Question: If the Creator is my inner property, then who do I raise my prayer to?

Answer: You are raising it to that perfect property which you need to reach. To pray means to desire to obtain some connection with something you want to become closer to. A prayer is a desire, a need for connection, as it is said: “I desire!”

The connection can be external, meaning from a distance, or it can be close and more internal to the extent that there is no difference between us. In either case this is connection. There is nothing else in our reality besides being further or closer to something. I want to distance myself from something bad and be closer to something good to the extent that I become included in him or he becomes included in me.

The way that we feel our connection depends upon the spiritual degrees where we exist. If we sense the upper degree, then it is a more inner connection, where the AHP of the upper one exists in the GE of the lower one. If we sense the lower degree, we enter its inner part and act there.

However, there is nothing other than drawing further away or closer. My entire prayer and all desires are about this: to either become closer to something or distance myself from it.
[53310]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/2011, The Zohar

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Turning Above with an appeal (raising MAN) is an action we do not feel. It is a consequence of many actions, deeds, hours of study, work on dissemination, uniting with the group, and internal analysis. All of this accumulates more and more until we reach a state where this cup overflows.

That is the reason why a person does not know when it will happen. He is putting in the effort, training, trying to prepare himself, and finally, he comes to execute this action as a result of all the great, provisional preparation. Then, he can say something about it.

However, in reality, this action is accumulated outside of himself, and it actually is not him preparing and finally executing the action. That is why it is said: “Each penny is accumulated into a big account.” Then, this common, large account activates in the upper one, forcing it to take action. All of the actions obey the law of equivalence of form, and that is why it happens when the appeal of the lower one begins to correspond to what the upper one is ready to do to him.

MAN is a prayer, an appeal, a desire, with which I turn to Above, and this is the only thing that I am capable of doing. When I call to Above with an appeal, I do not know whether it is correct or not. I do not know whether I have or have not done it because a prayer is called “the work in the heart,” and that is why we do not feel how we raise the prayer, the sparks left behind after the breaking (Reshimot).

We do not know what is really going on in the depths of our heart, and we only feel the consequence when we receive the answer to our prayer. The answer is felt in the heart. It expands and begins to perceive new phenomena from a different dimension, which is something that a person has never felt, understood, or known before.

The heart widens as a person comes out of himself and incorporates more and more into his circle. First, his circle includes a part of the world and then, the entire world, all of the upper worlds, and the spiritual steps.
[52428]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/2011, Shamati #81

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Question: Two forces act in the world: the force of bestowal and the force of the desire to receive, created as existence from absence. What is my “I,” my intention? Where does it come from?

Answer: We do not feel the Creator because we are in one desire: the desire to enjoy. Even if I want to give, it is just for fun. In reality, I am confused in intention and action. My action can be either reception or bestowal. And it can be accompanied by the intention to receive for myself or the intention to give to the other. There is nothing else, and this is our whole life.

In our world, there is an action to receive and an action to give to the other, as well as the intention to receive for oneself. But the intention to give to the other is non-existent; I do not have that ability. I can give something to somebody or receive something from somebody, but my intention is directed exclusively at receiving for myself, whereas the intention to bestow to the other belongs to the spiritual world, but I cannot reach it. It is not my fault: I am created like that.

There is no confusion here at all: My entire routine is aimed at self-enjoyment.

What I need is an intention, and it is the most important thing for me (!), regardless of what action I perform: giving or receiving. I perform bestowal to my child, to those whom I love, to friends, and even to my employer because I receive a reward in a natural way or in money, in the form of respect, power, and so on.

The key here is the intention, according to which I operate. How can I achieve the intention for the sake of bestowal to fellow human beings? And what will it give me?

This is where the problem occurs. If all of reality exists outside of me, then what I currently receive inside is only its tiny part called “this world.” It is terribly small, tight, limited in time, space, and everything else, but by crossing to the other side, I will get rid of any limitations.

This is the difference between the intentions. If my intention is aimed at myself, I will not be able to feel anything greater than I perceive today. If my intention is directed at unity with the other, to be in him, then I save myself from this horrible life with its fatal end and ascend to the next degree of life; I live outside the body. The only difference is in intention.
[52692]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/2011, “One Commandment”

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Question: How is it that even in the spiritual world intention and desire don’t merge into a single whole, but remain two separate things?

My Answer: We must always be concerned with the intention. The desire will be revealed in compliance with the intention, but no more. The desire is revealed in accordance with the screen and the Reflected Light.

Indeed, my desire is very big—it is Malchut of the world of Infinity. But my screens can be different: from the smallest to the largest. The size of the screen is split into 125 “portions,” and if I reveal the desire along with them, then I am always in balance in that I have one intention.

