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Question: How can we deserve to feel the holiday of Purim internally?

Answer: It’s very simple. Don’t we feel it? When we try to work on the connection with each other we constantly have some problems; suddenly we begin to criticize each other, etc. Or we arrive at a convention and everything seems fine. We invest our efforts as much as we can and after it, we suddenly feel a descent such as we have never experienced before.

As a result, we begin to understand that these are necessary states of cause and effect. Of course, this doesn’t make feel us better. But we can’t get away from them in any way because we still don’t have the Light of Hassadim, a clear intention to bestow.

When we acquire this intention, we have nothing to fear. No matter what happens to me, I am still in the property of bestowal; I rise above my world, above egoism, above what I have; nothing is important to me, I am afraid of nothing. I need nothing but to correct and pull the world to the same state, and in this case a person does not fall.

Sometimes, he is a little tired of his work, but he meets this extra load with gratitude, with an understanding that it’s necessary because it’s advancement. It can’t be otherwise because this is “joyful suffering,” the suffering of love, when we strive to fulfill all the conditions in order to unite.
[101624]
From the Virtual Lesson 2/24/13

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Question: How can I tell Haman from Mordecai?

Answer: Haman is our simple, straightforward egoism: I want, I need. “I want to rule over everyone, I want to be great, I want to…I-I-I.” Moreover, it’s not simply the egoism with which we were born but the egoism that we cultivate in the group.

When we start treating each other nicely in the group, preparing meals together, studying together (we are good guys, we are friends), suddenly something unexpected explodes between us: distrust, rejection, and hostility. This is the secondary egoism that appears as a result of our attempts to get closer to each other, and it’s called “Haman.” We need to reveal it as much as possible and not to be afraid of it.

That is why it’s necessary to prepare ourselves for the fact that there are very serious revelations of egoism ahead of us that work against our connection of unity in a single Kli (vessel) in which we can reveal the Creator. That is, this is the egoism that is clearly directed against the Creator.
[101619]
From the Virtual Lesson 2/24/13

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Question: What is the difference between Haman, the desire to receive for himself, and Esther, also the desire to receive?

Answer: Esther is the desire to receive that operates secretly. It hides under the Light of Hassadim and is necessary only for drawing the Light of Hochma. In fact, the Light of Hochma gets into the Light of Hassadim as if ennobled at its expense: I want only to bestow! Like a guest who, in front of the master, does not want to receive anything for himself even though he has huge egoistic desires, but he restricts himself and only wants to please the master—to bestow.

How can he bestow? Then he discovers that he can do so only if he receives from the master. He begins to weigh how much he can receive. And the part that he can receive inside the Light of Hassadim for bestowal in order to please the master is called “Esther.”

Haman is the entire Kli (vessel), huge desires. It will never be fulfilled directly; the first restriction was done on it, and it will go to Esther. In the end, Esther brings her entire hidden desire under the Light of Hassadim that becomes clothed on the Light of Hochma. That is, by changing our intention to receive in order to bestow, we raise the Light of Hassadim.
[101616]
From the Virtual Lesson 2/24/13

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Question: How should I work on my inner states? Accept them? Rise above them? Ask for something? Demand?

Answer: It depends on your level.

We gradually begin to enjoy the fact that we can be above our states. It isn’t masochism or blind detachment; we are aware of our feelings, we calculate things, and at the same time detach ourselves from them. It is the next stage in creating the Masach (screen): A person tries to be detached from good and evil and to really be objective and independent of the feeling of his body.

Question: How can we hold on to this level, allowing the pleasant and the unpleasant feeling do their work in the vessel, and at the same time observe this from the outside?

Answer: In the Book of Proverbs, it says, “Acquire truth and don’t sell it.” We cannot discern this externally. There are many layers in a person’s calculations and it is impossible to remain at one point all the time until the upper Light makes it “stable.”

But if a person makes efforts and tries, he really wants this to happen. First he is given a feeling that he can “hold on to this standard.” Then, of course, he is sent a feeling of failure and powerlessness. Then it turns out that he cannot even think about it, and then he holds on to this thought, but cannot fulfill it. This is how the four phases typical of this process develop.

But in any case, in the whole scale of feelings, from maximal negativity to maximal positivity, I have to try to hold myself at this point and focus on the goal. No matter what happens, it makes no difference to me. Although the feelings can tear me apart, I rely on one thing only and “lock” myself on the goal.

All this is possible only at “the center of the group“. It isn’t beyond the horizon nor above the clouds; it is only in the center of the group that I find and discover the spiritual world. By working with the group, I begin to discover that I am not surrounded by coincidental faces but by special people who were chosen from Above. Together they make up a whole network, and if I am incorporated in the group, if I am ready and assist it with all my powers, then I am included in Malchut, in the Shechina.

In addition, I get to know the force that sustains it and that is revealed in it, and I want to identify with that force. I influence the friends from below and it influences me from Above, and there, in the group, we finally meet in order to unite. Then it turns out that the group is our common “baby”….
[101634]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: How are the two types of work we have to do connected: the internal and external vessels and desires?

Answer: Different opportunities come along occasionally and you should understand that your inner vessels are in the “center of the group” and everything that you feel internally has nothing to do with spirituality. Spirituality begins at the point where you want to break off from your “self” and to be incorporated in the group and lose yourself there by fulfilling only what is in the mind and heart of the friends.

Question: On one hand, a person lowers his head, and on the other hand, the group influences him, so where do we fail?

Answer: We don’t understand that spirituality is actually hidden in the connection between us. It is not quite clear to what extent so that we would yearn only for the “center of the group” where the Creator is and also the created being, the spiritual worlds, the Shechina, and everything there can be. We are learning how to relate to this central point correctly.

But we have to act and, in the meantime, our actions are not intensive enough. All the friends have to understand that it is only in the center of the group that we build our collective feeling and mind. Ibur (gestation) is associated with three elements: the Light, the sparks, and the vessels. It is only by connecting them that we reach a substantial “volume” in which something already happens even if it is on the initial primitive level of an “amoeba.” We need at least this for the spiritual start.

On the whole, it is about a long process that lasts until the end of correction. It all exists in the connection between us to the extent that the group attaches new people to it.

Even now we already have all sorts people in our global group. If they start to connect, then a kind of a mini model of the end of correction is formed in a qualitative sense, which contains all the possible details of perception, representatives of all the nations, all the streams, everything there is. If we could connect, we could form a nucleus, a beginning of the correction of all of humanity and of all of reality in general, of all the worlds. In this unity there would be all the “seventy nations of the world,” and then we would also bring all the nations in the external world to unity. We would complete the correction for them by collecting all their attributes, which means that we would effectively accomplish our mission and everyone else would join on their own. After all, if we have already corrected ourselves together with the attributes of the world that have been part of us for ages, it is done.

This is what we are required to do, and it is all “the center of the group.”

Question: What prevents us from taking a step towards this connection and to focus on it?

Answer: I can prepare a thousand reminders for myself about the fact that the center of reality is the center of the group. It won’t help. It is because my egoistic desire negates and erases this. There must be a stronger influence of the environment’s opinion that constantly pressures me and by that obligates me to think and worry only about that.

Question: Under what conditions is this bestowal fulfilled?

Answer: We need to make efforts; we need to attack; there has to be the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. Perhaps we are missing one of these elements. A person himself cannot perform an altruistic action and only the Light can bring him closer to that. This means that we need the source of the Light; we need to summon it and obligate it. And this requires the “prayer of many“.
[101631]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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In the News (from Columbia University): “When it comes to having a lasting and fulfilling relationship, common wisdom says that feeling close to your romantic partner is paramount. But a new study finds that it’s not how close you feel that matters most, it’s whether you are as close as you want to be, even if that’s really not close at all.

“’Our study found that people who yearn for a more intimate partnership and people who crave more distance are equally at risk for having a problematic relationship,’ says the study’s lead author, David M. Frost, PhD, of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. ‘If you want to experience your relationship as healthy and rewarding, it’s important that you find a way to attain your idealized level of closeness with your partner.’

“’It’s best not to make too many assumptions about what constitutes a healthy relationship,’ he says. ‘Rather, we need to hear from people about how close they are in their relationships and how that compares to how close they’d ideally like to be.’ …

“The concept could also be extended to non-romantic relationships such as co-workers, parent-child, and patient-provider interactions.”

My Comment: Everything in the world exists resting on the two opposite properties: giving and receiving. That is why the middle line (middle ground) is the main condition to stability in any system.
[101584]

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Fate changes very much as we advance. Each one is given his or her own difficulties, but you should not envy others. There are such internal problems that are not visible from the outside and it may seem that a person has all the best, that his life is successful, and that he has never had any problems with money. However, we do not know what internal or external obstacles, invisible to the external eye, he overcomes. No one gets favors in this.

The more internal the correction, the more qualitative it is, and, thus, it is more powerful in its strength than correction by external problems. It is similar to a worker who needs to labor an entire week to earn the same amount a specialist can earn for a day or even an hour of work. It depends on the root of the soul.

We are engaged in the most important work. It is low, dirty work to correct the world at its most insignificant degree where it is now, and this work is the most special and honorable. We need to feel this, understand it, and give thanks.

We work on our own vessel. All the problems that become revealed to us are the means for correcting the broken unity. Every day I repeat that dissemination is necessary for your own good; that it is your own vessel and you aren’t doing anyone any favors. The Creator does not need your work. You, yourselves, need it first. Otherwise, in what vessels will you get revelation?

However, if a person is stuck inside the breaking and wants to perceive the world from there—not correcting himself—then he is like a child who does not want to grow but demands to be given at the age of two the same things that grownups have. This means that he is delayed in his development and does not use the opportunities that he gets.
[101557]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The festive days of Purim are very good and beneficial. These are the days when, in our world, there are good forces, the forces of unity, that can help us connect and resolve the problems.

We have just one problem: to find the network of forces between us, such a connection in which the Creator would be revealed. We do not need anything else! The most important thing for us is to reveal the Creator. This is our main task, and it can be solved only in the connection between us.

Once we have established a network of connection between ourselves, at least in its minimum quality, we immediately will feel the Creator.

That is why it is very good that we are getting together these days. Try to do all this! You cannot imagine how much we need this! Once the general force begins to be manifested between us, we will get a powerful weapon in our hands, a powerful means for correcting the world, and then we will begin working with it.

After all, we do not know where to go without this, what to control, and what to press. The manifestation of the Creator opens our eyes fully, unties our hands, and shows the path.
[101553]
From the Virtual Lesson 2/24/13

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Question: I have been studying Kabbalah for two years. How can I help my husband join the studies of Kabbalah if he refuses to do so?

Answer: You can help him only in one thing: Do not include him in anything and do not influence him in any way. Just let him feel that you are grateful to him for allowing you to study. Otherwise, it will be worse.

You cannot force a person by putting pressure on him. If he does not want to study, he doesn’t need to. The only thing that is required of him is that he does not prevent you from studying. This is enough to make him gradually move toward it himself. If you do not put pressure on him, you will see that he will gradually become interested in what you are studying. Give him a book that is far from Kabbalah but talks about our worldly problems so that he understands that this is not mysticism or something like that.

In general, act in a hidden manner a bit, like Queen Esther. It is not by chance that she symbolizes a special female feature, a special approach to the man from whom she cannot escape.

Men are more direct, but a woman can quietly and calmly incline him to what she desires.
[101550]
From the Virtual Lesson 2/24/13

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