Part 1. Continuing the Convention With an Ascent - Selected Excerpts from the sources

"Of all the means we have to reach Lishma—the inner center of all reality—only the Creator can help us in this. Only with His help, through connection with Him, and only if we use all the laws and all the means that He created and prepared for us, will we be able to reach Lishma. Lishma means reaching the level of the Creator and truly revealing Him, each one of us and all together."
- Rav M. Laitman, from Lesson No. 3, World Kabbalah Convention, 21.2.2025

"We must undergo a profound change from the evil inclination to the inclination toward good, and and from Lo Lishma—so that we are ready to undertake all kinds of actions that we believe are for our benefit, and we do them precisely because they are good in the eyes of the Creator.

Therefore, we will strive to internalize the messages so that they enter us, speak within us, and transform us. After such efforts, we will truly become something other than what we are now. We will become spiritual; we will hear the Creator, see the Creator, and feel Him with all our senses.

This will be the goal of the Congress and the aim of our connection with one another. Only two things help us in this: the support of friends and the Creator Himself—nothing more. Hence, we must pay attention only to these two things."
- Rav M. Laitman, from Lesson No. 3, World Kabbalah Convention, 21.2.2025

Baal HaSulam. Letter 18

First thing in the morning, when he rises from his sleep, he should sanctify the first moment with Dvekut with Him, pour out his heart to the Creator to keep him throughout the twenty-four hours of the day so that no idle thought will come into his mind, and he will not consider it impossible or above nature.

Indeed, it is the image of nature that makes an iron partition, and one should cancel nature’s partitions that he feels. Rather, first he must believe that nature’s partitions do not cut off from Him. Afterward, he should pray from the bottom of his heart, even for something that is above his natural desire.

Understand this always, even when forms that are not of Kedusha [holiness] traverse you, and they will instantly stop when you remember. See that you pour out your heart that henceforth the Creator will save you from cessations of Dvekut with Him. Gradually, your heart will grow accustomed to the Creator and will yearn to adhere to Him in truth, and the Lord’s desire will succeed by you.

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 211. “As Though Standing before a King”

One who is sitting at one’s home is not as one who is standing before a King. This means that faith should be that he will feel all day as though he is standing before the King. Then his love and fear will certainly be complete. As long as he has not achieved this kind of faith, he should not rest, “for this is our lives and the length of our days,” and we will accept no recompense.

And the lack of faith should be woven in his limbs until the habit becomes a second nature, to the extent that “When I remember Him, He does not let me sleep.” But all the corporeal matters quench this lack, since he sees that anything that gives him pleasure, the pleasure cancels the deficiency and the pain.

Rather, he must want no consolation, and should be careful with any corporeal thing that he receives, so it does not quench his desire. This is done by regretting that by this pleasure, the sparks and powers of the Kelim [vessels] of Kedusha [holiness] are missing in him, meaning desires for Kedusha. Through the sorrow, he can keep from losing Kelim of Kedusha.

Rabash. Article 12 (1991) “These Candles Are Sacred”

The most important is the prayer. That is, one must pray to the Creator to help him go above reason, meaning that the work should be with gladness, as though he has already been rewarded with the reason of Kedusha, and what joy he would feel then. Likewise, he should ask the Creator to give him this power, so he can go above the reason of the body.

In other words, although the body does not agree to this work in order to bestow, he asks the Creator to be able to work with gladness, as is suitable for one who serves a great King. He does not ask the Creator to show the greatness of the Creator, and then he will work gladly. Rather, he wants the Creator to give him joy in the work of above reason, that it will be as important to a person as if he already has reason.

Rabash.  Article 42. “Serve the Creator with Joy”

A servant of the Creator, whose intention is to bestow, should be happy when he is serving the King. If he has no joy during this work, it is a sign that he lacks appreciation of the greatness of the King.

Therefore, if one sees that he has no joy he should make amendments, meaning think about the greatness of the King. If he still does not feel, he should pray to the Creator to open his eyes and heart to feel the greatness of the Creator.

Part 2. The Structure of the Upper Worlds

Items 33-35 from the "Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah" >>

33) Now we shall clarify the matter of the clashing of inner light and surrounding light on one another, which causes the refinement of the screen and the loss of the last phase of coarseness. As these two lights are opposite yet connected through the screen in Malchut of the Rosh of AK, they beat and strike one another.

Interpretation: The coupling by striking in the Peh [mouth] of the Rosh of AK, in the screen in Malchut of the Rosh, called Peh, which was the reason for clothing the inner light of AK by the reflected light it raised (see Item 14), is also the reason for the exit of the surrounding light of AK. Because it detained the light of Ein Sof from clothing phase four, the light came out in the form of surrounding light.

In other words, that whole part of the light that the reflected light cannot clothe, like phase four herself, emerged and became surrounding light. Thus, the screen in the Peh is the reason for the surrounding light, as it is the reason for the inner light.

34) We have learned that both the inner light and surrounding light are connected to the screen, but in opposite actions. And to the extent that the screen draws a part of the upper light into the Partzuf through the reflected light that clothes it, so it drives the surrounding light away from clothing in the Partzuf.

And since the part of the light that remains outside as surrounding light is very large, due to the screen that detains it from clothing in AK, as written in Item 32, it is considered that it strikes the screen that removes it, since it wants to clothe within the Partzuf. In contrast, it is considered that the force of coarseness and hardness in the screen strikes the surrounding light, which wants to clothe within it, and detains it, as it strikes the upper light during the coupling. These beatings that the surrounding light and the coarseness in the screen beat on each other are called the clash of surrounding light and inner light.

Yet, this clash between them occurred only in the Guf of the Partzuf, since the clothing of the light in the vessels, which leaves the surrounding light outside the vessel, is apparent there. However, this clash does not apply to the ten Sefirot of the Rosh, since the reflected light is not considered vessels there whatsoever, but as mere thin roots. For this reason, the light in them is not regarded as limited inner light, to the point of discerning the light that remains outside as surrounding light. And since this distinction between them does not exist, there is no beating of inner light and surrounding light in the ten Sefirot of the Rosh.

Only once the lights extend from the Peh down to the ten Sefirot of the Guf—where the lights clothe in vessels, which are the ten Sefirot of reflected light from the Peh down—is there beating there between the inner light inside the vessels and the surrounding light that remained outside.

35) This clash continued until the surrounding light refined the screen from all its coarseness and elevated it to its upper root in the Peh of the Rosh. This means that it refined all the coarseness from above downward, called “screen and coarseness of the Guf,” leaving it with only the root of the Guf, the screen of Malchut of the Rosh, called Peh. In other words, it had been refined of its entire coarseness from above downward, which divides between the inner light and the surrounding light, leaving only the coarseness from below upward, where the distinction between the inner light and surrounding light has not occurred yet.

It is known that equivalence of form unites the spirituals into one. Hence, once the screen of the Guf has been refined of all the coarseness of the Guf, leaving in it only the coarseness that is equal to the screen of the Peh of the Rosh, its form was equalized with the screen of the Rosh. Thus, it was incorporated and became literally one with it, since there was nothing to divide them into two. This is considered that the screen of the Guf rose to the Peh of the Rosh.

Since the screen of the Guf was incorporated in the screen of the Rosh, it was incorporated once again in the coupling by striking in the screen of the Peh of the Rosh and a new coupling by striking was made on it. Consequently, ten new Sefirot emerged in it at a new level called AB of AK or Partzuf Hochma of AK. This is considered “a son” and a consequence of the first Partzuf of AK.