The Zohar, Introduction, “The Intention in the Blessing,” Item 16: …For this reason, the blessing that a person blesses the Creator awakens to bestow upon the Creator blessings from above to all the worlds.

Question: What is a blessing?

Answer: A blessing is a special force from above, the force of Bina that influences Malchut. The Creator is called Blessed if I turn to Him from Malchut with the request for the forces of bestowal to come to me, to enter me, and become part of me.

When I include these forces inside of me, it means I receive a blessing, the qualities of Bina that become included in Malchut. According to these qualities, which I received from the Creator, I can call Him Blessed. Otherwise I do not have the same qualities for which I can value and thank Him.

Why do I want to receive these qualities from Bina? It’s so that I won’t curse the Creator, but will bless Him. That is to say, all of the corrections that I try to acquire are not for my own benefit, but only in order to love, to respect, and to bless the Creator.

Therefore, the words “Blessed are You” in the blessings of prayer mean that I have already gone through the corrections enabling me to work for the sake of bestowal, that I have received blessing from Him, and am now in the quality of bestowal and love. And I bless the Creator for this opportunity.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/11, The Zohar

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Question: How should women support the unification among the men?

Answer: This is a very powerful and important action from the women’s end. They can motivate the men to advance spiritually, to unite, to study, and to disseminate.

In the same way, in the spiritual world, Zeir Anpin starts moving and acting only when Malchut, the female part, motivates him to do so by raising MAN to him and demanding correction.

A man will not awaken without a woman and her desire—both at home and in the group. Therefore, the female part has to wake up and awaken the male part because otherwise the men won’t attain the goal.

We turn to all the women of the world Kli, asking them to unite together and put pressure on the men in different ways. Then the men will feel that they have to advance and that they cannot calm down.
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From the talk on women on 3/8/11

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All our prayers can only be for the desire to bestow. But when a desire does not come true for a long time, a person reaches despair because he still exists with desires to enjoy.

If I had bestowing desires, I would not despair. I would be fulfilled by my anticipation. But since my desires are egoistic, my aspiration to bestowal does not fulfill me.

That is when a person falls. It says: Woe to the one who abandons his efforts before he has completed them. That is when the group has to help a person endure so that he would be able to add another drop above that boundary of despair he has attained, no matter how much he is no longer able to. This is exactly the place where he has to add a little bit more effort—in the same place where it seemed that he has reached total despair, by using the additional force he received from the environment.

These additions are what build the passageway into the spiritual world. After all, they awaken us to an additional prayer, which is answered by the Light that comes and turns the desire into a bestowing one.

Then we begin to enjoy bestowal in which there can never be disillusionment! There is no restriction in the world of bestowal. The whole world is in front of you—go ahead, be fulfilled without any limits, infinitely! Do anything you want!

After all, if your intention is to bestow to the neighbor, then there are no restrictions for you.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/11, Writings of Rabash

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A big stage on our path is the stage of acquiring the quality of faith, or in other words, the quality of bestowal. To the degree we acquire it, we ascend above our nature and dress the quality of bestowal over our quality of reception.

As a result, we receive a full vestment on all of our desires, on all of their facets, and all the various kinds of mixtures between them. After that we continue our ascent, but already towards total faith. This means that we go from simple faith to the second stage of correction and acquire the quality of love. Then we correct our desires, filling them with the light of Hochma, pleasure, and by means of that we achieve bestowal.

Thus, the first stage is Hafetz Hesed, the level of Bina where we just correct the receiving desire by the altruistic intention, which clothes on it by the quality of faith, bestowal. That is how we attain the first three Sefirot of Bina.

Then we go on to its seven lower Sefirot, acquiring the ability to attach foreign Kelim or desires to ourselves, thereby correcting and filling them. Just like Bina, which fulfills the lower ones, we can also fulfill other Kelim.

How is this so if they are foreign for now and I cannot do this? The fact is that I fill them when I attach them to me so they are inside of me like at the stage of conception, or nursing, or the adult state (Mochin). That is my attitude to them.

This is already called perfect faith, the light of Hassadim with the fulfillment of the Light of Hochma.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Zohar, Introduction, “General Explanations for All Fourteen Commandments and How They Divide Into the Seven Days of ‘Creation’,” Item 1: …Rabbi Shimon explains the fourteen Mitzvot, which include all 613 Mitzvot, as the seven days of creation include 7,000 years. This is why he divided them into seven days of creation and tied each to its ascribed day. And since they include all 613 Mitzvot, it is worthwhile exerting to keep each day.

