Question: How can I keep holding the correct intention during the lesson? Is it by thinking more about the mutual guarantee than trying to sort out what I am reading about?

Answer: Imagine that you are driving a car. What do you worry the most about? Is it how to press on the gas pedal or navigating the steering wheel? If you need time to figure out the answer, it frightens me, and I am not going with you.

Obviously, the key is to steer the wheel. That is what we call “intention.” Intention is the direction in which I am driving. When it is correct, I can start pressing on the gas pedal to increase or decrease the speed as necessary to fit the traffic.

In other words, I press the gas full force only after I have picked the right direction. Otherwise, it may be best not to start driving at all and remain stationary, to prevent myself from going back. This is how we should ensure the correct direction, and to the degree that we are confident in its correctness, we may press the gas and increase the speed.

A person is designed so that he constantly looks for benefit, and during the lesson, there are three possibilities: 1) to understand more; 2) to feel more; or 3) to attain more. These three benefits are not related to each other because I feel in the corporeal desire, understand in the corporeal mind, but attain in the spiritual Kli (vessel).

In other words, experience and understanding come through my egoistic desire, but attainment becomes possible solely in accordance with the law of equivalence of form, intention “to bestow.” This intention is my primary concern.

Therefore, I am not worried about what I will understand and feel. The key is to receive the Kli that bestows, the desire, the intention which is something spiritual, “in order to bestow.” Before anything else, I worry about where to find spirituality.

Sages say that the Light is always there; take as much as you wish. However, what vessel can we bring to this ocean and scoop bestowal from it? We need some vessel of bestowal, some kind of container, even if it’s just a small glass. This place into which we may receive the Light is what we should be thinking about.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: If, while reading The Zohar, I can’t keep the intention and don’t understand why it is needed, does it mean that I am “drilling a hole in the boat?”

Answer: First of all, I have to discern if I need the “boat” at all, and do I intend to achieve something or not? The “boat” is the sum of our intentions, whereas desires without intention are nothing but a big hole. Intentions that we can create above desires build the “boat” for us, the beginning (Rosh) of a degree, the screen and the Reflected Light, the spiritual vessel (Kli). The Kli is not a desire, but the intention above it.

Question: What is my responsibility before the group?

Answer: If I am trying to think about the goal, thereby, I take responsibility for my friends that they will also be thinking about it. If I am protecting our “boat” with my intentions and want us to build it up as a complete Kli which has the screen and Reflected Light, and if I am taking care of it with all my heart so that my friends also constantly think about it, thereby, I keep them in the intention.

This is what is called the guarantee. What do I guarantee? I ensure that they won’t abandon the goal.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, The Zohar

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Question: What is my intention and why is it so important if my mind and feelings are not taken into account in spiritual advancement?

Answer: Intention is the human within me; it defines what I want out of everything I have within. Everything I am filled with – perceptions, mind, hopes, fantasies, dreams, the past, present, and future – all of this gets mixed and discerned by me: What do I want out of all of this?

I don’t comprehend this mixture. Everything is tangled: Today it’s one thing, tomorrow another. But what I want is regarded as my intention.

In other words, now I look above my life and everything I have and decide what is the most important to me. It is the point where I can make a decision: I can either submerge myself in the “cocktail” I have mixed and forget about everything, returning to my daily life. Or, I can rise above it and wish to excavate from all this mix only what I can use for my advancement, the future life. This is what I must decide, and this is why intention defines the human being in me.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

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Question: The Creator is concealed, but instead of Him I have the group. How can I see pure bestowal in it?

Answer: There are always disturbances in the group, and it is precisely with their help that we can do wonderful exercises, practicing to become similar to the Creator. Any negative must be used precisely as it was intended in order to turn it into a positive.

Everything is for the best; we only have to act correctly, without backing down from what is happening and by building the right attitude to it. “Everything is for the best” does not mean that we accept the inevitable ahead of time, as people commonly do. Rather, above the disturbance or example we received, we must first of all discern the final point, the corrected state. Then I will find the way to turn the incorrect into the correct, to unite myself in the present, the disturbance (which may be related to the friends, the Creator, or even my personal circumstances), and the goal of creation.

I will find out how to correct any aspect, be it a desire, intention, thought, or event. Not only will I be able to justify it and attribute it to the Creator, but I will also attach it to a connection with Him. I will understand to what extent I have to reconstruct my desire and way of thinking in relation to the given event, and how much I have to change my perception of the event in order to see that the Creator has brought me goodness.

The sign of this will be joy: I am happy because the Creator has given me the opportunity to come that much closer to Him. That is how our efforts gradually accumulate into a great possession.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, The Zohar

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In the beginning, a person grows like an embryo inside his mother’s womb, thus far, at the “still” level; he simply nullifies himself. Then, he becomes as a little child who exists next to a grownup, and this is the “vegetative” level. After that, a person is an adult which is the “animate” level.

All these levels are staged by the forces of nature, meaning that we don’t need to exert effort in order to evolve since Nature turns on the forces and desire to grow in us from within. In other words, it raises a request for development, MAN (Mayin Nukvin – female waters), on our behalf; it awakens in us on its own.

The Creator (Nature) acts from two directions. From within, the embryo strives to develop and nullifies itself in relation to its mother, and from inside, the mother’s organism nourishes the embryo and doesn’t treat it as a foreign object. Both are driven by basic instinct, mutual love for each other, a grown up to a child, and the child to the adult.

On the animate level, at a more mature age, we still have to nullify ourselves in relation to each other in order to learn from the others. Yet, again, all of this is controlled by instincts.

As for the development of the soul on the speaking level, the level of Human/Adam (Adam or Domeh in Hebrew), man, himself, must initiate the raising of MAN, the plea for correction. In other words, there has to be a desire coming from man himself.

We receive the initial point of this first desire as part of the Creator, from Above, which is our “point in the heart” given to us from Above, along with all the other necessary instruments of the Kabbalistic texts, the teacher, and the group. Using these tools correctly, we need to achieve the desire to demand equivalence to the Creator. (The force P1 comes from the Creator, and P2 must come from you.)

I have a desire to evolve, but I am unable and don’t understand what and how to do that. Everything is concealed from me, yet, to figure it out, I am given the group, the environment. This is why the collective soul broke.

Attach them all to your point in the heart; you will receive the power necessary for the act. Your point in the heart is backed up by the group, and, if you receive assistance from it, you will be able to raise MAN to the Creator (who, in truth, also resides within the group).

As a result, you will receive a response, MAD (Mayin Duchrin – male waters), the force of development, the Light that Reforms, from the Creator. It doesn’t matter where you work all day long; what matters is where your thoughts are as that’s where you are as well.

However, your thoughts can be defined with the help of the environment. So, let’s agree that we will do our best to make sure none of us forgets, even for an instant that we must stay connected, thereby awakening each other.

Let’s make this wish and together with all our friends around the world draw the Upper Force, the Creator, to this desire. Let’s force Him to help us think solely about oneness, only about mutual responsibility, the Arvut.

If you don’t wake up, the others won’t wake up either, and if the others don’t wake up, tomorrow, I, myself, will be asleep during the lesson. There is no way out of this unless we take responsibility to provide the basic desire, having received it from the group, and with it, appeal to the Creator.

Anything that Nature does with the embryo, a child, and any creature living in this world by pushing them toward growth, we must accomplish with our own free will and consciously start our own evolution.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, Baal HaSulam “Body and Soul”

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The Light builds our connection and we will reveal the Creator only inside it. We have to aspire to this not for our own good, but only in order to give Him pleasure. Once we attain love for the Creator, we will reveal His love for us. All of our study is intended to reveal or awaken our love for the Creator.

Obviously, right now we do not feel the slightest need for this. We remember about the Upper Force’s existence only when we feel bad. It is our nature to act only when we lack something, desiring to complete and fill ourselves.

We don’t feel any need for the Creator and moreover for loving Him. But if we try to artificially aspire to the Creator by means of working in the group, we gradually elicit the influence of the Light upon us that brings us special qualities, ones of love and bestowal.

This quality can be directed only toward the Creator because He is the only one in existence besides us. However, in order to reach Him we have been placed in a special state called “this world.” Here, with the help of our family and friends, we can make efforts and practice to acquire love for the appropriate environment. Then we will go from love for the creatures to the degree of love for the Creator.

That is how we come out of egoism, shifting from self love to love for the neighbor, and through our family and friends, we acquire love for the Creator.

Then we reveal the true nature of the “means” we have used. It turns out that the Creator Himself divided our reality in this way so we would have the opportunity to come to Him by means of these “exercises.” In reality there is nothing besides myself, incorporating all of reality and the Creator who is above it.

So let us build the intention to receive the Light that Reforms from our mutual study in order to reveal love between us and our love to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, The Zohar

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Question: If I read The Book of Zohar together with you over the Internet, not being present in the group physically, does it influence me?

Answer: Do you really think that you will extract greater benefit by sitting next to me in an embrace? Everything depends on the unity of hearts and not on distance. A person who is far away may be more anxious and worried, and that means he should stay exactly where he is.

The important thing is how responsible a person feels toward others when making his actions. We still have to improve many things, adding new depth and dimension to our intention every day. I don’t want to just restore a connection with others, but to be responsible for them. If I don’t think about and aspire to the goal, then they will also lose spiritual aspiration. This is bad even in the egoistic sense: When I am idle, this affects them and comes back to me as a negative response.

Besides, I am doing this for the sake of our mutual guarantee. Why do we need it? It’s in order to give pleasure to the Creator. By restoring our interconnection, we reveal the general quality of bestowal, the Creator inside it, and by so doing we give Him pleasure.

The quality of bestowal is not just love of friends; it is not limited by the relationships between us. It also contains the One who gave us that quality or desire. Inside our unity we discover one more layer – the basis or cause of the unity. This is the Creator, the primary cause of everything we think and perceive. That is why our intentions have to become more and more complex as they transform into a single aggregate that incorporates Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.

The first step toward this is to imagine the path toward the friends through five worlds. Once I reach them, I will attain Infinity. This is the picture we will gradually complete and color with new shades and strokes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, The Zohar

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At the Convention we acquired a new sensation, and we now have to develop it. We feel that there is a wall before us and we have to break it with the help of the Upper Light, the Creator. He is precisely what we lack. Let Him say, “Let us go to the Pharaoh.”

To do this it is necessary to understand, and most importantly to agree that we are breaking the wall in order to give pleasure to Him instead of ourselves. We forget about the two most important aspects of the path:

1. The only way to advance forward is by means of His force.
2. We are advancing towards bestowal to the Creator.

All of this eludes me. For now I am thinking about myself instead of bestowal to the Creator. I try to break through the Machsom with my own forces rather than His. This way, the goal and the means are still locked inside my egoism.

Nevertheless, this is a good state because we start to understand the fundamental principles of spiritual advancement. A boundary emerged before us and we have to do something about it. It does not exist by itself, but constitutes a psychological barrier inside us. If we aim ourselves correctly, it will disappear.

The thought about the Creator’s benefit is opposite to my nature, and the friends also don’t have it. It lies precisely inside our unity. That is why we have to work on three aspects:

1. I am united with the group.
2. Together with the friends I have to define the right aspiration, which will enable us to break through the Machsom: By uniting, we elicit the force of the Creator.
3. All of this is in order to give Him pleasure or in other words, to attain unity with Him.

The common, unceasing care and worry must awaken everyone. This is the mutual guarantee; the group is not the faces of the friends, but the spiritual community which permeates every person with thoughts about the goal. We suddenly start to think about this and to desire it. When every person tries to build his desire into a line, then it expands across the whole world in circles, unbounded by any boundaries or distances.

Mutual guarantee means that I am responsible for the entire system in which the Creator has placed me. If I don’t hold on to the right thought, then at that moment everyone is thrown out of the right thought. By disconnecting, I stop providing for the common organism. Can the liver or kidneys go on vacation?

That is why I ask the world group to always think about the goal of creation, about bestowal to the Creator. Then I won’t lose the connection no matter where I am.
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From the lesson on 11/20/10

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The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to correct the desire that represents the entire matter of creation to a degree that we start sensing the Force that permeates the universe: the Creator (the Light). There is nothing except this Force and desire.

Revelation happens in accordance with the law of equivalence of form: Desire feels the power of the Light to the extent of its correspondence to it. Full revelation of the Light is the program and the purpose of creation. It means that we have to correct ourselves to a degree of complete equivalence with the property of the Light: bestowal.

For that purpose the whole system of worlds was created; it helps us to change our desire and make it similar to the Light. This world is where the first steps are made; later, we rise into the Worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, and Beria. Nine lower Sefirot of Malchut of the World of Atzilut is where the broken souls “dwell.”

Keter, the upper Sefira of Malchut, is above the Parsa, in World of Atzilut, where bestowal is in effect. The property of reception acts below the Parsa.

Malchut receives the forces from Zeir Anpin. For us, Zeir Anpin is the Upper One, the giver; we receive everything from him. In its turn, Zeir Anpin is connected with the higher Partzuf of the World of Atzilut, Abba ve Ima (AVI), a part of which is Yeshsut. Below, there is the Partzuf of Arich Anpin (AA), which receives the Light from Infinity (Ein Sof) and passes it down the chain to Malchut.

The major issue for us is how we (the broken souls that live in the Worlds of BYA) rise to Malchut de Atzilut. By including ourselves in it, we begin to take part in the process of correction. The World of Atzilut corrects broken desires that bear egoistic intentions.

The desire to receive is unchangeable; it is matter which cannot be altered. But desire can be used in two different ways: It can either be filled from the inside by receiving, or it can be utilized for bestowal. In the second case, the desire will receive for the sake of bestowal. It is possible only as an outcome of love and union with others.

The Book of Zohar helps us mostly at the first stage of our rising to the World of Atzilut. The sequence of actions is as follows:

1.      We raise our request to get corrected (MAN).
2.      The answer (MAD) returns back to us in the form of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that empowers us.
3.      We rise upward to Malchut de Atzilut.
4.      Malchut delivers our request to Zeir Anpin.
5.      Zeir Anpin gives Malchut powers and corrects the souls.

Thus, all we do is work with the Light. Our work is intended to attain union among us in order to correct our desire by applying intention to bestow to it. This becomes possible only as a result of the Light’s influence.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”

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Question: How can we keep the intention at every moment and lead the attack together with the group?

Answer: Intention is the most important thing there is, and it is the only thing we should focus on. Let The Zohar sound on the background of intention.

The Torah, meaning the Kabbalistic method, is called a “spice.” My “food” is an enormous pot of desires that have to be used correctly.

Only a pinch of spice is necessary for it — a little bit of The Zohar‘s Light. It comes, and we draw the food out of the pot spoonful after spoonful, until we realize all our desires for the sake of bestowal.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, The Zohar

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