On the spiritual path, we are faced with a question: What do we do with our inborn properties? One has a good character: He is thoughtful, intelligent, isn’t stubborn and agrees when it’s worthwhile, quickly engages in the group, draws the Light, and moves forth. And another hates everyone, doesn’t want to do anything, procrastinates, and, in short, acts like a bad boy. But is it really his fault that he was made this way?

What should he do then? There are all kinds of folks: simple minded and quick witted, unlucky and gifted, fast and slow paced, arrogant, ambitious, and so on. Characteristics are many, and everyone has their own combination. The Creator endowed me with a specific package of properties, and I have no power over it. It wasn’t up to me; I didn’t get to pick the list.

Where is my free will then? Where is equality on the spiritual path? Where is the degree of choice we all share? Where is the chance that everyone is supposed to have? Not only are we all different, but also, fate is good toward some and harsh to others. At times, people have to face problems we wouldn’t wish our enemies.

However, free will is supposed to initially be founded on equal opportunities, isn’t it? Where is this equal chance at the starting line and further on the path? We don’t have it all the same.

In response to this, Baal HaSulam explains why the created being is supposed to develop in this specific way. The truth is that we originate from the final, perfect state of existence. It is said: “The end of an action is in its initial thought.” It is as if the Creator is saying: “I wish to see everybody in this specific state.” He initially created this final condition, in which we exist in all our glory and perfection.

How can we come to it voluntarily? For this, from the final perfection, there expands a reverse path back to us, into this world. Let us see many “defects” and “faults,” let us all be different, let us have individual destinies and combinations of qualities—it all is rooted and “sprawled” from the final, complete state.

One may wonder: Why has the situation been arranged the way it has? Why am I not Prince William whose wedding is watched by the whole world? And after all, why did the perfect state give rise to such imperfect, distorted states with numberless flaws?

Baal HaSulam answers these and all other questions in his article “The Freedom.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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There are two paths: a long and a short one, the path of suffering and the path of the Torah. In fact, on the path of suffering I don’t move ahead. However, each time I stand idle, suffering puts me through blows and returns me to the path of the Torah.

By the same token, a child who doesn’t care to study finds himself “under the blows of fate”: He isn’t allowed to play outside until he completes his homework and he stays in the same grade to repeat a year. Having suffered for some time, he feels the need to sit down with the books. Frankly, today’s parents don’t have what it takes, but the Creator does have the power and the means. He forces us to do our homework and keep moving toward the goal.

Thus, the purpose of suffering is to direct us toward the path of the Torah since correction occurs solely by virtue of the Light that Reforms. Yet, in the course of events, insofar as I don’t wish to turn to the Torah, I am bombarded by blows, and they force me do so.

After all, I am but the desire to enjoy. All it takes is to lock me away from “toys,” deprive me of pleasures, sting me with suffering, and I, like a little darling, am willing to do whatever it takes. What can we do if we are small and weak and have only one solution: to draw upon ourselves the Light that Reforms.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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Ultimately, there is only one action that is up to us and with the help of which we can express our desire. All other actions don’t work.

Let’s say I am consumed by the burning desire to do or change something, to better my life. There are thousands of switches in front of me on the wall. I keep pushing the buttons hoping to see some changes, I try to understand whether I switched something on, while losing track of the sequence and getting lost in the location of the buttons….

So it is in our life: We get disoriented by numerous “buttons” that we barely have time to press. “Relax,” Kabbalists advise. “This way, you won’t succeed. There is only one button you need to push to feel good. If you push any other, you will feel bad.”

Why are they there then? They are needed so that while we are making vain attempts, we would smarten up and find the right button. This path is regarded as “the path of suffering.”

But there is another path, “the path of the Torah,” where a person receives instructions: “Don’t touch any other buttons on the wall for it’s going to make things worse. After all, you think they work and expect good results. The time is passing by, while you keep vesting your hopes and aspiration not in the Creator, not in the only working force in reality. In other words, you are serving idols. Besides, having the same expectations, you are increasingly lagging behind the preset pace of correction. As a result, each incorrect push of the button and a halt that follows it lead toward negative consequences.”

