Question: Is it possible to feel the field of bestowal to some extent when we are only in our egoism?

Answer: Sometimes a person is given the feeling of this field. If he suddenly gives the Creator the opportunity, the Creator is revealed. This is called an “awakening from Above,” which we cannot influence.

On the other hand, we actually get close to the revelation of this feeling through our work. During the lessons there are sometimes such moments and there are people who suddenly feel it, and this feeling disappears and reappears, and then disappears again. My job is to bring you to this point, but I cannot push you any more than that. It is forbidden to do so. The Reshimot (reminiscences) in us awaken and change, but there is no change in the Light. In fact, only the informational genes change and suddenly there are such changes in a person that he begins to feel more. Then he falls, which means that he feels less.

The main thing is not to experience interesting sensations but to acquire the attribute of bestowal so that we will control it and will be able to work with it and to hold the reins in our hands.
[139296]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/14

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Question: What is the goal of the exercise, (Psalms 34:15) “Depart from evil”? How does it develop us?

Answer: This is our first spiritual exercise. Indeed all of our inner work is to go far from evil and to do good. “Depart from evil” is a level of bestowal for the sake of bestowal, Hafetz Hesed (delighting in mercy); and “do good” is already reception for the sake of bestowal, work with the vessels themselves, with the corrected desires.

In the meantime, it is up to us to only distance ourselves from evil, to rise above our desires. That is how we learn to connect among us and to acquire the characteristic of bestowal. The more we are connected and close to each other, each one of us and all of us together discover the characteristic of bestowal and thanks to that we are ready to discover the force field we are found in.

This field fills all of space. This space was once empty. After all, there was a Tzimtzum (restriction) and the Light was removed. But now, when we acquire the characteristic of bestowal, we suddenly discover that the Light did not disappear! The Light is here, and we can feel it more and more strongly: in the beginning as Ohr Ha Nefesh, something static, that passively fills the entire expanse of our lives, all of our emotions, all of our characteristics.

This Light is discovered with our new sense, which are derived from outside of ourselves. We can reach this feeling, there is nothing mystical about it: This is nature, although it is the higher nature. The Creator: this is nature. We simply investigate reality through our new senses. The person must only adhere to the group and the Creator, and listen to and carry out all the advice of the teacher precisely.

Question: Must we respond and carry out the corrections of those desires that are discovered?

Answer: Correction is connection. The desire is shattered and must be reconnected. How is it possible to feel the Creator if not through the characteristic of bestowal?

The characteristic of bestowal can be acquired above the characteristic of reception. We can play only with these two characteristics: a desire for pleasure, which was in the guest, and a desire to bestow, which was within the host: two forces, reception and bestowal, Light and vessel.

This is the only thing that exists in reality. And after that, the force of bestowal is awakened within the vessel. The guest learns what bestowal is through feeling the difference between himself and the host.

And in the meantime, we are not ready to feel how we differ from the host. So we must work with the environment. That is why there was the shattering of the desires, to give us the possibility of working on the connection between them.

In fact, spiritual work is very simple. It only seems complicated to us, and this is because we are confused. But when a person begins to acquire the method, no complexities and confusion are left in it. On the contrary, everything is simple. There are only two parameters: a desire to receive and a desire to bestow. And everything else takes place and is discovered between them, between the two. There is nothing artificial here.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/14

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Question: How can we properly raise a prayer to the Creator?

Answer: I begin from the current animal state, immersed in my egoistic desire, and from there I make the first efforts, although I don’t know exactly what I have to do. First I begin to move, listen to advice, and try to formulate my prayer, my appeal.

At first I don’t ask correctly. I ask for things that don’t lead to correction, but by that, I still force myself to turn to the Creator and I realize that I am not my own boss.

Then I establish my attitude to all of reality: It turns out that even the questions are not mine nor are the problems, the answers, and the decisions. They all come from above; everything is sent to me by the upper force and everything stems from one source.

Eventually I stabilize myself correctly with regard to the upper force—the one unique and special force—according to what it is and what I am at the moment.

After I stabilize myself this way, I am in a more or less right direction, on the right track that I have stabilized by myself; together with the group, while studying and disseminating, I have formatted myself as much as I could.

Then on this new basis, I ask for help. My request isn’t directly aimed at bestowal yet, but it is enough.

After all, the Light that Reforms illuminates me from Above. Once it dwelled in my corrected soul, and then it left it as a result of the shattering and now it is on the outside. I summon the influence of this Surrounding Light and it invokes the state of the shattering in me or in other words the shattered Reshimot (reminiscences).

When they are awakened, I have a new desire, which is deeper and more real. The arrangement of all the parts of creation is revealed in it and I see how everything is connected and that everything has to be corrected. This is how the Creator arranges my prayer and the right desire in the right direction in me.

Two kinds of Reshimot are revealed to me: Reshimo from Light (Hitlabshut) and Reshimo of thickness (Aviut). The Reshimo of thickness reveals my shattered state to me and the Reshimo of Light relates to a higher level.

This gives me the direction. If, for example, I am in a desire of zero thickness and discover the Reshimo, the Light, of the first level, I understand where I have to come with my vessel (Kli). Thus, the Reshimo of thickness indicates its next level, a new depth. I yearn for the Light not the way it is, not for its revelation in the vessel, but for a vessel of bestowal on the first level. This is how the work with the Reshimot is performed.

Thanks to it, I reach the true desire and it depicts a new picture for me: I am in a certain reality trying to feel it, to imagine it, as clearly as possible in a perspective of bestowal, and now I ask the Creator to fulfill it.

Just think about how long we have been talking about the preparation for a prayer, a preparation that in itself is called a prayer. The Creator divides our appeal to Him into these two parts and additional phases appear in each of them.

We actually don’t need anything but this appeal. I appeal to the Creator in the most accurate manner and advance thanks to these appeals. We cannot advance without the appeals. Those who don’t place themselves in this framework of humanity, the group, the center of the group, and the sources, and don’t attribute them to the Creator, don’t close this circle, and don’t do what they are required to do. In the meantime, the Creator performs His work only after our appeal, and we finally establish the right way to Him.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

Shamati #69 “First Will Be the Correction of the World”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Rejoicing in Holidays and Not Giving to the Poor,” Item 174

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 4, Item 38

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“And the Light, which is hidden in a world and which clothes in it, is called the point of the phase “Yod,” dividing into two letters “Hey”: the world of concealment and the world of revelation. The whole work of a person is in revealing this point, continuing it with the phase of “Vav” – from one world to another, i.e., with the letter “Vav” between two letters “Hey,” revealing an abundance of Light for everyone, emanating from the Surrounding Light to the one surrounded by it, i.e., two letters “Hey,” with the secret “Bina, Yesod, Malchut.”

The Creator has two “bags.” He takes the desire from one of them and puts it into a person. And after a person works with the desire properly, the Creator puts into him the fulfillment from the other “bag.” And then this action is repeated, but with a new desire. He treats us as we treat our children. We grow and develop depending on our ability to prepare the desire received from the Creator, working with it and making it suitable for fulfillment. This is the essence of the whole process of the creature’s development.

But we must not forget that our work is right in the middle: We have to properly shape the desire that comes from the Creator.

As for the fulfillment, in reality, it already exists inside the desire. And the moment the desire receives its correct form, the fulfillment is revealed in it.

But the most important thing is to discover the One who is causing all this, the One who acts upon us, this has to be the end result of all the states that we go through.

Because the corrections are not an end in itself, the Creator could have given us all this in the final form. It’s important for Him to let us discover Him with our work, an understanding of the Divine. This is what’s meant by “connecting the two worlds” (“two bags”).

