Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 183: This is why it is said that he should take advice from the holy fathers, since the prayer that we pray is the correction of the Holy Divinity, to extend abundance to her, to satisfy all her deficiencies.

Divinity is all of our desires that are connected in order to become something collective where each one loses his “I” and builds something shared.

Hence, all the requests are in plural form. This is so because the prayer is for the whole of Israel, since all that there is in the holy Divinity exists in the whole of Israel. There is a difference between the terms Divinity and the community of Israel. We build the community ourselves and the Divinity is what the Creator finishes as a result of our efforts.

It follows that when we pray for the whole of Israel, we pray for the Holy Divinity, since they are the same. Thus, before the prayer, we must look into the deficiencies in Divinity, to know what needs to be corrected and filled in her. Meaning, to what degree we still need to be included in each other.

However, all the generations of the whole of Israel are included in the Holy Divinity. Therefore, it is said that the Kabbalists in previous generations made corrections for us and we no longer need to subject ourselves to corporeal austerity. All the efforts of the Kabbalists of the past are included within the Holy Divinity, within the Malchut of the world of Atzilut, and in our day we merit correction of the general shattering on the level of the final correction, meaning the level of the Mashiach.

The holy fathers are the inclusion of the whole of Israel. They are the three roots of the 600,000 souls of Israel from every generation through the end of correction. And all the extensions and bestowals that the whole of Israel extend and receive in all generations are first received by the holy fathers. From them, the abundance reaches the whole of Israel in that generation that extended the abundance.

This matches the structure of the spiritual Partzuf, HBD-HGT-NHY. The first two thousand years are the “Avot” (forefathers) HBD; the next two thousand years are the sons, and we, the people of Israel, belong to the last two thousand years.

It is so because this is the spiritual order, that no branch can receive anything, except through its root. This is to say, the Light passes through everyone who preceded us in that hierarchy of the tree of life, beginning from Adam HaRishon (the First Man), then twenty generations from him until Abraham, and after that Moses, all the prophets, Rashbi, the Ari, Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and finally it reaches us. This arrangement never changes because that is the way a pyramid is built and the souls had to appear one after the other in that order. Therefore, we always receive the Light through those who preceded us.

…The primary illumination remains in the root, and only a part of it extends to the branch. The work we carry out is not great. But it acts like an amplifier receiving the weakest signal, and within the system there is a very powerful resistor. This is to say, we don’t enter into this system except to influence it by arousing amplification within it.

But it’s clear that all the intense changes take place within the amplifier and the result is revealed in the world of Infinity. And here, below, we feel only a small part of the reaction and all of the wonderful results are revealed within our holy forefathers on the higher levels. But with the end of correction there will be a collective mutual integration.

And those who will come after us will receive less and less with greater and greater resistance. That is how this system is built. But together with our small influence within the system, together with the great resistance, a great stimulus is awakened. The great desires of the forefathers are filled with an intense Light as a result of our miniscule work below. We don’t understand this because we don’t take into account the intense resistance of the entire system of worlds that are acting as an amplifier.

It therefore follows that all the corrections that were already corrected in the holy Divinity stand and exist in the souls of our holy fathers. All the results of our work are concentrated in the higher levels. And if we were to receive them in ourselves, we would not maintain our position and would become arrogant. This would destroy us. We receive precisely that measured dose sufficient for us to carry out the correct next step, shielding us from arrogance and destruction, from egoistic reception. Therefore, we receive little, but exactly what we need.
[126082]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Lock and Key,” Item 41

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 7, Item 3

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 47

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Question: If we are dealing with inner, spiritual development, then why are the external activities, such as participating in lessons and conventions so important?

Answer: Everything begins with the still level. Until I go through the first three levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, I will not reach the speaking level and to the level of the Creator.

And accordingly, it’s impossible to stop halfway or to cancel something if it’s “needless.” Thus, I get up out of bed in the morning, brush my teeth, wash my face, and come to the lesson…. And during all of that I must be strictly and punctually correct, without wavering.

But no, “today I am in a philosophic mood. I am sitting at home by myself and thinking about life. I don’t want to be under the influence of the group. I don’t want to be together with the friends. On the contrary, I need a break, to get away from them. After all, a person is an independent creature and doesn’t depend on anyone. So, I won’t be dependent on the group and won’t do what the others do. I need to be higher than them.”

The conclusions are seemingly correct and logical but they are wrong at the root. It isn’t just written, “I dwell among my people.” Growth is possible only within the group, within the many, being mutually integrated with each other without any conditions. The Creator brings me to the group and says: “Take.” And afterwards it’s my choice if I take this present from Him. Or do I refuse it with pride? All the levels are constructed one above the other, without cancelling the previous one, but by adding to it a new attribute.
[126068]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 7, Item 2

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Rabash, “What is the Advantage in the Work that is more than the Reward”: And the main preparation that is called exertion, that one has to annul himself, which means his self-ness…which means that he annuls the opinion of the landlords and yearns for the opinion of the Torah…as the sages said “the Torah exists only in those who kill themselves for it,” which means in self annulment, and there is no self domination here but the domination of the Creator. Then the Creator can say “every place that I shall mention.” Why can I mention My name? Since a person has annulled the domination of this place for the Creator, then “I shall come and bless you” can be fulfilled…which is the reception of the Shechina.”

We already know this formula. A place is the desire to receive and also the Creator who fills this place, which means who fills the desire. We regard the vessel as a place and also call the Light, which fills it, a place. Everything depends on the phase to which we refer, whether it’s the desire or the one who created it and fills it.

It says, “Every place that I shall mention My name,” where the vessel is arranged according to the Creator’s name, HaVaYaH, with all its discernments, “I shall come and bless you.” The Light will come and correct the vessel, and will clear the right place for the Creator to be dressed.

It’s important to constantly measure to what extent we get closer or draw further away from the Light so that “there shall not be a strange god among you.” To what extent the concept of the Creator, the upper force, all the images that are depicted in our imagination, become the attribute of bestowal that is dressed in me. I can measure my state according to the attribute that is received and according to my attraction to it.

Of course, there are also opposite states like for and against, but it’s between these two directions, from these two inclinations that we advance. We have to check to what extent the concept of the Creator, which means the attribute of bestowal that is dressed in us, is more desirable each time and to what extent we hope for it, expect it, and are attracted to it. Until “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” in the same place.

Now we perform exercises, trying to annul ourselves and to reach connection only between us, for the time being. As is says “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.” But if we also remember that we do it so that we will become one vessel in which we will be able to reveal the Creator one day, the upper Light influences us and connects and organizes us. Thus we will gradually feel the place that we are preparing for the revelation of the Creator, and will check whether it’s ready for the Upper Light, for the attribute of bestowal to be dressed in.

Then we will begin to identify movements in that place, and whether we are receiving the Creator or not, whether He enters us or whether He exits us. We will understand how we can draw Him closer or drive Him away from us if we want to ascend to a higher level in order to be more adapted to Him. After all, we have to draw away from Him between the levels.

When all these actions become familiar and are under our control, we gradually reach a greater equivalence of form with the Creator and He is gradually revealed to us. Thus we establish the place, and the connection between us begins. After the connection, a distance is created, which teaches us to return to connection despite the distance. Thus we learn to control these processes as much as we can and to monitor them.

This is only possible with God’s help, of course, with the help of the upper force. We mustn’t forget that He is the one who organizes and who manages everything, but with our active participation. We decide that we want to reach “make your desire His desire,” and thus establish the place.

We are already in the process of establishing the place, although we don’t really understand how to do it, which phases we go through, and what else we have to do. Actually, nothing is clear. It isn’t a formula with one unknown, but rather a formula with many unknowns that we have to solve. It’s an integral system in which everything is incorporated in everything and depends on everything.

But when this picture clears up, we see that it includes many details that are interconnected into one system, although in the meantime it’s very foggy and unclear. It’s impossible to hold on to this with our coarse, egoistic, primitive hands.

But by working in this world, we gradually begin to raise its components to the spiritual level and to insert into every attribute, every force, every event, into everything that happens, the Creator’s spirit, our spiritual yearning. Then we begin to see another picture behind the picture of this world. Behind this picture we discover a system of forces of the upper world. This is how we establish the place for the revelation of the Creator.
[126211]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14

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Question: It is said in the Koran: “The Almighty does not need helpers.” Why then does Kabbalah teach us that we have to become the Creator’s partners and assistants?

Answer: Religions originate from the right, left, and middle lines. Islam derives from the right line relative to the Creator; Christianity comes from the left line; whereas Judaism originates from the middle line. That is why the Muslim calendar is based on the lunar movement, the Christian calendar is based on solar cycles, and the Judaic calendar is based on both of them and is built in accordance with the middle line.

It is true that Koran says: “the Lord does not need helpers.” This is because human participation is impossible in both the right and left lines. People start taking part only when the middle line is built out of the right and left lines. Thus, we ascend to becoming partners with the Creator by becoming similar to Him.

This is why Kabbalah speaks about partnership between a man and the Creator. This is not the usual practice in Judaism as it emerged after destruction of the Temple and the people of Israel fell from their spiritual level. Today, after two thousand years of exile, we begin correcting the devastation that happened after the collapse of the First and the Second Temples. We have to establish a middle line inside us, i.e., we should ascend above our ego.

Religions are built in a way that they don’t require people to get rid of their egos. On the contrary, religions use the ego to attract us, involve us, calm us down, and promise a tranquil life, health, success, and wellbeing. Religions are a structure associated with exile; they are totally suitable for exile. We don’t reject this phenomenon at all!

However, now we live in an era when people of all faiths start rising above their religions and strive to attain the Creator. On one hand, they don’t have any other choice because their lives are so unpredictable! Our internal desire advances and demands that we know and reveal the Lord. In each of us there is a spark: in the sons of Israel, the spark is a consequence of their prior spiritual step; in the nations of the world, it is a result of a mutual penetration with the children of Israel during the period of exile.

That’s why today so many people begin awakening. When one is ready to attain the Creator, one doesn’t need a religion, but has to study Kabbalah since Kabbalah is the wisdom of the revelation of the Creator to the creations in this material world. This is the difference between all religions (the right, left, and middle lines) and the authentic “religion” (Kabbalah) as Baal HaSulam defines it in his writings. In his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” Baal HaSulam writes that there is only one authentic religion:  the wisdom of Kabbalah that brings us to attainment of the Creator by obtaining His properties.

All other religions were active during the exile. Their goal was to lead us to our time so that from now on we start the process of self-correction. During the exile, the purpose of religions was to educate people, support them in a civilized manner, and provide them with knowledge, morality, and ethics. Religions have fulfilled their roles. They acted inside humanity, thus letting us advance. Religions served human interests.

However, today their role expires; this phenomenon is obvious in all religions. Soon, we will witness huge transformations, increased resistance and big fights. The epoch of correction has been launched. Nothing can stop it. The world is degrading day after day, like a cart rolling downhill with tremendous speed. That’s why nowadays all religions will have to comply with and adjust to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Let’s hope that it will happen in a mild, civilized way and that religions will eventually accept their new roles and places.

Religions are important for our self-correction in so far as they begin to implement the principle of “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” All of them have this principle “on paper.” All they have to do is start practically implementing this doctrine; there is nothing more we can expect from them. As a result, they will revise themselves and then they will come to support the wisdom of Kabbalah, thus giving it a chance to correct everybody without exception.
[126272]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 7, Item 1

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “The Second Commandment,” Item 198

Shamati #121 “She Is Like Merchant Ships”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 44

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We need connection, yet not connection between us, rather with the Creator. Therefore in order to reach connection with the Creator, to discover him, it’s up to us to build an appropriate relationship between us according to the principle, “the end of the action is in the preliminary thought.”

The connection between us must pass above the ego and cause mutual bestowal.

This connection must be equal for everyone, both distant and close. It’s up to us to be concerned about all of our friends all over the world since this makes it possible for us to feel if we are in bestowal or not.

This is because I don’t feel any closeness to friends who are far away. We are in an inner connection with people whose faces are familiar, and it’s different with friends who are not included in this circle. They provide me with the right feeling: Am I truly found in bestowal or not?

This is very important: Am I maintaining the right orientation? Am I concerned about all of the friends as they are, like a mother who brings all of her children “under her wing”? This is a sign for me of yearning for bestowal.

That is how each one examines himself, is concerned for others, and strengthens them. And together we aim to keep the connection with the Creator, for the compliance with the similarity of His properties. For this is what is most important, discovering the Creator according to our yearning for Him, for bestowal. And we realize this bestowal among us within the group, and also between all the friends around the world.

This is because there is no far and near in spirituality. Bestowal is bestowal. But the problem is that I don’t comprehend the entire system, only some part of it. But this part is also integral. It cannot be less than this or more than this, for there is no “partial” in spirituality. The system can be revealed to me to this degree or another, but there is no measuring stick for integrality, for it is always revealed one hundred percent in each part.

Therefore it’s up to us to aspire to feel a homogeneous group, complete in everything. There are no great and small, there are no far and near. I relate to all equally. This is a very important test with whose help I correct, “polish,” and “calibrate” the characteristic of bestowal within me so that it will be more and more correct.

And within the characteristic of bestowal, I become closer to feeling the Creator. And in this way I correct my Kli, vessel, desire; it comes closer and closer to discovering the higher power. It’s good and benevolent to the bad and the good, to the near and the far, to all without exception. Therefore I also advance in that way.

In this case, through my efforts, I awaken the Light that Reforms and it brings me into compliance with it. And so the question is, right now, how do we direct ourselves towards the power of bestowal, towards the Creator, with the help of an equal relationship to the near and the far?
[126605]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Section 43: When man is born, he immediately has a Nefesh of Kedusha (Holiness). But not an actual Nefesh, but the posterior of it, its last discernment, which due to its smallness, is called a “point.”

It is about that moment when the Adam (person) is born in us, something that resembles the Creator. One should not take into account the physical objects of this world composed of atoms and molecules. They are imaginary. In fact, everything found below the desire to bestow doesn’t exist and is only portrayed within our imagination in the meantime.

We are talking only about spiritual observations. In reality, only the desire to bestow exists, bestowal for the sake of bestowal or reception for the sake of bestowal. And the desire to receive in the form that we know it today simply doesn’t exist.

Accordingly, Baal HaSulam is telling us about the birth of an observation called “bestowal.” It’s when a person acquires the first minimal spiritual consciousness, the point of Nefesh (soul), the beginning of a new characteristic, higher in our eyes, found above what happens within the desire to receive.

It dresses in man’s heart, in one’s will to receive, which is found primarily in one’s heart.

All of a person’s desire, his “heart,” is now found under a “Tzimtzum (restriction).” And so here, this point of Nefesh de Kedusha, the point in the heart is discovered within him.

Know this rule: That all that applies to the whole of reality, applies to each world and even in the smallest particles that can be found in that world. This is the attribute of an integral, analog system: Every part within it includes all the rest. Therefore it is said that a person is a small world.

One way or another, everything is composed of ten Sefirot, the difference is only in the “resolution of the screen,” the sensitivity, the clarity of perception, the ability to distinguish the separate parts and all the details associated with them. Ten Sefirot are always found in every fragment of reality, in every tiny speck of it. Even an atom of our world, if we examine it deeply, becomes clear that it’s like the entire universe.

Hence, even in a single item of the speaking level, meaning even in one person, there are also the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, which are the four parts of his will to receive, where the point from the Nefesh of Kedusha is dressed.

They exist everywhere, even though they have not been discovered yet, for we are found in Olam Ein Sof. But Baal HaSulam is speaking here about the discovery of its first “point.”
[126769]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1.30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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