Question: In the corporeal world, we observe well-defined laws of development. The spiritual world also operates according to clear laws. So why during the period of preparation do we not find even a single law, not a single foothold? Even the concept of time becomes vague and undefined.

Answer: It is understandable that you do not yet understand where you are, like a newborn who has just come into the world. Your complaints about this lack of understanding are also understandable. The only thing that is not clear is: why don’t you understand that this is precisely the order of ascending spiritual degrees?

A child, from not knowing, will eventually come to understanding. The intermediate states in which we are unable to discern what is happening and are passing through blurry and vague sensations, these are exactly what indicate progress. Some things are unclear to us while others become more or less clear. There is no other way to grow. Even the clearest things in our world are far from being truly clear. And it is the same later in the spiritual world.

But there, we are talking about development. In our world, at the still, vegetative, and animate levels, there is no true development. We are merely scraping off layers from the nature of this world, revealing slightly more of the state we are already in. And even then, we are not really aware of it; we are just trying to fulfill ourselves a bit and end up even more empty. That is not called development.

Clarity and obviousness are an illusion. If it were truly clear to us what needs to be done, we would not have committed so many foolish actions up to now. On the contrary, it is foolish to think that we live in a world we understand. Not at all.

Rather, like infants and small children, we too are ruled by confused sensations; we do not understand what is happening, and are entangled in it. However, gradually, we begin to reveal the situation by making efforts and demanding understanding from a higher degree, from the upper force, so that It comes, fills us, and shines light for us.

This is the only possible form of advancement, the true process of spiritual growth. There is no other way.
[34581]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/11, Writings of Rabash “Why Is Shabbat Called Shin-Bat in the Work?”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #39 “And They Sewed Fig Leaves” (10.30.2021)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 73, 74 (7.16.2006)

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 7 “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself'” 1984

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4th part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” “The Donkey Driver”

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The measure of effort is determined by the number of entries and exits (ascents and descents), as it is written: “for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth” (from the descents–Yetsiot). The Creator throws a person off the path, and yet he stubbornly returns to his work and continues it. His advancement is built precisely from these descents, these exits.

A descent means that the Creator has added the desire to receive pleasure to a person and knocked him off the path. Nevertheless, the person returns to the path with this new egoistic desire, having no choice and shutting his eyes, “As an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” In this way, he eventually accumulates a sufficient measure of desire and effort in studies and connection with the group in order to begin to feel where he is, whom he is dealing with, and how he can become included in this process.

He begins to realize how egoism is being added to him and pushes him off the path, and how despite everything, he holds on to the studies and the group. Although these states of complete numbness and lack of understanding are not easy, he gradually brings himself back to consciousness and experiences a renewed inspiration. And then, once again comes a hardening of the heart.

Thus, out of all these exits the Torah emerges. A person begins to understand that this is how the process must be, and that the main thing is to remain in adhesion with the Creator; and for this, he must adhere to the group.

This entire process is described in detail in the story of Passover, the Egyptian exile. The Torah does not speak of history or geography, but only about a person’s journey through the key stages of spiritual development: the transition from being under the rule of the desire to receive, his original egoistic nature, to a different nature, the desire to bestow. This marks a true birth into a new quality, into the spiritual world.

After that, the path no longer has such critical turning points. The greatest transformation is the exit from the egoistic intention to the intention to bestow.
[223569]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/18, Writings of Rabash “Come unto Pharaoh – 1”

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Question: What is happiness from the perspective of Kabbalah?

Answer: Happiness from the perspective of Kabbalah is making the Creator happy.

To make the Creator happy means to feel that you bring Him pleasure, that you make Him happy because when He looks at you, He rejoices. You feel how He rejoices in you; this is the greatest possible state! I do not even know how to convey it.

Maybe it is comparable to the feeling when parents are happy for their children. I have felt it myself, experienced it through my children and grandchildren, and I can say it is a great joy when your parents are happy for you.

But with the Creator, it is on a completely different level!

In Kabbalah, there is a dual, reciprocal connection: the Creator rejoices in the fact that we rejoice in making Him happy, and we are happy because of it.

We unite with Him, and therefore the feelings are doubled; they merge into one. It turns out that both I and He together feel the same thing. That is, the feeling of His happiness and mine are inseparable.

Question: How can one make the Creator happy?

Answer: The Creator is all of us together in full measure, in harmony, fusion, inner emotional and conscious connection. We, who are united with all hearts and minds, are the Creator. When everything comes together into a single whole, we perceive that as the Creator. Therefore, the Creator is attained precisely in this way—through our connection with one another.

Question: How can one be happy without having any idea who or what the Creator is? How can one strive toward Him?

Answer: The Creator must be revealed! The lack of understanding, the uncertainty is given to us precisely so that we can reveal the Creator. If it were already known, a person would exist in a spiritual-animalistic state, just like we live in an animal state in this world. That is, we must reach this new state ourselves, create it within ourselves, using the tools we have been given! But a person sculpts and shapes himself.

It turns out that a person as if takes matter and begins to work with it. And gradually, from the inanimate matter within, a living matter begins to form: vegetative, then animate, then human. All kinds of variations and metamorphoses arise.

It follows that the person himself builds within him this entire structure, connection, infinite combinations! All this is Sefirot, Sefirot, Sefirot. Eventually, it becomes DNA, all these proteins, spirals, the things we observe in biology.

But this is all on a higher level: the level of purpose where a person not only shapes and builds according to natural laws, but also reveals these laws himself, and implements them himself! In essence, it is a huge creative work. And that is why man enters into this work, and it is called the work of the Creator.

There is no greater pleasure than when a person creates all this within himself! And this awaits every one of us!

Question: What is the difference in happiness in receiving from the Creator or giving to Him?

Answer: It does not matter. Even receiving from the Creator means more than giving to Him if it is for the sake of unification and merging in similarity to Him.
[193703]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/16, “Kabbalistic formula of happiness – what is the secret?”

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Kabbalists write that our task is to unite and once again gather together into a single system called “Adam.” For now, we are called “Bnei Adam” – “Sons of Adam,” meaning his parts, his consequences.

In order to gather into one connected system, we must carry out all possible actions so that, on the one hand, we realize that we are incapable of uniting by ourselves and become disillusioned with all actions we might undertake. On the other hand, we must not lose sight of the goal.

It turns out that we move toward the goal in two directions. One direction is the so-called “left line”: complete disappointment in our own strength, the inability to succeed on our own. And the other direction is the understanding that it is still possible with the help of the Creator, but we must ask Him correctly.

To ask correctly means to unite among ourselves in our request. This is achieved through mutual efforts to unite and mutual efforts to ask the Creator. As a result, if we truly reveal the Creator and become connected with Him, we will ascend to His level, the next level of reality. To come to this, we strive to reach that very system of Adam from which we fell, broke apart, scattered, and now are trying to reassemble.

The Creator preliminarily connects us by bringing us into groups. We don’t feel it; we don’t see His influence on us. Later we will discover that this is how it actually works, everything comes from above, “There is none else besides Him.” But what is required of us is prayer, a request for Him to do it.

It is impossible to come to this request without having tried everything, without having done everything in our power, even beyond our power. We must keep trying to unite again and again, even though each time we will discover ourselves in even greater shattering, separation, and disregard toward one another.

Such a revelation of our true egoistic qualities should sadden us on one hand, but also gladden us on the other. Sadden because I am far from the goal; gladden because I am revealing how far I am from the goal.

That is, in this, I am actually beginning to attain light from within darkness, to reveal what the true goal is. The greater the state of connection from which I fall, the more I begin to value that state and understand that I am outside of it.

And so, it continues until the full measure (Se’a) of my aspiration toward the goal is gathered  in which there truly will be connection. But in the beginning, I didn’t have this measure: I was told to act, and I did so. I repeated phrases mechanically, I sang, I read, I studied together with everyone, I gathered in the tens, but it was all not from the heart.

Perhaps it seemed to me that I was actually doing something. But in reality, with each step I more and more become convinced that all this is insincere, not coming from my true desire. My mouth and my heart are not aligned: the heart feels egoistic desires, and the mouth speaks beautiful words about connection, about unity.

This must continue until we begin to truly try to unite. Even if we speak incorrectly, feel incorrectly, still it must be together. And then the moment will come when the Creator sees that we are insignificant, small, but have done all that is in our power: We tried to unite, we tried to gather, and thereby have come to a state that He must already respond to.

Then we will discover that He is assembling us together in tens and is revealed between us as the quality of bestowal, the quality of connection. This is the initial quality that we attain, the light of the level of Nefesh, the smallest light, the smallest altruistic connection. In this measure we begin to feel the Creator, His invisible, hidden presence within us, between us. Not in each of us individually, but between us.

This illumination that arises between us is called Zohar, the upper light, the upper radiance. Naturally, this is still incomplete, a very small illumination, but nonetheless, it already shines within us.
[253312]
From the Convention in Moldova 9/6/2019, “Dissolving in the Friends,” Lesson 1

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All of our work is an ascent up a ladder where each next step is completely disconnected from the previous one. This structure of the ladder emerged during the descent from above downward when the Malchut of the upper became the Keter of the lower. The same happens in every transition from one state to another, even if it is not yet an ascent on spiritual levels.

This is a real revolution; it is a fundamental change that occurs in our matter, in its very foundation, that we cease to understand ourselves when we transition from one state to another. After all, all of these states consist of a change in the portion of light that awakens our desire to enjoy, and both the light and the desire give birth to a new degree, a new state.

And we are within this new degree, and we have nothing remaining from the previous state except for the informational gene (Reshimo) that has led to this new state. And this Reshimo is also hidden. It turns out that in a new spiritual state, nothing remains from the past.

We can already feel that this is how it happens even before entering the spiritual world. We must agree with all the states we pass through, and learn from them what a true spiritual transition really means when we step from one world into another. Each degree is a separate world.

The problem is that on every degree, two opposing forces act: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, left and right lines that are opposite and contrary to each other, each with its own impure aspect (Klipa). And we must become the middle line that connects them both, rules over them, and stands above them.

The descent from above downward went like this: Hochma (on the right) → Bina (on the left) → Daat (below in the middle)—like an inverted triangle. But in the ascent from below upward, there is Hochma (on the right) → Bina (on the left) → Keter (above in the middle)—since we desire to rise. Keter is always the result of Hochma and Bina—mercy and overcoming, fear and love—and is always above them.

And therefore the problem always arises of how to combine the two opposites that negate each other, until a third one comes and reconciles them. This third component comes from above as the revelation of the Creator after a person sees that he is totally unable to reconcile the two opposites on his own.

Therefore, both in fear and in love, what is needed is devotion of the soul. And it is harder to attain it in fear than in love. After all, love already absorbs the soul, and they move in the same direction. If I love someone, I am devoted to him with all my soul and strive to unite. That is how we perceive it in our world, because we love what our desire to enjoy loves.

But in the spiritual world, I love someone who is hateful to my egoism, as it is written: “Love covers all transgressions.” It turns out that even in love, it is difficult to be devoted with all your soul. And in hatred, it seems impossible altogether.

To hate and yet be devoted to the soul means to use one’s receiving desires for the sake of bestowal. How can I unite with all the people I hate most in the world, who hate me, and shower them with all the good that I am capable of giving to my most beloved ones?

This can be done only for the sake of some higher goal that justifies everything else. But if the goal is the action itself, it seems completely impossible. That is, it requires a very difficult ascent above one’s own calculations.

And we gradually advance toward this, not by the shortest and most beautiful path of light, but by a slightly longer one, which includes suffering and is called “the path of the earth.” But in the end, we do reach the goal because every action we make draws the upper light, which reconciles the two conflicting sides.

Therefore, although slave-like devotion to the Creator is needed both in fear and in love, it appears in a mixed form until we rise to a state in which we unite everything. Then even in fear you will be able to be devoted with all your soul just as in love.
[67721]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Devotion”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 24 “What is Unfounded Hatred in the Work?” (1987) (8.7.2022)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 566 “Cast Their Seed Among the Nations”

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Our path is tied to the development of the desire for pleasure. Altogether we exist within this single, unified desire. The four phases of the expansion of the light, the worlds, the Partzufim, and the spiritual degrees are embedded within it. Everything is inside it.

In other words, this desire is a composite. Just as the human body is made up of various organs and parts, so too is this desire made up of many components.

Among the parts of the desire, some are more developed, some less. They also differ in their thickness, which we call Aviut. In addition, some parts are closer to reception by their nature and others are closer to bestowal. There are many such gradations. Thus, if we break this great desire into its constituent parts, each will reveal itself as unique in its details and ingredients.

Among these parts, there are those that are purer, less egoistic, and they awaken first toward the light because they are closer to it. These are our friends across the world. They possess a yearning for bestowal, for the light, for discovering the reason for their existence.

They seek freedom. And freedom from life in this world first reveals itself in the question: “What am I living for? What does this life give me? What is its benefit?”

This question arises from problems and suffering. But afterward, in trying to understand their cause, one begins to search for the essence of life itself. The suffering becomes secondary; after all, what can be done about it? The main thing now is to uncover the secret of existence.

This means that I have awakened and want to break free from the everyday routine and from the vain pursuit of egoistic fulfillment. I can no longer continue serving my desire to enjoy like a slave. To me, this is death. Day after day, I have to drag around my “donkey,” feed and water it until it dies. When it dies, I, its loyal servant, will die with it.

But those who begin to understand that this is not life, but death, those are the ones who move forward. If the donkey wants to eat, feed it. But let it carry you, not the other way around. During this life, as long as you feed your donkey, you have the opportunity to ride it to a higher purpose. If you are not dragging it on your shoulders, but riding on it, then you are a human being.

This is the first stage of liberation from the angel of death, from the endless concern with mere corporeal existence. If you care for it in order to find a solution, that is a different matter; that is already life. Because essentially, you are charting a course toward the source of life.
[47554]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

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