Question: How can we demand the filling of the Light for people who seem to be suffering and at the same time justify the Creator?

Answer: First you have to go through corrections. I pray differently to the Creator: “Just as You are revealed to me as the good and the benevolent and there is nothing evil in what You do, it is by all the evil that you reveal that you direct me to the good and you reveal it to me in suffering and much greater pain than the pain I feel. Although I understand that it is for the best, I ask You to reveal Yourself to them a little in order to show them all Your goodness.”

Let’s ask this differently: How can we justify the Creator if we suffer? We gradually acquire the understanding that everything is for the best by the experience we acquire. All the bad things, the flaws, the darkness, “and there was evening and there was morning,” are revealed as the matter of the next level. We need this and so we don’t only justify this, but we also bless for the evil like for the good.

So when it comes to others, we feel that the world is suffering now and that we have to come to the Creator with this, but we have to turn to Him knowing that people actually need only one thing – the revelation of the Creator. Only His revelation will solve all their problems. It is because the abundance comes from the Light. So only then will they feel that they are rich, healthy, and successful.

So I turn to the Creator and say: “Please do them a favor so that the goodness will be revealed in them.” It hurts me when they curse Him.

A person who suffers curses the Creator automatically, wordlessly. This means that every state that is lower than the circle, than Ein Sof (Infinity) forces me to curse the Creator to that extent. It isn’t about logical conclusions, but the feeling itself is an indication of that.

Question: So how can I depict the revelation of the Creator in them and me correctly?

Answer: I don’t ask for the revelation of the Creator for myself. I only ask for the chance to serve Him and them, or more accurately, to serve Him by them. This is the work I have to do as the link.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/13, Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

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Baal HaSulam, Letter 57: I haven’t revealed this truth to you so you would not weaken and give up on the mercy. And although you don’t see anything, for even when the measure of labor is complete, it is the time of prayer. But until then, believe in our sages: “I did not labor and found, do not believe.”

When the measure is full, your prayer will be complete, and the Creator will grant generously, as our sages instructed us, “I labored and found, believe,” for one is unfit for a prayer prior to it, and the Creator hears a prayer.

Our desire is able to achieve everything it desires. The only question is whether it wants this. This is the state that we should bring it to, having developed it to a complete perfect desire, because only this desire works in spirituality.

In the material world, it is possible to pretend, to play some games as if we want to because this world is false. In this world, everything happens within the desire itself, instead of being clarified in the confrontation between the two desires: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. And if everything is taking place within the same desire, then we are free to fantasize anything we want. After all, in essence, it does not change anything.

All the creation is evaluated only in the area of the interaction between the two desires: receiving and bestowal, the created being and the Creator. And there, in any moment, in any state, in every part of the desires, only one true desire acts, that is, the desire that has reached its fourth and final stage “Behina Dalet.”

So, if you have not been rewarded the correction of your desire to enjoy bestowal this means that you have not reached the last, fourth stage of the desire and you should work more. It is all determined by whether you ask with the true prayer, that is, have reached the fourth state or not.

And this depends on your efforts; you are obliged to “All that is in your power, that do.” That is why we need to check whether we carry out all the advices of Kabbalists and work according to this. And if not, of course you will get nothing. Strict laws act here. In the spiritual world, there is a full HaVaYaH (complete desire). If you have not reached the full HaVaYaH, the fourth stage of desire, then this trigger does not work; you do not attract the Light that Reforms that will change you from egoism to bestowal. It is possible to rise to the next level and achieve revelation only with the help of the Light.

The revelation of the Creator is the revelation of the desire to enjoy in a person that turns into bestowal. This is what is called the revelation of the Creator, because the Creator is the property of bestowal that is manifested in the person when he wants to bestow.

But do you truly want that? It cannot be that you have made every effort imposed on you and it did not happen. According to the law, it has to happen! Therefore, even if you cry out, you need to check whom you are addressing. It is as if the Creator does not hear your cry because it is a law that cannot be transgressed. All these cries are only to awaken yourself, force you to work, to make efforts, and eventually to complete the measure assigned to you.

