A question I received: Why is it said that the Light is in a state of absolute rest if our entire path is accompanied by the Light entering and exiting our will to receive?

My Answer: The absolute rest of the Upper Light is its constant change at infinite frequency. The “invariability” of the Light refers to its being at rest in its permanency in reaching a single goal. The Light solely performs actions that lead to the single goal. Its absolute rest lies in the fact that it doesn’t change the purpose, but acts toward it with infinite speed.

For us, rest means not to get tangled on the path, but to strive to find thousands of methods to progress toward the goal in one direction, to be alert, and to make intensive efforts. All this is called absolute rest because I see one singular goal in front of me.

The Light enters and exits the will to receive, and it performs an infinite number of actions each moment. However, if a person is in the state of bestowal, he perceives all these various actions as absolute rest.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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We don’t yet fully comprehend what a serious task has fallen into our hands. Billion of years of the evolution of the Universe, all of Earth’s nature, and the accumulation of human history up until our time are pressing on us so that we (with the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature standing behind us) establish a connection between the Creator. The whole mass of this will to receive must merge with the Creator through a tiny hole: the quality of bestowal that we must attain. The responsibility to pull all of the egoism created by the Creator through the “eye of the needle” has been laid upon us.

We sense that we are facing the wall of our egoism, but we don’t yet understand what kind of wall it is. This wall is the force of the Creator. Our ego is the force of the Creator! We think that it is an ordinary vice that we can beat or discard. That won’t work. We will have to recognize that only the Creator can change our egoistic nature. He must do it, but only at our request, our prayer.

In fact, the entire path of the descent of the spiritual worlds from the very World of Infinity, from Above downward, including all the human evolution in the corporeal world that followed, is now coming to the point of culmination, to merging with the Creator. It is our duty to draw it to the Light. Just imagine how much creation has gone through, and now we must implement this merger.

Our mission seems too grand, but the Creator has placed it on all of us. How many times in the Torah does Moses complain to the Creator that he is incapable of completing his task, but the Creator orders him to continue? Today, we are in Moses’ shoes; we have received strife to rise above our nature. We are to play his role for our generation. ("Moses" or "Moshe" comes from the verb “Mosheh,"  to pull.)

This is why we have to understand that our task is extremely delicate and subtle; it works through the eye of the needle that we can barely discern. However, if we focus the efforts of all who are studying within our system around the world, we will succeed.

We are given all that we need for this from Above; there is no doubt. We just need to have a clear vision of our goal and ask the Creator to assist us. We are that very creature that must come to adhesion with the Creator, and through that, we give all souls an opportunity to ascend to the state of perfection. Unlike the Kabbalists of the past who were only preparing the path for us, we must complete this path by realizing it on ourselves and the others.

The wall before us is the Creator Himself. He stands and waits for us to "break" Him in order to rejoice that “His sons have defeated Him.”

From the Talk during Friday’s Festive Meal 6/25/10

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A question I received: In books, there is always a main character of the story. When I read a Kabbalistic book and try to imagine all the internal forces are there also a central force as well as less important secondary forces?

My Answer: When you read a Kabbalistic book, what counts is not your understanding, but rather your effort. Spiritual revelation is a contradictory process. On the one hand, revelation is an intimate, individual process that occurs within me, and on the other, the forces that are needed to attain the revelation come from other souls through my connection with them. It looks like a contradiction in terms. I would rather my desire for spirituality stay one on one with the Creator and the Light that Reforms. Yet, if I wish to reveal spirituality, I can do so only in the Light of bestowal which comes to me through the group.

So it follows that I use my point in the heart (a desire for spirituality) to read the Kabbalistic book, and while reading to want to put together the picture within myself as it is described in the book. But what material serves me as a basis for the changes I undergo? For this practical work, I am given the environment, the group. Only by being interconnected with each other whereby I relate to them correctly and they do the same in return, can we raise our request, MAN.

In return, I receive the Light that Reforms; that is, I am granted a correct attitude that enables me to see what is written in the book. That is when I begin to transform myself and see my authentic connection with others. At this point, establishing union with others is no longer a problem. They become my world through which I implement what I read about; by connecting with others, I feel the property of bestowal, our interconnectedness that the book was depicting.

For now I only sense an irresolvable conflict. I agree to have a relationship between myself and the Creator, myself and the book, myself and the Light, myself and myself, myself and the world, myself and the group, but I always insist that everything starts with me! Here, however, I need to connect with the others in order to serve them, to act only for their benefit. This is something totally unclear to me.

How can I possibly switch the attention from myself to the others without feeling the difference between us? How can I open and give away my heart to them? At first, I refer to a Kabbalistic book using my egoism, but later on, I begin to understand that I need the force of bestowal. That is when I appeal to the group so as to receive a sensation of bestowal from it. And when I realize that I do not have and cannot have this property, I understand that I need the Light that Reforms which helps me transform myself in accordance with the book.

Having a common desire which we receive from the group, we all raise MAN. In return, I receive the Light of correction and begin to relate to a Kabbalistic book differently. I can build myself in accordance with the book’s instructions, like putting together a Lego set.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: If presently I don’t feel shame before the Creator, does it mean that I still don’t have the need to become independent?

My Answer: Obviously, at present, we still do not feel the need to become independent because we do not yet sense our dependency on Him. For that, we have to undergo a gradual, cause-and-effect development, the process of developing the creature.

We see an example of this kind of development in our children. They want to develop, but refuse to listen to their parents since they aspire to do everything themselves. Nature compels them to act this way since otherwise they would not grow. The same principle applies to us.

However, our spiritual development  is under the condition that we feel our dependency on the Creator and He does everything instead of our doing it ourselves. When we sense this condition, we don’t want to remain in this state; we wish to become independent, big, and do something ourselves!

For this reason, the creature begins to feel shame, its dependency on the Creator, and detaches itself from Him. That is, we are willing to take upon ourselves the concealment; we want to feel and protect it and make sure it does not disappear. Above the concealment, we build our similarity to the Creator. Meanwhile, this concealment, the First Restriction, does not go away. We adopt it on ourselves. We do not want to become annulled in front of the immense force of the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/10, “The Need For Love of Friends”

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From Writings of Rabash, Shlavey Ha Sulam, Article 16, 1984 “The Matter of Bestowal”: There is a rule that if one wants to reach a certain goal and knows that it is impossible to reach it without toil, then one exerts effort and ignores rest. And if a person engages in Kabbalah and inner work, it means that he has a spiritual need and expects to receive the desired in this way. Hence, before starting his work, one needs to examine what one is expecting to receive with its help, meaning what reward is he expecting from his work? And when a person starts pondering about it, an array of different thoughts come to him, and it is hard for him to understand what he truly wants….

We always find ourselves in misgivings and doubts: “What do I need all this for; why am I doing this?” We don’t know the true reason since it is hidden from us. This great chasm of doubt seems endless and many gradually stop analyzing these questions. The more one delves into them, the more questions arise in him; meanwhile, regular life keeps flowing along. And thus one stops pondering about it and no longer looks for the answer.

But why did the Creator prepare for us so many considerations, so many paths and thoughts, such as “why, what for, and how?” I cannot escape these thoughts, and the more I think about them the more confused I become. Was it really His intention that I should fall into despair and quit it all? If I don’t clarify all of it fully, if I don’t reveal for myself the new degree, I will not advance. So why is He putting obstacles in my way?

The Creator does it so that only those who seek to attain bestowal, to become like Him, and are willing to work for it will come to Him. I tried to reach bestowal and realized that I know nothing, that I am in total darkness, and, thus, need help from Above. On the one hand, I am ready to give everything because the exerted efforts grant me strength to go on toward the goal. If I have invested great efforts to achieving some goal, I can’t abandon it easily. I’ve already invested so much! I am prepared to pay so as to not let my investment go to waste.

