The difference between male and female, between the Creator and the creature, is their oppositeness. We don’t even understand these contradictions. Whatever is natural for the male, can be expressed in the nature of the creature only in the intention, which he gained through his efforts.

The nature of the Creator (Zeir Anpin) is bestowal, and in the creature (Nukva) bestowal can only be in the intention. And if this intention is correct, then the bestowal occurs by the fact that it receives, and the more the better.

That being the case, the spiritual Kli (vessel) that we must develop is found above the desire, in intention. Thus, we don’t understand how it is possible to calculate it.

When a person begins to study, after a certain time he sees that there is a mountain before him and on its peak is the temple of the Creator, the place he must reach. However, the more he advances towards this, the more he is rejected by it and the more confused he becomes. In this way, the knowledge of the Torah is opposite to the knowledge of the landlords. Indeed, whoever advances with the help of his ego constantly strengthens his powers, his knowledge, his security, his understanding, and he feels more support.

However, whoever really tries to climb the mountain of the Creator needs to detach more and more from the stable ground, thus he experiences more confusion and lack of understanding. He needs to accept this rejection specifically as assistance that he needs in order to build his spiritual vessel, the female, Nukva, to be similar to bestowal, the male, the Creator, making an example of Him.

The difficulty in real advancement is that it isn’t compatible with our common understanding, but demands from us to convince ourselves and to accept the conditions placed on man by the Creator. It is the only way to progress.

Therefore, on the way to the temple, uncompromising guards and police constantly appear with greater strength and power, and they throw a person from the height he has reached. Indeed, each time a person reaches some kind of change in himself, he begins to understand it. This understanding destroys his spiritual vessel because it lies entirely in faith above reason! Understanding erases it.

And in order to help us not to get caught up in our knowledge, but to advance more and more in faith above it, we are thrown from the mountain and are forced to begin again from zero. But each time we reach a greater height. This means that we are able to renounce our ego, in one way or another, with the help of the Light that reforms.

Thus, until there is nothing left for the person and he completely rises above his desire to receive, he will reach real devotion. Then his desire (feminine Nukva) will invert from its outer form to be completely similar to the male nature, to the inner attribute of the Creator, and will merge the male and the female. Our desire will externally clothe in the Creator.

The ascension is concealed with subjugating ourselves and receiving the form of bestowal. If I am prepared for anything that comes to me from Him and agree to annul myself, then I can become His outermost clothing. And then from Him will come bestowal in the form of the surrounding Light and will begin to build me anew. This is what is spoken about, when each day the Nukva becomes a virgin again, and the Creator builds from it a new Kli. This means that the form of bestowal builds from a person the desire that is suitable to it, the correct intention.
[66708]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, Writings of Rabash

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Just think how much help we’ve received! We want to receive from the Creator in order to please Him, and someone has already fixed things so that until we really want to please Him we won’t get anything.

This is an invaluable aid. After all, if we received from Him not in order to do Him good, but simply to enjoy from Him, then we would never escape the egoistic use.

This is why there was a restriction, after which I can be absolutely sure that if I want to receive and to enjoy the Creator for myself, I won’t be able to do so. How good it is that someone has set this natural law for me, which cannot be broken.

Only when I want to enjoy in order to bestow upon the Creator in order to please Him and to be equivalent to Him as we both please one another—only then will I be able to do it. This enables me to attain the condition; I won’t commit a sin and won’t receive egoistically. Before I am able to receive in order to bestow, I will remain in the dark. How wonderful!
[67458]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Can we perform any action in order to bestow now?

Answer: It can be done at any moment if you rise to the height of that action. But we advance towards it gradually; first I am ready to bestow upon others 1%, and then 2%, and then 3% and so on until I reach 100%.

When I am ready to bestow upon them 1%, it means that I want 99% for myself! And if I want to bestow upon them 2%, it means that I want 98% for myself! And so I gradually rise towards bestowal, towards Lishma (for His sake).

This is called the time of preparation; it lasts until my intention becomes 100% for bestowal. So far, this 100% of intention extends into one gram of pleasure, one portion of Light, one quantum of Light. Then I intensify my intention so that it will be enough for two portions of Light and then three portions, until I can restrain myself from receiving all the incoming Light, which means I am building myself a Masach (screen) of Bina, to bestow in order to bestow. After attaining this level I can even receive in order to bestow, after having developed the right Masach.
[67455]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why do we view our spiritual path to be “masochistic”? Why can’t we avoid the emptiness and suffering?

Answer: On this path, we suffer from love. We regret that we are deprived of similarity with the Creator.

Do you really think that the Creator deprives you of food, water, shelter, and health? No, we are talking about the suffering of those who want to be like Him.

Suddenly, our egoistic desires and pleasure get bigger; the desires and pleasures are in fact the same and we cannot cope with them any longer. In this case, we suffer, and the Creator disappears from our sight. Previously, He exposed Himself to us. But later on, predicaments show up and we cannot handle His revelation any more. So, He conceals Himself from us.

There is no comparison with the suffering of a regular person who instead of earning ten thousand yesterday, earns only a hundred today. We have to understand the language of Kabbalists who talk about spiritual things rather than on the material plane. On the spiritual path, “punishment” means the Creator’s concealment and our inability to bestow.
[66942]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSualm, “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot“: Since His Guidance is not revealed, it is impossible to see Him but only in concealment of the face, from behind, as one who sees one’s friend from behind and might doubt and think he is another. In this manner, one is always left with the choice to either keep His will or break it.”

Because the Creator is concealed, He allows us to have doubts, and hence, the opportunity to perform actions. If the Creator were revealed, we would all be His slaves, “robots” that would perform His desire unconditionally. His revelation would oblige us to do that automatically. After all, there would be no “break” between us and the Light, which is what enables us to resemble the Creator independently.

But the Creator brings us the feeling of concealment: He doesn’t just hide, but lets us feel that He doesn’t exist. In this case, we can carry out His desire as if He exists, and we act in His place. Thus He allows us to complete His actions. For us it is an opportunity, a place to work and take pride in the fact that we can fill our doubts with His Guidance.

But where can I find the power to perform this work, if He is concealed from me? I have to understand that the concealment is a kind of “black light” that builds a special form in my desires and thoughts: the hidden contours of the Creator, which I want to complete.

If this form were revealed to me, I would carry out His desire submissively. So how can I create the Creator’s form inside me, so that it will oblige me to act while He is concealed? I have to build His image inside me and only then can I carry out His plan.

And so gradually, a person builds inside him the Creator’s image. And the Creator shows him more and more how deeply and in what manner He is concealed. Thus we advance until we build everything the Creator wants. Then we will resemble Him according to the equivalence of form.

So the point is not to actually carry out the Creator’s desire. Our desire to receive and all the different ways to receive are a means. The point is in building the Creator’s image inside us.
[67375]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We are in a state of concealment, and we must understand that we are in concealment. A person is born and lives in this world in a state of total detachment from the true reality. He doesn’t know where he is and whether there is anything besides that. If there is, can it be seen?

When we feel the presence of something, it could be that it is hidden or revealed. So, the concealment is part of the revelation because I already know about the existence of something that is hidden. This means that people who are in a state of concealment are already on the way to the truth, although it is concealed from them at the moment.

This is already an advanced state because ordinary people don’t feel that something is concealed from them.

We go through four phases: double concealment, single concealment, Providence of reward and punishment, and eternal Providence.

As far as the two concealments are concerned, it isn’t detachment any more; neither a state of unconsciousness. In double concealment, I know that I am detached from reality and that I don’t see that the Creator determines everything that happens to me. In single concealment I feel that my life depends on my being in front of the Creator. But something that brought me to concealment instead of revelation depends on me.

So in a double concealment, I determine that I am detached from the Creator, and in single concealment there is contact, but I don’t perform His desire.

In the next phase, the phase of revelation, I receive reward and punishment according to the degree that I perform His desire. The punishment is eventually also a reward, because thanks to it, I advance. It shows me where I still have to correct myself, that is, where I am “behind” the present level, because a person is not demanded to do something that is beyond his power.

Eventually, I move on to eternal Providence after having corrected all my attributes, and I reach total mutual understanding with the Creator.

All these states were meant to make us understand the Creator’s Providence. This understanding is the sign, the means, the basis for all our success and wellbeing. If I know that I receive blows for some reason, it isn’t meaningless sufferings anymore, but a punishment that will do me good, or the good itself. Everything here depends on the level I am on and on my attitude towards the punishments.

It could be that as a result of the blows on my egoism, I will feel so happy that I will rise above these feelings and enter a state of Hafetz Chesed. So I have nothing, but I don’t suffer. Apparently this is impossible? Where is the envy, the lust, the honor? Everything remains below, but a lot of work is required in order to reach that.

So we gradually go through the phases of concealment and revelation, and go up the levels of the spiritual worlds. It is about individual discernments, about a person’s internal states, but it is clear that they are realized only if I try as hard as I can to be incorporated in the right environment. Otherwise I won’t be able to rise.

Sometimes it is hard to tie all the internal work with the work in the group. But actually, it isn’t a problem, I should only check and connect these two components more carefully. All the work is in the group; all the feeling is inside me.
[67378]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: First there was the thought of the Creator, and then it was implemented into the plan of creation by building all the worlds from top to bottom. What is the distance that the creature needs to overcome in order to ascend back to the initial thought of creation?

Answer: There is a huge separation between the Creator’s thought of creation and us. First we rise from the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya (BYA) to the world of Atzilut when we obtain the substance and the form clothed in substance. Afterwards we reach the abstract form and then to the essence. Despite that we don’t grasp or understand these categories now, it seems that we will obtain them one day.

By performing the actions, we obtain the Creator. It is clear that we are building them with the help of the reforming Light since we ourselves have no power to do this. We are only the “bricks.” But in order to build some kind of structure from us, we need the means that will connect us together, the cement that glues all the parts together. And we need to know how it all connects together.

And when He connects all our bricks together, we begin to understand how the Creator created everything and why He broke it—so that we would build anew that structure and discover His thought, His mind.

Baal HaSulam explains to us in his article, “The Acting Mind,” that when I look at a certain creation, I obtain the desire of the craftsman who created it. In other words, the more that I penetrate into the creation through my feelings, then the more I feel the nature of its Creator, His relation to creation. I can obtain Him through my understanding of his relationship with His creation!

In our world too, it is possible to do this and understand the artist because it derives from its upper roots. The Creator created the creature within a special system, broke it, and then leads us to need to reassemble this puzzle. When we assemble this mosaic, we obtain Him because He immersed Himself in it.

The Creator doesn’t hide in this system, just the opposite. He implants within each part of it, His mind, attitude, and sense of Himself. And when we assemble this puzzle, we don’t just simply receive a corrected picture and begin to exist in this wonderful world. We obtain the general law that operates within this system, the law of love and unity!

And we also obtain that same One that is operating in this system,” the inclusive,” the upper force that built the entire system. And in the power of One, we discover His attitude toward us which is called AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh – the lower part) of Keter (crown).

Despite that I still can not study it with certainty, but it is certainly possible that we can also obtain the upper part of Keter, that is disconnected from us, in as much as we have that desire.

It is impossible in the meantime to say it with certainty because these states exist after Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction), which is beyond the tasks that are imposed on us today.

However, thanks to this process, ultimately we obtain the operating upper mind and not only His plan, but the thought of creation itself, the upper thought, and all that is included in it. And this is our goal: to reach the thought of creation, to rise there and be included in the Creator, to reach adhesion with Him.
[67155]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/12, Shamati #174

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Question: The upper Partzufim dress one on top of the other like the rungs of a ladder where there is always an upper and a lower. Does the same structure exist in the group, or is everyone equal there?

Answer: In the group we dress one on top of the other in a certain order, and eventually we all form a circle. We don’t need to think about it. It’s a predetermined structure that cannot change. Only the connections between us change: in what intensity does each one connect with the others. But we can’t change the order of who connects to whom or the whole network that is formed with the fall of the souls after the shattering. Its structure is determined from Malchut of Ein Sof.

We don’t change anything in reality! We only open or close the flow of the abundance of the Light, because after the first restriction, it depends on our intentions. But the structure of the system never changes. Even when we say that that certain spiritual Partzufim rise or descend, connect to one another and then separate, we are only referring to the passing of the abundance of the Light and not to the way that they are arranged in relation to one another in the general structure.

It’s like an iron structure in which certain connections can be broken, but it’s impossible to change the structure itself because it’s all built according to the ladder of the spiritual levels that spread from the top down. Even during the shattering the accurate order, which determines how the sparks (the Lights and the vessels) were divided, was kept. Just as before the shattering, the height was determined by the intention of bestowal, so after the shattering it’s determined by the intention for my self, according to an accurate egoistic order. This means that not only is everyone important, but he is absolutely essential!

In the group there are “upper” and “lower”: each one is both upper and lower compared to others, and together they all form a circle. Everyone is connected to one bundle by the intention of bestowal, although no one is equal to another. Perhaps by this you will be able to understand how different each one is from the others, and if there is something inside him that doesn’t exist in anyone else, and in this he is the head for everyone, it’s impossible to replace or to destroy a single attribute, because then there would be no wholeness.
[67365]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: How do we prepare for the convention in the desert as it says, by “cancelling ourselves completely.”

Answer: First, you have to figure out what it means, “to eliminate oneself.” Does it mean to stop existing? What will happen afterwards?

“I”: This is my reason, emotions, mind, and heart. If I am deprived of them, only my corporeal body would remain. So, what’s next? My intellect and emotions do not depend on me either. This is the way I was born and brought up; I was carved into some form: Is this me? Is this what I really am? What can I eliminate here? Where is the “I” that I am rejecting?

If you don’t sense that you have anything to cancel, but if you are working through the group to cling to the Creator (as it is written: “from love of creatures to love of the Creator”), and if you discover rejection and hatred, then you know what to eliminate. This is what we call “I,” the revealing of its true essence, resistance, and unwillingness to connect with others.

It is the force of shattering that hides in me, the same Reshimo, the information that descended to me after the shattering occurred. Formerly, I used to be connected with others; now I detect my former connection and make sure that it still exists. Depending on whether I feel connection with others or not and whether I still possess a desire to connect or not, I start to elucidate my broken Reshimot (informational genes).

My discovery that I am in opposition to others is the first revelation of the Pharaoh. However, if I don’t apply effort I’ll never discern it. Maybe I haven’t come to Egypt yet, or I am already there but my “seven years of abundance” are not over yet? So, I still enjoy common meals, assemblies of friends, pleasant surroundings, and spending time with my loving friends.

When the seven years of abundance are over, problems, troubles, arguments, and disagreements emerge, but a person realizes that this is given to him on purpose and he doesn’t try to run away from them. He tries hard to overcome his detachment, hatred, and contempt towards his surroundings.

At this point (if the person doesn’t abandon the path,) he starts realizing the importance of such conditions and understands that there is no choice and it is the way it should be.

Now, he finds himself directly across from Pharaoh. It is all about internal work that cannot normally be traced from outside. It’s a whole period of effort and realization of the fact that there is nothing he can do about it because it is the Creator who reveals the force of shattering to him; as it is said: “Let’s approach Pharaoh, since I hardened his heart.”

The Creator shows a person how weak he is and his to love his neighbor.  At this time, a person is ready to do anything to achieve brotherly love. He is ready to go through all “ten Egyptian plagues”, to cross the Red Sea (Yam Sof – Final Sea), and to accept mutual connection and responsibility in order to bring closer the power of the reforming Light called Torah for the sake of self-correction and attainment of love of the created beings, because by doing so he will eventually attain the love of the Creator.

Can you imagine, how much support and care one has to get from his environment and from Above so he doesn’t run way with his egoism that is getting stronger and always pursues him? He has to understand that “the Creator made one against the other”: There is either “a stick or a serpent” (bestowal or egoism) and there is nothing in between—one or the other.
[66932]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, Shamati #59

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” (50): However, before that, when the writing speaks only from the perspective of one concealment, the text ends, “they will say in that day: Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?”

In other words, a person feels that he has no connection with the Creator because he lacks the equivalence of form with the Creator, and as a result he feels bad. It could be that he made a lot of money in the stock market and that everything is fine, but he feels bad because he has no contact with the Creator, meaning that he lacks the equivalence of form with the attribute of the general bestowal called the Creator.

“This means that they still believe in Providence of reward and punishment, and say that the troubles and suffering come to them because they do not cleave to the Creator…”

This means that I understand that I am bad, that I didn’t bring about the correction, and so I was “punished.” I have sunk into concealment. But on the other hand, we can also see it as a reward because I feel a negative response and thanks to that I can correct myself. This means that I have to “kiss” the stick that helps me be aware to how low I deteriorate. Otherwise I could deteriorate without even feeling it.

So the difference is in how I judge: according to how I feel my present state, or according to the state itself, as is. I have to determine the state as bad in relation to the required correction of the desires in which I am not adhered to the Creator. These vessels are broken, and the evil can be felt in them in a different way. I may feel bad because I am empty, and I may feel bad because I am detached from the Creator. I can also feel empty and feel good about it because I feel the shattering that way. Finally, I may feel bad because I feel the detachment. In any case, I feel that I am detached from the Creator.

So everything is determined according to the present state. It doesn’t depend on you and you can’t randomly jump from one state to another (like the arrows in the drawing). Rather, you have to examine what you have: “Do I feel good or bad? Suppose I feel good, what do I feel: detachment from the Creator or a connection with Him? Detachment: Does it bother me? No, I feel good. But can I still see the evil in this situation? Not at the moment.”

You should determine your accurate feeling and your attitude to the real state. This is the inner clarification of the state you were given. Then you feel the demand: “How can the group and the reforming Light and the other means help me correct my attitude?” It’s impossible to correct a good feeling or a bad one, or the state of detachment. The group can only correct my attitude to the situation.
[67224]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, Shamati #1

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