A person is born with predetermined properties. He is not held responsible for them, whether they are good or bad—if there is anything good among them at all, apart from the point in the heart that is waiting to be awakened. It is said in the Torah: “Awakening of one’s heart is bad from the time of one’s youth.”

But in any event all the properties of a person are combined together and designed for his or her spiritual ascent. A person has only one thing to accomplish in this world: to rise from the animate degree to the speaking one. And thus, everything there is in him, including his internal spiritual point, as well as his external material qualities, all his parameters, everything that forms him is surely built this way to make him aspire toward the goal. Everything descends here from this goal, from this final point of the end of correction, and from this place everything rises back to the end of correction.

There definitely are no accidents. Everything is designed only for this lofty task. And for this reason, we should treat the evil the same way we treat the good, accepting all the things as the necessary components that connect together to form a perfect, internal state for us.

We inherit part of our properties from our father and mother, and we get another part of them through our upbringing. Then we add to all this the properties received from our environment, the habits that become our second nature, and so on. All these properties settle within us as if we were actually born with them.

Here we should realize that nothing happens by chance, as people in our world think. On the contrary, everything gets to us through the system that influences us gradually, according to the program that works in tune with the general scheme of systemic interactions.

Thus, it is not really important what particular factors formed me, whether they are my parents, fellow kindergarten and school students, my neighbors, radio and television, books, or something else. Essentially, the following thing happens to us: From the Creator we receive the point of desire created as existence from absence. Further on, this point is exposed to various influences of the Light, which Baal HaSulam divides by level into inherited properties, intrauterine factors, influence of the closest environment, the society’s influence, habits, and so on. All in all, they all come from the Creator, and this is how we should treat them.

This gives rise to a question: What has been placed upon me? I start understanding that everything in my life originates from a single and unique Source that clothes into various garments. In truth, these are not garments, I just see them as such. In reality, it is the same upper Light that has passed through various filters and is now drawing various images in my imagination. These images form the picture of the world for me, which includes the still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well as people. By means of this the Creator constantly “shakes” me, gives me no peace, pushing me further and further ahead.

So, when one gathers all these kinds of influences into one whole, while connecting them to the correct goal, then one deals with the Creator.
[63989]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

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The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fate and says: “Take it!” He gives a person desire, awakens in him the question about the meaning of life and impressions, and arranges everything for him, bringing him to the place where he can realize himself, that is, to receive answers to his questions.

But the question is: Where is the person himself here? After all, everything is already predetermined by how I am structured, what kind of education I received, and how I was directed until this very moment. If I take a look back on my life, I will see that it was always turning somehow, like some kind of taut spring. And even though I don’t see clearly Who was turning it, nevertheless someone was arranging everything for me: gave me the question about the meaning of life, organized the group that I found, the books.

Everything is already organized from Above, and it’s as if they took me by the ear and brought me to the correct place. So where is my free choice here?

It turns out that free choice begins long after this. After you are brought to the group that is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, you begin to study, receive impressions, and become overwhelmed with sensations, and it then seems to you that you finally found your place. But actually, you still don’t understand anything, and all of this is not yet what you need to reach.

The place of your free choice is that empty area, that white spot that you need to fill. It is ahead of you, and you still haven’t discovered it. In the meantime, you study and are thrown from state to state without any choice. When a bad state comes, you fall into depression, and when a good state comes, you are happy.

Sometimes you receive understanding because the desire to know everything appears in you; sometimes your feelings arise as the desire to feel awakens in you. And in this way you are taken through all kinds of states together with the group, with the environment. But in the meantime, the current carries you, without any free action of your own.

And thus it continues, until you reach the empty place that you need to recognize and on which you need to concentrate all your attention. This is so since it is specifically in it that you realize yourself. And if you don’t realize your free choice there, nothing will happen.

All that is in the hands of the Creator will definitely come true. But no one can do anything with that empty place without your correct cooperation. And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about!
[64694]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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All of history and the former, private part of my life make up 99.9% done by the Creator, and 0.1% is what is left for me to do. However, for me this 0.1% of my life is, in essence, 100%. It is because it depends on me by 100%, and I need to worry only about this and nothing else. After all, everything else is not under my control.

I need to clarify particularly this tiny area, where I need to do something on my own. It’s like a big orchestra with the greatest musicians in the world performing all the pieces perfectly, with immense feeling, and without a single mistake or falling behind for even a second.

I just need to twiddle a few notes of my own in this whole great symphony. However, if I don’t play them on time, it will spoil all the music. But if I do what is assigned to me, I will complete an absolutely perfect symphony. This is how my life is arranged. Therefore, a person needs to concentrate all his attention and effort on adding these few points, playing these few notes, but he should do that properly.

Thus the wisdom of Kabbalah does not talk about anything else but this. There is an infinite multitude of everything in the spiritual world; it’s a huge reality, like a symphonic orchestra with plenty of different instruments and the most complex musical score. However, we do not study all this, and we don’t understand or feel anything there.

Kabbalists don’t tell us about that although having reached their correct realization, they already feel this whole common harmony. They explain only how we can play our tiny portion, our few notes.
[63691]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: What is the Egyptian exile in relation to the friends?

Answer: The exile means that I cannot establish the right kind of connection with the friends because Pharaoh stands between us and rules over us. It turns out that I am forced to work for Pharaoh instead of working for the sake of friends. This means that I am in the Egyptian exile, in slavery.

At first, I feel good in this exile. I don’t care about the friends, I only care about Pharaoh, the king, who lets me live well and brings me egoistic fulfillment, fulfilling my jealousy, lust, ambition, and the urge for strength and power. I unite with Pharaoh and I am ready to work for him.

Yet gradually, I begin to reveal that this is not good and I can’t live like that. Since I do not advance this way and do not clarify the goal of creation, I begin to feel that I am in exile. As it is said: “And the sons of Israel cried out from the work,” when they revealed that the splendid cities of Pithom and Ramses that they are building for Pharaoh are becoming poor and unfortunate cities for them.

All of this building does not bring any benefit to them. On the contrary, there is a danger (“danger” or “Sakana” in Hebrew is also related to the word “poor” or “Misken”) that they may forever remain in Egypt, in this state of opposition to each other, in an unfortunate life that has no purpose. And then we begin to try to turn this state into a state leading us to salvation.

From the moment when this starts to be revealed for us, Moses is being revealed (the point in the heart), who runs from Egyptian slavery to another place. That is, this quality of Moses inside of a person separates one from Pharaoh, from the ego, and begins to grow on his own, wanting to take the rest out from the Egyptian exile. This is how a person comes to be at war with Pharaoh.

Pharaoh and Moses fight each other while between them is the Creator. On one hand, He hardens Pharaoh’s heart, and on the other, He strengthens Moses and tells him: “Do not be afraid, come unto Pharaoh together!” This is how the Creator teaches Moses to keep to the middle line.

Pharaoh stands on the one hand, on the other hand there is the power of the Creator, and Moses grows between them, through the ten Egyptian plagues. Thanks to them, he obtains the ten main qualities with which he can now run away. And when he runs, all of his other qualities join him, which also agree to come out of Egypt as well.

This is how we come to the state when the fact that we ran away from Pharaoh, from our egoistic desire from which we have separated, is not enough for us anymore. Now we need to obtain the quality of bestowal, and that is why we come to receive the Torah. That is, the Light that Reforms has to begun to work practically here, and we attract it towards ourselves. Our unity with each other must become stronger. We are constantly moving forward towards an ever stronger connection.

We enter Egypt due to the fact that we all hate each other, especially the point of Joseph, the beginning of the middle line, meaning that we separate. However, the Egyptian exile already begins from “how wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers,” but only Joseph knows and understands this.

Now he wants to join all of his brothers, all of the “first nine Sefirot” (Tet Rishonot) to himself since he himself is the last Sefira Yesod. For this reason he says: “How wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers,” when he unites all of them, and a spiritual vessel is formed.

Afterwards, an even greater unity is being reached in Egypt, when the seven years of famine arrive, and they begin to reveal that they have one common hated enemy, Pharaoh. And when they run from their ego, the desire to enjoy, all together and are ready to unite, when they agree to be as one man with one heart, in mutual guarantee, meaning to fulfill the conditions of receiving the Torah, this is already the next level of unity.

Each time unity becomes ever greater. All of the transgressions they commit and then correct in the desert are directed against unity and afterwards—towards unity. There is nothing else besides the realization of the principle of loving thy friend as thyself, the great rule of the Torah.

All of the commandments, meaning the actions of correction, are included in it, until we reach the correct connection and enter the Land (Eretz) of Israel (Yashar-El, “straight to the Creator”), meaning the desire (Ratzon) that is similar to and united with the Creator. Such is the path.

That is why this is not simply the love of friends, but the means to reach and realize the goal of creation.
[63380]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We don’t change reality, but only our relation to it, its perception. We need to worry about our inner feelings so that each time we transform each situation to joy.

And this isn’t because it causes me to feel good—I can also feel bad. Rather, I feel good because this situation comes from the Creator and thus I cause Him happiness. In my every correction makes me feel good, I feel good from the fact that I bring contentment to Him.

And the first correction is to rise above good and evil so that it is not important how I feel. This means that I rise above my desire to receive. Try to eat something with the intention to bestow and see that the tastiest food loses its taste. Thus, I now rise above my good or bad sensation, and it becomes tasteless to me, like grass.

Afterwards I begin to feel the taste of importance of the Giver, and as a result of this, I cause Him delight. And having felt the importance of the Giver, I return to myself and enjoy in all of my desires. However, it is already a different pleasure: I enjoy because I delight the Creator.

This means that I do not change reality, but I change my relation to it. The main factor in all of these actions is the greatness of the Creator, which for me changes everything. I work on a higher level than the one where I felt good or bad in my beastly body. I need this beast, but I work above it.

Thus this is considered my free choice. Indeed, I receive a free plane in which I can do whatever I want. I don’t go into this low area where the Creator directs me through different situations. And my free choice is consequently expressed when above all these states, I build a relation called the intention to bestow.
[63716]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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If we need to rise above this life to the intention for the sake of bestowal, then regardless of how bad life on this plane is, we can create the most favorable relations with the Creator above it. This condition already shows the initial point of the ascent from the physical, beastly, level of sensations to the level of spiritual intentions.

There are two levels: the level of sensation and the level of intention, which is also a sensory level but is connected with the Giver. In sensation, in desire, I can feel good or bad. Whereas, with the intention, it can be for my own sake or for the sake of the Creator.

If I want to reach free choice, I need to work on the level of intention. It doesn’t matter what will happen on the level of my desire—I need only to worry about the intention. Below can be a very bad life, and above, on the level of intention, I attain goodness and give thanks to the Creator. If I can do this, it is a sign that I attained the intention to bestow, “Lishma.”

I rose above my desire, detached myself from it, restricted it, and stopped relating to me all that is good and bad. I look at myself from the side and see how this machine feels itself, its parameters and conditions. And then I understand how it needs to work for the sake of something else. This means that I am disconnected from myself.
[63713]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Writings of Rabash “Letter 43”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let There Be Light,” Item 44, Lesson 18
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“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 9, Lesson 6
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom,” “The Environment As A Factor,” Lesson 9
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When we are born in the world of bestowal, we first make an acquaintance with it, just like a person who starts a new job and is given some time to adjust and to get to know the new place of work. During this time he is only taught what should be done and he only learns and doesn’t produce anything.

It is also like a small child who is only required to listen and to learn, to watch and to experience things. It doesn’t matter if he makes mistakes or acts foolishly. He will be corrected. This means that in the spiritual world we are first treated like small children are treated.

But all this comes after great efforts that we make in order to transcend the Machsom (the barrier), to be born in the new world and to start living in the world of bestowal. With regards to all our previous work, the time after our birth is called “parking,” and Chanukah symbolizes this (“Chanu –kah”—parked so). A person reaches a comfortable situation. He still makes efforts, but they are of another kind—in order to know the good world.

He stubbornly works against his ego. It is similar to the wandering in the desert, about which the Torah tells us, a time that is meant for preparation and which ends upon entering the Land of Israel.

Chanukah is working with the Light of Chasadim, in the state of smallness. We have to learn to connect the desire to receive that is being revealed now to forces of bestowal.

In bestowal in order to bestow, we don’t use the full depth of this desire, but still it exists in us. It is like a baby: He already has legs, although he can’t walk yet; he has a brain although he hasn’t learned to think like a grown up. A newborn infant cannot see or hear anything, but he still has eyes and ears.

A baby has all the organs a grown up has. The only thing missing is the teeth. The teeth symbolize the power to clarify, which he hasn’t acquired yet. The “milk teeth” grow only after some time, and they are used only to clarify the Light of Chasadim (the milk symbolizes the Light of Chasadim) in the state of smallness.

When he grows up, he will have permanent teeth with which he will be able to chew and to clarify the filling for his vessel of reception, the Light of Hochma, and to feel the “flavors” of the Light.

Chanukah is the first part of our absorption into the spiritual world, the upper world, called the “world of bestowal.” This is bestowal in order to bestow in which we transfer all our desires to the level of mutual bestowal and learn how this system operates. We are incorporated in it like small children living in the big world who learn and do something together with the grown ups, playing with them.

This is called “parking,” because until now, during the time of preparation, a person worked hard against his egotistic desires. Afterwards, when he moves on from the level of “to bestow in order to bestow,” (Hafetz Chesed), to the next stage, to the level of love—the Land of Israel, he will start working with his vessels of reception again.

So Chanukah is a “spiritual” holiday and its symbols are the oil and the light.
[63970]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/11, Writings of Rabash

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We know from the wisdom of Kabbalah that all the best things in our personal lives—be it our current egoism or something higher that we strive to, all the goodness in the desire to enjoy or the desire to please, whether in this world or the upper World—is only achieved through unity.

Today we discover this in fairly difficult and unpleasant forms: We encounter problems and become submerged in the crisis. All this is designed to show us that we must unite, since we simply do not have another choice. Nature is pressuring us without leaving us a free space to maneuver.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is offering us its help in these conditions. It says: “I will help you attain unity. You yourselves see that there are no other options. This is the only way to fix your lives.”

Assume we do not want this, but how else can we acquire happiness? We are drawn by eternity, perfection, fulfillment both in this and the future world; we want to rise above life and death. If we were to make a list of how we envision consummate welfare, it would not be big—ten points at most. Overall, I would refer to pleasure, regardless of whether it is in the heart or the mind. And the only way to achieve it is by uniting.

So, today when we are discovering this out of hopelessness, Kabbalah comes to the rescue. It is not proposing to somehow go around this fixed condition, it does not promise protection; it does not take us to the spiritual world through the backdoor. This simply is impossible because this refers to a law of Nature.

Yet, Kabbalah helps realize it the good way. Yes, this condition is unpleasant, uncomfortable, bitter to taste, but bitterness can be turned into sweetness, and discomfort can be overcome through mutual efforts, music, a common flow of joyous feelings, festive ceremonies, and entertainment programs.

There is difficult work before us; we must go through an inner transformation. It is similar to the way an ill person agrees to surgery knowing that he will have a better life after it.

And the wisdom of Kabbalah helps us go through this surgery, which will cardinally change us. Our way of thought, our perception and understanding of the world, our perception of reality, all our actions, all our goals, mind and sense mechanisms – all these things must transform. We must uninstall the old program and install a new one.

Kabbalah explains that your basic qualities do not change. Your inherent qualities and acquired skills will remain as they were. You only change the program, according to which you achieve different goals in life. And then you suddenly see that all of them can be realized.

Today you are disappointed and helpless because of the wrong program. You need to update it, and you will achieve all the best things you now want.

And gradually, man takes steps along this path. Moreover, changes are not caused by the natural pressure of suffering from Above through which Nature always reveals problems and faults to us, forcing us to run. When we feel like we are held in a grip, we naturally direct ourselves towards the next state.

As Baal HaSulam says, we are unable to remain in the current state when it becomes unbearable, and then we cross into the next state having no other choice. This new state does not appeal to us; otherwise, we would have chosen it to begin with. According to our nature, we hover around as long as we can manage, and we only agree to the change when we reach our threshold of endurance.

And even then the situation is not the most pleasant—it is as if we needed to move somewhere, leave our home with all our possessions, reach the new place, and assimilate there…. These changes pose a lot of discomfort. But suffering increases so much that it forces us to make this “move.” This is how we advance through the stages of human development.

On the other hand, Kabbalah opens new horizons, shows us how good our lives will be there, ahead. After all, Nature’s objective is not to push us with blows, but it creates conditions for us to develop on our own towards goodness.

And then instead of pressure from behind, we feel drawn forward. This really helps: Before our train would be shaken by the jerks of the engine attached in the back, but now another engines pulls it in the front.

Kabbalah says that in the 21^st century, our development is realized through unity. This has never happened before, before everyone developed individually, but now the time has come to unite, to become included in one another, for everyone to acquire a common vessel within. Then everyone will grow on the same level as everyone else, as it is written: “The private and the whole are equal.” Everyone will feel similar to Infinity, the upper force, perceiving and embracing the whole reality in himself.

Man must acquire a second force to realize this—the force of bestowal, unity, and mutual inclusion with others. And this is why he is brought to a group, a state of his first union, even if this union is external, it is a union with people like him who aspire towards the same goal.

As we read The Zohar, we aspire towards this force, which attracts us, and we make efforts to unite between us. We help this force; we participate in the process—and advance towards the goal instead of moving towards it under pressure of the initial force of suffering. We turn to the path of Light from the path of suffering.

The Zohar describes the things the Light does to us, and this is why when we think about unity and aspire towards the Light, the reading turns into an inner, spiritual effort. It is just like a child tries hard during a game, and an adult goes all out to achieve success. Here we are trying to implement a certain action—but this action is not physical, it is internal. And once we realize it, we feel the result—and the result is also internal.
[62232]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/11, The Zohar

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Baal Hasulam, “The Freedom”: “Thus, he has substantially changed for the better from the tendency he had inherited from his forefathers. And sometimes one manages to completely uproot a bad tendency. This is done by habit, which has the ability to become a second nature.“

A habit becomes a second nature and there is a need for prior sensitivity in realizing it. After all, we are talking about special acts that are goal oriented, that change my nature.

This is the way we also behave with children when we let them do the same task over and over again until they suddenly begin to do it by themselves. If you try to stop a child from doing something that he is already used to, you won’t succeed. For him the habit is already associated with pleasure. Before he did it under our pressure, fearing that he would be punished if he didn’t do it, but now he sees the benefit in it, the lack of punishment and even a reward.

Eventually the action that was previously undesirable, now becomes rewarding, and this association is recorded in his brain. Now even if I don’t follow him, he continues to brush his teeth every morning and night even if no one gives him a candy for doing so. The model of the candy is already in his brain and it works successfully.

This is the habit. It isn’t just any habit, but an association that exists in his brain that ties the action with the candy. What is more, if I don’t do what I am used to, it is as if I am punished, although apparently nothing happens.

Our habits are related to smoking, eating, the way we dress and many other different things. They are constantly active, whether we notice them or not.

This is the complex “mechanism” that refers to the desire, in which every action or every thought is tied to a memory of pleasure. This pleasure is eternal, it is recorded and it stays in me in addition to the first factor. Even if it is not revealed at present, but rather in the past, meaning not in the inner Lights, but in the surrounding Lights, I still feel it.

Thus, the habit is created from the mutual cooperation between the Light and the vessel. We either create it by ourselves or receive it from the outside: from our parents or from other people.

Many human actions are based on this schema. Using it we train animals, educate children, and make ourselves used to things…even when we make an acquaintance with someone and have some kind of attitude towards him, we act according to patterns we are used to.

Thus, a habit becomes a second nature. This is one of the lines in the picture.
[63729]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/11, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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