Question: What is a “prayer of an individual?”

Answer: A “prayer of an individual” is a person’s clarification. On the whole, one can pray a “prayer of an individual” or a “prayer of many.” A “prayer” is a deficiency that I discover in my heart. But I discover it intentionally by first clarifying the prayer, which is called “a prayer before a prayer.” On this preliminary level I make many corrections in order to reach the special inner deficiency that will be compatible with the amount of Light that is before me and which I want to acquire.

I acquire it; purchase it by paying with my exertion, my power, my deficiency, by my “appetite.” It’s as if I enter a bakery shop and “freeze” in front of a marvelous cake. But I am put on a scale, my deficiency is measured, and I am told:

– You have deficiency of only 150 grams and this cake is worth half a kilogram so you can’t buy it.

Then my taste buds are examined by a special sensor, and I am told:

– Your taste buds don’t work. You actually want fish and not a cake. The two can’t even be compared, come back another time when you have the right quantity and quality for a cake, and then you will receive it.

So I need a deficiency for bestowal. Where can I purchase this deficiency in our world in order to come to the Creator’s “store” with it and buy that “cake”? Where can I get the money to buy the ticket with which I can enter bestowal? This is already “a prayer before a prayer”; I constantly think about the deficiency in quantity and in quality that I must have, since otherwise I don’t have a real vessel.

If I understand this whole process, then there is a “prayer of an individual” and a “prayer of many” in it. But these are only names. In fact, I always pray by myself, I am always one, and there is nothing but me. But I want to attach and connect those who are seemingly external to me: all my desires and thoughts that were thrown outside by the ego and that seem to be scattered according to the corruption in my vessel. I want to work above this “thickness” of the desire, and thus I am drawn to “a prayer of many,” by wanting to see them as one whole unit…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: If I have to totally annul myself by remaining as one point while everything else comes from the Creator, where is the volume in which I feel my existence, my spiritual reality?

Answer: This is called the “spiritual world.” Think only about how to penetrate it. Your existence there begins after you cease to exist. When you cease to exist in your current form, you will appear there.

Now it seems unclear, but from this negative form you already begin to move towards the Light; you have the feeling that this place may actually exist and is real, but that it’s beyond the Machsom (barrier), beyond the border after which the “I” אוי(: aleph – nun- yod) becomes “no I” (אין: aleph – yod – nun).

This point of “no I” is in the new space that is felt by this negative form as a very solid, strong field, that fills it and that is essential. But with regard to the previous state, with regards to my egoistic “I,” it is called “no I” and this fills me with joy.

In our world joy is felt as a filling in the desire to receive, but in spirituality joy is felt as “in Him our heart shall rejoice.” I am very happy that you have such thoughts and that they make you suffer since you feel disoriented. Later you will feel the joy when you attain the goal. Now you have to be happy that you are on the way to it and that you have at least risen above your ego a little. The stronger the Light shines and the more the group strengthens you, the more you can rejoice that you have transcended yourself.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 16

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Shlah Leha,” Item 248, Lesson 23

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1, Lesson 4

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace,” Lesson 7

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion for The Zohar“: The soul is like that, too: After it has acquired equivalence with Him, it knows His Thoughts once more, as it knew prior to the separation from Him due to the will-to-receive’s disparity of form.

Question: What are the Creator’s thoughts?

Answer: As it is written, “By Your actions, we shall know You” or, in other words, from my actions, I will get to know the Creator.

I try to act “in order to bestow,” to perform actions of bestowal, but I cannot. I ask for help and I get it. There are changes in me whose essence and root I don’t understand. I exert myself and become like the Creator according to my understanding of the sources and the examples that the group presents to me. Thus, I study the Torah, which means the method, the system, the actions of the Creator who is concealed in the Torah. By imitating His actions, I begin to know Him, to know His attributes of love and bestowal.

Today, I interpret the words according to my understanding, not knowing their real meaning. Then, through my corrected desires, I really will get to know the Creator. It is because the corrected desire feels a kind of an awakening inside called “Light.” Generally speaking, such desires create the Creator’s image for me in a way. It isn’t a figure and not a drawing, not a form, but I simply understand what the attribute of bestowal is, the attribute of love. I understand it as a result of my corrected actions.

