The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 59: The Creator never left Israel in exile, before He came to place His Divinity with them.
It is even more so with Jacob, that when he went down to exile, the Creator and His Divinity and the upper holy ones and the Merkavot, all came down with Jacob… This is the conduct of the Creator in all the exiles….

What does it mean that “Divinity went down to exile with the nation of Israel“? We think that there exists something, in which the Creator does not take part. However, the only one Force that acts in the whole creation and in us is the Creator or the Light.

Exile is a special state of the creature (the desire He created), which the Light purposely creates in it in order to lower and distance the creature from Himself, to create a desire for Him in it. The Light measures out very precisely all the states of exile, all the problems, emptiness, and misfortunes that will be revealed in the will to receive pleasure. The reverse side of the Light or the Creator, acts in exile, as it is written, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart (Exodus 10:1).” (The Creator was also clothed within the great flood, and so on.)

“There is none else beside Him.” The exile is a form of the Creator’s, the Light’s influence in its oppositeness or reverse side. This influence is precisely measured in all the gradations of qualities, against every desire of every soul, and in all the connections between them.

Therefore, the Creator, the Light surely exists together with the people in exile, constantly influencing and supporting us. He creates this exile Himself, with His reverse, shadowy side, as King David wrote, “Thou hast beset me behind and before (with Light and with darkness) (Psalms 139:5).”

When the Light no longer needs to act from the reverse side, that is, through darkness, when the Creator stirs up and rouses the desire (Kli) to a sufficient extent, and it will truly aspire to the front side of the Light or bestowal, then He pulls the Kli out of exile, to liberation. However, the Light is the only acting force, which influences us from either the reverse or front side. Therefore, the exile is Him preparing us for our liberation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Morning Lesson 4/12/10, The Zohar

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Throughout all of history we, humanity, developed on the still, vegetative, and animate levels. This is the most that humanity has achieved until today. It developed its egoistic desire, which perceives the world through five material senses.

There was nothing unnatural about this development. We simply carried out the program that nature instilled in us, following our natural instincts and desires that awakened in us. But what next?

Now we are finding that all of that development was only to our own detriment. Yet, on the other hand, we are discovering a new, inner, spiritual desire that we did not notice before. We don’t know where it is aimed, but it demands fulfillment. Otherwise we are left feeling empty and feeble, not knowing what to do with our lives from this point on.

That is when the science of Kabbalah comes to the rescue, explaining that this additional desire that we feel “above” all the other material attainments, belongs to the human level, whereas previously we were only fulfilling our animalistic necessities. Obviously, we weren’t just regular animals, but very developed ones – animals that like good music, pretty pictures, delicious food, and a soft bed. Yet, today we are sensing an additional necessity that is beyond the body.

Besides, the entire world around us is becoming more and more threatening. We thought that scientific and technological development, along with self-actualization, would enable us to attain a good life from the viewpoint of the consumer. But even though our bodies do have certain benefits in the modern world, such as several pounds of meat in the refrigerator and some smart electrical devices, nevertheless on the human level, even in the simplest sense of it, we are experiencing greater emptiness and suffering than before.

It’s as if the carnival costumes have fallen down and we find ourselves more unprotected and naked than ever, facing life without knowing what to do with it. Humanity feels lost. All attempts to attain perfection, power, and prosperity (at least in the material sense) have only led us to greater problems.

What we need is a new, higher-level understanding of ourselves and our lives. Otherwise we won’t be able to advance. This is why the science of Kabbalah is coming and offering us a solution.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 163
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Today humanity does not know how to continue developing further and how to solve the problems that arise. More and more, these problems are felt in a confusing manner, as blows coming from blind fate. In the 21st century the media is brimming with predictions of the future, fortune-telling, and horoscopes. The fact is that we live in a world we do now know, but today we are attracted to predictions that aren’t based on blind faith, like the generations of the past, but that come from realizing one’s weakness in the face of nature.

Faith in higher forces that govern the world was passed from faith to science, which sought to gain mastery over nature. But at the summit of scientific development, people came to understand that they don’t have any power over nature and their fate. Thus, they are starting to search for the Source on which they depend.

In the article, “Exile and Redemption,” the section “Congruity and Unity between Torah [the science of Kabbalah] and Blind Faith, and the Development of Human Calculation,” Baal HaSulam explains that humanity will inevitably grow disillusioned in trying to solve its problems. People will then accept Kabbalah as knowledge, sent from Above, about how to correct oneself and the world.

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In the News (From Vesti.ru): “Starting April 1st 2010, schools in nineteen Russian school districts will begin to teach a new subject: The Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics. The curriculum covers the four main religious movements, world religions and secular ethics. …Study content includes topics like love, friendship, guilt and forgiveness. The subject breaks down into six blocks: Orthodox culture, Islamic culture, foundations of Buddhism and Judaism, the study of world religions, and secular ethics. …Parents will choose what classes they want their children to take, and the students will be placed accordingly.”

My Comment: Religion has always led to hatred and wars, terror and separation. The Creator gave only one decree: the commandment to "Love thy neighbor as thyself." All other laws are only implementations of this one, general law of nature.

All religions and beliefs are inventions of the human ego. That is why they cause opposition, evoke hatred and speculation of excess, buying off hell and accepting cash for an entry to paradise. We mustn’t dress a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Religion is the greatest manifestation of the human ego; it will only cause hatred and a disconnection between the students. See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.” "Our religion" does not mean Judaism: It is the religion of love and bestowal to all.

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #144 “There Is A Certain People”
Everyone must sense that without unity there’s no life. This sensation can only be created by my surroundings, where everyone convinces me and I convince them in return.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 137
The Light is boundless, and that’s why everything depends on the greatness of our desires for our Kli.
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 72, Lesson 26
A spiritual “embryo” is a certain degree of similarity to the Upper.
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Article, “The Freedom,” Page 206, Lesson 1 
A person strives to break free from subjection to others, but he should be trying to free himself from subjugation to his own egoism for the sake of others.
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 510: “And the angel of His presence saved them.” Thus, He was with them in the affliction, since he begins to say, “In all their affliction He was afflicted…” …When Israel are in exile, Divinity is in exile with them, too, as it is written, “Then the Lord your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you.”

The Creator can stay together with the creature only at the times of peril or exile. Otherwise pride, ego, and coarseness of the desire to receive pleasure separate them.

When the creature is in harm’s way, feeling exile or bitterness, it is capable of feeling the Creator and being closer to Him, as it is said: “The Creator stays close to broken hearts.” There is no other way to awaken the creature, approach it, and stay together except for the times of trouble. Being in this state, the creature awakens.

However, if the creature is willing to inflict upon itself “suffering of love,” if it suffers because of the absence of a connection with the Creator rather than the earthly troubles, it ascends and becomes able to attain advanced states. It then lives the life full of blessings and pleasure.

The sensation of deficiency and darkness that the creature experienced while being separated from the Creator does not vanish; it remains within it. This sensation stays in the empty space beneath and inside of it, as well as in all the good that is above it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What should I do if I can’t concentrate during a Zohar lesson for even 5 minutes? I don’t know where to look for all of this within myself.

My Answer: By all means keep searching within yourself for all the properties described in The Zohar. If a sick person were told that this text bears the information on how to become healthy, escape trouble, bankruptcy, and other problems, he would greedily “swallow” the text, trying to absorb every single word of it. If he were scared and sought salvation in the text, he would try to comprehend it even if the book was written in a foreign language.

But the lack of spirituality does not frighten us. Only the environment can bring about this desire within us.

So even if you don’t know where to look for it within yourself, keep looking anyway. Imagine that you are entering a new, dark, unknown place and you can’t see anything. You have a flashlight, and each time you hear something, you point the flashlight around, hoping to find something.

As adults, we study by filling our intellect. But sensations do not develop through the intellect. As infants, however, we evolved through listening and observing, without understanding what we heard or saw. This was precisely why we developed our feelings and mind. We were being told stories, things were being shown to us, but we did not understand them. The connections between things were being explained to us, yet we did not grasp them. However, precisely because of our efforts to understand, we turned from an animal into a human being.

Hence at this time, when I strive to develop within myself new senses and mind, I read The Zohar without understanding what “it” is all about. However, my efforts uncover new abilities within me and eventually I start sensing and understanding something that was hidden from me before.

The Upper World is among us. We only need is to continue developing from being a human of this world toward becoming a "human" of the Upper World. Make every effort to see. That’s how your senses develop. After you start sensing, your mind will start working as well.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/10, The Zohar

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