Question: On the whole, our mission is to change our intention from in order to receive to in order to bestow. Can we teach people to do that? Can we turn this into a habit by using pedagogical methods?

Answer: This is actually what integral education is about, about changing our intentions. On the whole, education should deal only with intentions and should leave the desires untouched. Educating means to teach the art of bestowal, which is the art of placing an intention of bestowal on top of every desire

Question: But don’t we cultivate values in the form of different desires in children?

Answer: Children learn only by examples. They perceive and copy everything, including the way they walk and gesture. So education is about setting examples. The children reflect you, so you must first pay attention to yourself.

What is more, by your external examples, you convey and “transmit” your intentions to them. There is simply no other method to convey intentions. There is a connection that is erroneous since it is a connection in words. But external actions are for the benefit of the other; even if they are false and insincere, they still summon a response and a desire to repay goodness.

It says, “The hearts are attracted by actions,” which means the desires. We can get children to become used to it: At first I didn’t know, I didn’t think, I didn’t want to, but then I was taught and educated and now I cannot be any other way. Our parents taught us different habits in the same way, and these last for life. The body doesn’t understand and doesn’t accept other methods. “A habit becomes a second nature,” both for children and for grownups.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How can we deserve to feel the holiday of Purim internally?

Answer: It’s very simple. Don’t we feel it? When we try to work on the connection with each other we constantly have some problems; suddenly we begin to criticize each other, etc. Or we arrive at a convention and everything seems fine. We invest our efforts as much as we can and after it, we suddenly feel a descent such as we have never experienced before.

As a result, we begin to understand that these are necessary states of cause and effect. Of course, this doesn’t make feel us better. But we can’t get away from them in any way because we still don’t have the Light of Hassadim, a clear intention to bestow.

When we acquire this intention, we have nothing to fear. No matter what happens to me, I am still in the property of bestowal; I rise above my world, above egoism, above what I have; nothing is important to me, I am afraid of nothing. I need nothing but to correct and pull the world to the same state, and in this case a person does not fall.

Sometimes, he is a little tired of his work, but he meets this extra load with gratitude, with an understanding that it’s necessary because it’s advancement. It can’t be otherwise because this is “joyful suffering,” the suffering of love, when we strive to fulfill all the conditions in order to unite.
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From the Virtual Lesson 2/24/13

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Rabash, “And He Shall Cogitate in His Torah (Teachings)”: And so we read in the Megillah “and after all this the king raised Haman.” Literally it is hard to understand, after all, after what Mordecai did, which was good for the king, the king should raise Mordecai and not Haman, and this needs to be explained…

When a person cannot see the true face of his evil, which means the true form of Haman, then a person cannot pray to the Creator, so that He should save him from evil. Only when a person sees the greatness of Haman, who wants to kill and to destroy all the Jews, which means that Haman wanted to destroy everything that belonged to Judaism, which doesn’t let him do anything that is related to Holiness, then he can raise a true prayer. Then the verse “the Creator helps him” is fulfilled.

Only if we yearn for unity like Mordecai who evoked the yearning for unity by discovering the plot against the unity and killing it (two of the king’s courtiers who betrayed him), then Haman is evoked. The evil inclination faces the good inclination, the desire to receive rises facing the desire to bestow, and a struggle between them begins inside a person.

Only by raising and empowering the good force does the evil force grow, and then we raise the good again and evil also grows. This process continues until we reach a state in which we have to make a decision in this struggle. We cannot ask the good inclination, since it doesn’t need anything, it doesn’t want anything, but only to bestow every chance it gets. So we always ask the evil inclination, and then we do the opposite.

This is called working in faith above reason. We know how our desire to receive feels and follow faith above reason. Otherwise we have no way of imagining what the spiritual world is, what it means to be above myself, what it means to bestow. But we know that it is opposite from our egoistic desire to receive, which we know very well.

