Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“:If one’s intention in the Torah and Mitzvot is not to benefit the Creator but oneself, not only will the nature of the will to receive in him not be inverted, but rather, the will to receive in him will be much more than what he was given by the nature of his creation.

Question: Is Baal HaSulam speaking about us here?

Answer: Yes and no. First the desire to receive must be revealed to its fullest. This is because a person can only correct the flaws that are in him. But until one acquires a Masach (screen), the desire grows in different manners: either by pleasure or by pain. In the second case, it grows wanting to avoid pain, and this pressure directs its growth in a certain direction, in the direction that is “anti-sufferings.” As for the pleasure, it grows by “swallowing” them and always remains in a double deficiency.

Then, during the time of preparation, when we yearn for connection and love, the desire grows in an opposite direction in order to constantly supply material for correction. On the whole, the growing of the desire doesn’t stop or retreat, it always moves forward.

Question: What is the difference between desire that grows opposite to the goal and desire that grows in a goal oriented manner?

Answer: Suppose that there is a nice place where everyone is given presents. There is a railroad that reaches this place and I can get there by train.

I may be moving backward while I believe that it is good (!) until I hit something and discover that I have chosen the wrong way. By discovering a minus (-), I am left with a question (?): So what should I do now? Then I gradually begin to move forward. This is the long path of suffering. After all, I make a detour before discovering that I have been going in the wrong direction. Yet in the process, my desire to receive grows.

I may be drawn forward meter by meter through the 125 degrees; again my desire to receive grows making the road increasingly harder. Let’s say that it isn’t a flat rail track anymore but an ascent up a mountain that becomes increasingly steeper. There, at the top of the mountain, is the King’s palace, and the road to it may be difficult, but it moves straight to it without any detours.

Question: So with what parameters do I check myself? How do I know that I am heading up the mountain and not in the opposite direction?

Answer: The parameters are the group, and, within it, self-annulment and connection. Practically speaking, there are no other means by which you can surely check and measure your steps.
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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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Question: Baal HaSulam says in the article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” that the soul is dressed in the body in this world. What does that mean?

Answer: A “body in this world” means the desire to receive for one’s self. It fills all the space here (see drawing), and there is also a point in the heart (•), the posterior of Nefesh of Kedusha. It is shattered, which means that it also wants to receive for itself, but it can be turned into the opposite state.

Question: Where is the desire with the point in the heart?

Answer: First you feel that the desire exists and begin to notice the fact that the desire has no corporeal place. This desire is the essence of the spiritual creation.

Today you see before you the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as people. All this is the imaginary world. Don’t look at it, put it aside, it isn’t the main thing.

Besides that, there is a desire to receive in which there is a spark. We have to take care of these sparks. Give the imaginary world the basic necessities and you are not obligated to do anything more than that since it’s all an illusion. You should provide everything for your main part.

This means that you have to isolate the point in the heart from everything that is in the desire to receive. We should differentiate it from within the desire and bring it out as much as we can, separate it from the desire to receive, and develop it. The desire itself should be restricted and annulled. Then there will be a connection that will help it and then several other steps…

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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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We receive the force of bestowal from Above not knowing what it is since it belongs to the existence in another dimension. By ascents and descents we reach a state in which we begin to understand that we should ask to exist in another force, in the force of bestowal. I don’t want to depend on my mood, on whether I feel that something is pleasant or not, but rather I want to be above all that.

First the egoistic desire motivates me, but gradually, by the Light that Reforms, as a result of an increasingly greater influence of the upper force that changes me, I begin to want to rise because of what I feel. Each time when I feel the sweetness of my getting closer to the Creator, as a result of my work in order to bestow, of connection, in all manifestations of spiritual states, I “catch” myself and ask to be allowed to be in this state not because it’s sweet, pleasant, and comfortable, or warms me with the Creator’s greatness, the importance of the goal, the importance of my unique upper mission.

I would rather feel my lowliness, although the feeling of lowliness can also be felt in different ways and sometimes stems from great pride. But I feel such lowliness that enables me not to be bribed by pleasure, by fillings in the mind and heart; I would rather be driven by another force, which I don’t understand and only know that it’s the force of faith. It enables me to be independent of my own reason, which is called being above reason.

If I really demand to be above the fulfillment in my heart and mind, the result is something that transcends the limits of this world, some empty space. Then I pray and ask for faith, which means the force of bestowal that the Light should bring me in order to free me from the connection to myself, from the dependency on any most entrancing taste, from all of Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) that is full of pleasures.

I want to be above all that, in the force of bestowal, in order not to see and not to ask to see the Creator’s greatness, in order to not be dependent on any pleasures, fillings, and knowledge. I am above that and do not rely on anything. And the sign for this state is joy.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 17

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Shlah Leha,” Item 238, Lesson 21

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 9, Question 150, Lesson 31

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“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“: At that time you will achieve equivalence of form with the Creator—as all His actions are to bestow and to benefit others, so you, all your actions will be only to bestow and to benefit others. This is the complete Dvekut.

Question: What is equivalence of form? How can I be equal in form if I am a desire to receive?

Answer: Suppose you want to resemble me. I play with you, I present myself to you in some form, and then you try to be like me: You do what I do, think like me and talk like me. The next day I present to you an upgraded form and you have to adapt yourself to me even more, both in your speech and in your actions and thoughts. I give you examples and you have to follow them; this is called an equivalence of form.

Here you may ask: “But how can I resemble the Creator if I don’t see Him?” It says: ‘Return to the Lord, your God.’ How can I return to Him, how can I become increasingly more like Him? At least, give me some example…”

Ask. Ask the Creator to give you an example, to show you who He is and what He is, so that you could be like Him. If you don’t ask, it means that you don’t want to be like Him. When all you really need is an example, you will receive it.

Question: I have a cat, I can teach it everything that I know, but will it eventually be like me?

Answer: A cat doesn’t have a point in the heart. You cannot teach it, you can only tame it. You can make something out of it, but you cannot make a human being out of it, since a human being,  Adam, means “Domeh – similar” to the Creator. A cat doesn’t have the starting point for that, it doesn’t have the initial spark; it doesn’t have a point in the heart.

If it weren’t for the point in the heart that entered the desire to receive during the shattering of the vessels, then we too would develop up to the level of the animate. But when we complete this phase, the point of the speaking level erupts in us. This is what is happening today to humanity: It has reached the end of its development on the “animate” level.

Everything began from scratch, from chaos. Then the level of the still nature appeared, then the level of the vegetative, and then the level of the animate. If there weren’t the point of the speaking in the animate level, the human being that belongs to the level of the speaking, then there would be nowhere to develop to, everything would end here.

This is the surprise and problem in our world: People don’t understand that they are facing a new level. They don’t understand because they don’t see it; it isn’t tangible, it is spiritual. All the previous levels were concrete, while the level of the speaking is not.

If I am on the level of still nature, I cannot identify levels that are higher than mine: the vegetative and the animate levels. There is a connection between them that is visible both to the lower and the upper, but I have no idea what the human level is, and to rise to it is a big mystery for me. What can I do, if I have no way to hold on to it, no examples, but only one great unknown?

This is the reason that the whole world doesn’t understand what is going on and cannot accept the message of the future ascent.

Initially, the desire created by the Creator was the part that serves as the point in the heart (•), Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE). This is called “Israel” which means “Yashar-El” (straight to the Creator). Abraham took the people who belong to this part out of ancient Babel, while the other Babylonians without a point in the heart remained.

Then by the shattering, the destruction, the points of Israel fell and were mixed with the matter of the desire. This is the exile of the people of Israel, the mutual incorporation of the attributes resulting in every person having a point in the heart today.

Still, it is very hard for people to see that there is another phase in their development before them, another level that is of a higher quality and is more essential and powerful than the “animate” level. Imagine that you could only see plants on the surface of the earth. How different would this picture be from the next level, with the animals, birds, fish, and people with their civilization.

Now, when we are facing a new level, no one understands it and no one can perceive the need to rise to it.

Question: If the point in the heart determines everything, can I be compared to Pinocchio today?

Answer: Without the point in the heart you would be a “log,” but in this log there is something else, and so when Geppetto begins to cut it with his axe, it cries out; this is “the point in the heart” that raises the voice of man. Everything else in us is indeed only a “log.”

The next level cannot be formed from nothing. So the people who feel a need to develop come to us, to Bnei Baruch, in order to advance by love, with an inclination upward. Others will have to develop by the path of suffering in order to reach this level.

If the point in the heart doesn’t stand out and doesn’t remind people that it exists, only sufferings will push them forward. The point draws people forward while the sufferings push them from behind. It is like a dipole and everything depends on what moves you—whether it is Torah or suffering.

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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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The internal work begins when a person feels that in every situation and place, no matter what he finds himself in with his desires and his thoughts, there is an awakening from Above, and he has to add his response to this upper action. First he wants to differentiate himself from what he feels and to try to find out what it is exactly that the Creator sends him, why, and for what reason; what does He want to build in a person with that? He needs to clarify what is happening inside him in order to differentiate his natural response from the one that he has to develop inside above that natural one.

The response that a person builds above his nature is composed by his participation in the events and the other half, he is forced to raise to the Creator, knowing that he cannot do it by himself. But he is glad that he discovers the part in which he needs the Creator’s participation, feeling the Creator as a partner, as the eminent, and as his savior inside him!

In this case, a person sees a clear goal before him, understanding that he must reach connection. This means that the first awakening that comes from the Creator in a person’s mind and heart reaches the right implementation. The sign that it is implemented correctly is a person’s change of attitude to the opposite of what it was before, and the great joy he feels about it, which means a successful attempt to rise above himself.

And all of this progress is due to the upper force that now remains in a person. Every action that we make in every moment is fulfilled that way if it’s received correctly in a person.
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From the 1^st  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can I examine every action that I make more effectively in order to discover the reason for the awakening from Above that caused it?

Answer: Let me give you an example. Suppose the phone suddenly rings and an unfamiliar voice says, “Wait, I am coming to settle my account with you today,” and hangs up just like in horror movies. You don’t know who has just called and what it’s all about! You begin to look at everyone that you meet suspiciously and fearfully. You check and examine everything that happens.

This is exactly how we should look for the Creator. We need the concern, the anxiety, the fear, the insecurity, and the helplessness that force a person to remain sensitive and alert and to check everything that comes his way.

If the goal is very important to me, but I don’t see that I advance towards it, I worry about what is happening and have to find out what is standing in my way. What is the goal exactly and maybe I am not imagining it correctly. What are the means for attaining it?

Here I discover that my problem is that I simply have to turn my hatred into love. I have to check my state and my intention and to concede where I currently cannot concede. I have to pay attention to what I disrespect and consider as unimportant now and to try to feel it. Then I will regain consciousness and suddenly see the upper world. I don’t see it now only because I don’t want to see it!

It all depends on changing one’s principles according to which a person relates to reality. They determine what a person’s reality will be like.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What exactly goes into the 1% of the desires that a person cannot process by himself when he is under the Machsom (barrier)? Is it the stoney heart, the serpent?

Answer: We don’t examine such discernments before the Machsom, before the spiritual barrier. Before it, we don’t see anything and have no understanding or recognition as to where the serpent is and where it isn’t. Believe me, it is in your best and purest thoughts and desires, where you think that you love and devotedly care about others, that the serpent is.

Just like in history, at the time of the exile in Egypt, the serpent is not revealed among common people, neither the Jews nor the Egyptians. Only Moses, Pharaoh, the Creator, and several Egyptian priests, Pharaoh’s counselors, and those who were close to him saw the serpent. It is only among them that the serpent is revealed and becomes a staff, and then the staff becomes a serpent again; it is only when a person attains such high levels.

The serpent doesn’t appear purposelessly, but only as tiny snakes on the animate level. The real serpent, however, is two-legged, and you have not met it yet. It is only on the upper levels that the essence of the snake is revealed. A very strong Light is needed to show us how opposite our desire to receive is from the Light. The Light has to reveal its full infinite depth and the power of its love and bestowal so that in contrast to all that, we will feel how opposite our egoistic nature is from it.

The real two-legged serpent is revealed only after the Machsom. Until then, during the time of preparation, only small snakes bite us. Each time something disturbs you and repels you from connecting with the friends, from unity, from cooperation, from the right intention—this is the revelation of the small siblings of that serpent, and they eat you up like worms.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 34

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Shlah Leha,” Item 223, Lesson 20

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 9, Question 150, Lesson 31

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“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” Lesson 5 

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Question: Does Kabbalah have any proof for beginners? How can I be sure that I am on the right track?

Answer: You have no proof and no certainty. You can go if you want to.

This is the condition for entering the spiritual dimension. The alternative is suffering, which eventually will make you accept this condition.

If you are not able to nullify yourself and refuse payment, you will not enter spirituality. Haven’t you heard about this? You are looking for proof, incentives, this is understandable; things cannot be any other way. These objections are just, but there is no place for them. They only awaken in you so you would rise above them.

Even the support of your friends cannot be rewarding to you. It is because deep down in your soul you cannot stand them and would never unite with these people. So this is not about friendship and its benefits.

Simply today, you do not yet know what the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the screen, and the Reflecting Light are. In reality you will never receive anything. Once you enter it, you will discover that you have always been there, but you only were able to perceive it the moment you became willing to reject everything. And you perceive it in the vessels of bestowal, rejecting for yourself, never for yourself, but only for others.

Question: Isn’t there anything to cheer us up?

Answer: I do not want to put glitter before your eyes. The group and our friends from all over the world that are connected to us must know the truth: Spirituality lies beyond human strength. When a person has a point in the heart, he understands that this is right. And even though sometimes it seems that an obstacle cannot be overcome, only this can be true and nothing else.

Thus you discover all the truth. Conversely, any appeal to the egoistic desire, any attachment to it, is not the spiritual path.

– But will I at least get something?

– Nothing!

– What do I get?

– You don’t!

– What about receiving spiritual attainment?

– Spiritual attainment is the antithesis to reception. You only reject, you do not want anything for yourself. Your entire enormous desire to receive, which you are not yet aware of, your entire egoism, you raise it from the “stomach” to the “head” and fully reject it. And thus you form the real “head,” the screen and the Reflecting Light. You do not take anything for yourself no matter what comes to you, you give everything to others. It is best when no one even knows what you did because this could also serve as a “bribe.”

And then you begin to feel what it is like to be on the degree of the Creator…

Your point in the heart must agree with this. It is the truth and it has the same qualities. And whoever does not agree is free to go. These people are supporters, but they are not Kabbalists.

Question: This means that we are striving to attain something that is not real?

Answer: Exactly. For you, for your vessels, this is unrealistic; it is opposite for you. This is why it is written: “I saw an upside-down world.”

Question: And yet, what will we achieve? What will we attain in spirituality?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes in Letter #8 about it: “Everything that happens in the world has a worthy goal called ‘a drop of unity.’ When the dwellers of ‘corporeal homes’ experience all the horrors, through their absolute pride removed from them, a certain opening appears in the walls of their heart, which is not receptive at all according to the actual nature of creation. And they become worthy of the installation of this drop of unity in their heart.

And they will become like an impression from a seal, and they will see for themselves that, on the contrary, it is through these horrors that they come to attain the absolute, removed from alien pride. Unification with the Creator happens only there, and it is there where a drop of unity can reign over them.”
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/13, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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