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Comment: As desires grow, my appetite increases and my needs change. What was enough for me yesterday no longer satisfies me today.

My Response: Naturally our desires evolve. When a person begins studying Kabbalah, many new desires emerge. Suddenly one may discover a new appreciation for food that previously went unnoticed or seemed unimportant.

Sexual desires also intensify and often become a significant obstacle for those advancing spiritually, as they stand in stark contrast to one’s relationship with the Creator. It may seem that physical intimacy with the opposite gender is unrelated to spiritual connection with the Creator, but they are deeply connected. In this world, sexual desires become a profound challenge, and the Creator uses them to unsettle men with such issues.

This phenomenon has occurred for all Kabbalists, and much has been written about it. The spiritual union with the Creator, known as “Zivug de Haka’a,” is described in Kabbalistic texts as resembling physical intimacy in our world. It is a parallel dynamic, one opposing the other.

The left line entices a person with these thoughts and desires, while one must rise above them by using the right line, alternating between left and right. These challenges manifest less noticeably with food, as it is a more animalistic need for sustenance. Over time however, even food-related desires may become more pronounced.

Sexual desires typically do not emerge immediately. In the early stages of study, a person might say, “I feel nothing; such animalistic things do not interest me.” But ask the same person a year or two later, and it may already be a significant issue. After another year or two, it becomes an even greater challenge.

Thus it is said, “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.” It is also noted that those nearing spiritual connection with the Creator experience the most distinctive and intense drives in sexual relationships. This is not about the physical acts themselves but about how the reflection of the upper light, or even how the upper light itself, manifests, depending on whether one approaches from the left or the right line.

Comment: But this sounds somewhat ascetic.

My Response: No, there should be no asceticism. A person should marry and have a family. A man should not study Kabbalah without being married, as stated in the sources. Although we do not impose this as a strict requirement, generally a man is expected to marry and establish a family.

This does not make the spiritual path easier, but these conditions are necessary. In our world, we must create a reflection of the spiritual world. Just as spiritual connection and advancement toward the Creator are essential in the spiritual realm, the physical world mirrors this process through relationships and procreation. This is something we are obligated to fulfill.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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Question: How can the strongest friends deal with confusion and foreign thoughts without mutual responsibility and a covenant between them?

Answer: How can we overcome all problems better with the help of mutual guarantee? We are obliged to share not what is happening to us, but to discuss what is written about it in the sources, to remind our friends, and thus prevent their wrong actions.

And if they are already experiencing wrong states, then such discussions will help them understand where they come from and how to correct it.

A person cannot move only on one leg, the right one, he must also walk with the left leg. But the left side should be very short.

But when we try to reduce it, we naturally increase its intensity to that extent. The less time the obstacle takes, the more intense it will be, because its strength, multiplied by time, gives a certain additional egoistic power above which we then rise in the right line.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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Question: When darkness or obstacles come to me, I feel terrible, yet I am told I must rejoice. What is there to rejoice about?

Answer: If I am connected to the Creator and understand that He sends me all these states, I can rejoice. But if I feel bad, how can I simultaneously rejoice? Here, a new quality begins to develop within us. I can rejoice in the fact that I feel bad because it shows I am still tied to my egoism.

In the measure of feeling pain, I begin to realize how immersed I am in egoism and how much I wish to rise above it. This is an intermediate state between egoistic and spiritual states.

In the egoistic state, I feel pain, but in the spiritual state, I feel that I am rising above egoism. Therefore, I experience joy from the fact that even though I feel pain, I am rising above it. I already despise my egoism, I wish to detach from it, and I find myself in a state opposite to Pharaoh—I want to escape him. Thus, I rejoice at the “Egyptian plagues” that afflict him.

I recall how Rabash would point to his body and say: “Let it suffer.” But this is not about the self-inflicted suffering of ascetics who deliberately subject themselves to physical pain. It is the understanding that your egoism, in its suffering, helps you break away from it.

But this is a technique. So no matter how much I explain, only gradual practice will show you how it is done.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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In our world, which is built not on giving but on receiving, if we create a union of several people who wish to interact with each other in the quality of bestowal, then these people form a structure that can be influenced from outside by the quality of the Creator—bestowal.

Therefore, to begin attracting the quality of the Creator to us, we need to seemingly create a kind of quality of bestowal between us. Seemingly. In reality, it is not the quality of bestowal, but we still act as if it is. Just as children play at being adults, we as egoists, play at spirituality between us.

When each person tries to restrain their egoism and unite with others altruistically, in mutual support, this state is called the mutual guarantee. In this way, we create a certain system of forces.
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From Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19

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