What Does It Mean To Unite With The Creator?

Question: What does it mean to unite with the Creator?

Answer: With the help of friends and study, due to the surrounding Light, I obtain the aspiration for the Creator, the desire to bestow upon Him, to be in bestowal, disconnected from myself so there is no longer my “I,” and I am entirely in this property of bestowal. Then, I discover that I become similar to Him because He is the very desire for bestowal, not a body, object, or entity.

Thus, the Creator begins to appear to me more and more as the property of bestowing force governing the Universe. And when I rise above myself and exit myself, I discover that in essence, I am a force, a desire, aspiration itself. And then I loose the feeling of my body, and I feel that there are only two mutual desires: His and mine.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/12, Shamati #16

Water The Field That Awaits The Rain

Question: Right now, before the congress in the desert and the beginning of a worldwide dissemination effort, what should our plea to the Creator be in order for it to be heard?

Answer: At the congress in the desert, we must feel the first degree of our connection and within it reveal our aspiration to bestow to the Creator so that this bestowal to Him would clarify the fact that only through our connection can we have a greater influence on Him.

Today we view the necessity to connect with friends and the opportunity to obtain a connection with the Creator through our connection with friends as two separate things. We perceive the connection with friends as book-learned, as though it’s a teaching for good children, where as connecting with the Creator is something everyone will agree too.

However, we don’t connect the two terms: One is a vessel and the other is the Light that fills it. The connection between us is the vessel and the Light that’s revealed in it is the Creator. Let’s hope that during this congress we’ll realize how inseparable these two conditions are.

This realization will leave an imprint that will allow us to advance correctly. After all, our work is left unfinished. We apply efforts, but each time they’re limited to a half or a quarter of the whole. But applying efforts to the full measure, even in relation to one gram, is greater than applying a partial effort measurable in kilograms or even tons.

After all, if there is not the full 10 Sefirot then you work and you scream, but it’s all in the wrong place! It is like it is said about the rainfall that goes to waste because it rains in an uninhabited desert. What difference does rain make if it falls into the sand? If at least 10% of that rain fell on your field, it would provide your livelihood!

The same thing happens with us. We cry out to the Creator, but we don’t do it through our connection, therefore these cries go unheard. We would already be in the world of Infinity with all of our work and screaming; however, we don’t cry out in the right way. We must fine-tune ourselves and then our cries will be heard.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

The Wonderful Metamorphosis Of A Notorious Egoist

Question: I am very interested in the new, corrected relationships between people that you describe. As a father, I am especially impressed by your examples of children and the difficult situations in schools. I would really love to live in this world as you have outlined. But at the same time, I am engulfed with doubts because it is written “the human heart is evil from birth.” And you want a person to suddenly become good. How is it that this notorious egoist undergoes such a metamorphosis?

Answer: A person will enjoy using his ego in its opposite form. He will see examples around him and do the same. In order to bring a person to use his egoism in a good way, we need support from society, meaning the influence of good and evil, that is, reward and punishment. We need to establish support for children so that they respect or don’t respect their parents according to these qualities.

We play with human egoism in various forms by organizing the environment around a person. There are a few levels in this environment because a human being is comprised of four levels, thereby requiring these same levels to be built in circles around him. A person should be influenced by his children so that he feels that his children evaluate him by how much he gives to society. A child’s opinion is very important to parents.

The next circle is neighbors, the third one is co-workers, and the fourth one is the nation; they all evaluate him according to the same principle. Such an environment should be built around a person, but unlike a prison from which he wants to escape, it takes into account our egoism because this is our nature.

We have to understand how much we gain by learning not to suppress our egoism, but to use it correctly. For example, if I can use my big egoism to earn a fortune for my children, everyone is happy. The problem is not in egoism: It can be of great benefit to everyone. The only question is how I use it. If a society obliges me to use it for the benefit of all, then I do accordingly. And if I am not successful, then I strive to correct this. It all depends on the social framework; a person is a product of his environment. That’s why we need to act without any pressure and violence.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 6, 1/3/12

The End Of The Thread

Question: The Kabbalists are telling me about the property of bestowal, but I don’t sense it. I don’t even have the end of the thread…

Answer: When you experience the need for bestowal you can understand what bestowal is like. Try to bestow to your friends and you will see that you don’t want it. From this you will understand what it would be like if you possessed the property of bestowal. Then you will start guessing what you lack.

The reasoning is as following. I want to achieve unity with my friends. They are united with one another while I am detached from them. Honestly I don’t want this unity, I am incapable of doing this, I keep forgetting about it. The sparkle of my desire dims. I can revive it only when I am with my friends, when I connect to them even because of shame.

I become closer to them, I work in the group and I begin to understand how much I need love. The sketches of my efforts gradually depict a picture of bestowal. I think about its benefits and this way I form a vessel, desire. Perhaps it’s still unreal and only preliminary. However, with every effort I draw the upper Light, which is built according to my desires. It is coming from perfection, from Eternity, to the very breakage, to this world. Perhaps like a child I play a guessing game, but the Light is doing its work. This makes it possible for me to move toward bestowal.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

The Environment’s Amazing Influence

Question: I understand that I must not suppress my egoism. It is like the fuel I will use to change and transform. But I do not understand which action will turn me, an egoist, into a part of the integrated society?

Answer: The influence of the environment and nothing else. The only positive thing there is in you is the fact that you submit to environmental influence. And this is why only the environment can control you, and nothing else.

When the environment gives you a direction, the value of and the importance of certain qualities, behaviors, etc., you are obligated to follow it. You cannot refuse it because fame, power, jealousy, shame, these huge forces that drive us, will still obligate you to listen to the environment.

Question: Let us assume that we are studying the course about the evolutionary development of egoism. Is this enough to begin to behave in an integral manner?

Answer: No! This is just knowledge. But we also need to unite everyone into a group and turn it into a society, which will have the proper influence on every one of its members.

For example, when we put children into certain conditions under the guidance of specialists and educators who behave the right way in relation to them, when we bring older children in and they become instructors for the younger children, we get amazing results. This is because the younger child enjoys listening to the older child and tries to become like him. This is natural among children. They do not take the example from us, but from other children, who are 2-3 years older than them.

This is why we need to use the only opportunity that exists: the environment and nothing else.

Question: I enter an environment where people are warm and attentive to one another. I also really want to become a part of this system. Is my desire enough to eventually become a part of this system?

Answer: Your desire is optional. It would be a bad thing if your desire were necessary, because this would mean that the method would not work.

If we take any person in the world and place him in the right environment, there is no doubt that he will change.

There are many examples especially in psychology. Bring any person to a nude beach. Let him try to avoid taking his clothes off… Shame will force him to undress!

This is why the environment is the only method of correction.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #7, 12/14/12

A Small Part Of An Enormous Mechanism

Question: What needs to change in me for me to become a properly operating cogwheel in a common mechanism?

Answer: A cogwheel supports the movement of the entire, cohesive mechanism instead of becoming a small useless wheel in it. Right now we spin in it against our will, this is why our lives are full of suffering. And if we were to spin with understanding, with a song in our hearts: What would happen then?

The fact is that when man connects correctly to the entire mechanism, since he affects it, gives it his thoughts, feelings, and his effort, he actually begins to spin this mechanism himself. He becomes like the Creator of this mechanism. He rises to the level of the upper force of nature, its design and its plan. And then a completely different level of existence, understanding, perception of eternity and perfection, which permeates all of nature on its higher level, appears in man. This is where we are going.

We are heading towards a state we cannot imagine. We cannot imagine what has been prepared for us. But this is the next stage, far from modern practical psychology.

Question: How can I become this good and proper cogwheel?

Answer: You first need to go through a certain number of classes, assimilate them, preferably in a group where people correspond to you in their development, mentality, etc.

Then, you can begin practical work through discussions and debates under the guidance of the instructors.

Then you need to create your environment, which will influence you and you will influence it. And in this way you will gradually build this system.

We must understand that mankind has gone through all the stages of its previous development in a gradual manner over hundreds of thousands of years, and this stage we can literally pass in one generation. We see the way everything develops today, how quickly it develops, because egoism has grown qualitatively, and there is high frequency of changes on its highest levels.

We have begun our talks with the idea that we have certain knowledge provided through a collection of lectures, through which you should receive certain knowledge, and then skills. And this in turn is followed by practice and their realization in life.

We cannot simply “throw” a person into the world; after all, we spend twenty years preparing an infant for life. We at least need to spend half a year working with a person so he could begin to realize himself.
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From “Lessons About the New World” #7, 12/14/12

The Wisdom Of All Wisdoms

Question: How can I convince myself about the urgency of spiritual work if we constantly lose the direction and strength on the way?

Answer: On the contrary, I must constantly worry for the correct direction and strength for the work. We only need to clarify these things according to the laws of creation, and this is what we learn.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a wisdom that includes all the wisdoms. It investigates the one general nature. But humanity, in the meantime, doesn’t understand that it exists in this global network. It exists in darkness and is immersed in complete unknowingness.

