Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 46

What Does It Mean to Start Anew Each Day?

“Today” and “yesterday” are two different vessels. For example, yesterday I ate dinner and felt full. I did not imagine that I would want to eat again today. But after several hours, my desire became renewed, and today I feel a lack of satisfaction. This is a “new day.” A “day” represents the opportunity to derive pleasure, draw light, and reveal it.

In spirituality, no day is like a previous day, and no night resembles the one that follows. Spiritual desire evolves, while physical desire remains the same—static. In spirituality, the same desire never repeats itself. The process might seem repetitive, as if we encounter the same issue repeatedly, but the sages explain that each day is new, filled with fresh scrutinies and desires.

After countless “days” of scrutinies, although the exact number is unknown, we reach the end of our scrutinies and attain a complete vessel. This is the corrected vessel in which spirituality becomes revealed. Thus, it is written: “They shall be new in your eyes every day.” Time is a succession of new discernments, new desires.

These discernments often come in uncomfortable ways, manifesting as shame, fear, or failures stemming from fatigue, weakness, or impatience. But predominantly, they appear as fears, because the first Mitzvah (commandment) is fear, i.e., bringing a person from animalistic fear to spiritual fear, not fear of suffering in this world or the next, but fear of the Creator, wondering if we are connected to Him or have anything to offer in return.

The initial corrections revolve around reaching spiritual fear. Through worldly fears, or their semblance, a person is brought to fear only the Creator. Yet this fear is not fear of the Creator, but fear of not being connected to Him, and beyond that, fear of the inability to reciprocate or give to Him. This is what life’s myriad complexities ultimately revolve around.

This initial stage can take several years and appears in various forms. One person fears their boss, another worries about upsetting neighbors, a third dreads having committed an unforgivable act, and yet another fears an ongoing legal trial. The Creator has an endless array of such fears that He arouses in us, often in unimaginable ways. Sometimes, something prepared decades earlier suddenly surfaces.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 45
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Question: If a person is a small world and everything is included in it, what can outweigh the other: the point in the heart or egoism, which is the result of the shattering?

Answer: First, a person is a small world because he is connected to everyone whether he desires it or not.

Second, he must create his connection to the world the way he wants it to be, i.e., selectively: “I want to receive certain influences from the world and give certain influences back to the world.”

So what should ultimately tip the scale: the point in the heart or egoism? Neither.

I want the light of the Creator, which descends upon both the point in the heart and my egoism, to constantly determine my next states, nothing more and no less.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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Question: What determines the duration of states of ascents and descents?

Answer: The duration of ascents and descents depends on the intensity of the work within the ten. If the ten is actively working on itself, you can pass through these states very quickly and realize them with incredible speed.

There is a story about a student who came to Baal Shem Tov and said: “That is it, I cannot do this anymore. I have experienced several descents and ascents just this morning.” To this, Baal Shem Tov replied: “I go through 400 such states in a single day.”

First, ascents and descents can be calculated. Second, imagine what it means to experience 400 conscious transitions from a small state, to a greater or intermediate one, and so on.

And all of this occurs in sensations, in the awareness of joy, like a symphony unfolding within us, like a marvelous harmony. This is attainment, delight, the great deed of the Creator!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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True spiritual work happens when I am in the right environment, one that values the quality of giving and mutual inclusion. This environment can eventually influence me to the point where I feel it changing something within me.

Finally, after many, many years, I begin to sense that it is fundamentally transforming the basis of my worldview, my perception of the world, my sense of myself, and my understanding of myself and the Creator.

All of this results from consistent interaction within the ten. Without this, we cannot properly transform our egoistic traits into spiritual, altruistic ones under the influence of the upper light. We simply cannot.

However, when we are in the ten, we gradually begin to feel that it provides each of us with a spiritual example.

Why does this not happen immediately? Because each person perceives the ten according to their own level of corruption. That is, the more we desire to see it corrected, the more we actually perceive it as such, and in this way, we receive examples from our friends.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

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