Question: How can I advance toward bestowal if my aspiration is egoistic, for my own pleasure, stemming from this world? After all, I can’t do it any other way.

Answer: Don’t worry about that, for you have all that you need for spiritual advancement: a group in which to actualize your desire for the spiritual, where the Light (Creator) is revealed. What else could you possibly need? You have a system that helps you grow, like a caring family!

You receive support from our great world group, from lots of friends. Besides, the whole world in general supports you by revealing its worthlessness with each passing day. These conditions are so favorable that we really have nothing to complain about. It’s even a bit upsetting. Are we really so powerless that we must be clearly shown the breaking of the egoistic world to convince us that there is no other path but this? This speaks to our complete feebleness and inability to resist our desire to enjoy; that’s how small, destitute and hollow we really are.

In the times of Baal HaSulam, the world surged, chasing after pleasures and wealth, and aspiring to develop science and new technologies. But today the world feels only disappointment, as if we are being deliberately supported in our path.
[78119]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: How do we learn to attract the Light to correct us?

Answer: The difference between our state and the spiritual degrees is that even while living in a lie, in egoism, we can attract Light towards us from there. You cannot do this on a spiritual degree because everything obeys simple laws there: You are already inside the system and you receive only what you are entitled to according to your place and state.

But we get concessions in our world. And even though we think that it is cruel to us, it is very gentle with us. In it, we are like infants, who can scream and falsely demand things that they are not entitled to, and receive them even though it is a lie.

This is the entire meaning of existence of our world. I do not wish to connect with my friends when I am in my normal, regular egoism. But I hug them, sit with them, I try to connect and attain unity. And even though all of this is built on absolute egoism and there is nothing here but it, it is like child’s play in a sand box or with Legos, which he uses to learn. As a result of my efforts, I suddenly acquire a mind, proper perception, and sensation, I begin to grow, I acquire a certain understanding and definitions.

But mainly, my games become much closer to reality, and little by little, I learn to connect with others, cancel myself out, yield, study, read primary sources, and attract Light. And then I suddenly begin to feel the importance of bestowal and I believe that there is really something in it.

The external world is also helping us in this with its crisis and suffering because it is already hard to envy when you see the state that regular egoists of this world are in. This world is really a find for us. All the other degrees already are a system; only this world is a unique place. This is why the entire freedom of choice is revealed specifically on this lowest degree. Our work lies in always making this choice in the dark.

And then we will have another job: analyzing the quality of connection, when we constantly are raising our spiritual “qualifications,” adding details as we are revealing the wealth of the manifestation of the King, His revelation. But no one will give us concessions any more, as it is now.

This is why this period of preparation is so long, exhausting, and just drags on, because later we will use the entire degree of this world for the rest of the ladder. This is exactly why we can correct the entire 125 degrees only by living in this world. And even on the very last degree, I must first feel like I am in my lowest state possible, the state of a “market merchant.”

I am not speaking about the physical world, a certain special reality, which is becoming established in my brain. I must feel like I am completely separated from others in it, but at the same time attract Light with different, false efforts to connect.

And I will also need this corporeal degree, even when on high degrees in the World of Atzilut. Without it I will not be able to correct the actual point of creation, “created out of nothing” (Yesh Mi Ain). It is impossible to unite with the Creator without adding to every degree from the separation you have experienced between this world and all the worlds.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Lesson: Talk About Past Conventions 

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The Book of Zohar –  Selected Excerpts, “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Separating and Connecting Firmament,” Item 365

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Preface to the Book of Zohar, Item 33, Lesson 19

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“The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah“

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Question: What are the 125 degrees actually?

Answer: Your whole desire to receive is divided into 125 degrees of thickness: how cruel and tough you can be on the zero level that is hardly revealed, like a mosquito, up to a wild beast on the level of minus Ein Sof (Infinity).

These are the 125 degrees that we count from our state up to the world of Ein Sof. 5 worlds times 5 Partzufim times 5 Sefirot, this is how the Ha-Va-Ya-H is divided.

