Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua: “Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand” (The Torah, Exodus, “BeShalach,” 17:8 – 17:9).

Amalek is our innermost and most egoistic desire and the ideological enemy on the way to spirituality. The war spoken about in the Torah is the inner war, which is in order to unite more strongly, to discover within us more egoistic desires, including Amalek, to rise above them, and to win. In order to compete against it, we need “the elders.” This means the most corrected attributes in a person. Described here are many attributes and through their help, we go out to battle against egoism. It really appears to us as the enemy, as we see it as additional “against us,” both internally and externally.

Until a person detaches himself from his inner ego, he doesn’t feel this resistance, this hostility, this hatred towards his nature. He doesn’t feel that this nature also comes from the Creator, that the Creator purposely reveals these attributes within him (after all, “there is none else besides Him”) in order to help him to again and again ask the upper force to correct him, to transcend and help him to use all his previous egotistic desires correctly in bestowal and love.

This is because a person has no attribute of “bestowal.” The attribute of bestowal is the Creator, and the person has only the attribute of “reception.” Thus, “to receive for the sake of bestowal” (the use of the ego for bestowal) is a very difficult war with Amalek.

If all the other previous wars for correction were created in order to rise above our ego to escape from Egypt, to exit different kinds of problems, to rise above them, then now, there is no need to rise, but to fight with the ego face to face.

We are not fighting Pharaoh but simply running away from him as it’s impossible to do anything with him. Amalek is the same Pharaoh, just in another, more inner form, from which it is impossible to escape. We must face it in this way, meaning in order to tilt it towards our benefit and win so that we commit it to work for the sake of bestowal.

The main thing is that it’s impossible to beat Amalek. So it’s said that the war with Amalek continues until the last moment of correction, and no one is able to beat him alone. The Creator leaves Amalek for “dessert,” for the very last breakthrough when man finally beats it with the help of the upper force. And then all the egoism of a person changes to “for the sake of bestowal.”
[102650]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

Related Material:
Amalek, A Cunning Enemy
Indifference Kills Quietly, Like A Cunning Serpent
The War Against Amalek

Filed under: Egoism, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” item 26: We have already stated that the first state necessitates the third state, to fully materialize as was in the Thought of Creation—in the first state—not omitting a single thing.

The three states of Creation, the initial state (1), the intermediate state (2) and the final state (3) obligate one another to exist. At the beginning the creation is in Ein Sof (Infinity). In the second state we (WE) are in our world. Then third state is the end of correction.

During the transition from the first state to the second state, we go through shattering and restrictions, and during the transition from the second state to the third state, we go through and ascent and corrections. In addition, we correct GE on the way and then AHP of Aliya. Thus we advance from the Light of Nefesh to the Lights of NRNHY.

We should remember that all these states exist only in our perception, but we have to use everything that we have until we attain one desire that is filled by one thought. It is because the desire is emotions (a heart) and the thought is the mind. They have to connect so that in the connection between them we will attain the Creator.

This will become our final state, and this is our goal today. We don’t know what comes after that, but we should know that after the end of correction we will go in some unknown direction. The creation will continue since we have corrected the vessels, our desires.

It is like fixing a broken-down car and learning how to drive it: The job is done, the repairs are completed, and I learned how to drive it. I sit in my perfectly fixed car and what’s next? What have I corrected my vessels for?

So the equivalence of form with the Creator is only the beginning. Then He opens the door of His palace for me inviting me in…

We rise to His level, and we don’t know what will be next. I don’t see that Kabbalists have hinted about this. They hint that there is something afterward in terms that we can understand. We simply cannot understand these dimensions.
[103174]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

Related Material:
Contact With The Future
Steps Along A Great Road
Believe It: All Of This Only Seems To Us!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, My Similarity to the Creator, Perception - 2 Comments →

And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy, and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the setting of the sun.

And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword (The Torah, Exodus, “BeShalach,” 17:11 – 17:13).

Moses discovered the attribute of Bina, the attribute of bestowal in a person. The outstretched hands reaching above allegorically symbolize the connection with the Creator. This is the raising of MAN (request), the connection of the lower Partzuf with the upper.

When Moses raised his hands, which means when the attribute of Bina feeds from Keter (Crown), from the upper attribute of bestowal, then Israel wins. This means that these are the attributes of a man who tries to escape Amalek and rise above. He rises above Amalek and thus wins over him.

Amalek is the foundation of the world, the foundation of the ego. However, it’s not always clearly revealed. Ordinary people don’t think that they are egoists. They think of themselves as regular citizens, who give and take. Whereas those attributes that appear later in those people with the point in the heart who discover their nature as being completely egoistic, this is already Haman, Amalek, Balaam, and Balak.

It’s impossible to win over Amalek because the means and forces in a person to connect with the Creator are limited. Thus the act itself, the war with Amalek, continues from generation to generation. This means that by your rising to each spiritual level, you are always in war with him.

Thus it continues until you completely destroy Amalek by the force of the Creator. It happens when a person who already corrects himself grasps his corrected attributes and doesn’t ask for anything at all for himself. Then the Creator corrects in him his last egoistic attribute all at once.

This means that as long as subconsciously there is a grain of ego in me, since it is within me as my foundation, then it’s impossible for me to work when I am not connected to the action and its outcome. That is Amalek, like a snake, which in any case is slithering somewhere. Thus the war with it is never ending.

Only the special attributes in a person fight with him, and the others don’t since it’s impossible to put them to war against Amalek. They would fall. They would not be able to stand up to the request of your having only bestowal. Thus only a few attributes wage war. At this level, the attributes of bestowal win, meaning faith, which is the attribute of bestowal and love, and continue onwards.

Question: It’s said, “…and his hands were steady until the setting of the sun.” What is this state that is called, “until the setting of the sun?’’

Answer: As long as the upper Light is attracted to Moses, as long as there is the connection between Moses and Keter (between Bina and Keter), then there is force to oppose Amalek. And then afterward, everything disappears. This level is concealed and the next level is revealed since the day begins with the evening.
[102746]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

Related Material:
The War Against Amalek
Amalek, A Cunning Enemy
Indifference Kills Quietly, Like A Cunning Serpent

Filed under: My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Torah, Unity - No Comments →

Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Article 19 “What the Torah Being Called The Middle Line Means in the Work”: A person has to believe that “there is none else besides Him” and that everything that happens to us is done by the Creator. Before doing anything at all, we should keep in mind that all we have is the choice that it is given to us since “if I’m not for myself then who?” In other words, everything depends on what we choose. However, after our actions are over, we have to come to the conclusion that everything is subject to the upper governance and that there is nothing we do ourselves.

We have to believe that it is the Creator who gives us desires and aspirations to make good deeds. However, for the time being, while we still remain unworthy, we are prohibited to sense that it is the Creator who compels us to make good deeds. That’s why the Creator conceals Himself in the clothes of intention “Lo Lishma” (not for His sake).

In other words, the Creator hides Himself in the “clothing” of our friends.

If we don’t want to get up and go to classes, then the Creator hides Himself in the “garb” of our friends and forces us to get up regardless of our fatigue since we suddenly realize that everybody around will see our weakness. The Creator’s command doesn’t energize us enough to wake us up. The Creator doesn’t obligate us and we would most likely stay in bed, but our friends make us get up and go to the lesson.

The same applies to everything: We are not able to stay strong and commit good deeds if the only one who compels us to act so is the Creator, although if we are forced to act by other people, we feel enough power to act with the intention of Lo Lishma.

One has to believe that “there is none else besides Him,” meaning that it is the Creator who coerces him to commit good deeds. However, one is not yet worthy to recognize that it is the Creator who obligates him and that he is still misled by the fact that the Creator “dresses” in his surroundings and governs him through the backside.

That’s why after each action we do, because our surroundings compel us to act, we must conclude that it was the Creator who arranged this situation for us and that He dresses into the garments that are essential to us. So now we should thank the Creator for being a source of our desire to commit good deeds by means of dressing in the circumstances of our lives.
[101302]

Filed under: Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

In our world, the egoistic nature immediately extinguishes the feeling of shame. It usually finds justification for our actions: we use others, steal, and attribute different things to ourselves. We usually don’t even pay attention to the fact that we calculate everything egoistically and treat others egoistically, looking at everything and evaluating everything from the perspective of personal interest.

We don’t feel any shame because of that. If we could be more sensitive with regard to the attribute of receiving and bestowal, and if we could check where we really receive and where we bestow and according to which principle we look at the world, then we would simply burn because of terrible shame.

If the attribute of bestowal were revealed to me in all its supremacy, I could see myself in my true form, like a tiny black insect that only worries about food aspiring to grab as much as possible and swallow everything it sees. Then the shame would burn me because of the feeling of my nothingness compared to the real attribute of bestowal.

A person may even find it scary to think that this can suddenly be revealed to everyone, to all of humanity. We may say, well what can we do? After all he is just a human being, a created being that acts according to his nature over which he has no control. But still he would be terribly ashamed. He would rather die than feel such shame.

There are no greater sufferings than shame since it is at the basis of the whole desire to receive. The first restriction was a result of shame, since shame erases the concept of Adam (a human being). Phase four annuls itself if it feels shame, since phase four is the feeling of an independent person who is ready to carry out his decisions. Shame, however, is actually the totally opposite feeling and so it annuls a person’s personality.

However, we speak about our current state in the meantime, when there is no Adam yet, but only a tiny animal that isn’t even responsible for its actions. It received all these attributes from the upper, from the Creator, and so “go to the craftsman who made me,” go to the one who has created this created being. But if we begin to discover the attribute of bestowal that resides in this world, the Creator, and value ourselves according to Him, then such a great disparity will be revealed between us, in every sense, that we previously couldn’t even imagine.

Shame is so powerful that only thanks to it do we have chance to stand against our ego and correct it, just as in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), Malchut gave up everything because of the shame. It wasn’t a feeling of shame because it received and was opposite from the Creator and was ashamed of its attributes, but it was ashamed because it couldn’t bestow like He does. This is a totally different shame, shame on the level of the end of correction compared to us.

We, on the other hand, discover our ego gradually. First, I am ashamed that I was taught to steal, that my lie has been revealed, that I want to use everyone, and to harm others. The revelation of shame helps me place myself in the right position so that I won’t hide like I do now, like a frightened animal that is afraid of being shamed. On the contrary, I will be ready to reveal all my evil and to shame myself in order to get out of this force of resistance, to overcome and defeat the ego and to build a Masach (screen) against the ego.

I need a Masach, not in order to extinguish my shame, but in order to change my attributes from receiving to bestowal. Unless this happens, I can stand the shame since it only opens my heart and spills out all the truth.

So adhesion is inseparable from shame and correction. We shouldn’t be afraid of shame; instead we have to feel it and understand that the main thing is to rise above what we have in order to work with this attribute that can bring us to correction.
[103035]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/13, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

Related Material:
Corporeal Shame And Spiritual Shame
I’m Ashamed And It’s Great
Shame As The Means Of Correction

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, My Similarity to the Creator, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: What should I do if, during the study of TES, I feel despair because I don’t fully understand what it says?

Answer: There is no reason to despair. We study about actions that are performed by a person who has already received the power to realize himself. He can be totally independent of himself and doesn’t succumb to the temptation to do something for his own good instead of for the good of others; he cannot make such a decision.

Then he examines and assesses himself. He can feel the needs of others, something that we cannot do at our current state. After all, checking the needs of the other has to be done neutrally and objectively in order to find out what is for his good.

It isn’t what a person actually wants; perhaps he wants a gun to shoot himself. Rather, we should check just as we check what is good for a small child. If we give a child whatever he wants, it will harm him. We have to give him exactly what is good for him and this decision has to be totally detached from my feelings and from his feelings.

In order to do that, I need to see what the goal of Creation is, what the revelation of the Creator and adhesion with Him in the current state is, and help the other advance in this precise direction. After all, this is the most important progress that he can make only with my help. By helping him, I also advance in such a way that I reach adhesion with the Creator, an equivalence of form with Him.

If I am incorporated in the group and help the friends advance a little, it means that I treat them like the Creator does. The only difference is that He (the Creator) cannot move them in the right direction, but I can.

He allows me to do so; so this means I am incorporated in the Creator’s work.
[103032]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
The Progress Of The Friend Is More Important Than My Own Progress
The Common Desire Makes Us Friends
How To Fulfill The Desires Of Others?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Sages’ Fruit about the Torah,” “It Isn’t Time to Collect the Herd”: When the seventy souls of Jacob spread to 600,000 souls, things went back to the way they were before, that the herd have to be collected, and the stone should be rolled from the well, and when the strength is lacking from one part it causes the exhaustion of the full measure. And this is the secret, that the individual and the general are equal and everything that was included in the general and became an exception doesn’t come to teach us about the exception but rather about the general… and this is what the fable in The Zohar means when it tells about two who came to a boat and one was drilling a hole underneath him and his friend reprimanded him saying, why are you drilling a hole, and the fool answered him: “What do you care, I am drilling underneath myself,” since indeed the individual ruins the beauty of the whole figure.

… and this is the meaning of a prayer for the public, that the individual mustn’t be an exception and ask for himself, even if it is to bring contentment to his Maker, except for the general as a whole… since he who is an exception and who asks for himself, doesn’t build but rather brings about destruction upon himself, since there cannot be an exception without the dress of pride, and alas for the one who brings destruction upon his soul… and every person should be included with all his might in the general Israel, in every appeal to the Creator, in praying and in the work…since this is the nature of the Light of the general that resides on the individual that annuls his individuality so that he doesn’t feel himself.”

We must constantly remember that all our thoughts come as ‘help against” and it is thanks to them that we can get stronger and develop. We have to rise above every interruption and connect as much as we can to the feeling of the general family, “as one man in one heart.”

We mustn’t leave these thoughts, the feeling that we are all part of one family. The general feeling of “one family” is the feeling of the Creator that resides among us, in us, when we constantly yearn for the feeling of connection among us despite all the interruptions.

This is our work. We have to remind each other about this and it is even better to try to do it with our thoughts: to keep this thought and to try to influence all the friends and the whole world by our thoughts and to pass on the emphasis on internal actions. This is our goal at the moment; we have to reach adhesion and to succeed.

This is the meaning of the “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one”—all those who yearn for the revelation of the Creator (Yashar – El) in the connection between them following all the advice of the Kabbalists in order to reach connection in which the Creator will be revealed.

So even the purest prayer with the best intention doesn’t help if it isn’t a prayer for many, for the general as one whole, but is rather a prayer of a person who separates himself from others. Not only isn’t it helpful, but it is actually harmful! We should regard separation and division, especially if it is intentional, as unacceptable conduct. It is the most serious obstacle and we should try to root it out.
[103028]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/13

Related Material:
A Prayer Just For Oneself Harms
A Filter On The Way To The Creator
Whom To Pray For: Each Or Everybody?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Unity - No Comments →

Question: How can you contain it if you suddenly feel the Creator’s love for you?

Answer: It is indeed very difficult, there is no greater problem than to feel the Creator’s love; it simply breaks a person. So we have to be equipped in advance with the vessel for that attainment of fear by working with the friends in the group by developing mutual guarantee.

It’s for this reason that the vessel was shattered into many parts and we have to put them back together again against their will. They resist and don’t want to connect. Then as they adhere to one another we acquire the attribute of fear of the Creator. By working with the friends on the connection between us, we attain the fear of the Creator.

This is what we have to add to creation by ourselves and this is for what we live. All of creation already exists and the only thing missing in the king’s treasury is the fear of the Creator. This mission is recorded in our Reshimot (spiritual genes), and as we begin to fulfill it, we discover that it’s worthwhile to be in the attribute of bestowal and that we have to live in fear. I have to fear and to start enjoying my bestowal so that it will be completely external to me and so that nothing will return to me.

Even if I bestow and know upon whom I bestow and how much I bestow, by making an accurate calculation, I don’t need to feel any compensation. I don’t want to feel any pleasure in it, but only the actual action. Then I decide that I also want to feel pleasure and the action itself but I convey all that to the one I bestow upon. This continues until I reach phase four, which is the last phase—complete bestowal.

Everything is already complete in creation except for what a person has to add, which is fear. Imagine that you are in a big world now that is totally dark. You have to switch on the light that is made of your fear and by that you illuminate all of creation.

This fear is not to receive pleasure from my bestowal, of the fact that I manage reality instead of the Creator, of my closeness to Him, of the pleasures that He gives me, and of the fact that I suddenly discover that I am the most important person in the world.

The Creator comes to me and tells me, “I have chosen you of all the people! There is no one like you. You are the only human being in all of creation, in all of reality.” You have to be ready to accept this attitude that can make a person explode and you have to not be bought by it.

You have managed to bring the Creator contentment and feel what contentment you are bringing Him. Everyone will feel that he is special in his point and that there is no one except him out there. So we have to prepare for that in order to receive this revelation, the adhesion. Here it becomes clear that we will never receive anything in the vessels of receiving and that we have to annul them completely.

The vessel of fear annuls the vessels of receiving and is totally focused on the Creator, like a projector. Then you begin to work with the vessels of bestowal in which enormous Lights are revealed; you move to the other side and become the one who bestows instead of the one who receives: You bestow, bestow, bestow…

It’s as if the Creator appoints you to be the manager of his treasury so that you will bestow upon everyone. It turns out that now you appear before the created beings instead of the Creator. Imagine what pleasure there is in that on the part of the one who bestows that he has a chance to bestow goodness upon everyone. This is already the real work, and from this point the work with the real Masachim (screens) starts when you become like the Creator with regard to the whole world. The fear never disappears; it constantly accompanies you just like the basis of the desire to receive that remains.
[102951]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/13, Shamati #38

Related Material:
Let The Most Distant Become The Closest
A Difficult Trial Of Pleasure
Turning Fear Into Advancement

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →

Spiritual fear (awe) is the fear of using something for my own benefit, even if it’s the revelation of the Creator in any form, meaning enjoying the fact that I am correcting the world, that I am bringing the Creator contentment, that I bestow like He does, and that I reach adhesion with Him.

The Creator shows me that everything depends on me and He does so with everyone. Everyone hears from Him that he is the most special of all. This is the truth. He isn’t lying to me and doesn’t try to buy me off! But I have to overcome all this great Light, and in order to do that I need to build a shield to protect me from this fear in advance.

Therefore, our work is in concealment and we have to perform many actions to which we feel no attraction by working on the connection among us. We have to make efforts in the group in advance, although I have no desire and no yearning for that and see no value in it. It isn’t only about the local group that is close to you and that directly belongs to you. It is worthwhile to invest in this group according to many conscious and subconscious egoistic calculations. But I also have to try to connect to the global vessel.

We should understand that the more distant a person seems to me geographically or emotionally, the more important he is and the more critical his influence is on my advancement than the people who are close to me. It’s like the difference between the spiritual levels; if I shorten the distance between us emotionally or physically, it will turn into an amplifier for the level of my correction.

So all those that are distant from us are very important to us: the distant groups that are far away and the individual students who speak different languages, who differ in their mentality and who live under difficult conditions so that they have to to hide from others. Each of us needs to make sure that the physical distances will not keep us away from one another, so that those that are most distant will become the closest.

In this way, we will surely build the vessel called “fear,” we will understand what spiritual fear means, and will be ready for spiritual advancement.
[102933]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/13, Shamati #38

Related Material:
A Live Vessel
My Circles In The Spiritual Network
We Need A New Start

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Unity - No Comments →

Throughout history, human development occurred with a person being afraid to enjoy for his own sake. He was afraid not only to enjoy the Light but also to disturb the restriction; the breaking occurred only once, and he can keep himself from this because he is afraid of whether or not he can withstand the pleasures that will be revealed to him through bestowing upon the Creator.

After all, the feeling of one’s similarity to the Creator brings great pleasure. And it is even a greater pleasure to feel how the Creator enjoys you, how you are united into one. It is similar to the pleasure that a baby experiences from closeness with his mother, how much the mother enjoys him, and he enjoys her, and from pleasing each other.

A person feels great fear because immense pleasures are revealed to him: NRNHY de NRNHY instead of Nefesh de Nefesh. It is an immense Light that is revealed from the feeling that he gives something to the Master because NRNHY is born from bestowal upon the Creator who is revealed to a person. And that is where all the work is concentrated.

Spiritual work is not about the meal that is arranged on the king’s table, but the feeling of the Master, one’s similarity to Him; it is with this enjoyment. By trying to be like the Master, I become like Him in something. I enjoy not only the fact that I bring Him pleasure, His love for me and my love for Him, but I begin to enjoy this very position, my status.

This reveals an enormous Light and the pleasure that did not exist before in the created being in his decisions, feelings, and reactions. And that is why I first should equip myself with the vessels, which is called “awe.” Otherwise, I will not be able to approach any action correctly, and everything that is revealed will immediately disappear without any use. It would be as if I poured wine into bags, and it immediately leaked out, or poured flour into barrels only to rot there. Nothing can be done; everything needs to completely match the other; all contents must be stored in its specific container.

That is why a person is afraid that he will begin to enjoy the greatness of the Creator, His love and reciprocity which he feels in the two united HaVaYaH: HaVaYaH of the Direct Light and HaVaYaH of the Reflected Light clothed in each other. The Light that is revealed in them has never existed in reality. If a person prepares himself for this trial, then he will be able to reveal the status of the Creator correctly and withstand it in bestowal.
[102883]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/13, Shamati #38

Related Material:
Fear That Makes Us Worthy Of The Revelation
A Wonderful Cake With Spiritual Filling
The Revived Stone

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Evolution, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →