Only the force that I develop in front of myself to attract me to bestowal is a sign of spiritual advancement. Sometimes, we do not understand what is going on; why there is no advancement if so much effort has been applied. We are on this path for so many years, but still cannot finish the period of preparation. What else is required of us?

And we do not understand that we have been waiting all that time for some kind of force to come and push us instead of using our own actions to create the force that would attract us forward rather than pushing from behind. We take this motivation from the environment in order to move forward due to the greatness of the goal, bestowal.

This is all our work, the freedom of choice, annulling ourselves and raising the environment. Everything is in order to become inspired by the goal and elevate it. It is not enough that I attach myself to it. I need a very powerful force of attraction that can outweigh my ego and make me revolve around this goal day and night, to lose sleep over it.

If I manage to create such a large attractive force, then I will move forward.

This is the human level, opposite to all the previous steps. This is not a natural development that comes from nature and happens by itself. Sufferings will not help there; they will not propel me forward. Only my own efforts and concentration of forces, using all the advices of Kabbalists and all the means that will influence me and inspire the greatness of the goal, will help me move forward so that I rush towards it.

And the goal is bestowal to which I am going without any other calculations, goals, or rewards, nothing, but pure bestowal.
[64517]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Shamati

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There are two forces by which we advance, and the relation between them indicates the level a person is on. The Creator has no problem pushing us from behind and advancing us by sufferings. Then we have no choice but to advance. We will advance in the direction the Creator wants us to advance, but that isn’t considered advancement.

Throughout history and our evolution, the created being has been through the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels; that is called “nature.” Then in the level of the speaking there are also levels of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking, but they belong to the human level already.

The inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels develop in us under pressure and suffering. But the human in us develops thanks to awareness, consciousness, faith, and attaining the greatness of the goal, the yearning for bestowal.

For generations, we humans have developed in the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate and now we enter the level of “human” development. The difference is that as humans we can develop only if we ourselves yearn forward by the greatness of the goal.

This means that I have to stabilize the goal and its worth inside me as much as I can, to aim towards it, using every means I can. As it says: “Israel (those who yearn for the Creator, the Torah (the Reforming Light), and the Creator—are one.” The main thing is that I should yearn for the goal and not for someone else to manage me, to oblige me to go, to push me from behind by sufferings.

Thanks to the sufferings, I can be influenced through my egoism and then start moving. But it isn’t because the greatness of the goal, the greatness of bestowal and the Creator are pulling me. Thus, I don’t develop my point in the heart, but simply run away from suffering.

A different force and factor are active here by which I am motivated. So this isn’t development. A person can experience great sufferings; there were many attempts to wake him up, but it doesn’t mean that he has advanced by even one millimeter.

Although it may seem that he has advanced, he hasn’t. This is why it says that the sufferings polish a person’s body (his egoism) just like salt polishes the meat. The sufferings only make us become more sensitive, but they don’t make us start moving. A person can only move if he begins to resemble the Creator.
[64520]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Shamati

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The difference between spirituality and corporeality is that in spirituality the intention is first and foremost and the action is only meant to implement the intention. Without an intention there is no action. Even an intention by itself is an action.

So every word we read in The Book of Zohar should be with an intention throughout the text. We should only think about the intention and be in it, while the text “flows” downwards, as if we are swimming in a river and need to constantly control and manage ourselves: How and in what direction are we swimming?

Without an intention we immediately lose the action. So, the intention should be above and the action below both in the way we see it and in priority.

We must constantly think about the intention: What do I want from it, how do I aim the forces that are evoked while reading The Zohar together with the friends, and what do I want as a result of their influence?

If we don’t focus their influence on us, there is no result.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, The Zohar

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Baal Hasulam, “The Freedom”: “All their wisdom did not help them find a bridge on which to cross that wide and deep crevice that spreads between the spiritual entity and the corporeal atom. Thus, science has gained nothing from all these metaphysical methods.”

A person inherits his attributes from his parents. These attributes cannot be changed, but society influences them and gives them different forms. Eventually a person doesn’t express himself but rather expresses the external society.

The attributes can differ but what matters is the form they are given: a person can be a great gangster or a great scientist, can slaughter animals or slaughter people. The distance between a policeman and a thief is very small, and they both understand each other.

So society does whatever it wants with a person. Although there is the preliminary kernel in a person, the influencing factors do whatever they want with him. This is the way things are on the corporeal level, and so we don’t decide anything here.

However, on the spiritual level we have to discover the root of a person’s soul, the point in the heart, and to place it in an environment that will provide it with the reforming Light. We have to build a spiritual environment that will provide a person with this spiritual Light that will influence the point in his heart and open it.

A person, on his part has to lower himself in front of the right environment and to neutralize his ego in order to remove the egotistic covers from the point in the heart. He has to bring his point out and to connect it with the other points, so that it will really look like yearning for bestowal. Although their intention is still egoistic, they are attracted to mutual bestowal, to the force that resembles, at least to some extent, the reforming Light. This is the only way to draw it. This Light influences the egoistic forces in us that are trying to keep in contact, despite the hatred we feel.

So there is the preliminary point in the heart, the root of a person’s soul, and there is the reforming Light, the force that develops the root of the soul. All the egoistic conditions in a person and in the environment, meaning the group, were meant to develop the force of bestowal, the intention to reach bestowal as much as possible. It is for this reason that we see ourselves dressed in an egoistic shell, and we also see the group as repulsive. This allows us to bring out our point and to place it against the reforming Light. Otherwise, we would simply not be able to do it.

So the shell is called “helpmate.” It enables me to place my point under the Light.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

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We already understand that free will isn’t a simple term. We are born with attributes we didn’t choose, to a family and conditions we didn’t choose, we get an education we didn’t choose…in short, we are raised and molded having no free will.

As a result, a person in this world is “cooked” by his parents, the environment, and society…so he has no freedom and we cannot demand anything from him; after all, he is a machine. It seems to him that he has his own thoughts, his own desires, his own deeds, but actually they are inevitable and he is compelled to act that way.

So, what is the point of creation? We are talking about a thought of nature, about the desire, the intention, the great wisdom. In fact, the Creator, or the Upper Force, by definition, has great wisdom, much more than all of the creation that is below Him.

When we study the world, we discover inconceivable wisdom in it. We only manage to “scratch” the surface and all our science is based on that. In fact, we haven’t started to discover the real forces, the real relationships, the real forms and connection that exist in this reality.

So why did the Creator create the world?—So that the created beings will follow a predetermined plan? After all, the beginning and end are already known, and everything is predetermined and we have no say and no free will. Our whole development is predetermined. And for the Creator the concept of time doesn’t exist.

So all this is useless. Can the created beings do anything independently, in some way or at some point?—Something for which it was worthwhile to create them, together with this whole reality?

The basic question is: Where is our free will for which the Creator created everything? The spiritual worlds, the innumerable forms and phenomena and the corporeal universe we live in—is all this only so that a person will perform some independent action at some brief moment in his life? The one moment that gives everything else a meaning.

At present this moment it is evasive, leaving us with a question we have no answer for. But if we find the point in which we can add one gram by ourselves, then all of reality will light up and you will discover its wonderful infinite filling….

So we have to find out where our free will is. If we check this logically, reality cannot exist without this option. After all, there would be no reason for the wise nature to create anything otherwise. In such a case, there would be no meaning for its actions.

We have to look for our freedom. Without it our life will remain programmed, planned, and we will continue to be managed like puppets on a string. We have to look for the point of free will and to realize it. This is man’s whole designation.

What is that freedom? Freedom from whom? From the Creator and His orders? Of course; as long as I am attached to Him, I am not me. He moves me. So I have to be free not from other people and not even from myself, but first and foremost from Him. The Creator has created a certain state in which I can be detached from Him, from His control. Then I will be free.

The question is: What do I do with this freedom? What new abilities do I acquire? With what thought, with what feeling, and with what action do I fill the void that is suddenly revealed for me?

We will talk about this some other time.
[64574]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Power of Thought”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let the Earth Put Forth Grass,” Item 89, Lesson 23
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Preface to The Book of Zohar, Item 27, Lesson 11
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace,” (Start with: “Because the purpose is undoubtedly built”), Lesson 6
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Question: How can I feel that the whole world is on my shoulders?

Answer: We cannot attain what we dream of without a vessel or desire. In our world we can receive things even without having a very big desire, meaning by virtue of actions that we can make even without having a desire.

But in spirituality there are no means like in our world because there, the desire itself is the action. Therefore, we can shift to spirituality only on the condition that our actions will constantly become more advanced and evoke a growth of our desires.

It’s a known fact that if a person has to put efforts into something, such as take care of his child or pet, or do something just to earn money, then he gradually starts to value what he invested himself into. Then his thoughts and desires will be focused on this. This way, we can raise our desires and thoughts by virtue of actions which don’t even have the right intention at first, and train ourselves to have new thoughts and desires.

These special opportunities are provided by our world, our state, where besides the desire and the thought, there are also material actions that we can make due to indirect material reasons: for the sake of money, respect, knowledge, and power, and thus we can develop new desires through them.

This way, actions influence thoughts to such an extent that I can feel as if the whole world really is on my shoulders!

If I have to attain a perfect desire, then I have to experience fear and worry for the whole world. This is already called elevation in bestowal. That’s because I am not worried about this this world due to the fact that my well-being depends on it, but I want to attain the quality of bestowal and bestow to the Creator with it.

We can achieve this by virtue of actions, by continually putting in our efforts through our friends and together with them—into the big world. This work opens up our desire to be connected to the world because we invest ourselves in it. I begin to better understand and feel these external desires, and this gives me new forces and aspirations. That is how action governs desire.

And when I receive new desires, I only have to increase them, and that is already easier. I can do it with the help of friends, the environment.
[64674]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/11, Shamati

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Question: How can we avoid the danger of our egoism and turn the clarification of it into psychology?

Answer: There is nothing bad about psychology! In fact, Kabbalah is an internal spiritual psychology. Psychology of this world is egoistic by nature; it investigates the human ego.

But there is another type of psychology that concentrates on studying those who strive to develop properties of bestowal within them, those who learn how to work in bestowal and see reality through this quality rather than through the property of receiving. This kind of psychology is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. That’s the only difference between these two types of psychology.

Psychology of this world studies behavioral laws of the desire to be fulfilled for one’s own sake. The wisdom of Kabbalah explores behavioral laws of the desire to be fulfilled for the sake of bestowal.

Spiritual psychology leads us to self-study. The tools that allow us to achieve love of the Creator are as follows: our desire to be pleased, our intellect and heart, the group, the goal of creation, our connection with the group, and the mutual guarantee between us. According to the goal that was set by us, we study Kabbalah rather than plain psychology.

It can appear to be psychology, but in fact, it is a revision of ourselves. The material we study are our senses and the desire to be pleased. This is a subject of psychology, since its goal is to teach us how to feel better.

Other sciences such as physics and chemistry pursue other, more abstract goals. Actually, we develop them only to start feeling better. We are unable to make the slightest movement in this world that pursues an alternate goal.
[64050]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/11, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal Hasulam, “The Freedom”: “It can be compared to a sick man who does not wish to obey the doctor’s orders before he understands by himself how that advice would cure him, and therefore begins to study medicine. He could die of his illness before he learns medicine.“

Suppose I live at the end of the world in a hut in some remote village, and there are a couple of other families like me. We spend our time hunting and collecting fruit and we don’t know anything except this kind of life.

But suddenly civilized people from some developed country come to us with all kinds of instruments and tools. For me they are like wizards who came down from the sky.

The question is: Do I have to go through the entire process the way they did, or can I acquire the wisdom, reason, and feeling from them in addition to their technologically advanced products and thereby leap over centuries in my development? Is that possible?

Of course, I can learn how to use their tools. You don’t need brains for that. But we are talking about an inner development that is both emotional and cognitive: Can I try to bridge the gap between us and leap over the centuries that their country and their people have gone through?

Well, it’s possible with the help of the connection among us. Not the apparent external connection, but the true internal connection. Thus we can really pass on to one another our mind and feeling. There is no need for everyone to go through all the levels that others have passed. We don’t start from scratch, but we depend on society and on what we can acquire from it.

This is our salvation. This is how we shorten the way and hasten the development. Instead of learning from troubles, we learn from other people and acquire wisdom. Although in our world we don’t always pass on to one another a positive potential. People who are more connected to nature are actually more developed: They are more delicate, more sensitive, and closer to spirituality compared to the “civilized” world.

But the main thing is the same: We receive the reason and feeling from those we join. This is true even on this world’s corporeal level. Thus every leap in our communication, in the connection between us, is also reflected in the inner mutual cooperation. As a result, humanity develops much faster; this was revealed most prominently in the 20th century with its massive growth after ages of relatively “slow” years. All this is a result of the wires of mutual connection that have been woven among people, through which the feeling and reason are transmitted.

Accordingly, we too, by our connection to the right group, can acquire the mind and feeling of the friends and thus complete what we didn’t go through by ourselves. Actually, it makes no difference who is “small” and who is “big” among us. I acquire from them what I could never have reached by myself. I am just a point in the force field of the general system, and I acquire the whole integral system from them. If I don’t connect to them, then there is nowhere I can feel this new dimension.

So, if in our world connecting with others is beneficial to some extent, then in spirituality, it is crucial: Only thanks to it do I acquire the spiritual vessel.
[64429]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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There is a real wall between us: the creature on one side, the Creator on another. So how do you figure to go through this wall? How can this be done when there is absolute bestowal on the other side, and absolute reception on our side, and there is no connection at all between them?! There simply cannot be a connection, as if there were a “plus” on one side, and a “minus” on the other, and these two vertexes can never meet.

This is why the breaking took place, which is followed by pieces of the creature entering the Creator and the pieces of the Creator entering the creature. These actions serve as a preparation. Now there are qualities of the creature inside the Creator (AHP), and qualities of the Creator inside the creature (a spark, Reshimo), and they can have a certain connection between them.

The surrounding Light exists in the AHP, which has risen from within all desires because of the breaking. And the creature has information about the broken desires, the Reshimo. So there is a so-called “surrounding” connection. This still pertains to the preparation.

And now the creature raises a prayer (MAN) and receives an answer (MAD) from the Creator. We have a mutual need in one another! After the breaking, the upper suffers because the lower suffers. And the lower has a spark, which once belonged to the upper. And with these corrupt memories, referred to as egoistic, Lo Lishma, we can establish a connection with the Creator as if from afar, from the past.

The breaking, which happened some time ago, creates a connection today—even though it happened in the past, this past connects us! This connection through the breaking is referred to as the surrounding Light or MAD from the perspective of the upper, and a prayer or MAN from the perspective of the lower.
[64504]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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