In order to build spiritual degrees, I need to add the matter of desire time after time. The height of every new degree corresponds to the heaviness of my current state in which the evil of egoism is revealed.

This happens in all the states on the spiritual path. In order to elevate me, I am given additional ego, and then I feel the evil. Afterwards, with the help of the environment, I recognize the evil and gradually cognize the fact that it does not occur incidentally. Then I try to relate it to the goal: It comes from the Creator who is good, and it is meant for my own benefit. Later, I begin to connect my state to bestowal, meaning that I elevate bestowal above reception.

Then gradually I build a vector, an attitude, from this evil. I raise the importance of bestowal and unification over the receiving desire. Thus, having formed this attitude, I rise to the next degree.

I stay on the new degree for a mere second, after which everything disappears. If during this second I do not find the next receiving desire in me, I will immediately descend. The crudest but must accurate example is sexual pleasure. As soon as it ends, I become completely empty, and I need to begin something new.

Therefore, when I rise to a degree of love and bestowal that I desire so greatly, I instantly need to reveal a new egoistic desire. It must be revealed in order for me to rise to the next degree This desire is already instilled in me in the form of Reshimot (informational records), and I only need to work with them. Otherwise, they will be revealed after a long period of time, after a few months, for example.

However, I seek for them now, in darkness. After all, the absence of changes is "night" for me. Even the best possible state turns to night if it is not renewed. Therefore, we constantly need to be ahead of events: Instead of just maintaining the speed, we need to accelerate it.

Thus I search for my new, even greater egoistic desire. I don’t "invent" it; I search for it. And when I find it, I repeat the same stages of work. In this manner, I work on the "bride," until I correct it completely and go on to the "groom’s festive meal." The method is simple: I raise bestowal above reception by working in faith above reason.

Every new degree "ruins" the previous one, turning faith into egoism, and I begin the ascent again. Meanwhile, it seems to me that I have lost everything that I achieved, but actually I correct a new portion of egoism according to the principle of passing degrees: "Keter of the lower one becomes Malchut of the upper one."
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/2011, “What is the Feast of the Groom”

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Question: Rabash writes that a person “should have faith.” What does this mean?

Answer: First of all, there is a notion of “faith in the sages.” This refers to the Kabbalists who completed the journey and left us the method.

They explain the method in a very logical manner and to the point, but for now we still have to believe their words. Granted, we do have a point in the heart, and we agree with them. Nevertheless, there is a place for faith here: I entrust myself to the insight of the upper one who has already acquired the experience.

Even a real, practical analysis does not eliminate a “spot of weakness,” something not very obvious, and I simply follow the upper one. I literally grab his hand and walk by his side. Baal HaSulam explains that one needs to find a teacher and “cling” to him in order to try to know him from the inside from the actions that he recommends.

This faith is essential. This is how a child believes an adult. Moreover, you only accept on faith the actions that he recommends, and you see that he is right thanks to this small and quick step.

It is not blind faith: You continuously lower your head in order to use his, to rise slightly and immediately confirm that he is right. In reality, it is not as much faith but study, an exercise, which can be immediately verified.

Overall, in Kabbalah, the notion of “faith” stands for the force of bestowal, whereas “knowledge” is the force of reception. We advance through these two forces.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What clarifications do I need to perform in order to advance spiritually?

Answer: Clarifications that we perform on our spiritual path come down to a single question: What exactly do I wish to reveal? All these clarifications occur when we listen to or study the material that describes the spiritual reality to us.

Thus, when I open the book in order to reveal the form, the picture of the spiritual reality and see myself in it, I perform the clarification by examining the following: Who am I relative to what becomes revealed to me?
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From the Introductory Lecture in Netanya 12/12/2010

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Question: The purpose of creation is basically clear to me. What I don’t understand is why did the Creator do it? What does He need me for? Why did He make it all this way?

Answer: He did it for two reasons: First, His nature is good who does good, meaning that He wished to give us infinite fulfillment above time, motion, space, and all limitations. Second, this fulfillment must be of the same degree as the Creator’s so that we would enjoy a status equal to His and be as He is. Yet we have to achieve this ourselves by having received independence and increasing our “self” to His level.

We still don’t comprehend how we can grow to such a status, but we will reach a position equal to the Creator’s and become equal to Him in everything. The force of love and good, which in fact is the Creator, obliges Him to create a being and lead it to perfection. In truth, however, we already are in this state of completeness since He initially created us as such.

He didn’t create us in this despicable form we find ourselves at the moment so that we would have to reconstruct ourselves anew. No, all we have to do is unveil our true condition. As to the Creator, we are still perfect in relation to Him.

If we don’t achieve this status independently, we won’t be able to experience the world of and life in Infinity. We could experience it right now, but since our Kelim (vessels, desires) are not developed, we perceive this world instead.
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From the Introductory Lecture “Why The Creator is Hidden” 12/14/2010

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Question: I have been studying at the “Kabbalah L’Am” (Kabbalah for All) campus for some time already, and now I am in such state that I don’t understand or feel anything.

Answer: The more a person studies, the more he enters a state when he feels and understands nothing. And then he overcomes this barrier.

It is a very interesting experience. It is written that at some point, Rabbi Shimon felt as a mere merchant, "Shimon from the market." That is, he felt as if all knowledge, perceptions, and impressions related to the wisdom of Kabbalah disappeared in him.

However, in correspondence with the darkness that enveloped him, he also felt the spiritual degree he was about to attain. After all, when a person is evolving spiritually, the gap between what he has achieved during the ascent and the place where he “falls” having lost everything is enormous.

Therefore, when you are surrounded by darkness, study it thoroughly and understand how it manifests; only this will help you. Examine what is happening, what feelings it instills in you, what you are desperate for, where you have no more emotional resources, and where you still do have some. This is what you have to clarify at the time of spiritual darkness. It is so-called “work in the night,” a period greatly valued by the sages of Kabbalah, as it is said: “To proclaim Thy mercy in the morning and Thy Truth in the night” (Psalm 92).

In other words, in the darkness, a person starts discerning what is going to be revealed to him since darkness is the reverse side of the Light. And when you don’t just sit and “eat” yourself but study the darkness correctly, the “morning” arrives and the Light illuminates everything. Hence, inside this darkness, a person has to see the Light, examine what it is he has to attain, and while still being in the dark, to feel that he is coming closer to it.

To be in the dark is a very rewarding job! It is a special state. This is how we are shown that we are unable to do anything ourselves. A person finally gets to know his true nature and realizes that without help from Above he is nothing.

If you are illuminated by the upper Light, you rise like a flower stretching up to the sun. And if there is no Light, you immediately fall.
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From the Introductory Lecture in North Tel Aviv 12/19/2010

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The speed of our development depends not only on us, but on the entire world as well. People whose points in the heart awaken are willing to unite; they are desperately trying to do it, but cannot because the world doesn’t feel the need for it yet.

We are not taken into consideration since we are an alien body in the world from the start. Spiritual sparks, sprinkled into egoism, exist solely to reform this egoism. They are the channels of the Torah, that very spice with the help of which all humanity, “the main dish,” has to reach the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun). And if this dish hasn’t been stewed enough yet, spices cannot be added to it in order to make the dish ready.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 12/23/2010

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We have to understand that our daily study is not for acquiring knowledge, but for development. Every lesson you attended, whether today, yesterday, or the day before yesterday, are phases of your development.

This is not a study of some article or a part of Talmud Eser Sefirot. By studying this material, you discern which levels you should develop through. Therefore, later on, over the course of the day, it is very important to remain inside of what you studied at the lesson.

You have to spend the whole day revolving around the hours when we meet at the lesson. It is necessary to work on the lesson and to process it, trying not to lose it, and by reading my blog. You have to process this material as much as possible. By doing so we already unite in our thoughts and find ourselves in our common, specific phase of development. This is very important since through it we already produce one common thought.

I saw that even Rabash did the same work: Over the course of the day he returned to the material that we studied in the morning. He also talked about it using the same words, recalling the article we read. This is good since it means that a person lives it, transferring it from his head to his heart.

Every day Rabash and I would go out for a stroll, and if I came a bit early I would find him sitting and reading or writing something that dealt with the morning lesson. Afterward, when we rode in a car, we only talked about the article or the part of Talmud Eser Sefirot that we studied at the lesson.

If he had to go to a doctor’s appointment, he took articles or a volume of Talmud Eser Sefirot with him, and while sitting in the waiting room we talked about it and studied it. Usually it was the same material that we had just studied in the morning.
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From the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot on 1/7/11

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Our goal is to return to the Creator. Everything is already “set for the feast,” but first we have to examine our path in order to find all the available means and understand how to use them correctly.

It is a given that there is nothing new neither in us, nor in the means that are prepared for our path, nor in the processes and phenomena that we will undergo during our ascent, or in their results. Our work is merely an analysis, discernment of the available means and a correct assemblage. It is as if we were given a broken device, and now we have to figure out what it should be like once repaired, and what is the order in which its parts must be assembled.

The wisdom necessary for this assembly also comes to us from the Creator. There is nothing new that can appear within us, as it is said: “There is nothing new under the sun.” All information comes to us from Above, and only one thing depends on us: to wish to carry out the correction process, which means to assemble all elements of creation.

Nothing is created accidentally or is designed to harm; everything has its place. Our only job is to connect all the elements in complete harmony, which is what we still need to learn. As a result, we gain something new: knowledge, attainment, perfection, the attitude of the “Good Who does good,” the Creator’s love towards us, His caring.

In the end, we become aware of our attainment, revelation. And all the steps on the path to this point are regarded as the stages of revelation of the upper governance, the Creator’s relationship with us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/2011, ““What is the Prohibition to Bless On An Empty Table in the Work”

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What is the Prohibition to Bless On An Empty Table in the Work”: One has to supply empty vessels so that the Creator could fill them with the upper abundance. This is called a “blessing.”

The spiritual path contains several stages, during which we learn how to properly combine, put together, all parts of reality. What desire do we need to prepare time after time so as to turn to the Creator with various demands: How do we find the means, manifest the attributes, and uncover our unity?

After all, we find that everything has already been prepared for us and is just waiting for our desire. Discoveries that we are making along the way only seem such to us. We call them stages of attainment, but in reality all spiritual degrees already exist, and all the states, including the final one, are predetermined.

Thus, by climbing the rungs of the ladder, coming back from the darkness and separation, and increasingly attaining the overall reality of the universe, we reveal reality only to ourselves. All the new attributes, details, ties, conjunctions, and parts are the manifestations of a new reality that protrudes in front of us out of darkness of concealment.

As a result, when a person sees what the Creator has prepared for him, he “blesses.” But that’s on condition that he feels what he has received in his new attributes. Having started from spiritual oblivion, he began to collect himself at the still, vegetative, and animal levels and was finally born into the light, each time combining two parts: a receiving desire and the attribute of bestowal which rules over him.

This is how one is moving forward: The two components, desire and intention, come to him from Above, and he just precedes them with his demand for them to be revealed, united, and fulfilled. All of that is coupled with a search for the aspiration to bestow in everything that goes beyond his “beastly,” material life.

However, wishing for bestowal isn’t enough; a person needs to receive for the sake of bestowal. This state is called “complete faith.” Until then a person has no opportunity “to bless” because he hasn’t yet received a blessing from the Creator. During the stages of correction the vessels (Kelim) are filled with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), and then the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) clothes into them. Only then does one come to a blessing.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/2011, ““What is the Prohibition to Bless On An Empty Table in the Work”

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Speaking of the Creator’s attitude to us, we use our lexicon and say that He is “merciful,” “angry,” and so on. Naturally, all of this exists only relative to us.

We don’t merit any transformations by the Creator. But to the extent that we ourselves change in relation to the unconditional, unchangeable, and ever-constant active law of “Good Who does Good,” we merit a reciprocal reaction.

I would be able to predict what this reaction will be if I were familiar with all the inner parameters of my soul, with the entire system and its conditions. Obviously, it is challenging to know everything. As pertains to us, however, the Creator doesn’t change. The force that fills all of nature and sustains all creation’s existence always treats us with absolute love, as the “Good Who does Good”; on its part, there aren’t any changes.

We ourselves trigger all reactions according to how much we change in relation to this law, how developed and similar to it we already have to be, and how capable or not we are to accomplish this. Besides, it depends on our collective influence of one person on all and all on one. This is what we are now discovering in our global world.

Yet we say that the Creator treats us well or badly, sometimes this way, other times another; we feel that there are good and bad times, holidays and so on. But none of it exists. All of this is defined by how a person attains. If I didn’t labor, I wouldn’t come to the state of correction since I didn’t reach this degree.

But why is it then that times still change while I don’t? It is so because I am linked with all other systems, other souls, and everybody must advance. Hence, the Reshimot (spiritual information genes) constantly unfold. If we actualize them correctly, we feel good, and if not, they get actualized by way of suffering, and we feel the evil. But only Reshimot emerge, while the Light that works on them is constant.

Also, the Light that we regard as “the Light that Reforms” or “the Surrounding Light” doesn’t change either. We are still in the same unchangeable system. But I aspire to the Light, and it affects me to the degree of my yearning. If I don’t, it doesn’t work on me. There is nothing that will change without my desire. And only relative to this desire do I experience transformation.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Donkey Driver”

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