“Introduction toThe Book of Zohar,” “The Torah and a Prayer,” Item 184: And only after he is included in all three corrections of our holy fathers will he begin to correct Divinity, from the place Jacob the patriarch had left for us: to elevate fear to the quality of exaltedness because He is great and rules over everything. Afterwards, he will enter the house of assembly and will pray his prayer. That is, he should pray and extend the upper lights in her, with the fear of exaltedness, to bring her into the end of correction. Then it is written, “And He said to Me, ‘You are My Servant, Israel, in Whom I will show My glory.’”

We begin our corrections from Abraham, from the property of Hesed, Isaac, the property of Gevura, and Jacob, the property of Tifferet. These stages are called the forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then we reach the level of the sons: Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. It’s impossible to reach the corrections of the sons without correcting the levels of the forefathers first, from which we reach a prayer that fills us with the powers to take care of the sons. Thus we convey all the attributes of bestowal from HGT to NHY.

This is the work on our connection. Therefore, it is said that a person reaches a place called the house of assembly (synagogue), where he tries to be incorporated in everyone’s desires and sees to what extent he cannot do it. Then he raises a prayer.

A prayer is correct if it comes from the desire to connect. All our desires, our deficiencies, and our requests for connection come together and demand connection. This is called a prayer of many, in reply to which comes the Light that Reforms from Above and connects us. Such a connection among everyone becomes a vessel that is called a house of assembly and from it we receive a response to our prayer.

A house of assembly (congress) is not a corporeal building or a place but rather the group in which our connection and unity is fulfilled. Jacob is the middle line, the central pillar. If we reach the middle line, it means that we pray in front of the pillar, which means that we ask for the correction from our connection. This is called being a prayer leader (the phase of Jacob) that is incorporated in everyone and prays that our connection be fulfilled and that we will be incorporated in one another, dissolve into one another and be as one.

Then this place becomes a house of assembly. The connection between us is called Shechina, and we are filled by the corrections of the Light that Reforms, and the Creator is revealed in our corrected desires. We shouldn’t try to escape anywhere, instead we only should clarify this state and fulfill it more and more.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Article, “Torah and Prayer,” Section 183: Hence, one must not enter the house of assembly unless he has first consulted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for our whole prayer is to complement what is still missing in Divinity, after the corrections that have been made in it thus far. Thus, first we must know and extend all the corrections that have already been corrected in the Holy Divinity, and then we will know what still needs to be added to them.

Typically, the question is raised: What is the difference between Malchut de Atzilut, Malchut de Ein Sof and Malchut of the Completion of Correction, which is called Shechina? In principle there is no difference between these terms. The mutual integration of the souls in one another actually transform into a single whole and stand one-on-one with the Creator, it is the same spiritual creature that is called Shechina, Malchut. If we are talking about connection, correction, then everything is summed up in one concept.

How must I “take counsel with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”? If I don’t arrange myself according to the “3 lines,” then I am not ready, to either raise my prayer or to receive an answer to it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the “right line,” the “left line,” and the “middle line,” which I must arrange within me. This will mean I am “facing the pillar.”

There is a general rule that it is necessary to pray before the pillar. Certainly this doesn’t mean a marble pillar. A “pillar” symbolizes the “middle line.” We must bring ourselves to this state because without this there is nothing to do. Otherwise we cannot bestow to the higher system because we are not in the same frequency with it, meaning, we are not oriented in the direction in which it’s possible to bestow.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, “Two Points,” Item 121:  …Thus, the locks, the doors, and the halls are three forms that come upon our substance, the desire to receive in us. Before we turn it into reception in order to bestow upon our Maker, that substance turns the light to darkness and the sweet to bitter, according to our taste… .

It is actually our intention of in order to receive that turns the sweetness into bitterness and we feel bitterness. When we correct the intention, the bitterness becomes sweet. This means that everything depends on the equivalence of form between us and what comes from Above. To the extent that we have an intention of in order to bestow, everything can be felt as sweet and above this intention everything is felt as bitter since I have nothing to sweeten it with.

It is the intention that makes everything bitter or sweet. There is nothing but the intention, and we don’t need to work with anything but the intention. Leave your desires and your attributes alone, they don’t matter. We already know from our experience that a person remains with what he is born with. Nothing changes in him except for one thing. Therefore, we only worry about the intention, about our attitude towards the Creator.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the The Book of Zohar“

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I must try to open my heart towards the friends and that all of their desires, thoughts, and expectations for spirituality will enter directly into my heart without any opposition and criticism from my side. For the right intention, we need the Creator in the center of the group all the time and to accept this state with an open heart. All of us must concentrate around this point and focus all of our efforts on it. Only in this is our free choice, which we must realize. This stance surrounding the Creator found within the group is similar to the stance around Mount Sinai. Exactly as there, Arvut (mutual guarantee) and mutual support is required of us; through them we can reach a constant intention.

In spirituality nothing is measured according to the quantity of power; rather, it’s according to the quality. A strong intention is an intention never stops. A weak intention can be stopped. But a strong intention cannot be stopped and is constant, and therefore it is said to be high. Certainly all kinds of disturbances will come, both general and particular, but in the face of all the disturbances we must be concerned about only one thing: such a strong intention that is never stopped. Precisely with this we must strengthen each other, and this is the mutual guarantee that is realized.

From a small and weak intention, we must come to a great and strong intention; that is, from regular breaks, from a loss of spiritual yearning, we must pass to one heart, to the center of the group, in which the Creator is discovered, so that all of us will connect together there in a single embrace with Him. We must help each other with mutual guarantee, that the intention will not be stopped in any of us. For with this he would be boring a hole in the hull of our common boat, in our common heart. If we approach the convention with efforts like these, then success is assured for us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Workshop

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In the idea of the intention, the principle: “Each one will help his friend” is active. For “A prisoner cannot free himself from prison,” but only the friends can get him out. The support of the friends is called, “Arvut” and if it is found, then even for a moment, I will not forget about the intention and my heart will always be open in the right direction.

I am not prepared to do this by myself but only with the friends. My heart is found in the hands of the friends, and only they can direct it towards the Creator who is found in the center of the group. Therefore, I depend on them completely. How must I compensate them in exchange for work like this? I compensate them with the same coin; that is, in an identical manner I think about them, I am concerned for their intentions. Not one of them is able to do this alone either, and he also requires the help of the friends.

If together we think and are concerned that the right intention will not cease in others, that their hearts will always remain open and ready for the discovery of the Creator in the center of the group, then with this we assure ourselves of that same concern and that same treatment from others. In the end, I will discover that everyone is already in the final corrected state and I did not see this with my corrupted eyes, as it is written: “Everyone who rejects something does so with his own flaws.” And if I direct myself correctly towards work with the friends, bestowing to them, then I will discover their bestowal towards me.

This is to say that all of the work that I do on myself I do through work on the others. In the meantime I do this for egoistic reasons (Lo Lishma), in that I am directed towards correcting myself in this way. But in spite of all this, it is already being done in the right direction: from myself outwards. From Lo Lishma like this, we come to Lishma, to bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Workshop

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Question: How can we reach the right prayer as quickly as possible?

Answer: Our effort, just like all the spiritual discernments, isn’t measured according to the number of actions but according to their quality. Sometimes we can see a person who tries very hard and does many things spinning like a humming fan. Everyone may admire his energy but the benefit of such actions can be minimal. As it says, “little with the right intention is better.”

The spiritual world is made of qualities: either in order to receive or in order to bestow. Everything depends on that, on how much either one weighs and not the actual number of actions. Therefore it says,” A person can attain his world in one hour!” But how is that possible if one spends a thousand hours or a million hours?! All of humanity wastes billions of hours and doesn’t reach the goal, and there are people who attain their world in one hour and reach revelation. Is this fair?

It’s possible due to the quality that is more important than the quantity. So if you want to reach the right prayer as quickly as possible, you should make an effort in quality and not in the quantity with regard to actions and intentions. Quality should come first.

A qualitative effort means constantly clarifying what receiving and bestowal mean, one with regard to the other. This is what we should look for in every aspect of life, in all our relations with others.

The qualitative effort is measured by how much my heart is involved. The heart should be the criterion and not the mind. There are very clever people and I actually used to envy them in the past when I saw how quickly they could grasp the material, understand things, and delve into details. But eventually I discovered that “it isn’t the wise who learns.” You can understand only through your feelings, and I didn’t really consider that as something serious but rather as something frivolous, some feminine sentiments.

I believed that one’s power is in the mind, but that isn’t true. First everything must go through the feelings and only then a person understands. The mind reads and perceives only what goes through the heart. So we have to try and expand our feelings as much as possible in the right direction, of course. The feelings expand only by the Light that Reforms.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/14, The Zohar

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Question: On the one hand, we must reach a permanent and strong intention. But on the other hand, it is written: “For the Torah shall come out of Zion”; that is, specifically from the “exits” from spirituality and the returns. How is it possible to combine the two opposites?

Answer: We must continue always towards a permanent intention so that the Creator will be discovered in the center of the group, within our connected hearts, without any dividers between them. This picture must always be before me. And I must be concerned that my friends will be directed towards that thing and will not abandon this intention. That is how I assure myself automatically that I will also remain in that intention. By this means I summon upon myself the Light that Reforms which strengthens me in the right intention.

But together with this, new desires, new conditions, are discovered and awakened in me all the time since in the meantime my Kli is not fully corrected. Therefore I am found in exits all the time. Additional density is discovered and it throws me out, and I must again and again return to the center of the group. But these exits must come from Above. I am not weakened in my intention; rather, it’s as if I lost consciousness: Every new egoistic desire throws me to the boards from which I must rise.

It’s said that the Torah specifically emerges from such “exits.” After all, I must overcome them and specifically above them I will construct the new me.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Workshop

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The Book of Zohar, “VaYikahel,” Item 141: Therefore, it is forbidden to kindle a man’s voice during prayer, so that the upper voice, ZA, will be in it, since the speech rises to Malchut and unites with ZA through the Malchut, receiving a voice that is mitigated from ZA. Then the prayer is fit for reception of the abundance, and the speech of the upper world need not be heard through a man’s voice.

There is a rule, “there is no vessel without the Light.” Everything is done by the Light only, while we only exert ourselves, which is the precondition for every action. Every single action is done only by the Light that works on the vessel.

We are only required to exert ourselves; we don’t do anything but only increase the intensity of the deficiency. This is the reason we are in our world, since this is the only place where we can perform different experiments and actions, which from a spiritual perspective are not considered actions. They only bring us to a state in which we can ask for the correction of the vessels and for their filling.

This is why our world is so special. If we didn’t exist in this reality we wouldn’t be able to influence our spiritual ascent in any way, since all the actions are performed only by the Light. So how can I, being on a certain spiritual level, influence something that is higher than that level? By which means can I do this? I have to be detached from the spiritual world in order to ask to be raised from one state to another, from one level of clarification and new correction to another.

There has to be a reality that is detached from the spiritual ladder, which is where I am, in which I can always prepare for the prayer before a prayer. This is the reason that the corporeal actions in our world are so beneficial to reach a certain state and to ask for the Light that Reforms. We shouldn’t think that we don’t need our world, that we can do nothing but simply connect internally and that this would be enough.

