Baal HaSulam, “The Love of the Creator and the Love for the Created Beings”: We should not be mistaken with deeds, for they are set before one’s eyes. We know that if we precede the needs of our own, it is bestowal. For that reason Hillel does not define the goal as “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might,” because they are indeed one and the same thing.

It is so because one should also love one’s friend with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, because that is the meaning of the words “as thyself.” After all, one certainly loves oneself with all one’s heart and soul and might, but with regards to the Creator, one may deceive oneself; and with one’s friend it is always spread out before his eyes.

We were given great help and a valuable chance to make the transition from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow in this world, meaning a state where we constantly see the corporeal reality, the corporeal desire to receive and all the boundaries that it depicts for us. Instead of the attempts to work with an attribute that is detached from us, which is the desire to bestow, we can work with what we actually discover, with what we can attain and feel, which is how another fellow being seems to us.

In other words, the spiritual world that is concealed from me appears before me in a corporeal form, and I am in contact with it. This allows me to change my attitude toward what I see and feel by mutually cooperating with the other. Together, we can reach such corrections so that through the corporeal world, in its depth, I will find the spiritual world.

Eventually, the attitude toward others and the attitude toward the Creator are the same thing, although if seems that these are two different things, they are actually the same thing. The more we discover spirituality, the more we see that it is totally “dressed” in corporeality.
[109021]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/03/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”: For this reason, we mustn’t underestimate the importance of the work in love of friends, for by that he will learn how to exit self-love and enter the path of love of others. And when he completes the work of love of friends, he will be able to be rewarded with love of the Creator.

We should know that there is a virtue to love of friends: one cannot deceive himself and say that he loves the friends, if in fact he doesn’t love them. Here he can examine whether he truly has love of friends or not. But with love of the Creator, one cannot examine oneself as to whether his intention is the love of the Creator, meaning that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, or his desire is to receive in order to receive.

You need to train yourself to evaluate the success of your spiritual advancement by how much you think it depends on the relationship with the environment. The environment is not just a means of our advancement towards the Creator, but precisely inside it, within our unified homogenous connection with each other, completely as equals, we will find the Creator.

If our entire attention is directed at the center of unification, we begin to understand that this environment is Shechina, Malchut of the world of Atzilut, the central point of creation, in which our advancement, spiritual birth, and growth must be realized. The entire spiritual life is perceived only in the center of the group. And depending upon how powerful the unification is that we are able to achieve, both in quantity and quality, by this we measure our ascent on the spiritual ladder and correct the whole of reality from the point of our soul.

All the work is in preparation so with the help of the Reforming Light we bring ourselves to the feeling that we fully depend on and get life only from the point of our connection with each other, which is the center of the entire universe. This is the point that we discover as “the eye of the needle,” and the common force of bestowal and love that is the Creator is revealed in it.

We become the helpers, friends of the Shechina and the Shochen; the Creator is revealed. Everything is only there. The main thing is to understand that all the accidents and troubles are caused by a lack of correct connection between us and to concentrate all our responses and efforts on strengthening our connection in this central point. When a person binds himself to the environment in this way, this connection becomes more sensitive, energetic, and unconditional; he already begins to advance correctly towards the revelation of Shechina, becoming its inseparable part.
[109285]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/13

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We must yearn to actually see the friend as the greatest in our generation, to actually feel it “within reason” as if it were the truth and not as it seems to a person’s desire to receive. The desire to receive always wants to feel good and comfortable and so it instinctively diminishes everything around it so as to be “on top.” The most important thing for it is to rule.

So accepting the thought about the need to connect with the friends as a means for reaching connection with the Creator is only possible in “faith above reason” since we certainly don’t see things as they really are. It’s only according to this minor external condition—that a person yearns for the same goal and is ready to accept all the necessary conditions to advance towards it—that we begin to relate to the other as a friend as a means of connecting to the Creator.

According to these external signs, we decide to start working on our attitude towards that person. If he is ready to work together we dismiss all the other demands of our ego and we get closer to that person and connect with him in order to actually discover the connection between us, not only in “faith above reason.”

To the extent that we actually communicate, we approach the building of the spiritual vessel in which the Creator is revealed. The connection can be “‘above reason” when I don’t see that the friend is “worth it,” but I still connect to him. I use it as a means, which is called the time of preparation when I respect the friends not because I see that they are great. According to my senses I feel that I am greater than them, but I work above my senses and don’t agree with them and imagine that the friends are greater.

In order to transcend from a state of “faith above reason” to the state of “within reason,” which means to truly respect the friends, I have to correct the vessels, my perception. The correction of the vessels is when we begin to work on the connection between us, despite the fact that we know the opposite. We establish a society in which everyone impresses the others with the feeling of the greatness of the group and the goal.

By working together, we draw the Light that Reforms, and eventually we move from “faith above reason to “within reason,” and thus we continue to rise. The next levels are more difficult, of course. First the friends seemed quite average, having some good sides and some bad sides. When I had to work “above reason,” I could easily do it and accept them as equal, as partners along the spiritual path and even as the greatest in our generation. Their goal seemed important, and they seemed great.

But then came the hardening of the heart and I began to see different flaws in them, it became difficult to accept them as great and to see the Creator behind them, to warm myself by the fact that I don’t pay attention to anyone except the friends who become the most precious of all for me. Thus, each time becomes more difficult until I manage to overcome these interruptions and fill my measure.

Then all my efforts of working “above reason” turn to “within reason” and become the right vessel in which the first revelation of the attribute of bestowal takes place, which means that a person is filled with the feeling of the Creator inside him. Thus “faith above reason” is a gradual process, as we ascend from one level to the next, but when we build our vessel we have to yearn to have it within reason as much as we can.
[109091]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 06/03/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What can make the heart be more sensitive to the Light that Reforms?

Answer: Only the Light that Reforms can make a heart more sensitive. Nothing else operates on the heart or advances it toward correction. The heart is a desire that responds to the Light that influences it.

Even our most corporeal desires to sleep or eat are a result of the influence of the Light that excites the vessels. We are in a sea of Light that is in an infinite frequency of vibration. This is called “absolute rest” with regard to the Creator since all His actions are aimed only at correction and this goal never changes.

Everything is managed according to one plan and therefore, it is called absolute rest since it advances all of creation toward the good and is inclined to your maximum goodness all the time. Thus, we say that the Light is in a state of absolute rest, although it performs endless actions. It constantly fixes and corrects something, but for the Light, it is rest. If you love someone, every opportunity to do something good for your loved one is pure pleasure, and for you, a state of rest. The Creator can give us goodness all the time, and thus He is in a state of absolute rest.

Everything is done by the Light. The Light shakes you and wants you to respond all the time. When you begin to respond to it, you can expect to act together. You will be like a couple, like a horse and his rider, both feeling this internality. You must try to attain such sensitivity.

On our part, we must have a deficiency to resemble the upper, to adhere to Him, and to cooperate with Him. He will operate on you according to your deficiency. He will evoke the deficiency in you, will check your response, and will continue to evoke a new deficiency, and so on. It is up to you to find out how you, with the help of the environment, can develop your sensitivity to what is happening in you.
[109001]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, The Zohar

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We see already in the ordinary experience of this life that the human being does not change. All the qualities with which he is born remain in him for life, only slightly adjusted depending on his understanding of which ones of them are more useful and which ones are not. In essence, as he was born so he will live and die.

Nothing can change us, and society, too, does not set the goal of changing the human being, knowing that we do not have the means. The change is possible only if a person has special properties that are subject to change, and these properties are not from this world.

These are spiritual properties from which I have just small, informational genes. Besides that, I am given a means for the realization of these genes: the environment through which I can attract the Light to my spiritual genes, which will develop and realize them correctly.

Thus, I will get spiritual properties in addition to my physical body and its sense organs through which I feel myself, the environment, and the entire world, feel that I am alive and exist. Thus, from my spiritual genes, due to the Light that Reforms, I can give birth to my spiritual body and grow it to feel a spiritual environment and spiritual life in it.

This is another, additional upper reality in addition to this world in which I exist now, regardless of my wish. All this development proceeds only by faith above reason because my opinion will always be based on my egoistic interest, and my egoism will never consent to spiritual development.

It is possible only if I raise myself above reason, understanding that there is no choice and society should oblige me through studies and the teacher’s instructions. I finally begin listening to his advice—the Surrounding Light gradually gives me the ability to hear. That is why I already am willing to bow my head, to bend my ego, my corporeal impulses, and begin to work against them.

Then I will have justify to myself: Why do I do this? Mere beautiful talks will not help here. I must develop my desire that draws the Light to itself. That is why I completely depend on the environment that can give me an additional desire. As much as I can bow down and make myself little with respect to the environment—play a child who devotedly listens to adults, restrict and bend my pride—to that extent I will be able to get higher values from them. For their realization, I will need the Light that Reforms, and thereby I will be able to advance.

All that work against one’s own natural, egoistic desire is called actions above reason. For the time being, these are corporeal actions in the group, and then I will begin to act in this way in spirituality.
[109007]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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The teacher stands in the front, he sees further ahead and guides the students. But if a student has his own ideas as to his development and the correction of the world, he is already his own teacher. He can remain a student and believe that the teacher is wrong about the direction of the development. He cannot receive the spiritual attainment from his teacher but can only receive theoretical knowledge, wisdom. Thus he doesn’t study Torah which is the means, the instructions of how to attain the attribute of bestowal; studying means being in contact with the upper by performing different actions. It has nothing to do with the mind, as it says, “It isn’t the wise who learns.” A student receives the force of bestowal from his teacher by his connection with him.

The force of bestowal is transmitted by an inner channel, since it isn’t philosophy nor theoretical science. So everyone can receive this force, both the most stupid and the most wise. Its transmission depends only on the necessary actions that each person performs toward the environment, submitting himself, raising his teacher, and connecting to the group so that the whole group connects to the teacher who represents the upper level, thereby receiving the correction from him. This is what happens on every level.

If a student ascends, his teacher also ascends with him, and if a student descends, then his teacher certainly descends with him. This is isn’t the teacher’s real state but how it’s depicted to the student; everything is with regard to the one who attains.

When a person only comes to study, he doesn’t understand all this at first. He has to wait until he begins to listen. It may take a couple of years, but when he finally begins to hear, the group must help him since otherwise it may take decades. The friends must explain to him that it’s impossible to attain spirituality unless it’s transmitted from one person to another and only if there is a connection between them and physical contact, which means that they can see, hear, feel, understand, and somehow impress one another, perform certain actions, be in contact, and be in mutual interaction. This is how it has been arranged for ages, and it cannot change since it’s a replica of the spiritual roots.

The wonder of the last level of this world is where by my corporeal actions I can bring Him contentment as I submit myself, connect to Him, adhere to Him by some corporeal assistance, and by that receive the spiritual revelation from Him. How is this possible? Yet I can make efforts on the level that I can do so since I cannot do anything else. In the meantime I don’t understand what bestowal is, I don’t have the intention of “in order to bestow,” but I can act on the corporeal level and it’s enough for the time being.
[109264]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/05/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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The group needs to be so strong that it can support a person and help him stand against the different opinions of the entire world, which inevitably reach him by penetrating him from everywhere, by all possible means, even by just being in the air. Therefore, he has to be under the influence of his group 24 hours a day, and it should be at least a bit stronger than the influence of the rest of the world. This is essential in order to nullify the corporeal influence of this world and its corporeal goals.

Besides, the environment has to impress a person with regard to the greatness and the importance of the spiritual goal, as opposed to a person’s own evil inclination. The society should be strong enough for that, and a person should submit himself before it and raise it in order to receive its influence as bestowal. It is only by the power he receives from the environment that he can ascend.

Thus, it is clear what type of work a person must do and how the society should work on him. Otherwise, a person has no chance of ascending since only through the group does he receive the power to rise.
[108800]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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If we want to understand The Book of Zohar, we have to imagine the relationships between us: how the intensity of the connection increases and decreases according to our actions and efforts. The network that ties us together is described in detail in TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot): Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut or the Partzufim of Atik, and Arich Anpin which is Keter, Abba and Ima, which is Hochma and Bina and ZON, which is Zeir Anpin and Malchut.

We are connected by this network, included in it. The clearer this network becomes, the higher we rise. The less clear it becomes, the lower we descend. This is how we operate.

So, all our work is to evoke the strongest connection possible with the ten Sefirot in which we exist. Then, each one will see himself as Malchut that operates all these ten Sefirot, until they all take on their final form, the form of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

So, TES and especially The Book of Zohar were written in order to evoke us to see that we are in Malchut of the upper system from which we want to evoke the whole system.

We are part of a network, and we must spur this network. Then, each one will be impressed and feel the other and thus, also will be able to examine and understand how to operate this whole system.
[108919]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13,, “The Book of Zohar, Introduction”

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Every letter that is described in the article “The Letters of Rabbi Hamnuna Saba“ indicates a certain word or action. The letter Mem stands for the word “king,” so why wasn’t the world created by this letter? It’s as if there is a difference between the correcting force and the state to which it brings the object it corrects.

Mem is the correcting force, Malchut (the kingdom) of the forces, the King stands for domination, and the world cannot exist without a king, which means without a correcting force that persistently advances the desire to receive to correction, to the desired state.

On the one hand, a king is a very high illumination in which the Light of Hochma and the Light of Hassadim that come from the head of Arich Anpin connect. But on the other hand, this illumination cannot dominate the world since it fills up the created beings. The created beings need freedom! Although there is a king and there is Malchut, their domination should be accepted gladly and willingly below, so that the people will want to resemble the king by their own freewill.

A king should not be a dictator and a tyrant, but a role model and a symbol that one should reach. This king rules, but his ruling is good and it attracts the people. Thus the king of Israel differs from the king of the nations of the world. The king of Israel is not an example of domination. He rules by his Holiness, by being great and sublime, corrected and whole and not by force.

He is very powerful but it’s a totally different power, different than other kings.
[109083]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 

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Baal HaSulam, “The Love of the Creator and the Love for the Created Beings”: If we can somehow reconcile the above text, here comes Hillel’s statement to the foreigner who came before him and asked to be converted, as it says in the Gemarah, “Convert me so that you will teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one leg.” He told him “That which you hate, do not do to your friend.” This is the entire Torah, and the rest means just go and study. We see that he told him that the entire Torah is the interpretation of the verse, “Love thy friend as thyself.”

We can correct all the corrupt desire to receive just by the right attitude toward the environment. I have all the necessary means that allow me to understand exactly what I am doing, to control and to adjust my attitude toward the friends, to get the right signs from them to check myself, and through them to get all the positive and negative forces that I need. In short, a person can correct all of reality by implementing the principle of “that which you hate, do not do to the other” on everything that the Creator has created. We don’t need anything but that.

Hillel’s condition is divided into two parts. One part is “negative,” which means that it requires self-discipline so as not to cause others harm or do evil to them. The other part requires the opposite: to guard the good of others. If another has a chance to attain something good and I prevent him from attaining it in some way, it means that I do unto him what I find hateful.

Thus, Hillel’s principle doesn’t only spread by actions that I initiate when I am full of love, trying to do my best to do something for the benefit of others.

The moment I begin to fulfill the condition of “that which you hate, do not do to your friend,” I immediately enter the business of the spiritual world, and it all becomes clearer to me. I begin to discover the connection between the different parts of reality, the general network, and in it, I discover the mutual relationship we study about in Talmut Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot). I learn to restrict myself and how to connect with others so that I can influence every state as much as I can.

I discover my connections with others, restrict myself in order to establish the right relationships with others, choose attributes I can use, and establish a balance of forces, thus reaching the union of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.

This is how Hillel actually demands that I do the spiritual work. It isn’t about giving charity or some gift to others, but about inner calculations regarding their true benefit.
[108927]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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