Rabash, Article 19, “The Matter of Joy”: This means that the joy is a result of a certain reason. So what is the reason, so that the reason can be evoked in order to bring us joy?

And accordingly, the intention to follow the right line as much as one can is called “wholeness.” And a person is already in a state of wholeness, which is called “equivalence.” Which means that the whole, which is the person, is now adhered to the Whole, as it says: “The blessed adheres to the blessed and the damned adheres to the damned.

Of course, we cannot feel anything spiritual if it is not by its opposite form. Internally we lack wholeness, we lack control, we are powerless and under the complete control of the egoistic desire to receive that calls for the domination of all the good in the world, but we transcend this and “restrict” ourselves, holding on only to the desire to bestow as we value it more and more.

This means that joy comes as a result of our feeling of great frustration, disappointed in our own desires. We are very happy that we have found a desire, the Creator’s intention, which we can use to control our desires. There is a great gap created between what we are and the Creator’s essence. We acquire His vessels and then our vessels can connect to His vessels.

Thus, a great void is formed between the two opposites, which we can now fill with bestowal. We are filled by bestowal and this brings us joy.

In The Book of Zohar it is written, (Genesis. Item 159): “the induction of the posterior, which is a call was so strong, until all his levels were lost and he became an ordinary man, Shimon from the market, and he acknowledged that it is a call and an invitation for a very sublime attainment.”

All the spiritual discernments ride on the great contrasts. It is in the gap, in the disparity between them and the connection between them above reason, that the new vessel is revealed, that is not part of our nature and which is a vessel of bestowal in which joy is revealed.

The Light that is revealed in the vessel that receives in order to bestow is the “Light of Life.” And its inner essence that is created by identifying and adhering to the Creator is felt as joy. It is a result of a good deed, which means of the act of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the role of the Israeli Jews in the formation of the spiritual forces today?

Answer: Every element, even the smallest one, is made of ten Sefirot. The Israeli nation that has been through spiritual ups and downs is also made of several parts.

There is a part called “Israel” according to its spiritual essence, and it is aimed straight at the Creator (Yashar—El). Those who feel attracted to it belong to this part.

Generally speaking, we are starting the ascent today from the same state that was in ancient Babylon in the time of Abraham when everything was shattered and he gathered people who were attracted to the Creator. Such people belong to GE and the point in the heart (•) is already burning in them.

Then there is the part that is also called “Israel,” but in which the point in the heart is locked (⊙). Although it existed in these people in the past, it is not expressed as a result of the general incorporation.

The next part is the “nations of the world,” people who are ready to join Israel. They understand and feel the message of connection. They have a natural inclination for it, but their “point in the heart” is concealed. We can call them “righteous.”

Then there is the part of the “nations of the world” who are called “sinners” and in which there is a lot of negativity (-), and their point in the heart is hidden too deeply.

This is the general structure, but we don’t separate anything and we take an example from Abraham who spread the wisdom to everyone.

However, we also emphasize several things in our work today; first we have to empower the first part, our group, those who are ready, who can and do understand the importance of the way to the Creator.

Then we have to work with the representatives of the second part since the same point is hidden in them too, whether they like it or not, they have the same stimulation. We have to reach a certain connection with them.

In addition to that, let’s hope that many of “the nations of the world” will join us when they see that we offer them an effective, rational approach.

At the same time, we have to understand that the three lower parts participate in the process without an intention. There is no way they can yearn for bestowal. After all, the intention is only above, in all our friends throughout the world.

A new vessel is actually formed today, a new “Israel” that is born after the shattering and the mixing, after the many reincarnations. Whoever awakens to the Creator stands at the top pulling all the others after him.

The same thing happened in Babylon: People in different places joined the group of Abraham and later they were among the leaders. Another example is Rabbi Akiva, whose parents were not Jewish (they were converts who belonged to the “nations of the world) who joined the nation of Israel. This was his destiny; from the general level of those times, he rose to the spiritual level and surpassed everyone. So it is certainly not a matter of genetics or nationality.

As for the nation of Israel today, we have to make greater efforts than in other parts of the world. We have to first make efforts in our group and among the Israeli nation that is dispersed among the nations of the world. It is very difficult, but we have no other choice, we have to do it since it is the order of priorities in the general system.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/13, Shamati #37 “An Article for Purim”

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Baal HaSulam, “Shamati,” Article 144 “There Is a Certain People”: There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples.” Haman said that in his view, we will succeed in destroying the Jews because they are separated from one another; hence, our force against them will certainly prevail, as it causes separation between man and God. And the Creator will not help them anyway, since they are separated from Him. This is why Mordecai went to correct that flaw, as it is explained in the verse, “the Jews gathered,” etc., “to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life.”

There is no other means by which we can be saved from all the troubles, whether we are in physical exile or in a spiritual exile. It is the same thing; there is no other type. We are either under the domination of the evil forces that are foreign to Holiness, which means the force of separation and dispersion, or we unite despite all the evil forces and then we win by taking the opportunity we were given and rising to the level of connection.

