Question: How can the desire to receive work in order to bestow?

Answer: It can if it has an intention of in order to bestow. In that case it gets a desire from someone else and that enables it to bestow.

Keter created the desire to receive, Hochma. At the end of this phase the desire felt a spark of bestowal, made it is main part, and now wants only to bestow.

Thus Bina was created, and its first three Sefirot (GAR of Bina) are similar to Keter. Just as in Keter, the red point (in the drawing) determines the essence of Keter so does bestowal determine the essence of Bina. As a result, the created being becomes similar to the Creator and follows His examples: Keter created Hochma, so Bina, too, took its lower half, the seven lower Sefirot (ZAT of Bina) from Hochma.

The question is whether it is receiving or bestowing when the lower part of Bina receives the Light of Hochma.

On the whole, it is about the action of the point itself, which feels bestowal by this action.

The upper part of Bina is a desire to bestow that is aimed at the Creator: It wants to bestow like Him (↑), and in order to do that it receives (↓). Its bestowal is actually in the filling of the seven lower Sefirot.

In the same way a mother feeds her baby and is happy for him, which means that it is possible to fill the vessels of receiving and by that to bestow.

Question: So how do the vessels of receiving in our case turn into vessels of bestowal?

Answer: After they are “restricted,” they are filled with the Light of Hassadim, this is already to bestow in order to bestow, Lishma (for Her Name). Then we can use them even to receive in order to bestow. Thus they become vessels of bestowal, since to receive in order to bestow is pure bestowal. This is the only way the created being can bestow.

On the other hand, to bestow in order to bestow doesn’t mean that it is real bestowal. It is only the preparation for actual bestowal, and this is the process of the correction of the vessels.
[98825]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How do I make a covenant with the Creator if I don’t know Him?

Answer: The question is: Why is it only the groom who signs the wedding agreement (Ketubah) and not the bride? Is there a kind of one-sided commitment here? The same happens when a person signs an agreement with the group or with the Creator.

This means that my signature on this contract is enough since the agreement of the other side is certain. So, only the one who hesitates and is unsure has to sign, and thus, he is obligated to sign the commitment.

There is an upper force, and in order to reveal it, there must be a lower force. The force of the upper is bestowal and the force of the lower is receiving. The force of the lower must attain wholeness in its deficiency in order to connect to the upper force that is eternally whole.

Wholeness is attained in the lower force by the connection of 10 people, for example, then of 100, and then of 1000. We always add another zero.

Unless I connect with 10 people, I cannot be called a spiritual “unit,” and, unless I connect with 100 people, I cannot be called a second spiritual “unit,” which means to rise to the second spiritual level. The counter only counts the additional zeros, and this is considered a leap to the next level.

In order to be adapted to the whole upper force, I at least must attain the connection of the first 10. This means that I must connect to 10 people since according to our inner nature, we attain the first, minimal measure of bestowal, #1, by the connection of ten people as one heart and one mind. Now, I have the first force of bestowal.

If I can connect to 100 people in a similar way as one heart and one mind by totally annulling myself, I attain the second force of bestowal, the second spiritual level. Thusly, I must go through 125 levels.

In order to connect with them, I sign a mutual contract. We must be connected so that each one will forget about himself and connect with everyone as one whole. It is impossible to do this alone and we must help one another. We must provide everyone with the greatness of the goal, connection, warmth, and positive examples. In order to do that, we sign a contract, and this is called a covenant.

Each of us goes through states of “+” and “-,” and we need the minus in order to rise to the plus, to “straighten” ourselves. This is possible if, while I am in a state of “minus,” the society intensifies my intention. My minus grows and the plus also grows; they constantly increase. After a small plus, there is a big minus, and after a big plus there is a minus that is twice as large.

This is why I never can overcome the minus that I receive and it always knocks me to the ground. I may be totally thrown off track, and I may continue to work, but without any inspiration and thought. When I fall into such a state, into such a minus, the society has to intensify my intention.

It is a good thing that I have received such a minus since I need a greater minus; I must reach its full measure to fill my measure. The question is how to turn it into a plus. In order to do that, I need an intention! If my deficiency and the society’s intention connect, I can change the minus to the plus each time and, thus, constantly rise. This is called making a covenant.
[98828]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Is the prayer our aspiration toward the Creator every moment? A prayer is not words, is it?

Answer: Certainly not. Why do we need words if the Creator exists in my heart, forms it, and demands from it a conscious response, a reaction to Him?

He exists at the very depths of my heart. I sense what He is doing within me and I have to respond to it right there in the heart. The group, humanity, the world, my family, and everything else exist only so that in the depth of my heart where He is saying something to me, I will respond to it.

Thus, there is no need for words here. However, my correct reaction to what He is initiating within me means connecting and merging with Him.

I form my response to the Creator through the group, through humanity, through everything that happens to us.

Therefore, the world is called “concealment” (Olam). It will start being revealed when my properties become completely similar to His, when I start acting together with Him at the level where He awakens me. As it is said “I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is for me.”
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Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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Question: How can we turn a person’s intention into the intention of many, into the “prayer of many“?

Answer: There is a big difference. If I think about society, trying to connect with them in order to convey the Light that they expect, it’s called a “prayer of many,” a “public prayer.”

If every individual in the group acts this way, we form the area of the collective general deficiency where everyone, by being included in everyone, already forms a spiritual progression. I think about everyone, you think about everyone, and so does the whole group. Then each one multiplies his intensity by the number of the people for whom he wants to ask for a filling. It turns out that this prayer already becomes a spiritual vessel. The spiritual vessel is a result of the connection. If I pray for you and you pray for me, then each of us includes the other inside him. Then our desires that include one another connect and create a spiritual vessel among them.

This means that the parts of our desires in which I pray for you and you pray for me connect. Their connection becomes a spiritual vessel. The parts in which each one is for oneself remain below.

It turns out that you influence the Light only by your mutual inclusion with each other, where you include him inside you and he includes you inside him. So one person doesn’t operate in spirituality, there have to be at least two, as it says: “The minimum of many is two.” As well, “Either together or death,” which means that either you have a friend with whom you perform a spiritual action or you are dead, and have no chance to draw the Light that Reforms.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/13, The Zohar

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If a person intends to bestow upon others without any resistance, not against his will, then it is the same as the whole world does, as is accepted among different beliefs and fanatic religions.

There are many charities that help people in hospitals and in other difficult situations. Their desires are consistent with their actions, and therefore it is called “bestowal” only in action. After all, the action, the intention, and the desire are all in one direction, not meeting any inner resistance. So a person is in high spirits, feeling good about himself since he believes that he receives a reward in this world and in the next world.

We, however, act against our natural desire, and feel the inner resistance since we don’t want to bestow and to love others. First we discover an empty space inside us, and we don’t feel any inclination, attraction, or connection to bestowal. But when we begin to work by rising above all that, we come out into the spiritual space.

This kind of work really bears fruit. It doesn’t dull us like in the fanatic approach since there is a difference between receiving and bestowal. After all, our inner desire is to receive according to our nature, but if we rise above this natural desire and yearn for bestowal, looking for an environment, a society, that will help us build this attribute inside us, then we are obligated to draw the force of the Creator that will help us become bestowers over our egoistic desire.

Therefore, we need an environment that needs the Creator, since otherwise we will not be able to establish bestowal on top of receiving. Then we will be able to build the inner space inside us that will be filled with the Light, and in it we will start feeling and understanding all of the upper spiritual reality.
[98505]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/13, Writings of Rabash 

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Question: I see that Pharaoh steals all the fruit of my labor and I ask myself: When will I finally reach the point of desperation regarding my own strength? I feel as if I am driving a car but somebody else is behind the steering wheel.

Answer: That’s right; you are not the one steering your car. You are only in charge of your desire to advance. As to how many times you will have to repeat one action, that can’t be known in advance. But the pace depends on you: how frequently your states will change and how quickly you will be able to pass through them. Suppose according to the root of your soul you have to pass through 8000 states until you reach the first spiritual degree where your will to receive will turn to bestowal because of the Light the Reforms.

You have to pass through these 8000 actions, but can do so in two years or you can stretch it to 20. That’s your choice since you have freewill in to what extent you will hasten your advancement. But you will certainly pass through all the necessary discernments, whether it is in this or another lifetime. It all depends on you.

You complain that the Pharaoh is stealing all the fruit of your labor, but that is why it is written that all the beautiful cities built by the sons of Israel in Egypt were inherited by the Pharaoh. It is as if Pharaoh stands behind you, stuck to your neck, and collects all the fruit of your work. This is what leads a person to the point of desperation in the work and to prayer. But you cannot give up!

Besides, every time when you move forward and exert more effort, you still gain wisdom and attain the method and new meanings. You get absorbed by darkness, disappointment, helplessness, and indifference. You get sick and tired of everything and lose faith that there will be a breakthrough any time soon—these are the worst states that can be. Each more advanced state brings even greater descent, desperation, apathy, and realization that it’s impossible to reach the desired.

It goes on like this, until reaching the very last “impossible,” which is regarded as crossing the Red Sea, when you have completely lost faith that man is capable of it and that the Creator is. You decide that it just can’t happen; you are shown that such is your nature and nothing can be done about it and all you have left is to return to the trivial life.

And then one makes up one’s mind to still leap over this impossibility, and a person is shown the condition of how to connect: what it means to become one man with one heart in reality. And if he agrees with it, he receives his first spiritual degree.

The first degree he receives only as a single point regarded as Moshe, and it pulls (mosheh) him from egoism, from exile, while in the rest of the will to receive the “golden calf” becomes revealed against it.

Afterward, a person enters the desert, where problems await him each step of the way and it’s infested with snakes. It is no longer one great serpent, one big ego, but rather, a multitude of little wasps that keep biting a person from every side, his various egoistic attributes. Yet, they help him to keep moving forth on the spiritual ladder, acquiring the property of bestowal.

Along this entire path, I see only two vital qualities guaranteeing success: nullification of oneself before the teacher and the group, and endurance, patience, and tenacity in any circumstances, no matter what may come up. These are the two attributes with which you, like a stubborn ram, keep breaking through, leaping in one direction, regardless of what is going on, despite any internal and external obstacles. And this speeds you up and makes you succeed.

Otherwise, don’t waste your time; it’s better to go enjoy life. But the majority hang in the middle between one and the other state, and sadly, they come to the finish line empty-handed.
[98153]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/13, “The Prayer”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 141:I am found nowhere but in the Torah. Therefore, keep the Torah and look for Me there, and the Light in it will reform you and you will find Me,” as it is written, “Those that seek Me shall find Me.”

This is what we try to do, striving to connect as one man in one heart, attaining mutual guarantee and “love your neighbor as yourself” by showing our readiness for such a connection during the study. And then in each moment, we reveal how much we are incapable of this, and then again we try, despite everything, to think about unity and connection.

We hope that our study and connection will help us reveal the Creator in order to bring Him pleasure. This becomes the prayer during the study, an action of correction, and it draws us nearer to the goal. If the friends try to connect in the right way, raise their points in the heart above their ego, free from its control, and connect them, which takes place during the lesson, which tells about such states, then in this we attract the Reforming Light. And this is actually our exertion.

There will always be disturbances, more and more. Therefore, we need to strengthen each other, and precisely then, when the despair comes and big obstacles appear in the path, a person is helpless before them, doesn’t know what to do, wants to escape, gets tired and falls, falls asleep or the opposite, becomes angry and cannot bear this state. But precisely these states are the most beneficial for adding one more drop of work, another ounce of effort, by which we attract the Light on us.

One who does not despair and give up is the one who succeeds. Here neither wisdom nor force will help, only patience. Time will do it.

“Time” symbolizes numerous efforts that a person does in each moment, even the smallest ones. These efforts accumulate, connect, and in the end, bring a solution.
[98320]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The desire of Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) is initially divided into five parts because that’s the way it was created, from the root phase was born phase one, then the second, third, and fourth. Phase four, in turn, is also divided into parts. This phase is already the desire of the created being that feels that he exists and that he is standing before someone whom he wants or doesn’t want to resemble, to receive or not to receive from.

These five phases already exist within the desire itself. Before phase four there were all the attributes, the phases of the Direct Light, and in phase four, it is already a desire. When this desire corrects itself after the shattering, it also has to go through five phases of correction. It is impossible to correct something half way or one fourth of the way; it has to be a whole level each time.

Like in physics, there is no material that is smaller than a quantum, a photon, a fundamental particle. We measure the quantity of matter and energy according to these elementary particles; it is a manifestation of desire. Therefore, our prayer must be a whole prayer: not that we should be helped with a half, a quarter, or even 99% of a prayer. Only when it is finally stabilized is here the leap to the next level, to the next attribute, to a value, to a new quality, that did not exist before. This means that a totally new attribute appears 100% in comparison to what existed in 99.99%. This is the difference between incremental, discrete advancement and integral advancement in a circle.

In that case, all the attributes connect and become a whole attribute. Therefore, it is called a whole desire. It is whole not because it has just grown to 100%, but because of its quality. It becomes round, completely permeated with that attribute, and otherwise it cannot be perceived by the mind or the heart. This desire of 100% cannot enter something that is foreign because it is so round and perfect that it is absolute wholeness.

Until we reach such a whole desire, we will not be able to understand this and will not receive this spiritual revelation.

Even later, on all the other levels, we encounter the same law. “There is no small amount in spirituality”; rather, there must be a whole desire. But if a person sees that he hasn’t attained a whole desire yet, he must pray and when his prayer, the deficiency and the demand to attain a whole desire is finally clarified, he will receive a whole desire from Above and in it the revelation of the Creator.
[98328]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/13

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Question: If I am on a lower level, where will I find the deficiency to rise to the upper level?

Answer: True, for the time being you are on a lower level and cannot desire the upper level, but you play as if you want to rise, and by that you summon the Reforming Light.

There is a connection between the levels: If you want to be on a higher level than you are now, the Light comes to you from that upper level and it isn’t imaginary anymore but real, and it influences you from a distance by bringing you closer to it. Thus you advance. This is called your prayer, MAN.

There is an upper Partzuf and a lower Partzuf. The lower cannot rise to the level of the upper, but it performs different actions as if showing that it wants to become like the upper. This desire is feigned, but it is called a prayer. It’s a lie and hypocrisy, but I want to rise!

The upper Light, MAD, comes in response to my prayer. Although I am below, I am answered according to the gap between my hypocritical lie and some real desire for the upper; this is the gap between the desired and the actual. In fact, it isn’t real, but I still want some change.

The actual comes from the heart and what we desire comes from the point in the heart. If the point in the heart has awoken in a person, then there is a dichotomy. The greater the gap (Delta – ∆) between the heart and the point in the heart, the stronger the MAN, and thus it summons a greater effect from Above, MAD.

The lower has to attain such a false feeling, as if the connection with the upper is more important for him than the filling. In order to do that there is the environment around me that influences me from all sides. The more correctly I place myself in the environment, this Delta (∆), I basically define the Delta in my prayer between the heart and the point in the heart.

The first impression is made by my action in the group (1) and this brings me to the second Delta (∆) between the desire of the heart and the point in the heart (2). This is what determines the intensity of my prayer, MAN (3), upon which comes a stronger Light from Above (4).
[98253]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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