Question: What prevents a person from reaching the prayer of society if he already sees that all his intentions are for his own sake?

Answer: The problem is that a person understands that his intentions are egoistic, but he is willing to tolerate that. That’s because he only sees how ugly these intentions are, but he doesn’t understand what kind of harm they cause him. This is the entire problem!

If I simply accept the fact that I am an egoist, then so what? But I have to feel how this is killing me. Only then will I be able to separate from my egoistic intentions. My own ego will separate me from the thing that causes me harm.

So at first, I separate from my egoistic thoughts by virtue of egoism itself. That means Pharaoh brings the sons of Israel closer to the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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Everything depends on the intention with which a person approaches the environment from the very beginning. Does he come to the environment (the teacher, the books, and the group) to profit egoistically and receive knowledge, status, satisfy his pride? Or does he want to receive from the environment the property of bestowal, the shape of the Creator who hides inside the society?

If a person approaches the environment, the society correctly, he finds the Creator’s properties there. This is called: “The Creator dwells among His people.” This is the main test of one’s attitude.

Naturally, when we just start our path, we come with ordinary egoistic desires accepted in this world. And even though we are ready to listen to the nice words about love of others and bestowal, we nevertheless count on gaining something for our egoism.

And only under the condition that a person is in the right environment for a considerable period of time and absorbs its external forms of bestowal, lowering himself or herself before the teacher, the books, and the group, he gradually receives from them a force for comprehending and sensing spirituality, the force of unification. This force helps him realize that unification is not achieved through external actions: screaming, jumping, or rejoicing, but requires constant, hidden inner work invisible to the eye.

This work is performed at what is called “night.” And then a person gradually begins to acquire the property of bestowal. The transition takes place when a person begins to see the environment, its inner potential as the force that can correct him. He understands that without this force, he will be lost. This gives raise to the “prayer of the many.”

When a person realizes that one has to pray for the society, he acquires the intention for the sake of bestowal, the “garment” of the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), the right garment for his desire to receive.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11, Preparation for the WE! Convention

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Question: I have a very strong desire to advance and reach bestowal, but I am totally confused. Where should I turn: within, to the group, or to the Creator?

Answer: A person doesn’t know what the true prayer is. For the time being, he simply feels pressure and doesn’t comprehend what is happening with him and where to turn. Only after a long time, when he reaches contact with the Creator through the friends, does he begin to visualize his appeal, the prayer, correctly.

But for now, it is simply an outcry from the heart. And don’t dread it too much that you are all tangled up and don’t understand; after all, you don’t really know what is going on within you. For now, you register only external changes and corporeal experiences in this outer shell that you are in. But inside, your soul looks like a “matryoshka” (a Russian nesting doll), and each of us contains 125 such internal nesting parts.

At present, you perceive only the very outermost “matryoshka” (shell) which doesn’t yet have anything to do with the 125 ones. But the rest of your inner “matryoshkas” are affecting you as well. And even though right now you feel that you are performing some puny actions (since you don’t feel their results), but by using them, you activate the parts of your internal soul.

Therefore, we need to treat seriously everything we do even when we just seem to sing and have a good time with the friends, and we think that this is something silly. But thereby, you set the whole worlds in motion, like an embryo inside his mother, who determines her entire existence without having any idea of it, or as a newborn baby who doesn’t understand why a dozen of people are suddenly working for him.

So it is with us, while we still don’t understand anything about spirituality. But the moment we at least somewhat start yearning for it, we immediately activate all our inner spiritual systems and all upper worlds!

And so it follows that you are still far from seeing and being able to understand the impact you cause and what you are doing, but it doesn’t matter. The key is to keep doing whatever you are able to do today.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Behind every word or phrase of The Zohar, we have to try to recognize forms of connection between man and his environment. In essence, this is exactly what The Zohar describes. There is nothing more in reality besides the forms of connection between a person and those around him.

Even now, when I see people and the walls of this room in front of me or hear the noises coming from outside, all of these are forms of connection between us. There is nothing besides these forces connecting us, which are forces of desire which appear this way to me in my earthly perception of reality.

In the same way, if we try, then we will begin to imagine other kinds of our connection, other forces which don’t operate inside reception, but inside bestowal among us. Then we will see that in reality, there have never been egoistic connections between us. We felt them like in a dream so that based on this illusory connection, which is opposite to the true one, we would recognize the true connection, the only one that exists in contrast from the illusory life—the desire to enjoy with all of its power.

After all, this desire existed only in order for us to transform it into the desire to bestow. The Creator supports it in this artificial form, but it does not have any real essence of its own. Only the force of bestowal exists in the world.

That is why The Zohar describes all the varieties of the force of bestowal to us, which we reveal in all the various forms, as well as the forces of reception standing opposite them, being the basis upon which the forces of bestowal are revealed in the process of man’s inner war.

This is the only thing we have to think about while reading The Book of Zohar, making efforts so the revelation of these spiritual levels will help us and will become revealed in us so we will include them inside of us.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/11, The Zohar

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We have just been reading The Zohar for over half an hour. I ask you, during all of this time, how many moments did each of you yearn for the arrival of the Light that reforms, expecting something to happen? It is written that the angels asks a person after he dies, “Did you study the Torah and did you await salvation?”

How many moments did you spend in exertion, trying not to miss out and to "catch" something very important, like a goalee guarding the gate, or a hunter chasing prey? Were you passionately anticipating it, the way you might feel before a long-awaited date with your beloved? How long did you remain in this state? How many times did you return to this aspiration again?

Only these moments count in life. They are summarized and they determine the speed of life. The other moments don’t really exist….
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/11, The Zohar

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Question: What is intention?

Answer: Intention is what you desire from your state. The important thing isn’t what you say or do, but precisely where you aim, what result you expect from the present state, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s yours or ours.

Stated differently, how do you want to see your following state? How do you envision it now? What will you do: bestow to the Creator, receive for yourself, earn, steal, pass on, give out? How do you envision yourself in the next state? This is your intention.

That is why only the human has intentions. He is the only one in all of creation that is outside of time. The intention does not operate in the material time, but in spiritual time, which lies above our desire.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Usually it is customary for different nations to hold holidays as a way of honoring certain historical events that took place in this world. But since the nation of Israel once separated from the other nations to carry out a special mission, to realize the correction of human nature upon itself and then to bring all of humanity to this, its holidays, therefore, have a special meaning related to that.

The Scroll (Megilat) of Ester, which is devoted to Purim and which talks about Mordechai, the King Ahashverosh, and Queen Ester who saved the Jews from destruction after the evil Haman planned to kill them, actually explains how to attain that goal. That is why it is written that all the holidays will be canceled in the future with the exception of the holiday of Purim because on that holiday, on that level, the greatest Light shines, which includes all of the previous levels.

All the holidays of the nation of Israel are symbols of special states on the ladder of the spiritual levels which we ascend from this world to the world of Infinity, attaining increasingly greater equivalence to the Creator through bestowal, love, and unification among us. Therefore, every higher level includes all the lower levels as its constituent parts. Purim, the highest level, obviously includes all the previous, smaller levels which are canceled before it and enter it. In the end, not a single holiday remains besides the holiday of Purim.

How do we reach this holiday? Our entire work is based on raising a prayer (MAN) for unification and love among us, which we are trying to attain. All of our work is devoted to correcting the division. At first we have to unite on the level of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” which means the quality of Mordechai.

When we reach “the king’s gate” (as the story tells about Mordechai who sat by the king’s gate), there we meet our Haman, the huge and horrifying egoistic desire that becomes revealed to us. Then we have to correct it and receive Light into its Kelim with the intention of Mordechai, “for the sake of bestowal.” That is how one can receive the Light of Mordechai into the Kelim of Haman and attain the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).

We have to take the force, the “spiritual vessel” from our nature, our egoistic desire, and add to these desires the intention “for the sake of bestowal” so it would begin to rule over us, “to saddle the desire” like Mordechai who rides on top of a horse.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/11, Shamati

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Question: The holiday of Purim symbolizes the opposition of two forces: Mordechai and Haman. Then why are we commanded to get so drunk on this day that we can’t tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai?

Answer: This happens after the analysis where you use all of the Kelim, when everything is already clear to the utmost. You have hung Haman and his ten sons on a tree, or in other words, on the tail of the letter Kuf (ק). No more illumination comes beneath the Tabur in order to give life to the impure forces (Klipot). There are no Klipot since you have destroyed all the egoistic intentions.

Previously intentions for the sake of reception, Klipa were below. Klipa lives by virtue of the illumination from above. Above the Tabur are the letters or qualities of Kuf (ק), Reish (ר) , Shin (ש), and Tav (ת). Previously the tip of Tav also descended down, but its “leg was cut off” and now only Kuf descends beneath the Tabur. This means that the Lights descend down, giving life to the Klipa.

This is necessary because the Klipa helps us. It has to exist in order to give us the opportunity of free choice, to place us between good and evil.

Here, below, are Haman and his “family”—all of the egoistic qualities that have joined him. It is important to remember that this is talking precisely about intentions for the sake of reception, rather than about desires. After all, desire is just matter.

After that, from Yesod of Zeir Anpin to Nukva comes the illumination of Mordechai. It comes as a result of the ascent of a plea (MAN) from the souls of Israel, which are below, under the rule of Haman. Then they are all able to ascend upwards with the help of the illumination called Purim—the illumination of Mordechai.

In that case only Haman with his family remain below. After that the leg of the letter Kuf is annulled so the Klipot would no longer receive an illumination, or in other words, Haman is hung on the tree. Then the Klipot inside each of us die because they no longer realize or feel the opportunity to steal or to attain anything.

That is where it all ends. All the egoistic intentions disappear due to not having a footing and everything shifts above the Parsa, into the intention for the sake of bestowal, into the approaching end of correction. Now all of your Kelim are covered by the altruistic intention and you fill them with the Light of Hochma without any restrictions. That is because you have created great, perfect screens which free you from the necessity to make calculations.

The entire matter of Haman, who is under the power of the egoistic desire, has shifted to the altruistic intention. Stated differently, all the desires that were below have ascended upwards. They divided into two groups of 248 and 365 desires, and now even the lowers ones are above because you have cut off the egoistic intentions from them. Thus, nothing remains below.

And since there is nothing below, holiness (Kedusha) expands from Raglin until Sium, until the Mount of Olives.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Why is it so difficult to keep the intention while reading The Book of Zohar, or to imagine the connection between us and to grab on to the text? What should we do?

Answer: If a person found himself in a great disaster and was told, “Read this text for half an hour and there you will reveal how to get out of the disaster,” then you can imagine how he would spend that half hour. Would it be difficult for him to concentrate on it? What kind of pressure and hope would he feel in trying to penetrate inside the text, to understand what is being required of him, what he can find there, what kind of salvation is there, and how it will arrive….

Everything depends on the environment, on how much it “warms up” this inner attitude to The Zohar’s text. All other Kabbalistic texts are beneficial to a smaller extent with regard to their text’s influence on the reader because when reading them we can involve the mind and feelings, and somehow connect them to ourselves.

The Torah, in turn, is perfect, pure, unattainable, “in the heavens.” What does “pure” (Tmima) mean? No one touches it. It is the upper Light. We only wait for the results from it that will manifest in us.

Only the group can give me this attitude to reading The Zohar so I would passionately wish to receive a result from it. Otherwise it won’t happen.

We have already gone through this state when we just began reading The Zohar. During the first few months people were so inspired that this common excitement influenced every person and every person felt the surrounding illumination to some extent, feeling the power of The Zohar’s influence upon him.

Now this inspiration has waned because at first we received it from above, whereas now we have to develop it ourselves. Nothing happens by itself in nature. You receive an initial awakening and then it is taken away so you would add it from your own end, so you would complete the space that has been emptied of inspiration from above with your own efforts.

If we don’t add to it ourselves, then we cannot keep the intention for correction over the course of 45 minutes while reading The Zohar, and we just wait for the lesson to be over. If we don’t awaken a person, if we don’t stimulate the inner vibrations in him so he would feel like a sick person facing the only means of salvation, the only opportunity to be healed and saved from disaster, then of course it is difficult for him to keep the intention and to grab on to the text. In essence, he blames us because we do not let him feel the vital necessity of this, meaning the importance of the goal.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/11, The Zohar

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Question: What remains unchangeable in a person who develops spiritually and what changes in him?

Answer: The only thing that doesn’t change is the intention toward the right goal which he sometimes tries to create. Besides this, everything else changes and nothing remains. You lose everything besides the right intention if you have created it. Everything else only seems to belong to you, including your existence, and it is given to you only to create the intention.

This world and the spiritual world are not taken into account. Only the intention remains which we can create as a result of our efforts. This is the spiritual vessel, the soul.

In that intention you see the eternal reality, meaning yourself. What is the true reality? It is the degree of your revelation of yourself in the upper Light, in equivalence to it, in becoming identical to it. All of this becomes revealed only in the intention, and nothing remains besides it.

There is nothing besides the intention. This means that nothing else exists in reality. Everything else is imaginary and only seems to exist right now in order for you to attain the intention. After all, you have to live inside something. Who creates the intention? It’s the person whom you now perceive as yourself, living and existing in this world. Why do you need this? It’s in order to form the intention.

When you complete creating your intention from the beginning of the ladder of the spiritual degrees and until its end, then this entire world, this entire reality disappears because in reality it did not exist. It only seemed to exist to you in order for you to develop the right intention.

Now understand how important is the activity you are engaging in—the creation of your eternal image, the human who is similar to the Creator.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/11, The Zohar

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