Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 96

Does a Certain Image of the Creator Form in Us During This Process?

An image is a personal impression. When I talk about my uncle, I do not start by mentioning that he has big ears or puffy eyes. Indeed, in a way, that also forms part of how I picture him, but what I primarily sense is his inner character, his personality.

In the same way, we can slowly begin to speak about our connection with the Creator, not as a physical personality, but in terms of our inner impressions of Him. We do not describe how He looks, but rather how we experience Him.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 95

How Do We Begin to Make the Effort to Feel the Creator’s Influence?

This effort begins in society. We seek a certain point within ourselves through which we can create a connection with the Creator and feel Him. This process is similar to remembering a forgotten relative. Suddenly, someone reminds us that we have an Uncle Samuel, and we begin to establish his image in our memory: Uncle Samuel looks a certain way, associates with such and such people, lives in a certain house… we start to connect with him by finding the point of connection in our memory and heart.

The same is true with the Creator. We become immersed in the events of this world and we suddenly remember that there is a Creator. We then seek that point by checking what data we have available and where the Creator is filed within us. We then seemingly find what we seek and remember who and what we are. We search for exactly the point of contact where we and the Creator connect. This point is in the “mind” and “heart.”

If we still do not have such a space within us, we must “open a file for the Creator” and slowly record everything we have managed to gather in connection with Him. Then the point of connection will become revealed to us.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 94

What Do We Gain from Checking Our Connection With the Creator?

Checking our connection with the Creator, what we receive from Him, for what purpose, and so on, gives rise to a complex relationship with the Creator. We start to notice that in our relationship with the Creator, there is right, left, and center. We continue to examine the actions of the Creator, as it is written, “From Your actions, I will know You,” and also, “If someone does not know the will of their Master, how can they serve Him?” We are about to receive something from the Creator that will place us into the heart of the process.

From the moment we wish to connect with the upper one, we must constantly examine this relationship. There is nothing else. Everything else we receive is a result of this connection, a connection that determines everything. How we feel is based on what happens to us. Everything that comes to us—the discernments, the emotions, what the Creator wants from us, what we are meant to be, how we react, what we think—we experience internally as a result of our effort to feel the Creator’s influence upon us.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 93

If We Do Not Know What a Vessel of Bestowal Is, Could We Pray an Incorrect Prayer and Receive Something Unnecessary?

There are several questions here:
• Is it possible to pray for something unknown?
• Does the Creator hear a prayer for something that is unknown?
• Will the Creator respond to a prayer even if He knows that we are asking for something hidden from us?
• Is it possible for something harmful to be given from above?

A prayer is a real deficiency that the vessel brings forth from itself, not what can be heard on the outside. A vessel can bring forth a real deficiency from inside of itself only by means of light that shines from above. In other words, it is not the person but the Creator who created the deficiency and the prayer that we do not always feel. Afterward, the Creator answers this prayer, this true inner deficiency in our heart. In other words, the Creator created the vessel and the Creator also fills it.

Where is our “self” in this process? The “self” is the one who feels these actions. In the whole system, the “self” is only the one who feels. Thus, there is no need to be afraid. We need only endeavor to be as genuine as possible with what we feel, and connect it to the Creator as the single source of all actions. This means not deceiving ourselves about what comes from the Creator.

We need nothing but to focus on the Creator and the unwavering knowledge that everything comes from Him. We must check, in the most transparent way, what exactly we receive, without judging whether it is good or bad, or true or false, casting aside all outer shells, confusions, formulas, habits, and things others have said to us. We need to remove as many distractions as possible and connect with the Creator from our internality. By doing so, we will receive all discernments, and gradually, the path will unfold before us. A chain of cause and effect leads us directly to the goal.

Although we know that the light and fulfillment do not come from us, we still think that at least the vessel comes from us. But the truth is that even in prayer, we must ask for it to be given to us. This is called “a prayer before a prayer,” as the Kabbalists who wrote the prayer books are fully aware of this concept.

We should not delude ourselves that the source of anything comes from below. Below, we can only engage in discernments, noticing everything that comes to us. We people are only feeling elements, and nothing more. This is the correct approach. Why? It is because this is how we do not become confused and always place ourselves exactly where we belong. Then, we have no pride or honor, nor sudden thoughts that we have any part in things.

This is when it comes to our relationship with the Creator. But when it comes to society and the environment, we must use them to sharpen our connection with the Creator. We use friends and the community to cleanse ourselves from the shells, confusion, and obscurity. Here, human effort is required.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 92

How Can We Reach the Prayer for the Deficiency to Bestow?

The way to reach the prayer for the deficiency to bestow is called “I have labored and found.” We ourselves cannot pray for the deficiency to bestow because it is contrary to our nature. We have no way of finding such a deficiency within ourselves or in our reality. We can, however, only pray for the desire to want to bestow. This is called “from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma,” when we make a request but do not know what we are requesting.

Why is there concealment? Concealment exists so that we would ask for the desire to bestow. If we could see what it means to bestow, we would not ask for it. We are thus prevented from knowing what it means to bestow, and we then become ready to make a request. But how can we ask for something that we do not know? After all, a vessel is called “the knowledge of the vessel,” the awareness of what is lacking, and only then can we ask. We are told that it is even possible to ask for Reshimot from afar, without any true desire, and yet come to “from Lo Lishma to Lishma.”

Why should we strive to do that? If we were originally made only of the desire to receive, we would be unable to do it. But because inside us is a spark of the desire to bestow—a corrupted desire while in captivity to the desire to receive since the shattering of the vessels—we can seemingly say that we want to bestow. We feel suffering, and this lets us prepare ourselves until we are given the strength to bestow, which is called “crossing the barrier (Machsom).”

However, all these states play out on condition that we do not know what it means to bestow. Accordingly, we can understand the need for concealment. Without it, we would never reach such a desire. Concealment enables us to request doing what appears to be the most dreadful acts, the most opposed to our desire, which we perceive as actual death.

Why would we do that? First, concealment lets us do this. Secondly, within us there is a spark of bestowal that pushes us to desire it. However, in the realm of this world, everything is false, and we exist in this falsehood called “the time of preparation.”

Why does such a stage exist where everything is vague and fake? Why did the Creator create this state? What does it contribute? This stage does not exist so that we push forth to reach the truth. It exists so that from this falsehood, we perform intentional sins and mistakes that we can later use. In other words, we have no need for the good deeds we have done here, such as praying, working, and giving, but to commit sins. After the accumulation of enough sins, the Creator sees that we have struggled and failed enough times, and then He helps us cross the barrier.

We need these intentional sins. Other than the evil, we do not take anything with us to the next world. So if that is the case, what should we pray for?

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 91

How Do We Receive the Deficiency to Bestow?

We can receive a deficiency to bestow solely from the Creator, because only He has, so to speak, the deficiency to bestow. RABASH calls this article “What Is the Main Deficiency for which One Should Pray?” We need to pray for this main deficiency because when we receive the desire to bestow, what becomes revealed in our vessel is called “the end of correction,” and then we have no problem feeling good.

It is impossible without a deficiency. There must be a vessel. The question is, what is the deficiency, the vessel? What do we strive for? Then, what will our reward be? What do we want it to be? If the reward is the opportunity to bestow and we gain the ability to bestow, we have then achieved tranquility and happiness.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 90

Chapter 9. The Image of the Creator

What is work and what is a reward? These questions are always perplexing. The purpose of creation is to give contentment to His created beings, and the state of completed work is one of rest, yet everything depends on the perception of the recipients. Work itself can be the reward, and work can also be experienced as rest. The concept of effort is solely determined by our  attitude to work and how we perceive it, whether we feel it as exertion and deficiency or as pleasure. After all, even now we exist in the state of the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), and these definitions are all we have left to correct, i.e., the way we perceive work and effort, and the way we define suffering and reward.

Baal HaSulam writes in his “Letter No. 55” that all suffering originates from the delay of reward in relation to the time of performing the work. If we were to receive immediate payment for each and every action, we could be likened to a shopkeeper who sells a certain product for ten dollars, knowing that two dollars from each sale would go directly into their pocket. At every moment, with every effort, the shopkeeper immediately pockets two dollars, thereby at once covering the effort so that it no longer feels burdensome but rather like an instant reward.

This is the entire matter. Everything depends on our attitude to work. Therefore, the work concludes in the correction of our vessels, feelings, and our inner definition of what is reward, effort, and payment. This is how, ultimately, the very concept of effort disappears; payment replaces all labor, toil, and suffering, and forms a state of constant goodness and pleasure for us.

This is all due to the fact that we have corrected our vessels, which enables us to now perceive what was bestowed upon us even beforehand, but we now feel it in new vessels, in different discernments, with a new understanding.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 89

What Is the Benefit of Saying Words of Praise about One Another?

I am sitting in a group, and suddenly the entire group begins speaking about a friend who is not present. Everyone praises his actions, talking about how amazing and serious he is. I am surprised because I never thought of him that way and, in fact, I did not particularly value him. However, when I hear others praising him so highly, a fire ignites within me. I start feeling envious and compare him to myself: “How could this be? Why him? And where am I? Could he already be at a higher degree than me?” This burning envy energizes me.

We should seek conducts that ignite this inner fire, which stir up envy that is beneficial for the goal. It should not be envy that drives us to sabotage a friend’s path so that he does not stand out too much. Such envy only harms us. Without beneficial envy, there is no progress, and envy carries great power that needs to be properly utilized.
From a Talk on the Article “What Does It Mean that the Evil Inclination Ascends and Slanders, in the Work?,” 6/3/2002

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 88

What Principles Base the Implementation of Group Decisions?

The implementation of decisions and their execution must be based on the majority opinion within the group. There is no individual in the group whose value is greater than others. Each person must examine themselves to see whether they can or cannot concede to the majority.

The question of whether to follow the majority or the individual in the group is complex. The conditions for balancing both approaches must be scrutinized to let both coexist. In any case, the group needs to achieve a state of unity. It does not matter what decision is made. Even if an incorrect decision is seemingly made, if everyone accepts it together, it will be the right decision. If a decision is truly made with one heart, it will be successful because it will fundamentally not go against the path.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 87

How Does Connecting With the Whole Strength of Our Desire Align With Subjugating that Desire?

Subjugation does not mean that we suppress our intellect, abilities, or uniqueness in various fields.
Subjugation arises from understanding the higher goal, which obligates every one of us.

Then, when working on building our lives around this common goal, we each bring our knowledge, strengths, and resources to benefit the unity. Everyone contributes what they have, and naturally, the more they contribute, the better. How could something common be established if everyone comes empty-handed, lacking intellect and strength?

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