Question: What does it mean to delight the Creator?

Answer: To delight, to bring pleasure to, the Creator, to love the Creator—these are all very beautiful words. But how can we love a force, even if it is eternal and governs everything there is? All these words are told to a person so that he can adjust himself in some way.

We come to love for the Creator only through love for others. In the article, “One Commandment,” there is an instruction: to come to love for the Creator. But how can we be ordered, obliged to love? It is possible when we work on love of another, make a common mass of our yearnings toward each other, build a common connection above our egoism, and cover it with mutual love. It is written: “Love will cover all transgressions.” When we build a collective property of common mutual connection and yearn toward everyone while cultivating love within, then in our internal egoism there arises a completely new structure: mutual adhesion, mutual inclusion.

Love means that I assume all your desires and care for them, thinking solely of how to fulfill them, while you think about mine, and so on. Love means to fulfill desires of another instead of my own, using them for this purpose. If I arrange such conditions within myself, then by doing so I grow a vessel there that works for the sake of bestowal. And this common vessel that all of us are creating together contains our collective component called “love for the Creator.”

We begin to experience not only the common vessel, our attitude towards the others, love for them, bestowing to them, but also we begin sensing what fills me along the way. This sensation is called the Creator, Boreh in Hebrew (“Bo” – come, “Reh” – see). When we create one collective spiritual vessel, the Creator is revealed there as a result.

Hence, the main Mitzva is very simple: “Love your neighbor.” Through love for another, in the vessel that you created, you will feel love for the Creator and, respectively, His love for you.

Question: What is the final goal of this work?

Answer: It is in the fact that you come to a complete likeness and adhesion with Him in our own reformed egoism. This is how you rise to the level of the Creator. This is the final goal of creation. You begin to experience a sensation that you are in total adhesion with Him, but you don’t dissolve in it, because your entire vessel stays with you.

In other words, the sensation of being opposite doesn’t get annihilated since adhesion with the Creator occurs above it; otherwise, mutual annihilation would occur. Hence, we must view our egoism as the matter with the help of which we move forth. We should treat it with respect since it is the reverse image of the Creator. Conversely, our whole world is His reverse image at our level.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“: ‘The wicked, in their lives, are called “dead.”’ This is because their death is better than their lives, as the pain and suffering they endure for their sustenance is many times greater than the little pleasure they feel in this life.

If we don’t advance towards attaining the source of life, then life turns into an escape from sufferings. All our thoughts are only about how to avoid evil and unpleasantness. Therefore, we don’t imagine the good as a filling, since we cannot fill ourselves, but simply try to find some peace between the bad moments.

As a result, all the pleasures that we feel don’t last more than a short while, and so we are called “dead” even while we are alive, since we don’t receive a filling from the real source of life upon which all of reality and all of creation stand.

Of course, everyone has his own accounts, and if he sees how much pain and suffering he feels, how much he suffered and what efforts he has made compared to the few moments of pleasure that have made him happy and brought him joy, then he discovers that it wasn’t worth living. This whole life can only be justified as a preparation for the spiritual ascent. But if one examines this life as is, there is no point to it.

Now when we are awarded the Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), we are awarded with the real happy and joyful life by keeping them, as it says: “Taste and see that the Creator is good.” This is what those who have attained it feel. Then we can choose between good and evil. After we receive the Torah, the way, the spiritual principles, we begin to work with the two lines.

This is what the writings mean by: “and you shall choose life so that you and your descendants shall live.” Actually it is a repetition: “and you shall choose life so that you shall live.” But it refers to living by keeping the Torah and the Mitzvot. Then one really lives. “But life without the Torah and the Mitzvot is harder than death.”

This is how a person perceives the difference between life and death: Life means spiritual advancement, and death means lack of advancement. A person gradually understands that advancement means getting closer to love, to bestowal, to self annulment, to rising above one’s ego. Only this is called “life,” without any account of what we feel in our egoistic desires.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

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Question: If love towards friends means to prefer his desire more than mine, what desires are we talking about?

Answer: As Baal HaSulam writes in his article, “The Last Generation,” one needs to be concerned that each person in the world will have his necessities for normal material existence met. And if the friend himself will relate to it like that, he will not need any extras.

And all the rest needs to be directed toward the support of the friend on the spiritual path. So what does it mean that I love the friend? How can I fulfill his desires? If I worried about food for him and anything he needs for his existence, in the other things, I support him spiritually: showing him my awakening and transferring to him the feeling of the greatness of the Creator and the importance on the spiritual path that awakens me and fulfills me in force. I act towards him as toward my child, which I want to attract to a beneficial action, and therefore I show him my interest, the desire, my appreciation. Exactly in the same way, I must show an example to the friend. It means, that I supply him with spiritual nourishment besides the corporeal nourishment, it means, that I love him.

Precisely this attitude, we must develop in our group. To give a friend the feeling of the greatness of the goal and my personal example of the loyalty to it, this is called to love the friend. And by that I prefer his desire above my desire. I take into consideration what he needs, the necessary corporeal means, and all the rest is toward his spiritual development. All this I must supply to him.

I must worry that he will arrange his life in a normal form, to help him find a job, etc. And from a spiritual aspect, I must encourage him with the greatness of the goal. And by that, I prefer his desire above my desire, I am worried for his development, and not mine. If I worry for a friend, this is the best thing for my development. But all of that I do in order to reach the love of God.

One must connect to a whole one: Israel, Oraita, and Kedosh Berach Hu (Israel, the Torah, and the Creator). Otherwise, it turns out that I simply love the friend in a natural egoistical love like for my child.

Precisely this form of work is called “the work of God.” If I relate to a friend in this way, through him I direct myself to the Creator. Love of others is necessary only in order to reach love of God. Through this man reveals the concealment that was made by the Creator, so we will practice in the love of others and reach the love of God.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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If I want to focus on the Creator, I have to feel warmth towards the friend, like a warm “crimson sphere,” an attitude through which I carry on the connection with the friend to a connection with the Creator. After all, I love the friend precisely because the Creator is in him.

The Creator shows me who I am through the created beings in this world in the way He is concealed in it. If I can feel love towards this world, it means that I will feel love towards the Creator, towards the One who created this world and is concealed in it.

The question is: “Why is the Creator concealed in the world and not in the Torah?” Because this world is His concealment, and if I use the Light of the Torah, I first open what the Creator conceals in the world and then I discover Him.

The stages by which we advance towards the friend are the stages by which we advance towards the Creator, and there is nothing but that. All this is called the way of love, according to the final goal and according to what we attain along the way. Even on the lowest level we discover hatred and then love in contrast to it, and so it is time after time, on every level—hatred and love.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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In his article, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” Baal HaSulam writes that love consists of four parts, meaning that when one starts to feel that he is receiving “something,” one can divide this “something” into four levels.

Kabbalists call the pleasant sensation that comes to us under the influence of the upper Light a gift. When we receive a present, we start searching for who gave it to us; we explore what this quality is that is the reason He treats us like this, with what intention and so on. In other words, we don’t get anything but the gift, but we can learn about the Giver by examining His gift and the impact that it produces on us.

If we were presented with a little box as a gift, we are unable to determine much by only looking at it, but we would obviously think that the one who sent it to us treats us well.

On the other hand, if the gift penetrates into us and produces a certain action in us, then we can figure out what the Giver expects from us and why He modifies our internal states the way He does.

We know our prior states and we feel our current, altered state, and the difference between them in certain properties and aspects. Then, we can realize what He wants of us. From the differences between the past and the present, we can tell who He is. In accordance with the changes as they change, we feel His positive qualities. He always changes us for the better, to the positive, to more. It makes us grow, and we start to realize that that is His qualities and that He wants to raise us up to Him.

Accordingly, we are able to distinguish between the four levels of attainment and the four worlds.
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From the Fundamentals of Kabbalah 12/2/12

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Question: There is a rule: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and in it, love for oneself is not cancelled by love for one’s neighbor. Is it possible to love one’s neighbor without loving oneself?

Answer: Love for one’s neighbor is impossible without self-love! Therefore, egoism is not destroyed. I always have to check relative to myself: I love myself, and the neighbor—just a bit more.

Why more? Now you love yourself more than you love others, so, based on the rule “love as yourself,” you have to love others a little more than yourself. Moreover, you need to constantly watch, compare, and take an example from how you love yourself. Thus you begin to know yourself.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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In the News (from DailyMail): “Being a nurturing mother is not just about emotional care – it pays dividends by determining the size of your child’s brain, scientists say. …

“According to neurologists this sizeable difference has one primary cause – the way each child was treated by their mothers. …

“The child with the larger and more fully developed brain was looked after by its mother – she was constantly responsive to her baby, reported The Sunday Telegraph. But the child with the shrunken brain was the victim of severe neglect and abuse.

“The consequences of these deficits are pronounced – the child on the left with the larger brain will be more intelligent and more likely to develop the social ability to empathise with others.

“But in contrast, the child with the shrunken brain will be more likely to become addicted to drugs and involved in violent crimes, much more likely to be unemployed and to be dependent on state benefits.

“The child is also more likely to develop mental and other serious health problems.

“Professor Allan Schore, of UCLA, told The Sunday Telegraph that if a baby is not treated properly in the first two years of life, it can have a fundamental impact on development.

“He pointed out that the genes for several aspects of brain function, including intelligence, cannot function.

“And sadly there is a chance they may never develop and come into existence.”

My Comment: Love, that is, inclusion in the desires of another, is the major property of our world and the upper worlds. The only difference is that in our world this attribute is concealed from our being able to identify it as essential and develop it. Therefore, it is given to us as a command—a guideline that is necessary to follow in order to bring myself and the world to perfection.

Naturally, the same quality of love is beneficial at all levels.

In the case of children, our natural (animalistic) instincts switch on, which are sometimes interrupted by opposing super-egoistic, human ones, when we hurt our own children by choosing ourselves before them, in which case people are “more beastly” than beasts.

Exiting into a higher world rests on love—in spite of and over our egoism. We are building love, leaving rejection beneath it, covering hate with love—and with the least screen, we begin sensing the upper world.
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Question: You said that we have to take our point in the heart outward. I do not understand what that means. If the point is in me, then how can I take it out? I feel contentment, sense this fulfillment, and examine it as an observer. Is this point somehow disconnected from me?

Answer: This is a feeling between you and the other person that is as a calm, warm, really crimson luminous point. It is not even a point, but a small ball between you and him.

It does not matter whether it is a man or a woman, you do not notice. It has nothing to do with sex or a person’s appearance, with anything external. This point just appears, and you look not at this person, but at this small ball, which has appeared between you. And you work for it. It is the most important thing for you.

This ball is a person’s desires, his aspirations. You suddenly start to feel them, and you suddenly start to work for them. You want this ball to grow. It attracts you, fascinates you like a fireball, and you work for it.

Question: But if it does not fascinate me, does it mean that it is me who feels contentment?

Answer: But this is not you inside yourself, you are in this ball, you are in this emerging feeling of love for the other. You are still standing like an observer and still are based on you egoism, but you seek this state. It is already yours; it lives in you.

Try it!
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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We always experience the upper force, the upper impression on us, as something incredibly delightful, pleasurable, fulfilling, and very desirable. We experience it as a gift. It comes unexpectedly, without any preparation on our part.

Although we worked hard and strove to get it, its appearance is always startling. And inside this gift we feel love. This love, manifested in the Light’s effect on us, triggers in us an instinctive effect on the Light in return. Hence, the most important thing is to achieve this gift, the first impact of the Light on us.

This love is much more profound that than the gift itself, since it’s measured by the greatness of the giver rather than by the value of the gift. It’s similar in our world: If I don’t care about the giver, then I focus on the value of the gift. Suppose I receive something from the company where I work, then naturally, I’m indifferent to it. But if such a gift is given to me by a special person, then it doesn’t matter what he is giving me. He may give me a simple pen, but what matters to me is the very sign of his attention, because I measure it not by the value of the gift but by this person’s greatness.

Likewise we define what we feel in the spiritual world. If we are already in spiritual attainment, then when we sense the Light’s impact on us, we instinctively respond to it with love arising within us.

But if we are still in our world, beyond the sensation of the upper one, then here we must cultivate this quality artificially. In other words, we should make an effort and try to express gratitude, exalt the Giver in our eyes, even though we don’t feel Him and instead, we just feel His working on us: Suddenly we begin comprehending more, feeling more, and experiencing new internal sensations.

This connects me with the Giver. As soon as I feel that I receive a small positive effect in the form of feelings or wisdom, I must immediately start developing gratitude within myself. It expands my sense of the gift. And then, even if the gift is small, I will start feeling it as much bigger, and inside it I might even sense the very Giver.

Therefore, being in our world, in our states, we must immediately respond to various positive spiritual changes in us correctly; although they may not be quite spiritual just yet, but something is already emerging in our senses and mind. We should respond to it with gratitude and exalt the Giver, bestowal, in our eyes. Then, it develops and expands our organs of perception, our sensors.

Moving forward in such a manner, we start to gradually attain the Creator, and that’s why His gifts are valuable only to the extent that we can follow them with a deeper experience of Him after all. That is, the gift is sort of a mediator, a communication between Him and me.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/2/12

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Question: Will everyone have to exert himself on the spiritual path?

Answer: Everyone. After all, it is even impossible to go through the path of suffering without exertion, without making efforts, without building a vessel, without the necessary investment in developing my deficiency and my yearning. How can I feel spirituality without all this? How can I feel the spiritual world? How can I discover the Creator if I am not adapted to Him, if I don’t acquire an equivalence of form with Him?

I must attain this, but the question is by what means? Through more or less troubles and sufferings, or by yearning that I develop in me. It too brings about blows, but in an opposite form.

One way or another, I have to feel and to go through a certain amount of pain and suffering, detachment, urge, and yearning. There is a desire and there is a yearning. So the yearning is my exertion. I am given the desire, but I have to add acceleration to it. And how? By sufferings or with the help of the group, this is already my business.

We can advance under the pressure of very unpleasant things: wars, disasters, bankruptcies, plagues, etc. And it is also possible to advance differently, under the influence of the right environment. Still the obstacles remain and I still have to discover the thickness of my desire, but I sweeten the path by my yearning for the Creator, by needing Him—pangs of love instead of pangs of hate.

Eventually, no one can escape God’s work, but it is possible to advance under the blows, under the load of “Pharaoh,” and it is possible to yearn for the goal by the help of the environment. According to the absolute value, it is the same thing, but according to the content, these are two totally different things.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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