Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/8/25
Posted on January 8th, 2025
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 42
What Is the Difference Between Being Thrown in a “Catapult” and Being a “Fetus,” Seeing End-to-End?
The difference is immense. A “fetus” (Ubar) sees from one end to the other because it nullifies itself, and thus its experiences do not overwhelm it. In contrast, someone thrown in a catapult moves between extremes and becomes entangled in them. Every state dominates them and immerses them completely.
A fetus is unaffected because it possesses a screen (Masach). It passes through extreme states without being controlled by them. However, those in a catapult are ruled by each state and demonstrate their weakness and helplessness.
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Question: When states are revealed in which it seems to us that we are in bestowal, how do we return to our nature that is far from bestowal?
Answer: Why would we want to return to our egoistic nature? I want to always remain in the quality of bestowal. If I desire to come closer to the Creator, why would I want to distance myself from Him?
He Himself will distance me to the extent and in the form necessary for my next state. What my next state will be—negative (left line) or positive (right line)—I cannot say. That is not my concern.
My task is only to exert the proper efforts and assess the state I am currently in relative to the group. This is precisely what I must continuously analyze and strive to improve.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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Question: When a person is in a good state, he forgets about the Creator. When he is in a bad state, it seems like there is a rule of not attributing it to the Creator. Where is the guide that should and is able to help bring everything to the Creator between these states?
Answer: Generally, such a channel is the group that helps one take a position from which he can begin to justify the Creator. Or the Creator Himself arouses in a person a desire for something non-spiritual and at the same time gives him an understanding that this action comes from Him.
Or we can put it another way, the desire for something other than the spiritual is given to him so that by realizing it comes from the Creator, he can properly direct himself by his own efforts.
Question: So the Creator, along with any sensation, always gives a person the opportunity to turn to Him, to justify Him?
Answer: I cannot always say that because there is also a double concealment.
Single concealment is when a person realizes the concealment he is currently in comes from the Creator; i.e., there is a higher reason. Double concealment is when the reason disappears.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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Question: What can you do when you want to make efforts yourself with your mind, your feelings, your hands, feet, and head without the help of the Creator, without any help?
Answer: If I want to perform some actions myself without the help of the Creator, I am working within the framework of this world, and unfortunately, in practice, I cannot advance spiritually.
In other words, independent actions without turning to the Creator are actions of our world. The actions of the spiritual world are only our appeals to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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Question: Should we strive to detect a split in the ten?
Answer: No! Always envision the ten in an ideal state. That is it! There is no need to criticize it. You do not need to “repair” the ten.
If you think that you should investigate the breakage, search for it, and disclose it, then you are deeply mistaken. There is nothing to search for! Always look for only the good, only the positive!
And then, if a negative thing appears, it will manifest itself in a stream of positive movement and will be corrected simultaneously. That is the only way!
Under no circumstances should you engage in any negative feelings, investigations, or introspection. You certainly cannot practice self-flagellation. You must stop this.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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A prayer is work in the heart (Rabash, Article 24, “Three Times in the Work”).
It is because the heart of a person is the root of their egoistic desire. The heart here does not refer to the physical organ of the body, which is merely a pump.
It is specifically the desire located in the heart that must be transformed into a different form where its aim is to bestow rather than to receive. This means that the direction of my actions, my desires, and my thoughts should shift from focusing inward to reaching outward.
But how can this be achieved? I am unable to change my egoistic desire on my own. All I can do is perform certain actions that will draw the influence of the upper light upon me, which will correct me and adjust me to a different attitude toward everything outside of me.
Though I previously thought that the world outside of me consisted of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and people, I will begin to see that in reality none of this exists as separate entities. It is all but one Creator.
Thus a person has a significant task: to transform their heart, meaning their desire. Since this task is contrary to his egoistic nature, he cannot change himself on his own. A person is trapped within himself, within his egoism. No matter how he turns, acts, or thinks, his actions and thoughts remain self-centered. He cannot escape himself.
Baal HaSulam likens a person to a worm living inside a radish, feeling as if its entire life is one endless bitter radish. Only if the worm manages to poke its head out will it see the sun, greenery, grass, air, and singing birds, and realize that another world exists.
So it is with us. Hence, there is great work involved in transforming one’s desire, one’s heart. Since this work goes against a person’s individual nature, he must request assistance from the Creator, that is, he must appeal to an external force (and the only external force is the Creator) to help him escape his essence, his egoism, which the Creator deliberately created, and enter what is called a state “above nature.”
The state above our nature is called faith—Emunah, which means bestowal. This concept should not be confused with the notion of faith in our world. In our world, faith means closing one’s eyes and accepting something as true, simply believing in its existence.
In Kabbalah, however, faith refers to acquiring the quality of bestowal. It is not just believing in this quality, but actually possessing it within oneself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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Our movement toward becoming like the Creator occurs along two lines, the left and the right. The left represents the constant growth of egoism and the right represents its correction.
A step on the left is greater egoism; a step on the right is its correction. The next step on the left brings even greater egoism, and the right brings even greater correction, and so on.
Gradually, we begin to perceive these states more clearly and feel who we are dealing with.
At first, these relationships are very vague and foggy because I am like a child who does not feel its mother. The child clings to her like a small animal and does not want to detach from this central being in his life. Over time, however, the individual approaches his relationship with the Creator more selectively and with increasing demands.
The mother represents the property of Bina. The developing person represents the property of Malchut. Malchut rises to the level of Bina to acquire the qualities of Bina and create a likeness to it, essentially, clothing itself in this form.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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The most important thing for us is to master the methodology of approaching the Creator, which is achieved through the connection of friends within the group. After all, it is impossible to perceive the Creator or invoke His influence upon oneself without practicing this within oneself.
It is as if we construct the image of the Creator within ourselves. This is why the Creator is called “Bore”—”Bo-u-Ré”—”Come and See.” “Come” means to form this shape within yourself, to come to it, and then you will study it within yourself.
You cannot study the Creator outside of yourself. There is no such concept as “outside oneself” in a person. It may seem to them that they perceive something external. In reality, everything is felt within oneself, just like when working with a computer. If we see something on the computer, we are not interacting with something outside of it. It is all within the computer.
The same applies to us. It seems to me that there are some images outside of me, that I see, hear, and feel something external, a world beyond myself. But these are just incorrect perceptions. In reality, everything is experienced within us.
Therefore all our actions boil down to creating conditions within ourselves that form the image of the Creator inside us. Our most effective state is when we turn to Him because this turning consists of our desire, the feeling of what we have today, and our awareness of who or what we must become in the next moment—not today, but tomorrow.
Although “today” and “tomorrow” are merely two different yet closely connected states, in this way we express our desire, awareness, and understanding of who we are at this moment and what we should become in the next.
If these actions are correctly directed toward the Creator and properly define the initial and final states, we thereby draw the Creator’s light, a special force that fulfills our desire. It is then that changes occur within us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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Our correct attitude toward the Creator is manifested only if we are in a group of our own kind, and we see the manifestation of the quality of bestowal, the quality of love, which are unreal qualities among friends that are not of our world; and at the same time we see how the group respects these qualities, how it welcomes, elevates, and values them.
Then I can learn from this and understand that I too want to bestow and to love because for this I will be appreciated, respected, and my egoism will be filled by it.
You might say that this way is leading us to even greater egoism. Of course. But still, at the same time, this work is also against oneself. That is, I can ask the Creator: “Give me the quality to better and more correctly treat others.” It is still an egoistic quality for my own sake, but I want to draw upon myself the light that would begin to change me.
And here we begin to enter into a completely different system of relationships. That is, although I am an egoist who is asking the Creator to make me seemingly a more egoistic being, it is egoistic in the spiritual sense of the word, but in the world where I exist, it is not egoistic.
It turns out that there are two consequences to my action. On the one hand, I ask to fill my egoism with vanity and respect of others in order to realize my envy in advancing forward.
On the other hand, the light that affects me changes me in the opposite direction. It evokes in me the quality of bestowal, and then I suddenly discover that the qualities of bestowal are valuable in themselves, that I want to exist in them even without any consequences for my egoism.
Gradually, this happens. This is how we come to the new states.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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