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Shamati, Article 7

Lesson by Rav Michael Laitman, Bnei Baruch, Israel

June 30, 2006

Through accustoming oneself to something, that thing becomes second nature for that person.

It is very interesting in what constitutes a habit here. Generally in our world as we do certain things or actions we see that there is a direct result. A person gets used to something, becomes accustomed to it and thereby is really used to it. This means he is used to that particular thing; it’s there, it’s his, and he has contact with it. There are a thousand and one things that we are used to and have become comfortable with even though perhaps in the beginning, we weren’t. We became easy with them for no reason other than that they became habit. When we repeat an act or have the same reaction, or taste the same flavors, by that we become accustomed to it.

This means that a Kli, a need, a lack was created by working on something for which we initially didn’t have any flavor or liking. Of course, in everything we do we should connect to the work of the Light and the Kli because other than that there is nothing else in reality. We should say that actually all of the Lights and Kelim are at our disposal and if we awaken certain actions, we only bring out, awaken, and sharpen Kelim corresponding to them. Then the unique Lights begin to shine on those specific Kelim. This means that through habit one becomes sensitive; he discovers a lack that was previously there however not yet apparent.

From here we can build a whole philosophy about how we can build deficiencies for all kinds of things in the world that we don’t know, don’t feel or have any special attitude toward. But through persistent searching and contact with them, we discover the Kelim and feel in them, special phenomena, flavors, up to the point that even with respect to spirituality we do the same. We are told to do all kinds of things and by doing so one develops his Kelim, meaning what one doesn’t feel right now, he will start feeling. What is the trick? How does it work?

Also through habit (when one refines and polishes one’s senses in that direction) a person somehow pictures spirituality more and more correctly. One defines it more truthfully every time through the group study and with the help of the friends and teacher; one becomes more focused on the right definitions. Even though a person doesn’t see spirituality, one begins to have some sort of inner relation toward it. That is how the Kli is created until it is refined enough to first sense this phenomenon previously hidden called the spiritual discovery.

This is how a person builds himself, both in our world and in the spiritual world. This means with respect to a corporeal or a spiritual phenomenon, it is the same mode of development and that is what Baal HaSulam says here.

Why does he call it a second nature? Habit becomes second nature because in one’s nature, according to one’s Kelim and to his deficiencies, one wants things. If a person wants to want things that he doesn’t feel any desire for right now, he can build this desire. One doesn’t build existence from absence, but rather it is hidden within him and he can only awaken those Kelim, bring them up and use them.

Hence, there is nothing that one cannot feel its reality. This means that although one has no sensation of the thing, he still comes to feel it by accustoming to that thing.

In each of us there are endless deficiencies, Kelim, desires of the world Ein Sof (Infinity). We basically are there but we don’t feel it, much like a person who is unconscious about a greater life and only has a tiny bit of liveliness. That’s how we are with respect to the real state that we are in. We are in this state of unconsciousness and the tiny liveliness that is found in us is defined as a tiny sensation of reality called Ner Dakik (tinyspark of Light ). That tiny spark that revives us is called “this world.”

In other words, everything that we imagine, that such as we are living in a reality and all those things happening to us—the universe, the earth and everything on it, and we with everything around us—all of that, is only happening in a tiny desire that did not lose its consciousness. A tiny fraction of Ein Sof remained in us and is called “this world.” This world is a fragment, a speck of Ein Sof that a person feels. It’s the tiniest sensation and everything else is hidden.

Baal HaSulam says that there is nothing that one cannot feel within one’s own reality and that all our desires are actually at our disposal. We just have to try to awaken them, to regain consciousness and then those desires will begin to feel liveliness. We will come to a sensation that we are in infinite states and that there is no end to the desires (and fillings, existence, eternity, perfection, etc,) and all of that is inside of us. But it’s hidden and through special actions which he calls habit, we awaken ourselves and return to infinite existence. This is basically the process that we experience.

We must know that there is a difference between the Creator and the creatures regarding sensations. For the creatures there is the feeler and the felt, the attaining and the attained. This means that we have a feeler who is connected to some reality.

It means we are incorporated, are made of two things: a desire, (meaning a Kli) and that which fills the Kli and is felt in the Kli. Only the Creator, the Light is felt. If we could feel only the desire, perhaps we wouldn’t be able to tolerate it. But each and every state of ours contains two discernments. What I want (and feel) and what I feel (and that which fills me); the Kli and the Light.

However, a reality without a feeler is only the Creator Himself. [The Light or the sensation in itself without a Kli, with no lack prior to it.] In Him, “there is no thought and perception whatsoever.”

We can’t understand such a state, it’s not in us. Within us there is always a need, a lack first, a desire for something and then when I feel and perceive it, it is already in my attainment, my sensation.

This is not so with a person; his whole existence is only through the sensation of reality. Even the validity of reality is evaluated as valid only with regard to the one who senses the reality.

This means I feel something. I feel myself as existing, I feel that there is something around me: people, the world, the universe. I feel that I also change, meaning my sensation and perception changes. However, I also feel that the world changes as well and I divide reality into ‘me’ and ‘the world’ but I can never be certain that I feel either correctly. Today I think this, yesterday I thought that, and maybe tomorrow I will think differently. Every time I feel, I think that’s it, that’s the truth, that’s the world and that is what exists; that is my relationship to the things that I feel. The next day it changes.

To the extent that a person can critique himself and see that all those things are relative, that only from within his own desire and mind which together are called “ Liba ve Mocha,” (where “ Liba” is “heart,” “the sensation” and “a desire” and “ Mocha” is “mind”) and that determine his state. It is only through those things that he relates to the world. They might be very different, changing in all kinds of directions. It seems to me, ‘that’s it, now I understand, that’s the way it is.’ A minute later, suddenly I’m influenced by something changing within me, and then I determine, feel, think and relate differently to myself and to others.

How do we determine truthfulness? What is truth, in my perception, in me and in the world? Is there such a thing with which I can measure if something is closer or further from the truth?

In other words, what the feeler tastes is what he considers truth. If one tastes a bitter taste in reality, meaning he feels bad in the situation he is in, and suffers because of that state, that person is considered wicked in the work. This is because he condemns the Creator…

It means that I have to measure myself with respect to Ein Sof theoretically, because I’m not there. I don’t know how many degrees away it is from me or what states I still have to go through. I don’t know what Kelim have yet to awaken in me, what perception and what sensation. Who knows?

But I heard that in the state called Ein Sof I have a tight connection with the Creator, with the Light, and that I have infinite desires. This means all my desires that are treasured within me right now, open up and are filled with Light; filled with the sensation of attainment with understanding, and with everything from the past, present and future. It’s all filled and then I feel that I am alive, one hundred percent, living in eternity, in perfection with the Light. If the Light fills all the Kelim, that’s the sensation of the Kli.

Now with respect to that sensation, I must be able to assess myself, in the way I can picture it. Because that is the ‘real’ sensation, while everything else is subconscious. Everything else is as a result of my illness, where my Kelim are silenced and are paralyzed. I cannot activate them, they are simply detached, unfelt, or don’t feel the Light (life) in them. Just like a person who lies unconscious and only has a tiny bit of consciousness, like a zombie. That’s how we are.

Therefore, that state is called the "imaginary world" because that’s what we imagine through our half asleep, half anesthetized state. But even so, in every situation, we have to try and measure ourselves and our reality with respect to Ein Sof.How far are we from it because now I am cursing my life and the Creator who gave me this life; and in everything I have, I have good and bad and sometimes something good comes, but normally I’m not that pleased.

I then have to understand that all these unpleasant sensations are true for the time being, that’s how I feel and I can’t ignore the situation. But when I compare this state to Ein Sof,I understand that my sensation is incorrect. It’s not that it’s false but it’s incorrect. It should be one hundred percent perfect. And if I understand that this is the situation for the time being, that I’m the corrupted one and need to come to a perfect and corrected state, then it's fine, I’m determining my state. It’s called recognition of evil in my present state.

But if I say that this is the situation, that this is the world and there’s nothing else besides it, this is called being wicked or evil because I am saying bad things about the world and the Creator who created it. The Creator didn’t create this world in this state. He created the world Ein Sof andeverything less than Ein Sof is the incarnations of the Kli, so as to attain Ein Sof by itself.

