There are four levels of development of the desire to receive in spirituality: the still, vegetative, animate and speaking.

The desire acts according to the force that is in it.

If it is a force on the level of the still nature, the desire keeps its structure and resists external forces as much as it can, so that they wouldn’t penetrate it and wouldn’t break it. There are materials that are more or less strong, more or less stable depending on the intensity of the desire of the specific still form. Some materials are very hard to break down, while others are malleable. Another question is which materials are eventually more resistant to external influences, a rubber wheel, for example absorbs the blows despite the external shaking and penetrations, while a stone or iron ring breaks down much faster.

This is how we check our desires according to their internal hardness and not their physical hardness: how do they resist external changes. Even in our world we see the difference between rubber and iron that can resist external changes but breaks down when something penetrates it.

After the level of the still nature there is the vegetative level. Its desire is stronger and greater, and it can resist external influences, sort them out and use the beneficial elements. It checks and sorts out external factors, absorbs what is beneficial and emits what is harmful.

Thus a very complex act of clarification takes place for which the desire of the vegetative has to know its own structure, how and what it exists for, what is beneficial for it, and what is harmful. The vegetative does this clarification instinctively, and by that we can understand how one should operate on the spiritual level of the vegetative.

The desire of the animate level can choose its environment, and so it can move from place to place. It needs a mate to reproduce. Birth is a real creation here, as if the Creator creates a new creation. In spirituality it is indeed so, and unless one acquires the force of Bina it cannot give birth.

The desire on the animate level can take on many forms. In addition to knowing itself, it also knows different phenomena that reveal smaller and bigger desires. Thus the animate level sees its life from one end to another. Animals have offspring and bring them up. On the whole, at this level, there is an instinctive inner program of knowledge of one’s life, even though it is limited and inevitable.

Animals move around and feel where it is good for them and where it is bad. They can choose the environment. The vegetative hardly influences the environment, but only protects itself from pests and to a certain extent opens up to beneficial external conditions such as sunlight, air, moisture, etc. On the other hand, animals choose and change the environment; they move from one place to another, they make themselves a place to live, and reproduce. To a certain extent they feel the other, including their prey, which they also have to understand and feel. They feel the other especially when they gather in flocks, which have a clear order and hierarchy.

These are profound things but they are still fulfilled instinctively.

As for us on the level of the speaking, everything has to be above the desire to receive, above the restriction. We should only understand that a person has to get to know the new world.

In the spiritual world there are 620 desires that operate on every level:

• The still level is ready to resist any changes of its ego, by keeping itself under the Masach (screen), under the protection of the restriction, that is, above all the egoistic desires.
• The vegetative level uses its desire to receive from the egoistic shell of the Klipot with the help of the Light that Reforms, and begins to empty it and clarify what is good for it and what is harmful. It absorbs what is beneficial and emits what is harmful, opening and closing itself, as all its actions are aimed at bestowal, but still operating within the general, with no personal clarification, not giving birth to anything independently. The creatures on the vegetative level remain within the framework of the general desire and change together. In other words, a person can be above his personal egoistic desire, but he cannot “bend” or change society yet, he cannot encompass it and correct it internally.
• The animate level with its desire to receive can exist in the Creator’s world almost limitlessly.
• A human being includes all of the environment inside him, the whole world, and becomes a “righteous that is the foundation of the world.”

Baal HaSulam speaks about it in article 115 in Shamati, which is also called “Still, Vegetative, Animate and Speaking.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/12, Shamati #115

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 8, Lesson 3

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Emor,” Item 61, Lesson 5

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 8, “Ohr Pnimi,” (Starting with: “Now you can understand”),  Lesson 32

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Acting Workshop “Build a Home”

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A human being (Adam) is a new action, new creation developing according to the internal program, inherent in the primary “drop of semen.” To this program, this form, given by the father, the mother’s material is added. Then the program begins to be realized, manifest itself, and the material takes the form of a human being.

