The only thing we lack are anti-egoistic screens (Masach). The desire itself does not change. It only becomes revealed for being used to the degree of the screen that it has.

The screen determines what desire you can use, how much, and in what way. Therefore, we already have everything besides the screen—it is the only thing we need!

The screen is the force to overcome my egoism in spite of my egoistic desire, despite the things that seem attractive, sweet, completely obvious and rational, and are confirmed by my entire mind! Yet I go and do the opposite!

And I don’t just do the opposite, turning a minus to a plus. That would be very simple. Rather, I am in no way guided by my desire, logic, or any of my calculations. There is only one calculation for me: “This is the desire of the Upper One!”

I don’t receive anything at all from this, and don’t desire to receive anything. I want to know just one thing: that this is the desire of the upper one. This is called a “screen”—the force enabling me to act this way, above my desire, above nature, above egoism and all of its calculations.

And there is great pleasure contained in this. This is not masochism from enjoying trampling my desire, but pleasure from the fact that this makes me similar to the Upper One in some way.

It’s like a child who desires to be similar to an adult. This is a natural instinct children have. They have to make great efforts to achieve this, even though nature helps them.

The upper nature has endowed children with this enormous gift, enabling them to grow. It gave the will to enjoy such a powerful thrust that it forces it to work very hard, never stopping to rest. Look at how little children act, running about non-stop and doing something all the time.

This is the pure upper force, the force of bestowal, the force of the Creator, which is present in small children and in any creature that desires to grow. They do this against their nature because our nature aspires to rest! We can see this from all the laws of physics: Everything aspires to a restful, motionless, and balanced state. The laws of entropy, conservation of energy are aimed at this.

Yet in the case of children we see how the body does not let them take a break. A child is always running about, eager to do something, and it is impossible to stop him. In our days this phenomena is called “hyperactivity,” but in fact it isn’t “hyper” activity, but normal behavior for the increased will to enjoy that is being revealed in the last generation. For such a developed desire, this is not an exaggeration, but the norm.

It’s a wonder looking at what children do; they are anti-nature. We have simply gotten used to the picture where children know no rest and that’s why we aren’t surprised by it. But where does this body or desire take this moving force, causing him to run around this way?

This is the regular picture, inherent in any creature. An adult mother, such as a dog or a lioness, is lazy, sleepy, lying down, sleeping, sitting calmly, and wishing to rest. And all around her there are cubs whirling about and never tiring. This is the opposite nature. And man behaves the same way.

This aspiration is given to children from above, against nature, in order for them to develop. Likewise, we have to ask for this force in order for us to spiritually develop!
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: What can we do now to make the Creator happy?

Answer: Everything I do in the aspiration to unite with others in order to thereby give the Creator an opportunity to bestow to us—all of that means giving Him pleasure, even if I still haven’t attained the kind of unity inside of which He could bring His abundance.

Unification has to be total. Our Kli divides into five parts, and into five more, and so on until the 125th part. This is the smallest degree of unity between everyone, and it is already sufficient in order for the Creator to give us the corresponding dose of His Light, which we will feel.

Therefore, our entire work lies in preparing the Kli, the vessel in the unification among us. We shouldn’t work in relation to the Creator, but among us aspiring toward Him. Unlike Soviet Russia, we don’t unite for the sake of ourselves, but in order to give the Creator an opportunity to bestow to us. Then Israel, the Torah, and the Creator will really be one.

And that is enough. We work among us, keeping an intention to benefit the Creator, in order to prepare the vessels for His bestowal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Do I have to look for suffering on the spiritual path, or on the contrary, avoid it?

Answer: You should never think about suffering. If a person feels suffering, he has to know that to the degree he feels the bad sensations, he is being controlled by impurity, Klipa.

That’s because suffering does not come from the Creator. He is good and does good. Everything I feel comes from Him, even though it seems to me that I am being influenced from different directions. Thus, if my sensations are opposite to goodness, if they are unpleasant and bad, that means I am ruled by Klipa, egoistic desire, to the same measure. It neutralizes the Creator’s good influence, turning it from Light to darkness. That is why I feel bad.

Thus, the bad sensation is meant to show me how much I am immersed in evil. This has to push me to turn my sensation to goodness. And if I am in the right environment, then I can immediately achieve this. The group’s support prompts me to immediately change the bad sensation to a good one.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Does the Creator hear the plea of a person who is asking to raise him to the next degree because he wants to avoid pain?

Answer: Certainly! The Creator hears any prayer. Just ask! But don’t bother Him on trifles as the regular "folks on the street" do. We see that those prayers remained unanswered: People have been begging in vain for millennia.

However, if you wish to rise to the next degree from your present egoistic state, from your egoistic will to enjoy, from all the conditions set for you by the Creator, which are not up to you, and you beg to ascend, the Creator immediately hears and gradually transforms you.

Obviously, you beg from your egoistic desire in an attempt to escape suffering, have power, be recognized, and so on. Yet it doesn’t matter what goals you place before yourself. If you always ask for a higher spiritual degree and visualize it in your mind, in your egoistic desire, in a certain albeit false way for now, then it is called “Lo Lishma (not for Her name),” and thereby you advance.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Donkey Driver”

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Question: There are two principles: “faith above reason” and “judge only according to what you see.” Don’t they contradict each other?

Answer: A person only needs to judge according to what he sees. This means that I must check everything in accordance with criteria subject to verification and analysis.

Faith above reason is a degree of bestowal, which I precisely measure over my receiving desires. To believe above reason does not mean to have my head in the clouds. We measure and organize the quality of faith according to the property of reception being revealed. In my effort to rise above it, I make precise measurements; this is my only accurate test. And then, I acquire faith above reason to the extent of my success with turning reception into bestowal.

Suppose that I checked and calculated that I am able to turn 20% of my receiving Kli (vessel, desire) into bestowal. I perform a restriction over the entire 100% of my Kli, and I’m only able to utilize 20% from reception into bestowal. Thus, I precisely verify and calculate this action.

Knowledge helps construct faith above reason. And this is why there can be nothing unmeasured in it, nothing unseen by me, which would prevent me from making a precise judgment.

We simply do not understand that the property of bestowal can only appear from opposites. The receiving vessels turn into bestowal through very diligent work and meticulously regulated, specific efforts. Moreover, measurements here are even more precise than in the actual vessels. This is because I measure and test their resistance, which costs me a lot of effort.

When doing this, my efforts are 620 times more precise than when receiving. When I receive, I simply “open my mouth,” but in order to bestow, I need to check my desire and the desire of another, compare all the data, and perform many different actions.

This is specifically why the property of bestowal represents the limit of accuracy, whereas the property of reception exists without any control in us and is left to its own devices.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Matter of Tu Bishvat”

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Question: Is there a margin when patience on the spiritual path begins to cause harm?

Answer: “Patience” does not mean that I sit and let the grass grow under my feet. It is written: “A fool sits on his hands and eats his heart out.” “Patience” means that I constantly, non-stop, try to attain unity.

I keep discovering time after time that I am very far from it, and I keep trying. I fall off again, and once again I return to the path; I keep climbing the mountain as I am being pushed down, over and over again. The higher I get, the less merciful the “guards” become, but I still do not give up.

I only care for my perseverance: I persistently perform a correct evaluation of my actions; I persistently grab on to the goal every second; I am adamant in my decision to attain it. I have nothing in life but this.

And as a consequence of my perseverance, my comprehension of evil and good, my understanding of the purpose of creation constantly changes. I keep getting inspired, as I keep revealing something new in it. Whatever I saw yesterday as bestowal, the Creator, and the evil today acquire new, completely different shapes. In this way, perseverance constantly renews my inner definitions, my connection.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Matter of Tu Bishvat”

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The true evil inclination correlates with the good inclination, which is revealed to us from Above. It is written that the purpose of creation is to delight the created beings. And to do this we need to become like the Creator, to bestow like Him. Once we acquire the opportunity to bestow, we will discover that this is His benevolence.

There is no better gift than the opportunity to bestow. From it, we will enjoy like the Creator enjoys when He bestows to His creatures.

This means that I must come to the exact state when it will be goodness to me: to delight in bestowal to my neighbor. And my “neighbor” is someone I extremely hate. When I bestow to him and enjoy it tremendously, it means I have realized the principle of loving my neighbor as myself. In this case, my pleasure is similar to the Creator’s, and between us there is adhesion, correspondence, and similarity.

This must be the criteria of goodness for me. But if I’m unable to see it on this level, then I lower it. Let’s say that goodness is an ascent above my current egoism. No matter what I want, I verify this desire according to my proximity to the purpose of creation, bestowal, and spirituality, instead of the fulfillment of my Kelim (vessels, desires). And if it is unknown to me, then the most reliable thing to do is to check how this desire brings me closer to the books, the teacher, and my friends.

Our eternal problem is to measure correctly. We always deviate to the side. A bribe from our egoism blinds us. We say: “What can we do,” forgive ourselves, and continue to measure incorrectly. And this is why we fail to reveal the evil. But how are we to correct the evil if we fail to reveal it? This error always remains with us.

It is necessary to combine three things: books, teacher, and group. If a person is able to connect them and begin to test himself in relation to them, then he has a chance to reveal the evil. These three factors can help a person begin to form a point of unity with Israel, Torah, and the Creator so that the books, the teacher, and the group would direct him towards the property of bestowal, the Creator.

And as a person passes further in the correct direction, he will see that both the means and the outcome, the tree and the fruit, are truly one.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Matter of Tu Bishevat”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

Since half a thing is not given from Above, one must pray to the Creator to give him complete help. This means that during one’s prayer—when he arranges what is in his heart since a prayer is work in the heart—one must decide for himself that he wishes for the Creator to give him a desire to annul before Him altogether, leaving no desire under his own authority, but that all the desires will be only to glorify the Creator. And when he decides on complete annulment, he asks of the Creator to help him carry it out…. This is called “a complete prayer” since his desire is for the Creator to give him a complete desire, without any compromises for himself, and he asks of the Creator to help him always be with His righteousness.
– Rabash, Letter no. 65

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.
– Psalms, 34
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Question: When The Zohar speaks about man, does it refer to the desires?

Answer: According to The Zohar, “man” is a property similar to the Creator. Clearly, this only refers to the desires. This is because the image of man standing before us does not exist in reality. This is a trick of the imagination.

Let’s say that you see an image on the computer screen. Does it exist in reality? Something exists in the computer’s memory, and all the actions happen there. But in order for you to see what happens in the memory (which is there only for your knowledge and for the connection with you), there is a screen where you see a certain demonstration of something that exists in the memory. But the actual original image is there, inside, in the form of electric signals, forces that exist in different combinations with each other.

You see the external symbols of these combinations which are very limited and strictly specific because you are unable to perceive them otherwise. After all, you cannot live in a computer’s memory, understand, and see whatever exists there.

It is the same with The Zohar. Its authors convey to us a certain spiritual impression, which at this point we are able to hear only externally, imagining it somehow in our uncorrected, limited perception. But this vision has nothing to do with the actual spiritual image, concealed on the inside, behind the external forms of the letters, words, and images, which arise in your imagination. The authors of The Zohar have something completely different in mind.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Donkey Driver”

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