Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment”: By accustoming oneself to serving people, one benefits others and not oneself. Thus, one becomes gradually fit to keep the Mitzvot of the Creator with the required condition—benefitting the Creator and not oneself.

I cannot perceive, I can’t understand, I don’t get this principle. I understand that I should “work for the created beings,” to connect to humanity. After all, we are all here together and it’s only as a result of the shattering that the tear between me and others was created and I feel detached from them. This means that I have to overcome to correct the shattering and to connect to them.

But what does that have to do with the Creator? Perhaps He is somewhere on the outside and I can reach Him through humanity? Or perhaps I discover that He is in the unity with others in the group among us and that He even fills this whole space.

Still, it’s hard to focus on the group for the sake of the Creator, what does that mean? It’s a very vague demand, I understand that I have to correct my mutual relations with other people, but how can I also establish a relationship with others in addition to that? Our problem is that we don’t depict the right picture, and the confusion continues in our imagination for a long time.

The Creator is the absolute, the finite, the whole, the attribute of bestowal. The connection between me and the group is the vessel for receiving the attribute of bestowal. We want to attain love and connection between us. We want the world to become round, global, and integral but for the sake of the Creator, which means that the attribute of bestowal will connect to us, so it will dwell among us and dominate us.

Therefore, we mustn’t attribute any personality or image to the Creator, since it’s called “idolatry,” and it leads us off track in a totally different direction. The word “Creator” is made of the Hebrew words “Bo-Re,” (come and see); if you enter a group and reach connection, then thanks to the friends you discover the attribute of bestowal that is called Creator.

Therefore, it says that “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one,” which means that I, together with the friends (or with humanity) reach the Creator. In other words, I and the friends are called Malchut or Shechina, and we discover Zeir Anpin that is revealed in Malchut, according to the connection that was attained in it.

This is where the meaning of the formula “working for the created beings for the sake of the Creator” stems from. We mustn’t imagine that the Creator is someone or something; the Creator is not a personality or a phenomenon, but an attribute that is revealed in us. If I depict something else it means that I engage in idolatry and that I make an idol or an image. If we constantly hold on to this principle, there will be no problems.

After all, we want to establish a system that will include all the vessels and the Lights, this is Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) in which we are united, connected as the Light is revealed in the vessel. We were created there in phase one, in phase two we correct our attitude (and nothing else! only our attitude), in phase three we perceive and understand the world we are in.

There is no image external to us for which we have to work and which we have to reach; we only imagine the intentions and the calculations in this schematic way: First (1) we create a vessel, and then (2) to the extent that we can connect according to the law of equivalence of form we discover the Creator in this vessel, according to the principle of “come and see.” But the place remains the same place, the same desire, the same Malchut, that remains unchanged.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/25/13

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The Torah is given to us on two levels. One of them is the level of the common man, which determines the framework of his community and household. After all, he has to believe in something, keep himself in the framework, perhaps even to aspire to something if he develops some kind of higher desires. But, in principle, the Torah was given in order to raise people to the level of the Creator where there is no matter, bodies, or images in any form.

On one hand, this disembodied force controls everything including our matter; it leads it to some kind of image, to some purpose. On the other hand, it itself is not felt at all. How can we treat it? There is no way. That is why for thousands of years people pray, cry, and torment themselves, no matter what they do, and there is no reaction.

And rightly so that it is absent. We do not reach the Creator. To get in connection with Him, we need to be on the same level with Him or at least try to be at the same level.

That is why the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed, and it explains how it’s possible to request this force, which is not felt, to raise us to the level of sensing it, the level of dialogue, and the level of integration with it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/25/13

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The teacher stands in the front, he sees further ahead and guides the students. But if a student has his own ideas as to his development and the correction of the world, he is already his own teacher. He can remain a student and believe that the teacher is wrong about the direction of the development. He cannot receive the spiritual attainment from his teacher but can only receive theoretical knowledge, wisdom. Thus he doesn’t study Torah which is the means, the instructions of how to attain the attribute of bestowal; studying means being in contact with the upper by performing different actions. It has nothing to do with the mind, as it says, “It isn’t the wise who learns.” A student receives the force of bestowal from his teacher by his connection with him.

The force of bestowal is transmitted by an inner channel, since it isn’t philosophy nor theoretical science. So everyone can receive this force, both the most stupid and the most wise. Its transmission depends only on the necessary actions that each person performs toward the environment, submitting himself, raising his teacher, and connecting to the group so that the whole group connects to the teacher who represents the upper level, thereby receiving the correction from him. This is what happens on every level.

If a student ascends, his teacher also ascends with him, and if a student descends, then his teacher certainly descends with him. This is isn’t the teacher’s real state but how it’s depicted to the student; everything is with regard to the one who attains.

When a person only comes to study, he doesn’t understand all this at first. He has to wait until he begins to listen. It may take a couple of years, but when he finally begins to hear, the group must help him since otherwise it may take decades. The friends must explain to him that it’s impossible to attain spirituality unless it’s transmitted from one person to another and only if there is a connection between them and physical contact, which means that they can see, hear, feel, understand, and somehow impress one another, perform certain actions, be in contact, and be in mutual interaction. This is how it has been arranged for ages, and it cannot change since it’s a replica of the spiritual roots.

The wonder of the last level of this world is where by my corporeal actions I can bring Him contentment as I submit myself, connect to Him, adhere to Him by some corporeal assistance, and by that receive the spiritual revelation from Him. How is this possible? Yet I can make efforts on the level that I can do so since I cannot do anything else. In the meantime I don’t understand what bestowal is, I don’t have the intention of “in order to bestow,” but I can act on the corporeal level and it’s enough for the time being.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/05/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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We have received a shattered desire to receive for ourselves so that we will be able to attain the attribute of bestowal. In addition, everyone was given a spark of yearning for the Creator. It’s about people in whom this spark was ignited, while others have no choice and are totally managed by their nature. Only people who have the spark in addition to the shattered desire to receive, yearn to attain the spiritual goal having no choice.

If during the lesson they hear that only by our connection can we receive the powers to fulfill this spark, they advance by the path of the Light, by the path of “I shall hasten it.”  But if they cannot hear, if they cannot be incorporated in the environment that can wake them up and make them more sensitive, they will advance by the path of sufferings, by the path of “in its time.” Then years later, they will feel that this path doesn’t lead to any results since everyone’s minor powers don’t allow them to exit the corporeal level.

It may take a long time to reach this recognition, even 20 to 30 years. Only later is a person forced to do some soul searching and to look truth in the eyes and accept the condition of connecting with others in order to receive their awakening, having no other choice. Then his point in the heart has enough power to fulfill itself.

Only then does he begin to hear and to work on himself, but this doesn’t happen all at once either, but gradually. Still, he advances and has a sense of direction. He understands that he has to accept and to surrender to the conditions Kabbalists speak about and that are the foundations of the Torah: the connection between people and love of others, and not try to escape from it.

People try to escape and to hide from these conditions in different religions and faiths. Every religion claims that people must keep the rituals, the external personal or public actions, such as holidays and customs that characterize it. It’s all meant to hide the truth and not deal with the correction of a person’s ego that brings him to “in order to bestow.”

But the path of sufferings will eventually bring humanity to a dead end and will force people to see that there is no choice and that they have to listen to what the Torah says. Then people will ask how to do that, so we have to prepare the active method of correction for them and to try to shorten their path of sufferings.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, Selected Excerpts

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, Selected Excerpts

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Baal Hasulam, “The Peace”: These are the words of Rabbi Akiva: “The book is open and the hand writes.” Any state that the generation is in is like a book, and all the evildoers are as writing hands because each evil is carved and written in the book until they accumulate to an amount that the public can no longer bear. At that time, they ruin that evil state and rearrange into a more desirable state. Thus, each and every act is calculated and written in the book, meaning in the state.

And he says, “All who wish to borrow may come and borrow.” This means that he believes that this world is not like an open store without an owner, but that there is an owner present, a shopkeeper who stands in his store and demands of each customer the right price for the merchandise he is taking from the store, meaning toil in His work while he is nourished by that store, in a manner that is certain to bring him to the purpose of creation, as He pleases.

His goal is to attain bestowal. However, a person requires powers to realize this, and he doesn’t have these powers. He takes them on loan, even though he intends it all for bestowal. What is more, this is even if he wants to repay, that is, not to use anything for himself. He uses the entire world for bestowal.

According to the standards of our world, it is impossible to declare that a person like this is taking something on loan. You see that we get a loan for personal benefit. Here, everything is otherwise. Incidentally, the Torah’s prohibition against giving a loan with interest is derived from this. In the spiritual world, no loan must be paid back with more than what had been received.

So, the forces that I don’t have from the start I take on loan, but I am not taking for myself. They are not mine, I only add to them a desire for the sake of bestowal. Instead of the Creator, I bestow to everyone, and my entire goal is only to convey this bestowal skillfully, as if it were from His hands. I have nothing of my own besides my altruistic self that contracts the egoistic desire within it and acts above it. Therefore, essentially, I don’t have anything to return.

Question: In spite of all this, it is not clear: How can a person ask for a loan for himself in spirituality?

Answer: So, I said that this is another kind of loan. You see, I don’t have my own powers of bestowal. Additionally, I (specifically, I) want to give just as the Creator does. I have to transmit and give that which He wishes for the world.

This state is described allegorically with a metaphor that says that the Creator wanted to give the nations of the world the method of correction. However, they could not accept it. So, He used a transitional group called Israel, which means “straight to the Creator.” The people of Israel are like coordinators that connect the upper Light with the AHP. Thanks to this, Malchut can rise to Bina and be “sweetened” there so as to pass the Light from above downward.

So, this is called a loan only because a person doesn’t have the power of bestowal, and he receives this from the Creator. However, he doesn’t use it for himself, as it is customary in our egoistic world. In this world, a person seeks benefit for himself first of all, and afterward, he thinks about benefit for others, whether this is financial matters, well-being, or net pleasure. In spirituality, I ask not for myself. I want to participate in the life of the Creator. This participation is intended entirely for bestowal. For the sake of this, I activate all of my desire to the maximum possible level. Everything else I temporarily keep “locked up” under the restriction.

Question: So, how is it necessary to ask for a loan like this for the goal of bestowal?

Answer: This is called ascent, a request for correction (MAN). From the Creator, I request power to be able to examine, to correct, the deed itself. I want Him to do this, as it is written: “Be clothed in me and perform the deed of bestowal.” It is like an infant asks for help from his mother or simply cries, and the mother comes and helps. The entire problem is to turn into a “crying infant” internally. And it takes time to learn this….
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/13, “The Peace”

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Question: How can we explain to humanity the reason for all existing contradictions? People aren’t even interested in the research of “Higgs’ boson”—the “God particle”—held in CERN on the Large Hadron Collider. The latest discovery states that any instability can make the entire world and all mass disappear at any moment. How can you explain this to your students?

Answer: There is nothing ambiguous about it since I regard the world as two forces: positive and negative, bestowal and receiving. It doesn’t matter how we name them. These two forces build the entire universe, not merely this world, but even the realms that are much higher than ours and that we don’t sense through our five material, animate sensors.

In order to develop this standard of perception and observe the world through receiving and bestowal, we have to rise to this level. We are still at the elementary egoistic stage of receiving, meaning that all we do is consume everything around us. The Torah tells us that we have to bestow: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” If we manage to balance receiving and bestowal and reach equilibrium, we would realize that our world disappears between these two states and the higher dimension (the world of forces) appears to us.
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From KabTV’s “The Global Crisis,” 3/19/13

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: And you evidently find that the giving of the Torah had to be delayed until they came out of Egypt and became a nation of their own, so that all their needs were provided for by themselves, without dependence on others. This qualified them to receive the above Arvut, and then they were given the Torah.

Freewill is required to be independent of anything and I must feel it as mine. It is a desire that requires me to be connected with others, but not for achievements and other such results as happens with a commando, sports teams, and so forth. I want to be linked with others to discover the higher force. I require a precise and clear desire to discover mutual bestowal and mutual love of friends so that the Creator will be revealed among us and in this form, we will feel that we are giving Him satisfaction.

All this is “depicted” and realized between us specifically if we really have this as a deficiency. This comes not from someone on the outside. No one forces me about anything. I have no personal benefit. It is only for the common good.

What we want is that through love of the people, we reach love of the Creator. This desire will bring us to “reception of the Torah.” In other words, we have an opportunity to realize this, not all at once, but gradually, of course. I discover this need more and more clearly. I get the power to develop it. Accordingly, through my link with the group, the Creator is discovered in its center. This is how we advance.

Question: How can a desire be independent of anything?

Answer: The idea is that I choose the way by myself. It is not just that the reception of Torah is delayed until the “departure from Egypt.” I was always dominated by an ego that is unaware of the spiritual world. This is not about slavery to a landlord; it is not about working from dawn to dusk to provide food for my family. In that, I am not free. Rather, I must be free in my desire to choose the right way. Pharaoh still holds me, is still revealed during the exile in the wilderness, but I already have the power to be directed toward the Creator, toward bestowal, and my desire is free.

How can this be? Have I corrected myself already? How is it possible to be free of the ego? However, in spite of all this, my desire to be directed toward the Creator in the right way is truly independent.

Question: On what does the strength of this desire depend? There are people in whom it burns, and there are those in whom it barely simmers.

Answer: Of course, awakening comes from above, and the question is, will the person realize this with the right choice? The right choice is really the right environment, a group of friends. As long as I have not entered a group, the Creator chooses for me, like we choose for an infant what he needs to eat and what he will do. However, as a child matures, we leave a little room for him, allow him to choose games, offer him the choice of an omelet or porridge. We understand that individuality is awakened in him according to his degree of maturity.

Also, on the spiritual path, according to the degree of maturity, a more conscious choice is formed. They give him this choice very simply: through adding some evil, a bad feeling. As it is written, “I created the evil inclination.” The Creator says, “If you want, I will transform it into good. You only need to ask for it.” So, it follows that, for me, the question is, should I ask Him or shouldn’t I?

In general, the higher power controls everything. All the evil forces, all the disturbances, all the external factors, everything is in His hands. All good states, all the forces of Light, also come from Him. I stand in the middle. For me, the main thing is to understand that I am linked with the higher power, and It controls me, embraces, and encloses me on all sides. So how, in all the states with which He confuses me, will I be able to want the connection with Him?

The problem is found at the edge of my perception, at the threshold of my consciousness. If I feel a faint pain, I can agree that it comes from the Creator and stimulates me to turn to Him. It is said that the Creator is “jealous.” It seems that He is jealous if I turn my attention to someone else. The moment that I forget about Him, He immediately reminds me about Himself, giving me an opportunity to choose.

So, here, there is a need to understand where to find the boundary of separation: What kind of pain or what kind of pleasure must I feel to be separated from the Creator? With this, the human being in me is measured. How much I will put the restriction and the screen on myself so that nothing will separate us?
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, Selected Excerpts

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“Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Rabbi Akiva said this is a great principle of the Torah.

We must understand that a “great principle of the Torah” is the fundamental law of nature encompassing the entire universe. With a correct preparation, we see that everything exists only thanks to this law of love for the other like for oneself.

The relationship between anything is possible only by means of a special power, which allows and even requires various, even opposite parts—be they particles, fields, elements of living cells or people—to unite. This external force—the plan of creation—influences them, obliges them to communicate, and as a result, parts do not move from each other but gradually get closer, jointly building more complex systems of the still, vegetative, animate, human, and then spiritual nature.

All this together is the rule of the Torah, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Torah” is the essence, the system, existing between the Creator and the created being. And its law is love for the other as for oneself.

The “other” is the one who is diametrically opposite to me, just as we are opposite to the Creator. Nevertheless, the law of love works in the system obliging us to establish connection between each other because we cannot exist without each other at any of the levels.

This law of stage-by-stage integration is realized without the participation of the created being, by evolutionary processes in the still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well as the similar levels of human nature. Here, the universal law determines and dictates everything, and the created being is under the “press” of development.

However, at the highest level of human nature, the created being begins to adopt and take upon himself the realization of this law. He finds out that the principle of love for someone else or even the opposite is the law of life. After all, there would be nothing without the connection between the created being and the Creator. Being aware of the importance of interconnection, defined as “love for your neighbor,” the created being begins to realize it on his own accord, although at the beginning he discovers that all the other parts are not like him, are foreign and opposite to him.

In general, our entire work is to realize this law. But first it is necessary to study it, to see how it acts in creation. After all, beginning with the Big Bang, all our development, although it seems to us as the process of disintegration and disagreement, is in fact a gradual linking of all the parts of creation, until matter is compelled to realize the fundamental law of nature and perform it on its own accord.

Thus, the created being identifies himself with the Creator, and then they both will come to the basic principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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