Man has always clung to religion and all sorts of beliefs because he had to somehow catch hold of spirituality, like a child that calms down by hugging a favorite toy or a familiar blanket. A person needs such "props" his or her entire life. Today, however, when our ego has reached such proportions that it won’t be satisfied with a toy, a person loses it and doesn’t know what to hold on to.

Then, everything becomes acceptable, and nobody cares about anything; notions of good and evil, religion and morality, no longer bind. That turns into a huge problem for society.

That’s when we need to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah as quickly as possible to replace the disappearing bridle, a function primarily filled by religion which used to keep humanity at bay.

Kabbalah does so by giving humanity a purpose and revealing the Upper Governance to it. A person shouldn’t think that there is no higher authority; there is! However, instead of a system of morality that intimidates people with punishment in the afterlife, we need to actually discover the true Governor. Without it, it’s impossible to get along in the tumultuous transition period when mankind is freed from everything that binds it.

Once, everything used to fit into a clear pattern. Everyone knew how to dress based on his or her social standing strictly instilled by society. Now is the time of complete freedom when everything is allowed. And it’s just a beginning. Soon, all shame and morality will go out of the window.

Instead of being controlled by religion, faith, fear of punishment in this and the future worlds, the promise of Heaven and Hell, and the opinion of society, which puts everyone (be it a slave, a peon, or a lord) in his place by dictating the norms of life, even clothing, instead of all that, we will suddenly find ourselves completely unbridled. That has been done intentionally to replace this control with conscious, willing self-subordination to the Upper Governance.

The transition itself, however, is very problematic. Only when a certain part of humanity finds the connection with the Upper Governance, with the Creator’s "whip and bridle," and allies itself with it, serving as an example to others, then it will be easier for the rest to accept it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose"

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If a person is filled by great pleasure, then it’s as if he dissolves in it, being completely overpowered by it and like a robot, ready to do anything this pleasure demands from him. And he cannot do anything against it.

Every person has a certain tolerance threshold or a limit up to which he can withstand pleasure or tolerate suffering. Once the pleasure or suffering exceed that threshold, they can enslave him completely. A person is able to oppose them only within a very narrow range of sensitivity, and even then, he can only do so when he is able to protect himself from them in some way. What is that protection? It’s when he understands that he should not give in to temptation, both from the good side and the bad.

Otherwise pleasure and suffering will overpower him completely because a person is created out of a material whose basis is the will to enjoy. Therefore, it is completely obvious that they can easily do anything to him.
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From the lesson on Shamati on 11/19/10

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Human nature is completely egoistic. That is why a person cannot transform it on his own and needs an outside power to change him. This power can be evoked only by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in the group.

“Indeed, I admit that this is a very difficult thing. One cannot change the nature of one’s own creation, which is only to receive for oneself, much less invert one’s nature from one extreme to the other, meaning to not receive anything for oneself, but rather act only to bestow.

Yet, this is why the Creator gave us Torah [the wisdom of Kabbalah] and Mitzvot [actions in the group], which we were commanded to do only in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator.” (Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Book of Zohar”)
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The Book of Zohar, Introduction, Chapter “BeLaila DeKala (On the Night of the Bride)“: …the Sitra Achra has only a thin light of the illumination of Malchut. This is regarded as Shoresh [root], and it is sufficient for the persistence of the Klipot… This Shoresh is also called “a fine thread,” meaning a thin root for the sins. It is written about it, “At first, it is akin to spider-web, and later it becomes as cart-ropes.”

Klipa is Kelim that we are unable to correct yet by the intention of bestowal. We are talking about very powerful and important desires in which the greatest Lights will be revealed later on at the final correction. In principle we do not have the possibility of doing anything with the desire for pleasure. We can only sort out its parts and decide which of them we are now able to work with on various conditions.

As for the rest of the desires, we have to “can” them and constantly keep guarding them so they won’t break out and attack us. All the enemies of Israel, meaning those who hate the aspiration “straight to the Creator,” are exactly the great egoistic desires which we cannot correct yet. The Torah calls them the nations that never let Israel be.

Of course, we understand that their wars are the awakening of egoism, which is for a person’s benefit. They enable him to discern his uncorrected desires and “to kill” them, meaning to always find new parts in them that can be corrected and attached to him in order to be used for the sake of bestowal.

Thus, we need to worry about the egoistic parts of the desire which are not yet subject to correction. We have to support their existence and perform special spiritual work for their sake.

After all, I feel them inside me. It’s not enough to simply cut them off and not use them. On the current phase I correct them by giving them a small illumination, designated by the letter Kuf (ק), whose lower part descends beneath the line, bringing a thin glow to the worlds of BYA and to the Klipot that are there.

It’s the same as how a sick person is connected to a life support machine in the emergency room. It’s not that I pretend that these desires don’t exist in me, but on the contrary, I admit that they exist and I rule over them. It turns out that they depend on me because I support a small spark of life in them.

We need the Klipa because, like a peel, it protects the fruit during the period of its ripening. Without these actions we are unable to start correcting Malchut.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, The Zohar

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Who is the Creator? The Creator is the general quality of bestowal and love. That is why He is concealed from you, since He is entirely bestowing, while you are an egoist, a receiver. That is why you do not feel Him.

Does He really conceal Himself? It is you hiding Him and not wanting to recognize Him! You say, “If only You would give me egoistic pleasure, which I desire right now. Then I would get to know You. Do you want to give me pleasure by bestowal? Well, I want to enjoy by reception!”

And that is the entire problem. No one conceals the Creator from you. You are inside Him and there is none else besides Him! But look at what kind of world you perceive yourself in….

Canceling your ego does not mean canceling your desires. It’s only the negation of the egoistic intention for your own sake. I don’t need to limit myself in any way. I must only limit my egoistic intentions and increase my intentions “for the sake of bestowal.” We don’t touch the actual desire.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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All everybody talks about nowadays is finding “alternatives”: alternative energy, food, education, another planet to live on, and so on. Everyday we observe that our egoistic approach to this world and society has “expired” and has already demonstrated its complete failure and downfall.

In spite of individual egoism (“consumer society”) we have gradually arrived at the understanding that the whole world is globally interconnected. We also realize that we are not yet well adjusted to it and have no knowledge of where to go further. The world is mutually dependent and thus forces us to connect through common interests and be considerate towards each other. Hence, we gradually begin to regard our habitual egoism as the enemy.

The exploration of ways to get out of our ego leads us to methodologies of “reduction” of our egoism; they simply return us back to previous levels of development. All such methods are based on suppression of or diminishing the ego.

Conversely, the human ego continues to grow. Its suppression goes against nature, and that’s why we won’t be able to diminish it. Such an approach is totally unnatural, and I don’t see how supporters of alternative medicine could accept it.

This is where a genuine alternative to all egoistic world sciences steps in, the wisdom of Kabbalah. As we reveal that egoism is truly the reason for all the evil that currently exists in this world, Kabbalah offers a method of its correction and the construction of a whole new world. Kabbalah represents a real alternative since it shows how to build an altruistic world instead of an egoistic one.

In any case, in the integral and global world, we have to start observing the laws of connection between us and establish balance between humans and nature. We have to become completely united in the system called “love thy neighbor.”

Kabbalah studies the entire system of the universe and explains that by self-correction we manage to cure ourselves and make the whole of nature (still, vegetative, and animate) healthy. We can eliminate all problems and illnesses because affliction and diseases are triggered by our imbalance with Nature.

We are absolutely egoistic by nature, and thus do not possess any freedom of choice and/or any other modes of behavior. Therefore, we entirely conform to the laws of nature. A person can obtain freedom only by rising above the oppressive domination of our egoism. This becomes available to us only by re-shaping our environment because for our egoism, the opinion of our environment is more important than our own.

That’s why Kabbalah suggests creating a society in which we have to “pretend” that we are already in bestowal and love. We understand that it is just a game, but it can still compel us to act so on the surface, as if we have already achieved this state.

These efforts will instigate the hidden natural power that holds all parts of Nature in balance (the life force of any organism), and this energy will alter our egoistic intention into that of bestowal and love. This is how we can reach complete connection of all parts of Nature: people, society, nature, and its Upper Force. Nature pushes us toward this state, and we are empowered to reach it consciously and easily.
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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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We have acquired something big and precious during the Convention: We have discovered for the first time that Pharaoh is sitting inside us and hates us, and we have to get rid of him, to run away, to exit Egypt…but are incapable of it.

We would have never realized that we must run away from him. We hoped that we could reveal spirituality in our egoism, in “Egypt.” But we did not even think that this is “Egypt.” Yet now we are beginning to understand that we must break free from it.

Our egoism, Pharaoh, received a blow, and this disappointment passed through him. Now we see that we have to distance ourselves from the desire in which we reveal disappointment and bitterness.

However, had we not gone full out till the end, we would not have felt disillusionment; we would have sensed that, truly, something is stopping us. There is no middle ground in spirituality; we have to go till the end.

Hence, now a certain new sensation has manifested in us. That same disappointment, the force of suffering that we now feel (since I invested so much effort, had so many hopes, and nothing happened) is my Pharaoh, who received a beating and is now suffering.

However, the Pharaoh has to feel the beatings since otherwise we will not be able to run away from it. Indeed, we run only from evil.

If I reveal my egoistic desire, my nature as evil, I will want to escape from it. And, perhaps, I will have to experience more of such blows before I decide that I must do it. I literally have to come out of my skin, to exit my “body.” This is called that Pharaoh is receiving blows, the “ten plagues of Egypt.”

We achieved this only because we nevertheless united between us. One is always revealed against the other, as it is said, “in Your Light we will see the Light.” Thanks to this unification and our preparation, we realized that we suffer because of our egoistic nature. And this is a big achievement!

Millions of people who participated in the Convention virtually were together with us. They, too, went through the same states.
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From the Lesson on the Weekly Torah Portion 11/12/10

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Question: I try very hard to cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), but Pharaoh always wins. At a certain point, I lose faith and unite with the group only out of habit, not genuine aspiration. It makes me angry. What shall I do now? Ask the Pharaoh to let me pass to the Creator?

Answer: No, you should beat him. He hates you and does not let you pass through to the Creator. He is standing between you two.

You should understand that the Creator Himself has put Pharaoh before you. In order to develop a strong and correct desire in you; he placed a special obstacle on your path. This obstacle, your egoism, Pharaoh himself, “sculpts” you, forms a new type of striving, a new and mighty aspiration to the spiritual world out of you. If not for Pharaoh, you wouldn’t search for spirituality. You would desire corporeality, assuming that it is “spirituality.”

However, Pharaoh straightens out this lack of correspondence. You exert pressure, he gives you blows; you exert pressure, he gives you blows, again and again. Due to these beatings he shapes the clod of your desire into the desire to bestow (Tzura Melubeshet Be Homer).

As a result, you, like a key, fit the lock precisely, and the door opens. This is why it is said, “Pharaoh draws the sons of Israel (those who aspire to Him) closer to the Creator.”

We think that there are bad forces in nature, but in reality, it is not the case. When the property of bestowal will reign within me, I will discover that there is no evil, and all negative factors were called to form out of me the desire to bestow. They are all help from Above. As soon as I assume the form of bestowal, they will have no reason to pressure me any longer.

We just need to understand how to work with these forces. The faster we do, the sooner we will acquire a new form and will be born.
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From the lesson on Rabash’s article 11/12/10

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In spirituality, if you aren’t going all the way, then you aren’t working with your entire desire. Then it bears no relation to your spiritual progress. However, you don’t even know where “all the way” ends, what is the maximum. You can only imagine it in some way.

Thus, we have reached a state where we wished to reveal the spiritual world completely – everything we could only imagine. With this maximal intention we arrived at the Convention. We wanted this and nothing less, so the “heavens would be revealed.”

But what became revealed to us instead? How much we are internally unable to come even one inch closer to it! We cannot accept the need to unite, to cancel ourselves.

As soon as we started talking about the connection between us and the inner work we have to do, our desire immediately cooled down. We are not ready to attain the spiritual world with that price tag!

This means we had misunderstood the Upper World and did not realize that it was the quality of bestowal, above our egoism. Yet we felt this necessity. After three days filled with many inner actions, we came out disappointed. And this disappointment comes from the fact that we are unable and do not desire to attain true spirituality. We desire to remain in our definition of spirituality as something that is simply good, eternal, and pleasant in our current, egoistic desires.

What did we reveal? It was the left line, our own evil inclination, the fact that we desire to receive spirituality inside our egoistic desires just like in the material world. Why didn’t we receive it? It’s because it’s not necessary to receive anything in spirituality. It is open. If you want to bestow, then go ahead. Everything’s permitted and anything is possible. No one can steal that from you.

In other words, inside our ego we revealed that our definition of spirituality was incorrect. And this will become revealed to us on all 125 levels! Now we still don’t see that our nature is opposite to the spiritual nature, that we are unable to attain it, and that we have one single opportunity left: only to cry to the Creator, to ask Him. This is already the right line. We have to rise above ourselves and the middle line will emerge from that.

Nevertheless, we have accomplished great work. The despair that took over us, the pain and futility that became revealed in us showed us the inability to attain the spiritual world inside our egoistic desires. In essence we were asking for spirituality to become revealed precisely inside these desires, rather than in the bestowing desires. Now, after this realization of evil, we will enter the right line, will correct ourselves, and attain the middle line.

Therefore, what we accomplished at the Convention is a great attainment. It really is the beginning of the spiritual path already. This has never happened on such a big scale and in the great egoism of the last generation. Baal HaSulam writes, “I am happy about the sinners that become revealed because the reason for it is the ‘holiness of the day.”’

A great Light had to pour from Above in order to show us how much we don’t desire and aren’t capable, how opposite we are to spirituality, the degree to which we do not want to think about unity and love between us. All of that is “holiness of day” because we united together and nevertheless desired to ascend spiritually in some respect.

We revealed the degree or desire above which we have to ascend. However, for now we are unable to do so, yet we have to do it in order to ascend to the first degree of the spiritual ladder.

That is why I am very happy with the results of the Convention and I very much hope that in the near future we will already reveal all three lines as the middle line.
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From the Weekly Torah Portion on 11/12/10

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