Intention is the only thing that depends on us. Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) in Israel, those who aspire directly to the Creator (Yashar El), has nothing but intention. GE doesn’t actually need anything except intention since it represents a liaison between the lower one and the upper Upper. The Upper is in a state of smallness (Katnut); the only thing that the lower one has in its possession is a Reshimo and the upper Upper is in the state of adulthood (Gadlut).

At first, illumination from above awakens the lower one’s Reshimo; then it raises its demand to the Upper. The Upper directs the Reshimo to his Upper, and in return the upper Upper sends the Returning Light to the Upper. Then, the Upper enters a state of adulthood (Gadlut), acquires AHP, and begins influencing the lower by transforming it from a “single-point Reshimo” into a state of smallness.

Thus, the Upper in essence is the intention of the calculation, whereas the Lower is the action, a state of receiving, a vessel, a desire.

Accordingly, both states of smallness and adulthood in the Upper refer specifically to the intention, to its essence: a small “donkey” and a big “donkey,” a small man and a big man. The intention that the Upper builds varies depending upon the request that it receives from the Lower.

The Lower demands actions: “Give me! Do it for me!” Here, you need to coordinate these demands with the Upper, matching it, and then the Light that Reforms gradually changes the Lower and becomes the “body” for the Partzuf’s “head.”

One way or the other, the Upper Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP get “synchronized” with the intention. Israel doesn’t perform this action; Israel only directs the commonality.

This explains why we are obligated to manage unity among people. Otherwise, where will they get the force for this? If they find the strength to unite without our help, it would turn into a “gathering of disdainers” or an “assembly of criminals” and would cause a lot of harm. That’s why we have to clearly and firmly work with the world so that everybody understands what we are doing.

We explicitly clarify that it’s our special methodology. Other than us, nobody can attain positive results by just copying our method. On the contrary, if they persist, in a half a year to a year, their attempts will lead to negative results.

Our methodology has nothing to do with mysticism or coaching, or anything else like that. It is unity that we build with the help of the upper force. Others can claim similar ideas, but this methodology is solely ours. It must be utterly clear.

Only our friends who are trained and qualified will be able to lead people to unity, since they themselves are united into groups, work on enhancing unity with their friends, and are connected with the upper force through their teacher. So, they are the ones who can be the conductors of this process. Moreover, we acknowledge that there is a group within the Upper, but let’s talk about this next time.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/13, “The Peace”

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From an article by Baal HaSulam, “The Secret of Conception and Birth,” part 7, “Movement as a Sign of Life”: From the aspect of spiritual life, we divide the creatures into two groups: still, vegetative, animate – and speaking. The still, vegetative and animate are completely dead. The speaking is the aspect of life.

Life is the power to move. And it is known that the beginning of life is made by two actions that are opposite in purpose.

On the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate activities like these don’t take place and also among people who are found on the developmental levels of the still, vegetative, and animate, but only in someone who has already reached the level of the Adam within a person.

For also the speaking, when born he is really dead until they awaken him through urgency.

This is what we feel on our way. Certainly this is not talking about the birth of the physical body, but about spiritual properties. Even when Adam is born, which is to say when a characteristic of “resembling” (Domeh) the Creator begins to be developed in one of us, in the beginning this is in the aspect of being “dead”; he is not ready to carry out his own actions. And he remains so until they awaken him through urgency and pressure.

For his Kelim, vessels, are ready to receive life and movement while still in his mother’s womb; that is, it is still included within the higher level before obtaining independence and a feeling of self.

And when he comes into the air of the world, the air of the world acts on his flesh with a coldness to which he is not accustomed, and this causes the arousal of contractions.

And this coldness forces him to contract, to stop. We are never ready for coldness that comes from the next state, and so we contract. That is, it is up to the person to feel how much his intellect and emotion don’t operate in that area as before; rather they contract and withdraw. He is really weak and is not ready to do anything, he has no power, no brain, and no inner strength, he is not prepared to perform, to understand, or to feel anything. This means, he reaches a contraction of the first breath.

And after the first contraction, he is compelled to extend again to his previous dimension. A person doesn’t know if this is his previous dimension or not. It is difficult for him to measure these boundaries and depths for everything is already taking place within the new Kelim. From the moment he contracts until he returns to fill that space with the understanding and that emotion that he had, he has new Kelim in him.

And these two processes—contraction and expansion—are the first step toward life. But sometimes the newborn is so weak that the cold air of the new world does not make it contract, and so he is born dead.

This is like a student who feels unpleasant under pressure and can’t stand it and take it to the contraction. And so he goes out of this state spiritually dead, and he remains only in the physical, animal body. After all, he did not create the place and the reason for life to be clothed in him, whose origin began from the power of the contractions. From the contraction, he could not expand to the previous place.

To the degree that a person is ready to contract, to understand, and to experience this state, to accept it with gratitude, he can expand again. And he doesn’t expand to control his state, to raise his self-esteem, and to get rid of fear but in order to vacate a place for the Creator so that He can fill him.

Through contractions and expansions, all the changes in the spiritual levels take place, at every step. One constantly goes through such pulsations and the only question is only how he uses them, how he relates to them?

And here the sign that the creature is ready for the Light of life is that there is at least a power in him to make a contraction so that the Light of life comes to him and makes an exhalation. And the first movement of life is made. The Light that Reforms arrives, and this expansion back to the previous place gives him the first characteristic of bestowal.

Therefore he doesn’t stop moving and becomes alive.

And therefore the movement will not cease in him anymore; and it becomes a living movement.

This first movement is called the “soul” (Neshama); it is the breath of life that the Creator breathes into it; as is written, (Genesis 2:7) “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”

It is impossible to rise to the level of “life”, to the level of bestowal, if we are not prepared to produce within us the distinctions between humans, that is, to be ready to endure the contractions and after that to reach the expansions. If the person is ready to endure this coldness, then he will advance. As it is said: (Hosea 14:10) “For the ways of HaShem are right, and the just do walk in them; but transgressors do stumble therein.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/10/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Secret of Conception and Birth”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #127 “The Difference Between Kernel, Essence, and Added Abundance”

The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Fourth Commandment,” Item 215, Lesson 76

Lesson on the Topic: “Sukkot,” Lesson 2 

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When I was Rabash’s student he could answer every question that I had but only to the extent that it was possible to reveal things. If you reveal more than a person can grasp you may harm him.

A teacher knows exactly what can be revealed and what must remain concealed, only to the extent that a person is loyal to you can you reveal something to him. This usually happens among relatives, with a son or with a son-in-law. This is interesting since they value your good name.

You cannot be more important to any other student than he is for himself. This is the essence of our nature! So you should conceal yourself from them so that they will feel that there is something they should overcome here.

What do our corporeal difficulties to get close indicate? If your followers are a son, a son-in-law, or a brother, they value you no matter what. So even if they descend to the corporeal level, they will guard your good name since it is also their name. A student, on the other hand, loses contact with you when he descends to the corporeal level and stops being your student.

It is not a person’s fault. This is how the connections between us are arranged naturally, and so you cannot give a student what you give a son, a son-in-law, or another relative.

This is very meaningful during the first phases. A student can be like a son to you only if he is spiritually connected to you. Otherwise, what other connections do you have with him? You try to bring him to the spiritual level, but the question is to what extent he can do so.

It is about interesting corporeal attributes and how they come in contact with spirituality, but in the meantime, through the simple ego. If we speak about a certain level of loyalty when it comes to a son or to any other relative, it exists to some extent since it is based on egoism. You may say some more to them and they will never use it against you. It is possible to reveal to them a bit more than to others on a minimal level.

But this stick has two ends. The student can grow to a level on which he treats the teacher as a father despite his inner resistance. Here an opposite attribute is created and the student can do more than a son. In order to do so, both have to work seriously.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/29/13

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Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” 1985-1986, Article 36, “What is Preparation for Forgiveness”: When the person comes to ask the Creator to forgive him for his error against him and a defect in his respect for the Creator, blessed be He, the person needs to think thoughts about what his error was regarding the Creator.

I ask forgiveness not for the defects with which I was born, that are found from the start in my nature. I don’t relate to them (Genesis 8:21) “…for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth… .” I don’t relate to the evil inclination itself, rather only to my effort: Could I have already risen above my evil inclination to build “screens” and to acquire the relationship of bestowal, love, and connection above the evil inclination? Could I have acted according to the principle, “Love covers over all transgressions,” (Proverbs 10:12)?

Specifically if I have been negligent in this effort, I need to express remorse and to ask for forgiveness, and I need to cry about this. The “sorrow of the Shechina” is not that She prepared for us the shattered state, the defect, but in that we don’t try to lift Her from the dust according to the conditions with which it is possible for us to do this.

The Light that Reforms arrives according to my effort. If it doesn’t arrive with connection to it, it shows me the general shattering that was made by the Creator. In contrast to this, when the Light that Reforms arrives according to the effort that I make or don’t make, it reveals to me only my part, the effort that I didn’t give and could have given.

It is not necessary to be sorry about my being born not to be successful in something—for example, not being physically strong, not wise enough, or without a good memory and skill for learning; there is no need to complain about this. If they didn’t give me something, this is a sign that I don’t need this. If I don’t have particular skills and I have difficulty because of this, it’s obvious I have to work in these conditions throughout my life.

My personality traits don’t attest to my being good or bad. It could be that I was born lazy, a spendthrift, overbearing, and so on. Essentially the fact that I was born with these characteristics is already a sign that I don’t need to relate to this. It is not up to me to correct them. It is up to me to correct only my participation in what they reveal to me beyond my nature. If there, beyond it, I am lazy, then I need to make a sacrifice about this laziness, and regarding this lack of participation, I need to cry on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). I ask for forgiveness not for my bad characteristics with which I was born but about what I truly could have corrected when I received the opportunity from Heaven and I didn’t actualize it.

Therefore, whoever doesn’t make an effort, he does not reveal evil found in him. And someone who does make an effort discovers that he is evil—and this is only to the degree that he could have made a correction and didn’t correct it.

We are not responsible for correcting all that the spiritual systems have damaged before us. This is damage to the general system. Rather we correct what is imposed upon us, then the entire system will be corrected. You see, it was damaged since a component entered into it that is called Adam. Therefore when we correct the participation of the person in the system, we correct everything.

Question: How is regret linked to relationships between the friends?

Answer: As is written, Yom Kippur does not correct the errors of the person related to his friend. I must be sorry about what I apparently caused and at the same time remember that this was also done by the Creator. This way or another I am not sorry that I discovered that I am evil. I am sorry about feeling that the gap between me and the Creator is still found in me. And so I correct it.

And this says that even in the discovery of the evil, I must feel joy.

Question: There is no one who hasn’t done something bad to another person, even unintentionally. How can I atone for this? How do I ask for forgiveness?

Answer: A person does this through reaching connection. This is his compensation. There is no need to and no deed that can atone for what I did. All the evil that I did caused separation. All the good that I can do: This is only to cause unity. The forms and ways of evil and good are not important; the main thing is specifically unity or separation. If you do it this way, you will not err.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: In one of the posts in your blog it said: “After people are in complete despair over all that they have attempted, we can let them know that we have a method which will give them health, control, respect, money, and so forth. They will have all that they require in this world, a Garden of Eden on Earth, but to do this they must connect.”

How can we explain this if, in spite of all our efforts to connect, we still don’t have anything?

Answer: A person can never carry out any spiritual action if he is not “in complete despair about his own deeds” and doesn’t scream to the Creator when he is found on the last level and with a little more, he will fall from there into an abyss. Only then does salvation come from the Creator. Otherwise he doesn’t have a “Kli” (vessel) that is ready.

How can we achieve this in this world? If we don’t do anything, then the Creator will send us blows, the Light will shine on us all the time and we will feel ourselves more and more to be opposite to Him and this is to say, in states that are worse and worse. This is the path of suffering. As long as we have not reached a terminal state of death from this way, we cannot deviate from it. But we can reach a state of need for receiving help from the Creator consciously, without reaching a state of powerlessness. How do we reach this consciously? This would be when I feel myself to be the opposite of the Light.

Everything depends on the conditions in which the person is found. Suppose that I was born in a poor village in Africa and I get a half a cup of rice and a hundred grams of bread per day. Suddenly a group arrives from the United Nations and begins to distribute a kilogram of bread and a bottle of milk to everyone, saying that if the children behave well, then they will give them food. And whoever eats well will also see a movie. This is to say, a completely different world is revealed, completely different conditions.

Can I attain conditions like these? When I was living in a village in Africa a kilogram of bread per day seemed like the Garden of Eden to me. But if I were to find myself in some advanced nation, then if the day doesn’t end with a visit to a restaurant with friends, this is a wasted day. I get even more depressed than during the time that I only got a kilogram of bread per day in the African village.

This is to say, everything depends on the conditions in which the person is found. Therefore there is no absolute meaning of sufferings.

I am an ordinary person, okay. Suddenly I win a million dollars in the lottery. I check the numbers ten times, everything is in order, everything is according to what is in the newspaper. I “sprout wings.” At the end of the week they present the prizes, I get there and they inform me that there was a mistake in the newspaper. What can I do? I am found in absolute despair, but it is artificial, for I didn’t have anything before. The despair appeared as a result of the thought that I won the lottery but it was explained that this was a mistake.

This is to say, we can bring ourselves to a state like this artificially, when I will be immensely depressed because I yearned very much to attain the Upper Light and I don’t have it. How can I do this? With the help of the environment. With the help of the friends I can hasten myself so much that I scream that I want this now and immediately! And together with this I attain a clear awareness that I didn’t get anything except “a punch in the mouth.”

It is up to us to do this to ourselves. This is not easy. Certainly we need to make ourselves a little childish like this, but then we will come to a state of a great desire and correspondingly with a state of immense despair about our “own powers,” and I will demand from the Creator that here He must help me! He has no choice, for I am demanding it! It is up to us to make ourselves really and truly want and despair. And then everything will succeed.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Question: If we compare our efforts with a race that is one hundred miles long, we won’t see any traces of our getting to the end of the road until we reach the finish line. Why?

Answer: It is said: “There is no shortage in spirituality.” As an example, let’s use the wave-particle duality theory of this world. There exist types of energy levels, for example: In order to generate a laser beam the energy has to be raised to a certain level and then the process immediately takes on the “explosive” character.

Everything has a preset measurement. This fact derives from the four phases of the Direct Light. Nothing can be measured with great precision if the measurements are in a hundred percent linear mode. In fact, we always are measuring the gap between certain values, thus creating a discrete, intermittent “digital” picture of the world.

That’s why during the “race,” we observe “sudden” leaps from one checkpoint to another instead of viewing smooth, gradual changes. This is how we are constructed: Our perception in both this world and in spirituality bears a “step-by-step” character.

While exploring nature, we come to understand that it is way beyond us. So, there is no need “to place claims” to the universe? It won’t help. On the contrary, we have to study its laws and use them.

Today, you are indignant only because the Creator plays games with you. He deliberately gives you valid reasons to get upset with Him so that eventually we will understand that we are still little babies.

Question: And yet, it is said that “many pennies accumulate to a great sum.” At least show this to me…

Answer: If you saw how pennies accumulate in a piggy bank, then you would become more patient and wouldn’t rush ahead since you would know that your days do not pass in vain. This is bad for you.

On the contrary, when you feel that your time disappears through your fingers and that you see no results ahead, that is the salvation, the gift, without which you would not aspire forward.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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A person cannot trust and rely on himself before the final correction. He must constantly be under the influence of higher vessels, desires, and simply explore them degree by degree, cleaving to them without counting on his own “reserve.”

We advance only by faith above reason, that is, only at the level of adhesion to a higher degree. Only from there can you draw and bring correct answers and correct signs to the current state. The principle of “be guided only by what you see” refers to corrupt desires, but to stay on the course, I have to “cling” to a higher degree by faith above reason.

Everyone can find “signs” proving he is right. But this is prohibited. The mind does not work here and I will not involve it. Even Kabbalists’ explanations are intended only to bring us closer together with spiritual concepts, to add knowledge, genuine support, this confirmation can only be found in the Upper One when I cancel my understanding and equip myself with His mind.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/13, The Zohar

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