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Talk About the Congress in St. Petersburg
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 21, Lesson 58
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot”
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Question: Why does it say that if a lie is small we cannot see our real condition?
Answer: Suppose I am investigating a criminal act and I have to prove that the person sitting before me is a liar and everything depends on the evidence I have against him.
If the evidence isn’t clear and is doubtful and I am not sure that this person is guilty, he can deny everything. The court cannot make a decision when a case is so vague. But if we bring a long list of a person’s offenses along with evidence and testimonies of eye witnesses before it, then there is no doubt that he is guilty, he cannot deny it anymore.
This is the state we should reach when we have irrefutable proof of our ego. We must discover that our attributes are so bad that their crime and outcome are evident not only to us but to the whole world.
We must have irrefutable proof of our lie and it wouldn’t be just cries such as “you are lying!” that I can deny counting on my nature. All my crimes must actually be revealed, as it says: “A judge only has what his eyes can see.”
I must attain such a level of the revelation of the lie that I will really want to leave the lies. It will be very clear to me that the ego is lying to me; this is called a real testimony of a witness, I have to actually see all its crimes on the deepest level Dalet de Dalet (fourth of the fourth).
Then I will have no arguments left, and will not be able to deny it anymore. I will have no power to remain in this state. I will escape from it just as you escape a feeling of great shame.
Imagine that some electrode is connected to your ear and everyone can see your thoughts and your feelings. You would rather die than feel such shame and it is true with regard to each of us. So we have to be impressed by our work this way in order to actually want to die of shame because of my ego. Only then do we reach the truth and agree to change. Remaining in the ego will be worse for us than shame, since our “criminal” thoughts will be revealed to the whole world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/13, Writings of Rabash
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The Creator drives our “donkey” (hamor – חמור), which means that he manages our matter (homer – חומר) (which has the same root in Hebrew), our desire, by the Light that Reforms.
Since the beginning of creation He develops the desire to receive as something from nothing through the four phases of Direct Light (the structure of the first HaVaYaH) and so on. The Light always operates everywhere, as it says, “I am the first,” and at the same time, “the end of the act is in the initial thought,” so the goal of our development is predetermined to make the created being independent.
The Creator has performed the first act, which is in fact the only act called “creation.” He took something out of Himself. This is why it is called Beria, creation in Hebrew, which means bar – outside one’s self. On the other hand, He brought the desire to perfection and this was done immediately.
In the created being’s perception, there is a whole process that he has to discover by himself: who he is, what he is, in relation to whom he exists, and why it happens this way. He has to accept it based on his nature.
The main thing is that as a result of all the feelings and clarifications he goes through, he reaches a state called adhesion; this adhesion is a result of knowing, as it says: “Know thy Lord.” Thus the created being attains the middle point, the Sefira of Keter or the Sefira of knowledge, which is the mind of the upper.
Thus we perform different actions in order to discover where we actually are and in which state. The states that we go through are divided into levels of the worlds: this world, the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). This is what we call the states that were prepared for us in advance during the descent from the top down until the moment that we feel that we exist and begin to ask ourselves: “What do we do now, what can we do? How can we fulfill it? What is expected? How are we managed and how can we manage ourselves.”
There comes a time when I ask myself: “Who am I?” I see a kind of a reality before me and my feeling is divided into two:
So what is that upper force? Who is the “donkey” driver?
We cannot of course speak abstractly about the Creator, about the upper Light. We have to “clothe” Him in some revealed form that we understand, and so in The Book of Zohar in the article “The Donkey Driver,” Rabbi Shimon wants to convey to us the points by which we can perceive the upper force that guides and manages matter. We, however, have to try and feel this as much as we can, both in our heart and mind, as much as we need to.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/13, The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Donkey Driver”
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Rabash, “The Matter of Yenika and Ibur:” … Meaning he does not have to see that he will have happiness from the work, rather what he has to see is that he has to prepare himself to know whom he is working for and what its importance is, and joy is the result of it, meaning to say that if he has no joy in the work, he has no idea of the importance of the Creator, and then he has to correct himself in the matter of faith.
The forces are taken from the recognition of the importance and greatness of the Creator, the goal, the understanding of for whom we work, whom we approach and become similar to. Becoming closer is possible only due to the equivalence of form, but from where can we take forces that enable us to work against our nature? It is only from the environment. That is why the greatness of the upper depends only on the environment, and we need to work on it.
If this is a usual, egoistic desire, then we create religion. Religion is built on the greatness and importance of some object revered among the masses despite the fact that it is not familiar to them, has not been revealed or understood. On the contrary, just because it is not understood and not revealed and this is not even a goal, it is called faith, which is blind and not leading to attainment. That is why the simpler a person is, the higher and more righteous he is considered in faith because he is ready to be loyal without any knowledge.
However, Kabbalah sets another goal for us: “Get to know your Creator and work for Him!” That is, we need to know, to reveal Him. This is precisely the purpose of creation: so that we are happy and enjoy the feeling of closeness to our King to the point of full adhesion. Adhesion means complete attainment of the entire height of the Creation that has reached a similarity to the Creator. They become equal to each other.
So here we need a completely different work. Attaining the greatness of the upper one occurs in two stages. In the first stage, we talk about the greatness of the goal, the Creator, whom we want to reveal, about the upper force besides which there is nothing else, and impress each other. We become inspired by getting closer to the revelation of this highest quality that exists between us, hidden for the time being, but will be revealed soon.
This is not mere inspiration like in religious ecstasy, but it attracts the Surrounding Light to us. This is a huge difference. We are impressed with the greatness of the Creator and come closer to Him according to our desire to become similar to Him, that is, to get rid of the power of the evil inclination in us and go under the power of the good nature of bestowal. As it is written, “Would that they had forsaken Me but kept my Torah, since by occupying themselves therewith, the light which it contains would have led them back to the right path.”
We do not want to just reveal the Creator, the force of bestowal and love in us, but we really desire to be changed due to His Light and force. That is why we artificially create in ourselves the opinion of His greatness, which in essence is a sham because we do not feel so. However, we know that we are immersed in our egoism, the desire to enjoy, and that is why we have no other way to grow but to work against the current state. We do all this quite deliberately and under our control.
That is why in the usual understanding, faith means to close the eyes and not seek to know and attain anything. A person gets strength from his egoism, from the egoistic environment that allows him to act with the hope of great reward. The environment promises him the Garden of Eden, and all sorts of rewards in this life and future lives.
The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches the opposite because, as it is written, “The opinion of the Torah is opposite to the opinion of the egoistic masses.” We do not seek commonplace values, but want the force of bestowal and love for the other to rule in us. That is why faith for us is called the force of bestowal. “Believing in the Creator” means to bestow upon Him as the grateful guest upon the host. Thus, we become equal to Him.
Also, every time when we rise, we again need the environment to support the opinion that the Creator is great. However, it is not clear to us at all. This is necessary only in order to draw the Surrounding Light to ourselves that will give us the property of bestowal and allow us to rise above our egoism, to feel the other. The property of bestowal, the property of Bina, is called faith.
You can check your joy from this point of view: Is it the result of good deeds as it should be, that is, the action of bestowal, faith above reason? This means that bestowal should be above reception, above our egoistic desire, or do we feel joy because we enjoy our egoism? Then, it is egoistic joy, the joy of ruling egoism. Everything depends on what reigns within us. This is what should be checked.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/13
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If you suffer it means that you are in a state called: “a fool sitting idly eating his own flesh.” If you have a strong environment that wants to help you and you are not ashamed to nullify yourself and to be totally incorporated in it, you are very lucky. Then you don’t suffer, but will immediately discover the means to turn this whole state of suffering for the best.
If you are eating your own flesh, it means that you cannot determine for sure where the pain comes from, for what reason, from whom, and for what purpose. You have forgotten that “He is the first and He is the last!” and it is as if you attribute the pain to yourself, as if you have caused it by yourself and you are responsible for it. Thus you torture yourself and eat yourself.
If, however, you attribute everything to the Creator and not to the caprice of blind fate, you will stop eating yourself and will immediately turn the bad feeling into a means of ascent, of connection with the Creator who has sent you this state so that you will connect to Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/06/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: What should I do if the majority of the friends in my group of ten are very weak and pull me downwards?
Answer: One needs to struggle and try to pull them after you. And also to turn for help so that within this tens a few strong friends will be included, like yourself. But it is forbidden to leave the weak ones. You need to strengthen them. That’s the correction.
The correction is such that everyone becomes equal and unified, and not that a few outstanding friends are chosen and the rest are discarded.
If one goes from one group of ten to another, a stronger group, and succeeds there, and the others will fall even lower without him, then that is not a correction, but corruption. We are approaching the general correction of the entire world, thus today as we enter a greater area, not just growth in height, we will attain in this way greater success.
We think that we simply need to rise up the ladder, but the rise upwards on the rungs of the ladder depends on the spread across. This ladder grew in the form of the cone, like sand hills that children build. If you want your hill to be tall, you need to make its base wider. Identically, our development upward is built like this. It can’t be any other way. It is imperative.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/13, Writings of Rabash
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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Rabbi Akiva depicts two kinds of people: the first are the “open store” type, which regard this world as an open store without a shopkeeper. He says about them, “The book is open and the hand writes.” Meaning, although they do not see that there is an account, all their actions are nonetheless written in the book, as explained above. This is done by the law of development imprinted in Creation against humanity’s will, where the deeds of the wicked themselves necessarily instigate the good deeds, as we have shown above.
The second type of people is called “those who want to borrow.” They take the shopkeeper into consideration, and when they take something from the store, they only take it as a loan. They promise to pay the shopkeeper the desired price, meaning attain the goal by it.
The point in the heart determines everything. If I have a point in the heart and I fulfill it correctly, I belong to the second type, and if I don’t have a point in the heart, I work like the first type.
We have a point in the heart, so we want to approach the Creator with the right demand, “Dress in us, and do the work.” This is called, “My sons defeated me.”
Besides, we want to help people who don’t have a point in the heart and who cannot ask for this, but who also want to purchase products from the “store.” We must teach them how to take from the store. Then, we will go to the store together as if we have a credit card with which we will pay their account.
Question: Are there any discounts in this store?
Answer: The Creator always gives discounts, but only special discounts. He doesn’t lower prices, but spurs the right attitude in us in advance. Thus, we say, “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.” It is as if He sits behind an invisible cash register and at the same time brings us to it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/07/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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