Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 190

How Can We Imagine What Bestowal Is?

When we are in a group, we are told that love of friends leads to love of the Creator and that bestowal to the friends leads to bestowal to the Creator. Why? It is because we try to establish the same conduct among ourselves as if we were truly among the souls at the end of correction. From that higher world, where all souls are included and connected together, we draw surrounding light (Ohr Makif).

If we try to establish that same law, that same state, in this world, through bodies, through an idea, through an attitude, through connection, and the common goal of advancing together, even in a small group, we effectively create a resemblance of the state in which the souls exist at the end of correction, on the spiritual level within that group. To the extent that we make this effort, we draw the surrounding light, which comes and corrects the vessels.

Therefore, the connection between friends in a group directly affects their spiritual progress. Through this reflection we create in this world, we gradually begin to feel what spiritual connection is. Of course, we can never truly know the higher form in advance. If we are on a certain level, how can they perceive the level above it? Even in ordinary life, within our current state, the next state is always unknown and is revealed suddenly as something new.

So how can we yearn for something above us? The higher level (the upper Partzuf) shows us a small example of bestowal as it exists on a higher degree. It does so in two stages.

In the first stage, the higher level shows us a bit of the light within it, the pleasure it contains. Then, we desire it, long for it, and feel uplifted. Kabbalists call this an “ascent,” although it is not a true ascent, as we do not actually rise. Instead, the higher level gives us a little vitality from a higher degree. This illumination is light at the higher level, but only a faint glow for us, since we cannot receive more in our current vessels.

In the second stage, after illuminating us, the higher level gives us a descent. It lets us feel our own vessels. What are these vessels? They are vessels of bestowal through which we feel darkness. In other words, we feel ourselves calculating, “How is it possible to give without thinking of our own benefit at all?”

Thus, through these two impressions from the higher level, we experience two extremes: what the light is (even if only partially perceived) and what the vessel of bestowal is. Then, we see how much we love the light and how much we resist the vessel. From these two poles, through study, effort, and persistent work, we gradually reach the higher level.

When we attain it and realize that state, an even higher level again reveals both the fulfillment and the vessel within it. These two states once more give us a sense of the extremes within the higher level, and again we strive to attain them, step by step, ascending further.

Therefore, our path is built from ascents and descents:

1. Ascents—the sense of fulfillment that exists in the higher level.
2. Descents—the sense of vessels (the nature of bestowal) of the higher level.

The effort between them is our constant desire to acquire these qualities, whether more or less, until we fully attain them.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 14 “Forevermore One Sells All That Is His and Marries a Wise Disciple’s Daughter” (1984)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 1, Item 4 (Recording from 8.14.2007)

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Question: On one hand, a person feels that they have no strength for the work, and they ask the Creator to give them strength. Yet this is considered pride. On the other hand, they can turn to the group, receive the awareness of the greatness of the Creator from it, and only then turn to Him.

So what is the difference? In both cases, I am turning to the Creator.

Answer: You are not capable of turning to the Creator with the forces you currently possess. The Creator gives you an initial awakening, but with it alone you are unable to see the full depth of the problem or appreciate the greatness of the Creator in its solution. You do not yet have enough inner discernments to turn to Him.

Suppose there is a wealthy man who could solve all your problems, but you cannot bring yourself to ask him because you are under the control of your pride. No matter what, you are incapable of turning to him directly for help. You have such a strong feeling of shame that you would have to overcome yourself completely, yet you are unable to do so.

Such is human nature. A person is prepared to be killed rather than allow his inner “I” to be harmed. This “I” is a part of the eternal; it is his soul, and for its sake he is ready to sacrifice his body. For many people, this inner “I” is far more important than life itself.

For example, there may be someone who would give me a million dollars if I simply asked, yet I am unable to do it. Or there may be someone who could help me establish my life, yet I cannot bring myself to turn to him. We encounter this constantly. It reveals the force of our pride, the force of our inner “I,” the very force that separates us from the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson’ in the Work?”

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Question: We learned that if a person who studies the Torah directs the proper intention toward their study, they come from the state of Lo Lishma to Lishma (for the sake of the Creator). How does this happen?

Answer: It is said that one does not truly engage in the Torah while in the state of Lo Lishma. If a person remains an egoist, why should they study the Torah? If you are an “animal,” then live like an animal. But if a person uses the light in the Torah to correct themself and return to the source, then they truly can engage in the Torah.

However, for one who studies without such an aim, everything happens in the opposite way. Their eyes become blind, light becomes darkness, and darkness becomes light.

Question: If a person strives only for the Creator, is it called Lishma?

Answer: What does it mean to say, “I want the Creator”? What do I want to gain from that? What is it that you want from the Creator? Do you want to bring Him contentment? If a person desires to bestow upon the Creator, this is called Lishma, for the sake of the Creator.

This is determined according to the opening of one’s eyes in the Torah. If the Creator is revealed to you, and as a result of your aspiration toward Him you are in adhesion with Him, and if, in accordance with your desire to bestow upon Him, He fills you with His presence and His light, then it means that, through the equivalence of form, your desire truly has the intention to bestow upon Him.

But if you have not yet reached such a state, then you are only saying that you wish to bestow upon the Creator. In reality, you are deceiving yourself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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Question: How will it help me if I turn my Hisaron (deficiency) into a request?

Answer: We are constantly making requests. Whenever a need (Hisaron) arises, we ask. A person’s desire is called prayer. The desire that is in my heart is the prayer, because my heart is connected directly to the Creator, without any intermediaries.

Whatever I feel at any given moment (a desire to rest, to eat, to steal, to fall in love) are all immediately felt by the Creator, and accordingly, in the form of a response, the direction of my desires is corrected by various means: either internally—through what the Creator does within my heart—or externally.

In general, through both the internal and the external system surrounding me, the Creator gradually teaches me which desire is the correct one. So where is my work? It is in independently searching for which desires are correct and which aspirations are true. And when I attain those genuine desires that are in my heart, this is called that I pray.

A prayer is what I feel, what I desire, without having any ability to control it. The desire was created before me. Even before I begin to feel it, investigate it, study it, distinguish it from the others, and give it some name, it already exists within me.

The creature is the desire to receive. Therefore, I am unable to change it. I can only reveal it, clarify what it is, and how correct it is with respect to the purpose of creation. Then, accordingly, I arrange various external means for myself, using every possible aid (the group, the books, the teacher) so that this desire, which seems to me not to be properly directed toward the purpose of creation, will change.

However, this can be done only by means of external efforts and not by entering my heart and beginning to turn some little key or screwdriver there. That, I cannot do. I am not the master of my desire to receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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As we engage in spiritual work, we increasingly identify all kinds of states that we were completely indifferent to before; we simply did not perceive the states with our undeveloped sixth sense.

Now that the sixth sense within each of us is beginning to develop, even if it has not yet reached the threshold of perception when it is fully open to spirituality, we can detect certain changes in it. It swells from the presence of a vast array of emerging revelations and distinctions.

This is called the soul, something we literally develop through our actions. One’s free choice lies only in willingly developing the soul, and a person is obliged to make this choice on their own.

Light from above will not come to you unless you want it to come and correct your soul, that is, to give it inner definitions (Avhanot) and endow you with sensitivity that allows you to experience the spiritual world.

This light will send you suffering so you will feel more and more lack in spirituality. But it will never correct you unless you first raise a prayer, unless you first ask to perceive spirituality, get closer to it, and subsequently become equal to it in qualities and adhere to it.

The soul cannot develop without a person’s own intense work. What does the work consist of? It consists of request, called prayer, the raising of MAN, in response to which the surrounding light corrects the soul. To the extent of your correction, according to the properties that are born in your soul, against this, you begin to perceive the properties of the Creator.

If you have corrected any one of the 620 properties of the soul, you feel the Creator in that corrected property. By fulfilling the commandment, performing an action corresponding to the corrected property, you thereby connect with the Creator, feel that He fills your property, i.e., the light fills the Kli—the corrected part of the soul.
[359085]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 197

Why Is Our Interpretation of Fear and Joy So Far From the Correct Meaning?

Our understanding of fear and joy stems from the natural qualities we are born with. We are born with a will to receive, and all our thoughts, intentions, desires, and longings are aimed at self-fulfillment. This is the most fundamental and initial form of the will to receive. The true will to receive that exists within each of us is actually far greater than what we currently feel. It has been deliberately reduced to a minimal level called “this world” so that we will strive, by our own efforts, to establish a screen (Masach) over it, an intention to bestow.

Once we are able to place an intention to bestow on this small desire, we are given greater desires. Thus, at every step from one level to the next, we first find ourselves in a will to receive for our own sake, then recognize its evil, wish to correct it in order to bestow, ask for strength from above, establish an intention to bestow upon it, and finally receive fulfillment. This is the only way.

We could ask, why we are not born with a will to receive already combined with an intention to bestow? Why must we seek for what it means to bestow, how to acquire this intention, and how to apply it to the will to receive within ourselves? Why must we do this independently?

The reason is simple. This intention cannot come from above because it concerns our relationship to the Giver. Otherwise, it would not be considered bestowal, nor would it truly belong to us. The intention needs to arise within the individual. Therefore, we are given simple desires to enjoy, along with an opposite intention, so that we initially use our desires to fulfill ourselves. These desires are not neutral. They are, in a sense, opposite to us, like a negative point. Therefore, we must first neutralize them, not use them at all, neither for ourselves nor for the Creator, and only afterward transform them into bestowal.

This stage, where we neutralize our desires and reach a state of not wanting to use them, is called the “correction of restriction” (Tzimtzum) or “Hafetz Hesed” (desiring mercy). Beyond this stage, we begin to work actively in order to bestow to the Creator. These are the stages of correction. If we did not perform all this work ourselves, it would not be true bestowal and we would not feel the pleasure of bestowing. Instead, we would remain with only the smallest pleasure, called a “thin candle” (Ner Dakik), which exists only in this world and can be received egoistically.

In our natural, initial state, we can enjoy only a very small measure of pleasure in this world. Each time we approach pleasure, it slips away, appearing briefly and then vanishing with only a tiny portion that we momentarily grasp. This is the entirety of pleasure available in the will to receive before it disappears.

Therefore, if we wish to experience more than what this world can offer, there is no alternative. We already see that progress does not bring happiness. Humanity advances, the will to receive grows stronger from generation to generation, and we provide it with pleasures beyond imagination, such as abundant food, endless products, and advanced technologies that are meant to serve our desires, yet we fail to become happier. In fact, compared to people who lived one or two hundred years ago, we are generally more dissatisfied and despairing today.

In other words, increasing the will to receive and supplying it with pleasures does not help. The result is negative, because the will to receive itself is insufficient. Today, people run around the world searching for pleasure, on the Internet, television, and in countless distractions, but fail to find fulfillment. On the contrary, they discover even greater emptiness. Many then turn to drugs and other addictions, but for what purpose? Humanity needs to eventually realize that this method of receiving, this way of trying to fill ourselves directly and quickly, is flawed. It will not bring true pleasure.

Ultimately, humanity will reach a state of complete helplessness. We could eat the finest food and taste it like gravel, follow ever-changing fashion trends and derive no enjoyment from the way we look, and change partners many times in a lifetime and grow weary of each. We will not find any “garment” through which to receive pleasure. Desires arise from within, and we continue to develop them by acquiring more pleasures, yet achieve nothing.

This process will unfold rapidly. Within a few years, humanity will feel lost, not knowing where to go next. In the past, there were thinkers, such as philosophers and politicians, who at least offered some vision of progress. Today, even leaders and economists are clueless on how to proceed. We lack both direction and knowledge of how to fulfill ourselves or guide our lives.

This is the true nature of the will to receive. It is a vessel that cannot fulfill itself directly. From this realization will come the recognition of evil and the correction of the world. There is no other way. Kabbalists define the will to receive as something from which we can derive only a tiny spark of pleasure. After the first taste, the pleasure disappears like a “thin candle.” Compared to the upper world, to the higher pleasure, it is merely a small spark that has fallen into this world and sustains it.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 36 “What Is ‘For It Is Your Wisdom and Understanding in the Eyes of the Nations,’ in the Work?” (1989) (8.20.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 1, Item 3 (Recording from 8.14.2007)

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