Don’t Burden Yourself With Extra Baggage On the Path

Our inner work is revealed to us piecemeal, in parts that pertain to its execution. We aren't given the ability to see the entire total of all the work we have accomplished, lest it pose an obstacle for us.

A person is constantly consumed by the desire that is revealed in him at the present moment. He forgets about everything he did in the past and constantly feels empty. The more he works, the more his accomplishments become concealed from him.

Even though he has performed many corrections and nothing disappears, he is given the feeling that he has not done anything. This happens so he always has the opportunity to do more, so a new desire can be revealed, just like the first time. This continues until he carries out a certain volume of work. Then, in one final action called "Rav Paalim UMeabtziel" he will reveal the entire correction that he has accumulated.

However, along the path we are obliged to forget about all the states we have gone through in order to receive a desire for the next action. Otherwise we would stop and be unable to keep advancing. As long as a person hasn't completed all the corrections, his entire previous work is concealed from him, as if he has not done anything. Yet, everything will become revealed at once, at the End of Correction!

Everything repeats over and over again, but since a new desire constantly comes to us, it seems like it's a completely new state. It is as if we begin everything anew every day. We reveal a new appetite and new tastes in the material world just like in the spiritual world.

Therefore, even if it seems like we have not done anything in spirituality and that we did not attain anything, we will reveal later that this is not so. But until the very End of Correction, we cannot ask or demand anything that we deserve for the past. On the contrary, we have to be grateful for the fact that the past is concealed from us, because this way it does not blind and prevent us from moving forward. It allows us to begin all the work anew each time.

-from the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/06/10

If Spirituality Were To Become Our Life…

While reading The Book of Zohar, the most important thing is to think about the connection between us in order to become "as one man with one heart." The Light that Reforms is nearby and everything depends on our efforts to unite with one another in the system of Adam HaRishon.

This Light influences precisely the broken connections among us. If we try to unite and are unable to do so, then the Light unites us. It says in Item 155 of the "Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot" that a person is influenced by the Surrounding Light to the extent he aspires to know what he studies. What does it mean "to know what you study"? It does not mean to acquire knowledge, as in our world.

In spirituality everything is attained through connection. Therefore, "to know" means to connect, as it is written: "And Adam knew Eve." Therefore, the more we aspire to connect with one another through the desire for bestowal and love, the more we awaken the Surrounding Light, and then the Light of Wisdom (Ohr Hochma). This Light appears and operates only in the place where we desire to unite but are unable to.

Therefore, there is no sense trying to study The Book of Zohar as a science or wisdom since we don't understand its language or what it is talking about. To understand it, we have to be in the same world. We have to try to unite with one another. Then the Surrounding Light will come precisely into the places where we lack a connection among us. The Light will unite us with each other, and through the restored connections we will feel the quality of bestowal, the Creator, the Light of Hassadim, and then inside it, we will reveal the Light of Hochma.

Therefore, our entire study must be preceded by the desire to unite with each other, and we should not forget about this while studying The Zohar. Baal HaSulam writes the following in Item 17 of  the "Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot": "Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith," meaning in the quality of bestowal, which he desires to attain as a result of the study, so it becomes his life.

-from the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/06/10