Baal HaSulam says that you need to know about it in advance so as not to despair and to not give up. Until the very last moment, even the moment before you complete the entire measure of your efforts, you will not know that you have come to the finish. That is why it is called a find; you will obtain the force of bestowal, which you did not know about. Even then, on each next degree, you find something completely new.

Therefore, it is said, “I labored and found!” But this find is a result of all the labors is revealed according to the strict law, which cannot be transgressed.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/13

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Question: Everything depends on our request from the upper, but how can I be sure that the upper has what I am asking for and that He will want to give it to me if my request is right?

Answer: The right request is called MAN, a prayer. If you intend to ask for something that is very important to you, it isn’t enough just to ask for it. There are so many people like you asking for something. You need something to gain the upper being willing to help you, to win His sympathy. You have to know Him better and understand how to get closer to Him, and to check what He likes. This means that you have to perform different actions in order to please Him and to be near Him.

The request has to be so that your GE or the Reshimo (spiritual gene) that rises towards the upper has to be exactly according to His desire, to the AHP of the upper.

The lower has a Reshimo for the fulfillment of the new state, so how can I get a response from the upper? The upper has a system called “the breasts of an animal” that are always ready to fill the lower, but you have to prepare the right vessel in order to receive a filling in it.

If you bring a sack of coins, you will not be able to receive milk in it. You need a vessel that is designed to receive the Light and that is perfectly suitable for it in quantity, quality, and in its purpose. The purpose is mainly what you need the Light for.

This “animal” is everyone’s mother and not only yours. If you come to it in the name of everyone else and want to receive from her, she will give you want you want, but not otherwise. But you don’t really feel, understand, or accept that. You don’t agree! You hope to be favored by her, and that’s the whole problem.

But mother is exploding with milk… and you only have to ask for everyone, otherwise you will not receive one drop. If you reach the right request, MAN, you promise to convey everything that you have received to humanity, which becomes your AHP and joins your GE. Since this is everyone’s mother, she cannot give less than that; that’s the way she is. She has to give 100% and you have to receive 100%, 100% of a desire to bestow against 100% of the vessel and a deficiency.

You have to be whole as to 100% of what you can give of your vessel, of your Reshimo. Since a “whole adheres to a whole.” If a baby makes one sound asking his mother for food, he requests 10 grams of milk in order to pass to everyone, and so he will receive his 10 grams. But first he has to promise that he does it for the benefit of everyone. If not, the request isn’t whole and we will not receive anything. This may cool a person down a bit and sound disappointing.

Question: But how can I promise that I will convey to everyone what I receive if I am a thief by nature? What if I suddenly steal some of it?

Answer: This is called “a prayer before a prayer.” Ask for a desire before the desire, that you will have a good desire, ask the upper to put the right prayer into your heart. You cannot reach that by yourself of course.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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We believe that we don’t get an immediate answer to our requests and our prayers, but it isn’t true, you do get an immediate response. You are in an integral system that is internally connected by billions of strings. So there is no way that you perform a certain action either in your thoughts, in your speech, or your actions that doesn’t affect the system. Every tiny change that you undergo internally shakes the whole system. It responds to each and every detail.

It is like one body that responds to every one of its cells, to every desire. You are connected to everyone and cannot perform one single action without shaking the system. Everyone begins to move thanks to you and you constantly change the system. The mechanical actions have a minimal influence on the system and speech also has very little effect. But your intention brings about enormous changes in the whole system, even right now when your intention isn’t exactly the right one but you still are trying to attain it. You are like a baby trying to advance.

We don’t see such an effect in the corporeal world, but in the spiritual world people who are just starting their spiritual work summon a real and powerful response of the whole system by their actions. According to your advancement, you gradually grow from a person who performs actions to a person who serves those who perform actions when you rise to the level of Bina, Hafetz Hesed, or even higher than that. You only serve the lower by helping them, but they are actually the ones who bring about the greatest changes in the system and it is certainly thanks to you.

The state of the upper, whether it is smallness or greatness, depends on the lower, on the MAN, on the prayer, that they raise. But it is they, the smallest ones, that raise MAN (a prayer), and in response to that, the whole system is shaken by responding to their efforts to be incorporated in the system in their understanding and feeling.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/13

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The path to revelation consists of implementing all conditions, again and again, on each degree, until a person comes to the limitless, endless revelation, a perfect adhesion. He reaches adhesion on each degree. Each degree is similar to the next one, the difference is only in the quality and quantity of the details that get accumulated there and make us perceive a degree as a new world every time.

“Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” derives from the fact that initially, we are in the world of Infinity, fully merged with the force of the Creator, the force of Light. There, there is no difference between the vessel and the Light, and thus there is no Israel, meaning someone who aspires to the Creator. The created being becomes Israel only under condition that it is separated from the Creator but nevertheless aspires to adhere to Him and to reach adhesion, still remaining independent.

Two opposite conditions are needed: From one side, separation from the Creator, and from the other, adhesion. That is, one needs to remain independent—this is the entire meaning of creation.

Israel, the Torah, and the Creator have to connect for us all the time in their final form—as much as we are able to imagine this for now. The creature is equal to the Creator to the extent that it can envision the Creator’s image, His properties that have already been dressed onto the creature. We imagine ourselves as being at the end of the path already, meaning having completed our current degree, because we are unable to think of something beyond our current degree.

But we aspire at least for this, meaning we wish to become Israel and to reach full adhesion with the force of bestowal and love for the wicked and for the righteous, for the enemies and friends alike—till the end of correction. Although in reality, this is only our current degree. After all, everything that we can only imagine to ourselves, the entire creation from end to end, exists within this framework, this very tiniest Sefira, which is being revealed for us now, for the meantime. And still, we must imagine to ourselves that we want to reveal everything, correct everything, and to adhere to the Creator in everything. We want to do it so that the entire world becomes my soul, and all the properties are corrected to bestowal and love.

We picture ourselves corrected in this way, to aspire for this, we study and perform all the necessary actions for this in order to attain this final state: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” But along the path towards attaining this goal, it’s necessary for us to fulfill the Creator’s commands, meaning to study all types of bestowal, which is what we do in the group. Most important is love for the friends in which all these notions are being clarified.

Having received such instruments out of love of friends, the vessels of Galgalta ve Eynaim, with their help you will be able to correct the receiving vessels, AHP, of that very degree, meaning those who are outside the framework of the group, to the degree when we start relating to everyone in exactly the same way. We relate to the group as to the place of our inner work and the source of strength. Yet, the real place of work is the AHP, meaning the entire world.

GE are created so as to take care of AHP. The breaking occurred namely for this reason, and the sparks of bestowal from GE penetrated into AHP. This way, the rudiments of correction were created in AHP. After all, without it, AHP has no hope for correction.

For this reason we need to always prepare ourselves in our GE, in the group, the studies, our connection, a friendly hug, and seminars, and afterward come out to work with the desires of AHP. The true realization is carried out in AHP, while preparation is in GE.

Although it seems to us as if we correct ourselves while working between ourselves in the group, essentially it is only the work of preparation.

Our work is called the “work of the Creator.” We do not act ourselves, the Light does. Meanwhile, each time, we need to reveal the area in which the Light will be able to work, as it is said: “Open the tip of the needle….” Our request, rising upwards as a prayer, MAN, opens the sluice to the Light, into which it enters and operates. The Creator carries out His work, and we need to only open the entrance for Him. This is called revealing the world: Each time we come to a new world.
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From Preparation for the Lesson 9/11/2013

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The soul is the desire that was created by the Light, the Creator, which eventually must reach similarity to the Creator.

The Light (represented by the plus sign on image 1) creates an equal desire (the minus sign). However, once it enters the desire, they nullify one another. The desire does not perceive Light as pleasure because they are opposite.

However, as the desire acquires the quality of the Light, it gradually begins to transform into its opposite. It intends to make a restriction (Tzimtzum) and only work with the Reflected Light, in other words, to receive and enjoy only when it feels that it bestows to the one who gives it pleasure. In this way, it attains equality with the Creator.

In other words, Light comes to me with the desire to give me pleasure, but I accept it only under the condition that I feel equivalent to the Creator, as in the example with the Host and the guest.

The Host wishes to please the guest, give him everything there is (arrow marked “a,”representing the pleasure traveling and entering the desire). However, the guest only agrees to accept it under the condition that they are equal (arrow marked “b,” intention or Kavana).

If the intention of my action is to return what I receive from the Host, then as a guest, I can accept the pleasure. In other words, I only do actions that bring me closer to the Host, the Creator, that make me equivalent to Him.

In our world, we live in the action of receiving for our own sake. We wish to receive as much as possible. Nothing else interests us.

This is why we reach a state where we exhaust our possibilities; in other words, the correlation between the plus (what we receive from the Host) and the minus (which exists in us) disappears and we stop perceiving pleasure. In this way, nature, the Creator, pushes us to begin working on a second level in a state of similarity to the Creator. [Read more →]

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Question: During one of the morning lessons you said that a person who attends the lessons, participates in the group duties, and works in dissemination does not necessarily exist in the system. On the other hand, you have said that for the time when we grow we have to attend the lessons, work in dissemination, participate in the group duties, and take responsibility for them. How can we align these statements?

Answer: On its own the system of nature is corrected. We are talking only about my conscious participation and my desire to follow its laws. This is the essence of our entire work: to get to know the laws of nature and follow them. Therefore, if a person is physically among us it does not mean that he participates in the system yet. Perhaps he performs all the actions, but a “commandment without the intention is like a body without the soul.” The main thing is the desire to perform it, meaning the intention. However, is it sufficient only to have an intention for a person who has an opportunity to physically carry out an action? If he does not perform an action that he is capable to do, no. This only points out that he does not have the intention.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There are two types of prayer. The first prayer (MAN) is in order to be incorporated in the AHP of the upper, which is the group that is connected in one whole. GE of the lower are incorporated in the upper when I enter the group, as if in a womb, and it operates on me and provides me all the care that I need, making me feel that there is nothing that I lack.

There are systems that take care of me inside this womb. I don’t need to think about anything except for how to be absorbed inside this womb. The 3 days of conception are the main thing.

By my desire to be incorporated in the upper, I evoke it and force it to attain greatness. I turn to the whole group and thus understand that there is no way I can succeed by myself. So I evoke the group and call it: Let’s receive the Light, the force, the corrections from the Creator, that will be revealed in us. But He will be revealed in order to establish the connection between us and to develop this connection. It’s as if we operate our incubator, and I ask for it together with all the others.

The first MAN is my private prayer by which I am incorporated in the group. The second MAN (prayer) is the general MAN, when we turn to the Creator as a group and the Creator already begins to reveal Himself. The response for the second MAN is immediate—MAD.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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In the wisdom of Kabbalah, the concept of “love” is common and very important. Since the days of Abraham, who wrote The Book of Creation, love accompanied the teaching that was given as the Torah to Moses. Secretly, it accompanied the following eras of the prophets and the scriptures, was reflected in The Book of Zohar, and came the entire way. Later, the concept migrated to Hassidism from Kabbalah even before it began to be revealed to the world as science.

However, it is still unclear to us because it is completely related to bestowal or rather, to mutual inclusion, to unity. In this way, the receiving desire annuls itself, obtains the ability to feel the desire of the other, and then it can work in a new way: fulfilling the desires of the other.

To make the friend’s desire my own, I need to be cleansed, that is, to transfer part of my desire to the state of Hafetz Hesed (HH) and subject everything else to self-annulment, the first restriction (Tzimzum Aleph – TA). In this case, I really include the friend’s desire into myself and can correct him. To do this, I raise our collective desire and request such a force that will allow me to satisfy his needs.

In this situation, I am called the “first-born who takes twice.” After all, I have a double request (x2). I request the force of fulfillment, sufficient to fulfill him as well.

It is possible to imagine this scheme differently in the form of three steps. Being in the middle, I go down (1), adopt the friend’s desires (2), raise his and my desires (1 + 2) upward (3), and get a response (4), the force produces a Zivug, and I give the friend what is necessary (5).

This is the “revolution” that we are realizing today: We address a wide audience, assimilate people’s desires, raise them in the center of the group, and from there to the upper upper one, and then we get a response which we use for bestowal.

So, these actions of mutual inclusion in each other are called “love.”

How does it differ from the state of Hafetz Hesed? In this state, I do not “interfere” with the other;  let him remain the way he is. I don’t make the slightest movement toward him. Like a gentlemen, I just follow the principle, “Do not do to others what is hated by you.”

On the other hand, love means that I want to give him fulfillment. By being included into him, I want to benefit him. With all my heart, I want to bestow to him so he will feel good.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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MAN is a prayer, an act, that comes from desire not from the mind. It is born by the desire of Bina and Malchut acting together. We need to raise this prayer, that is, decide that this is the most important for us. This is called “raising.”

After all, the entire scale of measurement is inside me. Plenty of various demands—desires, which I somehow sort by priorities, considering some more important and some less important—live within me. However, above all, there should the force of unity within which I want to reveal the Creator to bring Him joy.

If I arrange all my actions, desires, and impulses so that this unity has become the most important, this means that I raise MAN. That is, I put the need for unity, correction, and revelation of the Creator (for His pleasure) as the most important, above all. This is called an “ascent.”

I do not send this requirement by mail or via SMS to a distant star. All the worlds are inside a person. There, everything starts, is realized, and ends in his consciousness. That is why I need to organize myself so as to arrange all my desires along one line, according to the clear scale of priorities, strictly material: food, sex, family, wealth, honor, and knowledge, and those that are slightly disconnected from this world. At the very top of this ladder of priorities, there must be my desire to bring pleasure to the Creator through our connection by giving Him the opportunity to be revealed in us now.

MAN is “Mei Nukvin” (female waters). Water is Bina and the woman, Nukva is Malchut. Thus, I join Bina and Malchut in a prayer; in other words, I glue the desires together, parts of Malchut, with the water, mercy (Hesed), the property of Bina. I want it to exist in this form together. I raise this request and want to become connected with others through the property of mercy, Bina, the property of bestowal.

That is why my request is called female waters, MAN. I raise it. That is, I consider it above all in importance, and, if I try to keep this desire in my heart by all means to awaken it in its very depth, then it is called a prayer, raising MAN.

To the extent of my efforts to accomplish this, the Light that Reforms affects me and awakens various states in me: thoughts and feelings in favor of connection and against it, in favor of bestowal and against it. In this way, they try to shake me and navigate me through various states so that I understand, feel more, gain experience. Thus, I gradually become aware what the true prayer, MAN, is.

On this path, I must go through frustration, impatience, fear of not succeeding, and failure to understand what kind of success I am waiting for: for myself or to please the Creator. Here it helps to imagine, the entire universe—all of still, vegetative, and animal nature, and people—as my own desires that broke away from me due to the shattering and have fallen from my consciousness.

Now, they appear in front of me and I must attach them to myself through my own efforts although it seems to me as if they are outside. I must try to relate to them as if they exist within me. Then, my efforts also will be called the prayer, MAN.

Thus, working on my correct perception of reality and connecting all its parts together by means of the property of mercy, I increasingly return the common vessel to its original form, in other words, to the corrected state as a whole.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/13, The Zohar

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