Baal HaSulam: “A Handmaid That is Heir to Her Mistress”: Hence, the worlds have been divided into internality and externality, where each world contains illuminations suitable to operate in slow development. And these are called “the internality of the world.”

Opposite them are illuminations that can only act instantaneously. Hence, when they appear here in their worldly branches and are given control, not only do they not correct, they ruin.

The internal part develops gradually, according to its nature, while the external part, according to its nature doesn’t even develop but makes one leap. These are two types of vessels, desires that operate according to their nature.

Know that this is what we call “the dominion of the externality,” as in the verse, “God hath made even the one as well as the other. It contains a force that urges and rushes towards the revelation of the dominion of the internality.

Desires that belong to GE cannot develop by themselves because they don’t feel a lack of anything (Hafetz Hesed).

I have nothing but I don’t need anything. Everything is just fine.

• How will you develop?
• What for? I am happy the way I am.

Then an external force comes and begins to push them by sufferings, hatred, and different problems and as a result GE have no choice but to develop. It happens since they have no choice, against the nature of these desires. Actually, the force that is revealed so negatively does good. Later on, this “evil” will turn out to be an “angel,” even though now it plays the role of all the enemies and the troubles of the people of Israel.

Those who belong to the “nation of Israel,” being aimed straight to the Creator, cannot advance without the “nations of the world.” They need the pressure of the negative force from behind. There is no other means of correction except the pressure of the external part on the internal one.

In fact these two parts make up the desire to receive, but the external part would only like to advance at one time. It is ready to swallow everything since it is the nature of the vessels of receiving. On the other hand, the internal part wants to bestow and so it is willing to restrain itself and to perform actions equivalent to its ability to bestow, which is a gradual process.

The problem of the external part is very simple: it wants to receive everything all at once, but it doesn’t have anywhere to take it from. So it turns to GE, which means to the nation of Israel and claims: “It is your fault! I don’t receive what I want because you don’t want to give it to me! You are the source of all the evil in the world.”

The people of Israel have been chosen as the operator of the general purpose and correction. It contains the preparation required for growing and developing until it moves the nations of the worlds, too, to achieve the common goal.

In other words there is a clear division between GE (Galgata ve Eynaim), meaning “Israel” and AHP, meaning the “nations of the world. The upper part is Bina and the lower part is the vessels of receiving (Kli Kabbalah). This is the structure of all of reality, of the whole general vessel.

We should understand that the people of Israel are the descendants of those who left ancient Babylon. Throughout history they underwent different changes, and today we speak about those in whom the “point in the heart” is revealed (•), and also those in whom it hasn’t been revealed yet—the people of Israel who don’t feel and don’t understand this component yet [(•)?].

The correction is the obligation of “Israel” and the “nations of the world” are the passive part. So humanity doesn’t have to change. What is more, if the “nations of the world” change without our dissemination, it is against us because in that case we don’t fulfill the goal of creation. The moment we received the wisdom of Kabbalah we have to immediately pass it on to the nations of the world, because the whole correction goes through us.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/12, “A Handmaid That Is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 24”: You already know that prayer and confidence go hand in hand. And we should believe in complete faith that the Creator hears the prayer of every mouth. And by this faith we acquire confidence in the Creator’s help, and then our prayer becomes complete, in confidence that we will be saved. And then we are awarded confidence and joy all day long, as if we have already been saved.

Baal HaSulam says that prayer and confidence stem from the same branch, and this is a very important principle. In our ordinary life it’s the exact opposite: The prayer appears when a person has no confidence and is confused. He prays when he feels total helplessness, fear, and worry and needs help from Above; he feels lost in life and doesn’t know where to turn to and what to do. In this state of despair and anxiety a prayer is evoked in a person since he feels no hope for the future and has nothing to rely on.

But a spiritual prayer is the opposite: It’s evoked when a person feels that there is a Host who manages the world, his whole life, and who will fix everything. He understands that the Creator has already prepared everything in advance and that he only needs to keep in contact with Him. This means that he has confidence in the upper force, in the Creator, besides Whom there is none else, and with this confidence he turns to Him asking and demanding that the Creator will open his heart and mind and advance him.

