Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”: This perfection is expressed in the words of the Torah and the prophecy and in the words of our sages in the simple word, “Dvekut (adhesion).” But for the widespread use of this word by the masses, it has lost almost all its content. But if you linger on that word for even an instant, you will be overwhelmed by its wondrous stature.

We do not come to adhesion at once. There are measures, and every time when they are revealed in a person, he stands still, startled.

This cannot be described, discerned, from a distance. We are organized in this way, when adhesion is manifested even in small measures, anxiety and uncertainty are replaced by amazement before a whole new world, which suddenly opens to a person. And it is clear that he received it as a gift from the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 7: One who eats and enjoys the labor of one’s friend is afraid to look at his face because by doing so he becomes increasingly humiliated until he loses his human form. And because that which extends from His wholeness cannot be deficient, He gave us room to earn our exaltedness by ourselves, through our work in Torah and Mitzvot.

The creation is opposite from the Creator in its internal attribute, in the egoist desire of “I shall rule.” The only thing that can stand opposite it is the shame that stems from the defect in your own “self.”

In fact, these two discernments merge into one, and it is quite sufficient in order to bring the created being to correction. This is because a person is ready to do anything so that he won’t have to feel the defect of shame in his desire to receive. We can stand shame only if it is possible to cover the desire to receive so that it won’t actually be hurt. Even if the desire to receive may be hurt on the first levels, we cannot accept it on the fourth level, since then it will immediately force a person to put an end to the current state and to stop the feeling of shame immediately in every way he can.

Usually we compensate for the defects by learning from our environment. The whole system is built that way, so that in the opposite three lines we will somehow cope with the shame. But in fact, it is a great feeling that was prepared for high souls.

Question: How is shame related to adhesion, which we have to attain?

Answer: Shame and adhesion, fears and anxieties, whatever you want, are all components of adhesions. In adhesion each of them participates fully in the highest, most open way.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The Book of Zohar, “Kdoshim,” Item 1: And the Lord spoke to Moses and said: “Speak to the whole congregation of the children of Israel and tell them, you shall be holy because I am holy, your Lord.”

The Creator is called Holy because He has the attribute of bestowal. The commandment of “you shall be holy” indicates that we also have to attain that by the Light that Reforms, the same force that influences us.

Although we are submerged in the attribute of receiving, this force changes us, and we can even use our attribute of receiving in order to bestow. It is a very special thing to turn receiving into bestowal since there is no intermediate stage between them. If there were something neutral, some shapeless raw material like stem cells, then you could do whatever you want from it: receiving, bestowing, Gevurot, Hassadim, Dinim, etc. The desire to receive, however, is not neutral, but rather operates in order to receive, although it is in order to receive small, trivial, false things and in between them we exist.

But when the Light comes, it changes us. The desire to receive remains, but then we can differentiate between the desire to receive and the intention to enjoy. Before, we weren’t able to do so because our desire and our intention were inseparable and in every desire, in every grain of desire, there is an intention to enjoy. Although the desire itself can totally lack any intention, it is possible to “peel” it and take the intention out even though it is a big problem. It all depends on the development of the desire.

Studying the wisdom of Kabbalah we learn that the only created being, the desire to receive, developed according to the four phases of the Direct Light and only in the fourth phase did it begin to feel the special form of the Creator, not like a dog, for example, that feels his owner because a dog is connected to his owner and wants to enjoy him. It is even ready to devote his life to him and all for self-love. So we see that such love within the desire to receive is possible.

In the fourth phase, however, the created being begins to feel the Creator, who bestows upon him, is detached from this bestowal without receiving anything back. He enjoys that fact that He bestows upon the created being; a bestowal that stems from Him, but does not return to Him. When the created being begins to feel the Creator’s action upon him, he feels shame. And from this is the root of shame, from the bestowal that the created being discovers, we receive the “point in the heart,” the root of our soul. From this point we develop. If the point in the heart is revealed in someone, he can certainly realize it.

So “Holy” means that we are detached from ourselves and adhered to bestowal.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, The Zohar

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We need to get the power to advance not by the desire to receive. In it, we do not want to receive any gifts. Otherwise we would always remain on the level of this world, as we see in science and in general that every egoistic motive doesn’t lead to any spiritual advancement.

Spiritual advancement is possible only by the force that is revealed in the vessels of bestowal. So what should we do if in the meantime we don’t have such vessels, how can we advance? Where can we get the energy for these actions?

Here we need faith above reason. This energy, this mental power, also comes from Above but in faith above reason, which means not in our vessels of receiving, but through the environment. To the extent that we can work with the group on the Creator’s greatness, we impress one another and are empowered.

This force is not part of our personal vessels in any way, yet it comes by our connection and bestowal upon one another. By that we draw the Light that Reforms, which enables us to advance.

Eventually the vessels that work with the intention to bestow, with the force of bestowal, are built in a person. It is a totally new mechanism that operates according to the laws of spiritual physics. A person is allowed to work for bestowal, for Heaven. This is what we have to reach.

This means that we don’t have to chase knowledge and the revelation of the Creator, the Light, but you yearn for the acquisition of vessels of bestowal, for the ability to perform true spiritual actions, without any self-benefit. If the group has accepted this as its goal, it receives an illumination from Above, which builds in it such a vessel of Bina that is also called Noah’s ark.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12

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Everything is arranged such that the upper force, the good and the benevolent, is Above in the hands of the Creator. In order to reach this force and to identify with it, a person has to be adapted to it, to adhere to it, and to just discover a desire for that. His corrections and his ascent totally depend on the upper force.

It turns out that there is a negative force below and a positive force above, and a person is in between so that he will be able to determine by himself whether he wants to join the force of receiving or the force of bestowal.

When he sets himself apart from these two forces and begins to determine his state, it means that he is connected to the “human” point in him. All our work is to clarify what the states we constantly fall into mean. The upper force determines all these feelings within our ego, our desires, and our attributes so that we will see how opposite we are from the upper nature that we want to resemble and attain.

Accordingly, we will be able to determine what to ask for. In fact, nothing is required of us but the request, and it is the sum of all our exertion.

Therefore it says: “I have labored and found!” I exert myself in order to check and to clarify my current attributes, which I received as a preparation from Above as a result of the shattering. I have to compare these attributes to the Creator’s attributes, but how do I know who the Creator is?

I have to yearn for bestowal in the group and constantly feel the greatness of the goal. When an opposite force is revealed in me, I will be able to compare the two forces. I don’t compare myself with others, but constantly raise the right line and then the left line is evoked in me. Between these two lines I clarify my deficiency by yearning to resemble the right line together with my left line.

Thus I perform the “holy work” in my correction and do everything in my power to finally discover how opposite I am from holiness and purity. This brings me to a prayer.

Everything is first attained only by the power of prayer, which is the end result of all our efforts. If I discover the right deficiency inside me, I am rewarded with bestowal by the Light, with correction and then with a filling, which means with adhesion to the Creator.

A person attains the implementation of the work in this very special way: From the absolute opposite from the Creator, he adheres to the Creator. We should understand that there is no higher state in our work than the feeling of deficiency, a prayer, if this deficiency is real. This is how the sum, the conclusion, of all our exertion is revealed.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/12

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Question: What does the concept “One” mean?

Answer: “One” means that there is one form which governs and connects everyone together, unites and compliments all based on the infinite number of internal properties that are opposite one another in all possible senses.

Such a connection is called “One.” It points at the infinite number of the individual parts included in Him, their form of connection and everyone’s uniqueness in Him. All of these are included in the notion of One.

One includes the entire reality: When He was one whole, but then divided into many parts, and went through all corrections. Everything that has been attained during these corrections, all of these, is called One. This means that He includes absolutely everyone within Himself. He is not simply One, but rather He is One since everything is included within Him.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/12, The Zohar

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A spiritual Partzuf is a manifestation of one’s attitude (or desire) that is focused on one’s neighbor. “The neighbor” is either somebody that one senses inside himself after he corrects his attitude or it is the Creator Himself.

A Partzuf reflects the degree of one’s bestowal and its “shape.” All Partzufim (Aba, Ima, YESHSUT, Tvuna, Zeir Anpin, Nukva, Atik, Arich Anpin) denote various forms of relationships and different systems of connection.

A Partzuf is a system of connections between the Creator and creation. The Creator is called Keter and creation Malchut. The rest of the Sefirot stand for the properties of bestowal that come from the Creator; creation’s task is to acquire (copy) these properties. A special form of connection that is imprinted in a snapshot is called a Partzuf. It’s a unique type of relationship between the giving force and the recipient, meaning either between two people, or between a person and the Creator.

Out of His general desire to give, the Creator transfers to us eight effects: Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, and Yesod. Our personal properties and the desire to receive allow us to perceive His bestowal at the level of the last Sefira (Yesod), which is the place of assembly of all bestowing qualities; after we attain it, we act accordingly.

We sense ourselves and our desires to receive pleasure as pleasant or unpleasant. If we feel bad, it means that the entire system acts in a way that doesn’t allow us to trace who particularly is responsible for our pain. It seems to us that all our sufferings are the fault of others, and suddenly, we discover the entire world around us.

If one begins correcting oneself by making an effort to justify the Creator, or one tries to love his neighbor, and by doing so attains the Creator (meaning one sets the right relationships with the external world), then one discovers that everything is pre-arranged solely for his own benefit. One begins changing oneself so that at every given moment of his life he can regard everybody as wonderful, kind, and positive.

For that, one needs to constantly change oneself; it will eventually correct him. If we want to see the world as a perfect place, we have to perpetually change ourselves and correct our egoism to be adequate for a new perception of the world. It’s called “loving one’s friends”: We continually strive to maintain harmonious, loving and caring relationships with others, which will eventually lead us to the Creator. This mechanism constantly changes us. One continually keeps altering internally, but at the same time, one should retain a vision of his friends as great. If he manages to act so, one certainly self-corrects.

This is the way one works on the structure, on his Partzuf, which connects him with the Creator. It’s not perfect as of yet, so one doesn’t sense a reciprocal connection within this structure as between two people who are in love with each other: “I am for my beloved, and He strives to be with me.” However, one has to grow up into this condition.

Look at what great possibilities for work that the group and the environment give us. It’s totally enough if we perpetually test ourselves by asking, “What do I think about them? How do I support my friends? How do I connect with them? Are we together or not really?”

Everything is right in front of us; there’s no doubt that it’s oriented directly to the Creator. It happens automatically, since He is behind it all. One can be totally confident of this fact; there is no need to check it out. Of course, one has to maintain the right intention towards the Creator, since the final action is already included in the initial thought, so we have to direct ourselves toward the Creator in the first place. However, we have at our disposal a wonderful tool for measuring that clearly demonstrates to us what we are supposed to do in our current state.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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The internal work begins when I begin to control myself. I have to examine how long I am in the right line and how long in the left line (Baal HaSulam says that we should dedicate twenty-three-and-a-half hours a day to the right line and the remaining thirty minutes to the left line).

I have to decide what line I am in and not be thrown from side to side by the states that come along. It can’t be that as long as I am in a good mood I will be in the right line and the moment it’s interrupted I immediately fall to the left line. By myself I have to try to “awaken the dawn and not that dawn awakens.”

This means that the way to be human begins from a person’s work on himself, from his attempts to be above the two lines and to hold the two reins in his hands. Thus he advances correctly. The main thing is the efforts, although we can’t estimate how successful they are according to our knowledge.

If we work this way, we come to the recognition that we can’t keep ourselves above the states that throw us downward and upward like helpless babies. One time we are captives of the left line, of Pharaoh, and another time we belong to the right line, to the Creator, but we don’t agree to that; we want to be independent so that we’ll be able to adhere to the upper force and resemble it.

This means that both the left line and the right line have to be part of us so that we’ll sculpt our image from them. Thus we reach a prayer as we see that we can’t create the middle line by ourselves and that it isn’t born out of the simple connection between the left line and the right line. We need the upper Light here to come and show us how we can integrate the first two lines, how we can connect them.

After all, it isn’t simple and there’s a need for a special multi-sided, multi-layered connection. The vessels have to connect the Lights in every cell, in all the tiniest particles. The right line, the Light, determines the right connection with the left line. The left line provides the matter, the desire, and the right line gives it its form, and so a very complex structure is born of the two.

The matter of the left line is raw material, like stem cells that belong to the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature and the human levels, and the Light that comes from the right line knows how to make different forms of connection of all these cells. Like a form in which all the matter is made of the same basic particles (electrons, protons, etc.) but the complexity of the connection between them determines all the richness of the different atoms: 126 elements on the periodic table from which all the forms of the still, vegetative, and animate nature are built. A human being is already above them, since he includes the system of forces.

So we first have to understand how important the influence of the environment is: the teacher, the group, the study, meaning the factors through which we receive the Light that Reforms. Our purpose is to ascend above all the states that we feel. Since all our attempts to ascend above our mood are eventually doomed to fail, we despair of our own powers and realize that we need both the support of the group and help from Above. It’s very important to ascend above our state, above the two lines, since it immediately places a person at the starting point on the straight road to the Creator, at the middle line.
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From the 1^st part to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/12, Shamati #212

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Question: What do I have to aspire to, the greatness of the friends or equality with them? What is the true connection?

Answer: You have to aspire for unity with the friends, as one man in one heart. You rise above them in order to impress them with the message of the greatness of the goal, and you lower your head before them in order to receive the message of the greatness of the goal.

Otherwise, it will be as if you are equal, as if you neutralize one another, which means that you don’t impress one another. It is easiest to be “equal” to one another by turning our back to one another: “This is yours and this is mine.” Then I don’t compare what you have with what I have. Even if we just pretend to be equal, I still live calmly and have no complaints.

But true equality means that we want to connect and to impress one another with the greatness of the Creator as much as possible. In order to do that, we annul ourselves and value the society as much as possible. So all of us, who are created so differently from one another by the Creator, become truly equal, equal with regard to the goal.

If we yearn to bestow upon one another, if we yearn to subdue ourselves before the friends, if we yearn to ascend and to see the Creator as greater, if we only yearn for Him, if we want to connect, to restrict ourselves, to annul ourselves and to adhere to Him, we become equal by that. Eventually our goal is to connect with Him. By incorporating with Him, we all become equal even in the attributes by which we differ from birth. It is the Creator who has made us different and so by incorporating in Him the inequality disappears.
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From the 1^st part to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/12, Writings of Rabash

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If a person includes two roots, his ego that so far has been simply a corporeal ego and now turns into a real evil inclination and a spiritual spark, this is already a preparation for two lines. Without this he doesn’t even have one line, since one line indicates that that there is another line, another direction.

Without it, it is simply a desire to receive that belongs to the animal level, while the human level begins when two lines begin to grow in a person, as it says: “God has created them one in contrast to the other.” Then the third line appears, which decides between the first two lines; a Light comes from Above and ties the left and the right lines according to a person’s work, and builds the form of a human.

So a human is created when these two elements appear in him: a desire to receive and in contrast to it the spiritual spark. His desire to receive isn’t just a corporeal desire for this life that looks for ways to use others and to profit more. It already gives birth to questions a person has according to the spark that illuminates on him and demands him to ask: “What is the meaning of my life and what I should do with it?” This means that his desire is already aimed at complaining to the Creator in the left line.

When a person begins to develop these two lines, he reaches a group. First he doesn’t understand what he needs it for. He begins to study, and in the meantime he doesn’t know why. But then the two lines develop in him.

He begins to go through different states for the first time: ascents and descents. The first stage of preparation ends when he understands that the importance of the goal has to be above every private state he feels.

He may be in such a critical state that his life is in danger, but he still has to be above this state, as it says: “Even if a sharp sword is placed on his neck, he shouldn’t despair of mercy.” This means that you still have to be above that feeling.

It is the same in the opposite state: No matter which state of greatness he may feel, which makes him recognize the greatness of the goal, whether a state of elation, love for the friends, euphoria, he must still understand that it all happens because he is given an illumination from Above and he is like a small kid under the full domination of the upper force.

There is no need to annul or to suppress these states in you, like people who sometimes repress their joy in order to seem more serious. Here a person should try to intensify and to deepen these states as much as he can, both the fear and the gratitude, both his ego and his adhesion to bestowal. But he himself should want to be above these feelings, in order to examine them and to control them.
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From the 1^st part to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/12, Shamati #212

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