Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 19: A person is not ready for adhesion with the Creator all at once, but gradually, as it is written, “Goodness and mercy shall follow me.” That is why he creates yearnings, which are the beginning of adhesion, as it is written, “a righteous who suffers.” He suffers because the Creator does not desire adhesion with him. That is why the person feels yearning and sorrow without love, which is necessary for adhesion. He feels suffering which will turn into the delight of adhesion.

Question: How can we aspire to a connection with the Creator in states of suffering that He sends us?

Answer: The Creator does not send us suffering. Only goodness comes from Him, but in my egoism, I feel His kind attitude in the opposite way, meaning that I experience suffering. But this is exactly the “awakening” that is necessary for attaining the goal, for changing my egoism to bestowal. Then suffering turns into pleasure.

Nothing changes besides my attitude to the world, as it is written, “You will eat what is old.” You have changed yourself and your attitude to what happens. You have ascended above your will to enjoy, and therefore, instead of suffering you experience pleasure.

You used to aspire to imaginary sources of fulfillment, but now your aspiration for the Creator, your sorrow and suffering turn into fulfillment because you don’t want anything but this. You only want to desire Him, and this already fulfills you.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Ultimately, there is only one action that is up to us and with the help of which we can express our desire. All other actions don’t work.

Let’s say I am consumed by the burning desire to do or change something, to better my life. There are thousands of switches in front of me on the wall. I keep pushing the buttons hoping to see some changes, I try to understand whether I switched something on, while losing track of the sequence and getting lost in the location of the buttons….

So it is in our life: We get disoriented by numerous “buttons” that we barely have time to press. “Relax,” Kabbalists advise. “This way, you won’t succeed. There is only one button you need to push to feel good. If you push any other, you will feel bad.”

Why are they there then? They are needed so that while we are making vain attempts, we would smarten up and find the right button. This path is regarded as “the path of suffering.”

But there is another path, “the path of the Torah,” where a person receives instructions: “Don’t touch any other buttons on the wall for it’s going to make things worse. After all, you think they work and expect good results. The time is passing by, while you keep vesting your hopes and aspiration not in the Creator, not in the only working force in reality. In other words, you are serving idols. Besides, having the same expectations, you are increasingly lagging behind the preset pace of correction. As a result, each incorrect push of the button and a halt that follows it lead toward negative consequences.”

What is the solution then? We need to find the right button as fast as possible. In the article “The Freedom” Baal HaSulam explains to us how it’s done. If you keep returning to the same button, pressing it deeper and deeper, you do get to open the source of abundance, which corrects and fulfills you with all the good there is.

This is the only button that turns the whole system on, while all the others are not connected to anything. By pressing them, you only bother yourself, instead of engaging the only mechanism you have available. Just as well, inaction naturally brings you trouble. The cogwheels of reality continue to spin, and if you do not contribute the positive to it, the system automatically slides down to the negative.

This is why it is necessary to find the right button among all others and train yourself to press only it, making no errors. This is what constitutes our work. Who doesn’t seek luck? This is what “luck” is all about.
[41796]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 19: A soul is a measure of yearning and longing….

Question: The concept of the quantity of yearning and longing can somewhat be understood, but what is the right quality?

Answer: Every person’s quantity and quality are determined subjectively, depending on the root of one’s soul and his mission. Similar to our world, there are all sorts of states we can measure by height and character, by the degree of one’s suffering or joy, the intensity of sensation, and the rate of their influence on a person.

Baal HaSulam gives just three examples for assessing them. Even though we differentiate much more, in the end, they all amount to these three, “in that place, at that time, in that woman” (these concepts are explained in the lesson).
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Creator is the authentic acting force in reality. On our path we attain the Creator, His plan, His work, and thereby become “the Creator’s workers,” meaning that we participate in this work ourselves as His partners.

For this to happen His mind needs to be revealed to us. After all, in the end we rise to the highest degree of the entire creation, to its program and the purpose that forestalls it.

“The end of an action is in its initial thought.” We reach the point in the Creator’s mind from which He started the work in which He thought of creation. Everything originates from this tiny point; it is the acting, creating mind which we acquire.
[41701]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/2011, “The Acting Mind”

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Question: What is the difference between a desire (Hissaron) and an aspiration (Ishtokekut)?

