Question: How should the lower use the connection with the upper for correction?

Answer: The lower has to nullify himself in order to receive from the upper. It’s as if you are drowning in the river and someone throws you a rope so that you can hold on to it and reach the shore. For you “catching the rope” means reaching the initial level of equivalence of form. This initial equivalence of form is called annulment.

Later the work becomes more difficult. Although you have nullified yourself before the upper and have caught the “end of the rope” and you already have a link to it, you know that in order to start receiving in order to bestow, you have to create an inner deficiency in the link in addition to the self annulment and the simplest adhesion with the upper. Here a person has to act against his own opinion, thus inserting his deficiency into the upper and going through phases of Ibur (gestation). Otherwise, it will lead to nothing. “A man’s pride shall humiliate him,” and this is a very big problem.

In our work, the group has the role of the upper. It should be a concept, an idea, the embodiment of perfection in my eyes, since the actual connection is already an upper attribute. Here an addition to self-annulment is required: By nullifying myself I adhere to the upper, and by continuing the work of annulment, I determine the connection with Him.

In other words, by my initial self-annulment, I make a contact with the upper, with the group, with the teacher and the study. But in order to enter it, in order to receive from it, I have to nullify the “flesh” of my desire, layer after layer. This period is called “the nine months of pregnancy,” and eventually it will become a birth.

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The Jewish nation has always excelled in its achievements. The problem is that this potential should have been directed at bestowal upon the Creator, at spiritual revelation, at self-correction and the correction of the whole world. Instead of doing that, this nation uses its potential in order to receive.

For example, 20% of Nobel Prize winners are Jews, while this nation is less than 1% of the world’s population. In other words, they have certain natural attributes. But the truth is they didn’t receive these attributes thanks to their brains, but thanks to the attribute of bestowal that is in them. Once, in previous generations, the Jews used this attribute correctly, but today they are using it for different purposes: for science, industry commerce, theft. No matter what this potential is used for, it is still about the force of bestowal that is being used in desires to receive, and in the end this is harmful.

So the nations of the world say:  “This isn’t what we need from you.”

“How can that be? We have done so many useful things!”

“It doesn’t matter; we don’t need this from you. So what if you are so clever?”

The Israeli nation has to free the force of bestowal from all the current occupations and focus it on totally different things.

The nations of the world say: “By your actions you are causing us harm.”

“And this is after all our small nation has done for the world?”

“You are the cause of the evil in the world, you are bringing us troubles.”

And everyone agrees to that.

“But there were good things too!”

No, they don’t mention the good things because they know that there is nothing good here, the best example is the situation in the Gaza Strip.

“Look!” Israel is crying out, “even in wartime we supplied electricity, we transported food products and humanitarian supplies, we provided them with all the basic necessities, including cement, which they use for terrorist purposes, and we endanger our soldiers just to protect their civilian population…”

One may ask what kind of a war is this? How can this be? But everyone strongly demanded that Israel stop the bloodshed. Does this make sense? Perfectly. Unless the Israeli nation fulfills the correction it has to fulfill, it doesn’t matter what they do, they do it in vessels of receiving, and by that bring about harm to themselves and to the whole world.

It’s time to study the response of the nations of the world and to learn a lesson from it. No demand for objectivity will help here, no matter how friendly the Jews try to be, the nations of the world have opposite feelings.

“But we agreed to your demands!”

“You caused harm.”

“We conceded!”

“You caused harm.”

Thus the nations of the world teach the Jews what is good and what is bad. This is called “help against.” This is Pharaoh, or in other words, the force of the Creator that influences the Israeli nation through its posterior. Eventually this nation has to deal with the Creator Himself. In fact, it is He who speaks for the nations of the world. They are His messengers and He is telling the Jews the following: “You are not doing what you have to do, the wars depend on you and not on them, you are actually forcing them to fight.” It says, “The hearts of ministers and kings are in the hands of the Creator.”

Everything comes from Him and He doesn’t just send missiles upon the Israeli nation: “If you do your job, if you connect, you will understand who you are and how to do good to the world, so please, show the nations of the world the method of correction. After all, you are the only ones who have it. Then the wars will stop and everything will calm down and the nations of the world will help you.”

