Question: Do we get any pleasure on the level of “to bestow in order to bestow,” Hafetz Hesed, since we are not using our desire on this level?

Answer: Hafetz Hesed, pure Bina, doesn’t mean a monk’s life in a monastery. Here, it is important for whom and for what I am in the state of Hafetz Hesed, which means that I want Hassadim, only bestowal. A person gets pleasure since his fulfillment comes from the Creator.

It seems that something is lacking in the state of Hafetz Hesed since you don’t receive, so what can you give? Nothing! However, you are giving the feeling of adhesion. You say that you want to adhere to the Creator every way that you can.

He isn’t a hermit who lives in the woods where nothing worries him because his desires are not developed and he is satisfied living a very simple life, like an animal. There are beggars who live on the street who also don’t want a different life.

If you offered to make such a beggar a rich, successful businessman, he would refuse. He would ask, “What do I need this for?” You would answer, “You will make lots of money and then you will be able to rest and do nothing!” He would reply, “But now, too, I rest and do nothing.” He doesn’t understand the difference between Hafetz Hesed that has nothing and lives on the street and someone who only wants bestowal after he already has received everything.

However, this is the entire difference that people don’t get. Hafetz Hesed in the spiritual work is a person who has risen above his very big desires, and it isn’t about such small desires like the desires of a beggar on the street. Above all the very big desires, he has the power to stay adhered to the Creator in a form called “smallness.” Then, he is like a child who adheres to his father, the Creator. He annuls all the other vessels. This is called Hafetz Hesed.

A person reaches this level with big, cruel vessels, but is ready to annul them and to give them up only in order to adhere to the Creator since this is the only way he can be in bestowal and adhesion with the Creator. He is ready for everything, but he has nothing to bestow.

He asks the Creator, “At least give me a chance to be beside you, just to adhere to some point so that I won’t escape you.” At that moment, he cannot express his loyalty in a more powerful way.
[82866]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
When All Doubts Will Dissipate
On The Warm Waves Of Bestowal
Stages Of Formation Of The Mind:Waking Life In Stone

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

Baal HaSulam, “Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 96: It is a wonderful law in the Upper Worlds that in every Sefira that we choose to examine, we will find ten inner Sefirot. If we take a single Sefira from those Eser inner Sefirot, we find another ten inner Sefirot inside the first Sefira. Also, if we take one Sefira of the inner, inner Sefirot, we once more find Eser Sefirot in it, which are inside the previous inner inner, and so on and so forth incessantly.

Our mind can’t grasp these spiritual principles, the incorporation of the Sefirot in each other until Ein Sof, incessantly, since in each of the Sefirot there are another ten and in each of the ten there are ten more, etc. How can we understand what Ein Sof means? Where does it begin and where does it end? We can’t understand that because our mind isn’t built on qualitative assessment but on quantitative assessment. It seems that here too it’s about quantity: ten, ten and once again ten, like in a discrete, numerical system. But this is the wrong impression. All the changes and the divisions are based on quality in separate qualitative circles.

This is why it’s currently so difficult for us to grasp this principle and the concept of infinity. In our life the strongest and the most clever people, the greatest egoists, want to use this world for their own benefit, to bend it and to extract as much money as possible from it, to win the race, to gain control and knowledge, to show off before others, and to feel good about themselves, feeling secure in the present and about the future.

But today they see that they can’t manage anything and they don’t know what to do. The leaders feel helpless. They are trying to calculate how they can overcome this loss of control, which is the main problem of the current crisis. The problem is not the crisis itself, meaning the percentages shown by economic indicators. First, they worried only about these percentages and sums, but now they see that this isn’t the cause, but rather the lack of control of the situation.

It isn’t about the results that we wanted to achieve but didn’t; rather, it’s about the reason for our failures. They don’t know this reason! First, they were the cause of all the successes and the failures, by holding the reins of egoistic management. The world bent before them and obeyed their egoistic rules. But today we can’t cram the world into the egoistic system we’ve created and we can’t manage it. It doesn’t listen anymore; it’s as if it’s arranged differently, leaving us totally perplexed.

Thus the difference between the two systems is gradually revealed: the numerical and the analog; the system that operates on a quantitative basis and the system based on quality. Nature from its part reveals to us some of the systems that operate according to quality, an analog system, that tie everything together in order to achieve collective work. This is how the force of the Creator is revealed.

We, on the other hand, have always worked differently, using the egoistic force of the created being, which was the result of the shattering, each one on his own. This is why we’ve always acted on a quantitative basis, according to numbers. Our whole perception is based on this principle. This is why we feel so helpless when the spiritual world is revealed to us and is getting closer to us. It’s the revelation of the spiritual system, of the Creator, and this is what brings about the current crisis.

While in the spiritual world, the Sefirot are each divided into ten and so forth until Ein Sof, this world is based on the numerical principle. But since we are talking about infinity, it destroys the quantitative basis and turns it into a qualitative one. It’s like an integral and so the crisis is called integral and the modern world is integral.

An integral isn’t just a simple sum. In a sum there are a number of components. And the integral includes Ein Sof, infinity: It includes such components that can’t be included in a quantitative calculation. It’s like the problem of making a circle into a square, where it’s required to build a square that is identical in its area to a circle. This problem has no solution on our level.
[82682]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
The Particulars Of An Integral Reality
The Crisis Is Here For Our Own Good!
Superimposing The Circle Of Infinity Upon The Square Of The Physical World

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

Question: In describing our condition, Baal HaSulam cites the example of a worm living in a radish that eventually comes out into the light. Suppose two worms decided to come out, but on the way one of them despaired, why does that happen?

Answer: It happens because the Creator brings it the “hardening of the heart” and the worm does not agree: “How come? Why hasn’t anyone paved the road? Why is it all this way and not differently?” Pride is what humiliates a person and drives him off track.

Question: What should the other worm do in this situation?

Answer: Try to help as much as it can. But it is not in one’s power to do the work of another.

The main thing here is to lower your head, to lower your nose and to accept the rigid laws of nature. Today, you don’t understand them, and no matter how hard you shout, nothing will change. You can curse the law of gravity law in the same way, will it get “better” as a result, will it stop affecting you?

We must understand that we are in a world of absolute laws and only by keeping them can we advance. But if we resist, the laws will operate accordingly. This is the difference between the path of Torah and the path of suffering.

The same thing happens in our world, but here we live in a society with homemade artificial laws, and so it seems that it is all a matter of buying and selling, and that everything can be “bent,” and you only need to wait for the right opportunity.

On the other hand, by coming out towards the Creator, we discover that there is nothing more fixed and absolute. We either work with Him in a good way or in a bad way; there are no intermediate states.

So when the worm feels the “hardening of the heart,” it should understand that it has no choice. Our problem is the false hope that the bad state will go away by itself and the good one will come by itself. We remember the saying, “What the mind doesn’t do, time does.” But it will do it only if during that time I try to do everything possible despite the mind and despite the lack of understanding of what is going on.

During a storm there is no point in sitting and waiting for good weather. I have to act, even foolishly, without a mind, but to act, to exert myself. Then time will do what the mind doesn’t do.

In other words, by many activities, I do what the mind would probably do without any delay.
[82783]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Ready For Collaboration!
The End Of Diarchy
Knocked Off Or Pushed Forward On The Path?

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

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” p. 39: Now we have shown that the Creator’s desired goal for the Creation He had created is to bestow upon His creatures, so they would know His truthfulness and greatness, and receive all the delight and pleasure He had prepared for them, in the measure described in the verse: “Ephraim my darling son, is he joy of his parents?” (Jeremiah 31, 19). Thus, you clearly find that this purpose does not apply to the still and the great spheres, such as the earth, the moon, or the sun, however luminous they may be, and not to the vegetative or the animate, for they lack the sensation of others, even from among their own species. Therefore, how can the sensation of the Godly and His bestowal apply to them?

Humankind alone, having been prepared with the sensation of others of the same species, who are similar to them, after delving in Torah and Mitzvot, when they invert their will to receive to a will to bestow, and come to equivalence of form with their Maker, they receive all the degrees that have been prepared for them in the Upper Worlds, called NRNHY. By that they become qualified to receive the purpose of the Thought of Creation. After all, the purpose of the creation of all the worlds was for man alone.

Question: The sensation of others is inherent in us, by which, through love for created beings, we can obtain love for the Creator. It turns out that the attitude towards the other is the means that we just use?

Answer: In our world a “means” is what we use along the way and throw away when we reach the goal. If I found a more effective means, I give up the previous one because the main thing for me is the goal.

In spirituality, things are different: Here, the goal is revealed in the means itself, and the means becomes the goal because it is not the I who reaches to the Creator, it is the system that I reveal and put up together by my own effort, by identifying with it like one whole. If I had stayed the way I am, I would have used the means only on the way to the goal. However, the process is different; being included in the means, I obtain the willingness to adhere to the goal.

Thus, the means is sacred for me because I reach the goal not with its help, but within it. I become it. My soul is this, the entire collective system.

It turns out that who I am now is not the real me. The real me does not exist yet because my current “I” came from the Creator, it is His part from above, that does not exist on its own. It represents the force of breaking and is intended to feel itself “cut off,” separated.

This helps me to adhere to the group, and in it, one step higher, I find myself. And here, in this one whole, I find fulfillment: the Creator.

Thus, I cannot reach the Creator by bypassing the means, the group. And besides, I do not throw away the means when I reach the goal. On the contrary, by being cut off from it, I build in it the system in which I discover the life, called the Creator, the reviving inner Force, the “elixir of life.”
[82789]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
There Is A Means In This World
Valuing The Means As Highly As The Goal
I Want To Cross The Machsom!

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

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 32: And when one is rewarded with being entirely in the will to bestow and not at all for oneself, he will be rewarded with obtaining equivalence of form with his Upper NRNHY, which extend from one’s origin in Ein Sof in the first state, through the pure ABYA, and will immediately extend and clothe him in a gradual manner.

We have a very big desire to receive that grows as we climb the levels of correction. This process begins from the moment we yearn for connection.

The desire is revealed gradually. First we correct it on the level of “to bestow in order to bestow,” which in Kabbalistic terms is called Hafetz Hesed, the level of Bina, Hassadim. Then we correct the desire on the level of “to receive in order to bestow,” which is already the level of Hochma.

On the level of Bina, all our evil inclination seems to be corrected, at least since it doesn’t have the intention of “in order to receive.” Then the mistakes turn into merits and the evils turn into mistakes. We attain a kind of neutrality, now our desire to receive is no longer evil.

Then we continue our work until all the evil inclination becomes good, which means that it receives in order to bestow. This is the reason that Kabbalists sometimes divide the process into two, the correction of the desire and its final reformation to bestowal.

[82580]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Enemy Inside
Three Steps To The Creator
To The Fourth Floor For Love

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 28: …And then we embark on a new kind of labor—to insert all that exaggerated will to receive in the form of bestowal. Then it is healed, because now it obtained equivalence of form. … It is only that in the meantime it has been given to the Klipot for purification. But in the end, it must not be a different body.

There is a desire to receive that was created by the Creator. It isn’t the desire that we all have to sustain our animal body, but a desire that is outside this world that was given to us in order to correct it, to correct our attitude to others.

Everything that is outside the attitude to others doesn’t count at all. Our “animal” part is characterized by desires for food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge. It doesn’t matter what form they take; they don’t count at all.

Education, culture, ethics and other values are part of our world only because we think about correcting a person’s attitude to such things by attributing some significance to them. But we were initially given a clear instruction: “Love thy friend as thyself.” It is a comprehensive, universal principle. This is the only thing we have to correct and the only direction we should aim at, regardless of all the other desires. It is in the attitude towards others that the “shattering of the vessels” occurred, and it is there that we discover the upper Light, the adhesion, by the correction.

Kabbalists say that we have to discover the egoistic desire in the mutual relations with others and to acknowledge the fact that it is all for my own benefit instead of the benefit of others. Everything is measured in relation to others, and it is according to this criterion that we call the desire to receive an “evil inclination,” as Kabbalists define it.

If my power is aimed at my self-benefit and not at the good of others, it is called the “evil inclination.” Now I need to turn it into a good inclination so that the same power, the same desire, will not be for my own benefit but for the benefit of others. Why is that? Because by that, we bring contentment to the Creator.

If I work this way, I summon the Light that Reforms, the force that corrects me by ascents and descents. Now I consider my good attitude towards others as an “ascent,” while in a “descent” I see that I am still against bestowal upon others.

I continue these clarifications, until all my desire to receive is actually “dead” and is incapable of anything. Then from the state of death, I revive it and reach the “resurrection of the dead,” and thus reach Gmar Tikkun (the final correction).

So everything takes place within my desire to receive that is aimed at others—individually and towards the environment, and generally towards the Creator. We should be aware of this in a strong and clear manner.
[82511]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Reviving The Routine Work
Turning Good To Evil
Rid Yourself Of Everything Animate

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

Question: Why is quality much more important that quantity in spirituality?

Answer: Because the attainment of Godliness is qualitative and not quantitative. In fact there is no quantity; it is all one. There is one desire and one Light and the connection between makes it one. All our work is qualitative.

Thanks to his correction, the created being learns the Creator’s essence and the attitude towards Him within the upper Light. Everything that was initially created within the desire to receive, according the Creator’s desire, was meant to reveal Him to a certain extent. He himself, Atzmuto, is still unattainable, but the Creator has dedicated a part of Himself to the creation. Thus the desire to receive that must be fulfilled to the fullest was created in order to discover the one who created it. We can’t do more than that. Kabbalists imply that there are additional ascents, but we don’t know about that.

So all our attainment is qualitative, and there are no calculations in it. Although we use numbers, we actually count qualitative revelations. Even in our world, if we checked things carefully, we would see that there are only qualitative parameters and not quantitative ones. If we understand that things are not exactly the same, then the quantitative calculations become impossible.

But our discernment and our attainment are weak: In the meantime, we don’t discern qualitative parameters and don’t know how to approach them. Only later, from the whole vessel, will I be able to discover the quality of things and define them accurately since they will all be part of me. In the meantime, we work according to quantity.

Question: So how can we measure quality?

Answer: It’s revealed only in the depth of the desire. But since we have no other choice, we describe it in quantitative terms: “125 degrees,” “6,000 years,” “600,000 souls,” etc. Our egoistic language is all based on quantitative concepts, and the quality doesn’t matter. In the past it was important, but since the Middle Ages and even some time before that, we began to develop only quantitatively while quality has become less important.
[82508]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Kind Of Persistence Needed On The Path
Rejecting Our Present Selves
Numbers Indicate Quality, Not Quantity

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

From an article by Rabash: “The old’s contradiction—a construction, youth’s construction—a contradiction.” “The old” are those who are used to God’s work, “Youth” are those who are just starting their work. A contradiction is a descent or a fall, which means that first there was an ascent in the work that is considered a construction, which means that they considered the ascents, but the contradiction is when they felt a fall, which comes from the concealment of the Creator, which means that the Creator conceals Himself from them, and this is called a contradiction. The old’s contradiction is when they say that the Creator sent them the concealment, so it turns out that they are already in construction, since they believe that the Creator is taking care of them and from this they receive livelihood.

“The old” are those who are already accustomed to the spiritual work, and so they know how to interpret every state, how to approach it and how to make it beneficial. So even their “contradiction” is construction. This is because they don’t forget and hold on to the intention that everything comes from the Creator, even the descent. So it is during the descents, by remaining loyal, by holding on to their faith, to the intention of in order to bestow even during the descents, that by that they construct the ascents. The descent itself turns into an ascent.

The ascent does not come after the descent, but it is the same decent if a person attributes it to the Creator, to the goal of creation, and understands that he feels it in desires to receive and adds the right intention to it: The descent itself becomes an ascent.

A person immediately rises by the descent that is felt in the egoistic desire, by the revelation of the corrupt vessel. Then he stops moving up and down on a wave of ascents and descents. He is always happy about the descents, because it isn’t after they are over, but while still in them, that he adheres to the Creator. So the contradiction that old men feel goes to their construction, since from it they build an even more intense adhesion with the Creator.

The “youth” are those who have no power yet, not enough support from the environment that could stabilize them that enables the turning of the descent into ascent, into adhesion. So they even begin to use their ascents egoistically and enjoy the good feeling, thus forgetting the intention. Then the ascent turns into a descent, and the construction turns into destruction. The state is determined by a person’s intention.
[82404]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12

Related Material:
Make Every Instant More Exalted
Now Do It Yourself!
Separation Brings A Descent, Unity An Ascent

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention - 1 Comment →

This congress was not only uniting, but also dividing those who meet the requirements of the group (systematic studies, dissemination, and Maaser) and those who don’t meet them.

We must come to the state when the center of our group, the steadiest friends, will meet the requirements of the Creator to become similar to Him on the first, 1/125^th degree of the ladder of His revelation. In this case, they will be able to become the part of the world group of Bnei Baruch through which the Light passes to the rest (See “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar”).

Then, around this part, other parts will be formed, like spreading waves, according to compliance with the rules of similarity with the Creator, the property of bestowal.

The rules are not invented by me, but set by the Kabbalists; we know them well, but don’t find it compulsory to perform them accurately, thinking that they are not necessary for the revelation of the Creator. Now, we were given this understanding for the first time.

I refer those who are not satisfied with these requirements to the Creator; perhaps, He might change the conditions of the contract for them: “The Law of the equivalence of form” (communicating spiritual vessels/properties).

Those who recognize the need for these conditions can choose where to be, in which circle: the central or external. In the future, we will specify the conditions of each circle.

I love all of you, and everyone is dear to me, and all this is done in order to pull everyone to the goal and eliminate the earthly confusion on the spiritual path.

Hugs,
Rav
[82420]

Related Material:
United Towards The Light!
The Creator Sets the Bar
Equality For The Final Goal

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Kabbalah Study, Maaser, My Similarity to the Creator - 4 Comments →

We are the result of the breaking. If we want to approach the Light, the spiritual life, to resemble the Creator, then it is only possible through unity. Thus we are taken through many situations through which we need to learn that without the unity, we won’t find the strength, the efforts, the thoughts, or the correct desires.

Many times in his life, man says that it is enough, and decides that from that day forward he will take himself seriously and devote each moment to spiritual development, to take advantage of all the possible means, to stop wasting his life and degrading the opportunities that we are given from above.

But already the next moment, he forgets these thoughts. He sees, that if obstacles come, he isn’t able to stand against them. This is done on purpose in order to teach him that if he wants to adhere to the path and make the correct decision each time, he must receive the force from the environment.

He can receive this force if he considers the surroundings as greater than himself. If he has one friend that he considers as one level above him, then it’s like one facing zero. This means “10.” If he has several friends, then this number grows accordingly.

As much as he is able to annul himself towards the others, then he will see them as greater than himself, and he can receive from them greater impressions, meaning the force for prayer, unity, and all the spiritual work.

After all, he is already actually annulling himself before them, and thus the spiritual force comes to him. But in the meantime, this spiritual force, the self-annulment and the same field in which he acts, together with the friends, are egoistic, “Lo Lishma” (Not for her Name). In any case, these are correct actions, and that is why they work.

We shouldn’t degrade them, after all, all of these small amounts accumulate into one great light, his efforts accumulate in order to raise his friends higher and higher, and that is the goal of creation that he wants to attain with their help.
[82215]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Bring Your Hatred To The Light
A Group’s Spiritual Guidance
The Gradual Change From Lo Lishma To Lishma

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