Question: How can I not cause harm by my actions if in the meantime I don’t have the right intention to bestow and I operate with the wrong intention?

Answer: The main thing is that you are making an effort in order to reach the right intention. Suppose a small child wants to please his mom and serve her a plate, but he breaks it on the way. His intention was good, right? This means that he did a good deed even though the plate was broken! No one looks at the plate, everyone looks at his intention. How should we know why it was broken and what we should learn from this?

We look at our desires and think that the Creator judges us by them. It isn’t so at all. He judges us by our intentions. It was predetermined that you would break the plate. This isn’t a problem at all because it was clear from the start that you couldn’t perform this action correctly. The main thing is that you work on your intention.

Only the intentions go through the spiritual filter, while the actions themselves, which means the change in the desires and their fulfillment, remain on the other side of the Masach (screen). Only the intentions count! I made so many efforts; I performed a thousand different actions, but only my intentions went through the filter. On the side where I am it doesn’t matter that I work like mad. Only my intentions will be projected on the Masach.

Therefore, we don’t understand what is happening. We did so much, and where are the results? But we have to check whether these actions were accompanied by the right intention or not. You may have not had an intention, which means that you haven’t done anything.

This is what remains when a person’s life ends. There are seven billion people in the world, but how many right intentions go through the filter and are included in the spiritual account? Zero. Therefore it says, “I have come and there is no one.” A human being is called an “intention,” and not the physical actions. The spiritual filter cleans whatever goes through it and leaves only the intention. A clean beautiful picture is formed, as if nothing happens in this world.

Never mind if you don’t know how to reach the right intention at the moment. The main thing is the effort that you made, that you tried to hold on to it under conditions that were not up to you. It may have been predetermined that you would fail. After all, you are not alone; you have to be incorporated in the general network in which there are different conditions. This means that the results don’t depend on you, but only the efforts.

Therefore, whoever sees our reality through the right intention begins to see the world in a totally different way. He gets closer to the picture of the spiritual world; the world becomes only intentions. All the requests are about the intentions, the actions according to the intentions and the connection; everything is done in the intentions. Everything is measured only by the intentions, meaning how strong and pure they are or how much dirt they contain. The intention is a result of the action, from its lowest level or from its result, and there is nothing in the action itself.
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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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Question: How can we measure to what extent the Light that Reforms influences us?

Answer: At the moment, it is impossible to accurately measure the influence of the Light since a person doesn’t have the tools to measure it yet. The problem is not with the Light or the upper level but with the person himself.

We may say that a person is influenced by the Light that Reforms to the extent that he yearns for the Light. But a person cannot measure his yearning, although it is his own desire, his efforts, his tension. The reason is that he is constantly in a state of ascents and descents and cannot count these moments and his efforts, neither the ones that he does consciously nor unconsciously.

All this accumulates eventually. It is an accumulative process, as it says “many pennies make a large account,” and when eventually there is a large account a person feels that another portion of the Light that Reforms comes.

The truth is that the Light constantly influences us, but we only feel this influence after a certain portion is filled and attained on our level of sensitivity. Thus it seems to us that the Light comes in portions, while in fact it constantly influences a person.

The Light influences us even when we don’t think about it and develop naturally. The Reshimot (informational genes) emerge one by one, and the Light influences them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be fulfilled, and we wouldn’t develop. By the blows of life you become wiser, you understand more, and get closer to bestowal, which means that the Reshimot come out perpetually, and the Surrounding Light operates on them.

But the Light that Reforms is the Light that you yearn for, and you perform special actions so that it will influence you and hasten the natural emergence of the Reshimot and the influence of the Light. Although it is the same action, the difference is that you summon it and demand it and that it doesn’t come by itself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/10/12, Writings of Rabash

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All the troubles and the hardships that we come across, about which The Book of Zohar tells us, are interruptions on the way to adhesion. After all, if we were in adhesion, we wouldn’t need to explain anything or write about it. The only thing we lack is to reach adhesion—this is the correct request.

If my request is correct each time, I will constantly be in adhesion according to my request. I only need to ask, but the request has to be for the right and clarified absolute desire—relatively to the state I am in.

If I could request correctly now, I would reach adhesion, on my relative level, of course. Thus the desires, the conditions, the inner attributes and the external ones would change in me each time, and if I asked correctly I would advance straight from the bottom up through these points—from one point of adhesion to another.

So all our work is to ask correctly, when we clarify our request more and more accurately. There are many conditions for the preparation for this work: This whole world, the friends, the study, etc. all this is in order to clarify our request.

This world and the friends are the components of my desire that I need to clarify. The only thing demanded from me is a prayer—MAN. Therefore, it says that every correction is performed by a prayer and good deeds by which we clarify our desire.

The book tells us about the desires we have to ask for in our prayers. Kabbalists don’t write about anything else but that, since you will discover everything else by yourself.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/12, The Book of Zohar

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Our work lies in attaining the perfect desire. The first desire is given to a person from above, from the Creator, as it is written, “I am the first.” This is the spark called “the point in the heart,” the aspiration to something higher, a yearning or attraction. By virtue of some seemingly chance occurrence, a person receives his first desire for spirituality and begins to advance.

And then, his entire work lies in asking for this desire to be slightly increased: by a fourth, then by a third, and thus, slightly adding more and more to his advancement. He discerns what is called progress with increasing clarity until he understands that it is the aspiration to bestowal, an exit out of himself toward the neighbor, self-cancellation.

That is how he asks time after time, completely egoistically for now, without understanding exactly what to ask for. Then he begins to understand it better, but conceals it from himself, until finally, he agrees and is willing to give in a little, to bend down and unite with others, to come out of himself to the outside and begin to live inside of them.

He already has a slightly better understanding of the right request, which must come from the very bottom of the heart in order to rise above oneself and give up everything, to cleave to the upper one and be inside of Him like an embryo in the mother’s waters. That is how he senses himself within the group, all of humanity, within the Creator. This is a constant process, “From love to the creatures to love to the Creator,” until a person aims himself correctly and attains the right prayer.

The heavens do not respond to a fourth, a third or any part of a prayer, but only to a full prayer. However, a person is continuously aided in advancing toward this perfect prayer, and when he really does attain the full request, the cry, then it becomes revealed to him. And this is called, “I am the last.” The Creator begins and ends everything. In the end, through many actions, a person attains an answer to his prayer.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/12

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Reaching the “Gate of Tears” means seeing that you are nothing but a heavy stone that cannot be lifted, a desire that cannot be moved by your own powers; all its movements are made only by energy that comes from the outside. So, all our work is to find the means to induce this help from the environment.

It is a very important point in which we were given free will. Just when a person loses his powers and doesn’t see how he can do anything, when he feels despair or just weakness, when he loses his motivation and his hope for the future, he suddenly feels that he cannot move by himself. There is no will power that can pull him forward towards the goal or at least some small thorn that will spur him from behind and will force him to move.

It is in such a dead state that the free will to advance by one’s own powers appears, not by strange powers, whether they are negative or positive, but by finding the powers to advance by himself. He shouldn’t look for these powers inside him, but rather start working with the environment, and by its power climb up to the Creator.

But a person should be very sensitive to that in order to discern in such miserable gray states the momentary opening of the Light when you can enter and perform your action.

Suddenly an opening for the Light appears, within the multitude of desires, into which a person can penetrate and use in order to break through. One must constantly wait for that moment in the most lifeless state, when a person feels powerless and has lost all taste in spirituality. Even in that state it is possible to be sensitive.

When one feels despair or indifference, he still has to keep his sharp perception, waiting expectantly that within this state he will be able to leap outside. It is as if there is a solid wall before you and suddenly you notice a tiny crack; You penetrate it and from there you discover the way out. It is there, in this dark state that you find how to attain fulfillment.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/12, Writings of Rabash 

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Question: What prayer is needed in order to overcome the interruptions?

Answer: First, you must say His praise and then make the request. The request should also be in order to bring the Creator contentment. This means that there is a series of actions and desires here, that one is based on the other until they all line up in one chain.

The Creator’s greatness, my worthlessness, and the request to give me the power to correct myself are connected in this chain since all that is the Creator’s work and not mine. All this is so that I can attain the corrected state that will bring the Creator contentment.

When I arrange everything in one chain properly, I show how much I know and understand the process and to what extent I agree with it and want to be part of it. This is called my spiritual vessel.

If all the desires, thoughts, causes, and results are arranged correctly, they make up such a prayer, like in the Siddur (the prayer book) that was written by Kabbalists. Thus, they give us examples of how to appeal in gratitude, in a request and in appreciation, to bring the Creator contentment, which means to build my vessel. The prayer is the building of the spiritual vessel.

We don’t need more than that, but we should understand that everything is made by the Light, and so the request is demanded from us so that this action will take place Above. When we acquire the right vessel, we will be able to perform the actions of “to receive in order to bestow” with it.

First we need the recognition of evil, its clarification, the desire to detach ourselves from it, and the request for correction. First we correct the state of “to bestow in order to bestow,” and then we attain “to receive in order to bestow.” All this is reflected in the order of the prayers in the Siddur that was prepared for us by the sages of the Great Assembly (Sanhedrin) even before the spiritual shattering.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/12, Writings of Rabash

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We are on the level of preparation for the spiritual world called “this world.” In our state today, on this level, there are all the necessary conditions to stabilize in us the true spiritual fear that is the first commandment. It isn’t the kind of fear we feel in this world, it isn’t worries and corporeal fears a person is full of, as he constantly worries that something may happen to him, worrying about the past and the future, about what will happen to him and to those who are dear to him.

We are constantly living in this animal fear, and although in most cases we don’t perceive that. It is fear that guides us every moment of our life. But I have to restrict this corporeal fear and to build upon it the right fear—whether I can bestow upon the Creator, whether I will reveal His goodness and His love!

If instead of the corporeal fear I build a spiritual fear inside me, I will thus correct my desire.

This world was created for that purpose in order to exert one’s self in it and to move from corporeal fears to a spiritual fear. There is no shortage of corporeal fear; a person constantly fears something. This is our corporeal existence: in constant fear that I won’t lack anything, that I can feed myself, that I won’t be harmed, that my pride and honor will not be hurt. All my corporeal senses operate on fear, on keeping my personal boundaries, so that no one will be able to invade them.

Our work, however, is the opposite: It is about breaking our boundaries outwardly, opening ourselves and incorporating in others! Thus we break the boundaries that fear depicts for us. The boundaries of fear depict my image for me, my body. Then comes the next circle of fear, which depicts everything I see around me: my relatives, my home, and then more and more external circles.

This whole picture is depicted to me by fear, and it is only on this basis that my senses work. If the environment gives me the power and the yearning to exit myself, I will begin to feel how good it is to be outside my egoistic boundaries. Then I will use the power of the environment in order to restrict my corporeal fear and will acquire a true fear, the fear of the Creator, of worrying only about whether I can bestow upon Him and whether He will be revealed to me as the one who bestows upon me.

If I worry only about this one true fear, the Creator will give me the Masach (screen) and will reveal Himself before me.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/12, Shamati #38

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Baal HaSulam: “A Handmaid that Is Heir to Her Mistress”: Since the very power of the mistress—the dominion of the internality—is by the force of our wisdom and knowledge, as it is written, “we are distinguished, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” And now the handmaid has stepped forth and prides herself in public that she is the heir of this wisdom. And you should know that this power of theirs is the shackle by which the legs of the children of Israel are chained in the exile, under their dominion.

Question: According to what scale can a person determine what he studies, whether the method of correction or just “wisdom?”

Answer: It depends in which vessels he wants to receive what he studies.

In fact we are drawn to wisdom, but imagine that there are no books, paper, or writing instruments, and you simply sit and study. You don’t remember anything of what you study. After all, you study in order to improve yourself, to build new attributes that will enable you to discover a new world each time—this is the correct study.

Question: But we have to disseminate, and on the whole this obligates us to study in the traditional sense. Do we need “wisdom” in order to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: “Wisdom” is needed so that there will be a “basis” for the connection with the Light and the changes inside you. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah it isn’t the wise that learns.

Question: So what do I tell people during the lectures and the lesson?

Answer: You approach people with the “wisdom” and gradually explain to them that the main thing is not the amount of knowledge but the inner change. It is in the inner change, to the extent that it is compatible with the Light that we begin to feel spiritual phenomena.

By perceiving and understanding this, you see that the standard is very high: “I can do anything, but this is beyond my powers.” You feel helpless and here you have an opportunity to raise MAN, a request, and to really reach the breaking of your heart.

Question: But what can you do with the yearning for the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Build “faith above reason,” so that the demand for bestowal will be above the demand for receiving. By that you don’t annul the wisdom; on the contrary, when you rise in “faith above reason,” your knowledge increases according to your faith.

This is because “faith” is the feeling of the Creator, equivalence in form with Him. You yearn to acquire a vessel of bestowal, because in it you will reveal the Creator and will be able to understand, feel Him, and bring Him contentment. Your goal is not to fill your corporeal vessels, the desires that yearn for wisdom. You need them only so that you will know exactly how to “format” yourself and to become equivalent to the Creator. We need such a mind.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/12, “A Handmaid That Is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Inner work is divided into night and day. “Before sunrise” man prays for the salvation of the Shechina from exile. These are such internal states, when man feels that he is in exile from the quality of bestowal, from the good desire, from the land of Israel, the desire directed straight at the Creator (Isra-el).

One needs to delve into this feeling a little bit in order to feel the depth of his egoistic desires. After all, if you are not in the land of Israel, it means that you are in Egyptian slavery! It is necessary to realize how great the concealment is and that you are not able to come out of it by the means of your own strength.

However, one must not lose control of this state, and after checking yourself, you must wake up and come out of it, rise and take care that you have strength, and it was not completely lost in the feeling of exile.

Now, you need to gradually awaken and in the darkness, prepare your desires in expectation of Light. Bitter dissatisfaction, which you felt in Egypt, must transform from the material feeling that you feel bad into a call, an urging towards corrections. It was necessary because otherwise you would not have woken up.

You need to see what corrections you need and begin attuning yourself to bestowal until you reach a true demand for bestowal, meaning towards obtaining an anti-egoistic screen.

We do not understand that we are in bestowal; it is not simple at all. The unity, which man attains with the Creator, gives him great fulfillment; it softens his heart and gives the feeling of complete freedom from one’s egoism, and starts to rule over it. The Light comes and takes power over man if he reaches correct unity with a close one.

And for this, one needs very strong desires in order to not lose one’s head, to maintain control over oneself, and to accept this feeling precisely for the sake of giving pleasure to the Creator. Since here, there is a great danger of beginning to enjoy for yourself, and then man will not fall simply into petty earthly egoistic desires, but into the true Klipot.

That is why we need to prepare our desires for the Light in the darkness of the night, and then right before dawn the upper spiritual Partzufim Aba ve Ima unite. All of the spiritual pleasures that we receive and the Upper Light, all of that is the consequence of unity, meaning the Light, the warmth, which is born from it.

That is why, on one hand, one needs to passionately aspire towards unity, but on the other hand, to stop and strongly control oneself in order not to cleave to it naturally and egoistically, but only consciously and deliberately. It is as if a man is running full-speed, eager to reach unity, but at the very last moment just before touching it, he must stop abruptly and check himself! This is the whole meaning of the wars when entering the land of Israel.

He must clearly identify whether he will now reveal this unity specifically for the sake of bestowal or not. Since when he is not yet in unity, it is not that scary what kind of intentions he will have. For now, his actions are egoistic and the intentions are broken. However, when he begins to enter unity, a danger to enter the unclean forces emerges, the Klipot.

The result of unity and the revelation, which has been reached due to it, must be directed only at the benefit for the Creator, and not for one’s own benefit. Here is where the true war against one’s desire to enjoy begins.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 24”: You already know that prayer and confidence go hand in hand. And we should believe in complete faith that the Creator hears the prayer of every mouth. And by this faith we acquire confidence in the Creator’s help, and then our prayer becomes complete, in confidence that we will be saved. And then we are awarded confidence and joy all day long, as if we have already been saved.

Baal HaSulam says that prayer and confidence stem from the same branch, and this is a very important principle. In our ordinary life it’s the exact opposite: The prayer appears when a person has no confidence and is confused. He prays when he feels total helplessness, fear, and worry and needs help from Above; he feels lost in life and doesn’t know where to turn to and what to do. In this state of despair and anxiety a prayer is evoked in a person since he feels no hope for the future and has nothing to rely on.

But a spiritual prayer is the opposite: It’s evoked when a person feels that there is a Host who manages the world, his whole life, and who will fix everything. He understands that the Creator has already prepared everything in advance and that he only needs to keep in contact with Him. This means that he has confidence in the upper force, in the Creator, besides Whom there is none else, and with this confidence he turns to Him asking and demanding that the Creator will open his heart and mind and advance him.

It’s absolutely the opposite of what is expected in our world, as it says: “The opinion of the Torah is opposite from the opinion of the landlords.”

So the time of prayer is only after the preparation, after a prayer before a prayer. By a prayer before a prayer I have to spur myself towards the source. When one feels confidence and a connection with the source, he can raise a request for help to Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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