During the expansion of the Light from above downwards from Keter, to Hochma, and to Bina, a stop should have happened because Bina is already the quality of bestowal that does not need anything for itself. So how is it possible to develop any further?

That is when Bina feels the desire of the Creator that is in Keter, the desire to unite. Thus, Bina divides into GAR and ZAT, which feels a connection with Keter and therefore develops reception within itself in order to bestow to the lower ones. Otherwise further development would not take place.

In the same way, when we ascend upwards and attain Bina, first we acquire Galgalta Eynaim, the quality of bestowal for the sake of bestowal, Hafetz Hesed, which is called Mordechai. That is when we have to decide how to use our desire to enjoy. For us, this is ZAT de Bina, connected to our Malchut of the Reflected Light, the highest Sefira that attains Keter of the Direct Light.

This is the point where a decision has to be made. This makes the difference of how the desires of Haman are to be used—egoistically or for the sake of bestowal. If we begin to bestow egoistically, then we return back down. And if we choose bestowal, then we use the desires of Haman with the intention of Mordechai, meaning we receive for the sake of bestowal.

This is the “fatal point” of Purim. Pur means “lot” or “fate,” when we decide: What to do next? That is, we have to decide: In which direction will we incline? But this is impossible to understand for now. We do not see all of our qualities from aside, besides Mordechai. In all other directions besides him, only total darkness awaits us. This is the true point of a person’s choice and it is very thin. After all, how can I understand that bestowal for my own sake was not part of the Creator’s program?

That is why we have to reach the very end until we see that Haman buries all of the bestowal we have attained. Otherwise we won’t feel that this quality disappears. We have to feel that if we give power to Haman, then nothing will remain of our bestowal!

The same thing happens to us now as well. Sometimes we become so confused that we think that by making some sort of actions we will be able to reach the goal. We still don’t feel that this completely separates us from our foundation, from bestowal, and nothing remains here besides egoism, and all of our bestowal is also done for our own sake. Only if we verify this until the very end will we be able to decide that we have to annihilate Haman and come out of his power.

At first it seems that this was useful for our progress toward the goal, but now you reveal that everything is completely opposite and it can bury your entire advancement, goal, and your entire path. But you only discover this at the very end, when you are walking along together with egoism, Haman, and it slightly steals little portions from you, taking away everything you have, until you are left with nothing. That’s when you see that there is no choice: You have to run away from his rule.

We are yet to go through such suffering on this path where Haman can clothe into real people or just ideas….
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/11, Shamati

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Question: Most people are appalled by the thought of having no free will in our world. How should we approach them?

Answer: That’s true since if there is no free will, there is no person either. He is not a person but a mechanical toy, a puppet controlled by strings. And it doesn’t matter that it includes you as well: A person sees in it your attitude toward him. You, sort of, discuss your own non-existence. After all, I only exist if I have free will, a personal opinion, and perform autonomous actions.

But we are talking about the omnipotent system of nature where everything is governed by absolute laws. Even if we don’t bring the wisdom of Kabbalah into it and just think logically, from where can freedom appear in this world? From a global perspective, what is freedom? Is it seemingly spontaneous actions, even though it’s not the case? Or is it some sudden desires that in fact are conditioned by the life giving force?

Where do my actions begin? As to me, I don’t see what triggers the events of my life, my thoughts and desires. What inner depths give rise to different urges in me? Out of the blue, I crave something. Where did this impulse come from?

If I found its source, it would be clear to me that it isn’t I who chooses, but that these kind of impulses are triggered in me by nature. But man has no access to what lies below the level at which nature makes decisions. He receives ready-made thoughts, desires, and actions deriving from nature’s acts.

At this level, we assign a certain degree of independence to man since it is he who had a desire or a thought. Based on this shaky premise, we view a person as an autonomous being.

