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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Rabash, “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God”: What does it mean that the Lord heals the brokenhearted, since we know that the main thing in a person is the heart, that “a heart” is the vessel that receives the Holiness from Above. This is as we learn from the shattering of the vessels, which means that if a vessel is shattered, it cannot contain anything that is put in it. In addition, if a heart is broken, it means that the desire to receive dominates the heart and so the abundance cannot enter it, since everything that the desire to receive receives goes to the shells and this is called “the breaking of the heart.”

The Creator can’t help a person unless the heart feels that it is broken, since until then, there is no one to help. The heart is broken at once but we correct it in small parts, and this is indeed a great easing in our work. After all, we don’t have to make great efforts in order to correct everything all at once from our current egoistic state straight to the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

Instead, we can perform a gradual correction, in small portions, as if we are transferring the King’s treasure, moving one coin at a time from one place to another. Still, it’s hard for us to make the first move since it means moving to the opposite intention: from in order to receive to in order to bestow. So it can’t take place unless we clarify our desires and our intentions, unless we differentiate the desires and the intentions, unless we understand what is in our power and what is not, and where it is our part and where it is not.

We must clarify all this so that we can discern exactly what a broken heart is, and what exactly needs to be corrected. It takes a long time to clarify this discernment. This is because we forget about the group, about others, and about the fact that the desire has to be collective. Everyone begins to think about himself, about how he feels inside, and this has nothing to do with a broken heart.

The heart is broken since it can’t connect with others. This is what the shattering is about, but we don’t think in this direction at all. We try to imagine our personal shattering, and it takes a long time until we locate it correctly. But the moment this happens, it becomes clear that it’s a simple and concrete problem that needs to be corrected.

It takes a lot of work for the vessel to understand that nothing can happen to it individually, but only collectively, that it’s only part of the general vessel and one part in the Light. But the moment there is a diagnosis, there is no need to call the doctor and immediately see how the correction and the filling appear in that place.

So it’s very important that we reach the general thought, the general feeling, so that everyone will feel that he is in a force field of mutual guarantee. All our searching is done in the totally wrong place, we are searching inside ourselves instead of searching between us, and thus all our powers go to waste.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/13

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Rabash, “What is that A Man Must Give Birth to a Son and a Daughter in the Work”: But when a person, after his great efforts, sees that he cannot exit the domination of the desire to receive for himself, yet he sees that he is working within reason and that only the Creator can help him.

As the sages said “a person’s inclination grows daily, and if the Creator didn’t help him, he wouldn’t be able to overcome it,” he doesn’t have to believe in “above reason,” as ordinary worshippers who observe the Torah and Mitzvot, who believe “above reason” that the Creator does indeed help them, do. But rather as people who want to work in order to bestow, for whom it is within reason, to such an extent that they have to believe above reason that the Creator can indeed help them exit the domination of the desire to receive.

It says that, “there is none wiser than the experienced.” We need real vessels of perception and not imaginary ones. First we need to attain everything that we need within reason, and only then work above reason. We have to do everything that we possibly can to build and to attain our vessels of perception.

So it is impossible for a person to say in advance that he believes in everything that is written in the book and only waits for it to be fulfilled. He must first exert himself as much as he can.

There is a law that “Nature abhors a vacuum.” So we have to understand that there cannot be a vacuum. It is an undesirable state and whoever creates a void means that he desecrates (from the same root in Hebrew), that he brings about corruption. So we must do our best by our exertion to collect all the necessary data and reach a certain decision.

If we complete our part and see that only the Creator can operate from there onwards, then we have to continue our work in faith above reason so that He will fill the void that is left. Otherwise we will not be able to carry out this mission.

A religious person says in advance that everything depends on the Creator who does everything, and there is nothing a person can do but pray. He believes that everything is in the hands of the Creator and everything is for the better. But if he determines this in advance, he cannot do the first part of the work and will not reach the recognition within reason and so he will not be able to later continue his work above reason so that the prayer will be above him.

We, however, have to fulfill “you should do whatever is in your power,” and only then can a prayer burst from inside. It is because we discover a new void that the Creator can fill by our exertion, and this will already be “above reason,” in vessels of bestowal, in the head of the spiritual Partzuf.

This is the big difference between people who work below reason and those who work above reason. The difference is that those who want to work above reason must first reach reason and to know from their clarifications and experience that it isn’t in their power to perform any spiritual act. I strongly advise that you hurry with this clarification.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/13

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There are two types of work: in feeling a deficiency and in feeling complete wellbeing. After all, we were created of matter that is always in a state of emptiness. So we aspire for a connection with the Creator who created us and who has everything that we lack.

If we include these two forces inside us—the natural force of receiving, our matter, and the force of bestowal, the small “spark” that is in us and which we want to develop so that it will dominate all our matter—we will have to clarify two things: On the one hand, with regard to the matter, we have to clarify the spark of bestowal, and on the other hand, with regard to the spark, we have to clarify and examine the matter. In other words, on the part of the created being, we have to study the Creator and also our own desire.

So we do one type of work with our desire to receive, which is a work of requests, prayers and the sorrow of Shechina (Divinity), the destruction of the Temple. If we don’t feel all the hardships of this state to their full severity, we will not be able to reach the right prayer, which means to reach such an intense request that will summon a response of bestowal from the Light.

This is because the Light only bestows upon a whole desire. The levels of the whole desire are called “spiritual levels,” and we have to attain at least the lowest level.

The other type of work is when we are before the Creator who created us, manages us, takes care of us, corrects us, and raises us to His height of perfection. Then our work is in gratitude and praise.

These are two opposite forms, and in both cases a person has to make sure that one will not annul and cover up the other. Both forms are essential for a whole true measure. The clash between them, the tension between them, creates a point that will draw the Light so strongly upon itself that it will raise a person and turn one end of his work to Keter and the other end to Malchut. So the first level of a person’s spirituality made of ten Sefirot is within the desire to receive, from requests, begging, a broken heart, and also from gratitude and blessing the Creator, which means from the point of Keter. This is how we should advance.

A person constantly forgets these things and is confused. He thinks that the confusion is coincidental and stems from the daily hardships of life. He supposes that if he lived by himself somewhere on a desert island in the middle of the ocean far away from the daily interruptions, he would advance quickly and successfully along the spiritual path. He, however, has to worry about endless things and go through life dealing with different problems, both internally and externally.

But this is a wrong attitude since everything belongs to one system. There is no justification to move or to change the external conditions. A person should try to make efforts to constantly remain in the spiritual work without changing anything externally so that through the environment that he has now he will be able to bring the Creator contentment.

We should understand that this is the environment that the Creator has prepared for him. Later a person will understand to what extent these conditions were the most suitable for his advancement.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: We should know that spiritual matters are not like corporeal matters, where giving and receiving come as one. In spirituality, the time of giving and the time of receiving are separate. This is because first it was given from the Creator to the receiver; and in this giving He only gives him a chance to receive. However, he has not received a thing yet, until he is properly sanctified and purified. And then one is rewarded with receiving it. Thus, it may take a long time between the time of giving and the time of receiving.

Question: Why is there a disparity between the time of giving and the time of receiving?

Answer: Giving is bestowal and receiving is bestowal. But the giving prepares the “vessels” in us, the details of perception. After all, there is no concept of “time” in spirituality, but when it comes to our “matter,” to our desire to receive, the upper bestowal cannot be in contact with it.

There is a “shell” between them that keeps the dualism of their relationship—separation and mutual connection.

How does the Light reach the vessel in the first place? How can the connection between these two opposite attributes exist? There is nothing like it in our world. When fire and water come in contact, one of them annuls the other, but they both belong to one world and the inner nature that is aimed at conquering, at mutual annulment, is concealed in them.

On the other hand, when a spiritual force reaches a corporeal force, they cannot come in contact, they cannot “get to know” one another.

The first attempt to come in contact would evoke mutual annulment in them. We know about such phenomena in physics. Contact between opposites is simply impossible.

This is the reason for the “shell” that should be highly respected, which is wonderful, powerful, whole, and very complicated.

It is exactly what creates the right connection between “Holiness,” which means the attribute of bestowal, and the egoistic desire that simply wants to receive pleasure. The “shell” brings the “lie of the truth” and the “false truths” to life, what “has not been said to the end,” and “what has not been fully clarified,” as areas that “coordinate” between the poles that cannot be tied into one. We use such tricks in politics and in other fields.

So the time of giving is not the end of history. All of creation—its essence is in the difference between the time of giving and the time of receiving.

The chain of events from the top down into this world and the ascent back from the bottom up are only so that from state 1 we will reach state 3, and they are the perception of the Creator’s message to the created being. You also see how long it takes to “digest” this idea and to respond to it.

Question: According to what formula does the connection between the opposites exist? How is the string from the upper to the lower actually drawn?

Answer: If we speak about an initiative that comes from the upper, it is possible only if we annul ourselves and receive His desire as the one which determines things instead of our own desire; this is the connection.

Using the same technique, we bring different parts in contact, equalize their ranges, and use a certain link as a “coordinator” between them.

We have to create a certain place in which this equivalence takes place.

In spirituality it is the seven lower Sefirot of Bina, the “mother’s womb,” the lower third of Zeir Anpin to which Malchut connects.

We have to design this special “adaptor” which in Kabbalah is also called YESHSUT, or the system of TzeLeM.

One way or the other, the task of the two sides that are connected is for each side to annul itself in order to connect to the other. But while the upper can do that since it is perfect, the lower, being totally imperfect, attains it, accepts it, and annuls himself before the upper.

It is about simple things. In everyday life we constantly renew our place on the scale of connection and communication. In media, instruction, education, and culture the connection is built even instinctively by itself. If I want be in contact with another, I have to withdraw from my uncompromising stance to some extent, and to accept the other’s opinion.

Question: How does the lower become adapted to the giving of the upper?

Answer: The upper descends to the lower and gives him what he wants, but in this “package,” in this message, there is the whole inner force that develops the lower.

After all, the lower only wants to “fill its belly.” He doesn’t want to grow and doesn’t know what it is. But in the “milk” of the upper, which means in the Light of Hassadim, there is the “blood” that operates, the Light of Hochma that raises the baby. The lower would not be able to grow without the “blood” in the “milk.”

First, during the time of Ibur (gestation), the lower annuls himself before the upper and agrees to receive everything from Him. Then he receives the “blood”—the direct bestowal of the upper. Then the lower becomes more independent and the upper intentionally designs a system in the lower one that matches it and that is used as an adapter between them. It is exactly like the mechanism of lactation, feeding milk. In fact, it is about the same “blood,” about the Light of Hochma, but it receives the “dress of Hassadim.” Now the lower can compare the attribute of bestowal that is typical of the Creator and the attribute of receiving that is typical of the created being, and when he grows, he receives them both simultaneously.

But at this point, the lower is still small because he annuls himself with regard to the “milk,” and agrees to receive it from the upper…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: In what vessel does a person discover spirituality?

Answer: In the Returning Light, which means in bestowal, when he worries about the other more than about himself, when the other is more important to him than he is.

Question: What does a person have to annul in order to acquire the spiritual vessel?

Answer: Thoughts about himself. How can I, who can only think about myself, switch to a state in which I will totally change myself for the good of others? Where can I get such a desire? Where can I find the powers to make such an effort?

Here the Light that Reforms helps me. It’s called the “miracle of the exodus from Egypt:” I take my feelings (heart) and mind out of the control of my desire, of the caring for myself and put them into the other. Of course, I can’t do this by myself. A prisoner can’t release himself from prison, and you can’t pull yourself by the hair out of a swamp. After all, the desire and worrying about myself are all that I have.

But the Light comes and takes this concern out of the desire and puts it into someone else. Then I begin to care about him like a mother worries about her baby. After all, the same thing happens with her, but on an egoistic level: It’s as if she is hypnotized in her concern for her baby, looking at him all the time and worrying about him. If we didn’t know about such processes in this world we might think that she had lost her mind.

This is also the work of the Light, but a mother is not required to ask to be able to love her baby, she is simply given this love from Above. In our case, however, it’s different. A person is given a choice, “Do you want to remain on the “animal” level? Go ahead. But if you want to rise to the spiritual level, then you need to activate this force.”

You need to constantly improve, become wiser, and, in short, you need to acquire the Creator’s mind in order to activate Him. This is the difference between the two levels—the fact that you activate Him. It’s about this that it says: “My sons have defeated me.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: What is a “prayer of an individual?”

Answer: A “prayer of an individual” is a person’s clarification. On the whole, one can pray a “prayer of an individual” or a “prayer of many.” A “prayer” is a deficiency that I discover in my heart. But I discover it intentionally by first clarifying the prayer, which is called “a prayer before a prayer.” On this preliminary level I make many corrections in order to reach the special inner deficiency that will be compatible with the amount of Light that is before me and which I want to acquire.

I acquire it; purchase it by paying with my exertion, my power, my deficiency, by my “appetite.” It’s as if I enter a bakery shop and “freeze” in front of a marvelous cake. But I am put on a scale, my deficiency is measured, and I am told:

– You have deficiency of only 150 grams and this cake is worth half a kilogram so you can’t buy it.

Then my taste buds are examined by a special sensor, and I am told:

– Your taste buds don’t work. You actually want fish and not a cake. The two can’t even be compared, come back another time when you have the right quantity and quality for a cake, and then you will receive it.

So I need a deficiency for bestowal. Where can I purchase this deficiency in our world in order to come to the Creator’s “store” with it and buy that “cake”? Where can I get the money to buy the ticket with which I can enter bestowal? This is already “a prayer before a prayer”; I constantly think about the deficiency in quantity and in quality that I must have, since otherwise I don’t have a real vessel.

If I understand this whole process, then there is a “prayer of an individual” and a “prayer of many” in it. But these are only names. In fact, I always pray by myself, I am always one, and there is nothing but me. But I want to attach and connect those who are seemingly external to me: all my desires and thoughts that were thrown outside by the ego and that seem to be scattered according to the corruption in my vessel. I want to work above this “thickness” of the desire, and thus I am drawn to “a prayer of many,” by wanting to see them as one whole unit…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 34”: Even those who were awarded with forgiveness for their sins, which turn into rights, in which it turns out that there is no flaw, will still need more power to stand in the King’s palace, which means to stand and pray and wait, without getting tired… until they acquire a complete desire from the Creator.

And so we have to learn this art before we enter the King’s palace, which means the palace of power and might, and stand as an iron pillar…

Question: Why does Baal HaSulam say that a person must stand like an iron pillar if we know that, on the contrary, we should reach a state when we despair of our own powers?

Answer: If a person despairs of his own powers, it doesn’t mean that he becomes weak. He doesn’t cry out of weakness, but is rather joyful as a hero for having risen above all his egoistic powers (the “shells“) that used to confuse him and draw him in different directions. After all, he is standing in front of the Creator now, asking for help!

So, why does it seem that he should reach total exhaustion? He understands that he cannot enter the spiritual world by his own powers since it is a totally different nature. However, he knows that he was helped from Above every step of the way and, thus, brought toward the spiritual world, and he actually is standing at its doorstep.

He is sure that, with the help of the Creator, who gave him the power to overcome the egoistic forces (Klipot – shells), he is now totally free.

If he doesn’t have the power to take the step into the spiritual world, it doesn’t mean that he is weak; it is just the realization of the fact. But the fact that every time he tried to advance with the Creator’s help means that he is a hero. A hero is not someone who foolishly fights using his own powers.

Overcoming is a war against myself, against my desire to do everything by myself, to determine everything by myself, as if there were other forces besides the Creator. It is the greatest foolishness to think that we should win by ourselves. Then, a person feels happy that he has fought and won this war.

He has won not because of his own powers. The reason why he wanted to start this war didn’t come from him, and the request for help from the Creator and the situation that was created afterward also is not to his credit.

So, why is he called a hero? It is because he has passed through all the stages along the way and, thanks to them, has adhered to the only Upper. This is what it means to win this war. Being a hero is to discover that “There is none else besides Him,” despite all the disturbances.

So, it depends on what we call “weakness.” A person clearly doesn’t have the powers to fight against himself, but he attains that he has no powers and that everything is done with the help of the Creator who has given him the powers with which a person builds himself the image of Adam (human), which resembles (Domeh) the Creator.
[99611]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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