Surrounding Light

Day by day, we approach the realization that as long as the ego continues its rule, the end of the world is nearing, and we must choose life and love. But without assistance, we will not be able to transcend our egos because this is how we were born. To do that, we need an outside force that does not exist in our world. For that purpose, we were given the method of correction—Kabbalah.

There is a special force in the wisdom of Kabbalah, one that can create a new quality within us. Authentic Kabbalah sources describe the nature of the Creator, the upper world and the processes that occur therein. When we learn from these sources about the states that are opposite from our world, about actions of love and bestowal, we draw the force from them toward us.

This projection of the upper states on our current state is called “the action of the reforming light,” the “surrounding light.” Eventually, the surrounding light makes us yearn for the quality of the Creator.

Baal HaSulam explains it in the following manner: “Through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the lights that surround their souls ... which bring one much closer to achieving perfection.”

(“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”, Item 155)

A Request to Achieve Completeness

Question: How can the action of the surrounding light, the “Light that Reforms,” be explained in simple words?

Nature, the Upper Force, the force of love and bestowal, exists in the bonding of all the parts of Creation—which He Himself created—and they exist in harmony and a totally reciprocal connection.

We are unhappy because we have become detached from this integral system. If we want to be happy, we should return to this system, which is called “perfection.”

How can we return? When we want and make an effort to return to the system, we evoke a force within it, which affects us. Thus, we awaken upon us the “surrounding light,” the “Light that Reforms,” a force that leads us back into the general system.

This force acts in congruence with the power of our will—the extent to which we awaken, request, and even demand it from the system.

From Evolution’s Steam Engine to Spirituality’s Jet Engine

Who can explain how an infant grows into an adult? Why do babies change from day to day? Science can describe what unfolds within matter, but it does not see the cause that exists outside of matter, driving it to develop.

I left science decades ago because that was exactly what I wanted to know—where does the force of life come from? Where can it be found? In atoms? In molecules? In systems within the cells? I discovered that science does not research that. But if we do not know the answer to the most important issue or even try to discover it, then what is the point of science?

According to Kabbalah, the same force that acts upon and develops every part of Creation acts upon the infant, too. It is the light of life, the Upper Force, which operates in creation and turns inanimate matter into plants, animals, and humans. Without it, matter would remain lifeless and unchanging.

The light of life cannot be perceived or measured with any instrument. We see only the effects of its operation, such as an infant who grows from day to day and from moment to moment. In our world, this light creates evolution. But the train of evolution lags along at its own pace as the Upper Force operates in matter and drives it to its predetermined goal.

When we enter the spiritual world, we can research every stage of evolution, even the dinosaur era, should that suddenly interest you, since all of the previous forms are known in advance and must clothe their forms according to the different combinations of the forces of reception and bestowal.

The wisdom of Kabbalah describes the future states of our development. When we study it with a desire to develop, we consciously draw the light of life to act upon us. In such a case, the effect of the light upon us is defined as the act of the surrounding light. Today the possibility to do so is open to all of us.

The Book of Zoharis a river

emerging from the Garden of Eden

flowing through one’s heart.

* * *

Without The Book of Zohar

we would not be able to focus on the inner, spiritual world.

We would always see the superficial picture,

the picture of the corporeal world,

the world of outcomes.
 

The Book of Zohar—Inlet to the Hidden World

The most prominent book in the wisdom of Kabbalah is The Book of Zohar. It was written by a group of ten great Kabbalists, a group unparalleled in history.

They created a bridge of language, information, and feelings, forces, and lights between the way we understand and feel the revealed world, and our understanding of the hidden world.

When we study The Book of Zohar and try to experience the state that the Kabbalists are trying to convey to us, we are as wide-eyed babies opening our mouths and passionately absorbing our mothers’ words. We do not understand them, but we look at them and express our joy with movements.

From within us, from an unknown layer in our subconscious, a new space will begin to appear, a new world to which we will gradually become accustomed. Thus, that which was concealed will slowly become revealed.

Actually, The Zohar is not “studied,” it isrevealedthrough our yearning, through our willingness to feel the hidden world.

It is for good reason that whenever Kabbalists write aboutThe Book of Zoharthey do not use the expression, The Book of Zohar, but only “The Book.”

In doing so, they show us that there is no other book in the world!

The uniqueness of The Book of Zohar is

in its ability to take any person who so desires,

whomever he is and wherever he may be,

and admit him into the spiritual world.

Acquaintance with Myself

Question: I happened to watch a lesson you gave to your students on The Book of Zohar and other Kabbalah writings. I did not understand much, but I felt that there was something special there. Is there any point in watching lessons even without understanding?

Absolutely. Watching these lessons awakens the effect of the surrounding light on you, even without your cognitive understanding of the material being studied. It is said about it, “The heart understands.”

In general, when studying The Book of Zohar we come across many things that are not clear to us. We gradually become acquainted with them, but actually, it is not even that important.

We can compare this process to a small child who sees many new and unfamiliar things around him. While he does not know why they are needed, in this way, without understanding how, he comes to know the world in an instinctive, pure, and innocent way.

There is no need to fear not understanding the material or not knowing how one thing relates to another. We simply need to listen, touch everything, burn from within, and want to understand. This is the only way to come to know the world, our world and the spiritual world.

The Book of Zohar and all the writings of Kabbalah turn to the internal forces within us. They help us gradually become acquainted with them. As we evolve, we get more opportunities to work with these forces, to rearrange them, and to use them properly.

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Light of Hassadim (Mercy) In The Midst of a Sea of Light of Hochma (Wisdom)

We are in a fixed state called Ein Sof (Infinity). The Creator desires to fill us boundlessly, that we will understand and feel “from the end of the world to its end.” The problem is that we are obtuse. We lack the sense with which we can perceive the whole of reality.

We have a body that is a kind of inclusive sense. Within it are five particular senses through which we sense only this world.

But there is another sense that we do not presently feel. It is called “a soul.” In it are five particular senses, too, called Keter, Hochma, Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut. When we reveal our soul, we will sense the spiritual world through it.

There is only one thing that we lack in order to reveal our souls, to feel that even now we are in the world of Ein Sof, that everything shines around us, and there are no limits—the light of Hassadim (mercy). The light ofHassadimis love, bestowal, and rising above the ego.

In Kabbalistic terms, we are currently in a sea of light of Hochma (wisdom), but we can reveal it only to the extent that we open ourselves with the light of Hassadim.

If there is any pressure from the light of Hochma, and there is no light o fHassadim on the soul’s part with which to open itself and to shine, darkness ensues.

The point in the heart within us is like a drop of “the semen of the soul.” Studying Kabbalah brings the surrounding light to it and gradually builds the light of Hassadim in it. Thus, the soul evolves and fills with the light of Hochma.

Endless Pleasure

The wisdom of Kabbalah deals with receiving all the abundance that is intended for us (in Hebrew, Kabbalah means “receiving”). It explains how to receive and transfer immense and eternal pleasure through ourselves.

Eternal—because when we transfer the fulfillment of all the souls through ourselves, we are not depleted. It is like a mother who loves all of her children and enjoys the gifts that she transfers to all of them.

The Goal of Creation Is to Enjoy

Question: I still do not understand what am I going to get out of loving others.

Loving others is not the goal; it is the means. The goal of Creation is to enjoy! But to truly enjoy, “large vessels” are required, receptacles, great desires for pleasure, so they can be filled with abundance.

I was born with a very small vessel, tiny. I eat a little, stop, and want no more. I run to another physical pleasure, enjoy it, and that is the end of it. I go to watch something and it’s over... I cannot receive any greater pleasure than what I receive now.

When I hear that the goal of Creation is to enjoy, what can I possibly imagine? To be served a 1000-pound steak? To be given such great pleasure that I will explode? My vessel cannot contain it. What can I do?

Those who have already been through this process explain that it is impossible to obtain more pleasure in the way my vessel currently obtains it. But if I expand it, I will be able to obtain more.

How do we expand the vessel? By acquiring external vessels. I receive and transfer endless pleasure through me to these external vessels.

Thus, love of others as we presently perceive it is a very confusing concept. There are no others here. There are only my vessels, which appear to me as external, so I can add them to me, thereby rising to the degree of the Creator.