The will to enjoy is our matter, while the intention is its form. However, you don’t have the intention or form until the will to enjoy meets with the Upper Light and builds the form at the time of this encounter.

You cannot acquire the intention for the Creator yourself. You only turn to the Upper One with your plea (raise MAN), and then MAD, NHY of the Upper One together with its Reflected Light, descends from Above. And when the Reflected Light of the Upper One clothes into your matter, it thereby gives you a form.

The lower part (NHY) of the Upper One that clothes into the lower one creates its form. Meanwhile, the lower one by itself cannot do anything but plea: “Endow me with the form of bestowal!” But it is the Upper One that decides what form it will be, and for this reason we need to annul ourselves.

Therefore, the group can supply me with the desire to receive the form of the Upper One, however, the group does not determine that form for me; it only arouses this need within me. And when I ask the Upper One, raise MAN, I don’t dictate my will to it. If I insisted on having a certain form, it wouldn’t be bestowal.

In addition, the Reshimo (informational gene) that determines my plea is already in me. By raising MAN, I raise that Reshimo, that gene, so that the Upper One could perform a Zivug: a union of male and female parts as if when conceiving a child. This union occurs Above, while I already receive a ready-made form that it begot.

All of my forms are already inscribed within me, in the chain of my Reshimot. I do not determine my fate, but only establish for myself the form of transition from one form to the other: either by the path of Light or by the path of suffering. However, the forms themselves are fixed; they are defined by the root of my soul and its descent into this world. I have to rise back following exactly the same path.

I only determine how I will transition from one stage to another: being pushed by the blows or driven by the Light ahead of me. I also decide whether I will advance quickly or slowly, that is, whether I will seek to learn from the Creator or He will have to teach me with a stick.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: If we live in the holographic picture, does it change as we ascend the spiritual degrees?

Answer: This picture constantly changes since we define its form ourselves. There are two vectors or forces: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, and we establish the relationship between them. Various combinations of these two forces beget thousands of different forms before us.

Any  instrument or any natural spiritual or corporeal phenomenon in all the worlds, everything, originates from the interplay between the Creator and the creature: the Light that begets desire. There are only two components: the Light and desire, and the screen between them. The screen ensures the correspondence between the Creator and the creature.

This correspondence becomes established in ten qualitative levels (10 Sefirot), which also are divided into 620 (Tarach) parts, and so on infinitely. No matter what you do: Analyze reality and divide it into its components or, on the contrary, synthesize and generalize, everywhere you reveal the same two acting forces: bestowal and reception.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: Why can’t a person adhere to the Upper One and see in Him the reason for all that happens and thereby advance?

Answer: This is called “being too smart for your own good.” There is a “block” in our head that greatly hinders our advancement, preventing us from doing anything. Everyone is certain that he understands and can accomplish everything with his mind. Man is not able to cancel his corporeal reason, his “I.”

The law of growth and ascending from degree to degree necessitates cancelling the previous degree so as to acquire the next one. Even plants develop from seeds the exact same way. Any cell that transitions from one state to another undergoes the same changes. The only difference is that we need to make these changes intentionally, consciously, with our own demand!

In nature it happens automatically, instinctively. This is how an embryo grows in the womb, as does any child. If I want to acquire a profession and learn something, I know that I need to cancel my mind before the instructor. I want him to tell me and show me what to do, and I repeat after him.

I do what he does again and again until I grasp the principle, the inner foundation. Having done the action myself enough times, I now understand why it works this way and not another. As long as my egoistic desire supports this, I have no problem cancelling my reason in order to learn.

But here the egoistic desire is against such a cancellation, which is why I cannot learn anything! I hold my ground like a stubborn donkey (“Hamor” [donkey] is similar to the word “Homer” [matter]), refusing to move, even under threat of death!

And the threat is far from empty! We conclude our lives without having achieved attainment. And truly, the smarter a person, the more problematic this is for them.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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We work above our matter, the will to enjoy. It has to grow all the time in order for us to grow, creating the form of bestowal and equivalence to the Creator above it.

That is why we experience the growing desire as a disaster. It comes when a person is ready for it. It is written, “The woe that comes to the sinners starts with the righteous.” In other words, the negative forms become revealed in those who used to be righteous, who made an ascent and prepared themselves.

Beginners who don’t understand the method yet are taken aback by this, “Why is it that after all the efforts I made, I am experiencing such negative states?” Suddenly the inspiration is gone and one feels indifferent to everything. However, with experience comes wisdom and a person realizes that the path forward lies through descents and opposition to the egoistic inclination.

The spiritual goal will always remain a question for me, “Why do I advance? Is it worth it for me to go against my egoism, my nature? Is it normal to work in such great descents, without any aspiration or motivation?” A person feels miserable and helpless, and experiences his state as unworthy and undeserved.

This is precisely the place about which it is written, “The righteous will walk where the sinners will retreat.” The entire matter is that we have to come out of our nature. We shouldn’t nourish it or tend to it, but raise it in order to ascend above it. Every time a person has prepared himself for an ascent, he is sent a new “burdening of the heart” so he would ascend even higher. That is how he advances on the spiritual path.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Zohar, Introduction, Article “Yitro (Jethro),” Item 100: The seed of David, the sights of the colors change in him, and this is why Samuel erred, as it is written, “Do not look at his appearance,” since the other side was in Eliav. This was not so with David, since David’s forms are covered because the forms of the other side were included in his forms, and the form of the other side appeared in him first, passing over the eyes for a time, and the heart is alarmed and fears.

We are mistaken in that we work very hard to understand what The Zohar talks about, and much less on the intention, the thought that we have to unite and reveal The Zohar inside of the connection between us. Only to the degree we unite, the image of the Creator will become revealed inside our unity, and it will be nothing like what we are able to imagine before we unite.

Our unity is the entrance ticket enabling us to see and feel spiritual images and qualities that The Zohar talks about. Their sum total gives us the image of the Creator. However, if we desire to discern what we study without searching for a connection between us, this is called external study, Klipa, a deadly poison.

If during the study I try to search for the image that I study, it is Klipa. On the other hand, if I first want to reveal that image through the prism of unification with the group, the environment, and only after the unification I try to find that spiritual image that The Zohar talks about, then it is holiness, bestowal, spirituality. At the end of the day I search for the forms of unity and bestowal, and that is the most important thing, whereas in the first case I look for the image or form of reception.

Therefore, we must first of all worry about how we pass through that prism, the intention, the unification with the group, the environment. This is very important! Without this we shouldn’t even open The Book of Zohar because it can either become a deadly poison or the elixir of life.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, The Zohar

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If the Creator wishes to bring us to similarity to Him, then how can He arouse in us the feeling of His greatness, the value of the property of bestowal, so that we would want to trade our state of existence for His? He does not have much choice, and we are forced to ascend in small steps while always making attempts to choose a more exalted degree over our present state.

Because of this, the Creator cannot reveal His love to us! In fact, if love were revealed, it would immediately ruin the entire ladder of spiritual degrees and everything that differentiates them.

A child is the head of a family and constantly demands from the parents, assuming they live for him. He is taking advantage of their love. If, however, he is in somebody else’s house, he acts totally differently: He won’t make demands as he would at home; he will be shy and afraid. But at home, he has no shame or fear.

Therefore, if the Creator disclosed His love to us, we, like spoiled children, would never be able to appreciate His greatness and ascend to Him. In this world, we are driven by the natural instinct that pushes us to grow and evolve. But in the spiritual world, this animate instinct doesn’t exist. We have to develop such desire on our own.

Moreover, if the Creator did reveal Himself as a Loving one, we would disregarded Him in everything. Hence, He must hide in order to give us an opportunity to evolve and appreciate His magnificence in the darkness. In the light, we wouldn’t be able to do so.

This is precisely what the impure forces (Klipot) complain about: They would like to discover the Creator before receiving the screen. In such case, we would have no chance to reach bestowal at all.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Descents show me that I will never realize the importance of the Creator alone; I will never come out of my egoism and find forces inside myself. However, every descent teaches me differently, by illuminating different weaknesses, qualities, and phases in me. The descents are followed by ascents, but at the end, one way or another I always discover my powerlessness.

At first I want to satisfy my egoism, which is called “knowing how many angels there are in the sky.” Then I switch my focus to the Creator, wishing to “catch” Him, to see the spiritual world. It seems to me that the door to changes has to open up in front of me rather than inside of me.

And finally, I start to understand that the changes have to happen inside of me. I catch the thread of the answer to my question: The redemption has to come from outside because I am certainly unable to do it by myself.

This work is done with the help of descents and ascents until a person comes out to the threshold of truth, having understood that everything depends on him, on the change in his perception. The Light gives you the forces to do it; you will not find them inside of you.

One’s demand is still egoistic, but he already lowers his head before the Upper Force so it will change him. Then he gradually agrees with the fact that everything comes from Above.

At the next stage a person understands that he has to acquire the quality of bestowal instead of the quality of reception. His demand is egoistic, but it is already a step forward.

After that he works with the environment in order to elicit the Light that will raise him to the spiritual treasure. As he learns about the notion of the group, he makes himself dependent on it, still hoping to derive benefit for himself.

After that the Light really does bring a person back to the Source. That’s because he built everything correctly and only one parameter remains to be changed: the intention, the end result—whose benefit does he want to attain?

That is how we reduce the path: By turning to the Creator through the group with the right request.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: When asking for the vessel of bestowal, I can always see that I still don’t have it. Where is the place for faith here?

Answer: Attaining faith is very difficult. After all, it means crossing the Machsom (barrier separating us from spirituality). Faith is the attribute of bestowal (Hafetz Hesed), the property of Bina, the Light of bestowal, Hassadim (Mercy). A complete faith is the Light of Hassadim with the illumination of Hochma (Wisdom).

We are talking here about an exalted degree. In order to achieve it, we have to rise above our egoism, come out of Egypt (Machsom), break away from Pharaoh (egoism in us), and achieve the force (property) of the Light or bestowal. This is the beginning of faith.

Then comes the period of “forty years in the desert,” when we are attaining faith, the attribute of bestowal, building it above our egoism. Having completed this period, I receive faith that soars above all of my desires, above the entire Egypt. Now I can enter into the complete faith, receive inside the Light of Hassadim the Light of Hochma, His sensation, revelation.

That’s the entry into the land of Israel: Egoism (Pharaoh), corrected by the Light to the degree of the attribute of bestowal (Hafetz Hesed), is now working to receive from the Creator for the sake of bestowal. In other words, your desire is now aspiring straight to the Creator (“Israel” is Yashar [straight] – Kel [the Creator]).
[31479]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “Above Reason in Divine Service”

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We are talking about the Creator based on our Kelim (vessels), provided we are able to correct them. We can know Him only from our corrected Kelim.

The corrected Kelim operate according to the principle: "From Your actions, we shall know You." By performing the same actions as the Creator, I begin to learn who He is.

The Creator’s actions are bestowal, and that’s why I, too, have to come to bestowal in order to know Him. The actions that are identical to His will let me understand Him: who and what He is, His program and purpose in relation to me, His intentions and commands. I will know all of that when I resemble Him in actions, and not before.

So how can I come to the actions of the Creator? To this end, I have to attain the attribute of bestowal. We attain it above the attribute of reception, above the receiving Kelim, which is called: "Faith above reason." It is the essence of our work.

"Knowledge" is what I know, feel, and am able to see in the sensations of the desire to receive. And "faith" is another, more exalted attribute. I attain it above knowledge: I first need to discover and test my knowledge, and then I receive a force from Above that will allow me to go above it, in exactly the same form but higher. It means that I advance by faith above reason.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “Above Reason in Divine Service”

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Question: Do I have believe that everything Kabbalists say is true?

Answer: It is exactly what we call “faith in the sages.” You don’t really have a choice: You believe a Kabbalist like a youngster believes an adult in order to grow up.

In our world, a child also relies on adults; otherwise, how will he survive? Will he achieve anything if he doesn’t listen to, receive the necessary tools from, and learn what they do by imitating them like a monkey?

It isn’t an accident that apes are considered an intermediary link between the animate world and a human being. To learn “by aping” is the means to become human. A child watches adults and copies them over and over again.

If so, then where does a child display his own intelligence? He does so specifically by observing and copying external movements. Thanks to this he will later understand their inner essence.

It is described as: “From Your actions, I shall know You.” We don’t have a choice but to accept Kabbalists’ counsels above our reason since these recommendations descend from very exalted degrees. It means that we have to act as a child before an adult.

Sometimes, these counsels are even difficult to grasp since the words of a sage are always distorted in you. Nonetheless, inasmuch as you manage to decode and carry them out, you succeed. Some receive by “mouth to mouth” and advance very fast. Others receive by “mouth to ear” and grow more slowly. Yet, this is the way: A younger one learns from the older one.

The key is to accept the role of a “monkey” and learn from a human. After all, these are two [different] degrees of development.
[31483]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “Above Reason in Divine Service”

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