Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?

We started our preparation a couple of weeks ago for the convention. People are making plans to travel. Something very special happens during our convention. People from all over the world come together to do workshops and lessons together and all this really opens up the heart. All this helps us get closer to each other and feel all these things we're talking about in a very practical manner.

As we always say - preparation is everything in the wisdom of Kabbalah. So that's what we're focusing on today. We're starting our count down for the big event - the upcoming regional convention at the end of this month. In Hebrew a convention is called a Kenes which comes from the word mitkansim - that means coming together. We're doing this both internally (mainly) and physically. And we especially want all our intentions to come together. This lesson is an opportunity to put everything else aside and think what we want to get out of this time together, what we hope to see happen, and why we're here. These are questions we can ask ourselves all the time.

In the next 90 minutes we want to attract as much light as possible, and together we can please the Creator. How? By making efforts to connect - and that's the theme of the convention - Awakening From Below. This will accelerate the Creator's influence on us. A convention is an opportunity to get a lot of acts done at once - many people doing many acts together at the same time - this gives tons of strength and has far more impact than doing on our own. This is why we come together. We have exactly 25 more days - and we should really be thinking if we're ready or not. If we cleared our schedule for everything we need to do during the convention.

I usually find myself a role - even two roles - for the convention. One that's interesting and another role that will keep me occupied in case I have a descent. We need to do many acts and that's what our corporeal world is for - how we feel is usually a result of acts. When we say a person loves his family - a family is something you need to create and invest in. You can't just sit on a mountain and say you love your family. It's expressed through thousands of acts - the same goes for love of friends. We need to connect so that we will feel this filling -and that's easiest to feel at a convention.

The values we speak about at a convention are not that important to me. This is why we invest so much in the preparation - to trick our ego into wanting to talk about this anti-ego process.

The Kabbalists understand human nature - you can only understand this once you're in attainment of the upper world. Then you have a completely different perspective of everything because you're like a fish looking at the fish tank from outside. We can only understand what's going on when we get out from under the control of this operating system we're in. For that we need an external force. We call it an upper one because it's first. It's not on top - it's inside us. Every desire that awakens is us - it's the Creator awakening - including the awakening for the Creator. So what can we awaken ourselves from below? After He awakens that desire - the rest is up to us whether to continue on this path toward Him or now. All the other desires we have no control over. Sometimes we success and we're happy - sometimes we fail and we suffer. We have no freedom of choice in all those things. The only place we have a choice is to become similar to Him.

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The source used in this lesson -

5. Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?

I heard in 1945 (Baal HaSulam, Shamati)

In order to attain Lishma [for Her sake], it is not within one’s hands to understand, as it is not for the human mind to grasp how such a thing can be in the world. This is so because one is only permitted to grasp that if he engages in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] he will attain something. There must be self-benefit there for otherwise, one is unable to do anything. Rather, it is an illumination that comes from above, and only one who tastes it can know and understand. It is written about it, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Thus, we must understand why one should seek advice and counsels regarding how to achieve Lishma. After all, no counsels will help him, and if the Creator does not give him the second nature, called “the desire to bestow,” no labor will help him to attain the matter of Lishma.

The answer is, as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2, 21), “It is not for you to complete the work, and you are not free to idle away from it.” This means that one must give the awakening from below, since this is regarded as a prayer.

A prayer is considered a deficiency, and without a deficiency there is no filling. Hence, when one has a need for Lishma, the filling comes from above, and the answer to the prayer comes from above, meaning he receives fulfillment for his lack. It follows, that the need for man’s work in order to receive the Lishma from the Creator is only in the form of a lack and a Kli [vessel]. Yet, one can never obtain the filling by himself; it is rather a gift from the Creator.