi Brandywine taught Kabbalah at one of the synagogues in Jerusalem during their break from working as construction workers. Once, when they were about to go to class, a box full of nails fell to the ground and scattered. As a result of staying to pick up the nails, they did not make it to the lesson. When my rabbi told me about the incident, although it happened more than sixty years ago, he was still upset that the lesson did not take place.

The second story: I once took the rabbi to a homeopath who happened to be a friend of mine. The practitioner examined the rabbi and gave him a prescription. I insisted that the homeopath take money for his service, but when he begun to write the receipt, I said to him, “I get spiritual benefit for paying for my rabbi, but I don’t need a receipt.”

The homeopath replied: “When I get money, I write a receipt, because it makes my thoughts honest and that way I don’t lie to myself, even unconsciously.” I noticed that my rabbi was very pleased to hear this.

What I want to show through these stories is that you should always try to keep your mind on Kabbalah. If you need to read for five minutes at work, then go ahead and do it, just as others take a few minutes off to smoke. Make a habit of it so that it will always be in you, without it affecting your work.

Free Time

Q: I have four hours of leisure a day. Do I utilize the time for spiritual work, or do I do domestic chores? Do I decide according to my mood or by a fixed rule?

A: You have to divide the chores into necessary and unnecessary ones. The division must be set not by mood, but by relevance. Your most important act is to divide the day ahead of time into several parts, regardless of your mood, leaving at least one hour a day for the soul, preferably before you go to sleep. Then, go to sleep early and get up one hour earlier (or two or three) and continue with spiritual reading.
With the rest of the time, you can do what life demands of you, but every now and again, take a break for five or ten minutes and read or listen to something that will help you think later on, while you work.

The best results in correction are attained when a person combines not only the study, but one’s whole life, when thinking about the purpose of creation.

A Question is a Vessel

Q: Why is it that, as soon as you ask a question, the situation changes? In such a case there is no need for the answer because it always comes too late. Somehow this happens all the time. Why?

A: What matters is the vessel. Once it is completed, the Light (the answer) immediately fills it. If we’re ready for the answer, we feel the Upper Light, to the extent of the ripeness of our will. If we’re not ready for the answer, we do not feel the Light. The Upper Light is at eternal rest. It is always in us. When the Light fills the vessel although the vessel has attributes that are completely opposite to the Light - they become whole, one. Answers come precisely where there is a question.

The Creator and the creature merge in one attribute, although the creature doesn’t feel it. Kabbalists don’t hide this merging; on the contrary, they emphasize it. They do it so that others will realize that their efforts are meant to enable them to discover for themselves what is always within, but concealed because of our current corrupted state.

Expecting an Answer

Q: Sometimes I feel that the answers are given to me impatiently, perhaps even unwillingly. Doesn’t the Creator want me to study?

A: Let’s put it this way: there is only one case in which a person should not obey the voice of the Creator - if He shows you the way out and says, “Go away.” Only in such a case does He invite defiance.

In this way, we indirectly learn of the response of one with a real desire. As a teacher, I can never desert anyone who truly wants to know the Kabbalah, whatever one’s character.

Changing Situations

Q: I study Kabbalah and I feel that my whole life is changing: my thoughts, my feelings, my relationships with people, but it all seems strange. You read, and you suddenly begin to understand everything as something uniform. You realize that the Creator created this world so that it would come back to Him. The more the state is exalted, the more you feel your own corruption. Am I studying correctly?

A: Right now, you are going through some of the least pleasant situations:
1.You’re drifting from one mood to the next, from high spirits to depression. This way your vessel expands, acquiring the contradictory emotions that are now becoming a part of it. You seemingly acquire the edges of your vessel. Later on, you’ll be able to feel different things in it. When these feelings are in you, they’ll be a part of you; they’ll be yours.

2.You are also being shown how little you can be yourself, how controlled you are by your moods, how dependent you are on the smallest change in your disposition. This is you and this is your world.

3.You realize that you are easily controlled from Above, that you’re not independent, that you’re at the hands of an Upper Power that you can’t quite feel.

4.Out of these situations you’ll begin to reevaluate your previous life, your views, yourself.

5.These states can last many months. In the end, you’ll stop seeing them as good or bad and relate them to your own personal feelings. Instead, you will begin to evaluate them as closer or farther from Him. That will be the measurement by which you’ll determine whether a situation is good or bad.

6.You’ll stop responding to how pleasurable your sensations are, and your feelings about them will “die.” You’ll stop relating to these situations as pleasurable or painful and you’ll be able to define them objectively. Then, you will already be nearing the barrier. About the rest, we’ll talk later on…

Keep in mind that you must try to learn a lot, and must study when you are in ascent; you must try not to lose the contact between yourself and the Creator. The minute you move from thinking about the Creator to thinking about yourself, the minute you start to think that you like it here in this situation, instead of thinking about how that situation is near the Creator, which makes it good, is when you’ll begin to fall.

But it will take time before you discover that you’ve fallen, perhaps days. All sins happen during ascents, when you fall from above. When you are in descent, there is nothing one can demand of you because you are weak and detached from spirituality. You are like an animal—depressed and simply enduring life. The habit of systematic study, of participating in a study group, helps accelerate your exit from the fall.

Correction through Study

Q: I’ve begun to study Kabbalah and I feel that I’ve become more irritable and less tolerant.

A: Those who study Kabbalah constantly correct their will to enjoy, starting from the smallest desires to the strongest ones. That is also the way of mankind: the “will to enjoy” (the will to receive for oneself alone) grows in time and man grows along with it. The greater his will to enjoy, the greater the power that motivates him. If his will to enjoy is small, he aspires for nothing in this world and certainly not in the spiritual world.

As soon as we begin to learn Kabbalah, especially if we are studying not for the knowledge, but for correction, we immediately begin to feel our corrupted desires, our will to receive everything for ourselves at all costs. When we study, these desires continue to grow until we acquire the greatest possible will to enjoy-the will to take pleasure in the Creator.

Each spiritual degree is greater than its former in that it shows us that there is a greater measure of will in us to receive for ourselves. When we correct that will, we find that this is the only way to climb to the next degree.

The Light Reforms

Q: What do I get out of studying Kabbalah, since the Kabbalah has to go into my heart and not to my head?

A: In the process of the study of the Kabbalah, we attract the surrounding Light, which purifies us and leads us toward the Creator (see item 155 in Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot).

Knowledge, Pleasure and Belonging

Q: Sometimes I feel like I’m making progress and I know things, but I don’t take pleasure in that. In fact, quite the opposite. Sometimes I think I’m paused or even going backwards. Is this normal? Are the sensations of knowledge and progress the pleasure itself?

A: First of all, you can see for yourself that the answers are not what the rabbi says, but what you receive from Above - within you. Only the answers you have reached by yourself are the true answers. The Light enters the vessel and fills it with Its attributes. The vessel “feels” them as its own and understands that this is the answer.

Furthermore, you can see that definitions have changed somewhat. If mere good feeling was considered pleasure in your eyes before, now the pleasure is the knowledge and the belonging to the purpose of creation. The definitions of pleasure and good feeling will change many times before the end of correction.

At that time, you’ll feel the Creator to the fullest, as He really is, instead of feeling Him through filters and screens. Everything we feel, understand, acquire, are all Him, which fills us completely.

To be more precise, we don’t attain Him; we attain the feelings that stem from Him, whereas He is within us. But the opposite is also true: our attainments are about Him, and we are within Him.

The Power of Impression

Q: Why don’t the lessons impress me?

A: Because you don’t understand what is behind the words. When that becomes revealed to you, you will experience intense feelings.

Q: What is the meaning of the power of impressions in understanding Kabbalah?

A: The power of impressions serves only as energy that attracts one to continue studying the texts. When we study them in order to correct ourselves, to understand and attain the goal, we bring the surrounding Light to ourselves, which gradually purifies us, thus bringing us closer to the barrier and the adoption of a spiritual nature instead of a corporeal one (to please only ourselves).

Carelessness

Q: What do they mean by carelessness?

A: Kabbalists get together for one purpose only: to attain the purpose of creation. That should be the only reason for any act or thought in anyone’s mind and before every gathering. Only then can you speak of the seriousness of the intent. If the mind is distracted, even for a minute, from the purpose of the study, from the purpose of the gathering or from the purpose of creation -- that is carelessness.

Learning Without a Teacher

Q: Can people who are interested in Kabbalah, but do not live in Israel, who read the texts on the Internet site, get together and study Kabbalah? Will we make mistakes without a teacher?

A: My dear! Never be afraid of making mistakes. Each step we take always begins with a mistake. As our sages said, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that does good, and sins not” (Ecclesiastes 7, 20), meaning that before a spiritual state of righteousness there is always a state of evilness.

That is because each higher degree is always the complete opposite of the current one, and it is never known exactly how it is opposite. In addition, it will take a long time and many arguments and thoughts before all who wish to understand will formulate a clear opinion about the process of creation and the intentions of the Creator. Once that opinion is conceived, one can begin to mold the newly acquired knowledge.

It would be great if you could meet, read our material and study it together. Even if it speaks of emotions toward the Creator, you can read it together, but without talking about your personal feelings. Texts that teach the structure of the Upper Worlds and their composition are permitted and open for any kind of discussion.

Group study, even without a teacher, promotes the students many times over and accelerates their spiritual development. I, on my part, will help you spiritually as if I were with you, for it is my assignment. Good luck!

Virtual Studying

Q: I do not live in Israel, but I very much want to study Kabbalah. Please help me!

A: All the books by Baal HaSulam and Rabbi Baruch Ashlag are on the site and you can download them for free. After all, circulating the Kabbalah is my life’s work. Try to download all the texts and, if you study the material diligently, we’ll invite you to a seminar. Then you’ll decide if you want to stay.

In this life, we need only one thing -- a desire for the Creator. If it’s there and it’s genuine, meaning above all other things, then He will fulfill it.

Q: Can I find an answer to my questions on your site?

A: Many people ask questions and don’t even bother to read the material on the site. If you want to understand something in a specific area, you should learn a little bit about the key concepts. I suggest that you read the material on the site, and I’m sure that you’ll find there the full answers to your questions.

I’m glad you have questions, but you can acquire knowledge systematically, which will allow you to answer your questions by yourself.

A Virtual Group of Kabbalists

Q: Do you also attend virtual groups on the Internet?

A: I’ve established an Internet group of serious students, and through intensive teaching they can attain what I attain with my regular students. Every kind of learning is available today, like real-time video and audio lessons, etc.

Build the group, and we’ll start studying. I think that all those who are interested should decide on the matter among themselves first and get to know one another. A group of Kabbalah students is not just another group of people, but people who are going to study and understand the spiritual world together.

I, on my part, promise that you’ll get everything my regular students get. We’ll begin straight from the most important texts. I will prepare and present them to you along with the drawings and the video and audio lessons.

Kabbalah in England

Q: I’m writing to you from London. Right now, it is impossible for me to study Kabbalah in Israel. Do you know of anyone in London who can help me get started? As I understand it, without a genuine Kabbalist rabbi and a group, I cannot make progress.

A: You have all our material on the site, lots of books and direct contact with us. Take the opportunity that you have and go ahead. For the time being, the Creator has given you all you need. It is enough for now, and if you feel an urge to visit us, you’re welcome here!

Each person chooses a teacher. Examine, study our material and ask other people questions. If their answers satisfy you, decide whether or not to study with them. It might be a little early for you to learn Kabbalah and correct your soul, and other texts, too, can satisfy you.

Check and see if there are other topics that interest you and, if there are, don’t give up on them. But that test is valid only after a few months of study, after you’ve studied at least the basics of Kabbalah.

In and Out

Q: Can a person learn, leave, learn again and then leave again?

A: It is said, “A thousand go into a room and one comes out to teach.” This is very accurate! Thousands of people come to me, but my regular group is no more than a hundred, most between the ages of 25 and 40. The group adds about 15 newcomers every year, out of hundreds who come during the year to lectures in various cities and to the Bnei Baruch center. That shows that anyone can come and go.

Kabbalah does not impose thoughts and it doesn’t brainwash you. On the contrary, it is a method that teaches man freedom and independence, because man is born a slave!

To Study, or Not to Study? That is the Question!

Q: Can I study Kabbalah even though I’m not sure how it will affect me?

A: Anyone can begin to study Kabbalah. If the Creator gave you a desire to advance in spirituality, you will develop a unique approach to life, to people around you, and to yourself.

The natural, genuine development of each of us should be gradual, in accordance with our understanding of the world around us. We change to the extent that we discover the other world that exists around us. That is why it is said that there is no coercion in spirituality; it is only a question of will, and only the Creator can change the will.

Therefore, your mission is to absorb the texts diligently and the rest will come in due time, if and when there is a need for it.

A Worthwhile Effort

Q: It seems that in Kabbalah, just like in any other field, it takes a great effort to make it to the top. But most people are busy with their little everyday problems and their small affairs. The ordinary person thinks: “Kabbalah relieves us of pain and has a sublime goal. Great! Too bad I’m just an ordinary person, unsuitable for such exalted goals.”

Can I progress in spirituality, knowing in advance that I will not be able to give myself entirely to Kabbalah, or is it not worth it for me to even begin?

A: You cannot attain even the smallest spiritual degree without an effort “beyond human ability.” That is because it is impossible to change your nature by yourself.
When the sages say that you have to exert yourself “beyond human ability,” they mean that by making a great, though not impossible effort, it can evoke the important awareness that nothing can help you but the Creator Himself. You have to be “broken down” to such a point that you reach a true demand of God for help.

The moment you can actually do that, your redemption from your nature will come. You’ll be freed from the boundaries of this world and will receive the first Upper Attribute - the first spiritual degree.

“He who walks, defeats the path,” and I would add that there is no other path. We do everything by coercion, even chasing money and power. The more we want to escape it, the more the need will push us forward.

I’m sure you remember the story of the prophet Jonah who tried to escape the Creator in order to avoid the correction that was given him to perform. But the city of Nineveh must still be corrected from within.