This is not a lecture or mockery, I am saying this with a crying heart. The Israeli nation in the Land of Israel has to do its job, to bring Light to the world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/12, “Exile and Redemption”

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It is impossible for anyone to calculate the measure of work that he needs to invest in order to move to the next stage. It is impossible to say about an ordinary person, who meanwhile is living his normal corporeal life like everyone else, how many corrections he will need in order for the point in the heart to open in him, the spiritual spark. Also it is impossible to say how many actions he will need to make with this spark in order to reach the first revelation, meaning to connect it with the other sparks.

In the first degree we are connecting our suffering, and then in this measurement of suffering that was connected, finally the spiritual spark is revealed, meaning, a valuable question is reveled in a man: What is the meaning of my life? This spark directs him to the goal, to the answer for the question, “What is the meaning of life.”

After that, he again begins to work in the group that changes him, because he is not able to change by himself. Man finds himself under the influence of the environment and he changes, because it changes. So in the period of preparation, he tries to put himself under the influence of the environment in the most beneficial way for the fastest progress to transfer from the path of suffering to the path of Light, the Torah, the wisdom of Kabbalah.

With that ends the preparation period: preparation for the covenant of self-annulment for Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), rising above the thoughts and disturbances in order to achieve connection of our sparks.

The whole work is done through the influence of the environment upon a man. Therefore, it is impossible to calculate in advance the toil that is demanded from him and the precise situation or state that needs to happen so he will receive the revelation. This is because the revelation depends on the state surrounding him.  This state is not coincidental, but to calculate it one needs to know and take into consideration the whole system, and this is impossible from our degree.

From a higher degree it is possible somehow to calculate it, but here there is an additional condition. Each degree includes four phases, a whole HaVaYaH, and in order to rise to the pure calculation, one needs to raise the HaVaYaH. That is, only from the world of Yetzira, one can observe the world of Assiya. And if one exists in a high degree of the world Assiya, it is impossible to calculate what will happen in a lower degree of the same world, because your corrections in the degree of this world (in the Light of the Nefesh) is still not determined.

But due to a man strengthening his connection with the environment, he progresses. Finally, the concealment disappears and he comes to revelation.

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” Letter 54: It is true that after the Creator sees that a man completed the measurement of his work and finished everything that he had to do in his power of choice and strengthening in the Emuna (faith) in the Creator. It means that he proved that he yearns for the quality of bestowal that is called Emuna. And then the Creator helps him and he is rewarded with the attainment of the revealed Providence, it means the revelation of the face.

This help from the Creator cannot come before he finishes his measure of work. It is worthwhile to remember this always, so as not to request revelation, that is, one needs to request from the Creator help to complete the work and not for the revelation. This is a result of our work. A corrected Kli (desire) is felt as the revelation of the upper world. The revelation does not come from someplace outside the man himself, by becoming corrected from not being corrected, by finishing his correction, in this state that until a moment ago was not corrected, suddenly he feels the corrected state that is called redemption.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

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All of our life, history, and everything that we went through from the beginning of creation until now divides into two parts: exile and redemption. There is nothing else except for these two states:

• It could be that I separate from the upper force and exist in exile, in some kind of illusion, in a “dream” that is called “this world” under the influence of my egoistic desire which detaches me from seeing and feeling the spiritual world;
• Or by means of certain actions, which the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us, I reach the revelation of the upper force and demand it to take me out of exile, and to raise me above this world to the upper world, and when that finally happens, then I am rewarded with redemption.

The difference between exile (Galut – גלות) and redemption (Geula – גאולה) is the letter “Aleph” (א), which  symbolizes the Creator, (Aluph – אלוף) Champion of the world. This is how all of our reality is divided, all the process of development. We certainly aren’t aware of this until suddenly we receive an awakening which allows us to stop the period of exile, the darkness, the feeling of this world, the intolerable and worst state, and to pass to a new period, a new level, a new state, that is called redemption. It’s for this that we study.

Since we exist in this world, we use the words to describe the upper world, the spiritual state. But together with this, it’s forbidden to forget that the contents and meanings of the words are different from their usual meanings. For example, Adam (man/human) belongs to the category of “Israel,” which isn’t according to one’s birth, but according to his spiritual longings.

