Question: In order to receive strength from the friends, I have to value them. But how can I value them if I’m an egoist?

Answer: You value the unity of people, or in other words, of souls. Externally the only thing there can be between people is hatred, envy, and the like. However, behind the external facade, every person contains the inner him – the force of bestowal that is concealed inside him.

It’s like there are two screens in front of you: external and internal. On the external screen you see this world, whereas on the internal screen everyone is united by the forces of mutual bestowal. After all, the soul is the force of bestowal that’s concealed inside us. This is the picture you turn to, wishing to reveal it, to be included in it, and to dissolve in it. You do not deal with the external forms.

What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? When you turn to the inner picture, you will see that there is no breaking there, but all the friends are united with each other. This is the Shechina. It contains mutuality, unity, mutual guarantee, and in a word, everything besides you. You want to become part of it, demanding it, asking, and pleading for it.

That is the meaning of building the right environment. Otherwise you look at the friends on the outside and do not find anything there. The Creator deliberately drew this picture in front of us so that by tearing down the veil and looking deep into our unity, you will discover the exact environment that Baal HaSulam talks about in “The Freedom.”

This is the environment you have to turn to and from which you have to demand everything. There, everyone is corrected; by becoming included in the friends, you will discover the Creator among them, meaning the common, all-inclusive force of bestowal.

In Kabbalah, besides the simple sum there is a notion of all-inclusion (Koalel), which is the integral force of everyone. For example, the common force of 100 people equals 100. But inside their unity the Creator is present, being an additional force that is deeper, spiritual, and all-inclusive.

That is why the friends are capable of anything due to having rejected their egoism in order to reveal the Creator, to reveal the root and unite with Him. They do not attain the four degrees of still, vegetative, animate, and human, but the Creator. They do not attain Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, and Haya, but the addition, the Light of Yechida that was not there previously; Keter, the point of the letter Yod.

If a person desires to work with the environment, then the environment is ready for him. Then he sees all the friends as the greatest people of the generation. And in truth, inside each of them there is a giant. After all, if they have an inner spiritual aspiration, then inside they are already united. In principle, on the inside all of humanity is united, but you have to turn to those who also externally express the spiritual desire at least slightly. Then you have an environment.

After that, to the extent you lower yourself before the environment and value it, you will receive strength from the friends until finally reaching the gate of tears. Spirituality will become the most vital thing in your life, but at the same time you won’t have any possibility of obtaining it. That is when you will cry out.

You will then be crying out to the reality that you reveal as mutual bestowal, to the common force that lies there called “mutual guarantee.” It is from there that you will receive what you need, the desire or need to become a part of the friends. Having discerned many details of unification, you will enter the inner picture.
[31003]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, Writings of Rabash

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In reality, it’s not the group that has to influence you, but you have to tune into the group yourself. When we say that the group has to influence a person, we want to inspire each person to bestow to the group.

The group’s response may be powerful or weak, but that will not affect a person. That’s because our connection and interaction is with the inner group, not the external one. The external behavior of the friends does not play such a substantial role.

Here everything depends on how strongly I tune into them, how much I try to feel their inner aspiration, which does not depend on me or on them. This is a spiritual reality, the unity between us on the level of Infinity.

Therefore, the group influences you to the degree you tune into it and desire to receive its influence, its bestowal.
[30925]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/10, Writings of Rabash

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Initially the Upper Light is at absolute rest. It has one direction and one attitude to the desire for pleasure that it created.

The Light does not change. All the changes come from the desire that makes contact with the Light and goes through various states, attaining who or what it is. Gradually the desire absorbs qualities and actions of the Light, even though all of this is “make believe.”

From the Light’s end there are no actions or changes, whereas the desire for pleasure changes in the Light, giving names to the different states and actions and attributing them to the Light. However, in reality the changes do not come from the Light; it is only the desire that changes.

Then the desire gives a definition of what is a “transgression” and what is a “commandment.” It defines this according to what it reveals in the contact with the Light, in the connection with it. A commandment is the desire’s similarity to the Light, the aspiration to be like the Light, the equivalence of form that it desires. The desire for pleasures reveals this from the things happening to it, from its reactions and impressions.

And on the contrary, separation from the Light, caused by a lack of equivalence of form, is a “transgression.” That’s because it is contrary to the desire of the Light.

Therefore, when a new desire awakens above a person’s egoistic desire and starts relating to the Light according to a person’s intentions, a person then determines the levels of his attitude. He deems his attitude to the Light important.

Instead of fearing the yearnings and suffering that drive him, or the attraction for pleasure that entices him, a person constantly transfers the importance of his action from reward and personal sensation to the Upper One, the level from which he receives the Light.

The Light is the Giver. As much as a person is able to reject his desire for pleasure and shift to the side of the Giver, that is how much higher he deems the commandment that he now fulfills.

Therefore, when a person realizes the greatness of the Upper One, the greatness of the Light, he thereby determines his state, whether it is a sin or a commandment, as well as its measure.
[30938]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/10, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If the souls manage to unite, the Creator is revealed in their mutual connection. Who creates this connection, we or the Light?

Answer: We never do anything. Everything is done solely by the Light. It broke desires (Kelim) and it reforms them. We must only express our willingness to raise MAN (Mayin Nukvin, female waters) and ask the Light to correct our connection and get revealed between us, fulfill us. It will do all that is needed.

We don’t need anything but the plea, like a baby who is constantly crying and demanding. This is our entire work. There is nothing easier: demand, beg, cry! Oblige Him!

This is what is called “my sons defeated Me.” We pressure Him, demand from Him, and that’s all He expects from us. This is how the entire upper system works: It expects only a plea from below since all that Bina (the Upper Mother) yearns is to “feed” the souls, fill them with the Light.
[30751]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”

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Question: When you are “being stewed in the same juice” with the group, you start feeling hate toward the friends. How do I apply a “spiritual mind” to this specific point in order to rise above hate? What exactly should I do?

Answer: You wish to find a solution to the issue at the level where you are and don’t understand that the problem emerged in order to drag you to another place. Do you wish to resolve it or get rid of it? You have to move yourself to another place until you discover hate and resentment once more, and you will have to move yourself from that point as well.

In the end, in order to rid ourselves of hate, we have to correct our mutual connection each time. Sometimes, it can be done with the help of a shared meal, a joint action, some artificial change, and, at other times, by studying together; or, perhaps, time will accomplish this.

However, the most reliable means is a prayer. When you are in a state of inspiration, when you feel hate and simultaneously realize that you must rise above it, try to write a prayer, and let the group read it every day as an act of unity. It will work.
[26012]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10., “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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Question: If I simply help people in this world, can I extract from these actions the Light that corrects the soul?

Answer: That depends on your intention. If you truly have the intention to bestow, then you will surely attract the Light. But if you’re going to be walking an old lady across the street and thinking yourself righteous for doing so, you will only hurt yourself.

There are millions of people in the world willing to help others, and it appears that they do good things on the material level, but for some reason their actions don’t make the world any better. All the deeds of philanthropy do not produce any positive results because it is intentions that change the world, not actions.

The Creator doesn’t need your actions if you’re doing them out of your ego. First, you have to ask whether these actions correct the heart? Before performing a commandment or any other good deed, you have to first arm yourself with the right intention. And if you don’t have the intention, ask yourself whether the action is even worth doing.

If the action is essential to your livelihood, you have to carry it out even without an intention since it pertains to the bare necessities, and hence, is “neither condemned nor rewarded.” But if the action goes beyond what the animal body needs, you cannot do it with an egoistic intention. By performing egoistic actions you corrupt the world since you distance yourself from spirituality and bring misery into this world.

The collective state when actions are done without an intention is called “exile.” And returning to actions with altruistic intentions is called “redemption” for with each such action you reveal the Creator.
[30741]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “The Freedom”

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Reading The Zohar is a very special kind of reading. We are the will to receive pleasure. The Creator cultivates this desire in us and leads us to the group. We are talking about people who, according to their inner evolution, are now expected to start uncovering spirituality.

From the group, I receive additional desire called “aspiration” which I obtain thanks to my work in the group while making efforts to unify with the friends. Despite my unwillingness to become one with them, I work on it by employing all possible means to receive awakening from them.

Thereby, I receive from the group the following: 1) additional awakening or the yearning for spirituality; 2) awareness of evil, my egoistic nature, and unwillingness to unite with the others; and 3) the value of the goal of becoming identical to the Creator, achieving bestowal.

Knowing all these conditions, I undertake reading The Book of Zohar. Now, while reading The Zohar with the desire to attain bestowal, with the awareness of my existing in the will to receive pleasure, employing additional desire that I obtained from the group, I demand transformation.

However, what does it mean to “demand transformation?” If I already reside in these desires and the forces are already working on me, I will be transformed for certain since The Zohar, per se, is the Light.

What does it mean that “I draw the Light, attracting it?” My attitude toward the studies must be such that right now, while reading The Zohar, I tap into the force of Light so it may affect, transform, and correct me.

In itself, the Light doesn’t do anything. Desire grows and changes due to the constant Light that remains at absolute rest. Therefore, when I demand transformation from the Light, I don’t really ask it from the Light. I ask for my desire to change and become more powerful in demanding the Light.

While reading The Zohar, we should think in the above manner. As a result, we will realize that it is all up to us, and we stand across from the unchangeable force that is willing to assist and reform us to the better.

Therefore, I begin reading The Zohar with all my demands for correction, a greater egoistic desire that opposes the Light, the desire to be reformed, and equalize myself with the Light at least somewhat. I must feel this central demand to be reformed in my will to receive like a thorn that keeps bothering me.

This is what my approach to reading The Zohar must be. I have to feel this “thorn.” After all, if I had a splinter in my finger, then, try as I might, I wouldn’t be able to focus on studying, reading, and listening because a powerful, sharp pain would distract me.

We should feel this “sharp pain” within us while reading The Zohar such that it won’t go away. The moment I stop feeling it, I’m not studying the Torah, but some fancy science, as it is written: “Believe that the nations possess wisdom.”

“The nations” are those who don’t wish to change. If a person desires to change, it means that he is “studying the Torah” since the Light contained in it reforms and returns us to the source, the Creator. That’s where the difference is.

The very same person can be “the nations” at one moment and “Israel” (aspiring to the Creator) the next. As soon as he doesn’t wish to change, he is regarded as the “nations of the world.” Then, he is studying fancy knowledge. The moment when he wishes to change and become similar to the Creator, he is “studying the Torah,” that is, demanding the Light that Reforms.
[30044]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, The Zohar

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The Light always brings me a sensation of the gap between the Light and the desires. It always gives me a bad sensation and it cannot bring me anything good. Firstly it always gives me a realization of evil, which is the truth. As much as I am able to ascend above the sensation of “bitter versus sweet” to the analysis of “true versus false” in order to clarify the truth in spite of the bitter taste, to that extent the Light is able to influence me.

But where will I get the strength to hold on to the truth so strongly even when I feel bad? I can only receive this additional force from the environment. Therefore it’s pointless for us to cry out to the Light. The Light influences us to the degree we are ready for it. It can wait a thousand years until we are prepared by way of very slow, gradual development, or it can drastically increase its influence at every second if we are ready for it.

There is no delay from the Light’s end. The delay depends only on how ready I am to tolerate the gap between the Kelim and the Lights, to be “above knowledge,” above the bodily suffering, when I am ready to be in the truth even if it’s bitter. Indeed, it really is bitter not to use the Kelim of reception, the desire for one’s own sake, while remaining in the intention of bestowal.

Therefore, we do not have any other means to speed up our development other than to connect with the environment. However, connection with the environment is also extremely painful. I cannot overcome myself. I can spend thousands of hours pleading with my friends to unite, but it will all be nothing but words. After that I stumble across my inner wall and am unable to do anything more than words.

However, if we at least try to do this together, then each person receives an impression from the others and thus reaches the point of truth: that he is unable to do this and must break precisely through this wall. Then he demands it from the Light that Reforms.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Kabbalists write about various states of the souls, which are states they have actually gone through. What matters is the extent to which we want to imagine these states and identify ourselves with them. They are all indications of how we give pleasure back to the Creator, and by virtue of this aspiration we reveal the same action from His end. That is how we enter unity with the Creator: He gives to a person and a person gives to Him.

These are the states that Kabbalists tell us about. The more we aspire to them, the more the force or Light from there influences us, bringing us closer to the states of unity and leading us into them.

This continues along the whole path. It doesn’t only happen now, when we are just getting ready for actually entering these states of interconnection, but also later on, when we will feel the spiritual actions better. One way or another, only our aspiration, only our raising MAN, a prayer for higher states of mutual bestowal and revelation of love, will help us ascend to newer levels each time.

This is the approach that the soul must follow until the end of correction. Only this kind of work will enable us to move forward.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Introduction, Chapter “Lock and Key,” Item 42: That carving that was engraved in Bina was engraved and hidden in her, as one who hides everything behind one key, and the whole of that one key is hidden in one palace. And even though everything is hidden in that palace, that key is the most important because that key closes and opens.

It is a great question and a great mystery: How is the spiritual system organized in order to correct the egoistic desire, which is opposite to the Creator in every way?

Two absolutely opposite forces, Bina and Malchut, united under the influence of a third factor, the intention. Thus, they built a system that really is able to facilitate correction with the help of the forces of reception and bestowal, producing an intention in the lower ones.

This mechanism is in the three upper Sefirot of the world of Atzilut, whereas the lower seven Sefirot are operated by the lock and key. The system is ready to be used: If we activate it, it will influence us. We do not feel how its Lights influence us, but in the meantime they descend, already organized in the right combination. They are what changes our desire so it reaches equivalence with the intention.

The Book of Zohar explains the secret of the upper system that connects the forces of the Creator and creation in order to make us similar to Him. We do not know how the process of change takes place in us, and thus we study its mechanism as a “miraculous quality” (Segula). More and more we come to understand that we do not understand anything. We grow more and more disillusioned with our own forces and not seeing any way out, we put our hopes in the upper system, and then on the contrary, we rejoice about this dependence.

Finally, we gradually begin to be included in the system. We are ready for it to make all the necessary changes in us in order to change us so we match it. If a person expresses willingness to do this, the system begins to influence him.

In this way, the first action from our end is to bow our heads. Then the upper system literally “engraves” its form in a person and he becomes similar to the Upper One.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, The Zohar

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