Question: What should I do if I am constantly finding new flaws in myself while being on this path, as if I am running a lengthy marathon?

Answer: Think of it as a sign of advancement! There are criminals who take pride in their transgressions, and we should learn from them and be proud that we managed to discover these flaws within ourselves, that we are indeed criminals! If I find that I am such in order to assist my advancement toward the goal, I have to rejoice in it.

It is similar to being a scientist who is studying himself and keeps discovering how much is yet unknown and what enormous field of work lies ahead of him. So, he is glad that he has an opportunity to advance and a place to work and explore. We should view it as work in the internal laboratory.

You work as a scientist who is making discoveries and corrections, and you are moving into Infinity, unaware of the final destination point, constantly discovering something new. Treat this process constructively and creatively for you are building new worlds while you are uncovering and reconstructing them from the broken parts!

Do you wish to quickly earn a little money and retire?! Such folks don’t get to know spirituality for it is not meant for this sort. We have to be persistent as true heroes are. A hero isn’t the one who beats another to a pulp but the one who breaks his own ego. It happens specifically by overcoming all unpleasant states thereby finding an opportunity to spiritually evolve and become a human.

I understand that it is frightening for it is written that Moses feared Pharaoh greatly. He fled from Egypt and was afraid to return there until he reached the degree of Bina when the Creator revealed Himself to Moses in the “burning bush.”

Clearly, we have the same fear. But if you are in the group, there is no evil that may rise in front of you and be worth fearing longer than an instant. At first, I get scared when I unfold something unpleasant that I didn’t expect to find in myself.

But if I am connected with the environment, then in an instant, I realize that it is a spring board which helps me to leap forth toward the goal. Alternatively, if you don’t view the evil as purposeful and instead start digging into it and “eat” yourself, it means that you don’t have a connection with the external force, the group.

You see this journey as a lengthy tiring marathon? But that’s what your life is given to you for! You are in this world to begin and finish your correction.

Don’t think that you can get everything done in a year or two, after which you will rest in your spiritual retirement and enjoy the illumination of Shechina. Indeed, it is written that the righteous live in the joyous presence of Shechina, but they are able to do so because they are constantly engaged in spiritual work, raising such powerful Reflected Light, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), that Shechina can tirelessly shine on their “heads,” their intentions.

They work restlessly, as it is written that “the righteous don’t rest in this world or the next one.” What rest can there be if you desire to bestow? There is no greater punishment than being unable to bestow, which is similar to the pain of the mother who cannot feed her child.

Bestowal is the greatest reward. So, do not seek rest.
[26721]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: What is the collective and individual governance?

Answer: We reside in reality the essence of which is the desire to enjoy, the force of reception. In addition, the force of bestowal, the force of the Light, acts in this reality.

What is the formula of their interaction? Suppose one force is X and the other Y, and they are equalized by a quotient K. In truth, the formula is this: The two variables, X and Y, are the will to receive and bestow pleasure, respectively, and the screen, K, is between them.

In the beginning of our reality, the desire to receive pleasure (0) opposes the desire to bestow (1). However, in the end, upon the completion of the 125th spiritual action, they become equal (1-1).

Hence, the formula is simple: From mutual opposition, we have to bring these desires to equivalence of properties. The will to receive has to acquire the attribute of bestowal.

Now, we know the rule and its result. The point is that two opposing yet interacting forces act in reality, and every instant of their interaction must lead to the final outcome in the most efficient manner.

Hence, Nature operates in everything there is according to the rule of "minimal input with maximal output." This mechanism affects us, and by experiencing the effects of its impact, we regard them as “governance.”

Governance can be individual and collective. The individual one applies to each cell of the organism and defines how a certain part has to advance by acquiring its individual form to fit the advancement of the collective system. We can see this type of governance in the example of the step-by-step formation of an embryo’s organs. Its body grows according to the collective governance that establishes the order of development of all other parts.

Then, from the general governance, the individual ties branch off, which get connected with each part in its respective place in accordance with its role in the process of the collective evolution. Thereby, the common program of development underlies the individual programs that govern us.
[26605]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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First, we need to tune into the group and find in it the independent Kli (Vessel), the sixth sense. In the same exact manner, the sixth day of the week rises over the other five days and prepares them for the Sabbath. We, too, need to prepare all of our senses and above their egoism, build a new sense based on the screen and the reflected Light.

