A question I received: Is bestowal an act or a desire to give?

My Answer: What can you give to the Creator if He doesn’t lack anything except your attitude toward Him? He doesn’t need even this. The only thing He lacks is for you to become like Him. This will delight Him. Why? It’s because, then, you’ll exist in the most comfortable state. “But I don’t want to be in the most comfortable state. I want to think only about bestowal!” If you’re thinking about bestowal, you’re thinking about how to attain the most comfortable state.

What motivates you is essential. If it is to give to the Creator,  for this sake you attain the perfect state, or if  you desire this state because it’s the best and giving to the Creator looks like a reward? What are you working for?

You can’t have the will to bestow without realizing it. If you have this desire, you must fulfill it. The act of bestowal and the desire to bestow are the same. In the spiritual world, there aren’t physical actions. To attain the will to bestow is our entire work. Indeed, what can we give to the Creator? It is the will to bestow onto Him.

We discover the Light of Hochma. In regard to whom must we uncover this Light, the creature or the Creator? The Light of Hochma fills the entire system. You only discover yourself or your own perception by sensing that you enjoy, bestow, and become infinite. Your will (Kli) is the only thing that changes.

“I am bestowing onto the Creator.”  What are you bestowing?  Did He really lack Light before and now He’s got it? You’re giving Him your attitude. Your attitude to Him is called action. Your will is already an act. However, this will must be complete. Otherwise, it isn’t considered a will.

The desire has to evolve through all four stages. Then, undoubtedly, from the 4th stage, its Reflected Light reaches Keter, and this is bestowal. However, where is bestowal in Keter? One feels the he is bestowing onto the Creator, and this is enough. The Creator has no desires (Kelim) for either reception or bestowal. He has nothing.

Yet, when you perceive that you are bestowing to the Creator, it is His pleasure because He’s within you. You allow the Light to shine.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 16: But now, after the Vav illuminated, meaning the middle line, when all four lights in the letters Yod–Kof–Reish–Aleph were opened, he [Moses] could come to the tent of meeting.

Only in the middle line can one enter the tent of meeting (Malchut) and pass the Lights into these desires (Kelim) through the three lines. This points to the main principle: One can receive the Light only by repelling it from oneself. If the Light of Hassadim, the Reflected Light, rises from the screen from below upward, we can receive the Light of Hochma into it.

In other words, if I desire to fill another person, and I give everything that goes through me to him (I push everything away from myself), then all the Lights can go through me, and I too will receive them. However, this will already be reception from below upward, with the help of a screen, which is in opposition to my ego. Then, as it is written, “Moses could come to the tent of meeting.”

If we wait for the Lights to be revealed in our desires, this will be for the sake of reception, and the revelation of the Lights will not be permitted. Therefore, the condition for receiving the Lights is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Everything can pass through you if you act for the sake of the neighbor. Then you delight by receiving both what comes to you and with what you fill the whole Malchut of Infinity. All these Lights are yours. This is the only way to receive them.

Herein lies the wisdom of receiving – the science of Kabbalah, a science about how to receive the Light by reflecting it. We are now situated in the Light of Infinity as well; it is present here and now. However, we do not see or feel it since first we have to acquire an ability to repel it, to arm ourselves with the Light of Hassadim. Only then will the Light of Hochma be revealed in the Light of Hassadim.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/5/10

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Beit Shaar HaKavanot: The correction “back to back” is the correction of the receiving desires concealed by the Light of Hassadim which deprives them of the power to attract the Light of Hochma, which they demand in accordance to their nature.

How can we appease the receiving desires, which want to be filled with the Light of Hochma and don’t understand anything else? How can we prevent them from impeding our work? We can’t destroy the desires. We can only correct their usage by changing our intention. Here the correction called “back to back” or “from the reverse side,” takes place.

You have to show the receiving desires that you can only bestow. Then they leave you immediately, as if they disappear, recoil. However, as soon as you begin to engage in receiving for the sake of bestowal, these desires reappear instantly and begin to demand for their own sake. For this reason, while transitioning from Katnut or Hafetz Hesed to Gadlut, we have to “stock up” the power of withstanding our egoism.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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A question I received: What is the logic in “faith above reason?”

My Answer: “Faith above reason” has the logic of the Upper One. The logic of the lower one is when I see the world through my mind and feelings. This is how I live. I progress across a flat plane, only on my level, and can never rise higher. This is called “faith below reason,” or “faith like reason.” Faith does not determine my actions; faith, which is the property of bestowal is not above reason.

In “faith above reason,” it is as though I take off my glasses and don’t see anything except the Upper One. I am ready to join the Upper One in whatever He desires. I want to acquire His sensation and knowledge by the force of adhesion with Him. With this action I am willing to completely cancel myself, to part with my “settings.”

When I acquire His degree, I get His faith (His property of bestowal) and knowledge that are higher than mine. Through the force of greater bestowal I also acquire higher knowledge. This is called “faith above previous reason.” In this manner I attain a higher degree.

Therefore, those who proceed by “faith above reason,” actually add knowledge since they have new vessels of perception. It is because knowledge, attainment, the Light of Hochma, spreads only in the Light of Hassadim (bestowal, faith).

Whereas those who cannot rise above their reason in the animal mind, hold onto their current state, not wishing anything greater; they cannot cancel their opinion before a higher degree, before a teacher. Thus they will not attain anything, and remain “animals.” They will be “smart and reasonable” within the bounds of their minds, but they won’t even realize that there exists a higher wisdom. After all, a higher wisdom always seems to lack any current foundation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: You say that Kabbalah allows a person to reach eternal life, but Kabbalists die. So how can this be?

My Answer: A Kabbalist dies in your eyes since you do not see his life the same way a Kabbalist sees it. You see only a part of him – his body, which certainly dies, just like any other animal. However, his godly, spiritual part, which he has developed inside, continues to live eternally. The moment that one acquires this part, he gains possession of it and it gives him a sensation of eternal existence; the quality of bestowal that one has acquired is eternal.

We begin to comprehend this only as we approach the Machsom, when the premonition of bestowal emerges in us. The Light that begins to reach a person, gives him a sensation of what it means to rise above matter and to think somewhat differently, to relate to others from the point of view of bestowal. A person does not exist in bestowal yet, but he can already touch it somehow. Then he gets a premonition that it is possible to adapt to this quality, a sensation that belongs to eternity.

Before this occurs, a person does not have the ability to comprehend, as the Light is not close enough to him yet, and the words are meaningless. A person wants to eat and rest, but eternity seems too far away and he doesn’t feel it. Only when one begins to feel the breath of the Light from afar, like fluttering wind, does he begin to understand that Kabbalah contains liberation from the angel of death. When the Light draws closer to a person, it brings him the sensation that eternity exists.

This is the initial condition for the only free action that we can perform. Otherwise, why do you need freedom? What else is there for you to do in life, in your animal body? Everything else is done for you from above; you do not do it yourself. The only thing that you can do on your own is reach eternity. Bestowal is eternal, while reception is temporary. The Light of Hochma does not come to us forever, but only if it is perceived within the Light of Hassadim. Therefore, in order to acquire eternity, first we need to acquire the desire to bestow, and then within this desire we will be able to feel our life as eternal.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, Article “The Freedom”

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The Zohar. Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 424. …The fruit of the actions of the Creator is from that river that stretches out of Eden, meaning ZA and the souls of the righteous. In other words, its deed is the souls of the righteous. And this is the fortune from which all good blessings and timely rains pour out, as it is written, “To water the garden.” It trickles and waters from above downwards because sons depend on this fortune and on no other place….

All our degrees of ascension and correction depend on “fortune” (Mazal) – the Lights that come from above “in drops,” one after another, and seep through the beard of Arich Anpin from his head. And since they come in intervals, we have an opportunity to correct ourselves.

Corrections occur to us step by step, time after time, due to the fact that the Upper Light comes to us in small portions, since a person is incapable of freeing himself from his egoism immediately, in one leap. This is impossible, since egoism is our whole nature!

Therefore, heaviness of the heart comes to us, we overcome it, then it comes again, and we overcome it again, and so on; “drop by drop” we receive correction. All this is due to the revelation of the drops of the Light of Hochma, which are delivered to us by the stream (Zeir Anpin) that flows out of Eden (Bina) and irrigates our souls.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gatehouse of Intentions): “The Moon waned on the fourth day of creation, for in the beginning Zeir Anpin and Nukvah were as two great lights, standing on the same degree, back to back, and Nukvah had a full spiritual Partzuf of ten Sefirot of the reverse side. [This means Nukvah contained spiritual vessels. Why, then, did she lack lights?] When the Moon made a complaint, saying that two kings cannot use the same crown (Keter), she was told, ‘Go and diminish yourself!’ Thus, she returned to a point beneath Yesod of Zeir Anpin, where she dwelled prior.

Malchut (creation) thought that she could be the same as Zeir Anpin; however, she could not shine as he. She ascended to Bina in order to receive Light like Zeir Anpin, but was unable to. This was for the reason that Zeir Anpin possesses the quality of bestowal. His nature is the Light of Hassadim and He feels perfection even when there is no Light of Hochma. He shines with the Light of Hochma anytime he wishes so because he always has the Light of Hassadim.

However, Malchut does not have the Light of Hassadim and she feels her existence in the Light of Hochma as darkness. This constitutes the complaint made by creation (Kitrug Yareach): “I can ascend to the height of the very World of Infinity, but if I don’t have the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Bestowal, then the Light of Hochma won’t shine for me and I will only feel greater darkness.”

When do we reveal that we are in the dark? It’s precisely at the time when we are being elevated! When we are slightly elevated upward, it makes us feel that we lack the corrected desires, the Light of Hassadim. This is what we perceive as darkness.

We don’t feel darkness because we fall, but because we ascend; however, it’s because we ascend without the garment of the Light of Hassadim, the Light of love and bestowal. What we consider descent is actually the ascent, but one that is not corrected. Likewise, what seems to us as an ascent is really a descent, because we receive what we are given into the desires of reception. Thus, everything is the other way around in the spiritual world.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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The Light’s revelation in the spiritual world is called “day.” Hence, “morning” is followed by “noon” and the afternoon prayer. The desire to enjoy grows inside of a person and he feels that he passes through various states. The “daytime hours” go by until this new egoistic desire grows so strong that the Light begins to be restricted and the sun begins to set. The person no longer has a sufficient amount of the Light of Hassadim in order to retain the Light of Hochma. His desire to enjoy has grown before receiving corrections.

As a result, “evening” sets in when he no longer can discern the desire to receive from the desire to bestow or the light from the darkness; everything is mixed together. He enters a “recumbent” state when Rosh-Toch-Sof (the head, body, and extremities of his soul) of his spiritual Partzuf are on the same level. He makes no calculations as he’s incapable of any.

The only thing he can do is maintain his “still” level and so he “goes to sleep,” which is a state that is very close to death. It’s in that state of “night” that he re-attains “unity,” the bond between souls and their union with the Creator, so that the Upper Light upholds him even in descent.

From here, we need to draw conclusions as to how to prepare ourselves for darkness at this preparatory stage before reaching the spiritual degrees. This is done by binding ourselves to the group, the Kabbalah books, and the study to form as many connections or “support blocks” as possible. When we make this correction, the “night” will end and “day” will begin anew.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 04/04/10, The Zohar

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Early in the morning, at first light prior to sunrise (when the Light is starting to be revealed) one needs to recite the prayer, “Hear O Israel.” A person stayed in the night, in the darkness, without strength and under the dominion of his egoistic desire. However, he has done the proper preparation and triggered the Zivug Aba ve-Ima at midnight which started correcting his desires.

This is how a person begins to add the property of bestowal or the Light into the darkness – his big, cruel, egoistic desire to receive sensed as night or darkness. The Light comes to him, but he can’t feel it because this is the Surrounding Light that shines during the night, in the darkness, in the exile from the spirituality.

However, this Light corrects a person and, suddenly, he starts feeling that this is not darkness. The darkness comes only from his side, but, in reality, there is Light. If he, on his side, adds the property of bestowal or the Light of Hassadim, then the Light of Hochma is revealed within Hassadim and “darkness starts shining as light.” That is, the day begins.

In other words, the day starts not because some new Light descends from Above, since nothing changes Above. Rather, a person corrects his desires through his efforts and begins revealing the Light of “day.”

This is when, for the first time, he should recite the prayer, “Hear O Israel.” This is how a day in the spiritual world begins. Later on, he says other prayers, that is, he triggers special acts and the uniting (Zivug) of the Light and the desire.

The Kabbalists wrote a prayer book based on this. It helps us understand the actions we’ll have to perform in the spiritual world when we reach it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 04/04/10, The Zohar

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The holiday of Pesach (Passover) is an exodus from our ego. Our ego locks us in a capsule called “this world” and prevents us from seeing the reality outside. In order to break free from this shell we must perform a “circumcision,” by drawing the Light of Hochma from Above. It acts like a sharp knife and removes our great egoistic desires that cannot currently be corrected. We are given the opportunity to rid ourselves of them and to not use them, in essence to become free!

To be a “free people in our own country” (the word “country” comes from the Hebrew word “desire”) means to escape the rule of our desire. When we become free from our desire and can rise above it, we are ready for the exodus from Egypt.

We then exit our evil inclination (Yetzer HaRa) out of Egypt (Mitzraim – Mitz Ra, concentration of evil) and toward freedom. Having been slaves to our desires, we now come out of slavery and become free of them, meaning we refuse to use them egoistically.

Presently we are drowning in our ego, in our desire to receive for ourselves, and immersed in this world, we are subject to waves of all kinds of problems and desires. Suddenly we receive a strong desire to rise above this world, this life, and to feel a spiritual life.

This doesn’t mean we discard all of our corporeal desires; rather, with the help of The Book of Zohar, we receive the strength to rise above our desires and become masters over them. The moment we ascend, we immediately stop feeling trapped within an egoistic capsule with its sensation of this world, and we begin to feel the spiritual world. That is the real meaning of the exodus from Egypt.

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