The key is to find among all our properties, among everything that happens with us in thought or in action, where we have some small degree of personal freedom to form a thought or desire. In other words, are we given any room for an independent thought, desire, or action?

A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that everything depends on the genes, hormones, and information that was instilled within a person. And if a hundred years ago we thought that man is free in his life and everything is up to him, today we understand that his behavior is determined by what parents he had and what genetic traits he received.

It wasn’t up to a person when and in what family to be born, with what characteristics, and what education to receive. Since childhood, he or she had been imbued with certain attitudes to life and self, and by the time he reached 15 years of age, his character was totally formed.

A person steps into life having nothing of his own, but only what he received from birth, education, and what he will later pick up from the environment that he will end up in upon reaching twenty years of age and becoming an adult. The environment will dictate all his behavior and the decisions to be made, and whether he likes it or not, he will have to observe the same system of values that is accepted in the society.

Even if a person may wish to go against the society, he will still fully depend on it because the environment determines everything for him and he has nothing unrelated to it. Where then may he get some independent thoughts or desires, from what distant star?

In any case, they would not be autonomous. The only autonomous action was the creation of the created being “from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain). Only the Creator is capable to create something that has no previous history, something absolutely new.

Moreover, if my current state includes all possible preliminary conditions and forces that produced it, then everything that derives from them is an obvious result, pertaining to which I have no freedom. I live according to a certain program that passes through me while leaving me no choice; I act as a machine or a puppet that is pulled by the strings in all directions.

We are the product of all these alien, internal and external causes and various forces merging within and governing us. Even though it may seem that a person can do something independently, it is not an autonomous action either, but merely what these forces allowed him or her to do.

And yet, there is a chance to find free will. If a person evolves by employing the wisdom of Kabbalah, he draws additional force onto him, the force opposite to one’s current nature. And then, between these two opposing forces, a person finds the point of his free will.

On one side, there stands the power of man’s nature and this entire corporeal world, with all there is in it; on the other, there stands the power of the Light that came from Above. And between them, in the middle, we have a neutral point where one can have his say. A person can reach a condition when both these forces get equalized, and then he or she will receive free will.
[35704]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, “The Freedom”

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The process of development of the egoistic desire, where the desire to bestow operated very gradually, has brought man to an absolutely broken state. The still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well human society, the entire reality is now a deplorable sight.

We are in a very dangerous state, in a contradiction to the entire reality. On one hand, reality seems to be something enormous, global, interconnected, and whole, but on the other, human society on earth seems to have turned into an invasive  cancer, a harmful mold which consumes and destroys nature by covering the entire Earth with its waste and excrement.

We are discovering that we are absolutely opposite to nature, so we will have to realize in the near future that there is no other solution but to attain balance with it. And this can be realized because the two opposite forces of reception and bestowal have already been revealed in us, and they are ready for us to begin using them in a balanced manner. Only then will we begin to rise together as humanity from the still to the vegetative level of our development.

Until now these two opposite forces were developing us without our consent. Finally, they have brought us to the first free choice, and now we begin to develop on our own by evoking the force of bestowal for it to determine our development above the force of reception enrooted in us.

Before, the force of bestowal was concealed inside, and it was gradually growing like rising dough, or on the contrary, it enticed from afar: “Come this way; there is something here; there are pleasures waiting for you here.” Now we will be choosing the bestowing desire on our own as the force that we should be following in our development. Bestowal will not be helping the receiving desire, but the receiving desire will follow the bestowing desire.

We must keep making this decision over and over above our egoistic desire which does not stop increasing. As we ascend, both forces, bestowal and reception, will keep growing and emerge equally in us to give us the opportunity to have free choice. We will feel like we exist in the middle between them. In Kabbalah, this place is called “Klipat Noga,” and this is the way we will advance.

On every point of my path, my choice consists of revealing the equality of these two forces in me and preferring the giving desire to the receiving one. Bestowal must determine my direction so that the receiving desire would develop specifically in this way. By doing this, the receiving desire takes the form of the bestowing desire, the form of the Creator. And when the receiving desire is similar (“Dome” in Hebrew) to the Creator, then it is referred to as “man” (“Adam”).

And we will use these two forces the same way. The receiving desire will be constantly growing, and the bestowing desire will grow as well in order to give it a new form. In the end, we will return to the same place where we began our descent, the world of Infinity, where both of these desires exist together perfectly incorporated. We also achieve their absolute adhesion through our choice, as we act from below upward, until the entire receiving desire acquires the full form of the bestowing desire. This will become the end of correction, the completion of our development.

We live in a special time, a new era. What is new about it is that now, through our choice, the desire to bestow must reign above the desire to receive pleasure. This is called “to develop in faith above reason.”

Every day we are joined by more people whose previous mixing of desires have been completed. Gradually, they come to their first free choice: to go from the still to the vegetative degree, to emerge as a spiritually growing being from a still being.
[35658]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Where do we get the strength to tolerate the corrections?

Answer: From the environment. A person by himself does not have the strength to move forward one inch. If the group gives you the realization of the goal’s importance, indicating how lowly and despicable the current state is, then you will have the forces to awaken from this state to a better, more advanced state.

Stated differently, bestowal becomes better in your eyes even though it seemed worse to you before. You used to think, “Why do I have to bestow and unite with the friends? This is repulsive to me. I am incapable of it.” But the friends show you that this is development. You see that everyone aspires to this and then envy, a passionate desire, and pride move you toward the same thing. And then you are already able to do it.

However, this is so only on the condition that you can lower you head before the environment. To do this you are provided with everything that’s necessary. You have the force of self-rejection, but if you don’t use them, there’s nothing you can do. You have been brought to the group and told, “Take it.” That is where your free choice begins: To take it or not?

“To take it” means to annul yourself, to lower your head. Go ahead, do that and you will advance forward. The smaller and more humble you feel in relation to the friends, the more you will need their help. Then you will be able to receive from them the realization of your own lowliness and the Creator’s greatness in order to advance forward according to this.

If, however, you do not lower yourself before them, then you remain a “rooster” with your head held high, and will remain on the animate degree.
From the 1stpart of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, Writings of Rabash

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Today we have come up against the new generation, which can do anything only if it understands, feels, decides, and agrees with what has to be done. Otherwise it won’t do anything. We also see this by the events that are now happening all over the world. A new wave is rising, or in other words, a new level of the common soul is awakening in all of humanity.

The modern generation is contraindicative of a morally-righteous upbringing which threatens a person and forces moral teachings on him, telling him, “Look at us as an example and act the same way.” This is not enough for the young generation. They will not take this path. On the contrary, they will copy the worst examples and won’t be able to have a grip on themselves so as to abide by your wonderful models.

The new generation won’t accept anything just because that’s how it has to be. Even though a child absorbs many things automatically, still, if we raise the modern kids by reward and punishment, it won’t work. That’s because egoism grows from one day to the next and you won’t be able to withstand it. Therefore, habit will become second nature to them.

Right before our very eyes a new nature is maturing inside children, and it demands that you hand them a method. You want to give a child ready-made results that he will implement like a small machine that you operate where he looks at you and repeats everything. But that won’t work. Children see right through you. They are constantly studying and analyzing you. You are completely transparent to them.

We have to understand that this generation requires a very rational and logical method that it could understand and then use according to that understanding.

The slave generation has ended, or the generation of machines that were personified even by Charlie Chaplin. Today we have to think about how to give the youth an explanation of the process of development, reality and their place in it, the goal, the path of governance, and the opportunities standing before every person.

In short, it is necessary to show a person the limits within which he really is a free creature. The new generation is very different from us and therefore we shouldn’t develop methods to train them so they would obediently stay close by, but a method of passing on wisdom according to a person’s age. Then children will use and realize this wisdom through their behavior, and then all that will remain for us to do is to check whether we have given it to them correctly. We will see this by the results.

In the past education and upbringing were based on reward and punishment. Children were stuffed into different boundaries and held on a short leash. They were told, “This is how you have to act.” But today this won’t work because the Creator requires us to reach the realization of evil, the understanding of what happens in life. We have to learn to control ourselves according to the importance of the goal. This is a person’s independent work.

The soul has no age. It doesn’t matter in whom it awakens, an adult or a child. We have to understand that we are obligated to provide a method of correction for the young and the old so they would grow only by it.
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From the talk on education on 2/19/11

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It is written that “envy, lust, and ambition” lead a person out of this world, which means that we have to use these qualities in order to exit into the spiritual world. But the problem is that a person scatters himself in every direction and reaches for all the desires in the corporeal world.

If one employed all his strength to become a human, rise to the spiritual level, the human degree, he would succeed. But instead, he is chasing after money, fame, and power, and he lacks envy for spiritual properties that would allow him to become a human.

We need to analyze ourselves and connect to the environment which will mold us so that we focus on the most important desire of all: to become a human and fulfill the desires for power, money, and fame only as much as it is vitally necessary. All these properties must only sustain our aspiration to the right kind of envy: to envy the Creator and wish to be like Him! And if I fall and start envying somebody’s wealth, power, or honor, I will clearly not be tuned upward, to the goal.

But how can I envy the Creator if I don’t see or feel Him? This is why we are given the group: to instill the importance of spiritual qualities in us. You will never know who the Creator is until you reach His degree. And besides, His properties are opposite to yours and reject you. Hence, at this point, only the right environment where you can work can help. Only it can change your system of values.

But the problem is that even after a person completes his or her preliminary development at the still, vegetative, and animate degrees and arrives to Kabbalah, to the beginning of the human degree and free will, he may suddenly sway off the path and wander about in other directions for a few, long years, in search of wealth, power, and honor. And by the time he returns, his life is practically over….
[35622]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: In the “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 3, Baal HaSulam writes: “We distinguish four divisions in the Speaking species, arranged in gradations one atop the other. Those are the Masses, the Strong, the Wealthy, and the Sagacious. They are equal to the four degrees in the whole of reality, called “Still,” “Vegetative,” “Animate,” and “Speaking [human]…. It follows that the value of one person from the Speaking equalizes with the value of all the forces in the Vegetative and the Animate in the whole of reality at that time, and in all the past generations.”

Is it correct to assume that it is enough to have one person who, by having made his free choice, can open the path of further development to all other levels of nature, which cannot evolve further without it?

Answer: Certainly, by using his free will, one person can open the path to and ensure further development of all the still, vegetative, and animate levels of the human pyramid if all of them unify with each other and join this human degree. This is how Rashbi, the ARI, and Baal HaSulam opened it for us. One person can draw and lead all the others if he is at the “speaking” level of development, whereas they are at the still, vegetative, and animate ones.

We see this in practice. How would humanity evolve if not for certain outstanding individuals who open the door to a new world for the others?

But after such a person makes a breakthrough, reaching balance is up to all others who follow him. The former has done his job, as for instance, Baal HaSulam who revealed to us the entire method of the wisdom of Kabbalah; now it is up to us to actualize it. Until our work is complete, we won’t achieve equilibrium.

He merely explains to us that the problem lies in our imbalance with nature and it’s necessary to come to balance. Nature in its integral form is the Creator. It is with Him that we must harmonize ourselves, meaning to reach equivalence of form, oneness. This is what we must implement. It is necessary to engage the whole world into it, which will require a lot of work.

You may ask who is this person that makes all the difference and must use his free will? You are this person! It is every person who received spiritual awakening within and heard about the method of its realization from the outside.

Only the initial awakening occurs within, and because of it, a person hears a call to him or her from the outside. As a result, one comes to a place where it is indeed possible to realize one’s free will.
[35626]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: What is the Surrounding Light that we are trying to attract?

Answer: The Light is the upper force, the one, single, and only existing force in the universe. Besides this Force there is only desire, which becomes revealed to us as a receiving desire. Yet by using the force of the Light we can change it to bestowal.

There is nothing besides Light (the Creator) and desire. We simply call Him by different names (such as Surrounding Light, Inner Light, or the Light that Reforms) in order to provide more precise definitions.

The Surrounding Light influences me if I aspire to my next form. Even though I don’t know exactly what that form is like, I study it through a book that describes all sorts of Partzufim, worlds, and Sefirot. That is how I express my desire to ascend there and attain, and that is how I attract this state that I want to attain to myself. It begins to influence me to the extent I aspire to it.

I open myself up and become more sensitive to this influence, to the next state that I must reach. I simply accelerate my development, adding a little bit of my own desire to the natural force that develops me.

I receive this additional desire from the environment. That is how I realize my free choice and receive from them the sensation that it is important to advance to the next state. After all, being in the next state means being more connected with others, canceling myself more, and bestowing more.

I receive this inspiration from the group and then I take it with me when coming to study and aspiring to attain the future form that is more bestowing. Then I am influenced by Light from there because it has the same nature of bestowal that I want to acquire. We have the same desire, the same tendency, and therefore we are close according to the law of equivalence of form.

By myself I do not have any desire for bestowal or spiritual progress. I have zero desire. But then I turn to the group and from them I take "10 pounds” of desire to advance to bestowal and unity among us, and with that desire I come to study. I want to attain the next state with the same force of 10 pounds. My similarity to the Light is measured by this force of 10 pounds, and to that degree it influences my desire, making it similar to the Light.

This is the same Light that fills my next state because it already exists. When I aspire to that future state, the Light begins to shine on me. For now it is called “surrounding” because it must first correct me and only then clothe into me. It works in two stages, performing two actions.

The same phenomena exist in physics: If I come closer to a magnet, then I enter the field of its attraction and influence. Even you and I influence one another. There is a certain field around every person. In fact, there is not one physical body that isn’t surrounded by a field—not even any stone.

Everything operates by the same principle. The closest state you aspire to (your next state) is what influences you. However, there are many fields around you that you do not even relate to yet. You do not yet aspire to them or know anything about them. When you reveal the spiritual world later on, you will see how many different things are happening in it and how many different dimensions exist in it.
[35411]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If I bring children up according to the method of Kabbalah, could it be that I am taking away their free will?

Answer: What does it mean to bring children up according to the method of Kabbalah? It implies that you strive to introduce them into the environment, to prepare them for Kabbalistic texts, to lead them to the point of free choice so that they realize that man is brought up by the Light that Reforms. It is precisely what they have to evoke.

Initially, “man” (Adam) is the root of the soul, and he is supposed to draw everything else to himself with the Light that develops him. This is what our free will is about. We are either led by Nature, or we evoke a special force that lies above it. It isn’t easy. This requires a person to overcome, to struggle against the impact of the ordinary environment, and toil in order to attract the influence of the Light. If I lead my children to this, do I take their free will away? No, I don’t.

First of all, they may ignore not only traditional “baby food,” but also what you are teaching them yourself. There is no difference between them.

A person receives free will only when a point of a new desire emerges in him which craves personal development that will allow him (and not you with your notions of "education") to make his decisions. So, by teaching him what you, yourself, adhere to, you still don’t go beyond tradition, although this tradition is closer to the point that has to unfold.

We see that this is how it happens in the world today. But previously, humanity had to develop by way of religion. It is written about Abraham that he sent out to the world the sons of his concubines and ordered them to enforce various religions.

Judaism was also founded after the wisdom of Kabbalah disappeared from the people’s view during the fall of the Temple when we fell from the degree of bestowal and love into hatred and egoism. Since then, the Jewish people act only on the external, corporeal level. Instead of working internally on transforming the soul, purifying desire with the Light that Reforms, we are carrying out physical actions mechanically, without correcting the heart.

This is what religion is about, unlike the wisdom of Kabbalah; it is externality instead of internality. For this reason, Kabbalah is regarded as the inner essence of the Torah.

However, exile is coming to an end since it was allotted a certain time. Changes have begun, and the point of free will is hatching in human hearts. They wish to get out of the enforced education and test themselves: “Whom do I wish to be? How can I be my own guide?”

Then, a person makes a choice: He needs a new type of upbringing. It’s not the kind that society is providing for him—he wants to receive it directly from the Creator. Let the Creator give it to him so that he may be called “man” (Adam) who is similar (Domeh) to the Supreme.

Usually, our upbringing is based on us receiving examples from those who surround us and becoming similar to them. Now, I wish to receive an example from the Creator so I may become like Him.
[35070]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What stages does a person go through when attaining the science of Kabbalah?

Answer: When a person begins to study, he first learns to perceive this world correctly, even though he studies a higher level, the following dimension where we are all united together, meaning an integral world. Yet, by studying it, we actually begin to understand how separated we are from one another here in this world, and how each one of us eats up the entire system instead of working to complement it together with everyone.

Every person exists like a cancerous cell inside the common body. This sensation and understanding comes precisely by studying the global state of the system. Then the difference between these two levels: the upper one that’s united in harmony, and our level, which is completely divided into individualists and egoists, begins to be felt very acutely.

By studying together with other friends from the whole world, he begins to attract the force of development to himself, which gradually influences him. This force is present inside nature and it begins changing him and making him more connected to others. As a result, he begins to perceive this world as a single, common system.

This happens naturally, from within, but not artificially, the way we forcefully connect one thing with another today. Then a person’s attitude to the world, to life, and to himself changes, as well as his plans for life. And because he begins feeling the world better, more correctly, and more globally, the world becomes transparent for him.

He sees the connections operating behind the external picture of the world, among all the parts of reality. It is like embroidery: on the front side you see flowers, while on the reverse you see the connecting threads that tie all the parts together.

A person sees all of this and is no longer in the dark. He feels how everything is connected together. Thus, he becomes wise and no longer acts foolishly. This is the first phase of attaining the science of Kabbalah.

Next, when a person penetrates deeper, he begins to reveal the levels of connection between all parts of reality. He begins working with all of these connecting forces. Then it becomes clear to him that everyone in this world acts like puppets on strings.
He sees how everything is controlled by these strings, which extend from the reverse side of the “embroidery.” We, who live in this world, have no freedom of choice. Our behavior is determined by genes, hormones, and the forces governing us. But this person attains the level where decisions are made and can determine on his own how to behave and what kind of future he wants to see.

That’s because he sees the general system correctly and becomes included in it, becoming of one opinion with it. His desire begins acting together with the desire of this system. This is the second phase of attainment. After that there are more phases—all together there are five.
[35043]
From my lecture in Paris on 2/1/11

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When Zeir Anpin becomes revealed before Malchut, we can accelerate the speed of our development. Up until now, having advanced in the course of history on the still, vegetative, and the animate levels, we were not able to accelerate time. We didn’t know at all about what state we were in and which process we were going through.

But now, having entered the period of corrections, we possess the freedom of will. We can speed up the course of events without having to wait for the end of the sixth millennium. Everything depends on us.

With our efforts, we can include the qualities of Zeir Anpin into ourselves in less than six thousand years. After all, we are referring to spiritual degrees, not a date on a calendar. And that is why we are able to hasten the ascent to the level of the seventh millennium.

Baal HaSulam writes about further development in “Introduction to the Book, From the Mouth of a Sage.” These are also spiritual levels since Shabbat (Saturday), the seventh millennium, is the Sefirot HGT–NHY–M. Besides this, there are three more levels called the “head.” We enter into them after seven thousand years, and this is beyond our current attainment since it involves receiving into the Kli which has already completed its corrections and become similar to the Creator in its qualities.

It is not written anywhere about this. Kabbalistic books contain only faint hints at these stages. Let’s hope that we will reach them quickly as well.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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