Rabash, “What Is the Foundation that Sanctity Is Built Upon”:  When building a building in corporeality, we see that anyone who wants to build a building must first dig the foundations, and on the foundation he builds the building. The digging of the foundation into the ground should be according to the height of the building. The foundation is not dug at once. Rather, each day the foundation is built so that it will be deeper, and then one can build a higher building….

And since his whole construction is built on above reason, the digging is sealed again, meaning that his need disappears again and he has nothing to ask; that is, he has no need for the Creator to bring him closer. Thus, he must start digging again, meaning to work in order to find a deficiency, so he will have a basis upon which to ask the Creator to build his building.

Question: Does a person build a new world every day?

Answer: He does it with each moment. As a matter of fact, “day” is any opportunity used for advancement. If such opportunities arise only when the person feels illuminated, then he has the day and the night. However, the Psalms say: “The day is yours, and the night is yours.” Let the night also feel like the day to us, the place where we can work and advance.

In the darkness, a sensation of no light and no desire, when a person is tangled and keeps stumbling over obstacles within himself, he has to understand that he is receiving new desires at the moment, desires that he hadn’t worked with before. They too must be tied to the goal.

This means that we have to welcome the events with joy: I must be really strong if the Surrounding Light evokes in me deeper layers of desires that I can place in the foundation of my building. Having completed this foundation, I will reach the first spiritual degree.

Hence, I must strive to see all instants of my life as “days.” And it does not matter what sensations I am experiencing, bitter or sweet. If I always aspire to the truth, I will see everything as day.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, ““What is the Foundation that Sanctity is Built Upon”

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Question: We have decided that at the upcoming Convention we are going for “all-or-nothing.” Where is that “bank” we are going to storm, and, most importantly, where is the key to unlock it?

Answer: The “bank” is in the heavens. But it can be reached. It is the property of Bina, bestowal. And the key to it lies in the unity between us. In our unification, we will discover the true treasure, which is not a safe but an attribute with the help of which all treasuries of the world can be unlocked!

We will unlock the “bank” on one condition: that we will unify among us. In our oneness, it will be revealed at once. This is the wonder of spirituality: The Light starts illuminating as soon as we reach the first degree of equivalence to it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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Don’t try to make an animal out of a person and to lock the spiritual world into a mechanical scheme. It is a world full of adventures and uncertainties that are revealed along the way, and you suddenly see that it was not like you thought, and maybe even quite the opposite.

When the connection between phenomena is revealed on a more inner level, you perform a complete “upgrade” (new installation) on your whole “program.” You see that you can now use new instruments (Kelim), new connections. Obviously, the foundation – the Creator, the creature, the process of development with the help of the Surrounding Light, the desires of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) and AHP, and greater unification of souls – remains unchanged. However, specific phenomena could be completely opposite.

Suddenly I reveal completely new connections in the same desire for bestowal, at a greater depth (Aviut or coarseness). I didn’t think that my enemy on the present degree would turn out to be my dear friend on a higher degree. But on a higher degree I hug Haman because this complete criminal becomes a holy individual. How can it be that on a lower degree he is my greatest enemy to whom I cannot come closer, and on a higher degree I merge with him?

 If two Kabbalists are on these degrees, although both degrees are spiritual, they will not agree with each other! How can you love my enemy? Then you and I cannot be friends!

For a person who achieves the final connection (Gmar Tikkun), Haman, Hitler, Ahmaninejad, and all other misanthropes are forces of holiness. You hated them on the previous degrees, and on a higher degree you reconcile with them.

The whole problem is that we are unable to connect two opposites with our limited minds. How can an electron be a wave and a particle at the same time, and how can a particle be in different places simultaneously? Even more so we fail to understand how above this, in the spiritual world, everything consists of two opposites that exist together: the angel of death and the angel of holiness, the Creator and Pharaoh.

We cannot understand this with our corporeal minds, and we wish to hear which of these two opposite answers is correct, while actually they both are true. And the spiritual world, the Creator, is revealed precisely at the unification of opposites.
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From the 3rd  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

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Question: If a Kabbalist sees the real, spiritual world, how can he experience any doubts or even mistakes?

Answer: The spiritual world is not inserted into the lifeless scheme that is revealed in a ready form before you. The original spiritual data (Reshimot) manifest within you, and you build your attitude that is full of bestowal to those that surround you: the group and the Creator. The right attitude forms the Upper World within you.

Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that a Kabbalist in the spiritual world can experience doubts, theories, and hypotheses, like a scientist in our world. After all, it is precisely due to the unclarities and their elucidation that we develop.

I am always doubtful, and I already know from experience that I understand better today what occurred yesterday when I may have erred. Overall, any degree is attained only from the degree above it because it is born from and controlled by the higher degree. Every day one understands the Creator better, as it is said by one great Kabbalist: “Every day I have a new Creator!”
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From the 3rd  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

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“And the children struggled together within her” (Genesis, 25:22). This refers to intentions. The Creator created the desire to enjoy and no changes have occurred within it whatsoever.

In order to help us become independent, however, the desire to enjoy has been concealed from us. It becomes revealed within us (although we feel that it happens in front of us) to the extent that we are able to cope with it.

To “cope with a desire” means to replace Esau, an egoistic intention that originates from the wrong environment, with Jacob, an altruistic intention that is produced inside the right environment. Choosing the correct environment is the only choice. The desire itself remains intact.

In order to correct, let’s say, 10 ounces of egoistic desire that emerges within me, I use all sorts of remedies that are given to me from Above. I transition from the wrong environment to the right one and thus expose myself to the influence of the group, the books, and the teacher until they turn into the Creator for me. In other words, I see the Upper Force behind them and start to understand that there is no one beside the Creator.

Due to the environment and my ability to see the Creator through it, I am able to modify my intention. Previously, I received and bestowed for the sake of receiving, but now I am able to apply a restriction (Tzimtzum) to my intention, which means that I can also apply it to the desire that “acts under” this intention. With the Light’s help, I begin to bestow for the sake of bestowal, and later on I am able to receive for the sake of bestowal.

Each desire has two intentions: to receive for its own sake or to bestow to the friends. This is the reason for the fight, and the decisive role in it is given to the environment. How does Esau or Jacob wake up within me? Are my intentions for the sake of receiving or for the sake of bestowal? Both of them fight over one desire inside one person, “they struggle within him.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/1o, “And the Children Racketed Within Her”

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Our world is egoistic. Everything here is based on egoism, authority, status, and power. That’s why a woman plays a secondary role in this world.

A man enjoys more power and independence than a woman. He is not as attached to his house and children. He conquers space, discovers continents; his imagination and enthusiasm are stronger, and he is more passionate in playing games. Men go “wild” in this world.

A woman, by nature, is more moderate and represents a more serious force. She balances out this world, she embodies the power of a household and family. From the point of view of continuation of the human race, she is the most important part of nature.

But since our world is egoistic and aggressive, men who possess strength, freedom, and ability to break through usually hold positions that they don’t deserve. Consequently, they define many things in this world, whereas women treat them with lenience and compliance.

This applies to everything: religion, science, everyday life, career advancement, and salary. Men leave to women only those places that they are not interested in. This is how unfairly our egoistic world is built.

But the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about a totally different (reverse) reality where everything is governed by the force of bestowal and love that evens out all dissimilarities and contradictions. We have to give weight to everything which is worthy of it. This is what nature, harmony, and perfection demand from us, not to mention the wisdom of Kabbalah.

If we transition from receiving to bestowal, we will see a reverse world in which a woman (Malchut which translates as “Kingdom”) occupies an essential place. She is the one who rules!

It is derived from the structure of the spiritual worlds. A woman (Malchut) is positioned in the core of all the worlds, and everything there is exists only for her sake since she is the one who gives birth and develops a new world.

That’s why only with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah a woman can reach her genuine purpose and attain an adequate and fair status that she naturally deserves.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Men and Women” 10/14/10

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Question: There is a famous prayer that states “I thank you for not making me a woman.” A woman rightfully asks, “Why doesn’t it say, ‘thank you for not making me a man?’”

Answer: This prayer is about the force of overcoming. When a person surmounts his evil inclination, he blesses the Creator for giving him the force of overcoming. We are all (men as well as women) under the influence of the female part, in the power of the lack. A woman is “Nekev,” “Nekeva,” “Nukva,” which means emptiness, need, or the place of a lack.

Meanwhile, men experience the sensation of a lack not less than women, and they feel an even greater emptiness. Therefore, if we are talking about spiritual correction, each of us (a man or a woman) who can conquer our egoistic desire, gives thanks for the fact that we have become worthy of this analysis and correction, that we can rise above our egoism, unite with others, and reach adhesion and revelation of the Creator.

We reach the corrections where men and women go through the same stages. Women who advance with us on the spiritual path go through the same states, ascents and descents, unification, and clarification like men. Due to their nature, we don’t feel the same kind of explosions in them as men experience, but nonetheless they go through the same processes. They understand us perfectly, study the same material, absorb and realize it.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, "Men and Women" 10/14/10

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, p. 37, Item 1: This line is similar to a thin tube through which the Light from the Upper Light of Infinity expands and passes into the worlds, into the place where the void exists.

I recommend visualizing not some geometric forms such as a line and a circle, but a relationship between the two objects. I visualize two properties, the connection of which may be achieved through a circle (without limits) and by means of a line (with limits).

Let’s take, for instance, a relationship between two people. The connection between them may be in the form of circles or straight lines. Therefore, try not to paint these relationships in a geometrical form but rather, visualize them by way of emotion.

Question: What does it mean to relate to the friends by through a circle?

Answer: Whose desire prevails, mine or the friends’? After all, we are talking about desires and restrictions over them, aren’t we? The Light of Abundance is present in and fills everything. It all depends on the desire: to what extent you round and straighten it. Hence, in accordance with this, make a decision about how you relate to the others.

If their desires determine everything for you, then you accept them in such a form as not to judge their actions and deeds, which means that you are filling the circle. With what are you filling it? You are filling it with your attitude. Your attitude can be either through a straight line or a circle.

And if it is really so, it might be that you both turn into two circles or even one, if one lies over the other. The key for now is to keep trying to translate these meanings into feelings.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, TES

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Question: What is the difference between personal joy and the joy of many?

Answer: The joy of many is positive, beneficial, and easily achieved. We are talking about spiritual joy, of course, which exists above time, increases in pleasure, and does not disappear.

The joy of many occurs when I fill everyone else, and each of them fills the others and me. In this manner we intensify our fulfillment and joy within each person. I delight in the joy of others, they delight in my joy, and, together, we multiply our inspiration and reach a Light that is 620 times more powerful than the Light at the beginning of creation. We can receive all this and enjoy it in our world.

Due to an event like the Convention, in the connection between us we reveal such a Light, such a spiritual power, and joy that we will reach the level of Infinity! And one must reveal this during his lifetime.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, "Happiness" 10/28/10

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Mankind as a whole and each person individually can be divided into the following three types of desires:

1. Those who are indifferent to spirituality and remain at the animate level of existence. They relate to others only in order the find the most comfortable and pleasant way of interaction. These people don’t step beyond the “I versus environment” calculation.

2. The second type are the religious and those who believe in being rewarded for “good” deeds according to their standards. Faith and philosophy don’t matter to them: Some fear the police and others fear the Creator. They both seek reward from their environment, but the religious expect to be rewarded in the future world as well. They are receivers of payment one way or the other, and each one defines for himself the optimal reward expected at a given moment.

These people do not have the slightest intention to correct themselves, and therefore they have no relationship with the Creator. They simply practice psychological self-help, expecting to receive in the future world in exchange for certain actions they perform in this world.

They are willing to pay and suffer many hardships in this world in order to collect a handsome reward which they were told awaits the righteous when they die. They believe the elation and paradise that they will feel in the future is even worth dying for.

3. The Kabbalists are the ones who understand that everything mentioned above is a lie and it doesn’t work, that the principle of “do something and be rewarded” doesn’t work in a relationship with the Creator. It doesn’t hold up when it is tested in the reality of life or human history.

At this stage, a person arrives at a more exalted goal: to know the purpose of life. He doesn’t care that much about reward or punishment (“sweet” or “bitter”); he wishes to dig deeper and reach the truth (“truth” or “false”). He may suffer and receive nothing for it, but the truth is the reward he seeks. Then a person does not measure himself according to how satisfied he feels or how bitter or sweet something seems, but by what is true or false.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/10, “The Creator and Israel Went Into Exile”

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