Rabash, Article 19, “The Matter of Joy”: This means that the joy is a result of a certain reason. So what is the reason, so that the reason can be evoked in order to bring us joy?

And accordingly, the intention to follow the right line as much as one can is called “wholeness.” And a person is already in a state of wholeness, which is called “equivalence.” Which means that the whole, which is the person, is now adhered to the Whole, as it says: “The blessed adheres to the blessed and the damned adheres to the damned.

Of course, we cannot feel anything spiritual if it is not by its opposite form. Internally we lack wholeness, we lack control, we are powerless and under the complete control of the egoistic desire to receive that calls for the domination of all the good in the world, but we transcend this and “restrict” ourselves, holding on only to the desire to bestow as we value it more and more.

This means that joy comes as a result of our feeling of great frustration, disappointed in our own desires. We are very happy that we have found a desire, the Creator’s intention, which we can use to control our desires. There is a great gap created between what we are and the Creator’s essence. We acquire His vessels and then our vessels can connect to His vessels.

Thus, a great void is formed between the two opposites, which we can now fill with bestowal. We are filled by bestowal and this brings us joy.

In The Book of Zohar it is written, (Genesis. Item 159): “the induction of the posterior, which is a call was so strong, until all his levels were lost and he became an ordinary man, Shimon from the market, and he acknowledged that it is a call and an invitation for a very sublime attainment.”

All the spiritual discernments ride on the great contrasts. It is in the gap, in the disparity between them and the connection between them above reason, that the new vessel is revealed, that is not part of our nature and which is a vessel of bestowal in which joy is revealed.

The Light that is revealed in the vessel that receives in order to bestow is the “Light of Life.” And its inner essence that is created by identifying and adhering to the Creator is felt as joy. It is a result of a good deed, which means of the act of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, they were certainly liberated from the angel of death, for death is necessarily an absence and negation of the existence of a certain object. But only while there is a spark that wishes to exist for its own pleasure is it possible to say about it that that spark does not exist because it has become absent and died.

However, if there is no such spark in man, but all the sparks of his essence clothe in bestowal of contentment upon their Maker, then it is neither absent nor dead. For even when the body is annulled, it is only annulled with respect to self-gratification, in which the will to receive is dressed and can only exist in it.

However, when he achieves the aim of Creation and the Creator receives pleasure from him, since His will is done, man’s essence, which clothes in His contentment, is granted complete eternity, like Him. Thus, he has been rewarded with freedom from the angel of death.

The desire to receive must only get rid of the intention to receive for itself, but the desire itself is never refined and doesn’t disappear, but acquires the intention of “in order to bestow.” If a person can fulfill this condition internally on its minimal level, on the first degree, if he wants this to happen, then the Light comes to him and illuminates on him, and makes him worthy of the first level called the gathering before Mt. Sinai.

In order to do that, he must accept all the conditions, rise above all the hardening of the heart, all the worries, and all the interruptions that were sent to him in order to attribute everything to the Creator’s dominion, to “there is none else besides Him,” and to decide that He is good and benevolent—to accept all this in faith above reason and to annul everything that belongs to him in order to aspire as much as he can for the Creator.

If a person wishes to detach himself from all his affairs in this world, not because they are unpleasant or threatening as it was during the time of preparation, but rather the opposite—when he can receive all the goodness but still gives it all up and attributes himself to the Creator—then the Light comes and builds the first level of bestowal, of Lishma (for Its Name) in him. This is called the receiving of the Torah since, for the first time, he sees how the Light in it reforms.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13

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Question: You speak about self-annulment as a means for growing and advancing. However, don’t concessions during an argument usually show that I am weak?

Answer: I certainly don’t concede because of weakness, but because I want to advance in my marital relationship with and in life in general.

In this way, I develop myself and approach a positive state. I gain by that since, by that, I expand and feel life more finely.

I give my spouse a cup of tea, but I don’t lose it, rather, I receive a cup that is twice as big. After all, by that, I acquire her desires, her aspirations, her dreams, and their fillings!

I enjoy the pleasure that she receives just like a mother enjoys the pleasure she gives her baby. We all know that a mother enjoys the sweet she brings her baby much more than the baby does.

Thanks to my concessions, I acquire new vessels, opportunities to feel pleasure. You may ask why people go to stadiums to cheer their favorite team if they can watch the game quietly at home on TV.

But in the stadium you are surrounded by thousands of people and so you enjoy the collective excitement, the incorporation. It expands your vessels of perception, your senses. You become as big as the thousands around you who are cheering and jumping.

I’m sure you agree that it isn’t the same as staying at home, lying on the couch, and watching a football game on TV.

Question: What will concessions at home bring to my success?

Answer: If you come home from work hungry, sit down to have dinner and your child asks you for a piece of what’s on your plate, you give it to him gladly, it isn’t a concession.

After all, you are acting according to your will. Must a mother go against her will in order to take care of her baby? If it were so, we would have to place a policeman next to every mother to make sure that the child doesn’t die of hunger.

So, such actions are not called self-annulment. However, if your wife asks you to do something and you feel reluctant, that is a different thing. In the first case, the self-annulment brings you pleasure, and in the second case, it is a burden.

There is no need to teach people how to concede to their beloved children. It happens naturally.

However, you must learn how to concede to your spouse so as to not act instinctively, but rather, to begin managing your own development by yourself.

Question: But if I concede, it means that I am not in control, but my wife is.

Answer: You will perceive it in a totally different manner. It all depends on how important you feel it is. If a baby were less important to a mother than herself, she would refuse to take care of him and would think about herself. However, because nature has made the baby more important to her than herself, the mother is ready to do anything for him.

Now, we must think about how to force ourselves to concede and to accept the desire of our spouse above our own desires. In order to do that, the reward that you get should be greater so that it will tilt the scale.

Suppose she says, “If you wash the dishes now instead of me, we will go together to where you wanted to go.” Then, you concede, wash the dishes, and you go out together. This means that the goal justifies the means. If that is so, we must increase the goal so that it will be the justification for our actions.

We need an environment that will value the goal and show us the advantages of advancing in this direction. Besides that, we also will see that we can avoid different problems that constantly trouble us if we follow this path.

All these claims should form such a connection that I will not be able to break the commitment to fulfill this. There must be constant social pressure that will sustain me and remind me that it is worthwhile to act this way.

Thus, I advance in every aspect: Internally, I develop my personality and improve my relationship with the environment, at work, and with the entire world. The main thing in this entire process is the influence of the environment since a person finds it hard to even lift a finger when his wife asks for it.

If he did something for himself, he wouldn’t encounter such problems. He would be ready to serve himself. However, to serve someone else and to accept the will of another is already a big problem. However, he must think right away about what he does this for and what he gains. The gain should be mutual. So, let’s agree and constantly act one with regard to the other. I am for you, and you are for me.
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From a “Talk About New Life” 7/25/12

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Question: Can we say that the miracle of Purim symbolizes a certain exception to the absolute rules?

Answer: The slight illumination that appears in the image of Mordecai summons and leads to a great Light; we must first understand that the clarification is by the Light of Hochma and not by the Light of Hassadim. It is the Light of Hochma that separates the items “cutting off” one from the other like a knife: this is good and this is bad, this is one way and that is the other way.

Without Haman, this clarification would be impossible. But Haman has to come by Mordecai. Just as a flashlight is not enough in the dark, it must first be focused on the right spot, which means to prepare the deficiency in advance; Haman must be added to Mordecai so that it will be possible to manage him correctly.

As for the miracle of Purim, it is like the miracle of the exodus from Egypt; if there is no great Light that shines, we cannot connect the vessels. There has never been such a great Light as in Purim, a Light that connects all the ends into the “middle line” and then raises them to the first restriction.

Question: Why was it necessary to kill Haman?

Answer: Haman symbolizes the intention of “in order to receive.” Is it possible to leave this intention alive?

After all, it isn’t about the vessels of receiving which are eternal, but rather about the intention, about how to use Malchut: whether in an egoistic way or an altruistic way, with the intention of in order to receive or in order to bestow. Who will manage the King’s treasure, all of Malchut, in the King’s favor, Mordecai or Haman?

First all my vessels, all my desires, are egoistic “in order to receive” (↓). All this is called “Haman.” On the other hand, “Mordecai” is the intention of only in order to bestow (↑). So we have to change our vessels from one intention to another intention. By that we kill “Haman” and raise “Mordecai.”

At the same time the vessels remain the same, and we only change the “cover,” the “hat,” the intention, which is called the head of the Partzuf. The treasures, Malchut with all its 127 states, remain, but we pass only on the control from Haman to Mordecai.

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There is a system which in our perception of reality is depicted as the current reality of this world. In it a person has books that were written by Kabbalists in the past, a teacher who is a Kabbalist, friends, the whole world, and the Creator who is concealed, meaning the attribute of bestowal that is opposite from everything a person discovers in his five senses. Except for this attribute, everything is at his disposal.

So how can we use all the means we have correctly, in order to reach the general attribute of bestowal?

It is external to a person, outside his “vessel,” and he can acquire it with the help of three components: books, the group, and the teacher. With their help he fulfills the study, dissemination, and the connection.

The combination of all these things brings a person to turn his vessels, his desires, from receiving to bestowal. He discovers increasingly more egoistic vessels that he turns to “in order to bestow,” according to his efforts and exertion.

What are these efforts and exertion?

A person holds on to the right intention during the study, connects with the friends in the group, and follows the advice of the teacher without which he doesn’t know how to work with the books and the group. On the whole, these three components are called “Torah,” which means a study, a method, a means for attaining the attribute of bestowal.

From that we choose the right actions and the right relations by combining the books the group and the teacher in them. Thus a person reaches oppositeness, by rising “above his reason” above his mind and feelings, towards the next level…
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: Why do you say that the importance of the teacher should not be taken for granted by his students?

Answer: Imagine that the president comes to us on a special visit to meet you. He asks us about you and says that he has been looking for a person like you for years until it became clear that you are here. He comes to you with his entourage, shakes your hand, and then you go into the conference room together for a talk after which you come out with illuminated faces, and he gets into his presidential car and departs to the president’s home.

After this visit you carry on as usual with your friends, but we already look at you differently. Whether we want to or not, but we have to be careful. Something new has been created among us and we don’t know how to relate to you, how to behave next to you. You say something and we listen to you skeptically, but we pay careful attention to every word you say. Our attention is focused on you, we already depend on you, our ego is “locked’ on you, and there is nothing we can do about that. This is the natural way of prostration, of reverence, that is a naturally innate part of us.

But this is not the real work. If I want to connect with the Creator and reach an equivalence of form with Him, I have to rise above my nature, to change it into something that is opposite and unknown in its oppositeness. Of course, it will be very difficult to fulfill this since it’s as if I am turning myself inside out, like a glove, going out of my skin, killing myself.

But it can be done easily. Kabbalists say that it isn’t a problem at all. If I have enough fuel, then the whole way can turn into a pleasant adventure, a stroll in the zoo. I will go from one cage to another, from one animal to the next, and correct my desires until I leave the “animal kingdom” as a human being, Adam.

It’s all about the fuel that comes to me in a chain: from the Creator, through the Kabbalists, the teacher, and the friends. So I have to be incorporated in the group in order to be impressed by the friends and to accept what is important to them. It’s the teacher who is important to them, a person whom I actually don’t like, by whom I am repulsed, and to whom I find myself antipathetic. I automatically despise him and don’t see anything in him that I value.

But I understand that all this is presented to me that way intentionally, and so I use these means to examine myself according to the simple criterion: Do I want to listen to what the teacher says and fulfill it? To fulfill what he says not out of an “animal” commitment, but in order to reach the Creator who is behind him.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar

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Question: What does it mean for an entrepreneur to “keep up with nature“?

Answer: It means to recognize new needs in a person, to see how they develop differently in different layers of society because society is divided into parts, and these parts gradually evolve towards greater emotional contentment, and material fulfillment remains at the level of necessities and no more is desired.

You already have a package to meet new human needs, and you give it to people as a carrot to a rabbit, “Look, what I have!”

The solution is directed towards emotional needs, but the material needs are also taken into account, which are focused more on what is closer to a person. In the past, humanity chased both necessities and what was above necessities.

Now, a person’s inner demands gradually change, but not because I have ten fur coats in the closet, but because values suddenly changed in me.

My desire becomes more selective. The level of necessities, which is required to support my physical, animal state, remains. But the upper level, the so-called “fat,” is becoming narrower, is cut and turns to a new area: virtual, abstract, astral. A person needs fulfillment because he has a void within. But if you provide him with virtual fulfillment together with the basic necessities, he will follow you and demand like a small child, “Give me more!”
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From KabTV’s “Professional Secrets” 2/6/13

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Question: Does a person in an integral society take responsibility for any offenses?

Answer: Of course, because this society is not completely corrected yet, there are egoists in it, not angels.

A person is judged by his actions and if the deeds are bad, then one must activate a new system in order to correct him.

By recognizing the integral approach, there is an even greater responsibility towards others, and through implementation and observation, one feels that he gains morally and maybe even materially. But it is a duty!

I would like to say only one thing: One must constantly find the correct combination between the introduction of new laws and education, raising awareness. We constantly need to examine to what extent people become more conscious of their mutual dependence, the mutual connection to completeness, and how to use the systems effectively so that they will give more seriousness to this. One needs to use more serious educational systems but without pressure.
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From KabTV’s “Professional Secrets” 2/7/13  

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Question: What does a couple feel when they are in the “shared space,” when your partner understands and feels you?

Answer: A “shared space” refers to complete mutual understanding within its limits. This area is usually created in the attitude towards children. The mutual concern for them and the importance the couple attributes to them connects the couple. These are seemingly external factors, not ours, but they belong to us. If you don’t have children, it is more difficult to find common connecting points.

We have to look for things we agree on, understanding, something we have in common; where we agree, we understand each other and connect, although in the beginning we had different opinions. But we grow so accustomed to these concessions that we cannot manage without them. Even if we could correct the difference between us, we wouldn’t want to. We feel that all these contrasts are an opportunity for a special union. We already understand that without them there would be no union.

All these “rough spots” help us connect. It is thanks to the fact that I concede and my partner concedes that we feel the connection between us. Without our mutual concessions there will be no connection. If we agreed from the start on everything, we wouldn’t feel the contact. It would be as if we are the same thing. When we concede, we don’t annul our ego, but rather build a connection above it, as it says, “Love will cover all the sins.” Therefore, this strong connection, the inner contrast between us, is kept, but above it, love grows increasingly higher.

The “shared space” is our double common ego, but because of this, it connects us more strongly and allows us to feel the connection between us. We have to constantly take care of this “shared space,” to evoke it and try to expand it with regard to different types of connections from the corporeal to the spiritual.
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From a “Talk About a New Life” 7/25/12

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Lowliness is not when I don’t have the power to do something, but rather when I think that I actually do something. The lowly is not someone who cannot be a hero, but someone who thinks that he is a hero. If the ego awakens in a person, then everything he says indicates his lowliness.

After all, everything is managed by the upper Light. But a person thinks that he has his own power, feelings, and mind in his ego, and this is his lowliness. The lowliness is in the fact the he doesn’t understand, that he doesn’t feel, and doesn’t attain that his desire to receive is only a replica of the Light. It’s only a shadow of the Light and he has nothing but that shadow.

If a person feels and understands this, if he fights the lowliness that is evoked in him over and over again in order to reveal the gap between him and the Creator, then he enters another lowliness that is actually not a sign of lowliness but of adhesion. He doesn’t want to be adhered to his desire and serve it devoutly, not in the shadow, which is the opposite replica of the Light that imagines that it exists independently since it’s detached from the source. Instead he wants to devoutly serve the Light itself. Thus he reaches adhesion with the source.

Then he is filled with pride, with power, with everything that that Light has by having annulled his desire to receive before the Creator. He thanks the Creator for having created this desire to receive by which a person can feel how he can adhere to the Creator. Thus the clarification of self-lowliness constantly helps a person get closer to the truth, to the source. So where one feels His lowliness is the place where one discovers the Creator’s humbleness and His greatness.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/13

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