Answer: Desire (Hissaron) means that I simply want some fulfillment. For example, I am thirsty. Whereas an aspiration (Ishtokekut) depends on how much I really need it at a given moment, meaning how much I suffer now because I lack this fulfillment. This means that an aspiration is an addition to a desire and it measures the strength of the desire at a given moment, how much my ego is ready to suffer for the sake of reaching the desired goal.

In other words, how much are you ready to pay for this? Let’s see it now. You want to get it? No problem. How much can you give? We can measure your aspiration according to your answer. You say: “Well, a hundred.” “No, you should give a thousand.” “A thousand?” This is where you are tested with how much you are ready to pay. This is the way to measure your aspiration for the desired goal.

At the same time, a desire itself is simple. If something is free, I will take it. Obviously a person is evaluated according to his aspiration. A desire comes to us from the Creator, while we add aspiration through the environment. An aspiration is the fruit of our work, the result of our efforts.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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In spirituality, “reason” represents the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) clothed in a vessel. In compliance with this Light, we sense and understand the Creator. The key here is not in the actual Light of Hochma, but in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) which receives it, meaning in the measure of bestowal of which we are capable. These two Lights conform and adjust to one another.

In our world, we receive directly into our desire a certain portion of the Light without clothing it, without being similar to the Creator. This is why we are extremely limited in our reason. Our reason doesn’t develop us because it doesn’t teach us what to do next in order to reveal the Creator.

In contrast, in the spiritual world, we receive the upper Light, the Creator’s revelation, in the vessels of bestowal. This means I reveal the Creator with complete understanding of who and what He is.

In our world, I can look at a person and see a wall. To me he’s “impenetrable”; I don’t understand his language, don’t know his qualities or his thoughts. He’s concealed from me. But in the spiritual world, our contact means unification. I generate within the quality of bestowal, which is then clothed by the Light, and thereby I understand him. That is, I understand someone other than myself. My desire assumes his form, his structure. And the same process applies to everyone.

I have this raw, formless desire to receive which pertains to Malchut of Infinity. And through love and bestowal, I build in this desire various models to assume the forms of all souls existing outside of me. I create within, a space to construct a “set” of souls, and thereby I include everyone within me.

But this is only possible on the condition that I allocate within my desire a place for every soul, picturing where each should go. How can I know such a thing? Simply, to the extent that I bestow, I allow others to enter inside.

The resulting picture is very similar to the logo of the upcoming Moscow convention. A circle is my whole desire, and within it I allocate a segment for every friend. Gradually the circle is filled with souls, and in so doing, I return my own soul to myself. Indeed, presently it exists as if outside of me, but everything that I perceive as existing outside is my soul.

It follows that the quality of bestowal that I generate is merely a means, a condition that allows my soul to be returned within me.
[41704]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/2011, “The Acting Mind”

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

Only the Light in the Torah Reforms the Person

The Torah [the method of our correction] we engage in is in order to subdue the evil inclination [egoism], to attain Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator: that all one’s actions will be solely in order to bestow [as He does]. Alone, it is impossible that one will able to [correct himself or simply] go against nature since the matter of mind [thoughts] and heart [desires] in which one must be complemented [in the direction of love and bestowal toward others], necessitates receiving assistance, and that assistance is through the Torah [the Light that corrects], as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” This is so because while engaging in It [to correct oneself], the Light in it reforms them.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is Torah and Work on the Path of the Creator”

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Question: What are our plans regarding the education of Palestinian children?

Answer: We have students from Arabic countries and other Muslim regions. I do not see any difference between them and all the others. We have students from the Palestinian Authority, Iran; during the lessons, we receive questions from people from Syria and other places. One of the international meetings about educational issues within the UNESCO framework was organized by a Saudi prince, and we received a personal invitation from him.

Education is a world problem, and through it, we can establish connections over countries and differences. Of course, there is the question of religion, and this will remain a source of deep separation between people until, in the words of  Baal HaSulam, we establish a single religion, that of love and bestowal.

Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” that there is no other religion besides love. Everything else is customs that people have accepted. Let us hope that the different crises together with our dissemination will make the world understand that they need to rise above the differences.

The education that we are developing is common for everyone, it does not have any specificity. So I think that as soon as our Arabic brothers will want to accept it and will be ready for it, there will be a method waiting for them: We are preparing it in Arabic as well.

Moreover, since the times of Abraham, Islam has a movement called Sufism. I have met its representatives many times. Naturally, they understand what it is we are talking about, and we can work with them to disseminate the new method of education.

The problem is that radical Islamic circles do not recognize them: Sufis have been exiled from Arabic countries and live in the US and in England. I hope that this position will change because nature prevails regardless. We must go through these stages—The Zohar describes this particular course of development. Soon the transition period will be over, and people will feel that they exist in a global world.
[41081]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: How can a person know that he is ready to be a teacher, and are there classes for this?

Answer: First of all, a person must have a disposition to teach, meaning not to lecture (every person can do this egoistically), but to explain, to observe how the student works and whether he accepts the teacher’s opinion. A teacher also needs to possess the ability to learn from the students, adapt and explain according to the changes.

I do not think that every person is capable of doing this; however, there are many areas in education. Some people do not like to speak and explain things, but suddenly prove themselves as good practical leaders. They play with the children, organize groups, and take them on field trips.

Our education is different in the way that we, primarily, want to teach the children about life. We show them museums, factories, and hospitals, although this, of course, depends on their age. They become acquainted with the operations of an airport, railway station, and bank. We make plans with the managers of a facility ahead of time, and when the children arrive, they are explained the production process.

We explain to them where they are going to ahead of time. Once the children return, they sit together in a circle and discuss the things they understood, how a certain mechanism operates and its purpose, and so on. We want them to know everything about life: how restaurants, hospitals, factories, and zoos operate. They take notes during the field trip, and then they write an essay and discuss it together with their teachers. This expands their world view.

We do many things within the framework of mutual agreement. When someone gets in a fight, argues, or has a misunderstanding, this is discussed among everyone. Sometimes we even have a mock trial: We assign children to be the judge, the attorney, the jury, the witnesses, and the audience. Roles change next time around.

This way every child learns to see himself or herself through the eyes of others: how a judge, the prosecutor, the audience, and others see him or her. A child begins to develop and see a wider world than his narrow view.

There are other examples, but the key element is to have a discussion in a circle. There is no such thing that children sit in class and look at the teacher: Everyone is equal in a circle, including the teachers.

The teacher lowers himself to the common level and remains among the children, without standing out. He manages them in such an unnoticeable way that they do not perceive it. And we teach them to be responsible: judge, defend, accuse. Children have an enormous ability to absorb, and we must use it.

Any person able to teach or manage a group, prepare material, or develop the method can be a teacher. We need different professionals to work with children, both boys and girls. Usually, they study separately, but sometimes we combine them.
[41084]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: What is the method of teaching Kabbalah to children?

Answer: It is very easy to explain any phenomenon to a child. It only seems difficult to us; however, that is not so.

It is written that the one teaching a child is as if writing on a blank sheet of paper, whereas we, grown-ups, must write on paper we ourselves have doodled on. First we must neutralize our thoughts, desires, prejudices, and preconceptions, erase many things within, and only after we can try writing something. But experience shows that it is easy working with children.

I have seen this in my son’s example. When I began studying with Rabash, I would repeat the material we read during the lesson at home. My seven year-old son would sit next to me, and I would recite the text back to him in order to better take in the material. I saw that he perceived and remembered it better than I did. I asked him questions, and he answered correctly.

Then I understood that the more pure the person, even still a child, the more naturally he perceives Kabbalah. This is because in reality, it is a science of nature, and we see this on the children. I am jealous of how naturally they all perceive it!

Many things register in them simply through repetition, without having to sense them, because their sensory mechanism has not yet been developed. The sensation will come at a later time, during the time of the eruption of hormones. But by then, they will already be filled with different laws and formulas. So once their hormones will start working and desires will begin to surge, they will know how to regulate them.
[41087]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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