Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 2

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 192, “Foundations”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: In order for a request to the Creator to be correctly formulated, should it include our current state, a vision of the future state, the effort of my inclusion in the group, and the changes that this group must undergo?

Answer: Yes, a request to the Creator must include all of this. That is why it is called MAN, (Mei Nukvin), where “Mayim” (water) is a quality of Bina, and “Nukva” is a quality of Malchut.

In other words, we should have a sense of our current state and a desirable vision of our future state, my capabilities and the capabilities of the group, in what way we should be united, and in what way I wish to reveal the Creator, the quality of bestowal.

Do not confuse the revelation of the Creator with anything else. This is the quality of bestowal, love, and connection. This is the only way the Creator manifests in us; otherwise He does not exist at all. We do not know what the upper force is in itself, we only know its manifestation in us.

Let’s say we are talking about electricity. How do I know what it is? We only know the manifestation of this property, this effect in some of its actions. It passes through a conductor, is heated, its voltage is changed, and so on.

That is, we study any quality by reaction. For example, we do not know what the force of gravity is, but we know that it is a quality that is inherent in matter, and nothing more. We always study reactions.

We do not know ourselves, the group, or the Creator Himself, but we study only the external manifestations of these forces. Therefore, when we turn to the Creator, the most correct approach is to envision His influence as a consequence of our changes.

And what could our changes be? Only group changes. The Creator is a quality of bestowal. Where can I observe this quality? Only in my connection with the group and in no other way.

Therefore, if I turn to the Creator, I must envision my current state, the one I am with the group, with the world, and in what state I will be after some time when the Creator’s action is realized.

How is it implemented? In a greater closeness between us. And then, to the extent we get closer, His quality will manifest itself—the quality of bestowal and love. We will begin to feel it as a quality of the upper world. This will be the highest spiritual attainment. There is no other way.
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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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A person should pay attention to this and believe that the Creator is tending to him and guides him on the track that leads to the King’s palace. It follows that he should be happy that the Creator is watching over him and gives him the descents, as well. That is, a person should believe, as much as he can understand, that the Creator is giving him the ascents, since certainly, a person cannot say that he himself receives the ascents, but that the Creator wants to bring him closer; this is why He gives him the ascents.

Also, a person should believe that the Creator gives him the descents, as well, because He wants to bring him closer. Therefore, every single thing that he can do, he must do as though he is in a state of ascent. Therefore, when he overcomes a little during the descent, it is called an “awakening from below.” Each act that he does, he believes that it is the Creator’s will, and by this itself he is rewarded with greater nearing, meaning that the person himself begins to feel that the Creator has brought him closer (Rabash, Article 6, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?“)

The most important thing is our reaction to any negative or positive action, meaning that we should constantly evaluate whether they elicit an equal response in us.

It should not matter how my beast feels, good or bad. The main focus is on perceiving the Creator’s communication with me. My response depends on how I react without words. If I receive something negative, I respond to Him with love; if I receive something positive, I also respond to Him with love.

When is my response more pronounced: is it to positive experiences or negative ones? Certainly, it is more evident with negative experiences. This demonstrates that I truly aspire toward Him, rather than merely seeking to experience something pleasant from the Creator.

We must learn to interpret the signs of the Creator’s closeness to us. We can be very near to Him and yet feel what comes from Him as something negative. However, instead of provoking a negative reaction in us, this closeness inspires gratitude. It allows us to demonstrate a positive attitude toward Him above the negative feelings.

This process builds the screen (Masach): restriction (Tzimtzum), screen (Masach), and reflected light (Or Hozer).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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The revelation of the Creator represents two mutually opposite actions for us. On the one hand, the revelation should awaken even greater egoism in us, our difference from the Creator; on the other hand, we should give this egoism the correct form in which we would become like the Creator.

These two opposite forms should be in us simultaneously and go in parallel: left – right, left – right.
The left line is the difference from the Creator. Moreover, this difference can be qualitative or quantitative according to different parameters.

At each of the 125 degrees, there are three more degrees: conception (Ibur), the small state (Yenika), the large state (Mochin). The 125 degrees are an ascent through the five worlds to complete similarity to the Creator.

At these degrees we always go through two states: the difference from the Creator and the similarity to Him. Each step is determined by these two opposite actions, sensations, adhesion, and revelations.

Therefore there is a left line, a right line, and a middle line. In the left line, our egoism is awakened; it is our difference from the Creator. In the right line, we make  egoism into His likeness, as if we give this egoism the form of the Creator, and then we are called “Adam” (man).

In the middle line, a person connects with the Creator, that is, the right and left lines connect and form adhesion with the Creator that is called “Dvekut.”

This is our work in three lines. Everyone who advances further, his egoism in the left line increases, but he can correct it with the help of the group and with the help of prayer to the Creator.

Thus the left line is egoism, the right line is its correction, and the middle line is the connection with the Creator based on what a person has acquired in the left and right lines. This is how a person approaches the Creator.
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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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Disconnection from thoughts, knowledge, and the feeling that everything comes from the Creator is carried out for our benefit.

This is the darkness when I disconnect from the Creator, not the darkness of our world where it seems to me that bad is darkness and good is light. I am not even talking about physical light and darkness.

When transitioning to spiritual perceptions and striving to approach a correct understanding that the Creator determines all good and bad feelings within me, I must learn to perceive darkness and light not as feelings within my egoistic desires or understanding in my egoistic mind, but as degrees of connection with the Creator, independent of whether it feels pleasant or unpleasant, clear or unclear.

This is where a person’s disconnection from the Creator occurs, which can be described as a “descent.” These descents, however, are for our benefit. They allow us to examine whether we are truly following the spiritual path.

If I am on the spiritual path, I will begin to perceive descents where I am entirely thrown out of feeling spirituality and will recognize that I am disconnected from the understanding that the Creator forms my entire perception of the world and of myself. When I realize this, it is considered “day,” when I do not, it is “night,” or darkness.

Therefore it is said that a descent a person experiences is for his benefit. We must move away from egoistic perceptions where good is seen as an ascent and bad as a descent. Instead we should begin to evaluate descents and ascents based on their alignment with the purpose of our development: what brings us closer to the goal is an ascent and what distances us from the goal is a descent.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

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I must attune myself to the sensation of the Creator so that my feelings perceive the entire world, everything He creates within me from the crude image of this world, which we imagine through our five senses, to inner spiritual states, to the Creator’s attitude toward this, and to my attitude toward Him through the veil of this world.

I must imagine all this as the Creator’s immense attention and care for me that is aimed at my development to a state where I begin to feel Him. He does not hide; it is my consciousness that conceals Him from me.

If I thought that in my previous state I had a glimpse of perfection or some understanding and awareness, the next state, in contrast, reveals that I understand nothing, feel lost, and do not know how to deal with this tangled perception of the world.

Here I must realize what I am striving for. Naturally, according to my egoism, I want everything to be clear to my mind and revealed to my feelings so that I can fill myself with sensations and perceptions of some image and, through it, see the Creator of this image, the Creator of the world.

The world is the image I perceive. The Creator is the one who stands behind it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

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The descent a person receives is intended for his own benefit. He is taken care of from above in a special way that lowers him from the previous state in which, it would seem, he has a little perfection, as evidenced by his willingness to remain in this state all the days of his life.

If we begin to catch ourselves in what states we are in, then as a rule we agree for them to remain like they are. We are not trying to get out of them. We realize that they come from the Creator precisely so we can feel what state can be spiritually higher, but not according to our sensation of when it is pleasant and more understandable in the heart and mind—no.

So what state should I strive for? Toward greater definition that everything in me is from the Creator.

I do not want to change the state, but rather to single out the Creator as its source. This is the most important thing to me. Let them give me any states: good or bad, confusing or clear; I will not even criticize or define them; it does not matter to me.

I immediately rush inward to their source, the Creator. It is important to me how I want to imagine Him as the source of what is currently being depicted in my feelings and my mind, that is, not the state itself, but the definition, with maximum clarity, that it comes from the Creator.

Moreover, I do not necessarily determine only this. I need to determine the most important thing in this: His quality. After all, if we are talking about the Creator, that “He is good that does good,” then I must feel this in my states.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

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The most correct way to turn to the Creator is when He is close to you. Close is when you feel you can be in contact with Him. But if you are in contact with Him, what is left to ask? After all, you have nothing more to ask than to merge with Him. Here, we have an internal contradiction, and as always we advance on two lines: the right and the left.

On one hand, I feel the Creator is close to me; otherwise, how could I turn to Him? He should be directed at me in some way, and I should be directed at Him. On the other hand, I have to feel like I am distant from Him.

Overall, there is no problem here. We always perceive the Creator in two ways: One, He is close to us, and we must accept and feel Him as our ruler, and two, we should feel Him far from us because we are not yet similar to His properties.

It is like a child and a mother. A child may feel very close to its mother. On the other hand, if he were smart, he would understand the difference between them is vast because his mother has everything in her hands, and he has nothing. Through understanding his mother (her capabilities versus his own), he can firmly demand everything from her; these are the states, only more corrected, of course, not on the animal level, but on the human level, that we must build with the Creator.

This is the only force in the world that will do everything we ask if our requests are aimed at our development, at becoming more like it, because the Creator intends to make man a man, Adam, similar to Himself.
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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, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 1

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 23, “Behold, I Am Setting Before You”

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Selected Highlights

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Why must the Creator hide from us? Why don’t we see the system of forces acting upon us? Why don’t we directly perceive the upper force in our world and our state and work with it openly as we do with the other forces of nature around us, those that influence us and that we in turn influence?

Why is it different with the Creator? After all, He affects us through all forces, and we somehow influence Him with our desires. Yet the source of everything that happens remains unknown, incomprehensible, and concealed from us.

This is done so that through all the forces that affect us and all the forces with which we can influence the Creator, we would come to reveal Him personally: His will, His perspective, His intention, and His attitude toward us.

For instance, if I interact with someone and do or say something that influences them, they begin to understand my attitude toward them, what I want from them, how I perceive them, and so forth. Similarly, I sense their influence on me and through this form an image of who they are.

Different people might act upon me in entirely similar ways but with varying combinations, and I would form completely different images of them. There are numerous nuances and possibilities here.

The same applies to the Creator, but on a far greater, broader, and richer scale. Through such interaction with the Creator, we begin to reveal Him.

Moreover, the Creator’s concealment is more complex and layered. With another person I can see them and engage in physical or virtual interaction. With the Creator, it is more complicated.

He is incomprehensible to me and for some reason remains hidden through everything that I perceive.

That is, my desires, intentions, thoughts, feelings, and everything that I perceive through them in the surrounding world are generated within me by the Creator. Essentially this means that “I” do not exist. There is only some “self” that senses what the Creator is doing to it and nothing more.

In other words, our connection, our relationship, is both vast (it encompasses everything I feel and this entire world) and hidden. I cannot see from where and why these things come to me. Thus the connection is multi-layered and consists of many layers of concealment.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

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