Who Will Help Us Rise Above The Ego?

Question: During the process of spiritual work, I reach a state where I am not able to rise above my ego, and that causes tension in me, anger. Is it within a person’s power to rise above the ego, or can he only request it?

Answer: A person can never rise above his ego by himself. He can only request this from the Creator.

You can fight against all kinds of corporeal habits, for example, to stop smoking, to go on a diet, etc., thereby replacing one ego with another, which is more beneficial for you.

But it is not in your power to rise above it, since the ego itself has no such means. For this, one needs to bring forth the upper Light, which is the ego’s opposite attribute, the attribute of bestowal, which will implement this action.

After rising to the new level, you will level off, establish yourself, see, learn what is done on this level by the new force, and then fall again, but this time even lower, to a darker space, to terrible confusion, in both feelings and in consciousness.

Sometimes you feel yourself as drunk, and sometimes as lost, without will power, completely helpless, and sometimes all of these together. It will seem to you that the problems pile up on you from all sides, that life is dark, and that there is no brightness in front of you.

All of this happens so that you will organize the correct connection with the group, the correct surroundings that will support you, and with each moment it says to you that you must turn to the Creator

You need to see it according to your friends who must show this to you. If any of the friends don’t show that he is turning to the Creator, yearning for Him,  and that the most important thing for him is the importance of the goal, you must show him, since we are influenced by the group, from the group’s yearnings. You need to play, act for the friends, showing that you have a real yearning for going forward. Within you, you may be “dead,” that doesn’t matter, but on the outside, you need to play for the sake of saving the friends. If you do this, then you won’t have descents.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 6

There Is No Multiplicity Of Lights

Question: It says that the Light of The Zohar is the strongest Light. But we keep saying that we have to draw the Light that Reforms. So what do we do during The Zohar lesson, add the Light that Reforms to the Light of The Zohar?

Answer: They are one and the same. The Light is one. There is no multiplicity of Lights; there is a simple Light, which means that it includes everything in it. It is simple because it has one attribute, one inclination, one goal, only to do good.

Because the created being exists in many different forms, it seems that there are many different actions on the part of the Light and that the Light has many sources, thousands of Lights.

I go through many states, and so it seems to me that there are many Lights that influence me and that every Light comes from its own source: This one is good and that one isn’t so good; one is more merciful, and the other is more severe, and so in thousands of shades. Therefore, the world seems so varied to me, as if I am influenced by endless external factors. I simply don’t discover that there is one source behind them, as if there is a multiplicity of Gods, or at least o two, a good one and a bad one. Only when we reach the highest level, do we see that it is all one unique force.

This is the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and all other beliefs, religions, and different doctrines that bow to different false sources. They too see one source that is split into several sources, as Baal HaSulam explains in the article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy” and “The Peace“. But all this stems from the fact that people don’t discover the real, ultimate, uppermost cause, but rather discover different intermediate forms on the way that are intentionally aimed at stabilizing us. This is why different Lights come to us in different states and we are confused, as if there are many reasons, but behind them we can identify one source. If you advance correctly by the wisdom of Kabbalah, then the moment you start, you begin to identify that there is none else besides Him, and you just discover Him more and more.

This is why Kabbalists say from the start that “the Lord is our God, the Lord is one,” and this should be our way.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/12, The Zohar

A New King In Egypt Is A Good Thing

Question: How do we build a student’s readiness to perceive thewisdom of Kabbalah in the group?

Answer: Through the connection. A person cannot be ready to perceive if he is not connected to the friends. They have to unite by raising the teacher’s greatness in their eyes, thus building the right connection. Someone small can only receive from someone great, from the group, from the teacher, from the Creator, if he lowers his head before them. This is the path up the spiritual ladder.

When the students connect, they create the necessary condition, and become one whole. It is a sign that each one has annulled himself before the others, and considers himself the smallest in the group, ready to bestow upon others. Being connected means to keep all the society’s conditions.

We begin to connect, and after many years go through the hardening of the heart, which is also called “the ten plagues of Egypt.” First we may think, why don’t the plagues begin immediately when they arrive in Egypt? But it isn’t so; first it is nice and pleasant to connect, just like it was nice and pleasant for the children of Israel when they settled in Egypt and received all their nourishment through Joseph who connected everyone toYesod.

Joseph is Yesod that connects the five phases or the five senses: Hessed, Gevurah,Tifferet, Netzach, and Hod. Rabash used to give the example of a salad that is made of five ingredients: tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper, onion, and parsley. If you cut them all up and mix them, they will create something new, which is the result of the connection between them. It is the same with Yesod; it has nothing of its own, but it is the outcome of the connection, of their attributes. Through it, the children of Israel acquire thickness in Egypt and an increasingly greater desire, but in the meantime, during the “seven years of satiety,” this thickness operates in favor of the connection between them.

It was at the beginning of the exile in Egypt that the sons of Jacob together with Joseph sang “How good and pleasant it is when brothers sit together.” They felt that it is worthwhile to connect since together they succeed; together they are strong. Thus Egypt enslaves us by an egoistic connection.

This is the process until such a great thickness is revealed that it is impossible to do anything with it. Then Moses escapes from Egypt to the desert. He simply couldn’t be together with his ego. During the “seven years of hunger,” we discover that this enslavement, the adhesion to the corporeal values, is not in our favor, but the opposite, it detaches us from the goal. Suddenly I begin to understand where I am and what is happening to me. I look at my “animal” desire that has grown into a giant heavy body, and I see that this “animal” is no longer mine, that I am under its control, under it.

This is called “a new king rose in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph.” It is a good thing, since he shows us the truth, our true state compared to the Creator, and thus he brings us closer to our Father in Heaven.

Then, at the end, there are the ten plagues: We hold on to our unity and these plagues hit us in order to break us apart; they are all aimed against the connection.

If I am ready to rise above the ego, to beat the king of Egypt, I rise above these plagues in order to remain connected and united. It is more important for me than Pharaoh’s afflictions. On the background of the plagues, I ask the Creator to keep us connected since without this connection, we will not be able to leave Egypt; this is all our work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Equality In The Group

Question: In each group, there are friends who are more motivated and some that are less motivated. Should the stronger friends initially organize by themselves so that others become attracted to them and do not fall under the influence of those who skip workshops, etc.?

Answer: Everyone in the group must be equal. Everyone has times when he is moving forward more purposefully and times when he is moving less so. Being in a permanent system, a person is equal to all others, even if it takes several years before he begins to understand where he is and begins to participate in the events, to understand the studied material a little. This happens in different people in different ways, but in any case, it should not affect the general movement forward.

On the contrary, you should spare a person. Does he come, participate, study? He could be rough, may not understand the need to participate in all the events because this feeling has not been yet been revealed in him. He is told, but he does not hear, he turns a deaf ear. You need to wait. The most important thing is that he does not cause harm, then everything is fine. If he is harmful, then you may think about dismissing him.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 6

We Shouldn’t Walk Blindly In The Dark

Question: Why can studying the Torah incorrectly be harmful, and even “the potion of death?”

Answer: The incorrect study of the Torah is the wrong use of the system that was designed to perform a gradual correction of the desire to receive. Instead, It draws the part that is meant to be corrected away from correction. Thus, it prolongs the way and fills it with sufferings, which brings the Creator, who loves us, a great deal of sorrow. Thus, this path is undesirable.

From the point of view of a person’s ego, this path is also undesirable since it brings about sufferings. But if we speak about the form of bestowal and value it with regard to the Creator, we have to see how much He suffers.

If we didn’t participate in the system of correction, but were corrected by it unconsciously, instinctively, like the still, vegetative, and animate nature, then there would not be reward and punishment for us. The system wouldn’t change with regard to us, but would push us in one direction by its rigid, absolute laws, like a train moving on a track.

But because a person is on a level that he himself participates in this process, he has to become more sensitive to the influence of the system on him. So he learns to understand this system and grows feelings towards it, which means towards the Creator who is on the other side of the system. “From Your actions we shall know You” and we connect to Him.

It is impossible to attain any discernment this way, not even the smallest one, if you don’t go incorrectly at first. The point is only that a person should constantly try incorrectly only in potential but not in practice.

It is said: “There isn’t a righteous in the land who did good and didn’t sin.” So the mistakes have already been prepared for me every step of the way, and I must sin. But I prepare myself, try, and am careful and afraid to sin, which means that I am afraid to break away from the feeling of “there is none else besides Him” who is “the good and the benevolent.” I am afraid that I will stop yearning for love and bestowal, that I won’t be able to rise above my desires, above my instinctive thoughts, which means above my animate level.

I need self-clarification, self-recognition; I constantly ride my donkey (hamor), my egoistic desire (homer) (which has the same root in Hebrew), and I compare what I feel and what the donkey thinks to what I would like to feel and how I would like to think. Thus I discover my donkey together with the human in me.

“God shall save man and beast,” and thus I advance. My mistakes bring me to my successes and help me advance. My mistakes and successes are revealed in me as the left and right lines. In this case, they are both legitimate and they complement one another correctly, since without mistakes, I wouldn’t discover new discernments and wouldn’t understand where I am.

I have to sin and to do Mitzvot (commandments), since there cannot be one without the other; everything begins from the recognition of evil. But it could be better if I discovered this evil in the Light. The Light comes and helps me see the dark, and not the darkness revealed first when I don’t understand that it is darkness and by a long path of suffering advance towards the Light.

This is why Kabbalists and the Torah give us advice as to how we should prepare ourselves for the right revelation of the sins, for the revelation of evil.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Egypt and Pharaoh’s vessels

Pharaoh will remain in Egypt. We need to escape from Egypt and Pharaoh’s vessels. We do not work with the desire to enjoy itself, but we fight against it. It puts on the brakes or even shifts into reverse, but we want to break out from it, ahead of it to carry out the work of the Creator outside the borders of Egypt.

The battle that we fight during all the ten plagues of Egypt creates our vessel. I work above the desire to enjoy, which holds back the point in the heart, and this battle is called: “I labored and I found.”

My attempts to get away from egoism create the derivative, which is my new vessel. The same will be repeated on the next degree: Every time I build a more flawless, accurate, and finer vessel. After all, the desire to enjoy is the same, but my job becomes more refined and more precise, aimed at more internal clarifications. That is why, each time, a new vessel is created, more selective and of higher quality.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Seeing The Environment Through Eyes Of Love

Baal HaSulam, “Letter 50”: “The head of the pleasant future that is expected, God willing, is approaching us. And so I yearn and long for your being near me in your body and soul. (which means that you will come near me and not that I will come near you, which is impossible and also useless).

How sorry I am that last Tishrei, was a great time of good will, but you were not near me at the time…so the sorrow that I felt all of last year because of that goes without saying. The reason for that is pride that crept into you, and to the same extent, the unfounded hatred among you… clearly that if you hate a member of the group, it is a clear sign that you don’t feel absolute love towards me either.

These words were written according to the law of love, the law of adhesion, like in a family where there are not small ones or great ones, but rather, the law of love ties everyone together and is equal for everyone. So, each one should rise above his criticism, according to “He who faults another does so through his own flaws.” Through the eyes of love, no one will seem inferior to others. If you connect according to the law of love “above reason,” you will be able to connect equally with everyone correctly.

If there are some differences among the members of the group, it is a sign of a flaw.

There are good times and bad times, and there are comfortable times and less comfortable times. Although, on the one hand, Kabbalists are above time, motion, and place, and they go through different periods according to their individual time, the general periods also influence them. Therefore, there can be general good times and bad times.

There are times of general awakening from above or times in which it is easier to be awakened from below. So, we must try not to miss such opportunities that are given from above to connect the awakening from above to the awakening from below. Otherwise, it will seem like disrespect.

There are two directions in getting close: each member getting closer, without any discrimination, and every student getting closer to the teacher. Here, everything is examined according to our image, which is a result of our pride and to what extent we can advance in “faith above reason” and understand that it is the Creator who is sending us all these obstacles.

Everyone sees everything the way he is allowed to see it, and he never sees the truth, but by our exertion in “faith above reason,” we draw the Light that Reforms, and by that are rewarded to see the truth.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/12

The Congress Is Here And Now

Question: We are now preparing for the upcoming congress in the desert, the place of our future spiritual unification. Is it possible that we will become so much more united during our preparation that there will be no need for a physical place, no need to go to the desert?

Answer: The place of spiritual unity is the state of the congress. Whether it is held in a desert or a backyard is irrelevant.

At every given moment, as we prepare for the congress, we need to expect to reach theunity that we want to achieve at the congress, and that will be our preparation for it.

Then, the extent to which we are able to reach it before the congress will determine our preparation for it. Let´s say that I intend to reach unity at the congress with an effort of 10 lbs. That means that I need to attune myself to this now. Possibly during the preparation for the congress we will achieve a unity that is worth 100,000 tons of effort, then let it be realized now. That is the correct preparation.

Action should not be postponed. Everything is now. In essence, the preparation is in fact the same action that we carry out practically, unlike preparation in our world where we only prepare all that is necessary and then begin to work. By preparing the desire (Kli), I work on the whole realization, and then it is formed.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/12, The Zohar

I Want To Be Happy, But I Keep Forgetting About It.

Question: In the popular book The Secret, author Rhonda Byrne outlined the methodology: The universe is joy and bliss, and in order to be acceptable to it, we have to be joyful and happy. We have to ask the universe to give us everything we want and behave “as if” we have already have it and are very happy about it.

Answer: It’s good comforting advice. Kozma Prutkov used to say: “If you want to be happy—be happy.” By the way, it’s very true.

As children, we imagine ourselves playing in our next developmental step; if we do so, then we are being pulled up to it. The question is: How do we envision our next phase? Is it a step of bestowal, love, and connection with the rest of the world? Is it about liaisons with everybody who are a part of one indivisible, integral whole? Or it is a stage of receiving overall energy, universal love, and mutual understanding? If we visualize our next step for the sake of uniting with and bestowing to others, then imagining this state is very beneficial for us.

Comment: The authors of The Secret do not explain this. They know nothing about it. So the people who try to live up to the advice given in the book complain that they constantly forget that they are happy, and they frequently become upset about minor things.

Answer: This happens because they don’t have a methodology, and they do not participate in group trainings.

If they had the correct group training, then they would naturally move in the right direction, not because of the guidance that is detailed in the book, but due to the correct training. Visualizing ourselves as happy through bestowal and love, by building a system of mutual connection among everybody is actually the correction of egoism.

Even if the authors of the book created groups that I just described, they wouldn’t be able to provide pertinent guidance to them since they have never experienced the sensation of the upper space, the next dimension, the level that is called “Man.” They simply won’t be able to direct these groups; they don’t know how to work with them. All they would do is provide them with a psychological practicum, nothing more.

Comment: They are trying to talk about absolute, unselfish love without having any idea of what that is.

Answer: They can copy us as much as they want. They are only helping us by gradually preparing people and setting up various types of analyses that will eventually facilitate people’s understanding of our methodology.

I wish them luck. Why not? They somehow “evoke” people to search for a way out of their animate state; at least they lead them somewhere. I don’t think that anything that occurs in the world is wrong. All that exists is a necessary step for something else…
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 11/3/12

In The Home Stretch

We are definitely approaching the home stretch before the end of the preparation period, and I say this with pride. It is not easy, and of course, it is not us but the upper force that affects us, doing all these “exercises” with us and leading us to the finish. He who is worthy, will pass it, and he who is not worthy… Only by all of us adhering together, will we be able to pass.

Everyone passes the Machsom: “babies,” “children,” “elderly,” “women,” as well as those who have the force to overcome (Gevurah), men (Gvarim). It all depends on adhesion: how much everyone is able to stay together with everyone. I hope very much that we will accomplish this.

A special year awaits us. I think that we are given it as “extra time.” In the past we did not have time to finish a few things, and we have to correct them now. It seems to me that we really can do this. We can try to make the last steps to convince ourselves finally that everything depends only on our unity. May it develop and become realized.

I urge everyone not to lose the moment; do not let the “wheel” continue spinning, catch it and realize what we are responsible for. This is truly a unique opportunity.

After all, we are cared for with unprecedented, unlimited, boundless mercy: “If you couldn’t do it once, then try again and again…” The upper management operates kindly; the current period is far from extreme: There is no deprivation, no war; everything seems not so serious. We sometimes teach small children in this way, enough to threaten them a little bit, to make them pay attention to what is required. Our modern attitude cannot be compared to the Holocaust, expulsions from various countries, murders, “pogroms,” etc. In front of us a “red carpet is rolled out,” do a little bit, and that will be enough.

I hope very much that you will understand this, and we do not cause the attitude from above to change, that we are considerate, receptive, and sensitive to what is happening, that we are “good children” and understand how the Creator treats us. Hence, we will understand what to do, and will do it.

We are going through a special transition period that covers the whole world. Today, everywhere there is a feeling of uncertainty, helplessness, and confusion. Just imagine what those who “have power” feel: impotence, fog, and confusion. No one understands what is happening; no one has any real plans or ideas.

We must become organized between us, just inside for the time being, not trying to shout to the world. The main thing now is to unite our inner strength, unite before The Flame in the Desert Convention. Then, our sparks will break out into a big fire and light the entire “desert” of this world.

We can do this. This is our mission; we are directed from above. We are required to do only a small effort, and then of course we can bring the Light to the desert. Good Luck!
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From a Talk During the Meal 12/21/12

Where Does The Unifying Force Come From?

We need to understand that if a person, as the highest creation of nature, strives toward unity and integrality despite being unable to achieve it, then through it, he evokes the integrality of nature, which works for him. We see it in different systems, various objects, even with regard to the way we grow.

We see how a child develops. He makes instinctive attempts to become a grownup, to succeed at something. He is always in a state of tension. Why are these attempts successful? Why do they make an adult out of him? Why, as a result of numerous efforts, does he learn, grow, comprehend, and develop? It is because with his desire, he evokes upon himself the force of nature, which develops him.

The very same nature, which develops us and which gradually created the vegetative, animate, and later human levels out of the still, responds to our efforts and our labors. If we’ll strive towards integrating with it, towards integrating with each other, then eventually we’ll discover within us the manifestation of the overall general force. That is, by striving for unity we evoke upon ourselves that unifying force which already exists in nature.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World” 11/27/12

A Crimson Sphere Will Light Up The World

Question: How are the right amount and the right quality of theexertion determined?

Answer: Now our efforts should be aimed at trying to see that everything is fulfilled and revealed within the connection among us, in the center of the group.

A person should feel this center of the general connection as an actual reality. After all, it is our first spiritual level. We should try to imagine this connection as hard as we can, in the form of a “crimson sphere,” or as some kind of a collective plate—as a place where all our hopes and expectations should be fulfilled.

It should become the most important and precious place in all of reality. Later we will discover that it is really the most important place, and that everything else are only meaningless results of what we discover in the center of our connection. What will happen in this center at any given moment will bring about an effect that will spread in every direction and influence the whole world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

In An Environment Of Different Forces

Question: How can we increase the feeling of mutual dependence in the group?

Answer: This also depends on the environment. If the environment convinces me that I depend on it, then I will be convinced. If it doesn’t convince me, I will not be convinced. There has to a massive impact upon a person in order to convince him that by himself he means nothing and will not be able to do anything, that the spiritual path is possible only by incorporating in others, only through connection.

We have to think about this daily, for many hours—that the spiritual feeling is only possible in a whole vessel. We know that there was the shattering of the worlds. The same matter that we feel now doesn’t actually exist; it is imaginary. Even modern physics has already reached this conclusion. There is only a desire, which means a force, and we have to discover this force as one as it was created by the Creator.

We have to aspire to discover it as one whole, by imagining it not in the form of corporeal bodies, but in the form of desires, forces, one collective general desire to enjoy. It doesn’t matter that this force is revealed to us in different manners and that they are constantly changing. These are all desires to enjoy that must be connected. The moment we connect them, we immediately receive a filling.

The connection is only possible through concessions, by “the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph)” of our ego, and after our self-annulment there should be a connection, which is already incorporating in others, an action that is opposite to the shattering, bestowal.

I have to receive from someone in order to bestow upon him.

We use words from this world to describe the connection, but in fact these are Kabbalistic terms that refer to the correction of the desires. Don’t look at people, at the corporeal bodies around you. It is space that is full of separate forces that have to find a way to connect. The connection between them already exists; they only need to reveal it!

By discovering this connection, they discover their inclination, which is considered their exertion: “I labored and I found.” But if you don’t discover this connection, it remains concealed from you. Everything that the Creator has created is concealed from us. He is waiting for us to discover this reality by ourselves, by our exertion, which means willingly.

The Creator created the initial desire and developed it to a whole reality. But then He concealed this reality and left you only a point. Now you need to develop a desire inside you by working with the group and to discover the reality that was created by the Creator. It turns out that it is as if you are creating it yourself, by the desire that you receive from the environment.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

The Creator As The Common Denominator

Question: We need to connect in an inner form, in our desires. But how can I approach the desire of the friend?

Answer: For you, your inclination to the Creator is enough. Only with this inclination, without trying to dig deeper, do you connect. Both of you do not understand this desire that the Creator “planted” in each of you. But precisely this desire in the friend, and only it, is important for you. This is a subtle inclination from the refinement of the soul. You love the friend’s spiritual spark, his inclination to the Creator. His character and his customs are not important to you; it is only the Creator who connects you, because “in Him our heart will rejoice.” It is in Him. You want to meet in the Creator.

The other desires are connected in a different way; they remain in you and simply are searching for fulfillment together. But practically this is not unity with the other, but it is taking advantage of the other.

And we on the other hand, do not connect only between us. Light comes to us that bestows upon our desires, connects us, and dwells in us, in our connection. And then all of us together are glad that we gave the Creator the possibility and the ability to be revealed.

Therefore, for you, it is enough for you to have the inclination for the truth, for the Creator, for the goal. You yourself still do not know where you are going to, but the yearning exists already, and you need to always raise and care for it. How? By connecting with the friends. As a result of it, enough yearning will appear in you that the Light will correct you, will connect to a big single desire that in it you will reveal the Creator and will rejoice in it.

