We need to receive from Above the power of faith called “art.” Naturally, we ourselves do not have it. And on this path a person sees how weak he is. It is written that inner work “weakens a person” because he begins to feel that he does not have anything but egoistic desire.

And if he supposedly manages to overcome his egoism, it simply means that a larger egoistic desire has defeated a smaller one. This way, instead of advancing in the direction of spirituality, he is moving in the opposite direction, using an even greater egoism.

Sometimes people are very successful in their studies, they work and study a lot, and you would think that a great force of bestowal is driving them. But this is not the case. This simply is the great force of egoism because they see a greater benefit before them.

We always advance from “Lo Lishma” (for oneself) towards “Lishma” (for the sake of bestowal) and naturally act with the help of our ego. But still, our responsibility is to evaluate our true position and the intentions that drive us.

Gradually, as a person exerts effort in studying, dissemination, and mainly in group work, he reveals how incapable of anything he is. Man realizes his true state when he sees that no matter how much he tries to overcome his ego, putting all his effort into it, he is still incapable of doing anything with himself.

A person spent all his time working for the importance of the goal, but at the end, he lost his strength and realized his evil. He understood that he has nothing but the ego and that his every movement is driven by an egoistic purpose. As a result, he reaches a deep state of despair, described in the following way: “There is no happier moment in a person’s life than the moment when he becomes completely disappointed in his powers and feels absolute helplessness, and thus he becomes ready for a complete prayer.”

And a complete prayer is a request to acquire the power of faith. And then the power of greatness of faith, greatness of the Creator clothes him, and thus a person continues to work, but with another kind of “fuel.”
[60139]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/8/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Moving Upward With The Speed Of Light
The Path Is Through The Red Sea
It Won’t Help Us To Play Love

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - 1 Comment →

In order to get a slight idea of the difference between corporeality and spirituality, imagine that the world is a shop you have entered to buy something for yourself. And next to you there is a shop for newborns where you enter to buy something for your baby.

It’s clear that you will feel completely different in that store and will have a completely different attitude to the purchases. You will do it with a thought of bestowal. You will think only about making the other (the baby) feel good because by nature you love him more than yourself. You will always choose what this other one needs with this intention, whether it’s diapers or baby formula. Everything will be aimed only at the baby and how to give him the best possible thing.

Maybe you are able to think that way about someone other than your baby, such as your friends, the entire society, or even all of humanity, or perhaps even about the Creator. This depends on the height of your attitude to others.

This is the difference of working for your own sake and working for others. It’s just difficult for us to understand what the force of faith means, which lets us feel the importance and necessity of thinking not about ourselves, but about others, something we did not do before. In our world there are examples of that, but they are egoistic and we care about the neighbor only when we feel that we need him.

So how can we do the same thing, but against our egoism, above it, and build our attitude to the neighbor upon constant nullification of ourselves? We can understand this when it comes to the people close to us. If we love them, then we even experience pleasure by limiting ourselves for their sake. That is how we measure the force of our love and bestowal: by how much we give to them and take care of them.
[60136]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/08/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Cursory Thoughts On Shamati, “What Does It Mean That The Sitra Achra is Called ‘Malchut Without A Crown’”
True Or Egoistic Bestowal
The Powerful And Exalted Ideal Of Bestowal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Love, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

The only desires that can be corrected are desires that have an addition, a special form of an attitude towards desire called an intention. There are instinctive desires for fulfillment on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, which are simply enrooted in us by nature. And there are desires that operate through an intention, which assume a special attitude towards the source of pleasure, and not the pleasure itself.

The reason I want to be rich is not because I receive pleasure from buying things with money, but because I am envious of my rich neighbor. I want to be big, beautiful, and slender, always comparing myself to the others. A certain attitude towards others is part of this, and it gives me an additional pleasure. If the attitude towards my neighbor disappears, I will have no reason for this pleasure.

Egoistic desire appears from the fact that we were once connected and then became distanced from one another. And this distance, breaking, affects our desire, increases it, and gives it the form of an attitude towards other, foreign, desires, and ultimately the Creator. In other words, it defines my attitude toward something that exists outside of me.

When it comes to a simple instinctive desire, I only want to fulfill it. And the others do not concern me at all—it is only my desire. But the desires of the “human” level are not my inherent desires, but acquired ones. I have acquired them by being connected with others some time ago or by being in an environment that rouses this kind of desires in me.

The desires that get corrected have an intention that appeared from the past connection into a single desire. This is why this intention is present in us and constantly awakens, demanding correction.

We attain the understanding of the creature, the Creator, and a 620 times greater fulfillment and connection specifically through the correction of this intention.
[59653]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Incredible Mastery Of The System Of Goverance
Loving Unconditionally
A Proper Attitude Towards the Light: Entrance and Exit

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

So many preparations were made by our breaking and so many opportunities were opened up by it for our benefit that it was nothing short of a divine act. This is such an ingenious invention that we are unable to even evaluate it duly.

This is expressed especially in the material garments, in which we are able to exist egoistically while advancing toward bestowal. It is impossible to even imagine how such a miracle is possible! I am in a minus, in evil, in hatred for the neighbor and the Creator, in total opposition to Him, and at the same time, I use them in order to profit off them (or at least that’s how it seems to me). And when I use them for my own benefit, as it seems to me, I actually advance in the reverse direction, meaning toward bestowal to them.

It turns out that by virtue of the breaking, two separate laws of creation emerge, which are connected in a way that enables us to use them even while we are in egoism.

After the breaking, all actions are performed upon us by the world of Atzilut. That is why such a difficult, complex, and perfect mechanism exists in it. After all, it has to work on us from the upper dimension, from the world of bestowal. It has to connect with us, egoists.

And even though we desire the opposite things, nevertheless the system of the world of Atzilut is by its nature built in such a way that it treats us correctly. Even if we are asking for ourselves, egoistically, yet by virtue of the fact that our external actions seem bestowing because we are trying to unite into a group and are working for the sake of dissemination, this is enough for the surrounding Light to shine upon us.

The Light can never become inner and enter these egoistic vessels, but it glows for us from afar, even in these desires that are opposite and unsuitable for it. We have absolutely opposite intentions, yet it shines for us.

This is a very complex mechanism.
[59305]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
Man Begins With Experiencing The Breaking
Crisis: Connection Through An Explosion
A Coin That Is Worth A Lot

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Prayer and Intention, Spirituality - No Comments →

A person should do whatever he can in order to connect with others and to reach bestowal. As a result of one’s corporeal, egotistic efforts, he feels how reluctant he is to connect, how opposed he is to unity, mutual guarantee, and being as one man with one heart. He finds it useless and only feels repelled by it.

Thus, he discovers the desires that need correction, the desires that the Creator has created in man as “the evil inclination.” After this revelation he begins to see the help he receives from Above, despite his reluctance.

The discovery of the evil inclination comes from Above as part of the correction process. The Creator makes a covenant with a person that He won’t leave him and will help him advance. Even if a person doesn’t want to connect and is repelled by it, he will still be inspired by the previous state in which he made efforts to advance, and this will support him.

Gradually, a person discovers, ever so slightly, what bestowal is, what the power of love is. He begins to understand that his goal is only to discover a need for that. Then he can consciously and unconsciously understand, feel, and cry out asking for the force of correction.

The right request (MAN) is added to the right desire, the demand to leave the present state and move on to a better one. This desire can still be egoistic, which is called “Lo Lishma,” but it is already in line with the right path.

And so gradually, step by step, a person clarifies his desires and intentions. Of course, he is not the one who determines the steps of his development. In fact, they are awakened according to the Reshimot (informational genes) in him. The upper force, the Light, determines the whole process. A person only needs to constantly yearn to advance and to perform even the slightest actions that will advance him in any way towards the goal.

