Question: How can I relate to the Creator if He is the property of bestowal?

Answer: Really, what is “the property” anyway? Is it a physical force? Can I really love or hate gravity? For example, I can like it on the condition that it does something good to me. But that doesn’t mean that I love or hate it. I realize that it’s something inanimate and therefore I relate to it according to my feeling, according to the benefits I get from it.

I enjoy the sun. But, do I really “love” it? How can we love the sun compared to loving a plant, an animal or a person?

So, how do I relate to the Creator? First of all, it is said about Him: “I HaVaYaH change not.” The upper Light is in absolute rest; it is “Good that does good to both the good and the bad”; the Creator treats us with absolute love.

On the other hand, the Creator is called the Great, the Terrible, and so on and so forth. All evil comes from Him; all the good originates from Him. Everything is so contradictory that I get confused.

If something is unchanging, it’s bad. Why do they tell us that the Creator doesn’t change?

Baal HaSulam explains in his letter number two, that if a father relates to his son with absolute love, it makes the son hate him instead of love. After all, if there is no reaction whatsoever on the father’s behalf, the son sees that it doesn’t matter how he treats his father; in any case, his father responds to him with absolute love. It prevents the son from developing love, and it does not allow him to change, see the connection and stay in contact. It’s as if he is facing an inanimate object. Plants have a certain level of reaction, animals respond even more strongly, not to mention the human being. Then, positive and negative reactions penetrate in each other and create a new liaison, a mutual inclusion.

But if the Creator doesn’t change, and at the same time He is so kind and loving, then what can I feel for Him? There is no way I can take Him into consideration. And yet, if I cannot consider Him, then I leave Him out of the picture, as if He doesn’t exist at all. Why would I consider someone who never changes?

It’s a very deep notion that was explored not only by Kabbalists. However, Kabbalists strove to demonstrate that at all times the Creator is “Come and See”; so I reveal Him. I cannot reveal Him Himself, His essence, but only His form that is dressed into matter. That’s why when we attain Him in His full entirety, we reveal His ultimate and perfect shape and really see Him as the Absolute, the Perfect, the Eternal, the Good that does good.

In all other states, we regard evil or good that come from Him depending on the level of our own corruptness, as it is said: “Everybody judges according to his own flaws,” and then, we have the opportunity to relate to Him to the degree of our own deficiencies and corrections, and thus see Him as good or bad.

And yet, we have to believe what the great Kabbalists who revealed Him in His true form, say, that He is absolutely good and bestowing.

So we have to relate it to our desires (Kelim): At this moment, we see the Creator to the extent of the correctness or corruptness of our desires, but when we attain Him at the end of the ladder we will reveal Him as the Good that does good.

Then all contradictions will be gone; we will get a “roadmap of advancement” which is scaled to our attitude to the Creator. It allows us to see how we change and accordingly how the Creator changes in our eyes.

We express gratitude to the Creator for giving us the ladder of concealment; with its help we can attain connection with Him. Otherwise, we won’t be able to connect with perfection.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, “The Book of Zohar”

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Everything depends on the preparation and there is the issue of the group here, since the connection is the expression of the acquisition of the attribute of bestowal, the closeness, the adhesion between those who work together and follow one path; it is an expression of the attribute of love that they acquire.

The unity among them is similar to the uniqueness of the Creator, since if they want to be “as one man in one heart,” which means to be mutually incorporated in thought and desires, without any differences between them, as one integral system, they yearn to resemble the Creator who is One.

Thus they prepare themselves, all of them together and each one on his own, to feel the true taste of the meal that was prepared by the Creator.

This is why we were given freewill in our world, in order to enable us to reach the meal of the wicked or the meal of the righteous. You decide whether you prepare yourself seriously, or whether you play with toys!

We speak about those who have reached the wisdom of Kabbalah. We cannot demand anything from those who have not reached it yet. They simply continue to suffer from the general crisis that pushes them to correct themselves from below. These poor people don’t understand what is going on. They expect salvation, but salvation can only come from those who have prepared themselves correctly for the King’s meal. Then through them, the meal will reach all the others who have not started preparing yet.

So all our work is in the group, in mutuality, “as one man in one heart,” as it says: “Each man shall help his brother,” “Don’t do unto your friends what you hate,” “Love thy friend as thyself,” and “From the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.”

All these principles can only be fulfilled through connection, since this is the preparation for the revelation of our relationship with the Creator, so that He will be revealed within our preparation, within the connection. This means that the attribute of bestowal and love is revealed in the vessels that we have prepared and corrected, in order to reveal this attribute according to the law of the equivalence of form.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: The Chinese wisdom talks about two forces, the Yin and the Yang, which represent the negative and positive, or the female and male beginnings. Is this somehow connected to Kabbalistic concepts? Where did these notions come from?

Answer: This is open to everyone. Our world consists of two opposite forces, manifesting in all areas and on all levels. Their balance defines the state of the matter, and the level defines its essence, expressed in the still, vegetative, animate, or human nature. Everything depends on the correlation of the opposite forces in the system and their interconnection. In the still matter, their balance is unchangeable, in the vegetative one, it obtains dynamics and begins to change, and on the animate and human levels, this dynamic increases.

What the Chinese sages discovered thousands of years ago is true. Throughout history, it has also been discovered in other parts of the world. However, this has no relationship to spirituality. This is about the phenomena of our world, accessible by experiments with the help of traditional science that is based on the intention for the sake of receiving.

On the other hand, the spiritual is the intention for the sake of bestowal. It is completely detached from our calculations, from the nature of our world. Here, the science of Kabbalah plays the role of the means, an instrument, a “device,” allowing a person to raise from the reality of receiving to the reality of bestowal. Kabbalah explains how to pass this border between receiving and bestowal, and further on, the soul of a person teaches him, since he already knows what it is about.

There is no other methodology, capable of implementing this transformation, this inversion in a person to cross him over the Rubicon. By myself, I cannot destroy my natural egoism inside of me, but Kabbalah offers me the opportunity to summon the external force, which will change me for bestowal in order for me to place my neighbor higher than myself and by that means to be giving him pleasure.

Today, the neighbor does not matter to me, to say the least, not even talking about hate or the selfish use of him. In reality, it is hate that turns into love, and the more of it, the more love it is able to splash out. However, besides Kabbalah, there is no other means in the world with the help of which we can summon that force from above, which will change our view of things.

“Let’s help each other,” the enthusiastic benefactors suggest, and we must really beware of that so that we would not be placed in the same line as them. As opposed to them, we are not utopians. On the contrary, we say that human nature is bad. At the roundtables we experience the need for unity for a moment and immediately we discover that we cannot and do not even want that.

Then we arrive at the two extremes. On the one hand, it is worth it for us to unite, but on the other hand, we are not capable of doing that. So what to do? This is the real question, and one has yet to arrive at this question.

We explain it little by little, to the extent that people are able to receive it and to bear it. We are not saying that it is impossible to unite by our own means until they see it themselves. We will later have to bring in some changes into our practice, into the joint events, seminars, roundtables, the education system, and integral education and upbringing. Gradually, we will develop the methodology.

In any case, there is no other path for the world, and there cannot be any. However deeply Yin and Yang may be known, it will not give us the solution. However, they can entirely be used as a starting point for our dissemination in China.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Light is an impression within the desire, a special phenomenon within the vessel, and so I feel and identify it. It says that every Light that ever appeared on a certain level remains there. This means that all the states that were within the matter of creation, which we call “Light” or the opposite “darkness,” all the individual impressions, always remain within the desire and exist in it simultaneously, without interrupting each other.

It’s like the air that is filled with millions of radio waves that don’t interrupt one another since they are on different frequencies. They don’t collide with each other. The same thing happens in the vessel that includes even more components. Everything that ever took place in it remains within the vessel and the vessels are incorporated in each other from the first to the last.

This means that in every vessel there are all the other vessels and also all their states. But the point here is not the quantity. The quality is not a result of the quantity, but it comes above it when I rise above this immense quantity of impressions to the one operator who summons them. Thus, I draw the Light that turns all this quantity into one.

No additional quantity will generate a new quality. You can even count to Ein Sof (Infinity). There is no limit to the rational numbers. There are physical numbers that are expressed by irrational numbers and so can’t be expressed accurately, since they include an infinite number of digits after the decimal point, like the number pi, for example. It’s these fixed and irrational numbers that show us the elements of nature. But by attaining the limits of the numerical approach, a person demands the new qualitative approach.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: How is the unity of the vessel of the general soul expressed?

Answer: The vessel itself is the unity. A vessel isn’t seven billion parts, but the connection between them. The connection between me and all the others is my spiritual vessel.

By establishing a relationship with you I restrict my ego and begin to treat you in bestowal and love and discover the Creator in our relationship and thus bring Him contentment. I know that I bring Him contentment by treating you well. It says, “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.”

So I had to choose you and to start loving you although I didn’t want to. I thought that you had nothing to do with me, but I do it only for the goal, which you raise so high that it gives me enough power to begin to fix my relations with you.

When I begin to restrict my ego and to treat you with love, when I do it in order to bring contentment to the Creator, the Creator, the upper force, is revealed in our relationship. But in the meantime He is revealed on the level of the still nature, Nefesh. I begin to feel His presence, which is passive for now. After all, the extent to which I discover Him is up to me.

Then I develop my attitude towards you in order to bring even greater contentment to the Creator and discover in our relationship the Light on the next level, on the vegetative level, Ruach. I begin to feel that I, you, and the Creator are changing and advancing in our relationship. There is a kind of vitality in it, support and mutuality that fills me with life.

There is someone I can mutually cooperate with; I am not facing a wall. Then I continue to develop my relationship with you in order to bring contentment to the Creator on the level of Ruach, to learn this like a flower that lives and dies, that responds to the sunlight, to day and night. I discover that I can revive this love and to feel what weakens or deteriorates it.

Thus I develop my sensitivity and rise to the next level, to the level of the animate. This means that I am already independent to some extent. I don’t just respond to different conditions, I can also move from place to place and give birth to new life. I begin to feel more and more deeply the desire to receive that I have discovered before, and I see I can continue working with it, to change it and to generate new actions and to be independent as the animate level should be. I begin to feel the Creator as the Light of life.

Then I build the relationship until the level of the speaking and attain self-management from the Creator. It’s just like in our world when a child grows up and becomes old enough not to be under his parents’ supervision. In the same way, the more I do that, the more I resemble the Creator and merge with Him. It’s because I begin to perform His part and by that become totally independent. The Creator doesn’t control me; I perform this function by myself.

It all depends on how much we work with our desire to receive. Only in it do we discover all of reality, by penetrating deeper into it and discerning more and more details there. Thus you will suddenly discover the spiritual world in this world. It was here all along, but you simply lacked the sensitivity to see it. Your detector didn’t have enough determination; it didn’t have the desired frequency range to perceive the spiritual world.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot 

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Question: What should happen at the convention in Kharkov, Ukraine so that it really becomes our next stage?

Answer: As it is known, there is force in quality and force in quantity.

When we gathered at the convention in the North of Israel, we tried to create this qualitative force, and we succeeded.

It was indeed a very powerful “ball” by intensity, force, and people’s abilities. There were people who study with us seriously and perform minimal, but important conditions necessary to advance towards unity.

The Kharkov convention is intended as a general convention of the entire Russian-speaking area. Of course, our friends from Europe will also arrive, but in general, there will be representatives of Russia and nearby countries, the former Soviet Union. So, unlike the convention in the North of Israel, this convention is for a fairly wide range of participants.

But the combination of that concentration of quality that has been achieved in the North of Israel with the quantity that we hope to reach in Kharkov should give significant results and the next degree.
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From the Virtual Lesson 7/8/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: Today people don’t believe one another. Even high government officials steal shamelessly, so how can I believe a friend when he speaks about the Creator’s greatness?

Answer: First, no one is asking you to believe. Second, this is exactly what the descent of the generations was meant for, so that you will actually see that there is nothing else to look for in this world. This actually helps you see things more realistically.

You don’t have to believe the friend’s impression; it will affect you even if you don’t believe it. He doesn’t even need to say anything. You don’t know what motivates him: Belief or attainment, he simply “infects” you with his impression, like a virus. It is not up to you. It makes no difference whether you believe him or are suspicious of him. The main thing is that you are “infected.”

So we need “viruses” of the Creator’s greatness to “spread” among us. Who attains Him? No one. And still, everyone is tense and this determines everything: Why and for what purpose do I operate, what do I have to discover, what’s the use of it, where is the Light that Reforms that will bring me this, etc.; otherwise, it will lead to nothing.

In order to do that we need the shattering among us, so that we won’t understand one another and will truly be able to be impressed by the false yearning of the friends. It is enough to see on the friend’s face that the Creator is great in his eyes in order to be turned on as well. Even if he pulls me by the nose and fools me, it makes no difference, I will still be impressed by him. This is what we need.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Why is it said that I do all the corrections in me?

Answer: I don’t correct myself, but only my attitude and connection. The evil inclination is not in me, but between me and others—in my attitude towards them.

I need to be in a connection with someone in order to figure out whether it is good or bad and requires a change. The first stage is in revealing that this network exists. From this moment onwards, I start moving forward further and further, consciously revealing what needs correction: which relationships and qualities are required now and which qualities will be required later.

So I gradually reveal the whole system of relations between me and others. But then I find out that it was actually a connection with the Creator. These are two stages in the work.

If I can confidently work without any reference to myself, I reveal that the Creator was hiding behind the neighbor. Until that point it isn’t clear, I can steal a little here and there, and do some egoistic calculations. The Creator helps me figure out which calculations are right, and therefore, appears to me in the form of friends or some other more tangible images with which I can mutually work.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why is the first phase after the root phase the still nature? Why didn’t it all start from another phase?

Answer: Because this the lowest phase that includes everything in it. There are no internal differences in it and so it cannot differentiate anything on the outside. We are speaking about the upper Light only with regard to the created being’s vessels. Therefore, still nature is the first phase in which the created being’s desire receives only the force of restriction that doesn’t allow it to discover more that it discovers now.

The force of restriction operates on the vessels and on the Lights that can be revealed in them. It operates on everything. The question is: What does this force influence? Does it influence the center of the created being or his limits? In other words, on what do I operate by the restriction—on my desire to receive or on the Light?

Of course, I influence my desire. I can never operate the Light.

I restrict the desire to receive and keep it. Thanks to that it doesn’t “jump” on anything. Thus I limit myself in order to receive the Light only in this manner. It is because I know that I don’t have the power for more than that, and so I constantly “keep the limits,” keep my ego in a neutral state.

This is the still phase: The ego is constantly developing, and I constantly keep it on the same level of the still. Actually, it is a great and positive work that takes place in different forms. But by its nature, it belongs to the still level: By myself I put my desire into the regime of the still, where my desire stays the same.

Within this desire I work in relation to the Creator. What can I do? I annul myself inside Him. Thus, I can be in the Creator and adhere to Him, I can be incorporated in Him, which is the attribute of the still level. I don’t allow myself anything except for self-annulment. Imagine that you are inside a great force and you have no other choice and this is the only way you can hold on.

On the other hand, it prepares me for the next level of the vegetative. This is because there are constant changes taking place inside me, which grow according to the five phases of the still level. We may think, so what if instead of a tiny pebble I become a large precious gem? But this isn’t everything yet: The changes I have been through have taught me what it means to grow. The ascent in the phases of the still level has given birth to a mind inside me, since I had the chance to compare things and to get used to the actual fact of instability.

I have restricted the growing pleasure time after time, but at the same time I followed the changes, until I understood that I can really change, and then I moved on the vegetative level.

Thus, we speak about a qualitative development and not about a quantitative development: At the end of the still phase, in its last fourth phase, I already understand from the experience I had that I can change by myself, consciously and purposefully. Then the opportunity to move from the last phase of the still to the phase of the vegetative is born. It is here that its initial point is created by the changes in the desire.

Every such change comes from the Creator in the form of the reviving force. I could never find the preliminary conditions for growing inside me. Therefore the Creator doesn’t just develop me; He inserts His force of creation inside me so that I will resemble Him. As a result of this development, we and the Creator become partners in the creation. His goal is not to increase the desire to receive, by putting it through a series of changes, but rather to teach me His art. What is more He teaches me in a qualitative manner.

Thus, thanks to everything we go through, we attain His actions, according to the rule: “From Your actions we shall know You.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: We know that we can only receive pleasure from the Creator if it is important to us. It turns out that even if there is a wall in front of me, it all depends on how important it is to me.

Answer: Both Rabash and Baal HaSulam bring the example of the bride who is satisfied if someone she considers important agrees to marry her. By that, it is as if he “buys” her. But he didn’t pay anything; he didn’t give her anything, so why is she satisfied with that? Because he is important to her.

What does our desire receive from the Creator? Nothing. But He is great, and we are ready for the “wedding”; we agree to adhere to Him with heart and soul in infinite, absolute adhesion. The Creator “buys” you only with His importance. It is the only thing that you acquire as you develop, and this is what fills you.

Our desire—which grew thanks to the Light, which received bestowal from the Creator—what does it want to enjoy? Actually, it wants to enjoy the greatness and nothing else. We cannot enjoy the pleasure itself; this only happens in our world with imaginary pleasures that come from the Creator to the point of something from nothing. The pleasures of this world are only available to sustain us until we begin to understand the Creator’s greatness. All the spiritual levels are the recognition of His greatness, and with His help you enjoy if you want to bestow upon Him.

On the other hand, the evil inclination, Pharaoh is the attempt to enjoy directly, but again only the Creator’s greatness. This is called spiritual pleasure.

It seems that the greatness is necessary only in order to overcome our ego and afterwards we will be able to enjoy in order to bestow, but this isn’t so; all our work is to raise the Creator’s greatness in our eyes. By that we develop new desires, and the emphasis moves from receiving direct egoistic pleasures to receiving pleasure from His greatness; thus, at least we reach Klipot (shells), and this is not simple at all.

The Creator’s greatness overtakes us, and it is very difficult to get out of this captivity. After all, all of creation is the essence of the steps of the ladder. When someone from a higher level shines upon me some of his greatness, then I surrender, I become addicted to the root and from then on it is my “boss,” the “king.”

But I want to operate differently, consciously, and intelligently. I want to resist the advantage the upper has over me; I don’t want to be bribed by His importance and His power.

This means that it isn’t about receiving from Him, we are struggling over the level of importance. I don’t want to work just for the benefit of the upper one simply because He is great. By that I simply annul myself naturally.

Question: Does this mean that all the Kabbalah books and all the ages of development were dedicated to only one thing, to the independent recognition of His importance?

Answer: That’s right, and it isn’t by chance that the modern world is so confused and that no one understands what is going on. After all, everything evolves only around one point of adhesion.

Question: But still, there is nothing more important in this world. I’m not trying to raise the importance of something artificially. Are all the worlds and all the levels meant only for that?

Answer: They were created as a result of the Light that filled the desire and gave it different forms. What does the Creator fill us with? What pleasure does He get by having created the created being so that he will only want that? What’s more, does the Creator have anything but the force of bestowal? No. He created mechanisms of perception in the created being, levels specifically for this force of bestowal; we develop only according to this importance.

Where are the pleasures that He has prepared for me? Where are the refreshments that the host has prepared according to the famous example?

There isn’t even an ounce of pleasure the way you imagine it. There are no refreshments, although it seems that way, it is only an illusion. In our world you settle for a false pleasure, you swallow delicacies, but you are not filled. So get rid of the illusions and start discerning the levels of the greatness of the Giver. It is then that you will begin to calculate things within the limits of your perception.

Now we may understand what happened in the first restriction. Malchut started to restrict itself when it discovered that it receives in relation to the Giver; it discovered the gap between the receiver and the Giver and not between the hunger and the delicious refreshments. It is the greatness of the Giver that pulls me out of myself. I don’t calculate this “pleasure,” but rather the pleasure from the Giver. When I discover the bestowal on His part and the reception on my part, I am filled with shame, but not because of the refreshments that I enjoy, but shame when I see His greatness compared to my lowliness.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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