It is written about an embryo: “A mother gives it the red part, the father gives the white part, and the Creator gives it the soul.” A common problem in spiritual work is that we forget about the “third component,” the Creator who needs to finish the work for us. A person exerts a great amount of effort and then he is perplexed: where is the desired result? One doesn’t understand that he does not complete this action; he forgets that all his actions should begin and end with the Creator, the Upper Force, while he stays in the middle.

Likewise, we come out of Infinity and return to Infinity. And “on the way” we develop and become corrected either through the path of suffering or through the path of the Light. But in both cases the Light works, and we merely add our desire. We do not correct ourselves; we only hasten our development.

However, one usually forgets that he is merely one of the components of his development. He intensifies slightly and thus feels the action changing from a negative to a positive one. But the action itself occurs due to the forces that already exist in nature. The most important component is the force of the Creator. If a person does not bring the Creator to help him so that He would complete the action, if he does not summon this third component that is not present in his picture of nature, then not a single action is finalized and a person remains the way he was!

This is a common mistake, which often remains unnoticed. And there is only one solution here: to turn to the group for help. If there is a common opinion in the group that the Creator is the most important force that determines the end of the action, then none of the members included in the group will forget about this. One will not be forced to experience bitter disappointment resulting from him working so hard and still not achieving anything.

Look for the Creator (as it is written in the Song of Songs: “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth”) and remember that one does not have the strength to win this battle alone; he also has a Partner. And without Him a person has only an empty desire, which gradually dies out like a small fire.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, Article, “On My Bed At Night”

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Question: If Abraham and Lot are both within one person, how is one of them perfect and dwells in the abode of the Creator and the other stays with the wicked?

Answer: Can Abraham reach Elon Moreh (the place of union with the Creator, the state of Brit – adhesion with the Creator) without Lot? How will a person attain holiness (the property of bestowal) if he doesn’t have a Klipa (egoistic desire) in the first place?

It is written: “I have created the evil inclination and gave the Torah to correct it.” There is no holiness in the world. The Creator created Klipa or an evil, wicked intention. He did not create the good. He does not say: “I created the evil and the good inclination. Pick the good one.” On the contrary, He says: “You will do the good (by correcting the evil that I created). But it is I who created the evil.”

How will man reach Elon Moreh, the place of his first union with the Creator, if he has neither Lot nor Sodom? He will reach this state only after having made corrections. Therefore, Lot has to be close to Abraham until they separate. However, Lot returns numerous times. In this way, a person makes discernments.

Without discernments and corrections you have no holiness, the quality of bestowal. Holiness by itself does not exist – we build it. Let’s hope we will succeed!

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, The Zohar

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Question: In his article “Finding the Creator Within,” Baal HaSulam writes that a person keeps reincarnating until he completely attains the wisdom of Kabbalah. What does that mean?

Answer: To completely attain the wisdom of Kabbalah means to comprehend the structure of my soul in general and in particular, to attain all inner differences and actions that can occur within me with all their fulfillments, causes, and affects. That is, one attains the soul’s structure, the actions that take place in it, and from this, a perfect state. This is what thorough, complete knowledge is.

In other words, complete knowledge is attainment of the Creator which happens as a result of our adhesion with Him. The soul (one soul or all souls together) or the Creator are the same. Each soul attains all the souls because all of them are its parts. The Creator is the force that connects the souls together and encompasses them.

Who was shattered? The Creator was. We assume that the breaking occurred in our Kli (the general desire, the unified soul). But in fact, the breaking occurred in the Creator within us; the screen (Masach), the force that binds us all together broke. The Creator was broken within us to such a degree that we stopped recognizing and sensing Him.

What are we actually achieving by bringing the shattered splinters of the broken soul together? As we connect our impressions, inspirations, and sensations into one, these “constituents” eventually will bring us to perceive the Creator. The same Creator, the same Upper Force previously filled us when we were in a state of “love of others,” but with the shattering it turned into “unfounded hatred.”

Now, we have to reverse and return this force into its correct state. It doesn’t mean that it will alter itself; the relationships among us will. Therefore, from the state of hating the Creator we rise to loving Him, which happens to the extent of our efforts to transform unfounded hatred into brotherly love.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article, “From Within My Flesh I will See the Creator”

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Question: What does it mean to strive toward unity and to try to “step out of myself” during our reading of The Book of Zohar? It sounds like fantasy. What am I supposed to visualize? What can I latch on to?

Answer: If I am sitting in a stuffy building and need fresh air, I open the door. Opening the door is all you need to do! When you open yourself outward, everything that is outside will enter you.

It is written: “You shall not bow down to a foreign god.” (Psalms, 81:9) If you do not want the Creator to be foreign to you (dwelling outside of you), bring Him in.

The entire Book of Zohar speaks about the Creator, as does the whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Above our world and everything else that exists is the Creator. There is nothing more to look for but the Creator. Beyond this world, there is Upper Light that is revealed to you in your corrected desires where you discover the properties of the Light.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, The Zohar

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

By observing nature’s systems, we understand [the purposeful development under the Upper guidance of the Creator or Nature, which is the same] that any beings of the four types: still, vegetative, animate and speaking, as a whole and in particular, are found to be under purposeful guidance, meaning a slow and gradual [necessary] growth by way of cause and effect, as a fruit on a tree, which is guided with favorable guidance to finally become a sweet and fine-looking fruit. [The purpose of man’s development is the same: to reach a state of perfection.]

Go and ask a botanist how many phases the fruit undergoes from the time it becomes visible until it is completely ripe. Not only do its [absolutely all] preceding phases show no evidence of its sweet and fine-looking end, but as if to vex, they show the opposite of the final [correct, perfect] outcome.

The sweeter [more spiritually developed] the fruit is at its end, the more bitter and unsightly it is in the earlier phases of its development. [Since the final state is the corrected original state, then naturally the greater the imperfections revealed in a given creature, the more perfect it is at its final state.]
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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A question I received: If everything is prepared ahead of time, then where does the participation of the creature come into play in this process? It seems that we receive everything from Above and that everything is predetermined….

My Answer: Of course! If I give my son a Lego toy to build or bring him baby food, both of which were created by factories and labs, weren’t they prepared ahead of time? Everything is prepared ahead of time, but at the same time, a child grows and becomes independent through these means that were already prepared. He tries to grow, and because of this, he matures and develops his own individuality based on everything that was prepared for him beforehand. This is the way we develop.

Therefore, we cannot do anything new here, as it is written, “We will eat what has long lay in store for us.” Everything occurs according to the Reshimot (spiritual informational genes), which are already instilled in us. However, we draw Lights so that these Reshimot will become revealed in us. We draw the Surrounding Light in order to understand what we need to do, and to perform clarifications.

We participate like partners in the Creator’s actions. Therefore, our work is called the work of the Creator. However, from this work, we learn to be similar to Him and advance from the stage of “conception” to “feeding” and then to “maturing.”

And then, at the stage of “returning through love,” we already carry out actions like the Creator. What does it mean “like the Creator?” The forces are His, and we merely discern what needs to be done and how. When we reach complete correction (Gmar Tikkun), it means that we have revealed all the actions of the Creator above us as active partners in these actions and we desire their execution. That is it and no more.

And after the end of correction, when I become similar to the Creator in all aspects, it is possible that there exist other actions, which I carry out to a greater extent on my own, independent of the Upper Force. However, we have no understanding of this. The science of Kabbalah does not tell us about further stages.

Therefore, it is written that we correct ourselves. Through every action that is carried out, I correct myself, meaning I agree, desire, and merge with that same action with all of my heart. In this manner we achieve final correction.
[19712]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: You said that the material is the desire to enjoy, while the spiritual is the connection between the desires. If so, what is the Creator?

My Answer: The Creator is what you reveal within your actions. You reveal the general force of love and bestowal to the extent that you perform acts of love and bestowal yourself. Then, in your actions, you reveal the inner force which is called the Creator (Bore in Hebrew) which means Come and See (Bo – Come, Re – See).

Our attainment happens solely through the principle of “From Your actions, I shall know You.” When through all my actions from below upward, I attain the force that fulfills me, which is love and bestowal, I attain the Creator.

When does a small baby begin to recognize his mother? He receives a certain impression from her actions. Yet, he reveals nothing from this impression, but merely feels that somebody cares for him. By starting to react to her and repeat the actions that she wants him to rather than doing what he wants to do, he begins to attain her. In essence, his entire upbringing comes down to this.

In this same way, we attain the Upper One, the Creator. I perform actions in accordance with the Reshimot (spiritual genes) that arise within me. This is called “From Your actions,” and thus, “I shall know You.”

Why is it “Your actions?” After all, they are my actions, aren’t they? No, the Creator has given me the Reshimot. He has given me the desire, the group, and the environment as well as the strength to perform these actions. That is why, after every action, I say, “These are Your actions.” However, through these actions that have passed through me, albeit with my participation and desire, I come to know You (the Creator).

Who is it that comes to know You? There is a certain point of my free will called my own “I.” I have triggered these actions from You, and thus, I come to know You. From Your actions, I come to know You. Within me, there is an “I” that comes to know You. The actions are His, but the attainment is mine.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/10, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

Thus, we have thoroughly shown the conducts of His Providence in our world, which is only a purposeful Guidance [that is, it can be understood only from the final result]. The attribute of goodness is not at all apparent before Creation arrives at its completion, its final ripeness [because the Creator can be comprehended only in the Creature’s corrected properties]. On the contrary, [until the creature corrects himself and his evil into love and goodness] it [his and the world’s state] rather always takes a form of corruption [although inside, it is absolutely corrected as good, yet concealed by the qualities of the observer himself] in the eyes of the beholders.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

His guidance over the reality that He has created is in the form of purposeful Guidance, without taking into consideration the order of the phases of development [determined by the initial and final states], for they deceive us and prevent us from understanding their purpose, being always opposite to their final shape. [By constantly challenging us with new tasks, the Creator teaches us, like children, how to become similar to Him.]

It is about such matters that we say, “There is none so wise as the experienced.” Only one who is experienced has the opportunity to examine Creation in all its phases of development, all the way through completion, and can calm things down, so as to not fear those spoilt images that the Creation undergoes in the phases of its development, but believe in its fine and pure end.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

To understand these questions and inquiries [to comprehend the Thought of Creation and what happens with us] the only tactic is to examine the end of the act, that is, the purpose of Creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 4

“God is the [the property of] Absolute Good, and … He [this property, force] watches us in complete benevolence without a hint of evil, and in purposeful [and absolute] guidance. That means that His guidance compels us to undergo [consciously, that is, with the same love and appreciation] a series of phases, by way of cause and effect, preceding and resulting, until we are qualified to receive [on our own] the desired goodness. And then we shall arrive at our [shared] purpose as a ripe and fine-looking fruit.
– Baal HaSulam, Article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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