We have a single free action in this world in our life, and everything else unfolds absolutely inevitably, upon the orders from Above. But it isn’t easy to find this freedom that had been left to us since we are strictly governed from Above by pain and pleasure, being tied by a thousand strings that control our desire, thought, body, words, and acts.

We are the obedient puppets that are being pulled by these strings from Above. We are complete slaves to our nature, from the moment we are an embryo’s cell developing in the mother’s womb and up to the age when we think that we are finally able to act and live independently.

Man is governed by the forces of Nature, so if everything is Nature, how can something new emerge in him? Therefore, there is no freedom of will in this world. A person always picks what pleases him most and flees from suffering as any other creature, be it vegetative or animate.

Despite this illusory freedom that man was initially bestowed with (since we think we can do whatever we want!), it is still an illusion. The true freedom lies in stepping out and rising above our nature, which means stepping out and rising above egoism.

It is written in the Torah that this is the “freedom from the angel of death.” No man can disregard such words! Freedom from death doesn’t imply that our animate body will live forever to infinitely languish in this corporeal life full of pain and so very little pleasure to enjoy.

Freedom from the angel of death replaces this life with attainment of perfect and the most comfortable existence, which is eternal and complete at the same time! And this can be achieved by what we refer to as “freedom of will.”

Such freedom becomes truly enticing and desirable since in the ordinary life, we don’t usually need any freedom, and we are the most satisfied when life is steady like a well tuned clock: home, family, and work. The less freedom, the less headache there is. But if we can attain eternal life and perfection, having freed ourselves from the angel of death, what can be better?

Moreover, it is necessary to understand that the angel of death is our own ego that is digging us into the grave. It gives us a horrible feeling that it’s impossible to become fulfilled and that life is limited and transient.

Freedom from the angel of death signifies attainment of bestowal, its infinite fulfillment and engagement in the eternal flow of life. Knowing this, let’s try to clarify from the writings of Kabbalists: How can we attain such freedom?
[23702]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Freedom”

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A question that is arriving from all around the world now: How can we attain the right connection at the upcoming Convention and receive a good influence from the environment?

Answer: Every person is coming there without any obligations. There is no pressure. The most important thing is to feel as free as possible. I am coming to the Convention having left all my worries behind. When I am there, it’s as if I don’t have any problems. You should prepare as if you’re going on a picnic or on vacation, without a worry in your head.

Of course, it’s good to learn the songs and familiarize yourself with the preparation to the Convention site. But the most important thing is to come there feeling completely free. You should arrive at a place that does not pressure you in any way and promises you only pleasure and freedom. And in fact, that is exactly the state that signifies being close to the Upper Light.

In the spiritual world there is no pressure, problems, or difficult responsibilities. There’s nothing! Therefore, a person has to come to the Convention open to being happy!

Right now I am receiving many questions and letters from people who are experiencing difficult states and feeling stressed. They are unsure whether they should attend the Convention or not and whether it is the right thing for them. Some people get scared when hearing about mutual guarantee, thinking they aren’t capable of it. Some people have heard that it’s the place for receiving “Light” and they don’t know what that is.

People don’t understand that it is talking only about unity, which the whole world now has to reach! We wish to accelerate it before nature’s blows come down on us. The unity between us that we are trying to reach will enable us to reach the sensation of the Upper Light, the Upper Life. This unity will heal us of all the afflictions and problems.

Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Preface to the Book of Zohar” that our separation from one another is the source of all evil, suffering, diseases, and misfortunes. And vice versa, when we start to come closer to each other, we will purify ourselves of all problems on all levels, material and spiritual.

Therefore, come to the Convention freely and joyfully; no one obligates you to do anything! You don’t even have to bring a smile; we will organize that for you there. You just wait and see.
[25304]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, “The Freedom”

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During a descent, a state of darkness, helplessness, and separation from the Creator, the most important thing is to try to combine all the means correctly. In a descent a person has to build everything just like it happened to him during an ascent, when the Creator gave him a clear example. Then the two of them will be equal.

The Creator gives a person understanding, sensation, closeness, adhesion, the right mood, confidence, faith, the ability to bestow, the impulse, and the willingness to bestow. When a person feels all of this during an ascent, he must check his feelings very well so that he doesn’t just enjoy, but also performs a constant analysis of the situation.

Now this state came from the Creator as an example, and later, in a descent, a person will have to understand that the Creator has left him, similar to how an adult leaves a child so the child would do something on his own. It is time for the little one to recreate what he saw.

That is how we learn to keep the covenant we took upon ourselves during an ascent. Now, in a descent, we understand that it is for our own good. This state will enable us to create conditions of being independent of our sensations and thus we will reveal all the means to come to the Light. We just need to make our own efforts.

We never succeed without the Creator’s help, yet we act independently because we ourselves use all the means He has given to us. That is how creation makes itself equal to the Creator.
[24925]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10, “All of Israel Have A Part in the Next World”

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A person who is thrown into darkness loses all connection with the previous state of ascent. If the Creator then shows mercy on him and awakens him with Light, this does not mean that the person performed a correction. If, however, he awakens on his own with the help of the group, then he really does become corrected.

During an ascent a person prepared the right way: He put everything he possibly could into the group, using it as an “inspiration fund.” The efforts he made enable him to keep the connection during a descent. Now, by grabbing onto the end of this string, a person can awaken and through the group attract Light, energy, understanding, and faith above knowledge. Thus, he will start coming out of the descent towards a new ascent.

By means of the group a person always has the opportunity to renew the unity. Unlike the unity of the forefathers who were unable to receive the Torah yet, our unity directly connects a person to the group. This is where one’s free choice lies: to start working with the help of the group and equalize the descents with the ascents.

It turns out that at the end of the day, our entire freedom is realized in the group. A person actualizes unity only with the help of the group.
[24922]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10,  “600,000 Souls”

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A person’s advancement depends on his ability to ascend above the sensation and his previous mind by separating from them and always holding on to the Light, the Creator. However, this is impossible during a descent since the Creator disappears from one’s sensation and awareness. Then only the group can help a person by holding him on the level where he keeps the right attitude or the right perspective on what is happening to him.

That is why it is so important to be connected with the group, with its mindset and approach. The group never loses understanding, willingness, and a connection with the Upper One. It always knows that there is no one besides Him, who is Good and Does Good.

If a person absorbs the spirit of the group, then he quickly goes through all the states and always benefits from them. As he checks his sensations in his egoistic desire, he adds to them what he feels and thinks higher, above the desire. And that is something that comes from the group.

As a person advances along the path, he starts to understand that there are two fundamental elements inherent in his perception:

1. Inside the egoistic desire his thoughts correspond to the sensations; his mind and heart are unanimous.
2. When he shifts to the desires and thoughts of his friends in the group, he analyzes himself and builds faith above reason.

Everything depends on what a person identifies himself with and where his point in the heart is: below or above. That is one’s free choice.
[24778]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “Show Me Your Honor”

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At the still, vegetative, and animate levels, nature is an integral system whose parts have no free will in observing its laws. Man, however, is given free will: He can either act in harmony with nature or against it.

Today, as the egoistic development of civilization is running its course, we’re beginning to recognize the deficiency of the egoistic approach which brings us to self-destruction. Our ego has grown so much that we are destroying the system of equilibrium on Earth while, in fact, it is we, the highest degree of development, who must establish this equilibrium.

By restoring balance with nature, we will create the conditions for the correct behavior of all its other parts. For that we will need to become like one man, to achieve a state of mutual love and care. This is why the notion of “love thy neighbor as thyself” lies at the very foundation of humanity’s systems of values. We realize that in order to co-exist in a global world, this condition is necessary, today all the more so.

This is the reason the science of Kabbalah is being revealed today. For thousands of years it has been awaiting its hour so as to present our generation with the opportunity to rise to the degree of bestowal.
[24168]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/10, “He Who Strengthens His Heart”

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Question: I don’t understand: What is the freedom that we must attain?

Answer: Our freedom amounts to attaining the desire for bestowal that will fill us with infinite enjoyment. The goal is to achieve the most comfortable state of existence, although it requires us to first change and correct ourselves.

The Creator, Who is Good that does good, wished to create a being in order to bestow pleasure to it. And He will give this pleasure to us! Yet, like a little child, I dream only about one thing: that my parents would give me a bicycle for a present. For me, it is the greatest dream, but my parents fear that I will ride on a dangerous highway between the cars. Instead of buying me a bicycle, they wish to teach me to play the violin. Do you see the difference?

Similarly, the Creator wants us to “play the violin,” but we want a “bicycle” for our egoism to ride. Yet, when we make our desire as His, change ourselves and realize that to play the violin is the greatest joy, then we attain all the pleasure prepared for us by Him. After all, the Creator placed enjoyment in the “violin,” not in the “bicycle,” and I will have to change my desire for I have no choice. However, as a result, I will attain pleasure as conceived in the plan of creation.

My reward in this world is to gradually build for myself the necessary environment. I seek and discern which environment is needed to advance me to the example that the Creator gave me, and by doing so, I construct myself. From all the opportunities given to me, I build myself a “wrapper” that I can dress in.

A person creates for himself a new world, his next spiritual degree. He doesn’t simply give himself into the hands of the Upper One, permitting Him to do anything He desires. Rather, he has to know precisely what kind of person he wants to become, by way of which forces and influences. He creates himself and his entire world anew.

It is the kind of freedom that makes you the Creator. You start to understand all of nature’s components and to assemble them like a new puzzle game every time according to your opinion and advancement to the form of the Creator. You are constructing this world. This free choice grants you new desires and instruments of perception. By building it, you get to understand and know the Creator, His Upper force, the program of creation, and its laws that everybody follows. Hence, you can control it all.

It turns out that you are in place of the Creator and are governing everything. By inviting this force to govern you, you accept it, and with its help, you rule the world. It will be you, and your free will is the foundation for it. You are not the one who is governed anymore, but the governor. To do this, we just need to find out what our freedom is.
[23699]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Freedom”

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Freedom starts at the point where I make a decision as to whether I am governed from Above or not, whether the Creator exists or not, and whether I depend on Him 100 percent? If not, then what does freedom mean? If there is no freedom at all and we cannot change anything, then there is nothing to think about. However, if we are capable of autonomous actions, then what are they?

Here is the point at which I begin to clarify why I live, what is the essence of my life, what will happen to me further, and what is the use of my life. In other words, I would like to know if I am managing my own life and whether I can modify anything in it. These questions emerge at a “speaking level” in a human being.

The whole clarification is about whether I can act on my own and contest the Creator (nature) that governs everything there is. Is there a “free” point outside of me that doesn’t belong to nature?

At a regular, animate level of this material life, we cannot change anything, and, therefore, it is so predictable. However, not a single fortune teller knows what will happen in the Upper life, at the “speaking” level, within our connection with the Creator, our freedom. A fortune teller can guess only what might happen at the level of this world, with our physical body.

Below the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), there exists no freedom of will whatsoever; it subsists only in spirituality. An animal doesn’t possess any freedom of will at all, so why would our physical body be any different? However, the soul exists beyond this level and obeys different forces that are present in another world, another dimension. We can only speak about freedom in relation to the soul.

What kind of freedom can exist in this world if our biological bodies are rigidly governed by pleasure and affliction? Freedom of choice exists only in spirituality in the “middle line.” Don’t waste your energy for material things that are beyond your prime necessities. You won’t get anything worthy from this bodily life, and if you persist in demanding more than you really need, you only make your life more complicated.

However, if you use your vigor to attain spirituality, you will win. This is the law of nature: You have to provide for a normal material existence, but the rest of your energy and intellect has to be devoted to attaining spirituality. That’s where you will find genuine fulfillment.
[23726]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Freedom”

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Our soul is divided into two parts: Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) or 248 desires, and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh) or 365 desires. We have to correct the desires of GE to “bestowal for the sake of bestowal” and then AHP to “reception for the sake of bestowal.” Our freedom of will lies between them, in the middle, in the special area called the middle third of Sefira Tifferet.

Above, in GE, there are Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Below, in AHP, the lower third of Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Between them, there is the middle third of Tifferet called Klipat Noga (the Noga Shell), the very place of our free will.

It is like a narrow neck in an hourglass. Above it, there are our desires to bestow, beneath it our desires to receive, and in the middle, between bestowal and reception, I am left with an empty space. It is not ambivalence when I don’t know which egoistic fulfillment to favor and choose; rather, it is a passage to a totally new space, a new dimension. If I find and step through it, then I will live there in one dimension with the Creator.

Through this narrow tunnel, we are brought into the new world as if we are born from the mother into the world and realize our free will.
[23729]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Freedom”

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Question: Is it possible to change one’s destiny?

Answer: By exercising your free will you can change your destiny any way you want, turn it in any direction, a full 360 degrees. But you can only do it if you know for sure where you need to influence your fate, meaning which tiny hole you need to use to affect all the worlds, all the way to the World of Infinity. You have an opportunity to do this, but it is very narrow.

It is specifically this opportunity that we need to clarify. And after we clarify it, we discover that we want to act specifically in this direction.

There is an entire world around me, which connects with another, perfect world through a thin straw. I am at the bottom with my properties and strengths, my freedom of will is in the straw, and the perfect world is above.

Please go ahead, enter the perfect world! You only need to find the tiny opening, the point of your freedom, among all the directions toward which your desire throws you. And once you discover the opening, how can you concentrate all your strengths into one action in order to go through it into the Upper World?

This is what the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is about! Instead of scattering your forces in all directions where you lack the freedom of will and where everything is predetermined, you find this path of your free choice, gather your strength, and then you reach the spiritual world.

Then you understand that fulfilling the condition of the mutual guarantee, love for the created beings, is exactly the same as meeting the condition of advancement into the Upper World. This is because mutual guarantee is another definition of the same formula that directs you to the exit out of this world, into the passage, and birth in the Upper World.

Naturally, we change our destiny this way. After all, you acquire the free point that Archimedes spoke about when he said: “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth.”
[23354]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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