If I understand that bestowal exists and that I must achieve it by all means, the disillusionment in my own strength gives rise to the true prayer.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, Article, “The Matter of Bestowal”

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A question I received: Are the efforts I make my spiritual reward?

My Answer: The reward is the screen and the Light that Reforms. We cannot measure and evaluate our efforts. We must have the screen and the Light that Reforms. They are the only things we have to obtain. Everything else you can have in abundance, take it!

The Light that Reforms is the permit to receive. Much like a theatre ticket which allows entrance to a particular show, the Light that Reforms allows one to take a specific portion. According to the amount of this Light that appears in you, you will be filled, and merged with the Creator and the abundance that exists in the entire creation.

Take it all, but only in the measure of the Light that Reforms. Therefore, your reward is the Light that Reforms. Everything else we don’t need to earn. The Upper Abundance will fill our spiritual vessels (Kelim), the will to receive, but only when we obtain the Light that Reforms.

However, I need fulfillment not in order to receive pleasure, but in order to examine and measure how much I bestow. Even though my fulfillment gives me tremendous satisfaction, it is still measured in the Light of bestowal, the Light that Reforms.

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A question I received: When is it considered that a person is in a state of Galut (exile)?

My Answer: Galut (exile, deportation) refers to the exile from the spiritual world and the property of bestowal and love. That is, one needs to wish for this property, and the measure to which one does not have it, one feels Galut, the exile from it.

For instance, in his article “A True Prayer,” Rabash says that Galut is when a person is not given an opportunity to hold the intention for his actions not to be in order to receive a reward, which is against our nature.
(רב"ש. מאמר "תפלה אמיתית": הגלות – היינו, שלא נותנים לו לכוון, שעבודתו תהיה בשלא על מנת לקבל פרס, היות שהוא נגד הטב)

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There are two forces in nature: reception and bestowal. These two forces depict pictures on our desire to enjoy like on a computer screen. They project the picture of the world that consists of me and everything around me. As Baal HaSulam writes, in the posterior part of our brain there is a screen through which we perceive a picture of the world.

This picture is created with the help of two forces: a receiving (left) force and a bestowing (right) force. The combination of these two forces on my egoistic material depicts the whole picture of reality for me. I feel it, I see a picture, as it were, and it seems to me that this picture, this reality, exists outside of me. I, myself, project my inner picture in front of me. This is how I “see the world.” It’s as though I retrieve it from within myself and project it outside.

Why am I built this way? Why do I see my inner world in an external form? It is in order for us to treat it egoistically with neglect and hostility. Thereby, we receive an opportunity to study our inner world and to correct ourselves.

If I sensed it as being inside of me, I would never be able to correct myself because I would relate to everything in a positive manner with goodness, but solely in an egoistic manner. But now, since my ego comes out to the outside and I feel that it is foreign, I relate to my “external self” like to a foreigner, egoistically in a negative way, rather than positively and like it is my inner part. Therefore, I have an opportunity to understand what “external” and “internal” mean for me.

The world was split into two parts: me and the others. I cannot convince myself that something which exists outside of me is my own. I am given an opportunity to see my inner essence in the outside picture: “Come and see who you are and how you treat those around you. This is how you are inside.” You say, “Look how ugly this one is, how lazy that one is, how dumb another one is! I hate them so much!” Meanwhile, all these qualities are yours and not those of others.

These revelations help me. Otherwise I would never be able to relate to them, to completely reveal the “evil inclination” (egoistic desire, hate for everyone) and later to understand that these are my inner qualities that are projected on the outside.

Then I begin to understand how the Creator helps me by giving me such a perception of reality: to see my insides on the outside. I begin to understand how much this helps me, and that without this, I would be completely locked within myself and I would never be able to understand what the “I” is. Meanwhile, there is something here, “something in me that I do not consider to be me.”

Therefore, our entire work boils down to the unification of our inner self with our outer self, with the outside world, and particularly with the group. We can practice with the group. After all, when I begin to work with the group and try to treat the friends like myself, I see that I am incapable of uniting no matter how much I try to convince myself that all this outside of me is also me. I can’t even treat a small part of humanity, the group, whose goal is close to my own, like myself. I can’t relate to it above my egoistic mind.

In this regard, I begin to see this egoism like something that was artificially created by the Creator, particularly for its annulment. However, I am unable to do this on my own; I can only desire it and then ask the Creator for the disappearance of it (egoism). Why should I ask? In order to receive a connection with the Creator!

“How can this be?” Understand that they are you! Treat them with love, since they are parts of your soul!

“But I can’t!” They are your friends, your neighbors. They are advancing to the same goal as you! What separates you after all?

“The force of the breaking separates us. The Creator placed it as an obstacle, and I cannot overcome it.” And then you ask to correct this in particular. You ask for correction and incorporate the whole world into yourself.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why is it written that ascension from one spiritual step onto the next one takes place through the thickening (Aviut) of the screen since Aviut is a characteristic of the vessel (Kli) and not the screen?

My Answer: The screen is the spiritual vessel. After the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the will to receive cannot serve as a vessel. The spiritual vessel, the Kli, is that which I can pay with.

If I come into a restaurant and say I am hungry, they won’t look at my desire to eat; they will be looking at how much money I have, in other words, at my screen. This means I will be measured by what the thickness (Aviut) of my screen is, or what my ability to receive in order to bestow is, what my power of intention is, and what amount of my former egoistic desire I am able to attach to my anti-egoistic screen and to the intention to bestow.

With a screen that doesn’t have any thickness, nothing can be received; it is merely a restriction. A restriction is a screen with a zero thickness which means that I don’t wish to receive anything for myself and I don’t know how to receive in order to bestow.

How much can I receive to bestow? I can receive the amount that equals the thickness of my screen. If the power of my screen is 20 grams, I will be allowed to receive exactly this amount in order to bestow. Both actions must unite in the screen, as the reception and so the bestowal. When they are united, it will be for the sake of bestowal.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, Article “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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A question I received: Who is our “Upper One” in spirituality?

My Answer: We don’t know that. We exist in the womb of the Upper One as a mere point, a droplet of semen, our spiritual Reshimo (record, gene). Beyond this Reshimo, we have nothing else!

In fact, our corporeal body, mind, and feelings have no relation to the spiritual world and cannot be seen there. In the spiritual world, there is only a womb of the Upper One (Malchut of Infinity) and us inside it. And each of us is a Reshimo (0/1, Shoresh Aviut/Aleph Hitlabshut) or in other words, a point in the heart.

Our task, as a point in the heart, is to try to cling to the wall of the spiritual womb! Beginning with the three days during which the semen is absorbed, the first problem for the embryo (us) is to attach itself to the wall of the womb. Attaching to the womb is establishing the very first contact with the Upper One.

In order to do this, we must annul ourselves before the Upper One. But where is this Upper One, this wall of the womb? What is it exactly? The Upper One is the Kabbalistic group, my environment! This is how the Upper One reveals the Creator for me.

Thus, there are the group and me, who adheres to it, despite all the obstacles. I accept the entire force of the group’s desire for bestowal, and I am willing and ready to take it all in through annulling myself before them.

When I attach myself to the group, my Aviut, which is the strength of my will to bestow, begins to grow and cause unpleasant sensations in me: disappointment, growth of egoism, and burdening of the heart. But I must go even deeper in, like a leech, clinging to the group which is the “wall of the womb.”

Then, between us, the first connection will appear, not through a point, but through the tube through which “blood” will start flowing into me. This connection, so far, is on the inanimate level (“Dam”- blood, from “Domem” – inanimate), but I will have already received spiritual sustenance from the Upper One.

All of this takes place through my connection with the group. There is no other “wall” through which I can enter the spiritual world!

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, Article “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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