Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gateway of Intentions) is a book that more than any other is designed to prepare us to a “prayer,” a request for correction. Therefore, it doesn’t describe the universe in individual details; it doesn’t analyze, but rather, seeks to synthesize, to connect the individual parts together, and to show the entire universe as one, global, integrated system, interrelated and interdependent in all its details.

When a person observes the same forms in terms of both the particular and the general, he sees how everything is interconnected. That means that he is looking from the point of view of the “Igulim” (circles) of the system that belong to the final corrected state where the particular and the general are equal.

The particular can’t contain more or less than the general, and the general can’t contain more or less than any of its parts. Such is the law of perfection. That’s why such an approach to the world as a global, integrated, and coherent system is necessary to achieve prayer.

The reason the book is so important to us is because it constantly directs us at the overall system by demonstrating that we are but tiny parts of it, each of which is just as important as the entire system.
[24947]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot”

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Rabash, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”: And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and cried out to the Creator.

First of all, we need to strive to correct the collective Kli, and then everything else will fall into place. Every day the Shechina once again becomes a virgin, and once again we need to turn her into a vessel. It is written in the Tractate Sanhedrin: “A woman enters a union only with the one who has made a vessel.”

Every day we rise again deprived of a connection to bestowal, the group, Shechina, the Creator. This is a natural and proper way: We keep discovering vessels, and this is why every new day begins with a blank sheet of paper. We need to continue by raising faith above reason, never expecting that the property of bestowal will become important for us on its own. Of course it loses its value, and it is a good thing.

I need to be prepared and rejoice in it, rejoice in the fact that I have not forgotten that I have the strength. After all, this is a sign of the influence of the group, which immediately gives me the ability to react to my state in a proper manner.

Reception is important to me, but I realize that I should value bestowal instead, which means that I must go above reason in order to increase the importance of bestowal. So I look for the force to rise above the egoistic calculations in the external means, not inside of me.

One must not wait until egoism realizes the importance of bestowal since it will never happen. Every day and every moment a person can resume the prayer turned towards the “wall” or Shechina, the group, and advance this way. If he were to test himself and evaluate his state according to the constant search for the true direction instead of his sensations within the egoistic desire, then his joy would be purposeful and would help him advance quickly.

Everything depends on how fast a person awakens for the proper prayer every coming moment. And this is determined only by how he has built his environment.

If the group gives him strength every time he falls, he adequately sees what is happening. The egoistic desire is boiling within him, but the Surrounding Lights that come through the group are influencing him from the outside.

Due to this, man always sees the importance of the goal and raises the proper prayer.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”

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Question: What intention will help me reach “the prayer of the many” at the upcoming convention?

Answer: Our convention is dedicated to the revelation of the connections of love between us, as it is said: “Israel are friends to one another.” Isra-El means “straight to the Creator.” Any person in the world is referred to as “Israel” when he intends to reveal the Creator.

It is clear that “the Israel prayer” is always “the prayer of the many,” and the intention is to attain the mutual guarantee, as it is written: “We shall do, and we shall hear.” In other words, we will establish a connection between us and reveal the Creator within it; we will reach adhesion and similarity of properties with the force of bestowal.

Just like all our work, the upcoming convention is designed to explain to the people the work that they need to do. The exile is over. We have returned to the Land of Israel, and we need to rise to the level of Israel, straight to the Creator.

This is why nature constantly pressures us so that we would discover the connection between us and then explain the purpose of creation to the nations of the world. This is what it means “to be the light for the nations,” meaning to help all of mankind reveal the universal connection and rise to the spiritual level.

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that the time of existence of our world is 6,000 years beginning with the first correction until the end of it. Today the year is 5,771, and we must complete all the corrections in the time period that remains until the year 6,000.
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From the  Kabbalah For Beginners, “Prayer Of The Many,” 10/11/10

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The Creator sends us troubles, problems, and all kinds of unpleasant things, while we have to discern the good intention and fatherly love they contain. The Creator is good and does good to the good and the bad.

He does not divide us into good and bad since He created us this way. However, each of us perceives the Creator’s treatment of us (his life) in his own way. No matter what happens to us in life, we have to build an attitude to Him in response, “Everything comes from Him who is Good and does good,” and everything comes from “There is none else besides Him.” A person has to ascend above the sensation of “bitter and sweet” to the assessment of “true and false.”

The truth is that everything, including sweet and bitter, comes from the single Force and it’s all for my own good, for the sake of truth. Sweet and bitter sensations are given to me in order for me to aim toward the truth above the bitterness.

That is how we learn to aspire to the Upper Force, to understand it, to feel it inside our own qualities and to feel how it relates to us, what it brings us, and what it wants from us. The answer is that it wants us to have faith above reason, loyalty, and bestowal above any kind of reception and above all sensations. At the end of the day it demands that we ascend above the sensation of “bitter and sweet” to the intention of “true and false.”

Then we recognize this Force and start to understand its goal: It wants us to relate to everything in reality according to our intention alone, instead of our sensation. That is how we reveal a new sense – the Reflected Light, Hassadim, faith above reason. In this sense we start to discern the Creator, who sends us all the feelings and situations, while we have to ascend above them by building our attitude to Him above all the sensations.

It becomes clear to us that all our work is done above egoism, above the sensations that the Creator creates in our egoistic desire. All of this is necessary only in order for us to develop our intention of bestowal, “truth,” more and more. We will live in this intention and will feel pleasure inside it as we aspire toward everything away from ourselves, toward bestowal to the neighbor and the Creator.
[23562]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/10, “And Jacob Sat at the Land Where His Father Dwelled”

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When reading The Zohar, every person can ask for whatever he wants. The most important thing is to get used to asking. Even if I want a bicycle like a small child, I can ask for it while reading The Zohar. May we wish to reveal the spiritual world in the same way!

Question: How should we use the period of preparation for the Convention to desire to attain bestowal as much as a child wants a bicycle?

Answer: You have to participate in the preparations for the Convention together with everyone. A person is a result of society’s influence. Spirituality is something we don’t desire naturally, and if we want to attain it, then the way to expand the only spark of spiritual desire we have is through external stimuli. That’s because we are impressed by whatever the society is impressed with.

We have a spark of spirituality inside us, and society outside. Our work and free choice lie only in our ability to unite our spark with the society. This is called choosing the environment.

Everything depends on how much a person desires to be connected with the environment. Does he turn on our Kabbalah TV channel or Internet, does he desire to be together with us while trying not to criticize, to see only the good in order to be impressed as much as possible? His future depends on this, and by doing these things he awakens himself and becomes more sensitive.

Obviously, some things seem stupid to him, but he has to understand that they contain a very strange and special awakening which comes from spiritual qualities of bestowal. When a person discerns this state well, he understands that he has to ascend above his knowledge and acquire the society’s opinion. He has to merge with that opinion, with the importance of bestowal and the Upper Force even though it seems strange due to being opposite to our qualities. That is also why it is concealed. In order to attain that Force, we have to acquire the same qualities and the way to do so is by advancing step by step.

Therefore, one’s only freedom of choice lies in the environment. A person must check himself more and more to see how he perceives the society: Why does he perceive it precisely the way he does and why is he made to perceive it in this form? In addition, he must thank the Creator for giving him this ability to criticize and to see himself from aside so he can tell that he has now delved into criticism.

That is how he can reach faith above reason, the right perception, and the realization that he has no choice, enabling him to agree to all this “nonsense.” He has to make this decision by faith above reason, yet it has to be a sound decision and he has to know why he is making it. He has to be sure that he has taken everything into account.

We think that faith above knowledge does not entail knowledge. However, it in fact entails knowledge and contemplation.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, The Zohar

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Question: What is the request to unite?

Answer: The only request (MAN) that will be heard and answered Above is the request to unite. No other plea will receive a response! A request must be raised to the place of the breaking which only lacks correction of the breaking: unity. That’s why a call for unity will be immediately fulfilled under the condition that it is right.

The correction occurs depending on how and for what you ask. Suddenly you will take part in it, and then you will understand what is going on. The rest of our requests are simply “screams into the wilderness” that are meant to bring us to the understanding that they are wrong and useless. This is called, “All gates are locked except the gate of tears” which open only to let us unite.

What else can the Upper Force react to if you are supposed to ascend on your own by the middle line and connect the right and the left lines together? Previously, they were connected into one line by the power of the descending Upper Light which “reconciled” the left and right lines, but now the Light has disappeared and the left and right lines have become disconnected. A person has to connect them back together into this point by ascending from below upward because by doing so, he instigates activity from Above.

In the beginning, both lines originated from the Creator and were kept together by His power (this is called Adam HaRishon, the First Man), but as a result of the breaking they separated into the left and right lines. You are in the middle, between them, with a spark that remains from the time of their connection.

If you reveal the need to return back to the same place and raise MAN for that purpose, then you once again summon the action of both forces or, more precisely, compel the Upper Force to influence the same point of connection (Ohr Makif [OM], the Surrounding Light that Reforms).

So, when you raise a request to the point of connection, the point in which the left and the right forces appear, then the power of unity, the Surrounding Light, the Creator that once existed in this point descends to the same place from Above, and all of them come together to reach unity. There is nothing else but this action, and that’s why it is said: “All gates are locked except the gate of tears.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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In our work, every step is measured by our intention. Each new action demands a new, sharper intention. Actions themselves may take various forms, but the key is to know what outcome I wish to receive as a result of my efforts.

Here is where we have to measure ourselves: How much do I care for the reward and what kind of reward is it? We speak not about corporeal rewards, but of more exalted values of a spiritual nature although they may have different vectors: for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal.

If a person demands a reward for his work in his Kli, then his intention is aimed at reception. He wants to feel, understand, attain, ascend, and so on. In other words, it doesn’t matter what exactly my desire is. If the goal is related to me and examination is taking place in my desires, then my calculation, despite being spiritual, is still egoistic.