Obviously, it is totally wrong. If we saw the integral picture, we wouldn’t find the slightest reason to judge a person or, on the contrary, to show him mercy. We would all feel as cogwheels controlled by the general force. The same is described in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Where then is free will? It lies in my ability to take over the management from the upper force that sets the entire system in motion. I can govern in its place, in alliance with it. In the degree of my agreement with it, I overtake management functions and begin to activate the system myself.

What’s in it for me? By doing so, I obtain freedom and autonomy. I take example from the upper force, demand assistance from it, and thereby take part in the plea. This opportunity is available to me due to the breaking: It presented me with free will in the middle third of Tifferet, in the middle point, a very delicate intermediate state. It is from that point in particular that I can ask to take the Creator’s place.

Thus I acquire autonomy. And there is nothing else that I can call my own.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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From “The Principles of Global Education”: Even when we begin independent, adult life, our perception of the world is a finished product composed of three components: our “matter”(individual genetic traits and inclinations) and two factors that form this matter in their own way: the upbringing we received and the influence of the environment. None of us has free will, neither in decision making nor in evaluating anything in life.

The question is to what extent we are aware of it. Do we realize that we are trapped in the net of forces? We are not free in thought or intention. We have no freedom even in understanding of this very fact.

We begin to acknowledge the lack of free will out of hopelessness. It is neither good nor bad since we are talking about nature. But what exactly can we discover outside of it?

First of all, why are we brought to the realization of our entrapment? It is most likely so that we would still want to get out of it. Perhaps, we do have such a chance.

Here the main factor is how strongly a person reacts to freedom, how well he understands that he is controlled by various impulses, and how eager he is to break free from them, gain a certain new power, objectively look at himself from aside, and rise above his nature. But again, to rise to what? To another nature that will control him?

These questions are not for everybody. Not so many people in the world ask and seek answers to them, are receptive to them. That is why we can use this criterion to cut a clear line between a “human” and an “animal.” “Animal” isn’t a label but a level of development: A person lives as the society dictates for him or her to do, which in its turn, isn’t free either. A kindergarten and school teachers, parents, and media, who mold our opinion, do not possess free will just as well. All the systems, be it internal or external, don’t act autonomously but are triggered. Hence, it’s not worth talking about them.

If I am looking for my individual mission that is above this enforced flow of life, it is pointless to seek logic in its loops and whirls. They are meaningless, and I won’t find anything in it but nature’s forces which govern the entire humanity and the whole of creation, including all of its parts, over the course of the entire human history. It doesn’t offer any free will to anyone.

It’s a waste to spend time on studying something that is totally useless. In general, this is how the wisdom of Kabbalah views our world. It isn’t arrogance. Indeed, we think that we activate some forces and laws, enforce rules of behavior so that life could be more comforting. We assume that making new laws or building new machines will make the world a better place.

We do it unaware of being controlled. The desire to be free and better our life is not an expression of freedom, but rather mere internal urges that are caused by the process conducted Above. Thus, lies are built over lies. Even admitting to our own entrapment, we are forced to perform certain actions that seem to be autonomous but are, actually, not.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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Question: The holiday of Purim symbolizes the opposition of two forces: Mordechai and Haman. Then why are we commanded to get so drunk on this day that we can’t tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai?

Answer: This happens after the analysis where you use all of the Kelim, when everything is already clear to the utmost. You have hung Haman and his ten sons on a tree, or in other words, on the tail of the letter Kuf (ק). No more illumination comes beneath the Tabur in order to give life to the impure forces (Klipot). There are no Klipot since you have destroyed all the egoistic intentions.

Previously intentions for the sake of reception, Klipa were below. Klipa lives by virtue of the illumination from above. Above the Tabur are the letters or qualities of Kuf (ק), Reish (ר) , Shin (ש), and Tav (ת). Previously the tip of Tav also descended down, but its “leg was cut off” and now only Kuf descends beneath the Tabur. This means that the Lights descend down, giving life to the Klipa.

This is necessary because the Klipa helps us. It has to exist in order to give us the opportunity of free choice, to place us between good and evil.

Here, below, are Haman and his “family”—all of the egoistic qualities that have joined him. It is important to remember that this is talking precisely about intentions for the sake of reception, rather than about desires. After all, desire is just matter.

After that, from Yesod of Zeir Anpin to Nukva comes the illumination of Mordechai. It comes as a result of the ascent of a plea (MAN) from the souls of Israel, which are below, under the rule of Haman. Then they are all able to ascend upwards with the help of the illumination called Purim—the illumination of Mordechai.

In that case only Haman with his family remain below. After that the leg of the letter Kuf is annulled so the Klipot would no longer receive an illumination, or in other words, Haman is hung on the tree. Then the Klipot inside each of us die because they no longer realize or feel the opportunity to steal or to attain anything.

That is where it all ends. All the egoistic intentions disappear due to not having a footing and everything shifts above the Parsa, into the intention for the sake of bestowal, into the approaching end of correction. Now all of your Kelim are covered by the altruistic intention and you fill them with the Light of Hochma without any restrictions. That is because you have created great, perfect screens which free you from the necessity to make calculations.

The entire matter of Haman, who is under the power of the egoistic desire, has shifted to the altruistic intention. Stated differently, all the desires that were below have ascended upwards. They divided into two groups of 248 and 365 desires, and now even the lowers ones are above because you have cut off the egoistic intentions from them. Thus, nothing remains below.

And since there is nothing below, holiness (Kedusha) expands from Raglin until Sium, until the Mount of Olives.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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In nature there is no freedom that has appeared from nothing. Nature is a system of laws and nothing in it can stand beyond the law.

We are being controlled by two forces: reception and bestowal. Freedom is when we are able to supplement the action of one force with that of the other and, standing between them, comprehend the reality that has unified them both within.

I always have to choose which influence to put myself under, under control of which force to be. It has to be one or the other: the force of bestowal or that of reception.

Moreover, in order to gain autonomy, I don’t want to be dominated by either of them. On one hand, Pharaoh tells me: “Who is the Creator to me that I must listen to Him?” But on the other, I have to preserve Pharaoh in tact, even if keeping myself at a distance. I flee from him so I may obtain the second force as well. Before, I was the Pharaoh’s slave, and now I become the slave of the Creator.

All of this is done so that in the end, we can reach the middle point between them. It is regarded as the middle third of Tifferet, Klipat Noga (Noga shell). This is the place where the scales which hold good and evil come into balance. I stand in the middle and neither the Creator nor Pharaoh controls me: I rule over both of them. This state is described as “My sons have defeated Me.”

This is a subtle balance that a person must build at every spiritual degree. We align two forces, two lines, the right and the left, judgment and mercy, and thereby advance in the middle line.

Thus, my work lies in finding both Pharaoh’s force, the evil inclination, and the Creator’s force, the good inclination, in the present “animate,” “blind” state. I place them before each other since the Creator says: “Come onto Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.” When the evil force increases, the Creator can also grow in my eyes and show Himself behind Pharaoh. Then they will both unfold equally in my point in the heart, and this point will receive freedom, the power over both forces.

That’s what I need to accomplish. In this point of mine, between the good and evil inclinations, in the middle third of Tifferet, I find my freedom at last. And this is my real Self. From the points that emerge at each spiritual degree, I construct the middle line, the line of the human within, until I reach Infinity.

In the world of Infinity, we create our autonomous state which is 620 times more powerful thanks to the fact that we use both these forces in full. This is the correct method for utilizing the forces of the Creator and Pharaoh that rule in nature. And man is able to accomplish this.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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The entire freedom of choice that each of us has, with each of us being a piece of the multi-dimensional “Lego” of creation, lies in revealing our total connection with everyone else to the extent we can tolerate it. Each person connects with all the others with his upper part (Galgalta Eynaim) and his lower part (AHP), and only a point remains of himself in which he wishes to realize his loyalty to those who are above or below him.