A person annuls himself, unites with the friends, and thereby builds a Kli through which he can perceive reality. In this Kli, he reveals the 613 desires, the construction of the soul. In this Kli, in his connection with others, one discovers a net and in this net, all the various desires and relationships.

As he gathers them and puts them into order, he suddenly sees how they become the ten Sefirot, the desires of his soul. In it, in its structure, he begins to reveal the Light, or the Creator, in direct, reflected, inner, and surrounding Light in the reverse and front sides. A person continues to develop this Kli, this sense, to verify and delve deeper into it, ascending by the degrees of self-rejection and interaction.

His Kli becomes more and more complex, more and more perfect, until a person realizes the principle of loving his neighbor as himself. This love builds and forms the Kli, unifying its parts, due to which a person reveals different forms of connection and builds them according to mutual bestowal.

There, in this Kli, in these ten Sefirot, he “draws” the image of the Creator, the universal force of bestowal. Such is our work, and we always conduct it in an environment which becomes the group, the soul, and takes the form of the Creator.
[25147]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/10, “According to What is Explained Concerning Love Thy Friend as Thyself”

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The purpose of creation is to bring good to the Creator’s beings. The Creator is a good force that does good, and therefore, He gave us an opportunity to attain the most exalted state, to become similar to Him. We become equivalent with the Creator in two basic elements:

1. Independence. After all, the Creator is original, and man must be original in his actions; otherwise, he is not independent.

2. Bestowal. A person acquires the form of bestowal that must clothe in his nature opposite to the Creator. Thus, on the inside, man is opposite to the Creator, but on the outside, he is congruent to him.

By combining these two opposite properties within, a person builds his independence himself. Thereby, he doesn’t get out of the Creator’s hands, but grows independently. The rule of attaining independence is called the “covenant.”

This covenant means that I undertake building a human within me. The Creator provides all that is needed for it: a preparatory base, the fuel, desire of pleasures, the force of correction, and the power of fulfillment. I utilize these means. Contrary conditions emerge within me, a contrast between egoistic desire and the form of bestowal that I need to clothe in, and all of this together allows me to construct myself.

A person who accepts these conditions and aspires straight to the Creator is called “Israel.” He decides to attain adhesion and is willing to walk through all states and spiritual rungs. While he is at it, he understands that he must always walk with faith above reason; otherwise, he won’t be able to take one step, ascend, and approach the Creator.
[24929]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10,”All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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We clarify everything that takes place not from the outside, but within ourselves for there is nothing outside of us. The Upper Light is simple, and we reveal it only when we equalize ourselves to it in our qualities.

Therefore, only attainment can expose all the details of perception. The realization of importance and lack thereof, our desires, high and low, exile and redemption, ascents and descents, creation and the Creator, all this is revealed only in relation to us.

Our reality is initially arranged in such a way that spirituality is unimportant to us. The Creator and the Shechina, as the place of His revelation in us, the quality of bestowal, the group in which we advance, everything that pertains to the Upper One has no importance to us.

Our desires are purposely created this way. They present us with an opportunity to create effort on the path to an opposite quality so that bestowal would become important in our eyes. Why is this work necessary? It is needed in order to reveal all the qualities of the Giver from the opposite state. And for this we need to acquire and to incorporate these qualities into ourselves.

Thereby we will change our external form from reception to bestowal. Our ” material,” meaning our initial desire will manifest externally as though it wishes to bestow. Whatever it does in regard to the group and the Creator, it will always display itself as giving. Otherwise, it won’t act at all.

Consequently, we need to ask to raise the importance of bestowal in our eyes, which is called bringing the Shechina to life from the dust. The Shechina is a Kli (vessel) in which the quality of bestowal is revealed. Shechina is unity of souls. Everyone unifies the souls in spite of the rejection, and then this place acquires a screen and the Reflected Light, the quality of bestowal, intention for bestowal. As this intention grows, we reveal more and more that the Light, the Creator, dwells in our vessel.

Thus, our whole work is conducted between two states: exile and redemption. In Hebrew these words are similar, only the word “redemption”  has the additional letter Aleph (א) which means the Creator, Light, the quality of bestowal that fills creation and ascends the throne in its desire.
[23439]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”

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Question: What is the law of the system of Arvut (mutual guarantee)?