This isn’t enough. On the contrary, the more a person does in practice, the more desire, pressure, and experience he builds up inside him as a result of all his actions, which eventually add up to a cry, to a prayer before a prayer. The prayer before a prayer is addressed to the Light with a request to form the vessel, the desire. The prayer itself is addressed to the Light so that it will fill the vessels, which means that it will actually allow us to bestow.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/14, The Zohar

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Question: I can imagine the great responsibility toward the friends in a sinking submarine. How can I feel this anxiety and this tension during the workshops when there isn’t such drama going on around us?

Answer: Listen, no one is asking you to do any tricks like a magician and pull a rabbit out of a hat. There is no need to perform any tricks, but simply try to tie your demand, your deficiency, with the upper force, and that’s all. Try to demand, to ask for anything. The moment you lack something for your spiritual advancement, turn to the Creator immediately with any request that you have. If you manage to tie it correctly to the Creator, you will have no problems.

Your work is to be the link, the adaptor, between the deficiencies and the source. No one is asking you to be the source of energy and not even to be the user of this energy, which means doing something by yourself. Your work is passive: simply to nag and keep on asking for what you want from the Creator. However, you should ask wisely. You should clarify accurately what it is that you exactly want, and then ask for it. You should understand that the Creator arranges difficulties for you precisely so that you should nag Him and, by that, learn from Him, and thus advance.

The problem is that you are leaving the Creator. Baal HaSulam says that the greatest sin a person can commit in this world is to forget the Creator and to be detached from Him. So, don’t be detached and keep nagging Him with your requests. That’s the only thing you are required to do.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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There is a single state: adhesion between the Creator and the created being. It happened in the beginning. The final correction emerged immediately with the plan. The Creator does not require time for additional actions. After all, everything is manifested immediately in thought, without any need to be in matter.

However, in reality, this perfection has not been manifested, is not clear, not recognized in feelings, although the main thing is that the created being becomes aware of it, to feel his adhesion with the Creator.

Therefore, it was divided into parts. After all, for the created beings to attain, to understand, who and what He is, above all, there should be plenty.

Little egoists, fighting at the very bottom in the muddy sediment of the universe, reveal more and more egoism—more cruelty, glorify themselves in seeing how much they are opposed to each other—and gradually they approach the turning point in order to turn a descent into an ascent in it. They must think about bestowal, of course, in helplessness due to the emerging Reshimot. However, they can add their own efforts to this. So, they advance.

The most important thing from their side is to turn to the Creator. They connect, work together, organize workshops, and many other events, and, after that, turn to Him.

This appeal forms the spiritual vessel. It is what did not exist before. Only the created being can turn to the Creator for help, and this is what he lacks. It is not about our friendly relations, not in saying “pretty words” between us, but that we find the need to turn to Him. First, we must do this, and then we want just that and nothing else.

Then, I act not to get something from the Creator but so I have the opportunity to turn to Him. This is a reward for me. It cannot be conveyed in words, but in principle. We are talking about the similarity of qualities. Just as He turns to me, so I turn to Him. I have no better state than if I am capable of this. I work for this, no longer for myself.

So, the all-powerful Creator cannot artificially cause the created being to turn to Him. That is why He needed the “revolution” to the uncorrected creatures—so that the created being turns to Him.

Question: However, do I have a connection with the Creator inside me presently?

Answer: And yet it exists, there, inside the numerous “wrappers.” Otherwise, you would not have even heard what we are talking about now.

Question: What is an appeal to the Creator?

Answer: There are many appeals: “Give me, help me,” or vice versa, “Deliver, protect, save…”

Of course, an appeal to the Creator is always an appeal for something, please give something. The question only is what to give. I ask for strength to act to bring Him pleasure. This addition of spiritual vessels brings us the Light, NRNHY.

In the original state, in Infinity, we had only the minimal Light, Nefesh de Nefesh. Then, the created being did not participate in what happened, could not live and breathe the endless reality. The desire to receive, even perfection, remained insignificant, ephemeral, and only an appeal to the Creator breathes life into it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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