Question: What does adhesion with the Creator imply?

Answer: Adhesion is a great correction, unification on the basis of equivalence of properties or “form.” We don’t need to change the substance of the will to receive itself. Yet, this substance has an egoistic form (intention) that is regarded as “evil,” opposite to the Creator.

The will to receive in itself isn’t considered bad and opposite to the Creator, just as the still, vegetative, and animate nature aren’t considered bad and opposite to the Creator. And until a person gets to feel that he is opposite to the Creator, he isn’t considered to have the “evil inclination” either.

First, it is necessary to recognize that your intention or the “form” of desire is opposite to the Creator. If not, a person has no evil: He simply acts in accord with his instincts. In Kabbalah, evil is defined as a property opposite to the Creator, the Good, or the Light. A person can sense evil only when the properties of goodness, connection, and love are revealed to him, and he can see himself as opposite to the Creator.

At that point, a person becomes a “human,” no matter how bad this human is at the moment. And this occurs only with the studying of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Before then, there is nothing to correct in a person and in all egoists of the world. It isn’t the form which requires correction.

Only the breach between me and the Creator demands correction. I must transform the form that is opposite to the Creator to a good one, similar to Him. And when we become equal with Him in mutual bestowal, then, as it is written, we attain connection called “adhesion” (Dvekut). This inner work (revelation of evil or brokenness and its correction) occurs solely by way of the Light that is drawn during the group studying of Kabbalah.

In one of his incarnations (Gilgulim), a person suddenly feels a “shot” into the heart, a “spark” that draws him to some new, non-materialistic life. He wants to rise above the mundane, earthly existence and comes to the studies and the group. As time progresses, he begins to feel how inadequate he is to bestowal. From that moment on, he realizes that his nature is opposite to the Creator. Only then can it be said that the “awareness of his evil” has surfaced in him.

But people usually think that “evil” means being just a bad person in the society, and not being against everybody’s unity with the Creator. Kabbalah doesn’t correct the earthly evil (not helping an old lady cross the street or not giving money to the beggars). This evil cannot be corrected at all; it only keeps growing untill we get rid of the spiritual evil.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: Is it true that one can love another only in relation to the desire for spirituality because in this case I am not required to fulfill another person’s corporeal desires? After all, I clearly see that now I am not even willing to share a piece of meat at the table.

Answer: For now, it is enough for us to unite in our desire to attain the Creator, but later, you will feel as though you are sitting next to your little son at the table. Would you be able to grab his piece of meat and eat it? This is how you will treat the whole world.

But why is this necessary or what will you receive in the end? We usually forget the answer to this question, that is, the purpose of bestowal, and this is why this action feels so artificial to us: You will feel similar to the Creator and will bestow pleasure to Him, after having attained such a great correction.

Currently you have no need for this at all, and that is why an act of bestowal looks forced and unreasonable to you. There is only one goal: similarity to the Creator. It only seems to you that the world is suffering, that there are poor and unfortunate people. But once you correct yourself, you will see that they are all rich and happy, intelligent and healthy (see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Creator’s Revelation and Concealment”).

We can’t comprehend what an illusion all the suffering in the world is. Each person is being shown an ugly world on purpose so he can feel how much he needs to correct in order to see perfection. We see how everyone thinks differently and has his own opinion, but where does it come from? It is the result of everybody seeing a different picture of the world because there is no picture or form: Everything is revealed within the properties of a person.

When I start unfolding the truth, I realize that behind all the pictures of the world, which appear before my eyes like mirages in the desert there stands one Thought which is projecting the reality that I currently see. And this form is so vague, like Fata Morgana that soars in the air and is constantly changing.

I can steer my way through all these fantasies and the unknown only by leaning on the group because it constantly corrects my focus toward the truth. The truth is the attainment of the single force that governs all of the Fata Morgana. Having attained this force, we can understand how it creates all of these forms and why, we become one with it, and work together with it to reveal the true picture of this world.

It is written: “A man will give anything to find the truth.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/10, "The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings"

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Question: What is “separation of Nukva” from ZA (Zeir Anpin)? Why does ZA have two Nukvas?

Answer: Separation starts when additional desires unfold in Nukva and she realizes what she lacks to attain the level of the Creator.

I existed in Bina together with ZA, and He filled me with everything that was needed for my existence. But I started to desire to be independent, like He is, and to totally adhere to Bina. At this point, I discover and feel that I’m incapable of it. This state is called discovering limitations (Din). If I accept these restrictions and correct them, then I become like Bina.

This is precisely what we need to do: Malchut ascends to Bina, Bina descends to Malchut, and together, they work on correction. Malchut can raise all her requests to Bina, and Bina passes to Malchut all its strengths so that the latter receives all the necessary properties of bestowal.

Now it becomes clear why ZA has to have two Nukvas: Bina is also divided into two parts. Everything expands from Bina; it determines all that will take place in Malchut.

Bina is the force of bestowal that is revealed from Above. The Creator wishes to give everything, which is called the Light of Hochma (Wisdom). But He wants the creature to be perfect, to receive this Light, and to act as an independent character, as a guest across from the Host and not as a beast ruled by nature. This is the will of Bina. Hence, it has two parts: upper and lower, GAR and ZAT, where GAR is Bina itself and ZAT is its will to bestow to the others.

Accordingly, Malchut has to be comprised of the same two parts. She needs to have her own part, the corrected one, which doesn’t lack anything, is totally independent, doesn’t need the Host, is unwilling to receive anything from His table of treats, and is total perfection. Besides, she has to desire to bestow everything to the Host in response and to delight Him without any connection to herself.

Therefore, there are two parts in Nukva: one that establishes its independence and the other its equivalence to the Creator. These are the two Nukvas of ZA: Leah and Rachel in relation to the two parts of ZA, Israel and Jacob.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: If I justify the Creator and accept everything as good, how am I going to know whether I have fallen into illusion and self-deception?

Answer: Justifying the Creator is not some unfounded declaration but the result of a whole series of actions. In its concluding stage, I appeal to the Creator with a request, and He fuses links all the details and causes of the previous experiences together.

The picture that I have started to detect amidst the blur and confusion is finally beginning to emerge, and it acquires clarity and interconnection. I reveal myself and the entire world as a group, and I reveal the Creator as the primary source.

And now, having attained this oneness, I see that everything had been done for my benefit and advanced me on the path. Thus, I justify the Creator not forcefully but “according to the results of examination” when I reveal the true status quo.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, The Writings of Rabash, Article 38

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All of our work is aimed at preparation. Our task isn’t to erase the egoism that becomes revealed in us, but to be ready to always perceive it as being revealed in us by the Upper Light, the Creator. We should immediately discern it in the Light as bitter, yet joyous signs of our development.

Our souls (desire and Light) underwent a gradual descent, and now we have to reveal the same degrees or states from below upwards. We have to experience them and all their details since otherwise there will be a flaw in the general Kli, in the Final Correction.

We are unable to change fate as it descends from above downwards. However, we can prepare for seeing and perceiving it differently. Unpleasant sensations in egoism, the will to enjoy, are caused by the fact that I identify with my ego.

If, however, I ascend above it and prepare to see just good changes in everything that comes from the Creator, then the same states of egoism’s unpleasant revelation will be perceived as good, positive, and useful. I will be grateful for them.

When I begin perceiving the Creator’s attitude to me differently, then all my intentional and unintentional transgressions become my opportunities for becoming corrected and reaching bestowal, and then these transgressions turn into my merits. Therefore, everything depends on me and my preparation.
[#22816]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Righteous Feels Good and the Righteous Feels Bad”

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Question: What does it mean that we engage in things that are private but don’t reach the things that belong to the general?

Answer: We can carry out all the actions that accompany corrections, such as hold friends’ assemblies, study, and help the group and the friends; we can make a lot of fuss like ants in an anthill, but the most important thing is: What do we want to attain through it? Do we desire unity, mutual guarantee, love, and a connection between us in which we will reveal the Creator?

We forget about this. A person works very hard and then asks, “Where’s the reward? Where’s spirituality? Where’s the force of bestowal?” He does not understand that he still hasn’t done anything to attain it. He exerted a lot of energy and made many actions to disseminate, and by that he really did move the world closer to correction and advanced in the general sense. He did not run away from the path and is gradually accumulating the right inner demand. As years go by, he will reach the truth, the understanding that he lacks only the right intention.

However, he forgets that this intention has to accompany every action! And that is why he still hasn’t reached spiritual attainment yet.

That is how he stretches out the time. It is written that in order to enter the spiritual world one has to prepare the intention for 3 to 5 years, and in our times it takes even less time. However, everything depends on uniting together in the right intention.

Right now we have conditions that others before us couldn’t even dream about. Never have there been so many favorable conditions in the world for revealing the Creator, such as books, communication means, and friends who think alike all over the whole world.

However, what we are still missing is the most important thing: the intention of bestowal. This is the most difficult thing to achieve and the reason why the world still doesn’t feel that we are the source of Light. Everything depends on our intention during every action, even the smallest one. There cannot be any compromises in this regard.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: Кabbalists speak of the steps of spiritual ascension. At which step do we become independent masters of our destiny? When does the Creator hand us the reigns?

Answer: Climbing the spiritual ladder is a gradual process. It is the same in our life: With each year, children become more independent; they learn to walk, feed themselves, dress, attend school, shop, go to work, get married, and give birth, all of which characterizes a mature person.

Rabash once gave me the following example. Children are playing outside, and one of them suddenly has to leave. “Where are you going?” the others ask. He replies: “I’m going home, to get a snack.” At home, he opens the refrigerator, doesn’t see what he wants, and starts complaining to the mother: “Why didn’t you buy what I asked you to?” He feels that he “belongs” to the parents; hence, he expresses his dependence instead of independence.

