Baal HaSulam, Shamati #4, “What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work”: One must know that he will never come to know the true measure of the importance of the connection between man and the Creator because one cannot assess its true value.

A person has to understand that he will never know the true greatness of the Creator and will not be able to appreciate the real level of connection with Him. In general, he won’t be able to measure anything outside of himself because it is always boundless, while he is capable of perceiving something only in his limited desires (Kelim). Of course, they grow constantly, but they are limited in their capacity.

If now something seems to me as infinite or boundless, it is only with relation to me. For instance, if you fill an 8 ounces glass to the top, it will be infinity with relation to this given vessel (Kli). It’s unlimited and infinite since it received everything!

In other words, everything is measured with relation to desire, a person. If I exist in the state of Infinity on my current level, then later I will reveal an even greater egoistic desire, and I will suddenly discover that I lack everything. But where did my previous state of Infinity go? You sensed it in the desire with the capacity of 8 ounces, but now, when your desire has been expanded to 80 gallons, you do not feel any fulfillment whatsoever.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/2010, Shamati #4

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In “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 4, Baal HaSulam writes: “The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fate…. And one’s choice refers only to the strengthening.” The Creator leads a person to the friends and the study, and the rest is up to him. Don’t expect that someone will do your work for you. It is your job to sort all the tools and arrange them correctly.

“But I don’t understand anything! I can’t study, don’t know how to relate to the friends, and get confused in internality and externality.” You can complain to your mother, but it’s pointless to complain to the law of creation. It is just as pointless as arguing with the law of gravity.

The Creator is the law of nature, which is absolute bestowal. If you are in sync with it, you feel good, and if not, you feel bad to the degree of your inadequacy. As a matter of fact, both the former and the latter correspond to the level of your development. Similarly, in our world, we treat little children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly differently with respect to their age.

Imagining the Creator incorrectly, we attribute to Him some human qualities and feelings that characterize us. We keep trying to “convince” Him hoping that He will change his mind. It is the most serious flaw produced by our egoistic nature.

Since the beginning of time, people have been making the same mistake: They transfer their attributes onto the surrounding world. We demand an expected reaction even from our domestic pets. Generally, we expect to find similarity to ourselves and correspondence to our imagination in all levels of nature, including the speaking level.

This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah radically differs from all religions and belief systems. It is written: “The law is set and cannot be broken,” “I did not change my HaVaYaH.” The Upper Light remains at absolute rest, and all changes take place only in the vessels. I either ask the Creator to change or know that I must change myself.

My prayer is “tied” to myself. To pray means to judge myself and change. This is the only way I may cause a different response from the unchanging law. This is the whole point. Religions don’t talk about the transformation of man; they suggest that I should “bribe” the Creator by performing mechanical actions or passionate prayer. People hope that it will help them, although human history proves the opposite to be true.

Kabbalah maintains that you are the one to change and nobody else. Continue to appeal to the Creator as you did before, but only for a different reason: This is His will, and you are doing it against your own desire.

You stand before the Light. By changing yourself and becoming similar to Him in properties, you begin to perceive His influence that previously remained outside of your senses. You become a vessel for the Light and grow until it fills all of you.

To anticipate the Upper Light doesn’t mean to whistle for the wind. Make an inner move toward Him, wish to change, and it will affect you. All changes that we observe in the Light are changes within us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/2010, “The Creator Created the Evil Inclination, and He Created the Torah as a Spice”

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), "What is the Feast of the Groom": Forces of separation bring thoughts which make one feel detached from the Creator.

Question: What are these thoughts? Are they thoughts against the spiritual work or any distracting thoughts?

Answer: Simply irrelevant thoughts have nothing to do with the separation. They mean that I am disconnected from the purpose and am in a state of "this world," at the still, vegetative, or animate level of development.

If the thought of becoming like the Creator is completely absent from my mind, it means that I haven’t yet risen to the degree of human (Adam) and am on the preliminary stages together with the rest of the world. Religion, politics, philosophy, science, business, culture, education, or anything that a person occupies himself with in this world belongs to this world; all of it serves it.

However, if I have a point in the heart, the question of why and for what I live, and it has surfaced clearly and distinctly, carrying me upward toward the purpose, then it belongs to the human degree in me. It means that I undergo the period of preparation before entering the spiritual world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/2011, “What is the Feast of the Groom”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: And as King Solomon could not prevent Asmodeus from sitting on his throne, pretending to be him until he arrived in Jerusalem, sages of Kabbalah observe philosophic theology and complain that they have stolen the upper shell of their wisdom, which Plato and his Greek predecessors had acquired while studying with the disciples of the prophets in Israel. They have stolen basic elements from the wisdom of Israel and wore a cloak that is not their own. To this day, philosophic theology sits on the throne of Kabbalah, being heir under her mistress.

Greek philosophers studied from the prophets since Kabbalah was open for everyone from the time of Abraham. However, they could not ascend to the height of spiritual attainment because this demanded huge efforts. That is why philosophers only took the external part of this wisdom; that is, their aim was not to correct human nature, but only to acquire knowledge.

The first sign by which you can distinguish a Kabbalist is to see whose student he is. It is impossible to receive spiritual attainment without being a devoted, close student of a true Kabbalist. Although being a student of a genuine Kabbalist does not yet guarantee spiritual success, at least it is the first necessary condition in order to reach it.

The second sign of a Kabbalist is that the methodology which he is offering must be directed only toward correcting man’s egoism. This is precisely what sets Kabbalah apart from the ancient Greek philosophers (religions, beliefs, spiritual methodologies, and so on). They stole the external shell from Kabbalah (discourses on the upper worlds, the world to come, reward and punishment, and so on) and started to use and develop it egoistically, in order to manipulate rather than correct human nature.

These are the two main signs that differentiate a Kabbalist from a non-Kabbalist. Furthermore, not just philosophy but all methodologies in general, including the scientific ones, employed by man in hopes to correct the world and attain a better, corrected, and more or less bearable life eventually demonstrate their falsity.

It may not manifest in the scientific conclusions themselves, but in the assertion that in this way, it is possible to correct the world and bring happiness to humanity. Until it is as clear as day, regular people in whom a special urge toward spirituality (the point in the heart) has not yet awakened will not treat Kabbalah seriously.

Thus, only a person who studied from a recognized Kabbalist can be one himself. A true Kabbalist also offers a method for correction of egoism, not all kinds of “miracles” or physical actions with the help of which one supposedly receives reward or punishment from Above.

In other words, this is neither religion nor a belief system, neither philosophy nor theology, and not even the natural sciences of our world, but a method for correcting our egoism with the purpose of attaining unity and love. This method can become revealed to the masses only after humanity becomes convinced that all other methods cannot lead it to salvation.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: What is the purpose of our studying all that incredibly complex system of the worlds of Atzilut and Nekudim described in The Study of the Ten Sefirot?

Answer: We need to learn how to correct the breaking and which spiritual objects (Partzufim) and their parts will help. The world of Nekudim is the broken world, and the world of Atzilut corrects the breaking. We need to know which attribute corrects the corresponding attribute and who is responsible for each act of correction.

Each correction requires accurate knowledge as to what has been damaged, where the flaw is, and how, by what means, it can be corrected. All of it is clarified down to the tiniest detail, and only then is the correction made.

The problem of humanity is that we want to correct the world while lacking the faintest notion of what it really is. The world of Atzilut serves as the correct example for us. Until I know the cause of the breaking, which parts were broken, and how they functioned before, I can’t perform a correction.

The entire correction is based on the knowledge of the flaws. Only then can you build a system of correction. Humanity has no chance of reaching a good life and correcting something if we don’t understand what’s happening to us. Without this knowledge, how can we reach correction?

Therefore, our freedom of will is exercised solely in performing a correction. We study the system of correction which spreads from Above downward and contains the knowledge of the whole process from the beginning until the end.

When we rise from below upward, we cannot define either the beginning, or the process itself, or its end in advance in order to build the system of correction. Thus, we are using an existing system that evolved during the descent of the system from Above downward. However, we can use it only on condition that we are able to enter inside it and activate the entire system.

Therefore, we stand no chance to succeed by feeling our way forward, blindly, the way all of humanity is still does. Only the wisdom of Kabbalah will serve us as the instruction for correction.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Shamati #2 “Divinity in Exile”
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Each of us should make sure his time is being used in the most efficient manner. I don’t see how one can succeed in anything without an individual work plan. It is essential to design such a plan for each upcoming week, in order to know what to do.

I need to establish it for myself and not back out from what I have planned. Besides, it has to be tied to all other work plans so that I stay connected with them like a cogwheel in the entire system.

Therefore, each hour and every minute have to be written out precisely. And inasmuch as a person worries about the external environment, to make sure that his work brings fruit to the others, he succeeds in the internal work as well.
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From the Talk on Spiritual Work 12/17/2011

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In order to build spiritual degrees, I need to add the matter of desire time after time. The height of every new degree corresponds to the heaviness of my current state in which the evil of egoism is revealed.

This happens in all the states on the spiritual path. In order to elevate me, I am given additional ego, and then I feel the evil. Afterwards, with the help of the environment, I recognize the evil and gradually cognize the fact that it does not occur incidentally. Then I try to relate it to the goal: It comes from the Creator who is good, and it is meant for my own benefit. Later, I begin to connect my state to bestowal, meaning that I elevate bestowal above reception.

Then gradually I build a vector, an attitude, from this evil. I raise the importance of bestowal and unification over the receiving desire. Thus, having formed this attitude, I rise to the next degree.

I stay on the new degree for a mere second, after which everything disappears. If during this second I do not find the next receiving desire in me, I will immediately descend. The crudest but must accurate example is sexual pleasure. As soon as it ends, I become completely empty, and I need to begin something new.

Therefore, when I rise to a degree of love and bestowal that I desire so greatly, I instantly need to reveal a new egoistic desire. It must be revealed in order for me to rise to the next degree This desire is already instilled in me in the form of Reshimot (informational records), and I only need to work with them. Otherwise, they will be revealed after a long period of time, after a few months, for example.

However, I seek for them now, in darkness. After all, the absence of changes is "night" for me. Even the best possible state turns to night if it is not renewed. Therefore, we constantly need to be ahead of events: Instead of just maintaining the speed, we need to accelerate it.

Thus I search for my new, even greater egoistic desire. I don’t "invent" it; I search for it. And when I find it, I repeat the same stages of work. In this manner, I work on the "bride," until I correct it completely and go on to the "groom’s festive meal." The method is simple: I raise bestowal above reception by working in faith above reason.

Every new degree "ruins" the previous one, turning faith into egoism, and I begin the ascent again. Meanwhile, it seems to me that I have lost everything that I achieved, but actually I correct a new portion of egoism according to the principle of passing degrees: "Keter of the lower one becomes Malchut of the upper one."
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/2011, “What is the Feast of the Groom”

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Question: Rabash writes that a person “should have faith.” What does this mean?

Answer: First of all, there is a notion of “faith in the sages.” This refers to the Kabbalists who completed the journey and left us the method.

They explain the method in a very logical manner and to the point, but for now we still have to believe their words. Granted, we do have a point in the heart, and we agree with them. Nevertheless, there is a place for faith here: I entrust myself to the insight of the upper one who has already acquired the experience.

Even a real, practical analysis does not eliminate a “spot of weakness,” something not very obvious, and I simply follow the upper one. I literally grab his hand and walk by his side. Baal HaSulam explains that one needs to find a teacher and “cling” to him in order to try to know him from the inside from the actions that he recommends.

This faith is essential. This is how a child believes an adult. Moreover, you only accept on faith the actions that he recommends, and you see that he is right thanks to this small and quick step.

It is not blind faith: You continuously lower your head in order to use his, to rise slightly and immediately confirm that he is right. In reality, it is not as much faith but study, an exercise, which can be immediately verified.

Overall, in Kabbalah, the notion of “faith” stands for the force of bestowal, whereas “knowledge” is the force of reception. We advance through these two forces.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We have to understand that our daily study is not for acquiring knowledge, but for development. Every lesson you attended, whether today, yesterday, or the day before yesterday, are phases of your development.

This is not a study of some article or a part of Talmud Eser Sefirot. By studying this material, you discern which levels you should develop through. Therefore, later on, over the course of the day, it is very important to remain inside of what you studied at the lesson.

You have to spend the whole day revolving around the hours when we meet at the lesson. It is necessary to work on the lesson and to process it, trying not to lose it, and by reading my blog. You have to process this material as much as possible. By doing so we already unite in our thoughts and find ourselves in our common, specific phase of development. This is very important since through it we already produce one common thought.

I saw that even Rabash did the same work: Over the course of the day he returned to the material that we studied in the morning. He also talked about it using the same words, recalling the article we read. This is good since it means that a person lives it, transferring it from his head to his heart.

Every day Rabash and I would go out for a stroll, and if I came a bit early I would find him sitting and reading or writing something that dealt with the morning lesson. Afterward, when we rode in a car, we only talked about the article or the part of Talmud Eser Sefirot that we studied at the lesson.

If he had to go to a doctor’s appointment, he took articles or a volume of Talmud Eser Sefirot with him, and while sitting in the waiting room we talked about it and studied it. Usually it was the same material that we had just studied in the morning.
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From the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot on 1/7/11

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