The whole idea is: With what does a person identify himself? Is it with the desire to receive or with what he finds above the desire to receive? This is the difference between the right and left lines. Either I am within the desires or I control them; I am above them, become a “clarifier,” like an expert in this area.

I can be immersed within the desire to receive and can be above the desire to receive in order to use it in an even better way, and this is called Klipa. If I just want to enjoy and even want to swallow the whole world, this is still not Klipa, for these desires don’t come from myself. Rather, they come from Above, whereas a Klipa is a unique part of desire, a unique relationship with the desire to receive, where I myself want to open, expand, and strengthen it.

So it follows that hatred toward someone is just egoism,which is natural for the desire to receive. It isn’t anything unique in itself and was simply given to me by the Creator. However, it is already another matter when I want to develop my own initiative, to perfect this egoistic drive. This is Klipa. I want to use the Creator so that He will help me to get out from the desire to receive which is the substance of creation, something more than what was revealed from the start. So, I turn with a request, raise MAN for my desire to receive, and say, “Give me even more to enjoy,” and this is called “idolatry.”

Klipa is true egoism placed opposite Kedusha, bestowal. These are two systems that were created and stand facing each other.

If I am found on the side of Klipa; I work within the desire to receive in order to get the maximum possible use of it, to exploit the entire world to the end and even the Creator. I rise above my nature and want to use it “in order to receive,” and I see my spiritual work in this. I exploit all of nature in order to fulfill myself.

The opposite is purification of a desire, which I transform into bestowal, and accordingly, I control it altruistically.
[127863]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What does it mean that the Masach (screen) broke? How can that be?

Answer: All states refer only to a person. Reality exists only with regard to the person who apprehend it.

Suppose that I were in a state of holiness now, in the intention of “in order to bestow,” and that I have arranged all my intentions, desires, and everything that is revealed in me according to the restriction, Masach, and the Returning Light. Suddenly, I have new, thicker desires, which are greater and stronger, so the old state seems to be destroyed and the new, greater desires dominate me, and I feel that I am in a ruined world.

This is another question: Is it destroyed? Because the moment it actually undergoes a change, I don’t think that it is destroyed. I think that I follow the Klipa (shell) and that I will enjoy it, and that I must incorporate in the shell, to feel it, to be in contact with it, and to be connected to it.

It says that the contact with the Klipa should only be momentary. This depends on my preparation, but I must feel it. So, the moment I feel that my life is good and that the desire to receive delights me and that everything is fine, it is because I actually am being thrown into the depths of the Klipa, and, what is more, I don’t even realize that it is a Klipa. I discern that it is something good.

Then, if I continue, if I have mutual guarantee, the forces of the group operate on me and I come out of the domination of the Klipa. If I don’t, I cannot come out.

This means that, every time a new desire appears, the old state is destroyed.

Thus, I ascend the levels, and in every state I attain a state of holiness and build the temple out of my vessel. Then, it is destroyed, and I begin to build another temple, and then another and another. We go through such states, and eventually, we attain what is called the Temple of Holiness and, in contrast to it, the shattering and the destruction that we go through in the process of preparation. It is impossible to reveal the Creator, wholeness, and to attain the thought of creation without going through these states.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #8, “What Is the Difference between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of the Sitra Achra”:  We must observe two discernments in this shade, meaning in this concealment:

1. When one still has the ability to overcome the darkness and the concealments that one feels, justify the Creator, and pray to the Creator that the Creator will open his eyes to see that all the concealments that one feels come from the Creator, meaning that the Creator does all that to a person so that one may find one’s prayer and yearn to cleave unto Him…. In that state, one still believes in His Providence.

2. When one comes to a state where he can no longer prevail and say that all the suffering and pain one feels is because the Creator sent it to him so as to have a reason to ascend in degree, one comes to a state of heresy. This is because one cannot believe in His Providence, and naturally one cannot pray.

Everything works according to the same principle: “There is none else besides Him, the Good and Benevolent.” All of our work is to attain this principle in each and every state that we go through. We need to evaluate our entire lives according to this principle, and this is impossible without the support of the environment. Otherwise a person cannot hold on.

All of the states are sent to us by the Creator, meaning that they are determined by the influence of the upper Light on the Reshimot (the informational genes) and their common state in regard to each other. But between the Light and the Reshimo an empty space remains for our free choice and effort. And a person must fill this space.

There is a lack of contact with each other which is called concealment. A person must make effort in this in order to remove this concealment and to complete this contact between himself and the Creator, between the Reshimo and the Light, and to bring fulfillment between them. The Reshimo gets revealed as shattered, and therefore it is always discovered as a discomfort, deficiency, rejection, and concealment. After all, this is a testimony to the breaking, and I need to accept this as a call for contact in all the conditions that are created.

This is called work above reason. It could be that there is an unpleasant feeling in my heart and mind, that I cannot integrate all of my problems with the Good and Benevolent, but in spite of it all, my work in mind and heart shouldn’t depend on my inner state. This is called that I am skipping over the Reshimo that is revealed, rising above the shattered Reshimo, as if this Reshimo were corrected. That is, I feel as if I have reached the revelation of the absolutely benevolent, single force and stand face to face with the Creator.

And then I thank the Creator for my shattered desires because I can only attain spirituality, the advantage of Light over darkness, this way. It is specifically in the contradiction between the Reshimo and the Light that I discover what the Light is every time.
[128180]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/14

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Question: What is the spiritual root of indifference?

Answer: The spiritual root of indifference stems from the state of rest that our ego is attracted to. It is the lowest egoistic state. I lie, doing nothing, filling my sight with interesting pictures, my hearing with pleasant sounds, my mouth with tasty food, and my nose with pleasant odors. If I totally fill myself, I have no deficiencies left, and there is no motion. I can enjoy the quiet!

Question: So how can we overcome the indifference, especially during the workshop when I suddenly feel bored and indifferent?

Answer: I don’t understand how someone can be bored during the workshop if it provides a great opportunity to work. I listen to the friends and I feel that I am burning. First I have to be incorporated in each one. One of the friends speaks nonsense, but I annul myself and try to fathom his words, accepting them as if he were Elijah the prophet. I penetrate the friend and want to live in his words, which are the only reason to be incorporated in him.

Then another friend speaks and begins to philosophize, and I can hardly restrain myself, but I let him finish. Here I have another type of work: I am incorporated in him, suffer, and see to what extent what he says is right or wrong. It is not in order to criticize what he says, but in order to help me be incorporated in him even more. The more my ego criticizes the friends, the more deeply it helps me penetrate them.

When we end a round of debate, I am incorporated in each one and practically burst as a result of the experiences that fill me. I am not full of their words since I don’t even remember what they said, but I am full of my efforts to be incorporated in them.

We have to see the workshop as an opportunity to be incorporated in the friends, despite our criticism. First it seems that one friend speaks nonsense, another friend speaks too much, another didn’t hear the question at all, and another one doesn’t even understand how low he fell. But all this doesn’t matter! Even if I went to some other place to participate in a roundtable discussion, I would also be incorporated in my partners and would do the same work with them. I wouldn’t receive less from them than I receive here.

How can I feel bored if I constantly work? No matter what the friend says, I try to delve deeper into him and to feel his inner space. Each one is like a womb for me, and by the connection between the friends, I form the womb, enter it, and feel that I am inside some kind of space, inside a human being.

Every friend is my environment. When we complete a full round, I form a bubble of all the friends, a sack of amniotic fluid inside the womb. I feel like a baby. I penetrate the friend, discover an inner space, and try to get used to him, and by my thoughts, feelings of repulsion, I begin to identify with what is inside him.

Start working! This inner work is called a friends’ meeting and not debates on foreign affairs.
[128062]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14, Writings of Rabash

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Topic of Lesson “Teacher”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 64

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We can understand reality and what happens only from an upper level downward, and there is no way we can understand the current state a person is in. If I am in a certain state, which I cannot digest or perceive, it is because this state is stabilized by the Upper at any given moment. Only by attaining the Upper, can I attain my current self. So a person never attains himself and his state.

I am on a certain level and above me there is the Upper who has totally designed me: my whole inner state and all the external conditions, since it is actually one vessel. He designed me, and I am a result of His actions; I am created by Him. I don’t understand myself, attain myself, or my reality. So I can never make the right decisions regarding this reality. I shouldn’t make any decisions regarding myself since I will surely be wrong. I don’t have the attributes that made or created me since these are the attributes of the Upper.

So when it seems to a person that he makes decisions in this world, it is absolute nonsense since it indicates his lack of understanding. In this state he is like a small child who thinks that he does something by himself and doesn’t know that the parents are watching him from a distance, guarding him from making any mistakes.

This means that I can never know my current state, the current level I am on, but only what is below that level, the levels to which I am like the Creator and they are my created beings. So if I want to attain who and what I am, then I have to attain the Creator. It is only from that state that I will understand and know who I am.
[128033]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: How can it be that at the end of correction there will still be some differences between us, but at the same time will we be totally equal?

Answer: It is like a philharmonic orchestra in which every musician is an outstanding, well known talent, but one plays the violin, another the viola, and another the bassoon, and so on. All the players differ from one another, but at the same time they are on the same level.

This is the equality that we want to reach among people. Although they are all different by nature, we still want them all to reach the same level. If everyone bestows upon the whole integral system, he is completely equal to the others. There are no great or small. These differences exist only until the end of correction, and then afterward, everyone complements one another and they become equal.
[128025]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/14, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: How does a person clarify that the Creator really helps him?

