Question: On the one hand, we need the perpetual internal burning, and on the other hand, we need patience. How do we combine these two things?

Answer: You become patient to the degree that you are patient. It is impossible to acquire this attribute any other way. I went through different times next to my teacher Rabash, and sometimes I was simply burning with impatience, but eventually, it isn’t that I got used to things since there is not habit in spirituality, but I simply received the recognition of my state.

This is the approach of “submission,” which is absolutely essential. If the Creator is good and benevolent for the good and for the wicked and according to His perception we are already at the end of correction, then everything that happens is only with regard to me, in my feelings. If everything depends only on desire, on my vessels, then it means that my whole correction is in accepting the upper Providence correctly, my current state.

If my state changes and becomes like my state at the end of correction, will I see a different world? Will I see the same faces around me? Didn’t Baal HaSulam, who was at the end of correction, see the same world that we do, with all the atrocities in it? But he perceived the world as absolute good and at the same time he dressed in our desires and felt how we perceive the world differently.

Being patient means that you understand that the world is already corrected, that everything is corrected, but there are still levels of correction that those who see a need for them have to correct. Eventually, you will receive this understanding. It is impossible to skip levels and reach it directly. You can help yourself only by trying to stabilize the environment for yourself, and that’s all.

You cannot have any complaints against the Creator since from the start He has created everything in a finite correct form, at the end of correction. But the created being has to develop the vessels in him so that he can attain and acknowledge all this goodness. It is impossible to give it as a gift, since by that the created being will not feel this infinite state.

In order to do that a person has to go through the state of the “recognition of evil” since you can arrive at the recognition of goodness only through that state. This means that there must be darkness first, concealment, the “recognition of the evil” of this state. This isn’t bad because your ego suffers as a result, but because there is no connection with others in it, there is no bestowal.
[97188]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Everyone Needs Time!
The Creator Governs With Love
Patience Is The Most Important Quality

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →

Everyone needs time and the freedom to develop without coercion. You see that I allow people to come to the lessons freely and don’t stop anyone if he wants to leave. If a person isn’t harmful, if he isn’t mentally ill so that this kind of study can harm him, then I am always happy to see him, even if he comes once a year. Let him come here and check other places, as long as he clarifies things as quickly as possible. My job is to help him in this and not to tie him to it.

There are different circles people can be in depending on how much they put themselves into this work that are increasingly more internal. And the conditions are tougher; they take greater responsibility upon themselves and need greater help. So every circle needs “policemen and guards” that are increasingly strict, all the way to the most inner circle.

You can determine all this between you. It isn’t so clear now because you don’t understand the root of your souls, but later everything will be clearer. It is to such an extent that Rabbi Shimon’s students knew exactly which Sefira the soul of each friend who is in the general structure of the ten Sefirot came from.

We must respect a person’s patience, since everything can change and one day is different from another. So a person who comes to the lessons for years and is always present and comes back time after time does a great work by that. No matter what, he is incorporated in everyone, and besides, he advances in studying the material. Each time the Surrounding and Inner Lights influence him through the study, the teacher, and the environment.

It is a great thing! We don’t value every moment we were awarded to be in contact or even just in the direction of revelation of the Creator. It is a sign of a lack of respect and the importance of spirituality. So patience is not just waiting in one place, patience is doing the best I can and accepting the outcome!

It may well be that I cannot rejoice every moment with what I receive, since I still lack the feeling that everything comes from the Creator, even the most unpleasant events. But we still must see patience as a very valuable thing.
[97185]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
You Become Patient To The Degree That You Are Patient
Respecting Each One Who Exerts Himself Along This Path
Filter All That Is Redundant

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - No Comments →

In the News (from Iowa State University): “The Media Violence Commission’s research-based report concludes that the research clearly shows that media violence consumption increases the relative risk of aggression, defined as intentional harm to another person that could be verbal, relational, or physical. …

“In their report, the commission wrote that aside from being sources of imitation, violent images — such as scenes in movies, games or pictures in comic books — act as triggers for activating aggressive thoughts and feelings already stored in memory. If these aggressive thoughts and feelings are activated over and over again because of repeated exposure to media violence, they become chronically accessible, and thus more likely to influence behavior. …

“While most public policy has focused on restricting children’s access to violent media, the commission found that approach to have significant political and legal challenges in many countries. For that reason, it recommends putting efforts into improving media ratings, classifications, and public education about the effects of media on children.

“‘Improving media ratings really has two pieces. One is that the media ratings themselves need to be done by an independent entity — meaning, not by an industry-influenced or controlled system,’ said Anderson, himself a leading researcher of the effects of violent media on children. ‘They need to be ratings that have some scientific validity to them.’”

My Comment: Since these media are beneficial to many, it is much more difficult to ban them in our society than smoking. The environment forms a child, but even parents cannot talk in the organized manner against the media that destroy their children and all the efforts of parents to instill good education. Are WHO and UNESCO opposed to these media? Did anyone put forward such proposals in the UN? There is one answer—we cannot resist such media because we ourselves are no different!

According to Kabbalah, a person never commits his own acts, but only what society, his surroundings, his environment, dictate to him. That is why by choosing the environment, a person completely determines his actions, which are the result of the influence of the environment. That is, one can determine his actions only through the environment in which he exists. And his free will is only in choosing the environment. (See Baal HaSulam, “Freedom of Will”)
[97096]

Related Material:
Cruelty Breeds Cruelty
The Media Is A False-Bottomed Case
The World Is In Danger

Filed under: Children, Crisis, Free Will, News, Society - 1 Comment →

From Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 78: “Even if the whole world says you are righteous, be wicked in your own eyes,” specifically in your own eyes. In other words, as long as you have not attained “opening of the eyes” in the Torah, regard yourself as wicked. Do not fool yourself with your reputation in the entire world as righteous.

People are not at will to do good or bad deeds. Regarding spirituality, the natural qualities of a person, which he was born with, don’t count: how nice and polite or how rude he is. Until one merits a revelation and the Creator’s testimony, that will guarantee his good intentions, until then, one will remain wicked.

But when a person achieves a revelation and the Light keeps holding him up, from then on, he will be a good, righteous. Therefore, we don’t make calculations about each other, who is bad and who is good. Regarding the spiritual path, everything is determined by crossing this cherished border—the “Machsom.”
[95665]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Seduced By The Light
When The Light Is Present But Doesn’t Correct
All The Light? That’s Too Much, Can I Have Just A Bit?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Free Will, Spirituality - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, Letter 20: You are carved … on my heart, all day and all night and like incinerators of thirst after your goodness and your wholeness, and the Creator knows what exertion and powers I have given on your behalf, and you are sure that it will not be in vain and God’s word will be eternal.

From this day onwards we will grow stronger in the Torah and the Mitzvot (commandments), “like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load” to raise Divinity from the dust, and the sins will become merits, since His honor will fill the land. And thank God, I am very sure that our salvation is soon to be revealed, and we will be rewarded to worship the Creator together, in expansion and God willing, we will succeed.

Baal HaSulam writes about his investment in his students and about his helping them. However, in the spiritual world, in contrast to the corporeal world, the lower has to make efforts so that the upper can help him.

In the corporeal world, a baby is naturally attached to his mother first by the umbilical cord in the womb and then to her breast, to her body, and so he receives her treatment. Nature forces him to annul himself this way. He doesn’t make any efforts on his part. On the contrary, he feels that his mother is the source of his life, and he is inclined to adhere to her.

However, in the spiritual work, we have to do this action against our ego, toward the group, the teacher, and the Creator. Only to the extent that we annul ourselves will we receive nourishment from them, either through what we call a “spiritual umbilical cord” or through the spiritual breast of the upper Partzuf, through the Surrounding Light and the Inner Light.

So, if a teacher writes that the students are carved … on my heart all day and all night, it means that they also have made a great deal of work in order to reach such a mutual connection.

What exertion and powers I have given on your behalf, this is possible only if the students allowed the teacher to bestow upon them. If a baby refuses to eat, how is it possible to force him? Here, it is a matter of his own freewill.

First, his freewill is only in annulling himself. Then, it is also in agreeing to accept the bestowal from the upper, which is always in contrast to one’s own mind and feelings. It is a very big problem. Even to just annul yourself and to accept everything as Hassadism isn’t easy. The embryo is in the waters of Hesed, but it isn’t simple to receive everything as Hassadim in total self-annulment.

So, a student should begin to accept actions that are opposite to his feelings and his mind, and to accept them in order to see the upper’s grace in the greatest sufferings, just like Rabbi Akiva in his painful death.

This isn’t simple at all, and we have to prepare ourselves for that. The main thing is to want that our attitude to what is happening with us will change. We are required to ask and to beg, to pray, so that we will be able to justify everything that happens, and to receive the Creator’s actions upon us with love and to ask for help in order to adhere to the group, to the teacher, and to the Creator so that love will cover all our sins.

This work is called like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load. We must constantly feel that There is none else besides Him, and the vessel for this feeling is our connection and love. This is why it is called the great rule of the Torah.
[95176]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12

Related Material:
Humiliating Pride And High Self-Annulment
Grateful Clay In The Good Hands Of The Sculptor
Outer Distance And Inner Closeness

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean to “correct past mistakes and transgressions” and become a “complete righteous?”

Answer: We reform desires that have gone through the breaking. A person comes face to face with his evil inclination, and he perceives it as his own; that is, he takes the blame for it. He doesn’t identify himself with the point in the heart and cannot observe his desire from aside as the material given to him for correction. So far, he doesn’t cling to the Creator, who created this evil inclination, but identifies with the evil inclination itself. The Light has not clarified his desire yet and hasn’t severed it from the person to move him to the Creator’s side. So, one thinks that it is he who is bad and not the evil inclination.

The Light has not sufficiently reformed him, hasn’t illuminated his desires, so a person doesn’t see the source of all evil and then of all good. In other words, he doesn’t consider himself subject to a singular power beyond which there is nothing else, and he doesn’t realize that he is always ruled by one source, which determines how bad the desires are and how to correct them.

He doesn’t understand yet that he must ask to have selfish desires revealed and how to correct them. After all, everything is done by the Light that Reforms, which reveals the left line first. To the extent that one strives to reach total correction, bestowal, according to how much effort he exerts, the Light comes and reveals his evil inclination to him.

He has to pray for the Creator to show him what he is lacking for perfection. The prayer is to reveal the desire to be human, to be perfect, faithful to the Creator, and to bestow. Revealing what I need for perfection is to see the deficiencies that I have to correct in order to achieve the good.

But I don’t ask for my deficiencies to be revealed; a person is unable to do so. Due to our nature, we can only ask for good conditions.

Our work is to come to this understanding that all desires, corrected and uncorrected, are in the Creator’s hands. And man is that small clever child who knows how to ask the Creator correctly. And then this whole monster will become revealed: the evil inclination, egoism, Pharaoh, which later on will change and get transformed into a good inclination, by way of restriction, the screen, and the Reflected Light.

All of this descends from above, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination and the Torah to correct it since the Light in it reforms.” So where does a person come in, if at all, since the Creator said that everything comes from Him? What a person needs is awareness, a prayer for a good state.

But he doesn’t want to ask for what is good; after all, his nature is the evil inclination. So he has to use the power of the group that will infuse him with these good values although he may not necessarily sense them. It looks as if they are playing a game; they are staging a good state and through this influence each other. Thus, a person achieves a greater and greater desire until the Light has finally reformed him.

All of this is arranged so as not to rob a person of his freewill. He has to be aware that he is merely acting, while, in reality, has no desire for any of it, and that he opposes the true, perfect state. And the closer he moves to the right state, the greater freewill he is given, the more of the sinner in him is revealed, and greater doubts in needing this path unfold in him. He has to discern these things, matching himself against the other side, comparing good and evil.

Hence, our entire work rests on our freedom of choice, and all we have to do is to offer ourselves to the influence of the group that we have built according to our understanding of the spiritual world. We should play so as to have the group affect everyone as if all of this is true. And then, everyone will come to the true prayer.
[94855]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
The Inner heart Of the World
The Point of Manifestation of Free Will
A Voluntary Righteous 

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Why does the desire, the fire in the heart, which was felt earlier, disappear? How do we support this desire? How can we keep ourselves in the desire to reveal the upper force, taking into account that we do not feel it?

Answer: The Creator gives us our primary aspiration to attain Him, pushing us forward with all kinds of troubles in this life, a feeling of emptiness, and pulling us with the expectation of revealing the truth, meaning. But we have to go further by ourselves. This initial push from behind and pull forward are temporary; do not expect that they will propel you forward all the time.

You have to cultivate this thrust forward yourself, and it can only come from the environment. You must build your group, your environment, so that it excites you, pulls forward, teases, so that you see friends who succeed and strive forward more than you do, so that you become jealous, envy them, so that they give you the importance of the goal, and you feel support in that from them.

In order to be impressed by them, you have to annul yourself. If you consider them greater, then even a small drive towards the goal that you see in them will seem great to you.

This is the basis of all Rabash’s articles about the group. The Creator gives us only the initial impulse and nothing more: the negative force from behind and a small attracting force forward, and only for a certain time. And then He begins to give us more and more egoism, the hindering force, so that we develop our own pull towards Him on this hindering force. You can get it only from the environment. That is why freewill is only in the creation of the environment suitable for us.

So, if we do this seriously, we will definitely reach the goal, but this is the most important thing, this is a guarantee of our advancement. So, I am very happy about our unity at the Siberian Convention where we will try to unite to feel our next state there, on the spot. It is before us; this is our next step. Let’s make it together, and it will bring success. “Let’s join our hands, friends, so not to be lost one by one.”
[94838]
From a Virtual Lesson 12/2/12

Related Material:
Taking Care Of The Spiritual Need
What Will Wake Me Up?
Turn The Initial Spark Into Constant Burning

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Free Will, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

From Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot:” “Indeed, it is to resolve this great riddle that the verse writes, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Here is what is meant by a “vague riddle”: What is the meaning of life and its goal? What does this entire universe exist for? Why are we here? Why do we feel what we feel? If one starts asking these questions, one definitely has to find answers to them to discover the meaning of life.

Then, we stop asking whether our material life is good or bad, nor do we strive to understand it more or to accomplish anything on this plane. We are preoccupied with a question that concerns the very basis of life: “Where does it all come from?” Everything around us has a meaning. So, what is the general purpose that nature or the Higher force pursued at the time of creation? What does our existence mean in general?

Indeed, in regard to resolving this obscure riddle, it is said: Taste and see that the Lord is good. Those who keep the Torah and Mitzvot correctly are the ones who taste the taste of life. They are the ones who see and testify that the Lord is good… In other words, if a person observes certain laws, he tunes himself up in a way that he begins to feel the purpose of life, its basis and origin. It is about having a feeling of the source of the entire universe, not just of man or even of humanity, but rather nature as a whole: Where did it start, why, and what purpose is it leading us to?

Kabbalists say that it becomes possible if a person makes special internal corrections. Because now we can’t catch answers to these questions, so we only have a question per se. Although, having a question signifies that we are already capable of finding a solution. Consequently, the sum of a question and the observation of the “Torah and the commandments,” that is the correct calibration that leads us to resolution of this dilemma that is, as it sounds: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” It means that one will feel and understand the benevolence of the force that is the source of nature.

We don’t yet understand the meaning of good and evil. The meaning of life is the attainment of the essence of creation, not just feeling its pleasant taste. If we experience a sensation of the Creator’s benevolence, it means that we fulfill our empty cavities that need answers with Him.

We are the ones who have to make internal changes, since our efforts give shape to finding the answer. We don’t have a choice: Either we fulfill the commandments (make corrections) or we don’t. The entire process is built in a way that a person advances without being asked whether he or she wants it or doesn’t. But if we constantly strive to find support that helps us move faster in the direction of the answer, then to this extent we implement our freedom of choice.

It is said that “The wicked, in their lives, are called dead.” If one doesn’t exercise the method of correction, advancement, or use the Reforming Light, then one’s life becomes pitiful. While in the material plane, one can even be quite successful, but he will never move forward toward the goal. And so his life will remain at the animate level of existence.

The human level means that a person uses the Light that Reforms and constantly rises from the animate level to the human level, to the level of man, Adam, which means similar (Domeh) to the upper force.
[93863]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“

Related Material:
Going Through The Question For Which There Is No Answer
Whom Do I Want To Please?
The Tastiest Creator!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work - No Comments →

Those who have the point in the heart—which they received back in ancient Babylon and have gone through many reincarnations until today or in whom it awakens only now—are actually the only ones who have freewill. It is because there are two forces in them: the force of receiving and the force of bestowal. In all the others, there is only the force of receiving, the desire to receive, which totally manages them; the spark of bestowal is dormant for the time being and doesn’t show itself.

They don’t have these two forces between which it is possible to judge themselves and the whole to one scale or the other. But if the sparks of bestowal awaken in people, they can change their fate and the fate of the whole world. Such people are called Yashar—El (straight to the Creator) since by the attribute they received from the Creator they can choose and judge themselves and the whole world to the scale of correction.

They are very different from others even in their corporeal nature as a result of the spark that operates in them. Only those who have the spark of the force of bestowal, have freewill. Therefore, they are the innermost part of the world, since they are close to the Light that is everywhere. Through them the Light can reach the whole system, all the other vessels, all the other people we see in this world.

They have to perform the correction and they are responsible for the state of the world, the way the world is advancing towards the general correction. Therefore, we have to gather all the people in whom the point in the heart has awakened and try to form them into a strong and unified group. This union will be called the inner center, the heart of the world.

By coming together and annulling our ego, we come closer to the Creator, to the Light, to the force of bestowal. On the other hand, the influence of the Light will spread through us all over the world. This is all our work. All these efforts are only to bring contentment to the upper force. By that we discover the upper force and identify with it, which means that we attain the goal of creation.

The most important thing is the connection among us in order to increase the force of bestowal and to raise its importance, to become as close as possible to the Light, to its attribute, and thus to advance.
[94308]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/12

Related Material:
Unemotional, Systematic View Of Anti- Semitism
An Unpaid Bill
The Roots Of The Nations’ Hatred

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Israel, My Similarity to the Creator, Unity - No Comments →

Question: Why should the states of unity, love, and cooperation be particularly important to us?

Answer: They are indispensable to us because we have to “advertise” them to each other by playing a game that allows us to enhance these states before afflictions hit us from behind. We draw a bright and happy picture on purpose. We don’t see this picture as of yet, but we can make the group influence each of us in a way so that we all want it. With the help of envy, jealousy, and pride, one can be forced to advance before afflictions strike him from behind. We really want to be stimulated this way.

It’s bad when suffering pushes us “from behind”; we prefer conscious advancement. We should build a group in which every member expresses and shares an opinion that unity and interconnection are wonderful, so we are the ones who deliberately approach the Creator by advancing towards Him consciously.

Question: So, where is the “freewill” here? Even if we run away from the blows that hit us from behind, even if we consciously move ahead and pursue our connection with the Creator, we still act out of our animate egoistic nature. How can we really detach from it and act differently (not egoistically), and manage to rise to the Creator’s level irrespective of our egoism? Where is the elevation over our animal nature here?

What does “voluntary participation” mean? How can we escape blows and afflictions, avoid pleasures and rise above them? Why is the state at which we are either “whipped” or “motivated by a candy” considered animate? How can we rise above the animate developmental level and grow sensibly?

Answer: Finally, we begin to realize that the Creator has prepared a perfect condition for us: the group. The group is not only a method of transitioning from love of friends to love of the Creator, but it’s a concrete place where we can implement freewill, a place where we “don’t depend” on our friends. We depend on the Creator; thus, we relate to Him in a good way, whereas, we “don’t depend” on our friends in the group, so this is the point at which we get an opportunity to advance. It’s based on the right attitude to the unity among friends—the kind of relationships in which we don’t get anything in return!

This is the point at which we finally realize the special condition that the Creator prepared for us at the time of the shattering of the whole, the complete creation into many fragments, granting them a chance to reunite. Only after they regain unity can they express free will without any kinds of sensations, either bad or good. Only then will they obtain a chance to rise above their nature. Only then!
[92981]
From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
A Spiritual Triangle
How Can The Blind Find The Right Road?
The Mystery Of Our Freedom

Filed under: Conventions, Free Will, Group Work, Love, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →