Question: What is “fate in reward and punishment?”

Answer: At every moment in our life we face reward and punishment. At every moment I must demand correction. If I demand it properly, I get a reward, and if I don’t demand it properly, I get correction.

The reward is getting stronger desires with which I can direct myself more accurately to the goal. I become more sensitive and tune myself more accurately, calibrate myself, and imagine more accurately what the “Creator” is.

I understand this by building myself by myself over again according to Him, and learning about the way I am built. Thus I become more similar to Him and this is my reward—to bestow more. The punishment is in seeing that I missed.

But this also becomes part of the correction, and then the punishment becomes my reward. After all, it makes no difference whether I receive a positive or a negative reaction. The main thing is that it allows me to find out my deviation and to correct it.

I accept all these deviations as good and beneficial, no matter whether they are positive or negative, whether they are repulsive or attractive. I don’t know which additional desires I have to reveal now. All the evils that I have to discover are hidden in me, and when they are revealed, I perceive it as reward. Although I feel bad, I rise above my feeling.

I perceive everything I receive from the reforming Light, no matter how it is felt, as a great reward. This is my direction. But in order to do that, I need the support of the environment, so that I will constantly see myself as part of this system. Only there will I be able to change in order to join it.

Suppose, for example, I have to become a part of the friends in a space that is cone shaped. As I try to fit into the shape, I constantly receive further clarification about what I am lacking and how to do it more accurately, so that I can fit in this special form.

So although every new revelation can be felt as negative, the troubles and confusion become a blessing for me. It says that the wisdom of the Torah is opposite from the wisdom of landlords, because you are happy with these revelations.

This is a “very narrow bridge” that we have to cross. A person who advances by spirituality, finds a reward both in positive and in negative feelings. The main thing is to correct one’s tuning.
[64949]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Victory Over The Creator
How To Draw The Light
Two Poles Joined By One Aim

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

We have a desire and a thought. If we only had a desire, we would perform everything blindly with no self-control, just like inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature in which the only thought is how to fulfill the desire.

A person who has developed to the inanimate, vegetative, and the animate levels thinks only about how to attain what he wants. There are different types of people: smart, energetic, violent, shy, brave, etc.—but each one wants to fulfill his desires, from a tiny baby to an elderly person who hides his desires. In each one there is the thought of how to fulfill his desire in every possible way.

This is how we develop in feeling and in mind, like a beast, until the point in the heart is revealed in us and begins to ask: What is all this for? Why? From that moment on, real science begins; when I begin to ask about the essence of my desire: What do I need it for?

This isn’t simple. People come to study, they become a group, but years may pass until they begin to ask this question, that is, that they want to know the desires they feel: where they come from? They begin to look for the reason, the root, the source.

Then they understand that the thought was given to them in order to reach the Creator by studying their desires. If I, through thought, correctly perceive the desires, I can reach the source from which they come, will understand who is sending them and why, what he wants from me, and how I should regard Him.

Through the group and even directly, I begin to demand from Him to change my desire: “You gave me such a desire, but I am asking for another desire!” then I will really be able to change it. The thought is given to us so that thanks to it we will be able to know our desires and demand new desires.

The thought exists so that I can check and prove to myself that I can’t do anything with my desires! Even when I seem to overcome, it isn’t that but simply changing one desire for another, which is also egotistic: for respect, for control, and pride. I simply find another desire that beats the first one and change values.

As a result of my thoughts, or under the influence of the environment, I begin to imagine that another desire is more important than the one I just had. And so I decide to change it to another. It is the game of egoism. This way I can change any desire I have.

But I can truly change the desire only with the influence of the environment that will give me other values. Then, as a result of its influence, I will demand from the Creator to change my desires. These desires can already be super-natural for me, meaning against my ego.
[64819]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Through The Prism Of Two Desired
The Saga Of Desires
Change Your thoughts And You Will See A Different World

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - 1 Comment →

Baal Hasulam, “The Peace”: “Because the purpose is undoubtedly built over all the laws of Nature, none excluded, he who alters even a single law harms and damages the purposeful aim that the Creator has set, and will therefore be punished by Nature. Hence, we, too, creatures of the Creator must not pity him because he is desecrating the laws of Nature and defiles the purpose of the Creator.”

We need to learn the system of laws that exist. This is because none of our desires, none of our actions and none of our thoughts are beyond the boundaries of this system. Its network reaches every cell in our body, every atom, and every particle, and ties them all on different levels and stages, whether they are biological tissues, physiological organs, the nervous system, thoughts, desires, lights, vessels and everything else.

We have been given the feeling of imbalance. This imbalance between us and the right and real way to act was given to us on purpose, so that we will advance and learn to balance ourselves with the demands of the general network. Thanks to this, we begin to know who operates it. He seems to create a malfunction in the balance and we feel bad.

Thus he invites us to contact Him: “Just ask, so that I will show you how to create the balance.” If we ask, our request is the vessel in which His action is later revealed, meaning the Light that completes the imbalance.

The process is carried out in the following way: First a certain part is revealed in my vessel and I feel bad: diseases, troubles, problems, etc. By themselves they don’t mean anything yet, but then I discover the point in the heart, and I understand that there is an external reason for all my troubles. This raises in me the question about the meaning of life.

As a result, I come to the group, join it, and discover the filling in it, the Creator, meaning the part that can complete the imbalance. I don’t know what the group really is because I see it through the prism of my own evil. I don’t see the Creator, and I can feel Him only as much as I feel bad. I simply have no other desire, no other “detector.”

So I begin to receive the filling from Him, and this is called “the Lord’s work.” Eventually He fills this part in me and it is corrected.

So at first I felt the evil, and then I gave it a different meaning and filled it with goodness, with the Creator. Thus I reach a balance with Him: He performed the work according to my request.

Then another corrupt part of the vessel is revealed to me, bigger than the previous one. Here I feel an even greater evil and discover a much stronger point in the heart. Accordingly, the group also seems much higher than before and the Creator much greater. He influences me much more intensely, and again after having discovered all the necessary means, I complete the balance.

And so time after time, instead of my egotistic nature, I bring the Creator inside me. I learn His actions and by them, I attain Him, reach adhesion with Him, and more.

These corrections take place from the lighter to the more serious ones, from the coarseness of the root level, Shoresh, until the fourth level of coarseness. They are also called the “worlds.” Thus I attain the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon (A”K). Eventually, my whole vessel is corrected and instead of the initial egoism, the world of Ein Sof fills me.

So we must constantly pay attention to how balanced we are with nature. The imbalance reveals the evil inside me, which I have to complete in order to acquire the good. This is the only way to advance, to find my way no matter what.

Today, when we come across problems and troubles, we have to understand that the crisis, the bad feeling, is a wonderful and special phenomenon by which we can correct ourselves. We must only turn to the group, to all those who feel the same evil.

They must connect among them as much as they can, and find the power of unity inside. The general population find the power of unity without the Creator, but simply thanks to our unity. All the rest comes to them through us. Then we all reach correction together.

So we must accept all the bad things that are revealed in the world as an invitation to develop. We must always move towards a greater union with others. A person is created especially in such a form that only the unity gives him the answers to all the troubles, even the most inner and personal ones. Only the unity can heal us.
[64822]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/11, “The Peace”

Related Material:
Yom Kippur And The Atonement In Every Soul
“The Creator’s Worker” Proficiency Test
To Change The Upper One Or To Transform Oneself?

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

All our work can be summed up as clarifications and thought by which we come to the Creator and try to demand from Him new desires that are totally unsuitable for our ego, our nature.

So I check how I am managed from Above, and I can feel to some extent this operating force. From the side, I analyze the actions of the Creator in me that motivate me. Thus, I begin to see the source, His actions—that is, me, and the power that controls me—and understanding how it works.

These three components: an appeal to the Creator, the source, His action inside me, and its result—are all called the Creator’s work, because it is the Creator who does it. My participation is only in asking Him to perform this work. In this way, we become partners.

As a result, from a small beast that performs actions blindly, who doesn’t even understand that it is being managed and thinks that it lives freely, whichever way it feels like—I become an active assistant manager, and so I reach adhesion with Him. I understand my desirable development and its final form and try to promote this plan even before it is fulfilled by the Creator.

I order my development, and this is called “hastening time,” instead of the natural flow (in its time). This is how I attain it, by the power of thought, and I begin to walk hand in hand with the Creator in every step, and try to learn and to accelerate my development.

As Baal Hasulam says in his article “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before“: the movement of the horse becomes one with the movement of the rider and this is their adhesion. The Creator waits for me to ask Him and helps me by evoking me and shows me by sufferings or by other clues the places where I have to pay attention to His leadership. And so we advance until full adhesion.
[64816]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Shame Of Inequality
A Connection Through The Common Path
Bring The Dead Time To Life

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

All the changes that happen in the universe, following the origin of the plan of creation, only pertain to the creatures. But the Creator is constant, as it is written: “I did not change the manifestation of my HaVaYaH.” Nothing else happens in relation to Him: He wished to make a creature to please it—and He did it.

All the actions take place inside the creature—in its consciousness, understanding, perception, and development. This way the creature develops from one point, which essentially separates it from the Creator. It is a special point, created by the Creator, which is the reason the created is called a creature, a desire.

Everything beside this point must absolutely be like the Creator. And in order to bring them to this similarity and create a connection between the creation and the Creator, the creature separates into an enormous number of parts.

These parts are separated and are pushed away from each other by their egoism, the desire to enjoy, the evil inclination, a selfish intention. This is the way the creature feels: divided and diverse, separated into many different systems, which are hostile to one another. But all this only exists within the creature in its sensations.

This sensation is called “concealment” (Alama)—an entire system of worlds (Olam), which exists so the creature would finally understand that the concealment separates it from the Creator. There is absolute perfection, unanimity in the Creator. He is one, and there are no differences within Him. But inside the creature there are an infinite number of different parts, which contradict one another.

In the end, the creature discovers that this exact division does not let it connect with the Creator and creates inequality between them. This evokes a special feeling, called shame—the feeling of their difference, which makes the creature begin to act, striving to become like the Creator. And here it sees that for this it needs to unite with everyone it now hates, pushes away, neglects, and does not take into consideration.

The creature is ready to make this transition, these actions of correction, for the sake of attaining equality with the Creator—anything to achieve adhesion. Complete equality of actions and qualities is called adhesion.

This is a gradual, step-by-step process where we realize the program of creation. We must feel ourselves in all the other states on the way towards unity or when already attaining it—in other words, on all the rungs of the ladder, while increasingly developing our unity.

At the end, we will see ourselves to be absolutely different creatures, and the group will appear different, not just a union of friends in a team, but a new spiritual formation with common thoughts and desires in a different reality. But any new state is directed towards the attainment of a greater connection, which is referred to as a union of friends both in our and the spiritual world.
[62164]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Looking For The Mysterious Unknown
Infinity: The Summit Of Attainment
From Opposition To Perfection

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

We should not be concerned with the right way to express our request—if it arises inside the heart, it will be heard. No extra actions are needed to transfer it and send it somewhere. The correct request in the heart already turns into a common prayer, and is an action on its own.

The correct desire, the vessel, is the main thing. It is the actual prayer. To pray means to “judge yourself, evaluate whether your desire is correct. And the correct desire includes all the components: the depth of the vessel, its covering for the sake of bestowal, and the prayer. Man on his own begins to feel what he is lacking for it to become a common prayer—otherwise, it will not be a desire to bestow.

A desire must contain the feeling of the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the Creator, one’s own nothingness, and the greatness of the group. When all the necessary elements connect together, it is called the full measure (Seah)—the cup, where we receive fulfillment.

The deeper man goes into his desire—the better he sees the elements he is lacking. And all this he finds in the group.

There is no other fulfillment but desire, and the fulfillment always corresponds to the desire, and it depends on whether this desire is organized the right way. This is because the desire is the form of fulfillment, and fulfillment does not have a form when outside the vessel.

As soon as our aspiration to bestow reaches the minimal measure—we immediately ascend to the first spiritual degree. Thus we advance until we reach an absolute desire in this discrete, digital form, a portion at a time. This is our entire correction—correction our desires. [Read more →]

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

Question: How will I, being broken and having only egoistic requests, be able to bestow?

Answer: You are not able to bestow, and no one expects it from you. You are expected to do what you are capable of—which is demanding correction.

Naturally it will be false and you are lying when you say that you want real correction. But the more you want this fake correction, keep asking for it as if you really want it! This is called a game through which we grow, learn, become wiser and advance.

Of course I do not want it, but I act as if I do. There is no choice—how else am I to wish to be in this state without being in it? And this is why you are given this transition through “as if”—an opportunity.

We will later understand why this world was created in this specific way without being in the spiritual space, with us having to rise from it. Attaining the perception of the upper world is a game. And it is clear that everything is a lie if we were to look at it in a sane manner.

But how is a child playing with a plastic car not a scam? But this is how he grows. Our world was created this way for a reason, and it precisely reflects the fact that the creature was intentionally created opposite to the Creator, and it must distance itself from Him in order to feel like a creature. But on the other hand it must become similar to the Creator.

And this transition of someone who is separated but at the same time becomes similar can only be done in this form—act as if you are in a state of similarity, while you start out separated.

This helps you discover how much you “supposedly” want it! And this “supposed” desire attracts the surrounding Light to you. And this Light is not even the real Light, it is the “supposed” Light! In this way we establish a connection with it.
[64507]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
You Will Get More Than You Asked For!
Only The Light Elevates Me
From Opposition To Perfection

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

There are two forces by which we advance, and the relation between them indicates the level a person is on. The Creator has no problem pushing us from behind and advancing us by sufferings. Then we have no choice but to advance. We will advance in the direction the Creator wants us to advance, but that isn’t considered advancement.

Throughout history and our evolution, the created being has been through the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels; that is called “nature.” Then in the level of the speaking there are also levels of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking, but they belong to the human level already.

The inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels develop in us under pressure and suffering. But the human in us develops thanks to awareness, consciousness, faith, and attaining the greatness of the goal, the yearning for bestowal.

For generations, we humans have developed in the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate and now we enter the level of “human” development. The difference is that as humans we can develop only if we ourselves yearn forward by the greatness of the goal.

This means that I have to stabilize the goal and its worth inside me as much as I can, to aim towards it, using every means I can. As it says: “Israel (those who yearn for the Creator, the Torah (the Reforming Light), and the Creator—are one.” The main thing is that I should yearn for the goal and not for someone else to manage me, to oblige me to go, to push me from behind by sufferings.

Thanks to the sufferings, I can be influenced through my egoism and then start moving. But it isn’t because the greatness of the goal, the greatness of bestowal and the Creator are pulling me. Thus, I don’t develop my point in the heart, but simply run away from suffering.

A different force and factor are active here by which I am motivated. So this isn’t development. A person can experience great sufferings; there were many attempts to wake him up, but it doesn’t mean that he has advanced by even one millimeter.

Although it may seem that he has advanced, he hasn’t. This is why it says that the sufferings polish a person’s body (his egoism) just like salt polishes the meat. The sufferings only make us become more sensitive, but they don’t make us start moving. A person can only move if he begins to resemble the Creator.
[64520]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Shamati

Related Material:
How Can We See That It Is Good To Bestow?
Waiting Will Not Help
The Science About The Nature Of Bestowal

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

Question: What do the Creator’s names refer to and how can they be attained?

Answer: The Lights, which enter desires and fill them, evoke the sensation in the desire of the kind of fulfillment that it is—the degree of the desire’s similarity to the Light, the Creator. They are referred to as the holy names of the Creator.

Part of the desire to receive pleasure becomes “holy,” which means that it is able to work for the sake of bestowal, and this is why it becomes filled with the Light of Hassadim or even the Light of Hochma. These desires become similar to the Creator.

The Creator Himself does not have a name. The Creator is a complete and perfect HaVaYaH filled with the Light of Infinity. But there are no names in the world of Infinity because names stand for a certain limitation: “kind,” “merciful,” etc. This is why the Creator does not have a name.

All of His holy names are different forms in which we perceive Him in accordance with the degree of our correction. It is similar to your individual characteristics, which I perceive you with: you wear glasses, you dress well, you are a father, an engineer….

In other words, I give you different names or definitions, but I do not know you in reality. I only distinguish a certain particularity in you every time, in relation to a certain specific quality. This is how the attainment of the Creator happens—through His “holy names,” different forms of bestowal, which bring us closer to Him.

But when we correct all our “620” desires and turn them into desires to bestow, they become 620 holy names, and we eventually attain Him through their collectivity. And when we combine all these names into one Name, as it is written: “And the day will come when He and His name will be One”—we truly attain the Creator.
[61631]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Everyone Writes The Book Of Creation
Honor Your Father
Attaining The Names Of The Creator

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

The purpose of our studies is to develop recognition of evil within us. On the other hand, even without studying, people can identify the evil within themselves. We are brought up in a certain spirit and acquire cultural values; thus, we are unable to steal, beat or kill anyone. We become better, more open-hearted; we start charities and help the sick and needy. Hence, we learn to distinguish good from bad and intentionally want to do good.

At the same time, all people in this world no matter how highly developed or poorly bred they are act in accordance with their egoistic desires. Some people help others because they are afraid to get into a similar situation in the future. Others feel pain when they see their neighbors’ affliction and would like to calm down their own pain. Our egoism contains multiple bases for “altruistic” behavior, that is, caring about our neighbors.

However, it has nothing to do with authentic correction. All good and bad qualities as well as all principles of our world are rooted in egoism. A person can be the quintessence of kindness, be utterly concerned about his surroundings, be loved by everyone, but still is being governed by self-love.

In Kabbalistic terms, a person remains on the animate level since he is not in control of his own properties; rather, his properties are in control of him. No matter how wonderful he is, he is not the one who manages his behavior, but rather, his ego is in charge of him. We can call such person “an angel” according to the spiritual classification, meaning on the “animate” level.

In fact, inanimate, vegetative and animate developmental levels are considered “angels” since they implicitly fulfill “orders” of nature. This applies to everyone in this world. It explains why there are no such things as punishment or reward; they are applicable only to those who work on self-improvement in order to approach the Creator. The rest are simply ordinary “derivatives”; it’s useless to expect more from them.

We study Kabbalah because we are triggered by a point in the heart, which allows us to differentiate between reward and punishment on our spiritual path. What bothers us is whether we will rise above our nature that in fact is the Creator. We’d like to have power over it.

What does this mean? Do we really want to take over the Creator? Yes. It is said: “My sons have defeated Me. I created the evil inclination and they demanded that I create a force that corrects it.”

A person develops in order to validate his existence rather than blindly submit himself to nature. His development depends on the recognition of evil. What kind of evil do I disclose in myself? Maybe I am a thief or a liar…. But it is the Creator who made me this way.

The ability to differentiate between a human being and the Creator is in fact a genuine recognition of evil. Only in comparison with Him, my evil inclination reveals itself. It is about the desire that I identify as being opposite to His.

But how can I possibly compare myself with the Creator? For that, I need a group. It is my only opportunity, my only standard, and my sole criteria for evaluating myself. My negative mind-set towards my friends and detachment from the group allow me to acknowledge my evil inclination. Then, I unite with my friends in order to approach the Creator.

So, there are three components: myself, the group, and the Creator. According to them we evaluate evil and good inclinations, rewards and punishments, and all other details of our perception that we measure up to the Man (Adam in Hebrew) who is similar with the Creator. The rest is simply irrelevant.

Basically, this is the way to separate creation. This approach accurately focuses my attention on the goal. The group becomes a method of achieving the Creator; the Creator is hiding behind the group and reveals Himself to the degree that I immerse myself in it.

After I incorporate myself into the group, I realize that the Creator is also a part of it.  Thus, the group is a common territory between me and Him.

I disclose my evil inclination through my relationship with the group, while I am trying to unite with my friends in the group. Similar to when we exited Egypt, Mount Sinai emerges between us; it’s a mountain of hatred (Sina in Hebrew).

On the other hand we must unite and be as one man with one heart out of desperation. The gap between unity and enormous hatred constitutes the evil inclination. This is what we raise our demand to correct.
[62173]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/11, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

Related Material:
My Spiritual Resources
An Unbearable Distinction From The Creator
Evil Under The Microscope

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