Question: Can the lower bestow upon the upper, a student upon a teacher? What stops a student from receiving bestowal from the teacher?

Answer: The student bestows upon the teacher by allowing the teacher to bestow upon him, to give to the lower. The lower bestows upon the upper by his prayer (MAN).

The upper wants to give to the lower. He doesn’t need the lower for any egoistic purposes. The lower can give the upper the chance to give to him. What can a baby give his parents except for the pleasure of taking care of him? After all, it is a pleasure for them.

It is up to the student if the teacher can bestow upon him. The ordinary interruptions are the distancing of the student from the teacher, his pride, his disrespect, and lack of connection. In such a case he cannot be considered a student. There are special rules that determine what it means to be a student of a Kabbalist, and they are explained in TES. The vessel must annul itself and open itself to the filling and agree to remain only in Light of Hassadim.

This is according to the three phases of growth of the lower level with regard to the upper level: Ibur (gestation), Yenika (suckling), and Mochin (mind). This is called being a student—a lower level with regard to an upper level from which it receives fulfillment.

This form hasn’t changed; there is a hierarchy that, once revealed, remains forever. The structure of the general soul doesn’t change, and so everything depends on the student’s efforts. The teacher has to be very patient because the students go through many states until after several years they begin to understand what they have reached.

The moment the student is ready to annul himself, he receives influence from the teacher. But first he has to annul himself before the group, and only then before the teacher. Otherwise he will not enter the spiritual work. One doesn’t work without the other.

He will not be able to receive what he needs only from the group, from the friends, if at the same time he isn’t adhered to the other side, to the right line, to the teacher. There has to be a balance here, the right approach to the middle line, which he determines with the help of the two sources he has—the teacher and the group.

Sometimes the most important thing for a student is the group and sometimes the most important thing for him is the teacher. It depends on a person’s character. But the perfect form of work involves the balance between the two.
[95359]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Question: Why does Baal HaSulam say that a person is thrown from the friends to the teacher and back again like a “slingshot” and by that the right vessel for receiving the Light is built in him?

Answer: A person receives wholeness from the teacher and through the group he discovers his evil. Despite his reluctance, he is incorporated in the group and makes great efforts to become part of the environment and to connect with the friends.

Thanks to that, in response to all his efforts, he discovers aversion, hate, and anger. This is how his egoistic desire is revealed in him; it isn’t his friends that he sees, but himself in the friends, as if in a mirror.

When all these negative feelings are revealed, the question is to what extent he acknowledges that this evil is revealed in him and not in the friends. At the same time he comes to his teacher, to the lesson, and receives treatment from the teacher, a correction.

If he has the right connection with the Rav and with the study, he has to come out white. As all the evil that he felt towards the friends takes on an opposite form, and he understands that it is in his favor. Instead of cursing he now gives thanks for it. Instead of feeling the evil in the friends, he feels good; instead of feeling good and proud about himself, he now feels bad. This means that everything turns upside down.

The opposite definitions that he now understands and feels in his attributes compared to the friends is called “a slingshot,” reverse, a trigger.
[95282]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How does the system of: person – group – teacher work? What is the function of each component in this formula?

Answer: The role of the teacher is to correct the student, and the role of the environment is to evoke the egoistic desire in him, not for the corporeal filling but rather for the spiritual filling.

There are two systems: the system of the uncorrected desires, the left line and the system of corrections, the right line. (Although it is clear that everything is run from above and designated for correction).

The teacher is on a higher level since he passes the Light downward to the students and for him the good and the evil come from one source. With regard to the student, which means on the lower level, the good and the evil are perceived as coming from two different sources, a good one and an evil one.

The teacher’s goal is to pass the Light to the student by the help of the study and the Creator, so that it will correct him and the good and evil will become one whole for him. This means that on his current level, the student will reach a feeling that “There is none else besides Him, the good and the benevolent.” Thus he ends the current level and goes on to the next level, and so he rises time after time.

It turns out that all the components have to be divided into two parts: the right line and the left line. And who are you? You have to try and reach the middle line, the upper level, in which there is no good or evil and where there aren’t many factors, but rather, everything converges into one: the group, the study, and the teacher—everything belongs to the Creator, and there is none else besides Him.
[95279]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, Letter 20: You are carved … on my heart, all day and all night and like incinerators of thirst after your goodness and your wholeness, and the Creator knows what exertion and powers I have given on your behalf, and you are sure that it will not be in vain and God’s word will be eternal.

From this day onwards we will grow stronger in the Torah and the Mitzvot (commandments), “like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load” to raise Divinity from the dust, and the sins will become merits, since His honor will fill the land. And thank God, I am very sure that our salvation is soon to be revealed, and we will be rewarded to worship the Creator together, in expansion and God willing, we will succeed.

Baal HaSulam writes about his investment in his students and about his helping them. However, in the spiritual world, in contrast to the corporeal world, the lower has to make efforts so that the upper can help him.

In the corporeal world, a baby is naturally attached to his mother first by the umbilical cord in the womb and then to her breast, to her body, and so he receives her treatment. Nature forces him to annul himself this way. He doesn’t make any efforts on his part. On the contrary, he feels that his mother is the source of his life, and he is inclined to adhere to her.

However, in the spiritual work, we have to do this action against our ego, toward the group, the teacher, and the Creator. Only to the extent that we annul ourselves will we receive nourishment from them, either through what we call a “spiritual umbilical cord” or through the spiritual breast of the upper Partzuf, through the Surrounding Light and the Inner Light.

So, if a teacher writes that the students are carved … on my heart all day and all night, it means that they also have made a great deal of work in order to reach such a mutual connection.

What exertion and powers I have given on your behalf, this is possible only if the students allowed the teacher to bestow upon them. If a baby refuses to eat, how is it possible to force him? Here, it is a matter of his own freewill.

First, his freewill is only in annulling himself. Then, it is also in agreeing to accept the bestowal from the upper, which is always in contrast to one’s own mind and feelings. It is a very big problem. Even to just annul yourself and to accept everything as Hassadism isn’t easy. The embryo is in the waters of Hesed, but it isn’t simple to receive everything as Hassadim in total self-annulment.

So, a student should begin to accept actions that are opposite to his feelings and his mind, and to accept them in order to see the upper’s grace in the greatest sufferings, just like Rabbi Akiva in his painful death.

This isn’t simple at all, and we have to prepare ourselves for that. The main thing is to want that our attitude to what is happening with us will change. We are required to ask and to beg, to pray, so that we will be able to justify everything that happens, and to receive the Creator’s actions upon us with love and to ask for help in order to adhere to the group, to the teacher, and to the Creator so that love will cover all our sins.

This work is called like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load. We must constantly feel that There is none else besides Him, and the vessel for this feeling is our connection and love. This is why it is called the great rule of the Torah.
[95176]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12

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Question: What is the difference between spirituality and warm-heartedness? There are some warm people who are very pleasant and there are spiritual people who may be very unpleasant. What’s the difference between them?

Answer: We call warm-hearted people “good souls” in everyday life, nice people, who are ready to give quick support to others. This person understands you, is sympathetic and empathetic, feels compassion, helps you, etc.

A spiritual person is someone who is working hard on himself, “breaking his teeth,” fighting himself under great strain developing something that is totally different from a person in our world, bestowal, which doesn’t exist in our world. And this attribute develops by huge efforts, great intention, and immense concentration of exertion, attention, and constant work, and very strong self-control.

When a person reaches this state, he has a special attitude to others that doesn’t necessarily seem warm, kind, loving, or nice to us, because he thinks about how to turn us into spiritual people, meaning people who have a soul. This involves serious efforts by a person against himself, under pressure, with hard work. So the people are not necessarily pleasant or nice. Their mission forces them to relate to us, the small weak people, purposefully and in a goal oriented manner.

I experienced it myself. My teacher Rabash looked at me as clay from which he had to sculpt and he assessed the extent to which this clay would moan, but would allow itself to be molded. This is how I felt then. On the one hand, it is a great love, an inner participation and understanding, but actually, the external expressions are still very special. A person who can truly value them is a person who understands the goal before him, the attributes of the student and the work of the teacher.
[95038]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 2

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“: The third question, which is the fear that one will turn sour, well, there is no fear at all here. This is because the deviation from the path of God that occurred before was for two reasons: Either they broke the words of our sages with things that they were forbidden to disclose, or because they perceived the words of the Kabbalah in their superficial meaning, as corporeal instructions, breaching “Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image.”

Hence, until this day there has indeed been a fortified wall around this wisdom. Many have tried to begin to study, but could not continue for lack of understanding and because of the corporeal appellations.

First, it all belongs to the past, when people were not developed enough. Therefore, as it says, “they ate unripe fruit,” which is very dangerous. An undeveloped person mustn’t be given information that is not suitable for his level.

We see that the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed in our times, that it is seemingly widespread and many people are attracted to it, each according to his preferences. There are those who try to use it to heal different illnesses, there are those who turn it into a religion, others turn it to mysticism, new age, etc. Everyone builds his wisdom from it, unless he is a part of a Kabbalistic group under the influence of a real teacher who knows what he is talking about, and follows the method relying only on the sources that he has received from his teacher.

Unfortunately, there are many groups that study the wisdom of Kabbalah in the wrong way, or learn TES by heart as if studying Babylonian Talmud in a Yeshiva, or trying to extract some mystical powers from it. It is the natural inclination of a person who wants immediate results—to take the wisdom of Kabbalah and interpret it according to familiar terms, as any other science.

A person doesn’t understand that he has to wait until the wisdom of Kabbalah begins to change him. Then after these changes take place, he will be able to begin the course of study. It is impossible to do it any other way, except for working in a group and revealing the upper force, that “there is none else besides Him,” and that He is “good and benevolent.”

So there were, are, and will be many more mistakes with regard to studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. But they are also included in the plan of creation. If a person doesn’t correct himself, but is still attracted to correction, but simply doesn’t fulfill it correctly, then he directs all the forces that were meant to help him in the process of correction in the opposite direction. In addition, others follow him into this empty study. Then later, after a long time goes by, they are finally disillusioned and accept this wisdom, not trying to profit from it, but loyally and rigorously carrying out what the books say or what they hear from the teacher.

It is impossible to remain “free” studying this wisdom, since freedom at the moment means acting according to our ego. The wisdom of Kabbalah, however, is the concealed wisdom, it is concealed from a person and every new level revealed suddenly brings such internal changes to a person, which he cannot even imagine in advance. Therefore, one must work blindly here, and carry out all the conditions the teacher and the books speak about.
[94223]
From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What does it mean to be your disciple?

Answer: The issue here is not with me. We’re talking about a law that acts in the system of connections between the souls. We need to connect these souls in the correct system with the correct connection. The connection itself already exists; we only need to identify with it, to connect to it, to clean it from all our litter, to infuse into it the force of love from our desires.

And therefore, a “disciple” is called one that participates in this, one who performs this work. He works on the connection with me according to the principle of “Make yourself a Rav,” and with the friends according to the principle of “Buy yourself a friend.” And towards all the rest, he works according to “Judge each person to the scale of merit.” And all this is in order to attain the connection with the upper force.

Question: How can the advancement on this path be examined?

Answer: Only according to the degree of annulment. Otherwise, your examination will be egoistic. A person needs to nullify, remove his internal “partition” that interferes with connection, not to engage in anything “behind the back,” secretly, but to frankly look for the point of adhesion through which he will be able to receive the supreme wisdom.

Each one should manage this list by oneself. Ideally, you have to know what I want, even without asking many questions. By means of this clarification, you have to nullify your ego in order not to deal with your corporeal desires and indulge in them. And then, when you feel what my desire is, you execute it.

And it’s not important whether I know about it or not, or if others know it or not. You simply do it and by this acquire connection, through me, with a system that is more superior, with the Creator.

Question: In general, we disdain you, even without understanding it…

Answer: It’s natural, whether you want to or not. A moral should be learned from this: Understand your relationship to the Creator. Maybe for you it’s not obvious, but it can’t be that you will treat Him better than me.

For this the teacher and the group are in front of you; the Creator is hidden, and you can “practice” on them in self-analysis: “Who is smarter in my eyes: me or them? Who is greater: me or them? Do I want to bend them down according to my plans, so that I behave in a way that’s convenient for me? Or nonetheless, I bend my head down and do whatever is good for them? How much do I nullify my opinion in front of them?”

All the work is in this. You were given a “practice facility,” where you can do all the preparation. If you don’t want to do these preparatory exercises, then it’s a pity for you to waste your time, better go and enjoy life…
[94049]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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A human being (Adam) is a new action, new creation developing according to the internal program, inherent in the primary “drop of semen.” To this program, this form, given by the father, the mother’s material is added. Then the program begins to be realized, manifest itself, and the material takes the form of a human being.

A person is born from a mother like an animal. However, we talk about our inner structure, how we give birth to ourselves spiritually. And here is a special condition before us: We have to create our form ourselves.

Question: But is an animal not capable of this?

Answer: An animal remains an animal. It cannot become a human being. It is the foundation above which he is formed. In general, the still, vegetative, and animate nature is the platform above which we build the human form.

Question: Who can build it?

Answer: The “drop of semen” that lies above the animal degree. It contains everything, except the material. But when the material is added to it, the necessary form does not appear automatically like in the animal world; we have to find it ourselves. In the spiritual world, a person creates himself with the Creator’s help.

Initially, I do not know my future spiritual form. I should want it, look for it and try, going in faith above reason as much as I can. I act, striving for something that seems like bestowal to me, and these efforts suddenly bring me to a “discovery,” a new form. Yes, I was thinking about it all that time, but still could not imagine what it would be in reality. Now, when the form of bestowal is dressed in me, I attain it.

How did I get it, not knowing where to go exactly? That is why it is called a “discovery”—it is a surprise for me, not an expected result.

Question: So, what is my free choice?

Answer: Your free choice is to seek this form with the help of the environment, by all possible means. Namely the environment builds my future state, creating its form according to the principle of a matrix that puts pressure on a tin ingot from both sides, giving it the desired form. I am that ingot, the initial material, lying between the two parts of the press: The group is one side and the teacher and studies are the other.

And the fact is that I put myself under this press. I am ready to accept various forms and just want to annul myself, like an ingot that could be given any shape. Thus I acquire the human form.

Question: Where is freedom here?

Answer: It is impossible to be just free, if you are free, it means from something. In reality, you can be independent only from the evil inclination. That is why the Creator created the evil inclination first: pride, self-importance, and other egoistic qualities, relative to which we can check ourselves: How much you can cancel them, sacrifice them in order to take any form that the teacher, studies, and group require from you? If you accept their “pressure,” the Creator fills this new form with the spirit of life. And if not, then not.

When you would like to leave the group, but still decide to stay, then you go toward free choice. The choice means to rise above the evil inclination. Then, you will really feel free.

But now the time has not come yet: Is it possible to let a baby who barely learned to walk choose? He will break something. It is impossible to create a reality of freedom immediately when you have all the qualities opposed to the Creator and you have the opportunity to agree or disagree with Him.

However, today it is not required. Gradually, you realize that you do not have choice for the time being while you are under the dominion of the egoistic desire. Only it acts in you, and you have nothing else, no other force in resisting egoism in something and putting up with it in something else. You still need to go forward, study, and draw a lot of Reforming Light in order to acquire the second force.

In the end, finding yourself between two forces, you obtain the whole world, completely different values, a new understanding. Then, we will talk about free choice.

It is no coincidence that the right to vote is given at 18 and not before. Imagine if 10-year-old children could vote. Then candidates would state from the screen without any constraint: “I will give you candies! I will provide everyone under the age of 18 with the latest generation of smartphones!”

In general, we see that everyday life does not offer a person freedom. And there is no such desire. Today, you do not think that you need choice because you feel you are free. You do not feel that the Creator fully controls you.

And that is why He teaches you: First, He gives you the egoistic desire and then puts obstacles on the path to its realization, as if someone prevents you. You do not understand yet that everything comes from one source, and that is what you are taught.

Question: How can we accelerate this process?

Answer: Through playing with the correct environment, with the group. Replace a vague relationship with the Creator with a real relationship with the group. You can do this. If you want with the help of environment to change how the Creator treats you, you have the opportunity. Instead of the Creator, accept the group as a factor of influence and you can control your life freely.

We hear this, but do not yet feel it. No problem, awareness will come soon…
[92593]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: In our world there are laws that we must abide by. How can I check my intention practically to see whether it is egoistic or whether it is the right intention?

Answer: How can I practically check my intention and advance? You are right, the most important thing is the intention, but you won’t be able to advance by yourself, I don’t know of any person who could study the wisdom of Kabbalah by himself. You will have to connect to us. Without a group, a teacher, friends, and assistance, you will simply waste a lot of time. So for a start, read the material for beginners. But if you are really interested and if you are about how I can change my intention, that is a high level and it already quite serious.

It is simply a waste of efforts and you are confusing yourself by that and will need much more time in order to come out of this confusion. You should connect to us. We are prepared for any situation, in any language, English Georgian, Russian, Hebrew, whichever language you want. Our books are published in 27 languages.
[92297]
From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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After the shattering, under the influence of the informative genes (Reshimot), the shattered desires go through different states detached from spirituality on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. And so they gradually understand their state until they finally reach the human level.

Then they begin to understand that something brought them into our world, into a state in which they feel only themselves in a special desire called “body.” It is as if a particle from the upper world was thrown downward and immersed in some liquid in which it has remained.

Now a person is faced with a dilemma: Should he work for this world, for the sake of adding, for the benefit of the body, or should he work for the benefit of the soul? He has to choose one of the options.

Of course the choice isn’t up to a person, but rather stems from the reincarnations he has been through on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature where he examined his state. A soul that has come closer to its fulfillment is called a “high soul,” and with it a person can already decide to act for the benefit of the soul and not of the body.

In order to act for the benefit of the soul, a person needs this whole world to help him reach the awe of the Creator. Fear is a spiritual vessel, a desire aimed at bestowal. The illumination from above called the “Light of the soul” is dressed into this desire, or more accurately into the intention that is built on top of it.

This intention is built from the depth of the desire (the thickness), a Masach (screen), and Returning Light—which make up a person’s spiritual vessel. Of course it is possible to develop it only from this world when we ascend from it up to the height of 125 degrees.

People who have reached this fulfillment according to their Reshimot come together. The upper Light operates on everyone equally, but if the informational genes are revealed, the Reshimot that are ready for this correction come very close to one another aspiring to connect. As a result a person comes to a group in our world.

But after he comes to a group another law begins to operate on him, which allows him freewill. After all the Reshimot have to be fulfilled in a person’s desire.

Even if it says “I am the first and I am the last” and “there is none else besides Him,” the preparation for this revelation, for the recognition of the greatness of the spiritual goal from the darkness of exile, is totally in a person’s hands.

Here nothing can be done. Whether this load seems heavy or light to a person depends on the height of the goal and on how much a person values the one he serves.

If he disrespects the teacher, the group, and the Creator, then nothing can help him. After all, these three components are inseparable and supreme for a person. If he doesn’t value them, he will eventually divert from the path and leave the spiritual development

If he works on it as he makes every possible effort so that it will save him, it will help him belittle his ego, his corporeal mind, and his life experience that seems to have some value. It is revealed as totally useless before the new states he has to go through, but it will also empower him and give him fuel to advance along this path.

This is only possible if the greatness of the goal, the group, the teacher, and the Creator are more important to a person than his egoism.
[89846]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/09/12, Writings of Rabash

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