Question: Rabash writes: This is like the Light and Kli—the suffering that is endured for something is the Kli that can receive Light if he will free himself from the suffering. (From the article, “What Is the Blessing,”…who has done miracles for me in this place in the work.) How can I free myself from suffering even before I receive Light? I thought that the Light is specifically what releases us from suffering.

Answer: The Kli for receiving the Light is not the desire to be filled with pleasure but the desire to feel how others have enjoyment from me. My pleasure is in this. But I don’t work for its sake. Pleasure for me is only an indicator, a means for measuring that I have really attained bestowal to others.

This is called “freeing myself from suffering,” for I have no other thoughts or intentions regarding myself. I am concerned only for what is outside of me; therefore I merit discovery of the Creator.

These sufferings of love are when I am not in the desire to bestow. I suffer from this, and not on my account. If you suffer for yourself, you are found in this material world and are not directed towards the Creator at all. Being directed towards the Creator means that you want to be like Him, identify yourself with Him, and take an example from Him. And to be like the Creator means to think about what is outside of you.

My suffering becomes completely different because it becomes sufferings of love from my lack of ability to bestow to others and from concern that by bestowing to others, I am doing this for my own sake and not for His benefit, meaning not for the sake of bestowal, and without an intention to receive a reward. I demand the power from the Creator to help me to become like Him.

Question: And the Creator always helps in a case like this?

Answer: If you are really asking for this, He must help. You simply have never asked. You only need to want to be like Him, at least somewhat.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/02/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Torah, (Leviticus) “VaYikra,”1:4: He shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, that it may be acceptable in his behalf, in expiation for him.

Hesed, the right hand, should be above all our thoughts and feelings because bestowal, love, and compassion are above everything. On the whole, Hesed (mercy) is regarded as a weakness in our world. If someone loves me so much that he always feels merciful towards me, I begin to take advantage of it egoistically, and very soon begin to “sit on his head.”

But in the spiritual world, it is the opposite. Mercy (Hesed) is the greatest, most sublime attribute. The whole spiritual world is founded on it.

A person who attains this attribute brings all his desires and intentions (“head” is the intention) to the level of above reason. He works in faith above reason and aims his intentions only for bestowal.

Thus, the Torah tells us that the Creator puts His hand on the head of the burnt offering as if He gives it an intention. This means that all the thoughts and desires, the mind and the heart, are dominated by a new force that has been given by Him, the force of mercy.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/13/13

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Question: How can we determine the exact measure of the desire needed for a prayer? Perhaps a person who asks for bread has to go hungry for two weeks first, but a person who hasn’t eaten for three days may feel that this cry is the strongest it could be.

Answer: There is no standard measure. It’s a personal feeling that I cannot remain in this state any longer. Besides, we also need a prayer before the prayer because I cannot feel real hatred towards my Egypt and I want to experience the slavery so that I can really hate it. This is also a prayer because this hatred also comes from the Light that Reforms, and every prayer is meant to draw and bring the Light closer.

All these states are carried out very quickly. The Torah tells us a lot about what happens before coming to Egypt. Then there is the story about how the children of Israel entered Egypt, about the birth of Moses, about his escape and his life with Jethro. However the actual exodus is very fast, as if it takes no time. Therefore we only need to ask.

If the Light begins to work and a person is dominated by the Light, he immediately goes through states as if above time. We are very close to this and we can force the Light to operate.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the meaning of the vessels that we pick up from the Egyptians?

Answer: Without them, we are unable to reveal the Light (the Creator) because all we are able to do is modify the intention. Egypt is the intention for one’s own sake.

The land of Israel (Eretz Israel) is a desire (ratzon) directly to the Creator (Yashar-El). The same desire that exists in Egypt transforms to Israel after changing the intention.

We have only one desire. When we first reveal it, it seems like ancient Babylon because everything seems so confused. It is a huge egoism that mixes all states together. The first time we exit our ego due to Abraham’s method we strive to rise above our will to receive and detach from our prior states as much as we can.

This phenomenon is called “Abraham.” Abraham leads us out of Babylon and separates us from our usual, corporeal egoism.

In the beginning, when one comes to a group, one is taught how to work beyond one’s egoism and to connect with friends. While making attempts to achieve unity, one suddenly experiences a tremendous downfall.

This is an entrance to Egypt: a more egoistic and harsh intention. One wants to receive all the worlds. It is a more egoistic and focused intention. One even wants to use the wisdom of Kabbalah for the sake of one’s personal wellbeing. This is called the power of Pharaoh.

If we continue working, the group and the Surrounding Light influence us. We don’t sense the Light, but notice the consequences of its impact on us. We feel that we are obligated to exit our egoism, to get rid of it. We apply efforts and experience troubles and numerous problems that help us detach from our ego.

Sometimes we fall very deep into our egoism. Sometimes we detach from our ego and rise over it. We go through ups and downs. Our egoism (the Pharaoh) keeps receiving blows until we rid ourselves of it.

The first detachment from the egoistic intention is called exodus from Egypt. This is what we hope to go through all together when we unite. I anticipate that this coming Pesach won’t be just a holiday on the calendar for us and that we will experience a spiritual leap.

What will change in us if the leap happens? First, Babylon will turn into a sensation that we are in Egypt, in slavery, still inside the will to receive. Everything depends on our perception. In Babylon, everybody acted within their egoism and it was considered normal because this is human nature.

But we do not agree with this state and want to rise above the ego. When we tried to elevate, we transitioned from Babylon to the land of Canaan, the future land of Israel. There, we suddenly sensed that we simply cannot do it the way we tried and that we have to stay inside the will to receive, otherwise we won’t advance at all. This means that we have entered Egypt.

When we acknowledge the necessity of changing intentions from egoistic to bestowing, we start working on exiting Egypt and continue our work until we manage to disconnect from our egoistic intention. Detachment from the latter is the exodus from Egypt.

Then, we are uncertain of what should be done next: We have detached ourselves from the egoism, but what now? At this point, we start acquiring the intention to bestow that we add on top of the same desire that we had when we were in Egypt. That’s why each commandment that we observe, each bestowing action, is just a recollection of our exodus from Egypt.

I use the desire that previously was called Babylon, then was Egypt, and then transformed into the Sinai Desert, and in the end it finally became the land of Israel. The desire remains the same, but the intention improves each time.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/14, Q&A with Rav Laitman

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Psalms 121: A song for ascents. I shall raise my eyes to the mountains, from where will my help come?
My help is from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to falter; Your Guardian will not slumber.
Behold, the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your Guardian; the Lord is your shadow; [He is] by your right hand.
By day, the sun will not smite you, nor will the moon at night.
The Lord will guard you from all evil; He will guard your soul.
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from now and to eternity.

We have to raise our deficiencies for the correction of Malchut, the shattered vessel, the shattered soul, until we reach the head of the world of Atzilut, from where will my help come, I shall raise my eyes to the mountains, which means to rise above every mountain of doubt. This ascent is according to the equivalence of form that I want to attain. Of course, I cannot do so at the moment, but I want to ascend there.

This is where my help will come from, my help is from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, which means that He creates Malchut by the attributes of Bina and Zeir Anpin, HaVaYaH connects them.

A person can express his request this way from every state he is in, from the day and from the night, in order to discover that the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. All these days will accumulate and the Creator will help us and will dwell in the unity between us according to our yearning to unite.

We must not forget that we have to prepare a platform, a place for the Divinity. All our work is with the connection in a practical and down to earth manner, despite all the troubles and the obstacles. There are no coincidences in life, everything is arranged and organized to the very last detail from Above so that we will connect in these conditions.

The higher we ascend, the lower we descend by receiving more obstacles. Thus the shattered vessel, the shattered soul, is revealed until we clarify all its parts that we have to connect in order to attain the first spiritual level.

The main thing is to ascend to the first level of the spiritual ladder. All the other levels follow one another in a chain of cause and effect. They all have the same nature and the most difficult thing is to make the transition from the nature of in order to receive to in order to bestow.

Then there is the same manner of ascent according to the same rules. More and more details are revealed and the impression certainly changes, but it isn’t the initial transition of our nature anymore. So the main thing is to overcome the first level.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/14

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Question: Which parts of our appeal to the Creator should we clarify in order to make it right and accurate?

Answer: It’s like speaking to me on waves which I don’t perceive, such as radio waves or TV waves, and every sort of radiation wave that I don’t perceive. I don’t even notice that you are saying something to me.

The appeal has to be strong enough, from a whole heart, and it also has to be in the right frequency that I can perceive. When I perceive the appeal in the right intensity, I also have to decode it. There are several filters in my mind which it has to go through until it reaches my heart and penetrates it.

So I have to know something about the issue of which you speak. The Creator has only one issue: to bestow upon the created beings, since He is good and benevolent. If you speak about bestowal and about doing good to the created beings, He is willing to hear you. This is how He is arranged!

The upper Partzuf , which in regards to us is called the Creator, is arranged that way. If you speak about an opportunity to bestow upon the created beings, He immediately hears you, and later He will hear you more and more, depending on the level you are on, an upper or a lower level. This is how He hears.

To hear means to take your prayer, the deficiency that you raise upwards and to raise it even higher. The Book of Zohar says that a special angel, a special force, does this. The Light from Above dresses in your deficiency and this whole package, the deficiency with the Light that fills it, is conveyed downwards to the created beings.

Question:  Do I have to clarify exactly to whom I appeal?

Answer: You also have to clarify to whom you appeal. First you should prepare yourself and express your gratitude, bless and praise Him, since otherwise you are not focused on the upper one. All these prayers are necessary only in order to arrange and to help you focus, and to prepare you for contact with the Creator. Therefore, you should sing to Him, and praise Him, and this will give you the right direction to Him. Otherwise you won’t know which way to go.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/07/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What can we do if we don’t manage to bring the majority of the group to do the very least that they have to: pay maaser, disseminate, work in the group, and come to the morning lessons? Is it possible to establish mutual guarantee with friends who don’t come to the morning lessons?

Answer: Ninety-nine to one hundred percent of the groups that Kabbalists formed throughout history were unsustainable. But the conditions were different then and there was no need for general correction and dissemination, and so they disintegrated.

Today when we can go out and participate in collective events, I don’t understand why you can stay away from such relationships as we deal with other people, and through them correct ourselves and the mutual relations between us. The Creator is actually concealed in the ascent above the mutual repulsion that we feel! If you overcome the repulsion and build a bridge that connects you above it, this is the point that the Creator will be revealed.

This opportunity is before you right now. If you want to reach the revelation of the Creator, go ahead. Here is the upper world, the Creator who gave you this condition: The revelation of the mutual hatred. You don’t need anything else. You have already reached this wonderful state. Baal HaSulam said: “I am happy at the revelation of the wicked,” I am very glad at the revelation of all the problems since otherwise I would have no chance to ever attain anything.

We need a creative approach in order to deal with the negative feelings that arise: the repulsion, the hatred, the weakness, the reluctance to do anything. We should understand that this is the building from which we, as crushed stones, construct a building in which we begin to feel the upper world. We need to collect these scattered bricks of hatred by force and become the material that connects them! This is called the correction of the general soul.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/14, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Question: I am trying to clarify, what is it that my prayer needs to include?

Answer: Prayer is work with the heart. If you try to relate to reality correctly, then what happens in your heart is called “prayer.” You cannot plan to pray between 10:00 and 10:30. It’s not possible to work this way.

Everything that we experience in the depths of the heart is called prayer. We can carry out all sorts of different actions to influence the heart, but we are not able to arrange a prayer in it. We can only prepare the heart to feel, and then this sensation will be a prayer.

The Creator is within your heart in its most central part where the fourth phase (Behina Dalet) of your desire is felt. The Light acts from the depths of the heart, in the fourth phase. Arranging the prayer means carrying out a variety of activities around the desire that form an impression in it, soften it. Yet ultimately what happens with this desire will be called prayer.

We are not masters over the prayer itself. Sometimes you invest immense efforts in order to reach the heart, yet it remains dry and doesn’t want to react. You run and try, sing and cry, read emotional texts, yet the heart doesn’t react.

Maybe it only seems that way to you, for who knows what happens within the heart? We don’t feel its depths. However, the efforts that you invest bring much benefit. The strongest prayer is when you don’t feel that your heart reacts even though you do everything to change it. And it is silent and doesn’t react.

You understand your absolute powerlessness and you feel the true stony heart within yourself that is not changed at all. You can cry, run, jump, do everything, read psalms, prayers, Shamati articles, go out to look at the sky, be integrated into a group, yet the heart remains a stone. But specifically these efforts to change it to a heart of flesh are the most beneficial means. Then you will receive a response to your efforts.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, “VaYikra,” Item 411: The root of all the sins is the increase of the left over the right. Every person has a root Above, and a person who sins increases the left and separates it from the right and creates a dispute between the right and the left, just like the dispute between them before the middle line included them.

All our actions in this world are characterized by nothing but the intentions. If, for example, I kill a man, it all depends on whom I kill. If I kill an animal, the main point is why I do it: perhaps I kill only for the fun of it and perhaps I want to give someone a present.

This means that all our actions are characterized by the intentions, because the same action can lead to a terrible outcome and it can lead to a good outcome, but our intentions are concealed. So the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the concealed wisdom. It teaches us how to control our secret and true concealed intentions which are behind our decisions and our ideas.

When we begin to search ourselves seriously, we come to the conclusion that we are total egoists who seem to act for our own good, but who actually only cause ourselves harm. How can we change ourselves so that we will really do ourselves good? This is a problem.

All our work is internal and so it’s called the concealed study. Another’s eye doesn’t see how a person works on himself, who he is and what he is, since the great changes are internal and not external.

When a person begins his spiritual work, he withdraws into himself and becomes simpler, but at the same time, he seems a bit strange to others because totally different values that are not accepted in society gradually develop in him, which may appear strange to those around him. But on the whole these are trivial phenomena.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/24/13

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A prayer to the Creator should always be collective. After all, what do I ask for? Feeling hatred, a gap, and the inability to connect to others, I ask the Creator to help me overcome these states. Then I can pray for everyone with everyone.

All our differences, when we can’t work together or gather and discuss something is a great state!  But the feeling of repulsion will constantly grow stronger. We know the students of Rabbi Shimon who wrote The Book of Zohar used to gather, but at the same time, were ready to burn each other to ashes, since they felt such great mutual hatred between them. These are the states we have to go through.

The revelation of hatred actually appears in groups that advance. If a person escapes from this and stops coming to the group, he simply doesn’t understand what is going on. He doesn’t understand that everything comes from the Creator, that there is none else besides Him, that all this is necessary so that he will be corrected, and that the group should rise by its correction above all the conflicts.

If we feel real hatred, it is the condition that leads us to our collective prayer. By collecting all our mutual hatred, we have to ascend above it, because this is our common problem, and then we will discover the spiritual world. Now the condition for the revelation of the Creator is right before us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/14, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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