Baal HaSulam, Shamati, article 209: “Three Conditions in a Prayer”: There are three conditions in prayer:

1. Believing that He can save him although he has the worst conditions of all his contemporaries, still, “Is the Lord’s hand waxed short” from saving him? If not, then “the Landlord cannot save His vessels.”

2. He no longer has any counsel, he has already done all that he could, but saw no cure to his plight.

3. If He does not help him, he will be better off dead than alive.

These three conditions sum up many other conditions, which a person has to gather inside him in order to reach a true prayer, an outcry. The outcry is the desire in the heart. It is born the moment we reach a desire that is adapted to the revelation of the spiritual world, the revelation of the attribute of bestowal, the moment we are ready for it even though we are on this side of the Machsom (barrier), which means that we expect to get something from this discovery.

It isn’t a pure request yet and it cannot be pure since there is the shattering between the levels.

We always pray in Lo Lishma (not for Her name), for ourselves, and from that we reach Lishma (for Her name), bestowal. It says: “I have labored and I found.” But still, our desire has to be adapted to the level we are about to reach. It is impossible to rise to it without keeping the three conditions.

Suppose I kept two conditions and understand that I have done everything in my power, but there is no salvation. How can I determine that I have done everything in my power? Even if I suddenly decide that it is so, it is only for one brief moment and then the next moment I already begin to search for something else that I can do. After all, how can I be certain that I have tried everything?

So there is the third condition “better off dead than alive.” A person reaches absolute despair and cannot go on this way. Then the third condition seems to increase the second condition by bringing a person to such an extreme level that he cannot wait any longer to check and see what else he can do, but he cries out with a prayer.

If I don’t get what I want then I am better off dead than alive. Then the second condition helps me, since we operate in two systems: the mind and the heart. So I can always say in the mind that I didn’t do enough in the heart. Emotionally I can always admit that I haven’t attained in the mind the necessary examination and clarification of my feelings.

So eventually, all the conditions add up to these three conditions, which add up to one condition: one prayer, raising MAN.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/23/12, Shamati #209

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The difference between our actions is only in whether they lead to the Creator or not. We cannot reveal the Creator if everyone is not connected first, a connection without any differences, for the general wellbeing of everyone.

I should feel that I don’t exist anymore as an individual; I only perform these actions and forget about myself. I don’t even see or know what I have done. I don’t need that, since otherwise I can start enjoying my merits and look for ways to justify myself.

This reflects what bestowal is to some extent. Of course, it is impossible to reach such attributes. When we clarify it more to ourselves, we discover that it is unattainable and gradually begin to realize that it has to come to us from somewhere on the outside.

The more we try the more we see that we cannot do that, and so it becomes clearer that only the upper force can help us, something unreal. Then we demand that it will happen. This is already a prayer.
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From a Talk before the Unity Convention 9/20/12

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Question: How do I force the upper to awaken me?

Answer: The upper awakens us from the start. As it says “I am the first.” This first awakening is given to a person before he begins to yearn for spirituality. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had such thoughts from the start and it wouldn’t touch his heart.

Everything begins from an awakening from Above, called the “Reshimo” (reminiscence, information gene)—a reason, the influence of the friends, a desire that is suddenly evoked, a song—this is how I am awakened.

The awakening always comes from the upper, but usually in a concealed way without a connection to Him. It is as if I wake up by chance, suddenly. The upper hides on purpose, so as not to steal the “freewill” from me. The question is how will I work with this awakening, how will I respond to it?

First, do I understand that I have received it from the upper and thank Him for awakening me? In addition I have to clarify what exactly I have to wake up to? What are the options that I have?

This is the clarification of the question about the meaning of life, which I now have to ask myself: “What is the point in my life? Why should I go on living?” This means, what does my ego, my desire, aim at? What am I living for?

I begin to clarify the goal of my life in a more accurate manner, sorting the desires, until I find the most worthwhile desire for which it is really worthwhile to live. Suppose I had one last minute to live, and I had a chance to ask for one thing only, what would I ask for in this last minute?

I have to clarify what the most important thing for me is, what I should ask for. When we delve into this clarification, we see that we can only do it in a group. After all, it is the pattern of the upper world—as if the upper world descends into our world.

On the one hand, the relations among the friends are egoistic and they clarify this world for us. Yet, at the same time we have a point in the heart, which enables us to build a layer of upper relations, called the next world, the upper world.

Then we will be able to work on two planes: suppressing the lower, egoistic layer as much as we can trying to build another layer above it, a new level of relations based on love, mutual concern, mutual guarantee and connection.

The group enables us to build the pattern of the upper relations. It provides us with many opportunities to mutually work on our envy, on the lust, the hatred, and the love. Thanks to it we understand why we behave one way and not differently, and we begin to understand our states. Thus we quickly clarify our only right request.

We examine the other requests and see that they are all trivial and temporary and so we draw away from them. It says: “All the gates are locked, except for the gate of tears,” which means except for the last gate in which we demand adhesion according to equivalence of form. After all, we did everything we could, we tried to fulfill it and we saw that we can’t. We do not rest, but rather demand and ask, and thus reach what we desire.

This preparation includes many stages: The feeling of exile, the domination of Pharaoh, and then the struggle against him, until we manage to escape and reach a spiritual birth.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/19/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Is it possible for someone who was born in sin not to sin?

Answer: Of course not. All of us have been born in sin and we can’t avoid sinning. No one expects us to be angels. What is expected of us is to realize this and understand what a sin really is.

A sin is any desire directed against connecting with others, against correcting the breaking. The common soul broke and now every one exists in a broken system alone with his egoism. I want to use this egoism to somehow use others, but this is not bad, it’s a natural desire.

Real egoism, which we need to resist and against which we need to work, only manifests when I really try to connect with others, and a resistance arises in me, a lack of desire to be connected with them. Regular people, who operate in this world in a customary manner, are not called egoists. They’re not trying to unite into a single system.

Egoism only manifests under the condition that a person is planning to connect with the intention of correcting the breaking, meaning uniting with the purpose of revealing the Creator. And it’s possible that I don’t even want this. But if I still make an effort then the evil in me or the power of the breaking becomes revealed to me. This is true egoism.

But a regular person, who doesn’t work with this, doesn’t have egoism! First, the power of the breaking that operates between us needs to be discovered. Then we’ll be able to correct it and turn it into the power of unity. This will be the recognition of evil, the prayer will be born out of it and the correction, the goodness, will come.

This entire process only happens to those who try to connect with the purpose to correct the breaking and to reveal the Creator for the sake of pleasing Him by so doing. It needs to be absolutely clear to us that all this only happens with this intention. Then we connect to the chain of actions that help us reveal the evil, we ask for help and receive the strength to perform the correction, and we reach the revelation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/12, Writings of Rabash

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The best states of all are when a person needs a connection with the Creator. A connection can only occur when he needs the help of the Creator. And he should want this help not for himself; otherwise, it would have been an egoistic desire. But precisely above his desire, the yearning to do good, he can build relations with others and begin to take care of them, help them to be corrected, act in their direction.

Thus a person will change caring for himself to caring for others to such an extent that he will ask the Creator to help him realize this care, to correct his friends and thus bring pleasure to the Creator.

This is the building of the whole system of relationship within a person in the direction of the other, in the direction of the Creator. It does not exist naturally, and it will never emerge in a person by itself. A person has to build it above the egoistic desire that is revealed before him.

This work is called the work of Israel, of a person who strives straight to the Creator, who starts to work on the basis of the first desire revealed in him, and who gradually turns all his desires towards the Creator. This is the work of Moses who turns to the Pharaoh demanding he release Israel from slavery, and the work of the Pharaoh on the people of Israel and Moses so that they feel how they need the Creator’s help.

A person should find out that the main work in his heart concerning the Creator and the Pharaoh is aimed to bring the people out of slavery, that is, to purify all the desires, the entire world. The entire world are parts of the human soul, and a person’s duty is to free this whole world from the power of the egoistic Pharaoh.

Through studies, the group, and many clarifications, he needs to turn his personal, selfish desire to attain the spiritual work, to reveal the Creator to the correct desire to bestow. If he gets an awakening every time, this is the sign that the Creator wants him and his duty is to fulfill this desire!

If a person does not use the received awakening once, twice, or the third time, then he is left alone for some time, perhaps until the end of this life or even for several life cycles, until finally, he is given a chance from Above to become awakened.

That is why we must be very wary of losing even a moment, a desire, a gift from Above, because no one knows when it is manifested again. The problem is that 99% of the people who get an awakening from Above simply do not pay attention at it and do not realize it. They treat this unique chance presented from Above as something ordinary in this world that it will not disappear and can wait until tomorrow, a few hours or a few days, another time.

They do not look at themselves from aside in order to relate to this awakening in a spiritual way and not in a material one, and do not begin to work on the entire common vessel, on connection with others, on dissemination of this knowledge, and correction of the world. That is, they do not start acting to reveal the Creator, the only thing that we lack in this world, the panacea for all our problems.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the essence of the phrase “the one who prays for his friends receives first”? It’s a very confusing statement for me because asking the Creator to change my desire is still a prayer for my own benefit, since I already know that I will be the one who receives before others. It’s something that really bothers me.

Answer: It shows that you don’t pray for your friend yet. “The one praying for his neighbor receives first” implies that the one who prays doesn’t think of himself at all, nor does he concentrate on who receives first. Yes, he does receive before others, since the Light has to transcend through him to his friends. How else?

He simply rises to a level at which he prays for his friend without any thought about himself. There is nothing about one’s “self,” nor does one pray to improve his personal matters. All one wishes is to fulfill his friend’s appeal. He doesn’t have a desire of his own of any kind whatsoever!

In this case, one really receives before others because he conveys the Light to his friends. We have covered this material. Our souls are present in the worlds of Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. We have multiple questions and requests. If we raise them to Malchut of the world of Assiya, then Malchut raises them even higher, to Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut; the one who raises MAN brings up a request of his friends who are supposedly still staying “below.” Then, he becomes the first to receive the Light from Above. The Light goes through him first, and then it transcends through Malchut to other souls.

Question: So, it means that in order to obtain such a desire I first have to appeal to the Creator and ask Him to give it to me, to make it completely free of egoism, without even a drop of selfishness, right?

Answer: Certainly! In this case, it will be a prayer that precedes another prayer. Otherwise it’s just another egoistic loop, nothing more than that.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Lesson 5

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The force of Love of the Creator that from the beginning isn’t found in the created being is transferred to him in an inverted way. This is called the evil inclination. According to the measure of love with which the Creator relates to us, it enters us in a reversed way and breeds in us the force of hatred, a degree of separation. If we would invert it now, then it would turn to love.

The Creator creates the desire to receive and transfers to it all of His force of love. The desire itself is just a small point, but now it is in an environment of this force of love that it feels as a world of hate.

We must transform this hate back into love. That’s all! This is called the “mountain of hatred” transforms into the “mountain of holiness.”

We work only on our intention. We don’t consider the desire since it was given to us by nature. Everything depends only on where our thoughts are directed. Thus, it doesn’t matter what a person’s desires are. They don’t depend on him. From the beginning there are Taryag (613) desires, and all of them are for the sake of reception. Man wants to take advantage of the Creator and thus it is called Pharaoh. And all of our work is in transforming this Pharaoh into a holy angel.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/12, The Zohar

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A prayer is mingled with the feeling of sadness, suffering, lack, different requirements, and the inability to justify the Creator. But the prayer itself should be gratitude. I thank the Creator for this opportunity to communicate, for the fact that He created me in such a way that I have a need to turn to Him.

That is, a prayer must come from love and not from claims. We are both happy that I have a request through which I can develop our love. A prayer must begin with our understanding of how happy we are to connect through this prayer.

A prayer combines two totally opposite poles, but the first thing in it is the point of adhesion due to the feeling that we both participate in one common action. I have to discover the empty desire that the Creator can fulfill. And I am glad that I have revealed this need in myself; otherwise, I would never have been able to express myself. Here, the two opposite parts are combined. A prayer is joy, not tears as it is accustomed to think in our world.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/12, The Zohar

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Question: How can we reach the hearts of people if they aren’t ready to listen to us?

Answer: There is no problem in reaching another person’s heart. After all the strings that mutually connect us are stretched among us all and they are at your disposal, go ahead; influence this system from the inside. No one in the world except those who have the point in the heart have such a powerful access to the internal network that connects people.

We are all mutually connected; the whole world is wandering within the collective feelings and thoughts, but on the “animal” level. As for the forces that change reality, none of the seven billion reaches that; they are all under supervision.

You can operate actively in the internal network that connects everyone if you want to do it correctly by helping its advancement, its development, and its revelation to people. Then you can connect to this network and add your desire to it, your prayer. Go ahead, you have the chance; after all, you have received a point in the heart just like our friends throughout the world.

We are all connected to this internal network and through it we assist its positive development. We pull the world ourselves a bit more strongly forward so that it will not advance as a result of negative urges. If we assist the natural force called the “Creator” advance the world, we change the negative pulses from behind to positive ones that pull the world forward. Kabbalists call this “to judge oneself and the world to the scale of merit.” Eventually the painful stabs in the back change into a pleasant adventure on the way forward.

Question: This means that it isn’t about the words I say to someone. Does it work even if a person doesn’t listen, if I have the right intention?

Answer: Of course. You don’t have to hear with your ears at all. We do have to awaken people by external means, but the true and most powerful dissemination is undoubtedly through the internal network. If we kept the internal connection among us, the world would be different.

The question is: What efforts do we have to make in order to increase our internal connection and what efforts should be made to increase the external connection.

If we could truly invest all our powers effectively in the internal connection, we should do that. But we cannot and so we also work on the external connection that helps us unite and operate mutually.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/12, “Peace in the World”

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Question: How can I hold on to the right intention?

Answer: Make efforts with regards to the group, the study, the friends, and the whole world in order to constantly keep the intention. Your intention is like a prisoner that you must constantly guard so that he won’t run away, or like a baby for whom you constantly care.

It takes great efforts. But if you look at the world as an intended outcome by understanding which intentions go into the spiritual account, which do not, then there is hardly anything left of this world.

This is what it looks like from spirituality. It seems that so many things take place on this corporeal planet, so many events, and so many people are active on it, but this is all only to make a person feel despair and confusion by this chase and to recognize that the world is operated by intentions and not by apparent physical actions.

Intention is the desirable outcome of an action or for whom I perform a certain action. But if it’s about an intention, we don’t refer to a simple physical action anymore, but take into account the quality of the action, its internal direction, who it’s aimed at and in whose favor. The immediate intention ties you to the quality of the actions.

The action can be just a desire. I can now sit quietly on the couch with a cigarette and a glass of beer but perform very complicated work internally, by yearning to collect all my thoughts and desires that are now going in different directions and revolving in a closed circle and to focus them in the right direction.

If you look at a person through such a filter, you’ll see what state he is really in. Then you’ll see that he is performing spiritual work. But if you look at the action itself, at how he sits on the couch with a cigarette and a beer, you may think that he is just a bum wasting his time in vain.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/12, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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