So when the desire to bestow grows, we have to raise the desire to receive and to ask it what it thinks should be done, and then do the opposite! That’s the way it works.

It is because we don’t see the image of the good; we don’t have an image by which we can resemble the Creator. The only way is to form it as an opposite image of the desire to receive. Therefore we were given an environment that should help us turn the desire to receive, which means the intention to receive into an intention to bestow. This is called “to repent,” to return to the Creator, the rising of Malchut to Bina.

We have no idea what the image of the good is but only that is it the opposite of evil.
[101340]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13

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Rabash, “Revelation and Concealment”: The matter of concealment refers to the fact that a person wants to see and to understand, and does not see or understand. Then we should say that it is concealed from him, what is more, the level of concealment is measured according to his need to know, and so if a person doesn’t need to know something, there is no point in saying that he suffers from concealment.

For example, if a person has to work in a certain place for only half an hour a day and he receives his pay once a month, then he should believe that he will be paid although he has not seen anyone who has already received his pay, so he believes in the company although it is concealed from him as to whether and how the company will pay him, since no one knows the company in which he wishes to work. And if he wants to work more than half an hour, he has a greater need to know that the company pays on time, so if he hears any evil gossip about the company, he suffers more because of the concealment, and if he wants to work day and night, of course he feels greater concealment, since he has a greater need to know, whether he will receive his pay as promised.

And since the Kingdom of Heaven is above reason, everyone suffers from the concealment, but those who want to work for the sake of Heaven, have the greatest concealment, since they have the greatest need to know, since the body asks over and over again “What is this work that you do.” It turns out that this question is constantly ready, according to what a person wants to be totally for the sake of Heaven, and the answer to this question is “blunt his teeth.”

We should accept the fact that we never see the payment in advance. On the contrary, as we advance, we see opposite pictures, that there is no payment and that there will not be any. All this is in order to raise us above reason.

The less we know and understand, the less sure we are, and the less proof we have, the more chances it gives to build a network of support and confidence above reason. Then this confidence is revealed not in our vessels of receiving, but only in bestowal, above reason, without any proof, since “in Him our hearts shall rejoice.” This means that not in us, not in our ego, but Above, in the Creator or in the group, in the connection in which we discover the upper force.

So no one is going to receive any actual payment. Whoever doesn’t accept this can leave right away and look for pay in the ordinary corporeal life. In the spiritual life, however, the payment is in giving it up, in the feeling of importance of whom I am working for.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/13

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The same process repeats on every level. Symbolic of this are the holidays that repeat every year, every new cycle. All this is revealed according to the Reshimot (spiritual genes) relative to those who receive, who clarify their Lights, sparks, and vessels and so go through these phases. So a person goes through 49 “gates of impurity” and reaches the 50^th gate of Bina. Then everything that seemed terrible to him changes. The upper level seemed impossible to reach and awful, but he is ready to accept it above reason in every way possible

Thus, by his efforts he goes through the 49 gates, and each time it seems that he cannot go through, but he somehow overcomes the obstacle and passes. The 50^th gate stops him, he cannot go through it, and then a prayer is born in him which helps him do that.

Esther symbolizes the double concealment of both the vessels of receiving and the vessels of bestowal. The corrections that Mordecai made all seem to lead to an opposite result which is meant to be of the special Light “Mor –Dror ” (pure myrrh). Thus we reach Purim in which the worst state of helplessness is revealed, but we try to attribute it to the Creator and are ready to work in bestowal, above the worst states, in order to flip them by rising above them and by revealing the opposite state. The Light dresses in all that and then the help from Above is revealed.

We should understand that it all depends on a person, while there is no action on the part of the upper. All the upper system already exists, but we awaken it: Partzufim, Abba, Ima, Arich Anpin, by raising our prayer, MAN, to ZON of Atzilut.

