The Mind Has To Rely On Feeling

The Zohar, Chapter "Ve'Eleh Toldot Itzhak (These Are the Generations of Isaac)," Item 14: Even though all the people in the world are from Israel, they are all worthy of blessing the Creator. But blessings for which upper and lower are blessed, who are they who bless Him? It is the servants of the Creator. And who are they whose blessing is a blessing? It is them who stand in the house of God at night, those who rise at midnight and awaken to read in the Torah. They are the ones who stand in the house of God at night. And they need both: to be servants of the Creator, as well as to rise at midnight, for then the Creator comes to entertain with the righteous in the Garden of Eden.

In the science of Kabbalah, "midnight" does not correspond to the time fixed by astronomical hours and the rotation of the planet earth. Rather, it corresponds to the state of a person who builds spiritual senses (Kelim) within.

This person is in the state of darkness because his previous level has completely exhausted itself like a grain that rots in the soil. This is a necessary condition for acquiring a new degree; his previous state must "rot" in regard to him.

Then he begins to see a new level from within the darkness, which is formed by the following level and the Upper Light that lie ahead of him. For now it appears as darkness to him because he senses it through his current qualities. After all, every subsequent level is a greater degree of bestowal in relation to the uncorrected will to enjoy that becomes revealed to him.

On one hand, a greater Light shines for him, but on the other hand, he reveals an additional, uncorrected will to enjoy within him. He already has a new level within him, but he perceives it as darkness, a lack of Light within the desire.

Because his additional desire is not yet corrected, he experiences the Light as darkness. This makes him search for a way to change his attitude to his perceived reality. In and of itself reality is always a part of the corrected Malchut, which gradually becomes revealed to him more and more.

A person constantly changes his perception, sensation, and awareness, as well as his attainment of his state. He then demands the Light that Reforms; yet, he does not do it to make reality change, but to change his perception of reality.

Therefore, this person is called "a servant of the Creator" because he understands that in every state, everything comes from "There is none else beside Him." Only the person's perception of reality changes as a result of him correcting his qualities (Kelim).

A Chance To Bring Light To The World

When Baal HaSulam explains The Book of Zohar using the terminology of Kabbalah, he aims to provide an explanation that will develop our soul and sensations rather than our mind. This is, indeed, a challenge because the language of Kabbalah is very precise, logical, scientific, and dry, and therefore a person faces the pitfall of becoming too engrossed in it mentally. This is especially so in our time when egoism is so highly developed that its development occurs through the mind. The modern person is inclined to look for a scientific explanation using the earthly mind instead of feeling the Upper World inside his corrected desires.

As a result, when a person hears an explanation, he is lured into Klipa. If he accepts everything on a purely rational basis and starts to provide explanations to what is happening without relating it to the correction of his sensations, then he won't aspire for spiritual attainment. He will be satisfied with the explanations on the level of his earthly reason, and that will halt his spiritual progress. Moreover, he will go on to confuse others who don't understand that his beautiful words hold no spiritual attainment, but just abstract knowledge.

This is why my teacher Rabash conducted his lessons in a way that caused his students to leave the lessons confused, not understanding anything. They did not aspire to acquire pure knowledge, but waited to acquire the ability to feel what they read. There is also a different approach to teaching Kabbalah where a student rejoices after the lesson about receiving certain knowledge and being able to connect everything beautifully into a single picture of the world. These are two completely different approaches.

Either way, life will put everything in its rightful place. The global crisis, suffering, problems, and the development of egoism will bring an end to our superficial interest in science. People will become smarter and realize that abstract knowledge is not of use because it does not provide any solutions to their problems. We have to reveal and feel spirituality, instead of building theories based on things written in books.

When the mind works based on feeling and attainment, we truly reveal nature, the Creator. However, when the mind keeps growing instead of achieving real attainment, it is described by the verse, "One's knowledge exceeds one's actions" (Hochmato Merubeh Mi Maasav) and this halts a person's spiritual development. He starts to be a know-it-all  even though he is actually in total darkness and does not feel what he speaks of.

Therefore, it is my wish to prevent every person from being carried away by speculative commentaries, and to help everyone aspire only to self-correction and the attainment of real revelation.