Question: Where should I start the true demand to bestow? How is it possible to defeat the avid sinner inside me?

Answer: We don’t have a true demand for bestowal, and we cannot have one either unless the Light influences us. When the Light comes, you will be surprised and wonder: Is this the attribute of bestowal? It will be in contrast to everything you have thought.

It is a totally new thing and a person living in our reality has no preparation or premonitions as to what it is like. When a person has this delicate feeling, he begins to act, even unconsciously, in order to get closer to it. He begins to attach all his life, everything that he has been through, to this goal only, to attaining a drop of adhesion with the upper.

For the first time he has an inner inclination for something that is distant and from that moment on he begins to develop.

It is impossible to express this feeling in words, but a person cannot wake up if the upper Light doesn’t wake him. A person who has already tasted it knows what it is about, but as long as you haven’t experienced it yourself, you will not understand.

So it is impossible to ask for true bestowal unless you have attained this attribute. But thanks to this game, we advance when a person fills all the necessary requirements. Not knowing in advance how to do it, an inner awakening takes place, and it is as if a spark of Light is kindled and a person begins to feel that there is something that is different from this world, which is bestowal.

We just have to play the best that we can, everything that is in our power. I am sure that we are approaching this revelation, but everyone should ask himself at what speed.
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From a Talk about Inner Work 9/30/12

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The method of Kabbalah is meant to change a person until he turns into a human being (Adam), meaning the one who is “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator. Every given moment, day after day one has to work to uplift the importance of this method and persistently keep referring to it. After all, we are perpetually being thrown back from spirituality as if the Creator distances Himself from us.

It seems to us that our states continually change: We get closer to the Creator and then further away from Him. But obviously, it happens only in our sensations. In fact, new informational genes awaken in us, and we have to correct them.

One has 613 desires concerning the Creator. We’re not talking about material desires of this world, but about the desires specifically for the Creator. Only these desires should be corrected until they become similar to the Creator’s attitude to us, that is, are completely directed at bestowal and bringing joy to the Creator.

The Creator’s original thought in the plan of creation was to delight the created beings. A person also has to reach the same state so that his goal becomes to bring contentment to the Creator. Similarity of properties with the Creator elevates a person to the Creator’s level and he merges, unites with Him completely, thus reaching the ultimate goal.

On the way to achieving the goal, there are many stages of advancement. In the first stage, during thousands of  years of human history and by going through numerous reincarnations, man develops his regular earthly desire to enjoy. Reincarnations replace each other because the desire constantly grows and wants more and more as new informational genes (Reshimot) perpetually reveal themselves in it.

It’s not worth paying attention to bodies that live and die, but rather to the informational genes that reveal themselves in the desire to enjoy, thus giving us an illusion that we exist in our body.

In the second developmental stage, an aspiration to reveal the Creator, to find the meaning of life, emerges in a part of the desire, meaning in certain people. The first person who ever received this kind of desire was Adam HaRishon. This is why he is considered the First Man, and many others followed him. Such people are called Kabbalists as they accepted the method of correction that lets them reveal the Creator to the extent of the similarity of their properties to His.

Kabbalists also go through numerous developmental stages and reincarnations, but these reincarnations are quite different because one is in the attainment of the Creator, the governing force that rules nature.

Having received the first awakening towards spirituality, we enter a so called preparatory period. At this stage, we again go through many states, but this time they happen in accordance with the method, to the degree of our understanding of it. Even though the method is available to us in the form of reading materials, it has not been disclosed in our souls yet.

This is how we advance: by building the group and trying to inspire each other. The main work is in enhancing the importance of the method and transforming ourselves. Nothing can be changed in this reality except man himself; a human being is the only one who can be changed.

Besides, we have to clarify what exactly can be changed: only the intention on one’s desire. Desires per se are not changeable; leave them alone. Man has 613 desires that are related to the Creator, and he has to change intentions on these desires from egoistic to bestowal.

In fact, a person doesn’t feel that he has 613 desires, or that they are of an egoistic nature, or that he wants to take advantage of the Creator. For the time being he has no relationship with the Creator whatsoever, no connection with Him. Gradually, the connection with the Creator begins to reveal itself, thus letting us discover our evil inclination. If a person is still immersed in his egoism, he needs correction called the Torah, “a spice to it.” With its help, a person can change his intention by redirecting it from his own sake to the benefit of the upper force, which means that he has fulfilled a commandment.

Thus, according to the order of the desires that reveal in a person, he carries out 613 corrections (613 commandments), until he corrects the entire vessel and receives the entire abundance that the Creator has prepared for him—but with the intention to return it back to the Source. This is how one reaches the goal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/12, Shamati #175

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Question: How does a Kabbalist who is in the spiritual world feel time?

Answer: Time doesn’t exist for a Kabbalist. Even for an ordinary person time is a conditioned perception. Time is a feeling in the egoistic desire that draws the axis of time from one point in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

The more distant you are from the world of Ein Sof, the more distant you are from the zero point of time. The deeper you sink into the desire to receive, the lower you descend down the ladder of the worlds and the more you stretch time. This means that the number of actions you have to perform in order to reach the point of Ein Sof stabilize the concept of time for you.

In your current state, you don’t make such calculations of the number of actions you perform. It is unclear and hidden from you since the vessel and the Light do not operate in you according to your desire. If the process isn’t according to your desire, it is concealed from you.

But the moment you begin to manage it yourself, you will understand what you are doing and then you will manage time. This is why it says: “Israel is above the stars and the constellations,” above the concept of time in its yearning Yashar—El (straight to the Creator).

In the meantime, however, you are not in this state, but under the domination of your ego, and so you don’t determine time, but it is time that determines your fate. So sometimes it seems that the day passes quickly, like one moment and sometimes each moment “lingers” for so long that it is hard to wait for it to end.

This is especially felt during the study. Notice that sometimes during the study of the The Study of the Ten Sefirot you fall asleep at a beginning of a word and wake up at its end and it seems like eternity. You wanted to sleep so much, which means that this time is so dear to you that it is very important for you to disconnect and to nap even for a moment.

The minimal distance that we keep on the road is stretched into a very long one because of our ego and according to how much you enjoy it. It is like Faust said: “Stop, Moment! You are so lovely!’”

In fact, a big strong ego stops time, just as Pharaoh wanted, so that even the corporeal body will be eternal, and so he was embalmed.

So unless we begin to control our desire, time will control us by slowing down or accelerating. In order to rise above time, we have to control our desire to receive. Time, motion, and location are the three parameters by which the desire to receive is revealed to us and by which it controls us.
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From a Talk about Inner Work 9/30/12

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Question: Should we speak about the crisis, about existing problems, and about negative things when we establish the perception of the social system that is scientifically based, or should we speak only about things that positively influence society?

Answer: On the whole, yes. But we assume that society feels the need to move to the other state.

According to the law of development we see that currently there are certain features and negative attributes in the system that do not allow it to go on functioning positively and to provide itself with everything that it needs. It suddenly discovers that what it needs most slips away and so it needs a change.

So there must be a negative factor here. We simply shouldn’t make it three times greater than it is and bring it to extremes, but on the whole it has to be felt in the system as something that summons a new revolutionary approach.

We also notice this in plants and in animals, in the development of every organism. We move from one state to another only when we are forced to do so because the previous state or the current state seem flawed or that it came to an end and cannot continue to fill us with knowledge, food, or with everything that we need.

In any case, the movement can only be by negating the current state and moving on to a better state.

We don’t develop negative states; we don’t live in negativity. There are societies in which people constantly experience their negative states. We don’t pay attention to them.

Our only motion is forward, only toward the positive side. It isn’t an escape from the previous negative state, but highlighting the positive future state and moving toward it.

We want people to understand that something bright, good, pleasant, and warm is waiting for them ahead, and we want to attract them to it.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World: Formula of an Integral Society” 7/1/12

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Our main force is the ego. Except for the ego there is only one small point in everyone’s heart and we have to connect these points. If we connect them into one big point, we’ll feel the spiritual world inside. Then everything will come together: me, the group, and the upper force.

On the other hand, the ego wants to push all our points away from one another. It’s actually meant to push us in the opposite direction from connection, and this is why it’s called a “help against.”

How should we build an environment that will help us fulfill the points in the heart and our egoistic forces so that together we’ll connect into one big wonderful point? Despite the interruptions of the ego, by using it, we want to connect our points in the heart into one point. How can we use the power of the ego to achieve this goal?

The point is that I don’t know the way to the spiritual world. For me it’s a question mark hidden from me. How can I reveal it? How can I focus myself correctly? With the help of the group, I use my ego in the opposite way; it becomes a “helpmate” (Ezer Ke Negdo) and helps me focus myself accurately on spirituality, on the Creator. This is only possible in the group when I work with the point in the heart in order to turn the ego in the opposite direction, (the broken green line in the drawing). Then instead of pulling me downwards, the ego will direct me correctly, so that I can enter the spiritual world.

So there is only an ego and a point in the heart in a person, and with the help of the group, we change the ego and find the way to advance in the opposite direction each time.

Actually, it isn’t only about the egoistic desire to receive different things in our world. It’s a special ego aimed only against connection, against the collective point in which I discover the spiritual world. This is why I disregard and ignore all the desires and the thoughts that are not related to connection. Instead I work in the group trying to connect with others, and I discover how opposite I am from that: I don’t want anything of the kind, I hate the friends and I can’t even think about connecting with them. It’s this repulsion that’s the real ego opposite connection. Everything else doesn’t matter.

The group has a key role here: It increases the importance of unity in my eyes and constantly spurs me and obligates me to keep it. Only the environment (Sviva) leads me to the unknown, serving as a model that helps me subdue myself and still connect internally. The environment actually brings me to connection.

Thus we actually ascend to the first level (step 1) above the Machsom (barrier) when we turn our entire ego, all the rejection and the resistance to connection and unity to the opposite direction—to the force of connection and unity. This is the meaning of “help against.”

Then we move on to the second level. Here the ego is revealed again, but this time bigger than before, since it already belongs to the next level (step 2). Here I have the choice of unity with the help of the group, where the ego begins to show itself again. If I am not attracted to unity, I don’t discover it.

This is why strangers don’t understand what ego we are talking about. The point is that it isn’t just human relations; it isn’t about good deeds and intrigues. People believe that treating others badly is egoism and treating others well is altruism. We judge only by the point of unity. Therefore, after I discover the first level, I want to go on and connect to the group. I discover the ego on the second level (Ego2), and I work against it and ascend to the second level. On the whole there are 125 such levels on the way.

Eventually I reach perfect unity, with all of humanity; we are all together in one point called the “drop of unity.”

What kind of environment should it be in order to allow me to discover the right ego, to separate it from the animal ego of this world, and to turn it into a driving force? How should the environment influence me so that I will reach the goal?

Furthermore, how should we use our conventions, when we mutually influence one another, so that this powerful connection will allow each of us to discover the point of unity: “Where is it? What should I do in order to attain it? How do I enter the upper world? How do I discover it?”

How should we worry about everyone in order to allow them to reach this inner point (the center of the group), our “womb” (Rechem)? After all, we enter the group as if we enter a mother’s womb, and we develop like an embryo. How can we prepare such a “wrapping” for each of us, in which each one will develop like from a drop of semen?

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From the Convention in Italy Day One, 9/28/12, Workshop 1

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Question: How should a new student who joins the group be awakened to do the right kind of work?

Answer: The group leads him to certain actions and gives him a chance. It isn’t by chance that we live here and not in a different reality. In the world of actions we can exist even on the “animal” level, detached from spirituality, which we build above us. Above my current attributes, I gradually create the image of a human being. I build it by the connection with the friends and by creating the force of the Creator among us. These are all internal spiritual actions that are above our current selves.

In the meantime we connect on the corporeal level without spiritual intentions, and thus we build the environment. We have the necessary infrastructure to do that, which is “this world” from which we begin our spiritual advancement. We have a rare opportunity here: On the one hand, this basis is adaptable in a way to the spiritual world, and on the other hand, it allows us to exist without any adaptation to it. The reality that I see and feel in my five corporeal senses is actually a precious gift: I am on the verge of a spiritual action here, a spiritual ascent, and at the same time I can influence spirituality.

Question: And what can I do if I am the opposite and I am inclined to detachment? For example, a convention is approaching, and I don’t want to go. Is this the shattering?

Answer: Of course. What is more, the lack of desire to go to the convention is not the strongest interruption yet.

If you were invited to a party that you liked, you would gladly join it, since the flavors that you like and the performances and everything that “blows up” your ego is waiting for you there, so you would run when you got the first call.

Here, however, you advance spiritually, and so you feel that the convention is a place to exert yourself. This is where the rejection stems from: Suddenly you become lazy, and you feel disrespect, and “something more important” comes up and there are other calculations…this is all a result of the Light that illuminates for you, so it is a good thing, but use it where you see a place to work.

The more we advance, the more we feel this way. Accordingly you will see that there are fewer and fewer people among us. Now we assume that the more we advance the more of us there will be, but in fact it isn’t so.

In 2007 I was on a tour in ten cities in America and there were about 600 people in every lecture that I gave, and 2,000 people in New York. Today, however, there are about 50-100 people.

Why is that so? Because we have advanced and so has the public. People are not that attracted to the word “Kabbalah” itself. They understand more and they know that it is about internal work. Thanks to the Lights that are closer now, people understand something new and on the whole they don’t want to come to the lectures or go to the conventions.

There is a small minority left and these are the people who will fulfill the correction. All the rest will join the “pioneers” in some way but only by the way of sufferings. Very few move forward by the Light while the rest move by sufferings…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When the Creator is revealed to a doctor, what will the doctor discover?

Answer: In other words, if a doctor wants to help people, will the science of Kabbalah help him to find causes of ailments, prevent diseases, and identify new possibilities for healing? No, the doctor will understand better the relationship of health issues and their complexity, but, in general, I cannot say that he will achieve any particular success. On the contrary, he will be the same as other doctors.

The Creator does not change the original action (Maase Beresheet). Many Kabbalists were involved in healing, at least partially or at the professional level, for example, the Rambam (Maimonides). This tendency can be explained by the fact that they knew the general order of things. Yet, they did not “see through” each patient and did not do “miracle cures.”

There is one problem: When a Kabbalist sees the world in which people suffer from ailments, is he able to heal them or should he ask the Creator? Should he, perhaps, encourage them to ask to be healed or to understand the root reason of the illness and pray for a correction that will cure, including the physical ailment?

You are looking for a special, spiritual medicine that will allow the curing of everyone and, thus, get around the Creator as if He sends evil and you bring good. However, more complex relationships are hidden here, and another work is revealed. In the end, a doctor will remain a doctor, and spiritual attainment will barely affect his profession.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Every time we begin to study from the books of Kabbalists and especially The Book of Zohar we must first of all be grateful for the state we were rewarded with. We are lucky to study about the attribute of bestowal, about the world of bestowal, and to connect to the source of power that can raise us above the animate level to the level of the speaking. Then we will be in bestowal and will love others and the Creator.

This means that we must value the “tool,” the means, that we have now—the special book, which by reading I determine my connection with the upper world. If I value it, if I am attracted upwards and feel awe, then by reading it I can perform different actions on myself. It isn’t just in order to change, but in order to become compatible to what is external to me.

It seems that there is a big world around me and as for now it is true, but later I discover that it is all built of vessels, of my desires. I will perceive them as parts of my body and by that will establish my attitude towards the upper force that created me and I will adhere to it.

The book should provide me with all that. So, I have to value the giant system that is around me. A Kabbalah book, just like a guide, helps me become familiar with the reality I am in, and tells me how to use it in order to get to know the upper force and to adhere to it.

First we have to value the new perspective that is revealed to us. Then accordingly we can turn to the upper force with a request, since the goal is so sublime, great and wonderful, that I surely want to attain it.

Then I begin to operate my desire, to receive or to bestow, according to how much I clarify it. In order to clarify the desire correctly several conditions must be filled:

1. I acknowledge the greatness of the source.
2. When I see that it is great, I want it to influence me correctly. After all, this force can be the “elixir of life” or the “potion of death”—it all depends on my attitude and on what I want from it. In order to establish the right attitude towards it, I was given a group. If I try to reach a “prayer of many” together with the friends, our demand will be right and we will be rewarded with the “elixir of life.” A person cannot know if he is asking for the right thing by himself, and so I was given a tool called “friends,” thanks to which I can undoubtedly turn to the upper force correctly and ask for the right things.

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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/12, The Zohar

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The correction of broken desires happens step by step, thanks to the actions of the Upper Mother (Ima Ilaa), Bina of the world of Atzilut. A very complicated system works there, and it allows the influence to eventually reach the souls. However, behind all of this there acts the Light of Hochma dressed in the Light of Bina, which corrects desires, the fragmented souls.

When we pray, reaching out to the Light of AB-SAG, meaning the Light of Hochma dressed in the Light of Bina, we glorify its beauty (“beauty” in Aramaic is “Shufrah”). This is why there is a tradition to blow a special horn called a Shofar at a New Year celebration.

By doing so, we praise and proclaim the Creator’s governance, that is, the supremacy of the force that controls and leads us, the Light of Hochma dressed in the Light of Bina, which is called beautiful. The Light of Hochma (wisdom, beauty) manifests itself in us to the degree of our aspiration to acquire the property of bestowal (Bina). It’s considered the beginning of man (Adam), the one who strives to become similar (Domeh) to the Creator.

This explains why a Shofar symbolizes a New Year: It glorifies the reign of the upper force; it is our request for the Light of AB–SAG to come, to correct us, to fill, and to raise us by the ladder of correction to the upper King. All corrections that we anticipate to happen in the New Year are gathered in one day called the “head of the Year” (Rosh Hashanah) since potentially it already contains the tendency that we would like to practically implement during the year to come.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/12, Writings of Rabash

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