A question I received: Kabbalah talks about bestowal and unity. Isn’t this similar to communistic ideas, which scare people?

My Answer: The idea of communism wasn’t bad in and of itself, but its problem was that it did not have the means to change human nature. This is what happened in socialist Russia as well as in the Israeli Kibbutsim. They did not have the right method.

Kabbalists seem to use the same words and the same goal. However, communists were secular, whereas Kabbalah talks about the Creator. Still, this is irrelevant as well, since the Creator is altruistic nature, and creation is a person that desires fulfillment. That’s all. The fundamental difference between Kabbalah and communism lies in something else: How can human nature of complete egoism be changed so people would begin to love their neighbors?

If only the socialists had an opportunity to change their egoistic nature! However, no power or method in our world is capable of changing man’s nature because our whole world is egoistic. All of man’s desires, actions, and thoughts are absolutely egoistic, and therefore, our world does not have any force capable of correcting us.

When a “point in the heart,” an embryo of the quality of bestowal (Bina) emerges in a person, he can change himself and acquire the quality of bestowal through the method of correction, Kabbalah. This will allow him to unite with other souls, and inside the unification, he will reveal the Upper Force which created him – the Creator.

Socialism, communism, and other methods talk about something that sounds similar to Kabbalah. However, the only way to realize unification and reveal the Upper Form of life (which is spiritual and eternal) is with the help of an outside force – the Creator.

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The Creator wishes for the creation to become similar to Him, to be just as eternal and perfect. Therefore, through an explosion He implanted His quality to bestow into the creation’s quality to receive. Due to this breaking in the Upper World, we are born as little egoists in our world. But in the process of our development, the quality of bestowal begins to be revealed within us.

Particularly in our generation, when we as humanity have reached the greatest possible egoism, we are discovering its emptiness. This is why so many people are depressed. But suddenly, precisely in this situation, as if by a ray of Light in a dark kingdom, we can find the entrance into the Upper World!

A new desire pulls us somewhere and instills hope in us. In our generation, many people already feel this addition to their regular egoism, which has developed in us throughout many millennia.

In the previous generations, this small spark called the “point in the heart,” the sprout of an altruistic intention, was awakened only in special, chosen people, who became Kabbalists. However, today millions of people are feeling this new quality that is awakened in them. It pushes them ahead and demands to be realized. Previously, we were pushed ahead by egoism, but now egoism no longer sees anything worthwhile to chase in this world.

This new desire begins with the question, “What is the meaning of my life?” We feel emptiness and see that it is impossible to receive any more egoistic fulfillment. However, there is another side to the question, “What can I receive pleasure from?” Its opposite realization is: “Who can I give pleasure to?” That is when a person begins to feel a need to bestow. He feels that he can find true fulfillment in that!

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I don’t need to pay any attention to which particular pleasures I find attractive. In fact, all of them come down to the same common denominator – they make me feel good.

If I use this approach, it is easier for me to restrain my aspirations for pleasure and shift my attention from the pleasure to His Source and to the reason why I am receiving this pleasure. Then these desires will be “help against me.” The sequence of events and actions will become clearer to me if I don’t lose myself in a certain type of pleasure (whether money, animate desires, food, fame, or power).

Instead of any particular labels, I use one common notion – pleasure. It stands in front of me, attracts and invades me. So, what can I do? Here I remember that the only possibility to rise above the pleasure is to ask for external help. Only the correct environment will awaken my desire to enjoy bestowal and will surely prove that bestowal is more important than finding pleasure in receiving.

By proving to me the importance of attaining the property of bestowal, the environment compels me to ask the Light (Ohr Makif) for help in order to start ascending! The main thing is the principle or approach of not giving in, in spite of the difficulty of the obstacle. It is then that I will see pleasure against my desire for it.

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If we start precisely from what was broken in the whole of creation – connection between its parts (us, the souls), then by restoring that connection, we will feel the quality of bestowal, the Light, the Creator. We have been created separate in order to give us an opportunity to discover the concept of unity, and eventually to attain eternity and perfection inside the white Upper Light, the Creator. It takes a small effort to accomplish this, but the effort has to be directed in the right way.

The condition of unifying the broken creature into one whole is not difficult to realize if one knows where to apply one’s weak efforts. If you have the lever, you can turn the Earth upside down. Our problem is that we scatter our thoughts and desires, not knowing how to focus them in one direction.

Success lies not in the magnitude of the effort, but in uniting all of the small efforts together. If they unite, the common effort will be directed at the quality of bestowal, the Creator. This is enough in order to be born into the Upper World.

Therefore, our only aspiration should be to unite our desires into one whole. Then, inside the common desire, we’ll reveal the higher quality – the Creator.

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A question I received: In one of your lessons you gave an example of a baby pulling everything in its mouth, feeling the world through taste. I remembered the phrase: “Taste and see how good the Creator is.” But how can I taste Him?

My Answer: To taste something doesn’t mean that you try it and then reject it. The phrase speaks of the fact that it is only by tasting the Creator, you can be sure that He (the quality of bestowal) is good and worthwhile. You will know this “by tasting,” meaning, by feeling it inside yourself. That’s what the Kabbalists meant by saying that you first have to try it, like when shopping for a bargain and then declining to buy.

However, in spirituality, you have to make the purchase first, and then, once you have bought it and dug your teeth into it, you will know what’s really in it. That’s because you then agree to bestow instead of receive, and you find that nothing can be better than that!

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We need to try to create such a state of unity, above all the discrepancies and differences between us, so that a common critical effort will emerge and draw the Light. This is like a nuclear reaction, where two parts unite through a blow in spite of the forces of opposition, starting a chain reaction of connection. In our case, the unification between us leads to a revelation of the Upper Light, which is revealed as the quality of bestowal and the feeling that we have achieved life on a higher plane.

A new reality is perceived to the extent that we are similar to it. If we try to attune our hearts and minds to our similarity to the spiritual world, then we will gradually begin to feel it and our joint effort will become apparent.

Crossing over into the spiritual world is like labor contractions. When powerful forces move a person from front to back, he is pushed back and becomes determined to reject his egoistic image. If he doesn’t despair and continues on with determination, the contractions will end with his birth.

(From the Lessons at the Eurasian Congress  10.23.09)

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What is a human being? A human being is a mountain of egoism and hatred towards everyone. If the Light influences this mountain of hatred (the mountain of Sinai),  it raises a person onto the mountain.

Precisely due to the egoism, a person has something to rise above, then under the influence of the Light, the egoism is ready to receive pleasure, using itself for the sake of bestowal.

The Light does everything. One can be the most righteous person, who has ascended high into the degrees of the worlds, but if the Light stops affecting him, he will immediately fall into his initial egoism. There are no other alternatives – either we are controlled by our egoistic nature or we are controlled by the Light.

This will never end, since while I am in any spiritual state, I must always hold onto the Light in order for it to influence me. If I let go of it, I will fall immediately.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Cannot Change The World Until We Change Ourselves
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Attaining the Worlds Beyond: 14.”Transforming Egoism to Altruism”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”
Video: How Do We Get Rid Of The Ego? (5:03)

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Everything takes place within the desire for pleasure, which was created by the Creator. As it develops, this desire undergoes certain changes. At first we approve of and don’t conflict with it. In fact, any sort of conflict is downright impossible, since one never distances himself from this desire but always acts at its command. He is not yet aware that the desire really isn’t his and that it rules over him. He is yet to distinguish these two aspects within himself as separate: desire and man.

But then inside of him awakens the Creator’s point directed at bestowal and one begins to feel his desire as alien to him. He begins to distinguish between 1. Desire, and 2. Me (point in the heart).

One’s efforts to change his desires further distance himself from them, and one begins to feel like their slave. Regardless of whether they bring pleasure or pain, one begins to understand that these desires are being sent to him. One’s reality appears to comprise three components: 1. The Creator, 2. The desires He sends, 3. Me.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains the matter of free will as how one can use the influence of the group and the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) to exalt the importance of the goal above the interests of the body and corporeal life, and how to change one’s desires so as to attain the goal.

That is how one develops his equivalence to the Creator (bestowal).

From the Daily Lesson of 10.20.09

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Many people ask me: what should I do with my desires, and how should I fight the disturbances?

The breaking or corruption means that the unified creation (the soul, the Kli) divided or broke into many antagonistic parts. Their correction lies in gathering all of them together in spite of the force of their rejection. In other words, the force of unity (the Light, bestowal, love) must be stronger than the forces of mutual rejection (egoism, hate). These forces, however, don’t annul each other, as it is written: “The hero is not the one who kills the enemy, but who makes him serve him.”

Thus, we shouldn’t look for the evil inclination in our daily affairs, but only in our resistance to unifying our desires toward correction, which is equivalence to the Creator. As soon as a person’s ego matures enough for the person to begin correcting it, a point in the heart appears inside him, which is the beginning of his aspiration toward unity. He is then brought to the group, where the Creator bring together all those who are ripe for correction.

If a person participates in the group in order to unify the individual aspirations for the Creator into one strong desire for unity, this evokes the force of correction during the study. Then the force shines on the common aspiration for adhesion between us and the Creator, who is the force of bestowal and love. That sets off the process of “pursuit.”

A person feels as if he is riding a fervent stallion that’s running amok, carrying him forward, and the person is helpless to do anything. The stronger you become in the group, the quicker you correct this, and the faster and stronger you enter inside the group on the next level. This, in turn, reveals your ego to you even more and you find yourself flying ahead on the stallion’s back once again. That is how you quickly reach the end of correction.

Some day the race will be over, because the forces of the ego are not limitless. Each person has his own measure, the capacity of the soul, and he has to reveal and correct all of it.

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We are all made of the desire to enjoy – a material that cannot do anything on its own and is entirely dependent on the Light that created it. All the changes that happen to the desire to enjoy are performed by the Light.

Our development starts with the initial stage, where the Light influences the will to enjoy and causes it to mature. From the state of maturity onwards, the Light ceases developing the desire and waits for it to want this of its own accord, and then to ask the Light for it.

Today we are at the transition phase leading to our independent development. The Light no longer develops us, but waits for us to ask It to develop us further. However, our request has to correspond to the program of the Light’s future actions over us. On every stage, we have to ask the Light to do Its work.

If we desire for the Light to perform a specific action to us – to correct us from reception to bestowal, and if our desire is an exact match to the Light’s program, then the Light immediately performs this action. Thus we advance forward, traversing 1/125th of the path of our development.

Therefore, our entire work lies in understanding what exactly should we be asking for, what is our future state, and what do we have to attain on every stage? Then our desire will become the same as the desire of the Light, the Creator.

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