Question: During the Congress, how can we keep from forgetting that the Light influences us if we work correctly, that darkness is an integral part of the work, and the group is what holds us up during a period of darkness?

Answer: Before such a big Congress as we are to experience in a few days, as well as during and after it, a person goes through various states: ascents and descents. One should be happy that changes are occurring in him. And the more rapid and intense these changes are, the better it is.

Our only concern should be uniting with others instead of searching within ourselves and analyzing our feelings. We should constantly try to merge with the common field, and place ourselves under the influence of the group without any extra reasoning.

Set aside all the clever discernments for now. The Congress is not the time to sit alone in a corner and check what this or that state means. Otherwise there will be “more talk than action.” At a time like this, actions are of the greatest importance, as it is written, “We shall do and we shall hear!”

Everything at the Congress will depend on how much you include yourself in the group like a little child who is among adults. He doesn’t think with his head; he just wants to imitate them. As they laugh, I laugh. As they cry, I cry. As they listen, I listen. And I do this because I want to receive inspiration from them! Then it will not matter who is a beginner and who is knowledgeable and experienced; who is small and who is big. Just try to tune into the environment and you will feel how you receive the power of bestowal above your reason.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/10, “And There Was Evening And There Was Morning”

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Kabbalah TV Channel 66’s Kabbalah for Beginners, “Recognition of Evil”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Life’s Meaning

Indeed [the question about the need for all of us to study Kabbalah vanishes], if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question… This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, “What is the meaning of my life?” In other words, these numbered years of our life that cost us so heavily, and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them, to complete them to the fullest [in vain!], who is it who enjoys them? Or even more precisely, whom do I delight?

It is indeed true that historians have grown weary contemplating it, and particularly in our generation. No one even wishes to consider it. Yet the question stands as bitterly and as vehemently as ever. Sometimes it meets us uninvited, pecks at our minds and humiliates us to the ground before we find the famous ploy of [forgetting about it and] flowing mindlessly in the currents of life as always.

3) Indeed, it is to resolve this great riddle that the verse writes, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” [This can be done with the help of the science of Kabbalah as the method of the revelation of the Creator and thereby also resolve the mysteries of our entire life.]
– Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Items 3,4

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The first man was created with only bestowing Kelim, Galgalta veEynaim. He did not have desires to receive, the AHP, for he still needed to acquire them. And he did not simply need desires to receive, but desires that are ready for correction, meaning desires that include sparks of bestowal.

There is no need to correct the Galgata veEynaim since this is not a person; it is an angel in the Garden of Eden. What was needed was a person with a broken soul, with all the preparations for correction, and this is why the breaking occurred.

However, breaking alone was not enough since a person does not feel that he is broken – he was born this way! Being broken, he has no contact with the Light relative to which he could measure himself and realize his state. Now he needs to gradually accumulate the definitions inside himself in order to understand that he is broken. And he does this due to two components: his desire to enjoy and the spark of bestowal. They both need to be cultivated.

He engages in this until by checking one against another, he reaches a state of disappointment. Then he can begin the correction in order to become human.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/20, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And There Was Evening And There Was Morning”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Lech-Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 96
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7, Item 8, Lesson 14
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 21, Lesson 18

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If a person’s actions are directed at uniting with the friends, he very quickly discovers the need for direct connection with the Creator who should aid this unification. Every action should lead us to the correction of the breaking, to unity among us, and then the need for the Creator’s influence for the quality of bestowal and love will manifest in it.

Thus, three components of our state – the Torah, Israel, and the Creator – are revealed. The Torah is the force that creates the desire (the world is created through the Torah), the force that corrects the intention of the desire ( the Light that Reforms), and the force that fills the desire (pleasure and wisdom, the goal of creation). “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the general rule of the Torah. Israel (one who aspires to the Creator, the soul) is the common Kli (the unification of souls, Shechina). The Torah is the Light, the force that corrects. The Creator is the inner source of this force.

Together we create the condition for unification and a mutual guarantee. We prepare the place for the revelation until “the sons of Israel cried out from the work,” that is, when we require His help. We see the comparison of the society and the Creator in almost all of the descriptions in the Torah. Without the society, we are unable reach the Creator. Therefore, the group is the means. It is the Shechina, Knesset Israel (Assembly of Israel), the collection of souls which ask not to stay in the dust (egoism). All the articles state this.

A person forgets about the need for connection with the Creator since this goes against his nature. However, this connection will appear in our nature if we unite into a group. If I am not connected to a group, then I am not aiming at the Creator and will not find the direction to Him.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, Article, “On My Bed At Night”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 20: Because of the sin with the Tree of Knowledge, the impure forces were given control over man. This is why the order of the universe is very confused. Sinners beget evil, decreasing the Light’s abundance for the people. This naturally leads to destruction and suffering. But if they increase the abundance, then the separation for the receivers increases even more, as the sages said, "If a person has one hundred coins, he wants two hundred, and if he has two hundred, then he wants four hundred."

It is man’s nature to always chase pleasure, but by doing so he only increases his desire to receive. All of life is an endless pursuit of pleasures which you can never attain. And the small bits of fulfillment that we do receive are given to us so we would keep pursuing and increasing our desires.

It seems to us that we run after pleasure, but we are running after even greater desire! We barely touch our object of desire, and the next moment we feel that we need twice as much! When we experience pleasure for a moment, we increase our desire two-fold, and thus the pleasure itself turns into desire. This continues on and on until we grow disillusioned.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Creator’s Guidance Is Purposeful

This [purposeful guidance] means that the corrupt [egoistic, natural] conducts in the states of humanity are the very ones that [to the extent of their correction] generate the good [corrected] states. And each good state is nothing but the [ripening] fruit of the work [correction] in the bad state that preceded it. Indeed, these values of good and bad do not refer to the value of the state itself, but [only] to the general purpose: [the state is is not evaluated by itself, rather] each state that brings humanity closer to the goal is considered good, and one that deflects them from the goal is considered bad.

By that standard alone is the "law of development" built—the corruption and the wickedness [egoistic evil] that appear in a [any] state are [also] considered the cause and the generator of the good [perfect] state so that each state lasts just long enough to grow the evil in it to such an extent that the public can no longer bear it. [That is, it depends on the society’s realization of evil, time that can be hastened by explanation, upbringing, and education.] At that time [after realizing evil in itself and resolving to correct it], the public must unite against it, destroy it [the egoistic evil in itself, its relationships], and reorganize in a better state [particularly] for the correction of that generation. [Without trying to skip over any successive periods of development.]

And the new state, too, lasts just as long as the sparks of evil in it ripen and reach such a level that they can no longer be tolerated, at which time it must be [involuntarily] destroyed and a more comfortable state is built in its stead. And so the states clear up one by one and degree by degree until they come to such a corrected state that there will be no sparks of evil. [There will be nothing to correct, and this state will be recognized as final correction.]
– Baal HaSulam, Article, “The Peace”

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