“Religious,” from the spiritual meaning of the wisdom of Kabbalah, are the Sefirot of “Daat” (intellect/knowledge), “Tifferet” (Splendor) and “Yesod” (Foundation) which is the middle line. In other words, a person who already works with three lines and arrives, or at least longs to adhere to the Creator is called “religious.” And secular is one who is found under the control of the desire to receive. “Holiness” is the attribute of bestowal and love.

In this way, all our terms and definitions are characteristic of only one thing: identifying what force operates on a person in determining his intention in each action. Either it’s with the intention for the sake of bestowal, according to the principle of “love your friend as yourself,” which comes to “love of the Creator,” or the opposite, with the intention to receive for oneself. That is all the difference that exists between people.

A person who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah without the intention to attract the Light that Reforms has no chance to attract this Light in any other way. And without this Light he remains “secular,” meaning he exists with the intention to receive for himself. He is separated from the Creator and even from the Light that Reforms, which is also called the “Torah.” Thus, when we are reading the writings of the Kabbalists, we need to always understand and remember that they express solely spiritual terms.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/12, “Exile and Redemption”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: Thus, one should wonder how is it possible for Kabbalists to use false words to explain the interconnections in this wisdom? Also, it is known that there is no definition through a false name, for the lie has no legs and no stance. Indeed, here you need to have prior knowledge of the law of root and branch by which the worlds relate to one another.

Hence, we can understand that the wisdom of Kabbalah is one hundred percent authentic. In chemistry, for example, they use very long formulas that define the composition of a substance. The name itself describes the material, its components, and the relationships between them. However, the formulas and names display only their external qualities. In order to understand formulas, you first have to study the language they are written in. If any other scientist, who is unfamiliar with the accepted nomenclature of modern chemistry and doesn’t know the latest research in this field, begins to explore the same phenomena, he would describe them in his own language and would use quite different terminology.

It means that there is no authenticity in our regular language, even though it also is given to us from Above as is anything else in this world; however, this is a different issue.

On the other hand, when Kabbalists do their research in order to find truth, or when they explore a phenomenon, or investigate its outcome, they go to their roots. The upper Light turned the desire into a black point and then expanded it into two directions: Hassadim and Hochma, in other words, upward and downward, to the left and to the right, forward and behind. We observe various phenomena, their consequences, words, letters and combinations thereof. We start at a single point of creation; everything is defined for us by the connection between the Lights and the vessels: shapes, arrangement of letters, combination of words, and even the way we read them.

This is why Kabbalah is an ideal and unambiguous wisdom that doesn’t depend on any subjective factors that are contingent upon any particular person. It doesn’t get identical medications that are named differently only because they were made at different enterprises. We attain truth, perceive genuine phenomena that are of an internal nature, and learn how to express them in a way that is unchangeable and independent.

In other words, one attains the Absolute to the extent of the correctness of one’s desires. This is the only limitation there is. To the degree to which we associate ourselves with the Creator, we become similar to Him in our properties. It happens in accordance with the only law that works in nature. We discern the world and discover new things that can be described orally or in writing in real terms.

In general, it is what we call “the language of branches.” This language has its own specifics. It contains certain words that are built of spiritual elements, but all in all the names are taken from this world. Why? Because on our way to spirituality we discover that the worlds impact one another, making a chain that goes from top to bottom; this influence reaches the “lowest” state, the very last step. Accordingly, we pick up authentic words at this step, trace their connection with the roots, and assign names in accordance with the branch they belong to.

Naturally, it can be done only by those who see the connection between the root and the branch.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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There can be different fears: for my condition in this world, for my relatives, and for the whole the world. But all these are corporeal fears that stem from the fact that a person isn’t connected to the Creator in the right way at the moment so that he could realize that everything is in His hands and that “there is none else besides Him.”

A person doesn’t understand that he is totally under the Creator’s control, and so he fears for himself in this world. Since he has no contact with the Creator, he feels that he and this world are detached from the upper force. He thinks that this world exists on its own.

Then there is another stage when a person begins to worry about the way things are in the next world: about himself, about his relatives, and about the world. This means that he separates himself and the world from the Creator, as if all these things exist separately from one another, and he looks for a connection between them that can ensure the best existence for him.

All this fear stems from concealment, so nothing can help except for advancing towards true fear, the fear of the Creator.