A person is born from a mother like an animal. However, we talk about our inner structure, how we give birth to ourselves spiritually. And here is a special condition before us: We have to create our form ourselves.

Question: But is an animal not capable of this?

Answer: An animal remains an animal. It cannot become a human being. It is the foundation above which he is formed. In general, the still, vegetative, and animate nature is the platform above which we build the human form.

Question: Who can build it?

Answer: The “drop of semen” that lies above the animal degree. It contains everything, except the material. But when the material is added to it, the necessary form does not appear automatically like in the animal world; we have to find it ourselves. In the spiritual world, a person creates himself with the Creator’s help.

Initially, I do not know my future spiritual form. I should want it, look for it and try, going in faith above reason as much as I can. I act, striving for something that seems like bestowal to me, and these efforts suddenly bring me to a “discovery,” a new form. Yes, I was thinking about it all that time, but still could not imagine what it would be in reality. Now, when the form of bestowal is dressed in me, I attain it.

How did I get it, not knowing where to go exactly? That is why it is called a “discovery”—it is a surprise for me, not an expected result.

Question: So, what is my free choice?

Answer: Your free choice is to seek this form with the help of the environment, by all possible means. Namely the environment builds my future state, creating its form according to the principle of a matrix that puts pressure on a tin ingot from both sides, giving it the desired form. I am that ingot, the initial material, lying between the two parts of the press: The group is one side and the teacher and studies are the other.

And the fact is that I put myself under this press. I am ready to accept various forms and just want to annul myself, like an ingot that could be given any shape. Thus I acquire the human form.

Question: Where is freedom here?

Answer: It is impossible to be just free, if you are free, it means from something. In reality, you can be independent only from the evil inclination. That is why the Creator created the evil inclination first: pride, self-importance, and other egoistic qualities, relative to which we can check ourselves: How much you can cancel them, sacrifice them in order to take any form that the teacher, studies, and group require from you? If you accept their “pressure,” the Creator fills this new form with the spirit of life. And if not, then not.

When you would like to leave the group, but still decide to stay, then you go toward free choice. The choice means to rise above the evil inclination. Then, you will really feel free.

But now the time has not come yet: Is it possible to let a baby who barely learned to walk choose? He will break something. It is impossible to create a reality of freedom immediately when you have all the qualities opposed to the Creator and you have the opportunity to agree or disagree with Him.

However, today it is not required. Gradually, you realize that you do not have choice for the time being while you are under the dominion of the egoistic desire. Only it acts in you, and you have nothing else, no other force in resisting egoism in something and putting up with it in something else. You still need to go forward, study, and draw a lot of Reforming Light in order to acquire the second force.

In the end, finding yourself between two forces, you obtain the whole world, completely different values, a new understanding. Then, we will talk about free choice.

It is no coincidence that the right to vote is given at 18 and not before. Imagine if 10-year-old children could vote. Then candidates would state from the screen without any constraint: “I will give you candies! I will provide everyone under the age of 18 with the latest generation of smartphones!”

In general, we see that everyday life does not offer a person freedom. And there is no such desire. Today, you do not think that you need choice because you feel you are free. You do not feel that the Creator fully controls you.

And that is why He teaches you: First, He gives you the egoistic desire and then puts obstacles on the path to its realization, as if someone prevents you. You do not understand yet that everything comes from one source, and that is what you are taught.

Question: How can we accelerate this process?

Answer: Through playing with the correct environment, with the group. Replace a vague relationship with the Creator with a real relationship with the group. You can do this. If you want with the help of environment to change how the Creator treats you, you have the opportunity. Instead of the Creator, accept the group as a factor of influence and you can control your life freely.