In order to clarify the surrounding world, humans divide it into separate parts and match them to the scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, etc. In this way we have “scratched out” nuggets of knowledge from the mountain of darkness we are in.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, explains each field in terms of one law. It doesn’t refute the general, traditional sciences. All the laws that we discovered with the help of traditional sciences belong only to a small area of our perception, in the egoistic desire, which is opposite to the nature of creation. Therefore, we must understand that inGmar Tikkun (the end of correction), when this desire disappears, we will find other laws that transcend time, movement, and space. There is another physics and chemistry; everything is different. This reality exists only temporarily, until we enter the real and wide perception of the world.

Our entire world exists only so that we will exit it and find independence. It gives us a base, a beginning point, central and independent, and disconnected from the Creator. It is farthest from the world of Infinity, the most deeply immersed in darkness, but it is specifically from this point that we begin our advancement.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

The Desire That Will Turn The Desert Green

Question: At the end of February, once again we are going to the Arava desert. How can we manage to not erase what we already achieved the first time?

Answer: This cycle is different from the previous one. You will see that the first time everything became realized suddenly, like in a naïve and unsophisticated child. We succeeded then, but this time the success is possible only after multiple problems, greater contemplation and fluctuations.

After all, each time the desire becomes more cunning and gives greater resistance. No matter how high you rise, your evil inclination rises above you. This is why we cannot repeat something that already happened.

The most important thing is to be involved in this, to prepare and to understand that we have to unite and there is no other choice. Otherwise, there is no use to even start. There is no need to go to the wilderness if we are not bringing a real desire. This desire appears in the broken heart.

In the desert, the one that wins and survives is the one who really sticks to the path. On one hand he is devastated, but on the other hand, he has the end of the thread. This thread is the unity with the friends. In the end, we are not exiting the desert, but rather it turns into the land of Israel flowing with milk and honey. We will receive all spiritual abundance right at the “spot” if we unite. Then the desert, which lies between us, will turn into the Promised Land, into the intention, the yearning for the Creator. There we will reveal Him.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/12, The Zohar

Who Is The Teacher For Me?

Question: At what stage should we introduce students who study through virtual courses of the Education Center to veteran students and the groups?

Answer: I don’t think it’s possible to restrict this connection in any way. In general, it’s best not to intervene; it should occur by itself. And certainly some of our experienced friends need to assist the teacher in working with new students, by giving lectures, answering their questions, and helping establish communications with them. However, the veterans need to be careful not to show themselves as “big” since by doing so they would undermine the image of the teacher in the eyes of the students and prevent them from the possibility of learning in the correct manner.

It is possible only to learn from a “great man.” Conversely, if you think he is small, then you are already the teacher and he is the student. Thus, it is very important that the assistants don’t stand out, but remain as assistants to the teacher and display a respect for the teacher. They will set an example for the students and will elevate respect for the teacher in their eyes, and this will help the students receive more from him.

After all, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, the material is comprehended according to the importance of the teacher. The more the student annuls himself before the teacher, thus he will be considered a better student. We are not talking here about knowledge that I comprehend with intelligence, but specifically about how I see myself as small in comparison to the teacher, or the teacher as great in comparison to myself. The greater the gap between us, the more abundance will descend on me. There is no measurement for abundance in itself. I define its intensity precisely according to the same greatness that I elevate the teacher in my eyes. This is very important. The assistants need to correctly build the relationship of the new students to the teacher. Success depends on this.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/12, Learning Kabbalah

When Will We Finally Exit Egypt?

The wisdom of Kabbalah only speaks of inner work, correction of the soul, revealing the Creator to the created, and all the images in its stories constitute different types of desire through which we view the world. The desire to bestow is called Israel, (Yashar-El, straight to the Creator). “Israel in exile” is the desire to bestow with an intention of self-benefit. “Nations of the world” are the egoistic desire to receive.

If the desire “Israel” is in exile, its intent becomes egoistic, meaning it becomes bestowal with the intent of “in order to receive.” Hence, Israel in exile can gain much greater benefit than the “Egyptians,” than the regular desires to receive. That is why it has been said that after the sons of Israel descended to Egypt, they multiplied, became rich, fattened, became important, and had plenty of onions, garlic, meat, and fish.

In other words, all desires received the filling they wanted. After all, they were working in bestowal in order to receive: They used the force of bestowal to benefit egoistically. And of course, they succeed more than “the nations of the world.” As it written, the nation of Israel mingled with the other nations, learned their ways, and achieved greater success because they know how to use bestowal even in order to receive.

That is why it is very difficult to exit the ego; it requires special work. A unique force is required to extract the egoistic desire to bestow from Egypt, the desire which is so advantageous to Pharaoh who can’t receive the same from his own people: the simple, egoistic will to receive.

Israel on the other hand, work for their own benefit, using the spiritual force to fill their corporeal desires. Surely, the ego doesn’t want to lose them; they become the primary means for receiving its fulfillment, which can’t be received from anything else. Nothing can provide such great fulfillment.

And so, how can Israel’s desires become disconnected from the ego? They have to undergo two corrections because they work in bestowal with the intention of in order to receive, not just the Egyptians (the desire to receive), rather the will to bestow, which learned from them, hence, it fell even lower than Egypt. Egypt doesn’t have the option of using the force of bestowal for egoistic fulfillment.

Everything begins from the moment the Egyptian king dies and those desires that worked in bestowal for self-benefit suddenly stopped feeling fulfillment in that way. There’s nothing to work for any more; our king died, disappeared! That means, I stop feeling why I’m studying and working. I don’t see the reward any longer. And then, “And Israel cried out from the work.”

At first, we knew the purpose of our work; we worked hard and gained egoistically. We were faithful slaves of the ego and wanted nothing beyond that. And now, all of a sudden, hard work begins without the clarity of knowing why. We don’t feel the purpose in egoistic bestowal: That is help arriving to us from Above. The development reaches a state in which we’re incapable of enjoying that, we cry out in desperation and then begin to search.

Indeed, if there’s nothing to enjoy, “This life is worse than death.” There’s no life, no sense of fulfillment. And if there’s no pleasure, a person is prepared to commit suicide, rather than feel the emptiness. Then the work of exiting Egypt begins, which lasts “many days.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/12, Shamati #159

Our Friend, Egoism

Question: When young people, a man and a woman, are making their plans for the future, they dream about the way they’re going to live. Could spouses discuss the ideal picture of an integral family in an integral education group so that everyone could contribute their own vision to it?

Answer: This is useful even today. When creating an image of an ideal family, we need to understand our egoistic nature and have a completely objective attitude towards it. If I can objectively open up to my group, to “dissect” myself before it, and in addition, the group could also explain to me from its point of view who I am and otherwise, then by understanding the viewpoints, habits, and motivations of one another, all the things given by nature and instilled in us, then we would attempt to rise above that into a completely new system of mutual relationships.

We wouldn’t try to break each other because we are creating something mutual: that which is comfortable and good for us. And all our negative inner egoistic impulses would conversely automatically transform into unification above them.

We begin to see that if this egoism of ours didn’t exist, then we wouldn’t have been able to enter into contact with each other. But thanks to the fact that we build this common superstructure above it, the egoism is actually our partner, friend, and helper, acting seemingly against us while in reality demonstrating that precisely through resistance to it, by turning it inside-out in our mutual relationships, we create a new family, a new anti-egoistic society.

Egoism plays a crucial role in this society because without it, we wouldn’t be able to achieve anything. It is the very fabric of nature, intentionally instilled in us. What differentiates a person from an animal? It is precisely the fact that year after year, generation after generation, egoism grows within man. By using egoism, except in the opposite direction, we create mutuality between us: instead of repelling us, we come closer, instead of rejection and hatred, there is love. Everything is contained in this.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #6, 12/14/11

Forward, Toward Concealment

Baal Hasulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“: Single concealment relates only to the concealment of the face, while the posterior is revealed to them…. Concealment within concealment means that even the posterior of the Creator is hidden from them, as they do not believe in reward and punishment.

Am I on one of these levels? No, in the meantime the Creator is absent from my picture. I don’t feel that He exists and I don’t feel that He doesn’t exist. I simply don’t feel anything. This means that it isn’t the level of concealment yet.

In the time of concealment, I don’t feel that there is someone and that he is concealed form me. This allows me to inquire: why and for what reason is he concealed? What is this concealment in itself? How can I remove it? Could it be that it is better if I conceal myself from Him so that He will start to reveal Himself? But I won’t conceal all of me from Him, only my desire to receive, my ego. If I conceal the part of the heart, which is controlled by self love, then perhaps I will be able to reveal the Creator and to connect to Him.

So the concealment is already the beginning of the work and the test: I find out under what conditions I can remove the concealment. It is about the preparation period for the action that will reveal the Creator to me. Now, however, we are preparing for the preparation.

Question: What is the benefit of this stage?

Answer: The advancement towards the state in which we feel that He is concealed.

So what should I do in order to discover His concealment? I have to understand who I want to reveal, who the Creator is. The Creator is the attribute of bestowal. That is, I have to discover that the attribute of bestowal is concealed from me. When I really want it, I will feel that it isn’t in me, and to achieve it I have to work with the friends in the group.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”