Question: How can I avoid taking pride in my bestowal to the Creator?

Answer: The only thing you can take pride in is that you’ve received support from Above, which enabled you to overcome the hardships, meaning your ego. In other words, you need to take pride in the Creator, the Light, His help, but not yourself!

What do we have? Nothing! Our desires and actions are not our own, and neither is the Light. Even the prayer is not our own, but we receive it from the environment. Therefore, the further we advance, the less we receive, and the more we are grateful.

And when we return back to Malchut of the world Infinity, we receive the same Light of Nefesh de Nefesh which was in Malchut in its very first state. However, we intensify its illumination by “613” times with our gratitude, attainment of the good, and sensation of the Giver’s greatness.

But the Light itself does not change since it has no measure. The Light itself remains Nefesh de Nefesh, merely a small illumination. It is we who turn it into a great flame.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why is it that after so many years of study we still ask about its purpose? It follows that we always start from the beginning, from zero?

Answer: No, each time we start from an even greater “zero”! Indeed, the egoistic desire is constantly growing, as does understanding. Our desires become sharper and more precise, and thus our “zero” becomes deeper and more defined.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Since initially we lack the aspiration to bestow and we need to gather, form, and organize it ourselves, we are given work in the group to help us achieve it. In the group, we work with other people whom we, as it were, see before us as “help from the opposite side.” And essentially, instead of working with people and desires which appear to be foreign to me, I work with my attitude towards them. I need to learn to treat them like myself.

In working with them, I see opposite relationships: rejection, hatred, and alienation. However, at the same time, I must reach attraction, love, and closeness instead, and this helps me to rise above the animate degree, to the degree of the Creator.

This is because there are only two kinds of relation to others: reception and bestowal, which are opposite to one another. Hence, I can test myself only by my relation towards my neighbor and try to build, form, within myself a need to come closer to another, a need for love—above all the hatred and rejection that are being revealed to me towards the others.

The revelation of evil can only be discovered in one’s relation to one’s neighbor. This also involves a lot of learning which can happen under the condition that I want to become closer to him, and I use all my strength for this. And then I discover that I am moving in a completely opposite direction; I get further away, reject, and hate. These are the qualities I refer to as the “evil inclination” since I understand that union, proximity, connection, and love are the “good inclination,” the quality of the Creator (if it becomes revealed to me).

Everything is attained through one’s relation to his neighbor. And this is why this world has many people. If I were to regard the entire world and everything in it, meaning humanity, the still, vegetative, animate nature, my life, my relationships with other people, commerce, family, relatives, and other people, either near or distant, as a means for attaining the quality of bestowal, I would be using this world correctly. Then I could say that everything is there to serve and help me, and I am there to serve the Creator. The entire world is created for me.

If a person agrees that the entire world is created correctly from Above, and everything is arranged to properly suit and help him arm himself with an aspiration, to allow him to make an effort and use it to acquire the desire to bestow above the common desire to receive pleasure (which was given by the Creator), he will succeed. The law of “I labored and I found” or “I labored and did not find, do not believe” states that everything is already in front of you, everything is there, and the rest only depends upon you.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/2011, Shamati #117

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If the Creator has created the desire to receive and wishes to please it, then it is unclear as to what else is expected of us? Why does He not just reveal our desire and fulfill it?

But the point is that we must add our own aspiration, hunger, appetite, to the desire created by Him and instilled in us by nature. The common desire for fulfillment does not give us a sense of existence. This is similar to the way the still, vegetative, and animate levels, including humans who lead an unconscious animate existence, do not feel that they exist.

But the aspiration to perceive the Creator, revealing the quality of bestowal within, is a vessel which is the opposite side of the Light in which this quality becomes revealed. And then this vessel becomes filled with the Light. This is why you should not believe that it is possible to “make an effort and fail to find!” Everything is in front of you: Go ahead, you can reveal anything; nothing is hidden from you. Only the lack of your own aspiration conceals the Light from you.

We only lack the vessel, our own desire, the sensation of hunger, thirst, lack of fulfillment, and suffering. But this must be suffering for the absence of that specific quality, phenomenon, which must be revealed. In other words, we only lack one thing: aspiration towards bestowal!

This is why desire created by the Creator is not enough. This is nature, a common quality. And it’s not enough to simply develop this desire. We see that the desire develops beginning with the still level and begets the vegetative and animate nature, but this doesn’t let them experience the essence of life because each one of them exists within themselves.

This is how humanity keeps living throughout thousands of years of development as well since this development is only of the simple desire to receive pleasure, and nothing else. In this manner one cannot go beyond the interests of one’s existence, the animal life. In this way we only maintain our life, but we don’t attain its source, cause, and purpose, which exist above the simple desire to receive fulfillment.

All of this is contained in Him who gives us the desire, the One who begets it, the Creator. And this is why we need to find in our animalistic state a way to arm ourselves with an aspiration towards Him, a vessel for the revelation of the Creator: the source of life, the most authentic life on the human level, and its purpose.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/2011, The Zohar

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Question: What does it mean “to maintain the intention”? I get an impression that one does not move or develop this way. How can one develop the intention?

Answer: While reading The Zohar, I play a game with my friends. It doesn’t matter how well we understand or fail to understand these words, whether we hear part of a phrase, a quarter of, or the entire sentence, all of the words, and whether we delve to a greater or a lesser depth—everyone does what he can. The game is in correlating all these words with the connection between us.

Indeed, The Book of Zohar tells us about the way we should connect with one another. I don’t know what this connection is like, but it is described here. And for this reason, while I am reading The Zohar, I try to think about what it’s like to be connected one way or another, in one form or another.

For example, it is written: “‘Time to act for the sake of the Creator’ …since ‘they have transgressed against their Torah.’” What does this refer to? When a person forgets about the intention for the sake of bestowal, it means that he has “transgressed against the Torah.” And then “time to act for the sake of the Creator” means that you must once again return to the same intention, the same strong connection with your friends in mutual bestowal, because this way you aspire to build a “place” for the revelation of the Creator. And you do this to give Him the opportunity to reveal Himself. He receives pleasure from this like a Host who reveals treats to his guest.

So why do you read The Zohar? Where do you realize what you have read and reveal it? It can only be revealed in the corrected relationship between us. There is no other “place.” It is only revealed if we are able to create a correct connection in mutual bestowal.

For this reason I try to find the threads, the net that connects our desires, thoughts, and the strength of the aspiration between us. What forces operate this connection? What is the formula of this network? I want to know about it! And The Zohar specifically tells us about it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/2011, The Zohar

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Kabbalistic texts are written in Hebrew and Aramaic, as if using the right and wrong sides of the same language. But in reality, language doesn’t matter. Anything can be described in English, Greek, or German; it makes no difference which language we use.

It doesn’t matter which symbols are chosen. The key is that they are suitable to express the properties that exist on the level of reception so that with their help we elevate our desire to the level of bestowal.

The language of branches isn’t like languages of this world. It articulates the desire with all its properties since it attracts the Light that Reforms and changes us so that we can rise to the next step. Language means connection; it has similar usage in this world, but it is used in a simpler, one dimensional way.

When I say something, I express my connection with this notion to the extent that I understand, feel, or worry about it. The language of branches is not a common explanation of my attitude, but rather an explanation of elevation—the very action of ascent. The language teaches us how to connect with the upper level from the lower one.

Any language expresses connection; there is nothing else except connections. The universe consists of multiple elements, and the main thing for us is the connection between all of them. Our development is about perfecting the connections. This is how advancement is defined.

Each time we reveal a more authentic connection between the parts of reality until we reveal the world of Infinity where all connections are open. This connection is called “the Creator,” the property of bestowal that governs all of the parts.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: If we continue to work on our inner unity and interconnection, will we also love each other more in the outside world?

Answer: Yes, but it doesn’t only apply to us, but to the whole world. After all, it is all one system. If at our level (which is higher than that of the rest of the world) we try to draw our spiritual parts closer to unity, in so doing we will also bring the material parts, meaning people, to unity between them.

Indeed, there are no people, and there is no unity or rupture between them. These are the same souls, only they picture themselves and the connection between them from the viewpoint called “this world.” Everything that you see is the same very souls in the same network, only they perceive themselves and the web of connection between them as our illusory world.

Therefore, if we aspire to build this connection, being within this common system with them, only at a higher level of awareness and understanding, naturally this will impact everyone else.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/2011, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 585: One who clings to Malchut below the letters, she elevates him because from there she is built for a Zivug PBP [face-to-face] with ZA…for she is everything—included in all, from above, from below, and from the middle.

From this we see that we have nothing to worry about other than how to connect to Malchut. As we inject our desires into Malchut, parts of Malchut unite between themselves, and the first nine Sefirot begin to influence her.

Malchut is the points of connection between the souls in the common network that connects them all. Malchut is the connections between the souls. If we inject into these connections our desires, which we receive from one another, then these desires unite between themselves in Malchut. And to the extent that our common desires are present in them, the qualities of the first nine Sefirot, which are the qualities of the Creator or ZA, are manifested in them, and the Light is revealed in this connection.

Therefore, we must not worry about the first nine Sefirot, about Zeir Anpin and the other qualities of the Creator, but only about our desires so as to unite them. The more we talk about it, the more we are imbued with it, the more we hear and think about it, the more this new desire for unity takes shape within us. We understand that the world today is in need of this unity and is moving towards it, both in the spiritual and in the corporeal sense.

This is precisely what we must see in everything that surrounds us—all we lack is this unity. And it is the only means of correcting all the deficiencies.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/2011, The Zohar

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We start to develop correctly when we finally understand that we have to provide a new desire for our development. That is why we need a group for studying. The group awakens us and gives us a desire, and by studying, we draw the Light that Reforms.

The Light turns the desire obtained from the group, the environment, to bestowal. Thus, we start to grow spiritually. From now on, the reins guiding our development are in our hands, and we have to begin to manage them with the help of the environment and the Surrounding Light.

The person who has received an invitation to rise must see that his desire is constantly renewed. We are given the usual, initial desire, “substance,” but we ourselves need to add the spiritual aspiration for the form for which we want to use our natural desire: for reception or bestowal.

Therefore, we must always aspire to be in ascent, in a state of searching and demand help from the group and the Surrounding Light. If a person feels that he has no desire and no demand for the Light, this means that he has not received this additional desire from the group and does not feel the need to ask about his correction.

Not only are certain people actively seeking correction and studying Kabbalah, but today, all of humanity is at this turning point, and it is called a crisis. This is a real crisis because we have to review our entire attitude toward life.

Until now, we were advancing in the compulsory order, involuntarily, driven by our growing egoism. The Light worked on the desire to enjoy and developed it linearly, progressively. However, suddenly, a new coefficient, “the catalyst of advancement,” has been added to this function.

Due to this coefficient, we are changing our development both qualitatively and quantitatively. From now on, we are not developing along a gently sloping, straight line—we rise qualitatively toward the Creator. Thus, we begin to grow as people called Adam, man.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/2011, Shamati #21

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A person who begins studying Kabbalah and uses all of its tools eventually reaches a critical point when he must stop to develop by force, unconsciously. The first stage is intended to get him acquainted with his state, and this stage is necessary.

However, then he reaches a bifurcation point, a sudden change of a previously stable state, a breaking point when he must evaluate and reexamine his entire attitude toward development, life, his desire, the Light, and all the tools at his disposal. He completely changes his entire previous paradigm, his entire life philosophy, and his perception of the system where he exists.

Previously, this system controlled him because he fully operated within nature, and he only imagined himself to be above it from his lack of understanding. Now, he understands his full dependence on nature, its forces and laws, and he must take its governance into his own hands, as it is written: “My sons have defeated me.” Then, the person understands the special breaking point where he is.

Before, he only thought that he changed something in his life, but in reality, he obediently followed nature’s orders without any freedom of choice. Now, he is given freedom. He begins to see the world as something chaotic, without any order. He is given this sensation on purpose so that he, himself, would want to bring everything into order, connect everything, and control the world.

Here, he receives an opportunity to ask the Creator for strength, understanding, and advancement through faith above reason because he desires to be related to higher states. He wants to receive a new mind and new qualities from there and thus bring his world into balance. This is because the world is the reflection of the inner order in man, according to his inner perception of reality, and not the external perception.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/2011, Shamati #21

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