I always have to look for the most comfortable means that will help me feel inspired as fast as possible by the importance of the goal. This will enable me to aspire to the “place” or the “drop of unity” where I eventually hope to reveal the Creator. In this regard, everything depends on my current state. Various Reshimot are constantly surfacing in me. As a rule, I start to build the intention from an unconscious, vague, and “dry” state, without a drop of feeling and reason.

Thus, I have to awaken from this “stupor” so I burn up with such a strong desire that if I don’t reveal at this very moment what the Kabbalistic book is telling me about that “death is better” than this life without upper attainment.

We have to look for and use everything that can excite and touch us. Sometimes the group helps, reminding me about unity, mutual guarantee, and responsibility. Sometimes I am inspired by thoughts about the Creator as a wonderful, exalted goal. Sometimes I am excited by the action itself and the work to unite with friends in spite of the disturbances. It is necessary to look for means that will make me have an inextricable spiritual demand while reading the Kabbalistic texts at the lesson.

The approach to these texts has to be balanced. In principle I have reason to complain. On one hand, if I don’t understand anything at all, then I don’t have anything to latch on to. On the other hand, when I start to pay attention to the content, I feed the mind and lose the intention.

That’s why Baal HaSulam writes the following in “Letter 17”: “It’s best for you to hold on to the goal and aspire to the directions of the Host. After all, one who does not know the ways of the Host and the directions of Host, meaning the secrets of the Torah, how will he serve Him? This is the surest guarantee of the middle line out of the three.”

We aspire to understand what we have to to do, asking, “Give us the mind, give us the forces, direct us, explain it to us, show it through example so we would act correctly.” You can demand all of this from the Creator the way a child demands it from an adult. From the child’s end only a desire is necessary, while the adults provide him with all that is necessary. I collect this desire in the group, from my friends. Therein lies my free choice.

From Above I receive everything I need on the spiritual path, besides the demand, which I have to develop on my own. It will come only when I get inspired from the environment by the greatness of the goal. Then the inspiration will break out of the heart and I will aspire to the directions of the Host with all of my strength in order to learn to serve Him.
[29620]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, The Zohar

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The Upper One is only waiting for a reaction from us. Portions of Light come from the Upper One to the lower one (to every one of us), demanding the right reaction from us in response. The Upper One knows exactly what is happening to the lower one and what state the lower one is in because He forms this state for the lower one.

Of course, the Upper One knows what the lower one is ready to do. He arranged all of the external and inner conditions for the lower one to ensure him free choice, leaving the lower one just one thing that is unclear and unknown to the lower one – the middle third of Tifferet (Klipat Noga). Precisely in this state the lower one has to form the middle line on his own.

If in response to the Upper One’s influence, the lower one correctly builds the middle line, this means he becomes worthy. Then he really shifts himself and the whole world (all of the environment that the Upper One has formed for him at this moment) toward good.

Therefore, the only thing required of the lower one when he feels a lack (Hissaron) is to turn to the Upper One in order to receive the component he lacks in order to shift himself and the whole world to good. The lower one lacks knowledge, sensation, and later the ability to make a decision. He must receive all of this from the Upper One.

The Upper One leaves the lower one Klipat Noga in order for him to desire to turn to Him and receive what he lacks. If the lower one is ready to receive this supplement for Klipat Noga, then he receives it. This is the additional force of bestowal that he acquires on the current degree, which enables him to rise to the next level.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, The Zohar

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Question: If the lower Partzuf is in the dark, where does it get the strength to rise up and receive the Light?

Answer: Clearly, the lower Partzuf has no strength to rise to the upper Partzuf, but it does receive the desire to do so. A person receives the first awakening from Above, but later he has to realize it on his own. It is written: “The Creator lays a person’s hand on the good fate and says, ‘Choose this.’”

If you don’t, you will be given a second chance although it will happen in a different form. It is taken into consideration what states you are going through, but only in the context of free will. This means that you must respond correctly, or next time the setting presenting a choice will be more “aggressive” and not as favorable.

If the second time you miss what is expected of you, another awakening will occur yet again. After all, the plan of creation must come to fruition. But the settings will be getting tougher and more unpleasant. And so on.

Every time a person doesn’t act on an awakening sent to him from Above, the situation presenting the same choice gets more challenging. If he didn’t accept the properties of mercy (Hassadim) and didn’t use them for correction, then mercy turns into harsh properties of overcoming (Gevurot).

Thus, everything is determined by our responsiveness to what is happening around us.
[28905]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These”

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Question: Why did the Creator set up such a cruel joke: There wasn’t a drop of rain for a very long time, which resulted in a horrible fire, but as soon as people put it out by making unfathomable efforts, the very next day a heavy rain came down that only interfered with agricultural work? If the Creator controls everything, why didn’t He send the rain sooner?

Answer: Along the same lines, you could ask: Why did He cause the fire to happen to us? After all, what would be the point of igniting a fire and then sending rain in order to put it out immediately? If I love someone, I won’t beat him up in order to then be nice to him.

Clearly, everything comes from the Creator. As soon as the airplanes put out the fire, the rain immediately began, and this happened on purpose in order to teach us something.

The Creator ignites the fire and He also puts it out, while we have to learn from this and draw conclusions. We are inside a system that is entirely governed by the Upper Light and nothing can come out from its power, as it is written, “The hearts of the ministers and kings are completely in the hands of the Creator.”

All of nature is the Creator, and there is no freedom of will there. Our freedom lies only in our attitude to what it happening.

If I adopt a different attitude, then will the fire happen or not? Your attitude will change your reality or the way you perceive it.

Instead of perceiving Upper Light that comes in the form of harshness (Gvurot), as a consuming fire, you will feel it as the warmth of love. This depends only on your attitude: Do you love it or hate it?

Imagine that the person you hate most in the world is now hugging you. You will turn to ice, horrified by this embrace. And now think of how different it would be if you were hugging a person you loved.

The only thing that comes to us from the Creator is love and Light, but we do not feel it and cannot accept it. From Above there is always Light coming to us, wishing to fill the common desire of the whole world and the entire universe overall. This Light methodically advances this desire to the goal, to equivalence of form with itself.

If the creation below organizes itself in the appropriate manner, then it will feel a good attitude from Above. And if it doesn’t, then it will feel the reverse.

Everything depends only on you! Nothing changes from Above. Even when we say that we can change something with our prayer, that we can raise MAN and receive a response from Above, MAD, which brings us Light and returns us to the Source and changes us, none of this affects the influence of the Upper Light in the slightest. The Light constantly comes to creation, leading it to the final goal.

All the changes take place only relative to our sensation. No matter what, the train is moving forward and nothing can stop it or slow it down.
[29067]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Question: Do I have free will to ask my own questions, or it is also done by the Upper Governance?

Answer: Free will doesn’t lie in your asking one or the other question. Free will means not sitting inside your ego getting blows. After all, submerged in your ego, you are unable to understand anything because you lack one more factor existing on the outside.

Identifying yourself with someone or something outside of you, you will be able to see yourself from aside. It will teach you to recognize two conditions: the Light and the dark. And then you will be able to advance faster.

But if you don’t enter the group, live in bestowing to it, and being affected by it, you do not advance. It is so because spiritual advancement lies in understanding the process of creation. In order to gain it, you need two initial points: one is within, the other-outside yourself. Hence, the group is given to you so that you may find this second point.
[28275]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/10, Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot”

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Question: What is the secret of life?

Answer: The secret is to change the direction of this life from reception to bestowal, to “love for the neighbor” or at least to the principle, “Do not do to another what you yourself hate.”

As soon as you start to go in the direction of bestowal, you come out of your narrow world where you are locked and operate like a robot, following specific, deterministic laws that are set in advance. Nothing can escape the boundaries of the law. We only think this way because of concealment and lack of knowledge.

For example, suppose I am looking down at what is happening from the 10th story and I see how a car is about to turn the corner, whereas a person who is entering the street does not see the car and therefore gets run over by it. Or I see how a person leaves his car in a place he isn’t supposed to, but there is already a policeman coming in his direction in order to give him a fine.

I see all of this from above, but the people below don’t see any of it! But does this lack of knowledge enable them to say that this event is pure coincidence? For me it isn’t a coincidence because I see how everything was interconnected ahead of time. This is not just a fantasy, but a certain revelation.

Sometimes we look at a baby and understand that something is about to happen as a result of what he is doing. We already know it ahead of time, but he does not know because he lacks knowledge about himself. Therefore, we have no freedom of choice; there is only lack of knowledge.

The deeper we reveal this world, the more we feel how we are bound in iron chains. There is no freedom – not in thought, nor in desire, nor in action. The only thing we can do is change our direction. Our current paradigm is entirely aimed at reception for our own sake; it is completely limited and it is limited by ourselves or our desire.

However, we are able to change it to the opposite, from minus to plus! Start bestowing and you will see what you can do through it! You already have the root of that future altruistic desire, “the point in the heart.” You must only attract the force that will develop it. Then you will no longer be limited in this regard because you will come out of yourself to the outside!

After going through all of our development we will eventually reveal that the animate body we are placed in contains nothing “human” besides one single point! If you focus on the body, then you are an animal, and if you are focus on this point in the heart, then in it you reveal the human.
[28175]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/10, “Body and Soul”

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The first and most important question is: Do we have free will at all? Or, do I go through life as a mechanical toy moved by the key in the back or like a puppet on strings?

Indeed, we are totally controlled by the instincts and our actions are programmed. Even though we think we are free to make decisions and pick our path, it is just an illusion. Everything can be predicted by checking combinations of internal and external data: Reshimot (spiritual records, genes), background, habits, and all other conditions.

In other words, there is no instant in life when a person would be making an independent decision, and frankly, based on what would he decide? If he is programmed with all the informational data, a person simply makes a calculation like a machine.

Is there really any unknown factor that could be selected freely? It is unknown in relation only to us; therefore, we think that we can choose freely. In reality, everything is completely predetermined, as it is Nature.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches: “There is none else beside Him.” Do you wish to make your own decisions? Then rise to the Creator’s status and partner Him in decision making.

Your only freedom is in choosing to agree with Him, and in a way, to start walking ahead of Him. If you rise to His level and equalize with Him in qualities, He will allow you to decide before and for Him (as He does). And that is when it will be as it is written: “The righteous decides, and the Creator carries out.”

Until then, there is no use in talking about some freedom.
[27785]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, “The Freedom”

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Question: If Kabbalah offers us a means to grow an eternal soul in us, it’s as if we choose from two possible conditions: One is the “I” who is handsome, rich, healthy, young, and eternal, whereas the other “I” is weak, transient, and mortal. Then why do people have such difficulty agreeing to study it?

Answer: Is this choice really up to us? If your egoism were given a choice between a good and bad condition, you would undoubtedly choose what is good. If you were given an empty and a full glass, you wouldn’t hesitate to pick the full one.

It isn’t a choice per se. You simply act instinctively as Nature dictates and you cannot do otherwise. If you chose incorrectly, it means that you either made a mistake or were sick. In other words, there isn’t any free will here.

However, the problem is that this opportunity to become healthy, handsome, perfect, and eternal is blocked from you by a wall, a concealment. You don’t see this state; you don’t feel it in your egoistic desire.

In this corporeal life, I feel and see what can give me pleasure, and even though it is temporary, at least it is clear. Such pleasures are approved by my ego, my animate body, my “Self,” all my family, all that I am connected to, and public opinion. This is how the entire world is living.

Suddenly, I am offered something that I have neither desire for, nor support from the others. How, then, may I choose it? Clearly, I will go with my beastly interests.

Therefore, we need to cultivate the desire for this hidden part called “the desire for bestowal.” It is something totally new, and when you get to know it, it will be a completely different world, a new reality. You, yourself, will be different because you will grow new organs of perception and new desires within you.

You will simply split yourself into two with a clear-cut line: On one side there will be everything that you have today and, on the other, everything new, without any connection between them. What you will have on this new side will be called your soul. However, you will have to cultivate this system from only the point you possess at the moment, which doesn’t have any aim or direction.

The problem lies in the fact that you don’t see what your benefit is. It is impossible to see it in your ego. And if you think that you picture and desire some spiritual world in your ego right now, it means you are seeing the same material world. You just think that it is part of spirituality, but, in truth, all of it is nothing but matter.

Yet, all this deceitful, illusory picture is needed solely to build the authentic one specifically with its help.
[27588]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, “Body and Soul”

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Question: Why are we given the illusion of freedom in this world?

Answer: We consider ourselves free for as long as we do not think about it much and identify ourselves with our animate body. But if we rose above our body a little, we would see that it strictly obeys the laws and processes it is subject to.

I think it is up to me when to go to sleep and when to go to work. But who is it really up to? I am placed in certain conditions and given certain internal qualities. Meanwhile, our will to receive pleasure (desire) acts as an engine that works according to a simple principle: maximal pleasure at minimal effort, that is, maximal gain at minimal investment.

This is the calculation we perform at each moment of our lives, in every aspect, any direction, any place, and in relation to everything there is. This is how our nature works, taking into consideration various conditions: how tired and healthy I am, how big the danger and possible pleasure are, and so forth. Understandably, as such, we remain inside our ego, and there is no free will there.

We have to realize that free will is possible only if I control my desire and am above it. For as long as I remain in my egoistic nature, I will always be an obedient puppet, fully controlled by my egoism.

If, however, I wish to take control in my own hands, I have to manage my desire, rise above it. In other words, free will is possible, but only above desire. And the only question is: How do I rise above my nature, by what means?
[27782]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, “The Freedom”

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Question: If I once chose the path and rose above my egoism, am I free for good or must I keep choosing anew?

Answer: In order to reach the purpose of creation, we have to attain the state of “Israel (those who aspire to the Creator), the Torah (the Light of correction), and the Creator are one” and experience it in all our properties and desires.

Therefore, each moment of our evolution, we have to aim ourselves at oneness with the Creator, which constitutes our free choice. From all of these points of adhesion, we build one line and arrive at the final destination.

In other words, it isn’t enough to make a choice once so that later you may do whatever you want. You make a choice based on the conditions that are revealed to you at the moment. But next time, you will be completely different, a new creation, new world inside and out.

It’s because you keep uncovering new, stronger, desire to feel pleasure, which has different properties. And you have to discern yet again what conditions you are placed in, find the point of free will, decide what you are choosing, and move on with this new choice.

Conversely, at each point of the journey, you need to perform the work of clarification in order to “distance yourself from evil and choose the good” and realize that point of adhesion fully.
[27776]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, “The Freedom”

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