We hear this, but do not yet feel it. No problem, awareness will come soon…
[92593]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Lesson 2

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts, Lesson 4

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 8, Item 47, Lesson 31

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“The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 1

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Emor,” Item 5, Lesson 3

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 8, “Ohr Pnimi,” (Starting with: “It is written, ‘These two bottom'”), Item 45, Lesson 30

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Pri Chacham al-a-Torah”

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Every action in our world can be realized in no more than two ways, and as a rule, not less. Rabash explains this in the article “A Short Path and a Long Path” (Shlavey HaSulam “Rungs of the Ladder” 1985/86, Article 26).

Before the elections in the US, I said that according to all the signs from the two candidates, Mitt Romney could push the world to correction via a shorter and more favorable path. My opinion has not changed today.

I explained that the matter is not in the political support of Israel. Just speaking about the preservation of a strong state of Israel, Romney would have allowed us to carry out the correction of the world from here that is not possible from America or any other place. Romney, by his actions, undoubtedly supports this process.

On the other hand, Obama has some other plans. I am not going to go into politics and discuss them, but we are yet to feel their results in Israel. The Americans will feel them as well because they go against the program of creation. They will face strong blows that are just beginning. This is the second path.

In my view, it is very natural. Until we have reached the end of correction, every time when we want something good, we get even more severe conditions of egoism. It is said in the Torah: “Come to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart.” After each plague, each action of the Creator, Moses and the Jews complained that they wanted to escape, to get out of these conditions.

What did the Creator do? He went to the next action, for example, left them without straw to make bricks, etc. This is a natural course of events, and it may be repeated a few times because for the time being we have not yet realized the evil fully to escape from Egypt and moreover to win over all those who have to come out with us. After all, today we stand on the threshold of the complete redemption of the world, not just the people of Israel.

So it is natural that Obama has succeeded. For our part, we had to stand up for Romney, as the necessary one and continue to request that the current approach uncover as many flaws as possible.

I have already explained Obama’s approach is not to support Israel. Maybe, he is right from all points of view. Perhaps, he is able to bring such arguments that we can only recognize their validity. But I am talking from the point of view of correcting the world. Obama does not know much about this, and yet to correct the world, the people of Israel must live on its land, grow, and become the real people as it was before the destruction of the Temple. It must reach this stage and correct the world as Baal HaSulam writes at the end of “Preface to The Book of Zohar.”

So, the next events in the world and the program of creation do not coincide with Obama’s plans. And that is why I am against him making decisions. In reality, the Creator determines everything, and the hearts of rulers are in His hands; however, the decisions will come through Obama as through the “evil angel,” but not the “good” one.

In the case with Romney, it is opposite. A simple thing is important here: He wants the people of Israel to live on their land. It does not matter what motivates him. The main thing is that it helps correction.

I repeat: It is natural that Romney was not elected. After all, we have not started the actual correction; we are still revealing evil. We certainly need a hard “catalyst” to reveal evil, and now we will get it.

Question: Wasn’t the winner in this election preordained by the Creator?

Answer: I don’t care. Even if I were informed in advance, nonetheless, I have to choose the path to correction that seems shorter to me. I do not play in secret knowledge, but carry out a game with myself: What do I choose? And my choice is completely independent of my political bias to Israel, of color, of Evangelicals, Mormons, etc. The only criterion is that with Mitt Romney we would have found ourselves in the conditions closer to correction, to unity, and to disseminating the science of Kabbalah from the land of Israel. That is all. Romney supports that more than Obama, and thus allows us to carry out correction. There are no other calculations. I do not care about their politics and their image; I am talking about the internal approach of each of them.

Question: Now that Obama is elected, that is, a long path, what can the world expect?

Answer: First of all, we have been speaking for a long time that the world is entering bad times. However, we do not want to scare people; on the contrary, our goal is to awaken and motivate them to action. We talked about the crisis years before it began officially, but the world was not ready to hear that. Two years ago, when everyone stated that the troubles were behind us, we explained that the crisis was not over. Today, they believe it will last another two, five, or ten years. It takes time for all this nonsense to dissipate from those “wise men.”

