Question: What does “My sons have defeated Me” mean if we never ascend above the Creator?

Answer: “My sons have defeated Me” means that they have defeated all the hardships, they have overcome all the difficulties the Creator has given them. In the situation of the guest and the host, I not only defeat the Creator, but I also use Him. The victory is not in defeating and silencing Him, but rather in using Him, in receiving from Him all the love and bestowal that He stimulates in me now on top of the shame that I begin to feel.

First I was ashamed that I might be caught as if I have stolen something. Then it turned out that I am not a thief but that I have taken a gift that belongs to me, that the Host has given me out of His great love to me. This already provokes two types of feelings in me—Bina and Malchut.

The feeling of the Host is the beginning of Bina, without this the created being cannot exist. The feeling of Malchut is the same since I want to receive, but if I feel the love of the host and the shame inside Malchut I have to calculate how to raise Bina above Malchut.

But if I raise Bina above Malchut so I will not feel the shame and receive the pleasure, it is already a shell, since Bina begins to serve Malchut. On the other hand, if I use Malchut with its desire to enjoy together with the feeling of shame and want to fulfill the desire of Bina, Malchut rises to Bina bringing its Aviut (thickness) to Bina, the force of its desire. As a result, Bina expands and grows stronger. With the help of the force that helps Bina, the level of Moses develops, I try to reach the state of Keter, adhesion, and then I begin to correct Malchut.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is the Reflected Light? How can the Light come from below, upward?

Answer: Talmud Eser Sefirot, part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 19: A new Ohr was generated by the above encounter and Haka’a. Like sunlight on a mirror, meaning on a glass that is painted on the other side, the rays of the sun cannot pass through the mirror because of the paint on the other side. Consequently, the sun rays return backward and produce solar light.

In much the same way, when the Ohr Elyon meets the force of the Tzimtzum in Behina Dalet, called Masach, this Masach turns it back to its Shoresh. However, in this case, there is no issue of concealment. On the contrary, the return of the Ohr Elyon from Behina Dalet upwards is regarded as a new and special Ohr. It mounts the Ohr Elyon, clothes it and holds it within. Because of that, it is regarded as a Kli that receives the Ohr Elyon.

The Reflected Light is my desire to respond to the one who created me. It is as if there is a doll made from clay that suddenly begins to sense that someone is sculpting her. This creator of her gave her such sensations that she could feel him, his kind hands that are sculpting her.

The feelings that fulfill her inside make her want to respond to him with gratefulness, through the touch of his fingers, through his gentle attitude. This light gratefulness is the Reflected Light.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: I understand that on top of my will to receive I build the intention to bestow to my friends, but how do I know if I ascribe the same intention to the Creator?

Answer: On one hand there is a desire to receive pleasure, and on the other hand, there is the Light, the Creator. Both have to be connected as one. And in order to bring them to unity, a system was created: family, society, this world, and the upper worlds, the whole Universe, all that exists.

But in face, this process involves only two: the desire to receive and desire to bestow. In order to tie them together and bring unity between them, all the medium through which they should connect were built. There is a person on one side, and there is the Creator on the other. In the middle, there is a family, the society, the group, humanity, history and the whole system of upper worlds and their actions. All that is between them is in order to connect them with each other.

If a person wants to become connected with the Creator, then the only opportunity to test himself is through the group, meaning, through the worlds that exist between him and the Creator. Only by that can they connect.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot“

The Book of Zohar — Introduction

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9

Writings of Baal HaSulam “One Commandment,” Lesson 4 

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A person has only the attributes and the powers that he needs in order to reveal the true reality and not any other powers or attributes that there can possibly be. The amount, the form, of the inner data that we have and the connection between them, are all arranged and designated only for attaining the goal.

So, no matter what we engage in besides attaining the goal directly and correctly, eventually, we always come to some dead end, experience failure, and are forced to turn back. So, after zigzagging for a long time, which may even take many reincarnations, we finally come to the decision that we must be focused on the real goal.

Then, we will discover that all the attributes that we each have are only for this purpose. If we focus straight on the goal, we discover that we have all the attributes we need in order to attain it, both the good and the bad—if we can call anything bad at all.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Man’s origin is from the ape and he has developed gradually as the great Kabbalist the Ari said 300 years before Darwin. The Ari said that a person’s physical body stems from the ape, while the inner, spiritual content is determined by a combination of the upper forces. Kabbalah deals with the person himself and not with his corporeal body.

Every person develops thanks to his connection with his environment as he absorbs others’ attributes and opinions. A person couldn’t develop if he lived by himself in the woods. We develop thanks to our mutual incorporation.

It is said, “Go and make a living off each other,” which, in spirituality, means that everyone includes everyone else inside him and thus develops. To the extent that a person absorbs the desires of others, the knowledge, and the code of behavior, he develops. No one can develop by himself. A person doesn’t develop because he becomes smarter, but by absorbing from others.

