Rabash’s article, "The Purpose of the Association:" We have met today to establish an association of those interested in following the path and method of the author of the “Sulam” (Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag), the path of ascension from the level of an animal to the level of man.

We have to deduce the fundamental principles from this article:

1. What does it mean "to assemble"?

2. What is "the method of Baal HaSulam"?

3. What is "the human level"?

4. Was man created to experience pleasure or fear before the Creator?

5. The condition for attaining all of this is equivalence of form with the Creator.

6. The will to enjoy by itself is not bad. It is the matter of all creation. The evil inclination (Yetzer Ra) is our unwillingness to unite and to correct the breaking of the common soul into parts, our individual souls.

7. We must not destroy the egoistic desire, but only correct its intention from "for myself" to the intention of bestowal, "for others." Inside our desire to receive, we are always opposite to the Creator, but inside the intention to bestow, we join Him.

8. Adhesion with the Creator takes place through equivalence of form with Him. The way to attain the intention to bestow is by working with the group. This task is achievable and verifiable, and the common desire to bestow that we create together is our common soul, which the Creator fulfills.

9. Any state we are in consists of two opposite states, and as we advance, the gap between them increases. On one hand, I continually reveal how insignificant I am, and at the same time, I continually reveal the greatness of the goal.

I have to unite all of this inside one point. Thus, I will feel the breaking between the souls which will force the Upper Light to correct me. Then bestowal will reign between myself and other people.

This is called "the giving of the Torah, the Light of Correction." After that the One Who Gives the Torah becomes revealed as well inside our corrected attitude to our neighbor, inside the common spiritual vessel (Kli).

From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, "The Purpose of the Association – 1"

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Our entire difficulty lies in the fact that we exist in a world of matter, and from this we need to reveal the spiritual world. In order to reveal it, we need to come prepared with a desire, a vessel which already consists of the two lines together so that they can be united into a middle line, for it is precisely the middle line that expresses our extent of similarity to the Light.

Without the two lines, the left and the right, it is impossible to unite them together in harmony and to build a quality of the Light between them. Neither the right nor the left line has the quality of the Light – it should come from me, so that “darkness would shine like the Light” – the will to receive should become similar to the Light!

Therefore, even “self-rejection,” when I enter the state of a spiritual embryo, the smallest spiritual degree, already occurs in connection of these two lines, which affect me in harmony and connection between them.

Never on our spiritual path will we be able to feel the Creator anywhere else but in the middle line. I am thrown into other states, but in that case I tear away from the Creator. I can feel Him only if I am situated in the middle line, by forming it in me. This is like balancing the vertical needle of a scale. A “scale” (Moznaim) comes from the word “ear” (Awzen), hearing, Bina.

I must be on this vertical, middle line – only there do I feel Him. This is the line of Zeir Anpin, the Creator. And if I shift even slightly to the side, He vanishes!

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/10, The Zohar

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How can we achieve eternity and perfection? It’s achieved according to the law of equivalence of form. If the Light and the desire are opposite to one another, then the Light annuls the desire. However, if they’re equal, they support one another, and we feel that they both exist. That’s what we call eternal life. Achieving it is precisely the purpose of the science of Kabbalah.

In order to bring us to the state similar to that of the Creator, to the ability to live forever and perceive our true reality, we must undergo a process of corrections. All these corrections come down to making the desire to receive pleasure similar to the Light and to begin observing the law of equivalence of form.

Herein lies the entire correction. Either we are opposite to the Creator as we were originally created, or we gradually achieve equivalence with Him. We correct ourselves until the Light and the desire join together. At that moment, we are born into the spiritual world.

This method of correction is called the science of Kabbalah (in Hebrew, the word “Kabbalah” means reception). It’s the science of receiving the Light into the desire so that it won’t disappear and we would feel true, everlasting reality. Indeed, this wisdom is great and not at all simple. We really don’t understand how this can be achieved. Yet, although we don’t realize it, this is our innermost desire and the purpose of our existence. Subconsciously, we’re always searching for it.

There’s a phase when we first make contact with the Light and perceive it in our desire. The Light remains within us, and we begin to feel life as eternal, and don’t part with the Light within us. This phase or spiritual birth is called the exodus from Egypt.

Before then, we must remain in Egyptian exile, in the preparatory phase to the spiritual birth or redemption. That’s why we devote so much attention to studying the phases which we must undergo while in the Egyptian exile. We want to realize our exodus as soon as possible using all the means prepared for us by Kabbalists throughout history.

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The Law of Equivalence of Form [04:09]

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The Creator’s goal is to raise man to His level. What does this mean? We perceive our lives within the will to enjoy, which was created by the Creator. This quality is the only thing that exists outside of Him, which is why we always feel lack of fulfillment. We always lack something and aspire to some kind of pleasure. But the Light that comes to the will to enjoy immediately disappears. It nullifies the desire, and the desire does not feel fulfillment.

Therefore, because we perceive our life inside the desire for pleasure, our life is perceived as temporary and transient, where everything disappears. Every moment goes by and disappears, instead of remaining and becoming supplemented by every subsequent moment. On one hand there is the desire, and on the other hand – the pleasure. When the two meet, they are neutralized, even if the pleasure is minimal.

That is why our entire life is built out of these tiny point encounters between the desire (Kli) and the Light, which immediately disappear. And this continues until our life comes to an end. For example, suppose you have a quota of desire – several million small portions of the will to enjoy, which become revealed one after the other. Opposite each one of these portions, there is Light which brings that portion fulfillment. Then they meet – and disappear. Once you exhaust your quota, your life is over, and your whole existence along with it.

However, if over the course of these encounters of the desire and the Light, you were able to attain a state where the Light and the desire “catch” each other and remain together, then you begin to feel Light that is perceived inside the desire as eternal, endless life. That’s because the previous moment stays with you as well. You then ascend above the sensation of time. You stop the moment and acquire eternal existence! This is the entire patent of spiritual life, which is eternal and perfect. This is what one can attain by applying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

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The following is an excerpt from Rabash’s article on the holiday of Purim, “Concealment and Revelation”:

“Darkness is the Babylonian exile, which the nation of Israel brought upon itself because the Creator (Zeir Anpin) was asleep. The sinner Haman, who was a great astrologist, cast lots (Pur) to determine fate. Haman and his ten sons are the ten Klipot (impure forces) because he knew that the Creator slept and thus His upper governance did not protect the nation of Israel (those who aspire toward the Creator). Therefore, Haman thought that the time has come to annihilate the nation of Israel.”

Haman is our entire will to enjoy, which stands opposite the entire Light of Hochma. He knows that the Light is about to be revealed. However, he doesn’t know that this can only happen in the middle line, and that later even that will be revoked when the transition to the state of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Alef) takes place. Malchut unites with Zeir Anpin in the middle line and they ascend to Bina, where they attain the state of the End of Correction.

Annihilating the nation of Israel means annihilating the intention of “for the sake of bestowal,” which holds a person back from receiving the Light of Hochma egoistically. Mordechai is the intention of bestowal, but if he acts alone, without the desires of Haman, then it is just bestowal for the sake of bestowal. That means he blocks the Light of Hochma, preventing it from being revealed.

In other words, if a person does not work in the middle line, then even his best actions of bestowal will block his path of development. This is why Mordechai needs a connection with Haman. When they start to argue with each other (an argument between the intention of bestowal and the egoistic desire), they come to understand how they are able or unable to unite.

The intention of bestowal enables the desires of Haman to be used. However, these actual desires will not be fulfilled, and this is why a clash occurs between Haman and Mordechai. This story is talking about how a person can create the right unity between two conflicting forces or two opposite intentions. It is also describing the battles, confusion, and doubts that await us on the path of correction until we find the right method.

This is what “Megillat Ester (The Scroll of Esther)” tells us about.

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Before we read The Book of Zohar, we have to be aimed at the goal. All the previous life cycles we had gone through were developing us in the material plane, where we were closed off inside ourselves. We only aspired to increase our internal will to enjoy, trying to fulfill it as much as possible. We experienced a connection with others only in order to use them for self-gratification.

This developmental process eventually brought us to a point where we have exhausted all the possibilities of being fulfilled. This caused a feeling of disillusionment in our attempts to feel perfection or pleasure in this manner. We know we cannot attain a perfect, eternal life, even though our ever-developing desire hoped for this. We feel that there is nothing left for us to do with this aspiration for ceaseless self-gratification.

But suddenly, together with the disappointment from this life, we reveal the point in the heart – a desire to find the answer to the question of how it is possible to attain that sensation of a perfect, eternal life. This desire pulls us outward instead of inward, away from the place where we had always tried to find fulfillment and perfection in life.

“Outward” means changing your attitude to other people, although you will only realize this much later. You always aspired to use your neighbor in order to fulfill yourself, but now you have to understand that there are no other opportunities besides changing your attitude to your neighbor from reception to bestowal.

By bestowing to your neighbor, you acquire a new desire – the desire of others, who are actually inside of you. You will discover that their desires are actually yours; they are the desires of your soul. If you acquire the right connection with them, then all these desires will become yours. They will be your vessel of perception (your Kli).

But is this really possible? Indeed, it would never be possible if we tried to achieve this on our own. However, this is what we have to accomplish in order to acquire the sense to perceive the spiritual world.

The spiritual space lies beyond your body. It is your attitude to that which is “outside of you.” Right now it seems non-existent, unreal, and unattainable. You reject these desires, which are “outside of you.” You cannot imagine that they belong to you, and therefore you can’t imagine what the spiritual world is. You can’t even surmise that when you attain these desires, within them you will reveal a fulfillment called “the Creator.” In the meantime, however, they seem non-existent or empty to you.

This blindness keeps you from feeling that the spiritual world is comprised of those “foreign” desires which are outside of you. Right now you perceive your attitude of reception to them as “hell.” If your attitude to them changes to bestowal, then you will feel that you are in “heaven” because you will feel everything that fulfills them – and you will desire for all of it to fulfill them as well. In other words, you create hell or heaven yourself, “outside” of you.

Therefore, in the beginning of your spiritual development, the Creator brings you to a Kabbalistic group. However, you don’t see it as being great or spiritual. It is written, “Every person judges others to the extent of his own faults.” Baal HaSulam explains in the article “The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation” that your attitude to others determines what you will find in them: emptiness or fulfillment, this world or the spiritual world, and even the World of Infinity.

Therefore, you have to convince yourself that spirituality lies in your attitude to everything outside of you, which is beyond the limits of your corporeal desires. It is written, “The Shechina dwells outside of man” (beyond man’s skin or surface, which refers to one’s animate desire on the level of Aviut Dalet – the skin of an animal).

A person has to accomplish this inner change using help from outside – from the group, which will give him the right sensation, understanding, and confidence. The group will convince him of this because the environment is capable of convincing us of anything. This is our primary task. This is why we hold friends’ gatherings, meetings, congresses, and all sorts of events; it’s to enable every person to be influenced by the right environment, which will convince us that spirituality is attained precisely by changing our attitude to others.

The entire study of the science of Kabbalah is intended to help us understand this, to be convinced of it, and to reveal the right attitude of bestowal, even love, for our neighbor. Through this attitude we will also reveal our true selves – our soul, or more exactly, our common soul, Malchut of Infinity. We will reveal the Shechina and the Creator ruling over everything together, as it is written, “He and His Name are One.”

This is the intention we should have when reading The Book of Zohar.

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The Zohar: It is known that there is World, Year, and Soul in everything. In the stony heart (Lev HaEven), too, there are World, Year, Soul. World is the primordial serpent (Nahash Kadmoni), which Samuel rode; Year—the ninth of Av; and Soul—the thigh-vein sinew (Gid HaNasheh).

The Zohar tells us that there are two ways of perceiving the reality that we feel. There is the perception “for one’s own sake,” where one feels an egoistic “year, world, and soul,” which belong to the stony heart (Lev ha-Even). There is also the altruistic “world, year, and soul,” where one’s perception of reality is directed in the opposite direction, away from oneself. One perceives through bestowal rather than reception, and therefore one perceives the Upper “World, Year, and Soul,” because it is perceived through bestowal (sanctity).

What’s the difference between the perception of reality by way of absorption and reception, when one separates the perception into world, year, and soul; and the perception of reality by way of bestowal, when one also separates the perception into world, year, and soul? This is, in fact, a big difference between these sensations, because by absorbing into oneself, one is limited and feels that he exists in rigid boundaries of time. One feels that he lives and dies; he feels suffering and problems. One constantly wishes to fill himself, but this fulfillment fades immediately. One’s whole existence in these egoistic bounds of “world, year, and soul” takes place in reception, in the stony heart (Lev ha-Even), in absorption “into oneself.” However, in spite of the suffering, one is forced to continue existing in this manner because one’s environment conditions him that this is how he has to live. The environment obliges a person to strive to be successful at this egoistic absorption, and one is compelled to listen to them and thereby to kill oneself.

However, it is possible to perceive reality different – through bestowal, by exiting out of oneself. There, “world, year, and soul” are infinite dimensions, not limited by the considerations of how a person can fulfill himself. One feels the spiritual world, eternity, and perfection.

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The Zohar: They came out of the Land of Israel and descended into Babylon, saying, “This is the place we will stay.”

We will rise to the heavens and will fight the Creator so that He doesn’t flood the world as he did in the beginning of time.

Parsa under the World of Atzilut is a special correction that was made deliberately to prevent the Light from descending lower. This is why they said: “Let us rise to the firmament and fight with the Creator so as to remove this border and allow the Light to descend from above downwards.”

A person gradually learns and begins to understand that he has to strive towards bestowal, but he doesn’t want to stay “in the Land of Israel” where everything is done for the sake of bestowal, since he can’t see the benefit in doing so. As new egoistic desires are revealed within him, he leaves the Land of Israel and moves towards Babylon, the land of reception.

He then starts to think that the wisdom of Kabbalah can be used for egoistic purposes, for personal fulfillment. He wants to conquer the Creator and make Him serve his own egoistic purposes rather than the other way around, just like in the Grimm fairy tale about the fisherman and his wife.

He starts to look for a lower, less noticeable place where he can hide from the Upper Force in order to avoid getting rid of his egoism. Thus, he builds a “city and tower” (ZON de Klipa) and lives in it. He thinks that the Creator has to fill his egoistic desires with Light, instead of fulfilling his clean desires, since the latter would require him to ascend and attain the property of bestowal, Bina. He wants his egoism to be fulfilled and argues with the Creator.

Each one of us can find these properties within ourselves. This is described in the Torah when addressing the builders of the Tower of Babel: “Rise to the heavens and fight the Creator!” “Fight” means to demand the Light from the Creator, to ask for revelation while remaining in one’s current egoistic state. One asks, “Why hasn’t the Upper World revealed itself to me? The Creator is unfair! I have waited for so long, so why hasn’t it happened yet?”

This is what is referred to as “building a city (Zeir Anpin of Klipa) and a Tower of Babel (Malchut of Klipa), which happens to us on every level. Each time, we have to make a choice of whether to follow the path of Abraham – the path of bestowal, or the path that the whole world chooses – the path of Nimrod.

There is a rule: “The whole is equal to any of its parts.” The whole Torah is present even in our smallest and lowest states, including the states called Noah, Babylon, Egyptian slavery, wandering in the desert, construction and destruction of the Temple, and the entire path until the end of correction. It repeats itself again and again on each level.

This is why when studying The Zohar I can find everything I read within myself, in every state I go through: an Egyptian slave, the people of Israel, the High Priest of the Temple, the Pharaoh, Bilam and his donkey, and so on. They are all inside me.

Our role is to try to imagine and sense these metaphors like a child that’s studying the world around him. The most important thing is to not stop making an effort. There is no other book in the world and no other way to lift ourselves into spirituality.

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Your will to enjoy is split into two parts: the uncorrected part (love for yourself) and the corrected part (love for the Creator or your neighbor). We advance from this world to the End of Correction by nurturing the corrected part and reducing the uncorrected part in all the desires of our soul, from the first to the 613^th desire.

If our level of love for ourselves is at 100%, but we still talk about loving the Creator, that’s what we call religion. People don’t even realize that their love is completely egoistic and they don’t have a critical approach, which is the left line.

If a person acquires a left line, then he starts doubting whether he loves the Creator or not, and tries to analyze whether he loves himself or his neighbor and whether he even needs this kind of love or not. These discernments are made in the relationship to oneself and other people. If a person doesn’t receive support from his environment in order to be able to work with it, to invest his energy into the environment and receive the right influence from it, then the revelation of the left line can actually harm him on his spiritual path – his questions will steer him away from the spiritual path and bring him back to a common life.

This happens when a person doesn’t try, by using all possible means, to connect with the group in order to gain a greater sense of the importance of the spiritual goal (to receive this importance from group), so that this goal will be higher than anything, including all earthly, egoistic goals.

Only the value of “what’s more important” defines whether a person will stay on the spiritual path or will leave for a number of years or even several lifetimes, while leading a common life. “Is there a more important goal in life?” This is the question that every person will have to answer continuously throughout his life.

If a person doesn’t get support from the environment, it will seem to him that there are more important things in this life other than love for the Creator, such as family, career, and the opinions of other people. He will get stuck on his way to the goal and will stand still until he gets enough fuel to move forward, either from suffering or from a new source of inspiration.

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We do everything for our own good, because our nature is the will to enjoy. This is why we always ask, “Why do I need this? What kind of profit will I make from this? Is it worth it for me to make the effort?”

This is why people have to receive an explanation of what they will gain by revealing the Creator. It takes great effort to do this, but revealing the importance of the goal provides the strength for it. It all depends on how much your environment understands the importance of the goal. In a corrected world, the only work that everyone in the world will do, besides providing for the bare necessities, is providing each other with mutual support to feel the importance of correction and spiritual development.

All the billions of people in the world will work on disseminating Kabbalah to each other, on influencing each other and inspiring one another to take greater part in the correction, and revealing a greater desire for this. In order to attain the corrected state, each person will have to personally disseminate, from his place in the common soul, the knowledge, impression, and importance of unity and correction. After all, every person is a cell of the single spiritual body, the Soul.

In order to be connected to the whole body, every cell must tell everyone about how it works and how important its work is. It must be impressed by how it influences the others and how much they need it; otherwise it won’t have the right to exist.

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