Question: What is a prayer from the bottom of the heart? Where is the innermost point located?

Answer: “The bottom of the heart” is such a deep desire in a person that he cannot reach it himself. There, in the deepest point of the heart, hides the upper force that maintains my entire heart, the entire desire it created. That is where the secret of life is concealed.

But if from the depth of the heart, from this innermost point inside of me where the Creator is found, who is the one that created me, supports me, and controls all of my thoughts and desires, I will be able to speak to Him, that means I have reached the right request.
[42110]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/11, Shamati

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When a person already understands that he has to ask the Light to make the changes, the entire difficulty lies in imagining what changes to ask for. That is why he is led through various states in order to understand what “his own good” means according to his egoistic desire, for the sake of a pleasant mood and fulfillment.

But precisely above all of these calculations, he has to desire to act in the opposite way, preferring for egoism to suffer for the sake of rising above it, and there to build a relationship with the Light, the Creator, “for the sake of bestowal.” All the situations he had to go through were necessary in order to help him establish this relationship with the Light. Then he understands that even though everything comes from the Light and the desire does not awaken, does not change, and overall does not exist without its influence and support, still the desire has an ability to awaken the Light. This action is called “awakening from below.”

It is possible only on the condition that the desire precisely understands itself and its entire egoistic nature. It has to ask for its opposite transformation so the Light would give it a new force, enabling him to rise above himself, to step on his own desire, to squash it and freeze it, and to build the act of bestowal above it. If we will be able to ask for this, this will be called “an awakening from below.

When we receive an addition from the Light, called “awakening from below’ (Itaruta de Leila), then according to our request the Light will give us the ability to rise above our ego and act contrary to our egoistic desire. That is how a person begins building his spiritual vessel (Kli).

A new desire is continually awakened in him, burning within and not letting him rest, demanding to be fulfilled egoistically on account of the neighbor. Nevertheless, he begins to recognize the true attitude to his desire, that he has to lock it up and not let it break through in order to build a screen and the intention for the sake of bestowal above it, enabling him to use the same desire in the opposite form.

When he sees that he is completely incapable of this and only the Creator can help him, he reaches a request called “an awakening from below, “ a MAN. And if he asks correctly then he receives an answer from above—a MAD, and then he unites in a mutual action with the Light.

From then on a person already has experience in building a relationships between himself and the Creator.
[42113]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/11, Shamati

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Our entire problem is that we do not hear the Creator’s hints. Quietly, the Creator constantly directs us, but we do not feel it. A person has to feel that the Creator is always whispering in his ear.

This is not a psychological problem and not external voices, nor a compulsive thought. This is our inner feeling that must constantly become more sensitive to perceiving the Creator’s voice.

I have to feel this inner voice inside of me, “Is this coming from Him or from me?” If I start perceiving these hints, they will help me very much. One must feel inside how He is constantly talking and hinting.

This won’t be pleasant. I will have to restrain myself and lead myself away from many weaknesses that I have, and sometimes will do the opposite. What can you do about it? A person has to find some way to relax. There are moments like that as well because a person is human.

However, in principle this sensitivity to the inner voice, as it is written, “I heard a voice,” is very important. This is not schizophrenia. It really is a very serious attunement similar to how a musical instrument is tuned in order for its sound to match the tuning fork, the pure note “A.” That is how one must feel: At what frequency can I “pick up” the Creator?

Question: How can we learn to discriminate the Creator’s voice among many others?

Answer: Only by your desire. There is no other way to do it. No one and nothing will help you. At the beginning of the previous century the Kabbalist Hazon Ish wrote the following in his book Faith and Confidence, “The quality of bestowal is a fine movement of a sensitive soul.” This is how he begins his book. We need precisely this fine attunement to the frequency at which the Creator broadcasts.

Question: What is this force that helps us to constantly keep this attunement and discriminate where and in what state I am in? Or does it not matter whether I feel good or bad?

Answer: What helps us to tune ourselves to this “fineness of the soul”? Only movement toward others, when I connect with others in spite of myself and in spite of all of the twists, turns and problems, and I try to tune myself.

All of these twists, turns, and problems are given to me deliberately. They indicate where I am still under-tuned. They show me my deviations from the necessary frequency. All the problems, troubles, and negative things are the expression of how much I am not tuned, that I still haven’t found the right resonance.

If a person perceives everything happening this way, in spite of anything that happens to him, if he does not lose the thought, “There is none else besides Him” and also tunes himself to, “If I don’t do it for myself, who will do it for me?” Then that’s all he needs.

Question: But where does he feel this voice inside?

Answer: In the movement toward the outside. The instrument in which the Creator is felt is a new resonating region inside of you that begins to resonate in relation to others.

This instrument is what we have to create. It is called “a soul.”
[41984]
From the lesson on 4/21/11

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Question: What is the correct prayer?

Answer: True, in order to be transformed, we only need to pray. The correct prayer is expressed in the words: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.”

Together with the whole world, all the friends, all the others, I wish to come to a state where we are all unified and thereby bestow pleasure to the Creator. In relation to us, He is good and does good. There is none else besides Him. So are we good and do good in relation to Him. There is none else besides us.

It is said that He and His name will be one. In other words, the Light and the vessel, the Creator and we, come to oneness, adhesion.

Question: Is this the collective prayer?

Answer: Yes, since you pray for everybody. It is that very prayer, the intention, Abraham was so eager to kindle in Babylon. He yearned to cause immediate correction: “Let’s cry out, let’s do this!”

“To pray” is to judge myself: How corrupted is my state of existence and what am I lacking in order to correct it? That is, a prayer is rather an analysis of the situation than a plea to the Creator. There is no one to ask since the upper Light stays at absolute rest. It contains thought and emotion, but when you pray, it is as if you wish to impose your qualities and sensations on the Light.

That’s where the problem lies: We need to transfer the emphasis to self-analysis. A prayer means that I examine myself: What am I lacking, what do I wish the Light to illuminate in me? Where I find a flaw, that’s where it falls and works on. Hence, I need to find my flaws, my needs.

I stand before the immutable Absolute, and everything in it is for the good. If this is so, what can I possibly ask for? Even without my asking, He bestows abundance. So it follows that I have to find in myself the spots that need correction. And that’s what a prayer is about. It is totally directed at me, at the search of what I am missing in order to become similar to bestowal, to the Light.
[41783]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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Our perception of the whole reality is very shaky since we don’t know how to relate to ourselves or the world in which we exist. Where do we exist and what do we feel now? Is it a dream or the truth? Is this world an objective reality or merely our temporary perception in distorted organs of perception? Possibly, when we correct our qualities from reception to bestowal, we will perceive a completely different world.

And this does not mean simply understanding it or feeling it better with the same senses that are more developed. Instead, I can completely change my sensations and perceptions that are attuned to reception and stop accepting reality egoistically; I can begin to perceive it in bestowal, an aspiration to my neighbor.

It turns out that instead of my own desire, I acquire the desires of others, and I begin to truly feel through them. And then I will sense a completely different world, another reality!

Who depicts this reality to us? Kabbalists say that it is the upper force, one, unique, and unified, besides which there is nothing else, which is good and does good to all, the wicked and the righteous alike. It is the upper Light that exists at absolute rest, and we can reveal it only by becoming equal to it in our qualities.

There are 125 degrees which correspond to the Light, and I will feel the upper Light in me to the extent that I receive the quality of bestowal, depending on the extent that I can correct myself and make myself similar to the upper Light which bestows kindness and all that is good. If I acquire the same qualities, I simply will exist in this quality of bestowal, thereby feeling it.

In other words, there is a force of bestowal called the “upper Light,” and a force of reception called “the creature.” If the creature acquires the force of bestowal over the force of reception, this force that begins to govern over it is perceived as fulfillment: a screen and the Reflected Light, the degree of bestowal that gives the creature a sensation of fulfillment.

How do we relate to this upper force? Will we ever be able to feel it, or do we just imagine it somehow according to the qualities in which we perceive it and the sensations, thoughts, and desires that are awakened in us? Kabbalists say that the upper force itself is Atzmuto, the essence of the Creator, which is not felt or attained by us. He has no form that we can perceive. However, to the extent that you try to draw closer to Him and become like Him, you will be able to understand various qualities that pertain to bestowal.

He is like a “giver” to you, but He himself has neither the quality of bestowal nor reception; He is above all this. Only His attitude towards the created beings is called “bestowal,” “love,” “giving.”

However, if it is written that He is “good and does good,” “there is none else besides Him,” “I did not change my name (HaVaYaH),” “the law is given and cannot be contravened,” which means that He is invariable, good, and perfect, then how can we ask Him for something? How can we ask Him to change and have pity on us?

This pertains only to the creature’s attitude which perceives the Creator in this manner and tells us about it, as it is written: “The Torah spoke in the language of the people.” Therefore, all our prayers and our attitude towards the Creator are essentially our attitude to ourselves, the way that I judge myself and desire to change in the direction of bestowal. However, all changes occur only in the created beings who, due to their own changes, feel that the picture of the Creator changes.
[41643]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/2011, Shamati No.1

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The soul’s reaction to the states it passes through is reflected in the words written by Kabbalists. That reaction is collected in the prayer book entitled Siddur (the “order” of undergone states). We don’t understand what the prayers describe, nor the soul’s impressions that are recorded in the appellations, letters, their combinations, or the arrangement of the words in the sentences.

The entire prayer book is organized so that for any soul that experiences transformations in a specific state this process is expressed in the same words of the prayer. It is not necessary to articulate the words out loud. The soul will feel them within; the prayer will become its internal construction.

Every letter is a certain order, a sequence of the forces that receive and bestow. Additionally, within the letters, there are “vowel marks,” the fillings, a complete TANTA (Ta’amim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot or lights, points, crowns above letters, and letters), the states we are going through.

Our internal desires alter and assume all kinds of forms that instill various feelings in us. In turn, when transferred to paper these sensations receive a specific form of spiritual elements in letters, words, and sentences.

In other words, a prayer is an external expression of internal spiritual sensations. A person doesn’t really need a prayer book. If he is experiencing such internal states, they will become his prayer.

A prayer book is needed in order to look at the shape of the letters and visualize (if we are already able to do so) what states we need to undergo, to imagine what awaits us ahead. If I am already in the spiritual world, then based on what I am reading in the prayer book, I can somewhat perceive what is going to happen to me, what states I am going to enter.

In this world, I am familiar with various human emotions. Hence, while reading a novel for example, I can feel and experience the events being described internally. The same goes for the spiritual world.
[41128]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Only a person who, in sync with the root of his or her soul, desires to find one, unified, upper force that governs reality, is “helped” from Above and sent obstacles. The Creator keeps revealing new desires in him or her, which lure them in various directions. So, one forgets that there is none else besides the Creator and gets entangled again and is unable to assemble the image of the unique upper force within to which one should be turning.

All these difficulties are the help from Above sent in the form of obstacles to someone who possesses an aspiration toward finding the Creator. And a person thinks that the others succeed in keeping this one picture, one sensation that there is none else but the Creator. But for him, this image constantly fades away and gets lost.

It is easy for the world to say it, but he is the only one for whom it’s hard, and he constantly struggles through it as if in a fog and doesn’t understand who acts: himself, the Creator, or both of them together, and what relationship should be formed with Him. Nothing is clear.

It seems unfair that he gets only hardships from the Creator instead of help. Is that how a loving and kind Creator would act? Why then does He use such cunning devices and set man up for such problems in life and from which we don’t know how to escape?

A person thinks that even the most ruthless person wouldn’t do this. After all, where does all the cruelty in the world come from if not from the very same upper force? All of the most brutal and horrible things come from only one force, and moreover, we have to decide that this force is good, endlessly loving, and working solely for the good, is that it?

If we take a look at the world, it’s impossible to acknowledge this. We only get convinced of how easy it is to confuse us and it  makes us doubt the uniqueness of the upper force, when we see the world before us, filled with pain, problems, violence, terror, and hate.

Is it not the same upper force that causes it? Surely so, since there is none else but Him, and we don’t do anything ourselves. I see with my own eyes that the world is ruled by the force of evil not the force of good. And try as I may to hold myself to the thought that there is none else besides the good Creator, I balance as if on the point of  needle and am about to fall. After all, from every direction I receive proof of the very opposite, and it seems quite real to me.

I can’t even close my eyes to what is happening and lie to myself. I see that I simply must get to know the Creator! And then, a true need emerges in me. I am not willing to view Him as an evil force! But for me to experience Him as the good force, I require His help.
[41542]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1

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It is necessary to understand that we are before the Creator, the force that is good and does good, and that there is none else besides Him. What will you ask of Him? He treats you 100% well and doesn’t change. What will you ask, that He should treat you 101% well?

Our plea to the Creator is regarded as the development of our sensory organs. Then, by arranging our desire, constantly molding it into a more correct form, we reach a state where we must know the Creator in all His totality, His authentic form. And this is regarded as a prayer, after which we get to know the Creator.

We don’t order any actions of the Creator. After all, He is “one, unique, and unified” and “there is none else besides Him.” It can be said that He acts constantly or not at all, while we reside in Him and that’s it; He does not change. It all depends on how we view the Creator.

Thus, to pray, in Hebrew, means to “judge oneself.” We judge ourselves or change, and due to our internal transformations, feel a new, other reality. Hence, we always speak on behalf of desires (Kelim), whereas the Light, or the Creator, is at absolute rest.

Therefore, a plea to the Creator reflects solely to what extent I have corrected myself and acquired new organs of perception, in which I reach the revelation of “There is none besides Him, the good who does good.” And no action ever derives from the Creator as such.
[41540]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1

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Question: Ever since we started studying the article “There is none else besides Him,” I feel totally confused about the intention. If the upper Light is constantly at work, doing 100%, then what is the “Light that reforms?” And whom do I ask for it? From whom do I demand it for others? What works here if everything is inside of me?

Answer: Suppose I have a remote control. I press a button and activate some kind of mechanism. Nowadays there are many devices that work this way. However, if you were to show this to a person who lived 100 years ago, he would think that you are simply an angel that performs miracles: You press a button and suddenly the glass turns into a picture….

That is, using the remote control I can activate various systems. For example, I press a button and you, who are looking at a piece of glass (a screen), start to receive all sorts of impressions. You start crying and then laughing, experiencing worry and then joy. It turns out that by simply pressing a button, I made such a powerful impact on you. I influenced a friend.

Kabbalists say that when reading The Book of Zohar, it’s as if you are holding the remote control to all the souls and they depend on you. Think about how you awaken them! This is called “pressing a button.” If you think about this, then you “press the button” and activate an influence that causes them to begin awakening.

Everything depends on how much you desire for this to happen and how many other people also aspire to awaken others. All the efforts must be both qualitative and quantitative.

That is how we awaken one another. No one can awaken himself. Every person can attain this spiritual community called “the group” only in order to awaken others. Otherwise, he does not even come in contact with the group. That’s because the group is like Malchut of the world of Atzilut.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/11, The Zohar

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The upper Light leads a person through many ascents and descents, continuously giving him the sensation that only the Creator can help him. After all, He’s the one who sent me all of the troubles in order to finally teach me to pray for redemption.

The redemption is the revelation of the Creator; I ask precisely in order to live under His single power, which is the only thing that exists. I don’t want to get confused any longer or to feel any other forces. Even though I understand that all forces come from Him, yet I want to be controlled just by this single force—the force of bestowal and love for the neighbor.

I want to reveal Him because this is the truth! All my other states are a lie. Only then a demand and outcry is born in a person to which the upper force brings him. This force had always played with him, confusing him to increase his self-assurance, creating difficulties for him so he would become stronger.

That is how a person reaches a prayer and reveals the Creator. Now he does not search for the Creator in order to get rid of all his troubles and searches, but wants to be under the power of “There is none else besides Him.” This means
coming out of Pharaoh’s slavery and becoming a slave of the Creator.
[41546]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati #1

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