Question: You always say, “We have to ask, we should demand, and sometimes to do both ask and demand.” At what points should we ask and what should we demand?

Answer: This must come from the heart!

In general, the difference between a request and a demand is on two levels. When we work with the vessels of bestowal, meaning bestowal for the sake of bestowal, then we have a request, and when we work with the vessels of reception, meaning reception for the sake of bestowal, then we form a demand.

In other words, if we work with small egoistic desires, which only require clarification that don’t yet transform the ego into bestowal but only want to inhibit it, to transform it to Hassadim, this is only a request; and when we want to transform the ego into bestowal to work with Aviut ¾ (thickness), then we have a demand. This means that our request becomes a sharp and resolute demand.

In this way, the request or the demand depends upon the same Aviut (the thickness of the ego) with which you are working. If this ego is heavier, then you begin to demand that the Creator will correct it to the degree of its heaviness. However, if it is light and your desire is graded 0-2, then you’re just asking.

Question: However, people have different characteristics. How does one perceive?

Answer: This is not important. It doesn’t provide you with anything. Do you think that it is possible to think whether you are requesting or demanding, and how much and how? This is work in the heart!

You cannot monitor yourself with your intellect because the Creator is in the heart. First, the heart reacts with its degree of correction or destruction. Only after you feel your heart does awareness come to you.

So, it is pointless to carry out some kind of whim where you seemingly turn yourself this way or that. What? Are you going to play with the Creator?

Question: However, when a child asks me for something, my heart is softened and I give to him, and when he begins to demand, I refuse him.

Answer: This is not about that but about yearning for bestowal and love! If it is derived from small egoistic desires, then this is a request because I don’t need anything else, and if this is derived from heavy egoistic desires, then this request becomes a demand.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Lesson 1

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Question: To the degree of our advancement we truly begin to look at the world and people differently. But what must be done in order to see everyone in the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun)? Do you see everyone in this state?

Answer: I can’t imagine how it is possible to describe something from the spiritual world to you if the matching sensations don’t exist with you. I could say words to you and you would comprehend them in a distorted, egoistic mutation. It’s impossible to describe even those small levels close to us.

I am not in the end of correction. I am higher than you, but they also don’t let me rise higher, because I must be close to you. Therefore we need to go forward together.

It’s very good that you yearn for this feeling, want to feel and to understand it. But it’s not given if you lack the property of bestowal, and there is no possibility of creating  an appropriate picture within us. One can only ask; there is nothing other than prayers for all.

Question: A contradiction is created within me between the concept “There is none else besides Him” and the “prayer of many.” Meaning, can the focus of the person be directed towards only one thing?

Answer: No, this is the same thing. The prayer of many to the Creator is the completely accurate accommodation of an intention towards the goal. In the prayer of many you pray for yourself because the many is you, but when you describe them outside of yourself, you are detached from your egoistic “self.”

Question: It follows that the search for There is none else besides Him is not found within me, but is found outside, in the friends?

Answer: He is found everywhere. Don’t divide everything into physical distances but emotional distances that you need to integrate together.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Lesson 1

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Question: It seems that the action required of the created being in the dialogue with the Creator is only a prayer.

Answer: In this state we reach a real cry, not just a prayer. This is how strongly we feel the burning need for the removal of the concealment, and there are two states here.

In the first state I discover how I hate the concealment, from my personal egoistic perspective. I really hate this concealment and only want and hope that it would disappear, rot, and cease to exist. There is no greater joy for me than to discover that it has disappeared, burned, and been destroyed.

This state is meant to teach me and to show me the full measure of my hatred towards the concealment. Now I need to reach that, although I suddenly lose interest, but I hate it only because by removing it, I delight the Creator.

Can I reach the same burning hatred towards concealment because it stands in my way of delighting the Creator? I already have something to compare it to, my personal egoistic hatred. Now I need to apply the same impression with regard to the Creator: Can I hate this obstacle so much, although it’s not a hindrance for me but for Him because it doesn’t let me delight Him? And it’s certainly not in order to receive a reward, but in order to bestow.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/14

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If I see negative things outside myself, it means that I have to correct myself and then I will not see anything that is bad or negative. A friend who has troubles will seem very successful to me.

In the article “The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation,” Baal HaSulam says that we see the friends as losers, ill, unsuccessful, etc. But the moment we correct ourselves, we will see that they are healthy, rich, and successful. This means that I actually have to correct myself.

But there is another way to help them become healthy, rich, and successful. I correct things by approaching the friends and correcting myself directly in them, and then I see that they are successful.

The right correction is actually my inner correction. By correcting the friends and thus seeing that they are successful is an indirect, alternative correction, not a direct correction.

A direct correction is correcting my relationship with the Creator and seeing that the whole world is repaired and corrected. The whole world is my vessel, and if I identify any deficiencies in it, then this means that the problem is in me because everything is already in a corrected state.

The world didn’t undergo the shattering. I am the only one who is shattered; the part that identifies the corruptions is the one who has undergone the shattering. Everything else is whole. I only need to correct myself, and then I will see that the whole world is in the Garden of Eden, in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

But we have been given an easy way to correct ourselves by mutual inclusion: I come to the world and help correct it by taking the shattered parts in the world and raising them as MAN, as a prayer. The world is the lower level, I am the intermediate level, and the Creator is the upper level, which means that I perform the priests’ work. This, however, isn’t a direct correction, but an indirect one by mutual inclusion and consistent actions.

Question: It turns out that I will see the outcome of the correction only after I correct myself internally?

Answer: Of course! Otherwise how can you say: “I see”? You cannot see the correction if you don’t correct yourself. The only question is whether you operate directly towards the Creator or in an alternative, indirect way.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/14

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Question: What is the correct way to pray when I see that a friend has a problem and I want to ask on his behalf?

Answer: It says: “He who prays for his friend is rewarded first.” Indeed I don’t need to pray for the friend because he only seems ill to me.

Yet I cannot perceive this corruption as my own, and I am not close enough to the friend to feel his pain and his illness as my own. So I pray for him as if he is external to me.

Therefore, “He who prays for his friend is rewarded first,” because I am actually the one who is ill if I see a sick friend. And that’s why I need to be healed, and not the friend who only seems ill.

Correcting myself means, seeing all of creation the way it is in the eyes of the Creator: seeing the whole world from the perspective of a person who is fully corrected in his desire to receive, which means that all his vessels are in order to bestow.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/14

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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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