It’s absolutely the opposite of what is expected in our world, as it says: “The opinion of the Torah is opposite from the opinion of the landlords.”

So the time of prayer is only after the preparation, after a prayer before a prayer. By a prayer before a prayer I have to spur myself towards the source. When one feels confidence and a connection with the source, he can raise a request for help to Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Shamati #175 “And If the Way Be to Long for Thee”

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt “Aharei-Mot,” Lesson 5

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“Preface to The Book of Zohar,” Item 36, Lesson 25

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Kabbalah for the Student, “Body and Soul,” Lesson 3 

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Question: Are the laws of Rabash that we learn appropriate for work in a group of the 99% of the population?

Answer: We should extract from there the fundamentals and teach them to the external audience. What do the laws of Rabash mean? Who are Kabbalists? These are people who take from nature certain general rules and attributes and teach them to us. If I need to be included in the general system, then I have to see this system as higher relative to me. Then I need to diminish myself, and I will be able to connect to it as a little one to grownups.

These are the usual laws of commutation designed to connect together. On the other hand, you need to bring your force to the people with whom you work in this group, the uniqueness of your point in the heart, because it is special in each of us. At the same time, you have to be as if above them, that is, to influence them from the point in the heart. Once, you fully connect with them and cancel yourself, you begin to influence, to bestow.

What Rabash writes about is the basic conditions that we know even from technology and from our physiology: how cells, neural pathways, synapses, etc. connect with each other. We know all that! There is nothing else.

So here it is possible not to mention the Kabbalists, but to take the information from engineering, biology, from anywhere. They are completely rational. They can be explained to any person.
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From a Virtual Lesson 8/26/12

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We should be happy that we have the opportunity to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah all over the world; like Baal HaSulam once said: “I am happy that I was born in a generation in which it is possible to publicize the wisdom of Kabbalah.”

From the moment we have the opportunity to fulfill the method of correction, we should treat the whole world as a means in order to correct. Then we will feel happy about the opportunity we were given in order to work and to correct. Eventually, we will receive all the good reward that we have created, built, and earned ourselves.

We have to be happy when there are two components at the same time: the corruption that is revealed and the accessible method in order to correct it. This is because we only have to make the right effort and all of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) will be revealed in us.

We have to show the world our joy, hope, elation, and confidence instead of the fear that engulfs the world today: joy rather than fear, confidence and a clear knowledge of what is happening and will continue.

It isn’t the suffering of the world but joyful labor pains. When a newborn baby cries, everyone around him is happy; our body, our ego is crying, while the human part in us is happy. We have to explain this to everyone and to draw them to us by our high spirits.

We have to improve in this since the world continues to deteriorate lower and lower into the abyss, into the feeling of despair, powerlessness, and hopelessness. We have to feel the joy very powerfully, the hope, the clear knowledge, the confidence, that everything that is revealed is only in our favor, since everything is ready for correction, for the “King’s meal.”

Everything depends on how we fulfill our mission, by understanding that the time has come for the inner correction and for the widespread external dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is very important to what extent we will be able to radiate the joy and confidence externally to the world by acting patiently and carefully.

We should understand that a person who is not one of us finds it difficult to perceive this attitude. It can irritate him and make him mad that we are in a state opposite from the one he is in, not sharing his problems and worries, that we are happy while everyone else is crying. We have to be considerate of people and gradually, gently, and patiently explain to them how to come out of this crisis.

We should explain to people that the moment we change our approach, we will already correct our attitude to the Creator a bit and be closer to the upper Light. Therefore, we will begin to feel this reality; we will feel that it isn’t just empty words but that there is something behind them.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How does dissemination help in personal advancement?

Answer: All the personal advancement is determined only by dissemination: How many souls I can attach to myself. There is no other advancement.

After all, we are connected in one system, so I can advance only by increasing the number of connections. If I am not connected to anyone, I am “0.” If I connected someone, I have become “1,” if I connected two, I have become “2.” And if I connect everyone, I will become infinity.

That is why, it is said: “They learn not through the mind.” The one who does not work to connect other souls to himself by love does not realize the method. He becomes just a plug on the path of the Light.

For this reason, Kabbalah was hidden for so many years. It was revealed only when we have reached a state when we can begin to connect. The breaking in Galgalta ve Eynaim in Israel occurred in order to connect the rest to itself. Correction is in unity, so there is no such question: Why we should connect?
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/12, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “Body and Soul”: The rest of the concepts, which combine the reason of their method and other methods, are forbidden to us. One who uses them breaches, “Turn you not unto the idols.”

If I imagine something that is imperceptible by my organs of perception, that is called “idolatry.” From this, it is clear which kind of fallacies all of humanity is in.

My analysis must be exact to the maximum. It must be based on real data, on what is in my hands, not in fantasy and conjecture. Only this kind of perception and approach will make me change and see the new world, but, again, in real perceptions, “in my hands.” Everything else is a game of imagination.

Only if I stop fantasizing and accept that there is nothing outside of the five organs of perception, that one can be guided only by what you see, this will oblige me to expand the range of my perceptions, and that is why the prohibition against fantasies is necessary for internal changes. Thanks to this, I will reveal the upper world in my improved organs of perception.

Question: However, no one understands that!

Answer: True, however, there is such a thing as the recognition of evil. Only when man reaches the edge, the limit, when it really becomes unbearable for him, then he is being opened for changes.

Humanity needs to reach the very bottom of all religions and beliefs. This is where modern religious fanaticism is from in all of its manifestations. There is a place for this. People must give an exhaustive expression for all of these approaches to life. Only then will they be able to pass from one edge to the other and reveal the truth—the simple, materialistic truth—based exclusively on the study and the perceptions of the organs of perception.

That is what the science of Kabbalah is. There is no mysticism, no chimeras. In the same way that a donkey stands in front of the feeding trough, either there is food or there is not food. There are no other options.

In the very end, people will discover that all of their beliefs do not give them food; it doesn’t give them anything. You go down with no strength either to live or die. You will not be allowed to provide for your existence in your perceptions, and then you will need to change them.

At first, we imagine this world in perceptions, and we get along here without changing our perceptions. Then, we begin to go down, and the perceptions shrink, contract, push, and limit us. It is similar to the torment of birth labor. The world descends into darkness, into scarcity, into problems and dangers, and then, because I have no other choice, I am forced to run from these perceptions since, in them, I am experiencing death. In them, I am no longer able to carry on with what I do. Here, there is no longer a place for belief in something better “on the other side.” I can’t survive now. The hope for life after death no longer helps.

Today, problems are impacting the wallet, but, tomorrow, they will befall the souls, the source of life’s strength. Together with the science of Kabbalah, all through the entire world, people will be led to understand that it is necessary for them to change their perception.

The most important thing in it is the desire to receive, and people will need to change it for the one to bestow, no longer believing in something that they do not see with their own eyes, what they do not know from experience. Fantasies will stop helping. People will develop to such an extent that they will feel that the only way is to change their own perceptions.

That is the realization of evil, of the evil inclination, that the Creator created together with the Torah, meaning, the methodology for correction with the correcting force of the Light that allows coming to the good beginning. Such are the three states, the three stages of the path.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/12, Article “Body and Soul”

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From the article “The Reason for the Difficulty of Annulling Oneself for the Creator” (Shamati): It therefore follows that the essence of one’s work is only to come to the sensation of the existence of the Creator, meaning to feel the existence of the Creator, that “the whole earth is full of His glory.” … He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward that he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator.

Many words have a double meaning. After all, their original meaning in Hebrew goes back to Adam, the first man, and Abraham, who gathered a group in ancient Babylon and taught them how to reveal the Creator. Originally, the word indicated the spiritual root and had a spiritual meaning. But today, in our material world, these words could have completely opposite meanings.

For example, the famous phrase from Ecclesiastes “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity (Avel Avalim)” means that everything is built from the Reflected Light (Avel), the results of human work in bestowal. And in our world today, the phrase acquired an absolutely different meaning, as something which has no value.

The same thing happened with the word “faith.” When the people of Israel became detached from the spiritual feeling, this word started to mean something hidden, that we don’t know whether it exists or not. We take for granted that it exists, although we do not have any evidence for this. That is, the word “faith” has lost its true meaning, the sensation of the Creator.

