Question: When we compose a prayer together in the ten, it still doesn’t feel as internal as when you have a personal dialogue with the Creator. Did Kabbalists discuss prayers with each other and compose them, or is this a modern practice?

Answer: Kabbalists often spoke with each other, but only about ascending to the next degree.

Question: Should the prayer that comes from your heart align with the one we express in the ten?

Answer: Yes, a person cannot have multiple prayers.

Question: Let’s say I genuinely want to pray for my friends, for the world, for the sages, and that is my true pain, which I can awaken when I am alone. I can’t immediately articulate it in dialogue within the ten. Should I first try to tune into the prayer rather than just write something down, which might end up as a collection of words?

Answer: Yes, we must reach a state where there is a clear, unified yearning among the friends in the ten for moving forward, for the Creator, for a connection between them that evokes a response from above.

Question: How did Kabbalists prepare themselves for prayer? For us, it seems like we read texts and then quickly transition to prayer as if it is something evident. But preparation is the most important part.

Answer: This is the preparation. It is like tuning a musical instrument: if it is tuned correctly, the melody will be harmonious.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 20 “Lishma [for Her sake]”

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Question: Should we pray when there is a reason from the Creator, or should we ourselves look for reasons and initiate prayer in the ten?

Answer: The reason for prayer is your desire to unite.

If you want to get closer and see that there are still great disagreements between you, you involuntarily turn to the Creator so that He will unite you more. The best prayer is when you ask the Creator for unification.

In this case, you really feel how much you lack this and how much strength you receive to realize the unification.

Such contact with the Creator is the most direct and the most reliable because He does not expect anything more from you. As it is written: “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together, as well.” Together—”gam yachad” (“together as well” in Hebrew), where “as well” means, as the Kabbalists explain, that “the Creator sits together with them as well.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”

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Question: What does patience transform into in the state of Lishma?

Answer: Into humility.

Question: Every day, we write a prayer in the ten. Is there value in sharing these prayers in the general chat to form a collective prayer for the world Kli?

Answer: Yes, it is beneficial because it fosters mutual integration of one group’s prayer into another group’s prayer.

Question: While we are not yet in Lishma, does every act of bestowal have a bitter taste?

Answer: As long as you are in Lo Lishma, any act of bestowal has either a bitter taste or no taste at all.

Question: As we progress, should we sort out good and bad desires, meaning come closer to the good ones and distance ourselves from the bad ones? What is the force that enables this?

Answer: It is our desire to ascend, unite, and feel something good, kind, and upper. That is what we must strive for.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam Shamati 20 “Lishma (for Her sake”

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Question: We need to reach a state where all the pleasures we experience are directed for the sake of the Creator. How can we cultivate this state within ourselves?

Answer: We cannot achieve this on our own. However, if we gradually direct ourselves toward this goal and relate our actions to the Creator so that He may accept them, then corresponding sensations, desires, and intentions accumulate within us. As a result, when we have gathered enough strength in our intentions, we are granted the quality of Lishma (for the sake of the Creator).

I was created as an egoist, and my primary concern is to fulfill my own egoism. But if I rise above my egoistic desires and prioritize only my friends and the Creator, it turns out that I am working for their sake. This constitutes the transition from “for my own sake” to “for the sake of the Creator.”

Question: But in order to transition to “for the sake of the Creator,” should there be a filter “the Creator and friends” before each of my desires and only then reception?

Answer: Yes, absolutely. First, there must be an intention: for what, for whom, and for whose sake am I performing this action?

Question: So does the intention of Lishma inherently contain the power to scrutinize and separate what is for the Creator and what is not, what I can receive and what I cannot? In other words, is it a calculation?

Answer: Yes, it is a calculation. Moreover, it is a calculation within feelings, knowledge, and sensations where you can precisely identify the state you are in in relation to Lishma.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam Shamati 20 “Lishma [for Her sake]”

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Question: When a person’s desire to receive awakens, they raise it through the ten to the Creator. What does it mean that this desire is corrected by the Creator, and how does it then transform into “Lishma“?

Answer: The desire to ascend to the Creator is expressed in a sense of need for Him. This need is prayer. It ascends to the next, higher degree. From there, light descends, and a connection between the upper and the lower begins. On this basis, the lower one is corrected, changes himself, and thus movement occurs from below upward. The result of this connection is the spiritual screen.

Question: So the very contact with the Creator changes a person. Is this what it means to receive a screen? And after that, they can already act for the sake of the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: It turns out that the most critical point is when I raise MAN, and the Creator begins to influence me? How can we, as a ten, reach the state where we raise MAN, and He begins to change us?

Answer: Visualize it, start acting, and it will happen on its own.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/24, “On the Verge of Lishma”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 10

What Does RABASH Mean by “There Are People Who Do Not Know There is a King in the World”?

In this world, there are people who have yet to be given development toward the Creator. Why? It is because, within each person is a soul that extends from a different part of Adam HaRishon, the collective soul. Some parts need to develop now, whereas some were meant to develop 3,000 years ago, and others will only develop in another 200 years. We have no control over the timing of development. It is thus not worth questioning or debating it. The plan of development is beyond our understanding as it was created before we were born, before we separated from the collective soul. A person’s role is simply to do the work, not to complete it. It means that we must, in every moment, do whatever we can.

Therefore, all stages of development exist in every moment of humanity’s history. This is how it has always been and will continue to be. We need to act with understanding according to these stages. Some people are ready for spiritual progress and depend on the method of Kabbalah, while others still lack such preparation, so they respond differently to Kabbalah. Others are entirely unable to understand this concept and will always dress it in various physical forms. This, too, is a stage that exists, and such people should be left alone. We can learn such an approach from the example of Abraham and his father Terah. Terah was an idol worshiper, while Abraham worshiped the Creator.
From a Talk on the Article “What Is Half a Shekel in the Work – 1,” 5/15/2002

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 9

When Will a Person Feel the Content of the Words of Prayer?

A “word” is a special state that includes a specific number of components. All these components are vessels and lights that together create a sensation of Godliness in a person.

Only through the study of Kabbalah and only after many years of study does the heart begin to function from the “point in the heart” in alignment with what is written in the books, and only then do we understand the written content. Until then, everything we read in the Siddur is understood according to the physical vessels we possess. For instance, according to the physical vessels, we understand “merciful” as compassionate, “gracious” as forgiving, and so on. We interpret according to what we feel in our physical body.

After we reach spiritual sensations and the upper mind, the words begin to take on new content. With each word, we feel the Creator according to that word; we feel the word’s essence and meaning. Each word then becomes a genuine vessel and light, which appear together in our sensation.

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Question: What is connection and my care for friends, for the group, for the ten?

Answer: This comes gradually when you make many efforts and realize that they do not give you anything. Then in complete detachment, you finally begin to understand that you have to follow the path indicated by the Kabbalists.

Therefore, you need to turn to the center of the group, and within the connection between you ask not for yourself, but for the others. By asking for them, you are actually asking for your spiritual self. And when you ask only for yourself, you ask for the physical self. And all of this a person begins to reveal only from his defeat when he sees that he is at a dead end.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 8

Are Prayers a Fixed Order of Corrections?

Every new state is a correction process. A new state is called “a new day.” This new state comes from above, and we have no influence over it, except through our effort to carry out that day’s corrections. The corrections at each level are essentially the same, but the external conditions change, and the person’s work changes accordingly.

The order of corrections remains the same since every structure of the vessel at each level comprises ten Sefirot. However, the feeling is completely different because the light and the vessel differ. Therefore, without refining our inner self, we view all prayers as a single prayer, i.e., one that we read from the Siddur. However, if we refine our inner self, then each prayer is new every time.

In Part 12 of The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it is written that the day begins in the evening; i.e., preparation for the next day starts from the energy of the previous day. This preparation includes the evening Shema, the bedtime Shema, and continues through the night thanks to the previous day. But from midnight onward, the vessels change. A completely new vessel is created, which is prepared through the morning sacrifices. Then follows the Shema for the sacrifices, the Shema for the Creator of Light, and so on.

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Question: It is said that creation cannot do anything without the Creator since everything originates from Him. So what is the role of creation and where is the transition to what the Creator does?

Answer: The creation must do everything possible to reach the goal on its own. By creation it is meant a ten, a single person is not considered to exist at all.

If the ten is constantly exerts, it begins to feel that it is impossible for it to reach this goal.

Therefore it begins to call upon the Creator. It is written about this: “And the children of Israel cried out from the hard work.”

When they call upon the Creator, their prayer ascends to Him, and He answers them by bringing them out of Egypt—out of egoism. That is how it works.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”

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