We can talk about numbers, about what can be measured. We can talk about the influence of the Light as about some force, about the informational genes, about quantity, about something that can be measured without any connection to the desire, to the vessel.

Everyone should climb all steps of the spiritual ladder, but each one goes through them from his personal point in the heart, and so it is possible to measure his impression only by general assessment that relates to everyone. The personal feeling, however, is not passed on to anyone. It is impossible to explain in words how white white is or how black black is, how dark darkness is or how sweet, bitter, salty, warm, moist, or cold something is.

We can’t measure an impression because it is personal. You can weigh things: how many pounds, what informational genes, or what the force of the Light is. However, since others have a different desire, a different element, it is impossible to convey an impression to them, even if one can measure it internally. Therefore, a person, being in the same conditions as another, is impressed differently, in his own way.

We have to take this into account, although we cannot correct this until we reach the universal inclusion into one another. When everyone is included in everyone, which we call “as one man with one heart,” when all the desires and thoughts become interwoven, the Light of  “Rav Pealim Mekabtziel” arrives and welds everyone into one integral system.

We don’t know what it will be like, but it could be that we will all begin to feel what others feel then…. Until then it is absolutely impossible. Only by quantifiable assessment can we somehow estimate what happens with others. But in the meantime it is impossible to feel that.
[69640]
From Preparation for the Lesson 2/13/2012

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot,” Item 96: And those that won can no longer retire from keeping the commandment correctly, as one cannot retire from a wonderful pleasure that comes to his hand. Hence, they run from transgression as one runs from a fire. This is so because now the branch is properly cleaved to its root, and life pours to him abundantly and incessantly from its origin.

In this state we can overcome, we can rise above egoism, but it isn’t easy: We don’t sit in a comfortable armchair and the delicacies don’t fly into our mouth. It’s thanks to the previous attainment that we can rise high, over all the obstacles.

The difficulties don’t disappear and the road doesn’t become easier—we have to constantly overcome the desire to receive. But the previous Partzufim that are stabilized inside the soul provide us with additional experience. There are those who are still climbing up to the “King’s palace” and are thrown back time after time, and there are those who have already entered and started working. But in any case, “there is none wiser than the experienced” because he already knows how to keep the direction towards adhesion.

Question: But still, the state described here is a good one….

Answer: It’s good since you have the opportunity to bestow limitlessly. You don’t exist, you are nothing. You only do good to everyone, including your greatest enemies, whom previously you couldn’t even think about without feeling repulsion. You worry about them in every possible way, and you don’t want to take yourself into account in any way. You are ready to work your whole life in order to bring at least one gram of pleasure to your greatest enemy.

Question: And this is abundance?

Answer: Yes. You are filled by being able to act differently and to treat everyone this way without exceptions. This means that you have transcended all your desires and that you receive in order to bestow. You are ready to give all of Infinity that you have just acquired to those who seem to you not only as zeros, but even as the greatest villains. This is the result of your work.

Otherwise, what is adhesion with the Creator? You become similar to Him in your attitude to others. There is no other way to become similar. It is said: “From Your actions we will know You.” And what are His actions? He reveals His love towards everyone, although they are opposite from Him in their corporeal desires. He loves them above hate, and you should resemble Him. It’s in this way that you reach adhesion with the Creator.
[69773]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: How can I know that the desire that’s awakened in me will be credited to me? After all, all my desires come to me from the outside, and the reason I think this way or that is because someone else is forcing me to?

Answer: If you come to the group against your desire and receive an awakening from others, this will be credited to you. It would mean you’ve drawn this awakening yourself, earned it with your own efforts. You extract it from your environment by force, and then it’s considered yours, your spiritual vessel.

After all, it was you who exerted the efforts to unite with the friends. The unification is felt within your desire, in the aspiration you’ve received. This aspiration will be the addition to your desire.
[69953]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: We have to reach a deficiency for the desire to bestow in the Arava convention…

Answer: We don’t need anything but that. It seems that this is only half way, but in fact, it is half of the coin, the other half of which is provided by the upper one. It is enough for us to desire to unite so as to reach mutual bestowal in order to bestow upon the Creator.

We call it “a need for a deficiency.” But we don’t feel a desire to attain unity yet so that thereby we could bestow upon the Creator. Therefore, we build a compound deficiency made of a double filling. We do not intend to settle for a need for a deficiency so as to feel this deficiency during the next convention.

The need for connection will bring us to bestowal in the group. And there is another need: to bestow upon the Creator. Both relate to the same intention.

Question: We have to yearn for perfecton and this will provide us with the right desire. How can we make sure that the picture of perfection doesn’t hide the need for a deficiency from us?

Answer: We want to attain the desire to bestow in order to unite. Thereby we can carry on our desire to bestow upon the Creator and to reach adhesion with Him. One way or the other, it is all dressed on one “skewer” and is on one line. You shouldn’t draw any differences here. Think about this a little and you will see that there is no problem here.

If you mention the word “bestowal,” you continue to draw the line towards the Creator, without stopping on the way. Bestowal requires connection with the friends because only that will summon the reforming Light that brings the attribute of bestowal. Why do we all need this attribute? Do we need it in order to have a nice beastly life? No. It is in order to reach bestowal upon the Creator. Why do we need to bestow upon the Creator? Perhaps He doesn’t need it at all? No, He has no such deficiency. Our goal is to reach adhesion with Him because by that we bring Him contentment. We please the Creator not by bestowal, but rather by adhesion.

Question: How can we tie a need for a deficiency with a need for adhesion?

Answer: We need the influence of the Surrounding Light so that we will understand that bestowal is the solution for all the problems. It brings us to everything we want to attain. I want to desire to connect and this is what I ask of the Creator, of the Light that Reforms. But what for?

I want to desire to connect in order to reach adhesion with the Creator. This adhesion is part of my way, part of the calculation. Therefore, the plea cannot be whole if the three elements are not welded into it: Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. This is the nature of our desires, and we only need to understand it. Then you will see: You need to add the Creator to your plea. Otherwise there is no reason to connect in our world. You don’t want it, you didn’t come to study Kabbalah in order to connect with others in social protest.

Therefore, when you discover your desire fully, you reach the formula: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” Just part of the sentence, part of the clarification isn’t enough. When we go out to the desert, we cannot cut our request in the middle of the sentence. If the request is whole, it must end with the word about the Creator because it is from Him that you get the power to perform changes, the power of the reason, awareness, and understanding. Everything comes only from this source, and so our requests have to end with it.

Otherwise, it is like sending a letter with no addressee. If you do that, no matter what you write, you will clearly get no reply and the letter will be lost mid-way.
[69770]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

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Question: Do we have free will when it comes to unification?

Answer: Our free will is in the desire to unite. When we fulfill this free will, the Light comes and unites us. So your desire is fulfilled when you come to unity.

Here we have to discern: Your job is to ask, but you don’t carry out the unification itself. No matter what we do, whether we dance or are deep in thoughts, we prepare ourselves for the influence of the upper Light, preparing the deficiency, the vessel for its presents, for the life that comes from Above. You should be like a small child who can’t perform a certain action but waits for an adult to do it.

This is what is missing in our request: We don’t expect help. This expectation should be revealed more clearly.

In the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 17, Baal HaSulam says: “Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith in the Creator and in His guidance in reward and punishment.” What does it mean to “pledge?” It means that he is constantly “engaged,” constantly providing his half, and then the other half comes from the upper Light.
[69761]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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All conventions must be permeated with a single idea. The idea is quite simple. The upper Light exists in a state of absolute rest, without any changes. It exists in total bestowal and there are no restrictions on its part. All restrictions on receiving the Light come from us, to the extent of our opposition to the Light.

Therefore, the only thing we need to do is to change ourselves and to some degree become similar to the Light. The Light bestows love, connection, and balance; hence, we must posses these qualities at least to some degree. By obtaining these qualities, we’ll be able to sense the upper Light, the qualities of love and bestowal within us.

This quality, this sensation is called the Light or the Creator. When we obtain the Light’s qualities, the Light will begin to dwell within us, and we’ll sense it and exist in it. We’ll observe ourselves and the world from within this quality because we’ll exist on the next degree called the upper world. This is what we need to attain.

This attainment can only come with the help of the upper Light because it has to influence and correct us. But how can we evoke its influence if the Light exists in a state of absolute rest? We have to desire this and the Light will correct us. The Light can only influence us to the extent of our desire and according to the specifications of what it is we desire.

If we wish to receive only for ourselves and to use our world egoistically, the Light influences us accordingly: It alienates us, thereby worsening our position. However, if we wish to become similar to the Light and to draw closer to it, then in accordance to our desire, the Light draws us closer. Basically everything depends upon the upper Light, on how it will exert its influence in relation to our appeal for it.

Therefore, all that’s required from a person is the desire toward love and bestow. And then, the Light will affect us, will give us the desire to bestow and love, which will become our Light. In other words, the upper Light represents an aspiration towards bestowal, a quality of love. This is what is called the measure of fulfillment of the spiritual vessel.

So, we must posses a great desire for bestowal, love and unity. This aspiration toward the Light will make us loving and giving and will allow us to exist on the next degree, in the quality of bestowal, in the upper world.
[69635]
From the Unity Day Lecture “To Acquire a Desire to Give” 1/29/2012

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The Zohar is the source of the power. But this power is like electricity: it all depends on what you connect to it—a heater or an air conditioner, a device that creates pressure or vacuum. This power can perform whatever you want.

Our desire is called an intention: what we want the power to do for us. And it does. Even our worst requests and our best requests that are aimed at the goal or at the opposite from it, the power performs everything according to the request of the lower. But if my direction matches that power, the benefit I receive is maximal. If my direction doesn’t really match the direction of the power, then according to my diversion from it, according to the cosine of the angle between us, I reach only partial fulfillment. If I aim at the opposite direction, then I am opposed to this power, the power neutralizes my power, and I suffer. But through the loss, this power still turns me towards the goal. This is because I always receive a combination of the positive or negative powers in the measure of my direction coinciding to the thought of creation.

There is a straight line to the goal and I should follow it. If I follow this line—our powers unite. If I digress from the line, then although our powers are the same, I lose the cosine of the angle, according to my diversion.

But if I aim in the opposite direction, not totally opposite but in a certain angle—then according to the cosine of the angle in which I am the opposite from Him, the Creator neutralizes the power. So in any case, I get a response from Him, although it is a negative response. This negative response is the combination of His power and my power. Therefore, eventually He turns me in the right direction through suffering.

If I am below the zero, I feel pain, and if I am above the zero I feel pleasure. In any case, all of humanity advances with or without intention. The power that directs us works constantly. We call it the Reforming Light.

So the main thing is what we want because the Light operates, especially while reading The Book of Zohar.
[69756]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, The Zohar

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Question: How do I recognize the Light’s response to my request?

Answer: First of all, any change is for the good, even if it does not feel very pleasant. Secondly, there are constant changes, only we aren’t able to count them.

The level of our sensitivity is too crude to perceive the changes that happen in me. The counter is on, but only after it reaches 1,000 RPM do I begin to feel this jump into the 1,000-plus interval. And the counter keeps rolling; it reaches 2,000 RPM and I feel another change. I can’t recognize each small, subtle RPM.

But as I ascend the spiritual degrees, I increase my sensitivity, and begin to better distinguish the changes. This means that “the Creator is demanding of the righteous to the hair’s breath.” I distinguish this thin hair, but before I would not even see a big rock.
[69753]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, The Zohar

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When a person comes to Kabbalah he does not understand why he needs humanity. Kabbalah tells us that there are forces that operate above our world that depict this world in our perception. This is why we want to fly away somewhere into the unknown, to the Creator, His spiritual system.

Accordingly, man also perceives the study materials personally, on his account, without feeling the urge to unite with others. This is the initial, very limited perception with which we, being egoists, all begin our journey.

Only after several years, as the result of the influence of the surrounding Light, I understand that I really must unite with my friends and reveal the Light in their inner interconnection. But when you think about yourself, the Light has an opposite affect: It shows me how mistaken I am, and then I see that I need to unite with the group. I will find the upper World there, in the depth of it.

This is a very big revolution in consciousness. Man begins to understand that the spiritual world actually exists; it exists in the connection between people, a place with completely anti-egoistic coordinates.

Then a problem arises: How do you prove this to yourself, how do you bring yourself closer to having a proper attitude. This must become so important that everything else will appear extraneous. From now on I focus only on the group, on uniting with it. It is my only aim and nothing else because I depend on it. This is the second stage.

And then the third stage appears, an even more complicated one, when you figure out that you also need to do mass dissemination. “Since when? We are going towards the Creator, after all. At first I wanted to get there alone, then I understood that I need a group. But since when do I need to take care of everyone else? A billion Chinese, a billion Hindus, half a billion South Americans, half a billion Europeans, Africans, what do they have to do with this? Who cares for whom and why do I have to do it?”

Here we explain to the person that he, the group, and all of humanity must unite in order to become like the Creator. Another obstacle he disagrees with: “My friends and the world groups have one goal, but the others do not.”

And this also is true. After all it is written: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” I am “Israel.” The group is the “Torah,” the reforming Light. And together we go to the Creator.

On the other hand, the remaining 99% are below and they aspire towards their corporeal pleasures. So why do we need them?

In response to this, again and again, we need to explain that we are a transitional link and that we must become “a kingdom of priests”; in other words, we must educate all of mankind about mutual guarantee and integral unity. Then we will connect the masses to us, like AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), and we will unite all the people with the Creator into the ten Sefirot.

It is very difficult to explain this to friends in the group. In the group is our field of our action, the source of everything, and where we reveal everything. The circle manifest there: AHP, us, the Creator—all inside, everything ends in the group in a single vessel, woven from the unity of the points in our hearts. A part of it comes from below and a part comes from above.

Our groups do not understand and do not wish to switch to being the messengers of mutual guarantee to the masses. It is very difficult for a person to allow himself something so opposite, to see how different things connect into one. But gradually everything will work out.
[69764]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What can we do to prepare for the Arava convention?

Answer: Try to imagine that this is your last chance. It isn’t about the corporeal life that many are ready to give up. Half of the world’s population would happily push a button that would enable them to die painlessly if they could. People are not afraid of dying, but of the process of dying.

Therefore, we have to oblige ourselves to think about the conditions we are given today. After our conventions, after the preparation and the connection, there is simply no way back. The entire world worries about its future and doesn’t know what to expect. It is helpless in the face of the developing crisis. If we don’t find the power to connect, we will not be able to help ourselves or the world. If we fail, we will not end corporeal life, but spiritual life.

The women must understand this. They should worry about us and put pressure on us. The men, too, must understand this. We must rise above everything that separates us, above all the arguments and the misunderstandings, above the quarrels and the conflicts. In fact, they can stay the same—this will enable us to rise above them even more. A person grows only in resisting the growing egoism. So, as far as we are concerned, let the ego grow even more. All we need is endurance, and then we will succeed time after time.

I am optimistic. We have power in Israel and throughout the world. Even if several groups experience hardships, eventually everything will work out. This is our way. It is the same as with the childhood diseases that we cannot escape. What is more, they strengthen us and make us immune for life.
[68599]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/2012, “Preface to The Book of Zohar”

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