From day to day it will be clearer to you how to use all kinds of means in order to prepare yourself for the new state. You will not succeed in understanding it in advance, and you don’t need to demand understanding but the force of bestowal in “above reason.” Precisely by this yearning for bestowal above reason,” the knowledge will be revealed you and you will know.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Rabash

The Teacher Cannot Do The Work Of The Student

In reality there are no separate, cut off parts; everything is one,but we can only perceive a few parts. Every single element is due to its environment; receiving powers and support from those around him, he can express himself in relation to others. Eventually, the environment gives us the power to connect.

Each separate part has to accept all the other parts as one body; all of reality as one system. It’s because there is a law: “Israel, the Torah and Creator are one.” Without the Creator, I cannot perceive the whole reality as one.

After all, if there is a Creator, then this reality has a single root that connects everything to one whole, except for me. So if I feel this one root, I perceive all of reality as one, except for myself.

To the extent that I want to connect to this reality, I can receive through it forces from the Creator and connect to Him. Everyone in this reality has one goal and the same opportunities. It all depends only on how one uses them.

A person has to go through all the stages and can’t be awakened more than he has given to the society as a result of his exertion to connect to it; otherwise, he hasn’t earned this awakening and it isn’t his.

It’s the same with our study and with what the teacher can tell a student. It all depends on the student’s vessel. Otherwise it turns out that the teacher denies the student of his freewill and steals his chance to exert himself. This is forbidden. Otherwise it’s like a merciful mother who does the homework instead of her child. Is this in his benefit? After all, he will grow up to be ignorant.

In the spiritual work we can’t use such lies, since any reward is given only for a person’s exertion: “The reward is according to one’s sorrow,” meaning the reward is according to one’s exertion. The vessel itself brings the Light out of its concealment and reveals it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Turning To The Group Is Turning To The Light

Question: How can we perform changes in the group together, so that we can advance?

Answer: We are committed to kindle the awareness of the greatness of the Creator in the friends throughout the day, just like the “burning bush” that is on fire, but doesn’t burn. About that, everyone must think and worry. Even if you succeed to hold on to this worry a few minutes more than the previous day, it’s already a meaningful addition. Don’t underestimate the small exertions, the “pennies” that add up to a big account. These are the additions that count.

Suppose that now when you are impressed, you decide whole-heartedly to advance towards the Creator’s greatness, even though your thoughts throughout the day about what’s important depend on the Creator and on the group, by this you already obligate the friends to encourage you to this: “I am asking you, evoke me as much as you can, ceaselessly, so that the deficiency for the Creator’s greatness will grow in me.”

And you should ask the same thing from Him. It’s only by that, through the group, that you can awaken yourself. Establish this inner demand during the lesson and by that create a deficiency inside you. It seems that the friends will help you only after you turn to them, but in fact your request from the group is your deficiency contrasted to the Light. Everything else was created as an “illusion.” The Creator is concealed in the group and is revealed there, but actually this is all your desire you work with all the time. The group is also inside you, although it may seem that it’s external. You evoke the friends in order to bring the external illusion closer to you, by becoming one vessel in which the Creator is revealed.

Question: So whom am I asking for help?

Answer: The society, since you can’t say that it is you yet. But imagine that “the society is the vessels, my desires, my part, which is separated, cut off from me.” There will come a time when you will demand that the Creator give it back to you, as it says: “It is my brothers I am looking for.”

So we have to make increasing daily efforts that should be felt more strongly and more clearly. You don’t know what stages you still have to go through, but you are advancing, until you feel that this whole vessel is yours, that the friends’ desires are your essence, that it is all internal. When you cease to see the friends on the outside, you will begin to feel them inside you, like a mother who feels her baby, even though he has grown.
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From the 4^th Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Growing Interdependence

Question: Let’s say the Creator draws a picture for us of someone incapable of coping with a disease or getting out of some bad state. Is it a manifestation of the group’s weakness? How do we react to these situations?

Answer: We cannot say that it is a consequence of a group’s work. We are tied to the whole world.

The group we are currently in is not a small number of people who used to study a thousand years ago when the world was “sealed” and developed egoistically. For example, the groups of ARI, Ramchal, Rabbi Shimon, or Rabbi Akiva were detached from the rest of the world.

The world, its so-called Babylonian part, has been developing egoistically, whereas Kabbalistic groups advanced independently. They used to discuss within the group only what really pertained to their group.

Today, the world advances in general; it has become global. Now, we move forward not because we deserve it or don’t deserve it, but rather, because we have to move ahead for the sake of correcting the entire world. So, we cannot say that somebody fell or was elevated as a result of the internal group work within one particular group or any other groups; we all are closely interconnected. Today, these problems cannot be resolved this way.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

The Purpose Of Life Is Spiritual Self-Realization

Question: By studying Kabbalah, we turn from the “nations of the world” to the “people of Israel.” If I understand correctly, in reaching spiritual attainment do we obtain greater suffering than the “nations of the world?” Or do we understand the cause and effect relationship?

Answer: I have many friends from school, university, with whom I sometimes keep in touch. They are developed, normal people, but they don’t understand me. In any case, I don’t neglect anyone of them; I appreciate and love them, but we are just different people.

So, we can’t evaluate ourselves relative to others. It’s easier for someone and more difficult for someone else; everyone has his own destiny. The only thing that a person should do is to realize himself as he is.

You shouldn’t envy anyone, saying, he is lucky, look how rich he is, and this one is a slacker, but everything is easier for him; the third one was born “with a silver spoon in his mouth.” It will not help. This suggests that you just don’t know how to realize yourself. One has to learn!

Take your truest, deepest desire, longing, and start being yourself. You will see that this is the best that can be. It’s unlikely that you will be happy if you change places with someone. Only by realizing yourself, by becoming similar to the Creator, will you be completely fulfilled.

As to moving forward, the more a person advances, the greater emptiness emerges in him. But these voids become filled with insight, a sense of eternity, perfection, eternal life, a sense of Infinity. A person sees the universe from end to end.

An average person in this world, for example, a shepherd walks with cows in the meadow, whistling, feeling good, alive and well, with no worries in his head. Can we envy him? Yes, of course. But envy what and up to what point? After all, there comes a state when he will have carried out his program.

So, don’t think about suffering. Realize yourself! Otherwise, it turns out that you curse the Creator for having created you. What could be worse than that? So, let’s be grateful!
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

No Pay Is My Pay

If we embark on the spiritual path, we must exert effort in order to make each next step. On the other hand, the greater part of mankind will obtain the spiritual world “in a single step” so to speak, and we are the ones who will provide this step: by our sweat and hard work.

What do we get out of this? At best, satisfaction with the work done, or simply nothing. This is what it means to be a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation”: This is exactly what the Torah calls the ones who carry out this mission.

In other words, everything we do, we do in bestowal, which is “holiness.” We work hard seven days a week; we face ungratefulness and resistance, and in the end, everyone, all at one time, will receive, that which cost us so much, and it’s in them where the greatest Light will unfold.

Question: But how? One percent gives all their soul to it, crosses the Machsom, reforms itself to bestow, and, all of a sudden, the rest of the 99 percent, in one easy move, collects the entire revenue?

Answer: Our pleasure, above all, is to delight the Creator so that He won’t know about us. That’s what it means to really bestow without wanting a reward: I bring Him pleasure and He doesn’t know who His secret admirer is. He thinks it came from somebody else. Otherwise, if both of us, the Creator and I, know that the delight is coming from me, it’s a payment, and there is no greater payment than that.

Question: Why did the Creator handpick us to bestow from the whole of mankind?

Answer: There are souls who feel that they are supposed to become realized in the most advanced form as compared to the rest of mankind. Their progress is tied to the vital need to find the Creator, the mystery of life, the general system of all creation, the grid that links all in one. This idea, this desire, takes a hold of them and doesn’t let them go.

Question: Why, then, do we receive troubles and problems on the spiritual path?

Answer: You seek justice? There is such, but it is not what you think it is. Justice lies in my gratitude to the Creator for this hard work, for the chance to bring Him delight that I won’t even know about and that He won’t know comes from me. This is the true, pure bestowal.

Question: However, the other 99% eventually will overtake us on this path!

Answer: That’s true; and I thank the Creator for this special role He assigned to me. I have accomplished selflessly, and this is my reward. I reached a state where lack of payment is my pay, and this is what fulfills me, and it is called the Light of mercy, the Light of Hassadim.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/12, “The Peace”

Seeing The Creator Behind The Friend

Question: Why do I discover new things about the world when I correct my attitude to others and love them?

Answer: It is always about your desire. There are only the vessel and the Light—the desire and what happens in it. The whole point is how I treat you, the “outsider,” from within my desire.

In other words, there is an image of a stranger in me, and I have to correct my desire with respect to that image, to turn my desire around, and accordingly, to discover a new state.

I never exit myself. I only need to change myself, my bad attitude, my hatred, and turn it to love. Then I will discover the spiritual world in my relationship with you.

One way or the other, everything happens inside. We are facing a huge world, but everyone understands that this picture is depicted in us. Baal HaSulam writes about it in “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

But where does the image in me come from? It is a result of the Creator’s action. Every level in nature—the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking—all the levels of the development of the desire from the “root” phase until “phase four,” lead me to the Creator, to attaining the upper force.

This means that everything that I feel on the outside is the Creator. Therefore Rabash says that we should see the Creator in the friend, or at least behind a friend.

So the external image in my perception is the spark, the particle of Light, the Creator. Thus, thanks to the shattering of the vessels, I suddenly discover the others, the strangers outside myself. A “dipole” is revealed in me: I and someone else. This someone fills the place of the Creator for the time being, so that I can exercise self-improvement with him; but in fact, there is nothing but a person and the Creator.

So we should understand that in our corrections in the circle of friends, we help improve the whole world. Here we can understand what Baal HaSulam says at the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“: If Israel correct themselves, the Light pours from them to the rest of reality; we don’t need anything else. It is enough for us to correct ourselves.

So my friend is not a friend but the Creator, who has inserted this image into me on the background of all the other levels of reality. On the fourth phase of the development, the created being feels shame before the Creator, and it is exactly for this reason that I hate the friend that I see before me. This is the result of that shame.

Let’s go back to what a person learns during the correction.

Without this information it is simply impossible to manage. Since how can he increase his love? Every level is made of feelings and mind—it is impossible to advance only by one of them. After all, the pleasure is only in attaining the Creator’s actions.

He wants us to discover Him as good and benevolent. In order to do that, you have to know how He does it: by what wisdom, in what way, with what concern. The wisdom is essential here, and it has to be deep wisdom, as if you are dressed in the Creator.

In our world you will not understand parents until you actually grow up and become a father. It is the same in spirituality, the adhesion is necessary, since without it you will not understand the Creator: who He is and what He is. Love comes as a result of this.

Unless you attain the Creator, you will not be able to love Him. As adults, we remember different events from our childhood, what our parents did, what they taught us, how they sacrificed themselves for us, and we begin to understand them, and to love them much more than in our childhood. It is the same with the Creator.
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From the 4^th Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

The Future Society Is Born Between Us

While reading The Book of Zohar we must remember that it is only about the connection between us. It all depends on the relationship between the friends, and in this relationship spirituality is revealed. The forms of the connection between us depict the picture of reality, since now too you see these forms of connection.

In any case, you perceive the world according to your Reshimot (reminiscences), and this is where the picture of the world that you imagine stems from. There is no world outside you; there is only what you imagine inside you.

Now you are among people in this world; you were born and developed in our time, but your worldview is also built by your being connected with the whole world. A boy left in the woods who has never seen human beings perceives the world according to theReshimot in the form of a forest, animals, and other forms of nature since he doesn’t perceive his environment on the human level, but on lower levels, still, vegetative, animate nature.

You, however, perceive reality also on the level of speaking. But in the relations between all these parts of nature: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature, you discover your reality.

All of reality, the whole world, is what is revealed between the shattered parts of the creation. This is why we say that the perception of reality is subjective. If I don’t exist, then there is no world and there is nothing to speak about; Baal HaSulam writes about this in the “Preface to The Book of Zohar.”

So if we want to reach more advanced forms of perception, we have to evoke more advanced forms of connection between us. No wonder that this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah requires: You should develop more advanced and complex connection with others and in them you will discover a higher reality, which is more advanced and more internal. Everything depends only on the levels of the connection.

Now comes the time when all the connections between us are destroyed and we actually see that, and the world obligates us to form new connections. The world doesn’t know yet what types of connection they should be. As we have already heard about it, we have to start fulfilling them. This is what awaits us. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about: Leave all your imaginary dealings and start dealing with building the correct future society.

Then according to the connection between you, which you want to establish, you will receive help from above, from nature’s forces. The integral nature that is being revealed now will help you, it will influence you, and you will feel to what extent you are adapted to its general advancement, and you will succeed. We can say that nature is the Creator, but it doesn’t matter since it is about laws.

So where can you change anything in order to hasten your development? Now for the first time in history you can hasten the development of humanity. Before you were always dependent on forces that moved you forward. Internally new connections between people were revealed and new social structures appeared: instead of the tribe, there came along the era of slavery, and then the Middle Ages, then capitalism, and now we are advancing towards communism. These are the five social structures.

But what has advanced humanity? It was all about the changes in social structure, the new connection that appeared between people. But now, during the fifth and last era of our development, you cannot discover new connection naturally. You will discover them in a negative way, since you have to complete them. Here everything depends on your conscious advancement. You have to attain it, you have to adapt yourself to nature—this is the process we are in.

So we are actually creating a new social structure, hastening the process that all of humanity will have to go through. This is called being a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation,” setting an example and being the conductor. But we are building this in the group, between us, and it is all in the new connection.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/12, The Zohar