What is the solution then? We need to find the right button as fast as possible. In the article “The Freedom” Baal HaSulam explains to us how it’s done. If you keep returning to the same button, pressing it deeper and deeper, you do get to open the source of abundance, which corrects and fulfills you with all the good there is.

This is the only button that turns the whole system on, while all the others are not connected to anything. By pressing them, you only bother yourself, instead of engaging the only mechanism you have available. Just as well, inaction naturally brings you trouble. The cogwheels of reality continue to spin, and if you do not contribute the positive to it, the system automatically slides down to the negative.

This is why it is necessary to find the right button among all others and train yourself to press only it, making no errors. This is what constitutes our work. Who doesn’t seek luck? This is what “luck” is all about.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: An example of mutual guarantee at the cellular level is very convincing. One can easily imagine how the cells act for the sake of the body, leaving for themselves only life’s necessities. But why is it so hard to imagine mutual guarantee at our human degree?

Answer: It is because we do not see this system with our own eyes. If we saw it now, we would have no freedom of will and would be forced to comply with its laws. If the necessity to bestow is suffocating me, if I have two options: to die or to give myself away for the benefit of others, then I surely agree; “Take everything I have.”

I as though feel a gun against my temple:
“Give everything you have!”
“Take it, I can’t help it.”
Death is not an option—they would take everything anyway. This is the absence of choice.

This is why our interconnection is hidden from our sight, and we are unable to comply with it. What can be done? With the help of the environment, I have to come to a state when I will put a gun against my own temple.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Our main problem is to establish our attitude to the Creator. Clearly, it is subjective and depends entirely on us, on how we think and feel. It does not change depending on the Creator’s attitude, which is unknown to us, but is determined by what we think about Him.

On one hand, we are talking about nature, about the environment in which we develop. Once upon a time man began revealing nature, thus ascending in our world from the animate level to the human level as he researched the nature around him. After that he began to research the spiritual world, once his desire grew to that level. Thus, to the degree his desire grew, a person delved deeper and deeper into nature.

However, a person consists of two parts: one that feels and one that understands, and the two have a specific connection and influence upon one another. Precisely through them, feeling and reason or the heart and mind, he researches what he feels. Anything that does not enter his senses remains unknown to him. He researches only his impressions, whereas the things that are inaccessible to one’s sensations cannot be discussed at all because that would be empty philosophy and fantasy.

Therefore, our ideas of the Creator are not based on how He actually is, but on how we perceive Him. We will never know who He really is! We only know that there is an upper, external force that is perceived as the nature around us.

We call its closest part “this world.” But there is a greater nature which becomes revealed to a person when he undergoes a special development. It is called upper nature. Yet, no one knows who the Creator Himself is.

Therefore, the science of Kabbalah talks about everything in relation to man. It is written, “There is none else besides Him!” That is how a person feels and what he discerns as a result of his research.

Kabbalists tell us about their impressions of this single upper force, and it turns out that the Creator seems to get angry, or to get happy, or to enjoy something. But this is how a person feels. This is how he senses the upper force! However, we do not know what really happens to it.

Nevertheless, it is very important for us to establish our attitude to this upper force so we would know where this form, picture, impression, or sensation comes from, which we receive from Him. Whom do we feel: Himself or ourselves? Or do we perceive ourselves on the background of His Light? Or do we feel something that’s common to both of us, some interaction between us? That is something I have to know!

When I feel good or bad, then whom does this sensation depend on—on me, or does it come from the Creator? Or perhaps it depends on our similarity to each other, on some special connection?

If I perform any action, whether in words, thoughts, or physically, is He forcing me to act that way or do I have some kind of freedom? But where can I get that freedom if I am a result, a product of His work?

That is to say, we must somehow define ourselves in relation to our connection with the Creator. Otherwise we will constantly get confused. This bears great significance for our attitude, our inner work, and our connection with Him. This is also reflected on all of our relationships with one another, inside the family and when a person is one on one with himself.

Therefore, this is not an abstract question for us. Establishing our state, connection, and attitude to the Creator influences all the layers of our lives. This is the most fundamental thing there is. That is why Baal HaSulam’s opinion is so important to us in this regard, which he lays out in the article, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” the very first article in the book Shamati.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati

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Question: You said that nature will force us to change if we don’t wish to do it by choice. What change can our small Kabbalistic group make in the world if the majority of it don’t want to think about anything whatsoever?

Answer: It’s much easier for the majority of the world to change than it is for us since they don’t have free will. You do have free will because you possess an egoistic heart and the point from another world.

There are two forces in you, and that’s why you are in constant argument and struggle between them. This pertains to you but not to the whole world! They are fine: When they feel bad, it’s bad, when they feel good, it’s good, so what spiritual world are you talking about?

Without these two forces, there is no free will to choose between them; there are no upheavals and descents; there are no thoughts how to move forth; there is no faith above reason. Reason and faith above reason? Malchut and Bina atop of it?! Most folks have no connection between these two worlds. The connection between them exists only in us, in every one of us! It’s our problem, and the rest of the world doesn’t have it.

Hence, as soon as you make a choice, you impact all the other souls who don’t have free will; you “pour” your choice, will, and yearning into them and lead them on like a shepherd who leads a herd of a thousand cows. Obviously, it’s easier to be a cow than a shepherd since he has to know the way. But it’s not up to you; you will have to become a shepherd!
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From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Our egoism is “help from the opposite,” which we have to use in order to ascend to the Creator’s level. And it works in two areas. The first is a person’s connection with the group where his egoism works against “Israel” (the intention “straight to the Creator”). The second is when our ego comes forth against the only force that controls the world, meaning against the Creator. Our ego rises up against these two forces and resists them by every means possible and at every moment. That is why all of our work is aimed only at this.

The more we aspire to attain a connection among us in bestowal, love, and mutual guarantee, the faster we will reveal that we are incapable of this! And then we will have to turn to the Creator and deal with Pharaoh who stands against Him. We know from the story of Egyptian slavery that Moses, the leader of the nation of Israel who spoke with the Creator, did not appear right away. All of this occurs after many years of exile in Egypt when the nation of Israel already cried out from the difficult work and screamed out to the Creator. Only then did one Jewish woman give birth to a boy Moses, and then this entire story begins to unfold. This new force called Moses rises up in a person.

That is where the work against Pharaoh begins. We discern whether it is worth it for us to attract the upper force in order to create a connection in the group that will fuse us together as one nation with one heart, so much that we will reveal the Creator inside of that unity. That is to say, the work takes places in two areas. First of all, this is difficult work that made “the sons of Israel cry out,” which is when we want to build our spiritual vessel (desire) and are unable to. And then we scream, not knowing what to do.

That is when the second phase begins, where we discern: Whom do we yell at and how? We have to reveal the upper force. We want it to be present inside of our union, and not just in order to make our connection with each other come true. Our entire connection has to happen in order to reveal the force fo the Creator, the force of bestowal and love.

We work through these two phases, and as long as we don’t complete them fully, uniting all of Israel and attracting the Creator instead of Pharaoh inside of us, we will not be able to come out of Egypt. This exodus occurs as an escape in darkness, extremely rushed.

There are several steps that we have to make in the direction of this exodus. The Light that illuminates these steps leads us to realize that there is just one upper force, “There is none else besides Him.” Only He influences us and leads us through all of these steps and all of the states. All of our sensations, thoughts, and desires comes to us from above. What depends on us is only one single point of freedom: To relate everything that is happening to the Creator.

We realize this free choice in the group by uniting as one man in order to reveal Him, and He is present inside of the group. That is how we prepare for the exodus from Egypt in order to ascend above our ego and to shift to being ruled by the force of bestowal.

This is the greatest event in a person’s life. It’s not an accident that the whole Torah starts with the Exodus, and the month when it happens is called the beginning of all the months. The beginning is enumerated from the exodus from Egypt because all of the Torah and all spiritual life is built only on this foundation. This is the beginning of a “human being” who starts to grow up from the animate existence, the growing force of faith called the force of the Creator, which rises above the earthly, animate knowledge. All of this begins with the exodus from the egoistic Egypt.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/11, Writings of Rabash

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The higher the frequency at which we make our choice, again and again, in favor of the point in the heart, in favor of unity, the faster is our path. When we get together at large conventions and become included in one another with our desires, then I perform one action and all the others perform a multitude of other actions which join mine. If I remained alone, I would never complete this work!

However, the Creator helps us. He divided the huge desire He created into many parts. When each part carries out its work, it adds that work to everyone else.
It turns out that if there are say 800 of us, and over the course of several days at a convention each of us makes 100 actions, then it will turn out that each one made 80,000 actions. That’s because we are all connected together! And besides the people present in the convention hall, there are many more friends all over the world who join our broadcasts.

Before coming to teach this lesson, I received letters and greetings from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Israel, Germany, and many other places. Look at how many people have gathered at our centers worldwide. Right now on the screen we see Tel Aviv, the Galilee, Rehovot, Minsk, Columbia, Donetsk, Tbilisi, Chile, Odessa, Beer Sheba, Haifa, Ashkelon, Hadera, and many more.

There are many of us and if we use the days of the convention correctly, then we will leap onto the next level and will possibly realize the law that is called, “He made efforts and found!” This can happen. It all depends on us.

If a large amount of people join us and each person includes everyone, then each person receives a sufficient force. We have worked on our unity very well and have thus acquired knowledge. We studied and prepared for the whole year, constantly discussing that there is only “we,” that we are together, and that the spiritual world becomes revealed only in the connection among us. So let us hope that we will be able to implement that unity.
From the 1st lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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Question from a woman: I have a very big desire to become perfect. What should I do: direct this desire towards the men or straight to the Creator?

Answer: Neither. You have to correct it yourself. You don’t have to “direct” your desire anywhere. Every person must correct his or her own desire. It’s just that the means for this correction is the mutual help we give to one another, our connection with each other.

No one can correct your desires. This would take away your freedom of choice, your independence, and the ability to attain the level that you have to attain, the root of your soul.

Only work in the group, both for men and for women, in the appropriate form for each to perform their spiritual work will help them become included in one another with their souls and to feel that all together we belong to one Kli, one common soul, just as before the breaking.
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From the 3rd lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

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Kabbalists try very hard to explain the main moment of our work: how we arrive at free choice. They start by explaining that we have no freedom whatsoever. Findings in biology, ecology, psychology, genetics, and other sciences make it evident. We are not free.

Every person is born into a family he didn’t choose, a society he didn’t pick, a nation he didn’t decide on, with the traits that were not his choice. He was schooled at a place that he didn’t select either. And how could he have made a choice himself? His family, kindergarten, and school provided the environment, under the influence of which he developed.

Very seldom, as if accidentally, a person finds himself or herself under a foreign influence, for instance, of the books, and develops slightly differently than his surroundings. There are very few people like this, and they being guided from Above.

With regard to everything else, as Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Freedom,” I’m not independent in the way I sit, eat, sleep, dress, or speak. In general, it is not me. Everything is imparted on me by the environment, the priorities of which force me to hold myself and behave in a certain way even when I’m alone. I have internalized the values of the environment and they have become my own.

Initially, I was a drop of semen; I received everything else from the environment: my parents, the close ones, educators and teachers, friends, street, city, and so on. Even a drop of semen itself wasn’t me either, but a set of traits I inherited from my parents.

It follows that man has no freedom, has nothing that could be said to be his own. From one side, it is very hard to agree with this, but from the other, scientists have discovered it already and subscribe to it completely. Only in the human society we nevertheless judge a person by what he or she is, even though in reality, a person embodies the environment which “sculpted” him or her.

From the spiritual point of view, given the conditions in which we find ourselves, we can’t talk about ourselves as such. In spirituality, each of us begins with a drop of semen called the “point in the heart.” When a person begins to feel this point within himself or herself, he or she is brought to the appropriate environment.
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From Lesson 1, WE! Convention 4/1/2011

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