Kabbalah explains that in the beginning only desire was created, and it was filled with pleasure, the Light. Then, to make the foundation for the future human, this desire was broken into pieces. It remained the same desire but was shattered into numerous fragments, not resembling each other at all. These parts are completely different and do not perceive themselves as being together, do not feel each other. What one wants is not understandable to the other.

The first state is called “the world of Infinity” (∞), and the second, “the breaking of the vessels.” As a result, we have seven billion scattered, broken pieces. On the drawing, they are close together, but in reality, they are internally divided, separated by such walls that they cannot tolerate each other. Everyone feels only oneself, thinks only about oneself, and nobody remembers that once they were one single desire. These are us in our world, in division, to which we were intentionally brought.

The vessels that used to be one whole are completely alienated from each other; they do not even touch each other in their sensations. One of them is me, and the other is you. And if we want to form a soul between us (it is built exactly between us), we must create resistance (R) in the middle.

Why is it needed? The fact is that everybody wants to enjoy but just for himself, nobody thinks about others, and rejection reigns between us. But if we begin to extend the threads of unity to each other, if at least we do not wish evil to each other, then we will rise from our egoistic degree to that of Bina, where I will no longer want to hurt you. This is already the neutralization of egoism.

If I also wish to bring you good that you anticipate in accordance to your ego, then I begin to work on your ego in order to fulfill it. This is the degree of Keter, the degree of love.

This is the process we have to go through, rising first from the degree of egoism to the degree of Bina, in order not to bring the other harm, and then onto the degree of love.
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From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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How can the method of Kabbalah be put into practice and run as a lab experiment? After all, Kabbalah is a purely practical science; it doesn’t philosophize, nor does it tell us how many angels govern the heavens and where a person goes after he or she dies. No, a person receives a chance to reveal his next state of existence here and now.

How do we achieve it? How do we find equilibrium between the forces of reception and bestowal in order to uncover the upper world, spiritual life, our soul? We have an opportunity to put it into practice. Even if I have only one friend, together we can construct a system of mutual connection between us that will allow us to attain the human degree, which is higher than the animate level of development at which I presently exist.

What makes me feel alive today? I was born from a mother of an animate degree as well, and I was raised in the “animate setting.” As a baby, I suckled milk; then I started to walk, grew in size, and stepped into the world. What are the criteria of human, not animate, growth?

When my friend and I, despite our egoism that pushes us apart, rise above it, the level we pass through while doing so is regarded as the Machsom (Hebrew for “barrier”), which enables me to stop thinking about and be free from myself. This is when I stop being a slave to my desires who keep chasing the bait, unable to resist.

This ascent is regarded as “spiritual birth.” It is then followed by the periods of nurturing, childhood, and maturity, all of which are stages of spiritual growth. Today we view ourselves as mature, important, and “right,” but such a view is purely corporeal. If we look through the glasses that filter all but the spiritual picture, it would look blank. Spiritually, we don’t yet exist. We are yet to enter the stage of spiritual conception and be born into the spiritual world.
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From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: The prophet conditions peace in the whole world with the filling of the whole world with the knowledge of God.

Thus, the solution to problems in the world is “the knowledge of the Creator.” Until the whole world, from the smallest to the greatest, according to their fully disclosed desires, is filled with the knowledge of the Creator, it will not reach perfection, peace, and contentment. Till then, there will always be forces that agitate, shake up, and push the world to be filled with the knowledge of the Creator, a state where the Creator fulfills His creation.

Our eyes can see how the unhappy patient writhes and squirms from the unbearable human  pains. After all, humanity has already thrown itself to the extreme right, as in Germany, or to the extreme left, as in Russia, but not only did they not ease the situation for themselves, they have worsened the malady and agony, and the voices rise up to the sky, as we all know.

What our mind suggests is not going to help at this point since we always deflect to the right or left. At times, we keep holding on to the middle line, but usually only while moving from one extreme to the other. Consequently, we end up in one trouble after another, and there is no way out until we know the Creator.

The “knowledge of the Creator” points at the correction of our desires so that they are fit to become the vessel for knowledge (Daat), meaning to become filled with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) with the illumination of Hochma (Wisdom), as Sefirot Hochma (“wisdom”), Bina (“understanding”), and Daat (“knowledge”), HBD.

Question: How is the world going to get filled with the knowledge of the Creator?

Answer: People will start learning how to bestow to all, while existing with everyone together in a global, integral, and analog system, where we yield to each other, are bonded and integrated into each other, where mutual bestowal and even love rule.

Until we unify into this kind of system where everyone feels the collective desire of all and strives to fulfill and service it, like a cell in the body, we won’t come to perfection. Till then, misfortunes will keep increasing and pushing us toward this perfection.

This is what we call “the knowledge of the Creator”: Each of us becomes a vessel of knowledge. Zeir Anpin and Nukva ascend to Hochma and Bina and receive from them fulfillment, according to the desire they have raised. Hence, they are regarded as “the vessel of knowledge.” They reach the degree of “adulthood” and, together with the parental Partzuf of Aba ve Ima, transform into HBD.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: In the upcoming conventions, if we wish the Creator to be revealed, what should we be asking for?

Answer: The Creator’s revelation is love and bestowal that unfold between human beings. Within this property, we find its source, the upper force that created us, and feel it inside ourselves.

Hence, the Creator’s name is “Boreh,” meaning “Bo uh Reh” or “come and see,” discover. You discover Him within yourself, in your reformed properties. They serve as a screen, a monitor, where you can find your world.
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From the Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah 5/29/2011

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Question: What do I need to do in order to be one hundred percent successful at the convention?

Answer: You can be totally successful only by way of thought! “I am a part of this along with the others. I want to unite with them all. I realize that in my bond with the others, within this connection, I will discover all spiritual degrees, worlds, and my spiritual states. If I unify with the others completely, I will come to the total correction or, at least, a partial one on the path (if I haven’t fully connected with others yet).”

But all that has to do with spirituality unfolds in the connection between people. Moreover, this bond must be based on bestowal. This means that it appears in a person only when he or she is tuned into it correctly: myself, the group, and the studies of our properties described in a Kabbalistic book.
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From the Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah 5/29/2011

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Question: How can I clarify whose desire I am serving?

Answer: If you do not internalize the desire of the group intentionally and consciously, you undoubtedly live by the orders of alien desires. You follow the orders of fashion, the directives set by the media, and everything else that reaches you from the four corners of the world: “Go there, think this way, buy this,” and so forth.

Only one desire is your own: It is when you appeal to the group and want to receive the desire from your friends. In this case, you are the one who chooses their desire, and it leads you to the revelation of your soul.

Apart from this, you never have your own desire. Only the Creator has an authentic desire that has originated in itself and has never been in anybody else. Our desires always come from outside.

Therefore, my choice is in deciding what desire I give the right of voice: a vain trend or a particular desire of a particular group, which is aimed at a particular direction. I put forth my efforts in order to become permeated with this desire and to work according to it. This is my only choice. The desire itself is never mine originally: It is either brought by the winds of the world or acquired from the group, from the correct environment.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Focus On The Essence
The Upper Thought Is Bestowal
Having The Upper One’s Head On Your Shoulders

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Question: What is bestowal?

Answer: Bestowal is called the state when I accept your desires as mine and begin to fulfill them. In other words, my desire exists solely to generate fulfillment for your desire. This means that in relation to you, I perform the action of bestowal, that I love you.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we study that in the entire reality there are only two components: desire and fulfillment. Thus, the still, vegetative, and animate natures are created. Our cells, molecules, atoms, thoughts, and force fields act from the desire (the need for fulfillment) to fulfillment.

This is manifested at different levels: biological, physical, in thoughts and desires. There is nothing in nature apart from deficiency and fulfillment. So, if I turn myself into a device of your fulfillment, this means that I bestow to you.

Thereby, we unite: I connect with you, and you can do the same in relation to me. We build the place between ourselves in which we can reveal the upper Light, the ultimate fulfillment: you from me and me from you. This is called the sensation of spiritual life.
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From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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Bestowal For The Sake Of Bestowal: A Clean-Up State
Bestowal: To Live In The Other
Bestowal Has A Thousand Names

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The purpose of creation is to become similar to the Creator. This is the meaning of the words “to do good to His creatures.” How can the creature become similar to the Creator? What does this similarity entail?

First of all, you should want this. How do you start wanting? You have to be opposite to the Creator and wish to become similar to Him. This is a desire: I do not have what I want, but I strongly desire to get what I do not have.

The Creator is good and does good to the bad and the good; He is love and bestowal, the property of Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod…. There are plenty of qualities that I do not understand, but I have the opportunity, the need, and the desire that corresponds to each of them, to want them.

The Creator has 613 properties of bestowal. I have (although I have not discovered that yet) 613 desires enabling me to want the same properties as the 613 properties or Lights of the Creator. I have to reach these desires; I want to become similar to the Creator in each of them. It is said about it: “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.”

However, to want that, I have to know what I am lacking. But how can I know what I do not have? To understand what it is to be a grown up, I have to become one. To understand how to be strong, rich, or wise, I have to know about that firsthand. Could I wish what is unknown to me?

In our world, a child wants to grow up instinctively, without knowing why, which is because nature obliges him to grow, bypassing his understanding. This development takes place on the animate level; however, in spirituality, I myself have to know why and for what I want. This is a real desire.

How can I start desiring similarity to the Creator? To do that, I have to attain the status of the Creator, to verify what it is, whether it is worth it or not, and then desire it. How can I attain the status of the Creator so that I want to become similar to Him?

For this purpose, the breaking of the vessels took place. Thanks to it, we strive to be similar to the Creator, more and more, and become like Him by means of His force. That is why the destruction of the First and the Second Temples were necessary, which the science of Kabbalah studies in the spiritual context of the breaking of the vessels. We are talking about the fall from the level of reception for the sake of bestowal (the First Temple) to the level of bestowal for the sake of bestowal (the Second Temple), and then to the level of reception for the sake of reception, into this world.

As a result, we have a record of all the states that we went through, starting with the level of the First Temple, from the height of love, and including the Second Temple, which is much lower than the First Temple, yet it is still great. All the impressions which were acquired on this path are ingrained in us and are called “Reshimot.”

When they awaken in me, I have to realize them. In other words, one Reshimo is not enough; through it, I have to imagine what it means to be a giver. To do this, I have the group and studying: In them, I realize my Reshimo and from it, to the extent of my strength, form a reality.

Relationships with the friends, with the environment, with the Light that Reforms become a “construction site.” I have “material,” meaning a desire as well as a Reshimo, and now I want to introduce this Reshimo into material so that it realizes itself there and gives it material form. Then, I need the force from Above, the force of the Light, that will help me and will carry this out.

Rabash writes about this in article No. 940 from the collection Dargot HaSulam (Rungs of the Ladder): “It is said on the destruction of the Temple: ‘Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” This means: Build me a Temple from your desire, build such a house which will become the house of holiness, of bestowal and love. If you have such a vessel of bestowal and love, “I may dwell among them,” meaning the upper Light will settle in it.

“We are talking about the point in the heart that should become the place of the Temple so that the Light of the Creator will dwell in it. That is why a person has to try to build his house of sanctity.” From all my desires that are originating from Infinity with the help of the Reshimot embedded in me during the breaking, I have to build the correct form, each time realizing my Reshimo from heavier material.

This will give me all the necessary details of perception because I always get the form opposite to the Creator. Thus, knowing my form, I am able to perceive His form opposite to mine and move forward.

In such a way, in our world a person already has forms corresponding and opposing the Creator. In this gap between the desired and the actual states, a person always has an opportunity to build his desire, knowing what he wants. It’s possible because once, before the breaking of the vessels, we existed in a perfect state from which the Reshimot were left in us.

This is the answer to the eternal question: “How can I become similar to the Creator? How do I know what this means?” We may wish this because of the records kept in us from the stages we went through.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Feeling hatred towards others, I feel as if an “animal” is hidden inside me, which is stronger than me. How can I gain power over this “animal”?

Answer: Gaining power over our ego is possible only under one condition: that we see how much we lose because of that “animal” that controls us. We are ruled by our ego, and it does not allow us to achieve an eternal, perfect life in a good, kind world.

If I saw how much my ego steals from me, how much it has taken from me and does not give me, then I would hate it. But I do not hate it and I even love it; I identify myself with it because my entire life is, in fact, to fulfill it. How can I feel that my ego is death for me?

The most important thing that I can do is to enter the group, the environment, so that it raises the importance of spirituality for me, the importance of bestowal and unity with others because thanks to this in particular I reveal life at the human level. If I am impressed by the environment and it can influence me, then I attain enough strength to overcome my ego.

All our work and efforts are necessary to reach the realization of evil, our egoistic desire. Today, it seems useful for me: The more I desire, the more I earn, gain power, or steal. More, more, more…. In our society, those who have a big ego appear to be more successful.

I have to convince myself that obtaining a good life in this world deprives me of a spiritual, beautiful life and lies to me by depicting a good life here, in this world. This is only possible in an environment that can “brainwash me,” influence me, persuade me. The opinion of the environment can work on me so much that I want to rise above the power of my egoism.

Then, I will begin to experience life at a different level which I did not feel before. It happens instantly; there is no transition. I immediately feel that there is life outside of me, not inside me, when I constantly wanted to fill myself as much as possible. On the contrary, I sense life when I exit this “animal” which cannot absorb anything.

By doing this first step, I reveal the upper world right away. What is “the upper world?” The reality where I live now is called “this world.” But the reality which I feel outside of myself, in the connection with my friend, with a fellow human being, is called “the upper world” because it is the human level which is more exalted than the animate one.
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From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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Question: Where does our connection lie in regard to the spiritual records, the Reshimot?

Answer: What I draw from the environment is a new desire with which I appeal to the Light. This desire is what we call the need to connect.

The stronger our bond is, the higher we rise on the ladder of the spiritual worlds, getting closer together, uniting, and linking with one another up to Infinity where everything is unified. There, we become one soul.

Everyone’s individual soul depends upon the degree of integral connection he or she has attained. For instance, I see just a small part of what surrounds me, and that is what defines my soul, while you have revealed something much greater beside you, and it probably includes me as well. Everyone works with his or her soul until every desire links into one soul.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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