At the Convention we acquired a new sensation, and we now have to develop it. We feel that there is a wall before us and we have to break it with the help of the Upper Light, the Creator. He is precisely what we lack. Let Him say, “Let us go to the Pharaoh.”

To do this it is necessary to understand, and most importantly to agree that we are breaking the wall in order to give pleasure to Him instead of ourselves. We forget about the two most important aspects of the path:

1. The only way to advance forward is by means of His force.
2. We are advancing towards bestowal to the Creator.

All of this eludes me. For now I am thinking about myself instead of bestowal to the Creator. I try to break through the Machsom with my own forces rather than His. This way, the goal and the means are still locked inside my egoism.

Nevertheless, this is a good state because we start to understand the fundamental principles of spiritual advancement. A boundary emerged before us and we have to do something about it. It does not exist by itself, but constitutes a psychological barrier inside us. If we aim ourselves correctly, it will disappear.

The thought about the Creator’s benefit is opposite to my nature, and the friends also don’t have it. It lies precisely inside our unity. That is why we have to work on three aspects:

1. I am united with the group.
2. Together with the friends I have to define the right aspiration, which will enable us to break through the Machsom: By uniting, we elicit the force of the Creator.
3. All of this is in order to give Him pleasure or in other words, to attain unity with Him.

The common, unceasing care and worry must awaken everyone. This is the mutual guarantee; the group is not the faces of the friends, but the spiritual community which permeates every person with thoughts about the goal. We suddenly start to think about this and to desire it. When every person tries to build his desire into a line, then it expands across the whole world in circles, unbounded by any boundaries or distances.

Mutual guarantee means that I am responsible for the entire system in which the Creator has placed me. If I don’t hold on to the right thought, then at that moment everyone is thrown out of the right thought. By disconnecting, I stop providing for the common organism. Can the liver or kidneys go on vacation?

That is why I ask the world group to always think about the goal of creation, about bestowal to the Creator. Then I won’t lose the connection no matter where I am.
[27265]
From the lesson on 11/20/10

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Question: What is meant by “prohibitory commandments” and “positive commandments” which are described in The Zohar, and what is the difference in their correction?

Answer: “Prohibitory commandments” means “do not do,” meaning that you need to refrain from using your specific desire to receive pleasure. We are talking about an egoistic desire which a person strives to use in order to receive the pleasure that stands opposite to this desire. And if there is no pleasure against the desire, I do not feel this desire although it exists in me.

However, we are talking about the desires that awaken in us, against which there are Lights that bring pleasures. We need to somehow refrain from using these desires, separate or “freeze” them. This is called “prohibitory commandments.”

I need to activate many forces for this. But what forces? Not using a desire does not mean that I hold myself back. In the material world I wish to use a desire, but I slap my own hands so that I don’t touch it. However, I cannot do this in the spiritual world. In order not to use my desire, I need to place a higher value and significance against it.

After all, in the spiritual world, a transgression is determined based upon whether I wish to use the desire or not. I need to reach a state where I have a desire, and according to the desire I would like to use it. However, according to the significance and to the system of values, I don’t want it since I don’t bring pleasure to the Creator through it; on the contrary, I become more distant from Him.

It turns out that I have a desire, and against it the correction. I need to work on this correction instead of just holding myself back and not using a desire, like in this world. I need to work on the desire itself so that there will be a screen over it, meaning the significance of the fact that I do not work with it on the level of the desire.

Therefore, our whole work on the desires consists of the system of values: how important the Creator and the goal are in my eyes, how important it is to be similar to Him in qualities. Then I can refrain from using the desires, and this is “prohibitory commandments.”

This is great work on each desire: to develop significance against it in order not to use it. Then the importance of the Creator in my eyes exceeds the use of the desire and withstands it. This is called “prohibitory commandments.”

Then there is a more advanced stage when I can use the desires in order to bring pleasure to the Creator. I take these desires and reveal them. I already have several screens on them as well as a restriction not to work with them. I have a screen of bestowal for the sake of bestowal and a screen of receiving for the sake of bestowal.

Then I work with these desires in order to bring pleasure to the Creator. This is called “positive commandments.”
[26952]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, The Zohar

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Aspiration separates us from the Creator, makes us similar to Him, and turns us into human beings. After all, the Creator created the desire as existence from absence and nothing else. The creature is expected to develop and add its own desire to the Light, bestowal, unity, and love, which are properties inherent to the Creator.

The desire that the creature adds to what was given to it by nature (the desire to enjoy, to know) is called aspiration (Hishtokekut). It is precisely it that we refer to as “I”: I attain my desire. My independence over my desire that was created by the Creator is measured according to this aspiration: What do I aspire to, how do I develop my aspiration, where do I get the additional desire?

In order to help the creature, the Creator broke the unified desire that He had created into many pieces, and He included His spark, His quality, which is referred to as a point in the heart, in every piece. This is why everyone has the desire to receive pleasure and a spark of aspiration toward something higher. And since both come from the Creator, we cannot say that “I” exist.

So where can I get the additional desire, according to which we exist at all? I can get it from uniting with other people, when I accept their desires and connect them to myself!

When I do this against my nature, resisting and fighting it, putting my effort into it, and overcoming obstacles, then the connected parts (the close and the far) are considered to be created by me. They strengthen my desire for the goal and are called aspiration. Only according to the volume of aspiration can we say that I exist, that I am independent, and that I can feel things because I create this desire by adding another’s deficiency to me.

This is why it is the aspiration and not just the desire that comprise the Kli of reception of pleasure and revelation of the Creator. Desire is matter created by the Creator, while aspiration in a form of matter that I add: whatever I want from this matter, on which level, and in what volume.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Yearning” 11/15/10

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Our unification has to take place at a quantitatively new level. We need to unite in a way where everyone internally engages inside all the others, leaving his egoistic desire outside. He must only bring his yearning for spirituality, called the spark of Light.

With this spark, he dives into the group, disconnecting from his emotions and everything else that doesn’t belong. As a result, all the sparks of all people merge together.

This detachment allows me to get to know the collective will to receive pleasure that resides outside of my ego, and in it I discover the ability to perceive the Upper World and the Creator.
[27091]
From the lesson on Rabash’s article on 11/05/10

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Work in the group takes place in two planes: 1. the greatness of the group, the friends, or the Creator (which is the same thing), and 2. your own insignificance compared to the group and the Creator. If I orient myself in this manner, then I receive the right desire, which enables me to cancel myself and become part of the group.

The moment I really become part of it as just one point, I begin to feel that I am a spiritual embryo immersed in the Light that fills the group.
The faces of the friends that we see around us are not called a “group.” The group is the common desire of souls united with each other and given to me as the place where I meet the Creator. I have to work in relation to this “place” because I am a desire or vessel, and this place is the desire or vessel that I work with in order to become part of it, to adhere to it and expand myself. I can work with it because we have the same nature!

However, I cannot work with the Creator because He is Light. He is the quality I reveal inside of our common vessel (the “place”) to the degree I enter it and participate in it. Right now this place appears to me as filled by separate particles (souls). But if I saw the true state inside, I would see all of them as special souls and spiritual Partzufim united by one connecting net, one desire.

I have to correct my attitude to them in order to seem them as connected, and that constitutes my correction! The group is Malchut of the World of Infinity. There is not a person in the world who isn’t connected with others and is not at the End of Correction.

However, right now I see a different world due to my uncorrected vision, as it is written, “Every person judges to the extent of his own flaws.” When I demand greater inspiration and energy to advance from them, I am turning to my own reflection in the mirror!

The Creator has arranged the whole world we see in front of us in this way. It is a copy of me with which I work. To the degree I demand that the group work and unite, it influences me in response in the same way. In essence I work with myself, as if standing before a mirror and making different faces at myself!

It was in order to accomplish this that the Creator divided my perception of the world into me and everything outside of me so I would have the opportunity to work and attain the inner sensation. Otherwise I would never be able to feel Him. I wouldn’t even understand that something else can exist besides me.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Human nature is completely egoistic. That is why a person cannot transform it on his own and needs an outside power to change him. This power can be evoked only by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in the group.

“Indeed, I admit that this is a very difficult thing. One cannot change the nature of one’s own creation, which is only to receive for oneself, much less invert one’s nature from one extreme to the other, meaning to not receive anything for oneself, but rather act only to bestow.

Yet, this is why the Creator gave us Torah [the wisdom of Kabbalah] and Mitzvot [actions in the group], which we were commanded to do only in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator.” (Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Book of Zohar”)
[25907]

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Question: What is it that really unites us? Is it faith in the One who is Good and Does Good, this ideal by itself?

Answer: We are united by the Light. None of our ideals and nothing we created will work. Only if we ask the Light to unite us, it will do it. It’s one simple action — yes or no. Only the Light does it!

We are only able to reach the right request, and even that is difficult. This is our only opportunity — to discern our state, to understand what is good and what is bad, to correctly prepare for the next level, a state of greater bestowal where we are more connected together, and to ask the Light to bring us the force of bestowal.

However, when we aspire to unite with one another, we mustn’t see our unity as the goal, but as a means in order to bestow to the Creator. Don’t forget about the Host! At the end of the day, if you always think about your correction and your uncorrected qualities, if you are immersed in this all day long, thinking, “I have to unite with my friends! Why aren’t we united?! Am I uncorrected or are they?” What are you doing this for? You forget about the goal and think only about half of the work! You scream and fuss about, but you are worrying only about the means. But what is it that you want?

We forget that through our unity we must attain bestowal to the Host. There is the Creator and we have to reach the state of bestowal to Him by performing actions so He will enjoy us. This is why we unite.

The end of the action lies in the initial thought. You must always open your path from its final point. That is how everything is planned. Figure out exactly what you want to receive at the end. Then start writing down what phases have to precede it and what you need, such as forces, money, knowledge, and equipment. However, we are screaming at the middle of the path as if it were everything.

This is very important because otherwise we won’t attain even half of the path. Why? It’s because we receive the Light from the final point, from the Creator. That is why I cannot put half of the path as a goal right now. I can only take a small measure of the work as the goal: I want to attain 10 grams of unity among us in order to give the Creator 10 grams of pleasure. Great! Then you have a full action: Rosh (the beginning), Toch (the middle), and Sof (the end). This works.

But if you say: I want to put forth all my energy in order to unite with the group! Then you won’t receive anything because this is just one half. That is why Baal HaSulam explains in his article that Israel (those who aspire to the Creator), the Torah (Light), and the Creator have to be present in every state. Otherwise you veer off the path and don’t move towards the goal. Therefore, the end of the action has to be present in the initial thought.
[27153]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, The Zohar

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Question: In the book A Vision of Goodness, it is written: “And know that man has to study the four levels of PARDES: Pshat, Remez, Drush, Sod, and reincarnate until he fulfills them.” Do we really need to go through so many reincarnations until we learn the entire PARDES (the simple explanation, the allegory, the hint, and the secret), in order to reach the end of correction?

Answer: We need to reach “Pshat,” the simple explanation of the Torah. So far we have been studying “Sod,” the hidden, secret meaning. “Sod” means that I am studying, but I understand nothing; it is a secret to me.

When the secret becomes slightly clearer, it turns into “Remez” (a hint), then into “Drush” (the allegorical explanation, an allegory), and then into “Pshat” (a simple explanation). There are four worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut. Right now I am studying the entrance into the World of Assiya; I still do not understand anything, and this means that I am studying the secret, “Sod.”

Once I transition from the World of Assiya into a higher world, the World of Yetzira, I will study “Drush.” In the World of Beria I will study “Remez,” and in the World of Atzilut “Pshat.”

“Pshat” is the greatest attainment, when there is no concealment at all, and everything is clear, open, simple, and obvious. All the Lights fill all the Kelim (vessels), I know and understand everything!

Every person needs to attain this in his or her soul, but on his own level, until his complete correction.
[26779]
From Lesson 3, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Question: How do we resume the aspiration for spirituality after the Convention?

Answer: At the Convention you felt an obstacle that is getting in your way – Pharaoh. This was the first time you encountered it and you understood what the ten plagues are: We want to achieve the connection with others, but we are being pushed back.

Now we need to understand that in response to the blow that we received, we must develop our own desire equal to the force of rejection. This only comes through unity with the friends while studying, where our study becomes an appeal for the unity of desires.

We already have a deficiency and impression from the collision with egoism (Pharaoh), the egoism that separates me from spirituality. It’s as if I literally hit a wall that’s between myself and the Upper World, and this wall is that potential negative force that has pushed me back.

I received a blow, but I have to discern that I am egoism, and if I am able to rise above this blow through faith above reason and develop an opposite force, then I will advance into this structure, into the wall. Then the next blow will come, and so on, and this is how I will pass the Machsom (the barrier that separates us from spirituality), which has five levels of depth (Aviut) or ten Sefirot, just like any phenomenon in spirituality.

We have already begun this attack, and every time it will become clearer to us what we need to attain and what we need to fight. Now I need to distinguish the disappointment, pain, the blow, and the rejection in me, and instead of relating it to me, relate it to the Pharaoh within me.

When I am united with the group, the blow does not hit me, I am above the rejection and disappointment. This helps me distinguish the “I” who strives towards the Creator and the Pharaoh (the “I” in me).

But what should I do with the disappointment and helplessness? Ask the Creator for help! I finally need Him now, but not before. Before we used to think that we can attain unity with the group, the mutual guarantee, and the revelation on our own.

We never accepted the Creator as the third main force which does the entire work. That is what it is called: the Creator’s work (Avodat Hashem). We only evoke it.
[26782]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Yearning” 11/15/10

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The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride),” Item 130: “The correction of Yesod is Brit Milah (circumcision). Hence, it is said that the existence of the covenant is called “the work of our hands,” for we separate the Orlah (foreskin) from Yesod through the work of our hands. But this only concerns the period up to the end of correction.”

Until the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun) we operate within the ten Sefirot of our soul. First of all, we must cut Malchut off, meaning to exclude from operation the desire that cannot be corrected. Moreover, we cut desires until Yesod, and we only work with those Kelim that lay above it, to the extent of our ability to incorporate them into Bina.

This is the “union of circumcision”: We deactivate the desires that cannot be used until Gmar Tikkun. They will only be corrected at the end of correction. But we can receive Light for the sake of bestowal in all the other Kelim (vessels) from Keter to Yesod.

…as it is said: “From my flesh I shall see the Creator.” Specifically “from my flesh,” because every time man signs the covenant of this union, he sees the Creator there.

“From my flesh” means from the receiving Kelim. The bestowing Kelim are located above, until the middle of Tifferet, and the receiving Kelim that are called “flesh” and “skin” are located under them.

It is only possible to see the Creator, that is the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), in the receiving Kelim, but only on the level of the “flesh” (Basar). We do not even touch the “skin.” In other words, we stop at the third stage (flesh, meat, or Behina Gimel), and we do not engage the fourth stage (skin, Behina Dalet).

[26792]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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