What does it mean to observe a commandment (Mitzva)? How do I even know what that commandment is? And what can I do now if I don’t even know what it is talking about?

Nevertheless, I have to read this text with the intention that it will correct me. After all, for now we don’t even know how to connect to the text or extract the spiritual action from it so it would become an instruction manual for us, the Torah, because “Torah” comes from the word “Oraa,” instructions. For it is written, “A man’s soul shall teach him.”

When each of us will have a soul instead of its embryo or spiritual spark, then inside of our soul we will reveal various phenomena. These phenomena will become “my book,” “my Torah,” my revelation, according to the instruction to write the Torah on one’s heart, where the heart refers to all of a person’s desires.
From them we will find out how to advance, how to take the next steps, and will take them inside of us. That is exactly how we will perform various actions inside of us according to the instruction manual.

But for now we are looking at the instruction manual without realizing what the instructions are saying. We do not know what it is talking about because we do not feel what each of them is talking about inside of us, where various parts of our soul are, and what connection between them is.

Therefore, we must only ask and pray to reveal the inner structure of our soul: Where are these desires in the states that are being described, what exactly is the book talking about, and what actions does it describe which we must perform inside of us?

The intention to desire and to attain this is the right intention, which Baal HaSulam describes in Item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot”: …through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.”
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/11, The Zohar

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Question: How can we go about the “internal dissemination" and what should we do throughout the day to achieve it?

Answer: Correction happens by virtue of an action called “prayer,” which is the revelation of the true desire that demands fulfillment. This work is called “praying,” which translates as “judging yourself” or discerning your inner essence: Who am I, what do I want, do I have the right desires or not, and when will my deeds be similar to the deeds of the forefathers, meaning when will my desires be similar to the ones that Kabbalists described in the prayer book?

This is not simple at all. The prayer book was created by Kabbalists, the sages of the Great Assembly who were on the highest spiritual level. They left the prayer book for us so it would serve as an example of what we have to attain in our demands.

Prayer can only be for unity, and this is called “the prayer of society” or “the prayer of many.” There is nothing else for us to pray for because all the negative events and all problems in general that are revealed in the world come from lack of unity. That’s because unity is the Creator; it is His quality. That is why this is the only thing we should think about.

Unification regards all the people in the world, both men and women. In the end everyone must unite together in one global system, the common soul of Adam HaRishon. When I study, judge, think, ask, and answer, in reality I decide just one thing: Will I bring this entire system to unity? After all, through unity we correct everything.

Besides this force during the study and the desire for this to happen, there are no other means to bring about correction. Everything else only brings more corruption. There is either one thing or the other, and nothing in the middle. All of our actions either bring correction or harm. Even if you spent one moment sitting there and not doing anything, the time went by. You wasted it and did not use it for correction, and that means you brought about destruction!

Therefore, this desire for universal unity must always be alive in us. It is our “inner dissemination.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/11, “Introduction to the book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: What do I do if I am feeling everything is great, if I don’t have a desire to rise to a more exalted state?

Answer: Let’s take a convention, for example, after which we felt a descent, it was an opportunity to reach an authentic plea, a cry, a prayer. It may be that we need more such actions. Think about it before going to bed and when you get up to attend a lesson, ask yourself: “What for? Why? How?”

Kabbalists suggest that we should take lesson preparation very seriously and take hours if necessary. Preparation is more than the lesson itself. The Light doesn’t require much time; a person doesn’t need to study all day long; one or two hours is enough. If during the day a person keeps building the intention and preparing himself for the encounter with the Light, then what matters occurs in mere minutes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

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On the spiritual path I ask myself what seems like an insolvable question about how to overcome my evil inclination, egoism. Kabbalists tell you, "You have to try." Understand this: The Creator really is opposite to your nature; the quality of bestowal is extremely hateful to you; you cannot even think about love for the neighbor, not to mention its implementation.

So what should you do? Move gradually. Make actions that will bring you to the prayer. Resort to all possible means and tricks in order to nevertheless feel the importance of the quality of bestowal and to place it above the quality of reception. Even if it’s repulsive to your nature, even if you feel that you don’t want to bestow because you find bestowal very bitter to the taste, then at least with your mind you will nevertheless begin to value this quality for its height and greatness for the fact that it is the quality of the Creator. It governs the world and it is respected by the environment which you have entered.

By using various tricks, you will evoke the Light that Reforms. In other words, by studying, working in the group, and disseminating, you will prepare your intention: “I want the influence of the Light. I want the Light, the force of bestowal that created my desire, meaning the force of reception, to influence me, to influence my desire, and to add the intention of bestowal to it.”

You do not know exactly what you are asking for, but try it anyway. After all, you want to reveal the Creator, meaning the quality of bestowal. You want to feel the upper world, to live in the quality of bestowal. You want to reveal the common Kli, the common soul, meaning to live with the care for all the other desires, which will become revealed to you in the form of the system of the single soul. Gradually, thanks to the intention before and during the study, together with the friends you will reach something called a “miracle” and will begin to feel that more and more, you really do respect and value the quality of bestowal.

Suddenly, it becomes very important to you. It reigns in the whole world because bestowal does not have to be expressed. It is primary; in fact, it is the entire life force in all of reality. This quality supports the still level, raises the vegetative level, gives vital forces to the animate level, and gives man unity and connection with the Creator.

When this “miracle” happens to a person, he suddenly feels love and connection with that quality. A special feeling emerges inside of him in relation to the quality of bestowal. He is ready to receive from it everything that it wants to give, to do anything just to become similar to it and to give it pleasure. A person feels that he is able to do this and that he thereby brings goodness to the quality of bestowal, the Creator.

All of this happens inside of me under the influence of the Light. However, it only happens to the extent of my efforts, in conformity with their quality and quantity. Before studying, I prepare myself by asking: What am I studying for? Why am I opening up the book? The answer is that it’s only in order to acquire the quality of bestowal, to reveal the force of bestowal, to reveal the Creator and merge with Him. In other words, it’s in order to unite with the force of bestowal so it will rule inside of me, so it would turn into my intention above the desire.

That is how a person advances until the entire egoistic desire becomes revealed in him, whereas the force of bestowal will become an intention to him, the bestowing desire above the receiving desire. Then the receiving desire and the intention for the sake of bestowal will be together and a person will reach adhesion with the Creator.

That is how we realize ourselves correctly. It is written about this that “Israel carries out the Creator’s will.”
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Kabbalists teach us the path to the root so each of us would attain the root of his soul. They tell us that the most important thing is the intention. There is a force Above intended to correct us and lead us through all the phases to the final, exalted state. However, we have to precede the ascent with our own actions by anticipating it with our request or desire.

In the end we have to feel something that we are unable to currently perceive. We do not have anything to grab hold of, no opportunity to. This “something” appears insignificant and meaningless. Why is that? The reason is because the phenomenon we have to feel is bestowal and love for the neighbor. This is the force of the Creator, the quality called “the Creator” which envelops and fills all of reality.

We don’t understand it or feel it, and are unable to come closer to it. We were deliberately created opposite in order to see the Light from the darkness, and then to understand, feel, and manifest it.

The simple Light as such would blind us. Therefore, we exist and develop in the quality of reception, gradually acquiring more and more details of perception. Then comes a moment when we despair of reception and acquire an impetus toward the quality of bestowal. This spark that awakens inside us is called “the point in the heart.”

Then we are brought closer to realizing it. We are brought to an instructor, books, and environment. Now we can develop this spark into the real quality of bestowal and love for the neighbor. Our work lies in making all the possible actions that can help us increase our value of the instructor, the primary sources, and the environment. When we elevate them above our egoism, above the quality of reception, the quality of bestowal becomes more important to us and we start to feel greater respect for the Light than the darkness, or for the Creator than creation.

I read about this in the primary sources, and that means I have to make efforts to this end. However, when I come face to face with it, when I make a plan to begin respecting and raising bestowal over reception in my eyes, what I discover inside is futility and lack of all interest in the subject. I feel that I don’t care one bit about the instructor, the group, or the books. Everything loses flavor.

Why? It’s because my egoism, my desire for pleasure does not smell any profit here. On the contrary, from that moment on it feels that what lies ahead are losses.

How can I cause anything bad to myself if I am entirely the will to enjoy? I am simply incapable of this. The possibility of harming myself is not inherent in me.

So what should I do? It turns out that my advancement towards the Creator lies in constantly separating from what now appears as “goodness” to me. Moreover, it is coming closer to “evil.” Is that even possible?

The answer to this question can only be received from the science of Kabbalah.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I understand that my intentions while reading The Book of Zohar are very important, but I don’t feel that it helps me. What should I do?

Answer: You have to continue. This does not happen in one instant. Kabbalists say that it takes three to five years to reveal spirituality if a person’s intentions are correct in quality and quantity. But if they are not so perfect qualitatively and quantitatively, then it takes even more time.

We don’t lie to people when saying that it will happen any day now. If a person has a true desire, let him come. And whoever doesn’t have it yet— we will wait for it to emerge.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/11, The Zohar

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