Either Him Or Me!

How can we be taught what bestowal is? In order to do that nature has planted a desire to enjoy in us through which we learn about bestowal by its oppositeness, by its opposite attribute.

Our desire to enjoy receives certain impressions that evoke different responses in it and imprint different holes, cracks, pits, and dimples in our desire. Thanks to that, the desire begins to feel to some extent that these impressions are different in size and character, and that there is a certain connection between them that we don’t understand.

We suddenly discover that our desire to enjoy is versatile, multi-layered, and very complex, and accordingly it receives different complex impressions. Thus we learn about our nature. The more we know about it, the more we attain the opposite attribute, the opposite nature. After all, all our study is based on the clash between two opposite attributes: receiving and bestowal.

It says, “And they shall have no other Gods before Me,” which means that by studying precisely about these “other Gods,” we study about the Creator and can form His image in us. Otherwise, He has no image and no form allowing us to somehow imagine what it is, who He is, and how to discover Him.

How can we discover that which is impossible to discover? Only by negative impressions that are perceived negatively in the desire to enjoy can we gradually build an opposite attitude so we begin to imagine what the attribute of bestowal is. We cannot attain it any other way: not by using our imagination, not by our feelings, or by any action on our part that can be directly adapted to Him.

Everything takes place only due to some special force, the Light that operates in different states and evokes different responses in us. Our work is to attribute everything to the one upper force as we determine that there is none else beside Him. This, however, encounters great resistance on the part of our desire to enjoy, which until then thought that there is none else beside itself and now has to settle for this. One annuls the other, which means that an argument begins: Who will rule?

Both of these claims nullify one another: it is either Him or me! This conflict is the basis of all our states. We shouldn’t be afraid to stand between these two opposing sides and to deal with the two insoluble dominions, to endure it, to accept, and to surrender, but to attain and justify, to understand and resemble the force of bestowal. If a person doesn’t escape this clarification, but can work under the conditions of this split, the conflicting opinions and the feelings, if he doesn’t count on his animal mind and doesn’t escape from the battlefield, he receives a new mind and feelings from Above. In that case he acquires a form that is similar to the Creator.

Until then, it is impossible to understand what bestowal is. When a person finally attains it, it is called the Creator’s help, a finding. A person who accepts all the forms of work that are given to him and who lowers his head, not following his own mind, which seems to understand everything and determine everything, then he succeeds. The main thing is, as it says not to believe in yourself until your dying day, which means the death of your ego. After that you already acquire faith.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, Shamati #15

Silver-Coated Photographic Film

At any given moment the Creator kneads a person like dough, and the question is to what extent a person feels that and is ready to feel it and to accept the Creator’s ceaseless work on him.

There are different periods, since on every level we have to go through all the discernments: the still nature, the vegetative, the animate, and the “speaking.” And there is a certain time that we are asleep. This doesn’t depend on us, but is rather part of the general work on all of creation that also includes us. We feel only a small part of what is happening with us, so there are many periods in which we are unconscious of what we go through.

First we have to yearn to acknowledge that there is none beside Him. Second, you have to nullify yourself and try to be objective. An “objective perspective” is looking through a “lens” and not through your own eyes; it is looking through some independent tool that is external to my subjective sight and that can enlarge or minimize different details and sharpen the focus artificially, regardless of my feelings and preferences. This is called a subjective perspective that photographs the situation like a camera.

We have to feel many inner subtleties and discernments in order to become such a camera lens. What do I want to photograph by using my camera? I want to photograph the Creator! So what kind of camera do I need for that?

My desire to receive is a photographic film in a camera on which I take a picture. This desire has to be independent of me and under full restriction, free of my subjective approach, of my attitude. I have to rise above it, and then it will reflect the true picture and not the picture that I have made and retouched Adobe Photoshop. This is the first phase of the work.

Everything depends on how sensitive I can be with regard to all the figures and the relations the Creator displays before me, which are constantly changing, to what extent I am ready to start a dialogue with Him according to what is happening to me and to detach from myself as much as I can. This is very difficult, since to detach from myself actually means that I carefully examine myself in order to constantly see what ties me to my ego.

To the extent that I do this kind of work, I can identify the Creator’s image more clearly. To the extent that I neutralize myself at any given moment, I allow the Creator to imprint Himself in me, to be revealed in my photographic film, on the layer that is sensitive to the Light.

This sensitivity depends on the “silver coating,” the material used in photography, and it depends on how much I cover and conceal myself. Then internally, the Creator’s image in its opposite form can appear in my matter, like a negative.

I can receive such a coating only if I subdue myself before the environment. I have no such coat, no Masach (screen), behind which I can hide my ego; I have nothing to cover myself with. The only chance is to place myself under the care of the environment, like a baby who wants to hide in his mother’s arms.

But a baby does it instinctively because of his ego, the desire to do good for himself, whereas we have to do a great deal of work against our ego in order to annul it, to subdue myself before the teacher, the group, the study, and the dissemination. This will provide us with the coat.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, Shamati #15

From Total Restriction To Total Revelation

Our spiritual growth and development begins from the restriction of the desire to receive, which initially dominates us.The moment we try to restrict ourselves, we enter the state of spiritual Ibur (gestation) about which is said: “An embryo in his mother’s womb sees from one end of the world to the other. There is a lit candle above his head and he is taught the whole Torah.”

This means that he is not limited in any way since he has totally restricted himself—the small egoistic desire he has at that moment in which he feels the corporeal world. It’s because he hasn’t felt the spiritual world at all, but only this world, the fictitious reality, like a person who is unconscious and is hallucinating. But when he restricts his desire to receive, he becomes unlimited, he doesn’t need to receive anymore since the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity) illuminates for him like the Surrounding Light, which is like being in a mother’s womb. Thus he goes through the stages of Ibur.

After he is born, he already begins to work with the first Aviut (thickness) of the desire instead of the root Aviut, and then he is limited again. The Light of Ein Sof that doesn’t grow weaker in any way, doesn’t reach him since he doesn’t try to totally annul himself and adhere to the upper. He builds Masachim (screens) of his own and increases his desires in order to actually reach the Light of Ein Sof by his own work and to dress it in his vessels.

There are different limitations in his work now, and the Light illuminates only to the extent that he can receive it in order to bestow in his corrected vessels. Therefore it says that “the Creator hates the bodies,” which means the desires to receive. The desire to bestow, however, is not called a body anymore, but a soul, a Godly part from Above.

Thus, there is a state in which a person restricts himself so that the Light of Ein Sof can reach him limitlessly. But the wholeness is in allowing the Light of Ein Sof to be revealed without any restrictions on a person’s part. A person has to discover himself with the help of a Masach and to work on the level of Ein Sof by himself, in order to attain full adhesion with the Light that is not limited by any restrictions.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/13, Shamati #15

Rejecting The Present You

And Moses said unto them: “Let no man leave of it till the morning.” Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and rotted; and Moses was wroth with them (The Torah, Exodus, BeShalach, 16:19 – 16:20).

This speaks about lack of faith. If you stock up for tomorrow, you are no longer in the world of the Creator, but are in your own world. This is a constant struggle that should accompany a person in relation to everything: to view the past, present, and future in relation to himself and others and to assess everything that happens to a person—this “I” and my attitude towards everything—where do I become free from my “self?”

Man is a person’s aspiration for the property of bestowal. This entails a very serious transition: from denial, to restriction, to rising above himself, and it includes a variety of other conditions. Try to draw your portrait on the floor and start stomping on it; this is what you want to remove yourself from, to move away from the present you. Feel yourself in these states.

Comment: But there is another attitude, like in the joke: A man is sitting on the roof of a house, surrounded by flood; a boat passes by with people offering to rescue him, but he answers, “No, the Creator will save me.” A helicopter flies above him, “We’ll save you,” “No,” he says, “The Creator will save me.” So, he drowned.

Answer: This is a terrible pride, “The Creator will save me.” That is, a person does not identify himself with the world, does not understand that the Creator is in everything: in the boat, in the helicopter—everywhere. He does not connect this with the Creator, but divides the world into various intermediaries, thoughts, and forces. This happens due to the failure to feel the Creator as unity.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

In The Arms Of The Kabbalists

Question: Is my perception of the world constantly renewed until I acquire a soul, meaning spiritual perception?

Answer: With time you will discover that this world is much more complicated than you perceive in your superficial perception. You will feel the forces that are behind the actions and will see that everyone is under the influence of these forces, like dolls that are operated by invisible urges in some kind of a game.

Question: Why is it so complicated?

Answer: It isn’t complicated at all, it is a simple calculation: You either live like an “animal” or you live by attaining all of reality. Along the way it seems complicated, but only so that you will find out whatever you don’t understand by yourself. Thus you begin to understand the general picture.

Without this study you will not get to know and will not attain the upper force. The complications appear only in the system of communication between you. But deeper, where you are adhered “spirit in spirit,” there are no questions. There you become similar to it and all the “worlds,” which means all the concealments, disappear.

The learning process is always confusing. When a person begins to learn nothing is understood and the more you advance in your study the more questions you have. It isn’t by chance that leading scientists are not ashamed to admit how little they know about the world. On the other hand, ignorant “experts” who don’t see further than a few centimeters before their nose say that everything is “crystal clear”…

Question: But still, why do Kabbalists use language that I can’t understand? Why don’t they express everything in a detailed, organized fashion? What is all this “symbolism” for?

Answer: They have no other choice; believe me, they don’t want to confuse you. On the contrary, they are like loving parents who worry about their baby who was finally born late in their life. Since they understand your inner structure and also the spiritual structure, they connect you with the inner essence of the world, with the real reality. They need to carry you in their arms, like a baby, like a piece of “flesh” that is not a human being yet, to the next level. While they carry you, you grow, accumulate impressions, and experience spiritual actions and reactions, until they put you down on the “lawn” of the spiritual world…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/08/13, “The Peace”

Eternal Sabbath

Question: What is the “eternal Sabbath,” about which it is said that everything will be on the seventh day?

Answer: The “eternal Sabbath” represents complete adhesion of the Creator and the created being. This is a feeling of complete correction.

“Eternal rest” means that you have nothing to fight, but you have much work in constant positive yearning for the Creator. This yearning is not a result of lack, but due to the revelation of greater perfection.

We have no idea how this is possible. How can I move forward, not using the left leg at all? It is as if a middle leg appears, and you just walk forward in the revelation of the Creator.

That is, you go towards Him not because you correct yourself and move towards Him, but because He is revealed more and more, and you enter Him more and more. This is the system.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

The Language Of Communicating With The Creator

Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” Clarification of the Phrase from the Mishnah: “Everything Is in Deposit, and a Fortress Spreads Over All of Life”: All is in deposit, and a fortress spreads over all of life. The store is open and the shopkeeper sells by deferred payment; the book is open and the hand writes. And all who wish to borrow may come and borrow, and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly. And they have what to rely on, and the judgment is true, and all is ready for the feast.

Question: Does the phrase “and the judgment is true,” refer to the trial of the soul?

Answer: Of course. We come closer by the attributes of Din (judgment) and mercy, by feeling “bitterness” and “sweetness.” They teach and develop us so that we will be able to feel the Creator. He is the one who shows us the attitude of “bitterness” or “sweetness,” which means that He speaks the “language” that we can understand. In the same manner, parents have to explain things to a child in different ways, whether they are pleasant or not.

Although it isn’t about the actual “language” of pleasure and sufferings, it is thanks to them that I reach an inner adhesion between the two parts that are seemingly standing behind me.

There is something in the Creator, and He wants to create something similar in the created being. Then He creates in Himself and in the created being a communication system that is His “language,” that uses terms of receiving and bestowal.

All this is so that we will somehow work out the inner mutual connection between our initial parts. They cannot connect without a special “adaptor,” without a “language” of pleasures and sufferings, “bitterness” and “sweetness,” truth and lie, bestowal and receiving.

Then, there, there is no more receiving or bestowal, but rather something that is deeper and more internal that we cannot describe in words.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13, ”The Peace”

You Have All The Cards In Your Hands

In every spiritual state on the spiritual levels, there is the Inner Light and the Surrounding Light. But in our state, as long as we do not attain restriction and a Masach (screen), we can be assisted only by the Surrounding Light.

The force of the Surrounding Light depends on how much we value it, on our appreciation of the upper, of the next level, which means the Creator. But we cannot value Him. We were only given a couple of means by which we can develop an inner feeling of the greatness of the upper. The upper for us is the group, the teacher, and the books, meaning the study that tells us about the spiritual world and the Creator hidden behind all these means.

We begin to value the upper who is external to us by using all these means: the group, the teacher, the books, and the intention of attaining equivalence of form with the Creator in order to bring Him contentment. Although we don’t feel it for the time being, even if we just talk about it trying to feel it from time to time, we raise the greatness of the upper in us by that. Then at a certain point He becomes so important that He allows us to feel His presence next to us.

It’s because everything that is external to a person is the Holy Shechina, the Godly presence. But everything depends on how much we value Him. All the other rules of behavior in the group as to how we should speak, what to demand of it, and how to treat it, stem from this condition, from the need to value the upper.

Accordingly, the Surrounding Light shines upon a person. It is the real upper Light, but in the meantime it operates on the lower as the Light that Reforms, which means that it brings about changes in us by gradually bringing us closer to bestowal. Then finally it will give us the “restriction” and the Masach, which means the ability to work spiritually.

Then we will begin to understand where we are and what is happening to us, but at the same time, we have to work in faith above reason and value the upper despite all the problems the upper sends us and all the reasons for an opposite attitude. This is our work that is based on our great appreciation of the upper until we adhere to the posterior of the upper as if it were His face. Then we will see that it was never His posterior, but that He has always turned His face full of light to us. Thus we leave exile and reach redemption.

At first it was as if you were unconscious, but then you begin to feel that you are in exile, so, step by step, you begin to get closer to redemption and finally you leave exile and come into the Light. These are the levels of ascent according to your appreciation of the upper, and later your adhesion to Him.

We have all the means, all the roads are open, and everything depends on us. There is nothing else that we need. The Creator has given us every possible opportunity and everything else is up to the person. We will not be forgiven and there are no concessions from Above if we don’t do our work, since otherwise we will not build our spiritual vessels.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13

Perception Of Reality: From Antiquity To The Present Day

A person aspiring to spiritual attainment begins to see that the whole world is one system. It is constant joyful work, and you become accustomed to it gradually. It becomes a necessity. You already exist at this level.

All the other levels are flat, one-dimensional, and it’s impossible to think of them as before. A person begins to get accustomed to thinking in the n-dimensional space which becomes compressed into a single force an d purpose; therefore, it’s not difficult to feel the whole world connected with a single goal, with a single thought, with a single force, up to the point that you look at the starry sky and see what connects all the stars.

This raises some very interesting questions, such as, “How did the ancient astrologers associated stars in the constellations?” After all, if I look at the stars I’m unable to join them in all the signs of the zodiac, Orion, the Big Dipper and others. I don’t have such a great imagination as the ancient Greeks or the Babylonian astrologers because the stars are far away from each other and in different planes.

Let’s say that one star is hundreds million years closer to the Earth, and the other is millions years farther. But they saw them connected to each other as in a single plane. What is it: just primitive representations or human fantasy? Where there is a bear with four or five stars forming a square with a tail? How can one imagine this?

It’s a very interesting thing: The idea that links the stars in the zodiac signs is attained by a person through his influence on it.

The ancient astrologers had a feeling of the connectedness of these stars. Due to the development of egoism, we became detached from the universe, from perceiving it as a whole, but they had a sense of relative connectedness because they perceived it as a host of gods, of uppers forces that influenced them. And it was not because they were small or primitive; it’s simply not twisted, not coarse human perception without the number of filters as we have. That is, they had a much greater perception of the Light. If we begin to correct our egoism, we will now feel the Light many times more because we are much coarser than they were.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

Upper Abundance

And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating (The Torah, Exodus, “BeShalach,” 16:17 – 16:18).

We are speaking about how much effort every person can make.

Let’s say I am overweight and asthmatic; I have a bad heart; could I do much stooping over and collecting? While the other, young and agile, can gather a whole bag.

There is no such thing in spirituality! Everything happens according to the conditions you are in. You are evaluated by the specific, individual efforts you make according to your capacity to work.

Manna is the upper abundance that fills a person in accordance with his preparation. To the extent that I am ready to give, I open myself to reception. This is how it works.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

How Can We Justify The Unjustifiable?

Question: How can we justify the Creator if we see great suffering like with people who are terminally ill?

Answer: It is impossible to justify it now because we don’t want to lie or pretend to persuade ourselves or to comfort others. There are different psychological methods of influencing a person that enable him to change his point of view with regard to tragic events in his life. But Kabbalists say that real change is possible only if the Light that Reforms influences a person and changes his state.

The current state is the level a person is on. So he will look at what is happening differently, will feel and understand things differently according to a new level, which he attains thanks to the Light that Reforms. In this case, the change is not because those around him have confused him and convinced him. After all, they are deceiving him and not letting him see the truth, as if giving him a sedative. They are trying to show him that everything is fine, and by that they lie to him and block the path to the truth for him.

We have a different method; we don’t calm, but only support a person so that he will discover his ego. We help him discover his ego and deal with it.

A person can deal with every state he faces in two ways: One is to somehow blur the problem and confuse himself, which is turning to religion, different beliefs, and mysticism. This is what everyone in our world does.

But a person can do the opposite: open your eyes and desire wider and start working in order to draw the Light that Reforms so that it will correct you. Then from this new level, a person sees the correct picture.

How do I draw this Light? By justifying whatever happens, and that it all comes from one source, “There is none else beside Him.” I want to discover the upper force, and nothing other than that.

It isn’t that I simply accept what happens like a submissive believer, but I want to discover the upper. I understand that all my feelings are clarions from the Creator who wants the created beings to discover Him and to discover that “There is none else besides Him” and that He is “Good and benevolent.”
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/08/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

What Holds Me Back?

Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 10: It is so because He has no interest in reception, only in bestowal, whereas the Klipot want nothing of bestowal, but only to receive for themselves, for their own delight, and there is no greater oppositeness than that.

Question: What is a Klipa?

Answer: The Klipa is something that prevents me from getting closer to the Creator. I recognize it as the force that puts obstacles in front of me.

Actually, what can prevent me?

I want to enjoy, and this means that all kinds of pleasures prevent me; they distract me, take me away from the likeness to the Creator, and keep me from advancing towardsunity and bestowal. These are the pleasures that are called “filth.”

So, the Klipa is something extremely pleasant. Let’s say, I like to relax at home more than to participate in the gathering of friends. It is more pleasant for me not to think about the world and correction but about what will happen to me personally. It is dearer to me to take care of my own children, not the neighbors’.

But the real Klipa is when I feel that I advance towards the Creator along a certain path and thus can bring Him pleasure but suddenly I find out that it is more pleasant and comfortable to deviate somewhere, become distracted by something. This is what theKlipa is: It seems to cling to my clothing and pull me back.

We cannot understand all this until we acquire the intention above the desire, until we get out of the desire and begin to act on the basis of intention.

To act on the basis of intention means to apply restriction (Tzimtzum) to the desire to receive. I must be independent of it and be completely free to choose. In other words, independently from the desire, I can decide for myself that I will work with it in order to receive. I have the opportunity to work in order to bestow, but I decide to the contrary. This is what filth is. Conversely, if I have no choice, there is nothing to ask from me. To receive with the egoistic intention is the Klipa that runs through all our ascents until theend of correction. And we are always required to make a difficult decision—how to act, in order to receive or in order to bestow?

We are talking about the work with the Lights and vessels of the egoistic desire, not just about the rejection of the “small” pleasures of our world. I am required to make a decision of a high order when I begin to feel that there is a king, egoistic by nature. This is the flipside of the Creator, and I think that it dominates the world. So it should be, and I decide in these conditions.

Moreover, the decision is possible only if I rise above the restriction, if I am independent. This is when I decide to enjoy for the sake of reception, and turn into a Klipa.

In general, the forces of filth energetically propel a person to the goal. They awaken him in such a way that, like a mountaineer, he must climb above them, overcome them, and ascend to the summit to the King’s palace. And his every move is a rise above filth.

The Klipa is the essence of the material of creation, the desire to receive that took its egoistic form and appears to us in this way. That is why it is impossible to make a step forward without being connected to the Klipa.

But of course, we don’t connect to it ourselves. We always must keep in the right line, and then the forces of filth come at the right time and in the right form.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

A Speck Of Matter Next To A Spark Of Light

We are in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). But in the world of Ein Softhere is a very small Light: Nefesh of Nefesh that created the created being as “something from nothing,” as a tiny grain of the desire to receive. This is the first phase, the “root phase” of the world of Ein Sof. So why is it called infinite?

It is because there is nothing but the tiny spark of Light and the tiny speck of matter. Everything else comes on the account of the greatness of the Light in the feelings of the speck of the created being, by the great respect towards the Light that has created it and which takes care of it. From the recognition of this greatness comes the feeling of the world of Ein Sof.

Then this speck begins to develop and become increasingly more independent, and whole worlds are born in its feelings. First it happens instinctively, under the influence of the Light. But eventually its development reaches the point we are in now. If now, from this state, we rise back by using all the preparations that were made for us, we will reach the true recognition of the Light.

But we can call it real only conditionally since it is impossible to attain the Creator’s real essence and height with regard to the created being. But when we rise again, we discover the Light of NRNHY, the extent to which the Creator allows us to attain Him called “adhesion.” To that extent, according to His will, we have to be like Him.

It says, “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust” (Psalm 113). But we don’t demand that He should raise us from the dust in order to be rich, but rather, we want to rise only so that we will respect and praise the Creator. This is the only reason that we ask Him to raise us from the dust: in order to attain His greatness and not in order to improve our own condition.

This ascent is in order to understand who created us and who has taken care of us. The matter itself can remain in absolute poverty since what is important for us is to join the upper Light, the attribute of bestowal, not for our own sake but in order to bring the Creator contentment. This is our only hope. Thus we bring ourselves to perfectly match the picture, the image, that is in the world of Ein Sof: a speck of matter next to the spark of Light, and everything else is the infinite greatness of the Creator.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13

What Hides Behind The Screen Of Lies?

The problem is that we need an inner connection between the friends and the teacher so that the external forms of the interruptions that are purposefully sent to us will not weaken, but rather, will strengthen this connection. It is indeed very difficult, since our ego depicts everything in an ugly external way and forces us to blame one another.

We cannot rise above the obstacles and external conditions that the Creator places us in so that we would overcome them by ourselves. The external corporeal picture strongly influences us and we cannot leap over it and rise in different states of conflicts, disrespect, feeling distant from others or when it comes to different corporeal accounts.

All this draws a person further from the goal, and it doesn’t just repulse him, but also causes him such harm that he will need to work for a long time in order to repair his past mistakes.

Baal HaSulam tells us in his letter that as long as a student yearns to get closer to his teacher and climbs the hill, the desire burns in him. But the moment he gets physically close to the teacher, his yearning diminishes gradually, until it is totally lost. Therefore, it is much easier to be distant than to be near. We all know that important people try to keep the crowds distant in order to increase the people’s interest in them.

A person creates a kind of image of a friend, the teacher, and the Creator, and doesn’t want to know the truth. He feels good living in the fantasy that he has created for himself and it is hard for him to get away from it, to erase it, in order to accept something new. If this picture is closer to the real picture, then, on the whole, it is less pleasant and more obligating.

So a person who sometimes hears the voice of the Creator and receives an invitation to stroll in His garden for a while, eventually doesn’t attain anything. It is because he doesn’t try to rise above his nature, above the inclination to reject his friends and his teacher and to imagine them as he sees fit instead of seeing the real picture so that the physical closeness or distance will not make a difference and also so that the spiritual closeness or distance will not lead to any changes in his relations with the friends, the teacher, and the Creator.

We have to try to rise as much as we can above our corporeal attributes and to be more objective. This means to judge above reason and to enter the collective vessel, outside one’s self.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The Uncompromising Upper Kindness

Question: Why is the Creator so uncompromising with the created being by setting tough, immutable laws for him? Why can’t He be more merciful, like a father with his son?

Answer: A child can never justify his father’s toughness. He cannot understand the father with his childish mind and see the future results and the benefit that his father’s education will bring him. The child wants to play from morning to night, to eat only sweets, and to watch TV. He cannot justify the parents’ constant demands and so he listens to them reluctantly since he feels his dependence on them and not because he justifies them.

In spirituality everything is much more complicated since we don’t feel to what extent the upper Providence treats us gently. In a child’s world, his oppositeness is not an indication of what he is about to become; if a child is obedient and does his homework and cleans up the messes he makes, the parents cannot come complaining to him since there is nothing more they can demand from him.

In the spiritual world, however, it is different: There you are always a criminal, since you arrive there with shattered vessels to begin with. You are treated kindly and are taught the method of correction; a group is organized for you, just like a kindergarten with a caretaker and with different toys. This is mercy and huge help from Above and mercy; all your sins are forgiven and you are given support in every way, just so that you will be able to reach correction and understanding to some extent.

In our world, we understand “education” as coercion directed at the child. But in the spiritual world, coercion is impossible. I can see that a student doesn’t change for years, repeating the same mistakes, falling into the same pits, and I cannot say a thing. I was the same way and it lasts throughout the entire path.

This is our path and there is nothing we can do. Unless a person determines the lesson, the method, his Torah by himself, he will not be able to advance. There cannot be coercion here, only recognition.

Therefore, we cannot complain that we under the dominance of a cruel father despite all the terrible events of our history. We cannot justify them but later we will see that all the actions of the upper Providence stemmed from love. Although we cannot justify this in our current state, since we are too far from that, when we discover the truth, we will see what great correction it brought about.

“He has given a law that cannot be broken,” means that there is one law. There is a Light and a vessel which are opposite from each other, and this is the law. Later, when they are incorporated in one another, the law of evolution appears by this incorporation, called the law of equivalence of form. It all stems from one thought as one law.

Eventually I have to reach a state in which I want to keep this law by my own will, by myself, as if there is no one else, as if there is no Creator. When I become like the same creator looking at his creation determining the law according to which it should exist, it will mean that I have reached an equivalence of from with the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam