Question: I try very hard to cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), but Pharaoh always wins. At a certain point, I lose faith and unite with the group only out of habit, not genuine aspiration. It makes me angry. What shall I do now? Ask the Pharaoh to let me pass to the Creator?

Answer: No, you should beat him. He hates you and does not let you pass through to the Creator. He is standing between you two.

You should understand that the Creator Himself has put Pharaoh before you. In order to develop a strong and correct desire in you; he placed a special obstacle on your path. This obstacle, your egoism, Pharaoh himself, “sculpts” you, forms a new type of striving, a new and mighty aspiration to the spiritual world out of you. If not for Pharaoh, you wouldn’t search for spirituality. You would desire corporeality, assuming that it is “spirituality.”

However, Pharaoh straightens out this lack of correspondence. You exert pressure, he gives you blows; you exert pressure, he gives you blows, again and again. Due to these beatings he shapes the clod of your desire into the desire to bestow (Tzura Melubeshet Be Homer).

As a result, you, like a key, fit the lock precisely, and the door opens. This is why it is said, “Pharaoh draws the sons of Israel (those who aspire to Him) closer to the Creator.”

We think that there are bad forces in nature, but in reality, it is not the case. When the property of bestowal will reign within me, I will discover that there is no evil, and all negative factors were called to form out of me the desire to bestow. They are all help from Above. As soon as I assume the form of bestowal, they will have no reason to pressure me any longer.

We just need to understand how to work with these forces. The faster we do, the sooner we will acquire a new form and will be born.
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From the lesson on Rabash’s article 11/12/10

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that a person will reveal the Creator only out of despair. Does it mean that at a certain point we have to yield, to refuse to continue fighting?

Answer: No, we do not yield. We fight to enter the spiritual world by our own forces. And then we despair of our power and understand that we cannot break through the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality) on our own. But it is only then that we truly feel the need for the Creator, evoke His force, and break free from the imprisonment.

It is impossible to feel the need for the Creator until we despair of our own efforts. Now we want to unite, change, and straighten up our relationships by ourselves, by our own power. We try to act by ourselves, as if the Creator does not exist.

However, when we truly desire to draw closer to each other, we will understand what we felt slightly during the Convention: We are incapable of it. Everyone is separated from the others by a partition, and he cannot break through it. Each is sitting in its own cell, like bees in a honeycomb, isolated from the others.

When I want to break free from this cell, when I exert all the effort and understand that I am helpless, then it will become clear to me that there is the Creator who can give me strength and save me. I read about and heard of Him before, but He was not in the field of my desires and aspirations. He was not my partner yet. Now I felt for the first time that I’m helpless without Him.

This is how the Creator awakens the Pharaoh within me. After having experienced a few such actions, I realize that I cannot break free without Him. As soon as I will feel it, I will cry out to Him, and He will immediately “un-bolt the door” for me.

My entire work is to desire the Creator, to want Him to manifest within me and change my nature, to want His force of bestowal to clothe me.
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From the lesson on Rabash’s article 11/12/10

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The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride)”: … the members of the bridal chamber must be with her on that night and rejoice with her in the corrections that she is corrected….

Question: What is the criterion of our advancement? Is it hatred that becomes revealed to us in the beginning or the opposite, joy?

Answer: First of all, I advance if I do not cease to mentally gaze at the place which I want to reveal. It is called the “bride,” and it is precisely there that the “groom” (the Light that will fill the “bride,” our unification) will descend to. (In Hebrew, a groom is “Hatan” which comes from the word “Nochet,” a descending one.)

If a persistent demand to reveal that place lives in me, then I’m glad for the effort that I can exert constantly. And it’s not important how often I stray, forget, or get distracted by a rational analysis.

It is said about this, “From Zion shall go forth the Torah.” In other words, advancement is comprised of these exits (Yetziot) from the attempts to re-define the place of our unification.

Each time I have to lose my concentration. After all, any state consists of 10 complete Sefirot. In spirituality, an action is performed only if all the 10 Sefirot are present (Ein Mi Ksat Be Ruchaniut). If I correct something, I have to correct a full measure. Each part of the desire demands separation from the previous state and a new approach to unity, to a new 10 Sefirot.

This is why we disconnect from the goal again and again, even if it just for a split second. Time after time we lose the target and catch it again at the crossroads.

Due to these efforts at night we “adorn the bride” (clothe her in the Light of Hassadim [Mercy]). That is, we build the Kli (vessel) until it becomes fully disclosed and ready to accept the groom, the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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We forget that we mustn’t do anything besides asking the Creator to do it! Instead we think about how I should force my heart to open up, how I can connect with others, or how others can connect to me. However, we shouldn’t think about this at all! We imagine the connection inside our egoistic mind, yet it is nothing like what we think!

This is the level of the Upper World; we are revealing a new reality! We must only ask and that is all! We learn that everything happens by virtue of request. We raise the prayer, the MAN, and in response comes the Surrounding Light, MAD, and corrects everything, while we are simply present during the correction. Everything comes from Above, and on our part only a demand, plea, and aspiration are necessary.

The problem lies in this point: Do we turn to the Creator or do we try to do everything independently? This is the point where we make a mistake and get stuck for many years, unable to change the direction even slightly, to understand that there is nothing besides an address, a demand, a request!

In order to achieve this request we have to make efforts, but it is only to accomplish this. If we try to independently build the right social system based on love and friendship, this will be a lengthy path that will bring us to the understanding that we are moving away from the goal, that we are insincere, that we hate each other and do not move closer to unity.

Kabbalah has to bring us to a very precise analysis: Don’t try to connect to another person, you are unable to do this, you are an egoist and so is he. Only the Upper Light can do it; it has to come and meld us together – only it!

Therefore, don’t look for a connection with each other because it is written “husband and wife and the Shechina between them,” meaning there is me and my friend, and the Creator between us. “He who makes peace in the Upper will make peace in us” (Oseh Shalom BeMromav, Hu Yaseh Shalom Aleinu).

Any time we turn toward one another without the force that connects us together, it is a false address. When we hug, we do not want to hug or we do it on the level of our world. Do we really demand love, unity, or friendship from one another? It is only on the level of this world. Who of us can become a guarantor for another, or even for himself? Where do we have the strength for it? We can only aspire to each other through the Upper One, who fills all of the space between us.

If we demand for Him to fill the emptiness, to connect us together, and to always be present among us, then it will happen, and easily so. The science of Kabbalah is meant to bring us to this correct attitude, while we always run away from it, being inside our egoistic nature.

Let us not forget that “There is none else besides Him”! The Creator carries out the action, but in order for it to happen we have to precede His action with our desire. This is called “making a covenant,” where we sign an agreement with the Creator: We demand and He carries it out.

Similarly to how small children walk and pull adults after them, we are pulling the Upper Force so it will correct the nature it created; then we will become equal to the Creator. We cannot attain mutual guarantee or even really desire it. As soon as we start to talk about unity, we have to remember the condition: “Israel, the Light, and the Creator are one.” Myself, my neighbor, and the Creator between us; only the three of us together will be able to achieve true conciliation and perfection.

Precisely the aspiration to unite in the group will quickly bring us to the realization that we have to turn to the Creator for all the help!

From Lesson 8 , World Kabbalah Convention 2010,  11/11/10

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The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride)”: The time of correction is called night. …On the next day, the bride is to be with her husband under the Huppah….”

Our broken souls as well as the lower nine Sefirot of Malchut of the World of Atzilut are located above this world in the Worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. The Keter of Malchut is located on top, in the World of Atzilut, and represents just a point. The remaining nine Sefirot are under the Parsa, in the Worlds of BYA.

The state of the souls in the Worlds of BYA are called “night.” By rising to Malchut of the World of Azilut, they compel Malchut to raise her nine lower Sefirot which now remain unnoticed in the darkness.

To the extent that we connect to Malchut, she starts raising its Sefirot to Atzilut and becomes a Kli (vessel). This enables her to connect into one whole with Zeir Anpin (ZA), which is called Huppah (a wedding canopy or cover, the Masach [screen] under which the Zivug [union] or a wedding ceremony takes place). In other words, we are talking about connection, Zivug.

ZA is called the Creator, while Malchut, Shechina. Their unity is what we need to achieve. When does it happen? By raising our desires to Atzilut, we instigate the ascent of all the worlds. Malchut (BON) rises to the degree of SAG, while ZA (MA) to the degree of AB. This is their future.

We attain and feel all of it in our unification. From the level of the Zivug of AB-SAG, we receive the Light and fill our souls that are located below, in Malchut.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride)”: Rabbi Shimon was sitting and studying the Torah on the night when the bride, Malchut, unites with her husband. …all the friends, who are the members of the bridal chamber, must be with her on that night and rejoice with her in the corrections that she is corrected….

In order to connect to the text of The Zohar together, it is important not to forego the aspiration to unity. The Light of The Zohar can only enter our unified desire. It does not penetrate one’s individual desire.

We should realize that everything that we read about in Kabbalistic books describes the connection between us. Hence, first, as the preparation for the lesson, we need to imagine this connection for ourselves and only then consider the words of the Kabbalists who describe it to us.

This is how I study the wisdom of Kabbalah, the purpose of which is to correct our broken interconnection. First of all, I awaken the connection that we need to correct in my imagination, and then I attempt to comprehend what kind of connection is being described to me.

We are immersed in pitch darkness of the night and have no idea about our whereabouts. Nothing is clear to us, but we toil in order to prepare the bride, Malchut, our Kli, for “daybreak.” At the break of day, meaning at the end of our efforts and corrections, the shape of our interconnection shows through the dreadful darkness (egoism), and we see increasingly clearer (in the morning light, the property of bestowal) where and how it has to be revealed.

When our interconnection finally shows through the darkness, the morning comes. The state becomes clearer, and the Light, the property of bestowal, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), is revealed in our connection. Then, the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) clothes the Light of Hassadim, and the day breaks. The connection between the groom and the bride, between the Creator and the vessel of our interconnection, our common desire, gets established.

For the time being, we are in a state called “the night of the bride.” We are preparing ourselves. We lack unity in which the Light could manifest itself.

However, we try to find the place of our breaking, groping for the egoism that separates us and the means that we can use. All of this is the work at night, the preparation for the first rays of sunrise.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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Question: Many years ago at a convention in Sitrin (Israel), you said that in order to break the Machsom, we must be in one thought at the same moment and have a very big, single desire. During that entire time we tried many times, we did a lot of actions, but we were not ready.

I feel that at this moment now everyone is ready. I spend the entire lesson trying to break this membrane in me, the egoistic Klipa, I want to make “an opening in my heart.” I lack everyone’s synchronization. I do not want this tomorrow; I want it right now, at this very instant! Please help us become synchronized right now so that we would be able to break this barrier!

Answer: Once I turned to Rabash with almost identical words, and he responded that he is not standing between the Creator and me. One must find this connection himself. He himself must demand it. And mainly, he needs to understand that he does not break his own membrane, the Creator does it.

If you are trying to break it and find yourself unable to do it, then it is a good thing, but you need to stop trying to do it on your own. Which forces are you using to do this? The same force of egoism? How are you breaking it – are you using a big ego to break a small one or vice versa?

Only the Creator can do this, and no one beside Him! A teacher is a guide on the way. He only brings you to this state, but he cannot do anything for you. And the Creator cannot do it unless you demand it from Him. This is because your desire for an inner change must precede His action.

From this follows:

1. Stop attempting to break the membrane, the egoistic Klipa of the heart, on your own.

2. Stop awaiting anyone’s help but the Creator’s in responding to your request.

We have been studying this for many years in all the Kabbalists’ articles: Everything is only done by the Upper Light. It created the desire, it changes it, it prepares it for changing the intention, and just like it broke the desire, only the Light is capable of correcting the intention over it, if the desire were to demand it.

There is no one in between; everything depends only on the desire itself: the request, the raising of the MAN. And the action from this is only realized by the Upper Light. Begin to only concentrate on two actions: I ask, and the Creator executes.
From Lesson 4, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharoah Sent),” Item 441: It is written about that, “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together,” meaning one should not give room to the evil kinds because man’s actions awaken what need not be so. When they mate together, it is impossible to stand up to them. A Klipa called “dog” comes out of their side, and this is the fiercest of all….

The Zohar also says that our every effort and action immediately exposes the Klipa (shell), and a person fails, immerses into the Klipa, and then gradually performs a correction and comes out of it. In this way, he clarifies the Klipa and does not need to be in it any longer.

That is, ascending the spiritual degrees always starts with confusion, the mixing between good and bad. At the beginning, any state is unclear to me. Undoubtedly, there is both good and bad in it.

I have to attract the Light that Reforms to this state. By manifesting in this state, the Light pulls the evil down, and I rise upward using the good. Hence, in any state I reach, I first sense a lack of clarity, and only the Light splits it into two.

At first, the Light helps me reveal the evil, as it is said, “I created the evil inclination,” and I throw it down. Then, there is “…and I created the Torah for its correction because the Light (Ohr Makif) in it reforms.” Then I rise upward to the good desires.

Hence, “There is no righteous man who does good without first having sinned.” We always need to reveal the evil first and “cast it off,” meaning to be immersed in it, imbued with it, realize that it is evil, and only afterward get rid of it and reach good.

This happens with any clarification, with every tiniest detail. So don’t be frightened if it happens with you every second. On the contrary, the more often it occurs, the better.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/10, The Zohar

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Question: What is the inner work in the group between circles (Igulim) and the “straight line” (Yosher)?

Answer: Before I was satisfied with success in the corporeal world, but then I suddenly felt that something was missing in my life, and I began to search for a place where I would feel better. Thanks to this sensation I have come to the science of Kabbalah, but who was it that pushed me to it?

My questions are called “the desire for fulfillment” (Hissaron). I (my “point in the heart”) had existed in some “round” place and suddenly felt bad. In other words, a certain tension had emerged between me and my environment, a difference, a “delta.” I felt this delta (difference) as evil, as I was tormented by the question “What am I living for?” because I do not feel satisfied and balanced.

From this sensation the Surrounding Light had already begun to influence and move me since the preservation of balance is a law of nature. The Surrounding Light is what is pushing me to a state of balance.

I had begun to move and had transitioned into my next state; I began to look for answers in say mysticism, then came to some philosophy, and ultimately arrived at the center of the circle: the science of Kabbalah.

So who was it that has been leading me along this entire path? It is the Surrounding Light! I have always existed in it, only I didn’t always realize it. Thus I pass through the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th states.

In the 2^nd state, I was calmer with respect to the Surrounding Light because I felt less pressure than in the 1^st state. But after spending some time in that state, I was influenced by the Surrounding Light and began to feel that this state is not very good. That is, I increased my sensitivity to the Surrounding Light, which caused me to feel bad again! And again I began to search.

Thus I am pushed by the Light every time. In essence, I don’t do anything myself; it’s the light working on my desire, until I reach the very center.

At the center is a totally unique quality called a “group.” In this point the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) and the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi) cease to influence me entirely.

I exist in the central point of all the “circles” (Igulim) where they do not function and also at the end of the “line” (Yosher) where it does not function. So what am I to do?

And here is where I need to act independently, for I find myself at a point of free will. Presently Light does not act on me, but waits. To the extent that I can bring myself out of this state of balance, the Light will begin to influence me!

I connect to the group, and all the additional desire that I receive from it elevates me! This desire pertains to the line, for I have received it from the group.

When my desire falls within the line, I find myself once more under the influence of Igulim (after all, I do not yet have a screen [Masach] and do not belong to Yosher), and once more I feel a difference between myself and the circles.

This leads to the Surrounding Light influencing me. It is not the general Light, but one that belongs to the Light for I have received my desire from the group, which is the line. This Surrounding Light in the line wishes to elevate me for the two of us to be in balance.

Herein lies the Segula (remedy), the miraculous power of the Torah, for this light influences me and elevates me in this straight “tube.” I rise on account of the Surrounding Light, but this Light influences me to the extent that I actualize my freedom of will in the group, by connecting to it in collective study.

Herein lies our entire work! Baal HaSulam explains it in the book, Beit Shaar HaKavanot, which is the foundation of all our intentions to reach bestowal. Therefore, I can only ascend “in the line” with the help of an additional force, which I receive from the group. According to the desire received from the group, the impression of the goal’s importance, the Creator’s greatness and the paltriness of my own ego, the Surrounding Light begins to influence me.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/10, Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Beit Shaar HaKavanot”

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