Even if I wish to attain brotherly love, love of others, and love for the Creator, I still need to dig deeper and examine how I define these terms: What is their content, impurity or sanctity? Thus, essentially, a person examines the results of his work: either in his own Kli or in the Creator.

One might think: “Can I really place a reading device in the Creator and verify whether I have pleased Him? And what’s after that? If the result is positive, will I myself feel good and warm in my soul? Or is my intention aimed solely at Him, without any contact with myself?”

All such verifications may be accomplished only if we are doing genuine work, meaning revealing the Creator in the group. The love of friends serves as some type of purifier for intentions and desires, with the help of which I get purified from egoistic calculation and don’t err in my examination of who I am, what the group is, and to what degree I am loyal to it and not to myself.

As a result, I realize that I am incapable of even the tiniest act of bestowal. It is beyond my capacity. So, I turn to the group because the friends gave me a sensation of Arvut (mutual guarantee) and they can provide me with the strength to bestow.

The greatness of the friends and the group supply the fuel to me, which continues up to a certain level, until I build my Kli. Having completed its correction, I wish to use it, and that’s when in the group I discover the Creator, to whom I had initially aspired. Only now, I turn to Him together with the friends, from our common desire, to ask for the force of faith. Thereby, we attain adhesion with Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/10, “Who Testifies Upon the Person”

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Question: To what extent should I feel my dependence on the friends? Does my well-being also depend on them?

Answer: If you don’t feel good, then turn to the friends and ask them for strength. Doesn’t the Light control all the atoms and molecules? And doesn’t health come from it as well?

Do you really think that the material nature lives by its own laws and only the soul is influenced by the force of the Light? This entire “dream” of the picture of our world, including all the bodies and everything else, is a projection of the Light. So why shouldn’t I ask it for everything I need?

You need conditions that enable you to be entirely devoted to bestowal. These conditions are what you should ask for. The group must also help you do this: If we understand that we absolutely depend on the Light, then it will be easier for every person to turn to the Light with a demand.

This is true for every demand. For example, I put my hand in my pocket hoping that I will take out a million dollars. It didn’t work? That means I have a problem with a lack of faith. There is nothing that I couldn’t demand from the Creator for the sake of bestowal. If you are certain that you desire bestowal, then demand it. That is how you correct your Kelim. Demand it, but not for yourself.

Question: Should I demand it from the Creator or the group?

Answer: When I turn to the group, I have to turn to the Creator who is concealed inside it. The group itself does not have any forces. But when I delve deeper, to the force of unity among friends who have already revealed the grain of spiritual desire, the Creator is present in that grain and His force is not limited in any way.

There is no limit to the Light. It is present and unlimited even in a small and weak group. I am the one who determines what I will derive from it.

Thus, I must always turn to the Creator through the group. He is the source of all the strength. My request must happen only according to the principle, “Israel (me), the Torah (the group), and the Creator (the Light) are one.”

During the study you can demand anything you lack (including health and success) to enable your thoughts to be about bestowal. That’s because everything belongs to one desire, but you correct it in different forms. However, in reality we are always talking about the same lack of Light inside the vessel.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/10, “Who Testifies Upon the Person”

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Question: If our primary goal is to achieve an inner connection, then why do we still have to start from a physical contact which the upcoming convention may help us establish?

Answer: What else can be done if you still don’t have the correct intention? You should perform actions without the intention! You will be like a child who is running back and forth. His actions are similar to our deeds that lack intention. However, gradually, a child becomes smarter and adds an intention, meaning sense to his actions.

The same can be said in regards to our actions and the convention itself: Whatever is in your power, do it! Not doing anything is the worst thing of all. You are unable to add the intention to your actions? But if before every action you admit that you can’t add the intention to it, it will become your intention! It will become a prayer.
[23093]
From the 4trh part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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All of our work is aimed at preparation. Our task isn’t to erase the egoism that becomes revealed in us, but to be ready to always perceive it as being revealed in us by the Upper Light, the Creator. We should immediately discern it in the Light as bitter, yet joyous signs of our development.

Our souls (desire and Light) underwent a gradual descent, and now we have to reveal the same degrees or states from below upwards. We have to experience them and all their details since otherwise there will be a flaw in the general Kli, in the Final Correction.

We are unable to change fate as it descends from above downwards. However, we can prepare for seeing and perceiving it differently. Unpleasant sensations in egoism, the will to enjoy, are caused by the fact that I identify with my ego.

If, however, I ascend above it and prepare to see just good changes in everything that comes from the Creator, then the same states of egoism’s unpleasant revelation will be perceived as good, positive, and useful. I will be grateful for them.

When I begin perceiving the Creator’s attitude to me differently, then all my intentional and unintentional transgressions become my opportunities for becoming corrected and reaching bestowal, and then these transgressions turn into my merits. Therefore, everything depends on me and my preparation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Righteous Feels Good and the Righteous Feels Bad”

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