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January 16, 2005

We have learned in the first boundary that when we examine reality, we examine only what we perceive in our Kelim with certainty. Those are Matter and Form clothed in Matter. The book of Zohar does not speak of the two forms, the Abstract Form, which we do not perceive with certainty, and of the Essence, which we do not perceive at all. There is not a single word about them in the Zohar.

When Kabbalists speak of their attainments, they only refer to those attainments that they attain with certainty. What they attain, but not with certainty, they do not write about. This is how responsible they are, unlike philosophers and various researchers in our world, whose research yields only trouble.

This is the first category. The second category is in item seventeen.

“17. Along with it the second category is clarified. Know that just as we have clarified the four categories in a particular item in the world Beria, so are they in the general four worlds ABYA.

“The three colors, red, green, and black, in the three worlds BYA, are considered a substance, or an object. The white color, which is considered the world Atzilut, is the form clothed in the matter, meaning in the three colors called BYA.” In other words, the white Light, which is Atzilut, clothes in the worlds Beria, or Yetzira, or Assiya, and thus renders the colors red, or green, or black.

“ Ein Sof in itself is the essence.” We have Ein Sof, which is the essence, and also AK. The worlds Atzilut is white, and when it clothes in the world Beria it becomes red, when it clothes in the worlds Yetzira, green, and in the world Assiya, black.

Ein Sof is Essence; Atzilut is Abstract Form, and when the world Atzilut clothes in Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, creating three colors, these are called “clothed forms.”

“ Ein Sof in itself is the essence, as we have said about the first category, that we have no perception in the essence (meaning we have no perception above the world Atzilut), which is the fourth category, concealed in all the objects, even in the objects of this world (see item 12).”

We know that in everything there is the tip of the Yod, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey. In other words, there are ten Sefirot in everything. So, we have no perception in the part that corresponds to Keter, the tip of the Yod.

“When the white color in itself — meaning Light of Wisdom — is not clothed in the three colors in BYA, meaning Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut, it is an abstract form and we do not engage in it.”

You might call it Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut, or you might say Ein Sof, AK, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya. If we are talking about Atzilut when it is not clothed in anything, this is something we do not deal with.

“Also, the Zohar does not speak of it at all, but only of the first category, the three colors BYA, which are considered substance, namely the three Sefirot Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut.

“It also speaks of the second category, which is the luminescence of Atzilut, clothed in the three colors of BYA.” This pertains to the substance of the worlds BYA themselves.When the world Atzilut is clothed in them, it is called “Clothed Form,” and we do engage in that.

“…clothed in the three colors of BYA, meaning Light of Wisdom clothed in Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut, which are in turn, a form clothed in matter. These are the two that The Book of Zohar is concerned with in all the places.” This is so simply because here, in BYA, is where we are, the souls that receive from the worlds BYA, according to our equivalence with them.

“Hence, if the reader is not prudent in defining his or her thought and understanding, to always learn the words of the Zohar strictly under the boundary of the two above-mentioned categories,” meaning if one does not limit oneself only to the Parsa pertaining to what is within the Kelim of the creatures, “the matter will be immediately and entirely confused for that person, as he will take the matters out of context.” This is because one would begin to engage in the abstract form and essence, even without noticing it. This is the second boundary of our limitation in engaging in the book of Zohar.

Question: When we talk about Matter, what matter are we talking about?

The Matter is the will to receive, and the Form that the will to receive adopts is the Form of bestowal. However, in the form of bestowal itself, which is the world Atzilut, in that we cannot engage. We don’t know what it is in itself; it is the attribute of the Creator, something that doesn’t belong to the Kelim, to the creature. The creature can only clothe its will to receive with the Form of bestowal, to resemble bestowal, meaning to receive and in that be a giver. It cannot just bestow because its substance is not of bestowal but of reception.

If we begin to work as if we are giving, it only confuses us because we exit the boundaries of the creature, and lose our hold of reality. It is even more so with the essence of the Creator, with the attribute of bestowal. We don’t know what is behind the attribute of bestowal, preceding the thought of creation, or with the thought of creation when it is detached from us. We don’t know that. Everything we study is only from within us, from clothed, or clothing forms.

What does the creature actually attain by getting to Atzilut?

The creature attains everything! The creature is Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey, it attains everything. The only question is how certain can I be that I can rely on what I attain with certainty, and work with it without being mistaken. Can I advance according to that and determine my next steps?

When I perceive a picture, what really is that picture? Which is the certain part in it and which is the uncertain part? I don’t know all that, how would I? I might be wearing glasses that show me that everything is nice and smooth ahead of me, when in fact, there is a chasm two steps from me, which I cannot see because of the limits of my tools? I am limited.

Let’s take an example from our world: if we hadn’t built radiation detectors, we could get in to danger zones and be contaminated by radiation. Because I have a detector, I can find it. In this case, I know that it is dangerous and that I should not go further from a certain line forward.

In spirituality, however, I do not build tools the way I do in this world. In spirituality, I perceive everything. But in some of my Kelim (tools) I am certain of my perception, because the Creator clothes in them in a manner that is clear to me, because the Form that these Kelim have adopted is the same form, or manner, as the Creator. These are vessels of bestowal that have inverted their intention to bestowal. The result is that whatever happens in them, I can be certain that it happens correctly.

The substance of reception is my substance. I feel it; it is everything I taste; everything in it is clear to me. The form in which this matter works is clear to me because it sits within my flesh; it is something that I perform with my own will. So when my vessels of reception acquire the form of bestowal, I operate with certainty. There, I cannot go wrong. This is called “the Kelim of the creature,” “the worlds BYA,” or “the vessels of reception,” “the AHP.”

However, in the vessels of bestowal, the Galgalta ve Eynaim, in the Kelim of Atzilut, in those I do not perceive the various forms with certainty. That is, I do notice them, but I cannot say how correct it is and what, or how much more there is inside. There unfamiliarity, because it is not my Matter, it is hidden from me.

This is why Kabbalists in general, and the authors of the Zohar in particular, advise us to engage where we are certain of what we possess, where we attain the full depth of the Kli in both its makeup and its functionality. Where either the form or the matter is hidden and you are in abstract form, which is not clothed in matter, this is no longer a will to receive that has adopted the form of bestowal, only the form of bestowal that you perceive without clothing in the will to receive.

In other words, you do perceive it, but not in your own flesh; it is not you who acquires this form, and it is as though it is in front of you, prior to clothing within you. This is what you should not engage in. It is not you and doesn’t belong to you. If it is hidden from you, “do not engage in what is hidden you.” How can you engage in it if it is not in your Kelim?

It is even more so with the essence. We have no idea what it is. We say that there is the thought of creation “to do good to His creations.” How can I understand it if it is hidden from me? I can understand it to the extent that I change and take on its form as it clothes in me. But I understand through the change in me. I understand what the Creator is and what He wants and thinks through adopting the form of doing good to His creations. But I attain it within me, and so I can talk about it. Thus, even when I do speak, I speak of myself.

Yesterday we saw the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? There are eight scientists there from several countries, and they give as an example, the story of how when Columbus’ armada arrived at the shores of America, the Indians could not see the ships. The reason they could not see them was that they didn’t have that model in their minds, a model of a big house floating on the waves. In other words, they couldn’t see them because they didn’t have a tool to detect something like that. First there has to be a tool, and only then can I discover the form that can fit into that Kli.

But after they hear about it, and build all kinds of shapes and patterns in their minds, they slowly begin to see the ships. After that they tell the other Indians about it, and even though the rest don’t see it, they tell them that they do. They tell them to imagine it like a big house with many stories, a mountain at sea approaching us. They use their imagination to build tools in their minds, and when they have the tools, they see the ships.

Actually, the scientists are wrong, because even the ships don’t exist; they exist only in their imagination. After all, this whole world doesn’t exist, it is all imagination, but this is a phase they still have to reach.

Still, this is a good example in that it demonstrates that if you don’t have the Kelim, you cannot detect anything on the outside. This is why Kabbalists insist on staying with Matter and Form clothed in Matter, because these are the only certainties. The abstract forms are not, because you don’t actually know whether or not they exist.

The abstract form comes to us by having it clothed in Matter, and then “stripping” it from the matter in our imagination, then stating that it exists regardless of the Matter. But do we really know that it exits regardless of the Matter? Has anyone ever seen it? We cannot see a ship before it clothes in matter; so how can we state that it seemingly exists? We mustn’t do that, and this is what Kabbalists tell us. Nevertheless, what the scientists discovered is a great thing; it brings them somewhat closer to Kabbalah and to be able to understand our terminology.

Question: If I can’t perceive the picture before it is in my Kelim, how then do I measure it?

I cannot see a picture before I build a Kli in me. So how do I come to see the picture? Moreover, how do I build a Kli within me, if I don’t know what happens outside of me? Someone has to tell me about it; there is just no other way.

This is why Kabbalists write books. Through these books you begin to imagine what exists outside of you, and you gradually build patterns from these imaginations, all kinds of forms in your mind. Of course they are incorrect; but by craving it, you gradually draw Light that builds patterns that are closer and closer to the Light itself, until you actually see. It is the Light that builds the Kelim for you. Otherwise, how would you know anything?

Right now, there are worlds around us that you can’t even imagine; you have no idea what is going on around you, angels, demons, ghosts… By around you I mean that you do not perceive them in your sensations. How will you catch them, by the tail? They are all forces. If you have no equivalence of form with these forces, you simply cannot feel them.

But if I don’t know their abstract form, how will I build the right form within me so that they would clothe it and create a form clothed in matter? This can be done only through something called Segula (a combination of merit, virtue, and property).

Question: If the book of Zohar is a tool for people with attainment, do these boundaries apply only for people like me, without attainment? Do Kabbalists perceive it differently?

No, it is for you too. It should teach you how to focus your eye to see correctly, even in this world. Let’s use a similar example to the Indians who did not see Columbus: If a caveman were to land in our world, like in the movies, do you think he would be walking around amazed at everything around him? He would not see a thing. He would not be able to. He would not even recognize the existence of these things. So if he couldn’t feel the world, would he be bumping into the walls…?

In other words, we only perceive, meaning feel, sense the forms that we have sensors for. What we have no sensors for, we do not perceive. What appears to me as “airy,” insubstantial, is because I do not perceive it, and so I walk in it as if in a vacuum. This space around me that seems empty, might be more solid than what appears solid to me. Only when I build a Kli for it will I see how much it is so. I will see that this world, this space that seems free to me, is in fact so filled with the huge forces of the Creator, that I can’t move. I will feel as if I am in a cement block, unable to move because the Creator grabs holds me, and I cannot make a single free move. All I need is to develop my Kli.

So can this Indian go through the wall? He can. He has no sensor for it, so for him it is neither Matter nor Form clothed in Matter; it’s v ery simple. If we only detach ourselves from our usual perspective, to the real perception that Kabbalists tell us about, we will see a different world.

We might think it strange, but physicists in quantum physics also reach a somewhat similar understanding, because they too enter a world with bizarre rules. Things can suddenly be in two places, or time, s pace, and motion, can have different formations. So they begin to see how everything relates to the receiver.

Thus, going or not going through the wall is not a question. Either the wall exists for me, or it does not. Moreover, “for me” means according to how developed my Kelim are.

In this world we are born with five Kelim. We evolve along with our generation and from generation to generation. So when a child is born, it is immediately customized to grow and evolve in such an environment and such an atmosphere that what exists in this world around it becomes a fact, forms clothed in matter, and it perceives them in the five senses.

Yet, even our five senses are only senses that perceive things according to how they create them, and they do create them. It is I who creates the buildings, the walls, the earth, and all the galaxies. I create reality in my Kelim, in my sensations. There is not a single shape outside of me.

Our problem is that we take it as a fact and it is difficult for us to shift from this outlook. I don’t think that one can do that if one hasn’t crossed the Machsom (lit. spiritual barrier), but when it happens, one understand that it cannot be any other way.

Question: For some time now, I’ve been walking around with the feeling that I can go through walls...

Don’t try it (everyone laughs)

Question: Let’s say that the Indian would have gone through the wall because for him it is nonexistent, would I be able to see it? In today’s reality, would I be able to see such a thing?

If you could picture it, if you could be in his shoes, and in yours, you would; how else? (Everyone laughs again). You don’t have the same patterns as he. You do see the ship; you cannot not see it, so you don’t have the same Kelim as he. Don’t think that you have greater, or richer Kelim than he. In fact, you actually have less Kelim than he does.

By having many impressions of many forms and by building many more Kelim you also deprived yourself of things. The ability to not see things takes many clothed forms back to abstract forms, and then they don’t exist for you, and you are then not limited. The more you acquire, the more you limit yourself. You suddenly find that there are many things in this world, where before there was nothing. At the end of the day, you are not in a better situation than the Indian, you are more restricted by walls and ships and all sorts of things.

You advance in figurative attainment; you build things. But in the end, these things restrict you. You begin to see that you are in fact bound, and that this confinement operates on all levels of your perception of reality.

Question: Still, even if we don’t know the rules, they do operate on us.

Answer: The rules operate on you because you in these rules. You create those rules. They don’t really exist; the Upper Light is in an abstract form and it is you who places the boundaries on it.

There are no rules except one: “The law of equivalence of form.” You are unlimited in the same amount that you equalize your form with the Light. Boundaries appear only where your Tikkunim (lit. corrections) end, where your equivalence with the Light ends.

You create the form of each of your 613 desires by limiting each and every desire, and thus formulate your body. The sum - total of these boundaries depict the picture of reality for you.

It is interesting to engage in it, but it is not worthwhile. I mean, you can do it, but it deflects one from the main issue, from the kernel. If you acquire a Tikkun (lit. correction) for your Kelim, you will instantly rise above the Indian, above science, and above all these studies, to a completely different level of reality.

Both the egoistic Kelim and the altruistic Kelim abide by the same law, that you must first be equipped with a Kli within and only then can perceive that same form without. That brings up a question, if the picture that we perceive depends on whether or not it is perceived in an egoistic Kli, or an altruistic Kli. We have five physical Kelim, and we perceive external things according to the pre-designed forms in our mind. If we do not have the pre-designed formations in our mind, in our imagination, as preparation in the egoistic Kelim, we will not be able to perceive anything on the outside, and the same law applies in the altruistic Kelim.

A long time ago, I have given you an example, called “the law of equivalence of form.” Just like a radio receiver “catches” the same wavelength that it produces within, so we perceive what seemingly exists on the outside only according to what we manufacture within, in our egoistic Kelim. The same applies to the altruistic Kelim. The law of equivalence of form is unchanging. It can be directed at the Creator or at the self, but the law itself is a law; period.

The only difference is that if you operate the law of equivalence of form egoistically, you are only allowed to feel a tiny Light, called “minute candle,” meaning a very limited amount of forms. It reaches a limit, just like with those scientists. If they just perceive a little more, they’ll see how the entire world disappears, that there is nothing. Then they will ask, “So what is there?” There is nothing. They will ask, “Then who am I?” I too am nonexistent. When they ask, “So now what?” then the will need new Kelim.

Yesterday we saw in the film (What the Bleep Do We Know?) that experts in quantum physics reach that point as well. Actually, it was written in the Zohar two thousand years ago, and on a much deeper level. It was written down as fundamental laws of how to relate to reality. Only after that begins the research, the perception, and discovery of reality.

Question: If one has five egoistic Kelim, how does one come, like that Indian, to have that additional Kli by which to see that other reality?

Answer: The Indian comes to see the ship because people came and told him about it. They said, “You know, there is something here that you don’t see. Try and imagine that here stands a big house on the waves. It’s these forms and those shapes etc. etc.” Then the Indian begins to build within “cells” that say that such a thing can really be. By so doing he really does begin to see. Having seen the ship, he goes and tells the other Indians: “You know something? There is something out there. Let me tell you about it, and you too will see”; and they do.

Whether from our parents, from the environment, from all kinds of things, we collect impressions. These impressions build in our mind the ability to see reality they way we build, or program, ourselves, and only thus. Reality is a projection of our inner programming; and only that.

How else did Columbus’ ship - builders know how to build the ship if not from their imagination? It is the same principle. Everything relates to one’s inner Kelim, which are totally imaginary. It is only the mind that depicts reality to us in such a way that it seems to me as if it all exists, but it’s my mind that depicts these things to me.

The surprising thing is that the scientists have reached it, that they tell us about it. When I talked about it ten years ago I was considered insane, with a few others like me. But now the scientists are saying that. The Zohar wrote about it 2000 years ago, and today it is surfacing up the other end.

Question: Does that mean that what is written in books of Kabbalah is also imaginary?

Answer: Is the spiritual reality also imaginary, just like the corporeal reality? Do we also perceive the spiritual reality in our Kelim? Of course. Does it exist outside of us? No, it doesn’t. It is a Light that clothes within the Kli. Outside the Kli there is abstract Light, formless. This is exactly what we are studying about, but now you are beginning to connect it to yourself, and from below upwards, you are beginning to somewhat sense that this is really how things are, that it’s all with respect to the Kli.

Question: If I want to feel bestowal, do I have to imagine it, picture what it must be like?

Answer: That’s a good question. Some forms are worth acquiring over my Kelim. But how do I know which? I have a desire; but when that desire first came about it had no form at all. So where do these forms come from?

Also, which forms can it acquire, and how many of them? It is said that this desire can acquire 613, or 620, or 125, but a limited number of patterns, or forms. It perceives the analog, the uniform form of bestowal of the Light through these discrete digits. That is how it works in spirituality.

By way of projection, we have the same thing in corporeality. In corporeality, I have the same number of cells, so to speak, in my will to receive in order to receive. Now, if I acquire all possible forms that can be in my egoistic will to receive, I reach the same state that these physicists describe, and even further advanced, where everything disappears, like in quantum physics; everything disappears and nothing is left.

In other words, I have build so many forms that I finally see one, single amorphous, and abstract bestowal or one reception, and nothing else. This is what the scientists will come to.

