Question: What is the difference between asking for the group of people physically present at a congress and asking for all the friends who are in the state of the congress?

Answer: Do not confuse these states. Each time we are in different states. And even being in the same state, I can feel myself either as a small child among the friends, as equal to them, or above them. From these three states called embryo, small state, and great state, I can turn to them and to the Creator.

Question: And what is the difference between asking for the friends with whom I am physically at the congress and for the friends who are not physically near me?

Answer: What difference does it make where I am with them? I ask that the Creator raise and correct us. What do distances have to do with it?

I turn to the Creator with a request, with my impression of the friends I am with right now. Wherever a person comes from, he includes everything in himself. That is, I ask for the entire Kli; otherwise, I do not appeal to the Creator fully.

For the Creator, all of us and in general everything that exists across all times, all events, everything that can possibly be imagined is just one single desire created by Him. There is nothing else here, and therefore, there is no need to complicate things.

What difference does it make to me how many of my friends stayed at home and how many of them are here with whom I feel physically closer now and with whom I am further away. It does not matter. It is enough to ask the Creator to help them, and He will help them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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A prayer is work in the heart (Rabash, Article 24, “Three Times in the Work”).

It is because the heart of a person is the root of their egoistic desire. The heart here does not refer to the physical organ of the body, which is merely a pump.

It is specifically the desire located in the heart that must be transformed into a different form where its aim is to bestow rather than to receive. This means that the direction of my actions, my desires, and my thoughts should shift from focusing inward to reaching outward.

But how can this be achieved? I am unable to change my egoistic desire on my own. All I can do is perform certain actions that will draw the influence of the upper light upon me, which will correct me and adjust me to a different attitude toward everything outside of me.

Though I previously thought that the world outside of me consisted of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and people, I will begin to see that in reality none of this exists as separate entities. It is all but one Creator.

Thus a person has a significant task: to transform their heart, meaning their desire. Since this task is contrary to his egoistic nature, he cannot change himself on his own. A person is trapped within himself, within his egoism. No matter how he turns, acts, or thinks, his actions and thoughts remain self-centered. He cannot escape himself.

Baal HaSulam likens a person to a worm living inside a radish, feeling as if its entire life is one endless bitter radish. Only if the worm manages to poke its head out will it see the sun, greenery, grass, air, and singing birds, and realize that another world exists.

So it is with us. Hence, there is great work involved in transforming one’s desire, one’s heart. Since this work goes against a person’s individual nature, he must request assistance from the Creator, that is, he must appeal to an external force (and the only external force is the Creator) to help him escape his essence, his egoism, which the Creator deliberately created, and enter what is called a state “above nature.”

The state above our nature is called faith—Emunah, which means bestowal. This concept should not be confused with the notion of faith in our world. In our world, faith means closing one’s eyes and accepting something as true, simply believing in its existence.

In Kabbalah, however, faith refers to acquiring the quality of bestowal. It is not just believing in this quality, but actually possessing it within oneself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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An appeal to the Creator must include an understanding of who we are today, what we represent, how we should ask, and what we should ask for. This is because our request is part of the realization of what we must do and what we must achieve.

The nature of the appeal depends on the level we are currently on. The higher the level we are on or aspire to reach, the greater our desire must be. This desire should be clearer, more conscious, and accordingly, we will receive a response.

It is said: “The Creator is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” This means that it is not enough to call upon the Creator in any manner; our request must include an understanding of our current state and the next one, the present and the future.

These states may be separated by only a short span of time. We simply refer to them as “today” and “tomorrow” because each state is described as a day. The difference lies in the fact that the desire to exit the current state and enter the next one must become an urgent plea from a person—a yearning to rise above oneself, above one’s current state, and reach the next, greater equivalence to the Creator. This means a greater degree of selflessness, a greater distancing from one’s ego, from one’s initial nature.

Each subsequent state represents greater separation from oneself, an acceptance of a different form of life—in thoughts and desires, in mind and heart.

Ultimately, all this manifests in an appeal to the Creator, which is called “prayer.” It is not simply a request to “make things better for me,” but a plea from the heart, even without words or proper phrases, formed in the heart as a necessary and true appeal.

This is how we must prepare for the congress, as, being together, our appeals to the Creator combine into one, whether we realize it or not. All the requests of all the people in the world ultimately reside within the Creator and merge into an appeal to Him.

However, if people remain at the degree of animal, they do not evoke any special reaction in the Creator, nor do they unite among themselves.

Our efforts combine only to the extent of purposeful action when we desire to influence the Creator.

This means uniting in our intentions, actions, thoughts, and desires, rising above our current state—each one above their own—and as if drawing within ourselves the image of the next state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Question: In order for a request to the Creator to be correctly formulated, should it include our current state, a vision of the future state, the effort of my inclusion in the group, and the changes that this group must undergo?

Answer: Yes, a request to the Creator must include all of this. That is why it is called MAN, (Mei Nukvin), where “Mayim” (water) is a quality of Bina, and “Nukva” is a quality of Malchut.

In other words, we should have a sense of our current state and a desirable vision of our future state, my capabilities and the capabilities of the group, in what way we should be united, and in what way I wish to reveal the Creator, the quality of bestowal.

Do not confuse the revelation of the Creator with anything else. This is the quality of bestowal, love, and connection. This is the only way the Creator manifests in us; otherwise He does not exist at all. We do not know what the upper force is in itself, we only know its manifestation in us.

Let’s say we are talking about electricity. How do I know what it is? We only know the manifestation of this property, this effect in some of its actions. It passes through a conductor, is heated, its voltage is changed, and so on.

That is, we study any quality by reaction. For example, we do not know what the force of gravity is, but we know that it is a quality that is inherent in matter, and nothing more. We always study reactions.

We do not know ourselves, the group, or the Creator Himself, but we study only the external manifestations of these forces. Therefore, when we turn to the Creator, the most correct approach is to envision His influence as a consequence of our changes.

And what could our changes be? Only group changes. The Creator is a quality of bestowal. Where can I observe this quality? Only in my connection with the group and in no other way.

Therefore, if I turn to the Creator, I must envision my current state, the one I am with the group, with the world, and in what state I will be after some time when the Creator’s action is realized.

How is it implemented? In a greater closeness between us. And then, to the extent we get closer, His quality will manifest itself—the quality of bestowal and love. We will begin to feel it as a quality of the upper world. This will be the highest spiritual attainment. There is no other way.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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The most correct way to turn to the Creator is when He is close to you. Close is when you feel you can be in contact with Him. But if you are in contact with Him, what is left to ask? After all, you have nothing more to ask than to merge with Him. Here, we have an internal contradiction, and as always we advance on two lines: the right and the left.

On one hand, I feel the Creator is close to me; otherwise, how could I turn to Him? He should be directed at me in some way, and I should be directed at Him. On the other hand, I have to feel like I am distant from Him.

Overall, there is no problem here. We always perceive the Creator in two ways: One, He is close to us, and we must accept and feel Him as our ruler, and two, we should feel Him far from us because we are not yet similar to His properties.

It is like a child and a mother. A child may feel very close to its mother. On the other hand, if he were smart, he would understand the difference between them is vast because his mother has everything in her hands, and he has nothing. Through understanding his mother (her capabilities versus his own), he can firmly demand everything from her; these are the states, only more corrected, of course, not on the animal level, but on the human level, that we must build with the Creator.

This is the only force in the world that will do everything we ask if our requests are aimed at our development, at becoming more like it, because the Creator intends to make man a man, Adam, similar to Himself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Why is it so important for us to turn to the Creator? Because we have nothing besides a relationship with the only upper force in the world, which includes everything and controls everything.

Moreover, this is not an unfounded statement but something we must reveal explicitly and clearly. We reveal this from our conviction that “There is none else besides Him.” That is, we attain Him both from His presence and the fact that it is the only force, both from His positive as well as negative components.

If this is the only force that created us and gave us unique properties not only to exist, but also to attain the Creator, then, of course, it is very important for us to know what these properties are, how to develop and realize them, to truly understand this force, attain, value, draw near it and, possibly, do some more actions on yourself: for your sake or His it doesn’t matter.

It turns out there is no way to distance yourself from it, to isolate yourself from it, on the one hand. On the other hand, there is no way not to affect it. We are created in such a way that we act on it anyway, we are in it. It turns out the most critical question is not just how this force treats us and what it wants from us, but how we influence it in general.

This topic is the most important in our lives because we and this force are the only ones that coexist: we are in it, and it determines our lives in everything.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Is there a specific standard prayer one must use to address the Creator in order to awaken His desire to respond? Yes, such prayers were composed by the sages of the Great Assembly. This was done before the destruction of the Temple, several centuries BCE. Foreseeing that the group of people known as the nation of Israel would descend from their spiritual level, they composed prayers.

Before this there were no prayers. Every individual was raised on such a spiritual level that they instinctively knew how to address the Creator, just as a child instinctively knows how to call out to their mother. But when the people fell from their degree of perceiving the Creator, they forgot how to turn to Him.

It was precisely for this state, which appeared after the destruction of the Temple and the subsequent exile from the spiritual state, that is, the loss of the sensation of the Creator, that the sages of the Great Assembly compiled a collection of prayers.

This collection, called the Siddur, exists to this day. “Siddur” comes from the word “Seder,” meaning order, referring to the orderly manner of addressing the Creator depending on various states.

Of course, this order is purely formal because, regardless of a person’s spiritual state, it prescribes addressing the Creator in the morning, afternoon, and evening with a specific set of words. However, for us it works differently. Unlike others who have descended from that spiritual degree, we strive to independently establish connection with the Creator.

Therefore, while we can use a prayer book, these are not our words, not our prayers, not our desires. For a prayer to be effective, it must come from our own heart and desires. Thus, prayer is meaningful, but only when it comes from within and not just from a book. Still, it can sometimes be useful to compare oneself to written prayers.

There are prayers written by King David, found in Tehillim (Psalms). These are profound prayers through which the king addressed the Creator. From them, we can see the spiritual level he had attained!

There are also other writings, such as the Proverbs of Solomon (King Solomon), and so on. Over the centuries, many Kabbalists have left us prayers.

But the focus is not on them; the real question is whether I align with them. This is the challenge. Therefore, while one can read these prayers, it is vital to strive to create personal prayers: expressions we construct in addressing the Creator and gathering all our feelings. The outcome of our feelings, the analysis of our states, this is what prayer truly is.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

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Question: What does it mean to believe that all states come from the Creator, and how do we come to such faith?

Answer: How do we come to the belief that all states come from the Creator? It is only in the gradual realization that there is none else besides Him.

This happens under the influence of the upper light on us. After all, besides the fact that this light controls everything—inanimate, vegetative, animate nature, and humans—it also wants the element it controls, meaning a person, to feel it.

This is already a new, very special attitude of the Creator toward man. That is, the Creator begins to draw him toward Himself, which arouses in him a sense of Himself. Such attraction can be two-sided.

On one hand the Creator draws a person to Himself; on the other hand He begins to arouse in him all sorts of thoughts, disturbances, and interferences. It is like we are hearing a normal speech broadcast while experiencing some interference on the line. The Creator does the same. He is a master at these things, and we need to work with that.

As a rule the Creator awakens a connection with us and at the same time something negative, that is, all kinds of confusion. Let us say you are looking at me now, listening, trying to grasp my words, and at the same time you are imagining your pillow, which you are falling on. But these disruptions are necessary because that is how you strengthen the connection.

What to do? Ask the Creator. Do not try to cheer yourself up: “Now I am going to do something, drink a cup of coffee, somehow warm up, make myself angry!”. There is no need to wake up your donkey; you need to ask the Creator, “The fact that You give me thoughts about You—thank You! The fact that You give me the desire to sleep instead of listening to the lesson—thank You! And I also want to thank You for  awakening me now and making me even more directed to You.” This is the very best!

You have all the conditions for you to start working on feedback. That is how it is done—very simply.
That is, it is preferable not to make any of your own efforts. There should be only one effort—to turn to the Creator in all situations in life until it becomes clear that there is none else besides Him, that only He is before you.

And your own efforts? There are no efforts. Who are you to perform any spiritual actions, to make any decisions? There can be nothing like that in a person—only an appeal to the Creator!

That is why, it is said: “God grant that you pray from morning to evening.” I prayed, that is, I turned to the Creator, I was in an internal dialogue with Him all the time.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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I perceive our world as some kind of imposed barrier between me and the Creator; the meaning of this picture is hidden from me—who supplies it to me, why, and with what purpose. Therefore we must somehow get through these layered concealments in order to grasp Him and begin to reveal Him.

The very beginning of this revelation consists in the fact that first I begin to imagine that everything around me is a picture that the Creator develops through an effort of will. This entire world in its three-dimensional image with all the people acting in it, with everything that happens is what the Creator draws before me.

Second, the fact that I exist with my qualities, properties, desires, my view of this world, and all my initial data—with the help of which I see and feel it exactly like this—is also planned and created in me by the Creator in advance. Therefore the external picture of the world, everything that is around me and inside me and everything that is obtained in the connection between my internal properties and external influences, called “the world”—all is from the Creator.

And where am I myself? I myself am only an effort striving to hold the picture in such a way that everything that is drawn before me is from the Creator. Everything that is in me, all my properties with the help of which I see and analyze this world, also come from Him.

And my efforts, too, probably come from Him. Who prompts me to look for the source of life, the meaning of life, the essence of existence, and why everything happens around me like this is also the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, The Work in Concealment (Preparation for convention in Moldova)

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Question: How can one achieve joy and perfection without suffering?

Answer: Only through constant prayer.

Question: How do we combine prayer out of hopelessness, i.e., shout about salvation, and at the same time be in joy and perfection?

Answer: Try to do it. There is no rule here except your desire and prayer. As a result, they will find such a combination that the Creator will hear and allow you to adhere to Him.

Question: How can we do this exactly from the strength of the connection in ten?

Answer: What is the problem? Unite with each other and at the same time ask the Creator.

Question: Should we raise this point at the workshop, talk about it, everyone engage in it, and from this, we will come to a unified state?

Answer: Yes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/24, Writings of Rabash “Delight Them with a Complete Building – 2”

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