There will be a big confusion all over the world, in the US, Europe, China, and Israel. It is not simply a struggle between capitalism and socialism; the world is accelerating towards harsh, rapid, and difficult developments.

As for the Jews, there is nothing you can do; they always learn from hard blows. Weak blows do not work on them.

I hope that the American Jews will eventually feel that it is required to be attached to correction. Today, they feel themselves firstly Americans, then Jews, and in the end, perhaps feel some affiliation to Israel. And it is bad, and not by any national considerations, but in terms of correcting the world, and just because of that. Thus they will get blows. What else? To get out of exile, one must see all its forms opposite deliverance.

You can go the other way through awareness, through education, understanding what is happening. But they do not want to hear this, so they will have some problems…and anyway the whole world.

However, we hope that we will be able to sweeten and to accelerate the process. After all, we are not happy about that. We must understand that, ultimately, it is up to us. We have to play our part correctly because we have the method and the work entrusted to us. No matter how much we think about Romney and Obama, the Jews and Americans, the whole world, we first have to check whether we do everything possible.

We need to bring a very simple and optimistic message to the people of Israel: If it unites, then it will become a connecting link between this world and the spiritual world. Nothing else is required.

A magnifying glass can focus the sunrays so to start a fire. So the people of Israel should become such a focusing point, so that the upper Light passes through it and “ignites” the world. No one will do this, neither Obama nor Romney.

The world is like a shapeless mass, and Israel must be in the middle between it and the Creator. In other words, Israel should include both factors—the Creator and the world—bring them together, connect them, and take care of everyone. Israel corrects itself and attracts and motivates the whole world to bring pleasure to the Creator so that He is revealed in reality. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” the Creator wants to bring pleasure to the whole world and that is our goal.

That is what we must realize. So, first of all, we need to focus on our inner work, devoting 99% of attention and leaving one percent for dissemination. Now is the time when we need to concentrate more internally.

I am very optimistic. We will succeed. Things become more distinct, prominent, so goes the analysis, and this is for the better.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/12, Shamati #115

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Question: How can we tune ourselves to one force, to one Light, and not get off this path?

Answer: This is possible only by mutual adhesion of the friends who want to clarify everything only with regard to the connection between them. All of the Torah is the history of this connection and nothing but that.

Gradually we get to know the desire to receive which at first seems to be good; this is called the “seven years of satiety” in Egypt. Then we discover that our desire is bad. This is evidenced by the cities of Pithom and Ramses. The position of the ego doesn’t change, and if you identify with it, you live a comfortable life. But if you identify with Israel, it is bad, since the point that doesn’t let you rest appears and forces you to detach yourself from the previous attitude. Thus you don’t change the reality, but only divide it and prolong it according to your ego or according to the Light.

First you determine that the desires and the thoughts that cut you off from your property are bad. This approach is called “the opinion of the landlords.” Then the evil becomes something that cuts you off from the Creator and this is called “the opinion of the Torah.” These two opinions are opposite from one another, and the Torah tells us how a person moves from one world into another. If a person determines that everything has to exist within the desire to receive, it is a state called “this world,” which means the current level. From this point a person moves into the “next world,” to the next state in which everything has to exist in the Creator.

The story of the exodus from Egypt is the general story that repeats time after time, each time in a different quality, on a new level of perception that reveals deeper layers and exposes smaller details and a more accurate assessment. In this story we leave Egypt, but we are still quite far from the end point. Egypt returns to us during the wandering in the desert. In other words, it returns to us on a higher level as you see and live the “movie,” but in “higher resolution.” This is in addition to different wars and problems. Everything returns and rediscovers finer details of our clarification.

Everything always revolves in a triangle: “I—the group—the Creator.” We clarify the point of unity, the adhesion between the group and me. I am the vessel and the Creator is the filling. Then we examine what disturbs us and what helps us. We constantly clarify this; we clarify the necessary attributes every second, in order to correct them and to connect them. By that we ascend the spiritual ladder. So if you are looking for the most efficient way, there is only one place you should focus on.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/12, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Shamati #40 “Faith in the Rav, What Is the Measure“

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Emor,” Item 5, Lesson 2

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Preface to The Book of Zohar, Item 40, Lesson 30 

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Shamati #115 “Still, Vegetative, Animate, and Speaking“

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I think that we can already advance to the next level, to a new feeling. The feeling is that I am in the group, in unity, in a mass of friends, and if I feel that I am pushed out, it’s the evil inclination.

Thus the Creator plays with me: He draws me away from the group, as if pulling me like a rubber band so that I will want to return and cry to Him, “What are you doing?!” Leaving the unity each time is more strongly felt in me, and I cry out, “Don’t do that! Bring me back!” As strange as it may seem, such states tie a person to the Creator. It’s in this contrasted action that they allow me to see that He is playing with me through the evil inclination. The Creator told Moses from the beginning, “Come to Pharaoh.”

Now I also feel that I am in the center of the group while he “pulls the rubber band backward,” pulling me out of there. He gives me the right feeling, and I immediately respond and am drawn back. Then once again He pulls me out, and I respond again. The question is how sensitive I am to the pull and to what extent do I resist each time it happens?

We begin to play, and the evil inclination becomes “help against” for me. I learn from His actions as He reveals my evil to me and pulls me out of the circle of friends. Eventually the Creator reveals to me the extent of the center, all of Malchut in different angles and discernments. I play with Him time after time, behaving differently each time. The main thing is that I identify His game in everything that happens. The evil inclination is the force we have to acquire as the basis above which we discover the Creator; where else can we reveal Him?

So every time He pulls me out of the group I am connected to, the exit provides me with new “grounds” for work in which the Creator and I can understand and feel one another like partners in a game. In this game we can be rivals, enemies, or friends. The states and relationships change in a sequence of connections and attachments. We play, and it isn’t just a game, it’s the game of life.

Question: In order to carry on with a game a person needs a certain reward….

Answer: First of all, use envy. If I stop the game, I will lag behind everyone else. This incentive is very clear and simple. It isn’t by chance that it’s said that envy, lust, and honor take a person out of this world. I must be like others. They are more advanced than me, they are in bestowal and I am nothing. Everyone has these simple urges.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/12, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, Preface to The Book of Zohar, Item 38: …there are three categories of man (Adam) in the Sefirot: Adam of Beria, Adam of Yetzira, and Adam of Assiya.

There is a “rock” called a “desire to be pleased.” The “rock” has a shape that is somewhat similar to the Creator. It explains the term “Adam,” meaning similar (Domeh) to the Creator.

We are talking here about the forms and degrees of similarity to the Creator. At any level, a Partzuf is always called “Adam.” Inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels also represent various forms of Adam. There’s nothing at all that’s not a part of the state named Adam except the authentic amorphous matter of the desire. The three prior levels (animate, vegetative and animate) serve as a way of advancement to the speaking (human) level. Ultimately, these levels are the ones that give “shape” to the human level.

The matter of the universe, the Earth’s material flora and fauna altogether constitute a pyramid; at the top of the pyramid is man. So, they all are included in Man, therefore they ascend and descend together with man.

When we perceive reality correctly, it becomes obvious that the entire material of creation is a part of man. There’s nothing outside us; even cosmic objects are only another form of our desire to receive.

From this we see that the desire to receive has no boundaries. A myriad of stars, gigantic nebulae, everything is inside us, in our perception. To the extent of our growth, we discern in the depths of our desire to receive and find a elementary particles and the whole galaxy. There is nothing new under the sun; everything has already been created, but while we are still “on earth”, meaning in the desire to receive, we keep revealing new details of this marvelous picture.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/12, Preface to The Book of Zohar

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