It is a projection from spirituality, because in spirituality we reach that at Gmar Tikkun (lit. End of Correction). In the end, the Kli and the Light equalize, meaning the Kli equalizes with the Light in various forms, to a point that “There is none else beside Him,” NRNHY, and that’s it.

Imagining means building a Kli through acting. Do you remember how much we talked about acting? This is the only act that can help you build patterns within your desire, whether for reception or for bestowal, which you still don’t have. Acting, you learn from others, you mingle with them, you talk to them about forms that are as yet nonexistent, but you imagine and ask if this could be. It doesn’t really matter if it is possible or not, but by that you draw a Light that builds these molds within you, these sensors.

This abstract, undetectable form, is just like quantum physicists are discovering that everything is abstract, unknown whether things are particles or matter, and that things exist in several places simultaneously. This form — that everything evaporate — projects itself on your will, and as a result, the will to receive begins to gradually build the sensors to this form. This is called “the Light that reforms.” It operates on the same force that built the first Kli. We will talk a lot more about it, but I don’t want to get into that right now, it’s only good to satisfy our curiosity, but not for our advancement.

Question: It is said that when we discover the spiritual world, we see an opposite world. Over which pattern does this opposite world clothe?

Answer: That is an incorrect question. If you don’t have the patterns for it, how can it clothe in you? The molds have to be there first. First the Light has to build the sensor in you, and then you will feel something. If you’re saying that something that I don’t feel comes to me, what does it mean that it comes?

We say that the Light expands from the Creator. Baal HaSulam says that the minute we say that it expands, it means that there is already a will to receive there, which elicits it from the Creator. How else would it expand?

There is no such thing as a mere space in which the Light expands until it reaches something. If it comes out of the Creator it means that something pulled it out of there. So there has to be a form that elicits it in advance. You can’t draw something without a Kli. When you say that you’ve reached something, it means that your Kli has evolved; this is called “reaching.”

Question: It is said that an opposite world appears at this point of disclosure, that it is unlike anything you imagined.

Answer: But it’s the Light that builds it, the Light that reforms. This is called Segula.

Question: Is there any prior understanding?

Answer: No, there is no prior understanding. What you are actually asking, is if it is possible to get to the wisdom of Kabbalah from quantum physics; the answer is no. Otherwise, Abraham the Patriarch would first be a quantum physicist. But he didn’t; what can you do? He was not a professor, only a shepherd.

The reason it’s impossible is that these are completely different properties. The interesting thing is that they do come to it. They do talk about love, and how everything is one, because they feel that it comes to it. But what quantum physics cannot answer, is how to realize it, because it’s the Upper Force.

They do say that there is an Upper Force, but the technique by which to draw it, to grab it, is above reason, and this is where they will come up short. Not by much, mind you, but that “click” will be missing, and that “click” is called “faith above reason,” the correction of bestowal that comes through the study of Kabbalah.

In other words, they have no connection with the energy that is to correct a person, to build a new “cell,” something which does not exist on this side of the barrier. They will come to a state where they seem to stand before a blocking: everything vanishes, there is no matter, only thought. So what’s next? Through the research they will feel that there is something beyond, where everyone is united, and where matter is somehow opposite. But only those who are at the other end can tell us what it is, how to get there, and where to begin acquiring the other realm past the quantum laws.

You can jump through this potential barrier only if Light comes to you from there, and that, as Baal HaSulam writes, can come only through the wisdom of Kabbalah, the books of Kabbalists. There is no other way. This is so because they wrote from their end to you, who is on this end, and with your desire to move to the other side, can use their books to draw Light that will pull you to the other side. But the desire is not enough, you have to use the books. By pulling, I mean that it will build within you “cells” by which you will feel the other world. This is called “pulling,” or “crossing the barrier.” Just like with the Indian, he had to build “cells” in order to see the ship, and you have to build cells of bestowal in order to be in that realm.

Question: I have a question that I’ve wanted to ask for a long time and perhaps this is a good opportunity. What about the UFO phenomenon?

Answer: UFOs? In your mind there could be anything, UFOs, ShmuFOs whatever. But why ask about UFOs? Does this building here exist or not? Let’s not talk about what some people think they saw, let’s talk about something everyone thinks that it exists.

Question: But there are many testimonies to it.

Answer: What do you mean testimonies? Right now, in this world, there are dinosaurs living alongside us, but we don’t feel them, and they don’t feel us (everyone’s laughing), I’m serious, why not? Even the Indian is here, and yes, the UFOs and the ShmuFOs too. Why not? The only problem is that we don’t’ have common Kelim. Do you know what shapes I see going through you now? OyVey, and you can’t get away… (everyone’s hysterical), alright, that’s enough.