By Calling Of The Heart

Question: All of our thoughts come from the Creator. How can we be sure that we truly engage in spiritual work, and not in unattainable fantasy?

Answer: At the beginning, when a person is born and raised, he has no free choice. He is born into some family, he is being taught and given certain education that shapes his attitude towards the world and life. This initial program that a person adopts during the first 15 years of his life determines the development of his personality, and he can’t move beyond that.

One may ask: “How can it be? We don’t choose after all.” Indeed, we don’t choose where to be born, when, and in what family—we don’t choose anything. So what can we do with our spiritual development? You have to be at the place where your heart leads you to. But if you came to us, you have to strictly follow everything that you are being told.

How can you be sure that you are on the spiritual path? You can’t. Until the Creator becomes revealed to us, and clearly, not in a mystical way, as some vague inner sensation (which you are still unable to comprehend), until that you can’t be sure in any way. That’s why I can’t appease or support you, but on the contrary, I stir up even more doubts within you. It is said: “Come and see how wonderful the Creator is.”
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention,” Day Three, 2/4/2014, Lesson 1

Unrestrained Growth Of The Ego

Question: How is it possible to arrive at a collective decision so that our ego will not grow and go out of bounds?

Answer: It’s impossible to stop the growth of the ego. In any case it will grow and be discovered more and more. If you don’t correct it, then it will be revealed incorrectly, and if you correct it, it will be revealed correctly, meaning as its opposite, with the characteristic of bestowal.

This is our entire evolution: From above the Light operates all the time, and from below the Reshimot are revealed more and more. And so every year, every day, every minute, we experience more and more powerful new desires and thoughts, greater and greater possibilities; only we don’t feel it.

Therefore the ego will grow constantly. We only need to equip ourselves with tools for its correction.
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From a lesson in Russian, 2/2/2014

I Am The Only One Who Is Ill

Question: What is the correct way to pray when I see that a friendhas a problem and I want to ask on his behalf?

Answer: It says: “He who prays for his friend is rewarded first.” Indeed I don’t need to pray for the friend because he only seems ill to me.

Yet I cannot perceive this corruption as my own, and I am not close enough to the friend to feel his pain and his illness as my own. So I pray for him as if he is external to me.

Therefore, “He who prays for his friend is rewarded first,” because I am actually the one who is ill if I see a sick friend. And that’s why I need to be healed, and not the friend who only seems ill.

Correcting myself means, seeing all of creation the way it is in the eyes of the Creator: seeing the whole world from the perspective of a person who is fully corrected in his desire to receive, which means that all his vessels are in order to bestow.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/14

Direct And Indirect Manners Of Correction

If I see negative things outside myself, it means that I have to correct myself and then I will not see anything that is bad or negative. A friend who has troubles will seem very successful to me.

In the article “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator,” Baal HaSulam says that we see the friends as losers, ill, unsuccessful, etc. But the moment we correct ourselves, we will see that they are healthy, rich, and successful. This means that I actually have to correct myself.

But there is another way to help them become healthy, rich, and successful. I correct things by approaching the friends and correcting myself directly in them, and then I see that they are successful.

The right correction is actually my inner correction. By correcting the friends and thus seeing that they are successful is an indirect, alternative correction, not a direct correction.

A direct correction is correcting my relationship with the Creator and seeing that the whole world is repaired and corrected. The whole world is my vessel, and if I identify any deficiencies in it, then this means that the problem is in me because everything is already in a corrected state.

The world didn’t undergo the shattering. I am the only one who is shattered; the part that identifies the corruptions is the one who has undergone the shattering. Everything else is whole. I only need to correct myself, and then I will see that the whole world is in the Garden of Eden, in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

But we have been given an easy way to correct ourselves by mutual inclusion: I come to the world and help correct it by taking the shattered parts in the world and raising them asMAN, as a prayer. The world is the lower level, I am the intermediate level, and the Creator is the upper level, which means that I perform the priests’ work. This, however, isn’t a direct correction, but an indirect one by mutual inclusion and consistent actions.

Question: It turns out that I will see the outcome of the correction only after I correct myself internally?

Answer: Of course! Otherwise how can you say: “I see”? You cannot see the correction if you don’t correct yourself. The only question is whether you operate directly towards the Creator or in an alternative, indirect way.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/14

There Are No Enemies, Only Partners

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book The Tree of Life,” Item 3: When the generations have lessened and their sages themselves had started to crave both tables, meaning a good life for their corporeality, too, their views drew near to the masses.

The desire to enjoy was constantly growing, a meter was continuously turning inside, increasing its temperature more and more, until the desire to enjoy flamed up completely. Greater and greater Reshimot were becoming revealed. And that’s why scientists, who used to be idealists and only wanted pure science, as it was until the end of the Middle Ages, suddenly reached out for wealth and praise; they wanted Nobel prizes. This is how they started to sell their science.

And besides, research demanded so much material resources, such great investment, that scientists didn’t have so much money and were forced to sell themselves to the ruling circles, the mighty of this world. It became possible to approach a chemist and order a new drug, stronger than any existing ones.

And the scientists had no choice but to fulfill the orders–this is something that didn’t happen before. First of all, a scientist didn’t need money and was drawn to pure science. Secondly, the clients weren’t that corrupt, ready to destroy the entire world for their profit. That’s how the world has changed and the generations have lessened.

We see today that people need science to get control over others and earn money. Science is not used for the sake of pure science; no one takes interest in this any longer. Nobody would give a penny for pure science, and no one is engaged in it any more.

Scientists are engaged in applied disciplines that can bring real financial profit and as soon as possible. Therefore, thanks to science we reveal that we are slaves of the evil inclination. But for now, only Kabbalists realize this, while those who control scientists pay those whom it’s worthwhile to pay and utilize science only for the sake of profit.

Egoistic desire develops not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively. And now we starting to realize that the entire problem is our egoism that rules over us. Some 50 years ago we didn’t think so. We conquered space, dreamed of trips to other planets and stars, and were proud of humanity’s great achievements.

Then disappointment came, and in our days all the programs in general fell to the ground. The example of today’s conflict in Ukraine, that Russia and Europe found themselves involved into, shows how everyone is dependent on each other. It’s unclear what to do, how to influence each other, since all systems begin to stall.

How can one apply any sanctions if everyone is connected to each other? One state would like to cut itself down from the other, but cannot. Everyone is tied by mutual responsibility, bad connections, and can’t do anything about it. Ultimately, complete chaos and mess begin. They start to realize that it’s impossible to do anything against each other.

If Europe refuses to receive oil and gas from Russia, how will it subsist? And if Ukraine ceases to supply foodstuffs to Russia, who will lose more? The connection is so strong that it’s impossible to cut it off. One depends on the other because it receives from it, and vice versa. Is it possible to fight under such conditions? Only wag a finger and go home?

That’s the result of the development of science thanks to which we acquired dreadful weapons and tied ourselves through international trade.

Question: So it follows that we have rolled back to the cold war?

Answer: This is not the cold war—it’s no longer possible. The cold war means applying all sanctions but firing at each other. But now it’s also impossible. Even sending a spy and exposing an enemy is pointless because if we are so interconnected, we won’t be able to do anything anyway. It’s the same as to install a video camera and spy and listen to yourself.

We we are tied together, you are not an enemy any more, but a partner. I receive foodstuffs from you, while you oil and gas from me, and we can’t make it without each other. What difference it will make if we denounce one another? If I depend on you, then on the contrary, it’s in my own interest that you strengthen your weak spots. Say, Russia will reveal some weak spots in European industry, but it’s not interested at all in harming, rather in fixing these shortcomings.

Indeed, if European industry stops, to whom will Russia sell its oil and gas? And without these sales, it won’t have money itself. Do you see where our mutual dependency leads us to? This is why so many different alliances are made, for everybody depends on each other. Only the exploding egoism prevents them from understanding this entire dependency till the end. And all of it is the consequence of modern science.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/2014, “Introduction to the Book The Tree of Life”

What Is A Name?

Question: What is a name?

Answer: A name is what we call a certain phenomenon in the most appropriate way. There is the Light and a vessel, two factors that are revealed by each other, and their common appearance leads to the expression called “name.” We don’t know what the Light is; we don’t understand or feel it. We only feel the action of the vessel which is opposite to its nature: The vessel, the desire to receive is suddenly revealed in the form of a desire to bestow, and thus we see bestowal on top of receiving.

These two opposite forces create a certain form by connecting in a certain manner, which is called a name. The form itself is the name, although in our world, in my mind, in my computer, the name is already written in a different form according to my software, according to my codes. The form itself is actually the name of the state that is created by the mutual cooperation between the Light and the vessel.

The name is with regard to those who receive, which means that I have to adapt to a certain phenomenon in a certain way and then according to the form that is adapted to the phenomenon I call the phenomenon by name. I don’t know the name of the general phenomenon, but I can thus call part of it according to my vessel, according to my name. So when I say something about someone, it is not talking about me or him but about the extent of my attainment of it.

We should take this into account. We never learn the actual phenomenon itself but only with regard to the person who attains it. So when I attain something, I don’t say that it is something specific but that I attain the phenomenon because my attainment is always according to my vessels, according to the equivalence of form with some part of the general phenomenon that isn’t familiar to me.

We exist in a universe, but now we begin to attain that there are infinite other universes. We, however, attain only part of it and we call it a universe. So the name is never the actual phenomenon but only the part which I attain.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Material Abundance At Expense Of Complete Inner Emptiness

Question: If a higher management operates within everything, why is it said that the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed before its time?

Answer: The Kabbalists of the past let the nations of the world learn the wisdom of Kabbalah and get all of the knowledge that they wanted from there so they could develop the science and wisdom of this world.

Through this, the world could develop in an egoistic way and could reach recognition of evil. But the wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed from the people of Israel; otherwise, it would not have felt that it was in exile. A little involvement with the wisdom of Kabbalah already gave them some illumination.

So on one hand, the Kabbalists revealed external wisdom to all of the nations of the world, and on the other hand, they concealed the internal wisdom. So it follows that the external wisdom was revealed more and more, and the internal wisdom was concealed more and more.

These processes approached each other: Spirituality descended and subsided, and materiality grew all the time. Eventually, we came to such a state that today we have an abundance of materiality; you can do what you want! But there is no satisfaction from this life.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Adaptation Of Inner Images

Question: Sometimes we feel bored, fall asleep during the lesson, or are carried away by foreign thoughts. Why does the Creator prepare things this way? What does He want to show us? How is it possible to keep the same level of intention all the time?

Answer: When you listen to my lessons you should try to feel every word I say to its full depth. Everything is built on your identification with me.

I don’t say anything before I create some images inside me that I then convey verbally to others, hoping that they can hear them and accordingly build that same image inside them. When our images correlate, we start a dialog of inner clarifications of that image: what attributes, merits, and movements are in it.

If you don’t form an inner sensory image inside yourself from what you hear from me, you probably are sitting without your incorporation in me and my incorporation in you. This is the problem. So, after a while, you surely fall asleep, lose contact, and the meaning and feeling of the necessity of this lesson.

There are people who cannot operate this way because they think they know a lot. What’s important for them is to hear me in order to dispute me. I am not offended by them since this attitude is naturally imprinted in them and it is very hard for them to perceive the material correctly. I identify with them, but they should overcome these states because if a student doesn’t form the image that the teacher conveys inside him, he doesn’t learn.

On the other hand, when you have a dialog with your friends, it is certainly easier, simpler, and better for you. Everything between you is built especially on sympathy and empathy. It is much easier for you to communicate with the friends because their language is much simpler than mine.

We try to convey the lessons in the form of workshops. This method helps people feel and connect to the text and the one who wrote it much more deeply.
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Criterion Of The Truth

Question: Where is it possible to find the border between where I need to make personal clarifications myself and when I need to turn to the group to receive help?

Answer: There is no border. It is best to do it in the center of the group. But of course not hammering them with petty questions: which potato to take to peel or which cucumber to buy?

Question: So a group discussion and decision is higher than a private clarification?

Answer: As long as you do not personally put into the collective opinion, then you are accessing the collective wisdom of the group. And afterward, it will pass through and begin to live within you. Then you won’t need to turn anywhere else.

Question: Let’s say that a friend comes up with an idea to come to live in Israel. Can he go to the group with this idea, and whatever the group decides that will be the real criterion?

Answer: First of all, the real point is to make the collective above the personal. These kinds of questions constantly come up. We certainly don’t object to a person moving here, and it doesn’t matter where he is from. But the principle is that he, first of all, needs to ask himself, “Where do I bring the most benefit?”

You know how it used to be in Russia when a person would complete the military academy, he would be asked: “Where do you want to serve, comrade?” and he would answer, “Wherever my homeland sends me.”

If a person is guided specifically according to this condition, according to this standard, to this level, then certainly he is really a valuable friend. But if he wants to move because of the weather or because it will be better for him here, then that is doubtful.

Thus, you need to clarify in your group and in the central group where you are of real benefit and afterward decide if you physically have the possibility to move here. But the main thing is where you will really bring the greater benefit. This is the criterion of truth.
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The Four Phases Of Love

Question: Does love awaken automatically when we attain the fear ofGod?

Answer: We should constantly work on love. The levels by which we approach the goal of creation are called the four phases of love. It says, “love thy friend as thyself.” It doesn’t say that you should fear your friend first and then feel that you love him.

“Love thy friend” means that we always advance towards unity, whereas fear doesn’t lead to unity. We are always attracted to connection and love, and so we are in the process of attaining its four phases.

We speak about the proper attitude towards the Creator, towards the upper system, which responds to us thus helping us start our mutual work with the Creator, and not about corporeal fear that the Creator should give us health, money, success, and a happy life in this world and in the next world. It is only about acquiring the force of love and bestowal. Fear constantly leads to that; it is the fear of not attaining love.

If I already attain a certain level of love, I fear that I might lose it and not advance and not reach an even greater love. We must always yearn for love on the part of mercy and not on the part of Din (judgment).
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/14

Changing The Group Gives Pleasure To The Creator

Question: What does working with “faith above reason” mean?

Answer: Working with “faith above reason” means investing effort, using all kinds of strategies in order to get a vessel that is called “faith,” meaning a desire that is entirely bestowal. Faith is bestowal.

What is called bestowal is that I make a Tzimtzum, stop thinking about myself, and use all the possibilities in which I have the opportunity to make changes in the group, in the connection between us, to give contentment to the Creator through this connection.

A group is a unique device found between me and the Creator. According to how I change it, I bestow to the Creator. Therefore, I think about what kind of changes need to be made in society, in my environment, in order to bestow contentment on the Creator. I perform the action in society but I think about the pleasure that I will be making for the Creator.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/14

Climbing To The Top Of The Mountain Together

It doesn’t matter whether I read The Zohar or whether I am on duty in the kitchen; what’s important is that I constantly yearn for the Light that Reforms and to connect with the friends. I cannot yearn for the Light without unity or connection. It is an essential pre-condition, which we don’t even speak about since it is obvious.

If there is no connection, my yearning for the Light is egoistic and false and is only for my own benefit. Without it we cannot climb Mt. Sinai because from that point onwards we begin to think only together.

This doesn’t happen automatically, of course, and we have to constantly remind one another about it, and this is the reason for mutual guarantee. This is why it was agreed to accept mutual guarantee at Mt. Sinai, since no one can yearn for a real vessel unless all the other parts of this vessel agree to it, the 600,000 souls that make up a whole vessel.

600,000 souls is a symbol of your yearning for reaching the goal by planning it first. The ultimate goal is to reach the level called 60 Ribo, Arich Anpin, and so we have to collect 600,000 souls, which means that we have to yearn to climb to the top of the mountain together.

Question: How do we strengthen the mutual guarantee between us by yearning for the Light while reading The Zohar?

Answer: One simply doesn’t work without the other. This is the principle. Therefore, “love thy friend as thyself” is the general rule and the only way by which we can receive theTorah. Without it the Light will not come, or may come only in a very weak form.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Why Should I Hate Myself?

Question: Why does it say that a person should hate himself and love others? Why should I hate myself?

Answer: Hatred refers to the inclination to be separated, to drawing away from the hated object. It is about our egoistic attributes that disturb us from reaching the Creator and from resembling Him; attributes that disturb us from attaining love and bestowal and which disturb us from attaining connection between everyone.

These attributes disturb me from surrendering, from annulling myself, from losing myself, which means from leaving my corporeal heart and mind and from trying to acquire a heart and mind of bestowal and to live outside myself.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14

Hunters Of The Creator

There are no weak or strong when it comes to the spiritual work because we all are absolute zeros. We must understand what an integral system means. None of its components have any meaning by themselves. Instead, they all totally depend on all the others.

Question: However, it is said that only the strong and the heroes will reach the King’s palace.

Answer: They are strong because they constantly work on building the system between them in order to discover the source of the upper force in the network between them. They must “hunt” for the Creator!

Question: How can you stick to the spiritual work if there are thoughts that distract you all the time?

Answer: I don’t need to account for what happens to me since I don’t know the upper plan, how it shakes me, and what obstacles it may send me at any given moment or, conversely, what different forms of advancement. My mission is to accept all of this and grow stronger.

I climb the mountain to the King’s palace. However, suddenly, the guards appear and push me down and I roll to the bottom again. Should I calculate how they pushed me and why? These are desires that have been revealed from the next higher level that I can’t clarify. It is only later that I discover that it all stems from the mercy of the Creator who is benevolent. In the meantime, I simply accept what I have, which means that I justify every state above reason, above my heart and mind, and believe that it advances me in the right direction.

This is how I regard everything up to the current moment. From now on, everything depends on me, although nothing depended on me until now. So, how I can I be sure that from now on everything depends on me? If I adhere to the Creator, I can determine the manner and the speed of my advancement. However, the actual levels and the states I go through depend on the Upper Light and on my shattered Reshimot (spiritual genes).

My place on the spiritual ladder, the states and the levels I must go through are predetermined already. The only thing that is unclear is the manner by which I go through them and my ability to want to actually advance in order to bestow upon the Creator, which is the only independent factor that I have. We stop each step of the way until we establish the intention to delight the Creator in every state and on every level.

The levels themselves are predetermined already, but the extent of their revelation depends on my preparation. How I fulfill them and the pace of my advancement depend on my work in the group. This determines how I accept the next level when it is revealed, how I accept the Surrounding Light, whether I will want it or not. It may illuminate and reveal my terrible egoistic desires, but I will accept it gladly.

However, it also can be the opposite: that I will not want this revelation when afflictions suddenly hit me. It is easy to talk about that, but when the full ten Sefirot approach you and you find yourself in a dark world surrounded by different problems and troubles, everything already depends on your preparation.

This preparation enables you to change your attitude to problems and see them in the exact opposite manner. On one hand, the world is simply terrible, and this is actually what is revealed on the next level, which adds more and more new Aviut (thickness) to my desire. Then, I discover the world of “the good and the whole,” and I realize that all the afflictions were given to me only so that I would ascend.

When some difficult state is over, we realize how much we have gained, although it seems very unpleasant at first. It is impossible to “awaken the dawn” if we don’t reach a state in which Light and darkness are equal. I don’t care which states come along, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. I agree to stop half-way and not attain anything as long as I delight the Creator and perhaps, without even being aware of it.

Even this is too much! It is enough just to think that I care about Him a little. This is the thin line between this world and the next world.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/14

The Spiritual World Is Right Here

All of creation is in a fixed, unchanging state, but we perceive and discover creation according to the attributes that are revealed in us, just as a person can look at the same thing without glasses, with glasses, with binoculars, or with a microscope. That is, it all depends on the vessels of our perception through which we look at creation.

Everything is assessed only with regard to a person. We are actually in the world of Infinity. I remember hearing a lecture of a local Rabbi in Rehovot in the 70′s who amazed me when he spread out his arms and said: “Here is the next world, here is the spiritual world.” I didn’t understand what he was talking about and what he was looking at. He was a Kabbalist who had attained spirituality.

I couldn’t understand what he meant then; how can the next world be right here? He hardly explained anything more than that, but it really impressed me.

So we are in the world of Infinity, in the only state that was created, and we have to discover these vessels of perception. This is all our work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Man’s Purpose Is To Serve The Creator

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 6: “You were not created to follow the act of the grain and the potato, you and your asses in one trough.” And as the purpose of the ass is not to serve all its contemporary asses, man’s purpose is not to serve all the bodies of the people of his time, the contemporaries of his physical body. Rather, the purpose of the ass is to serve and be of use to man, who is superior to it, and the purpose of man is to serve the Creator and complete His aim.

Question: How can a person be sure that he serves the Creator?

Answer: To serve the Creator means to serve the thought of creation, to do good to His created beings. There is nothing else you can give the Creator except for discovering that He loves you, which is possible only by the equivalence of form. This is called “to serve.” Parents don’t expect anything from their children except for the children’s recognition of how much they love them.

Kabbalists teach us how to do it. If I don’t feel anything but this world, it means that I don’t know anything about the Creator. Kabbalists give us advice as to what we should do in order to reach the goal and there are teachers who teach me.

We can learn from the example of the animal world that a mother has to take care of her cubs otherwise they will not survive. She has to feed them and to teach them how to obtain food so that they can survive. The same applies in the spiritual world that a person knows nothing about. He has to be totally devoted to the teacher, like a little cub who follows his mother because without her he will die. But a person thinks that he is smart and that he already knows everything.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam