The Torah, derived from the word “Or” (Light), is a method of correction. It is written: “Better they abandoned Me but kept My Torah” ( Jerusalem Talmud, Chagigah 1.7). That means stop praying and asking as the entire world does for egoistic benefit and instead try to request a directed influence from Me so that I may draw you closer to Myself and make you participants in My actions.

That is what the Creator desires from us. To achieve this, we must change ourselves, become similar to Him, and then we will participate in His actions. Not merely participate but actually carry them out as His proxies and instruments. To the extent that our desires align with His, we will perform this work.

At this stage, our work will be called “the work of the Creator.” We will not merely recognize that everything is done by the Creator; we will begin to adopt His actions and perform them. It is not that we will become independent in this state, but we will appear to be so.

This feeling of autonomy is marvelous; it elevates us to a state where the Creator gradually, step by step, entrusts us with the governance of all creation. We will, as it were, govern it in His stead. That is the state of “receiving for the sake of bestowal.”

I believe these states are more or less clear to us theoretically, but practically they can only be realized in a group. This is why the convention is so essential to us. Learning at home and listening to these teachings is not the issue; the challenge lies in attempting to integrate with others and come under their influence despite our egoism.

When I come to a convention, my focus is on whether I can absorb, like a sponge, everything that others possess. That is precisely what I want, not egoistically, but to absorb everything so that I can become like them and reflect back everything I have received. These two actions are what we must strive to perform.

To achieve this, we need to open ourselves. Everything else should be set aside for the duration of the convention. I must include within myself everything that the convention can influence me with, include everyone within me, and strive to fully absorb their aspirations, desires, and everything else.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Question: What is bestowal?

Answer: Bestowal is the sequence of actions where you first completely nullify your own desires and opinions, immerse yourself in the desires of another person, and then apply all your abilities to fulfill or satisfy their desires.

For example, suppose you want to buy a new iPhone, but your mother does not understand why you would spend so much money on another “toy.” You start explaining to her how amazing this phone is, listing all its features: Internet, video, and photos.

Essentially, you are trying to get her to connect with your desires, to feel what you feel, and to admire this new “toy.”

You want her to share your desire for this new phone so much that she becomes “lit up” by it and wishes to gift it to her beloved son. This is called “love for one’s neighbor.”

Similarly, I must feel the desire of the friend and feel obligated to fulfill it with all my abilities, even before fulfilling my own desires. It is as if my personal desires no longer exist within me!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot“

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We are coming to the convention so that this common gathering of people will influence me, an egoist, and I will begin to understand that it is precisely this influence of society that will bring me out of my stupid egoistic, individualistic state, and convince me that I need to rise above my egoism. This is the meaning of a convention.

Otherwise, what is the point? To hear? I can hear it on the Internet too. In fact, it is all just for the sake of feeling the enormous power of your friends. Therefore, let’s try to get together so that this force affects us.

Frankly speaking, this is exactly why I come to a convention. You may say: “Is this a purely selfish, egoistic thought?” Yes, it is an egoistic thought! I hope to get more from you than you get from me. That is why it is said: “I learned from all my students.” This is what the great Kabbalist said two and a half thousand years ago. Such is the impact of the group!

We often return to the example of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma, a great Kabbalist! I am nowhere near him! Also, each of his students was many, many times greater than us. It does not matter, he learned from them.

So all the work is just about unification. Therefore, at the convention, try to prove yourself to be as immersed in what is happening as possible. Maximum dissolution! Forget about yourself! Feel others as if they exist within you, in your mind and in your heart. This is already the beginning of the spiritual degree.
[339045]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Question: What should a prayer be directed toward in Lo Lishma and what should a prayer be directed at in Lishma?

Answer: All prayers must be directed toward the Creator, only to Him. He will respond to one of them, but we do not know in advance which one.

Question: I feel that the Creator hears my prayers, but often I do not know how to align my intention toward love for the Creator through the ten. How can I correctly set this intention?

Answer: Consult with the ten; they will guide you.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/25, “Connecting to Lishma“

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Question: Does the power of mutual guarantee cover all of a person’s desires or only one desire, the desire to enter the spiritual world?

Answer: Mutual guarantee means unity, but it is a kind of unity that indicates integrality and active cooperation of all parts.

A machine, a mechanism, also represents a single system, but we do not attribute mutual guarantee to it. After all, a machine is motionless, it does not work, and therefore, does not exist in mutual guarantee.

Mutual guarantee means that each part takes into account the work of all the parts and activates itself in accordance with them. Here we are talking about an action, about the result of unification, about the degree of our integrality, our mutual work, our interaction, and our common movement toward the goal.

Mutual guarantee means that we are interconnected, that we pass information, strength, understanding, desire, upliftment, and awakening to each other.

Therefore if you are in mutual guarantee with others, you have nothing to worry about because they will provide you with everything you need. Everyone provides for everyone, and no one does it for oneself. Each one acts only for the benefit of others. To the extent that I provide for others, they provide me with what I need.

Exactly the same condition is set as the law of life in a living body: each cell receives nutrients from the single organism, and in no other way. In other words, if a body, an organ, or a cell is able to bestow and release forces for the whole, then it has the opportunity to receive life from the whole.

Otherwise, any part remains blocked and sealed. Only by bestowing to others can it receive life forces from them. It works like a piston: it receives and bestows, receives and bestows, and leaves for itself exactly as much as is required to perform this work. This is what life means.

“What kind of life is this?” you may ask. “After all, I only transmit forces, only conduct them further through myself.” However, in this work the Creator is revealed to me, and I adhere to Him. There is nothing in the desires and actions themselves, but they reveal a new depth of attainment.
[41413]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]

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Question: When egoism manifests between us, we can hold a seminar and rise above the situation. But if we do not take any action, will it lead to any devastating events in the world?

Answer: The entire world is a reflection of the inner spiritual system, which is its central part and influences the state of the entire world, especially when this inner part already is beginning to determine the general state of the world, as it happens in our time, in our generation.

Our generation is called the “last generation” because a certain group of people has emerged in the world that can begin to correct it through themselves.

Moreover, the world does not need to resemble us. Our aspirations toward unity will bring about its unification, and the world does not need to understand how this happens. It will happen unconsciously in it.

We are consciously working on our unity, on becoming similar to the Creator, and humanity will follow this just as the body follows the head and carries out its instructions.

Therefore we do not have to think about what form the world will take; it all depends entirely on what form we will take. And those who feel a connection with us will join us. Therefore the most important thing is our unity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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It is a rule that it is impossible to receive anything without equivalence. Rather, there must always be equivalence.

Hence, when he evokes mercy on himself, it follows that he is engaged in reception for himself. And the more he prays, not only is he not preparing the Kli [vessel] of equivalence, but on the contrary, sparks of reception form within him (Rabash, Assorted Notes, 217, “Run My Beloved“).

To “cleave unto His attributes” means to become merciful and to bestow like Him, to acquire the same attributes He possesses.

It turns out that he is going the opposite way: While he should prepare vessels of bestowal, he is preparing vessels of reception. Hence, when he prays for the public, through this prayer he engages in bestowal. And the more he prays, to that extent he forms vessels of bestowal, by which the light of bestowal, called “merciful,” can be revealed. 

It is impossible to receive anything without equivalence. Rather, there must always be equivalence. That is, we can perceive something only to the extent that we are similar to the action, object, or state.

Therefore, in order to feel something, I need to be in a state of equivalence with what I wish to perceive. For example, if a person is crying or rejoicing and I want to feel their state, I must reach the exact same state within myself. Then from what I have modeled internally, I will understand the state they are in. Of course, my understanding will be relative because their attributes and mine are different. Yet there will still be some degree of equivalence.

Hence, when he evokes mercy on himself, it follows that he is engaged in reception for himself. And the more he prays, not only is he not preparing the Kli [vessel] of equivalence, but on the contrary, sparks of reception form within him.

Whatever I ask of the Creator, even with the purest intentions, my requests are always egoistic, and they will inevitably amplify my egoism. Does this mean I should refrain from asking altogether? If so, how can I manifest my connection with the Creator?

It turns out that he is going the opposite way. Instead of developing a desire to bestow, he is in fact developing the desire to receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Love of God and the Love of Man”

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Selected Highlights

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Why did the Creator create it so that we can awaken Him by being directed toward Him so that we can be transformed to resemble Him? What is the purpose of this?

The Creator created us with qualities vastly different from His own so that we could independently discover who we should become.

On one hand, we are meant to stand with the Creator as two interlocuters, opposite to each other, as if standing opposite each other, not in the physical sense, but in the sense of our attributes, actions, and desires. His nature and our nature must be against each other. This distinction allows us to feel that there is Him and there is me.

On the other hand, we are to reach a state of similarity to Him. To the extent of this similarity, we will begin to perceive and understand each other and form a connection. This connection will occur between two independent components: each of us and all of us together with the Creator.

We must understand that there are certain conditions with us and the Creator, which are initially set in such a way does not nullify or destroy us so that we do not succumb to His influence, and disappear in Him under His dominance or under the fact that He determines everything.

The Creator is the sole force that exists, and “There is none else besides Him.” Yet He is obligated to remain concealed and maintain a distance between us and Him to allow us to exist.

If the Creator’s influence were fully revealed, then we would simply have disappeared. It did not happen in the sense that, although the Creator created the desire to receive within Himself and began to develop it this desire would be completely under His power, and then the creation would not to exist. It would blindly fulfill the will of the Creator without even feeling that it exists.

The fact is that the existence of a person means one’s oppositeness to the upper force that creates, nurtures, and influences it in various ways. That is, if I am opposite to it, contrary to it, or disagree with it, then my “self” exists. And upon this “self” various additions can be made, called “clothing,” that make me similar to Him, even though inwardly I am not. Then I exist and He exists, and I make myself like Him to the extent that I understand Him, reveal Him, and come in contact with Him.
[338702]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Question: What prevents a person from praying to the Creator from the depth of his heart?

Answer: What prevents us from praying from the depths of our truest inner, real desires? Egoistic desires themselves. They do not give us the opportunity to correctly address the Creator until, as a result of numerous efforts, we begin to feel them more acutely and are able to direct them to the Creator. Everything is done in such a way as to bring us to a state of adhesion with the Creator, not to separation from Him.

Look at yourself now: some of you are sleeping, some are half asleep, some are in a more real state, and some are even in an excited state. Through this, the Creator reveals to us our actual relationship with each other and with Him. This will continue until we start to feel this more deeply and begin to live within these states internally.

The entire surrounding world, everything we imagine, will begin to feel external to us. The world will be perceived as a means to deepen the internal connection between us and the Creator.

This process will gradually unfold within us, and it will happen. You listen more, feel more, and try not to fall asleep during the lesson, you resist that state. Through this, you will eventually begin to experience the next stages.

All of this is given to you deliberately. There is no such thing as fatigue or any other reasons from our world—nothing like that! These are purely spiritual causes. There is nothing physical here, only importance. And importance arises from going deeper into the search for the feeling of the Creator.
[338963]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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