Rabash, “The Torah is One Holy Name”: Therefore, when the evil inclination brings a person alien thoughts, then it is the right time to take these thoughts and to raise them “above reason.”

And a person can do that regarding anything his heart desires, and he should not say that now he is repulsed by the work, but rather that he was given desires and thoughts from Above, so that he will be able to bring them into Holiness. So he is actually being brought closer from Above, and therefore he was sent this kind of work.

And about this it was said: “Straight are the ways of the Lord, the righteous will follow them and the sinners will fail in them,” which means that if a person is rewarded, he can ascend by that and if he isn’t (rewarded), he descends by that spiritually.

It turns out that there isn’t a moment in our lives when the Light is not revealed to us by revealing an additional thickness in us in different manners. It summons in us different feelings and thoughts that are evoked in the mind and heart, and we have to respond.

This additional desire can lead to a bad mood or to an egoistic ascent; it can lead to thoughts that are closer to spirituality or further away from it, to criticism of the environment, and to everything that is related to the spiritual path. All this happens, of course, only by the revelation of the new Reshimot (spiritual genes). If a person is in the right environment and adhered to the teacher, the books and the group, to all the efforts that stabilize his path, then he will not forget this. Then he will not miss any opportunity that is given to him and will constantly respond.

The response itself may seem to be good and successful or not very good and successful; it makes no difference. What’s important is that he fulfills the current moment, the given Reshimo and moves on.

But if a person doesn’t hold on to the teacher, the Torah, and the group, then he has no chance to fulfill that moment, and so life passes without a purpose. He thinks that he is advancing, but in fact he is simply accumulating wisdom. This means that he doesn’t advance in fulfilling the new Reshimot but only in developing his egoistic mind. We have to be very careful of that since a person cannot see the exact border between advancing in fulfilling the new Reshimot and the development of his egoistic mind.

Therefore, it says, “Straight are the ways of the Lord.” If a person relates to this correctly, then he will go through them like a “righteous.” If he doesn’t, then he will descend and leave the spiritual path. The main thing is to check whether you can attribute every moment to the fulfillment of the goal, which means to attain the attribute of bestowal above reason.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 3, Inquiry No. 5: The matter of the rising of the dead: Since the body is so contemptible, that immediately at birth it is doomed to perish and to be buried. Moreover, The Zohar said that before the body rots entirely, the soul cannot ascend to its place in the Garden of Eden, while there are still remnants of it. Therefore, why must it return and rise at the revival of the dead? Could the Creator not delight the souls without it?

Indeed, why should “the body” be revived? What about the soul? Will it come down from Heaven again?

Even more bewildering is what our sages said, that the dead are destined to rise with their flaws, so that they will not be mistaken for another, and after that He will cure their flaws.

Nothing remains of the body after it rots. So why does it have to revived? What difference does it make if someone says something?

We must understand why God should mind that they would not be mistaken for another, that for that He would recreate their flaws and then would have to cure it.

“A body,” which means the desire to receive, has always been holy and has always been in adhesion. The whole round we make is necessary only in order to rise higher towards the Creator so that we will feel all the 125 degrees, so that we will have the fineness and the sensitivity and will clarify and sharpen our perception in feeling the Creator, and will rise from the level of the created being to the level of the Creator by ourselves.

Therefore, the desire to receive has to go through this whole cycle and at the end of correction to come back and acquire all the flaws. Then we will be able to compare what it was at the beginning of creation and what it has become at the end of creation after it has been through all the levels and has rotted.

All this is fulfilled by our work at the end of which, after the “rising of the dead,” we acquire a new discernment of the desire and by it can adhere to the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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All our work comes down to revealing a deficiency within us. It is because even before we begin to do something, the Creator has already prepared everything and is in a state of absolute rest. On His part there is always the readiness. He is only waiting for every opportunity a person gives Him, which means when he reveals an additional deficiency that is attained by his own powers, and not that which the Creator has evoked in him.

Therefore, there must be some addition to our response that is our own. But where can this response come from if we exist in the Godly system that the Creator has arranged for us? Where can I add something of my own in response? How?

The only way I can add something of my own is to exert myself on my level—not on a level above me—by connecting and by somehow spurring one another. Only due to the fact that I can awaken the others by physical actions and they awaken me can we create an additional awakening towards the upper on our part. By that we are actually correcting the shattering, correcting the gaps between us, by influencing the spiritual level from the corporeal level.

