The goal: We have no idea what it is and no desire for it. We want something totally different, and it isn’t even the opposite because we don’t have anything to compare it to. Kabbalistic books speak about one thing, but we think in a totally different way and don’t take it in at all.

A certain urge simply appears in us: We aren’t happy with life and we try to find fulfillment. At the same time we are confused and we deceive ourselves that we are attracted to some wonderful sublime goal. This only increases our pride and nothing more.

In fact, the only thing we want is to satisfy our ego. Here too, we don’t know exactly what it is: We don’t see its limits, we can’t measure our yearning, and we don’t see to what extent egoism controls us and how addicted we are to it. All our life passes in foggy blindness and ignorance.

So the question is: If we did catch the end of a thread and we do have a chance, how do we make the best of it? Of course, we distance ourselves from different false methods in which we determine that there is no true filling. They are meant for people who cannot make a thorough examination and are happy with the “truth” that satisfies them.

But it could also be that we are caught in the illusion of a certain method, and that if we look at it from above we will see that it is also false. Just like many mystical methods that seem true to their followers.

Who can check that? What can we count on with regard to that? Can I, at my present level of development, examine what is happening outside my level?

After all, everyone judges according to his present “self,” and of course reaches positive conclusions: “Everything is fine; I am in the right environment and the right method.” Everyone examines the situation according to his level and his height, according to the depth of his criticism and ego and so he justifies himself.

So perhaps I have also been “tricked” that way? Perhaps I am also satisfied with what I have, swimming with the current, just like yesterday?

How can I still assess the situation not as part of the routine? How can I rise to a more qualitative approach? Let’s stop here for now, with the question that we have to ask ourselves on the spiritual path.
[66616]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We do not understand what it means to enjoy bestowal. The goal of creation is to bring pleasure to the creatures. And they will really enjoy: The only question is how?

We do not understand that the desire that we feel today is foreign and distant from us. To enjoy bestowal is not the pleasure of what the other enjoys. That would just be an arrangement that is beneficial for both of us.

And if I enjoy the fact that he feels good even if I feel bad, but I overcome myself, as parents do sacrificing everything for their children, this is not bestowal either. We can hardly imagine the desires that emerge in the spiritual world. It is possible only to give some approximate examples, like physical branches in relation to the roots.

Therefore, we must try to imagine as much as possible how special this concept is, separate from the familiar and requiring a psychological revolution. The entire world inverts in our consciousness, and then we discover something entirely new.

This requires internal effort and detachment from the old environment, the willingness to: escape from the current state, jump in the Red Sea (Yam Sof – the Sea of the End),  loose one’s head, abandon everything that one has, and be left totally naked and defenseless, accepting everything no matter what it is, only if it comes from Above.

We need to prepare ourselves for the convention in Arava in this way, and if we are able to hold ourselves in this state, we will achieve a breakthrough—in this darkness, to the waters of the Red Sea, and we will overcome everything no matter what is revealed.
[66595]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can we ask for the desire to bestow if our nature is the desire to receive that only wants to be filled?

Answer: This is exactly all of our work. We should understand that the filling is always there and it never changes. It doesn’t get transferred to us not because of some action on the Creator’s part. It’s all inside me already, and I only have to discover the suitable desires for the revelation of the filling.

That filling is bestowal. The Creator wants to give us the attribute of bestowal that would fill us just as it fills Him.

The Creator created the desire to receive “from absence,” but it’s only “one gram” of desire. Except for this one gram, there is no more desire to receive. Everything else develops inside it under the influence of the Light, the force of bestowal. So when the created being feels the filling on its last, fourth, phase of development, it is filled with the attitude of the Creator towards it. Then it restricts itself because it feels shame.…

The created being doesn’t get a filling of more than that one gram inside the desire to receive. This is because inside the desire to receive, there is nothing but that one gram. All the other things in it are added thanks to the attribute of bestowal.

The attribute of bestowal turns the desire to receive, which wants to fill itself, into a desire to fill others. This attribute of bestowal is the only addition to the “existence from absence.” So it all depends on and is measured relative to the attribute of bestowal, relative to the Creator.
[66467]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Question: We are talking about the need for balance. How exactly should we reach balance?

Answer: What in me are not just thoughts, desires, and deviations? Can I cut off all this from myself? No. Can I suppress them all? It isn’t a good idea; it would take great efforts and a lot of time, and eventually I would see that my innate attributes wouldn’t disappear even after fifty years.

So what kind of education are we talking about? What does it mean to “be human?” how can I transcend myself?

We have to take all our attributes and just balance them. I don’t need to regret something bad in me; I just need to balance it with something good.

I don’t need to erase anything; this already calms me: After all, I don’t have to feel guilty because I am that way. If I erase anything in me, what will I be left with? All that will be left is to put an end to my life. This is what pushes people to commit suicide: They discover that there is nothing good in them. There can be various external reasons, but the conclusion is the same.

But we approach the issue in a totally different manner. A person should preserve everything that is in him, and advance by his properties adding positive discernments, good attributes, to the negative attributes. Balance, don’t destroy. By destroying, you become a “reformer of the world,” in fact it is doubly bad because one becomes a damager of the world.

We have to balance every phenomenon about ourselves, but not erase it. Otherwise we disturb the general balance. Similarly, we try to balance blood pressure and other physiological problems, as well as problems in society and the family.

We mustn’t oppress anything. After all, it isn’t by chance that the desire to receive was created in this form. It stems from inside and is revealed in our Reshimot (informational genes), which we cannot erase. Their chain continues to evolve, and the only thing we can do is to balance them, to correct the phenomenon by using them correctly and revealing their positive side.
[66294]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, “The Peace”

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Question: In our dissemination, do we have to evoke the feeling of shame in people by showing them how far they are from mutual guarantee?

Answer: No. We only explain to a person that he can be saved from troubles: Under no circumstances do we tell him that he is bad.

There is nothing bad in a person. We discover the evil in us only if we connect with others and want to care about others.

I have different physical attributes: good and bad, fine and coarse, but the evil isn’t revealed in me until I reach the group, until I begin to actually connect, until I hear about mutual guarantee, and until I see how reluctant I am to have it. This lack of desire—is the evil inclination.

Everything below that is on the beastly level and has nothing to do with the correction. The correction is realized only in the mutuality among people in order to reach adhesion, connection, and mutual guarantee. Only according to this criterion can you be good or bad.

So when we bring the message of mutual guarantee to people, we don’t tell them that they are bad. In what way is a person bad? After all, he was born that way. The Creator has placed him in these conditions.

A person has to discover the evil by himself and become his own judge. No one knows how this works internally when he makes an effort to join the friends in order to form a collective vessel together with them for the revelation of the attribute of bestowal.

It is only with regard to that, that evil is measured. When a person doesn’t want to be incorporated in the general vessel, this is where his evil inclination is hidden. If the vessel corrects itself, it is filled with the attribute of bestowal, meaning the Creator.

The more a person discovers his reluctance, the evil inclination, the more he will feel the need to do something. After all, he feels bad, and this is the salvation. There is nothing better or more important. So through the evil inclination a person reaches a prayer called “raising MAN,” and then he receives the answer and is incorporated in everyone.

So there is nothing bad in anyone. Every one is given his own traits from Above. Until a person enters a group and starts to develop himself on the level of the speaking, he doesn’t exist, and so there is no one we can talk about. A person doesn’t exist on the beastly level.

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Question: What gives the Creator more pleasure: if we experience His love and return it to Him or if we pass it on?

Answer: In reality, spiritual love is felt not like the material one. Of course, to put it in the earthly language, we give the Creator pleasure by bringing other people closer to Him. However, the words are misleading.

Only after obtaining the properties of Bina will we understand what it all is about. Without the Light of Hassadim, a person cannot talk about love at all because he thinks based on his own desires, but not the desires of the other. Where could love come from?

Love is when the desire of the other opens up like my own, when I want what the other desires; moreover, I desire it even more than I would want for myself. The distance between us only multiplies my suffering, caused by the other person’s lack of satisfaction, and I want to fulfill his desire even more. The distance becomes an amplifier of my empathy.

This attitude appears by itself, automatically: This is how I think, how I perceive desires. And this is the salvation, the miracle. And until then, what love could it be? If I love, I care about the desires of the other above my own rejection and oppositeness. Egoism is revealed to me, and I work in the middle line—that is what love is.

After all, my soul is outside me.
[66504]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: What does it mean for you to be a disciple of Baal HaSulam?

Answer: I try to be his disciple by constantly scrutinizing his works in order to find something new and aim at the goal more precisely every time. Yesterday’s truth may prove to be completely incorrect in my eyes, up to the point of becoming opposite.

In addition, we realize the words of Baal HaSulam at the corporeal level too, to the extent that we understand his works such as “The Nation,” “The Last Generation,” and others. We also build the work in the group in accordance with Baal HaSulam and Rabash.

Thus we constantly rely on their books and try to ensure that their advice give direction to our lives. This is what’s meant by continuing the path. And it pertains to not me alone, but to each person present here: We all need to be disciples of Baal HaSulam, allowing him to direct us toward adhesion with the Creator.

Consequently, we need to perform a check on our readiness to adjust the direction and realize the path with the help of books, the group, the teacher, and the Light that Reforms, until we reach adhesion. And the most important thing on this path is critical analysis.
[66501]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: We spoke about the fact that we have to return to the level of unity that we attained in the December convention. It has been more than a month, the days go by and personally I feel that I am moving backward, sinking into the daily routine. How can we build an environment that will constantly evoke in me desires that are aimed at unity and the Light as it was in the convention?

Answer: First, do you really want to return to that level? Do you yearn for it? Do you see it all the time as a model before you in order to keep the point of unity? Do you watch the recordings from the convention again and again? Are you sorry that you’ve lost that burning fire?

If we had kept the connection, we would have already attained a much higher level, and would have risen above all the interruptions and the distances that separate us.

I must constantly renew the forgotten feeling, at least for a couple of minutes a day, for example, to see a short clip from the convention. I think it is very important.

Besides, are we working on disseminating our message? Do you take this into consideration in your work? We must join it and distances are no obstacle here. You must connect to the point, to make a plan for mass dissemination in every language.

Besides, in a month we are planning to go to the Arava again and to stay there for about three days. This requires great preparation. Otherwise the results will be the opposite of what we expect. It has to be something that is truly new, like it was the last time. We must make sure that we arrive there worried and anxious to enter a new state not knowing what it is and what fruit it will bear.

I am very concerned about this breakthrough into the unknown. We already know the place, and because of the habit we may repeat the same actions and feelings that we’ve already experienced. The atmosphere itself will remind us of them.

In short, a month isn’t a long time. We must make an effort to prepare ourselves as best as we can. Otherwise, instead of gaining we will lose. I am warning you about that. Start thinking what to do.
[66288]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, “The Peace”

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Question: Why is a person who is doing everything he can constantly being pushed back?

Answer: This is wonderful! He is shown how much more he needs to be strengthened. This is how they teach a child to walk. They are moving further and further away from him, as if pushing him away!

The child feels as if they do not want to support him. This is how he understands it. These hands, which support him, seem to always be near, but are constantly moving away, making him feel irritated and as if he has no strength.

How can we be so cruel to a child who doesn’t understand what we are doing with him? The poor child is standing and crying, and instead of taking him and holding him, we are tempting him to draw closer to us, forcing him to walk.

The Creator is doing the same thing to us.
[65052]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: The yielding due to satiation causes no grief. Relinquishment out of despair is full of pain and sorrow, and can therefore be called, “partial death.”

If we rise to a new desire, to a new level of awakening, we feel a growing despair and eventually die. We don’t die in the physical sense which is expected in any case, but the point is that our spirit is extinguished.

On the beastly level the spirit dies together with the body, but while the body lives, we can find a source that will allow us to rise anew each time, a new awakening. In it we feel life, livelihood, to such an extent that we become detached from the physical existence and its dependence on the body and begin to live in an awakening that is detached from corporeality. These become two different things for us, as it says “you shall see your world in your life.”

Thus a person acquires new vessels, desires, to feel life. This begins from the descents: When a person doesn’t feel life in the vessels of bestowal, he considers himself dead. Then he changes the reason, the vessel of awakening, from receiving to bestowal, and thus gets rid of the spiritual and the physical “angel of death.”

Spiritually he moves on to the vessels of bestowal that do not belong to our world. There is no death in them when the biological body dies; it ceases to feel the livelihood connected to it when the time comes for it to disintegrate and to return to the basic materials it’s made of, as always happens. But at the same time, a person acquires an awakening in the vessels of bestowal in which he feels life and the force of livelihood.  After all, he can always add something to these vessels.

As a whole, the feeling of life isn’t measured by a person’s present desire, but rather by the addition to the desire, by an acceleration coefficient. So a person should always be like a “bent old man” who seems to be looking for something he lost. I should constantly worry about losing the yearning for the goal. If a person performs this work, then he is young in soul. Otherwise we become “children who have grown old,” who retire without maturing.
[66040]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, “The Freedom”

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