Question: If there is none else but the Creator and I do not exist, then how can I ask Him to become like Him?

Answer: You ask the Creator to become like Him precisely because you do not exist and for now it is all Him. Consequently, you will also reveal the point of your “I.” You only have one independent point, the point in the heart, which He gave you to begin building your independence with it.

Your independence is precisely in your requesting the Creator to make you similar to Him. When you begin to ask, demand to become like Him, possess His powers, then everything that you receive from Him will be on your account. After all, you gathered this desire and realized it. This will be your "I." And all your corporal desires and properties do not count at all, as if they never existed.

Question cont.: But in order to ask the Upper One for help, I must know who He is. How do I build the image of the Creator, which I must turn to, within me?

Answer: The image of the Creator is built with your questions, requests, and contradictions. This form is opposite to the Creator, and His image gradually becomes revealed in it.
[26695]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, The Zohar

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Question: How can we find the strength to advance because as time goes by we feel greater opposition and less strength?

Answer: That is wonderful! If you feel less and less energy, it is help from Above so you wouldn’t think that you can do anything at all. If you feel greater opposition, this is also help from Above so you would see that you will never be able to break through on your own.

This is help! Pharaoh, the Egyptian King, the ego, the evil inclination, is opposite to the Creator – the reverse side of Him. The Creator deliberately creates this image for you. Your entire nature, your egoism, is a reverse mold of the Creator. The Creator inserts Himself inside you and acts in a way that stops you. He does everything! There is none else besides Him.

When we say that “There is none else besides Him,” this does not mean that I exist and someone else exists opposite me. I also don’t exist! All the forces inside me that act for and against, that are good and evil, are all Him. And who am I? I am the point of discernment. I only discern what is for and what is against. From His two forms I discern with whom I desire to be.

The Creator is an actor that plays all the roles; he alternatively clothes into good and then into evil. It is how you play with a small child in different ways so he would learn to differentiate one thing from the other and understand what he should be like. He will learn about good only to the degree he attains evil.

Therefore, if you feel heaviness now, it’s the Creator who makes it happen. If you feel that you cannot do anything on your own, He gives you this sensation. Why? So you would turn to Him.

If I want to teach a small child that he has to turn to me for help, then I deliberately act in a way that prevents him from accomplishing something in order that he will need me. That is how we act in the relationships between us.

Suppose I want you to become my friend and to respect me. In that case I do something behind your back so you would feel that even though you do not desire it, you will not succeed without having a connection with me. You suddenly understand that I am great, that you have to respect me and ask me, and now you know that I am great and you depend on me. I have arranged your life so you are left with no other choice but to come to me and ask for it.

That is what the Creator does to us. Of course, He is not motivated by the egoistic intention to trick us, but the desire to teach us and raise us to His level, the best state, since He is called “Good who Does Good.” However, He acts precisely in this way, creating all kinds of misfortunes, problems, messes, and confusion constantly in the world, in all areas of life and in all the worlds so as a result you would desire to come to Him, to ask for help and this way to come closer to Him.

Then you will desire to become the same as Him. When you look at someone who is great, wise, or powerful, you desire to become the same. It’s not enough for you to just receive from Him; you want to be in His place. This is exactly what the Creator does to us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/10, The Zohar

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that a person will reveal the Creator only out of despair. Does it mean that at a certain point we have to yield, to refuse to continue fighting?

Answer: No, we do not yield. We fight to enter the spiritual world by our own forces. And then we despair of our power and understand that we cannot break through the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality) on our own. But it is only then that we truly feel the need for the Creator, evoke His force, and break free from the imprisonment.

It is impossible to feel the need for the Creator until we despair of our own efforts. Now we want to unite, change, and straighten up our relationships by ourselves, by our own power. We try to act by ourselves, as if the Creator does not exist.

However, when we truly desire to draw closer to each other, we will understand what we felt slightly during the Convention: We are incapable of it. Everyone is separated from the others by a partition, and he cannot break through it. Each is sitting in its own cell, like bees in a honeycomb, isolated from the others.

When I want to break free from this cell, when I exert all the effort and understand that I am helpless, then it will become clear to me that there is the Creator who can give me strength and save me. I read about and heard of Him before, but He was not in the field of my desires and aspirations. He was not my partner yet. Now I felt for the first time that I’m helpless without Him.

This is how the Creator awakens the Pharaoh within me. After having experienced a few such actions, I realize that I cannot break free without Him. As soon as I will feel it, I will cry out to Him, and He will immediately “un-bolt the door” for me.

My entire work is to desire the Creator, to want Him to manifest within me and change my nature, to want His force of bestowal to clothe me.
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From the lesson on Rabash’s article 11/12/10

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We forget that we mustn’t do anything besides asking the Creator to do it! Instead we think about how I should force my heart to open up, how I can connect with others, or how others can connect to me. However, we shouldn’t think about this at all! We imagine the connection inside our egoistic mind, yet it is nothing like what we think!

This is the level of the Upper World; we are revealing a new reality! We must only ask and that is all! We learn that everything happens by virtue of request. We raise the prayer, the MAN, and in response comes the Surrounding Light, MAD, and corrects everything, while we are simply present during the correction. Everything comes from Above, and on our part only a demand, plea, and aspiration are necessary.

The problem lies in this point: Do we turn to the Creator or do we try to do everything independently? This is the point where we make a mistake and get stuck for many years, unable to change the direction even slightly, to understand that there is nothing besides an address, a demand, a request!

In order to achieve this request we have to make efforts, but it is only to accomplish this. If we try to independently build the right social system based on love and friendship, this will be a lengthy path that will bring us to the understanding that we are moving away from the goal, that we are insincere, that we hate each other and do not move closer to unity.

Kabbalah has to bring us to a very precise analysis: Don’t try to connect to another person, you are unable to do this, you are an egoist and so is he. Only the Upper Light can do it; it has to come and meld us together – only it!

Therefore, don’t look for a connection with each other because it is written “husband and wife and the Shechina between them,” meaning there is me and my friend, and the Creator between us. “He who makes peace in the Upper will make peace in us” (Oseh Shalom BeMromav, Hu Yaseh Shalom Aleinu).

Any time we turn toward one another without the force that connects us together, it is a false address. When we hug, we do not want to hug or we do it on the level of our world. Do we really demand love, unity, or friendship from one another? It is only on the level of this world. Who of us can become a guarantor for another, or even for himself? Where do we have the strength for it? We can only aspire to each other through the Upper One, who fills all of the space between us.

If we demand for Him to fill the emptiness, to connect us together, and to always be present among us, then it will happen, and easily so. The science of Kabbalah is meant to bring us to this correct attitude, while we always run away from it, being inside our egoistic nature.

Let us not forget that “There is none else besides Him”! The Creator carries out the action, but in order for it to happen we have to precede His action with our desire. This is called “making a covenant,” where we sign an agreement with the Creator: We demand and He carries it out.

Similarly to how small children walk and pull adults after them, we are pulling the Upper Force so it will correct the nature it created; then we will become equal to the Creator. We cannot attain mutual guarantee or even really desire it. As soon as we start to talk about unity, we have to remember the condition: “Israel, the Light, and the Creator are one.” Myself, my neighbor, and the Creator between us; only the three of us together will be able to achieve true conciliation and perfection.

Precisely the aspiration to unite in the group will quickly bring us to the realization that we have to turn to the Creator for all the help!

From Lesson 8 , World Kabbalah Convention 2010,  11/11/10

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Question: Many years ago at a convention in Sitrin (Israel), you said that in order to break the Machsom, we must be in one thought at the same moment and have a very big, single desire. During that entire time we tried many times, we did a lot of actions, but we were not ready.

I feel that at this moment now everyone is ready. I spend the entire lesson trying to break this membrane in me, the egoistic Klipa, I want to make “an opening in my heart.” I lack everyone’s synchronization. I do not want this tomorrow; I want it right now, at this very instant! Please help us become synchronized right now so that we would be able to break this barrier!

Answer: Once I turned to Rabash with almost identical words, and he responded that he is not standing between the Creator and me. One must find this connection himself. He himself must demand it. And mainly, he needs to understand that he does not break his own membrane, the Creator does it.

If you are trying to break it and find yourself unable to do it, then it is a good thing, but you need to stop trying to do it on your own. Which forces are you using to do this? The same force of egoism? How are you breaking it – are you using a big ego to break a small one or vice versa?

Only the Creator can do this, and no one beside Him! A teacher is a guide on the way. He only brings you to this state, but he cannot do anything for you. And the Creator cannot do it unless you demand it from Him. This is because your desire for an inner change must precede His action.

From this follows:

1. Stop attempting to break the membrane, the egoistic Klipa of the heart, on your own.

2. Stop awaiting anyone’s help but the Creator’s in responding to your request.

We have been studying this for many years in all the Kabbalists’ articles: Everything is only done by the Upper Light. It created the desire, it changes it, it prepares it for changing the intention, and just like it broke the desire, only the Light is capable of correcting the intention over it, if the desire were to demand it.

There is no one in between; everything depends only on the desire itself: the request, the raising of the MAN. And the action from this is only realized by the Upper Light. Begin to only concentrate on two actions: I ask, and the Creator executes.
From Lesson 4, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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Question: Now, when so many people are about to arrive at the Convention, will each of us be able to attain the sensation of the spiritual world?

Answer: This entirely depends on us. I think that we are going through very good, advanced states and the right preparation. Lately there are many drastic ascents and descents happening every day and I am very happy about that.

These states are wonderful because in order to unite correctly, we have to reveal both the evil and the good. Both the evil and the good become revealed one after the other, alternating.

All the states we are going through are the preparation a person goes through with awe and excitement. We should not be feeling rest or a static state, but as if we are about to enter an important event and go through inner sensations.

We have to understand that all the states we are now going through are given to us from Above and each of them is absolutely necessary. In spite of these states we have to carry out everything that is incumbent upon us.

If I place myself under the influence of the friends, if I cancel myself as if I have closed my eyes, and I completely don’t care about what I want and my only desire is to feel their influence, then it is a blessing from Above. This might seem like easy work, but when you do it you are immediately faced with obstacles and worried thoughts. They come to us deliberately and we will have to overcome them and remain under the influence of the environment.

People who know how to work this way will benefit a great deal. They don’t separate from the problems, but “swallow” each of them, and above every obstacle they advance by faith above reason, explaining to themselves that what is happening at the Convention now is more important to them.

Thus they shift “back and forth,” each time entering and exiting various states, tuning out of the Convention and returning, as it is written, “The Torah will come out of Tzion,” meaning the Light will come out of the exits (descents).

The Torah comes out of these kinds of exits and entrances (into spiritual states), when there are obstacles and people constantly analyze their states; eventually, the Light appears inside them. If a person is able to behave this way and at the same time to sing and dance, then there is nothing better. If he holds himself this way, then he will definitely feel the spiritual world.

A person will suddenly feel that the world is eternal, that it is common and interconnected, and that he is inside the flow of a special Upper Force.
[25639]
From the lecture on 10/26/10

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Question: We constantly hear that we have to unite and look for the Creator, but we do not perceive this as practical work. What should we actually do?

Answer: If the external actions are beneficial to the inner processes, then we have to carry them out. The benefit might come in the future. For example, suppose I perform a physical action for an entire year so that my actions will result in me attaining a more inner layer, or in other words, so I will come closer to the quality of the Creator, bestowal. I will realize how far away I am from it and then my desire will facilitate the correction of my intention from “for myself” to  “bestowal.”

In other words, the “end of the action” must be present in the “initial thought.” Either I am told what to do and I carry it out “above reason,” or I act this way myself. In any case the execution of the action belongs to the person.

However, if the action is not done with the intention “for the sake of the group’s unity,” then no matter how important the intention is, it won’t bring any benefit. A person’s work is precisely the work on the intention.

It’s impossible to go around it because the nature of the world is the desire to enjoy and the desire to give pleasure, the thought that is next to them, their unity and mutual inclusion. There is nothing besides the desire and intention!

The desire to receive of the lower one enters the desire to bestow of the Upper One as MAN (plea for correction), and the desire to bestow of the Upper One descends into the desire to receive of the lower one and fills it as MAD (the Light of Correction). Then the two undergo mutual unification: Bina in Malchut and Malchut in Bina, the Creator in creation and creation in the Creator, until they attain total equality. That is the entire act!

Where does this happen? It takes place only in the thought, in the desire, in the inner effort! Of course, that is the most difficult thing. Some of us find it easy to work mentally while others find it difficult. However, spiritual work is equally difficult for everyone, whether you are a scientist or a carpenter, because it is performed in the soul, not in the mind.

We do perform certain external actions that unite us with the right intention: Why are we doing this? Why do we do it together instead of individually? Why do we want to expand the circle of participants? This revives us and brings us inspiration.

Without an intention to our efforts, we are a “gathering of fools” because even the most important work is devoid of meaning if it lacks an intention!
[25698]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/10, Writings of Rabash

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Our main problem is that we underestimate the power of thought. We need to have an inner focus on unifying into one net where we are together. That is how we will find the essence and inner force of the Torah, the method.

This point is not so clear to us yet. We don’t value it sufficiently and don’t see its importance. In fact, we don’t pay attention to it.

You know the material very well, in fact, better than anyone. And you perform a great number of actions. However, every person lacks the inner concentration inside himself.

I don’t unify with the group that I see with my eyes, but with the common aspiration to be together, to be included into each other, to attain bestowal. It’s similar to a “cloud” of spiritual energy between us. This is what we have to look for and aspire to.

I don’t meddle around inside my friend, trying to feel his point in the heart. Rather, it becomes revealed inside of me. That is where I find the inner essence of the group. Everything becomes clarified in our thoughts. What we lack is the mental concentration. It is absent or insufficient throughout the day.

We assess things according to external actions, but that is not the right criterion. By delving deeper in my thoughts, I focus on trying to reveal the inner connection. It has to be revealed as a specific plan, desire, or system in which I live.

That is why Kabbalah is called an inner science. Baal HaSulam writes a great deal about the mind and rational analysis. It is precisely by way of mental concentration that we come to inner clarity. The important factor here is not how smart a person is, but how much he tries. Our efforts must be concentrated on this inner search.

The common field of our desire is present between us, inside of us. Even if it is concealed, it is there. On the way from above downwards everything is already ready; now I have to reveal it by moving from below upwards.
[25402]
From the lesson on 10/29/10

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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.
[23427]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”

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