Rabash, “What Is A Big or Small Sin in the Work”: The value of bestowal is determined by whom we bestow to. If a person bestows to a small king, it is a small work. But if a person bestows to a great king, his bestowal acquires value and brings him great pleasure.

Question: While trying to imagine that I bestow to a great King, I feel that I am deceiving myself. What should I do?

Answer: It is correct. First of all, value depends solely on you. The Creator exists, and either you do or do not reveal Him. It is up to you. Do you have a “sensor” to detect Him? That’s the problem.

Generally speaking, what does it mean, “to value the Creator”? Rabash cites Rambam when explaining how at the start of his path a person undergoes a process regarded as Lo Lishma (not for Her Name). In other words, I value the King if by being closer to Him, I will gain more. As in our world, I measure His value against the pleasure that I can receive from Him.

What then makes me change my values? It’s the Light that Reforms. If, by way of the group, I keep thinking about the change that must occur in me, looking forward to the Light’s arrival like a rooster anticipating dawn rather than fearing it like a bat does, then changes do come, and I start appreciating the Upper One because He is a Giver, not because I can gain what He will give.

Now I value Him because He gives; I value bestowal, yet not bestowal to me, but the very property of bestowal. I wish to be similar to it. This new range of values changes a person greatly. The Upper One becomes truly Higher for him: exalted by nature, the King, whose value lies in the fact that He is a Giver.

In that case, I look up to the Upper One not because I receive from him but because I can become like him. I want Him to give me His attribute, allow me to become similar, closer to Him since closeness is determined namely by similarities of qualities, not by how much I can gain from Him.

The entire difference between corporeality and spirituality lies is our attitude toward the Upper One. Do we ask Him to reform us?

The Creator is at absolute rest, and everything is up to us now: If we wish to change in His Light, we will. If we wish to become like Him in our properties, we will, to the point of complete adhesion, absolute love.
[30935]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/10, “What is A Big or Small Sin in the Work”

Related Material:
The Hidden Law Of The Light
The Creator Is Your Reward
Learning To Be An Adult

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”: Isn’t this contrary to logic? Our inborn nature is the desire to receive pleasure. If we work at something, then we undoubtedly receive a reward for our actions.

Indeed, it is impossible to work without a reward. The Creator wants us to enjoy and be fulfilled. The goal of creation is to give abundance to His creatures, and that means we receive that abundance. Moreover, we have to think about how to receive abundance from the Creator.

The only question is: Inside which Kelim will we receive it? Inside the vessels of reception or the vessels of bestowal?

Reward remains reward. It is written, “The reward for a commandment is to know the One who commands.” We have to know Him just as Adam knew Eve, meaning to attain, understand, and feel Him. The Light of Hochma that we receive is the Light of knowledge that fills all of our Kelim.

We are built in such a way that all of our pleasure comes from knowing the Creator, from reaching unity and adhesion with Him. And that is possible only according to the law of equivalence of form, according to the Light of Hassadim, the quality of bestowal that we will develop inside us above the quality of reception, which ceaselessly appears inside us more and more strongly.

This way, we have all the conditions for building the right Kli and receiving abundance and reward inside it. We should only work with it correctly: We don’t enjoy directly, but from the fact that we attain the Creator, reveal Him, and know Him, as it is written in the Prophets, “Everyone will know Me from the smallest to the greatest.”

We have to understand that our Kelim, our current nature is just a condition from which we have to ascend to the spiritual nature. Then inside our spiritual nature, inside the desires of bestowal, we will receive all of the reward that we hope to get.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
I Labored And Found
A Step Between The Worlds
My Work Is Part Of The Common Work

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Spirituality - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”: We have to take it upon ourselves to believe in the sages….

Suppose I am ready to believe the words of wisdom, but what does that mean? Do I understand the words of the sages? What is their message?

First of all, we do not work on bodies in the science of Kabbalah. There are no bodies, but only souls. The bodies that appear before us are images of an illusory world.

I am in a desire that manifests as different forms: still, vegetative, animate, and human. “The sages” are the corrected souls that are in the broken system of Adam HaRishon. They can help me and give me support; they can be my mentors and instructors for my broken soul.

Accordingly, that is how we should accept their advice. For example, The Book of Zohar tells us about ten sages of Rabbi Shimon’s group, as well as the prophet Eliyahu, Moses, Aaron, King David, King Solomon, and so on. We shouldn’t perceive them as people living in our world, but as corrected desires or souls. They are in a broken system, which is gradually starting to be restored back to life. These souls are already corrected, partially or in full, and they participate in the correction of the entire system.

In The Book of Zohar I read things like, “Rabbi Shimon said…Rabbi Abba said….” For me they aren’t people who attain the upper world and tell me about it, but rather, these are names of levels of attainment. Through these words I study the ladder of the spiritual degrees: on one degree reality appears this way and another degree that way. It seems as if Kabbalists are telling me about this, but for me they are actually forces or vessels of perception.

For me every sage represents a spiritual notion, might, force, or quality. I don’t look at the names of historical protagonists, but names of spiritual phenomena and levels. That is the “faith in the sages”: I want to attain the same bestowal as the one that’s present on the degrees that I read about. “Faith” is bestowal.

At the lesson a person has to tune into this and aspire to understand how this will influence him. No matter what the book narrates about, I want to penetrate inside the spiritual essence of every word. This means that I believe the words of the sages.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Sound Yet Irrelevant Complaints
Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 13

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Study, Kabbalistic Sources, Perception, Spiritual Teacher, Spirituality, Zohar - No Comments →

Success in achieving the goal doesn’t depend on any special abilities of a person. We are yet to be surprised to discover that nothing of what currently exists in each of us gets to cross into spirituality.

One enters the spiritual world through a thin filter that doesn’t let you carry anything you now possess through it. It all remains inside your egoistic desire, your corporeal mind; all assets of the past disappear and nothing is preserved.

Success is determined solely by the effort exerted to offset all difficulties, problems, and disappointments. If, despite it all, a person still advances and doesn’t back away, only then does he enter the spiritual world’ and this is the only thing he gets to keep. This determination is what gives him the right to come in. There is nothing else.

When we exit Egypt bringing Egyptian vessels (Kelim) with us, they must be absolutely empty: our bare desires filled with nothing. This means that we throw away all egoistic assets accumulated in Egypt and don’t want to take anything from it with us. We bring only the most basic bread (Matza) and empty vessels (desires) or it will be impossible to leave Egypt.

Therefore, there is only one suggestion: In spite of all the problems and burdens, disappointments, and lack of strength, to still push yourselves ahead. This works only when a person truly values his time and tries to fill it with as much as possible, to simply compress each moment.

It is very important how much he writes down during the lesson and how much he circulates during the day, that is, what he is filling his time with.
[30879]
From the Talk During the Meal 12/24/10

Related Material:
A Bright Mind Is Not A Guarantee Of Light
The Two Principles Of Success
Through The Slums Of Beautiful Cities

Filed under: Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

The Creator created something totally new “from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain), and it is regarded as “desire.” We don’t know what it is; it is simply a sensation of some kind of lack, need, but of what? Since the Creator created this desire, it is the need to feel Him.

Experiencing Him makes us feel pleasure which remains as a memory in that initially created desire, and desire starts yearning for it on its own. Thereby, it begins to understand itself and realize what it is yearning for and what is worth desiring. This triggers the development of desire from this first initial need created by the Creator.

Creation is a completely unique act that can be accomplished only by the Creator, by the force of the Upper Light. The entire process that follows becomes the evolution of the created being led by the interaction of its two participants: desire and the Light. Nothing new occurs in this process. Something new appeared only in the point of “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain), which is regarded as the creature (Nivra), from the Hebrew word “Bar” (outside of the Creator).

Everything that we see here, in this world, and in the upper, spiritual worlds is the work of that very same desire to enjoy. On one hand, we know that the entire work is done by the Light. On the other, it is written that no changes occur in the Light; what does change is only the will to enjoy. In that case, who is working?

At this point, we have to draw a clear line between the following:

1. Changes may occur only within the will to enjoy (desire);
2. But only the Light can perform an act.

Therefore, this work is mutual: Desire always stands against the Light and must demand from Him certain actions. Until the Light affects it, desire will not change. However, until desire wishes to change, the Light will not affect it. Therefore, they work together, in tandem.

This bond between desire and the Light defines all changes and relations that may exist among created beings and between them and the Creator in the upper worlds and in this world.

We think that we are addressing each other, whereas each of us is a mere desire to feel pleasure, appealing to the Creator. Only He is hiding from us, making us experience various beings, attributes, the sources of pain and pleasure. But, essentially, beside man there is only the Creator.
[30746]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Understanding Each Other
There Is Nothing Easier

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

No movement that attempts to unify people without the wisdom of Kabbalah has a chance to succeed. Only this wisdom supplies you with the connection to the Upper Light by describing the actions it performs. When you read about these actions and desire to realize them within yourself, you start to constantly change. There is no other means.

People can assemble in various groups, but let’s first ask: What is their goal and the means to achieve it? Do they think that they are able to change human nature themselves? If yes, where will they get the stamina to do so if we are all egoists? If not, it won’t go any further than talking.

There are people who enjoy giving as their nature dictates, “egoistic altruists.” And they don’t understand that they act from within their ego because they don’t have a second nature, the spark from Above. They are really willing to give it all away.

In the time of my youth, when I lived in Leningrad (St. Petersburg, Russia), I had a conversation with an old woman who used to be a revolutionary. She told me how she used to give bread out to the soldiers who were leaving for war. She was starving but didn’t allow herself a thought of taking a crumb of that bread.

People are willing to give up their lives because our ego is above the animate level. The ego resides at the speaking (human) level, while the life of the body remains at the animate. And if a person feels that his “self” is hurt, he ignores his body. If he sees that the animate body is trying to overtake the human in him, he destroys this beast. There is no altruism in this.
[30200]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

Related Material:
Who Is The Human Within Us?
Why Should We All Strain Ourselves?
Learning To Operate According To A New Program

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: Why did Bina and Malchut come to understand each other better due to the breaking of the screen? In our broken state, how can we begin to do the same?

Answer: There are only two attributes in creation, bestowal and reception. There’s nothing else. We are not talking about Atzmuto (His Essence), meaning the Upper Force as it is, with no connection to us. We are also unable to speak outside the concept of time since we are constantly measuring everything within a time frame, meaning before a certain moment and after it.

The Creator and the creature are not included into each other; they are opposite from the beginning. In order to bring them to unity, which is the purpose of creation, there has to be an intermediary mechanism that would enable them to approach each other.

Such mechanism of their convergence would have to consist of both of them. It would have to manage both the Creator and the creature so that they were mixed together, included into each other.

The Creator would need to be willing to accept the creature within Him, whereas the creature would need to be ready to incorporate the properties of the Creator. There would have to be mutual understanding, comprehension, or connection between them, which has to gradually expand.

Imagine two opposing objects. Suppose you and I are opposites who hate one another. Now, we have to come to terms somehow and achieve perfection in our state. How can that be achieved if we are completely opposite? It’s impossible! It would be possible only with the help of certain means that are absent in you and me because we are opposite to each other.

How should we build such means? I give up something of myself, you give up something that belongs to you, and we start building something completely new. However, neither of us has anything to do with this third element yet. We simply build it in total separation from ourselves and don’t even want to know that there is something in common.

However, we are building that commonality as existing by itself, and each one of us invests a part of himself in it. So what? Aren’t the two opposite? What needs to be done so that they would come together? We would need to break all the barriers between them and, then, recreate them from scratch. That is what happens during the breaking.
[30295]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
An Imprint Of The Upper System
The Rescue Mission

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

The Zohar, Introduction, Chapter “Lock and Key,” Item 42: That carving that was engraved in Bina was engraved and hidden in her, as one who hides everything behind one key, and the whole of that one key is hidden in one palace. And even though everything is hidden in that palace, that key is the most important because that key closes and opens.

It is a great question and a great mystery: How is the spiritual system organized in order to correct the egoistic desire, which is opposite to the Creator in every way?

Two absolutely opposite forces, Bina and Malchut, united under the influence of a third factor, the intention. Thus, they built a system that really is able to facilitate correction with the help of the forces of reception and bestowal, producing an intention in the lower ones.

This mechanism is in the three upper Sefirot of the world of Atzilut, whereas the lower seven Sefirot are operated by the lock and key. The system is ready to be used: If we activate it, it will influence us. We do not feel how its Lights influence us, but in the meantime they descend, already organized in the right combination. They are what changes our desire so it reaches equivalence with the intention.

The Book of Zohar explains the secret of the upper system that connects the forces of the Creator and creation in order to make us similar to Him. We do not know how the process of change takes place in us, and thus we study its mechanism as a “miraculous quality” (Segula). More and more we come to understand that we do not understand anything. We grow more and more disillusioned with our own forces and not seeing any way out, we put our hopes in the upper system, and then on the contrary, we rejoice about this dependence.

Finally, we gradually begin to be included in the system. We are ready for it to make all the necessary changes in us in order to change us so we match it. If a person expresses willingness to do this, the system begins to influence him.

In this way, the first action from our end is to bow our heads. Then the upper system literally “engraves” its form in a person and he becomes similar to the Upper One.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Language Of Kabbalah, Part 10
The Key Issue: The Willingness To Change
A Person With A Refined “Taste”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Prayer and Intention, Spirituality, Zohar - No Comments →

The Creator wanted to create the creature identical to Him. And this is a true blessing. Why then didn’t the creature become like Creator in the first place? It’s because the creature must construct itself.

The relationship between the Creator and the creature is performed by way of reception and bestowal. The Creator readily bestows fulfillment to the creature and, in addition, gives the creature an opportunity to do the same in return. The more important the Creator is in the eyes of the creature, the more it can give Him. In the end, it will indeed become independent and equal to the Creator.

Thus, they establish total reciprocity. Man receives fulfillment ascending to the level of the Creator, but only if he wants to become identical to Him.

This additional desire that we need to find is called aspiration. It stems from realizing the importance of Creator. We observe the same in our world: If someone is important in my eyes, I strive to give something to that person. For instance, a child is important for parents, and they endeavor to give him gifts.

It turns out that I have to constantly work towards realizing the importance of this rung, the property called “Creator.” In this way, we achieve similarity with the Creator, naturally finding what is important to us: the property of bestowal.
[30040]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, “The Creator Created the Evil Inclination and the Torah as a Spice”

Related Material:
A New Type Of Humanity In Only 15 Years
Once Again About Love
The Timer Keeps Ticking

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

We have to understand that the more we try to come closer to each other, the more each of us discovers that he hates the others. That’s because every time I come closer to you, I discover how opposite you are from me. And the closer I come to you, the more I leave the place I came from where I was alone.

Suppose I take steps toward you, meaning that I get to know you more and more. The more I get to know you, the more my hatred for you grows. Why? It’s because I gain a greater realization of how opposite you are from me. This poses one obstacle to advancement.

The second obstacle is that the closer I come to you, the further away I get from myself. In order to get to know you, I have to leave my qualities and attain yours.

Say you are a salesman and I am a customer. You name your price and I offer mine, and gradually we bargain, reaching a compromise. But the more I go in your direction, the further away I move from my initial words. It becomes more and more difficult for me because I leave behind my previous opinion in order to come closer to you. Even though you also grow distant from your opinion, this does not worry me. I am worried only about myself.

Thus, to the degree I come closer to you I discover: 1) Your opposition and 2) Distancing from myself. Therefore, the more we advance and move closer to the Creator, to corrections, the more our Aviut or thickness of desire increases, and the heaviness that we feel grows exponentially as well. It becomes more and more difficult for me due to the realization that you are opposite to me and that I have to move away from you more.

To the degree we advance we always acquire additional Kelim, desires for correction, and increase them. We suddenly discover desires that are much greater than we thought before. And this is good because then I have what to correct, and I have much more than before. Previously I thought: "Who cares, I need to correct just 10 ounces." But suddenly I discover that it isn’t 10 ounces, but 50 pounds. However, by correcting them, I earn 50 pounds of Light.

Question: So when does correction happen?

Answer: Correction will happen when you reject the great hatred you feel and neglect the great separation from yourself because the most important thing for you will be to connect with me. This is a rejection of us both. Do you want to exist in love? Then show that you love! How? By rejecting hatred and neglecting separation from yourself. In our world everything is simple: You buy a ring for your bride and she is yours. But in spirituality this rejection is very difficult.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
Giving Means Filling The Desires Of Others
Unity Above Hate
Let Your Heart Knock On The Creator’s Door

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Spirituality - 1 Comment →