In this connection we begin to discover the upper state, the upper world, the upper force. This is what we are about to do now. The world is advancing very quickly towards this clarification. We also have to clarify our status in order to become the force that takes this world from one world to another and be ready for this mission.

Very soon we will see how all these things are actually fulfilled and start to work. Everyone will be ready to connect, but whether we will be ready to connect them depends on if we can become one people. Our success depends on this.

Otherwise all the forces of evil in the world will rise against us and it will be justified because instinctively they feel that we are responsible for all of their problems. It will be impossible to blame them for the hatred they feel towards us because there is none else beside Him; there is a program, there is the upper force that operates and there is a system that works accordingly. We have to balance it, to bring the good force against the evil force and by that bring everything to the middle line.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 52

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Balak,” Item 239, Lesson 12

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 10, Item 25, Lesson 10

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,“ Lesson 3

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Rabash, “And He Shall Cogitate in His Torah (Teachings)”: And so we read in the Megillah “and after all this the king raised Haman.” Literally it is hard to understand, after all, after what Mordecai did, which was good for the king, the king should raise Mordecai and not Haman, and this needs to be explained…

When a person cannot see the true face of his evil, which means the true form of Haman, then a person cannot pray to the Creator, so that He should save him from evil. Only when a person sees the greatness of Haman, who wants to kill and to destroy all the Jews, which means that Haman wanted to destroy everything that belonged to Judaism, which doesn’t let him do anything that is related to Holiness, then he can raise a true prayer. Then the verse “the Creator helps him” is fulfilled.

Only if we yearn for unity like Mordecai who evoked the yearning for unity by discovering the plot against the unity and killing it (two of the king’s courtiers who betrayed him), then Haman is evoked. The evil inclination faces the good inclination, the desire to receive rises facing the desire to bestow, and a struggle between them begins inside a person.

Only by raising and empowering the good force does the evil force grow, and then we raise the good again and evil also grows. This process continues until we reach a state in which we have to make a decision in this struggle. We cannot ask the good inclination, since it doesn’t need anything, it doesn’t want anything, but only to bestow every chance it gets. So we always ask the evil inclination, and then we do the opposite.

This is called working in faith above reason. We know how our desire to receive feels and follow faith above reason. Otherwise we have no way of imagining what the spiritual world is, what it means to be above myself, what it means to bestow. But we know that it is opposite from our egoistic desire to receive, which we know very well.

So when the desire to bestow grows, we have to raise the desire to receive and to ask it what it thinks should be done, and then do the opposite! That’s the way it works.

It is because we don’t see the image of the good; we don’t have an image by which we can resemble the Creator. The only way is to form it as an opposite image of the desire to receive. Therefore we were given an environment that should help us turn the desire to receive, which means the intention to receive into an intention to bestow. This is called “to repent,” to return to the Creator, the rising of Malchut to Bina.

We have no idea what the image of the good is but only that is it the opposite of evil.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13

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Question: Is it true what people say that when we look at the letters of The Book of Zohar written in Aramaic it automatically connects us to the Light although we don’t understand the language?

Answer: Nothing happens automatically. It can be compared to a baby who is born and lives in this world and who grows because he is taken care of since he annuls himself before the grownups. It is an innate attribute, and, by that, he enables the parents to take care of him. They take care of him, and he grows.

If a person annuls himself during the study while reading The Book of Zohar, he is under the influence and the caretaking of the friends, even if he doesn’t understand and doesn’t feel anything but wants to place himself under the influence of the Lights, the friends, and the major society that deals with it. However, he needs to have that intention. Even if he forgets about it, he still needs to feel that he belongs.

Question: How can we follow the text while reading The Book of Zohar and keep the right intention at the same time?

Answer: The main thing is the intention, and the text is important to the extent that a person can attribute it to the right intention. Gradually, he begins to see the right meaning of the words in it: a “child,” “sages,” Sefirot, Malchut, and Bina. He will see it. Under the influence of the Light that Reforms that operates very slowly, gradually, bit by bit, a person will begin to feel different impressions. He will feel a connection to what he reads.

Question: What should our approach be while reading The Book of Zohar or what should change in it so that the Light will influence us and change us?

Answer: We must connect. A person should feel that he is in a united group like a commando squad, like in one whole that is made of separate parts. He needs to feel it naturally. Otherwise, his intentions are not the right intentions.

So, as he feels the whole reality connected in him, he wants to belong to the Creator together with it, to connect and to adhere to Him. He understands that it happens as a result of his inner change and looks forward to it.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, they were certainly liberated from the angel of death, for death is necessarily an absence and negation of the existence of a certain object. But only while there is a spark that wishes to exist for its own pleasure is it possible to say about it that that spark does not exist because it has become absent and died.

