Question: How can a person choose bestowal instead of reception?

Answer: First of all, this requires preparation on his part. He has to desire for this to happen. Even if he will get knocked off track later on because the Creator will increase his egoistic desire and alien thoughts, the preparation he made will still do its job.

Secondly, one must set apart a time for studying and doing things related to bestowal. This will also give him forces to return to the path.

Thirdly, a person must motivate the environment to bestow and reach mutual guarantee so that not a single one of the friends would stop thinking about it, but will always aspire to ascend above reason and egoism. The constant, common thought of the group is the surest guarantee there can be.

It is written: “Do everything that is in your power.” At the end of the day, our common efforts awaken the Light that Reforms. A person has to understand that it is necessary to obligate the Creator to give him Light. The Creator constantly increases his egoistic desire, and only at times does He awaken a person with the bestowing desire, the Light, in order to ignite his inner spark which he has to bring into the group. However, this can only happen several times and we shouldn’t wait for it to happen because this kind of awakening is linked to a very unpleasant calculation.

That’s because the Creator cannot give you a bestowing desire “for free.” Therefore, if you are waiting out for it, you will have to experience suffering and pay back for the support in full. On the other hand, you can ask for it ahead of time according to the principle, “Turn to Me and I will give it to you.” You can ask the Creator for the forces of bestowal and then pay for them.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Does it matter for spiritual advancement whether we read The Book of Zohar in Hebrew or translated into other languages?

Answer: I have to say that it does. The uniqueness of the Hebrew language comes from the fact that it has spiritual roots. That is why the shape of the letters as well as their sequence reflect combinations of spiritual forces.

Hebrew isn’t my native language, and specifically because I am not accustomed to it, I can see in the combinations of letters and their shapes a truly mathematical logic. They are calculations and signs that are expressed in the form of letters. A letter is a sign.

The Zohar describes letters, their shapes, and order in such great detail that if you read it in another language, you as though become unable to do it. The same refers to the order of the words and the sequence of letters.

Let’s say, Hebrew has many things that seem to be unnecessary: letters “Shin” and “Sin” that  appear as the same letter same but are pronounced differently, or “Tav” and “Tet” that are different letters but are pronounced in the same way, or the spelling of letters and words.

Other languages got modified as history progressed; hence, there still are individual elements of the ancient language in the modern one, such as the endings in the French language, for instance. As to Hebrew, it hasn’t changed with history. The forces in charge of creating the meanings of words in spirituality are arranged in such manner that over the course of millennia it is impossible to change either the spelling of the words or the shapes of the letters.

Every language has an old and a modern version whereas Hebrew does not. There is a colloquial slang, but the language itself hasn’t been altered. It cannot change since its structure is based on the forces which create the signs regarded as letters and words.

This language will disappear only at the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), when we will ascend from ZAT (seven lower Sefirot) of Bina and ZON to GAR (three upper Sefirot) of Bina, wherein the letters will vanish. That’s when all of the matter will also dissolve.

Therefore, when asked “Should or shouldn’t I learn Hebrew?”, I would reply that it will be necessary, to a certain degree. If a person has time and opportunity to do so, it is worthwhile making an effort.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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Question: Since the beginning of the crisis, many folks accept what Kabbalah explains; they agree that we need unity and that egoism is to blame. But they also inquire: “Then what do we need to do exactly?” We can’t make everybody sit and study The Zohar, can we?

Answer: Clearly, we can’t make everyone sit and study Kabbalah if they don’t have aspiration for it. But they have to learn the basics that Baal HaSulam explains in his writings, albeit in a light, accessible form: about society, integral connection, the need to unite, and a different attitude to each other. That would be enough to draw upon ourselves the developing force.

It is similar to how we design a book for children, using language they can understand and colorful pictures. But it does educate and develop them. As to an adult, we have to give him a different book, appropriate to his level of development. But it is still the same content, if only simplified, adapted to each group: for men, women, and children. If Baal HaSulam’s articles are adapted and abridged, they can reach the mind and heart of any person.

If, however, people immediately ask what to do physically, then the answer is: “Don’t do anything!” If we start acting only physically, we will ruin the method. Before anything else, change your thought pattern, and it will fix everything else! “Everything gets clarified in the thought,” and it is impossible to start something with actions.

The only actions we take are aimed at the circulation of Kabbalah and assisting our internal unity. No other action is necessary. Any meal or convention is merely an opportunity to connect. Everything is directed within. If we could get by without them, no action would be required at all. All action takes place within, in the person’s heart. We need to transform the heart.

Baal HaSulam’s articles have to simply become a “national treasure,” and everybody has to understand, discuss, and familiarize themselves with them. And while all of humanity will be going through trying events that lie ahead of us, you will see how one will link with the other.

Man will find himself in the middle. On one hand, the Creator will be pressuring him externally and internally by way of the intensifying crisis. On the other, humanity will have the wisdom of Kabbalah in a simple form, corresponding to its current state, and man will start changing. He will find himself between these two influences: suffering on one side and the method of Kabbalah, the Light, on the other.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: If in the end the whole path we have gone through becomes canceled, then what’s the point of all the actions we make today?

Answer: How else could you reach absolute love? How else could you build it if every subsequent level is built based on the previous one?

The entire path you have gone through becomes canceled similar to how you reveal that this entire world is imaginary. When you attain the end of correction and become part of the original point of creation, then the first state (the beginning of creation) and the third state (the end of correction) merge as equals. And the second state (the process of correction) ceases to exist. It becomes part of the third state together with the first state, as if none of it ever happened and all of it just seemed so to us!

All the changes took place only in our sensations. It was necessary for us to go through all of these states in order to be able to understand the Creator and feel Him, become attached to Him, and merge with Him.

All the worlds (Olamot) mean concealments (Alamot), and these worlds or concealments disappear! They were necessary only in order to create this gradually increasing concealment; the problems and suffering awaken us in order for us to gradually start attaining, from below upwards, the one and only existing state in reality. Nothing exists besides it.

All the states we go through are necessary for making discernments. They are 125 levels of discerning the perfect state in which you always exist. You are simply unable to attain it fully all at once, and therefore you do it gradually, in parts, each time understanding and feeling more.

It’s as if you’re “eating this meal” in parts; that is how you ascend up the levels of the worlds. In reality, these worlds do not exist other than in your perception. As soon as you attain everything, there is no more need for them.

However, don’t they seem to exist in me because I ascended up through them until the end of correction, until the final unity? That’s right, but this is only your sensation, the path of attainment. However, in reality there is only one perfect state, existing before and after you: Malchut, filled by the Light of Infinity, both in the very beginning and at the very end.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Writings of Rabash, “He Who Has Not Made An Effort On Shabbat Eve…”: The main efforts are made in the work against knowledge, when a person does not know for what sake he must work. This is very difficult.

Question: Why is it so difficult?

Answer: Because it completely contradicts everything that I am. In reality, this is not just very difficult, but impossible. I won’t reach success here with my own forces because I don’t have any means to make any action in my mind or feelings that is above knowledge.

I always act based on my own thoughts and desires. Can it be otherwise? What else does a person have?

Nevertheless, in order to make the right action, one must be equipped with the mind of the Creator rather than creation. That means I need His head instead of my own. But how can I achieve that?

That is why Kabbalists give us advice. When a person wants to serve someone great, the group, or the friends, he tries to turn off his mind and his feelings, accepting the mind and feeling of the neighbor instead. With the help of these exercises, we then build the same attitude to the Creator.

A small person always lacks a “mind” or understanding. He does not know how to become similar to the Upper One and does not understand Him. That is why he has to receive or accept a part of the Upper One’s mind. Working with the mind of the Upper One instead of your own is faith above reason.

Why “faith”? Couldn’t it just say, “the mind of the Upper One”? The matter is that the lower one acquires the head of the Upper One, rejecting his own mind in the quality of Hafetz Hesed, the quality of bestowal. Otherwise he cannot do this. He cannot see the action of the Upper One and become similar to Him.

The most effective means enabling one to acquire wisdom and greatness of a new level is to try and neutralize one’s mind and feeling in order to accept the mind and feeling of the neighbor, who is higher than me. Otherwise I grow only in the animate part of me, growing quantitatively rather than qualitatively.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Can the reading of The Book of Zohar help us acquire a general, universal perception? Would it not cancel out the uniqueness of each human being?

Answer: What uniqueness can there be at the moment? What human being?.. We are talking about your “beast” which we have to turn into a Human Being.

You have a “donkey” (“donkey” in Hebrew is “Hamor,” from the word “Homer” – “matter”), and there is only one spiritual spark in it. We want to help you extract this spark from the “donkey” and connect it with the rest of the sparks shimmering above the herd of “donkeys.”

Imagine seven billion “donkeys” and a twinkling spark above each of them. We want to unite these sparks together and then build from them Man similar to the Creator. Only then will they acquire a general perception of the collective soul of Adam HaRishon.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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Question: What should we do with the people who study the material independently and come with established, self-imposed “axioms” with which they confuse other students?

Answer: The group should isolate itself in its Kabbalistic center like an embryo in the mother’s womb. A developing soul needs to be protected. It must be surrounded with love and care like an embryo or a baby, by building a nurturing atmosphere around it, similar to “Noah’s ark.”

While students have not yet reached spiritual revelation and don’t quite understand what they are doing and where they are going, they get tossed from side to side, from state to state because each time new systems are formed within us. And while we are constructing ourselves, we continue going through unstable states; hence, we cannot be under the influence of several factors, but only one.

Baal HaSulam writes in “A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar” that if a student doesn’t cleave to the teacher, like an embryo clings to the mother, and doesn’t adhere to the upper one, then he doesn’t advance. This law rules in the spiritual world as well as the material one while we are in the preparation stage and work with our egoistic desires.

If a student doesn’t conform, nothing will help. He may be very smart and have outstanding abilities, but he won’t reach spiritual attainment. Hence, the sages said: “A thousand [disciples] enter the class, but only one comes out to the Light.” And the only reason for this is negligence, reluctance to accurately follow the spirit of the teacher, the person that passes spirituality to you.

I myself don’t need this in the least; you know how I loathe any kind of worship. But a student has to develop such an attitude. At the very beginning of the path, one has to make up his mind, according to the principle: “A person learns where his heart desires.” So how can you allow someone to enter your center, your home, and confuse you? I would never allow it.

We still cannot determine who is right and wrong, everything is relative. And if you wish to advance spiritually, don’t trust anyone; you must choose the source you want to drink from on your own. Everyone must unilaterally select a teacher who will answer his questions and meet his expectations, and who is qualified to guide him or her on the path of spiritual growth.
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From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

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Question: I want to escape “from Egypt,” from my ego. How can I stay in this fear of not falling back into my egoistic desires once again? How can I build an ever stronger screen each time, capable of withstanding the immense pleasure of bestowal so that it does not turn to receiving once again?

Answer: Invest in the Light as much as possible. This means to invest in the connection with others since the Light is revealed in the connection between souls.

Once, we were in a completely different state. We were together in a system of a single soul where all of our souls were completely connected with each other, and the Light of Infinity filled them without any limits. This state was called the “world of Infinity,” one desire called “one soul” completely filled by the Light.

Afterward, this desire broke apart and scattered into small fragments like a plate that smashed into bits, and there was no connection at all between them. That is why all of the fulfillment which used to be in this “plate,” all of this Light, disappeared. If you glue this “plate” back together, you begin to feel the fulfillment in it.

The whole problem lies in the fact that there is no vessel (Kli) in which you can reveal the fulfillment. The Light is around the “plate,” but it cannot be revealed because there is no connection between its pieces, and they cannot hold the Light.

Therefore, all of our work lies in connection. I must be ready to unite with others, and then I will feel the Light which is revealed inside our unity.

How can I reach unity? Just the thought of it immediately strips me of any desire. Suppose it seems to me that I want to unite with others. Then, I begin to realize that my desire is completely not toward this. First of all, I have to reveal how broken apart I currently am, how far from unity with others. I do not want it, and I even hate it.

In this whole process, until the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), we reveal how opposite we are to unity, how much we hate it, and how we are ready for anything but this. Even if we are already in the spiritual world, over the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), at each degree there are states (Klipot, shells) when you hate the Creator, unity, and the Light.

That is why the revelation of evil is a necessary and essential state at each stage. When I reveal the evil, it means that I join into it. I cannot see it from the side; I must completely submerge into it. I must feel it inside me, including Pharaoh, and Moshe (Moses), and the fight between them.

That is why our work consists only of attracting the Light that Reforms.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”

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Question: It is written that the first man, Adam, had several bodies and coverings. How do the “body,” “matter,” and “covering” differ?

Answer: “Matter” is the will to enjoy. “Covering” is the degree of bestowal that it can be in.

The entire “history” of matter starts with the breaking of the worlds followed by the birth of the collective soul (Adam), which also breaks and which we must reform since we are its parts. To do so, it is necessary to select desires (Kelim), after clarifying which of them can and cannot be reformed, and which don’t need to be corrected. Therefore, they are divided into three categories or three bodies.

The external body is the worst desires that you cannot reform at all. The internal body doesn’t need to be corrected because it is reformed from Above. In fact, if it hadn’t been corrected from Above, we wouldn’t be able to correct anything at all.

We are not expected to correct all the damage from the breaking since we are unable to accomplish it. We need to become part of the system that will help us to make corrections. Therefore, desires that are in bestowal are corrected from Above. And the authentic Kelim (vessels) of reception, the “stony heart ” (Lev ha Even), cannot be reformed by us.

Actually, we don’t correct anything whatsoever; we only discern the difference between the Creator and the created being! I don’t need to correct my desire to feel pleasure since it is given to me for the purpose of clarification so that through analyzing and synthesizing, I come up with a “derivative,” a synthesized new meaning.

It is not matter that is interesting (whether it is “corrupted” or “corrected”); rather, it is more interesting to use it to discern a more exalted concept: “Who is the Creator?” meaning to get to know Him through “His acts.” And therefore, I don’t need to work with desires that either cannot be reformed or do not need to be. What I need to do is examine the place where they are all mixed.

In the “stony heart,” there is nothing to study and examine. With the most exalted desires, GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim), there is nothing to do either since they are the properties of the soul that don’t belong to me. I can only be in the middle, between one and the other. My entire correction amounts to discernment, sorting out the good from evil.

By doing so, I don’t correct anything since it isn’t my job. But thanks to my discernments and effort, turmoil and pain, I acquire something special, which is above the desires that don’t go beyond the animate level.

It is the entire matter of creation, the will to enjoy: the still, vegetative, and animate degrees. But I need to uncover the human level, the degree of the Creator in me! Presently, it doesn’t exist within me, but by figuring out the difference between receiving and bestowal, I start to comprehend the Creator. And this is the “benefit” of spiritual work.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Question: When raising a child, adults mostly use tenderness in an attempt to encourage and support the child in any way they can. Why do I get a feeling that the Creator educates us more with a stick than a carrot?

Answer: That is called: "Every person judges according to their own flaws." But when you reveal His attitude towards us, you will see with what infinite mercy He has acted. Looking with our egoistic eyes, we can’t see and understand it.

Even if you get a complete, one hundred percent fulfillment today, the next instant, when new informational genes (Reshimot) emerge, you will feel as though you have nothing and ask: "Well, where is He who created me? Why doesn’t He fill me?!"

From the ego’s point of view, it’s a fair claim. If He’s created the desire to enjoy, He probably should fill it with pleasure, shouldn’t He? We just don’t take into account that He wants to fill us with pleasure on another, much higher level, and to achieve that, we must first become like Him. Being on our level, it’s impossible to justify the actions of the Creator. Therefore, the stage of the righteous begins from Bina and above.

Because we constantly feel that our ego is being beaten, we have the ability to proceed by faith above reason. Only by being submerged in never ending problems and doubts are we able to break away from our ego. Had the Creator always filled me with pleasure, I would have been running like a thief in front of the crowd, screaming louder than the rest: "Stop the thief!"

Next, I would be singing praise from dawn to dusk: "Hail to the Creator, the Good, and Who Doeth good!" I would thank Him for His generosity to my egoism.

We, however, need to rise above these empty desires. They are not just empty, but have a huge "minus" sign of great suffering. If a person is able to rise above such sensation and start to bestow, that means he is making a restriction (Tzimtzum) and a screen over his ego.

Moreover, if in addition to that he is able to receive pleasure, but not for himself, agreeing to remain empty inside while being filled only in order to bestow to the Creator, then he is called a complete righteous.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/10, “Peace in the World”

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