Therefore, it is written, “By Your actions, we know You.” By my corrected actions aimed at bestowal, I perceive the concept of “the Creator.” In that system, I am connected and, later, adhere to Him; thus, “Israel, the Torah and the Creator are one.” “Israel” refers to the person who yearns for bestowal. ”The Torah” refers to my inner system of connection, the system of the soul, its 613 corrupt desires that I must correct by the Lights that evoke it. Then, the vessels and the Lights work together. When the vessel and the Light equalize in the direction of bestowal, it means that the Torah is revealed in me.

I work systematically on the five levels of Aviut (the “thickness” of the desire) and go through stages of attaining the Torah, by starting from Sod and ending in Pshat when everything is revealed and I have not only the Lights of NRNHY, but also the Light of Yechida, not different kinds of vessels, but the vessel of Keter. By that, I return to complete adhesion, but I return by myself with a Light that is 620 times greater than the initial Light, and, by that, I correct my vessels. I increase them 620-fold, and, by that, I know the Creator. First, I was in Him in the form of a point that He created as “something from nothing,” and now, with His help that comes as a result of my asking, I develop this point by myself from the “drop,” and stand in His place, equal to Him on the level of Adam (a human being).

Question: The Creator has one thought, which means that I must be incorporated in everyone and insert in them the one thought that is directed at Him.

Answer: Otherwise, I will not be able to put my soul together. It includes all the other souls in it. I am just a point, and, in order to build my soul, I need to attach everyone to it.

Question: What is hidden in my soul that is aimed at the Creator?

Answer: For the time being, I have a shattered Reshimo (spiritual gene), a spark, the posterior of Nefesh of Kedusha, which means a beneficial desire. The beginning of the previous connection with the Creator was revealed to me in a shattered form. I want to gain at His expense, to use Him.

Thus, the spiritual awakening appears in a person. I want to gain something, and, at a certain point, I cannot find anything satisfying in the entire world. How long can you play in this “sand box?” I want to grow and do real stuff, and then I search egoistically for a partnership with the Creator on equal terms. “You are for me and I am for You. I know that I must pay. Oh well, I agree, but what will I get in return?” This is already a state of Lo Lishma (not for His sake).

Question: So, what is our general corrected thought?

Answer: It is total identification with the Creator, an “embrace,” a “kiss,” “coupling,” which, on the whole, is called adhesion.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: If a person must be ready to remain in a state of “smallness,” where can he get the desire and the motivation to advance?

Answer: But I want to advance in order to be more like the Creator! The Creator is an example of humility for us. I must reach a state in which I feel as if I don’t exist, just as the Creator does not exist for me now. Thus, I become like Him.

It seems that I really must fight myself in order to attain this, but this a wonderful war since in it, I need the Creator so that He will fight in my place. If I fought this war by myself, I would be in a critical situation.

However, since I need the Creator’s help, it makes me extremely happy. It is because, now, I have the reason to turn to Him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Tomorrow is international “Safer Internet Day,” and it is dedicated to the problems of the virtual environment which online users surf. Surfing the net today involves many problems and threats both for children and for adults. Can we light up this labyrinth of dark “alleys?”

Answer: We are talking about labor pains. The Internet is indeed a common meeting place, everyone’s “common market.” I think that it should go through the recognition of evil, through a cleansing process; it should understand itself better and the reason it was created. In the meantime, this virtual labyrinth is like the Wild West, but people are gradually maturing and gradually systematize this “territory.”

Generally speaking, humanity is getting acquainted with itself on this network. It is like a mirror, and so on the whole, I suppose that it is a positive process. Perhaps it should be hastened, but we should be careful of corrupting it. The corruptions on the way will only generate new problems. People want to enjoy this tool, but they cannot manage it. Eventually they will reach the recognition of evil and will understand what they should actually do.

But if the network is limited and regulated according to the old way or if it is cut off, it will not help. Humanity is used to external limitations, while we contend that people should be educated, that the limitation should come naturally from within and not artificially from the outside. Unless people understand this, no measures will help to bring about any positive change. The Internet will still be a place where people vent all the evil they have on one another. However, if we take care of people, then this global network will undergo a healing process. There is no other means; it is the only solution.

So let’s hope that people will reach it as soon as possible, and then the Internet will really be a safe place.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: How is it possible to integrate nullification of yourself towards the group and the desire to understand the meaning of the text being studied?

Answer: One feeling does not cancel the other. I have to yearn together with everyone to connect in one common point. In this point of connection where we are together, we feel some phenomenon that is called Malchut.

First of all, everyone’s yearning to integrate together with everyone else is required. For this, the following components are needed: self-nullification, greatness of the goal, and importance of the friends and of the group. I have to focus all of this together and yearn for that point of general connection.

Other people participate together with me in this yearning. We act together, each one nullifies what he has. We leave this whole world at the bottom and all of us strive forward. Through our connection, we want to form the vessel of bestowal from which our relation to the Creator, the desire to bestow, will be born.

Then, in this yearning to bestow to the Creator, we will begin to feel Him, the upper Light that lands on us and fills us. The more this yearning is clarified, growing according to the thickness of the desire: 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4, the more developed it will become. And to the same extent, the force of bestowal, adhesion with the Creator will be revealed in us. This is in fact all of our work.

The question is: How can this yearning to self-annulment and understanding the material be combined? To understand means to know, meaning to reveal or connect. The Sefira Daat (Knowledge) symbolizes connection, as it is said, “And Adam knew Hava (Eve), his wife”.

When I nullify myself at the bottom, I help myself prepare for connection. Without this, I won’t be able to connect with others. In order to rise to the point of connection, I must nullify myself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

[media 1]

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 21

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Shlah Leha,” Lesson 22

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 9, Lesson 33

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“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” Lesson 7

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #53 “The Matter of Limitation”: And this is the meaning of, “any sorrow will be surplus,” meaning that sadness comes to a person because he wants luxuries. This is what it means that when Israel came to receive the Torah, Moses brought forth the people to the bottom of the mountain, as it is written, “and they stood at the nether part of the mount.”

(A mount [Hebrew: Har] means thoughts [Hebrew: Hirhurim]). Moses led them to the end of the thought and the understanding and the reason, the lowest degree there is. Only then, when they agreed to such a state, to walk in it without any wavering and motion, but to remain in that state as if they had the greatest Gadlut, and to be happy for it, this is the meaning of, “Serve the Lord with gladness.” This is so because during the Gadlut it is irrelevant to say that He gives them work to be in gladness, since during the Gadlut gladness comes by itself. Instead, the work of gladness is given to them for the time of Katnut, so that they will have joy although they feel Katnut. And this is a great work.

This is called the main part of the degree, which is a discernment of Katnut. This discernment must be permanent, and the Gadlut is only an addition. Also, one should yearn for the main part, not for the additions.

A person reduces his usual requirements, gradually descending to the “small state” (Katnut) in which he does not require anything for himself. And what is necessary for his existence, he considers even lower because he cares about these needs unwillingly, out of duty.

From this point he starts entering the spiritual world. An indication of this state is joy. First of all, one needs to reach the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the screen and the Reflected Light, the intention to bestow, and advance as far as possible forward. And then, everything that a person needs is not considered consumption. That is why the sign of this state is a constant joy because he does not need to worry about anything; he is bathed in the Light of the Creator, in the sea of bestowal.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/13

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Question: We only need to reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. So why do we need all the books and all the talk about self-annulment and about unity? We must simply demand the equivalence of form and that’s it.

Answer: Go ahead, demand it. But how? Kabbalists wrote books only so that we can advance. On the whole we study two types of books:

– There are books that bring us the Light that Reforms—which are mainly the writings of Baal HaSulam.

– The other books, the books of Rabash, teach us how to approach the writings of Baal HaSulam: in unity, with the group, with the right intention.

Without this guidance you would not attain anything. You need someone to guide you.

Question: Still, why didn’t Baal HaSulam write a book about how to reach equivalence of form with the Creator?

Answer: It is forbidden. I have to look for equivalence of form by myself; I have to feel my way around and find it. Then I will understand what it is and that it’s exactly what I need and exactly what I aspire to.

And I would also understand how to ask for the power to do it. The desires can’t come from the outside; I have to arrange them internally. In our world everything is the opposite: I open a physics, mathematics, or mechanics textbook and study it. I have the necessary basis for that. In the spiritual preparation there is no such basis, no such tools or desires. Even if Kabbalists wrote a book like that, I wouldn’t understand what they want from me. What does it mean to raise the NHY to HGT?

This means that first I need to extract new levels of perception from the books, new powers, and new inner responses, to develop my mind, and to expand my feelings. First I have to develop internally, and in order to do that, the book has to perform certain actions on me, to “sculpt” something of me, to knead my matter and to stretch it by direct and by opposite bestowal. It’s only then that I acquire enough gentleness and sensitivity so that in a second reading I will already understand what it’s about.

After several years a person doesn’t read “Shamati“ as he did in the beginning. But how can this be explained to a beginner? This means that it’s impossible to manage without guidance and training…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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