From A Point To The Creator

The Zohar tells us about the ways we connect, which create the vessel of perception. By our connection in different manners, we discover the Creator. The Creator has no form and no image. His form is the extent and the manner of our connection. If we connect, we acquire the attribute of the Creator, His form.

At first the Creator was revealed in the starting point of the creation—Malchut of Ein Sof(Infinity). There was no connection there but just a point, one desire. Then this desire developed under the influence of the Light and received all its attributes. But it was still one, until the oppositeness of the Light in all its opposite attributes appeared in it.

By connecting, we discover the forms of the Light, the forms of the Creator. Therefore, to be connected also means to be adhered to the Creator with the attribute of love and bestowal.

The way we connect is the form of the Creator we discover. The intensity of our connection is the level on which we discover the Creator. The Creator is revealed in the connection among us.

The desire remains the same desire that was created at first, as a specific desire. The Light shattered it into many separated desires. By connecting them we discover the Light 620 times stronger in quality than before: We discover the thought, the mind, the thought of creation.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12, The Zohar

The Letter And Spirit

Question: Baal HaSulam says in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155, that even if we don’t understand Kabbalistic texts, we draw the power of correction, the Surrounding Light, by reading it. So why don’t people who know these texts by heart ever reach attainment?

Answer: They don’t draw the power of correction because the Surrounding Light should turn into the Inner Light when you acquire a Masach (screen), which means the intention to bestow. The question is do you yearn to attain a Masach? Are you drawn to correction? Do you want to reveal the evil inclination? Are you ready to go through this although it is unpleasant? Do you see this as an obligation and a necessity? Do you invest all your energy in the society in order to be under the influence of the friends? Only then will they lift you from your desires and pull you out of this swamp.

When you hate someone you have to make an effort so that you will love him. It is as if he did you wrong and you rise above that although the feeling of hate remains, and you work only for love by wanting to give him more than you give to your own baby.

Do you do that and hold on to this inclination regarding these corrections? If so, you are drawing the Surrounding Light that operates on you and provides you with necessary attribute.

At the same time you are diverted from the path, and you are thwarted by more interruptions, but you still have to advance by subduing yourself before the friends and asking for their help. Thus you evoke the Surrounding Light upon you, yearning for that attribute—for bestowal and love—above hate and rejection. Even if you are absolutely right in all your claims regarding the friends, you still try to advance “above reason.”

As for those you are asking about, they deal with the wisdom and not with the Torah, not with the method of correction in which the Reforming Light is concealed. They read the texts without any connection with the evil inclination that will be revealed or that is already revealed. They don’t come to the lesson in order to correct themselves, and they don’t study the Torah, but wisdom. Therefore it says: “wisdom among the nations, believe.” The “nations” refers to those who don’t want to correct themselves. However, those who want to reach unity are called “Jews,” and this is the whole difference.

Abraham gave “gifts” to the children of the concubines, meaning intermediate methods. They studied for pleasure, received a slight illumination, but didn’t fulfill the correction and didn’t ascend the ladder of the spiritual degrees. Such people study the material by heart, discuss it, argue….

We don’t argue and don’t discuss anything, for us only the Reforming Light is important. It doesn’t matter how much a person knows, what’s important is to keep in contact with the text that brings him the power of correction.

Eventually, however, the correction is everyone’s share, and I don’t underestimate anyone. If a person opens Kabbalah books, even if he walks in the dark, he is still moving forward.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

One Life And Common Prayer For Everyone

The center of the group is the point in which we become free from all the fragments of the breaking and want to concentrate only on our sparks uniting them together. And the more we seek to unite these sparks, the higher we rise on the spiritual ladder.

Due to these efforts, we reveal a new depth of desire in us, and a greater Light is revealed in the unity of sparks. The connection of sparks is the “Reshimo de Hitlabshut,” and the depth of desire, above which we want to connect, is the “Reshimo de Aviut,” and thus we begin to connect in our first common spiritual Partzuf in which we will feel one soul.

The first time we will feel ourselves in the integral reality where we are all connected to each other, and inside it we will feel spiritual life—one for all. As it’s said: “There is none else besides the Creator,” one for everyone: one thought, one light, a unified system. We will feel ourselves living inside one upper force.

And then, we will begin to recognize it more and more, distinguish more features in it, different attitudes towards us relative to the size of Partzuf. But the very first point from which we have to begin is the point of our unity, called the center of the group. It consists of two elements: The first one is overcoming of our egoism, the Reshimo de Aviut, and the second one is our desire to unite through our sparks, which determines the Reshimo de Hitlabshut.

If I install them correctly relative to each other, it’s called faith above reason. It all comes down to one reality, to a single state. Faith is the connecting sparks, and knowledge is the force of the egoistic desire, above which we want to build our connection.

It doesn’t matter if we fail to reach the desired and connect in the center of the group. The main thing is how much effort we have put into it. The extent of efforts determines the successful state.

We will never achieve success directly through our actions, but only will attract the Light to ourselves, so that the Creator finishes this work for us! After all, “a prisoner cannot free himself from the jail;” everything happens due to the help from Above, through the prayer and the answer to it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

Towards The Center Of Life

Question: How can I check that I have returned to the center of the group during the workshop?

Answer: The center of the group is our only upper point, the upper desire, the place, where all our desires unite and wherever we look we see Divinity, the revelation of the Creator.

We will learn to check this in more “professional” ways in the future, according to the three parts of the existence of reality “world-year-soul,” according to the three lines. But as long as we cannot hold on to all these spiritual discernments, I check that I have reached the center of the group when I begin to discover that there is something outside my “I.”

It is as if I am under the influence of the force that is above me, which controls me, but only according to my desire, only if I let it control me! It doesn’t enslave me as often happens in other methods when a person is hypnotized like a “zombie” under their influence and cannot escape.

Here I am constantly conscious and fully understand: I understand that I can disconnect myself from this influence. Yet, I constantly choose to stay under its control. Every time I choose a greater connection, I add finer discernments to this state, both in feeling and in the mind. This means that I am at the most central point.

This central point begins to grow in relation to me and to clarify different discernments that are in it: my attitude to the friends, to myself, to the study, to the teacher, and to the whole world. I feel that all my relationships and my connections with everyone are centered in this one point. This means that I begin to work on it in every situation in my life.

In order not to detach myself from this center, I have to invest emotional and mental efforts in the mind and heart. According to these efforts I will discover what the true mind and heart are, because these are not ordinary corporeal attributes, but rather special spiritual attributes.

All my work is to clarify to what extent I can adhere to the center, to the upper, in every situation. I am like an organ that is returned to its place that feels that it isn’t simply stitched on to the body, but begins to live in it, to use its powers, and to bestow something on my part by taking part in the collective actions. This is already the feeling of life!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

Education: The Main Law Of Modern Times

Question: In what form should the structure of integral upbringing be introduced in a smaller town? Should a prepared team of specialists be invited there?

Answer: It is impossible to provide a town with a population of 50,000 with an army of visiting specialists. It is impossible to fathom the unfathomable.

At the maximum, a team of twenty should be invited, and all the rest would be through the virtual delivery of knowledge. Then, people should be gathered in big groups to lectures and to events such as festivals and public parties under the auspices of integrality.

It is necessary to simultaneously train local specialists. In the same manner as there are municipal workers everywhere, the city also should have specialists on integral upbringing who will be continuing to educate children, elders, and the entire population. It is necessary to provide them with media materials, and overall to lay a foundation for this process to continue infinitely.

Question: When such action takes place, at first, people feel enthusiastic as they join the common action. Then the guests from the capital leave and this wave of enthusiasm recedes. What is to be done next so that it does not dwindle to nothing?

Answer: I think that integral upbringing should be accepted as a law without which society can no longer exist. That is, it must be the most important, principal law of the city or society, founded upon compatibility, integrality, and on mutual complements and voluntary participation.

Everything that is done today by various agencies and decided in courts, police and other authorities will be decided on a completely different level. However, a serious education department is needed for this. Thus, it is crucial to create a budget, material incentives, and the content for the entire system that will be engaged in education.

Question: Is the education department a separate agency?

Answer: I think that it should not report to anyone, only to the country’s common upbringing center.

Question: What about economists?

Answer: They cannot do anything because local ideological departments do not report to anyone but the main ideological center. I cannot imagine that it could be any other way.

Economists cannot direct education. They cannot meddle with the process of upbringing and education in schools. If any problems arise, they either should be solved together or at a higher level, but one does not loom over another.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #23, 3/2/12

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The Secret Of The Upper Light

While reading The Zohar, we mustn’t forget that that it is only speaking about the connection among us in its different forms.The Zohar tells us how we can rise by this connection to higher levels each time, how we can strengthen it through the “three lines,” the newReshimot (informational genes), awakenings, illuminations in the levels of Ibur (conception), Yenika (nurturing) and Mochin (maturity), and so forth.

This is all in order to tighten the connection among us, which means to connect our vessel more and more tightly by correcting the shattering and according to the intensity of the connection to discover the attribute of mutual bestowal that resides among the parts that were separated, and which are now connecting to each other above our ego. This is called the upper Light that is revealed among us.

If the parts annul themselves only in order to connect, it is called the Light of Hassadim, but if they also work with their ego in order to connect, it is called the Light of Hochma. This is connection, and there is nothing but that.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/12, The Zohar

The Virtual Workshop

Question: What is the best way for the virtual student to participate in the workshop?

Answer: You need to organize a virtual workshop with the friends who are closest to you in general mentality, country, and language. You should always start with the easy things, and then move to the more difficult ones: This is the order of correction.
And besides that, everyone has an opportunity to connect to the focus group conducting the discussion on the air, and to be together with them if a student doesn’t have friends with whom he or she can communicate. All the means that contribute to unity are welcome.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

A Never Ending Game

Question: During the process of upbringing, a person has to learn certain models of behavior. What are these models of behavior?

Answer: These elements of behavior are commutation laws, something similar to the multiplication table. Primarily, it’s individual readiness to enter others, to feel another as your partner in the same tuning process.

When we meet people in our egoistic world, we enter into a certain contact with them. For example, we smile in order to first establish a purely visual connection and later, an emotional one. Only after that we begin to perceive each other more closely. The same happens here.

When I speak about groups and societies, I am referring to a multitude of groups, which will become acquainted with each other, connect, and work together, either by merging or mixing with each other, to the point of creating enormous conventions and festivals, when different groups with identical preparation come together and perform certain actions with each other.

In other words, here we are already dealing with thousands of people in a certain limited space, who have to interact with one another. At the same time, we can involve them in special states and games in order to overcome a variety of problems and processes. Besides, these problems and processes must be natural and not artificial. For example, electricity suddenly disappears, or a certain danger appears, or the other way around, a certain opportunity arises, meaning someone finds treasure somewhere. How do we interact in this situation?

We create different conditions of play and excitement for them, we try to get them out of the altruistic habits they are accustomed to and once again make them dependent on each other as egoistically as possible. At the same time, we observe how they overcome these states, then forget about them, and once again attempt to excite themselves, to remember, and to climb out of their egoism in an attempt to find new strengths within for absolutely unexpected situations.

There are many opportunities for people here. I think that the most important thing is to work through these situations because like a child, when a person plays, he ultimately corrects himself, his nature. We think that it’s just a game, but in reality this is an enormous universal goal to correct human egoism, besides for which nothing else exists. Everything else is the still, instinctive nature.
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The Era Of A Round Correction

The last conventions indicate the beginning of a new era in which we have to practically fulfill everything we’ve learned for so many years, what we’ve read in the letters and the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash: the connection in the group, the unity with friends, and the clarification of the place inside the group where the spiritual world, the Creator, the building of the collective vessel, and the correction and the shattering are revealed.

Actually, all the descriptions refer to one action: the connection of all the shattered, distant, opposite desires that hate each other with the help of the Reforming Light, which we draw by our collective prayer, raising MAN, during the workshops, the different activities, and all the time until we perceive the spiritual goal of our life.

We should see this as a general trend that affects every aspect of our lives: educating children and adults, our groups, and the whole word, everyone, from the individual to all of humanity, and seeing this trend to connect in “circles,” which is the major trend leading to the correction of the shattering and the attainment of the goal of creation.

We can regard the whole way we’ve made so far as the time of preparation, and from now onward we and the whole world must start to build such circles.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

Who Creates The Deficit?

Question: Initially, all the useful resources are unlimited, but people create a deficit through bad intentions and certain fluctuations. Things that belong to humanity and that we should receive for free have become artificially limited and inaccessible.

As soon as something becomes deficient, it immediately stops being equally distributed, and everyone who can begins to accumulate it. Those who did not have it, will not have it. In the end, everyone suffers, both those who profit from it because excess does not lead to anything good and those who do not have it because they are not fulfilled. This applies to everything.

What does a person need? He needs safety, peace, attention, family, and food. All these things began to require enormous effort.

Regarding peace, we have lost peace. We work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Regarding safety, safety is an elementary resource, but because I did not establish a relationship with my neighbor, he got a gun, and I got a machine gun. You would think that someone would profit from selling weapons, but in the end, he is killed when the bomb drops on him.

Is there a solution to come out of this dead end? Can these problems be solved by upbringing?

Answer: If today we all are being driven into a deficit that is being used to rule over and control us, then we should ask ourselves: Can we resist these forces? It is not easy to resist them.

On the other hand, we see that crises come and erode the foundation under the people who have tried to create this system of government, who tried to profit and dictate everything to mankind. In the end, really, the bomb also falls on them. In other words, they also are absolutely uncertain about tomorrow.

It turns out that here, we encounter certain laws of nature. The reason for this is our egoism that drives us and constantly pushes us forward. People try to manifest it somehow in the best and most profitable way for them.

However, in the end, we encounter two parameters here: Egoism gradually and constantly develops in us from one generation to another and over the course of the entire life of every generation. In this way, we differ from the animate level. As we develop, we also try to exploit egoism with our mind and feelings, to turn it into something that will help us attain power, fame, knowledge, and maximum freedom.

As a rule, this happens by comparing oneself to others. Our egoism is tuned this way. This is why all the movements of humanity and of every person individually are only in this. A question arises: Will we be able to continue to exist in this paradigm?

You say that natural resources, such as oil, gas, coil, metals, and any natural resource are unlimited, but we see that they are finite. We even predict their end. Scientists say that they will end in a number of decades.

I base the things I say on the data provided by mass media. I am not a member of other circles. To be honest, I am not interested in them. However, overall, this is probably the way things are.

Perhaps it is done on purpose. Prices increase and people are convinced that resources are limited in order to gain from the increase and profit more by investing less. I do not know.

Of course, overall, we are coming to a point today when nature itself is showing us through a global crisis that we are global, connected between us. We depend on one another.

I think that the economy is not the problem here; it is social and personal relationships between people. In other words, mankind is the cause of the crisis that we are experiencing.
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From a TV Show “The Global Crisis: A Deficit of Resources” 3/1/2012 

Keeping The Finger On The General Pulse

Question: During the convention we always feel infinite pleasure and fulfillment, but the moment the convention is over, there is immediately a heavy feeling of emptiness and reluctance to carry on. What does this hardening of the heart after the convention symbolize and how should we work with it?

Answer: I think that we felt these things after conventions we had in the past. We shouldn’t feel this way now because we don’t work from one convention to another any more, which is the reason that we used to fall after each convention, like after receiving a temporary gift, which we couldn’t hold on to.

Now we have to work continuously at building our collective vessel, and so we shouldn’t feel such deep descents although there will be descents and ascents on this way too, as there should be. This is because the upper Providence is revealed by the “round” and “straight” impact. During the straight influence, the upper Providence is revealed a bit and during the round influence, it summons periods of exile.

Every individual, whole groups, and even the whole world go through such “exiles” and “redemptions” alternately. These states are sequential, and nature is constantly changing: The seasons change, the geological eras, and the ecological eras all change in the endless process we are in.

We have to go through all these processes, but our advancement should be in a straight line, in the “middle line.” We will have to clarify it since we are the first to start this process, like the “last generation” of the egoistic world. So I don’t think there will be any special descents after the conventions. Our conventions will be of a different nature, which will be determined in the next few months.

I doubt whether the question about the descent after the convention will be relevant. But if someone still feels a descent, he should ask the friends for help. If the whole group is in a state of descent, it should turn to other groups for help since it depends on them as one man in one heart.

Thus everyone should help one another, keeping the finger on everyone’s pulse, taking care that not one friend will disappear and not one group will fall if it isn’t a purposeful fall.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

Details About The Creator’s Portrait

Being on this side of the Machsom (barrier), we don’t see the reasons for our actions and we think that we are independent.However, the result actually is predetermined and it summons the actions that will lead to it.

Question: But it says that even if the reward is guaranteed, we still have to do our work. So is this our independence, our free will?

Answer: I wish we would come to that and see that the whole world of Ein Sof (Infinity) is spread before us. No matter what you do, the Creator gives you everything that is good, but like a guest sitting before the host, you are prepared to receive from Him only through “restriction” and a Masach (screen).

Question: And each time a person has to decide: “Am I now going to do what should be done?”

Answer: Of course. Then you discover bestowal on the part of the Creator.

He wants to teach you to receive in order to bestow. On the part of the Creator there are no limitations, but He does that in order to bring you to His level where you will acquire the understanding and the recognition and not just the filling that is only the means. If you receive more or less, it is only the means, while the goal is to reach adhesion.

Adhesion is not the filling, but the pleasure from being similar to the Creator. It is above the game of the “Lights and the vessels” and this is the fulfillment of the “point in the heart,” it is the utmost pleasure.

On the one hand, we say that the goal of our development is the adhesion. On the other hand, we say that the goal of creation is pleasure and delight. So it turns out that adhesion equals pleasure.

Actually, it is always about levels of pleasure, since the desire, the vessel, doesn’t feel anything but that. The pleasure is behind every detail of my perception. For example, I differentiate colors to the degree that they bring me pleasure.

In every situation we measure the pleasures and usually connect according to their forms because we have a similar form. Upward and downward, strength and weakness, heat and cold, we check everything according to this principle, and it all stems from the impression of the desire from the filling or from lack of filling.

Our desire is divided into many discernments and shades that are determined by our five senses according to parallel ranges and levels. One way or another, there is nothing but the desire. Everything is measured by my feeling, even the most neutral things. I don’t feel and don’t identify anything that doesn’t touch my feeling. Every discernment I make receives an “emotional sign” which I measure. Behind all the words and the names there are the emotions, the state my desire is in. This is what our language is based on.

Question: I know the pleasures that fill me. I know what I yearn for. But what does it mean “to resemble the Creator?” What kind of filling is that? The feeling of belonging to something great?

Answer: If you take the internality of your heart, something that is very deep and personal,   and try to connect this hidden spark to the center of the group, you will fulfill your “point in the heart.”

Question: And this means to resemble the Creator?

Answer: Yes. because the center of the group is the depiction of the Creator. This is the picture that is depicted in your vessels. You don’t know what Light is by itself. For you the Light is a phenomenon that you discover in the vessel. When our vessels are connected, when each one annuls himself and wants to reach the connection of all the points into one, this is the depiction of the Creator. This means that we are adhered to Him.

Thus, if I am adhered to the group, I am adhered to the Creator. There, inside among the friends are all the discernments of His portrait.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

The Life Of Bestowal: Easy And Beautiful

Today, gradually, a deeper and stricter interconnection between countries, nations, and people is being revealed. Even individually, we are connected through chains with several links. However, there is a certain problem: We are not yet capable of properly realizing this connection.

The modern crisis is expanding and encompasses the world. It will not end even though many are promising that soon things will begin to improve.

Problems will not end until we reach balance. After all, the cause of the crisis is imbalance, in other words, the lack of connection between us.

Here is where we discover the law of mutual guarantee. The Torah explains to us that in the end a person will love his neighbor as himself.

“Love” is proper systematic unity when every person works for the benefit of everyone, and there is absolute harmony between us. In the end, once we reach the final correction, all of us, once again, will become parts of a single soul, like organs of the body that operate in absolutely different ways, but exist in unified harmony, and this is why the body lives.

Every organ performs its own work, its own function, but within the framework of a common program that encompasses and obligates everyone to work together. To the contrary, when there is imbalance between parts of the body, illnesses appear.

We must treat our correction according to the same principle. Today, I exist in absolute, total egoism. I want everything to “spin” on my command, carry out my wishes, and think like me. We all begin our journey in this state.

In the first stage of working with myself, I must come to the degree of Hafetz Hessed. I do not get in the way of others. Like a cogwheel, I freely run on my axis, according to the desires of my neighbors. Do what you want with me. I am ready to “spin” at your request, as if I had no desires of my own, as if it were not me, but some supporting force intended for you.

We are speaking of a very high degree. After all, I must work with my egoism so that it will not get in my way of serving others.

To do this, I must know the desires of others and never get in the way of their realization, being absolutely neutral. We are referring to an enormous correction, during the course of which I set up screens of the zero, first, and second degrees over my desire.

Then, I rise to the next degree. I direct my desires, abilities, qualities, and the entire potential of my strength and energy, everything, toward the benefit of my neighbors. Now, my egoism is not just neutralized, I am not just freely running on an axis, but I am connected to my own engine that works for their benefit. This is the degree of love. I give you everything for the good of it.

This path stretches from our world to the world of Infinity (∞) through 125 degrees. Part of them I realize on the degree of Hafetz Hessed, being neutral, and the other part I realize by actively putting my efforts into benefiting my neighbors.

During the first stage, I correct 248 desires and during the second stage, I correct 365. Overall, the correction of 613 desires is called observing the commandments. In this way, the common desire is divided according to my inner structure.

All this is to achieve complete and absolute mutual guarantee, a state where I will interact with everyone in harmony, just like any other person.

Hence, it is clear the kind of correction to which mankind must come: Everyone will perceive and include within them the entire reality to the point of fully identifying with it. This is why Kabbalah is being revealed now, because if we do not know how to realize this, then our path will be very difficult and painful; indeed, it would truly will be the “path of suffering.”

However, if we try to act in the group, our path will not be easy, but it will be good (the red arrow on the graph). We get together, feel each other, evoke the Light, and it works on us, influences us, and awakens us. By mutually feeling each other, we allow the light to do its work.

This is the essence of the method. You neither know nor understand anything, you are not capable of anything, but you want to “swallow” all the pleasure, and you only need to learn to evoke the Light. If you learn, you will achieve success so easily and beautifully, together with everyone in joy.
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From the New Jersey One Convention 5/12/12, Lesson 3

Beware Of Substitutes

When the group of Kabbalists that became a nation spread all over the world after the spiritual descent, it was separated. The Jews were cut off from each other in different parts of the world and the wisdom of Kabbalah was hidden until the time came. Under these conditions, although it is a result of free will, certain people who didn’t really attain spirituality created different alternative methods, perceptions, and beliefs. This is the origin of the different religions, which are actually corrupt “adaptations” of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

It began in the days of Abraham: He brought the people of his time the necessary means for their development: methods that led them to the truth in some way, that elevated them above the “beastly” level and enabled them to at least touch the more advanced perception of the upper force, of life and death.

Today, however, it is very hard to speak about the true wisdom of Kabbalah because everyone has his own opinion about it. People have heard a lot about mysticism, about red strings, miracles, lucky charms, special prayers, rituals, etc., not to mention those who simply make a profit from that. Even the honest openhearted approach doesn’t guarantee a successful spiritual search, although even such ideas were attributed to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

As a result of all this, there is great confusion these days. We are speaking about a wisdom that is revealed especially in our days since we are approaching a fatal stage in history. After all, an incorrect interpretation of this wisdom can bring about much bloodshed, if it does not allow us to follow the right and simple way.

In the article “The General Attribute of the Hidden Wisdom,” Baal HaSulam quotes from the book of Proverbs: “The Lord’s Glory is concealed.” This rule is the strict rule that applies to the concealment of the wisdom of Kabbalah, as he says: Many have fallen victim to revelations of this kind. It is from this that all the magicians and mystics originate when students who lacked principles went in the wrong direction and began to teach all the materials they had without checking whether the person who was suitable for this purpose. Thus they began to use the wisdom in order to attain human goals, out of lust and ambition, selling things that attributable to Holiness and calling it “practical Kabbalah.”

In the article “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two,” Baal HaSulam adds: “From the midst of those stem all the charmers, whisperers, and “practical” Kabbalists, who hunt souls with their cunningness, and the mystics, who use withered wisdom that came from under the hands of unworthy students, to draw bodily benefit for themselves or for others. The world has suffered much from it, and is suffering still.”

For us Practical Kabbalah means that we actually correct ourselves when we unite in the group according to the principle of mutual guarantee. But for others it is about certain actions that help them remove the evil eye, to change their fate, etc.

On the whole there are two separate approaches:

1. I acknowledge the fact that everything is in the hands of the Creator and only with His help when I transcend myself is it possible to change anything. Everything in our world is meant for us to change ourselves and not to try to change our fate. Eventually I look at myself and at the world through a prism of the opportunity to bring contentment to the Creator, when I resemble Him, adhere to His attributes, and thus enable Him to be revealed in the created being. Looking at reality this way is the wisdom of Kabbalah—the revelation of the attribute of bestowal in the created being that completely fills him.
2. As to the correction of everything else: A person’s health, family issues, the state, the world, it all has nothing to do with the wisdom of Kabbalah, but with psychology, rituals, etc.

It is one of the two: Either my only goal is to perceive the world according to principle of the unity of the Creator, to actually discover Him by correcting myself, or I use different means in order to correct my external state.
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From the  Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/12, The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Ascending To The Top Of The Pyramid

Question: How should I feel my group as a result of the workshop?

Answer: The group is “one” because only one soul has been created. And the more I reveal the structure of a single soul, the more I reveal the group.

A group is not a material concept, not ten physical bodies sitting in a circle. The group is what we build above our egoism through the connection between us, downplaying our ego and raising the importance of connection, the Creator, the Light. The farther apart we take these two opposite points, raising the importance of bestowal, love, and connection, there above, we begin to feel as one.

Everyone feels not himself but only this collective one, outside of his body, his thoughts and desires. We all feel just this desire and one thought “as one man with one heart.” This is called the group.

If everyone acts like this during the workshop, we build a common locator in our group, which begins to pick up all the other “units” in the hall, formed from each circle or approaching this. And then I will start to feel through this sensor all the souls of the righteous existing in the spiritual world. This becomes my vessel with which I work in the spiritual world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

The Secrets Of The Heart

Question: The purpose of our work at the workshop is clear: We open the heart to each other, we draw closer, connect.

Answer: You are learning to understand what a group means. Before that you only heard what it is. But here, I hope, you began to feel that special properties are embedded in the group, which you won’t be able to scrutinize alone. By listening specifically to your friend—and it doesn’t matter what he is saying for he may not know anything (he may be in the group for one or two months), you will hear in his words what you need to hear.

Question: There is also another form of group work, when the text is simply read and no commentaries are given. What’s the difference? When do we apply this kind of work?

Answer: It is a very serious question.

In general, how do you discuss something between yourselves when you stand in a big circle and say something? You also speak about yourself, from yourself, about the greatness of the group, the greatness of the goal, of the gathering, or about why you came to the convention.

Most important is not to talk about what’s in your heart at the given moment. You do not give vent to what you feel at the moment. As in our world, you do not want to tell anybody about your deepest feelings, personal secrets, and the same is here. That is, I do not talk about my relationship with the Creator as it concerns only me. All the rest—it makes no difference.

Question: When we work independently in the group, who will help us stop on time and talk from the heart, not from the mind?

Answer: Don’t be afraid to err. It’s not important. It’s completely unimportant!

Those who study for a month or two can gather into the group and try to discuss something between themselves, to mumble like children—it’s not important. They will nevertheless grow, if they only do what’s needed. No preliminary knowledge is required from a person, nothing. Most important is to act simply, open heartedly, and naively, and then everything will work out.
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From Vilnius Convention 3/25/2012, Workshop 4 

The Convention Is Never Over

Question: How do you preserve the permanent state of the convention from now on?

Answer: A convention is a leap through unity. If we have such exercises of unity once a week by having intensive workshops called “friends’ meetings,” we may not need to have big conventions in order to advance anymore. We will rise from one week to the next by preparing ourselves from one meeting to the next.

Everything depends on the preparation, which determines what level of unity we will be able to attain in the workshop. We need a big desire, the recognition of the importance of the goal and the uniqueness of such a meeting as a special action, as the only method by which we can create a place for the revelation of the Creator.

From one week to the next we will live with the feeling of the coming friends’ meeting and yearn for the lesson day by day. Before the lesson we can also feel as we do before the workshop. The lesson can be as intensive, because in the lesson we speak about the same internal work but in different words. On the whole, we are talking about the same topic—the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, where it takes place and under what conditions.

All our collective actions should be seen from this perspective no matter what we do. It all depends on how much a person appreciates every opportunity he is given. Therefore, we shouldn’t wait for conventions if we don’t prepare ourselves from one lesson to the next, from one friends’ meeting to the other, and from one convention to the next one.

Otherwise a big convention by itself will not be very useful—it will summon a temporary awakening but not an ascent. If a person doesn’t come with the previous impression, he will not be granted ascent, advancement, and a greater connection. This is because he hasn’t prepared himself for it; he hasn’t yearned for it and has no deficiency for it. He will simply be impressed from everything else, but will not attain a specific fulfillment.

So it turns out that we feel elated from one convention to another, but then we fall again. The elation should be before the convention and the convention itself should be a level upwards. In this convention we managed to that to some extent. After having risen to the next level and having felt that we are in a state of descent, disappointment, and fogginess, we should immediately start preparing for a new meeting. This meeting can be in the next lesson, the weekly friends’ meeting, or a big convention.

Everything is determined by the preparation. There shouldn’t be any “dead time” in which I just sit and wait. I have to increase the deficiency inside me or to fulfill it by connection.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”