However, if there is no such spark in man, but all the sparks of his essence clothe in bestowal of contentment upon their Maker, then it is neither absent nor dead. For even when the body is annulled, it is only annulled with respect to self-gratification, in which the will to receive is dressed and can only exist in it.

However, when he achieves the aim of Creation and the Creator receives pleasure from him, since His will is done, man’s essence, which clothes in His contentment, is granted complete eternity, like Him. Thus, he has been rewarded with freedom from the angel of death.

The desire to receive must only get rid of the intention to receive for itself, but the desire itself is never refined and doesn’t disappear, but acquires the intention of “in order to bestow.” If a person can fulfill this condition internally on its minimal level, on the first degree, if he wants this to happen, then the Light comes to him and illuminates on him, and makes him worthy of the first level called the gathering before Mt. Sinai.

In order to do that, he must accept all the conditions, rise above all the hardening of the heart, all the worries, and all the interruptions that were sent to him in order to attribute everything to the Creator’s dominion, to “there is none else besides Him,” and to decide that He is good and benevolent—to accept all this in faith above reason and to annul everything that belongs to him in order to aspire as much as he can for the Creator.

If a person wishes to detach himself from all his affairs in this world, not because they are unpleasant or threatening as it was during the time of preparation, but rather the opposite—when he can receive all the goodness but still gives it all up and attributes himself to the Creator—then the Light comes and builds the first level of bestowal, of Lishma (for Its Name) in him. This is called the receiving of the Torah since, for the first time, he sees how the Light in it reforms.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13

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Rabash, “Revelation and Concealment”: The matter of concealment refers to the fact that a person wants to see and to understand, and does not see or understand. Then we should say that it is concealed from him, what is more, the level of concealment is measured according to his need to know, and so if a person doesn’t need to know something, there is no point in saying that he suffers from concealment.

For example, if a person has to work in a certain place for only half an hour a day and he receives his pay once a month, then he should believe that he will be paid although he has not seen anyone who has already received his pay, so he believes in the company although it is concealed from him as to whether and how the company will pay him, since no one knows the company in which he wishes to work. And if he wants to work more than half an hour, he has a greater need to know that the company pays on time, so if he hears any evil gossip about the company, he suffers more because of the concealment, and if he wants to work day and night, of course he feels greater concealment, since he has a greater need to know, whether he will receive his pay as promised.

And since the Kingdom of Heaven is above reason, everyone suffers from the concealment, but those who want to work for the sake of Heaven, have the greatest concealment, since they have the greatest need to know, since the body asks over and over again “What is this work that you do.” It turns out that this question is constantly ready, according to what a person wants to be totally for the sake of Heaven, and the answer to this question is “blunt his teeth.”

We should accept the fact that we never see the payment in advance. On the contrary, as we advance, we see opposite pictures, that there is no payment and that there will not be any. All this is in order to raise us above reason.

The less we know and understand, the less sure we are, and the less proof we have, the more chances it gives to build a network of support and confidence above reason. Then this confidence is revealed not in our vessels of receiving, but only in bestowal, above reason, without any proof, since “in Him our hearts shall rejoice.” This means that not in us, not in our ego, but Above, in the Creator or in the group, in the connection in which we discover the upper force.

So no one is going to receive any actual payment. Whoever doesn’t accept this can leave right away and look for pay in the ordinary corporeal life. In the spiritual life, however, the payment is in giving it up, in the feeling of importance of whom I am working for.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/13

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The same process repeats on every level. Symbolic of this are the holidays that repeat every year, every new cycle. All this is revealed according to the Reshimot (spiritual genes) relative to those who receive, who clarify their Lights, sparks, and vessels and so go through these phases. So a person goes through 49 “gates of impurity” and reaches the 50^th gate of Bina. Then everything that seemed terrible to him changes. The upper level seemed impossible to reach and awful, but he is ready to accept it above reason in every way possible

Thus, by his efforts he goes through the 49 gates, and each time it seems that he cannot go through, but he somehow overcomes the obstacle and passes. The 50^th gate stops him, he cannot go through it, and then a prayer is born in him which helps him do that.

Esther symbolizes the double concealment of both the vessels of receiving and the vessels of bestowal. The corrections that Mordecai made all seem to lead to an opposite result which is meant to be of the special Light “Mor –Dror ” (pure myrrh). Thus we reach Purim in which the worst state of helplessness is revealed, but we try to attribute it to the Creator and are ready to work in bestowal, above the worst states, in order to flip them by rising above them and by revealing the opposite state. The Light dresses in all that and then the help from Above is revealed.

We should understand that it all depends on a person, while there is no action on the part of the upper. All the upper system already exists, but we awaken it: Partzufim, Abba, Ima, Arich Anpin, by raising our prayer, MAN, to ZON of Atzilut.

And when there is an “awakening from Above,” it is only if it is its turn in the cycle of our mutual actions according to our awakening below.
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From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 52

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Balak,” Item 212, Lesson 11

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 10, Item 24, Lesson 9

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 1 Comment →