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

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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”

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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

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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”

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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”

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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”

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Question: What is the inner meaning of the holidays, of all the symbols that Kabbalists gave us: Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)? Do they symbolize some special connections between us?

Answer: These are connections, but between the souls on high spiritual levels. The souls raise a prayer (MAN) to connect and to reach mutual bestowal, and from the mutual bestowal, their common vessel, they have an opportunity to bestow upon the Light, upon the Creator. These souls connect in Malchut of the world of Atzilut, and then in their prayer they determine to what extent they compel Malchut of the world of Atzilut to rise together with Zeir Anpin: either to YESHSUT or to Aba ve Ima, or that YESHSUT together with Aba ve Ima will rise to Arich Anpin, which in itself consists of many steps.

The ascent from Aba ve Ima to the head of Arich Anpin constitutes the essence of all holidays, Sabbaths, and the beginnings of the month (Rosh Hodesh). Even every weekday is a certain ascent of the souls with regard to ZON of the world of Atzilut. All the holidays, festivals, and special years (like Shmita [Sabbatical Year] and Jubilee) are special degrees that symbolize to what extent I compel ZON to rise upward and pass down on me the Surrounding Light so that I can bring about the general connection and create a corrected vessel.

Some ascents take place according to a plan from Above for the souls that need correction. And some take place due to a prayer raised from below.

Similarly, we too assemble in conventions and large gatherings, which allows us to feel as if we rise above our ordinary level. There are cases when this ascent occurs on its own, and we don’t know where it comes from. Suddenly our condition becomes more illuminated, more pleasant, and spirituality becomes more esteemed in our eyes. Similar ascents also occur on the spiritual ladder.

If you want to know the exact meaning of every holiday, you can refer directly to the Ari’s Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot (The Gate of Intentions) or to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 15 by Baal HaSulam. Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot explains every holiday in great length, but in a very dry Kabbalistic language: ZON rise to Aba ve Ima and Aba ve Ima to Arich Anpin and describes the finest details of every ascent. This is because every ascent, even the smallest one, is a whole world by itself. At this height, every minor difference between the levels leads to an immense addition of the Light.

At the end of all the holidays and ascents we reach the end of correction. Then all the holidays are annulled except for Purim because it symbolizes the end of correction—all the Light fills the entire vessel completely.
[57201]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/2011, Shamati #85

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In the past, Kabbalists who wished to reveal the spiritual world had to start in our world and work through it, through various sciences, with enormous efforts and suffering, meaning they had to pull themselves directly from matter itself to the revelation of the spiritual world and reveal the correct system of connections between people.

But then the compositions of the Ari were revealed, in which he explains about the inner connections that unite us through various special systems of relationships: ZON, YESHSUT, Aba ve Ima, Arich Anpin, and so on. By that he explains to us what forms of connection we can be in, how their different connections influence us, and how we can influence them ourselves and awaken these forms of connection. What happens there is the same thing as in our world, but in the quality of bestowal.

Just like in our world where we are able to activate certain types of connections so they would in turn begin influencing us, the same net of relationships connects us in the spiritual world as well, except that it is more internal. Thus, we go from materialistic psychology to the spiritual one, and then we reveal the true connection between the souls, the people living now and the people who lived before. It does not matter whether a person exists in this world right now or not. What’s important is to tune into this net. Then it’s as if our world evaporates, loses its importance because it is just an external imprint through which we have to enter inside.

The Ari described all of this, and the Baal Shem Tov taught how to work with all of the soul’s loyalty (Mesirut Nefesh), saying, “The Creator is your shadow.” And now, after all of this, by working in the group (which was restored by Baal Shem Tov anew, after Rashbi) we can draw the Light that reforms from this net. We do not simply attain it with our desires and forces, but attract an illumination called the Light that reforms, the Light of the Torah, the Surrounding Light, to ourselves from above, from this net.

After all, if we study the structure of this system and aspire to it all together, wishing to organize the same forms of connection among us, then it doesn’t even matter whether we understand it or not—our effort will awaken the influence of this force upon us.

It’s just like in our world: If we want to attain any system, then we become part of it, study it in various forms, and gradually begin to feel it. Suddenly, a picture of this system comes together inside of us and we understand what this is and how it is possible to connect and work with it. The same thing happens in the spiritual world: Only a person’s intention changes. When he becomes included in the upper system, he does it for the sake of bestowing himself to this system. The more he becomes included in it, the further he advances toward revealing it.

This requires great work with the teacher, the friends, the whole world, and the studies. All of this connects together.
[56245]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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You have to check whether you hate your enemies and opponents, or you understand that they are controlled by the Creator, who is protecting you in this way by not letting your opinions coincide with regular people and the material world and helping you follow just the primary sources. That is how you have to purify yourself, checking everything that is happening to you. Don’t regret or be worried about anything besides the purity of the path, so the goal of your private life and the goal of creation come together in one focus.

It doesn’t matter if you see that until this moment, you were confused by various egoistic calculations. You should always know that everything you have gone through until now amounts to “There is none else besides Him.” However, from this moment on, “No one will help me but myself.” If you are between these two conditions, then you really can say that you have reached the beginning of the new year, a new beginning.

However, the final goal that is present as far back as the initial plan has to be the attainment of love for one’s neighbor. If you have personal problems with someone, then you are no longer moving in the right direction. If you wish to rise above others, to acquire knowledge and fulfillment, or even if you want to bestow, you should also check whether or not this bestowal is egoistic.

That way, your calculations will become purer and purer, until you finally reach the first day of the New Year, when man was created. Everything begins with creating yourself.

This will occur each and every time: There are four new years, each having its own calculation and a new beginning, until a person completes all of his corrections.

The verification is to check to what extent your inner judge is not bribed, how honest and sharp he is, like a brave warrior willing to rise above all of his personal calculations. And this is not easy. This requires one calculation after another, until reaching the entire depth that a person is allowed to delve into.

However, all of this is not intended for you to nag at yourself, but on the contrary, to aspire “to see the Light in the Light of the Creator.” One should try to see everything in the light of love for the neighbor, and check oneself in relation to this standard. And don’t pay attention to all of your collisions with others because this could be the Creator’s way of confusing you by making you see others in this way, or confusing them by setting them against you. It is written, “Don’t judge another person until you are in his shoes.” Maybe the other person is so much higher than you that you simply haven’t matured enough to understand him.

Just be loyal to the Creator at all times, and advance with this.

Therefore, if we have the teaching of the Rabash, his articles that explain how to unite into a group, as well as articles by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists, showing us the path and containing the Light that reforms, then the longer we check ourselves according to these primary sources, the more correctly we will advance. And the most important thing is not to be afraid of anything!

We shouldn’t be scared that the path is so difficult, burdened by so many doubts, which our ego awakens in us with its constant calculations. We shouldn’t look at this, but try to attain repentance as fast as possible, which is a spiritual calculation, and raise ourselves to the beginning of the new year, the new level. The goal is reached by one who gives up everything else for it.
[55778]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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Holidays and special days described in Kabbalah are not dates on the regular calendar, but the attainment of one’s own, special, personal states where a person makes a fundamental inner calculation with himself. If a person reaches this calculation, it means he really has a new beginning, called the new year, Rosh Hashanah. And accordingly, he attains the holiday prayer.

Every holiday is a spiritual calculation and a prayer because there is nothing besides the correction of our desires. But the beginning of the new year is special because it comes after many discernments. It comes only once a person has checked himself completely, discerning all of the desires that become revealed to him, because every higher level includes all of the previous ones as a tiny part of it.

However, when a person makes a calculation with all of his actions and thoughts, he sees that he did not attain success, that he does not advance because he wasn’t created for spiritual ascension at all. He is then overcome by burdensome thoughts about spirituality and by doubt and envy toward others. He wants to be above them and thinks, “Why them and not me?”

After many calculations like this, having become completely lost in them, he finally feels that he needs a new beginning. There is no way out because all of these calculations, discernments, criticisms, envy, and hatred do not change for years. And the only thing left for him is prayer, a cry for help because only the upper force can help. This inner cry is called the prayer of Rosh Hashanah, the new beginning.

Before this happens, a person seems himself as completely lost. He sees that the whole world disagrees with what he is doing and he himself also does not understand what is happening to him or what this path is. All of this criticism comes from his egoism.

That is why the prayer talks about reminders, the need to analyze all of one’s desires and actions, and about blowing into the horn (Shofar) because we have to elevate our spiritual path regardless of anything (in Aramaic, Shufra means beauty). That is when one has to turn to the primary sources in order to advance.

There are many opinions and people in the world influencing a person, imbuing him with their thoughts, and pulling him in different directions. Yet one has to place a strict judge above himself and constantly verify himself with the primary sources to the extent one understands what is written there. In spite of one’s ego, one’s desire to rise, profit, and become higher than others, one should strive for the opposite, wishing to acquire only the force of bestowal and to dissolve in the nation within which the Creator dwells.
[55785]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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