Rabash. “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 13, “Maoz Tzur Yeshuati” (The Stronghold of My Redemption): But the main thing is that a person should first have the desire to sacrifice his desire to receive. And since the desire to receive is the essence of the created being, the created being loves it and it is very difficult for him to understand that it must be annulled, since otherwise it is impossible to attain anything spiritual. And in corporeality we see that a person has a desire and a deficiency as to what concerns him that comes from the internality of his body. There is a desire that a person acquires from his externality, which means on his part. This means, that if there weren’t people on the outside who generate this desire in him, then a person would never feel that he lacks anything. Only people on the outside generate this deficiency in him.

Question: In fact, in order to feel the friends’ desire I have to ask the Creator for help. Why can’t I adopt their desire by myself?

Answer: Every action is done by the Light. We live in a world with precise laws and the energy in them evokes different phenomena. This energy is in matter. Why do electrons, protons, neutrons, and other particles move? Where do they get the power to do so? After all, everything in nature aspires to be in a state of absolute rest, balance, equality, harmony, and mutuality. So why is the structure of matter in perpetual movement?

It is because there is energy that pushes matter towards the goal from the smallest detail about which we know nothing up to whole worlds. At the same time, some of the actions are absolute and are perpetually applied, like the movement of a train on the track, like physiological or astronomical processes that don’t need our approval.

But there is also a different level in which the actions must be conscious. Here the created being must understand, recognize, and know the Creator who sustains the force, the energy that moves the whole world. Above still, vegetative, and animate nature on the human level, there is a particle of desire, a point in the heart, in which the created being must ask to use the energy of the Light. Without this request the Light will not appear and will not operate.

There are times in which the energy of the Light operates without our recognition when no one is aware of the existence of the Creator. Billions of years of history passed in these “inexplicable” phases. But afterward there comes a moment in which the created being has to develop until it reaches the state in which it can get to know the Creator.

Here there is a problem as the created being feels that he is stuck on something on the way and life doesn’t flow onward. Now he has to activate the force of the Light by himself, to understand each time, to know it, and to get close to it. From now on the work is done together as “partners.” The Creator is ready to do everything‑like parents caring for a baby‑if He is asked correctly and it is to their advantage. They have everything you need; you need only to make the correct request, and mom and dad respond immediately to whatever it was.

We know in advance what the Creator has to do, we want it; we accept it, and ask Him to perform this action. Then He responds without any delay, since He is ready to help us in advance, like a father ready to help his beloved son. This means that our work is to reach a prayer: “Do such and such.”

So what is the right request? What is the request that we expect from a child? We want him to ask to grow a little, to get a bit wiser, to grow stronger, to succeed a bit more, to get closer to the state of a “whole person.” This is also what the Creator expects from us—only this request. We have to understand what it means to grow, to be kind, to be smart and healthy and to ask for that. This request is much more egoistic than our ego in this world, but because we work despite our animal ego, it is called bestowal.

What bestowal? To whom and what do you bestow? You simply ask to be like Him…

So why do we have to do this against our ego that constantly “holds us back?” It is because otherwise we wouldn’t arrive at the clarifications: “What does it mean to be like Him; to be great in bestowal?” If everything went smoothly, we would stay on the level of the still nature, we are constantly “stopped” and we have to resist that, to look for solutions, to discover, and then compare different attributes; this makes us wiser and helps us develop.

This means that the evil inclination was especially created to develop us. After all, I can be a small beetle, a mouse, a cat, a dog, a slave, a servant, a nobleman, a minister, and even the king in the King’s palace. Now, too, I am in the King’s palace, but how do I see it? How do I see myself? A small beetle that lives under the stairs.

So only thanks to the resistance of the desire to receive can we acquire more levels of understanding. Therefore, the ego is called “help against.” Without its resistance we wouldn’t be able to acquire anything. This means that we need to recognize the help and what is on the other side, and then we will reach what we desire.
[98022]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/13, Writings of Rabash

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