Two questions I received from women about the purpose of preparation in one’s inner work, and the need to pay Maaser:
Question: I always try to be in the state of “preparation” – to hold the intention, connect to my husband who also studies Kabbalah, disseminate, and study. Still, sometimes I experience descents and lose all of my connection with the Creator. Later I come out of them and try to increase my preparation even more, as much as I can. But after that there are more descents, and then I again increase my preparation and aspiration, and this is followed by more descents.
I understand that there will always be descents and ascents, and that they are necessary. However, if I lose my connection with the Creator, doesn’t this mean that I don’t spend enough time preparing? Or am I wrong about the purpose of the preparation? Isn’t it intended to help you get out of a descent faster? Or is it intended to prevent the descents, to have less of them?
My Answer: If you prepare correctly, then whenever you experience some state, and then this state finishes passing over you (it finishes manifesting fully, through all ten Sefirot or all four stages), then if you prepared well beforehand, you’ll immediately begin perceiving the end of this state as a descent. And then you’ll immediately want to ascend from it, and you’ll begin intensively attracting the external forces of the group. The group will give you:
1) The importance of the goal;
2) The sensation of your own weakness;
3) The necessary aspiration to ask for correction from above.
As a result of all this, you will produce a request (a MAN), and then the Light of correction (Ohr Makif, MAD) will descend during the general group study. And then you’ll ascend – that is, you’ll perceive and value the property of love and bestowal as if it’s the highest possible thing.
And that’s how a new cycle begins.
Question: When women participate in the group together with men, do they also have to pay the Maaser?
My Answer: Yes. Every person who advances must give a tenth of his net profit to Kabbalah’s dissemination around the world – to the world’s correction. This is not a tradition, but a necessity in order to correct a tenth of your egoistic desire, Malchut. The other parts become corrected by your efforts in the study, the group, and dissemination. You can’t just “buy them off” the way you do to correct this “still” part of your desires.
Isn’t that a shame? It would be so easy to just pay someone, and then suddenly to find yourself in the spiritual world! However, since our act of giving 10% for the correction of the world is part of correction, our egoism objects to it in every way possible, and this is why every person receives enormous disturbances when it comes to giving away the Maaser. Yet every person normally has no problem gambling away or spending 10% of his earnings in any other way, on things he doesn’t really need at all or on entertainment. However, without participating in the common correction this way, one cannot undergo any private correction either! We usually recommend using this money to buy Kabbalistic materials and disseminating them yourself – in other words, putting your own 10% to the right use.
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Women Need to Work On Correction Just Like Men
Laitman.com Post: The Woman’s Correction
Laitman.com Post: Be Happy about the Descents!
Maaser FAQ
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development #1 [40:34m]
A Talk about Women’s Spiritual Development #2 [1:35:23m]
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