Answer: A person discovers that the Creator helps him in every state he finds himself in, both the good and the bad. Of course, he doesn’t understand this immediately. But what’s important is that he discovers that the Creator is also part of all his clarifications and his decisions, all his thoughts and of all his apparent mistakes. All this was prepared and arranged from Above.

There is one point of something from nothing which the Creator created. Nothing other than that was created, and now the Creator reveals Himself with regard to the point of something from nothing.

It turns out that the Creator must devote Himself to the point of something from nothing so that it will be like Him, that it will reach the same understanding, the same recognition, and the same feeling, which means that it will know Him fully. To the extent that this point reveals the Creator’s plan, it ascends all the 125 levels.

This work is fulfilled by a person’s incorporation in the group, and the main outcome of this work is the attainment of the uniqueness of the Upper Force that has prepared our whole way and what we feel along that way. These are all the phases of spiritual attainment, all the manners of attaining the depth of the thought of creation.

We reveal the thought of creation in every phase. This is the main point from which the Creator approaches us. A person may also reveal states that preceded his creation in the thought of creation.
[127845]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14

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Question: What constitutes a request for the middle line, asking for the right line to be stronger than the left?

Answer: I ask that the left line does not cancel the right. In spite of the left line, I want to remain above it, in gratitude, bestowal, and love. I desire to work with the forces of the left line as if in the right line, so that “darkness will shine like the light.”

In the right line, there is no perceivable lack. The right line is perfection, gratitude, “whiteness,” and mercy. However, because the left line breaks through, I feel a lack and the need to augment the right line.

The problem is when I move from the left line to the right, the left line grows even more! I increase the right line again, and the left grows once more. Ultimately, I clarify through this work in the two lines that there exists a notion of the middle line that allows one to use the left and right lines correctly, despite their oppositeness. Due to the fact that they contradict each other, I have the possibility to build them one above the other, without canceling either one of them.

I do not choose one in order to erase the other, but instead, I begin to value the left line as well, since it is due to the left line that we have the ability to build the right. I also begin to value the right line even more, seeing its dissimilarity from the left. Both of these lines help me, gradually forming within me the respect for each of them. I see that, indeed, there is no evil in this entire governance. It is precisely this polar oppositeness that gives me the ability to open my eyes.

Until then, I had a very narrow perception, either from one side or from the other. I did not see anything other than this world. If, however, I balance darkness and light in order to perceive them as equal, by this I open a new channel for myself. The middle line is something new. It is neither the left nor the right line as we currently can imagine. It is impossible to imagine the middle line. It is an entrance onto that straight beam that starts in this world and ends in the world of Infinity.

The middle line refers to Adam, Zeir Anpin. This is the form of a corrected desire. Thus, due to the transitions from right to left and back to the right, I begin to value both lines, seeing how they sustain each other. I also see how useful it is for me to be in the left line relative to the right, and in the right line relative to the left.

In other words, I bring them both closer and do not leave either one of them. I begin to relate to the left line the same way as to the right. Previously, I wanted to fill my desire to enjoy, but now I agree to leave it empty, without fulfillment, in the dark. This gives me different colors, shades, and qualities, without which I could not reach gratitude, the state of true bestowal.

This is how I attain the middle line. Although the left and the right lines contradict each other, I still perceive them as equal, sublime, special, and necessary in equal measure. Therefore, precisely due to them both, I leave my egoistic attitude in which I valued one more and the other less. After all, what, in essence, can be given to me only by the right line and the state of absolute mercy (Hafetz Hesed), perfection in a state where I have nothing?

We still need to clarify many nuances pertaining to these concepts, but we are already very close to the third line.
[127775]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/14

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Question: How do GE of the lower and AHP of the upper connect?

Answer: It is when they are on the same level, one inside the other. AHP of the upper descends to GE of the lower and enters it. When the lower wants to connect to the upper, it must enter AHP of the upper with his GE.

Once AHP of the upper is in GE of the lower, and another time, GE of the lower is in AHP of the upper; everything depends on who controls the state and who determines it. If I am the upper, I descend to GE of the lower, and so I want to enter it and know what happens to it and feel its deficiencies. So, I descend into it and am in its internality.

If the lower wants to adhere to me with its upper part, its GE, it enters my AHP. Everything depends on the type of work between the upper and the lower that we refer to.

They always adhere to each other by equivalence of form, but this equivalence can stem from the upper with regard to the lower or from the lower with regard to the upper. The upper diminishes itself, wanting to feel exactly what the lower wants, and so it enters the lower. The lower says, “The upper is so big! I want to be like it, and I totally annul myself just to be in it! I am ready to drown inside the upper so that the upper will swallow me!” This means that GE of the lower enters AHP of the upper.

If the lower connects to the upper this way, the upper ascends and takes the lower with it. It is because they become one whole, and the Upper Light that operates on that level operates on both of them.
[127767]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/14, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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