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Posted on January 12th, 2025
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 46
What Does It Mean to Start Anew Each Day?
“Today” and “yesterday” are two different vessels. For example, yesterday I ate dinner and felt full. I did not imagine that I would want to eat again today. But after several hours, my desire became renewed, and today I feel a lack of satisfaction. This is a “new day.” A “day” represents the opportunity to derive pleasure, draw light, and reveal it.
In spirituality, no day is like a previous day, and no night resembles the one that follows. Spiritual desire evolves, while physical desire remains the same—static. In spirituality, the same desire never repeats itself. The process might seem repetitive, as if we encounter the same issue repeatedly, but the sages explain that each day is new, filled with fresh scrutinies and desires.
After countless “days” of scrutinies, although the exact number is unknown, we reach the end of our scrutinies and attain a complete vessel. This is the corrected vessel in which spirituality becomes revealed. Thus, it is written: “They shall be new in your eyes every day.” Time is a succession of new discernments, new desires.
These discernments often come in uncomfortable ways, manifesting as shame, fear, or failures stemming from fatigue, weakness, or impatience. But predominantly, they appear as fears, because the first Mitzvah (commandment) is fear, i.e., bringing a person from animalistic fear to spiritual fear, not fear of suffering in this world or the next, but fear of the Creator, wondering if we are connected to Him or have anything to offer in return.
The initial corrections revolve around reaching spiritual fear. Through worldly fears, or their semblance, a person is brought to fear only the Creator. Yet this fear is not fear of the Creator, but fear of not being connected to Him, and beyond that, fear of the inability to reciprocate or give to Him. This is what life’s myriad complexities ultimately revolve around.
This initial stage can take several years and appears in various forms. One person fears their boss, another worries about upsetting neighbors, a third dreads having committed an unforgivable act, and yet another fears an ongoing legal trial. The Creator has an endless array of such fears that He arouses in us, often in unimaginable ways. Sometimes, something prepared decades earlier suddenly surfaces.
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 45
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 44
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 43
Question: If a person is a small world and everything is included in it, what can outweigh the other: the point in the heart or egoism, which is the result of the shattering?
Answer: First, a person is a small world because he is connected to everyone whether he desires it or not.
Second, he must create his connection to the world the way he wants it to be, i.e., selectively: “I want to receive certain influences from the world and give certain influences back to the world.”
So what should ultimately tip the scale: the point in the heart or egoism? Neither.
I want the light of the Creator, which descends upon both the point in the heart and my egoism, to constantly determine my next states, nothing more and no less.
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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: What determines the duration of states of ascents and descents?
Answer: The duration of ascents and descents depends on the intensity of the work within the ten. If the ten is actively working on itself, you can pass through these states very quickly and realize them with incredible speed.
There is a story about a student who came to Baal Shem Tov and said: “That is it, I cannot do this anymore. I have experienced several descents and ascents just this morning.” To this, Baal Shem Tov replied: “I go through 400 such states in a single day.”
First, ascents and descents can be calculated. Second, imagine what it means to experience 400 conscious transitions from a small state, to a greater or intermediate one, and so on.
And all of this occurs in sensations, in the awareness of joy, like a symphony unfolding within us, like a marvelous harmony. This is attainment, delight, the great deed of 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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True spiritual work happens when I am in the right environment, one that values the quality of giving and mutual inclusion. This environment can eventually influence me to the point where I feel it changing something within me.
Finally, after many, many years, I begin to sense that it is fundamentally transforming the basis of my worldview, my perception of the world, my sense of myself, and my understanding of myself and the Creator.
All of this results from consistent interaction within the ten. Without this, we cannot properly transform our egoistic traits into spiritual, altruistic ones under the influence of the upper light. We simply cannot.
However, when we are in the ten, we gradually begin to feel that it provides each of us with a spiritual example.
Why does this not happen immediately? Because each person perceives the ten according to their own level of corruption. That is, the more we desire to see it corrected, the more we actually perceive it as such, and in this way, we receive examples from our friends.
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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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It is written in The Book of Zohar: “Whoever wants to awaken the upper force, whether in action or speech,” And the question arises: “How can we influence it?”
It is either by our inner feelings, thoughts, or by our external actions, that is, by action or speech. By speech, we mean what comes out of a person, not necessarily words, but also thoughts and all his motives.
If these actions are not directed correctly, they do not produce anything and can even prevent proper contact between us and the upper force in which we exist.
It is written in The Book of Zohar that everyone living in the world turns to the upper force to awaken it, but few can do this.
We are talking about a very special state of connection between us and the Creator. Basically, we are in Him, and everything we do has a direct effect on Him; there is no one between us and Him. But the fact is, not all our actions can awaken Him.
The Creator, as stated in The Book of Zohar, is close to everyone who knows how to call on to Him and awaken Him properly.
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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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How can we achieve the quality of bestowal, as it is said: “Be merciful as He is merciful”? How can we come to a state of similarity of properties to the Creator? That is what prayer is for.
In my request, I must necessarily realize that if I simply ask the Creator for something, then I am asking for myself, for my egoism, no matter how I twist it. But if I ask through my friends, only in connection with them, then I can ask correctly from everyone in general and for myself.
That is, a person has no opportunity to ask correctly if he is alone. Only if he is in connection with others and asks for the group, including himself but for the group, then his request is to some extent spiritual.
And if he asks for them, they are the goal; he pushes them to the Creator and wants to see them merge with Him because he is like Malchut and they are like the first nine Sefirot, then his request is truly spiritual.
Therefore, we must go through several stages of preparation for prayer in order to ask the Creator correctly.
If we ask incorrectly, He will still hear us, we are in Him, inside Him. But then this field will react to us according to our egoistic desires and push us to greater and greater egoism as it happens when we ask unconsciously.
But with the help of these pushes toward egoism, we will reveal the Pharaoh. It turns out that he is evil and not so kind; we are in exile in him and must get out of this. Then we will begin to ask for others and not for ourselves. And we will see ourselves only as asking, as representatives of all humanity.
We must definitely do this. We must try to understand our request. What is it for: for ourselves, for the group, for all of humanity or for the Creator? If it is for ourselves, even for the group, even for humanity, this may still be an egoistic request, for the Creator too. How can we rebuild all of this in an altruistic way? It is when I really ask for others.
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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: I have heard you say more than once that concealment is an invitation to revelation. How can we use this message in dissemination?
Answer: Concealment is a wonderful state because when a person feels that something is concealed from him, he begins to search and eventually turns to us. That is, concealment determines the stage of creation.
A dog on the street searches for something to find. But the human in us (not the animal) searches for its source. The highest form of searching is for my source: “Where am I from? Why am I here? What is my purpose?” Where do I come from and to what must should I return to?
Thus, our dissemination is in search of darkness and light, and this is what we must awaken in people. A person who approaches us does so with some kind of inquiry, and we must ignite the corresponding questions in them through our initial publications.
However, this should not be done directly but through an alternative approach that ultimately evokes questions about the purpose of or reason for creation, which they will then bring to us.
We need to present materials in such a way that they always spark the next question in a person. In other words, we should not attempt to paint the entire picture in one article. Doing so might leave them confused and unable to piece it all together into a coherent mosaic or correct vision. Instead, we should create something concise, a short article, note, or tweet that leaves them with a question.
We will answer that question, but the answer must also lead to the next question. This step-by-step progression, this way of working with students, is the most reasonable approach. But it is not easy; it is art.
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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: On one hand I have to imagine my friends as perfect, that the Creator resides in them, and that I have to absorb everything in them. On the other hand we must pray for them. What request can I have for them if I imagine they are in a state of perfection, and the Creator fills them?
Answer: On one hand I have to imagine my friends as perfect, be included in them, and remain in them, in their perfection. On the other hand I have to ask and pray for them. How can these two states be reconciled?
Indeed, it is impossible to reconcile them at the same time. Both states happen, and I need to exist in both alternately.
At the congress, I also must see which state I find myself in. But, in general, a congress carries more states of praising the group, the Creator, and the path of our rapprochement.
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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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