The Surrounding Lights (Ohr Makif) and circular Kelim (Kelim de Igulim) are the means we use to advance and move from state to state in the spiritual space. What differentiates the circular Kelim (desires, vessels) is that they are deprived of the screen (Masach) and do not perform Zivug de Hakaa (coupling while striking) to the measure of their similarity to the Light. Only the screen brings this similarity, connection, to the vessel, thanks to which the Kli (vessel) defines what direction to take on its own.

However, for the time being, a circular Kli does not have a screen that would arrange its desires in a line, from above downward, to the extent of their similarity to the property of bestowal. And yet, the screen-less vessels also live, move, and transform under the influence of the Surrounding Lights.

As a matter of fact, how would we keep advancing from our world through the entire preparation period toward the Machsom and the entrance to the spiritual reality unless the Surrounding Lights were affecting us? What devices would we use? After all, we do not have a screen. Does it mean we would be left at the mercy of the natural flow of events and fate?

On the other hand, if the Kelim still gravitate to the screen and if their point in the heart awakens and gives them the first impulse to correction, to the truth, they become subject to the effect of the Surrounding Lights. These Lights perform according to the efforts of the Kli, its desires and demands no matter how silly they are. In a similar manner, children do not yet know how exactly to evolve but keep growing and developing nonetheless. All of this occurs due to the impact of the Surrounding Lights.

I was led to the group, and I do what looks good in the view of my friends. Having no understanding or power, I still don’t grasp completely what is going on but feel that it is important to me.

Until a person enters the spiritual world, he does not know whether he is dead or alive, how he lives and what nourishes him. We have no idea what the real status quo is until we have come to know the Creator in the smallest degree.

Hence, we are guided by the Surrounding Lights. We attract them and wish for them to affect us. In the dark, without the screen, the intention for bestowal, in the egoistic intention Lo Lishma that inevitably derives from their breaking, we still gravitate toward Lishma, bestowal. Afraid and unwilling, we nevertheless do not ignore it anymore.

Hence, in such situation, we get affected by the Lights that are related not to a line but a circle: the environment comprised of the friends in which we do our work.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

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Question: During the parts of the lesson when we study The Zohar and TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot), I experience tremendous difficulty understanding anything. What is the correct approach to the content so that it would help me strengthen the bond between us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam and Rabash wrote articles, letters, and other similar texts. In addition, Baal HaSulam wrote a commentary on The Book of Zohar, The Study of Ten Sefirot (TES), “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” and the book Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot, all of which are the primary sources we get nourished by.

I drew a dividing line between them for the following reason. We use the above mentioned books as an instrument to draw the Light (Segula). And we read all the other works not only to draw the Light but to also understand the content. In the first case, understanding plays a supplementary role, whereas in the second it is in the lead.

The Book of Zohar doesn’t leave anything for the mind to cling to. At times, it explains something or provides a hint, although we don’t especially need it. In the end, we need a method called “the Torah” since the Light it conceals reforms us. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how much you understand. It’s not the wise one who learns. Intelligence doesn’t play a role here.

Some people write down every word, which is good for as long as it helps them connect to the source emotionally, in the desire. But if everything is determined by the mind, it isn’t worth it. We are not in the university, and from studies alone you will learn nothing unless you obtain a desire to bestow, connection with others, and love. Only this will allow you to feel the material since man is a desire, a vessel of sensation and perception.

Mind is powerless in itself; it is a mere means to direct and strengthen the desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: Is there a connection between the individual and collective governance?

Answer: Yes, there is a two-way connection between them. The collective governance is related to certain parts and, at the same time, affects the entire system of souls, all of which correlates with each individual response.

The souls residing within the circle of the system must ultimately comprise a singular line. In order for all of them to find their own place in it, each of them has to be managed individually. Therefore, there is a program of general and particular management in the system which works from Above downward (marked yellow in the diagram below).

However, this isn’t enough. Now, everybody has to provide an individual feedback: To what degree do I wish to advance and exert additional effort toward the pressure that the management is applying on me? Am I adding my own power to the force of the Light?

The Light affects me “in its time,” pushing me forward by blows whether I like it or not. This process is regarded as “Beito.” However, there is another way: I can accelerate my development and engage in this process before the Light will begin to act. Such acceleration of advancement is regarded as “Achishena.” I align my desire with the desire of the Creator, with correction, the final complete state of existence.

Therefore, the essence of my work is in bringing forth all of my power, thereby neutralizing the power of the Light. I wish to accept the program of governance, understand and implement it independently. This is the reason we received the point in the heart, and, in truth, our sole aspiration is to know and carry out the program of creation.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: What is the collective and individual governance?

Answer: We reside in reality the essence of which is the desire to enjoy, the force of reception. In addition, the force of bestowal, the force of the Light, acts in this reality.

What is the formula of their interaction? Suppose one force is X and the other Y, and they are equalized by a quotient K. In truth, the formula is this: The two variables, X and Y, are the will to receive and bestow pleasure, respectively, and the screen, K, is between them.

In the beginning of our reality, the desire to receive pleasure (0) opposes the desire to bestow (1). However, in the end, upon the completion of the 125th spiritual action, they become equal (1-1).

Hence, the formula is simple: From mutual opposition, we have to bring these desires to equivalence of properties. The will to receive has to acquire the attribute of bestowal.

Now, we know the rule and its result. The point is that two opposing yet interacting forces act in reality, and every instant of their interaction must lead to the final outcome in the most efficient manner.

Hence, Nature operates in everything there is according to the rule of "minimal input with maximal output." This mechanism affects us, and by experiencing the effects of its impact, we regard them as “governance.”

Governance can be individual and collective. The individual one applies to each cell of the organism and defines how a certain part has to advance by acquiring its individual form to fit the advancement of the collective system. We can see this type of governance in the example of the step-by-step formation of an embryo’s organs. Its body grows according to the collective governance that establishes the order of development of all other parts.

Then, from the general governance, the individual ties branch off, which get connected with each part in its respective place in accordance with its role in the process of the collective evolution. Thereby, the common program of development underlies the individual programs that govern us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride),” Item 129
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Tzav (Command),” Item 18
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 19
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” Lesson 4
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Everything depends on the support of the environment; without it, it is impossible to advance spiritually. When you acquire a spiritual environment, then all the great Kabbalists who attained the spiritual world during their lives in this world, all of their souls will become your group.

You will enter the “Upper Assembly” of Rabbi Shimon (the spiritual level called by that name). You can connect to higher sources, but only to the degree it is necessary! Now you simply do not need this power.

If you needed the group that includes Baal HaSulam, Rabash, the Ari, Rashbi, and other great Kabbalists of the past from Abraham until today, then you would receive it. However, right now you do not need it. As soon as you need it, you will reveal the spiritual group in addition to the material one. Perhaps you won’t even need a material group because just the spiritual one will be sufficient.

If the souls start to help you directly, it is called “a donkey driver.” The Creator sends a high soul called “a donkey driver” so it will always help a person. But this help comes in response to your plea that you need spiritual ascension.

It’s similar to how Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Yossi, whom The Book of Zohar talks about, are on the path where they open the Torah and discover that they cannot reach correction on their own. They need the revelation of a special force that will help them to ascend.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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The Zohar, "Introduction of The Zohar," Chapter "BeLaila DeKala (On the Night of the Bride)": …at the great Zivug of the end of correction, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, as it is written, “When in the evening time there will be light.” Thus, her degrees are doubled, since during the 6,000 years in the state of the moon she was “and there was evening and there was morning.”

Eventually all of our descents, all of the dark nights join the Light of day, the revelation of the Light. Day and night become one whole. In reality this isn’t talking about "doubling" or even multiplying by 620 times, the way it is written.

At first the Creator gave me a small spark, and did not give me anything else. Then, by working on my desire, I turn to the Creator, the Light, and demand corrections. Thanks to these corrections I become similar to the Light with my qualities and the Light clothes into me.

Inside my desire the Light is perceived as infinite and boundless. Why? The matter is that when the desire for pleasure begins to grow inside us, it discerns and forms itself independently. The previous sensation was left to it from the Reshimot that descended from Above downwards, and they are completely different from the ones it now realizes.

As a person ascends, on every level he realizes himself according to previous Reshimot, but he adds his aspiration, efforts, and descents to them. He reveals the gap between himself and the Light, the gap which was never revealed before.

A person is separated from the Light and aspires after it. The Light comes, but then a descent comes; this happens again and again, and thanks to all of these experiences, which throw him from end to end, a person finds new details in his desire.

He discovers unprecedented depth, a completely new Kli, an independent yearning, an unheard of aspiration to the Light. Previously not one desire or Reshimo were recorded in his account, but now, when he makes efforts, even if it is done in a childish manner, it forms new Kelim inside him.

That is why the Light that now becomes revealed incomparably exceeds the Light that filled the desire before the breaking, before our work on the path upwards. The descent of the worlds and all the efforts until now were just a general preparation to the real correction. In it the smallest Light, the Light of Nefesh, is revealed.

Baal HaSulam writes that very small Lights were revealed before, but now, when our generation begins to correct itself, it attracts the greatest Light in all the worlds – the Light of NaRaNHY.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, "Introduction of The Zohar," Chapter "BeLaila de Kala (On the Night of the Bride)”: …through the deficiency of the light, which is the night—which includes all the Dinim and torments, which are opposite to the quality of day, Hesed—there is fear of Him. Were it not for the fear, the measure of day and morning would not appear.

Our first correction is fear. I am afraid of receiving the Light directly into my desire. I am cautious; I tremble and fear that I won’t be able to hold back and will "open the door" to the pleasures that come through in the Light.

Like a guest who refuses a feast, I lock all the locks, fearing the possibility of receiving these pleasures not for the sake of bestowal.

The first phase of correcting my desire is to keep it back from directly receiving the Light. This is called "return from fear."

This is the first quality that I have to acquire, the fear that all of my actions would be only for the sake of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/10, The Zohar

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Question: Why do the descents make a much bigger impression in our sensations than the ascents?

Answer: It’s because we are egoists. We were created out of the will to enjoy, which experiences pleasure or suffering. There is no middle between them, and therefore even when I am in a neutral state where both pleasure and suffering are absent, I feel bad. I lack pleasure. I always demand a positive; zero is not enough for me.

That is why a person is dissatisfied. He has a home, a job, and plenty of food, but something is still missing. Either the grass is greener on his neighbor’s side, or life is devoid of meaning.

Our egoistic desire is not satisfied with what it has. As a result we suffer from the lack of an addition, and this addition must definitely grow as our egoism grows.

Besides, our source is the Creator, who created us. He is the only, single, and irreplaceable one, and every one of us feels the same way. So where can we find fulfillment for someone who is so unique?

That’s why it turns out that we never find satisfaction, not through pleasure, nor through the right self-realization. That is the nature of egoism. The smallest descent is enough for all of our heroism to vanish into thin air. We would agree to anything just to avoid feeling empty inside!

The desire for pleasure depends entirely on the Light. As long as it receives Light, it is full of energy, even though it doesn’t understand where that energy comes from. But as soon as the Light grows slightly distant, you feel helpless and would agree to anything in order to correct the situation in some way.

Look at the world: there’s terrorism, murder, theft, and lies. It would seem that if you gave every person what he wanted, no one would do anything bad. So who’s to blame? It’s the Creator, who does not reveal Himself and thereby evokes bad things. All that remains is to make the right conclusions from the above.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/10, Introduction to the Book of Zohar

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What is the end of correction for which we are striving? It is a special and constant state that the Creator has initially created.

We exist in this state even now; nothing else was created, only the World of Infinity. However, in order for us to perceive and realize that we exist in this state, the Creator has prepared an exit from this state into the sensation of “this world” and the consequent return to it.

The path downward is referred to as the descent of the worlds, which has also translated into the breaking of the Kelim (vessels) and the formation of the 125 spiritual degrees. All of this is the preparation which manifests for us from Above downward, and then we return home.

Initially, each one of us is a point (like a drop of semen) in the World of Infinity. In our world, each one of us is also a point. Simply, this point has become egoistic (an egoistic aspiration to the Creator, to the meaning of life) during the descent from Above downward, and it has become overgrown with egoism (the desires for this world).

We return to Malchut of the World of Infinity through five worlds of ABYA (Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya) and Adam Kadmon. As we ascend, we grow in our desire for the Creator, the property of bestowal, and we acquire independence.

As a result, everyone becomes Infinity (with regard to size and quality). Then, unlike before, everyone’s Infinity becomes filled with the Light of NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida) instead of the previous Light of Nefesh.

In this world, one has a spiritual Reshimo (spiritual gene, reminiscence), similar to the drop of semen which contains full information about the body and the entire process of its development. The point of Reshimo, too, contains all the information about one’s spiritual path and the way he will see the World of Infinity in his perception.

However, everything is predetermined. As I realize my Reshimo and push it to develop, I acquire the sensation of independence. Now I consciously exist, feel, and make conscious decisions. I acquire my spiritual “I” which develops from the Reshimo just like a grown, independent human being forms out of a drop of semen in our world.

We have one point and, with regard to volume, it needs to develop infinitely. Every person must become like the Creator. At the same time, every person ascends to their World of Infinity, and then all the infinities unite.

To find out what this process depends on, read the post, “You Must Be Ready For Me!”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/10, Rabash, Letter #40

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