Question: Can the circulation of Kabbalah serve as a springboard for doing the work in order to bestow, as desire does?

Answer: Circulation is a priority. After all, by spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, I give explanations to the whole world so that people may wake up. And as a result, I will receive their desire aimed for correction.

Desires that awaken in us, in the world movement of “Bnei Baruch,” in those who aspire to the Creator (Israel), are not sufficient. We need to store desires from all over the world, and to achieve this, we must spread the wisdom of Kabbalah. Such dissemination is regarded as the “Messiah’s Horn.”

Thanks to these desires, we will be able to deliver the method of transformation correctly, to make it lighter and simpler for all. The way we present it depends upon who is sitting before us and to whom we give all the explanations. In accordance with that, we can speak more freely, openly, and simply, all because we absorb the desires of others.

This is why we need desires from that part of humanity that cannot repair itself. And then, strength will be given from Above to the part that is capable of correcting itself so that the second part may get corrected through the first.

And if there is a part yearning for the Creator (Israel), which is able to establish a connection with Him, then the part that doesn’t have direct connection with the Creator must be attached to it. Then both of them, “Israel” and “the nations of the world,” will receive powers and repair themselves.

However, if they aren’t mutually connected, Israel won’t receive strength from Above since on one’s own, a person doesn’t require correction. He was broken solely in order to transform the peoples of the world. And the nations of the world, or those who cannot wake up by themselves, won’t receive the strength either since they don’t have anyone to receive it from. Then, the nations of the world will turn their hate and bad influence onto Israel in order to wake it up to the fulfillment of their task.
[35190]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
One With The World
Instructions: How To “Format” A Spiritual Receiver
What I Sowed

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Israel, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: How can we attain unity?

Answer: Unity means that according to all the desires of the Giver and the receiver, the two unite with one another like the guest and the Host in Baal HaSulam’s famous example.

The guest has nothing to give to the Host besides his attitude, provided that he develops the same attitude to the Host as the Host has to him. Meaning, we don’t take into consideration the fact that the guest uses his appetite, and the Host—his power. They are initially this way: one is the Creator, and the other is creation.

But if we remove these initial conditions, the fact that one is the Creator and the other is creation, since they have to attain total equality, then by what criterion can they be equal? According to their attitude, which they build without any connection to what existed before.

That is, we must ascend in the relationships between us so it wouldn’t matter that He is the Creator, He is primary, and He created me in the desire to enjoy and does anything He wants with me because all of this initially comes from Him, being the upper root. And it doesn’t matter that I, the creation, am unable to do anything more than that.

However, if He and I attain this state where we have absolutely equal opportunities, then out of our equal opportunities we desire to attain adhesion and unity. First of all, the Creator and creation have to attain the state where they are both completely equal and independent from one another—the creation from the Creator and the Creator from the creation.

Once we are equal and we have the opportunity to create any connection between us that each of us freely desires, we attain the state where we desire only love, unity, and adhesion between us.

As Baal HaSulam explains, the guest and the Host reach a state where they depend on one another in equal measure: the Host on the guest and the guest on the Host, like children and parents. Then the will to enjoy contained in creation and the will to bestow that the Creator has both harness one another and obligate each other. And even though on one hand the Creator is able to do anything, this does not indicate anything because He feels love for creation and this love limits Him, enabling Him to do only what love dictates, rather than everything He can do.

That means that the force of love is the force of restriction, the reverse force operating in the Creator. It does not let you do anything. You cannot destroy the person you love. Love rules.

Therefore, the condition of unity is equality—in opportunities, forces, abilities, and freedom of expression. Once the equality is there, then out of all of these opportunities we activate precisely the force of love and attain unity.
[35301]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
Steps Toward The Unknown
Pull Yourself Higher!
Why Does The Creator Need Me?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Love, Q&A, Unity, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Does my intention depend on the intention of the entire environment and the intention of the environment on my intention?

Answer: Definitely! It says in Shamati #225: One cannot raise oneself above one’s circle. Hence, [if one wishes to advance] one must suck from one’s environment. And one has no other counsel, except through much work and Torah. Therefore, if one chooses for oneself a good environment, one saves time and efforts, since one is drawn according to one’s environment.

This is clear. If I receive energy from the environment—and the fact is that I receive everything in order to ascend from it—then I will ascend only inasmuch as I receive from them. I cannot be above this level.

Question: How can I see my environment as great if I do not see my friends as great?

Answer: Therein lies the entire problem. Who do you consider great? There is no one great in your world. Meaning, the world was not created for you. Then what means will you use to advance? The Creator is concealed. The environment is small. You have no one to advance toward and you are alone in the whole world. That is how you feel.

In principle, everyone feels this way and this is what we have to change.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
Don’t Let The Source Dry Up
The Desire For The Creator Is The Sum Of Common Desires
Upwards Along The Degrees Of Intentions

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Society, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Israel, meaning the souls that aspire to the Creator, exists only for the sake of the world’s correction because a broken Kli cannot correct itself independently. Only special sparks awaken in it, including Adam, the generations of Kabbalists that came after him, then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so on. This is talking about souls that were able to correct themselves without a method by virtue of their fine and pure nature.

They were able to feel what correction is to some extent without a group or a method because they belonged to the appropriate layer of desires. All the other souls followed and joined them.

Then came the stage where desires grew more powerful and the souls needed to mutually unite by mutual guarantee at Mount Sinai by using the method of the Light that Reforms. From then on, they had to attract the Light by uniting with one another instead of individually with their own forces.

Among them were those who were able to advance alone, practically without unification being a necessary condition. They are called “forefathers.” The others have to unite as one man with one heart and work on the common egoism by receiving awakening and ascent from one another. They bring their common desire to correction and then the Light that Reforms comes to them.

The same Light previously corrected individuals, but this was “personal illumination.” Now the Light does not come in response to someone’s personal desire, but to the common, unified desire that has become “the prayer of society,” the ten Sefirot. Our unity evokes an entire “package” of Light, which does what it has to do. Then the group is already able to correct itself.

However, for now it is only a group. And besides it, there are souls that are unable to awaken on their own. They suffer and are helpless. Therefore, the mission of the souls that have already gone through all the phases of correction and corruption is to unite with them, like Bina unites with Malchut. This enables the “incompetent” desires, the souls of AHP to be able to reach correction as well.

They cannot do anything to themselves alone. Nothing can be demanded from them. They do not have any conditions, method, or teaching. They receive everything from Galgalta ve Eynaim, which broke and descended to them. This happened because it is able to awaken them and to establish the right order among all of the broken souls that belong to itself, to AHP, and to the mixture between the two.

This is the mission of the nation of Israel before the redemption.
[35183]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Light Instead Of Suffering
Unity Is A New Reality
Kabbalah: From Abraham To Present Day

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, History, Israel, Mutual Guarantee, Suffering, Unity, World - No Comments →

Question: If we want to correct ourselves in order to benefit humanity, does this mean that we desire bestowal?

Answer: Yes and no. Suppose some kind of problem has come up for me and I have to correct it. I have to call a doctor or technician, or do something else. Who am I doing this for: those who have suffered or myself?

Everything depends on the circle by which we determine our boundaries. A small person is restricted to himself. One who is more developed takes his family into consideration. One who is even more developed expands this circle to neighbors, the city, the nation, the world, and finally, all reality.

If I understand that the world’s correction must happen through Israel, which exists solely for that purpose, then everything I do externally is the same as what I do for me. Moreover, if I exist in order to correct the world and this is my entire mission, then I must first correct the desires (Kelim) of the whole world, and then I will receive a response through them.

Therefore, “what I sow” is that I turn to the world, bestow to it, become permeated by its desires, and bring them to correction. Then I can hope to receive a response from the Creator to those desires. When this happens, I receive the response first because the world is only able to receive it through me.
[35200]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Recipe For Happiness? Thanks, But No Thanks!
A Wicked Desire Is A Kind Gift
Correcting The Broken World

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Israel, Q&A, World - 1 Comment →

The Zohar, Introduction, “The Second Commandment,” Item 203: …Then fear clings to both sides, the side of good and love and the side of harsh Din, and she is included in them. If fear is included on the side of good and love, it is complete love, as it should be. …since there is love only in two sides—GAR and ZAT de Bina—and love is incomplete on either of the two sides unless there is fear in each of them, since there cannot be Hochma without Bina, which is love without fear.

This explains the completion of all of our work: How to attain love in Kelim (or desires) of bestowal and then also in the receiving Kelim. In essence this is already the full correction of creation in Malchut, which unites with Bina so much that it attains Keter, where its bestowal is perfect in all of its Kelim.

Question: What is fear?

Answer: Fear is the first commandment, meaning the first correction we have to go through. It is a person’s worry and fear: Is he able to attain bestowal to the Creator? This is fear: Will I attain this? Am I capable of this? Will I ever desire this? Then a person has work.

As a rule our work is aimed at maintaining what we have attained. Baal HaSulam writes about this in Letter #2 from 1920:

Wisdom only comes with experience. I advise you to awaken inner fear that the love among you might cool down, even though the mind rejects this view of things. You should go through the trouble anyway. If someone has the opportunity to add more love, but he doesn’t do it, this will be deemed a flaw.

It’s similar to how a person gives his friend a great gift. The love for his friend that becomes revealed at the moment of the action in the heart of the gift’s receiver, is not similar to the love that remains in his heart when the action is completed. Day by day it cools down, until it may reach total oblivion to the gift of love.That is why the person who received the gift has to invent tricks so as to look at it with new eyes every day.

Spirituality is built on the fact that we do not forget the inspiration that we have attained and we constantly keep the same inspiration while expanding it more and more.
[35207]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
Fear For Bestowal
The Fear Of God Is His Treasure
The Zohar Is Being Revealed For Us

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Love, Q&A, Spirituality, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: What can we do to avoid being satisfied with our external effort?

Answer: If a person knows that only the intention to reach the goal, which he constantly discerns, brings him closer to spirituality, then he doesn’t view action as the key. Intention is the Kli (vessel) where he receives the reward, and therefore, all discernments take place in it. Actions without intention are not taken into account at all.

Perhaps a person pleases the Creator, but with an intention to gratify himself. It is the greatest impure force, a Klipa (shell). The most exalted degree of bestowal is balanced with the biggest Klipa: The action is the same while the intention differs.

On the outside, it doesn’t show, and a person seems to be yearning to bestow. Pharaoh, the desire to feel pleased, obeys the Creator’s orders precisely. A person acts according to his desire and mobilizes all his strength, if only to feel good for one’s own sake. He constantly thinks about the Creator (since it is the source of pleasure) and strives to do his best for this source, but for his own good. This is regarded as Pharaoh, the angel of death.

To avoid this, as in any other case, only a clear vision of the goal and mutual support can help. Without interaction, there is no chance to remain on the path without falling. The current generation is the generation of correction, and its success depends on mutual support: Correction occurs based on mutual guarantee and caring. There is no other source to draw the right energy and direction from.

And it is good because there is always work to do in demanding a closer connection. And if we feel it isn’t authentic but superficial, that is fine too. This course is easier than an individual one despite the fact that everyone depends on all the others. Only the collective yearning toward unity and annulment by each of us in regard to the upper degree (the teacher, the group, and the books) will help guard against complacency.
[35131]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Effort Comes From Below And The Sensation—From Above
What Inspires Me?
You Cannot Build The Intention Alone

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Rabash, Dargot HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), “The Matter of Tu Bishvat”: The Creator wishes for a person who observes a commandment, which is a fruit, to have both the tree and the fruit taste the same, in other words, for his intention to also be “Lishma,” for the sake of bestowal.

We must go through several stages in our work. First of all, we need to descend to the degree described as “I created the evil inclination.” Here, a person becomes acquainted with his nature, and he sees how bad, opposite to goodness, he is.

Goodness is Light, the property of bestowal. Where can I see the property of bestowal so as to measure myself in comparison to it and determine the evil wherein I exist? Where is this evil and the Creator who created the evil inclination? I must attain the Creator who created the evil inclination in me, and opposite to it, I must have the Torah as a spice.

After all, there can be no darkness without light, and no light without darkness. We do not attain anything on its own, but only in comparison to its opposite. This is why man attains the bad nature in him only to the extent of his good deeds. This is the only way we can comprehend evil.

So, the sinners that the Torah speaks of are special and great people. The degree of the sinner is a very high degree. One works in relation to goodness, trying to overcome the evil in him and attain goodness. Then, he comes to understand evil, reveals the sin of Adam (Man or Human), and begins the process of correction. In this way, the revelation of evil is a part of this process.

Only after having understood evil, one begins to test whether the “tree” and the “fruit” are the same and whether they are in one direction, toward bestowal. After all, “fruit” is bestowal, not self-fulfillment.

One tries to be above his egoism. He determines it to be evil which he needs to rise above. Over and over, he discovers that he wants and is able to enjoy and determines this to be a “plague of Egypt.” He is ready for anything but self-fulfillment.

Then, he rises above all the possibilities to receive pleasure and comes to the real fruit: bestowal. Pleasure from bestowal is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. This is faith above reason, the faith grown on the Tree of Knowledge. The only way one grows is by rising above evil, above the property of reception that is being revealed in him, and refusing to use it in any way. Then, fruit grows within him.

This symbolizes Tu Bishvat, the “New Year of the Trees.” Why is it trees instead of fruit? It’s because for now, one is still acquiring the property of bestowal and he is still to learn to receive for the sake of bestowal.

On the spiritual path, we constantly keep discovering incorrect forms in us. As Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction of Talmud Eser Sefirot,” only those whose degree of patience has withstood merit to enter the King’s palace, the “garden” with the Tree of Knowledge in the middle.
[33231]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
A Key Error In Calculation
Calculate Your Faith
Milestones On The Way

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Inner Work - 2 Comments →

Everything is comprised of two triangles: the upper one with the Direct Light and the lower one with the Returning, Reflected Light. The triangle with the Upper Light is diminishing due to the descent of the worlds from Above downward so as to supply the creature with the place for existence in which it can realize its bestowal, raise the Reflected Light.

We can make a cut at each level and see these triangles: Depending on the strength of the Direct Light, the creature is capable of raising the Reflected Light. The higher we rise, the greater the Direct and the Reflected Lights are.

It seems to us that we live in some kind of world, but in reality, there is nothing beside desire and the Light, and we always carry out the work of the Creator whether we want to or not, realize it or not, are aware of it or not, or agree with it or not. We always work for the Creator, the only difference being our willingness or not.

The still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature operate without awareness, by natural instinct. But at the speaking degree, we have to comprehend, attain the root, agree with it, and only then act correctly.

Hence, while we were developing as “primitive people” having remained so over thousands of years until very recently (with the exception of Kabbalists who revealed the upper world, starting with the first “man,” Adam HaRishon), we advanced under the pressure of our egoistic desire that pushed us to evolve.

We applied a lot of effort throughout history. We worked hard to harvest the land, produced various things and products, fought, invented machines and new technologies, built houses to only destroy them later, carried out revolutions in all areas and levels of life. In short, we exerted effort to exist, to receive the Direct Light. These efforts were our “Reflected Light” in the spiritual worlds.

This is the essence of our material development. It is material because it took place inside the egoistic desire.

In our perception of reality, it seemed to us that we produced concrete and fixtures, relationships in the society, crops, but essentially, we produced the Reflected Light and inside it, received the Direct Light. Meanwhile, it seemed to us that we worked in the material world, surrounded by our machines, factories, houses, fields, and products.

This is how it seemed to our egoistic desire, whereas in reality, the desires (Kelim) with the screen and the Lights at the still, vegetative, and animate degrees were at work. And we all behaved like obedient children, carrying out everything that the Creator wanted. Nobody could escape this since that’s how the will to enjoy and the Light that acts upon it work.

And when we reach the speaking degree, considerations become completely different. This is why we no longer have the strength… The Creator tells us: “Do it yourself, alone!” And I’m at a loss: “Do it myself, while nobody is forcing me…?”

The Creator awakens me only occasionally and awaits the Reflected Light from me. Now, He wants me to do it by myself. This is the work we have to complete.
[34827]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Related Material:
An Intervention Into The Upper Realm
Soaring On The Wings Of Bestowal
The Aspiration To Be Above All Limitations

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

Question: If Malchut is the desire to receive pleasure, how can she gather all the souls under her wing?

Answer: Malchut is the will to enjoy. It used to include all the desire to receive created by the Creator. Later, it was broken in order to give this desire a capacity to know itself and the Creator, and based on that knowledge, to perform autonomous actions. In other words, it broke into multiple, fragmented parts that feel hateful and disconnected.

Malchut is the point where all the broken parts used to reside. Now, by their own free will and effort, these fragmented parts are gradually coming into oneness in the same Malchut, in their root.

It could be described in other words: The created being, in its experience and perception, is divided into multiple parts which seem alien to one another. These parts must keep uniting together until they feel bonded. An example of such oneness is the upper one, Zeir Anpin, which manifests according to their effort.
[34585]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Analysis Of One’s Own Egoism
Breathe Life Into Malchut
Returning To Malchut Of Infinity

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →