Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 128: All that concerns he who does not pain himself with the public, and is not awarded seeing the comfort of the public, for he will not be able to sentence them to a scale of merit and see their consolation. Hence, he will never attain the attribute of righteous.

It’s impossible to advance without empathizing with the sufferings of society because each step has to be perfect. Therefore, there is no choice but to feel the suffering of society. This happens at each stage to achieve a state of the righteous or a full righteous.

In these states there are many levels. The entire vessel is divided into many parts, each of them must reach the level of a righteous and then the degree of a complete righteous. Therefore, people must prepare for this desire, the need for the filling, that is suffering.People aspire to bestowal and unity, but they are unable to reach them and are looking for the ways of attracting the Light that Reforms. We have to sense these desires from the outset.

We have to observe the rule of loving our neighbors not only while we are building the Temple, although it embodies precisely this vessel, a house of sanctity, but also we have to look at the giving of the Torah. The question is: “Are you ready to for it?” It’s not about whether or not you are “able to” do it at this time, but are you “ready to go for it?” If the answer is “yes,” then just do it!

It means that we have to feel the suffering of society because we have to feel the desires of our neighbors as our own. But there is a subtlety as we don’t pick up our neighbors’ desires for food, family, money, power, or knowledge directly. Rather, we should be compassionate and feel others’ pain as our own since it is something that matters to them at their level. But we have to decipher their states from our level and understand that the reason for their affliction is a deficiency of the Light that Reforms, a shortage of the Upper Light’s presence in their desires.

Their desires require correction and therefore they experience multiple problems: diseases, troubles with children and family,  and all sorts of troubles. The reason for all these sorrows is a deficiency of the Light in general. At our level, we are able to understand this situation and then transfer their prayers into our plea (MAN). This is what it means to be imbued with the the suffering of the public.

The question arises about how can we penetrate their spiritual desires if they don’t yet aspire to spirituality but only crave material fulfillment? Let’s say I am at the 50^th stage, but the general public does not represent my immediate lower Partzuf since it has not yet reached the 49^th level. Is it possible that I see their desires in the 49^th stage?

The fact is that we see the general public’s desires solely from the level we’re on, as all the stages already exist. All one can do is sense the  desires of society that are at one’s same level. This means that one raises society’s desires to one’s own level. That’s why even a complete righteous can be impressed by the suffering of the public in a very material state, even before the preparation period, prior to Lo Lishma. After all, the state already exists in the spiritual world.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, Item 48: It is discerned that its 613 organs are 613 Partzufim (plural for Partzuf), unique in their Light, each in its own way.

Question: How can parts of a whole be different in radiance? What does “each in its own way” mean?

Answer: Each cell, molecule, atom, and their parts have a purpose and a job of its own. We are supposed to reveal the nature and purpose of each tiny detail of the creation to the very latest “trivia.” Ultimately, we have to get to the original point “something out of nothing”, to the origin of the desire, and then correct it in the point of its origin.

By doing so, we revoke “something out of nothing.”

All desires are unique and interconnected. However, we get to know their structure not by going deep into their peculiarities as we are used to in our deterministic society, which is fragmented into individual pieces. No, in spirituality, we grasp things through a dynamic integration of all their parts. There desires are not alienated from each other. Each of them is at all times intertwined with the rest of the whole (613 minus one).

Question: According to your description, we should be real geniuses to…

Answer: It is said: “It is not the wise who learns.” We get to know the world through “tastes, flavors” (Ta’amim). A chemical formula that precisely describes the properties of a substance doesn’t tell us anything about its properties; whereas, if we sense the substance, we immediately understand everything about it.

That’s why knowledge in spirituality is tasting. You can write a long novel about some flavor, but I still cannot imagine it. However, if I taste it, I will immediately resolve the problem and know what exactly it is. Just knowing the taste is sufficient because a flavor includes and reveals the origin of the substance, its properties and nuances. Then, when reading an appropriate name of a thing I have already tried, I will already know what it is about.

Spiritual attainment doesn’t need anything but nullification before the group, humility of the will to receive over the will to bestow.

Question: Then, who are the ones who collect the data and how do they do it?

Answer: A completely new form of HaVaYaH emerges in a desire, the four discernments of the direct Light. There is nothing but them. That’s what we actually attain. All worlds, actions, partitions, and corrections are built into the original, non-variable structure of HaVaYaH.

The key to attainment is the unity of friends reinforced by the Light. Only unanimity provides us with knowledge and wisdom. After we leave a state of detachment and re-assemble broken parts, we penetrate into their nature, thus reaching attainment.

This is the only reason why the shattering took place: detached fragments formed a shattered picture that is totally opposite to their own nature. By collecting them back together, we get to know reverse forms of unity, thus we “re-assemble” the Creator. However, we don’t re-assemble Him in the sense of the internal fulfillment of the vessel; rather, we do it externally. Nevertheless, because of this process we attain Him.

Question: Consequently, it means that unification influences everything at the atomic level of this material world. Can it really be so?

Answer: The world that we see currently is a picture of our own flaw,  as if we are X-rayed and see the outcome on the screen. We see our own corruptness, the belly of our egoism that continuously strives for more self-fulfillment.

That’s why when we change, the entire world changes with us too. It is said: “And I saw an upside-down world.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When I work with the right intention, I feel that it is like a flash of lightning that I cannot hold on to for more than a moment. I keep forgetting the intention although sometimes I have an insight like a flash that is immediately extinguished. What should I do so that the intention could burn all the time?

Answer: You need mutual guarantee for that. There are no friends around you who think about you. Everyone is thinking about himself and so you have such flashes every couple of hours.

If you thought about each other a bit more, you could keep the right intention permanently and feel as if you are riding on a pillow or a flying carpet. I don’t even have to think about you or him but about us, that it is a spiritual vessel.

Question: But I see that the friends are trying to do that! Why don’t we succeed yet?

Answer: If you see that the friends are trying and that you have tried with them and sustained yourself and that you still fell, it is a good thing. Such falls are already for the sake of the next ascent so that you will grow stronger. You are on the right track; you are intentionally thrown from the right intention as if you have totally forgotten everything, yet it isn’t loss of consciousness but the way you advance up the King’s mountain. There is a great difference.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When does the Light that Reforms influence a person and bring him to the love of others?

Answer: The Light constantly influences us: It either influences us according to the natural pace of evolution that is called Beito (in its time), or according to a program called Achishena (I shall hasten it), which is hastening time. But it’s always the Light that acts.

On one hand, it is said that “the Light is in a state of absolute rest.” On the other hand, we call it the Light that Reforms, which means that it can influence us in a different ways, either more or less. Of course, the Light is in a state of absolute rest, but I spur myself by the environment: the books, group, and teacher, thus increasing my sensitivity to the Light.

Lets say we are going out to disseminate. Before we go out we really think that we want to attain the love of others in order to attain the love of the Creator, and thus delight Him. We would like to perform this action out of real love, but unfortunately we don’t feel it yet.

So we act even out of self-interest (Lo Lishma): We want to attain spirituality, to know about it, to feel it; we expect that the heavens will get revealed to us. When we operate this way, even with the intention of “not for its sake”—as it is said: Mitzvot (commandments) don’t require the right intention—it still works. The Light illuminates on me from a distance (this is why it is called the Surrounding Light), and thus advances me.

So all my work is to check which of my actions are the most beneficial in order to spur and to draw the Surrounding Light. The most beneficial action, according to the law of the equivalence of form, is the one closest to the properties of the Light, namely: bestowal, love, involvement, closeness, embrace, kiss, and coupling.

We should yearn for that, and I am ready to yearn for that, but only on the condition that I get something from it, i.e., I will be rewarded with new feelings, understanding, and by opening my eyes to reveal the secrets of the Torah so that the heavens will open up for me. I want this and cannot do anything with my desire!

Never mind, I need to work with the desire that I have. It is not up to me, but is arranged that way by the Creator. I work with whatever I have, even if it is clear to me that I do everything for my own sake, and the Surrounding Light will gradually impart right intentions to me. This is how we advance.

If we reach the love of the Creator from the love of the created beings, then the most beneficial thing we can is to take care of the created beings! So dissemination—or as it is said, the role of the Israeli nation, obliges us to bring all of humanity to the Creator—is the most beneficial action for anyone who participates in it. We only need to understand this, to interpret it correctly, and to tell each other about it. Then we will understand that we are in an excellent state. We have received unique opportunities.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/14

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Question: How did the children of Israel walking through the desert receive “Manna from Heaven” and were nourished by it?

Answer: They encountered new challenges and troubles each time as they increasingly revealed their evil inclination, and then they had what to pray for and what to clarify.

First, we have to feel bad and when the evil is revealed we begin to ask and to clarify why we feel bad. From inside his ego a person begins to clarify why he feels bad and wants to eliminate the source of evil.

If he is developed enough, he begins to ask about the source of evil, about the cause for evil, about the purpose of evil. This stems from the fact that he is already connected to the upper force by some inner sense. His desire to receive has already reached level four of Aviut (thickness) of the clarification. Then he feels that he is connected to the upper force by fate. This is why astrologers, fortune tellers and so forth are so popular these days. It all stems from the same reason, as waste material from the right search.

We advance in the desert and discover new problems and troubles that are connected to the upper force through a point called Moses. This means that there is already a system that belongs to holiness that includes studying and dissemination actions that tie us to the Creator.

There is also a corrupt system—this world, which we want to connect to us, and so we go out to the public. To the extent that we go out to the world, we can correct ourselves. But without dissemination we cannot correct ourselves in any way. It is thanks to the dissemination that we advance in the desert together with all our groups.

Thanks to being in the process of studying and dissemination each one begins to live more and more by his prayer, by his appeal to the Creator through the group. Then he feels that it revives him and so it is called MAN. MAN means that you adhere to the force of bestowal and you want to be in it.

You don’t yearn to fill your vessels of receiving, but you totally want to remain in the appeal, in giving. You are given these powers so that you can raise MAN, which is a request to remain in the desert and not to demand anything but the opportunity to turn to the Creator in any situation.

This is the work of clarification in the desert and you live by this work. You have nothing and you don’t need or want anything. Gradually we begin to feel it. This is depicted to a person only after a very long time since it requires an inner change of his systems, of the system of his soul. Gradually he agrees to be more and more part of these pictures.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14

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Question: Why does it say that a person should judge himself to the scale of merit? Does he do it by himself? Isn’t it the Upper Light that operates on him?

Answer: We don’t say that the upper force operates here, although it does everything. When it says that “a person should correct” it means that a person demands that the Upper Light correct him.

It is the same in our world when we speak about a house that was built by a great architect. Did the architect actually build the house? He planned it and there were hundreds of people who built the house. But we say that the house was built by the architect and sometimes even hang up a plaque with his name.

We also don’t speak about the forces that we operate. There is the Creator who is good and benevolent, “There is none else besides Him,” He gave a law that cannot be broken: the law of equivalence of form that determines all the levels on the spiritual ladder. But all our appeals, all our work, depends only on us. If we activate ourselves by feeling the right yearning, we will receive the Light.

It is a constant supply that never ends and never changes. Everything depends only on our equivalence of form with the Light. So we don’t say that the Light corrects us. If everything is ready and He is good and benevolent, everything is determined by my desire for positive changes, and the Light immediately operates in full power.

Actually I don’t even have to ask it to do so. Therefore we don’t say “to beg” but “to pray” to the Creator because I have to beg myself and activate myself and not Him. I am the one who has to reveal my desires, and all the actions are meant to ignite our heart. The Upper Light is in a state of absolute rest and the problem is only in our heart.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 65: You already know that there is an inverse relation between Lights and vessels: in the Kelim, the Higher ones grow first (see Item 62), which is why the first were more complete in the practical part than the last. But with the Lights, where the lower ones enter first, the last are more complete than the first.

Question: What is the meaning of the “practical part”? Does it refer to practical Mitzvot (commandments)?

Answer: These are Mitzvot that we fulfill between us on a physical level because our intentions are not yet sufficiently revealed. We don’t have a desire that is deep enough yet.

The same thing is also typical of the evolution of humanity. With time we gradually advance from physical work to mental work, to more delicate areas, whether it’s precise mechanics, nanotechnology, biology, etc.

This is already the work of the heavy vessels, those that have a great Aviut (thickness) of the desire. When you resist it, there is a whole variety of Lights that match the current depths of your ego. You begin to work with the Lights, with the intentions, with the delicate but strong vessels, like with a laser beam instead of manual instruments. Even the thought itself becomes a means that allows us to change the world, and we are already close to it.

Before, when we had a small desire we couldn’t penetrate the inner part of the world and discover all its components. Without a great evil inclination we couldn’t divide, classify, and organize it

There is the practical work and there is the work in our intention: the former is always in GE, while the latter is in AHP. As long as the vessels are pure, on the Aviut level of the root phase, phase one and two, there is an advantage to the actions. In other words, the intention in this state is called an action. It says: “Do everything that is in your power.”

This action isn’t performed manually, but the intention is small. In the meantime it isn’t supported by the great thickness of the desire and isn’t established on top of the resistance. I don’t establish an opposite intention to what is revealed inside me yet.

On the other hand, the real intention rides on top of the strongest desire on the third and fourth level of Aviut. This is where the real ego is concealed, against which I must work. It’s no small thing anymore. When a small child obeys his mother even when he doesn’t want to, it’s one thing, but if you ask a 15-year-old boy who already feels mature enough and overcomes the strongest inner resistance to do so, it’s a totally different thing. This is the difference between an action and an intention, and this has to do with both the Mitzvot of do and don’t do.

Question: So what, in this sense, are the physical actions that we perform in the group: duties, etc.?

Answer: These actions are also considered according to the intention. It says that Mitzvot don’t need an intention, which means the right intention of in order to bestow. But still everything is considered according to the intention, even if it’s egoistic for the time being but goal oriented.

“I want to reach the Creator.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, to be good.”

“But to be good is in order to bestow.”

“So I want to act in order to bestow!”

The truth is that I have no idea what bestowal is and I only say that I want it, but it’s enough in order to be part of the correction.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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A question in spirituality is a desire (Hisaron, need) that triggers the Upper Light. The Light descends and fills that desire. This is called a real question or prayer.

However, until such a real question is formed, one goes through an array of preliminary questions that are called “a prayer before a prayer.” In other words, before one really reaches the prayer, request, one undergoes numerous small, private, inaccurate questions until a correct question finally emerges.

In general, all questions boil down to one thing: “What is the meaning of life? Is it worth living? If yes, for what?” This is the only question that really exists. A man asks billions of different variations, and accordingly only gets a partial response. But at the end of correction, all will transform into one huge question that will be answered by one gigantic response—complete adhesion (Zivug a Shalem).

Question: What kinds of questions should we bring to you and which ones have to be clarified in the group?

Answer: It’s better if you come to me with a collective question. If you have a question that involves the entire group, please refer it to me.

Comment: So far, when I find answers to my questions in the group, I feel that they are correct.

Answer: Indeed “so far.” It is this way for every level, for me and for all. Answers that were right at this degree become incorrect when we reach a new level because the Keter of the lower Partzuf appeals to Malchut of the Upper.
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From a Lesson in Russian 2/10/14

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The entire system of creation is experiencing negative shocks because its parts are not functioning together in harmony. There is a part that is called Aba (father) and a part called Ima (mother).

Ima is the characteristic of complete bestowal, Hafetz Hesed (absolute mercy). The characteristic of Aba is the higher intelligence, Ohr Hochma, the source of life. These two parts must exist in harmony between them.

There is also Keter or the Creator, the thought, idea, program, prior to some kind of realization below.

Ima must make the infrastructure, a place for receiving the Light of the Creator. But this is only possible to the degree that we, the souls, ask her for this since she is found in a state of absolute Hafetz Hesed and doesn’t want anything for herself.

Both Aba and Ima suffer with overflowing love for the children, but they are unable to do anything because the children are not asking for this. Instead they ask for something else entirely opposite to the parents, something against them.

Just as in our world, if children asked to taste alcoholic beverages, drugs, and cigarettes, a mother and father, by not allowing them to do this, would suffer both because they cannot give a child something good and also because he is asking for something bad.

In order not to cause such double suffering to  AVI (Aba ve Ima) in our spiritual advancement, we must specifically ask for what we really need: love and bestowal.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Workshop 5

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Question: How do we connect the two expressions: “commandments that don’t need an intention” and a “commandment without an intention” is like a body without a soul?

Answer: “Implementation of the commandments does not require an intention” refers to the fact that even when we don’t have an intention of in order to bestow yet, we still try to connect with the friends and that brings us to the right intention of love and bestowal.

An intention of in order to bestow means that I focus on you and I want to fill you. A person in this world has no such intention. We are born without it, live our lives, and then reach the group. This means that the commandment doesn’t need an intention, so start the way you are.

Even if you have an intention, it is only for yourself and not for anything else (this is how you were brought to the wisdom of Kabbalah). So, study and you will succeed.

Suppose we have two levels of energy. The lower level is the intention of in order to receive that lacks the intention to bestow. There is a phase of preparation (Achan) for the intention of in order to bestow between this level and the next one, and then there is a Machsom (barrier that separates us from the upper world).

Above the Machsom, we discover the intention that is external to me, or to bestow, the attribute of Bina, the Light of Hassadim (charity). Then, there is the intention of to receive in order to bestow, or the Light of Hochma, and there is the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).

First, we are on the lowest level on which we have a normal healthy desire to receive in order to enjoy.

Gradually, we come to the recognition that we have no intention to bestow.

A person decides, “I must start changing myself,” and so he reaches the phase of the very serious preparation for the intention of in order to bestow called the time of preparation (Zman Achan).

This very hard work may take months and even years. Gradually, under the influence of the Upper Light, a person reaches the intention of bestowal outside of himself.

At the same time, he doesn’t give anything but simply exists as an embryo (Ubar). He adheres to the upper and annuls himself like an embryo, or like a small child with regard to a grownup, without interfering with his growth as he allows the upper to do whatever is necessary with him: “Do whatever you want with me; I agree to everything,” and this is aimed against his growing ego.

When he completes the correction of all his desires, he ascends to the last level where he can receive pleasure in order to bestow for the sake of the Creator.

This is a very high level, and we want to attain it by performing and completing all the corrections.
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