The Spiritual Commando

Baal HaSulam wrote: I have built for you the order that will help you not to roll backward. And the main thing in this arrangement is the unity of friends. And I give you my complete assurance;this is to say, he really guarantees that this love is true, factual, and actual. …and with this I remind you of the validity of this love and all those useful things that follow after it. And if you are strengthened by this, then without a doubt you will go from strength to strength towards spiritual success. Because the idea is to make yourself like the upper world. This being where you want to enter.

What does entry mean? In what kind of relationships with people do we want to enter? This is our mission that is to be solved between us.

And your friends found here, just as you have been blessed with love between you, so you will continue and will not separate. This will be to that moment when the Creator will rejoice with you and will be revealed among you. He will reveal the world according to you, and thanks to you, peace will be revealed in the world. As it is said, (Psalms 122:8) “For the sake of my brethren and companions, I shall now speak of peace in you.”

All this happens solely and only within the group and not in any other place. And to the rest of the people we disseminate gradually, with soft steps, treating them with “kit gloves,” because only a few people would truly stand up for the idea of love, friendship, and unity.

Therefore Rabash writes for us: Ultimately the people will be united under one leader who will stand with them against everything that comes against them. And this is what we need to understand very clearly, not to be afraid of anyone and to go forward. This is our idea, this is our goal, and this is our faith! Whoever doesn’t like this can leave. We aren’t harming anyone; we want unity and love of the other according to the global laws of nature upon which our method is based. We are not pursuing any other goal.

Without a doubt these are strong people, with a spirit that is as strong as steel, who will not be moved even a single step backward. These are first-class warriors who understand the meaning of creation and how to act to the degree of their advancement.

And nothing more is needed. We always get as much as is needed in order to do the right action at that moment, and if we do more, we might do the wrong thing. Like a little child that they let play with blocks but not something like an electric screwdriver, as this is not for him. It’s the same thing here; there is nothing to blame the Creator for, for not giving us the tools for our development. He gives them precisely to the degree that we will not err and will not harm ourselves and others.

And they have only one mission, to win in the sacred war for the sake of the Creator. This is to say, to build relationships between us like these (instead of hatred, love), where the Upper Light illuminates us and brings us victory, so, the Creator is the one who fights. We prepare the ground. Therefore all of our life, all of our existence is called “preparation,” and the Creator is the one who will finish it.

Rav Kook, the great Kabbalist, the first Chief Rabbi of the land of Israel, a member of the same generation as Baal HaSulam, (they were very familiar with each other), writes: Oursoul is great. It is strong and mighty, it shatters an iron wall, it explodes mountains and hills. It is broader than infinite space, it is impossible to shrink it, it must spread over all those millions of our Israeli souls on all their levels, in all of the cities where they are found, and in all the depths into which they have descended, our soul is extended towards all, all of them, embracing them all, all will be revived and encouraged.

This is essentially that aspiration towards which we turn, the “spiritual commando.”

The main thing is to understand that at each and every moment I’m given exactly what I need in order to advance to my next level. And then I only need to invest my small efforts in order to unite with the others over the background of all of those various problems or circumstances in which I am found. Everything is found in our hands and we lack nothing other than mutual support.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 6

The Truth Is More Precious Than Life

Question: In our times, when we experience new problems from all different sides every few seconds, and all we do is battle with them. what special means are offered by Kabbalah that do not exist anywhere else?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah explains where all this evil comes from and the reason for our bad states. It asserts that evil does not come from somewhere on the outside, from other people or circumstances, it points directly to the inside, telling me: “You are the cause of all evil!”

A person finds it very difficult to agree with this so one immediately pushes Kabbalah away. However, after Kabbalah points to the cause of evil, it explains that there is just one chance to reach goodness: by correcting the evil in oneself to goodness. And the good isn’t for me, it is for all the others!

So not only do I need to admit that all evil is inside me and to correct myself so that others receive the good, I also need to enjoy this without feeling my state and only worrying about how good others feel. Who will buy such a methodology?!

This is why it is only appropriate for those in whom there is a point of truth, and due to their nature, they are unable to remain in a lie any longer: They need the truth no matter what! This demand comes to a person from nature and not because he is so special and such a great hero.

It’s simply that the desire to reveal the truth becomes more important to him than all the other aspects of life. A new desire to reveal the truth suddenly is born in him; this desire was not there before. Meanwhile, those who just have the one previous desire for our world are willing to live in a lie. So they run after everything that contributes to this lie by satisfying their egoism. Only those people in whom a desire for the truth arose, which they are powerless to suppress, accept the method of Kabbalah with gladness. After all, they have no choice; nothing else will help them. And such people advance.

However, if a person is still able to consent to some compromise, he will run away. We cannot blame or scorn him for this since you would have done the same thing if you were in his place… Such is nature: The stronger of two forces outweighs the other; the mechanics is very simple.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Sanctifying The Time

Question: Why must we go through so many troubles if we prepare ourselves properly? After all, we want to hasten time and go through all the bad things internally.

Answer: Hearing about troubles and feeling them are two different things. We must clarify all the levels, both to their negative depth and to their positive height. It is impossible to avoid these states. The only thing we can do is to go through them at a different pace. If we hasten time, we feel them differently.

It isn’t about how quickly I perform a certain action or a movement. Hastening time means pushing myself with the help of the group faster than the inevitable force of advancement obliges me. I am like a horse that wants to precede its rider, wanting to advance toward the goal by myself.

However, the goal is Hassadim. There is the Light of Hochma. There is a vessel of the desire to receive, and what is lacking is the Light of Hassadim that prepares the vessel in order to receive the Light of Hochma.

However, where do I get the Light of Hassadim? If I really want it, the spiritual system will work and provide me with everything that I need for correction. Everything will be filled and the Creator will be revealed to me.

So, I can receive the recognition of the importance of the Light of Hassadim from the environment or in other words, the goal of creation, bestowal, and love, which areHassadim. There is no other way. Only the right environment can influence me so that I will want it, although, naturally, I don’t want any such thing. The environment can persuade me by making me feel shame, lust, honor, envy, and so on. It is because they “take a person out of this world” into the next world.

The main thing is constantly to be in the right environment, to improve it, and to incorporate in it. There are no other means.

The environment is the teacher, the group, the books, and our activity in this framework. So let’s all incorporate in it over our heads. This is what all the Kabbalists say.

Question: However, I can do that only if I fear a terrible blow, great troubles.

Answer: So, let me be driven by fear. It will be the first level of true fear.

I certainly don’t want any terrible trials but the moment I switch to a higher frequency and run forward before the stick, my reality changes. It isn’t just about hastening my advancement, as it is written, “Israel sanctifies time.” Notice that the sources refer only to sanctifying time and not to “hastening time.”

When I sanctify time, I feel it differently, in the vessels that I strengthen. It is true that now I feel the exiles to their full depth, but I constantly prepare myself by the Light ofHassadim, respect the states that I go through, and enjoy them since they already illuminate flashes from the end of correction, and I already understand differently and see things differently. I was like a beaten animal before and now I am a human being who is about to undergo an operation, understanding that it is impossible to get better without it, or as it is said, by “taking preventive steps.” So, one way or the other, I will take the medicine, but the whole point is when: before or after the attack?

Humanity is constantly ill but only after many attacks does it begin to think about where it can find a remedy. It takes a long time before people agree to accept it to some extent.

In the meantime, the medicine includes both the feeling and the understanding that I must experience the illness. As a result, I begin to relate to it as to Hesed (mercy) and I “bless the evil just like the good.” Only now after having received the evil in the Light ofHassadim, am I capable of doing so.

It is just like Abraham blessed the Creator when he found out that “your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs.” Is it pleasant to hear such things? You cannot go through such things without advance preparation elevating the greatness of the goal, from where the Light of Hassadim shines on me. It illuminates precisely when I keep thegreatness of the goal.

Otherwise, I will not be able to overcome the troubles. Not even Abraham, Superman, or Wonder Boy can do so since it all depends on the support from above. No one excels in it in any way. On the contrary, everyone is a rag. Everyone is a shattered desire to receive, and they all need support.

If we speak about great people, it is only because the Creator arranges them that way, from the one that we perceive as the greatest to the one we perceive as the smallest.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Outline The Direction From The Start

Baal HaSulam, the article, “The Peace”: …anyone can see how a large society such as the state of Russia, with hundreds of millions in population, more land than the whole of Europe, second to none wealth in raw materials….And yet, go and see what has become of them.

…because judging by the wealth of that country and its plentiful population, it seems unreasonable that it would come to that. But this nation has sinned one sin which the Creator will not forgive: that all this precious and exalted work, namely bestowal upon others, which they have begun to perform, needs to be for the Creator and not for humanity.

Question: What does “for the Creator” mean?

Answer: First of all, this is not talking about religion. The concept “for the Creator” means: I build the Kelim, the desire to reveal the broken vessels in the perfection of the Higher Power. It is not just building a perfect social system; rather, there is still the addition of the first original, primordial power of the Creator, which is what I discover.

In other words, I discover another unique phenomenon in addition to the relationship between the Light and the Kli. These relationships are available to me today: I have a body and the vital force within it. But this is not enough. It is not enough that I feel good, vibrant, healthy, and open to the world; in addition, I need to feel and perceive the higher level, the one who created me and constructed all of the circumstances of my life. I must discover Him and reach adherence with Him in order to give Him contentment. And then He will give me pleasure and together we will discover this mutual benefit that is called the “point of adherence,” the “drop of adherence.”

And this is the goal. Gradually we clarify it and are directed towards it more precisely. And conversely, if we are not directed towards it, then this entire chain of correct calculation doesn’t work; and we don’t attain the results.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/08/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace”

Links

The sages said: “A person should always be involved with Torahand Mitzvot even though it is Lo Lishma, for from Lo Lishmaone comes to Lishma.”

In the article “613 Recommendations and 613 Commandments,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar explains to us that a person consists of 613 desires, and to correct them we do the 613 commandments. After all, this is specifically what we were commanded to do: to correct each and every desire and use them for the sake of bestowal.

In general, the desires or the commandments are divided into 248 positive and 365 prohibited Mitzvot. On the “forbidden” desires we must have to impose a restriction(Tzimtzum) and not use them. And with the 248 Mitzvot (desires), we need to use them as reception for the sake of bestowal. And that is how the person corrects all his 613 desires for the sake of bestowal: part of them through action and part of them through inaction.

The Light that Reforms corrects all the desires. Once it was Ohr Pnimi (Inner Light) that filled the desires, and after that it was removed from them and was left outside as Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). Now all the desires are corrupted with an intention for the sake of reception, but we can link them with the Ohr Makif so that it will influence them and correct them with an intention of being for the sake of bestowal instead of being for the sake of reception. And after that, to the degree of the change of intention to being for the sake of bestowal, that Ohr Makif will enter into the desire in the role of Ohr Pnimi.

In this manner we serve as intermediaries, as “links” between the Ohr Makif and the corrupted desire. This is our work.
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Buy The Truth And Don’t Sell It!

Question: It says: “The reward is according to one’s sorrow.” But why should one suffer and feel sorrow, shouldn’t the Lord’s servant be glad?

Answer: I don’t see that my students are constantly happy as if they are at their wedding with the Creator. We operate against our desire and this requires great efforts in constantly being focused on connection, on annulling ourego, and on the intention not to think about ourselves.

We are forced to exert ourselves without any compensation in the egoistic desire to receive with which we work. But I have made an effort, burnt calories and both my body and my soul demand a filling in return. But I don’t get anything; so how will my body be able to go on working without any compensation? After all, it’s a machine, both a physiological and a mental one that must receive a filling, fuel.

I am told that I will receive a filling only if I ask for the chance to work without a filling. But I still want to receive something for myself, and so my exertion is accompanied with sorrow. It’s because I have to give up my ego, give up my reward, and I have to think about someone else instead of myself every time. I see that I cannot do that, and so I turn to the Creator. But until I turn to Him and until He responds, I have to go through an unpleasant state…and that is a rather difficult time.

When a person first comes to the group he is happy and is ready to move mountains, to do anything. Later, however, we suddenly see that he cools down and we see less and less of him; instead of sitting in the front rows, he draws further away and gradually gets closer to the exit, until he disappears completely.

It says: “a thousand enter a room and only one comes out an instructor.” In our times it isn’t one but many more, but this principle is still true. It’s only those who can give up everything and say that they don’t care about what would happen to them because there is no other truth and so they are here! This is called “buy the truth and don’t sell it!” But there aren’t many such people and it depends on a person’s desire, on the point in the heart that the Creator has given him.

