Baal HaSulam, Letter 13: You should know that there are many sparks of holiness in each one in the group. When you assemble all the sparks of holiness into one place, as brothers, with love and friendship, you will certainly have a very high level of holiness for a while, from the light of life….and the salvation of the Lord is as the blink of an eye.

The truth is that this is an effort that none of us is prepared to make. So we are negligent, lazy, and discouraged. But along with this, it is very easy! After all, this is the way everything is arranged.

Try to revive an organ that has been separated and cut off from the body. No matter how much effort you make, it will not work. But if we attach it to the body, then it immediately receives everything that it needs, all the nourishment; it renews the mutual exchange of materials with the body and begins to live.

The vessel is not found in any one of us but only in the connection between us. If we move the emphasis from ourselves to the connection between us, to a space that we must fill with a dense field of the power of love, then we discover that there is no empty place in the world, rather specifically what was concealed is revealed there.

The main thing is to clarify and to reveal where to focus attention, where to invest efforts, and where I need to expect and pressure for compensation.
[131722]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What does it mean that a student conceals himself from his teacher?

Answer: A person cannot completely open himself up, even to himself, and certainly not to others, including his teacher. But the students have to clarify states that occur between them. They must constantly ask about that and clarify, not what each one feels individually, but the relationship between them.

There is a period in the spiritual work when a student has a lot of questions, but for some reason he doesn’t ask them and keeps them to himself. Even if it tortures him and pressures him and makes him feel angry and upset, he cannot bring these questions out and ask them. It happens to everyone when he clarifies these questions by himself.

But these questions have to be clarified and asked between the friends. If it isn’t personal but general, as it is revealed in the vessels among us, it has to be clarified.

Whatever each one feels inside him doesn’t matter. What we feel among us is the vessel for the revelation of the Light and that’s what’s important! The work in the group is in order to change the focus from what I feel inside me to what I feel about others and what happens between us.

It is as if I look through binoculars and have to constantly change the focus from myself to everyone, to the whole group, to what happens between us and not in each of us.

Then I understand that my negative attitude towards someone hurts all the connections in the group. So it cannot be that you don’t love someone but you do love others. There is no such thing since by that you already corrupt all the relationships. And because you cannot tolerate this, it must be corrected.
[131715]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: If the greatest advancement occurs when you make the greatest efforts, should we specifically look for the most difficult places to disseminate?

Answer: When we disseminate, we should look for more inner connection with the people we disseminate to. Dissemination depends on how much we annul ourselves before them in our dissemination and, at the same time, bestow upon them.

It is like when parents relate to a small child. On one hand, the parents take care of him, guide him, and do everything for him, and on the other hand, they do everything according to his will, for his own good.

This should be our attitude towards people, just like a parent towards his child.
[131715]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/14, Q&A with Rav

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Question: Why did Baal HaSulam and Rabash observe the Pesach customs so carefully?

Answer: Pesach is the exit from the egoistic desire for myself to the desire to bestow. It is called the exodus from Egypt, where Egypt symbolizes the whole evil inclination, our ego. The ascent above it is the exodus from Egypt.

First we have to perceive it spiritually and not corporeally. But there are customs that we keep in this world because of the connection between the corporeal branch and the spiritual root.

The spiritual root is expressed in different forms of intention and actions of bestowal that we have to perform, which mean actions of giving with an altruistic intention. The acquisition of the ability to bestow is called the exodus from Egypt.

When we operate this way in the spiritual world, we feel which corporeal branches in our world match these spiritual roots. Thus, Kabbalists have determined corporeal customs, as it says in the Torah that during this time we should eat special bread, “bread of affliction,” Matza, unleavened bread.

The difference between Matza and bread is that Matza doesn’t contain yeast; it contains only flour and water. This dough has to be kneaded for a certain length of time: 18 minutes, according to the spiritual properties, 9 Sefirot of the Direct Light and 9 Sefirot of the Returning Light, excluding Malchut. After all, it is Malchut that makes the dough sour, and so we use only 9 Sefirot of the Direct Light and the Returning Light, without Malchut, a total of 18 Sefirot. In our world it is expressed by 18 minutes.

We are allowed to keep the flour and water together for 18 minutes until the dough reaches the oven, which stops the developing connection between them. We don’t add any spice to the Matza, just flour and water.

Matza is the same bread but without the Malchut. It was pulled out of it, so Kabbalists have determined this custom according to the corporeal branch of the spiritual root. All these symbols are reminders of the exit from the ego, of the ascent over it. All the Pesach customs stem from how we feel ourselves in the spiritual roots that are detached from our ego, from the desire to enjoy, and when we move on to the desire to bestow.

There is nothing holy about these corporeal actions, but they are important because of their relation to the spiritual root. In the spiritual world, everyone has to perform these actions, while in the corporeal world, we perform some of them and there are some that we don’t perform.
[131711]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/14, Q&A with Rav

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 16-1

Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 16-2

Workshop

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Parashat,” “BeShalach“

Writings of the Ari, “Shaar HaKavanot,” Pesach 

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As a result of our work in a group, in studying and in dissemination, we need to reach such a state in which we feel that we are under the control of two authorities, two forces. One control is the control of our ego, the evil inclination, the king of Egypt Pharaoh who holds us in slavery.

But sometimes, more or less, depending upon the advancement of the person, another control is also discovered: the good inclination, the power to bestow, the yearning to go outside of oneself towards the other, towards the friends, towards unity, connection, and so forth.

A person is in the midst of such dual power, under the control of two angels: the good inclination and the evil inclination, which hold him by the hands on both sides and guide him forward towards the goal of creation. Certainly the evil inclination also acts according to the program of the Creator and helps a person to advance independently, exercising his freedom of choice.

If he didn’t have free choice, he would be like a beast and not an Adam (man). Through clarifying for himself how to use the evil inclination and the good inclination, the power of reception and the power of bestowal, and choosing how to advance with the right mixture between them, he builds himself as an Adam in the likeness of the Creator.

The connection between the evil inclination and the good inclination begins from the first approach to Pharaoh together with the Creator. The person begins to establish these two forces one against the other. The two forces are under his authority. He decides himself according to his inner state, which of them manages him now and can even pass from one control to another control in that he chooses who has control over him and why, if he is able to do it or if he requires the help of the higher force.

Pharaoh wants to control, and if the person agrees to the evil inclination separating him from the Creator, then he truly is in the Egyptian exile. That is, he attributes some kind of independent control to his evil inclination and says that he is not ready to resist it and is in complete servitude to it.

Of course, if a person thinks this way, it is a sign that he is a slave. But everything depends upon the person himself. He decides and determines in which form Pharaoh will use him or if he will use Pharaoh.

And all of this work was to reveal that there is no other force involved, as it is written “I, myself, and not a messenger.” A person clarifies that the Creator is above the two forces, beyond both the good inclination and the evil inclination. These two forces come from Above. Through the two forces, the good inclination and the evil inclination, that are revealed to him alternately, a person reaches the final conclusion and decision that there is a force beyond them that plays with him through these two angels: the good inclination and the evil inclination.

Sometimes one of them comes to a person and sometimes the other one, which is why one feels he is thrown from one extreme to the other, in two directions. But thus it forms a relationship both with this force and that force, and ultimately with the one higher power, the Creator.
[131546]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/02/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is wrong with our actions of bestowal that they turn out to be for ourselves?

Answer: There is nothing wrong on the part of a person but only on the part of the Creator. The Creator arranges the state for us in which we can seemingly bestow: We perform actions and think that we bestow, but then we discover that it was an egoistic action in order to receive.

But I wanted to bestow with all my heart and at the same time didn’t understand that I acted egoistically, in order to receive, so why isn’t my action considered according to my intentions? It’s done purposefully so that a person will grow. I have to be shown that my ego keeps on growing.

If I see that I did something for myself, it means that I have already ascended to an upper lever and from there I look at my previous action and determine that it was in order to receive. Determining this fact is already a sign of advancement.

The Creator keeps on raising Pharaoh in me and gives me the power to deal with him. It’s a kind of a game that ends when I make the right decision and am ready for the change that instead of Pharaoh fulfilling me, the Creator should totally fill me, leaving me no way to return to my old self.

This means that I go through 49 gates of impurity, discover that I am totally submerged in my ego, and I want its control to be replaced by the Creator’s control. We are enslaved; we are merely a desire to receive that knows only one thing: that it is being operated.

This is what we need to understand. Today, humanity must understand through suffering that we are under the domination of nature and not above nature; that is, we are operated by it. We can only choose what domination we want to be under. First, we love our desire to receive and want to be in it. We do everything for it and don’t differentiate it from us. It’s the most precious thing for us.

The problem is that I don’t differentiate it from myself. I try to separate it from me and to see myself from the side, as operated by an alien force; I climb the stairs of comprehending impurity, pass through the 49 gates of impurity. That’s the most important thing.

The Light of AB-SAG that comes from Above performs the differentiation by showing me that I am not a desire to receive. Although this desire is in me and controls my mind and heart, I want to cut myself off from it, to separate from it. Thus, I clarify that I go through 49 gates of impurity until I feel the need to replace one domination with another.

I want to be ruled but not by the egoistic domination that I was given by the Creator from birth, by the “old foolish king.” If I want to be ruled by the Creator, I have to draw Him towards me by force, to bring Him into me so that He will dominate me. Then I expect another struggle regarding the acquisition of the attributes of receiving in order to bestow.
[131529]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why do we constantly receive blows after we work well and carry out your advice? Will this process ever come to an end?

Answer: Your complaint is identical to the complaint of the Jews in Egypt who blame Moses: “As soon as you went to Pharaoh, he began to beat us! Don’t go to him anymore; don’t harden his heart; let sleeping dogs lie!”

This is the process, hardening the our evil inclination, as it is written: “A person should always provoke the good inclination over the evil inclination.”

Question: When will it come to an end? Where are we headed?

Answer: I don’t understand why you ask such a question. We are headed towards the state in which we will not ask about the outcome of our actions because we want to reach bestowal. After you overcome this psychological barrier (Machsom), the spiritual world opens up before you.

You will cease to ask about your future, but simply will bestow as if into a void. This will be your pleasure. This inclination will open up a new space, a new dimension, for you. You cannot perceive the spiritual world with your egoistic vessels of “when, where, and how?” It’s right here, but it can be revealed to you only with an opposite inclination. You don’t have the right vessels for it.

Question: So when will the Light finally cut me off my ego?

Answer: When the work becomes the reward for you. There is a psychological barrier here, which doesn’t let you ascend above this demand and to see, to know, to acquire, to be filled with, and to perform actions without expecting any response in return but only in order to bestow. Only this inclination will open up the entrance to the spiritual world for you. But don’t try to perform actions of bestowal in order to open it.

I think that successful dissemination can be helpful. We don’t have any powers and will not have any in the future. We need another very large, broad, and strong belt of people around us who will support us.
[131526]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/01/14, Writings of Rabash

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In spirituality there are no letters, there are no symbols through which one can comprehend it. Spirituality is comprehended only with vessels that we gradually construct within us. Baal HaSulam writes in Letter 14: “All the multiplication in spirituality relies on the letters that are sucked from the materiality of this world…,” meaning that from the states through which a person passes, as is written: (Isaiah 45:7) ‘…and creates darkness.’”

We are not ready to grasp the Light, we perceive it according to its absence, according to the black letters on the white background. In such a form we reach awareness of the Light from the darkness, from the troubles, from the absence of Light.

A person doesn’t have the vessels for discovering the Creator, discovering the characteristic of bestowal. He doesn’t know, doesn’t understand, and doesn’t feel this. This is found beyond him. To explain bestowal to us is like teaching a dog to be a person: to understand, to feel, and to make decisions like a person. This is simply impossible.

Everyone is born on the level of a beast, as it is said: (Job 11:12), “…from a wild donkey a man will be born.” And only the Light that is summoned by us builds the level of Adam (man) in us. So we require all kinds of “letters” that are built in us from darkness. Some kind of illumination, some kind of small revelation, reaches us and suddenly all kinds of deficiencies and problems are revealed. So over this contrast of one opposite the other, we learn about various states until they are all connected into spiritual sensations and discernments.
[131544]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What does it mean to ask to be above Pharaoh?

Answer: To be the slave of Pharaoh means to clarify with certainty, with mind and heart, that I am not ready to do anything except what the ego, the desire for pleasure, dictates to me now. That is how I discover Pharaoh,  the power that controls me now.

However, how can I know that this is Pharaoh? It is on condition that the Creator invites me to go with Him, when He says: “Come to Pharaoh.”

This means that the second power is revealed, the Creator,  the power of bestowal in contrast to the power of reception. And then I can clarify relative to every one of the forces and decide when I am under the control of the Creator and when under the control of Pharaoh. Ultimately, “the children of Israel sighed from the labor”, we are not prepared to remain in slavery to Pharaoh any longer.

99.9% of the time of my entire life, I am under the control of Pharaoh and am not ready to be freed from this control. The more that I advance, this percentage grows to just about 100%. First I didn’t think that I belonged to Pharaoh 100%; I thought that I fell into the ego rarely, like all people.

Then I felt myself in the Egyptian exile and I didn’t feel this at first. For the first seven years of plenty, I was also under the control of Pharaoh and fulfilled all of his orders, but I agreed to this and therefore everything was wonderful. I didn’t feel myself in Egypt, in slavery. I had knowledge, control (Joseph managed all of Egypt), and I was filled with plenty.

However after that it became clear that all of this wasn’t good. In reality nothing changed except my assessment. What seemed to me as good, spiritual, causing advancement, now seems completely otherwise now. I see that all of this was egoistic, not spiritual, but absolutely materialistic, and there is no advancement in it, rather the opposite. Therefore this is called the “seven years of famine.”

No change took place except in our perception. Everything is determined by a person’s attitude, but outside nothing changes.

Question: If I am completely under the control of Pharaoh, how can a request for redemption be built within me?

Answer: When I discover that this is Pharaoh, then the opportunity to ask is created. If I begin to understand that I have business with Pharaoh, this means that the second force already exists in opposition to him, the power of the Creator. Otherwise, I would not have discerned that Pharaoh is in front of me; rather, I would have lived a normal, good life, advancing in studying, in dissemination, and in the group.

Why is it suddenly bad for me? It is because I determine that this life is bad. Apparently what do I lack? Yesterday everything was still okay. Right, only today everything is no longer okay because I have new demands and I don’t agree with a life like this. Here the seven years of famine begin.

Question: What is the difference between my request to rise above Pharaoh and the state where I am found beneath him?

Answer: One of the criteria is: Who wins: the power of reception or the power of bestowal? Where do I get the reward I deserve in exchange for my efforts? No one works for nothing and I also want a profit.

My profit can be in the vessels of reception or in the vessels of bestowal: either I feel that the profit belongs to me or to someone else. And this someone could be close to me or far away and even a hated enemy. This depends upon the degree of correction of my desires of bestowal.
[131540]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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