But it takes several years, and later the young man visits the neighborhood. “How are you? Where are you going?” ask his friends. “My wife and I are visiting our parents who invited us for dinner tonight.” This is maturity: The person doesn’t feel like a master, yet at the same time, he is independent.

Thus, to be independent of the Creator, two factors need to be met: the ability to act independently and detachment. On one hand, you are constantly drawing away, but on the other, you become equivalent, close to Him.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/10, Shamati #38

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The first correction of the will to receive is to bestow in order to bestow. This means that I restrict the use of my desire due to its egoistic nature (for my “self”), unwilling to inflict harm to others, as it is said: “That which you hate, do not do to another.” But even this restriction of using my egoistic desire contains a correction since I don’t just halt myself from doing evil deeds. If I get a chance to steal and not be caught, what will stop me?

Correction implies that I not only unplug from all my desires as if they don’t exist, but I go further. I must experience in my feelings how much I harm another person and how much he will suffer. This sensation of suffering has to stop me from stealing, as I am told: “That which you hate, do not do to another!”

I absorb the desires of another. At first, my awareness of the evil inclination seems to keep my hands tied so that I can’t steal. But after that, it releases me and gives me an infinite opportunity to steal everything that belongs to others and even the Creator! You are allowed to do anything, without any consequences!

Yet, I start experiencing the “Shechina’s suffering” or the pain of others as if I have stolen something, deprived or killed someone. I feel the pain of the others within myself as if I am the cause of it. In relation to them, I am like the Creator who created the evil inclination. That is how we become connected. I become like Bina, a mother who feels all the desires of her children and the evil she is imposing if she isn’t taking care of them. But at the same time, she is aware of how much good she can do them if she is nurturing.

Then, the second stage of correction becomes revealed to us: How we can bestow to the others. In this phase, a person is already able to serve as a conduit between the world and the Creator. He feels that only he may channel fulfillment to them and that his crime is not in stealing but in the fact that he is not fulfilling their desires. This is what is actually called love of others as we love ourselves.

A person has to experience these two stages of correction himself: “That which you hate, do not do to another” and “Love thy neighbor as you love thyself.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/28/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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“Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the sentence that determines the whole principle of the connection between desire and the Light, the correction of the common soul. In order for the creature to be able to reach equivalence to the Creator, the Creator is forced to first break the creature and bring it to hatred, to a state that is opposite to Him.

Achieving a state that is opposite to the Creator is only possible by creating a creature that is similar to Him and then changing this state to the opposite so that an imperfect form would arise from a perfect one. Thereby, the creature is presented with an opportunity to reach equivalence to the Creator on its own from an imperfect state by scrutinizing its own qualities and those of the Creator: What does it mean to be perfect and how does one reach this perfection.

The creature is searching for a solution, and in this manner it achieves the Creator’s state. In the process it obtains freedom to decide by choosing equivalence as the only perfect state. It is impossible to understand how one can be free from one’s nature. However, under the influence of the Light, which is opposite to our nature, a neutral space is created in our desire, which is absent even in the Creator. And precisely that which will develop in this neutral space will be called the created being.

We ourselves build this creature, the human being, “Adam,” which means “similar” to the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/28/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: What does it mean to “love your neighbor as yourself"? What do I actually have to do?

Answer: Loving your neighbor as yourself means that our entire world (the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as humanity) and our entire universe become an integral part of you, "as one man with one heart." You connect everything to yourself and perceive it as your "self." Otherwise, you don’t exist!

Our egoism separates us, but above it we must receive a force from Above, the desire and ability to feel every person as myself and even more than that. I have to feel that this is all me. However, this "me" is not an egoistic feeling because the hatred between us remains and even grows. I unite with others precisely above this hatred, and in that case they are called my "neighbors," or the people close to me.

A "neighbor" is a person whom I hate, but at the same time I "love him as myself." "Love will cover all sins" means that the previous hatred remains, but love is added above it.

In our world everything is driven by one egoistic desire, whether in reception or bestowal. In the spiritual world, however, we find ourselves between two opposite forces: bestowal and reception. Egoism grows, but the quality of bestowal emerges parallel to it. These two qualities enable me to reach the sensation that I am standing before a mountain of hatred (Mount Sinai, which comes from the word Sinah – hatred). However, prior to that I have to go through "Egypt" – the slavery of egoism, the Pharaoh. I have to come to hate it and then run away from it, searching for the force to correct it.

When I stand at the foot of the mountain of hatred toward my neighbor, I have to say whether I really am ready to unite with others, to love them above my hatred, and to become as one man with one heart. If I have gone through all the blows and plagues of egoism (Pharaoh) and I feel that I have suffered sufficiently, then I agree to it! That’s because I hate my egoism even more than I hate my neighbor.

I agree, thinking that this will enable me to reveal the Creator. Eventually, however, I understand that love and bestowal to my neighbor is what fulfills me. I no longer demand anything but this. This action in itself fulfills me, and that is how I become equal to the Creator.
[22460]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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