A person can also pray to the Creator and ask, although it’s very difficult and complicated. If a person has not received the desire to receive, the point in the heart that helps him reach the goal of creation from birth, then he can still turn with a strong enoughprayer to be empowered, despite the weak point in the heart that he has. It’s as if he skips from one generation to another, from one life to another.

You can now receive directly what you were supposed to receive in a few more lives according to the general plan, by returning to this world, living and suffering in it, dying and then coming back again, by the great effort of your request—like you are able to jump through time.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Pregnancy Is A Sacrifice For The Child’s Sake

Question: What does “the upper descends to the lower and becomes like him” mean?

Answer: When the upper descends to the lower, it does not mean that an elephant turns into a fly. If it were so, it would not be a “descent” but rather a qualitative transformation. “Descending to the lower” means that one’s AHP acquires desires, thoughts, and actions that are oriented solely to the wellbeing of the lower.

When a woman becomes pregnant, her womb starts working as a system that ensures the development of a drop of semen. It doesn’t turn into a drop of semen but it becomes a place intended for its growth. This implies “a descent of the upper to the lower” because the mother is completely devoted to her child in her intentions and thoughts. The lower defines the upper’s goals and forces so that the upper only acts for the sake of the child. Complete self-denial of the upper for the sake of the lower means that it descends to the lower and becomes similar to it.

A mother has to diminish herself and adjust herself to the lower. Her womb obtains all the qualities that are necessary to absorb a drop of semen. A womb is a very complicated live system that is regulated by multiple processes. Even now scientists do not understand exactly how it operates. It’s a divine mechanism that unites the upper and the lower.

The upper descends to the lower and turns into it, meaning that it acts only for the benefit of the lower, solely for its sake. The lower outlines the upper’s actions. Similar to a child who sits in a stroller and points out to his mother where he wants to go and she pushes the stroller forward as its engine. It means that the mother serves her child and becomes like him. She clings to his desires and implements them through herself.

All systems starting with Malchut of the world of infinity to the very last state that takes care of a drop of semen are oriented only towards the benefits of the growing fetus. It means that the upper becomes similar to the lower and that the Creator acts for the benefit of creation.

A uterus is an extremely complicated divine mechanism that takes care of the fetus and is capable of growing a human being from an informational gene (Reshimo). This system embraces everything: developmental programs, production of necessary materials, creating thousands of essential conditions…

We have to conscientiously, knowingly, willingly, and voluntarily go through the process of spiritual conception and growth that we see in nature. It means that the entrance of a drop of semen in the correct place inside the upper’s womb should be done voluntarily. We must be ready to yield ourselves to the guardianship of the upper. In order to have our spiritual semen fertilized, we should work hard for many years.

The process of conception is so significant that it embodies the concept of connection in nature in its entirety. It symbolizes our unity and dissemination. That’s why we study it in the eighth part of The Study of the Ten Sefirot about linking of the lower to the upper and to the upper upper. This mechanism is inherent in the very core of our lives and shapes our advancement.

In relation to the group and the Creator, we are always the lower. There are others who are considered lower relative to us, and in relation to them we are the upper. This is how the system appears: lower, upper and upper upper.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/23/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Without It There Is No Life!

If the Light comes from above and gives its power to the lower part (AHP) of the upper level that is under the 2^nd restriction (Tzimtzum Bet) to return to the 1^st restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), it begins to operate. Then this Light also enters the upper part (GE) of the lower level and corrects it. It turns out that AHP of the upper adheres to GE of the lower and they become one whole.

The Light operates them by providing each of them with a Masach (screen) and both of them together by turning them into one whole structure of the ten Sefirot. Thus, all the levels are connected like in a chain, as each enters the other with its part. Otherwise, they would not be able to connect.

Absorption is when every part enters the other, like two pieces of metal that enter each other or two liquids that mix. There are different types of connection as each part gives to the other and receives from it and thus they create something new. Without it there is no life!

In fact it is very difficult and complicated to understand because this is actually the essence of life. Each part enters the other and annuls itself. It is at the point that one annuls itself that it can feel the other, perceive and receive it. It looks for the place where the other has annulled itself in order to penetrate it. This is a mutual, deep, inner penetration which is very complex and as a result each side complements itself: one byGE and the other by AHP.

Thus the upper and the lower levels acquire a new common Partzuf. Two created beings can create a third common Partzuf between them.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/08/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot