Question: At what point does a personal relationship with the Creator appear in the created being?

Answer: It already was awoken in Ein Sof (Infinity), in the four phases of the Direct Light. Otherwise, phase one (Hochma) wouldn’t have given birth to phase two (Bina).

Question: Is that the point in the heart?

Answer: No, it is a result of those stages. The point that awakens in a person’s heart is a spark of the general Returning Light that was in the soul of Adam HaRishon (first man) at the time of the shattering.

Question: So, when does a person begin to feel the Creator’s attitude? Because then everything becomes clear.

Answer: Everything would be understood by the ego, and we shouldn’t let this happen. If I show you that I feel absolute, endless, unconditional love toward you, then you will begin to disrespect me and even hate me. Because you are a desire to receive, and, when there are no limits to this desire, when fear doesn’t limit it, it “goes wild.” Eventually, you would begin to treat me badly. It really is so. So, instead of love on my part, you would see what seems like a bad attitude and unpleasantness.

Question: However, still, we have a point in the heart with which we have to start the process, but we get stuck since we have no basis.

Answer: There was a general vessel of Adam HaRishon and it had a Returning Light. Adam HaRishon wanted to receive all the great Light in order to bestow, but couldn’t keep it in the Returning Light, and everything was shattered.

There are only Reshimot (spiritual genes) left from the desire and Reshimot from the Masach (screen), and they are the ones that awaken and are called “a point in the heart” (•). This point doesn’t come from the Creator; it is part or a spark of the Masach.

In spirituality, there is no difference between the state and its Reshimot, which is also a full picture of reality that is not yet clear to a person.

So, we must draw the Light that Reforms (the Surrounding Light) to the Reshimot, and then we will see the picture of the spiritual world. It is a very simple action. You are in a group and study from the sources, for example, from The Book of Zohar, and by that, you summon the Light upon yourself and it operates.

Question: Is there something concrete or visual for me in this work? Can I feel how our “points in the heart” are attracted to one another and how the Light unites them?

Answer: If you nullify your ego and the friend seems more important to you than yourself, if the group provides you with such importance that you want to jump inside it and disappear without hesitation, to be swallowed in it, if you exert yourself in that and make efforts “by the sweat of your brow,” then to the same extent, you summon the Light that operates on you and bestows upon you from the Reshimot and builds the spiritual level.

Question: Will we become one whole so that everyone will feel it?

Answer: Of course, whoever participates in this process, whoever does this, feels it.
[98564]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/13, Shamati #9

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Devotion is required of us along the way; we are required to annul ourselves, to “take on the burden of Heaven,” which means devotion.

We see similar qualities in animals: If something bad happens to his owner or if his owner has a problem, a dog feels it and is very dedicated to his owner. Is that the same devotion we speak about here, or not?

What is the difference between devotion on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and the level of the “speaking”? The slave gets used to his owner, feels his dependence on him, and is devoted to him, just like a dog. In what way is he different from a servant of the Creator?

Being enslaved to the Creator is devotion to a nature that is opposite from a person’s nature. I am in a state of submission and self-annulment between two polar points that have split. Inside me there is my desire to receive and in it, I feel my ego, different claims, problems, and disappointments. I feel all that and do not nullify it, it lives inside me, but above all that, I gradually acquire recognition and the understanding, spiritual devotion opposite to my egoistic property.

The gap between these two forms of nature that are inside me is clear, understood, and familiar. My devotion rises above my reason, and the greater the desire, the higher I rise above it. In an opposite manner, the gap, the tension, the distance between the egoistic nature and the altruistic nature, between the intention of in order to receive and the intention of in order to bestow, for myself or for the Creator, the gap between these two poles grows increasingly larger.

It says: “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater” and “a person cannot fulfill a Mitzva unless he failed in keeping it before.” It means that we have to fall and to feel a greater depth of our ego, of the evil inclination, of the snake, and only from there can we rise to higher levels of selflessness and complete devotion.

These two points do not annul one another. Instead we fill the distance between them with recognition, understanding and our love that rises above hate: “Love will cover all transgressions.” This is the difference between our spiritual devotion and religious devotion.

Religion requires a person to follow with his eyes closed, and the less he understands, the more devoted a believer he is. He does whatever he is told, without trying to understand. The fewer doubts he has, the more surely he advances with the flag in his hand and the fanatic look on his face, and the more respectable he is considered.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, however, it is the doubts, the confusion, the different problems and inner clarifications that generate rich discernments, thoughts, and inner ideas. They are all opposite from the Creator and the work in order to bestow, but above them, a person builds his devotion, since thanks to them he can understand and feel.

Based on that, he builds the understanding and feeling, perceives the world from one end to the other in the two forms, in all possible feelings and understandings. He doesn’t have a narrow perspective and doesn’t advance with his eyes closed, but fully recognizes the ego, and thus builds his attitude to the attribute of bestowal by understanding the property of the Creator.

He raises the attribute of bestowal above the attribute of receiving; independently and consciously, he consents to surrender himself to serve and love. This becomes his Creator.
[98502]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/13

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The breaking was necessary because without it we would just hang in the same state, in the middle between egoism and sanctity, neither here nor there. And while tied to a single state, one is not able to change anything. In order to walk, it is necessary to keep moving the feet so that one is far from the other; there has to be a difference between two states. In that case, we shift from the state we perceive as undesirable and bad to a better one.

In other words, I keep moving from a poor state to a good state. It is similar to walking: the foot that was in the front remains behind now, while I put the other foot forward to make a step further. And then I make one more step, and yet another one, alternating the feet, each time leaving behind what used to be ahead.

I don’t place the other foot next to the first, adding to the same state; I keep putting it further ahead. The same rule applies in the spiritual world. The negative I had I turn into plus, and therefore descent always promotes ascent.

I always have three states: the middle, the previous, and the future one.
[98205]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot 

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Question: In the past humanity somehow regulated the evil it encountered, but today it seems that the evil has been set loose.

Answer: We have advanced and developed in a constant ascent; our ego grew over the years until it has become “round.” We have always known what to do with it, and how to balance it. Time after time it pushed us forward to new achievements. We have always managed with it: We built, invented, and added something. The deficiency pushed us forward and we reached a filling. If we couldn’t attain it directly we had revolutions.

The generations have changed; there was a time of slavery, and feudalism, the Middle Ages passed, and capitalism came along, and eventually we have reached the last phase, communism. In a “round” state” there can be nothing but mutual connections based on mutual guarantee.

We have to say here that it’s the Creator who evokes the deficiency each time, and by that, the created being receives the power and the mind to fulfill the deficiency. The changing of eras and special moments are typified by revolutions, since such transitions are only possible by troubles, by dramatic changes.

So today, in our current state, we have to act according to the new leadership. All the old approaches and methods will not work today since they were all good up to the moment that we began to become “round.” Now we will receive blows since we aren’t adjusting ourselves to what is happening around us.

These are not anyone’s insinuations, but the natural process of events: If you don’t adjust to the external conditions, you cannot blame anyone for the outcome. For example, what’s the point in blaming others if you went out on a cold winter day without warm clothes? In the same way, we are entering a new world now without having adjusted ourselves to it.

It has been scientifically proven that in the new era we need a greater degree of unity, connection, and cooperation. But we remain the way we were and so we are not adapted to the new reality, to the force of the leadership that has closed us in a “round” system. For over a hundred years scientists and experts have been writing about that, so who is to blame if we don’t listen?

The cost of our not adapting to the changed conditions will be global bankruptcy, systematic collapse, and perhaps even world war. How can it be otherwise if we stubbornly refuse to adjust ourselves to the unity and the connection that the new state requires? We are like the person who has killed his parents and is asking the court for mercy because he is an orphan.

So the time has come to adapt ourselves to the global world, which will continue to “round up” even more. It’s impossible to go on living as in the past, the only way today is unity and connection, according to the world that is becoming one before our eyes.
[98198]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/12, “The Peace”

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Starting now and going forward, we need to advance independently. And here a very interesting point is revealed. Up to a certain moment, I felt that I was completely influencing my students. During that time I taught my students according to the same system that our spiritual fathers learned.

But lately it is revealed that without support, without connection, without general mutual work, I can no longer teach them. For this, the students’ efforts, their assistance, and mutual work are required. All of this is essential. If from their side, there is a desire, a deficiency, then I can speak and explain in an approachable way. If there is an effort, then accordingly we can advance forward. This means that here an exact process of correction is taking place. We have arrived at this point.

It turns out that we are dependent on each other. Thus I turn to the entire world group since I am not able to do anything alone. If in the past I pushed you and could do something, now everything is closed. The general desire transforms into being truly mutual, and unity and connection are revealed in it.

This is not yet our attainment since in the meantime everything is taking place without any connection to our desire. But we must understand that it’s only through the general mutual effort, both yours and mine, that we will be able to advance forward. There will appear before us new opportunities to express our ideas, new explanations, and although the system remains the same since everything comes from the Light and the Kli, a new form of submission and recognition will appear, its sensation.

Thus, I very much request for you to be more active, to participate more in everything, to connect to the lessons. The general advancement depends only on our mutual actions! Let’s solve this problem together since acts of correction are possible only through our efforts that are aimed at taking charge of our ego and rising above it through an opposite attribute. If there is no effort, then there is no correction.

Under no circumstances should one annul the ego. We must rise above it. Suppressing the ego means not allowing it to command us, but together with it to feel it, live with it, and rise above it in our actions. This work must be aimed only at my worldwide group and at the Creator.
[98080]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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We have been through an interesting phase of the general human evolution.

After humanity has evolved for hundreds of thousands of years, it has reached the end of its development. In our time, we feel it as a general crisis that is not just an individual transition in technological, political, social, and economic aspects of our life, but something that is totally new!

Therefore, we have no idea what this new world is, this new regime, this new state. It is impossible to see them in our ego because they have to be revealed in a totally different attribute, in the attribute of bestowal. For the first time in history we will go through such a change, such a transition phase, and we have to pass through it.

By evolving for ages, humanity has reached its full egoistic ripening, and if the fruit is not eaten on time it begins to rot. We have reached this phase, which according to the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the “recognition of evil.”

Negative states will force us to correct ourselves, either by suffering or consciously.

Until today humanity has evolved automatically, instinctively, as the ego pushed us from the inside and people were not free to do anything by themselves. People acted unconsciously by the force of desires and their formations that were revealed under the pressure of external forces, but this is over now.

The correction must be conscious. This means that first there is the recognition of the actions and the actions against one, since otherwise it will be automatic, egoistic actions again without any participation on our part. It is because the rest of our evolution is built only above the ego and in contrast to it. Here we have to develop a second component which is above the egoistic, an altruistic one, and to advance together.

We have come along a certain way in our egoistic development and now this phase is over. Starting from the 21^st century, the egoistic and the altruistic evolutions should be parallel.

The upper component (see the drawing) are our efforts and the lower component is the way by which the Creator pushes us forward by summoning uncompromising actions in us, disregarding our responses. Thus we advance.

Later, nature, the Creator, will push us forward, but it will already be by considering our efforts.
[98083]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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What is the prayer of many? First of all, we understand that the movement forward is a movement towards each other, to feeling others like oneself. This is achieved by connecting common yearning. We need to unite our points in the hearts in a single aspiration, relate them to the Creator, desire Him to correct them to raise above our egoism in order that it remains below, and the points in the hearts exit it, rise and form the property of bestowal.

The property of bestowal can only be common, not individual. It’s manifested only in the connection with others, through the so-called “crimson ball,” a feeling of warmth between us. And all this is recorded according to the statement “the book is open and the hand writes” because in addition to our personal debt, a general account is also written. One can pay for the other and even more than that.

This means that the group can take responsibility for the weak, pull him towards itself, heal, soothe, and approve. Just as in our world, in the spiritual world there are different gradations of human, and the group can pay for him. But later, he has to pay back. This is the system of complete interdependence like in the family: small children grow up and begin to help the elderly; everyone does his part, and everything is divided equally.

So, the calculation is carried out only through the common treasury, and nothing is accepted from an individual, the Creator does not make any transactions with you. Even with the world, He makes calculations only through humanity, through the entire mass of people, through one collective desire. He influences this desire. He is in it.

The common desire is divided among all of humanity and the people aspiring for the Creator with whom He makes His own calculations. He does special actions with them in order to pull them towards Himself, to guide and drive them towards the goal. As for humanity, the Creator is pushing it forward for the time being, causing an awareness of confusion in it and gradually pulling it towards us. Part of humanity diffuses and enters our area, joins us, and the 90% remains. This is a huge amount, and it stays unchanged because the part that leads everyone forward must be strong in quality, and the rest in quantity.

Thus, we need to pray, ask for the strength to lead, to help, to shape that huge mass. The responsibility for this lies with us; we have to ask for everyone. This is the basis for a prayer.

The Creator created the desire to enjoy. This is the desire of 90% of humanity. And our desire in this mass, meaning of those who yearn for the Creator, is artificial, not belonging to this world. Now it appears in us, and we want to get somewhere. The property of the Creator is manifested in us and that’s why we are drawn back to Him, to our source. Others also have the points in the hearts due to the mixing, the breaking of the vessels, but they are hidden deeply. We were awakened just in order to pull them to us and correct them; otherwise, we would have never felt the movement towards the next state.

That is why our prayer should be for all of humanity, for having the force, skill, and knowledge of connection with the Creator in order to draw all of humanity towards us and correct it, thereby bringing Him pleasure. The task of the Creator is to be revealed in the desires of humanity, to fulfill their desire. This is on one hand.

On the other hand, we are called the head, meaning that we are aware and understand; we are associates, assistants, of the Creator. We realize His goal. He wants to be revealed in humanity because it has real huge desires, not like ours because we’re not the greatest egoists. Of course, egoism is growing in us as well as all kinds of understandings of its estimations since we have duality, and we move forward, but the biggest egoism will be revealed in all mankind.

This is immense universal egoism! The whole universe is a huge mass of inanimate matter, which we don’t feel or know, including dark matter, all that we do not see, and it is an analog of the egoism that exists in humanity. They are both inanimate matter.

That’s why the correct prayer rises only through the group and only for humanity! I ask the Creator to help me as part of the group to correct all of humanity so that He can be revealed in it. Thus, by my participation in this, together with the group, I bring Him pleasure, the realization of His plan.

Why is this so difficult to express? It’s because it refers to the property of bestowal that we can’t yet describe properly. We depict everything by means of our egoistic language: I ask the Creator to give me the strength to correct others so that He is revealed in them seemingly to receive pleasure. We have no other possibility to express all this, so the prayer should be like that.

In the meantime, we take a loan, and gradually, especially in the group, make a clear calculation how much we can begin to return what we have taken from the store: for each given day, for the lesson, for the gathering of friends, for the convention, for everything! What do we give? What do we return? Do we correctly realize that excitement, that possibility that we get every time?
[98070]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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Rabash. “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 13, “Maoz Tzur Yeshuati” (The Stronghold of My Redemption): But the main thing is that a person should first have the desire to sacrifice his desire to receive. And since the desire to receive is the essence of the created being, the created being loves it and it is very difficult for him to understand that it must be annulled, since otherwise it is impossible to attain anything spiritual. And in corporeality we see that a person has a desire and a deficiency as to what concerns him that comes from the internality of his body. There is a desire that a person acquires from his externality, which means on his part. This means, that if there weren’t people on the outside who generate this desire in him, then a person would never feel that he lacks anything. Only people on the outside generate this deficiency in him.

Question: In fact, in order to feel the friends’ desire I have to ask the Creator for help. Why can’t I adopt their desire by myself?

Answer: Every action is done by the Light. We live in a world with precise laws and the energy in them evokes different phenomena. This energy is in matter. Why do electrons, protons, neutrons, and other particles move? Where do they get the power to do so? After all, everything in nature aspires to be in a state of absolute rest, balance, equality, harmony, and mutuality. So why is the structure of matter in perpetual movement?

It is because there is energy that pushes matter towards the goal from the smallest detail about which we know nothing up to whole worlds. At the same time, some of the actions are absolute and are perpetually applied, like the movement of a train on the track, like physiological or astronomical processes that don’t need our approval.

But there is also a different level in which the actions must be conscious. Here the created being must understand, recognize, and know the Creator who sustains the force, the energy that moves the whole world. Above still, vegetative, and animate nature on the human level, there is a particle of desire, a point in the heart, in which the created being must ask to use the energy of the Light. Without this request the Light will not appear and will not operate.

There are times in which the energy of the Light operates without our recognition when no one is aware of the existence of the Creator. Billions of years of history passed in these “inexplicable” phases. But afterward there comes a moment in which the created being has to develop until it reaches the state in which it can get to know the Creator.

Here there is a problem as the created being feels that he is stuck on something on the way and life doesn’t flow onward. Now he has to activate the force of the Light by himself, to understand each time, to know it, and to get close to it. From now on the work is done together as “partners.” The Creator is ready to do everything‑like parents caring for a baby‑if He is asked correctly and it is to their advantage. They have everything you need; you need only to make the correct request, and mom and dad respond immediately to whatever it was.

We know in advance what the Creator has to do, we want it; we accept it, and ask Him to perform this action. Then He responds without any delay, since He is ready to help us in advance, like a father ready to help his beloved son. This means that our work is to reach a prayer: “Do such and such.”

So what is the right request? What is the request that we expect from a child? We want him to ask to grow a little, to get a bit wiser, to grow stronger, to succeed a bit more, to get closer to the state of a “whole person.” This is also what the Creator expects from us—only this request. We have to understand what it means to grow, to be kind, to be smart and healthy and to ask for that. This request is much more egoistic than our ego in this world, but because we work despite our animal ego, it is called bestowal.

What bestowal? To whom and what do you bestow? You simply ask to be like Him…

So why do we have to do this against our ego that constantly “holds us back?” It is because otherwise we wouldn’t arrive at the clarifications: “What does it mean to be like Him; to be great in bestowal?” If everything went smoothly, we would stay on the level of the still nature, we are constantly “stopped” and we have to resist that, to look for solutions, to discover, and then compare different attributes; this makes us wiser and helps us develop.

This means that the evil inclination was especially created to develop us. After all, I can be a small beetle, a mouse, a cat, a dog, a slave, a servant, a nobleman, a minister, and even the king in the King’s palace. Now, too, I am in the King’s palace, but how do I see it? How do I see myself? A small beetle that lives under the stairs.

So only thanks to the resistance of the desire to receive can we acquire more levels of understanding. Therefore, the ego is called “help against.” Without its resistance we wouldn’t be able to acquire anything. This means that we need to recognize the help and what is on the other side, and then we will reach what we desire.
[98022]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/13, Writings of Rabash

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Our advancement in the last 2,000 years of exile was of a different character. The nation of Israel gradually lost the spiritual level of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) that they had, became more and more mixed with the “nations of the world,” and descended to the corporeal level. In Kabbalah this process is called the “descent of generations.” We talk about descending along the steps of our world from the state in which there is still a certain illumination from spirituality, until the very bottom where it is dark.

These are the laws of nature: Everything depends on the relation between the upper Light and the Reshimot (spiritual genes) below. Today when the descent has ended and the ascension is before us, we then determine these relations when we change the coefficient in the set formula; in other words, when we insert the connecting link, the measure of the equivalence of form, between the Reshimot and the Light.

During exile, we could not do this; thus everything happened in its time. It is not by chance that the Kabbalists knew and wrote about the time when this period would need to end. The Reshimot descended lower and lower, deeper and deeper within the egoistic desire, and it became “coarser” to the extent of “burdening of the heart”.

However, today the descent is over, and we see that according to the surrounding world: All the areas of life are on the brink of bankruptcy. Family, education, culture, finance, business, and even religion‑everything today is penetrated with unrestrained and acute egoism.

Thus, we went through 2,000 years of very hard work. The world advanced and Israel descended from its spiritual degree, and here, when the world is collapsing under the blows of the crisis, they stand “face to face.” The correct connection, the correct combination between the “nations of the world” and Israel has been created. And now it is possible to begin the ascent. The present state is desirable and highly productive.
[97929]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/13, Writings of Rabash 

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