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

The Torah Develops the Recognition of Evil in a Person

The Torah and the Mitzvot [correction of oneself through the study of Kabbalah] were given only to refine Israel [to unite into a single desire], to develop in us the sense of recognition of evil [egoism], imprinted in us at birth, which is generally defined as our self-love, and to come to the pure good defined as the “love of others,” which is the one and only passage to the love of God.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

When one engages in the Torah [the method of correction of one’s innate egoism, and if he indeed studies the true Torah], he sees the truth, meaning one’s measure of remoteness from spirituality, and one sees that he is such a low creature, that there is not a worse person on earth than him.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati #56 “Torah is Called Indication”
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Year in and year out, we are trying to bring our lessons closer to people, to the world, and it is extremely difficult. Baal HaSulam wrote in his "Prophecy" that he had asked, pleaded before, the Creator to help him descend from his degree to be able to explain the method of revealing the Creator to people.

In the spiritual world, it’s very hard to lower one’s degree because there everything is completely transparent and clear. Since the upper degree is perfection, to "step down" from it on your own is even "more impossible" than to climb to it. There are no words to explain it either since spirituality is pure sensations.

Kabbalists managed to find words to convey spiritual information, but they intend them for their own peers in their Kabbalistic writings. Behind each word they pronounce, such as the "screens" (Masachim), "discernments" (Havhanot), the "rise of Malchut to Bina," and so on, behind special forms of the enlarged capital letters there stand spiritual notions.

For them, all of it is like a "musical score" for a musician who may cry or laugh simply by looking at it. For him, they are life-like sensations which immediately arouse feelings in him. It’s another thing, however, to take a musical score and relate it in words. If I asked you to tell me about your sensation from a symphony, what would you say?

However, we need to relate our feelings somehow. Although they are not spiritual yet and precede the entry into the spiritual world, nevertheless, our students and ordinary people on the street are separated by many, many years of development. If we were to broadcast our lessons in a unadapted form, nobody would understand them. It’s very difficult to descend from that degree, but we have to attempt to do it. There is still a lot for us to do here.
[31432]
From Lesson 2, Kabbalah Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

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Question: How do I turn to the group internally?

Answer: Turning to the group is a search: In what way can I picture the whole of reality as existing inside of me, and not outside? Perception of reality is not a brain-twister with which you can interest and confuse others. We are talking about a state which we must reach in practice. I have to reveal that all the things that are seemingly outside of me are my internal parts.

For example, the Torah describes all kinds of different occasions from the lives of various characters, which have occurred in different places. It’s a real theater. I must apply all of this onto my desires, onto the details of my perception. There is no external world, so where is it inside of me? In which parts of me do these characters live and are these actions performed?

This approach builds the right relationship toward my own Kli (vessel), to the actions which the Creator performs within me, and to the states which I need to go through. That is why I must try to find the “external” images within me every waking moment.

I live inside my soul, and all of the "external" images are its parts: forces, actions, and elements of perception. Nothing else exists. Everything is in this Kli. This is the way I try to picture the entire reality.

So, who is setting all of this up for me? Who separates, deletes, draws closer, and connects all of the parts of my desires: the “men” and “women,” “animals” and “vegetation,” and so on? This is when I perceive Keter which builds the still, vegetative, animate, and human degrees within me: Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut.

I live inside of my soul, besides (outside of) which there is nothing. That is why first of all, I need to see the group as my integral part. This is what turning to the group internally is.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World was in Donation”

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Initially, I have a mere material desire for “self-gratification” and a point in the heart, a seed of the property of bestowal, that yearns for the upper world. I raise this point above desire by increasing its importance relative to corporeal desires and then turn with it to the environment: the group, the Kabbalistic texts, and the teacher.

In response, I receive an increased and refined desire from them. It is increased in terms of its might and modified in the sense that I acquire the importance of the goal (to achieve the property of bestowal) and realize my inability to reach it on my own.

With this desire, I turn “upward,” raise MAN (a plea for correction). As a result, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif, OM) descends from “Above” and reforms me, brings me back to the property of bestowal.

The following are the mandatory stages:

1. Appeal to the group;
2. Receive a spiritual aspiration from it;
3. Appeal to the Creator;
4. Receive correction.

Consequently, there emerges a Kli, a vessel of bestowal, the sum of all factors.

Question: How do I know that my aspiration came from the group?

Answer: You examine the degree to which you wish to unite with the friends, but are unable to do so. If you have put a great deal of quality effort into this need, you raise MAN with it. In other words, the sum of your desires aimed at unification creates a plea for help.

Question: What are the signs that I’m appealing to the group correctly?

Answer: If I do it correctly, I see how unified the friends are and how separated I am from them, how small I am and how great they are, how magnificent the purpose of creation is that they are seeking and to what extent I am unable to appreciate it. To me, the group is an ideal, a criterion by which I measure my flaws. I can’t take these flaws anywhere else except to appeal to the Creator.

When I address the group correctly, I discover such flaws in myself, such a lack, such unfulfilled desires that they immediately evoke the Light that Reforms. This Light doesn’t come from another galaxy; it lives in me, in my heart. I only need a deeper desire to experience it.

Note: The term “group” implies not corporeal faces and characteristics, but rather a network of the friends’ “points in the heart” connected into one system.
[31251]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World was in Donation”

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Question: If we advance only by virtue of the environment, then when will our choice come from our own altruistic intention, Lishma?

Answer: We have to attain perfection, and it contains two parameters:

1. On one hand, I am independent and equal to the Creator in every way,
2. On the other hand, I am similar to Him in every way.
In that case, I am independent and perfect.

It turns out that independence and perfection have to unite and bring me to the final state. But how can independence and equivalence exist together? How can I reach perfection by elevating both of these qualities, which are opposite to each other?

To enable this, the Creator had to add a third factor to the two already existing ones (Him and me). This third factor will be the place of our meeting, the place of revelation. It is where I will reveal my independent self and the Creator opposite from me.

It is necessary to create a “territory” where we will be able to be partners, opposite but equal and united. This territory is called the sum of the souls, the Shechina, Malchut. After the breaking, we as well as the Creator are outside of the boundaries of the sum of the souls, and now we must meet there. We do this to the degree we are able to participate in this process and reveal one another.

That is why creation was broken. It broke into many disparate parts, which are the degree of creation’s independence, meaning its separation and detachment from the Creator.

We have to use this situation, which is why Baal HaSulam writes that we have to keep every person’s uniqueness. After all, it will never be duplicated in anyone else. Every person must be independent and special.

But on the other hand, we must give every person the opportunity and help him reach equivalence of form with the Creator. By means of one’s uniqueness, by having an inimitable combination of qualities and desires, a person develops them in order to direct them toward bestowal. That is how he reaches equivalence with the Creator.

This similarity is actualized by way of uniting with others. Why isn’t it done through uniting with the Creator? It is in order to preserve independence. When working before the Creator, a person nullifies himself, whereas in relation to the group, he can play the decisive role, similar to the Creator.

The place of our meeting is the territory of the group, which was artificially created and divided into parts. We come there in the middle line and unite. There we actualize the Zivug of HaVaYaH and Elokim, the unity of judgment and mercy.

However, if a person does not think about these three elements: him and the Creator, uniting in the group, then he incorrectly imagines the realization of the goal of creation which awaits him.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can we increase the force of being able to overcome when a greater egoistic desire is revealed?

Answer: All of a person’s qualities, no matter what they seem like to him, from the best to the worst, become revealed in the framework of the common system of souls that advance toward unity according to the program of creation. Therefore, we cannot attribute any of a person’s personal manifestations to his own account. Like a cogwheel or an integral part of a system, he has to reveal a specific collection of inclinations, desires, and states inside of him.

No matter what happens inside a person, he should not place any bets on it. After all, he does not determine what happens to him now because it is determined by the common system which goes through different states. Thus, you can stop worrying about the current state because you cannot do anything about it. It is woven of thousands of factors that are outside of you. As for the future state, it’s also pointless to think about it because it also doesn’t depend on you, but is determined by the needs of the system that has to take a step forward.

In essence, the only thing I should think about is how I will take this step. What is it about this step that depends on me? It also contains things that are not actualized by me, but by the upper force, and that aren’t illuminated by me, but by the Upper Light. A person goes through analyses and reaches a point where he really can realize himself. Then he sees a very clear and precise action, like pressing a button.

This is a person’s task: At every moment in time to discern the only action that depends on him and to realize it. As he makes this analysis he also discerns many other things, and as a result, by pressing the button, he activates the system and starts to perceive it, accept it, and become part of it.

In other words, a person starts to attain the system as a whole. Therefore, he is not a lab rat that finds the button of the feed box in a labyrinth. On the contrary, by making efforts in different states, he attains the conditions, the causes, and the essence of what happens.

When reaching the button, he will undoubtedly press it. But the entire matter here is the analysis; this is the true asset.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Love for the Creator is like love for the most unattractive woman in the world because I love the very property of bestowal which is enclosed in Him. This is not because it brings pleasure to my desire to enjoy, but because this property is above my egoistic properties, and I respect and value it more than anything else.

Relative to what else can I measure absolute, unconditional love? In our world, we love something that gives us pleasure. However, this is not love. We love the pleasure, but not the one who gives it to us. Although I connect this pleasure with you and as long as you keep bringing me treats, I love you, all my love will end as soon as you stop doing that. This means you were not the one whom I loved.

Independent love can appear only in opposition to something. Therefore, the entire universe is built on this principle: There is pleasure from which we have to disconnect and above which we have to build our attitude to the One who gives this pleasure.

For this purpose, the point in the heart is given to us. It is opposite to egoistic desire. We have to grow it with the help of a group, meaning with the same points in the heart. Then, the Light corrects our point, and we begin to sense love through it in opposition to the hatred which we feel in our desire.

However, in the middle between them, there should be a dividing line: detachment from the desire to receive pleasure and the ascent above it. This means that you cling to the Creator; you identify yourself with Him, rather than with your ego. You build from the matter of desire something different, sublime, and opposite.
[31282]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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"Introduction of The Zohar," Article “The Donkey Driver,” Item 85: …The donkey driver who is leading the donkeys behind them is the assistance to the souls of the righteous, which is sent to them from above to raise them from one degree to the next.

…Hence the Creator sends a high soul from above according to the merit and degree of each righteous, and it assists him on his way…. This is called “the impregnation of the righteous’ soul.”

Question: When do we merit the impregnation of the righteous’ soul?

Answer: It happens when we desire to ascend. There is no problem; the ladder of the degrees does not change. The forces that operate on the degrees are constant.

Everything is accessible; everything is waiting for the launch signal. And we are the ones who launch this system.

There is nothing we should be waiting for. Push the “buttons,” pull the “levers,” and everything will start working. You need to launch this mechanism. It is under your control, so go ahead!

This is why the “when” depends on a person. It is whenever you want it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/11, The Zohar

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Question: How can we calibrate our attitude so as to aim it towards the goal?

Answer: You have to do it according to the principle, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.” “The Creator” is the root to which we strive. The “Torah” is all of the means that help us along the way, including the teacher, books, group, and study. And “Israel” is the point in the heart, the initial spiritual desire.

Question: In order for me to solve this equation, what needs to be concealed and what needs to be revealed to me?

Answer: You need to imagine the corrected state where we are all connected and every person perceives the whole instead of himself. It is written: “The general and the particular are equal.”

The common force of love and bestowal reigns inside our oneness and fills everyone in equal measure. This force is called “the Creator” or “Nature.” This is what you have to see as the final goal. At the end we must arrive at this image.

This is why we are working on discerning the notion of "the group." The group is essentially the same system in which we awaken the same force. That force is already present inside the system; we just don’t perceive it yet. We must reveal this force which fills the group, strengthens it, manifests in it, and corrects it. This is the force called “the Creator” or the concealed Light that hides in our unity.

When we strive to grow in our world, we essentially reveal the same force. This is because we have the same direction, although on a corporeal level. “The Creator” is the common force that unites all the parts of creation.

Question: Still, there are too many unknowns in this equation.…

Answer: You have to keep searching and trying, over and over again. That is how you will awaken new sensations. There is no other possibility for doing it.
[32484]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How does the revelation of truth relate to the revelation of the interconnected system of souls?

Answer: It is one and the same. Mutual connection is the truth. The network of our ties is called “the vessel” (Kli). The Creator imprinted Himself on the matter of the will to enjoy and placed His stamp onto its entire thickness. Now, inside me, there is a hollow space with a carved image.

This image is comprised of the connections between desires that the Creator fills in if they are corrected. In this case, their network becomes Him. The integral network of these points is called “Malchut of the world of Infinity.”

Gradually, the Creator conceals Himself and abandons the system of souls, which triggers the descent of the worlds. As He is disappearing, the souls feel more and more opposite to each other, transitioning to the reverse side (Sitra Achra) where the connection is corrupted, depleted, and takes on an egoistic nature. As a result, we find ourselves in the corporeal world, and instead of mutual connection, instead of the Creator who fills us, we experience void and detachment from each other.

In truth, I constantly feel the Creator. After all, there is nothing else for me to feel since there are only He and I. However, in the present reality, I perceive Him according to my current egoistic state of existence.

The purpose of the process is to find the truth, the authentic state, after having stripped ourselves of all the covers. Finding the connection between us anew, at some point, I will see that it ties not the people, but the souls or desires. It is in the nature of this connection, its essence, and might that the Creator is revealed to us. There is no other reality but integral, mutual connection. It permeates everything, and we are made so that we can feel nothing but it. We are inside it.
[25763]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2010, “The Creator and Israel Went Into Exile”

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