Rabash, “What is the Prohibition to Bless an Empty Table, In the work”: A person should believe that all the descents he experiences are because every descent increases a person’s need for the help of the Creator, since a need is called a vessel, since it is this vessel that the Creator fills with Light… a person should believe that the Creator knows how big the vessel should be according to one’s need and desire, and when the Creator sees that the vessel can already accept the Light, then He immediately fills it as much as He can. And a person should not be impressed by the descents, but rather say: “God’s help is immediate,” and he should believe that every descent may be enough for him to be a vessel and the Creator can immediately fill this desire…

All the interruptions are not obstacles, but actually “help against.” Every problem should immediately be seen as the Creator’s call wanting to bring a person closer to Him by it, thus evoking the feeling that He is distant.

Then you can rise above your feeling of deficiency, above the interruption, and yearn for adhesion, for bestowal. After several such cases you build up enough power in order to be filled with the Light of the revelation of the Creator.

On the other hand, if you constantly work that way, it is working on the “left line.” Since you work only above your deficiency and that is undesirable. You have to work this way only if you fall into this pit, you shouldn’t yearn only for a deficiency and look for it, but only if you have no other choice. As long as such an “accident” doesn’t happen, you have to work in the right line and constantly yearn for wholeness.

Wholeness means that you don’t feel a deficiency in anything and you are constantly in a state of Hafetz Hesed, in absolute bestowal. It is the Creator who brings about such accidents in the work for you, the feeling of deficiency in different desires.

This is our work: You always step forward with your right foot until the Creator forces you to take a step with your left foot, thus you eventually reach a whole desire. The moment you reach such a whole vessel, you will immediately discover the Light in it.
[102331]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/13

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In every spiritual state on the spiritual levels, there is the Inner Light and the Surrounding Light. But in our state, as long as we do not attain restriction and a Masach (screen), we can be assisted only by the Surrounding Light.

The force of the Surrounding Light depends on how much we value it, on our appreciation of the upper, of the next level, which means the Creator. But we cannot value Him. We were only given a couple of means by which we can develop an inner feeling of the greatness of the upper. The upper for us is the group, the teacher, and the books, meaning the study that tells us about the spiritual world and the Creator hidden behind all these means.

We begin to value the upper who is external to us by using all these means: the group, the teacher, the books, and the intention of attaining equivalence of form with the Creator in order to bring Him contentment. Although we don’t feel it for the time being, even if we just talk about it trying to feel it from time to time, we raise the greatness of the upper in us by that. Then at a certain point He becomes so important that He allows us to feel His presence next to us.

It’s because everything that is external to a person is the Holy Shechina, the Godly presence. But everything depends on how much we value Him. All the other rules of behavior in the group as to how we should speak, what to demand of it, and how to treat it, stem from this condition, from the need to value the upper.

Accordingly, the Surrounding Light shines upon a person. It is the real upper Light, but in the meantime it operates on the lower as the Light that Reforms, which means that it brings about changes in us by gradually bringing us closer to bestowal. Then finally it will give us the “restriction” and the Masach, which means the ability to work spiritually.

Then we will begin to understand where we are and what is happening to us, but at the same time, we have to work in faith above reason and value the upper despite all the problems the upper sends us and all the reasons for an opposite attitude. This is our work that is based on our great appreciation of the upper until we adhere to the posterior of the upper as if it were His face. Then we will see that it was never His posterior, but that He has always turned His face full of light to us. Thus we leave exile and reach redemption.

At first it was as if you were unconscious, but then you begin to feel that you are in exile, so, step by step, you begin to get closer to redemption and finally you leave exile and come into the Light. These are the levels of ascent according to your appreciation of the upper, and later your adhesion to Him.

We have all the means, all the roads are open, and everything depends on us. There is nothing else that we need. The Creator has given us every possible opportunity and everything else is up to the person. We will not be forgiven and there are no concessions from Above if we don’t do our work, since otherwise we will not build our spiritual vessels.
[102235]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” Clarification of the Phrase from the Mishnah: “Everything Is in Deposit, and a Fortress Spreads Over All of Life”: All is in deposit, and a fortress spreads over all of life. The store is open and the shopkeeper sells by deferred payment; the book is open and the hand writes. And all who wish to borrow may come and borrow, and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly. And they have what to rely on, and the judgment is true, and all is ready for the feast.

Question: Does the phrase “and the judgment is true,” refer to the trial of the soul?

Answer: Of course. We come closer by the attributes of Din (judgment) and mercy, by feeling “bitterness” and “sweetness.” They teach and develop us so that we will be able to feel the Creator. He is the one who shows us the attitude of “bitterness” or “sweetness,” which means that He speaks the “language” that we can understand. In the same manner, parents have to explain things to a child in different ways, whether they are pleasant or not.

Although it isn’t about the actual “language” of pleasure and sufferings, it is thanks to them that I reach an inner adhesion between the two parts that are seemingly standing behind me.

There is something in the Creator, and He wants to create something similar in the created being. Then He creates in Himself and in the created being a communication system that is His “language,” that uses terms of receiving and bestowal.

All this is so that we will somehow work out the inner mutual connection between our initial parts. They cannot connect without a special “adaptor,” without a “language” of pleasures and sufferings, “bitterness” and “sweetness,” truth and lie, bestowal and receiving.

Then, there, there is no more receiving or bestowal, but rather something that is deeper and more internal that we cannot describe in words.
[102239]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13, ”The Peace”

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We are in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). But in the world of Ein Sof there is a very small Light: Nefesh of Nefesh that created the created being as “something from nothing,” as a tiny grain of the desire to receive. This is the first phase, the “root phase” of the world of Ein Sof. So why is it called infinite?

It is because there is nothing but the tiny spark of Light and the tiny speck of matter. Everything else comes on the account of the greatness of the Light in the feelings of the speck of the created being, by the great respect towards the Light that has created it and which takes care of it. From the recognition of this greatness comes the feeling of the world of Ein Sof.

Then this speck begins to develop and become increasingly more independent, and whole worlds are born in its feelings. First it happens instinctively, under the influence of the Light. But eventually its development reaches the point we are in now. If now, from this state, we rise back by using all the preparations that were made for us, we will reach the true recognition of the Light.

But we can call it real only conditionally since it is impossible to attain the Creator’s real essence and height with regard to the created being. But when we rise again, we discover the Light of NRNHY, the extent to which the Creator allows us to attain Him called “adhesion.” To that extent, according to His will, we have to be like Him.

It says, “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust” (Psalm 113). But we don’t demand that He should raise us from the dust in order to be rich, but rather, we want to rise only so that we will respect and praise the Creator. This is the only reason that we ask Him to raise us from the dust: in order to attain His greatness and not in order to improve our own condition.

This ascent is in order to understand who created us and who has taken care of us. The matter itself can remain in absolute poverty since what is important for us is to join the upper Light, the attribute of bestowal, not for our own sake but in order to bring the Creator contentment. This is our only hope. Thus we bring ourselves to perfectly match the picture, the image, that is in the world of Ein Sof: a speck of matter next to the spark of Light, and everything else is the infinite greatness of the Creator.
[102097]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13

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Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 10: It is so because He has no interest in reception, only in bestowal, whereas the Klipot want nothing of bestowal, but only to receive for themselves, for their own delight, and there is no greater oppositeness than that.

Question: What is a Klipa?

Answer: The Klipa is something that prevents me from getting closer to the Creator. I recognize it as the force that puts obstacles in front of me.

Actually, what can prevent me?

I want to enjoy, and this means that all kinds of pleasures prevent me; they distract me, take me away from the likeness to the Creator, and keep me from advancing towards unity and bestowal. These are the pleasures that are called “filth.”

So, the Klipa is something extremely pleasant. Let’s say, I like to relax at home more than to participate in the gathering of friends. It is more pleasant for me not to think about the world and correction but about what will happen to me personally. It is dearer to me to take care of my own children, not the neighbors’.

But the real Klipa is when I feel that I advance towards the Creator along a certain path and thus can bring Him pleasure but suddenly I find out that it is more pleasant and comfortable to deviate somewhere, become distracted by something. This is what the Klipa is: It seems to cling to my clothing and pull me back.

We cannot understand all this until we acquire the intention above the desire, until we get out of the desire and begin to act on the basis of intention.

To act on the basis of intention means to apply restriction (Tzimtzum) to the desire to receive. I must be independent of it and be completely free to choose. In other words, independently from the desire, I can decide for myself that I will work with it in order to receive. I have the opportunity to work in order to bestow, but I decide to the contrary. This is what filth is. Conversely, if I have no choice, there is nothing to ask from me. To receive with the egoistic intention is the Klipa that runs through all our ascents until the end of correction. And we are always required to make a difficult decision—how to act, in order to receive or in order to bestow?

We are talking about the work with the Lights and vessels of the egoistic desire, not just about the rejection of the “small” pleasures of our world. I am required to make a decision of a high order when I begin to feel that there is a king, egoistic by nature. This is the flipside of the Creator, and I think that it dominates the world. So it should be, and I decide in these conditions.

Moreover, the decision is possible only if I rise above the restriction, if I am independent. This is when I decide to enjoy for the sake of reception, and turn into a Klipa.

In general, the forces of filth energetically propel a person to the goal. They awaken him in such a way that, like a mountaineer, he must climb above them, overcome them, and ascend to the summit to the King’s palace. And his every move is a rise above filth.

The Klipa is the essence of the material of creation, the desire to receive that took its egoistic form and appears to us in this way. That is why it is impossible to make a step forward without being connected to the Klipa.

But of course, we don’t connect to it ourselves. We always must keep in the right line, and then the forces of filth come at the right time and in the right form.
[102088]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: If the Creator created a desire for correction to similarity with Him, what is our role? Where is our choice? What is our action? Is this our work or the work of the Creator?

Answer: All our work is to give the Creator an opportunity to work because we cannot do anything ourselves. Although we are a feeling, conscious material—that is, we have the heart and the mind—but it gives us nothing except the opportunity to realize what we would like to change. However, we can change nothing.

That is why all our attempts to change the world lead to nothing. Don’t try to change anything. You need only to try to draw the upper Light that can change everything.

If the desired changes are in accordance with the upper Light, then It will make these changes and we will get what we want. Otherwise, we will remain with our unfulfilled desires.

That is why all our work is to understand what changes are desirable in us, and then the Light will do it.
[102074]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/3/13

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Question: When do I begin to bring contentment to the Creator consciously?

Answer: At the stage of spiritual maturity (13 years), when I already have vessels of receiving that are ready for correction in which I can receive the Light with the intention of in order to bestow; to the extent that I receive, I actually bring contentment to the Creator.

Until then there is only the preparation, the state of “smallness” in which we are not required to do “mature” things yet and are treated forgivingly. We demand from a child because we want to educate him and not because he must. He doesn’t have to fill all the requirements.

Question: How many years does it take to reach maturity?

Answer: There is no time in spirituality. “13 years” is a level and we really yearn for it, really want to enter the state of Ibur (gestation), to enter the upper system, and to feel it as a womb, a friendly environment, an environment in which my friends think only about how to help me and the teacher guides us towards the goal. I adhere to them and through them, like through the umbilical cord, am “nourished” by the Lights that influence me. This environment is a womb for me, something round, whole, a round sphere that I am in. I am also like a sphere and I don’t limit anything, but constantly restrict myself in order to adhere, nothing more than that.

I value the wholeness of the external environment, the friends and the teacher, and they reflect and project the right attributes on me. Then my “piece of flesh,” my desire, begins to take on the form of Adam, a human being. The environment imprints its form on me, not the environment that I see today, but a different environment that I value more and more.

Thus I develop like an embryo, constantly adhering to the environment, although I am constantly sent different interruptions and complaints regarding the whole group or each of the friends. I accept everything in “faith above reason” and continue working not towards the Creator but rather towards the environment, the friends among whom I already identify the inner essence.

Then, after I feel them, I want to receive their imprint, their impression. I wait for their bestowal because I discover wholeness in them. I want them to “imprint” themselves in me forcefully. I am ready for that and I make efforts so that it will happen. I actually match myself to them and ask that they don’t leave, that they will work with me and imprint themselves in me.

Everything depends on the Ibur, it is the most dangerous stage in our development. If it is successful, then the rest is much easier. Every time I receive a greater defending force, a stronger force of inner overcoming that allows me to overcome all the negative things I see in the group. It is because I look at the desire to bestow of the friends through my ego and I discover terrible things.

But I continue to rise in faith above reason and tell them to continue working on me, to process me, to continue imprinting me with their stamp. I want it! I lower my head before them and I am ready in advance to accept everything that comes from them.

If a person really wants that, he receives a full imprint and then he is ready to be born.

Question: But, at the same time, I still don’t reach an equivalence of form with the environment.

Answer: True, but not more is required at this stage. It is as if I am standing before a puzzle in which one piece is missing—my part. And I shove my piece of clay in the gap so that its shape corresponds to the contours of the other parts.

How do you do that? I ask the friends to push me on all sides, to squeeze me, to knead me, and to push me into the group until I take  the right form. This form is the right “me” together with all the Sefirot and Partzufim, with all the right components.

The Creator is revealed in this puzzle when it is whole. We design the correct desire, build the corrected Malchut, and in it we discover the Creator according to the principle of “come and see,” Bo-re (Creator in Hebrew). There is no other way; we can only do it together, only if we put together at least one piece of the human puzzle. The bigger this piece is, the greater the revelation will be.

Question: How important is it that I enter this puzzle consciously?

Answer: You must agree that the group will imprint itself, its external form, in you. In order to do that you have to agree with the friends on every issue that is related to spirituality, value them as the greatest in our generation, ask them to influence you, and lower your head before them since the Creator lives in them.

Question: But if I see something that is totally opposite…

Answer: This is exactly our work. The egoistic desire remains (in black), but on the outside, it takes on a form, the form of bestowal (in red). This is our spiritual education, which is a “formative” education. Simple matter that is a desire to receive isn’t enough. Everything depends on the form; when two different types of matter make different forms, we receive an education which means that we begin to understand reality.

Question: Why is it so hard for us to be incorporated in the spiritual environment?

Answer: Because here the evil inclination is increasingly revealed to me. Each time new “thorns” are revealed and I have to take on a new form each time, to give in, to annul myself, and to look at all these problems in faith above reason.

Only yesterday everything was fine but today it isn’t anymore, and I have to work on myself again in order to see, in the obstacles, the right forms that belong to the embryo’s body. The next day, the hardships increase and demand that I change my attitude. Thus I constantly rise above the interruptions in faith above reason and correct myself.

[102033]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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The correction that we need to make is divided into many acts, small parts, and gradual changes that create the feeling of time for us. Time is created as a result of this; time is due to the fact that we work today and we expect to get paid tomorrow. If this is the way a person feels, then that is actually a corruption.

The correction is to imagine to oneself that right now you already exist in a corrected and complete state where there is complete abundance. What is missing is the clothing on the Light, our attitude, intention, and the attribute of bestowal. If you acquire it, then you discover that the concealment was only towards you and that you always were in the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity) but you weren’t able to feel and understand it.

And all of this is because you didn’t appreciate the attribute of bestowal. You didn’t think it was worth anything or even less than that. Thus, you didn’t feel it or you even felt the opposite attribute: instead of altruism and bestowal, you felt the attribute of reception, the ego.

Thus, all of our work is to transform the work itself into the reward. And every moment the opportunity is given to us to make an effort that allows us to draw more Light that reforms, and thus to attain even more attributes of bestowal and be thankful for the evil that is revealed. The evil indicates the place where the correction is needed, where, for us, bestowal is lacking.
[102020]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Happiness is a feeling of the fulfillment of desire. It is possible only when there is a desire, hunger, passion, and it is fulfilled, realized. But as soon as a desire has been fulfilled and realized, the feeling of happiness gradually disappears. Thus, two constants are needed for happiness: a) desire, b) fulfillment.

In order for fulfillment not to cancel the desire, they need to be separated, to be in two objects. For example, a mother and a baby; a mother can endlessly enjoy a baby because she fills the object outside of herself.

If we create a connection above our mutual rejection, we will be able to fulfill each other and enjoy our actions indefinitely. There is only a purely psychological problem of understanding that the goal of creation is in pleasure and that the means to achieve the eternal and infinite pleasure is in “love thy neighbor as thyself.” This state is called the upper world. When we feel it, the sensation of our temporary flawed world—what is felt only in oneself—disappears.
[102039]

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Baal HaSulam, ‘Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 9: And the only difference between the souls and His essence is that the souls are a part of His essence. This means that the amount of Light that they receive in their Kli, being the will to receive, is already separated from the Creator, as it is predicated on the disparity of form of the will to receive. And this disparity of form made it a part by which they were separated from the “whole” and became a “part.” Thus, the only difference between them is that one is a “whole” and the other is a “part,” as a stone that is carved from a mountain.

Now we are in a space with myriad waves and radiations of different frequencies that cover the whole space from zero to infinity. We perceive these waves with the help of different receivers, which can be tuned to these waves and perceive them. The receiver perceives the wave according to the equivalence with the wave, which means that the receiver creates a certain wave that is a replica of the wave on the outside and then they enter one another and create a resonance, which means that they connect. I perceive this connection and feel whether, for example, it is a radio wave that I can hear or whether it is the range of a television wave that I can see.

Thus, I perceive the “wave” of the general soul, since all of creation is a soul, a spiritual vessel that is totally filled by the Light, by Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity). When I am external to it, I only have a small “sensor,” a spark that I have received and that I have to develop now in order to perceive wave after wave. Thus I create and develop the “receiver,” and by it, I perceive part of the “whole” that I am in, part of my soul. Generally speaking, all the space of Malchut is my soul, which I am going to acquire. But I discover this gradually to the extent that I develop my “receiver,” my vessels of perception. So it turns out that it is me who separates the part from the whole according to my currently corrected attributes.
[101940]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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