We have to go through this realization of our state gradually, by degrees of the desire that awakens in us until experiencing its entire depth (Aviut) in all of its forms. Thus, we continuously reveal the opportunity of a new, more multi-faceted connection with the upper ones and the lower ones.

The empty space that continuously becomes revealed to us in the connection with the upper or the lower ones is the desire that we have to correct. The desire always consists of 620 parts, and therefore, their correction is called “carrying out 620 commandments” with the help of the Light that reforms, which is called Torah.

That is why it is written that every day a person must carry out “620 commandments” by virtue of studying the “Torah.” That means he studies how to use these 620 desires for the sake of bestowal in order to unite entirely with all the parts of creation that are higher or lower in relation to him.

That is how we attain our state: We are in it from the beginning, but we reveal it for ourselves gradually. We receive the force to do this from the environment, meaning from those “Lego pieces” with which we are connected —from the upper parts of our soul, whose AHPs connect with our Galgalta Eynaims, or from the lower parts, with whose Galgalta Eynaims we connect through our AHP.

The Creator always gives us the opportunity to find the forces to advance in this “multi-dimensional” unity. It is always possible to find an empty space in which the Torah will be revealed, the Light and 620 desires that we can correct, and through them, connect with one another. That is how this entire system is arranged.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: The collective and the individual are one and the same. And the individual is not harmed because of his enslavement to the collective, since the freedom of the collective and the freedom of the individual are one and the same, too. And as they share the good, they also share the freedom.

This becomes revealed gradually, from negation, from a negative. It becomes revealed in darkness, without forcing people to become corrected, or in other words, only in the form of suffering in order to enable us to understand, realize, and agree out of our own free choice with what we have to do and how we should accept the laws of nature.

We shouldn’t accept them instinctively or due to having no other way to act, the way it is done on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, but rather by agreement and desire. We have to desire it to such a degree that even if we weren’t pressed by suffering, we would still aspire to it.

That is why the suffering becomes revealed to us. It brings us to an empty place where we begin the search and this way, from within this darkness we build the divine system ourselves. Finding myself in a vacuum, I find threads and interconnections, building blocks of the future construction, and begin to arrange them on their right places.

I build a building and in the process of this construction I feel Nature by my side which already exists. But it’s as if I form its system myself, expressing it in bestowal, in darkness.

That is how I create and acquire the entire system of the universe. And then I understand the entire reality to the last detail, I understand and feel the force that created it, and I join the Creator until reaching total perfection.

However, I perceive the process of construction as suffering. I am pressured in order to make me start thinking: How can I fill the emptiness, what should the structure of the system be like? I have to search for the form of every linkage joint in it. Kabbalists write to us about the intention for the sake of bestowal and we say smart things at the lesson about the right approach to life, but we do not know how to actualize all of this. Even if you memorize all the texts by heart, this won’t help you.

Only by attracting the Light that reforms do I become a bit wiser in my corrected qualities and understand how to build the system. I am its material and therefore I begin to treat others correctly. This is my construction. This way, I correct myself and build the system.

Therefore, now and in the future we will only receive negative impulses, meaning suffering. Nothing can be given to us besides suffering because otherwise we would be deprived of the opportunity to gather the system on our own.

And that means that by disseminating the science of Kabbalah and explaining these things to the world, we will be able to reduce the extent of the suffering and the time required to “digest” its influence on us. No matter what, regardless of how much a person listens and how much knowledge he obtains, this will never deprive him of the opportunity to personally participate in building the system.

We have to gather all the parts of the world of infinity into one, and we have to do so ourselves. You cannot just simply shout, “Give me perfection!” You have to know what exactly is necessary for that, and what exactly do you want according to your level. On various phases of the path you scream differently—but you scream to be given the forces.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/11

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There is a rule: “For social life, take after the collective, in spiritual life, take after the individual.” For example, I enter a group. Does this group represent the majority for me? Do I have to listen to my friends? I see three hundred men before me—this is a force.

If they demand something from me on the corporeal level, that’s one thing, but what if they are dictating their terms on the spiritual level? Do they understand more than I do? Are they, taken together, smarter than I am? How should I behave in regard to them? Do I have the right to influence the group? After all, if they are the majority, then I have to lower my head and accept their opinion.

On the other hand, we are talking about spiritual life and therefore, one must follow an individual as opposed to the majority. Am I that individual?

These aren’t simple questions and they are relevant to every group. In the corporeal sense, everything is pretty clear when it comes to the majority. However, even there we see many movements, parties, governments, and mafia. There is no common opinion in the world.

It’s actually quite simple for us. I establish a separation between the spiritual and the corporeal life, and then my corporeal existence is narrowed down to the vital necessities. I should be content with that.

I ensure a normal life for myself: home, work, family, bank, social security, health insurance, vacation, pension, and so on. This is where I follow the majority and do what’s considered the norm. Here my obligations toward society end. In our world I’m set. This is how I realize the concept of “follow the majority,” which refers to obligatory social conditions.

Besides this, all of my attention and strength are directed at my spiritual development. In my spiritual life, I work with the group. Rabash writes that one must lower himself completely before the group. I lower myself before a spiritual society as I do with the majority.

Where is my freedom then? After all, I have to follow my own opinion when it comes to spirituality.

In reality that’s exactly what I do because I determine the degree of my connection to the group. No one is taking this freedom away from me. This is the meaning of the law of “follow the individual.” Each one of us is an individual and decides freely to be a part of the  group. There are no laws obliging us to do this and no external pressure. We apply the same principal in our dissemination of Kabbalah: Whoever wants it takes it, and who ever doesn’t is free to say no.

And so your freedom consists of you lowering yourself before the society without there being any pressure to do so. In the corporeal world, the society obligates you, but in the spiritual one, no one does, including the Creator. You must mature and come to this decision on your own.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: I cannot aspire to bestowal since I don’t have the slightest idea what it is. What is bestowal?

Answer: Any spiritual property such as bestowal and love is revealed from the state opposite to it since we don’t know what it is. Actually, if I knew what bestowal is, I would already possess this property.

But I do not possess it. So how can I acquire it? I can do it only by performing mechanical actions: I influence the group, while the group acts upon me. And all these actions have no relation to spirituality, which is the reason we perceive ourselves as presently living in this world.

It is an imaginary reality that contains some desires and even corporeal bodies in it, meaning that they are not, in fact, desires, but rather something that doesn’t possess free will. The spiritual world, however, is full of desires, aspirations, and forces, such as love, hate, and lust, which are manifestations of man’s will. And without this manifestation of will, there isn’t a world; it doesn’t exit.

It is similar to a laser image: I turn on the laser, and the picture appears in the air. If I don’t turn it on, there won’t be one. This is how we perceive the spiritual world as well. As to the material world, it exists even without my expression of will. In this reality, I pass through life cycles, and it transforms me without my being aware of it; it asks for no participation on my part.

Therefore, this reality seems to me so “material.” All changes in it occur without my conscious participation, my strive for bestowal; they simply unfold naturally under the impact of the upper force that pushes everything to evolve.

But when in this corporeal world I reach a state when I want to take an active part in my development, the question about the meaning of life arises in me. And from this moment on, I start seeking the answer.

Yet, it is all so that I start activating the spiritual reality. At the instant I become ready for it, I will discover the part of reality that was activated by me. It is what you can regard as your first spiritual degree.

Hence, all our actions must begin with corporeality, with the idea that I force myself to influence the environment and the environment influences me in all possible forms by using all available forces and capacities, as it is written: “All that you can do, do!”, meaning grab any opportunity, no matter what it may be.

After all, if you perform all these actions in the material form, that is, without the correct conscious participation, you still awaken this reality. This is the way it is built.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

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