A question I received: Since attending the Zohar Convention 2010, I have been unable to concentrate on the daily Kabbalah lessons. I forget the meaning of the words and am able to grasp just some of the sentences. What should I do?

My Answer: A person who studies Kabbalah is always advancing. At every moment, a new depth of desire (Aviut), new desires, and new Reshimot are revealed in him. This pertains to everyone, especially to those who participated in the Zohar Convention 2010. They achieved great advancement. And I feel sorry for those who did not participate.

What you are now feeling are the forces that are pushing you to advance further ahead. Because you participated in the Convention, you received a great force from other people, as well as from the lectures, the songs, the dancing, and from everything else that took place there. You devoted three whole days to spirituality and disconnected from everything else in the world. Thus, you put yourself under the influence of a tremendous force that was present there. As a result, your desire is now being increased and you need to work with it.

What should you do? The only way you will be able to handle the power you received while connecting to others at the Convention is if you use everything you received there for the sake of dissemination, instead of simply studying. Studies alone will not help you advance. During the Convention, you received additional forces from outside, and now you, too, must bring them outside. You have received a great force, but unless you use it correctly, it will turn to poison and harm you. This force needs to go through you to others, but if you try to hold on to it, it will turn into poison.

A human being is like a cell in the body where all the substances need to keep flowing through in order to help spread everything further. Thus, in addition to studying, we need to disseminate the materials and the explanations of the wisdom of Kabbalah. You, too, received this awakening from the outside, and therefore, it is not enough to just sit and listen to the lessons. Studying alone is not enough; you have to bestow to others as well.

The science of Kabbalah has been revealed and there is no longer any need to hide this wisdom. You are receiving it together with masses of people and you must continue to spread it in the same manner. In order for a spiritual body to be healthy, you are required to return the enormous forces that you have received.

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A question I received: How much longer will you remain our guide?

My Answer: At any given moment, a student needs to be prepared to be without a teacher, and know that he will have all that he needs. He who advances is one who constantly demands and is independent, in and of, himself. He has the Creator, the method, and the group. All that is necessary has been provided.

However, does one rise to the next level without a leader? The next state is a closer connection among the friends. Therefore, a collective decision is necessary. There could be no recognized leader appointed by the former teacher, or someone declaring himself to be the leader. No one can take the leadership by force, intelligence, or guile.

It’s safer if the group jointly continues on the path and carries out collective decisions by a “spiritual board.” This board doesn’t consist of great minds or recognized experts; it consists of the people who are able to make joint, collective decisions.

Anyone unable to be responsive to the process of the group’s development has no place on this spiritual leadership board. This includes: those that are still blinded by personal interests, those who are unable to subjugate themselves to the group, those who haven’t yet been imbued by the spirit of the path to a sufficient degree, those who make mistakes because they haven’t grasped or tuned into the common direction, those who are subject to outside influence, or those who might be unsuitable for other reasons.

The spiritual governing board needs to consist of people who don’t make mistakes with collective decisions, who aren’t subject to pressure from others in the group, and, more importantly, who aren’t influenced by anyone on the outside. The group has the right and the obligation to immediately expel anyone who interferes with the work or who asserts his own superiority. These are the spiritual laws according to which we need to grow.

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For the last few days, I have been feeling that many people are beginning to understand that our unity is created so that all of us, together, will reveal the reality of our connection with the Upper Force of nature. We are becoming a group which attracts people to the unification and revelation of the Creator within this unity. This is becoming clearer for people.

Our goal is to connect all of humanity to this Upper Force in order to rise to that level. This is already starting to penetrate our minds and sensations. The very initial connection between us and the Upper Force has opened.

We work on developing our unity by participating in daily lessons through the internet. We are following the method that I received from my great teacher Rabash, Rabbi Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag, which is why our group is called Bnei Baruch (Sons of Baruch). Our uniting according to this goal is called Dvekut (merging with the Creator), our final state.

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A question I received: Why is The Zohar very complicated?

My Answer: I spent two years studying anatomy in college, where I learned an infinite number of details and names. And this science only studies individual parts of the human organism, not the links between them. But there are systems within it that we do not even know exist. Though we try, we cannot completely examine the systems that we do know because there is no end to their complexity. Basically, this question is not about The Zohar, but rather about why all of nature is extremely complicated.

The Zohar presents all of reality to us. This includes man, nature, all the worlds (this entire system), and not only its structure, anatomy, parts of this system, and links between them, but its entire operation, function, and its revelation to each one of us according to our position within it.

Our world is like a grain of sand in relation to all the spiritual worlds. There, every element is a billion times greater, not in size, but in complexity in all the connections. The higher the level, the more complicated it is because it incorporates all of the lower degrees.

Where does this complexity come from? In reality, it is infinite. But we need some kind of a boundary, otherwise the object escapes our sensations and attainment. “Lack of boundaries” is like the absence of everything; to me, infinity equals the lack of existence.

This infinite variety of the Upper World emanates from the opposite qualities of the Light and the desire (Kli). They are completely opposite and there is no connection between them. If I wanted to build something between them using their connection, I would get an infinite system.

I am speaking from the point of view of mathematics, and not a spiritual perspective. Take a “1” and a “0,” between these two points there is infinity. It is impossible to connect them. How many numbers are there between zero and one? An infinite amount.

Thus, it turns out that we are unable to perceive this with our brain and with reason in our world. But when we come out of our limitations of the desire to receive, rise above it to another dimension, the desire to bestow, the problem disappears. Everything shifts from the quantitative measure to the qualitative measure. And we easily manage qualities because we perceive them through feelings and not our brain. And our feelings have no problems feeling things that lack precise measure.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Bamidbar (In The Wilderness),” Item 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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There is no middle line in nature. The Creator merely prepared all the conditions for the creature to create a soul on its own by building the middle line using a system of two lines. Therefore, the middle line, which we construct out of two lines, is something completely new.

The gradations of dark and light, and good and evil come to us through sensations of these two lines. However, spirituality is neither the right nor the left line. Spirituality is the middle line, the organ of perception (Kli), which we build from two lines and the Light that fills it. It is an entity that did not previously exist. We succeed in creating it out of two forces.

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A question I received: What is the “Surrounding Light”? Is it a mystical force?

My Answer: The Surrounding Light is the Upper Light present within the connection among us. It just so happens that we don’t feel this connection; on the contrary, we feel separated. It’s as if we are asleep or unconscious and do not sense our corrected state. I am connected to others, but I am no longer aware of it, as if I had fainted after a hard blow to my head.

At this very moment the Light is present within the connection among us. The more I desire to regain my “lost” connection with others, the stronger the Light acts upon me. That is, the Light is as strong as my desire.

I remain inside the system filled with the Light where everyone is united into one whole, but I don’t realize it. Then I start to apply efforts to get back into this system. In a physical world, if I feel dizzy to the point of fainting, I try very hard to shake myself up and to hold on. Similarly, I apply all my inner effort to regain the perception of the spiritual world and recover the sense of my connection with others.

The Light that influences me in accordance with my desire to attain the corrected state is called the “Surrounding Light.” Currently I am in Malchut of the World of Infinity, completely connected to her. The problem is that I have 125 layers or steps of “lost consciousness” compared to the real state in which I am already present.

This desire impacts me only in the event that I want to regain my consciousness. We are like a child who dreams of becoming an adult and because of this desire he grows up.

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New York, May 7th – 9th

You’re invited to join friends from all around the world to discover a new reality together. The World Zohar Convention 2010 is an intensive 3 days of studies and workshops on The Zohar with Dr. Michael Laitman and the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute, open for all who wish to sense the eternal, complete reality.

The Zohar holds the key to discovering the complete, eternal reality, where humanity is united in perfect harmony as one soul, in the shortest time possible. The World Zohar Convention is aimed at giving its participants a taste of this reality, and by doing so, accelerating everyone’s advancement toward it.

The World Zohar Convention 2010 is for anyone with a desire to change oneself and better the world we live in. Students currently studying with Bnei Baruch via Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Learning Center on their own or through Kabbalah TV or the Kabbalah Academy are especially welcome.

If one is new to The Zohar or the wisdom of Kabbalah, then we recommend going through the free introductory course we have available at the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Learning Center. Sign Up For A Free Introductory Course

REGISTER

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A question I received: If a group loses its teacher, can it advance?

My Answer: Everything that’s necessary for the group’s advancement and your spiritual progress is already contained in the tens of thousands of lessons that are stored in our archives. The stronger you unite, the more degrees you will reveal in those lessons. Everything depends on the Kli (the vessel), rather than one who fills it.

As you attain greater unity, you’ll continually reveal new things in all the lessons.  In ten years from now, you will reveal greater degrees in lessons that are ten years old today. Everything depends on the “user,” his sensitivity and openness. You’ll progressively discover new layers in the same materials. Inner changes will allow you to perform continuously deeper revelations. Greater unity will enable you to reveal all the subsequent states in those previous lessons.

The passing of a teacher is not the end. Life continues, a new form of governance comes from Above, and the group continues to move ahead. This is the way it should be in the process of growth.

For example, according to the same principle, we change our attitude to a child as he gets older. With time, he, himself, begins to feel a need to separate. In the same way, a person is given a teacher for a time, and then the teacher is taken away. The teacher receives another mission and the student does too. We need to relate to these changes as an infinite flow of interconnections between Kelim.

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