The desire to receive that exists below has to be fully covered by the Light of Hassidim, by mutual bestowal. Then the desire (that is, reception) and bestowal will match one another and together will turn into a vessel for the Light.

The desire creates the attracting, pulling force without which the Light of Hochma will not be revealed. It’s because it is the Light of pleasure, and in order to summon it an “appetite,” a demand, is required. On the other hand, there must also be similarity, correspondence not to the Light, but to its source. Then we discover its good attribute of bestowal that comes from the Giver, and thereby we attain the Giver.

This means that I haven’t just received a present, but I also know from whom I receive it. The present itself tells me about His love, but in my vessel there is the Light of Hassidim, and so I begin to feel who He actually is and to what extent the attribute of mercy (Hesed) is typical of Him.

I create such “emotional elements” in my desire to receive that reveal the Giver of the present to me, the Creator, in addition to the present itself. This is all the wisdom of Kabbalah: how to reveal in one’s vessel the ability to understand and to feel Him. A special science, a special wisdom, is required here: I receive a “candy,” and by its sweetness I attain His mind and feelings, until I attain His plan.

Otherwise, I would just enjoy the present like a beast. We are all nourished by and live off the Light of Hochma, but it’s by the wisdom of Kabbalah that we begin to know and to attain the Creator. Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the revelation of the Creator to the created being.”

So we should have the desire to receive, and above it the attribute of bestowal, an intention of in order to bestow. The upper Light is revealed according to the right connection between them. There are two sides to it: On one hand, it gives pleasure to the desire to receive and on the other, it enables the desire to perceive where it comes from, meaning from the Creator’s desire to bestow, from His love. Then a person, who receives in order to bestow, feels a state, a phenomenon, called “adhesion.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2012, “Introduction to TES“

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Question: I don’t understand how a spiritual Partzuf can calculate to what extent it can receive in order to bestow if each time it discovers a new state in which it has never been before.

Answer: The spiritual Partzuf goes through new phases all the time. As it says: “They will be as new to you.” But it can perform different actions based on what was before. Thanks to what? Thanks to his asking the upper one to perform this action!

In our world, all the actions are also performed by the upper one, but you don’t think about it and you think that you are doing everything by yourself. But everything is done by the upper Light, and you are making a double mistake called double concealment.

In fact, you are not doing anything by yourself. Everything is done thanks to the mercy of the Creator, and we are not in charge of our actions, our decisions, and our calculations. You may feel doubtful and unsure as to how you will act in the spiritual world since you are used to feeling that you are in charge in this world and that everything depends on you. But here too, you never do anything or decide by yourself.

It only seems that you do; everything that you feel, decide, and carry out is fictional. Inside you there is a hand, like in a puppet, that constantly turns you, so relax.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Questions About the Convention
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From a lesson of Rabash: In the corporeal world we see that the embryo is first in the mother’s womb and then he comes out into another place—into the world. But in the spiritual world there is no place. So what is the meaning of “birth?”

The rule is: What in spirituality is called “near by” or “far away” is a matter of equivalence of form. If there are two different forms, it is two places. Every form is called “a place.”

While the embryo was inside the mother he had no name. We don’t say that he is pregnant but that the mother is pregnant, carrying the child, because he doesn’t have a name yet. An embryo is called “the thickness of the root level.” He doesn’t have a desire to receive of his own yet. He only annuls himself before the upper one in every way, and so he is considered an inseparable part of his mother and he eats whatever his mother eats.

But when the phase of pregnancy is over and he already has the whole Light of Nefesh (NRNHY of Nefesh), the upper one gives him thickness that is called “thickness of phase one.” Although it is small, his desire to receive already has its own entity, which means that there is already a difference in form. They are not the same anymore, and so he doesn’t annul himself before the upper one. This is called being in two different places, or “birth.”

The most important spiritual principle is equivalence of form, and it is the only thing we should worry about. All the other rules we discover in different sciences, in culture, in education, in psychology—all the rules of reality are only different results of this one major principle: equivalence or lack of equivalence of form with the Creator.

All the movements with regard to Him symbolize a greater or lesser adaptation to Him. All the changes are in the created being. The Creator is always good and benevolent, absolute bestowal and love. We, however, move all the time changing in relation to His attribute, and everything that we feel is only our changes with regard to this discernment, although we are not aware of it.

Until we feel so bad that we begin to look for the answer: Why?! And then we discover this law and begin to work on ourselves, in order to reach equivalence of form.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/12, Preface to The Zohar

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As a result of the shattering, the one, general soul was divided into a huge number of souls. Each piece of the general soul is called Adam (man, human) and feels that it is separated from the other pieces. These parts feel that they want to receive since at present, their nature is the desire to receive.

Their desires to receive constitutes the same HaVaYaH (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey) only now it is broken, shattered to fragments. Thus in this HaVaYaH there are 4 parts: the levels of inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking. These parts feel that they exist harmoniously. This is the form of the desire that has influence on them after the shattering. This is how they feel themselves.

If the desire would rise above, then the feeling of existence for each of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels would disappear. The inanimate world would disappear and it would feel itself as part of the desire, of the force, which has the intention of how to use this desire. This is the real form of existence, not the previous existence of the inanimate level.

When these parts of the general soul of Adam reach the lowest, shattered point, then each part of it feels that it just exists, without any intention. Everything disappears, is lost. There is no Masach (screen), no Tzimtzum (restriction). There is nothing that will be above the desire. Everything exists within it. And when perception is within the desire, then the desire feels itself as we feel this reality before us.

So, what should we do? All in all, we need to again attach these pieces to each other and to change their intention. We don’t know where each piece belongs, with whom it needs to connect, in what way, or how all the parts need to be connected since for each one of them there is an infinite number of possibilities to connect with others, and all of these possible connections must be realized and carried out. In addition, each piece is connected to the rest of the pieces like a holographic picture since there is no part, even the smallest, that isn’t composed from HaVaYaH and won’t be connected via his HaVaYaH with the rest of the HaVaYaH’s. It is really so.

Thus, we don’t need anything except to bring all the parts of creation closer and connect between them. The Kabbalists say that you don’t have to worry about the joining of the wolf with the sheep, or the stone with the flower. You only need to worry about the unity at a higher level, at the level of speaking, since it consists of all the other levels that are below it, like a pyramid.

You can cause a correction if you change your intention with the help of the Light that Reforms. You are on the upper level, since it is only there that you can execute a correction. A correction is carried out when there is a change of intention. The rest of the levels lost the intention that they had before the shattering. And before the shattering, they were connected with the level of Adam, but afterwards they were severed from it.

Adam in its true and corrected form included in it all the levels of inanimate, vegetative, and animate, that “fell” as a result of the shattering. If man would correct himself, of course, the other levels would also join him since this is the structure. Also in the present, shattered state, a connection exists between everyone, but this connection is not good.

You bring the Light that Reforms to the upper level, and it already joins to it all the lower levels that connect to it. Thus, it is only man who needs to be corrected, and the rest of the levels will be corrected by themselves.

How is it possible to correct man? Only in his yearning for unity. And the connection is realized at the level of man. But what about all the other levels? Man lives among all the rest of nature’s levels and he needs to relate to them in a correct and balanced way as the Torah commands. He should use the world to the extent necessary for life, for the sake of upholding and correcting all of creation. This would be the correct attitude.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/12, The Zohar

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Question: When you speak about our intention before reading The Zohar, you do not use the language of The Zohar or of the Sefirot. You speak about feelings, but the text that was written by Rabbi Aba in a concealed form doesn’t help us feel it.

Answer: On one hand, this is true. On the other hand, when we study about how Malchut rises to Bina and descends from there, and how AHP rises and descends, and how the souls rise, you can feel that although it is about the attributes on spiritual degrees. We already have some emotional response to words like the rising of Malchut to Bina, restriction, the small state (Katnut), the great state (Gadlut), Yenika, or Ibur. Although it is about the Sefirot, you still can add some feeling to it, even without having these attributes yet.

All these feelings are not real until we cross the Machsom (barrier). There is nothing we can do about that.

However, the writing styles and the descriptions of spirituality are very different. See how Ramchal and AGRA wrote, and how different they are from one another. Look at Baal HaSulam and Rambam. Rashi, who wrote commentary for the entire Tanakh, Peshat (simple) commentary, was a great Kabbalist. See how he expresses himself in ordinary, everyday language that is clearly understood by everyone. How he concealed himself!

You are asking why Rabbi Aba wrote The Zohar in such a concealed way, but he didn’t conceal anything. It says that Rabbi Aba knew how to reveal in secret. This is the revelation in the concealment (Megillat Esther). This doesn’t mean that he wrote anything. It is said that Rabbi Shimon spoke about what he attained, Rabbi Yossi and the other disciples heard and discussed the revelations, and Rabbi Aba heard everyone and wrote.

It isn’t a matter of manual writing. It is about how much each of them dressed himself in the collective revelation that they attained as a group, about how much each of them added clarifications since each one revealed the general attainment in his own personal attribute. And that’s how they eventually composed for us the steps of the ladder which we climb and advance. In fact, this is what the authors of The Zohar did.

There is the world of Infinity, and we have to start from our point of shattering, from the center of the sphere, from the dark. So, where are all the steps of the ladder that we have to climb? It is true that the Light descended from top down, along with the creation of the worlds and the steps of the ladder, and it is the Creator who did all that.

However, the authors of The Zohar fulfilled this process from the bottom up. This means that they wrote The Zohar, as it is written: “Write on the tablets of your heart.” Therefore, they also belong to the level of the forefathers, which extends from Adam to Abraham.

It is as if they paved a path through the forest for you. They have walked it ahead of you and cleared the way for you. They put up signs and carved steps on the steep slopes. They left the means for you to ease your way. This is what the authors of The Zohar actually did.

Then you are following their footsteps—and suddenly a thought from Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Chiya, or Rabbi Aba crosses your mind. You feel that they were there before you and what they did at every point. This is what it called to write a book.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/2012, The Zohar

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Question: Each of us is getting ready for the Vilnius convention. How can we create an integral of all the collective efforts, which will unite them into a single whole?

Answer: Suppose there is some indefinite form in front of us. How can we measure its area? To do that, I take a small square (1 мм²), so tiny that it can enter every corner in the form. The sum of all the areas of the tiny squares will be the desired result. This sum (∑) is an integral (∫).

With the help of an integral I can calculate the sum of many parts, their collective sum: unity. Suppose the sum equals n. But we calculate an integral from zero to infinity (∞), in other words, from the tiny square to infinity. Then we will definitely not go wrong and will fill the whole given area.

This is the difference between an integral and a usual sum: When we calculate it, we don’t determine the number of the parts because it can be infinite.

Question: Every such “tiny square” is one of the friends. How can we become an integral and not a sum?

Answer: Everyone should be small enough to be able to enter. This is enough, and he doesn’t ask for anything else, doesn’t have any conditions. It doesn’t matter in which corner I am, it’s fine. The key is to be included into everyone so that I have no egoistic essence left, no desire except for one: to be part of this integral.

Question: How can we attain that?

Answer: With the help of the Light that Reforms. It is necessary in order to be included in the group and to receive the Light of Hassadim.

Question: What should be our prayer in this situation?

Answer: You pray for everyone, for unity. You understand that you have no “area” of your own—you are that small. At first, it seemed to you that you were filling the whole area. But gradually, in order to be included in the group, in an integral, you minimized yourself, until you became a “tiny square” and lost all the “area,” that is, your self-importance, independence, and individual reality. Then you are really worthy of being part of the whole, and you become included in the revelation of the Creator.

Question: Does this mean that our integrality is a result of our self-annulment?

Answer: Of course. And from that I demand unification, revelation, and adhesion for everyone.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2012, “Introduction to TES“

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Question: What is self-annulment? What does it mean, to nullify yourself before the friends?

Answer: It means that I serve my friends: Let them reveal the Creator to the full measure, while I will only help them. They won’t know about it. In the same way, it doesn’t matter to a mother whether her baby is aware of her care and concern. She is simply devoted to him without any reservations. Similarly, I want to help all the friends realize their hopes so that through that they and the Creator could delight in each other.

And what about me? I remain a hidden factor. Just like the Creator who conceals Himself behind the scenes in this world, I, too, want to lead all of humanity towards His goodness in a concealed manner.

Just be careful: Great pride lies in this approach.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2012, “Introduction to TES“

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During the last congress in the Arava desert, we already reached the point of unity that lies above us. It is still obscure in our perception; however, it is our common “baby.” Now we need to elevate our care and concern for him, for this unity, to a new level.

So far we have just a drop; we are revealing rejection, fog, and confusion, and we need to use these things to work in order to raise our baby. Because love doesn’t arise out of nowhere, it is formed out of hatred.

The congress has passed, everything seemingly retreated into the past, and current problems started to distract and disorient us. Meanwhile, we need to convert all this haze into clarity. Each one needs to combat the forces of separation acting within him in order to reach the central point of all the groups—the congress that will unite us all.

Through hate, rejection, distancing, and indifference we will rise above the previous point of unity to the next level. And then we will sense our unity as a certain construction. The point will acquire volume. After all, the difference between a drop of semen and a fetus is determined by our attentiveness, our “resolving power.”  And it is increased only from the addition of more “material,” that is, egoistic desire, hate, and so on. If we can attach such negatives to our point of unity, then we will be able to see an embryo, or maybe even a baby in it.

We are speaking about the type of soul that we acquire, and thus sensing the spiritual world through it. Even the “embryo” is already a measure of inclusion. It is a feeling that correctly determines our entire attitude towards the material and the spiritual, and that correctly orients us to everything that happens in our world. This is what we need to achieve now.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/12, Writings of Rabash  

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Question: The convention is starting! What atmosphere should surround it during the final preparations?

Answer: We only need the sensation of unity, there is nothing else. We see from the example of the spiritual fetus that there is plenty of matter for its development, and only the form, which we take from the Light, from the Creator, is lacking. The more we want to assume the form similar to the Creator within the desire, depending on it, we will be called humans.

The desire to assume the form of man is called a prayer. And it is realized through our connection, when everyone wishes to unite so that everyone completes the other till the form of man, Adam.

And then it transpires that there are no unwanted or failing. If we connect everything given to us from Above correctly, we will perform our task and assume the human form. We have all the conditions for it now, and I really hope that we will not miss our chance.

Let everyone annul themselves before the friends, and then even the very beginner will be among others as a baby who does not interfere with them, and he will enter together with everybody. Babies are not left alone; they must be taken together! By annuling yourself before the rest, you obligate them to take care of you.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2012, TES 

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