And when there is an “awakening from Above,” it is only if it is its turn in the cycle of our mutual actions according to our awakening below.
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From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We must understand that the future is on our hands. We are the ones who determine it. If we sit idly, nothing good will happen. We mustn’t think about ourselves; we must worry about how to bring the method of correction to people and begin fulfilling it.

The dissemination, itself, is actually the fulfillment. It is because a person changes—his thoughts and desires change, and his attitude to the world—and so, he already bestows. It isn’t the physical actions that are so important here, but the inner changes that affect the spiritual system that manages the world.

So, I invite everyone who is with us to come closer, and what is most important is to invest in dissemination. Today, it concerns Israel first. We can “sweeten” the economic situation and the state of security without waiting for disasters to happen.

In fact, even viewing our lessons has an impact. After all, by that a person “absorbs” the idea of Baal HaSulam and the entire chain of Kabbalists that descends to him from the upper force. He learns about the system of creation and the principles that it operates and is operated by, and thus participates in the process of his own freewill to some extent, and this is his investment.

Question: There are many influential people today among the viewers of our TV channel in Israel, people who are among the decision makers in the country.

Answer: They actually don’t decide anything. The decisions come entirely from the Creator, from the Light, but we can be incorporated there to some extent and make an impact.

In any case, no one determines anything in this world. The plan is very simple. We, humans, are below and above us is the source of Light that brings us bestowal. We can bestow upon the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form (∾). Then the Light that comes makes a turn and already is felt differently by us. We raise MAN and ask the Creator to give us the preparation and the readiness to receive His Light and to be compatible with Him.

The Light is the giver and I am the one who receives. I ask that He will let me bestow a little. If I cannot really bestow, then I want the minimal adaptability, at least, so that there will be a connection between us, so that we will not be opposite from one another.

This is the request for correction that I raise. Then, we begin to act, to connect. Thus, we cooperate with the Light.

However, when we don’t raise MAN, the Light brings us suffering and turns to darkness and terrible sufferings.

There is no other force but the Light, but it operates on us through the front or by its posterior. This means that everything depends on how we receive it. Our action is in preparing ourselves to receive it correctly. It depends on a person and to the extent that he understands, feels, and is ready to advance. Eventually, our awareness must grow.

I do hope that more people will listen to us and will learn what we have to say. Our Internet sites and our TV channel may do the work, and we will not need to look for other channels in order to reach people.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: Can we say that the miracle of Purim symbolizes a certain exception to the absolute rules?

Answer: The slight illumination that appears in the image of Mordecai summons and leads to a great Light; we must first understand that the clarification is by the Light of Hochma and not by the Light of Hassadim. It is the Light of Hochma that separates the items “cutting off” one from the other like a knife: this is good and this is bad, this is one way and that is the other way.

Without Haman, this clarification would be impossible. But Haman has to come by Mordecai. Just as a flashlight is not enough in the dark, it must first be focused on the right spot, which means to prepare the deficiency in advance; Haman must be added to Mordecai so that it will be possible to manage him correctly.

As for the miracle of Purim, it is like the miracle of the exodus from Egypt; if there is no great Light that shines, we cannot connect the vessels. There has never been such a great Light as in Purim, a Light that connects all the ends into the “middle line” and then raises them to the first restriction.

Question: Why was it necessary to kill Haman?

Answer: Haman symbolizes the intention of “in order to receive.” Is it possible to leave this intention alive?

After all, it isn’t about the vessels of receiving which are eternal, but rather about the intention, about how to use Malchut: whether in an egoistic way or an altruistic way, with the intention of in order to receive or in order to bestow. Who will manage the King’s treasure, all of Malchut, in the King’s favor, Mordecai or Haman?

First all my vessels, all my desires, are egoistic “in order to receive” (↓). All this is called “Haman.” On the other hand, “Mordecai” is the intention of only in order to bestow (↑). So we have to change our vessels from one intention to another intention. By that we kill “Haman” and raise “Mordecai.”

At the same time the vessels remain the same, and we only change the “cover,” the “hat,” the intention, which is called the head of the Partzuf. The treasures, Malchut with all its 127 states, remain, but we pass only on the control from Haman to Mordecai.

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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/13, Shamati # 37 “An Article for Purim”

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It is obvious that we have many complaints to the Creator about our state, the conditions we would like, and about the host who is responsible for everything that happens to us. But this won’t help. We either agree to the conditions we have been given or we have to advance by the path of sufferings.

After all, in order to set such conditions, we have to know the whole process, the whole system; we have to understand that everything is for the best and that it’s impossible to fulfill the conditions if we don’t know the systems and are in constant concealment as we advance from the bottom up. The only thing left for us is to believe that all our work has to be done above criticism and complaints. When we look at everything from our ego, we can’t come to any other conclusion since the advancement is actually with regard to the desire to bestow and not toward the desire to receive; so in our state, we will never be able to understand how we advance.

It says, “Open a gate for me that is as big as the eye of a needle,” which means just exert yourselves a little, “and I shall open the upper gates before you.” But we have to discover the “eye of the needle” by ourselves, and it’s a very difficult task. It is because I have to lower my head, to annul my pride, and to understand that we will not be able to perceive and to appreciate anything inside our ego, but rather it is by the feeling of our lowliness, the lowering of our heads, that we begin to understand what is happening.

After all, it’s by the concealment of our ego that we begin to know the Creator who is concealed and we begin to resemble Him in some way. A mother who takes care of her baby is also in concealment from him, since the baby doesn’t know how much she cares; he doesn’t have to know either. What’s important is that the result of all her efforts will be fulfilled in him, the conditions for his growth.

But if we yearn for the Creator, we have to discover His actions with regard to us and to repeat them by ourselves. In order to do that, we have to humble ourselves like a mother who forgets about herself for the sake of her baby, or like the Creator with regard to the created beings. We only feel the result of the Creator’s care for us, but all His actions with regard to us are not revealed since we are babies who can’t understand anything.

So how can we be evoked so that we will want to know the Creator’s work? It’s impossible to know it until we become parents too. Only then will we appreciate what our parents did for us. In order for us to grow in the spiritual world and to become spiritual parents, the Creator doesn’t fill all our childish desires, He doesn’t serve us sweet porridge like a loving mother, doesn’t change our diapers and doesn’t amuse us with different toys so that we will be happy. He doesn’t spoil our desire to receive, but rather evokes different questions in us, sufferings, and unpleasant discernments with which we have to work in order to discover the reason for it, since this is how we will be able to discover His work.

If I don’t feel good, I must discover why. Of course, first I feel dissatisfaction; it’s my natural response, I resent the fact that I feel bad! The next thought is already aimed at the Creator and at why He acts this way. He is wrong; He should change! But if the problem doesn’t go away and I can’t get out of it, the blows force me to be more patient. I don’t resent this anymore; I ask, “What is the point of this kind of life?” This brings me to study the Creator’s actions.

I am told that I am responsible for everything that happens. Did I do something? All is done by the Creator! But it turns out that everything is opposite from the way it seems to me, “There is none else besides Him,” “the good and the benevolent,” and all the good that He gives me turns into many different contrasting forces within me. I don’t see that all this stems from the good and the benevolent. Although sometimes something good happens, it’s mostly bad.

I have to determine that it’s a fact that everything that I receive comes from the Creator who is good and benevolent and that there is none else besides Him. If I do that in the state I am given now, I will reach my first spiritual level. Later the same kind of work is expected of me but more qualitative and sublime. This means that our work is first to see that we are the source of the problem and not the Giver, and then to correct ourselves so the problem will disappear. The Giver, His action, and I should connect into one whole called “adhesion“. This will be the proof that I have reached an equivalence of from with Him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When I try to imagine what my spiritual level really has to be and whether I can rise to it by my feelings, my knowledge, and my efforts, I see that I cannot. If I come to the right conclusions, I discover that without the Creator’s help I will not manage. After all, I have to correct my intention in order to bestow upon the Creator and I can reach that only through the love of others, by connection with the friends.

Here I see to what extent I work in the opposite direction, forgetting all about the love of others, unable to constantly think about mutual guarantee, about connection and about the love of friends.

It seems that love of friends and the correction of my desires are two different things. I have to love the friends and then I will be ready to do them a favor and to get a bit closer to them. But the correction of my desires and the revelation of the Creator are intimate personal things that belong only to me. I cannot connect these two conditions, and this is our main problem.

So we have to constantly work on the connection of “Israel, the Torah and the Creator.” The Torah is revealed only by the Light that Reforms, which connects all these components. After all, the important rule of the Torah is “Love thy friend as thyself.” The Torah is all the vessels and all the Lights in which love is revealed—from such a strong connection that turns to love.

We have to imagine a common vessel called the “Torah,” which is all the desire to receive that was created and that is shattered to pieces that are very far from one another filled with mutual hate. I want all this to be covered with love; I really want this! So I need the Creator and I focus on Him through this collective desire.

In that case I really need the Creator. I summon Him not just so that He will bring me pleasure, but as a result of an unbearable pain that is caused by my inability to connect to the general love in the relations between us.

This love has to be expressed towards the group in some way, towards the friends, even if it is not openly but more internally. This already depends on a person, on time, on the height he is on. The Kabbalists of Kotzk used to express an opposite attitude externally; we follow the instructions of Rabash to display love and  concern for the friends openly.

We have to constantly worry only about the general vessel, about the general connection that draws the Light that Reforms and the Light that fills the vessel. The Creator is revealed only in that vessel, as the one who builds and sustains, heals, and fills it.

All this takes place in that state; the trouble is that we don’t imagine it correctly, but think that the Creator can be revealed inside us, will enter our individual hearts. This is how every egoist thinks, since he is used to drawing all the goodness and all the achievements to himself.

This is the whole problem. Only by mutual guarantee can we support one another in order to remain focused on the center of the group, the nation of Israel, and the whole world as one system in which everything takes place. There is nothing but that.

Otherwise we are simply not living in reality. All the other perspectives except this one are called “an imaginary reality.” It isn’t even as imaginary as our world but actually fictitious and totally egoistic.

So we have to discover the snake that stands in our way that constantly takes us back into our impure heart. In that case, it is impossible to manage without the group’s decision that this has to be our only concern, and only through the help of the friends can I remain focused correctly on the group in order to see my correction in it.

This is the reason we cannot think about the Creator’s benefit, about true bestowal; it all depends on one another, and our thoughts are aimed in the direction of receiving and not bestowal. The revelation of the Creator seems like a sweet candy.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can the lower evoke the upper to help him?

Answer: To the extent that I annul myself, I give myself a chance to receive from the upper force, thoughts, attributes, and desires correctly instead of my self-powers, thoughts, attributes, and desires. In fact, I change my form. But the new form is so different from the old form that it is as if I totally change myself.

In fact, only my values and my perspective change, but it seems as if I become a totally different person.

The prayer, MAN, means that a void has been created in me, a deficiency for the attribute of bestowal, instead of old desires to receive I had before. I don’t know what bestowal is and what it should be like so that it can take the place of the desires I have restricted, but I want that a new heart will enter the void I have prepared for it, a new mind. This means that I raise MAN, a prayer, by making room inside my desire to receive for the new use.

Then in response, I receive MAD, the force of overcoming. So this answer from Above is called Mei Dechurin. In addition to the force, I receive a mind, since I begin to weigh to what extent I can work with this force of overcoming, in order to build the head of my spiritual Partzuf and to resemble the upper.

I already identify the upper and understand how I should work in order to act like Him. It is of course not much in the meantime, just like a small child who tries to resemble a grownup, but this is how we learn.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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