Malchut deEin Sof ( Malchut of the World of Infinity) made the restriction and began to distance itself from Ein Sof to find a place where it wouldhave free choice. A place from where it could determinewhat it wanted by itself,be independentand thenresemble theCreator, be like Him. All the actions outside of Ein Sof are done by that desire of Ein Sof, by that creature.

Therefore, anyone who says that the Creator is bad simply forgets to measure himself with respect to Ein Sof.This is why he is called wicked, because he condemns the One who builds his life. Today our lives are in Ein Sof; however, we are only able to perceive this pitiful life. That’s our Kelim.It depends entirely on our Kelim.

…that person is considered wicked in the work. This is because he condemns the Creator, since He is called “Benevolent,” because He only bestows goodness to the world. [That’s what the Kli feels in Ein Sof.] Yet, with respect to that person’s sensation, [who is unconscious] ,the personfeels that he has received the opposite from the Creator, meaning the situation he is in is bad.

We should therefore understand what our sages wrote (Berachot 61), “The world was not created but either for complete wicked, or for complete righteous.”

A world is called a “state.” It’s not something that’s in the universe, with all the stars. The universe with all the stars and everything is only what I feel right now in my Kli. With respect to my Kli and what I perceive in my Kli, that is called “my world.”

It is written that in every single state within a person, he should make discernments within it to progress further, so as not to remain unconscious. Then, “the world was not created,” meaning every single state that a person goes through, “but either for complete righteous or for complete wicked.” It means that you have to determine for yourself these two clear points. What is a “complete righteous?” One who feels in Ein Sof. What is a “complete wicked?” One who sees that he is not in Ein Sof and all of his feelings are not satisfied with his situation and by that he feels that it’s His fault, the Creator’s fault. In short, he is a “complete wicked.”

A person should reach either one of these two discernments. Either the whole world is great or it is entirely bad. Being in-between, meaning not making discernment, is considered to be agreeing with that state and it then prevents him from progressing.

That’s why it says, “I created the world either for complete righteous or for complete wicked.” A person progresses from both of these states. However, if he is in-between he does not progress. Normally, after everything is scrutinized and discerned, we come to a situation where we feel that we ourselves are cursing the world, ourselves and the Creator, and all of life. That is, we want better and are not satisfied with what’s happening. That’s why we are called “wicked,” or a “complete wicked.”

If a person comes to a state where he really determines that there is no worse state than his own state, it is a sign. It is from this point that he progresses forward. But if he still hasn’t determined that he is in a bad state (in the worst possible one), then he doesn’t have the strength that will push him forward.

Therefore, the best possible situation is when a person is controlled by the Light and the worst is when he is controlled by his will to receive, by the ego. These two extreme points are good. They signify that one has scrutinized his current state. Then, from these two points there is further progress.

However, if a person is in-between and remains there, not determining good, bad, or thinking about his state and how to change it, then he doesn’t master good and bad forces sufficiently to push him to a more progressive state. Therefore, it’s very important each time for a person to critique his current state with respect to Ein Sof, with respect to the Creator. ‘What is my world, what is my state?’ And it doesn't matter whether it is in positive forces or negative forces; it’s the same thing.

Most important is that one has enough strength to change the situation. We leave our present state and move on to the next in our lives once we determine that the present state is intolerable and that we have to change it. Then we change.

If we haven’t decided that we have to change it, then we can stay in it for many years. It’s called “a fool sits with folded hands and eats his own flesh.” This is when a person is dissatisfied with his life but simply endures it. This means he doesn’t master sufficient discernments to enable him to push away from that state and thereby not have to remain in it until the point that his “death is better than his life.”

When he comes to that intolerable state, he changes his situation. With respect to spirituality, it is a must because there are many temptations, fatigue. As well, we see how the world agrees to what’s happening to it. So a person needs a lot of powers; the group and the right environment in order to push him to look for the council, the strength and for the conditions that will push him forward.

Question: This system sounds a little bit imaginary. If I am supposed to make a decision and then to determine these two anchors, one of which is a state of being in Ein Sof, in completeness, and the other is the opposite, because I don’t really have these points.

Let’s say, I am in a certain state, it doesn’t matter which state—I have work, home, wife, kids, my health, the world around me, the country. Now, I have to determine if it is good or bad. Is it a state I want to be in? What about my life? What about the goal? Is it worthwhile to exist this way? Is there anything besides that? Do I have any drive to find another reality, another kind of life, the reasons for living? Do I have any desires to want to know how life is managed? What happens to me and to the world?

Baal HaSulam combines all of these questions into one, “What is the meaning of my life?” He asks about the meaning, knowing that everyone has his own meaning and yet still questions it. This means he is dissatisfied with his taste of life, with his meaning in life. It might be the little things or bigger things, but when a person asks it means that he cannot find an answer.

When that’s his preliminary state, he is then told, “You have to scrutinize the situation, to discern it.” It’s all about the scrutiny within the Kelim. The Light is in complete rest and you are in Ein Sof. There is nothing preventing you from sensing the Light. You are in a sea of Light, but it all depends on your Kelim. Let’s say you are in a whole world but you are unconscious, so it seems to you in the little that you feel, that you are in a dark world filled with pain and bad things. Every time you feel bad, you feel pain, it’s all because of the concealment. Develop your Kelim, open them, and you will feel yourself differently.

But the scrutiny, the correction of the Kelim depends upon you. The more you ask about the meaning of your life the more you discover and you work out your own state. You compare it to the good absolute state and then accordingly you will be able to progress. Progress is either by determining a state where you are attached to the Light, which is called “all good” or by determining that your state is entirely bad.

In a state that is “all is good,” great, there's nothing to do. In a state where “all is bad," when you feel that your situation is the worst possible state (it’s not that easy to come to but if you do), such a feeling forces you to change. Then, you move on to more progressive states. You seemingly wake up from your unconsciousness to something closer to consciousness and a little more closer to consciousness, more and more. That’s how you progress.

Baal HaSulam gives an example. I place my hand on a table. To move my hand in any direction, I can only do it if I am certain that in the next state I’ll have some benefit, that it’ll be more comfortable. It means that I feel my present state is not good. Otherwise, why change it? We have to come to that decision.

Therefore it says, “I created the world either for complete righteous or for complete wicked.” The worst is when we are in-between and agree to the lack of certainty and wait for it to maybe change by itself. But the manner in which it changes by itself is described as, “In its time.” This means according to the time, according to great suffering that is slow and long. It’s the long way, but there is a shorter way if a person accelerates his development.

Question: So progress is actually the ability to justify states that are more and more, complex and unpleasant?

Progress is not made by justifying the states. If I justify the states it might be that I agree with them and then I am immobile. I calm myself, I blur every state, I block it, so to speak, and then I don’t have to progress.

On the contrary, I should open each and every state by discovering the reason for it. And that reason is the lack of correction in my Kelim, the perception, understanding and feeling. If I open my Kelim, I will feel Ein Sof now, beyond life and death, beyond the lack of perception to understand and see what is around me. In every state I’ll be completely satisfied a hundred percent, Nirvana, unlimited filling in all the desires and in perception. This is what we can for the time being picture.

I don’t have to lie to myself that I am not in it. Through the society, group, the books, I have to awaken Lights from above that will bring me from my unconscious state to the state where I am conscious and that I want it, that I feel that there is life and that my present state is worse than death. This lack of consciousness is terrible. If I awaken this luminescence upon myself from above, from that state of Ein Sof, then it gives me powers, more and more powers to do things, to sharpen my senses, to cleanse them until I really feel that state.

Question: There is a state called “sleep” in spirituality. What happens when you don't feel a need for anything?

There are many situations that we are used to being in simply out of habit. Baal HaSulam says, “Habit becomes second nature” and we usually understand it as we’ll just ‘go with the flow,’ we don’t determine anything. Regrettably, that’s the situation and we can’t do anything about it. We don’t determine the states themselves and the feeling in those situations is dependant upon the state one is in. A person can’t determine anything here. When we begin to really see where we can determine something, (not simply where one is operated upon) then suddenly we move, we want, and suddenly ‘this and that.’ That ‘suddenly’ is not just suddenly; it’s an awakening from Above. If a person is not awakened, then he is like a rock, willing to remain this way.

Now the question is, “What do I do in a state when I am not awakened? I cannot always be aware if I am awake or not. Am I sleeping or am I working? If I am working, is it me who is awakening to make the change or does it come from above?” A person can’t constantly discern these things. It’s very difficult for a person because we are still not ‘in it;’ it’s hidden from us.

This is why we are told that we have to determine order, that one cannot constantly make these internal efforts and sustain oneself and push, it’s impossible. A person runs away because our will to receive hates it, it’s a huge effort. He sees no benefit in it.

Therefore Baal HaSulam says, “The habit becomes second nature” if we accustom ourselves gradually through our routines, through the society, and through all the efforts that we can possibly make according to time and our daily schedule. By this we awaken the Lights that operate on us. These Lights come and go, multiply and join their actions within a person, and by that a person gradually accumulates tiny changes within himself. He doesn’t feel it but that’s how the Light works on him: after acting several times, a person awakens and this awakening is at a person’s expense. He changed it through his habit, by the society he integrated into and surrendered to etc.

Let’s put it this way, you seem to awaken by yourself but it’s nonsense, it’s a lie. It’s all from Above and it has nothing to do with you at all. If through habit, through dull routine work, you organize your life without any pleasure in it, but rather just within the order and framework that you determine, then certainly the results are yours.

When a change comes from that, it will be toward an awakening, as progress toward Ein Sof. And in the end, you will begin to feel that you are suddenly crossing the Machsom (Barrier) and that you are awakened from your unconsciousness. It is only through “habit becomes second nature,” through slow actions that are cumulative.

It’s a long way that is actually short because you evoke it, since you don’t wait for it to awaken from Above. All awakenings from Above are not counted for a person as they don’t advance you forward. It’s only an awakening to remind you, “Oh, come on, start moving.” This awakening might come and might not. I know people (and also from my own experience) for whom this awakening came after weeks and I also know people for whom it took years, seventeen or twenty years before the next awakening came. Such a person remembers the initial experience but it’s not enough. It’s not an awakening. And suddenly, twenty years later, he is awakened.

We mustn’t wait for an awakening from Above. It turns out that salvation is only in the framework, the routine that we determine—the group, the dissemination, and the work with the friends in a group. One doesn’t feel it here but all of his efforts are cumulative.

There is really a double attitude here to this work. One might hear people say, “What do I get out of putting aside monthly a hundred shekels for my pension? A hundred or two hundred shekels,” on the one hand. And on the other, that’s the only way to really achieve anything. How many people accumulate by suddenly jumping into something? Afterwards one normally sees that it’s not beneficial. There is one hundred percent no benefit to it.

In spirituality, it doesn’t happen. In spirituality, it’s only a slow, gradual accumulation because you have to change your Kli, your perception and before it changes in your senses, in your mind, in your heart, you have to go through thousands and thousands of internal actions.

For example, it's like one’s body working now, with liquids flowing and all kinds of electrolytes at work and there is a whole chemical plant working. It’s so huge that we don’t even know what’s happening and after all this work we suddenly feel something. How many things have to happen inside between atoms, molecules, acids and all kinds of things so that afterwards, one will rise from still, vegetative, animate to the level of speaking, and at that level will begin to feel something in its level of consciousness. Everything that happens to us has to begin from the lowest degree, from zero and has to reach Ein Sof.

We understand that as our level elevates, the slightest change that we feel has to first go through this whole infinite Kli and be in contact with all the other souls. If I am connected to everybody else in one Kli and I am awakened to something in my mind, heart, or in my feelings or understanding, it has to be after the whole Kli has changed to some extent since there cannot be a change in a single cell if it doesn’t happen throughout the whole system. We have to understand how many subconscious actions happen in us and in the whole spiritual endless, infinite Kli with every tiny progress of ours.

That’s why there are so many things that happen to us that are hidden just like the situation where I don’t feel the body working right now. We just have to be awakened through surrounding Light, the study and the group.

It means the following: Either one tastes and feels a good taste in the world and then one justifies the Creator and says that God gives only goodness to the world, or if one feels and tastes a bitter taste in the world then one is wicked. This is so because one condemns the Creator.

To progress, we must constantly scrutinize or critique ourselves. “Am I completely righteous or completely wicked?” These are two lines: right and left. There is a method that says that a person should be only in a state of righteousness and constantly justify the Creator. He’s beaten up and thank God, something is bad. Thank God? It doesn’t matter whatever comes from the Creator, it is for the best. That’s Hassidim.

Normally, that’s the attitude of the religious person towards his life that everything comes from Above. This attitude helps a person go through life and somehow survive, but on the other hand, it stops a person from progressing because if one erases any bad sensation then he doesn’t want to change his life. All of his effort is only to justify his state in every situation and that prevents him from progressing.

But when he opens his eyes and begins to see a situation as bad, then he is in deficiency, he curses his life, condemns the Creator, it’s called “wicked.” What’s good about it? If in such a state he can progress with the group, the books, the guide and if he knows how to use these states correctly then it’s worth while being in these states. When he sees that he’s wicked and because of that he determines that the Creator is wicked, it’s a springboard for progress.

But if he doesn’t have this strength, if he doesn’t have the possibility or the right environment that can help him then it is not worthwhile to awaken the left line in a person, criticism. It’s called “Don’t place an obstacle before a blind person.” A person can’t correct this state so it’s best to stay in his own state, in a good state. Life will seem good, he can justify the Creator and in this way he’ll be on hold.

This means that we awaken the left line, criticism, only on condition that we’ve made preparation so that we can use the negative feeling correctly. Otherwise we’re falling into despair, powerlessness and to an even greater detachment from life than before. Life is so bad and now that I’ve criticized it, all I want is to shut my eyes and be completely detached from life. Instead of waking up and doing something, it stops me and freezes me so this is even worse. This happens if a person did not prepare his environment, if he doesn’t have a clear routine and a framework; he cannot use habit to reach a second nature.

That’s why it says, “Don’t put an obstacle before a blind person.” If he hasn’t prepared the means for progress through recognition of evil, then don’t awaken his evil. Baal HaSulam writes in his letters that “A person should be in the right line, in positivity, twenty three and a half hours a day.” It means he has to prepare himself when he is in a good state, with the group, the study and the greatness of the Creator, and be in criticism only thirty minutes a day.

That’s how weak we are. If we want to realize the left correctly, the criticism, the bad, our bitterness, we have to first see how much, fifty times as much, we have to be more prepared in the right line, in the Kelim to change. When he criticizes and determines that he’s a complete wicked, that determination is with respect to the Creator, to Ein Sof. It’s not that he detaches himself completely from spirituality and just feels bad and that’s it.

It’s an even worse unconsciousness than before, a worse detachment than before. But rather, he keeps himself within and determines intellectually with his mind that ‘now I am in a state in which I feel bad and see that I feel bad.’ He determines this objectively as he observes himself, seemingly from the outside. If he observes himself from the side and relates to himself in this way, it gives him strength. He can now start changing himself on condition that he looks at the left from the right. Thus, he works from both states, both lines, to progress in the middle line. This is the method of Yisrael, “straight to the Creator, to God.”

Question: Is it correct to think that the system of Klipot made by the Creator is a system through which we are supposed to leave the middle line? Meaning, in states that are not complete righteous or complete wicked that through the Klipot we can leave it? Is this a way of rushing us?

Klipot are our own corrupted desires. What are Klipot? It’s not that somewhere out there, there is a system which is, I don’t know where and I have to run away from it as far as possible. They are in me they are my own corrupted desires.

There is nothing else but the Kli and the Light. The Kli has discernments, meaning corrected and less corrected desires or completely uncorrected desires, desires that I feel within me and desires that I still don’t feel. Like a baby, we say, “He’ll grow, he’ll want, he’ll understand.” That’s how we are. There is a lot in potential within us but it hasn’t been activated.

Klipot are those desires in us that are now awakened so we can correct them, that through them we will understand where we are with respect to or compared to the Light, to the Creator. That’s all there is. There is nothing but the Kli, which is us, and a sea of Light around us, the Creator.

It turns out that everything is measured according to one’s sensation. However, all these sensations have no relation to the Creator, as it says in the “Poem of Unification,” “As she, so you will always be, shortage and surplus in you will not be.” Hence, all the worlds and all the changes are only with respect to the receivers, as one attains them.

In other words, we cannot say anything about what is outside of us, we cannot say what we really might feel. We are only talking about the Kelim that are now open to feeling and what happens in them.

If a person understands that his whole perception of reality in life depends upon his Kli and that he can manage his Kli, open it, advance it, then he begins to feel like the King of life. He feels like he controls his life to such an extent that he can now, within a few acts, come to a state where he controls his life indefinitely and completely. He is not dependant on the time that passes, on life or death, or on any kind of events. It all depends on his Kelim.

The world changes according to his Kelim because the world is what he perceives in his Kelim. We’re still unaware of how much we can control our perception from within. What we perceive will change from one end to the other. This form that we now perceive has nothing objective that exists permanently outside of us. It is all registered in our Kelim, only that. Through habit we can change our perception and instead of the forms we now feel, we can feel Ein Sof.

Question: In other words, the difference between us and the religious or the followers is that they are twenty four hours on the right line and we should be twenty three and a half hours a day in the right line and the thirty minutes a day in the left line and the way we think about the world is the same?

That is correct. If throughout a person’s whole life he is only trying to say, “Everything is just fine,” that’s not the right line because the right line is only there on condition that one has a left line too. If one never criticizes but always says, “Thank God, everything is for the best. It’s a great Mitzvah to be happy” and that’s it and he never criticizes because through it he can progress, then this is not called “right,” it’s called “below reason.”

There is right and left lined. When one builds from them the Daat (intellect) he goes above and below reason. The whole perception of the world of religion is below reason (see Drawing No.1).

Religion says, “Whatever you receive comes from the Creator, it’s all good and you have to justify it,” that’s it. “You don’t understand, and it’s not for you to understand. It’s for you to believe, you should believe,” that’s it. There is something that requires one's faith, what the religious people call “faith.” That's why those who shut their eyes fall into more trouble and those who shut their eyes and bless according to this are called “righteous.” That’s what religion asks of a person. This is actually, called “landlords” (see Drawing No.1).

And there is a rule of the Torah. “Torah” means that we progress through the Light because the Light in it Reforms. We determine and understand that we are in our egos corresponding to the Light, the Kelim are corrupted, and we have to correct them.

To be equipped with the strength, with Kelim, we have to be in the right line. The right line meaning the purpose of Creation is to do good to His creatures. I'm in the world Ein Sof and in contact with the benevolent Creator. I'm in a group that is willing for me to progress in it. The Creator brought me to the state where until this moment everything happened from Above. He brought me here and every state I am in is the optimal state, the best possible state to progress. And now I have to build my attitude towards my friends and to my study in such a way that it’ll help me progress one more step forward.

Once a person arranges all those things, submits to society, so they influence him with the greatness of the Creator, he subdued himself to the society in order to receive help from them like a baby in its mother’s womb. So the society becomes like support for him.

When a person has done that for twenty-three and a half hours, he is permitted to go to the left line and criticize, “Who am I? What am I? Do I have it, I don’t have it? How can I progress? Where am I?” He can do all of that for one half hour a day.

This just shows us how weak we are with regard to our ego, which throws us into despair; and how weak we are that we can’t receive support from society and subdue ourselves there etc. But if we did these two phases more or less correctly, right and left, meaning after one criticized he was in the right and then goes to the left and criticizes, then he reaches the right combination between them called “ Daat,” the middle line.

One puts together his desires with the Upper Force, so to speak, which is a group, books and study from the right line. Then the desires and the Upper Force from both sides that he receives, he turns them around to progress. Through this Upper Force, the Light, the group force, a person’s desires improve. And then he moves on to the next state from where he is, from this state to a more progressive one. That’s it. Those who prepare, who make these preparations for themselves, have a chance of reaching a state of being awakened to consciousness.

All of the five worlds from Ein Sof to us, existing in this world, are degrees of returning to complete awareness. The Machsom is the state where a person begins to feel that he was unconscious, it’s when he wakes up. The first time he feels spirituality, he has awakened a little to life. That’s why that state is called “dead” or “nonexistent,” because outside of spirituality it’s a state of death. That’s why the wicked and their lives are called “dead.”

All the other states are the states of healing until one comes to a state of Ein Sof where one is healthy. The worlds are where a person really perceives more and more, when he is alive. Kabbalists picture it in this way.

I know because I went through detachment from life. I was unconscious for a week and I remember how you regain consciousness, it’s very similar. Kabbalists took the right story as a branch from the roots. You really do return gradually, you see things more and more clearly, until you come back to the complete life.

It’s the same for us and it all depends upon a person. If you are detached, there’s life around but you’re detached. If you begin to return, then here and there you begin to regain a little consciousness. Gradually you at least have some contact. The Machsom is the first contact when you return from the state of unconsciousness.

Question: We know that the majority of the world is in state of despair today and they don’t have the right environment to support them. Why are they getting this state?

It’s a true question. Why give a bad situation to a person if he can’t realize it correctly towards spiritual progress? We see in our world, in our perception, still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. About the still, we don’t see that it feels anything but plants suffer too, animals really suffer. They have all kinds of problems, they have to survive and their whole life is about how to eat. Does it have food? Does it not have food? How can it tend to its young, etc.? It’s a whole struggle for survival.

With a person, it’s even more so until within a person, within the whole human system there are those who consciously understand why it happens to us. What for? It is given to us to progress.

From this entire pyramid of still, vegetative, animate, speaking and then within the speaking that the still, vegetative and animate phases until the speaking of the speaking, why do the other levels suffer, beside the speaking of the speaking, which understands, feels and does something? They can’t do anything. Look at them in Africa, Asia. Who in this world is happy anyway? It’s becoming even more so. It’s not getting any better and it won’t get any better.

Not everyone should correct themselves consciously. Rather, they will suffer just as the still and the vegetative do and not know why. Ninety nine percent of humanity suffers too and they don’t know why they suffer. Humanity is built like a pyramid. Just like in a body where everything happens in the brain, it’s where understanding and attainment is and from where we operate. The rest of the body exists because the brain exists and it’s managed by it. That’s how it is with people. We don’t see, we think everyone is equal because we don’t see the system.

If we could see the system of Adam ha Rishon that is built as a pyramid, we would see that only a tiny fraction of it, only this part should really reach awareness and correction, like the Rosh (head). The rest of the separated pieces of Adam ha Rishon, all these souls belong to the body and they’re managed according to the structure of their souls.

Thus the parts of the body suffer, let’s say, ninety nine percent of everyone of the whole suffer. Therefore it all depends on the head, this one percent who should reach understanding, awareness and activate the correction, and those are called “Israel.” The correction depends upon them.

Just as the more developed piece suffers more, the part that is responsible for the Guf (body), receives more blows so that they will awaken and do what they must. From the very beginning Israel has free choice. They received the Torah, meaning the method to correct themselves and the world. They receive all the conditions. The bad that they feel is also the right condition to quit relaxing and start working toward the correction, and the rest depends upon them, on Israel.

Our task first of all is to explain to those who are conscious at the head and know that they are there, what they have to do. We also explain to the whole body. Our explanation about the wisdom of Kabbalah is both with respect to the head and to the body. Why? Because the body also pushes the head, understands what the head must do. It begins to recognize the importance of the head, not influences it not just through anti-Semitism or such, but with understanding make the Rosh do what it must. In the end this is what should happen.

In Baal HaSulam’s article The Horn of Messiah, he writes that it is the nations of the world, those ninety nine percent, who want to understand a little of what Kabbalah is. This means that the more they want to enjoy, they will push the part called “Israel” in the world and compel Israel to correct themselves and correct them.

This is the discovery of the Messiah. Discovering the Messiah and discovering Elijah is the disclosure of the wisdom of Kabbalah precisely to the whole world because from there, the demand will come to Israel. Israel themselves will not awaken. It’s not in their nature to awaken, because from the very beginning it’s in the nature of Israel that they don’t have to correct themselves. Israel originally is Bina, it doesn’t need anything. Originally, only the nations of the world had to correct themselves. They are the ones who have to be corrected. This is where the ego is

That's why it's said that the Creator seemingly turns to them, but they can’t correct themselves because in this direct way, face to face, you can’t correct ego. Therefore, He gives the Torah to Israel, meaning He ruins Galgalta ve Eynaim ( GE), since He can’t give the immediate correction to the AHP.

GE should receive the wisdom of Kabbalah and then correct the AHP. Until then, the world will suffer. This is the reason for the suffering in Israel, with everything that’s happening, because until we wake up to correct ourselves and then be a Light to the nations, nothing is going to help us.