This is already a different kind of fear; it isn’t regarding this world and not the next world, and not about the reward and punishment in it. There is simply fear that remains in a person for now; he hasn’t totally discovered that the Creator controls all of His good creation and that he has nothing to ask for and nothing to worry about, not in the present and not in the future.

When he looks back at the past he is ashamed of his bad deeds. This means that he still hasn’t adhered to the upper Providence so that he can understand that there is none else besides Him, except the only Providence.

It turns out that the cause of all the fears is the concealment. Everything is determined only by our transition from concealment to revelation. There is no other criterion to assess our states. Concealment, an insufficient feeling of the Creator, and incomplete faith above reason, all lead to fear and worry.

This level is called “repentance of fear” and it is the intermediate level before wholeness. It must exist. On this level a person clarifies how many desires in which he feels this world are still disconnected from the only good, infinite Providence of the Creator.

He can arrange his desires faster if he connects more strongly to the group. Inside it he will always find the upper Light and himself operating, and he will process all his fears correctly so that every fear will advance towards wholeness as much as possible.

Complete fear is called the Light of Hassadim in the illumination of Hochma. He should approach such a fear gradually by his examinations. If he demands it correctly, he demands to know about all the interruptions, which means about all his desires and discernments in which he doesn’t yet resemble the Creator and in which there is no whole fear.

In the meantime a person is not in a state of whole fear, worrying whether he has the intention of in order to bestow, above all his vessels of knowledge, his vessels of receiving, but actually this is what makes up the complete fear. At the same time, worrying about this, about how great his bestowal is, which means above what thickness of the vessel that was revealed, he can rise and be in bestowal. This is how we reach complete fear.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Introduction to the Study of the The Sefirot” 

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Question: What is the right spiritual fear?

Answer: The right fear has to appear in a person every moment, and he should know how to correct it, which means how to ask for a greater fear.

Suppose I see that I am not so connected and adhered to the friends and I want it to really scare me. I want to feel terrible anxiety and fear of that, since if I am not adhered and connected to them strongly enough, I will not attain anything!

I know that I have to be incorporated in them and to lose myself, but I cannot do that. So where is my fear and anxiety of that? Where is the concern for that—to constantly think that I lack it, that it hurts and threatens my very existence? This permanent inner concern must constantly occupy me. I have to fear that I have no fear.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Introduction to the Study of the The Sefirot” 

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 54: When the Creator sees that one has completed one’s measure of exertion and finished everything he had to do in strengthening his choice in faith in the Creator, the Creator helps him. Then, one attains open Providence, meaning the revelation of the face.

This is where the work in the group comes in—all of the person’s obligations, according to the designation of his soul and his generation, which can be very different from one generation to another and from one person to another. No one knows for sure what one’s obligatory measure of exertion is, since it is very personal, because everyone stems from the spiritual root of his soul. Even when we correct ourselves and connect, we are still in different states, although we are connected into one big vessel.

Every time new people join us, we immediately connect to them in one system, and accordingly changes take place in us. There is never a change in a person that stems from himself. If he lived alone in the world, he would never change.

All our changes are a result of perpetual movements towards connection in the general vessel. This influences everyone personally, each time awakening a new environment, in the attitude towards a person, to which he has to connect: either by the path of sufferings or by the path of the Torah. This is how everyone operates throughout his life.

Most people go through these connections unconsciously, unprepared, not understanding what they are doing and what they are living for. This is how they are reborn from one generation to another and their whole correction is done unconsciously. About this it says “go and make a living from one another.” Everyone influences everyone else and as a result everyone changes according to the Reshimot (informational records) in the general shattered desire.

So no one changes on his own. All the changes stem from the fact that a person forms different connections with others at any given moment. This is how this general system exists and operates.

It either happens on an unconscious level, or in people who are already on the preparation level, which means that they want to advance to conscious actions. In the meantime, however, they only make efforts, as preparation. They work on it so that they will be worthy of their advancement and to participate in it actively, and thus they advance.
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From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Malchut is called a prayer because it is a deficiency that one cannot get along without. After the first three phases of Direct Light, comes the fourth, final stage, Malchut, deficiency. If a man doesn’t have a deficiency, this is a sign that he has no Malchut, meaning he doesn’t have the beginning of the degree of Adam, human; he doesn’t have anything to start his spiritual structure with.

All the spiritual work is in order to develop our deficiency (Hissaron), our Malchut, so it becomes Malchut Shamaim “(Kingdom of Heaven),” meaning Malchut that is connected with heaven totally exists under the Providence of Bina. This is to say, to make your desire exactly as the desire of the Creator.

In this goal, a man always is conducting a dialog: He raises his deficiency, checks it, and requests to reveal what his real desire is, what does he want at this current moment and in general.  He always turns to the Creator with this deficiency in order to organize it, to fit it to the fulfillment, to the reaction from above, and to keep a constant connection with the Creator.

That is why it says: “Let it be that he will pray all day,” because this is creating our mutual connection with the Creator.  We only need to constantly direct our Malchut, our heart, to the new deficiency. And if we do not do that, then nature, as always, will push us to correction together with all the creatures by the general Light, the general pressure, that if we feel as growing tension and as the global crisis.

But if a man wants to be in personal connection with the Creator, he must always turn to Him with the correct deficiency, to reformat it, to organize it and to be constantly concerned that this deficiency would fit the stages of the progress.

It is impossible to finish this work and to relax, because by that a man feels that his heart connects more and more strongly with the Creator, in a direct and shortest connection. The levels of this connection determine the levels of the worlds. Man feels that he is shortening more and more the way to and understands better and better the Creator. And the group is the mechanism that connects them together; this is the collection of the foreign deficiencies. Because it guarantees that a person will relate correctly to the Creator.

And this is how he progresses; each new fulfillment better organizes his desire. He wants precisely a fulfillment like this because to bring contentment to the Creator is possible by bringing Him the whole deficiency for fulfillment.
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Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12

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From Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot:” “Indeed, it is to resolve this great riddle that the verse writes, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Here is what is meant by a “vague riddle”: What is the meaning of life and its goal? What does this entire universe exist for? Why are we here? Why do we feel what we feel? If one starts asking these questions, one definitely has to find answers to them to discover the meaning of life.

Then, we stop asking whether our material life is good or bad, nor do we strive to understand it more or to accomplish anything on this plane. We are preoccupied with a question that concerns the very basis of life: “Where does it all come from?” Everything around us has a meaning. So, what is the general purpose that nature or the Higher force pursued at the time of creation? What does our existence mean in general?

Indeed, in regard to resolving this obscure riddle, it is said: Taste and see that the Lord is good. Those who keep the Torah and Mitzvot correctly are the ones who taste the taste of life. They are the ones who see and testify that the Lord is good… In other words, if a person observes certain laws, he tunes himself up in a way that he begins to feel the purpose of life, its basis and origin. It is about having a feeling of the source of the entire universe, not just of man or even of humanity, but rather nature as a whole: Where did it start, why, and what purpose is it leading us to?

Kabbalists say that it becomes possible if a person makes special internal corrections. Because now we can’t catch answers to these questions, so we only have a question per se. Although, having a question signifies that we are already capable of finding a solution. Consequently, the sum of a question and the observation of the “Torah and the commandments,” that is the correct calibration that leads us to resolution of this dilemma that is, as it sounds: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” It means that one will feel and understand the benevolence of the force that is the source of nature.

We don’t yet understand the meaning of good and evil. The meaning of life is the attainment of the essence of creation, not just feeling its pleasant taste. If we experience a sensation of the Creator’s benevolence, it means that we fulfill our empty cavities that need answers with Him.

We are the ones who have to make internal changes, since our efforts give shape to finding the answer. We don’t have a choice: Either we fulfill the commandments (make corrections) or we don’t. The entire process is built in a way that a person advances without being asked whether he or she wants it or doesn’t. But if we constantly strive to find support that helps us move faster in the direction of the answer, then to this extent we implement our freedom of choice.

It is said that “The wicked, in their lives, are called dead.” If one doesn’t exercise the method of correction, advancement, or use the Reforming Light, then one’s life becomes pitiful. While in the material plane, one can even be quite successful, but he will never move forward toward the goal. And so his life will remain at the animate level of existence.

The human level means that a person uses the Light that Reforms and constantly rises from the animate level to the human level, to the level of man, Adam, which means similar (Domeh) to the upper force.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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