The Last Bit

Baal HaSulam, Letter 38: ..hurry up and spend the majority of your time preparing your body to muster strength and courage “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” Do not lose a minute, “for the way is long and supplies are scarce. (…) But the most important is the labor, meaning to crave how to labor in His work, since the ordinary work does not count at all, only the bits that are more than the ordinary, which is called “labor.” It is like a person who needs to eat a pound of bread a day to be full. All his eating does not merit the title, “satisfying meal,” but only the last bit from the pound. That bit, for all its smallness, is what defines the meal as satisfying. Similarly, out of every service, the Creator draws out only the bits beyond the ordinary, and they will be the letters and the Kelim (vessels) in which to receive the Light of His face.

The problem is where to get the strength to constantly multiply efforts. How can we imagine the importance of the spiritual goal, that is, bestowal, every time so that it outweighs all the burdening of the heart? The heart becomes hardened; the egoistic desire of all kinds is growing, so that we can hardly see that it comes as “help against.” But every time we think that these are real obstacles, and even not obstacles—but this is our life and we need to deal with these difficulties, focusing all our attention and effort on them.

Common sense suggests that you need to behave; it’s not some philosophical debate like in Kabbalah; it’s not the hidden spiritual world, but the real earthly life. We are not able to accept these problems as obstacles on the spiritual path and to rise above all of them without exception and attach them to spiritual advancement.

We are overcome by the burdening of the heart, confused by all sorts of life problems. It seems that our life is in them, and first of all we need to deal with them and only after that engage in spiritual advancement. And even having entered the spiritual world, we find it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the goal, to aim ourselves at the true goal, that is, bestowal and love for the other and through it to love for the Creator. It is getting harder to turn to the environment and ask for support.

Obstacles come from two sides—besides this world, as well as from the Creator, thegroup, the teacher—from all the material and spiritual factors. In earthly life, we are overwhelmed by common concerns about: food, family, money, power, knowledge. And the teacher, the group, the Creator act in the spiritual life. But we do not want to see in all them the means for advancement, sent to us from above. We forget that we are only against the upper Light and begin to make various material calculations, slowing ourselves on the path.

Only the total effort of the group is able to create the general force that at least will keep us in the right understanding from which we can begin to start correcting our individual states. Only then will we be able to make an effort that is above human power, with the help of the environment and the Light that Reforms.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/13

Charging The Air Of The Convention

Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 17, “The Order of the Assembly”: In the multitude of people is the king’s glory, it follows that the greater the number of the collective, the more effective is the power of the collective. In other words, they produce a stronger atmosphere of the greatness and importance of the Creator. At that time, each person’s body feels that he regards anything that he wishes to do for holiness—meaning to bestow upon the Creator—as a great fortune, that he has been privileged with being among people who have been rewarded with serving the king. At that time, every little thing he does fills him with joy and pleasure that now he has something with which to serve the king.

This should be the atmosphere of the convention in St. Petersburg. And we need to prepare for it. No “mechanism” will work for us. It is the people who gather at the convention that must form, generate the desired state, “warm up the air,” and feel that it is “charged” with our intentions. The realization of the greatness and importance of the work, the focus of joint efforts depend on us.

We are special; we are doing a special action of establishing contact, even the smallest with the upper force. It structures us, helps us, brings us closer by obstacles, and eventually propels us to the goal.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, “There Is None Else Besides Him”

All We Need Is Love

Question: You said that we shouldn’t pin our hopes on theconvention, that we shouldn’t expect any pleasure, but that we should only work above it and set an example for others.

Answer: The goal of creation is to do good to the created beings! Therefore, we should expect to receive pleasure but pleasure from bestowing upon the friends and through them upon the Creator.

Pleasure is the goal of creation, I should enjoy. If I don’t enjoy but cry, I am opposite from the goal of creation and far from the Creator.

The closer we get to the Creator, the more we enjoy. All the levels of the spiritual ladder are the ascent to the feeling of increasingly greater and more wonderful pleasures! It seems that you have reached the top and then such sensations are suddenly felt that you can simply go mad. But you cannot go mad since you have a Masach (screen). If you didn’t have a Masach, the smallest spiritual pleasure would burn all your fuses.

The pleasure you feel is the pleasure of bestowal, the pleasure of loving and filling your beloved friend.

I see that you have a sad face. Can’t you imagine that you fill someone that you love? Do you love anyone in this world, your son at least? Can you imagine enjoying giving him a present and that it brings you pleasure when you see his pleasure, as you actually feel the joy inside him? Do you feel the pleasure that he feels when he tastes something good or enjoys a certain game, as if you are right there inside him?

We have such corporeal examples that you can also use in spirituality. But in spirituality this love doesn’t appear naturally, since you have to ask for help, to build it up inside you by the Light that Reforms. But you should already understand that you can enjoy the fact that the one you love enjoys.

This means that all you need is love of the Creator! When He enjoys your actions, you will enjoy His pleasure from you to the same extent. By bringing the Creator your minor good mood, you multiply it by 620 times because the Creator is a bit greater than you and includes everything there is.

You multiply your efforts and your pleasure by transferring them to Him, since He enjoys you 620 times more and you receive from Him a pleasure that is 620 times greater. Thus we advance up the spiritual ladder and this is all our work: to fill the Light with 613 desiresand 7 additional ones, Malchut itself, and on the whole 620 desires.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/03/13, Writings of Rabash

Creating A Resemblance To The Light

Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah,” (The Giving of the Torah), Item 11: “This exaltedness and Dvekut, which is guaranteed to come to us through our work in Torah and Mitzvot, is no more and no less than the equivalence of the branches with their root.”

• All the gentleness, pleasure, and sublimity become a natural extension here, as we have said above, pleasure is only the equivalence of form with one’s Maker. And when we equalize in every conduct with our root, we sense delight.
• Also, everything we encounter that is not in our root becomes intolerable, disgusting, or considerably painful to us, as is necessitated by that concept. And we naturally find that our very hope depends on the extent of our equivalence of form with our root.

Thus we advance by pleasures and sufferings. On the whole we should establish the equivalence of form from both parts. I have to create of myself a form that is similar to the Light.

But the upper Light has no form; it is total bestowal and absolute love. So how can I create the form of the Light in my desire to receive that has a form?

I “undress” from all the egoistic relationships that I have and establish connections of love above them. So internally I am totally made of a desire to receive and its external expression becomes a desire to bestow.

As a result I find myself in front of the Surrounding Light, in front of the Light of Ein Sof(Infinity), and I make the image of the Creator for myself, by myself. This is why this level is called Adam (a human being) which means to resemble the Creator (Domeh in Hebrew).

The Creator himself has no form, but we discover Him by getting closer to Him and by that we “create” Him.

Baal HaSulam, “The Secret of Gestation and Birth”: It is similar to a Rav and his student, when the Rav’s only inclination is to empower his student to be like him and to teach other students like himself. In the same manner the Creator is content when the created beings create and renew His image. Our force of renewal and development is not really new, but a kind of imitation. And our level of development is measured according to the level that the imitation matches the work of nature.

We fulfill all that in the mutual connection between us. We were given a chance to overcome the ego between us if we use the means that we have correctly: the lessons, the workshops, the conventions, etc. The most important thing should be to reach connection, so that the connection will resemble the Light and mutual bestowal to some extent.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, “There Is None Else Besides Him”