Good Environment – 11.02.10
Posted on November 2nd, 2010
Question: Should I perceive the Convention as a reflection of the corrected system of souls?
Answer: Of course! If I plan to come to the Convention, then I am about to become part of a system that is completely corrected compared to me.
It doesn’t matter that some of the people attending will be total beginners who just started studying the science of Kabbalah, or even people who just want to start getting familiar with it, who are confused and don’t understand anything yet. The Creator has brought them here and therefore I have to perceive them in relation to me as being just as corrected as the Creator.
If I see them as uncorrected, stupid, and not understanding anything, then I have to see all of this reflected inside myself. This applies to everyone with the exception of people who are clearly opposed to the goal; they must be distanced and they’ll be dealt with at the End of Correction (Gmar Tikkun).
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, The Zohar
Question: Why is it that every time I think about unity between us, some force pushes me away from it?
Answer: This is “help against you.” There are two forces leading a person toward the goal. One acts in the direction of unity and the other against. By being between them, a person has freedom of will to choose the right environment and with its help (influence) to choose the path toward the goal instead of the opposite path.
Accordingly, both forces help him from both sides. One force pushes him into the group while the other pushes him out of the group (the environment) so that he is always at the equilibrium between these two forces.
He thinks that he is being pushed away from unity, but that’s not so. He receives the force to overcome exactly proportionate to the opportunity to be strengthened in his environment that he received prior.
A person is never driven to failure from Above, as it is written, “One is only elevated in acquiring the quality of bestowal, and never stopped.” Even if there is an obstacle placed before a person now, prior to that it is ensured that a person will be able to overcome it with his free choice.
It’s the same as how we raise children. We consciously and deliberately give them exercises that are more difficult so they will become smarter and stronger.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, The Zohar
The spark called “Isra-El” becomes revealed in a person through the fact that he comes to Kabbalah. Otherwise, what force would bring him there? Every person who studies has this spark; otherwise he wouldn’t study.
We are all swimming in the field of the Upper Force, the force of the desire to receive or the desire to bestow, from one end to the other end, finding a suitable point of balance at every moment. It’s as if every person is inside an electromagnetic field as a charged particle that reacts to the field’s influence. If the field changes, it transfers a person from one place to another, like a particle.
That is how you came to Kabbalah. A desire awakened inside you that belongs to this sum of people, and you joined them. That is why you are called “Isra-El” (straight to the Creator) according to this spark. This desire for bestowal cannot rest until you realize it. You won’t be able to keep living in your inner exile anymore!
7,000 people are about to gather at the Convention; some of them live in Israel and some are from all over the world. However, every one of them is in exile from the spiritual world! Like one spiritual nation of “Isra-El,” they are all united by the spark that does not belong to the material world. For now it exists in spirituality only as a point, but according to its goal these people are already called “the Creator’s nation” by virtue of their future state.
When all these people come together and connect their spark together, each of them contributes his small force and then every person receives the force from everyone, helping him to enter the spiritual world.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Exile and Redemption”
The “desert” I enter when I exit egoistic bondage is the group. To be in mutual bestowal and feel pleasure from the fact that you bestow to everybody is a true “desert” and “bread of affliction” (Matzot, unleavened bread) for me.
If I could receive egoistic pleasure from bestowal, I would gladly give in order to receive. But I cannot give “in order to bestow,” without any personal benefit. I am unable to act this way; I cannot move a finger “on the fuel of bestowal.” I don’t receive any sustenance from this, so how can an engine work without fuel, without electricity?
Egoistic reception gives me enormous energy of all kinds, calories, joules, watts, but bestowal gives nothing. I move my hand to receive, but as soon as I discover that it is bestowal, I freeze and can’t move further. At that moment when, amidst the action, I find out that it is aimed at bestowal, I freeze, motionless, and cannot do a thing. You can scream to me, “Come on! Do it! Just one more step!” but I can’t take it.
Therefore, we are unable to see the beauty of the spiritual world and start desiring it from our Egypt. Only the group imbues us with the paramount importance of spirituality; it deceives our ego making it believe that it will feel good in spirituality.
Since we are internally connected and influence each other, I accept this lie just like I used to accept the lies of the corporeal world that promised me pleasures, manipulating my pride, lust, and ambition. I suddenly start desiring spirituality so strongly that I am ready to abandon all my egoistic possessions, the “blossoming cities of Pithom and Ramses” filled with pots of fish and meat and flee to the desert with one sack of flour on my back.
Hence, all our work lies in convincing each other that the spiritual world is the best thing that can be out there. This is so even if in relation to our current egoistic desires, spirituality is an absolute desert and bread of affliction.
So, don’t despair in the states of descent since they are authentic states that are supposed to come before the breakthrough. On one hand, I realistically evaluate the situation and realize that I don’t wish to bestow; I hate and resent it. Yet, it is so important that I want to reach it no matter what and see life without spirituality as worse than death. This attitude in me is generated by the society.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/10, “This is for Judah”
Question: We constantly hear that we have to unite and look for the Creator, but we do not perceive this as practical work. What should we actually do?
Answer: If the external actions are beneficial to the inner processes, then we have to carry them out. The benefit might come in the future. For example, suppose I perform a physical action for an entire year so that my actions will result in me attaining a more inner layer, or in other words, so I will come closer to the quality of the Creator, bestowal. I will realize how far away I am from it and then my desire will facilitate the correction of my intention from “for myself” to “bestowal.”
In other words, the “end of the action” must be present in the “initial thought.” Either I am told what to do and I carry it out “above reason,” or I act this way myself. In any case the execution of the action belongs to the person.
However, if the action is not done with the intention “for the sake of the group’s unity,” then no matter how important the intention is, it won’t bring any benefit. A person’s work is precisely the work on the intention.
It’s impossible to go around it because the nature of the world is the desire to enjoy and the desire to give pleasure, the thought that is next to them, their unity and mutual inclusion. There is nothing besides the desire and intention!
The desire to receive of the lower one enters the desire to bestow of the Upper One as MAN (plea for correction), and the desire to bestow of the Upper One descends into the desire to receive of the lower one and fills it as MAD (the Light of Correction). Then the two undergo mutual unification: Bina in Malchut and Malchut in Bina, the Creator in creation and creation in the Creator, until they attain total equality. That is the entire act!
Where does this happen? It takes place only in the thought, in the desire, in the inner effort! Of course, that is the most difficult thing. Some of us find it easy to work mentally while others find it difficult. However, spiritual work is equally difficult for everyone, whether you are a scientist or a carpenter, because it is performed in the soul, not in the mind.
We do perform certain external actions that unite us with the right intention: Why are we doing this? Why do we do it together instead of individually? Why do we want to expand the circle of participants? This revives us and brings us inspiration.
Without an intention to our efforts, we are a “gathering of fools” because even the most important work is devoid of meaning if it lacks an intention!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/10, Writings of Rabash
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We all are outside of the spiritual world, in the same Egyptian bondage that the Passover Haggadah describes. Therefore, we need to sort through and realize how well we are prepared for the opportunity to escape which may be presented to us at any moment. Will we be able to flee?
For the time being, the spiritual work tastes like dry and bland Matzot (unleavened bread) for us. Moreover, the love of friends tastes bitter, and we don’t want it. All this means that we are in exile from spirituality. We feel that the spiritual world is much more exalted, but I am exiled from it because I am unable to appreciate and comprehend how good it is. In my sensory organs, I experience it as bad, which means that I am in the dark.
It isn’t Egypt itself which is dark; Egypt, as such, is an enormous and rich empire, dazzling and abundant. Darkness results from my seeking spirituality while I am in Egypt. I feel exiled in relation to spirituality, and for me it is the “bread of affliction.”
I experience this state only if I desire to exit Egypt, and I must agree to eat such simple bread in order to prepare myself to escape. I will agree to flee if I feel that Egypt threatens me with the Egyptian plagues, and I can’t bear such a state any longer. I will feel that I truly desire to unite with the others, but the Pharaoh won’t let me.
I wish to advance at least a little bit and from this egoistic bondage reach some form of bestowal. I feel that there is life only in bestowal, but for now, I am in Lo Lishma (not for Her Name), in egoism, and wish to use it to win, to escape from the Pharaoh who brings me misfortunes.
Such an attitude must be formed in the group so that we would start crying from such hard labor, Moshe (Moses) would pull us forth, and the Pharaoh would show himself in full force, letting me know that the use of egoism no longer promises us anything good in the future. After all, the point in the heart has reached such opposition to egoism that we cannot bear it anymore.
We connected with each other and raised the importance of the spiritual goal to such a height that we cannot stay in our ego. We wish to break free from it. Let me eat the bread of affliction in the future; it doesn’t matter. I must be in bestowal. All fulfillments that Egypt grants are at the animate level, but I don’t wish to live solely for my stomach and feed my animal. I wish to live a human life for the Human in me.
All these calculations lead me to escape, but the escape itself is a miracle from Above.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/10, “This Is for Judah”
Coming out of exile is exiting our egoistic desire, ascending from it by way of faith above reason, from Lo Lishma (for oneself) to Lishma (for the Creator), from love of myself to love of others. What do we undergo while preparing for this exodus and fleeing from our “will to receive” to the “will to bestow”? It is paramount for us to know it since we are approaching this state right now.
“Here is the bread of affliction eaten by our forefathers in the land of Egypt” (Passover Haggadah). When we reside in our ego, we eat the “bread of affliction of the pauper” because we are beggars in relation to spirituality and receive only a tiny bit of Light, a minimal spark of life (Kista de Hayuta) or so-called “faint illumination” (Ner Dakik) that brings to life all of our world.
It is not the “bread” eaten in Egypt. In Egypt, there is lots of food. Our ego gives us everything: Please, do enjoy! However, as soon as we start desiring the spiritual world, long before exiting egoistic “Egypt,” we start tasting the “bread of affliction” since we don’t understand how one can reach bestowal and what good is in it.
I don’t taste any flavor in it. Everything is dry and insipid as this simple cracker made of only flour and water. That is how the spiritual world that I am walking to looks to me. Do I have to flee the prosperous Egypt, all the pleasure-pots filled with fish and meat, rich and delicious, in order to live on the bread of affliction in the desert? Is that what I yearn for?
However, it is indeed so. This is why it is written that “the commandment to eat unleavened bread (Matzot, the bread of affliction) was given to the sons of Israel long before their exodus from Egypt as a symbol of liberation that will come to pass in haste.”
“In haste” means that otherwise it is impossible to exit egoism. Spirituality looks so unattractive and repulsive that exiting into it must be rushed due to the aggressive, external force pulling from egoism. I, myself, am unable to step out of this marvelous world as it seems to me in my egoistic desire.
As for the spiritual world, it seems pitch black darkness to my ego. There is nothing attractive for my egoism there, and I don’t want to see it. Hence, the escape can be made only “in haste”; I am thrown out of there abruptly. Let’s hope the same will be done with us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/10, “This Is for Judah”
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