Answer: The law of this system is absolute reciprocity. This is how it is described in the Torah: “As one man with one heart.” This means that the one desire in the entire system, mutual bestowal, is realized in the adhesion with the Creator. The law is defined by the word “one,” as in “unity.”

It could be said that unity of “one” cannot be a law. But the definition of “one” contains many different properties connected with each other above hatred and rejection by relations of love and bestowal. This is the internal formula of the system: Qualities opposite in their nature are connected above this opposition by the law of equivalence of form.

This is the way our body and any integrated system are constructed. In order for such a system to exist, it must be built from the different forms and opposite parts over which there operates a universal law: existence for the sake of one unified purpose.
[24087]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, "The Arvut"

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By working in a group, studying, and disseminating we rouse the influence of the Light, and it brings us new values. Bestowal becomes so important that a person changes his priorities.

Before, he wished to receive more and more qualitative fulfillment, to be the boss of his life, and to hold everything in his hands. Now, he gradually reaches the realization and acceptance of a new purpose. He discovers that when he fulfills others, this bestowal presents an even greater benefit.

One would think what is there to this except pretty words? Why does it appeal to a person? Everything comes from the Light according to the laws of spiritual physics. The global Kli (vessel), the common soul, the interconnection between everyone, opens up to a person, and then he feels that the right “investment” is to invest into others, which guarantees the eternal, greatest possible benefit. A person doesn’t see this with his own eyes yet, but he already can guess that herein lies a system into which it pays to invest, and he invests into it.

Now he agrees that the Torah, meaning the Light that Reforms, changed and corrected his 613 desires, which is, in fact, the execution of the 613 commandments. By studying, disseminating, and being in a group we expect precisely the influence of the Light. Then, instead of demanding self-fulfillment, we prefer pleasure for others. Bringing them pleasure will be advantageous to us.

This, too, is an egoistic calculation, the intention Lo Lishma (not for Her name). I wish to perform bestowal to others, and I will feel good from this. However, the Light continues to influence me. I become included in the group (the external common Kli) more and more, I submerge myself deeper into the studies, and demand more Light from it. I rouse changes in me, and, finally, I become partially similar to the Creator.

Instead of a personal gain and a “safe investment,” I obtain a feeling of bestowal without a response, and it becomes the greatest possible revelation to me. Even the fulfillment that it brings remains non-repayable and also completely directed at bestowal.

Thereby, I truly become similar to the Creator. After all, due to my own desire and choice and thanks to my effort in the group, the Light has transformed my nature. Through His force, I change myself until I become equal to the Creator in all my desires and actions to such an extent that there can be no differentiation between us, and this similarity is called adhesion.
[23694]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, Shamati #16

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 675: Zebulun was rewarded with preceding Issachar in the blessings because he took bread out of his mouth and gave it to Issachar’s mouth. Thus, one who provides for one with Torah receives blessings from above and from below. Moreover, he is rewarded with two tables, with which no other person is rewarded. He is rewarded with wealth—blessed in this world—and with having a share in the next world.

The Zohar speaks of the types of connections existing between the souls for only this is concealed from us, and this is what we need to reveal. In the connection between the souls, which we reveal, we clarify the picture of forces (desires) of bestowal, the web of connections between them that manifest the degree of their bestowal to one another above the egoistic forces of each particular soul. The connections between the souls are the forces of bestowal, the desires to bestow, while every soul is an egoistic desire to enjoy.

It follows that if we work, everyone in his desire, so as to actualize it in bestowal to others, this means we are working with the right desire (Kli) equipped with a screen so as to be connected in mutual bestowal with everybody. This is the way the system of desires (Partzufim) of every soul works with respect to other souls (Partzufim). Mutual bestowal and its general force, the Creator, become revealed in the connection between them, while within every soul there remains its inherent desire to enjoy.

The Zohar speaks not of the desire to enjoy embedded in each of us, but of what happens between us, where we reveal the web that connects us. Initially, this web is called the world of Assiya, then Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the World of Infinity, where the connection between us has no end or limits. As we strengthen our connection, we reveal the Creator, the Light, inside it.

Therefore, when we read The Book of Zohar we must think of what The Zohar speaks of: the connection between us wherein the Creator is revealed.
[23083]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/10, The Zohar

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that love for another has to be so deep that we would be willing to give the only pillow we have. Does this mean we have to fulfill each other’s material desires as well?