We have to correct this whole desire to receive. It wakes up at another part of the 125 degrees each time by being added to you, and you have to correct it. Therefore, you constantly feel a growing darkness and you correct it, and from this darkness you attain the “dressing of Hassadim” where you discover the Light. The darkness is the same Light but without the dressing of Hassadim.

First, in the world of Ein Sof the Light doesn’t need the dressing of Hassadim. But later after Malchut of Ein Sof decides that it receives only in order to bestow, the Light disappears and illuminates, which means that it is awakened in the vessel, (since it actually doesn’t disappear at all, but we only say that it does), only in the dressing of Hassadim. To the extent of the dressing, you receive the Light. It is as if you have a certain lamp and according to its strength you discover the power of the Light that you receive.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/12, The Book of Zohar

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Why did the Creator create everything so strangely? He built a palace, invited all His beloved guests, and then placed guards and policemen around the palace who are testing and checking the guests, not letting them pass and causing them pain and suffering. Didn’t the Creator know in advance who would be loyal to Him, who loves Him and who doesn’t? Why does the Creator reject us all? Is it so that only those who can overcome all the obstacles will pass, in order to prove their loyalty and readiness?

The point is that it is in this struggle that our desire is formed; a vessel for receiving the filling in the King’s palace is built and stabilized. Otherwise, how would we be able to build this vessel? After all, it wasn’t given to us readymade from Above. If we were not allowed to pass without a reason, would that be justified? It is as if I yearn for the Creator with all my heart, and here some guard throws me down the mountain.

The point is that I am totally opposite to the attributes required to reach the top of the mountain. I am not the person I should be to become a guest at the King’s palace. It is only thanks to the guards that I constantly change by becoming more and more adapted.

These forces, of course, are depicted in my ego as vicious, cruel guards who don’t let me pass. The Creator is the cruelest of them all because He is the one who posted all these guards and policemen. He created my evil inclination and all the problems and suffering that relate to it. It is as if he gave birth to a poor, sick child and instead of feeling sorry for him, He even beats him, as if the child is guilty of something.

Apparently, all our complaints are justified, but the point is that the only way to build the right vessel is with the help of the right attributes that we receive, which we don’t have from the start. So the right approach is to divide myself into two. From one perspective you see what there is in your egoistic desire. From a second perspective, you see what there is in your desire to bestow, in your yearning to resemble the Creator, which means according to the ascent up the mountain, on top of which there is the King’s palace.

Following these two perspectives is called the “middle line.” With regard to your desire to receive this is the most terrible way in which there is no justice but actually only the opposite! You will not be able to justify the desire to bestow or to support it so much. This is because we should exert ourselves on both sides, both from the side of the ego and from the side of the yearning for bestowal.

What’s important is that you are looking at these two points independently from a neutral zone. It is as if you rose to Keter and from there you are watching this machine, like the Creator. It doesn’t belong to you, but it is yours only if it helps you resemble Him. Thanks to it, you can become like Him, reach adhesion with Him, and look at everything else as a means to attain that.

Thus you can justify, understand, and go through all these trials “above reason”: both as the egoist and as the one that bestows. This is because this bestowal is also totally based on receiving.

You want to adhere to the Creator instead of being connected to your desire to receive. The desire to receive is merely a tool for you to attain the Creator. With the help of the Torah, (the Reforming Light), you have to turn this evil inclination into the good inclination with which you will adhere to the Creator.

In order to adhere to the Creator, you need the good inclination, but in order for this good inclination to be able to help you adhere to it, you should approach it from the side of the evil inclination by using the Torah. All of creation was created in order to reach adhesion with the Creator. From this point of adhesion, which we want to attain, we have to look at the whole process we are going through. Then you will cut yourself off the egoistic perspective and not look at yourself through your desire to receive, through your ego. You will constantly be above it and look at it from the side, as at a means for achieving a goal.

This is why it is so important to constantly raise the greatness of the goal, the Creator, the group, and the friends. Because this will help you relate to everything else as to tools.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: Why is it much easier to keep the right intention when reading the Study of the Ten Sefirot than when reading The Zohar?

Answer: The thing is that we need a language for explanations. After all, there are no words in the spiritual world and Kabbalists have to speak the language of branches, which confuses us.

The language of branches is good for those who already are in the spiritual world. If I am above the Machsom, I do not have a problem with understanding no matter the language of explanation. This is because I really feel this world, I understand it, and I perceive it on the level of the 125 degrees to which I have ascended. I will understand what is happening from the explanation the same way I understand a tale about this world with which I am familiar.

But if I am beneath the Machsom, I am unable to understand the allegorical language of branches. It is easier for me to understand the language of TES, which speaks in technical terms and uses spiritual definitions, names of Lights, Sefirot, Partzufim, and the heights of levels. I can somehow understand this; at least it is clear to me that the 120th degree is lower than the 125th degree, and Nefesh is smaller than Ruach.

Even if I do not understand what this is, I can still somehow compare and gauge them. And this is very important. Even if I do not feel these concepts in my heart, I can at least separate them into levels in my mind: Reshimot Dalet/Gimel, Gimel/Bet, Partzufim AB, SAG, MA, BON.

Here everyone can be wise if he has studied the material. Even if he has not practically attained anything, he has at least learned the terminology and can explain himself. This is why it is so necessary for us and we would not be able to express anything at all without it. After all, Kabbalists must establish a certain connection with us in order to use it to bring the Reforming Light to us.

They need a certain thread that connects them with us to be able to constantly pour medicine into us through it. Otherwise we are unable to connect with them because they are in another world that is separated from us. We do not see the channels through which information flows to us.

Kabbalists create this channel by telling us about Partzufim AB, SAG, MA, and BON. And as we study them theoretically and establish an external connection with them, essentially without any understanding, but only obediently repeating words after them, in this way we express our desire to receive the medicine from them, the Light of correction, and this is why we receive it. But this connection is necessary.

If Kabbalists, instead of speaking the language of TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot – The Study of the Ten Sefirot), speak the language of the Tanakh, you immediately imagine that they are speaking about this world and that you understand everything. This is the entire problem, people do not understand that the legend pertains to the spiritual world, actions of bestowal (called the Holy Bina, the quality of bestowal), and they attribute it to this world, which begets all the religions and beliefs.

However, as the notions of the group, connection, and dissemination become closer to you, you will feel that the material in TES is becoming clearer. You will never be able to understand it purely theoretically with your mind. You can memorize all the words, but you will not advance past this. If a person wishes to advance through sensory attainment inside his desire, then he will not understand TES until he connects it with some already attained private correction of himself. Already before the Machsom, he will begin to perceive the inner meaning of the notions, and it will become easier for him to study.

When a person advances correctly, attainment goes from feeling to mind. This is why one does not need to have a big mind to learn. Theoretical knowledge is not connected to spiritual advancement in any way.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Lesson: Talk  About Past Conventions 

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The Book of Zohaar – Selected Excerpts, “Beresheet (Genesis),” “If My Convenant Is Not Day or Night,” Item 359

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7, Item 2

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Question: How can we treat the group better and work together more efficiently in order to minimize our descents?

Answer: It is impossible to prevent descents. We have to feel them fully, but on condition that we constantly rise above them. This means that I have to feel the descent in the ascent! It means that I don’t feel the “minus” itself, but rather the “minus” to the extent that I have to rise above it to the “plus.”

It is similar to the technique in which we don’t measure the resistor itself, but only its resistance to the electrical current. This is how we measure it. We measure the phenomenon itself and not the essence of the object in which it takes place, because the phenomenon itself is unattainable.

Therefore, we always yearn to rise and in relation to it, we measure our descents. We constantly rise above them. I asked about that in the workshop during the convention in North America: “Where does the good inclination come from?” It doesn’t exist on its own, since the Creator didn’t create two different inclinations. When we correct the evil inclination, it turns into the good inclination. The two inclinations in a person indicate that he has succeeded in turning part of his evil inclination into the good inclination.
[77937]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I am trying to ask for the Light through the connection with the group, but how exactly should I ask for it?

Answer: Ask for connection. We never know how to ask for the Light, we don’t know how to pray. Every time we turn to the upper, it should be with an accurate request. All a person has to find out is what he wants from the upper. Even if you want the worst things, direct them to the upper. If you direct them to the upper, you begin to gradually correct your request and make it right.

This is called “clarifications,” like the whole ladder of spiritual steps. We begin by wanting to “swallow” everyone. So turn to the upper with that, be consistent, and thanks to the Reforming Light you will understand what is good and everything will change. Don’t think that asking for something already makes you a righteous. But turn to the upper!

This is how we start our life in this world. Look at a baby, how dirty he is when he is born, how he dirties his diapers. But it is said: “The mother will come and clean her son.”

Only do what you can, but persistently and constantly! Then you will advance! The treatment of the upper can be soft and gentle, and it can be strict and tough. But this is the only way changes take place in the lower. The main thing is to go on.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Receiving the Torah means getting to know the Creator who is revealed in our connection with each other. Events that happened at Mount Sinai indicate necessary conditions that need to be realized: to feel an exile from the state of connection and unity and the lack of sensation of the Creator that is being revealed inside of this connection to the extent of groaning from the work.

And all of this happens under Pharaoh’s blows, which we go through trying to connect despite all the rejection, hostility, and hatred that gives egoism an opportunity to escape. But still, we aspire toward connection and are ready to accept it in any shape or form in order for it to happen.

Then we cross the Red Sea and reach Mount Sinai, although there is still a long way to get closer to that state. And then we gather at Mount Sinai (the mountain of hatred); this means, we finally managed to unite around our hatred and to accept the condition of a mutual guarantee: to become one man with one heart. Under such circumstances, a force of correction becomes revealed to us. It turns out that in order to gain this power, it is necessary to go through a number of states by increasing and clarifying our demand, which means building a vessel suitable for the correction, both in the mind and in the heart. By realizing that we need nothing else but that, we will receive the revealed method of correction and the power allowing us to go above reason.

With this power we can fight against our egoism, which continuously grows, but now it grows consciously and under control. It is clear that we are making unpleasant discoveries and revealing new evil in the left line, but then we correct it in the right line. So we gradually learn how to correct all our egoism to finally enter the land of Israel.

The most important moment in this work comes after elation and ascent achieved as a result of a big convention. After all, there comes a new phase, beginning with a hardening of the heart, a new invitation to Pharaoh, who hardened even more. And then, above all, commitment to lower oneself and accept this process is important. Although we still do not feel that such states are absolutely necessary for us, we must accept them as inevitable, that is to trust the higher teacher leading us forward.

It is the Creator who hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and here we need to rise to a certain level of canceling ourselves by accepting this hardening and working with devotion. It is necessary to accept the fact that there is none else besides Him, and strive to stay connected, no matter how hard the state comes in.

And such difficult challenges are usually given after big gatherings, the general feeling of inspiration and connection. But we must realize that difficult states that come afterward is a time of real work. Now you are given an opportunity to properly treat a new egoistic nature, a new broken Reshimo, which you must work with.

But the mind and the heart forget about it, and a person gets confused thinking that everything that is happening is the truth and not a game coming from above. There, the general opinion of the group and mutual support should come to the rescue. Apart from confusion and mixed feelings everyone goes through, a person must receive a second point of view from the group that is beyond this confusion, in order to show where this special state and all mixed feelings are coming from. It comes from a new Reshimo that purposely is revealed to us by the Creator to perceive it correctly.

All development goes through the stages of HaVaYaH beginning with the “tip of the letter ‘Yod’“, that is completely unknown to us. Then passes the stage of “Yod-Hey,” the development from top-down, and then “Vav-Hey,” our preparations, perceptions, and reactions from below. Thus, when a new state is put in us in the stages of “Yod-Hey,” it is important to learn how to properly accept it. Not everyone is capable of doing it yet. We should not blame them but the overall strength of the group that did not provide sufficient support, knowledge, and feeling that all these states are given to us in order to advance.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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