Baal HaSulam mentions this in the article, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before,” when talking about the connection between the two letters “Hey” (“ה“), the top one –Bina and the bottom one – Malchut. And the letter “Vav” (“ו“) between them is the line- Zeir Anpin that joins Bina and Malchut together.

So, a person who connects two worlds deserves to receive the whole creature. And this is the work that a man cannot opt out of. In order to discover this single acting force, we have to go through all these states, seemingly putting in our own effort, until we discover that “There is none else besides Him.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11.26.10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We should always keep in mind that all our vessels are external to us. We can only feel this world in our current animal, corporeal desire. But this isn’t the true reality, it is like feeling as a single cell detached from the body, and therefore feels no life.

Life is metabolism, the exchange of data, so what each of us feels now is real death. There is no spiritual vitality in our current state.

If we try to connect with all the friends who are with us in a circle and also with all the Kabbalists, with the prophets, with everyone who has ever lived in this world and we work on the correction, collecting the parts of his great desire that is in others, we obtain their desires from them.

A person’s soul is external to him; it is in others. To the extent that he listens to that and wants to connect with the parts of his soul, asking for connection, he attains the vessel of his soul. The Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) influences him and connects the parts.

When the Light can be revealed in this vessel that a person has put together, it is revealed. Then it isn’t the Light that Reforms anymore but the Light that fills him with the good and the benevolent.

Everything is done by the Light. It connects the parts of the vessel for a person and fills him, and thus a person advances on and on. A person’s level on the spiritual ladder is measured by the number of vessels that he attaches to himself, and he ascends higher and higher until he connects all the shattered parts.
[138424]
From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14

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The whole world can try to connect but it will not succeed. It will only discover an even greater shattering. This long and indirect path, the path of suffering, leads to reaching the same goal as the short and easy path, the path of Light.

On the path of suffering, we learn from our wrong actions until we understand that we have suffered enough and that we need to find another way.

It is impossible to understand the method of connection if you don’t have a spark that is correctly processed and is tied to the source of Light. Therefore, any attempts made by people who don’t know the method to connect will only cause them harm. They lead to complete disappointment, wars, and great suffering.

At a certain point in history humanity gradually advanced by its failures and understood that egoistic connection by new technologies and commerce is not for our good.

This is the reason that earlier forms of connections that seemed to be advanced, like a united Europe, the common market, and international industrial and commercial ties are in crisis today and are the source of many problems.

We feel that everyone tries to be separate, to hide in his corner, and not to take anyone else’s troubles on himself. All the earlier forms of connection now seem to be flawed and this is the real crisis that reveals if a connection is egoistic, it is harmful.

The wickedness of the egoistic connection is revealed to us in every aspect of our life: in society, in the nation, and in the political parties. Let’s hope that people will soon realize this.

Connection is only possible with the participation of Bnei Baruch members, since no one else is connected to the upper source of power, to the Light that can fulfill the connection. It is only the Light that makes us equal, not the people.

All the connections that we make only harm us. It seems that the connection between us will bring about great benefits, but it never ends well. We see this at home, in industry, in the banking system, and various unions. Everything is gradually falling apart and leading this process will be the “united” Europe.

So we gradually understand that the connection between us is vital and that it isn’t done by us but by the Light that Reforms. People will feel that it is vital and possible. It is vital because otherwise we will not be able to survive, and it is possible because it already exists on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, so why can’t there be a connection between people as well? We only need to add our desire to this general integral connection.

Unity is the correct state of human society or people. We can attain it by the help of the Upper Light, but only after we first make the request for it as a whole nation or a whole group.
[138914]
From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/07/14

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Question: How can it be that I receive new vessels from the same friends every time?

Answer: But how do you know who your friends are? They are parts of your soul, but you look at their faces and think that they don’t change. They don’t know anything about themselves either.

You should know that if you encounter certain people in your life, both good and bad people, they are part of your soul. On the whole, all of humanity is your soul, but the people you encounter personally are the parts that are closest to you.

Today I identify parts of my soul from the level I am on in friends from my distant past, in teachers and professors who taught me at the university, in colleagues I worked with decades ago, in a research institute, in a lab, in all the people that fate has ever brought me together with. I identify in them the parts of my soul that I use and will use in the future.

It only seems that you see some physical bodies before you. They are depicted this way to you so that you will be able to connect to them somehow, since you have no other vessels, but later when you have vessels that are a bit more spiritual, you will see spiritual figures in these people and will connect to them on a different level, a bit more internally.

This is how it works. Don’t look at the world as at corporeal bodies. It is only a fictitious external picture.
[138490]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14

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The Book of Zohar, the article “Among All the Sages of the Nations of the World, There Are None Like You,” item 161: Among all the sages of the nations of the world and among all their kingdoms, there is nobody who will reach you. We exist within a particular reality. There are two approaches to perceiving reality. The first approach is a scientific research.

According to this approach, through our senses and the instruments that we construct to expand our senses in depth and breadth, we perceive the reality that we can feel with our five corporeal, earthly senses that also exist in animals.

The study of reality as it is revealed to our senses is called science. The foundation of science is philosophy, the approach to the understanding of the human perception of reality. This doesn’t mean the philosophy of today, which has become a bad word since it doesn’t have any real foundation, but the original philosophy, what it once was. From that, degrees in all disciplines are called Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)  as it is the foundation for all the sciences.

In this article, The Book of Zohar speaks about the philosophical approach, meaning the scientific approach of each and every person to the world and life in this world, to his desire to receive, to his desire to bestow, to the Creator, to the creatures, to everything, but in a sound way that a person is able to perceive in his mind and feelings. This is the approach called philosophy. It is impossible to refute it because we feel, see, examine, and measure all that exists in front of us.

However, there is another approach. If philosophy as science suddenly goes beyond its limits and begins to speak about phenomena that are not perceived by our senses, it stops being science and becomes some kind of mysticism, which is what today is called “philosophy.” This means that it is a philosophy without any real basis and without any practical examination.

What is no longer within the limits of earthly sciences, such as philosophy, are things that go beyond our senses: the origin of life, what happens before birth and after death, and the system of management and supervision. It is impossible for these topics to be discussed, since they are outside of the areas addressed by these methods.

This is within the realm of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is a science for someone who develops additional senses within himself, and he examines and investigates with these senses. Then from his investigation, he constructs a new science in addition to the earthly sciences that we have developed with the help of our five current senses.

Humanity developed, and through the five senses wanted to discover and use everything possible until it saw that in the end, everything that it attained brought it to a crisis and to a breakdown. This is our life.

And then humanity began to probe and ask. If there was something here that had not been taken into account, with whom we are in contact, who is managing us, why do all kinds of things happen to us, and so on. We need additional data about the situation we are found in. This data is not revealed to us with our five senses. So what can be done?

On one hand various mysticisms, religions, and faiths developed for people who were looking for what might possibly help. And on the other hand, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed because it has become imperative, and it invites humanity to become familiar with that reality that we don’t perceive with our five senses.

We can attain it if we develop an additional sense within us, which is not an extension of the familiar five senses, but  another approach to perceiving reality: not that I swallow everything and examine everything within me, but I can go outside of myself and not be dependent upon my body, on my desire to enjoy that creates the body for me. I go outside of it and examine reality as it is. Then I don’t see bodies, and I don’t see reality as it is portrayed for me through my five senses. And so the world becomes Ein Sof (Infinity).

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this. It speaks in the same way as philosophy, but it defines precisely where the part of science of philosophy exists, as philosophy once was, and not the useless quibbling of today, and where the sequel to science is, meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah that penetrates a field that our five earthly senses cannot discover.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/06/14, The Book of Zohar

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Shamati #60 “A Mitzva that Comes Through Transgression”

Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” “A Prayer of Many”

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