Question: What prayer is needed in order to overcome the interruptions?

Answer: First, you must say His praise and then make the request. The request should also be in order to bring the Creator contentment. This means that there is a series of actions and desires here, that one is based on the other until they all line up in one chain.

The Creator’s greatness, my worthlessness, and the request to give me the power to correct myself are connected in this chain since all that is the Creator’s work and not mine. All this is so that I can attain the corrected state that will bring the Creator contentment.

When I arrange everything in one chain properly, I show how much I know and understand the process and to what extent I agree with it and want to be part of it. This is called my spiritual vessel.

If all the desires, thoughts, causes, and results are arranged correctly, they make up such a prayer, like in the Siddur (the prayer book) that was written by Kabbalists. Thus, they give us examples of how to appeal in gratitude, in a request and in appreciation, to bring the Creator contentment, which means to build my vessel. The prayer is the building of the spiritual vessel.

We don’t need more than that, but we should understand that everything is made by the Light, and so the request is demanded from us so that this action will take place Above. When we acquire the right vessel, we will be able to perform the actions of “to receive in order to bestow” with it.

First we need the recognition of evil, its clarification, the desire to detach ourselves from it, and the request for correction. First we correct the state of “to bestow in order to bestow,” and then we attain “to receive in order to bestow.” All this is reflected in the order of the prayers in the Siddur that was prepared for us by the sages of the Great Assembly (Sanhedrin) even before the spiritual shattering.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How does the Returning Light expand Malchut?

Answer: The vessel of Malchut is a tiny grain in which there is nothing. It is the smallest desire, an elementary particle with Reshimot (informational gene) inside. It is like a lifeless seed that only has the hope to come to life and that’s all.

But when Malchut within this tiny grain, when the “microprocessor” begins to calculate how to react to the Creator, creating Returning Light in it, its reaction to the Creator, and in the Returning Light it begins to feel the Creator Himself. The Creator is revealed within this reaction.

Then this Returning Light, the attitude of the created being towards the Creator, together with the attitude of the Creator towards him, which is now revealed above this grain, returns into the grain and expands it. Thus Malchut expands, and not only does it expand, but also takes on the form of the Creator. This form is dressed in the attitude of the created being towards the Creator. The two forms that are dressed in the desire expand it and give the desire the form called adhesion.

So when a student wants to ask a question his own way and stay with it by getting an answer, it works well in an ordinary university where the professor lectures from the podium. You may or may not agree with his method of teaching, you may accept it or not accept it, but in studying the wisdom of Kabbalah it doesn’t work, because the teacher “formats” the student. The student takes on the form of the teacher, just as I received it from my teacher. This is the holy study.

You can agree to that or not, but you won’t advance unless you receive it from me, even though you don’t like it now and it seems bad and distorted to you. Everything you receive from me can only be in my form and it must be dressed in you. This is the nature of the spiritual world, and there is nothing we can do about it; one form is dressed in another. This is why I insist that my students ask questions my way.

It is the “formatting” of the soul; it is the mutual work of the teacher and the student with the upper help.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/12, The Study of the Ten

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Baal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Shofar”: And because of that, Rashbi permitted himself and disclosed the wisdom of the hidden in his books, The Zohar and the Tikkunim. However, it was with great care, since he only permitted Rabbi Abba, who could disclose with intimation, so only the sages of the children of Israel would understand, and the sages of the nations would not understand.

A Kabbalist who attains the spiritual world is like a scientist who discovers something great. If you ask him to explain his discovery, he’ll not find the words for it and not be able to find a clear coherent definition. In order to do that, we need methodologists who pave the way for people to the summit of knowledge.

So if we are talking about the first convergence, Rabbi Abba could rewrite the words of Rabbi Shimon so that they illuminate even for beginners, for those who are at the foot of the wisdom of Kabbalah, and help those who advance in the spiritual levels to ascend. He arranged the material in such a coherent way so that there can be a smooth transition from “grade to grade,” from one level to another. Even if an ordinary person wants something, like a baby who opens his mouth instinctively, that’s enough. After all, he already has a digestive system, which means that the food he receives from the great ones will help him grow.

This is what Rabbi Abba knew how to do: to disclose with intimation, thus allowing even a beginner to approach the secrets. Rabbi Shimon attained the whole world, and Rabbi Abba knew how to bring his words down and to arrange them for our ascent. This is why The Book of Zohar is like a spiritual ladder for us.

Baal HaSulam adapted The Book of Zohar even more for modern times through his Commentary on The Book of Zohar. We think that he added Kabbalistic terms, but it isn’t so, it’s something else. The additional explanations do not add anything by themselves. On the contrary, they can distance a person who wants to learn this book from the inner essence. This is because then a person simply fills himself with knowledge.

No, Baal HaSulam eased our way even more so that we will hold on to it and advance by both the mind and our emotions. Kabbalists were worried and made sure to pave this path, the ladder, and to provide us access to it.

Question: We too would like to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah in a clear envelop and at the same time with a “filling” that will advance people. How do we do that?

Answer: It’s imprinted in us on the instinctive level because we study by the method Kabbalists passed on to us. A person who studies here and is dedicated to the path has it, thanks to the connection between Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Abba.

After all, everything stems from The Book of Zohar and only that spiritual root operated for all the generations: the upper attainment (Rabbi Shimon) and the path, the access to it (Rabbi Abba). All the other friends from Rabbi Shimon’s group, including his son Rabbi Elazar who speak about the end of correction, are incorporated in this system.

So this is the meaning of “disclosing with intimation”: Even during the concealment, everything that a person needs is revealed on the way.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/12, “Messiah’s Shofar”

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Disregard for the teacher in our world is a small reflection of how we ignore the Creator because of His concealment. This disregard is the disclosure of the true ego that does not recognize the upper one and says: “I myself will rule!”

This attitude appears in us towards the friends, teacher, and towards the Creator. But regarding the Creator, it’s hidden as long as you do not prepare yourself by working with what was given to you, that is, until you begin to see the friends and the teacher as great and big, and perceive those who are below as small, in need of your care. You find yourself in the middle, obliged to everyone!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/12, Lesson About the Greatness of the Rav

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #211 “As Though Standing Before A King”: One who is sitting at one’s home is not like one who is standing before a King. This means that faith should be that he will feel as though he is standing before the King all day long. Then his love and fear will certainly be complete. And as long as he has not achieved this kind of faith, he should not rest, “for that is our lives, and the length of our days,” and we will accept no recompense.

Our main goal is to attain the Creator as if we stand before a King, not having even the slightest feeling of rejection when we get other types of various rewards from Him: knowledge of what’s written in the books, respect, honor, and other sorts of fulfillments. On the contrary, only the revelation of the Creator grants to us the wisdom of Kabbalah alongside its true implementation.

This goal should constantly be in front of a man and nothing less than that! This is the only goal one should aspire for. Unless a person starts to sense the Creator, his ego doesn’t conform and it repeatedly confuses him thereby strengthening his ultimate goal.

“One who is sitting at one’s home” means that a man is still inside his ego and doesn’t realize what exactly is going on, but rather sees the world through the prism of his selfishness. The world he sees is adequate to his level of egoism; it’s full of downsides that replace a picture of the authentic reality around him. The moment one exits “his home,” he discovers the King and attains Him; thus, he acquires the faith that corrects him.

This is why the entire preparation period that we are currently experiencing is meant only to obtain the desire to reveal the King, the property of bestowal, to stay in this property and eventually exit our current “home.” This is the only goal we should aspire to!
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/12

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Question: How does it happen that, by improving ourselves, we correct the entire generation (as Baal HaSulam writes in his article, “600,000 Souls”)?

Answer: It cannot work otherwise in the integral analog system in which everybody is interwoven with one another. By correcting a part of me within the universal structure, I correct my connections with others, thus making all liaisons work one hundred percent properly.

 If I improve myself relative to someone else and continue working with them, it means that someone out there is also getting corrected. In other words, by self-correction, I alter the entire segment of the general structure to which I belong: the entire system of souls that are a part of my generation.

The task of the others is to improve their segments of the structure. By doing so, they happen to correct me and others relative to them. It is called “one’s generation.”

This is the way one corrects the others and, thus, discerns a complete (general) soul from one’s personal perspective. So far, it’s not an ample perfection; it is called a “personal end of correction.” A man doesn’t correct himself, but rather his connections with and inclusion in the others. Hence, he corrects himself.

Each of us senses himself as a detached entity only because of the shattering. If not for shattering, we wouldn’t exist at all. Instead, there would have been a network of connections among us. We feel alive only because the power of the shattering has created an individual self-perception within each given desire.

However, through self-correcting—by including myself into others, by revealing the links that already exist among us, and by conforming to them—I lose myself. I transition to becoming a general liaison and, thus, “shift” into others.

The particle that used to be named “I” disappears, contracts itself, and works only in conjunction with others. That’s why I begin to sense myself as if I expand throughout the entire space, meaning that I reveal the “common soul.”

I am totally incapable of receiving into one point, in me. Only by including myself in others, I acquire their vessels and desires. I figure out exactly what I can give to my neighbors, to the person next to me, the one next to him, and so on to everyone!

I discover my personal measurements of bestowal, and thus I win the entire space of the common soul. This is the only acquisition I get. The more I include myself in others, the more I gain through the mere fact of being together with them.

It’s similar to having children. You give everything to them – yourself, your sperm—and thus you multiply and continue living in your children.

My original “I” “discontinues.” It is present solely in my involvement with others. This is how I attain the common soul, all possible liaisons and contacts with others.

Each one performs this kind of work, thus getting encompassed into others. This is how one attains the general common soul, but in one’s own unique way, according to one’s individual spiritual root. Then, one receives the entire sum of other people’s desires only for the sake of serving and fulfilling them. Thus, he becomes a channel through which the Light is transmitted to others.

One receives the surrounding Light that Reforms, reveals others’ demands, and satisfies them. This is how he links with and serves others, similarly to a cell that attends to the whole organism, thus gaining the whole body.

So, by saving our souls, we recover the entire world since a part and the whole are equal. If an isolated particle is connected with the rest of the system, then the whole structure cannot achieve perfection without it since one particle is as significant as the entire system. This is what the law of perfection of the analog system is about.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/12, Article “600,000 Souls”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam,” Letter 218

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt “Aharei-Mot,” Lesson 7

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 11, Item 1, Lesson 37

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Kabbalah for the Student, “Peace in the World,” “Good and Bad Are Evaluated by the Actions of the Individual Toward Society” 

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There is a great qualitative part called “Israel” (ISR-EL) in the general desire to receive. This part was founded by those who left ancient Babylon together with Abraham, who yearned for a connection with the upper force, in contrast to the other Babylonians. But the main thing is that they need this connection in order to be the conductors of the Light to the nations of the world (WORLD).

Then it is said in the form of a fable that the Creator turned to the nations of the world and offered them the method of correction, but they were not able to accept its principles: not to murder, not to steal, etc. Indeed, our egoistic desires cannot fulfill the intention of bestowal by themselves and so they need a “head” that will give them the right intention.

 Thus the two parts of the general desire have to be together. They cannot be one without the other. First the part of Israel should be corrected, which means to have the right intention so that they will be ready to work with the desires. Then it will be possible to turn to the desires themselves, by correcting them by the intentions of bestowal.

It is important to understand a couple of subtleties here: We already know that the corrected desires are different from the uncorrected ones in their intentions. The intentions depend on Israel. So there is nothing we can demand from the nations of the world; the correction is up to Israel and its connection with the world. After the destruction of the Temple and the shattering, Israel sank into the egoistic intention, and so it is for this reason that it has to correct itself first. Then they will only draw and add the desires of the nations of the world to the right intentions and then the correction is guaranteed.

We have to focus and prepare for this moment: We operate consciously and we are aware of what we are doing, that the obligation of the correction is ours and we shouldn’t wait for the nations of the world to do something. Otherwise they won’t understand their dependence on Israel and will turn their demands and anger towards us. Clearly, this will only bring about disasters, since they are not corrected yet and cannot pressure us in any other way.

It is Israel’s spiritual and corporeal obligation to hasten the correction as much as we can. We cannot depend on the nations of the world in any way if we don’t influence them correctly and don’t bring out intention closer to their intentions.

On the whole it is a very simple schema, although it leads to many outcomes. “Israel” means “I have a head – Li – Rosh.” Everything depends on the head of the Partzuf. The third and final phase is different from the first initial phase as humanity acquires a “head” while the other desires remain the same.

So it turns out that the correction depends on Israel. The nations of the world who are the body of the Partzuf are seemingly waiting for Israel to be ready to give them their intention, to add the intentions of the “head” to the “body.” The body itself is passive and can only move in one direction. It can be much more clever than Israel with all the wisdoms in the world, but in itself it will not arrive at the idea of bestowal and so it cannot perform the correction.

Therefore no one has a solution for the current crisis. Humanity will find itself totally helpless and things can deteriorate to riots, murders, and wars. Eventually, it will put enough pressure on Israel so that it will build the intention correctly and will present the rescue method to everyone: “Let’s connect and unite. Join us.” This should be done as soon as possible.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/12, “Messiah’s Shofar”

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There is a well-known fable that describes the relationship between a person and the Creator. It is the fable about the guest and the host. After the host has set the table and put out all the refreshments for the guest, the guest feels great shame that simply burns him. He is ready to do anything as long as he doesn’t feel that shame. Then the host, feeling pity for the guest, creates concealment.

But what does he conceal? If the host just conceals himself, the guest will comfortably eat all the refreshments on the table and that will be the end. The guest will remain an unfeeling egoist that only knows how to receive and will go on existing only in the corporeal form totally detached from the host.

So it turns out that the concealment of the host alone is not enough. The pleasures should also be concealed and then played with by revealing them to the extent that the guest can repay the host with the same attitude that the host reveals to the guest in small portions.

All these three components: the pleasure, the feeling of the host, and the guest’s appetite should be revealed gradually and all three should be compatible to one another. Then the right conditions should be created for the guest in small portions, in which he will be able to establish the same attitude towards the Creator, with the same love that the Creator treats him.

How is that possible? The smallest degree on which the host reveals the pleasure in the refreshments and shows his attitude towards the guest is a great degree for the guest. This is because for him it is a new life, which he didn’t feel in the concealment. He should develop in him the readiness to treat the host this way in advance, just as the host treats him on the very first level. When the flavors of the refreshments are revealed, the guest will not have to deal with them, but will use them as a means: to receive them and build his love for the host above them.

So it turns out that the restriction and the Masach (screen) have to precede the revelation of the Light, the Creator. This means that first and foremost we need the fear of the Creator. A person must develop this attribute: awe, fear of not succeeding to bestow upon the Creator, constant worry about that; what if the Creator is suddenly revealed and I am not protected from the egoistic pleasure and will not be able to love Him back? The necessary preparation for the revelation of the Creator is in this fear.

This awe is on all the levels, but in different forms and in different intensity, but the awe is an essential condition. If a person acquires it, he is ready for the revelation of the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/12, Shamati #38

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We are on the level of preparation for the spiritual world called “this world.” In our state today, on this level, there are all the necessary conditions to stabilize in us the true spiritual fear that is the first commandment. It isn’t the kind of fear we feel in this world, it isn’t worries and corporeal fears a person is full of, as he constantly worries that something may happen to him, worrying about the past and the future, about what will happen to him and to those who are dear to him.

We are constantly living in this animal fear, and although in most cases we don’t perceive that. It is fear that guides us every moment of our life. But I have to restrict this corporeal fear and to build upon it the right fear—whether I can bestow upon the Creator, whether I will reveal His goodness and His love!

If instead of the corporeal fear I build a spiritual fear inside me, I will thus correct my desire.

This world was created for that purpose in order to exert one’s self in it and to move from corporeal fears to a spiritual fear. There is no shortage of corporeal fear; a person constantly fears something. This is our corporeal existence: in constant fear that I won’t lack anything, that I can feed myself, that I won’t be harmed, that my pride and honor will not be hurt. All my corporeal senses operate on fear, on keeping my personal boundaries, so that no one will be able to invade them.

Our work, however, is the opposite: It is about breaking our boundaries outwardly, opening ourselves and incorporating in others! Thus we break the boundaries that fear depicts for us. The boundaries of fear depict my image for me, my body. Then comes the next circle of fear, which depicts everything I see around me: my relatives, my home, and then more and more external circles.

This whole picture is depicted to me by fear, and it is only on this basis that my senses work. If the environment gives me the power and the yearning to exit myself, I will begin to feel how good it is to be outside my egoistic boundaries. Then I will use the power of the environment in order to restrict my corporeal fear and will acquire a true fear, the fear of the Creator, of worrying only about whether I can bestow upon Him and whether He will be revealed to me as the one who bestows upon me.

If I worry only about this one true fear, the Creator will give me the Masach (screen) and will reveal Himself before me.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/12, Shamati #38

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