Every one of us contains Malchut of Infinity, unbounded with all its Reshimot. Only a restriction is placed on it, and now it gradually reveals itself to us, but only in accordance with the size of the screen, or the intention.

Our behavior must be similar: Our whole work is done in the intentions, which determine the revelation of our desires. If the desires are revealed before the intentions, then we suffer. And conversely, if we care to develop the intentions first, then we walk the good path. In other words, if I cultivate the intention, then I walk the path of the Torah. But if the desire is revealed before the intention, then I develop by the path of suffering.

Our destiny lies between these two opportunities.
[52688]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/11, “One Commandment”

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Our task is to raise up all the sparks left from the breaking. They seem foreign to us now, as though they don’t pertain to us, but we need to choose them, bring them all together, and raise the collection of all souls or sparks to Malchut of the world of Atzilut. We join all of them to ourselves, since “every person is a small world.”

Due to such unification with friends, the world, and all the occurrences and events, we all unite and raise Adam HaRishon, the first man, to a single bestowal for the sake of the Creator, like it was before the sin. And then one great MAN, prayer, is formed, which is the final action of “Zivug Rav Palim UMikabtziel” (universal adhesion) that leads to the final correction.

We just need to collect all our actions, thoughts, and scrutiny for the sake of turning to Him with a prayer. This whole process occurs within us, but we don’t feel it or understand it now. This is our state until we enter the spiritual world and begin to raise MAN consciously, with understanding, feeling these spiritual acts, and making calculations.

In the spiritual world a person already uses the screen and engages in practical Kabbalah, working actively with the desire to receive, the screen, and the sparks. One knows precisely what he elucidates, to what degree he plans to rise, what types of Light affect him, and which forms of desires he puts into force. Talmud Eser Sefirot becomes a real instruction book for him.

We may think that compared to that state, our present state is completely unimportant. However, this is not true at all! In actuality, these preparatory states that go by unconsciously are the most important. It is like a child who grows most rapidly during his earliest stages of life. While he is a baby, certain changes occur in him every day. Then he begins to change from month to month, then year to year, until he stops growing completely.

Much the same way, while we work unconsciously, we go through the greatest stages of changes; we just are unable to recognize them. Therefore, we need to place great importance on our state in spite of anything, understanding the enormous benefit of each thought, action, and word that is directed toward the goal, and in particular, those that are performed for the sake of the studies, unification, and dissemination. Consequently, we will reach a conscious prayer.

A prayer, request, or a desire is our only action. Everything else is done by the Light. And if we wish to reach bestowal so that the “guest” would give to the “Host,” we only need to desire this! How able or unable we are doesn’t matter; the most important thing is for our actions to be directed properly.

Therefore, it is written that a person has no other work except prayer. All the strength and fulfillment come from Above, while all the demands and requests come from below.
[52514]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/11, “Shamati“

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[52552]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/11, The Book of Zohar

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Man begins with the unity of our thoughts and desires into the smallest possible vessel. And then it keeps growing larger as a result of the addition of newer and newer parts. In this way, he becomes man, Adam, stretched to the ends of the universe. And his connection, his mind and heart, is being built from all the broken pieces contained in each of us because each piece contains the mind and the heart inside of it.

The connection of these forces is similar to how matter forms in our world throughout the whole of the evolution on the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Matter started to unite in the same form. And when we start to unite our parts, we also go through the same steps, the still, vegetative, and animate, in the unity between people. These are called the spiritual states: embryo – nurturing – maturing (Ibur – Yenika – Mochin).

That is why all of our work depends on for the sake of what we are uniting—for the sake of the quality of bestowal to rule in us, meaning for the sake of the Creator, for the sake of His pleasure, or for the sake of ourselves in order to make it better for ourselves when we only think of our own condition in this world and about our bodies. Meaning that we are concerned with our bodily existence and not about gathering the image of man from our pieces.

That is why the “prayer of the 18 blessings” describes the spiritual path so well, the direction, the intention, the urge towards the next step, onto which the world, the human society has to rise to now. That is why the necessity for unity is being revealed. The only question is: For what sake does it happen?

And here, humanity divides into two parts. Those, who understand that unity is necessary for reaching the human level, the image of man. They are actively building this image. And the rest are related to the desire, and unite for the sake of a good life in this world.

This is the way they divide: the screen is called Israel and the desire is called all of the people who only need to connect to those who will do the work that is laid upon Israel.
[52557]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/11, Shamati

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Question: If there was a restriction on reception, why don’t we feel shame raising requests and prayers (MAN) above?

My Answer: We don’t feel shame because we ask for help for us to achieve bestowal, and not for our own sake. That’s nothing to be ashamed of!

You can counter, “but the entire correction occurs because of the shame felt by Malchut of the world of Infinity!” However, I don’t feel shame raising this request because I don’t demand for myself; rather, for myself I ask only the bare necessities, so that I could bestow the rest!

There is no shame in this. Just the opposite, there is honor here for me, because I will be able to bestow to others what no one else can give them! Everybody has such unique abilities in that the work performed by a particular individual cannot be performed by anyone else. That is because everyone has their own personal root in the common soul.

Therefore, it is allowed to ask for strength to live and be healthy, to receive knowledge and abilities—if these things are needed to carry out actions of bestowal. This is precisely what “life” is in the world of truth.

Such is my existence: My life is possible only to the extent that I can bestow. My actions are exclusively bestowal. And the spirit that flows through me sustains my existence, which is intended for bestowal. This is what is called a spiritual state.
[52522]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/11, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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Today we are finding ourselves in a special state where we are discovering that we won’t survive unless we attain the force of unity. But at the same time, we have to discern: Why do we need this force?

Is it in order to make our lives more comfortable on the level of this world, so instead of the evil force that rules over us, we would arm ourselves with the force of goodness and achieve balance on our current level? Or do we want to rise high to the force of bestowal so it would rule over us and reveal the greatness of that bestowal in and of itself?

Perhaps we aspire to the force of bestowal in order to simply use it to balance the force of reception and peacefully live in this world. In that case, we want to use the force of bestowal to help the force of egoism, which is called bestowal for the sake of reception. Or, do we want to attain reception for the sake of bestowal?

This is the question: Do we want the quality of bestowal to rule, or the egoistic quality? Therein lies our entire freedom of choice. This is described in the prayer called “the prayer of 18 blessings”—which mercy do I ask for?

Do I want to rise to the level of bestowal and give pleasure to the Creator, attain faith above reason, use all of my desires for the sake of bestowal, and even to receive for its sake so my entire desire would work for bestowal? Or do I talk only about life in this world and want to make it better?

This makes all the difference: Will I exist on the animate level or the human one? The difference between them is one of quality. On the animate level we perceive our life as the life of the body and feel this world the way we do today: our body and the surrounding world with everything taking place in it.

We live for the sake of this body’s existence, each person for himself. That is why we are willing to balance our lives with the force of bestowal in order to attain a more pleasant, comfortable, and peaceful existence. Or, do we rise to the human degree and obtain an eternal existence, above the world of matter?

Matter ends lower down, on the levels of still, vegetative, and animate. In our world there is no other degree, no human level. A human is a degree that includes the mind and the heart, meaning desire and thought, analysis.

This is what grows from our mind and heart, but not the bodily ones. Informational genes (Reshimot), data from the breaking, unite together: all of the hearts, all of the desires unite into one heart, like one man, and all of our intentions, meaning thoughts and the mind, unite as well. This unity creates the image of man—a certain virtual being that does not exist in matter, that does not consists of electrons and molecules that unite into a body.

We create it ourselves, uniting all of our thoughts and desires. That is how we start to exist on a higher level, called the human degree (Adam), which means “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator. Then all of our desires and intentions begin to operate as a spiritual vessel, with a desire inside and a screen above the desire.

This is the meaning of being human, or “prehuman” (Adam Kadmon), the man of the world of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. But our body is not called human. We call it human because we anticipate the future, expecting it to bring us to the state when we will become human.

This is what the prayer is about: to help us unite our hearts together, meaning our desires, thoughts, and intentions, so we would compile the complete image of man out of them, of an independent individual.
[52560]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/11, Shamati

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The end of correction, which Kabbalists describe in their writings, has to be realized in our world, in matter, in all our vilest, most “materialistic” relationships. This is the correction where “the darkness shines as Light” (Psalms 139:12) and “his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives” (Zechariah 14:4).

The animate part of me remains the same. My body does not start working for the sake of bestowal. Besides, it operates that way initially. The whole of nature, besides man, works for bestowal. We just don’t see that since we evaluate everything by our standards.

We think that animals only devour each other, but in reality, this is not true. We simply cannot attribute the intention to bestow to them because we do not feel or understand them. But in fact, nature rules over them directing them toward bestowal, and they obey its orders. However, the same cannot be said about man. He carries out the orders of his egoism, which is aimed at reception, and moreover, he mires nature by judging it according to his own faults.

When man corrects himself, he takes on the global form and sees the global picture. Simultaneously, we say that the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature become corrected as well, but what that means is that they become corrected in our new perception. Animals do not actually have to be corrected. It is you who will see that the wolf and sheep live in peace, just like today your eyes see that one eats the other.

In the article “The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation,” Baal HaSulam writes that you see wars and strife in the world because you are like that yourself.
[51696]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/11, “The Nation”

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