We must constantly ask ourselves whether each day we better understand: what the need for redemption is, the preparation for it, and the spiritual vessel we have to prepare in order to go out to the desert. Do we have a deficiency for that?

The deficiency should be made of two parts: Malchut and Keter. Malchut is the deficiency, it is what I lack, and Keter is the respect I have for this deficiency, it is my assessment of this desire having the greatest importance..

We need a Masach and the returning Light, in other words, the ability to bestow. After all, the Masach itself isn’t bestowal yet, and neither is the returning Light; they are only the conditions. But we need them, because other than that, nothing is required of the spiritual vessel. The filling will come according to the Masach and the returning Light,

It is called a filling because the Creator, the Light of Hochma, is dressed in the filling afterward; it will be the direct result of the correction of the vessel.

The Masach and the returning Light are built on the desires and cannot exist without its depth and strength (Aviut). Therefore, love cannot exist without hate, without a strong, deep desire it is impossible to overcome it. This is how it should be built: one inside the other.

Therefore, when we are about attack, we have to see whether we’ve actually revealed our egoism, which we should attack now. Who are we attacking? There is nothing but the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, and we have to clarify this before we attack.
[68292]
From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12

Related Material:
With Whom Should We Make Our Attack?
A Storm In The Desert
Indifference Is Worse Than Hate

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Question: What is the upper root of the black letters? From where does their force derive?

Answer: From the tip of the Yod (the 10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet). The Ari wrote in a poem:

Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created,

The Upper Simple Light had filled the whole existence.

And there was no vacancy, such as an empty air, a hollow,

But all was filled with that Simple, Boundless Light.

And there was no such part as head, or end,

But everything was One, Simple Light, balanced evenly and equally,

And it was called “the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity).”

And when upon His simple will, came the desire to create the worlds and emanate the emanations….

And then the desire to receive was revealed, something that was opposed to the Light.

The Light is bestowal and love. And suddenly, within bestowal and love something black begins to appear to differentiate from bestowal and love. Actually, it is a small drop, something that isn’t similar to Light, something distinct from it, that was created in it, and it precisely is called “creature.” Everything else developed from it. All the rest was consequently determined by this tiny difference from the Light, which began to develop due to the Light, and it began to feel itself and become familiar with its oppositeness to the Light.

And then we speak about the fourth level in the phases of Direct Light, about Ein Sof (infinity), the restrictions and the continuation of the development of the creature. But actually nothing changes: There remains that same small difference from the Light. The only thing that grows in it is the feeling to what extent it is opposite the Light. But by itself, it is just slightly different from the Light.

Therefore, the Creator only created the tip of the Yod, and all the rest developed from this point. This is the root of the letters.
[68295]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
“I Am Black And Beautiful”
The Letters Are Born Out Of Light And Darkness
The Genius In Simplicity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” Item 183: Darkness is the black in the Torah, the ink in her letters. Light is the white in the Torah, the parchments on which the letters are written. When the light clothes in darkness, it is written about the Torah, “I am black and beautiful.” When the light—the white in the Torah—departs there, the Torah says, “Do not see me that I am swarthy.”

By the form of the book, black letters on a white background, we see that it is the black color that conveys all the information to us. Although we may say the opposite: If we enter the attribute of bestowal into the white Light of the background of the book, we study the white part in contrast to the black—not black on a white background, but white in which there are small black voids.

Therefore, two things were said about the Torah: “Don’t see me that I am dark” and “I am black and beautiful.” On one hand, there is the Light, the attribute of bestowal and on the other hand, there is the desire, the vessel, the attribute of receiving. Therefore we are in a state of ups and downs when we feel and study the white in contrast to the black and vice versa.

This is a study in which one completes the other, and thus enables us to see not in our desire, not in the attribute of receiving, but rather from the perception of the upper, from the attribute of bestowal. When we are in our own desire, we act from our letters, from the darkness on the white Light’s background. But if we are incorporated in the upper, like Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP, we learn from the Light of Ein Sof because then we are incorporated in it, and learn the white Light that is in the books and not the black.

Thus we learn one attribute in contrast to another, until they complete one another and the letters complete the white background and the white completes the black part of the letters. The letters don’t disappear, but the whole Torah turns fully into Light, as it says: “the night will glow like daytime.”
[68298]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
The Upper Root Of The Letters
Black Letters On White Background
How To Talk About Spirituality

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Reading The Book of Zohar helps us hasten time. If I need to develop for 5-10 years, then reading The Zohar can bring about these changes in me in several lessons or even less.

This is the difference between the level of the animate and the level of the speaking, although the two cannot be compared. No matter how much a beast wants to, no matter how much it jumps, no matter what it does—in its entire lifetime, it will not be able to perform one action that is similar to a human or even a small child. This is the difference in the levels of development.

Therefore, if we read The Zohar and don’t think about the actions that the Light can perform on us, our development will be very slow and may even be negative because in any case, the Light performs changes in us.

But if we add the right intention, then the reforming Light develops us from self-love to love of others, to resembling and becoming equal to the Light, and we reach the opening of the eyes.
[68301]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
Don’t Wallow In Time
On The Wave Of The Book Of Zohar
Let The Book Of Zohar Talk About Me

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, “Concerning the Importance of Friends”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “A Prayer for the Poor,” Item 184, Lesson 52
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, (Start with: “The same occurred in the creation of Partzuf BON“), Item 23, Lesson 15
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 75, Lesson 35
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

How can we imagine the upper state in which the Creator reveals to you that He loves all those that hate you and hates all those that love you, including yourself? It seems that it brings you no good and that there is nothing worse than that. Before you are Pharaoh, Bilam, Balak, Amalek and Hitler all in one and you know how to overcome this because this also comes to you from the Creator, although indirectly.

The more we advance towards love, the greater the obstacles we come across. You overcome them and the “angel of death” becomes the “holy angel” in your eyes.

Question: I don’t understand this state. After all, the Creator is still perceived as good and benevolent. Do I see it together with the suffering of others and my own suffering in the past?

Answer: You see all the suffering that is in reality. This is a horrible picture: monstrous suffering, not one gram of pleasure, not a day of rest, only pain and suffering for thousands of light years. The suffering is everywhere. There is total emptiness in the desire to receive, not here and there, not from time to time, but one hundred percent suffering.

This state is called the illumination of the Shechina, and above it, you reveal the good and the benevolent. Otherwise, how would it be possible to discover Him? If the Creator just brings you goodness, then you discover Him in egoistic vessels. But if you discover Him in the full depth of the black abyss that is in front of you, then He is discovered in your vessels of bestowal that are aimed at bestowal.

Furthermore, you will see that He is good only towards those who are as bad as He is, and bad towards those that are good, in contrast to Him. This is how it will seem to you.

Our work is only in rising above the vessels of reception. If you see that the Creator’s actions do not match bestowal, it appears to you intentionally as an obstacle on the way, above which you have to rise.

Question: And what do I discover after this ascent?

Answer: The desire to receive, the general vessel of Malchut of Ein Sof, in a totally empty form: darkness, despair, worry, and fear, the dreadful trials of Job, and you fill it with the Light of Hassadim and with love.

Question: That means that after having corrected myself I feel good, no matter how much darkness is revealed to me. And now I look at the past and what do I see? Have I suffered or not?

Answer: This is already the next level, which you have to determine. In Gmar Tikkun (End of Correction) you don’t see that you’ve suffered of course.

Question: And what is the suffering that I feel now?

Answer: Now you are not the same person who will attain Gmar Tikkun. Eventually you will not recognize yourself in your present state. The feelings that were left behind are not you.

Question: So what am I now?

Answer: Something virtual.

Question: So what do we need all the present states for?

Answer: You feel them in order to prepare yourself, when you do everything that is in your power. It says: “I have exerted and I found.” You are getting ready until you find, until you rise above the Machsom (barrier), until then, the real “you” doesn’t exist.
[68061]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
From Your Actions We Shall Know You
The Joy Of Waking Up The World
Discover The Creator’s Goodness, Not His Presents

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Suffering - No Comments →

Question: In the “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot“ Baal HaSulam says that a person can enslave and force himself to keep the 612 Mitzvot. What does that mean? What is the action he speaks about?

Answer: After a person reveals his 612 desires in all the 125 degrees of his desire, in all the forms and the incorporations, he tries to work in them with the intention of in order to bestow. This effort is in asking for a Masach, which he receives and tries to bestow with it. Then a person fulfills all the desires of others that are revealed to him.

Thanks to this correction he reaches the 613th desire, the final desire of love that is the incorporation of all the other desires. The general, comprehensive desire is revealed to a person, not as one of 613, but as the combination of all of them, the whole spiritual vessel, a totally new and unfamiliar desire that cannot be attained in any other way. In it a person discovers the Creator.

He sees the great vessel, which he filled when he acted with the intention of in order to bestow and that he treated like the Creator. Then a person suddenly understands the Creator, not his actions, but the Creator Himself. It is written, “From Your actions we shall know You.” Now a person understands not only the goodness with which the Creator fills all of us, but the Creator Himself.

We don’t know what this is. It isn’t about the Creator’s attitude towards us, but the Creator Himself, in a pure form, without regard to us. I have attained an equivalence of form with Him.  Now I see what it means to bestow, and from these actions I attain Him, I attain the upper half of Keter.

This is what the Creator wants from His created being. The whole creation exists for this peak up there. This is where I attain the Creator disconnected from the creation.
[68056]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
The Joy Of Waking Up The World
The Creator Is Known By His Actions
612 Components Of The Upper Love

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Can I oblige myself to change internally? Is there such an action? For example, if I constantly think and worry about the friends’ intentions and set an alarm clock to remind me to do that, will I be able to measure the result of these efforts?

Answer: I don’t know the result. I exert myself and I don’t know what I will find.

Question: How can I examine things this way? What is the purpose of such a study?

Answer: Carrying it out. If you did it, the result will be positive. All other questions and claims come from the ego, “What do I get from this? Do I lose anything?”

Try to detach yourself as much as you can: There is a mission and I don’t need anything else. The alarm clock rings and I think about the friends. Then they disappear from my sight until the next ring. That’s all.

We can succeed. The problem is the inner weakness: You don’t have enough audacity. After all, audacity towards Heaven opens up the doors for you.

At the moment you see things intelligently and without attracting attention you are trying to turn the doorknob quietly and slip inside. But no, you should pound on the door so that it will swing open.

Question: How can I acquire this audacity towards Heaven?

Answer: Audacity is not when I doubt things indecisively: “Is it worth it? Perhaps we are not worthy of it yet? Perhaps we should first accumulate power and knowledge….” Audacity is when I demand although I know that I don’t deserve it. I know it and I demand it as if the Creator owes me.

And this is justified. I understand that I cannot exit my ego, that the Creator has created me this way so that I cannot really connect with the friends. I know that I am standing in front of a wall because I have discovered this after the efforts I have made. I have already tried many things and I have already attained certain things, but all my achievements are futile in front of this wall. Each time the evil inclination overtakes me and tells me: “Wait a while, you still have to finish what you haven’t had a chance to. Perhaps in a month or two, maybe brush up on Shamati, and accumulate power… but now you are not ready yet. Let the others try.”

There must be audacity here, but very serious and thorough audacity: “I deserve it and that’s it.” This isn’t a senseless attack but a careful calculation. I bring the efforts I made with me; I don’t simply demand things, and I do it together with the friends. It makes no difference whether we look like a gang of criminals and not a consolidated group, we demand decisively, as brave people who will not give up.
[68053]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
We Demand Light!
Be More Insolent With The Creator
Born To Become Human

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What should be the result of the Arava convention?

Answer: The word “result” in itself indicates that we are going there for some profit and that we want to get something. The truth is that I have to rise above myself, to lose myself and to feel “we” instead.

That’s all we need—to acquire the first spiritual vessel. This vessel in essence is a desire, a deficiency, and not an egoistic property. The desire to be with others in particular is revealed here, to connect to others. If it is constantly in me, it means that I have acquired that vessel.

But you expect to feel good as a result of our connection, that is, you expect to get an egoistic fulfillment. Start thinking and looking for the differences. There are many details here and it is good if you are confused by them, then you try to find out the truth.
[68049]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
With Whom Should We Make Our Attack?
Not An Ordeal But No Picnic
When Will It Be Meaningful To Go To The Desert?

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Lo Lishma (not for Her name) is when I agree to be partners with the Creator. I have no other choice since after all I want to attain everything that exists in the world. This is the way I begin, like an egoist, like all of us.

But afterward, I despair at acquiring what is desired. If they were corporal acquisitions, I would apply more effort since I know this does the trick, or I would go study at a university if knowledge were needed, or I would steal it, but one way or another I would attain what I wanted.

But if my goal is above this world and I want to reach the root of my soul, to discover the goal of my life, where it comes from and what the plan for it is, then I will not be able to find that in this world. And it is here that we see that we have no choice, and we can’t manage through our own forces, and thus we reach the wisdom of Kabbalah.

And here I am told, “Do you want to attain that? It’s possible, but in order to do that you need to bestow to the Creator.” And then I perceive the Creator as a partner, like the taxing authority, where I think I can gain for myself on the condition that I allocate to Him the percentage He deserves.

If this is His system, He created the world, and I am in this world as a worker, as an implementer, then it’s clear to me what the Owner requests. As it is written: “The shop is open
and the owner gives credit. The book is open
 and the hand writes.
 And whoever wishes to borrow 
may borrow.” Thus subconsciously, I feel that the Creator is my partner Who will ask for His part.

Lo Lishma, is my partnership agreement with the Creator. In truth, I would like to gain everything for myself and not share with anyone; I would like spirituality to continue like corporeality, with the same conditions. But there is no choice, I am forced to share: “Tell me how much You need, I agree.”

Even if it were 99%, but if the one percent that remains is dear to me, then I am prepared to work for it. The worker in the factory works for pay of 1,000 dollars a month, while the owner of the factory can make millions. Here, it is the same thing. Therefore, I agree to a partnership deal with the Creator, and this is what each one of us does. We don’t have to lie to ourselves. Our ego doesn’t understand another way.

And here is the key point: How should I relate to this partnership? Do I bring my egoism to this partnership and divide: That’s mine and that’s Yours?

Sometimes I want to take everything for myself. Sometimes I actually agree to give everything to Him, but of course, that’s on condition that I also get something from it. Subconsciously I mean it, in my agreeing to give everything, in all of this there should be some gain in it for myself.

In as much as my state of Lo Lishma seems to me as a perfect state, when I want to give everything to the Creator, I see myself in my imagination as adhered to the Creator, and thus everything that He receives will be mine. Thus I am prepared to give to Him like to my baby, where I am not sorry for anything that I give Him since nature obligates me to feel that it’s mine. It’s as if it is I, myself, and even more important than myself.

Whether I want it or not, I have no choice other than to be situated in this kind of unconscious partnership, that is beneficial to the ego, like with income tax. And if it’s possible to somehow conceal the taxes, then it’s clear that it won’t work with the Creator.

Thus, if we are on our own, our desires to reach bestowal to the Creator is egoistic, it’s a ‘fixed’ game from the beginning. We can agree to bestow only from desperation, a lack of choice, or from the expectation of receiving payment. Everyone wants such a powerful partner who controls everything; it’s a very profitable alliance. This is the basis for all religions.

But our goal is to recognize the egoistic alliance in this point, and to correct it. Since it is especially in this point that we battle: if my relationship to the Creator will become my “potion of death” or the “elixir of life.” Will I go from Lo Lishma to Lishma or stay completely within the deadly ego? Here is the critical point.
[67036]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Realted Material:
What Does “To Reach An Answer” Mean?
The Quantization Of Light And The Intention
Meeting The Master Of The Serpent

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →