Baal HaSulam, Letter 19: “In the same woman…” “…grace is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” This means that during the preparation, the beauty and grace appear and the essence of perfection that one yearns and longs for. However, at the time of correction, when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,” then, “I shall see an opposite world,” because only fear and longing are the essence of the desired perfection. Then one feels that during the time of preparation, one was lying to oneself.

Question: Why is it said that during the time of preparation we are lying to ourselves?

Answer: It is so because I was longing for something which was a lie. And while suffering, I didn’t realize that this suffering was indeed fulfillment. It means that as soon as I change my attitude toward the desired, I discover that I am in the world of Infinity. It is regarded as “you will eat what is old.” I reveal an infinite fulfillment in my present state.

It is described that previously you were lying to yourself, thinking that you don’t have the desired fulfillment and you need to achieve it. But you don’t have to achieve anything except for the correction of your desires. You are already in the same perfect condition and only cannot see it since you lack the properties of perception, the corrected desires.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/2011, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 19

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Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “The Torah Is Called the Middle Line”: One must have faith that there is “None else beside Him,” meaning that only the Creator compels him to do righteous deeds. But since he has not yet merited knowing that he is compelled by the Creator, the Creator clothes in other people [who as though exist outside of a person] and carries out these deeds with their help.

We think that we are surrounded by lots of people, that they influence us in a variety of ways, and that we must react to them. But if we begin to relate to them (“them” meaning the group of people studying Kabbalah, and not the whole outside world) as the Creator’s manifestation, His presence between us, His presentation to us, then as we unite in the group, we begin to study and attain Him.

One must have faith that behind the human images stands the Creator and carries out all the deeds in people.
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From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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When we enter the spiritual space, we embrace other souls. Otherwise, I simply cannot enter the spiritual world since it isn’t some fenced area that I can walk into through a door.

Only if I unify with the others into one system and feel reality not just personally, individually, but as the integral life of the system where we are connected together, the friends and I, by having become one man with one heart, can I start perceiving more details in it, through additional organs of perception besides my own. Most importantly, I feel it through our common desire, the common spiritual vessel that we are building together and which includes us all.

It isn’t simply a sum of our desires, but rather a totally new property that is regarded as the property of bestowal. It is this property through which I start feeling another dimension, the upper, spiritual one.

It isn’t just certain supplementary details and peculiarities that each of us can see differently, nor is it an exchange of our personal impressions. It is one common impression, but it derives from bestowal, from the sensation of the Creator’s actions. We perform the acts of bestowal, that is, we repeat His actions!

You begin to feel what it’s like to be the Creator, and for this reason spiritual attainment is unlike material attainment. And although the system that you have built isn’t “divine” but comprised of our souls, it still has a special design, the integration of souls in love, mutual reciprocity and guarantee above their initial ego, evil nature, hate, and repulsion. And the difference between the first and the second properties is what creates the space, the new dimension inside which we start experiencing actions regarded as “bestowal.”

In other words, you have built within, inside your desires and qualities, a model of the Creator that helps you understand what He is. Previously, you simply looked at this world and saw some creation without having the slightest idea about it. But now that you are approaching it, you find the Creator inside this creation since you are assembling His image from your own parts, from all souls.

In the end, you discover such a great number of details that you reveal in this world what was previously hidden in it. You see that the Creator’s actions were concealed in it.

You keep delving deeper, to the extent that you can attach a greater number of parts (souls) to your system and link them closer together, until all individual souls, with their personal view of the world, unify as one soul, one desire, regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity. There, in their connection with one another, in all its smallest details, the individual souls come to a personal feeling and attainment which completely matches the upper force, the root that created collective attainment from which we started on our path.

It turns out that as a great number of particulars connect, you move on to the collective attainment which is extremely detailed and extensive. Through every soul and all of them at once linked together, you attain the Creator, the spiritual world. And it is you who is constructing Him since there is no Creator without the created being! This is why He is named “the Creator” (Bo-Reh), “come and see.”

Indeed, the key here is the work of the system. From the “matter” given to us, we build the “bricks” of the souls that each of us puts into the common system, while rising above our personal hate, egoism, repulsion, and at the same time preserve all our unique characteristics. Thereby, we create a very powerful system of our personal attainment.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We exist in a sensation of life regarded as “this world.” It is the lowest, smallest, and worst world out of all, yet it is some kind of life, and we generally understand what it is. But how do we get into the particulars, meaning the upper worlds, and begin ascending them?

It can only be done if we desire to climb the rungs of these worlds in order to exalt and glorify the Creator. We need all these worlds for a single purpose: so that through them we are able to realize our bestowal, the love of others. In this case, instead of the common, superficial outlook of man experiencing himself in “this world,” we will be permitted to get into all the details and thereby climb the 125 steps of personal spiritual attainment.

Every peculiarity you wish to experience, attain, and see in these spiritual worlds requires that your efforts have the right aim and that the revelation that you will eventually receive is solely for the benefit of the others or the Creator (which is one and the same). Otherwise, why should you dig into all these details, for your own personal gratification? It’s impossible because spiritual pleasure is pleasure from bestowal rather than from receiving for oneself!

Therefore, to move from the general to the particular attainment in this world implies great aspiration and an opportunity to fulfill oneself ever more, to see something interesting not from afar but to personally engage and participate in a certain process. Clearly, there is a big difference between being an outside observer and being at the center of events, which brings much greater gratification.

Likewise, in a personal spiritual attainment, you also have an opportunity for greater bestowal, and to the degree that you are ready for it, this personal attainment will be revealed to you. Hence, a person who desires to see not just the general picture, “this world,” but also all the particulars, first, all the smallest details of creation and the Creator’s acts must become equipped with the intention “to bestow.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, Writings of Rabash

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I perceive the image of reality exclusively through the prism of my egoistic desire. It seems that there is a certain reality outside of me. As for me, I feel as being a solid body occupying a certain volume.

I am being affected by heat and cold, gravity, wind, waves, and many other factors. Thus, I feel a certain reality outside of me, albeit only when its effects manifest on my body. The source itself is out of my reach. Right next to me, there could be a doomsday going on, but if it hasn’t dropped into my field of view, I don’t perceive it. Who knows how many dimensions surround me and what grand events are taking place in them? I simply don’t have receptors for it.

I live in my reality, among multiple other realities existing parallel to each other. Similarly, two waves pass through one another without any contact since they are transmitted in different ranges. So do I, among multiple worlds, live in my world, in the part of the whole I am able to perceive.

But a moment arrives when I start feeling my world as narrow and small. I suffer living in it. And then I am brought to a group, a guide on the path, and the instructions and books so that I may experience all the other worlds which I do not yet perceive despite the fact that I am in them. All in all, this wisdom is called Kabbalah, the science of perception, sensation, and revelation.

The reality of creation on the whole is the upper force, the Creator. How do I reach it if I don’t feel it? To do so, I am told to make efforts to gradually develop my sensory organs. Otherwise, I won’t be able to work with them. I have to learn to control and manage them so that I could later explore the enormous external reality with their help.

How do we do it? Kabbalists tell us: “We discovered that it can be done by way of exercises if you practice them within the framework of your relations with the friends. They don’t sense the wide reality either, but you can start playing a game among yourselves. Begin to unite, care about each other, build up a society where everyone will motivate the others to bestow, love, and reciprocate.”

It is similar to your rising above your egoism, and even though in reality it’s all just a game and you are moved by the ego, still, the very efforts will develop new tendencies in you. Due to these new impressions, you will advance. Even if bestowal and oneness are out of reach, keep playing, act in this small world of yours.

What do we need this for? You need it in order to feel the lack, to sort out what you have and what you are missing. These new details of perception will create a certain attitude in you, and you’ll discover that you are saturated with new sensations meant specifically for the new dimension. You will suddenly realize that it’s truly possible to exist not in your world that is absorbed in receiving and consumption, but rather in the enormous outer worlds where everything is the other way around.

What does “the other way around” mean? How can I experience it? You will feel it namely by playing among yourselves. Then everyone will feel that there is a certain property outside of them, a property directed toward the others. Even if you still approach it egoistically, like children when they play their games of being race car drivers, pilots, or cowboys, which develop them, so do you advance in your life.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If a person is raised in religion from childhood and filled with the notion that there is only the Creator, why do people believe in all kinds of impure forces?

Answer: How can you believe in the Creator when you have never seen or otherwise sensed Him? What can you ask of a person who believes in second-hand stories? One person has one story to tell, another has something else, but neither of them has seen anything with their own eyes, and neither have I. There cannot be blind faith!

This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks only of actual attainment, as it is said: “A judge has only what his eyes can see.” And by no means can we deviate from this principle.

We must know the Creator by revealing Him, not by believing in Him. Kabbalah says that there is some higher reality that we don’t perceive, which is still concealed from us. We know that looking at the world with nearsighted eyes you can only see a few feet in front of you, but with glasses you can see a mile away.

Similarly, there is another opportunity to infinitely expand our perception (vision, understanding, sensation) and also to add new qualities, to reveal new dimensions. All of this is possible. We accept this as a hypothesis, just as in science. We believe the Kabbalists that if we do certain actions which they speak of, we can achieve this new level of perception: achieve attainment, enlightenment, and sensation. The method is not about blind faith.

I have faith in the method; that is, I accept it with a question mark so that I could test and actualize it in practice. And then I see that the method is very logical, that it clearly explains to me how I can use the environment so that it changes me; I realize how I need to act with respect to the forces that exist in nature.

I believe only when I see that the method gives the desired result, though the actions themselves are clear and obvious. The notion that I can use the environment to work against my egoistic nature, to achieve a quality that’s opposite to it, is quite realistic. This is called “faith in the sages,” when I follow their advices.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/2011, Shamati No.1

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Our perception of the whole reality is very shaky since we don’t know how to relate to ourselves or the world in which we exist. Where do we exist and what do we feel now? Is it a dream or the truth? Is this world an objective reality or merely our temporary perception in distorted organs of perception? Possibly, when we correct our qualities from reception to bestowal, we will perceive a completely different world.

And this does not mean simply understanding it or feeling it better with the same senses that are more developed. Instead, I can completely change my sensations and perceptions that are attuned to reception and stop accepting reality egoistically; I can begin to perceive it in bestowal, an aspiration to my neighbor.

It turns out that instead of my own desire, I acquire the desires of others, and I begin to truly feel through them. And then I will sense a completely different world, another reality!

Who depicts this reality to us? Kabbalists say that it is the upper force, one, unique, and unified, besides which there is nothing else, which is good and does good to all, the wicked and the righteous alike. It is the upper Light that exists at absolute rest, and we can reveal it only by becoming equal to it in our qualities.

There are 125 degrees which correspond to the Light, and I will feel the upper Light in me to the extent that I receive the quality of bestowal, depending on the extent that I can correct myself and make myself similar to the upper Light which bestows kindness and all that is good. If I acquire the same qualities, I simply will exist in this quality of bestowal, thereby feeling it.

In other words, there is a force of bestowal called the “upper Light,” and a force of reception called “the creature.” If the creature acquires the force of bestowal over the force of reception, this force that begins to govern over it is perceived as fulfillment: a screen and the Reflected Light, the degree of bestowal that gives the creature a sensation of fulfillment.

How do we relate to this upper force? Will we ever be able to feel it, or do we just imagine it somehow according to the qualities in which we perceive it and the sensations, thoughts, and desires that are awakened in us? Kabbalists say that the upper force itself is Atzmuto, the essence of the Creator, which is not felt or attained by us. He has no form that we can perceive. However, to the extent that you try to draw closer to Him and become like Him, you will be able to understand various qualities that pertain to bestowal.

He is like a “giver” to you, but He himself has neither the quality of bestowal nor reception; He is above all this. Only His attitude towards the created beings is called “bestowal,” “love,” “giving.”

However, if it is written that He is “good and does good,” “there is none else besides Him,” “I did not change my name (HaVaYaH),” “the law is given and cannot be contravened,” which means that He is invariable, good, and perfect, then how can we ask Him for something? How can we ask Him to change and have pity on us?

This pertains only to the creature’s attitude which perceives the Creator in this manner and tells us about it, as it is written: “The Torah spoke in the language of the people.” Therefore, all our prayers and our attitude towards the Creator are essentially our attitude to ourselves, the way that I judge myself and desire to change in the direction of bestowal. However, all changes occur only in the created beings who, due to their own changes, feel that the picture of the Creator changes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/2011, Shamati No.1

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Question: If the Creator is unchangeable, why do each one of us perceive Him differently?

Answer: Each one of us perceives the Creator differently to the extent of the development of his or her soul, according to his or her desires and qualities. This is because the Creator Himself cannot be perceived. I never feel Him; I perceive myself in relation to the “simple upper Light.” And in relation to this simple upper Light, I discover myself.

So, where am I? You are the entire world. Do you feel it? Yes. Do you exist together with those around you? Yes. Well, then you are this entire world. It is your desire where you perceive everything.

Do you feel as if it were happening on the outside? You are wrong. All of it is inside you. The entire world is inside you. You simply perceive your reality this way, against the upper Light. You do not perceive this upper Light, but it exists, and also not on the outside, but inside of you.

Anything you could ever imagine is inside you, the upper Light as well. But what is the upper Light? You can only speak about it based on your experience. Where is it? It is inside your desires. Everything is inside man.

This goes on until we actually reveal the upper force.
[41534]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1

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The entire difference between Kabbalists (people with the point in the heart who follow the path of spiritual development) and the religious masses is in their attitude toward the Creator. Kabbalists say: “Everything depends on me. I must change, while the Creator is absolute and hence unchangeable.”

The only ones who can change are those who can be better or worse, but the Creator is just “good, who does good.” How could I ask Him to change and improve himself? Would this not make Him “bad” now?

A Kabbalist believes that he is the only one who needs to change, and nobody else is subject to correction: neither the world, nor friends, nor the group, not a single person. Right now, I exist within the good who does good, the Creator, the single force of nature “there is none else besides Him.” How I perceive Him depends on my qualities.

When I work with a group, I am the one working; I am the one changing. This is why it seems to me that there is the group that goes through different states, but in reality, I work with my shadow, my qualities.

It is the same in regards to the Creator. It seems to me that He treats me in different ways. Sometimes He comes closer to me, and sometimes He distances Himself, but it is me working with myself against the absolute, the good who does good, and there is none else besides Him. I am within Him.

Thus, “everyone judges according to their own flaws.” I see my shadow against the Creator. This is me seeing myself on the outside, the reflection of my own qualities.

This way, the entire world, except for the Kabbalists, is asking the Creator to change, and they are ready to do anything only so that the Creator would be kind to them. They do not think that they need to change their nature, correct their “evil inclination,” their ego, but they are asking the Creator to be kind to them as they are.

Kabbalists say the opposite: The Creator is “good who does good,” and “there is none else besides Him,” the universal, single force of nature. Nothing else exists besides the Creator. Besides Him, there is only a point of the desire to receive pleasure, “existence from absence.” Various actions take place within this point, and these are changes in its consciousness, its existence in the upper Light.

Suddenly, this point feels that it is expanding to the scale of Malchut of Infinity, the worlds form, and some changes happen. However, it is the same point experiencing all of this. Nothing has changed. All the changes are only happening in its sensations.

This goes on until it reaches a constant state, a sensation that it is like a black point that exists within “the good who does good,” the only One who exists. This entire circle, which we pass within creation until its complete correction (Gmar Tikkun), is only intended for determining our actual place, revealing the Creator.
[41552]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1

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Question: When a person tries to come out of Egypt, meaning self-love, he receives blows which he can overcome only by asking the Creator for help. But besides that there is also the material, earthly egoism which receives blows at its level, such as problems with one’s family, health, income, and so on. How should we relate to these problems?

Answer: No matter what kind of problem emerges in my life, first and foremost I must see it as a disturbance that came from the Creator. Even if I am in pain, I must still rise above that disturbance through faith above reason. Despite it all, I know that I have to make calculations above the disturbance and not under its weight. I must stay in touch with its “sender,” the Creator.

As for responsible actions, in the realm of this world I have to resolve all the problems by the commonly accepted methods. When it comes to the bank, work, family, and health, I have to take care of everything just like any person in our world.

Thus, you build up a two-sided attitude to the problems:

– First of all, they come from the Creator and you are dealing only with Him. You want to have these disturbances because they give you the opportunity to rise above knowledge and stay in touch with the Creator. Then you are correctly treating the disturbances and you even begin to love and respect them. After all, no matter how much they bother you, no matter how much salt they put on your wounds, and no matter how nerve-wracking they are, this is exactly what helps you rise above them.

– Secondly, you resolve the incoming problems the way it’s customary in the material world.

Both of these dimensions must be present in your attitude. You attribute the problems to the Creator, and at the same time you want to work with them. We do not throw Pharaoh out of our lives, but we enjoy his troubles. After all, only through them can we reject him and separate from him, and thus ascend higher and higher.

Pharaoh is my most precious flesh, my core, my most sensitive point, my child, the most important and finest string inside of me.

Question: But Pharaoh resists the unity of friends. What do the material troubles have to do with it?

Answer: They also distract you from the inner work. It’s not accidental that so many Kabbalists experienced material problems. The Creator deliberately caused them to be sick and despised by the people around them. It was in order to give them a place where they could overcome.

At the end of the day, all of this is a result of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. The desire gradually becomes revealed inside of you and in conformity to it you experience various problems, both in others and in yourself.

Question: Do I have to ask for help in these cases? After all, the Creator helps us in only one respect—unification.

Answer: That’s right, and the problems obstruct you from doing this. When you are sick, it’s difficult for you to focus on love for friends. Most likely, you forget all about it. And that means you have to ask for help. There is none else besides Him. Everything comes from the Creator, but it happens through different channels.

You have to attain the goal, but your body, your “little donkey” is sick and cannot carry you. So what should you do? Leave him to die? But you need him on the path.

Why do you perceive this world separately from the spiritual work? Even small disturbances can be helpful if you work with them correctly. No matter what happens to us, it’s important to remember that this comes from a single Source, until we really come to feel that we are in spiritual exile.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Shamati

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