MAN that Contains Everything

548.01Question: We must raise MAN (prayer). Is this an action in desire?

Answer: MAN means that I am asking for the power of bestowal. From Malchut I turn to Bina and ask from Bina for the ability to bestow.

But I have to reach such a state that I am filled with this prayer (MAN), and this is enough for me. I feel joy that I am able to raise MAN.

How is this state described in the Torah? You go out into the light of day. Day for you is when you have nothing; you walk in the desert, and search for MAN, the desire for bestowal, and when you find it, it revives you, and it fills all your tastes. Everything you desire is in it.

But what is this taste? Where does it come from? What is this MAN? It comes to you from Bina, and then it is enough for you to have the very possibility of asking the Creator: “I have a connection with Him. I can ask Him. And I need nothing more.”

But do I not want to have a desire in which I will reveal the Creator? No. I am content even with the very aspiration toward Him. This, for me right now, is fulfillment. The connection with the Creator through the group fills me.

But what kind of connection is this? From where do you have anything? There is nothing. But can I turn to Him in this way? That is enough. This is called “walking in the desert,” acquiring the quality of “Hafetz Hesed” (desiring nothing for myself).

For in the desert you have nothing; you truly do not want anything for yourself. But this is the attainment of correction by the quality of bestowal, similarity to the Creator, and in this is your fulfillment.
[15237]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 06/06/2010, “The Book of Zohar

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Awaken The Creator

165We ourselves must awaken the Creator to give us the desire to give. It is not enough that we have a desire to receive because there must also be a positive desire from the giver to give us a new desire to give.

Even though above there is a general desire to do good to His creations, He still waits for our desire to awaken His desire.

In other words, if we are unable to evoke His desire, it is a sign that the desire on the part of the receiver is still incomplete. Hence, precisely by praying that there will be a will above, our desire is made to be a genuine desire, to be a fitting Kli [vessel] to receive the abundance (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 57, “Will Bring Him Closer to His Will“).

Constant appeal to the Creator from the ten will eventually lead to the fact that our request is genuine and will elicit an answer. The Creator is a law of nature. We need to reach a certain threshold of effort, then we will receive a new life from above, a new property—the property of bestowal.

We have not yet crossed this threshold, which means that we do not yet have this desire. We will not be able to use the quality of bestowal correctly, but would use it selfishly. The upper governance will in no way allow this.

Therefore the constant awakening of the Creator from the ten is a necessary condition for the genuine desire to emerge in the ten in the right magnitude and quality. Our success depends on this alone!
[254894]
From the 6th Kabbalah Lesson of the Congress in Moldova, 9/7/2019

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Mirror Relationships

113Question: When speaking about the relationship between man and woman, you described the “mirror principle,” according to which I see a reflection of myself in my partner since I radiate my egoism onto him. What does this mean? If it seems to me that my husband does not value me, does it mean that I do not value myself?

Answer: Why do you demand more recognition from him? In essence, it is your egoism that requires this fulfillment. And what do we gain if we rise above egoism and do not make such demands?

First, by doing so we will not suffer from feeling undervalued by our partner. Second, we thereby acquire a new quality. The demand for respect and power reveals its opposite: by overcoming a certain egoistic quality and beginning to rise above it, I receive a quality opposite to it. This allows me to gain a new tool, a new attitude toward the world.

For example, if earlier I demanded attention and respect from my partner, now I become more modest in my claims. After all, I already understand that if I look objectively, he treats me quite normally, it was simply that my egoism inflated the bar of expectations. So let us concede, let us reduce our egoistic demands.

I want my partner to be attentive, considerate, and to keep promises, I want to stop his endless “offenses” in everything concerning household matters, neglect of my interests, lack of signs of love and care. After all, with the years the husband calls his wife less and less to ask how she is doing, takes less and less care of her. And so, if I lessen my complaints, if I do not keep count of grievances and work hard on myself—because for me this is still very important—then I annul the former, spoiled connection between us.

I rise above the inflated demands and relate to my partner with love, like a mother to a child. Even if on his side there still remains “crime,” despite my efforts, I hold to the principle: “Love will cover all crimes.”

How do I thereby help my partner, considering that he also has joined into the framework of our course? I give him an example, and also awaken a readiness for the same reciprocal relation in him. Thus, here lies an invitation to a new life. In essence, I open myself in order to receive a new attitude from my partner. And I check this attitude not egoistically; on the contrary, what matters here is that we both mutually develop our relationship above egoism and support each other.

By my example I help my partner to rise above egoism. I make efforts, I speak with him about how good life will be if we rise above our natural, base, egoistic impulses. And as a result, mutual example and mutual support lead us upward.

Moreover, each of us now looks at the world correctly, sanely, with readiness to yield. Again and again, I see the world in comparison with myself as something perfect. The new outlook allows me to see it as perfect nature. It is no longer only about my partner, the whole world becomes my mirror.

This is a kind of psychological training, a psychological method of the highest order, which allows a person to ascend to a new perception of reality, of the world, of family, and of relations with the partner; it is a perception that we did not have before.

Of course we must first practice this in the family, and in the end, we will build a new world, new relationships. And here mutuality is necessary. We both must understand that we represent something like a small “laboratory” in which two egoists strive to use the egoism that has developed in them correctly. In our generation it has grown to such an extent that it destroys everything, and we want to use it as a lever and build healthy relations above it that will allow life to continue. Otherwise, only ruin awaits us.
[83478]
From the 32nd conversation New Life 32 – New Kind Of Relationships, 7/11/12

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 9/29/25

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #104 “And the Saboteur was Sitting” (12.21.2021)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 1

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, The Book of Zohar, “The Seventh Commandment”

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 9/28/25

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Good State

49.01Question: What is this state when you come to complete agreement with the Creator, with the teacher, with the greatness of your friends, and are focused on only one thing: constant prayer for your friends so that they will please the Creator?

Answer: This is a good state. Continue to develop it.
[348409]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/2025, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Studying TES

256Question: When we study “Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (Pticha)” or TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), I have the feeling as if someone is explaining something from another galaxy. I do not understand where this is inside me. I listen as friends ask questions, as if they are revealing all this within themselves. What can I do to begin to perceive it at least a little in this way?

Answer: Here, I can give only one piece of advice. We are speaking about the spreading of the light in the Kli, in the desire.

Imagine that the light is acting upon you—a desire to fill, to delight, to bestow everything. You reveal it with the intention to receive, and gradually the light enters you and builds within you the corresponding degrees.

In principle, this is the whole science of Kabbalah.
[348443]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/2025, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A Circle and a Line in Spirituality

532Question: When I hear the words “circle,” “line,” or “Sefira,” images of this world appear in my mind. How should I correctly picture and feel what a circle or a line is?

Answer: These are different ways that the light spreads. A circle is the spreading of light without any limitations, while a Kav (line) is with limitations.

Question: Can we attain anything other than the Kav, for example, the Igul (circle)?

Answer: No, we can attain only the line (Kav), but within it, we attain everything that is necessary. The Creator reveals Himself precisely in this way.
[348440]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/2025, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Don’t Create “Idols” for Yourself

567When we read Kabbalistic articles, we must be very careful not to attach them to concepts of time and space and create “idols” for ourselves. Everything written by Kabbalists relates only to our desire, not to any historical events that occurred in the past.

History also relates to our inner perception of reality. There is no geographical location in which all this occurs; “place” is our desire. And there is no time; “time” signifies a change of states.

And when we read such a special article as today’s: “And They Built the Cities of Affliction,” about slave labor for Pharaoh, we must relate everything described only to ourselves, to what happens to us on our spiritual path.

It speaks of what I must go through in my desire, in my relationship with myself, with the group, with the Creator; it speaks of all the means given to me to achieve union with the upper power. There is nothing else but me and Him. And everything else is merely a means to achieving fusion between us.

Everything written in the article must occur only within me, within my soul; that is how I must understand it. And then I will truly study the inner meaning of the material.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “And They Built Arei Miskenot

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Bestowal Is Not Coercion

210Therefore, once all the members of the nation agreed, they were immediately given the Torah, for now they were capable of observing it. But before they grew into a complete nation, and certainly during the time of the fathers, who were unique in the land, they were not truly qualified to observe the Torah in its desirable form, since with a small number of people it is impossible to even begin with engagement in Mitzvot between man and man to the extent of “Love your friend as yourself,” …. This is why they were not given the Torah (Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]”).

A distinction must be made between the Torah of the forefathers and the Torah of the era of Egyptian exile. In Egypt egoism grew to the degree of Pharaoh, and it had to be corrected by the light that returns to the source. But the desires revealed in the times of the forefathers were very pure and did not require this light.

Even afterward, for almost a thousand years until the era of the sages of the Talmud, one had to humble one’s desires through asceticism and labor in the Torah. Only thanks to the corrections carried out by the sages of the Talmud is it sufficient for us to engage in joint study, which brings the light that returns to the source (the reforming light).

In any case, the form of correction of the forefathers differed from ours. In the present stage of development, we must attain love for one’s neighbor as for oneself, and from this it is clear how the Torah, that is, the Kabbalistic method, must be applied. At the end of the Preface to The Book of Zohar, Baal HaSulam explains that first of all it must be realized within the people of Israel, and afterward—in the entire world.

The application of the Kabbalistic method is possible among a great number of people who support one another and become guarantors for one another. Each is obliged to care for everyone else, and then a person has no worries about himself. For even his basic needs he receives because others care for him. As a result, a person completely disconnects from his egoistic desire and performs a restriction upon it.

This restriction is not based on forceful methods, not on self-coercion. It does not mean restraining myself from eating a tasty piece of cake. That would be a diet, not a restriction. What we are speaking of is the action of the light, which raises in my eyes, bestowal above reception, and then I simply cannot receive anything egoistically. Within me there remains the desire to receive, but above it reigns the desire to bestow.
[50127]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/11, Writings of Baal HaSulamMatan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]”

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