Family As A Means Of Spiritual Ascent

Question: Should we continue encouraging people to create families?

Answer: We are going through a stage of human development where the family institution is falling apart; it is no longer necessary. We have worked through the old stage, threw it aside, and now must ascend to a new level. It has yet to emerge. So the younger generation is re-assessesing their values: They don’t want to create families, give birth to children, or to be obligated to anyone or anything.

But this is a temporary phase. People are looking for an answer to the question, “Why do we need a family?” In general, we always deal with the question, “Why?” People need to find meaning in the family when its not an end for reproduction, in order to maintain life and everything. Today, we have developed such services and amenities that we do not need a family. Instead of a wife, a supermarket and other services can take care of household tasks, and one can find a woman, and every day a new one.

If one feels that one needs a family, then of course one will come to it, but at a new level, the primary “cell” of the society, which raises man to the next level of existence. If a person realizes that he has this need, one will gladly create a family. People would feel that by having a family they advance, gaining new vessels of sensation of existing in this world.

And all the everyday aspects of life for which we have created devices and services to serve these needs, were specifically created according to the program of nature so that we no longer need a family as a material entity, and eventually will realize that we need our families solely as a special, miraculous instrument that stimulates our ascent to a new level.

Comment: Doesn’t everybody strive to enjoy the warmth and joy that come from family communications?

Answer: People will experience them in the integral family. The main thing is that one will feel oneself, acknowledge one’s own nature and the entire world at a totally new level. If one sees that a family promotes one’s attainment of this elevated state, one will agree to have it. If not, then people will reject having families.
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From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 10/21/13

Don’t Fall Under The Influence Of The Masses

Question: When we are great distances from each other, as in Scandinavia, then most of the time our environment is composed of ordinary people. We, like the others, fall under their influence and pass through all kinds of emotions and states. How can we build the right relationship towards the goal from this and take advantage of our unity?

Answer: You must detach yourselves from all of humanity, as if you are looking at it from the side; don’t fall under the influence of the masses; grasp their suffering only in order to heal them, like a doctor heals someone who is ill.

A doctor is unable to cure people who are very close to him; he cannot look at them objectively. So he must be objective, weigh the “pros” and “cons” without entering into this with his heart. This is because even though he feels those who are close to him, he must act with his mind.

And in our work with humanity, we must understand who they are, why they suffer, and that this is a projection of our inner characteristics outside of us, where each of my inner characteristics is portrayed outside as a particular object: still, vegetative, animate and even human. I must direct myself this way all the time.

Disregard anything extraneous, as if it is happening on its own; the Creator is playing with us. Why should I be influenced by the masses? I must detach myself from this, be weaned from this, be distanced. Don’t patronize them, don’t dance to the tune of theirego, pride, and arrogance, rather simply look at the world in the right way.

Everything around is material that is managed by a single power, and that is how I want to look at it; it is only in my power to bring the human material closer to the truth. I must do this like a doctor who sees a patient and examines the best way to cure him. He cannot sit and cry compassionately with the patient; rather he must work realistically and deal with him properly.

We cannot allow ourselves to be influenced by the masses, like little children who are thrown into a toy store and lose their heads through the influence of the toys. It is necessary to try to balance all of this within ourselves; this includes everyone, even our relatives. Work it out; otherwise you will not feel the Creator. You must look at the world through His eyes.
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day Three 11/3/13, Lesson 5

The Power Of The Female Desire

We’ve heard about the groups of Kabbalists throughout history. They were special and got along very nicely together in small groups that consisted of only men.

There were cases in which a father would teach his daughter, like Rambam, for example. Or a brother who taught his sister, like Moses and Miriam. There were female prophets, women who reached very high levels of spiritual attainment by themselves, but in all the previous generations it wasn’t customary to let women join the group work.

In our times however, we are witnessing very interesting changes. We already discovered, during the time of Rabash, that women are also attracted to the wisdom of Kabbalah and integral education, they are driven by an inner desire. If a person has an inner desire, then everything is open in front of him.

Rabash was the first to change the ordinary framework, he arranged the wives of his students into a group that received his articles about the society, about group work, connection, and they used to clarify them with the other study materials. Rabash arranged for a place where the women could gather and listen to the lessons of the men’s group.

It was a real revolution. In the past women could never come near someone who studied Kabbalah, but Rabash opened this study for all women. He discovered that they have the same deficiency now, the same point in the heart like the men. We actually see that women today are even more determined to adhere to the spiritual path than the men.

This together with the global crisis gave us a global opportunity for the correction of the world. Today there are no differences between the men and the women in the group. They have the same roles in disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah and especially the integral education. These roles are becoming more similar every year and the differences between them are blurred and actually disappear; I am very happy about this. The more strong women we have participating in our work, in our dissemination, and in all our social life, the more stable, and loyal to the spiritual path we are.
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From the One America “Virtual Convention” Day One 11/16/13, Lesson 1

In The Desire For Peace

The goal of creation is to reach a state in which the the Light fills us in the world of Infinity. This is our duty because we are in a system that requires us to reach this.

Two possible ways of reaching this are before us:

• Either a good way, if we are drawn forward towards this and the Light illuminates the Kelim, (vessels) of our desires that have been prepared for this.
• Or a bad way if we are not ready and the Light turns to darkness making escape from unbearable misery and suffering impossible.

To keep to the good path, we must realize the method of correction in a group by complying with the Light within that group. Today, one group is not enough; it simply doesn’t have the power to reach the Light. It must supply itself with “additional” deficiency from the general public.

Therefore, through connection between us, we must remember that acquiring a correct deficiency directed towards the Light is possible only if we go out to the general public and take care of it, if we see what it lacks. In this case we take on additional deficiencies from there and then with them we can achieve a sufficient deficiency for which the Light will illuminate us in response.

In this manner, work with the general public is not required just because we need to take care of them, rather first and foremost, it is in order for us to reach the Light; we begin to work with it, to attract it to us, and after that we bring it to the world. The unity between us will take on a form similar to the Light only if we accept the deficiencies of the external public.
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From the One America “Virtual Convention” Day One 11/16/13, Lesson 1

There Is No Way Out – No Entrance

We have said many times that advancement depends on the sense of the importance of the goal. The problem is that our egoism diminishes this importance all the time because of its opposition to it. But it is not the goal that is opposite, but the means of achieving it. The goal of creation is to delight the created beings. Our egoism wants to enjoy, and the goal is to get the maximum enjoyment, both in quantity and quality.

So, what prevents us from achieving this goal? What prevents it is the means by which this maximum pleasure can be achieved. This pleasure can be received only in unlimited vessels, but such a vessel cannot be receiving. The vessel of reception is limited by definition and receives only to the extent of its capacity.

Only if a vessel passes fulfillment through itself, receiving for the sake of bestowal to the other or the Creator, which is essentially the same, under this condition it opens itself for infinite pleasure and can achieve the purpose of creation, a sensation of the infinite goodness of the Creator.

The Light, by the initial conditions, cannot enter the receiving vessel, which leaves all the content in itself. There is no way out—no entrance. That is why the task is not to stop seeking pleasure. It is necessary just to change the character of fulfillment: What do I enjoy? Or more specifically: “Who do I bring pleasure to?” Pleasure should come from bringing pleasure to others, from bestowal. In this case, my vessels will become unlimited and I will reach the goal.

It is important to understand that this is a subtle distinction that separates desire and intention. Desires can grow as much as you want! We do not have to suppress them, go on a diet, or torment ourselves. On the contrary, we need to enjoy life! Otherwise, you seem to ignore what the Creator has prepared for you. The only question is whether you desire all this in order to delight the Creator. To do this, we need to discover new desires.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/13, Writings of Rabash

A Light Conductor

Question: When we go out to the public, we enjoy the fact that people listen to us and complement us, etc. How can I avoid being “stuck” on myself? How can I remember that it is the Creator who does all the work?

Answer: You have to feel that the Creator is working inside you, and that you are the conductor of His work.

Suppose I give a lecture to a certain group of people; when I enter the hall I begin to work, I speak with those in charge, and I constantly feel the Creator working through me. I want Him to work through me since after all He does everything and I simply convey the connection between Him and the audience like a pipe through which the Upper Lightflows.

I want the Light to influence them so they will understand the inner meaning of my words, which I actually don’t understand, but will understand them now together with my audience since the Creator influences them through me.

I want to become one united whole together with them where I play the part of the source of Light and they are the consumers, but the Light exists in all of us. It straightens, equalizes,and unites us, and repairs all the consequences of the shattered vessel. All the people who were separate parts are now getting used to connecting to one another and they forget that not too long ago they were separated from one another. Everything comes together.

I want to feel and sense all of this so that the Creator will unite and fill us according to ourunity. I constantly work in this direction, and it has to become my constant feeling every minute of my life!

I enter a supermarket, buy products, go to the bank, perform different actions there, spend time at work, come home, and I want the Creator to operate through me, no matter where I am. In all my interactions, even with the still, vegetative, and animate parts of nature, with everything that surrounds me, I want the Creator to bestow upon the world around me, through me. Then I am called Israel, the connector of the Creator to the world. This is our mission!
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

Growth From The Point In The Heart

Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”: So it is with our matter. Once we have learned about the purpose, it is also clear to us that all the conducts of Creation, in its every corner, inlet, and outlet, are completely prearranged for the purpose of nurturing the human species from its midst, to improve its qualities until it can sense the Creator as one feels one’s friend.

These ascensions are like rungs of a ladder, arranged degree-by-degree until it is completed and achieves its purpose.

Development is divided into two stages: In the beginning from above to below, and after that from below to above.

First, all of the distinctions are developed from above to below, from the desire to bestow to the desire to receive, from Olam Ein Sof to Olam Ha Assiya. In this way there are five worlds and 125 levels according to the model of HaVaYaH that is clarified to the most distant “material” from the Creator; and this must be changed 25 times: five times five, which includes the tip of the letter “Yod.”

With this we reach the level of the creature, to its foundation, to the middle point of all the worlds. And from here begins the way from below to above, by way of the correction of the desire to receive. The desire to receive grew, rising more and more from the “point in the heart,” and together with this, when it grew, it had to install the form of bestowal upon itself, which is the screen (Masach) and Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer).

Therefore when we rise, we grow from below to above with two distinctions:

• The desire to receive, which is the “material” that is gradually gathered into the “point in the heart”
• The desire to bestow, which is the screen (Masach) and Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer) i.e., the external form that is clothed on the desire to receive. And this is called Man (Adam).

That is how we grow until we come back to the higher power, to equivalence with the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

Family In The 21st Century: Update

Question: There is less in common among us today; old community traditions gradually disappear. It would seem that the world is permeated with many relationships and “stitched together” with advanced networks of communication… However, a real platform of interconnection and unity has vanished.

On what basis can we build a common “infrastructure?” What unites people, primarily at the family level, while the former types of connections collapse?

Answer: This is the problem. Previously, the natural bond among us was based on three factors, three basic needs: food, sex, family. But today, everything has changed.

First of all, prepared food is readily available everywhere, my future wife may not even know how to cook. So, by staying single we add a big fat “plus” to our existence.

Furthermore, sex is totally accessible and available to everybody these days. Moreover, we are brought up in this spirit. Even if we want to maintain a solid, permanent relationship, the world confuses us with its standards, all the while reminding us about how much we “lose” if we stick to the “old-fashioned” approaches. So, our environment draws a big “minus” in the “family box.”

Thirdly, the mere notion of “family” scares us off since it imposes obligations and “incarcerates” us in the prison of endless responsibilities.

As a consequence, we obviously have to create a model of a different family structure that is no longer based on unrealistic images of modest girls with braids wearing long dresses. The patriarchal family has vanished, along with the domestic arrangement of three generations maintaining a traditional household with a big backyard, chickens, and a vegetable garden. A new family is around the corner, which apparently has to acquire a very different form.

In the family we see a piece, a small cell of the global system. We teach people how to maintain the relationship as the correct universal connection that corresponds to nature; this is necessary for survival in this contemporary society. We must come to mutual reciprocity and unity, as in the example of a unified system, a single mechanism, one living body capable of balancing itself, controlling its life, and taking care of its overall health. This is how a healthy biological organism functions, and this is a model of how human society has to behave. We should learn from these examples and bring them closer to our level of existence.

We have to treat a family “cell” according to this principle; we should treat it as a part of a common “body.” It has two opposite poles, a man and a woman that are connected to each other and represent a basic social unit. Integral education will show people that we are obligated by nature to unite and shows us that unity is the only correct attitude we can possibly exercise in life.

When people see and feel this, public opinion will change: t will become clear that marriage is necessary for the relationship and for the family units that comprise society, which will also be like one big family. The whole world will be like one big family. This is the only way to achieve genuine success, rid ourselves of frustration and despair, resolve oppressive problems, and enter a new period and new, unprecedented lives.

This is the only possible method. We cannot succeed on our own if we stick to a narrow personal approach. Everything we do has to be a part of a common concern about making our society as one family. And I repeat: the collective opinion plays the key role here. It will obligate young people to connect as correct family couples.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/6/13

The Goal Of The Human

Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”: And the most important thing in this whole diverse reality is the sensation given to the animals—that each of them feels its own existence. And the most important sensation is the noetic sensation, given to man alone, by which one also feels what is in another—the pains and comforts.

Of all of creation, the human is the most developed regarding his desires. How can we know about them? This is according to his movements and actions, all of which essentially constitute the expression of his inner desire.

Look at what a mess the human makes in the world. On the other hand, animals don’t change anything but only move in order to fulfill their desires, and with the vegetative level, there isn’t even enough desire to move. Therefore, it follows that the human is motivated by the greatest desire. He wants to change the world and himself and not just move and grow. This is what he uses the powers found within him for.

Thus, the human is the center of creation, the creature that was developed at the end of creation and for whom the entire creation was developed. Therefore, we must understand: All of the reality of the still, vegetative, and animate is intended to serve the human and to be useful to him only in order to attain the goal.

What is the goal? The human must reach that higher power that created him. It is concealed from the human as a result of the law of equivalence of form, and a person must change himself in order to reach the similarity of properties according to the law of equivalence of form, and he will fully reveal this power that created him. This identification and approximation is called adherence which is revealed as complete connection. This is what the human being must reach.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The Essential Opposition

Question: I relate to the Creator with respect and awe. He is great and grandiose in my imagination, whereas the friends, the “others” among whom He is revealed, are the opposite. It is as if we lower the bar. They seem less important. How do we solve this problem? How do I increase the value in my eyes of the “electricity” that already has been revealed within the world Kli, the unity, on the background of the greatness of its source?

Answer: As the sages say, you cannot show children that our love for them is absolute. It will only spoil them. Parents who show unconditional love to their children bring their children to circles (Igulim) instead of straight lines (Yosher), instead of law, mercy instead of justice, and this is not good.

Therefore, we simply cannot imagine the Creator is good that does good. He conceals Himself behind very specific and rigid views of the relationship with us that appear to us as ranging from the very unkind to the quite cruel.

We need to take into account both extremes, the two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, He is good and that does good, and on the other hand, I find it as bad. So, how can I connect these two opposing extremes?

The goal of creation is to benefit His creatures, and this is attained according to corrections that the creatures make and only at the end of development. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article, “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose.” If I adopt this approach, if I realize this during my process of investigation, then I will understand why everything is arranged in this way. I understand the Creator is like a loving father. From love, He must pressure His child in order to lead him toward the good.

Specifically, the idea here is how to clearly identify the problem, the contradiction between the Creator who is good and that does good and the troubles of our world, for I see that the troubles are just increasing, becoming more acute, and pressing more and more strongly on humanity. Until recently, it was as if times were good, and everyone hoped for a brighter and good future, for the “American Dream,” but today, this is no longer serves as a benchmark, and soon we will be happy not to live there.

Why do we need this opposition, this contradiction? This conflict is specifically designed to create internal dissonance in me: How can it be that power of nature, the good and who does good, the absolute power beyond all limitations, locks us into such serious disasters?

I begin to examine and investigate this conflict and search for a solution to the problem. Maybe, the Creator doesn’t exist, and everything is at the mercy of blind nature, and I must fight against it.

However, in reality this approach doesn’t solve the problem. After all, the Creator and nature are the same thing. It follows that I have not changed anything. I only have changed the words but I am left facing the same unsolved problem. The condition is still ongoing and becoming worse, and in any case, I must search for a way out.

Therefore, ultimately, I can solve this conflict only if I will understand that I don’t need to change anything except myself, and here is the key point: Do we need to change ourselves or not? Do we worship through all kinds of physical actions, actions that have been written down, and wait for these to bring us everything good, or do we correct ourselves, and from these, our corrected Kelim, it will be good for us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/13, Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

How Do You Escape Loneliness?

Question: Often, frustration and depression is caused by a deep distinct fear of being alone in this world deprived of connection with loved ones. In other words, there is strong basis, foundation, on which to build family relationships.

Irrespective of the fact that we may not need each other as before, the obvious decline of family traditions, the availability of sexual partners, doors that used to be locked in the past are now widely open, and in spite of the fact that family partners have significantly less in common these days, there still remains something intrinsic in us: a primordial, existential fear of loneliness that many experience today.

Answer: And yet, people are less likely to find an answer to this fear in marriage. Mutual reliance and mutual support are not associated with a contemporary family anymore. The fear is there, but the solutions are not yet visible.

By all means, it’s better to be together with someone rather than stay alone. People with a lot of “baggage” feel that their partners depend on them; they understand that they are responsible for them at least due to habits that were built in the past. We are just people.

However, at the same time, I don’t think that the fear of being alone keeps people within a good, faithful family. This “theory” doesn’t need to be proved by contradiction, nor can it be solved by hiding from the negative downsides. All we really need is to be positive.

Question: Psychology states that we don’t become attached to anyone merely because of fear; rather, we are seeking deeper internal bonding, unity. Yet there is no doubt that many people are driven by fear. This is where the process begins, although it’s quite obvious that the correct connection does not come from it. On the contrary, fear gives rise to other phenomena, often stopping us from breaking connections that were inherently flawed.

Let’s speak about a situation when people strive to establish relationships, but don’t know what to do. The question is: Where to start?

Typically various methods offer people means of self-exploration that let them get acquainted with their nature: “What portion of myself can I devote to connect with my partner?” After asking this question, one makes a “list”: “What do I expect from my partner and from our common life?” Then, when one understands what one wants and expects, it can be configured for a particular kind of relationship. This exercise is very common these days. Is it correct?

Answer: I assume, that it is popular not only today. It was always this way: People calculated their input and the contribution made by their partners into their common life. Matchmakers of all kinds always communicated this way and helped young people and their parents “make good deals.” In fact, it was all about business. Both spouses-to-be were egoists and had to soberly justify whether it’s worth living together. Their feelings towards each other were just one of many components in this formula. Their emotions had a “purchasing power” and were included into a general equation.

Is this approach correct? I don’t think so. Of course, it worked for some time, but we have changed dramatically. We are not exactly sure what we want today, and especially do not know what we will want tomorrow. Besides, our psychology is largely perverted by a huge external effect that pushes us from side to side with artificial restrictions and permissions, imaginary benefits and losses.

Each “fad,” each “change of season” completely alters us from the outside in addition to all internal changes that we undergo. That’s why our calculation of benefits and disadvantages of our potential future family life might be wrong. Only if we set a higher value as a goal and agree to a certain challenge, to an objective that elevates us above the disruptions that happen both in the society and within us, only then will the society and its cells, the young couples not only survive, but will flourish.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/6/13

Thank You For My Envy Of You

Question: What is envy in a group? How does one work with jealousy of friends?

Answer: This condition will continue for a  time, because jealousy, one of the main egoistic characteristics, is corrected over multiple levels. Therefore, it will not disappear quickly and you must work on it methodically.

But, specifically work on it and don’t kill it, don’t nullify it because thanks to jealousy, you advance. Envy is simultaneously both motivation and interference. It doesn’t let you rest and you have to use it properly.

If I am jealous, I strive forward, and if I move forward, I am grateful for this characteristic in me and for my friend for awakening the jealousy in me. Everything depends on how I make the attainment of the goal the most important thing. If jealousy helps me in attaining the goal, then why should I hate this characteristic? On the contrary, I need to welcome it. I am glad my friend awakens this characteristic in me. Otherwise, I would remain as undeveloped as before.

Question: Jealousy, like everything else in nature, has its pros and cons. I understand that the negative is reception and the positive  is bestowal.

Answer: The negative is when you want to destroy the jealousy, and the positive is when it can help you rise upward.

At the point when you are jealous, you must advance forward with the help of this envy: learn more, show more. If you don’t want to eliminate the person who invites the jealousy in you, but rather, thank him internally for developing this feeling in you, then you advance forward.

Question: How does a Kabbalist behave when he feels others’  jealousy toward him?

Answer: He tries to suppress the jealousy through love. Above all the negative revelation, he builds love, like a father for his child. Therefore, as it is written, “Love covers all transgressions,” and he takes the force to build this from connection in the group.

Question: In other words, when I feel hatred, I immediately yearn for the center of the group?

Answer: If you were in the center of the group, you would not feel hatred, but since you feel it, it is a sign that now a greater portion of ego is revealed in you up to burning hatred as with the students of Rabbi Shimon. It pushes you out from the center of the group, and you have to force the action on yourself, on the others, to again gather everyone together in the center.

If you feel burning envy, it is a sign that all of you lack love.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

Signs Of Success And Failure

Question: What are the signs of success or of failure in the internal work, and what is its revelation in our sensations and in the external work?

Answer: We cannot say what is in our favor and what is not because, for the time being, we operate from our ego, wanting everything to work out exactly the way we want it to without any problems. It is a natural, egoistic urge.

However, we should understand that this is actually impossible. Only great problems, sufferings, interferences, and clarifications can push us out of the ego. All the questions that you ask me refer mainly to this state.

“Why do we have problems in the group, in the family? Why do we encounter different interferences when we begin to engage in dissemination, in integral education? We don’t know what to do!”

Of course, these questions come up because we must correct all this. They come up along the way. Do you see them as external obstacles. They are not external and not foreign, but they are your inner interferences that are revealed in  now

However, you shouldn’t pay attention to them. You should work only on connection despite the influence of the impediments and external blows. You should leave them and engage in inner unity. This is the only way you will overcome them.

As for signs of success or failure in the internal work, if you yearn for connection and unity, despite the interruptions—or actually thanks to them—it is a sign of success. However, if you suddenly begin to draw away from one another, then there is nothing good about it.

You simply don’t understand how all this works. We must focus ourselves correctly so that you will feel interruptions all the time, in every direction, that you will be beaten by your new attributes and your feelings. It is impossible to manage without them because this is the matter that you must correct and above which you must constantly rise.

Suppose someone acts against you or says something that is not objective and is unpleasant; suppose someone wants to leave the group, or you have a personal feeling of descent, these are all the attributes above which you immediately must unite. Then, these attributes will be fulfilled in you and will become part of your corrected state. Then, when you add a few more such actions to this state, you already will be able to approach the Machsom (barrier).
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

A Long Way To The First Spiritual Level

Question: You have said many times that envy, hate, and honor help friends in a group advance towards unity.

Answer: If friends in a group yearn for unity and begin to feel all kinds of disturbances between them, jealousy, hatred, and rejection, then they must understand that this is given to them by the Creatorintentionally in order to add additional forces, yearning for unity, which they require in order to exist on the first level.

Therefore, whenever we go forward, we always receive disturbances because our capacity is not enough to rise upward. I rise a little, but it is not enough, and I am thrown down. Again I rise a little and I am thrown down, but after this, all of these small disturbances are connected.

We cannot reach the first level in one jump. Suppose I am on level zero and I must rise to the first level, how can I do this? The Creator shatters this level into a multitude of states where I go up and down, up and down.

I cannot rise above a particular level, and I am elevated but not in a meaningful way.

But after that, a connection is made by the sum of all my previous states which are required to ascend to the first level.

Therefore it seems to a person that the same thing is happening all the time, it can even be much worse than it was before, but in fact, it is all connected into one sum. As it is said, one penny plus another gathers into a great sum until all the pennies are gathered into one treasure, which is revealed all at once.

Therefore, patience is the most important thing along the way. And someone whose arrogance speaks from his throat is left with his own interests; nothing will happen for him. The main thing is to adjust oneself patiently.

Every state we pass, each convention, lesson, workshop, every time we disseminate, and so forth, everything is gathered. These activities don’t disappear; they are entered into your “account book,” which establishes how much is left for you until the first level.

And after this is attained, then everything becomes clear and you proceed with open eyes. But the first level is the most difficult; therefore, it is called the “exodus from Egypt.” All the rest of the levels are also not simple, but we pass through them with understanding, with awareness, with real movement. Whereas this level is completely closed off from us.
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day Two 11/2/13, Lesson 4

Uniting Into A Single Drop

Question: What does it mean to “take everything through the group?” Is it to tell the group about all one’s problems?

Answer: To take everything through the group does not mean that you must tell it everything, although, of course, this principle is partially realized in this way. However, the most important thing is to feel that you are uniting with friends.

This is an internal movement. You hear them, talk to them, and sit with them, all the time trying to “enter” them, to be with them as one whole, up to the point that you start feeling how you begin to enter the upper world through them.

A feeling of the group begins with a simple physical feeling of the friends’ presence. The next stage is a kind of feeling of community.

Then, perhaps, a feeling of dependence emerges. Next comes a feeling of connection and love.

Thus, gradually, inside of this, a new entity, which we are, begins to show, and, inside  this “we,” the Creator begins to be felt. However, this “we” does not relate to anyone. It is not the sum of us, but one collective whole.

Similarly, a large drop of water is not the sum of all the previous drops from which it was formed because it is a drop by itself. If, for example, twenty droplets merge into one drop, then there are no divisions in it. It is not the sum of the previous drops, but one common whole including all of them. We have to come to this.

As soon as we gather ourselves in the first drop in which there are no divisions, the Creator will be manifested in it immediately. And if we are somehow divided in it, we cannot merge in a single drop; this means that there are the remnants of our breaking, and then the Creator cannot be revealed. This is how it works.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

Unity Against Someone Or For Someone?

Question: You constantly use the word “unity.” What is this unity? Is it what the Nazis had?

Answer: We are talking about unity above our egoism.

We are all egoists. Egoism is my nature; there is nothing else. Hence, unity above it must be built in the direction of a completely different area where we become united as a single “we.”

What is meant by “we”? If each unites with their egoism against someone else, then it is fascism. If we unite above everyone’s individual egoism for the sake of everyone and for the sake of the Creator, then it is altruism. That is all.

In our unity, in “we,” I do not see any opponents except my personal egoistic properties. Every person in the end must analyze and reveal this himself.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

Proper Pride

Question: How must we relate to pride?

Answer: What is bad about this characteristic? I must be proud. It is said: (Chronicles II 17:6) “And his heart was uplifted in the ways of the Lord.” This is to say, I am proud that I belong to the higher level of humanity which is created by the Upper Light, the part that the Creator wants to elevate. This is the next level of elevation, the highest of all of humanity, and it must enter into contact with the Creator now.

I want this, I am proud that I am on this level together with my friends. Why not? There must be the proper kind of pride, not the pride where you despise others, but rather, where you become the conduit of the Upper Light for all of humanity and begin to be concerned about them like the higher with respect to the lower. You are concerned about it with love, and this is a higher pride of a completely different type, like a father regarding to his children.

Question: But on the other hand, pride leads the person to isolation, to seclusion.

Answer: It depends on what kind of pride you are talking about. I am talking about the good kind of pride. Now choose which one of them you are fin, ask that only a good pride should remain in you.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

Drop Your Crutches

Question: Why do you insist that the development of science is detrimental to mankind. We would not be able to study Kabbalahtoday without the modern means of communication?

Answer: We cannot imagine what the world would be like if we were to develop according to the spiritual path instead of the path of scientific and technological advancement, egoistically.

Everything we are trying to do through science and high technology is merely pathetic compensation for the things we would be able to achieve in our spiritual vessels.

This is like breaking a leg and instead of treating and healing it, I make crutches for myself. It is the same when it comes to hands, and all the other parts of the body.

And in the end, instead of having a normal, healthy body, which I could have had corrected and enjoyed, I become burdened by a thousand prosthetics all over the place, and I feel proud about it: Look at the wooden legs I can make!

This is what all of our science and its attainments are like…

We kept evolving it to its egoistic, corporeal height because we did not want to ascendand make the proper correction.

As soon as we transition towards the proper inner correction, we stop feeling that we need all these achievements of modern science.

Why would we need the Internet to communicate if we could transfer information and sensations directly from heart to heart, brain to brain, like through a wide unlimited pipe.

We simply do not want to connect like one man with one heart! Otherwise, we would not need all these wires to send messages to communicate.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, “The Wisdom of Israel in Comparison to Science”

The Secret Of Desire

Baal Hasulam, Shamati, #3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”:In order for us to attain what He had wanted us to attain and understand it as “His desire to do good to His creations,” He created and imparted us with these senses, and these senses attain their impressions of the Upper Light. Accordingly, we have been given many discernments… .

In the end we attain what has been given to us to attain. Why is everything arranged specifically like this? This is unknown to us.

The Creator created something which is called a “desire for pleasure”; it receives some kind of “fulfillment” and is stimulated emotionally by what it “enjoys.” And the reaction of this desire that the Creator created is what we are talking about. This is our entire life. This is us.

The true essence of this desire is unknown to us. What exactly did the Creator create as “something from nothing”? What is its essence? Why does it awaken some kind of reaction, an emotion, stimulation, whenever it needs fulfillment? We have no answers. We are speaking only about the observations that we already perceive, but we are not ready to compare them with “from nothing.”

And who knows what will happen in the future? There, in the depths of the inaccessible, is found the essence of the things that came as something from something and something from nothing; something from something is fulfillment, and something from nothing is the lack.

We discern all kinds of phenomena within our desire to receive. And here Kabbalah, which studies and investigates the desire to receive, the “substance of creation,” and the stimulation of the desire to receive called fulfillment comes to our aid.

Fulfillment can be either positive or negative: From positive fulfillment the desire enjoys, from negative fulfillment or a lack of fulfillment, the desire suffers. That is how its reaction is established.

These things are individual; they belong to this desire, while other desires feel and establish them in another manner. All of the measurements and definitions are established only according to the way in which particular phenomena are revealed.

In a manner like this, we don’t know what constitutes the desire to receive in itself. We only know about the emotion that we feel with it. We call this emotion “life,” “vital energy.” And the desire in itself remains a secret. What the desire wants is one thing, and what the desire truly is, is another thing.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/13, Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment“

To See An Angel

Question: We study that angels are forces. When does a person begin to clearly feel them within?

Answer: In the corporeal world, we sense various forces related to still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature. They are related to gravity, climatic phenomena, and the entire world that surrounds us.

They participate in human life by the positive or negative influences contained in them. These forces are called angels. Therefore, when we read that three “men” came to Abraham, the angels Rafael, Michael, and Gabriel, it means that he discerned these forces within. Angels are the forces of our soul, not someone from the outside. Some of these forces appear, some disappear, and their influences constantly change.

In truth, there is nothing but angels at various levels of desire. A person perceives them and classifies which of them he can advance with and which he cannot. The same is observed in our world. Only here, we recognize external forms of the forces: wind, rain, sound, people, animals, internal sensations, all of which are angels.

A Kabbalist in our world doesn’t look at the outside of phenomena. He sees through them what the Creator wishes to show and influence him by. Therefore, he focuses on the inner essence of the event and its meaning. After all, through these effects, the Creator is speaking with us. What does He want to say?

He wants us to unify the influences of all levels, still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, and bring them into our heart so that we feel only Him behind them. Then, they won’t be an obstacle that conceals the Creator any longer.
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From the “Weekly Torah Portion” 10/22/10

The Warmth Of The Soul And Spiritual Aspiration

Question: When we are conducting integral workshops, people who are participating in them reach a special state of mind. What is the difference between a heartwarming state and a spiritual state?

Answer: The heartwarming state is the state when a person seeks to feel others closer to himself. This state can occur not only between the friends in a group, but also between strangers who are gathered in a company and reach heartfelt understanding, usual getting closer with each other, not pursuing any spiritual purpose.

The spiritual state is when your goal is to rise above your egoism, to unite with all the others in one whole, and desire to feel the Creator in it.

Question: We are really trying to get closer to the goal of delighting the Creator at the workshops, and thus feel a very nice, warm feeling. Can this be called a heartwarming state?

Answer: Sure, it can. Only it is not spiritual. The spiritual state is the highest goal to which we aspire. I cannot express this feeling in words, but it will be felt as something shared, as if I disappear in others. I do not exist, I am seemingly detached from myself and am inside my friends. Moreover, this “I” also does not seem like me but a new emerging spiritual substance which is my real “I.”
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day Two 11/2/13, Lesson 4