On the spiritual level, the Creator performs the correction, but we only have to start the work of connection and then the Creator completes it. In the corrected, connected vessel, we begin to discover Him.

Thus we rise, each time requiring a stronger connection under conditions that become more special, more difficult, and toward a higher sense of unity. Therefore, it says that all our freewill is in choosing the environment. By such actions a person is evoked and evokes internally more qualitative passion and desire towards the attribute of bestowal. Each time he discovers a clarion from Above that comes from the Creator calling him and summoning him to connect and to ascend. Therefore, by building a collective vessel, a person is rewarded with the revelation of the attribute of bestowal in this vessel, which is called the revelation of the Creator that is dressed and revealed in the created being.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We always have to be connected and try to see the Torah in the connection between us and how we fulfill it. What does a certain connection stand for, where between us is Haman, where is Mordecai, where is Esther, who is Ahasuerus, what happened to the ten sons of Haman and his wife?

If we ignore the physical characters of ourselves and the friends and speak about forces, about attributes, about discernments and not about bodies that are perceived by the five senses, if we raise ourselves to the level of the network of the forces of creation, then it means that we are fulfilling the Torah in the relations between us. Then we already begin to see them and to learn this. This is called implementation, getting closer to correction, and building the image of Adam, man. Then you will see how necessary each of the friends is and that even all the negative forces have to exist so that you will not agree with such behavior, will keep away from them, and decide not to use them internally.

We don’t apply enough constant efforts to get closer and to connect on the level of the forces, intentions, and not on the level of the physical bodies. We have to penetrate a bit deeper and to begin to draw away from the usual corporeal picture in order to see the network that we are building between us, or more accurately, to discover it.

Everyone has to try to imagine that he is in the system of forces and not between physical bodies of this world and all its trash. We have to finally see and imagine this world correctly. It’s impossible to mention this all the time. A person has to change his thoughts. In order to do that, we have to support one another and we need mutual guarantee when everyone thinks in the same way.

Then you begin to notice and to identify that all the friends are in such inner relations, in such an intention, in such actions, that you realize that they are not performing external actions, but that everyone is trying to build and put this puzzle together to connect everyone. Everyone will feel that his efforts determine whether this puzzle will be put together, whether everyone will connect and how in the picture that is gradually being completed, that  reveals the general force of bestowal called the Creator with all its details and special features.

This is already a sign that the Torah is being revealed to us, that the upper Light is starting to illuminate and to explain its rules, its nature. Thus we begin to live on that level.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 2: In order to clear all that up, we need to make some preliminary inquiries. And not, God forbid, where it is forbidden, in the Creator’s essence, of which we have no thought or perception whatsoever, and thus have no thought or utterance of Him, but where the inquiry is a Mitzva (commandment/good deed), the inquiry of His deeds. It is as the Torah commands us: “Know thou the God of thy father and serve Him,” and as it says in the poem of unification, “By your actions we know you.”

At the beginning of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam raises five major questions that a person faces on his way to spirituality, and then he adds preliminary inquiries to them that are meant “to clean things up.” After all, my questions are accompanied by confusion and are surrounded by trash and “weeds” that prevent my understanding, clear examination, arrangement of everything in its place, and the ability to differentiate things.

It is as if I search in a dirty messy place, and so the first thing I must do is clean it up and find out what it is exactly that I am looking for, where exactly, why, and according to which rules. This means that there are many additional conditions that I have to discover in order to clarify my questions and to find the answers and filling for them.

So we first get rid of everything that is redundant; we get rid of it simply, and have no contact with the Creator while we search. The Giver remains up there out of reach because He is not dressed in the matter of our desire so we cannot study Him. From the “Preface to The Book of Zohar” we know that we can study and investigate only matter and form dressed in matter; if we can dress our matter with the form of giving, then from it—which means from the Creator’s actions “by Your actions we know you”—we can study Him.

It is about the actions that He performs on me by having created me. From that moment on, I begin to work on the inner changes, having connected to Him, until I attain the whole process, until the end of my correction. Thus I get to know Him better, and He operates on me more and more. At the end of my correction, I reach the exact same form He has and the upper is completely dressed in me.

Thus, “by Your actions we know You,” I don’t know Him but His image that is dressed in me by his actions. This is the origin of the word “Bore – Creator,” which means “Bo-reh – come and see.”

We solve many problems this way: We immediately stop “floating in the clouds” in an attempt to study the upper and “come down to the ground,” to the basis of everything. It is because the main thing for us is to discover the Creator.

All our other actions are arranged around that, our whole life, all of reality. All this is only so that the created being will discover the Creator.

So we have to remember that we are innately limited by our very form. Only by the Creator’s actions can we know Him, as it says: “by Your actions we know You.” This approach solves many philosophical problems, and besides, it sets me in the right direction showing me that it is I who needs to change and not the Creator. I have to act in order to discover His actions; all the beginnings are in me. I am the changing element in the system. It is the most important thing.

We are not speaking about Atzmuto, about Ein Sof (Infinity), about eternity, about wholeness, about the absolute. It is only I who discovers the Creator according to the changes in me; it clears things up from the confusion and the usual trash and brings us closer to the right implementation.

Question: Why do we attain the Creator by His actions, as it says: “We know You by Your actions?”

Answer: If you tell me about your mother, I will probably hear about what a great cook she is and how she takes care of you. You are telling me about her actions but not actually about her! Try to take the actions out of the story and you will see that it is impossible.

Question: So what are the Creator’s actions?

Answer: You are His action. It is His deed; this is how we are made, unable to attain anything except for His actions. It is only His actions and not their essence that we see and it is only about His actions that we speak.
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From the 4^th part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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The Writings of Rabash, Vol 1, Article 19, “The Matter of Joy”: And now he doesn’t want from the Creator that He will give him something. So he’s not asking something from the Creator. And all his aim now is that he only wants to give thanks to the Creator. It is found that he has now adhesion with the Creator because he is occupied with bestowal. So by this, from within the adhesion, the state of joy and completion is attracted to him from the force that he is now in adhesion with the whole.

But how is it possible to adhere in completeness. I feel inside myself total deficiencies and there is no adhesion in the whole. I would be willing to adhere to the whole like a baby that adheres to his mother, but what is revealed to me is an opposite picture, completely not whole: lack in everything, there is nothing, the “left line” in its most extreme form. And then “above my reason,” I adhere to the Creator. This is called “Dvekut – adhesion” to the whole. In spite of this full and complete opposite in my mind and heart, I rise to completion, and in the equivalence, I reveal Him.

The feeling of completion can ride only on the feeling of lack of completion. It cannot be one without the other. Simply, these two extreme things are not revealed in me together, rather intermittently: once night and once day, once evening, and once morning… This is how I roll between them until all these things are connected to one state in which all the components are supporting each other: “And there is no difference between “night” and “day” and “darkness will illuminate like light” and then it will be for me a day that is all good, “24 hours” of completion.

Question: But what completion is there if inside of me there is a war?

Answer: On the contrary, I don’t feel the war, rather pleasure, because only in this form do I rise above doubts and find myself in bestowal. Precisely this ascent above my inner resistance, above the collision within me, is proving that I live in the truth and not in a lie.

Question: What are the signs of this wholeness?

Answer: That I don’t need anything except this state. In my vessels dwells TzimTzum Aleph (the first restriction) and total emptiness, darkness, like a “black hole,” and above it, I assemble and stabilize wholeness where the light is pouring, where all of me is found in bestowal.

This way all my darkness, all my “black hole,” if I use it correctly by rising above it, suddenly becomes a source of Light of Infinity.

I necessarily need this dipole of two opposites of infinite minus and infinite plus. Only in this condition am I certain that I hold to the truth. Conversely, if the plus is not riding above the minus, then this is not the “middle line” and then I simply have no criteria for measurement. The joy is always being checked facing the deficiency, wholeness facing lack of wholeness. And only from within the darkness, I achieve the Light.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, The Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 241, “Call ye upon Him While He is Near,” (Isaiah 55:6): We must understand what “while He is near” means, since “the whole earth is full of His glory”! Thus, He is always near, so what does “while He is near” mean? It would seem that there is a time when He is not near.

Similarly, one who has lost the good way and entered a bad place, and has already accustomed himself to live among beasts, from the perspective of the will to receive, it would never occur to him that he should return to a place of reason and Sanctity. Yet, when he hears the voice calling him, he awakens to repent.

Hence, when the Creator wishes to bring him out of the dense forest, He shows him a remote Light, and the person gathers the remains of his strength to walk on the path that the Light shows him, in order to attain it.

But if one does not ascribe the Light to the Creator, and does not say that the Creator is calling him, then the Light is lost from him, and he remains standing in the forest…

Everything depends on our preparation, to the extent that we yearn to discover the attribute of bestowal, which is called to discover the Creator. To this extent, we begin to hear the Creator’s voice calling us and inviting us to Him, giving us different signs of His coming near us. However, a person only can feel them when he imagines the goal that he wants to attain correctly, the attribute of bestowal that is above his attribute of receiving, and not something else. This is called having “faith above reason.”

However, if a person has not corrected himself yet, he cannot feel or believe that it is the Creator calling him and he thinks that these are coincidental occurrences or that he simply has awakened by himself. He doesn’t understand that it is the Creator’s voice calling him by pulling him toward the attribute of bestowal.

Everything is determined by a person’s preparation. If the preparation was correct and sufficient, if a person has exerted himself enough and has filled his measure, then he begins to feel how the Creator invites him in every opportunity he encounters.

If a person makes efforts, then, eventually, he sees that the Creator is waiting for him around every corner, inviting that person to Him through giving different signs and clues. Thus, the connections between them are formed, and the person becomes the Creator’s partner. To the extent that the Creator is attracted to the person, that person also is attracted to the Creator, to mutual bestowal, until they meet and embrace one another.

Here, everything depends on a person’s preparation. At first, a person doesn’t even feel that he is lost in the dark forest. He is looking for the wrong place and thinks that he can break through by himself and attain what he desires by himself. Or, he simply may wait for someone to come and save him—there is also this phase along the way. It takes time until he manages to identify the Creator’s voice and understand that it is really the Creator calling him.

Then, they connect, and the Creator saves the person because the person already understands what true salvation is.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/13

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We must discover all the deficiencies since the good is revealed only in its opposite. So, we must rejoice when we discover the negative form; it is the first level of revelation after which there is already a correction and fulfillment.

So, we must understand that if a person follows the right path, then there is no room for despair and disappointment. A person who advances correctly always should be happy since he goes through all the phases along the way, justifying them as he understands that they are necessary for the revelation of wholeness.

Corruption is, above all, my disagreement with my state—feeling reluctant to justify it and to accept it as necessary—that must be revealed. All the states already are imprinted in the root of my soul in my nature.

The states are revealed from lighter to the more difficult: Ibur (gestation), Yenika (suckling) and Mochin (adulthood). First, I am only a tiny embryo who lacks all self-awareness. Then, I am born, which means that the awareness is born within me, the understanding. Before that I simply felt something without knowing where I was and what was going on. Then, I begin to feel pleasant and unpleasant feelings, different changes of states. Next, I begin to come to know the Upper a little, who He is, and how He manages and changes me.

I am connected to Him. He seems to be cunning since He hides from me while I look for Him and chase Him, not knowing where He is. I am told that I can discover Him through the environment, but I don’t want this environment. However, it turns out that this is to the same extent that I don’t want Him since it is the same thing.

This means that I must go through many states before I understand and reach the recognition, Mochin, which is the last level of our evolution that comes after Ibur and Yenika. It is natural since I cannot understand anything unless I have enough experience and attain the reasons for what is going on, the connection between them, and begin tying one with the other. Thus, the states begin to illuminate for me a little from within, and I understand what is derived from what. Through the connection between the events, I discover their source, which is actually external, outside the actions that I feel.

Therefore it is very difficult for a person to advance since one cannot justify the actions that one feels, which seem coincidental. One doesn’t even understand their order. He would like to see who is working on him, but he doesn’t. It is a hard way since we don’t attribute everything that happens to us to the One—that there is none else besides Him and we don’t acknowledge the fact that this One is good and benevolent.

Because we don’t try to trust this one, good force, we don’t discover anything on the way. There is even a phase during our development when a person fears any new discoveries and prefers that nothing new will happen. He simply feels the physical pain because the revelation is discovered so painfully that everything within him is an unpleasant feeling.

If a person were to expect more revelations, he could make efforts in order to attain them and not just for the sake of acting externally while lying to himself that he is working, but actually fearing to take a step forward.

Only if he has a good and strong environment—which means that he overcomes his ego and turns to the environment—he annuls his ego that comes between him and his independent vessels that seem to be external. Then, he retrieves these vessels and these means, and through them, he can discover the next states with joy and bring them near. It is possible only to the extent that he annuls his ego before the society, understanding that it is not the external society, but his internal attributes.
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From the 1^st part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Many studies show that rewards often ruin our pleasure. For example, children who were promised a prize when they painted, became used to that, and were unable to paint without receiving prizes.

The same thing applies to school grades, which has a deleterious effect on the thirst for learning and knowledge. But on the other hand, we, in any case, know that our material is the desire to receive. This means that a reward is, in any case, necessary. So what is the difference between the pleasure of playing and the pleasure from working?

Answer: Rewards can be different according to its worth. A game gives me higher ‘’abstract’’ pleasure. In a game, I connect and cooperate with others. It isn’t by chance that people have been attracted to games for generations; for example, the tradition of the Olympic games began in ancient Greece.

The game reverts man back to childhood, and he simply feels good from it. It is not because of money or superiority over others, and not because of honor that he receives, it is something else, something abstract. Our games are matched to the upper game where the Light enters the vessels. About this it is said, “the Creator plays with the leviathan.”

The whole issue here is my attitude. I can work hard from morning until night and see this pleasure, rest. The picture changes with the reward that I receive at the time of the effort, which is called, “on the spot.’’

With regular work the reward comes afterward, and in games and other similar situations, we receive the reward “on the spot.’’ For example, by lifting weights I feel that I become healthier and stronger. There the work itself becomes the reward.

So we need to bring ourselves to such a state where we enjoy the action itself, as it is. Now I am with friends, I work with them shoulder-to-shoulder, I connect with them, and that gives me joy. Why? Because in our connection, I want to discover the Creator, so that He delights in what we do.

The key to all of this is the society. Only in this way, can our values be changed to place the correct priority and in general to raise the scale of values above the level of the “beast’.’ From the moment we descended from the trees and began life in humanity, the society, and only the society, determined everything I do. Whether I want it or not, consciously or unconsciously, I carry out its wish.

Thus, if in the eyes of the society the Creator and bestowal are given the desired importance, then I willingly and happily will work together with the friends and enjoy it like once I enjoyed, for example, the process of playing soccer with friends, even apart from the result.

In each moment of our efforts in connection, we give delight to the Creator. He doesn’t enjoy afterward; He enjoys it now. And we also need now to receive enjoyment from this great and important act without a need for a greater reward. As soon as we reach this, the barriers will disappear and everything will open.

The result is that the Creator is revealed to you when you don’t even feel a desire for it, simply because you built the vessels of bestowal.

Question: So why is He revealed? What should I do?

Answer: There is no need to do anything. You are with Him, embracing each other…..
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Rabash, Article 19, “The Matter of Joy”: This means that the joy is a result of a certain reason. So what is the reason, so that the reason can be evoked in order to bring us joy?

And accordingly, the intention to follow the right line as much as one can is called “wholeness.” And a person is already in a state of wholeness, which is called “equivalence.” Which means that the whole, which is the person, is now adhered to the Whole, as it says: “The blessed adheres to the blessed and the damned adheres to the damned.

Of course, we cannot feel anything spiritual if it is not by its opposite form. Internally we lack wholeness, we lack control, we are powerless and under the complete control of the egoistic desire to receive that calls for the domination of all the good in the world, but we transcend this and “restrict” ourselves, holding on only to the desire to bestow as we value it more and more.

This means that joy comes as a result of our feeling of great frustration, disappointed in our own desires. We are very happy that we have found a desire, the Creator’s intention, which we can use to control our desires. There is a great gap created between what we are and the Creator’s essence. We acquire His vessels and then our vessels can connect to His vessels.

Thus, a great void is formed between the two opposites, which we can now fill with bestowal. We are filled by bestowal and this brings us joy.

In The Book of Zohar it is written, (Genesis. Item 159): “the induction of the posterior, which is a call was so strong, until all his levels were lost and he became an ordinary man, Shimon from the market, and he acknowledged that it is a call and an invitation for a very sublime attainment.”

All the spiritual discernments ride on the great contrasts. It is in the gap, in the disparity between them and the connection between them above reason, that the new vessel is revealed, that is not part of our nature and which is a vessel of bestowal in which joy is revealed.

The Light that is revealed in the vessel that receives in order to bestow is the “Light of Life.” And its inner essence that is created by identifying and adhering to the Creator is felt as joy. It is a result of a good deed, which means of the act of bestowal.
[101331]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, Writings of Rabash

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