Then he will achieve the desired goal: He will receive the Light that Reforms, will acquire the attribute of bestowal, and will be filled with the Reflected Light that provides the sensation of spiritual life—life in bestowal!
[58793]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Incredible Mastery Of The System Of Governance
Loving Unconditionally
How Can We Check Whether Our Request Is Correct?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Question: Everyone recognizes and respects the principle of love for the neighbor as yourself. But in the new era, how can we turn people to love instead of hatred and separation?

Answer: To do this we gradually transition from the egoistic intention to the altruistic one. Every person wants to be loved the way he is. In other words, love is above all calculations. Someone appears handsome to me and someone else appears ugly. Someone appears good in my eyes and someone bad. Yet, if I love someone, then I love them as I would my own child, no matter what he is like.

It’s just that we love our children naturally, whereas here we need love that towers above our nature. It is written, “Every person denies others according to his own defect.” If you see a defect in someone, it means that defect is inside of you.

However, we are initially incapable of attaining unconditional love because by our nature we hate one another. I always look for flaws in others because this makes me feel better and higher than them, which is already pleasant by itself. When searching for self-gratification, I have to see flaws in others that put them beneath me at least in some regard. If someone appears higher than me and I cannot justify it, then I fall into depression.

So how can we attain love? First of all, “loving” means being imbued with the desires of the neighbor and being ready to fulfill them. Right now I am ready to use and exploit the neighbor, but I am told, “Use yourself in order to fulfill him.” Yet this is completely opposite to my nature. I can never climb up that wall.

That is why Hillel the sage made the challenge easier by putting it this way, “Don’t do to another what you yourself hate.” Be neutral, give up hate and love for the neighbor. By carrying out this condition, you will overcome the first half of the path.

You will thereby detach from your egoism, from the previous desires. You will give up the ill-intended plans and intentions. From now on you no longer want to harm your neighbor, either by mistake or deliberately. You don’t want to use him because it always harms him. And even though you still think that you can profiteer off your neighbor, you already begin to understand that you will end up a loser yourself. What’s good for him is good for you, and what’s bad for him is bad for you. You already see that both of you are connected together by a global network which is becoming revealed in the world today. That is why you have no other choice but not to harm one another, at the very least.

This is the first phase: You turn off your Malchut and raise it to Bina, to the small state, Katnut, Hafetz Hesed. And then you have to continue on the path to love.

All of these phases are actualized on the condition that you advance “from Lo Lishma to Lishma,” if in your egoism you nevertheless aspire to the altruistic goal. “It’s worthwhile for me to treat my neighbor well,” you reason. “After all, we are interconnected and there is no other choice….” And eventually, as you tread this path, you evoke the Light that reforms, which corrects your mind and feeling.

And then you understand, “I have to love others, but not because I will feel good and not because we are in one system, no matter how global and integral it may be.” That is not what matters. You are simply enchanted by the quality of bestowal in and of itself. You don’t know what makes it so good, but you feel that besides bestowal, you don’t want anything else. You do not fulfill yourself and do not anticipate pleasure. You bestow out of awe, reverence, greatness, out of recognizing bestowal as such in the pure form. Now it is everything to you.
[58899]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
If Love Is So Important, Then What Are We Waiting For?
Don’t Give Charity Where It’s Not Needed
Creation Starts Here And Now

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Love, Prayer and Intention - 1 Comment →

Question: How can a person check whether his request is clarified and correct?

Answer: If I can perform what I am asking for, it means that my request was correct. I discover deficiencies in me and ask for them to be corrected, and then I see that after some time (since it takes time in our world), I actually understand, want, aspire to, and can do it.

All the previous discernments now become much clearer. I suddenly agree with and desire all the actions and opportunities to get closer to others, which at first seemed totally unrealistic, undesirable, and repulsive to me.

I criticize people less and am able to get closer to them, understanding that spirituality can be felt only in the connection between us. I perceive the spiritual concepts more correctly and understand that we talking about the inner connection between us because this is where the spiritual world is revealed, while the concentration of the attributes of bestowal is the Creator.

I understand that spirituality is attained by practical deeds in this world, which was especially created in a way that enables us to perform certain actions even without any desire or intention for it. We can compel ourselves to do it, just as we can do many other things against our will: We go to work and fulfill different obligations in life.

This is impossible in the spiritual world because there is only pure desire there. In our world, however, the corporeal body clothes the desire, and hence the body can perform different actions even against its will. Thanks to this we can get closer to others in situations that contradict connection totally. This is the wonderful attribute of this world!

So in order to acquire the next, new level, we always have to fall into this world, which means to fall under the authority of our body. We aren’t talking about the physical body, but the desire detached from spirituality, which enables us to perform different actions even without a desire for it.

I begin every spiritual level by a physical action, with the egotistic desire, the intention for myself, and with an aspiration to profit and to receive reward. Having started this way, I can proceed to spiritual actions.

This happens in every level, until the end of correction. This is why this world must exist. Otherwise, we won’t be able to approach every new spiritual level independently.
[58404]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Place Where We Are One
How Do We Step Out Of Bondage?
The Void Before The Revelation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”: “…a great rule in the Torah” … the verse of “Love thy friend as thyself.” It is difficult to understand how such a statement can contain the sum-total of all the Torah? At most it can be the rule (the collective) of the part of the Torah and texts that relate to the relationships between man and man. But how can you include the greater part of the Torah, which concerns work between man and God in the verse, “Love thy friend as thyself”?

We do not know how to use this principle. Everyone is sure that they love their neighbors. As for specialists in the humanities—philosophers, political scientists, social scientists, and psychologists—they also reason about love for the neighbor as if it were easy to implement.

In general, the notion of “love” only confuses people. They cannot separate it from the natural, instinctive, hormonal attraction that is inherent to the animate and even vegetative kingdoms. In man, who has an evil inclination, this attraction acquires even greater scope, yet it still bears no relation to real love.

“Loving the neighbor” means fulfilling his desire while not receiving any direct or indirect benefit from that. It is aimed entirely at the well-being of the neighbor, while I am like an external part of the universe, a “tube” coming out of a power station that generates all the pleasures. This tube is not part of the action in any way. It does not need anything for itself. It is just a conductor.

But how can I become such a selfless conductor if I am entirely imbued by feelings, if I want to enjoy myself? After all, unlike a tube, I have my own life.

Moreover, I am told that this rule is “the general principle of the Torah.” That is, there is nothing but this principle in the Torah. Yet the Torah describes the most diverse areas of life. Could it really be that they are all connected to the neighbor?

If so, then how can I bring all of the facets of my reality, including my relationship with the Creator, into my relationships with other people? Won’t I be narrowing things down too much? How can the entire world with all of its diversity be squeezed into several psychological models?

Question: So how is it possible to love the neighbor in the modern, global world?

Answer: In reality, there is no means in our world that could allow us to correct our egoism. Only the Light that reforms is capable of that.

After all, only the Light and the vessel exist in reality. The force of bestowal (“existence from existence”) created a point of reception (“existence from absence”), and there is nothing else besides them.

Next, the force of bestowal influences the force of reception, leading it to altruistic actions until these two forces become equal to one another: the force of bestowal gives, while the force of reception receives in order to give. In the end, they end up in unity and adhesion.

But that is not enough because the state of Malchut of infinity was created by the upper one. It was simply “lowered down” to creation. The desire that was created by the Light received the “full package” from it, including the altruistic intention, and it lives to its content in union like a “dummy.” Having emerged from absence, it cannot make any independent action and it looks into the mouth of the giver: “Do you want altruism? Go ahead. Do you want egoism? Go ahead. You can have anything you wish.” That is how the matter of creation is built.

But in that case, it cannot be called a full-fledged creation. After all, the Light performed all the actions to it. So who is unified with the Creator in the end? For now—no one. An independent being did not emerge yet. So how can it be formed?

For that the receiving desire has to be brought to total opposition to the Creator in every regard, and then it has to be given the opportunities and the means to attain itself separate from bestowal and to acquire the forces for correction. A very great preparation is necessary to make creation, and it begins precisely here, from our world. This is why the spiritual worlds descended and why the material development unfolded until the earthly evolution brought us to modernity. And now, we are starting to gradually gain awareness of ourselves and our state.

This is the source of self-awareness, whose criterion is the Light, the Creator, the human society that is already demonstrating its global, integral facets. This causes you to experience discomfort: “Something here isn’t right. Something doesn’t make sense.” That is how the realization of evil emerges, opening up the path to correction before us.

We won’t understand what is happening and what we are facing right away. Humanity is only stepping onto this path. However, this also does not involve anything more than a combination of two forces: reception and bestowal. Within their mixture we must always look for the operating mechanisms. Like inter-atomic actions, they will show us what kind of unity is possible at this stage and which qualities are inherent to it.

You are learning to connect two forces and you must always reach the right formula of their balance. If you attain balance, it means you are on the right path and you are forming yourself in the right line. In reality, all of the scientific formulas describe equivalence of form. That is what we study and attain in nature: similarity and balance of all of its parts.
[58818]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Loving The Other? It’s Easy!
Love Is A Two Way Street
To Give Does Not Mean to Impose

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Love, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Science, Torah - No Comments →

Question: By our nature, every one of us tries to use others to the utmost, without taking the common good into account. So how can a regular person start taking others into consideration?

Answer: This can only happen with the help of the Light that Reforms.

You are forgetting that there is a force operating in creation which drives us. We are puppets. I cease being a puppet when I ask the Light to change me. I do not do anything on my own. The Light makes the actions in the vessels. However, I can influence it with my desire, with my request, “Change me more, accelerate my development.” This is the only thing I can ask from it.

If I attract it, then I advance by the path of acceleration, and this is my only possible personal contribution. Development unfolds one way or another. The only difference is in the extent of the troubles and suffering. I can either advance quickly, consciously, with awareness, by my own desire, or slowly, with “a lot of blood spilled.” But one way or another, I evoke the Lights that change me.

Naturally, I want to use the other for my own benefit and I will never want to unite with him. Why would I? I don’t have some hidden button that can switch the egoistic desire to an altruistic one.

However, if I use the environment and the study, if I persuade myself, if I form a “desire without a desire,” “a prayer before a prayer,” then all of my requests accumulate and work, even if they are insincere, and gradually I truly do begin to deem the quality of bestowal, love, and unification important. “There’s something worthwhile there, after all. I shouldn’t let it go by. It’ll come in handy.”

Sometimes I want it and sometimes I don’t. Later the desire no longer disappears, but it is small. And eventually, from the distant states, I reach a firm, decisive desire: “I want it, and that’s all.” Why? “Because.” What will you get out of it? “I can’t explain that. You wouldn’t understand anyway.” But still? “The Light is working on me. It has changed me and now I want this. The Light changed me because I resorted to all kinds of tricks and contrivances. I did everything I could, I made efforts, and I found.”

We should never forget this principle: Everything is done by the Light, and we can awaken it. Therein lies our free choice. Don’t look for an opportunity to change yourself directly and don’t eat yourself up for being weak. To achieve inner changes, we always have to turn to the Light. And that means constantly raising our prayer to the upper one.
[58422]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/11, “Peace in the World”

Related Material:
Acceleration Above Reason
To Grow Is To Change
Bring Your Hatred To The Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Suffering - No Comments →

Question: How should we attune ourselves for the circulation of materials?

Answer: We all ask the Creator to give us strength to unite with one another and thereby bring the entire world to unity. We hope that by this we will bring Him contentment and discover that we act for His sake. We want to feel that all our groups and individual students from around the world are united into one heart, one desire—and He fills us. And the whole world unites around us, and we all become a single spiritual vessel.

This should be our prayer directed at the giving and correcting Force.
[57551]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/2011, “One Commandment”

Related Material:
Responsible For The World
The World Does Not See A Solution
The Light Will Spout Through Every Channel

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →