Kabbalah Moments: Desire
Posted on March 21st, 2011
The Creator is concealed; the property of bestowal is concealed; the future is concealed, and I can’t see it with my egoistic vision. No spiritual property can become revealed in my current egoism, and I have no opportunity to influence its exposure but to work with the environment. Indeed, I reveal my unwillingness and inability to unite specifically there. I’m ready for anything but this!
This is called the "revelation of evil," the hindrances coming from Pharaoh, and if we do not overcome them together, they will bury us beneath them. All these crimes and quarrels that took place in Egypt and then in the desert, fights with each other and the Creator, all of them are the demands for some fulfillment, for payment in the place where you have to only think about bestowal and not about yourself.
The instant you think about your own benefit, it is a crime. Even if you do not receive anything, the very anticipation of a reward for your bestowal is a sin. One needs to strive for this aspiration to be one-sided and make sure that this one-sidedness constantly intensifies. Indeed, the second the tension weakens, the demand for oneself emerges naturally. For this reason, we need the environment’s support and mutual guarantee.
What helps me not to drill a hole in our common boat, not to think about myself but only about the environment, about our future ship? Only the friends’ support. It’s because I’m under their influence, they own my heart and mind and become more important to me than I myself. The environment has to impart me with such an attitude.
This will allow me to detach myself from selfish thoughts and to switch my entire attention, all my feelings and mind outward, like a mother whose entire desire, heart, and feelings are in her baby. If I begin feeling this way, it means I received the property of bestowal.
[38664]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2011 on Preparation for the WE! Convention
I think that during the WE! Convention in New Jersey we will reach the connection that we are already capable of creating. It’s when everybody forgets about himself and gives himself away to the society, totally submerging in the common feeling of unity and the corrected collective soul in which he doesn’t feel himself, but only this collective desire.
Besides this, everybody wishes and does everything possible to preserve this state in us forever and use it to ascend higher and higher. After all, only thanks to such an environment, by applying mutual efforts with regard to it: I toward it, and it toward me, will we reveal the force of bestowal within. And then we will acquire the property of Bina, without expecting any reaction or feedback for ourselves. We will remain in joy from being ruled by the pure property of bestowal.
I receive strength and support for this only from the environment. I have to develop such an ability myself; otherwise, it will not be considered to be my accomplishment.
Obviously, for my current egoism this seems irrational: Why do I need to create the society myself, which would confuse me and impart me with its values, forcing me to act accordingly and even rejoice in it? Will it give me any benefit at all?
True, I will not receive anything for egoism—but I will rise above my nature. This is the first stage of correction called “faith above reason.” Later, thanks to this faith I will attract the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) “inside reason,” into the desire, by receiving in order to bestow. But first and foremost, I have to rise above my egoistic desire.
But unfortunately, we stand like children in a stubborn pose and demand the Creator to become revealed, being totally oblivious of who the Creator is and what His revelation implies. We have all the conditions for revelation of the property of bestowal: Go ahead, do it! But it is the property of bestowal which will be revealed, and not a new, very cunningly disguised fulfillment for your egoism.
And our disappointment only shows how egoistic our expectations are. We don’t even realize that we demand: “Give me!”
This is why the force of mutual guarantee is so vital. It supplies everyone with confidence, the foundation, the necessity to rise above one’s ego, to bestowal without any self-consideration and compensation. This is the first property of Bina, which we have to acquire.
The only thing we can do in our state is to constantly turn to the environment for help. Moreover, one shouldn’t ask for some fulfillment for oneself, but only for support that allows him to stay above egoistic demands. Joy comes from the “good deeds,” from an outward movement toward the others because this makes you similar to the Creator.
[38673]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2011 on Preparation for the WE! Convention
A few times a day we need to perform a calculation and to examine the state we are in, our stance relative to the Creator, the environment, and ourselves—and to adjust our direction. We veer off the path all the time; it’s natural. After all, our ego is constantly growing and we have to add evermore strength to keep it under control.
I have to separate my animate body from the spiritual goal, to give the body everything necessary, and to direct everything else toward reaching bestowal, verifying it relative to the environment, according to how strongly I desire to connect to the latter.
Then I will not get confused, and it will be clear to me how much I need for a regular life, and how much I can give to the environment. That is, I will know precisely where I am and where my limit is. It is very important since if you feel a limit, you can guide yourself correctly: Give what’s necessary to corporeality and do everything possible for the sake of spirituality.
Now, before the convention, you have to examine how strongly you feel the need to connect. Awaken yourself by watching the recordings of the previous conventions so as to connect to the environment that is joyous and happy from its advancement. This prepares a person very well.
There is no time in spirituality: There is no past, present, or the future. Hence, when you are watching the recording, it’s not the past. We connect to the state which exist now. There is no difference whether I watch a recording done six months ago or participate in what is happening today. All these states join into one and the same reality. By getting inspired by the past, I can prepare myself for the upcoming meeting.
[38667]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2011 on Preparation for the WE! Convention
We haven’t drawn enough Light yet, and if we start using our corporeal mind to figure out where the evil inclination within us is, it will yield nothing but mere philosophizing. We act only within the Light; hence, we don’t need any assessments or examinations and must think only about our connection. We are simply not able to do it right now.
We have to draw a great deal of Light before we do get the power, understanding, and wisdom to feel what the “evil inclination” (Yetzer ha Ra) is. In truth, it is an angel, the force of the Creator which is opposite to Him. Only Moses merited the honor to face Pharaoh. Only after this whole long path will we come to Mount Sinai (the mount of hatred).
And how do you with your earthly heart and mind, having no connection with the spiritual world, wish to detect the evil inclination? In our world, there isn’t any evil inclination, not in any one person! If a person possesses a terrible character, it isn’t evil but merely a natural trait, like in a bully. First, we have to find the human in ourselves, which has to do with the spiritual degrees and properties.
“The Creator created one against the other,” impurity and holiness, which unfold as two lines now, the right and the left. Hence, during the preparation period, we don’t make any calculations but only strive to connect. And only after all these efforts do we come to Mount Sinai, to such a state when we are finally ready to receive the correcting force, namely because we have found the mount of hatred, the real evil inclination.
And it is only the very first revelation. Afterward, there come the 40 years in the desert and the conquering of the “land of Israel,” meaning higher and higher degrees of the revelation of evil, and so on to the very end of correction.
Therefore, we must think solely of the Light, unity, and nothing else! When the Light force starts effecting us, it is a completely different energy when we begin to function as a “perpetuum mobile (perpetual motion machine),” running on external fuel. It’s as if out of the thin air, on their own, the understanding and strength to do the job appear in us, which we don’t really have, meaning they were not supplied by our egoism.
Thus, no matter what we study, above all the thoughts of the Partzufim and Sefirot, we need to think about unity, the correction of the breaking. After all, the evil inclination is what is left within the Kelim (vessels) after the breaking.
[38315]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on the topic of “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice”
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From the start, I have no desire to reveal evil, that is, I do not want to see that I hate others and that it is evil. And if I hate them just in my daily life, it isn’t considered the evil inclination yet since it is my natural, animate egoism and not something discovered with the help of the Light.
If today, I am here in this world and hate other people, wishing to take advantage of them so as to acquire food, sex, family, power, and knowledge, then it isn’t regarded as the evil inclination. After all, I need to reveal not the ordinary, corporeal egoism, but the spiritual egoism that stands against the Creator, against the force of unification between the parts of the integral soul. At one time our souls were all one but were drawn apart due to the force of separation that entered between them.
The evil inclination is above our nature. Here, below, in this world, I have only petty, earthly egoism. But if I enter the group and start studying, then by that I start drawing from Above the Light from behind the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), where it resides. It starts working on me as the Surrounding Light that reveals the force of the breaking to me. This is something new that I have never felt before.
In this force of the breaking, I attain its opposite nature as well: I realize that it derived from the Creator, from the force that used to connect us. One stands in opposition to the other, and then I am able to tell them apart. Otherwise, there is no attainment if there aren’t the two opposites that I can compare. I can only see something as a contrast between the Light and the darkness.
[38319]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on the topic of “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice”
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It is said: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah (Light) as the means to correct it.” And indeed, it is the most important condition because all other provisions, principles, and the recommendations Kabbalists provide for us, their explanations regarding the Creator and the laws of creation, all of it derives from the above mentioned supreme law.
First, it begins with the creature itself: “I created the evil inclination,” meaning that before it, there is no creature. Until man finds the “evil inclination” within, he is not considered the “created being.” All the other attributes, thoughts, desires, tendencies, and actions that do not pertain to the evil inclination are not regarded as the creature.
In other words, neither the pencil I hold in my hand nor I myself can be regarded as the creature as long as there is no evil inclination revealed within. To start, I need to see the evil inclination which is the only thing we give the title of “creation” or Beria, from the Hebrew word “outside” (Bar) the Creator, meaning opposite to Him, against Him. Thus, there should first be an understanding of who the Creator is, and then you will understand what the “evil inclination” (or the creature standing in opposition to Him) is.
In all of creation, the evil inclination is present only in a human being of this world, and also not in everyone, but only in a person who has developed a desire to receive pleasure with an egoistic intention called “hatred” toward others. If he has a desire that has reached a certain degree equivalent to Mount Sinai (the mountain of hatred), only then can he be regarded as the “created being,” and Kabbalah addresses specifically him.
Everything else doesn’t refer to evil because it is merely nature that functions according to its given laws which we can’t change. If there is a place where something can be clarified and worked on so as to be changed in order to obtain a reward for one’s effort, that place is called the evil inclination, hatred.
Hatred emerges during the breaking of desires (Kelim). There was one integral soul, but it broke, that is, the force of separation, resentment, and hate came and worked between its parts which used to be one whole. Everyone now wants to use others, gaining pleasure from humiliating and exploiting them, until he destroys the other completely. In other words, he enjoys hurting others.
This is the consequence of the breaking of Kelim, and this force is opposite to the Creator. The upper Light shattered the Kli, having entered it directly as is, without the screen, the intention to bestow on the part of the Kli. This is how we became the created being and the evil inclination appeared in us.
Therefore, a person should differentiate between the “self” and the “evil inclination,” the creation within himself, if he comes to discover it.
[38332]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on the topic of “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice”
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Question: How is it possible to ask the Creator for help and to desire only to bestow, without receiving anything for ourselves?
Answer: This is exactly what we ask for. I ask the Creator to give me the opportunity to bestow, where “to bestow to the Creator” means to bestow to the group because it is written, “I dwell among My people.” This is the same thing.
There is no other Creator. “I dwell among My people” means that He becomes revealed in the group. The common force of the group is called “the Creator.” To bestow to the group as a whole means to bestow to the Creator.
We think about this in the earthly sense and that’s why it seems to us, “What’s so special about the group? What can I give to them? How silly!” But if you really would come out of yourself to bestowal to others, you would reveal the upper reality instead of this world. It’s just that we don’t achieve this.
A question arises: But many philosophic teachings also advocated bestowal to society and considered the voice of the people to be the voice of God? Yet, that is incorrect because they did not use the correcting Light, the inner force that is present in society.
At the end of the day, what does the science of Kabbalah say? You have nothing besides desire. Inside of this desire there is a special force called “the Creator,” which was concealed there from the beginning. You can awaken this force inside of the group if you really want to advance to it, to bestow to the group. There you come face to face with the end results —with yourself, with the group, and with the Creator. Everything is inside of the group, in the bestowal that you acquire outside of yourself.
And it makes no difference whether you bestow to the group or the Creator. Bestowal in the group means bestowal to the Kelim or desires of others, whereas bestowal to the Creator means that you become more included into the common force of bestowal that reigns inside of these desires.
We have to detach from the religious notions, from our inherent faith in some kind of Creator who rules somewhere up in the sky and influences us from there. Look at how much power this stereotype still has over us! But in fact, there is no upper force outside of us! This force is inside of the group, in the connection between us. And there is nothing besides this reality, which you reveal. There is nothing outside of reality.
By delving increasingly deeper into these notions, you start to understand that this is a very materialistic approach.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/11, The Zohar
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Question: During the lesson we work with the Light that corrects us. But what do we work with at the Convention?
Answer: At the Convention this happens even more! We don’t have any other means to influence what is happening to us besides the Light that reforms. It is the only thing we can awaken!
We awaken our future states that haven’t been revealed in us yet and which are about to be revealed. They are states of bestowal to the outside, where every person bestows outward, to his neighbor. This is precisely the quality that we want to discover—each person inside of him and all of us as a whole.
When we reveal this quality of bestowal, it means that we have revealed the Creator. As Kabbalists tell us, this quality gave birth to us, formed us, and dispersed us far away from one another so that by uniting with each other we would reveal it once again.
In the meantime, the Creator is in exile. What does that mean? We can say that He also disintegrated into tiny pieces and is inside all of these broken parts that are far away from one another. As soon as you begin connecting them, you start to recreate or restore Him, the common force of bestowal.
We have to build an image for ourselves that is close to the truth. Otherwise we live in various religious fantasies, imagining an unreal, non-materialistic picture.
We have to understand that the difference between faiths or religions and the science of Kabbalah is that faiths or religions want to imagine spirituality in the material desires, which perceive everything “within” and therefore build their notions according to the earthly reality, with creation being below and the Creator being above, as if they are separated by distance rather than qualities. They do not talk about man’s correction.
In contrast, the science of Kabbalah says that everything is inside of man. Thus, the upper reality or dimension becomes revealed in a person’s inner corrections and changes. Therefore, the most important thing for us is to correct man. By correcting our qualities, a person feels that the Creator is revealed inside of him.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/11, The Zohar
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If a group has come to a dead end of mutual hatred, then it’s best to break it up in order to give people a chance to see the truth. Let each person stay home and evaluate his life. The hatred will become less blinding, and he will get a more objective look at the hatred between friends, bringing a little bit of rational thinking into the emotion.
Then he will start thinking about what he should do with this hatred, where it came from, and for what purpose it was given. He will then remember that hatred is the means for an ascent. After all, the Creator created the evil inclination and purposefully evokes the hatred between us so that we would appeal to and reveal Him. The science of Kabbalah is the means for revealing the Creator and you have the opportunity to reveal Him right now.
The Creator only becomes revealed above our egoism, and as long as we feel good we will not appeal to Him. We must understand once and for all that all advancement comes only as a result of negative sensations. If a person feels good, he won’t make a move; this is our nature.
Hence, it is possible to work on love of friends if we imagine all the processes and states that we will have to go through, if we discern them within ourselves and understand them, write them down, go back to the self-analysis a few times a day, and add logic and emotion to it. This is how we begin to control each state, bad or good, and use it as a necessary means or a lever that will allow us to turn it into the next state of advancement.
If each one of us will try to break our ego, our “stony heart,” it means that we enter the heart of our friends. Ultimately, we reveal the only state that exists, which our egoism was concealing from us.
We are not working on our friends or the group, but simply changing our perception of reality and our hearts. The problem isn’t in the friends and the group. There is only my soul, which I need to collect into one whole.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/2011, Writings of Rabash
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