To the extent that we are enriched by our mutual incorporation, we reach new scientific discoveries and discover a new society. There is no other factor by which we can discover the new reality, both in the corporeal sense and in the spiritual sense, except for the amount of our incorporation and connections between people. Thus, we expand our vessels of perception and everyone is enriched thanks to others, and we begin to see a picture that is more and more complex. This includes the revelation of new forces and laws, the development of science and it all is revealed to a person according to the complexity of his incorporation in everyone else.

We live in a perfect reality, and all there is to know about it already exists. However, in order to discover this, we must be incorporated and connect more strongly with all the parts that are in each of us. When we begin to collect these parts after the shattering, this connection allows us to discover the wisdom of reality, the true form that is called the development of science.

We discover more and more of it because each of us is incorporated in everyone else. This complexity, this connection, allows us to understand the picture of reality despite the separation, by comparing the plus and the minus, by comparing opposite conditions and attributes.

So, even on every level of the corporeal world, our success depends only on the connection between all the strange parts. This determines our mental and emotional development, both the corporeal and the spiritual, as a result of the shattering and its correction.

Only by connecting and the right mutual complementation will we discover the general essence of reality that is called the Creator, the force that is beyond all of reality. As it is written, “From Your actions we know You,” which means that we will reach the original idea that everything was created by Him as the result of discovering reality, its forces, and its different phenomena.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Can I also be the host who receives guests like the Creator, or will I always remain a guest?

Answer: You will never be able to be the first. You will only be able to respond, to be grateful, and to ask, and by that develop yourself. You cannot rise above Him, of course, and you don’t want to do so either.

There are situations in which you feel that you are Pharaoh and you ask yourself “Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him?” But when you attain the spiritual levels in your spiritual work, you decide that you want to annul and subdue yourself.

All the spiritual actions come after the level of Hafetz Hesed, to bestow in order to bestow. Moses advances first and then the whole nation follows, which means all of our other attributes.

This order must be kept. Otherwise, as the Torah tells us, the sinners emerge one by one, rebelling against Moses and bringing about unpleasant situations. Thus we learn that only Moses can lead. This study is necessary in order to clarify all these discernments: the sons of Aaron, the spies, etc.

This is all necessary in order to raise the level of Moses further since he is humble and cannot magnify himself. So he actually needs such adversaries that would raise him. The shells emerge, and as a result of clarifying, we discover that Moses is above them, that the attribute of bestowal dominates them all; it dominates by its humbleness, by its modesty.

When we complete the level of Bina we learn how to use our desire to enjoy correctly, as it says: “Following humbleness comes the fear of the Lord.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: We need to take upon ourselves work that is foreign to the ego and completely above its power, and charge the group’s to do its best. Then not having achieved the result, we ask bring the matter as a helper to and worker of the Creator, and only then do we get the result.

How can we differentiate at the beginning of the work between madness and folly versus courage and consideration? Where is this boundary found?

Answer: Here it is necessary to have someone who manages the process who “there and then” can approve or reject every detail that the operators need to know about using it. So they need to be maximally connected among themselves more and more, so as to turn to Him nevertheless.

The world cannot get along without a “king,” without his representatives, without those who are loyal to him. Man needs someone near him who knows more than he does, who sees the future and outlines the right directions. “This is not for us but we will go there, will do what you think is right within these limits.”

This hierarchy must be constant. Among our groups there cannot be some kind of group that does everything it thinks is important according to its discretion will ultimately succeed. This is because the ego constantly accompanies it and the group needs new discernments, new stages of clarification all the time.

Regretfully I don’t think that this great dependence will diminish with time. On the contrary, it will grow. I know this from my mutual relationship with my teacher Rabash: The more I advanced, the more I needed him, actually came closer and closer to him.

In our world it is precisely the opposite: The more that a child grows, he becomes more and more independent until he leaves his parents’ home.

Whereas here you become more and more adherent to those who are higher, for essentially they link you to the Creator, you simply are not ready to get along without Him. And therefore, I now learn much more from my teacher than I learned thirty years ago….
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/13, Lesson on the Topic: “Sukkot”

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From Rabash’s Article “The Difference Between Alms and Gifts”: When one applies lots of exertion for a long period of time but doesn’t achieve any result, one starts to sense pain and suffering because he contributed a lot of energy but doesn’t see any advancement in his work.

Then, contemplations come to him one by one. One despairs and then strengthens, then falls and rises again and again. This process continues until a real desire that stems out of his exertion at the time of ascents and descents shapes in him. With each rise and fall, one accumulates and feels pain because he has not merged with the Creator yet. When the vessel of one’s effort becomes completely full, then it is called a spiritual desire and the Creator fills it since now one has reached a true desire.

If after several years of work you suddenly understand that you have regressed, this is intentional so that you feel the pain of not merging with the Creator. So, you need to realize that with each round of ascents and descents, you are getting closer to creating a true vessel. It is impossible to obtain the perfect fulfillment before obtaining a perfect desire.

We see that each passing year brings us a better understanding of Rabash’s words. He explains everything very accurately and his words penetrate deep into our souls.

Many years of rises and falls of every possible kind pass by until one starts experiencing a real necessity to acquire the properties of bestowal. It happens as a result of the Light’s work on us in response to the exertions we apply. Besides, “That which is not accomplished by the mind will be accomplished in time.” Because of our activities such as our studies, dissemination, mutual support, and congresses, we become integrated into each other. It means that everybody goes through changes, although some of you go through them faster than others.

Some of you confuse yourselves by observing other methodologies and allowing alien influences and surroundings to impact you. Here, I don’t mean the typical environment we all live in, but rather your attempts to find alternative spiritual practices. So each of you advances in your own way, but since everybody is included in the others and contributes oneself into everybody else, there are rises and falls that serve as a good sign of the internal work you do.

As a result, one starts sensing that bestowal is not “foreign” to him anymore. It is no longer flavorless, tasteless, or odorless; it is not empty words about giving, pleasing the Creator, or loving our neighbors, which previously were lifeless slogans. All of a sudden, one begins feeling the taste of them; this means that spiritual vessels begin to shape in him. We start feeling real life in these words, a taste: bitter or sweet, ascent or descent.

Bitterness and sweetness are felt in the heart, and higher or lower are evaluated according to reason. This is how we assess these concepts, and suddenly they start triggering internal responses in us. When one hears words about love or hatred in relation to spiritual work, to bestowal and receiving, one reacts to them in one’s heart and mind. Thus, he starts differentiating between these two qualities internally.

However, it is not sufficient. One should continue working until a true desire for the Creator, the perfect property of bestowal, appears. Nothing is incomplete in spirituality. The smallest spiritual vessel, which is revealed in a person, the desire to merge with the Creator, the property of bestowal that completely fills him, is in fact the entire person.

One senses that he is completely defined by spiritual genes (Reshimot) that unfold in him. At the next level, he will discover that his previous Reshimo constituted only one gram of his subsequent Reshimot, which in their turn already weigh a million tons. So far, he is as an infant who received a sweet piece of candy, is completely absorbed by it, and thus feels the entire world as sweet.

Those who advance eventually clarify their relationships to one another at the spiritual levels they reach; thus, we understand that everything is continuously accumulated and accrued. So we need to make our share of efforts and desire to achieve the perfect property of bestowal. We have to strive to become completely filled by this property in our minds and hearts, hence entirely altering our present attitude to the world by pushing aside our old outlook.

We have to lose our current attitude and evaluate everything through the Creator’s eyes, the eyes of bestowal. We still don’t know what that is, but gradually we enhance our readiness for it; this happens as a result of the Light that Reforms. When it occurs, we reach the full capacity of the desire that was completed for us by the Creator.

We are totally unable to complete this work on our own. We can reach up to 99% of the desire to bestow with the help of the Creator, but we will never attain 100%; it is beyond our power. This is why it is said that the Creator will finish this work for me, will fill our measure, and then we will receive the perfect fulfillment for a perfect desire. This is how a person is born on his first spiritual step.

We see that we are approaching this step. We have gone through many changes and continue to have a better understanding of Rabash’s words; we see that he clarifies every single step on our way. Eventually, we’ll appreciate the level of his meticulous precision. However, it is obvious that he had to clothe this knowledge in such garments so as to attract us and not repel us. So, he avoided speaking openly of what the outcome of this program could be in the very beginning of our studies. Each time he reveals it a little more, to the degree that is beneficial for the students. This is the way Kabbalists write their books.

Rabash’s articles show that he took good care of us and unveiled a new methodology of correction for us. Since we didn’t understand his writings before and started to comprehend them only today, we can now state that we really follow his path with the help of the Creator.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/13

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Question: What is the correct intention? How is it manifested: in feelings or in the mind?

Answer: The correct intention is the picture of the desired state, the painting, which has me, the world, and the Creator all together. The painting depicts my aspirations. I want to reach this image in reality; it is the future state that I set for myself as the goal.

The intention is not a mantra, not an empty fantasy, but the picture of the future world that I want realize in life. It changes all the time, but most importantly, it incorporates everyone. I do not erase or not gloss over anything; I am not the master of this majestic panorama; I only want that all its parts is lined up in just this way.

Looking at the future reality, I want everyone to live in adhesion with the Creator. It is the idyll, harmony, the perfect canvas of universal unity. Everyone attains Him, everyone is united with Him, and for this they are united with each other. Everyone is as one man with one heart and together with the Creator—Israel, the Torah, and the Creator is one. This is my intention so I want to see, understand, and feel the reality; I want to live in this world. This is my dream.

When I speak to someone within the framework of dissemination, I have more or less a clear program of how to bring him to this picture of my intention. He will be integrated with it; he will be more or less active in it, depending on whether the point in the heart has been awakened in him. Anyway, I want him to be also involved in the process; that is the purpose of my dissemination. After all, I know that only in this case will it be good. That is why I want to involve him in this picture.

Of course, along the way I bring him evidences proving that it is the only true path; I explain how to act and show that this technique is not fraught with danger and brings only good things for him, his children, his friends…

This is along the way, but in the end, I want him to become one with me in order to achieve the goal.
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From the 4^th   part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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