This happened with many other words. And that is why we do not understand what is written in the Kabbalistic texts because they describe spiritual states.

The difficulty of spiritual work is that we have no faith in the Creator, that is, we do not feel Him. And once a person begins to feel the Creator, he has another problem: how to rise above this feeling and through his free choice prefer bestowal upon the Creator. After all, this bestowal should not be forced under the influence of the revelation of the Creator, but it should rise above this revelation due to its highest value. Otherwise, it will be only the result of a small person worshiping the great Creator, and there would be no work in this.

In the meantime, the difficulty of our work is that we do not feel the upper force—the only thing that controls this world. In the moment a person reveals this feeling, he surrenders and agrees to anything. Therefore, our only goal in the work is to reveal the Creator, and we need to concentrate all our efforts to reveal Him according to the similarity of properties, which can be realized within the group through connection and mutual guarantee.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/12

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The Light, the attribute of bestowal, gives birth to darkness, to a vessel, a desire, the attribute of receiving. Then, the Light develops it in four levels—phases, states—that come one after the other, until the desire decides to feel that it exists and finally understands what the Light, the Creator, expects from it.

The Light wants to connect with it in order to reach full adhesion, called the world of Infinity, but the desire to enjoy cannot bear this state because it feels its oppositeness from the Light, its total inability to merge with the Light. After the created being develops and comes to know the attributes of the Light, then, through this oppositeness, he comes to know himself and sees that it is absolutely opposite to the Light in its attributes. The Creator wants adhesion and love, and such a relationship with the Creator is called the world of Infinity.

It is like a rich man who invites his poor friend to his home, gives him all his wealth, and asks, “What more do you want?” The poor man replies, “I want to earn all this wealth by myself,” but the rich man cannot give him that.

Then, the Creator helps the created being fulfill his desire, become independent, and repay the Creator with a similar attitude on his part through his own freewill. Therefore, he brings the created being down from the first state, from the world of Infinity, to the lowest state in our world so that he will be in a state where everything depends on him.

Now, the created being has a chance to correct that state and bring it to perfection through returning to the first state by himself, to the world of Infinity, to the adhesion created by the Creator. Thus, the created being becomes perfect and attains full adhesion with the Creator.

The Creator wants to ease the created being’s work and divides the influence of the Light on the vessel into separate phases called “22 letters” so that the created being would be able to perform this work with regard to the Light. The created being begins his work from the bottom, as if in the opposite direction, in bestowal upon the Creator and building the intention of “in order to bestow,” but it is divided into those phases, the 22 letters of the work. The created being builds his ten Sefirot of the Returning Light, his attitude toward the Creator, based on everything that the created being learns from the ten Sefirot of the Direct Light.

The Creator created the created being as “something from nothing,” but the created being must start not even from this state, but from below that level, and then rise from the worlds, the Klipot (shells), that are opposite to the Creator. The Creator works in the range of zero to plus infinity, while the created being must start from minus and advance toward the plus. Each time, he discovers and corrects a greater minus as he adapts his vessel to the Light in the transition from minus infinity to plus infinity.

It turns out that everything that the created being receives from the Creator—strength, desires, vessels (“the letters of the work”), all the levels of the ladder that have already been created in advance and are not part of the created being’s account—all this becomes part of his personal account now. At the moment, all this is considered the action of the created being, not just something that is ready-made by the Creator.

After all, he is the one who attains the wisdom of how to perform all these actions and how to use his material correctly. He discovers by himself that the force of receiving is active in him, not the force of bestowal, and becomes equivalent in form with the Creator in all His actions. In order to do that, the created being must start from the shattering so that he can attain all the “letters of the work” by himself in the opposite attributes.

This is called “speech,” “breath,” the actions that the desire to enjoy performs with the Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. As a result, the Creator seemingly shatters, and the righteous rebuild and correct. Thus, thanks to the force of speech, the created being attains an equivalence of form with the Creator and a “mouth to mouth” connection.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Igrot (Letters),” Letter 14

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt “Aharei-Mot,” Lesson 4

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 6, Item 7, Lesson 34

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Kabbalah for the Student, “Messiah’s Shofar“

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