Answer: I don’t have anything to fill these desires with! Where am I going to get 7 billion pillows for the whole of humanity? If everyone cares solely for bestowal, a person will have only necessities in order to sustain himself. What, then, would he be able to give to others?

A law forbids us to give up necessities without which we couldn’t survive. This concerns the survival of the animate body that mustn’t be neglected. So, it turns out that I have nothing to give away to others, and it isn’t required of me. If I have arranged myself correctly in relation to the correction process, I will have no extra food nor money to spare since I live solely for bestowal and take nothing beyond what is necessary for myself.

However, we are forgetting that we don’t have to do anything ourselves. Everything is arranged by the Light. We just have to create the connection in order for the Light to act through us. If I am thinking about another’s need, he will receive what he needs. It is I who arranged it for him. By doing so, I have become equivalent to the Creator because I have evoked the act of bestowal.

I can’t do more than motivate the Light to act. This means that I raise MAN (Mayin Nukvin, Female Waters) which is a request or prayer. My MAN, request, from Malchut works similar to how MAD (Mayin Duchrin, Male Waters), answer, from Bina. I raise to Bina all my will to receive to the magnitude of ZAT de Bina. Everything gets resolved in the thought: I provide the desire to fulfill the friend, but it is the Creator who fulfills him. I am just a connecting link between the other person and the Creator. This is how the world is created in my imagination so that I could correct myself.

I feel that I don’t need anything for myself except to bestow to another. I feel his desire above my own and, above his, I feel the desire of the Creator, an opportunity to fulfill and delight Him. If I organize my desires in this fashion, it means that I perform my actions. The Creator will carry out these acts, and we will attain oneness. I asked Him to unify us in adhesion, and He did. I only need to keep asking.

The Creator intentionally makes others lack something. It is done so that I develop a desire to ask the Creator to fulfill another’s lack, so that I desire to become one with Him, to merge and equalize myself with Him. He created all evil in the world and wishes for me to act on everyone’s behalf as their guardian and look after all of them. He fulfills the world with the Light of Infinity, and then disappears, giving me a chance to bring the Light back into this world.

However, I must understand that this is how the world is painted by my imagination in my “matrix” or the illusion that I must live specifically for my correction. If I try to give something away, that is, try to correct the world and not myself, then I will only harm the world further in order for me to realize what a mistake I had made and to start correcting myself after all. We clearly see that any “humanitarian help” brings additional damage by  provoking terrorism, theft, and idleness.
[22555]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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The Creator conceals Himself. But instead of tearing off the “cover” and revealing Him, I build His image in myself. The screen that He placed between us remains, but I make changes within myself which create in me the properties of the Creator, His image. Only in this way, having built His image within myself, can I see Him because by Himself, He is beyond any image.

In the darkness of my egoism, I build a shining image of the properties of bestowal and love, an image of the Light. The Creator remains just as hidden by the screen, but underneath the screen, I create His image as if He were standing before me. I shape the Light of bestowal (faith, Hassadim) and exist within it, not discovering the Creator on the other side of the screen.

I ask the Creator to not remove the concealing screen, but rather to allow me to exist in the shade, in darkness, so that the darkness will become like the Light for me and I will appreciate its importance. In fact, precisely because of it I am able to create out of myself similarity to the Creator, to become independent. Having hidden Himself, He has created a place for my similarity to Him. And to the measure of this similarity, the screen dividing us becomes transparent, and our images coincide.

The darkness helps me for otherwise the Light would fill me, nipping all aspirations in the bud. I would not feel the need for anything and would not be able to make any personal movement. In contrast to this, darkness creates a necessity for searching.

If the darkness simply dissipated, I would return to my usual, materialistic life. Because of this, I ask that the darkness will remain. It greatly helps my egoism: Nothing fills or calms it, so I will desire Light out of the darkness. I want to obtain the qualities of Light not merely by discovering the Creator, but by creating His image within myself.

I support the screen that divides us myself: The Creator gradually removes it, but I immediately raise the concealment to 100%. Thus, I build a canopy, the “roof of the tent,” as I am not willing to accept the Upper Light directly. Rejecting it, I obtain the property of bestowal and exist in darkness as in Light. For my egoism it is darkness, but for the giving intentions it is Light.
[22218]
From the Hoshana Rabbah Night Lesson 9/29/10, Shamati #8

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