Question: How can we become like the Creator whose property is to bestow, while having been created with the desire to receive and having forever remained with it?

Answer: If you begin to bestow to others through your desire to receive, you will only increase your bestowal.

There are two natures:
1. The Light = the Source of Light = the Creator = the Giver,
2. The desire = the receiver = the creature.

The creature always only receives, it can never give. When we read that the creature becomes like the Creator, this refers to “reception for the sake of bestowal,” meaning to receive and pass it on!

But I cannot pass the Light like an item can be passed in our world from one person to another. So how does this work? How can I give you something? I receive from the Creator and it cannot be any other way because I am the desire to receive pleasure.

The desire to receive cannot bestow; this does not exist in nature. Our nature only works to consume and absorb. This is a law of nature that cannot be broken. So how do I bestow to you, a stranger? A very special action takes place here.

The Surrounding Light comes from that same Creator, and this Light Reforms. This Light performs a correction and connects us together. And then I do not bestow to you, I receive, but I receive in your desires. This is what it means for me to bestow to you.

I connect the entire “body” of the collective soul to me, all of it becomes mine, and then I receive for it, but it is referred to as my bestowal to this “body.” This is the marvelous trick that happens here. When I perceive another person as a part of me, I receive for him, and it is like I am bestowing. You can object: What kind of bestowal is this, it is the same reception!

Let’s say that there is someone I did not want to give anything to, and, suddenly, I find out that he is my son. And then I am ready to give him everything because I perceive him as part of me. However, can we really call this bestowal? For example, if I had given to him before I knew anything about him, then surely. But now, what kind of bestowal is this when this is my own son? It is the same as giving to yourself.

All of this would be true if I were to reveal that other people are absolutely a part of me. But the problem is that hatred remains between us. This is a great asset, and we must love it. Another person still remains a stranger to me, but the Surrounding Light comes and creates a loving attitude over my hatred. Love and hatred remain as two lines: the right and the left, with me in the middle between them. This is why this is still referred to as “bestowal.”

In the right line, I perceive another as someone close to me, like a part of me, like someone who I am ready to sacrifice everything for because he may as well be me. In the left line, I hate him and am ready to destroy every last bit of him. And both of these lines exist simultaneously and unite in the middle line.

This continues until the very end of correction, Gmar Tikkun. And no one knows what will come after.
[25308]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, “The Freedom”

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Question: Does the perception of reality depend on the environment?

Answer: If I wish to see a different, more advanced reality, compared to the corporeal reality of this world, I can see it only on the screen that I build from our mutual connection. Wishing to build a different reality, I must connect with the friends’ points in the hearts and create a network between us as it was before the breaking of the collective soul. This network of communication between us is the screen on which I see the picture of the world.
[25253]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Perception of Reality,” 10/20/10

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We have a single free action in this world in our life, and everything else unfolds absolutely inevitably, upon the orders from Above. But it isn’t easy to find this freedom that had been left to us since we are strictly governed from Above by pain and pleasure, being tied by a thousand strings that control our desire, thought, body, words, and acts.

We are the obedient puppets that are being pulled by these strings from Above. We are complete slaves to our nature, from the moment we are an embryo’s cell developing in the mother’s womb and up to the age when we think that we are finally able to act and live independently.

Man is governed by the forces of Nature, so if everything is Nature, how can something new emerge in him? Therefore, there is no freedom of will in this world. A person always picks what pleases him most and flees from suffering as any other creature, be it vegetative or animate.

Despite this illusory freedom that man was initially bestowed with (since we think we can do whatever we want!), it is still an illusion. The true freedom lies in stepping out and rising above our nature, which means stepping out and rising above egoism.

It is written in the Torah that this is the “freedom from the angel of death.” No man can disregard such words! Freedom from death doesn’t imply that our animate body will live forever to infinitely languish in this corporeal life full of pain and so very little pleasure to enjoy.

Freedom from the angel of death replaces this life with attainment of perfect and the most comfortable existence, which is eternal and complete at the same time! And this can be achieved by what we refer to as “freedom of will.”

Such freedom becomes truly enticing and desirable since in the ordinary life, we don’t usually need any freedom, and we are the most satisfied when life is steady like a well tuned clock: home, family, and work. The less freedom, the less headache there is. But if we can attain eternal life and perfection, having freed ourselves from the angel of death, what can be better?

Moreover, it is necessary to understand that the angel of death is our own ego that is digging us into the grave. It gives us a horrible feeling that it’s impossible to become fulfilled and that life is limited and transient.

Freedom from the angel of death signifies attainment of bestowal, its infinite fulfillment and engagement in the eternal flow of life. Knowing this, let’s try to clarify from the writings of Kabbalists: How can we attain such freedom?
[23702]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Freedom”

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The Creator is constant, existing, and unchanging. However, the creature cannot experience something that doesn’t change. We neither recognize nor feel permanence.

All our sensations operate by measuring contrast since “everything is attained through comparison.” We recognize something only if it changes or moves, if there are differences between occurrences in terms of time, motion, power, and thousand other measurements. But we have to have them first!

Therefore, the Creator demonstrates Himself to us and gives us an opportunity to get to know Him through multitude of modifications that do not exist either in Him or in the will to receive (desire). But He must arrange billions of changes in the relationships between Him and the desire to receive so that the latter may get to know Him.

After all these changes, we attain contentment and completeness. But in order to achieve this and know the Creator, we have to go through them. All these modifications are artificially created by the Creator.

The desire to receive and the desire to give, reception and bestowal, Klipa (shell) and sanctity, are all created for a single reason: to give us an ever lasting impression of the Creator. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to recognize anything in the simple, white Light. We wouldn’t even know that it is “white.” It is impossible to pass to the creature unwavering perfection and permanence but only through infinite number of changes.

To a certain degree, it can be observed in electronics. In order to transmit some phenomenon, we must split it, divide it into a multitude of impulses or discrete data, and pass them on at high frequencies. With the help of such partition (discretion), transmission of multiple tiny modifications, their reception and further integration (unification), we can pass information through the communication lines.

Another person can also be known only by various changes you observe in him, by you encountering  him or her, and not in any other way. But after you have collected all your impressions, you may say that now you know that person.
[23921]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, The Zohar

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No changes occur from the Creator’s side. Everything changes in us, gradually, through Reshimot (spiritual records, genes) which intensify from lighter ones to heavier ones. In this manner, step by step, we learn to treat everything we feel correctly. All the lessons of life are lessons of correct attitude to the Upper Governance.

All of nature develops by the “still,” “vegetative,” “animate,” and “speaking” (human) degrees. Each degree has the same four levels of development. On the first three levels of the “human” degree, we are not ready to accept the idea of the causal development. This degree is characterized by the absence of questions, and for it,  the Upper Governance exists only in the form of religion.

However, there is a fourth level of development in us, when the Reshimot to the Source, to the Creator, awaken in a person. Of course, from time to time, a person disconnects from this and “forgets” or “falls” under the influence of worries or pleasures.

However, with the help of the environment, he is given an opportunity to connect himself to the Upper Governcance regardless of any incidental influences or interferences. Then a person correlates the interferences with the Creator, whom he may also ask for correction rather than goodness and cancellation of obstacles.

If a person imagines that there is a cause in the world, fate, someone who causes evil and someone else who can send him goodness, then such a person worships two “idols.” He is afraid of evil and asks for goodness. This often happens to people, secular and religious alike.

All these stages of developing an attitude to the Upper Force should bring a person to a state of “There is none else beside the Creator.” This builds a completely different approach to the Governance. It turns out that both forces, the bad one and the good one, come from one Source. And this means that we need to somehow justify the suffering since how can something bad come from a kind God?

This leads a person to the conclusion and realization of the fact that there is no separation into two forces, a good one and a bad one. The Creator simply treats him like a father treats a son and teaches him through every step.

In this manner, the Upper Governance – the education that a person receives from the Creator – is revealed in one’s life. And he is assisted in this by the environment, the other “children” in the same “nursery school,” taken care of by the same Instructor.

We all help each other and cultivate the right attitude to the Upper Force which controls and teaches us to become big in order to attain it.
[23566]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/10, “And Jacob Sat at the Land Where His Father Dwelled”

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Question: Kabbalists described a solution, and many people in the world agree with and are willing to execute it. What are we lacking?

Answer: We lack the realization of the urgency. Everything that pertains to spirituality can be realized only due to hopelessness, an urgent need of life or death. Like at Mount Sinai: Either you unite or this will be the place of your death. A person is incapable of coming out of self-love by even a jot until he sees that he has no other choice.

Therefore, any decision on the path demands for us to be pushed forward by strong blows: fears, worries, the danger of losing everything, and so on. This is called “the path of suffering.” After all, the Creator represents a universal law of nature which has no protection or compromises.

The other opportunity is to advance with the help of the Light which reveals the situation and shows us the truth. Then each person supports, strengthens, and is willing to help everyone so that the group feels a need and readiness to reveal the true state.

If we proceed toward it together, it no longer seems as horrible to us as in the case where I receive suffering. By suffering, I remain an egoist and I see only danger ahead. However, if I annul myself before the group, a hundredth portion of suffering will be enough for me to perceive them to the full extent.

By lowering our heads before the friends, I intensify my sensitivity to suffering. Now I suffer because I am immersed in egoism. In the group I become more responsive, and now, if a hundredth portion of my ego is demonstrated to me, I experience greater suffering and am ready to get rid of it in the same way as if I had experienced its entire load.

This is what the friends give me: They split my burden with me. It is like in the parable about the king who needed to send his riches to a faraway country. His servants, who were egoists, would steal the jewels. Therefore, he gave each of them one coin. There is no sense stealing a single coin, and thus each servant delivered it to the point of destination.

If we proceed together, bending down before each other, then we don’t need to go through a world war. The fact that we exert effort and don’t achieve anything is enough; it already causes suffering which will do what it is supposed to.

After all, the years pass and I still have nothing. How can that be? What is happening? Unification intensifies the pain caused by futile efforts. This pain will be enough to make us want to run away from it, ascend higher onto a spiritual degree, and deliver our part of the king’s treasure.
[25144]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/10,  “According to What is Explained Concerning Love Thy Friend as Thyself”

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I stand on one side of the spiritual ladder, and the Creator on the other. Every time I ascend to a new rung, I get to see to what extent He and I are alike. I, on my part, bring the vessel (desire), and the Light comes from the Creator. This is how the connection between us takes place.

I experience all its components: myself, Him, and our oneness, as it is written, “Israel, the Torah (the method of correction), and the Creator are one.” On one hand, it is one whole, but on the other, it still consists of three parts between which there is differentiation.

It exists due to the fact that in each spiritual Partzuf, there still remain empty desires in which I perceive myself, a “guest,” and Him, the Host who desires to fill these empty vessels. In other words, there are still limitations between us.

A person who has reached even the first spiritual sensation sees that all of us are one with the Creator and fulfill His wish; nobody can go against the Creator. However, we are not talking about the picture that comes from the side of the Upper One and reveals itself to us, but rather about a person’s desire to connect to it and start acting. For the time being, we are being shown how unready we are to merge and unify.

Everyone carries out the actions of the Creator, but does so without awareness, without one’s own desire, decision, or request. He simply acts thanks to the force of the Light that governs him and defines everything for him.

Restrictions and concealments (the worlds) are our step by step discovery to what extent we are dissimilar to the Creator in His wish and action. This disparity is revealed only to the people who are able to correct it and attain equivalence.
[25067]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/10, “600,000 Souls”

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Question: How do I keep the intention while being pressed by all kinds of obstacles?

Answer: To keep the intention is possible solely with the help of the environment and a strict schedule: I have to know that there is a lesson to attend, and I have to come; I have chores and duties in the group, and I have to honor them. It’s forbidden to digress from the routine schedule in anything.

Use all your free time to do more work than before. During a descent, the only thing that can help is your connection with the group where you do any work, like a diligent laborer, without the senses and intelligence of which you are incapable at the moment.

The correct realization of a descent is when you are not trying to escape from it, but use it to ascend. If you think that you can handle it with your own desire and mind, it is totally incorrect. During the descent, a person doesn’t perform any clarifications nor does he have any feelings. He is dead, as it were.

What is a descent? It is a reception of an additional, more exalted desire to feel pleasure. You are made to feel that your GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) are being adjoined with the AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh) of the Upper One, and instead of your desire, you feel His.

Previously, I had my own 10 Sefirot, and the Upper One had His. However, now I attach His desire to mine, my GE and His AHP, and there are 10 Sefirot once again. Instead of my small AHP, I have the addition of the AHP of the Upper One, the enormous desires that are willing to restrict and nullify themselves. This AHP is allowed to work with me, which places an enormous burden on me.

Suppose I can lift 20 lbs, but am forced to lift 50 lbs. I can’t do it! They tied a 50 pound weight to each of my legs. Can I really take a step? Or, I was going to give somebody $10,000 and suddenly discovered that I, myself, have a debt for this very amount in my bank account. How can I now give the money to another? There are plenty of such examples in our lives.

This is regarded as the revelation of the AHP of the Upper One. What can I do if I experience it as complete darkness? Is there any way I can handle it using my intelligence and emotion? What intelligence and senses? From my point of view, is there really any logic in all this?

I was a “good child” at my rung, and out of the blue, I am loaded with the desires and duties that I cannot handle. Am I supposed to carry them all out in my present state, when I have lost my mind and senses and am completely lost and trapped in endless problems? How can one do anything alone?

Salvation lies solely in the group, and doing any available mechanical work in it by yourself. This will be the starting point of your ascension to a new state.
[24950]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10, “600.000 Souls”

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Question: How do I lower myself before the friends so as to accept the opinion of the group?

Answer: Imagine that a group of mountain-climbers are making their way up to a summit. I, too, want to reach this summit, and that is why I join them. In this ascent I cannot do anything at my sole discretion. I cannot go back alone, nor do I choose when to have a rest break, who to spot, or who my spotter would be. We ascend together, bound by the same cable that’s holding up all of us.

The same applies to the group. We are too weak to move individually and only advance if we realize and feel that we are bound together with unbreakable bonds.

Initially I decide whether or not to go with the friends. I verify whether they are suited to me, whether they aspire for the same summit I do. Are they the people with whom I can make this ascent? Perhaps there are other groups out there? I am within my right to verify these things.

But after I have verified everything and joined them, there’s no going back for we have already set out. The cable already binds us, as we are ascending to the summit. Now I cannot get rid of them or take a breather somewhere to the side, while they’re climbing upward. I must keep pace with them, step in step, along the same path. We walk together on our chosen path, and I cannot get away from this daily work.

The conditions today differ from those in the past generations. In the past one was tested rigorously before being accepted, but in today’s times of general correction we accept everybody.

And yet the might of the common soul that’s moving toward correction is made up of those souls who realize that there is no other choice. Having undertaken this task, they ascend upward, bound together by cables and following their guide, on the path where nothing can be changed anymore. A person is given time to realize what he’s facing and come to a decision. But this decision is crucial.

The spiritual world is concealed from us, and so we don’t feel the nature of the task we’ve taken on. In reality this covenant with the friends is critical. We choose the group at the foot of the mountain, and once we set out on the path, there’s no going back.

I don’t see how great, exalted, and even perilous this path is. Indeed, in the covenant I make with the friends dwells the Creator. This means I’m dealing with Him; it is He who testifies for us and affirms our covenant.
[24654]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Our main problem is that we underestimate the power of thought. We need to have an inner focus on unifying into one net where we are together. That is how we will find the essence and inner force of the Torah, the method.

This point is not so clear to us yet. We don’t value it sufficiently and don’t see its importance. In fact, we don’t pay attention to it.

You know the material very well, in fact, better than anyone. And you perform a great number of actions. However, every person lacks the inner concentration inside himself.

I don’t unify with the group that I see with my eyes, but with the common aspiration to be together, to be included into each other, to attain bestowal. It’s similar to a “cloud” of spiritual energy between us. This is what we have to look for and aspire to.

I don’t meddle around inside my friend, trying to feel his point in the heart. Rather, it becomes revealed inside of me. That is where I find the inner essence of the group. Everything becomes clarified in our thoughts. What we lack is the mental concentration. It is absent or insufficient throughout the day.

We assess things according to external actions, but that is not the right criterion. By delving deeper in my thoughts, I focus on trying to reveal the inner connection. It has to be revealed as a specific plan, desire, or system in which I live.

That is why Kabbalah is called an inner science. Baal HaSulam writes a great deal about the mind and rational analysis. It is precisely by way of mental concentration that we come to inner clarity. The important factor here is not how smart a person is, but how much he tries. Our efforts must be concentrated on this inner search.

The common field of our desire is present between us, inside of us. Even if it is concealed, it is there. On the way from above downwards everything is already ready; now I have to reveal it by moving from below upwards.
[25402]
From the lesson on 10/29/10

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