A question I received: I’m amazed at the profound changes that are taking place these days. Numerous new Kabbalistic groups are surfacing like mushrooms after a rain. How did we manage to bring forth such results through our inner work?

My Answer: It doesn’t depend only on us. You see how many new, serious people are joining us. This means the time has really come and the Creator is drawing people to Kabbalah. After all the twists along the spiral of evolution, they’ve finally arrived at the spiritual gene (the point in the heart), and the Surrounding Light has started working on them. We only need to help them arrange their own environment, group, and entire support system. When we start demanding the Light that Reforms all together, they won’t need the three to five years of preparation that Baal HaSulam wrote about. The correction will come quickly and easily.

Imagine the difference between a person waking from an unconscious state with all of his systems still asleep and not functioning and one waking with many parts and body systems already functioning with only the need to complete the processes. Today, it’s not only one organ that wants to wake up in the non-animate body, but many parts are being revived. So, it is understandable that now there is a greater possibility to regain consciousness. I’m sure that in the near future, we’ll see tremendous changes in the entire world.

The world is in a very dangerous state as the crisis still looms. What a horrible oil catastrophe it is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. We don’t even realize yet its potential consequences. It’s impossible to stop this geyser of oil. Can you imagine what could happen? Right now, a sea of oil is pouring from deep within the earth leading to catastrophic pollution. It will impact not only Florida and America, but the entire world. They’re now considering a nuclear explosion to interrupt the oil passage, but they’re afraid that it may open in other places. We have released evil forces into the world.

Therefore, I hope that, with the help of all our Kabbalistic groups that are forming around the world and the individuals who are joining us, we’ll be able to awaken the forces of good in order to counter the exposed evil. We have to act and correct ourselves. Then, we will definitely succeed. We’ve received the power of the Torah, the Light that Reforms; everything depends on us now.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A question I received: What does it mean to “engage in the authentic Torah”?

My Answer: As Baal HaSulam writes, to practice Kabbalah means to realize it in oneself, to experience it. The Light that corrects us is called the Torah. It is opposite to me and shines from afar onto my Reshimo (my spiritual, informational gene). I evolved in the previous generations according to the chain of Reshimot and arrived to a Reshimo called the “point in the heart.” It awakened under the influence of the Light, and gives me a feeling that there’s something higher than the life I’ve been leading in this body.

All the work is done by the Light that Reforms. It’s the Light that awakens me. Initially, the Light developed me at the animate level. However, now the time has come for me to become human.

I, myself, am not able to act, so I appeal to the system of souls (a Kabbalistic group) and from it receive additional will and additional importance of the Creator, that is, I start feeling His importance and my own insignificance. The difference between one and the other creates additional desire called MAN (prayer). I raise this MAN upward. Basically, my work lies mainly in this. When I raise MAN, the desire to attain the Creator, to a magnitude 10 times greater than it was initially as my point in the heart, I have done my work.

However, this is not yet “studying the Torah”  or “engaging in the Torah.” So far, all this has been preparation. But now, the Light begins to illuminate me with greater power. This is now Surrounding Light – 2. It shines on me differently, in a straight line, and to the measure of my yearning.

The perception of the importance of the Creator is called Keter and one’s own insignificance is Malchut. This means I’m now acting in accordance with the goal of attaining the Creator by arranging my desires into one line. Its two outermost points are Keter and Malchut. The Creator and bestowal are above, and I and reception are below.

Now, the Light comes to me in another, direct form, and begins to collate my properties. It shows me what is more and less important within me by putting everything in order. That is, the Surrounding Light – 2 is well-ordered, and according to this order, it begins reforming me. This means that I’m now “studying Torah” since I’m studying what modifications the Surrounding Light is making within me.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Item 62
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 41
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 26
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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, Article “Which Degree Should One Achieve?”
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There is a goal before us. It may seem attractive to us or not. Our perspective is somewhat like a child who desires what is pleasant in his eyes (sweets) and not necessarily what is good for him (spinach). Despite our reluctance, we have to find and assume the correct form of behavior in order to ascend to the new desire for bestowal, instead of remaining in our current desire for only receiving.

This means that we must accept, above our will and nature, that the goal and Upper Governance is good and necessary because it belongs to a different level, the level of bestowal. And Kabbalists tell us the best way to move toward this goal, the level of bestowal.

The way is simple, they tell us: We must accept facts that are unpleasant to us. We would like to bend the world to fit us, while we ourselves wish to remain unchanged. Yet, the Kabbalists advise us to accept the world as it is, (it is good and perfect; it is just that I don’t see it as such) and annul ourselves.

So, a person walks using faith above reason, meaning above his egoistic heart and understanding, and wants to see the world in the Light of bestowal as it is described in Kabbalah. If we try to see the corrected world, group, and ourselves, we will begin to demand the Light that Reforms. This is why we must examine ourselves and the world each moment, criticize, and walk above this criticism!

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People don’t know what the state of Lishma is, and often use this name to label completely non-spiritual states. They don’t understand that to attain Lishma is a great work, which is impossible without studying Kabbalah, the group, and obeying the rules of ascension explained by the Kabbalists.

In fact, Lishma means that you rise above your egoism and are entirely in bestowal. In the quality of bestowal, you see the spiritual world, and in this world, you exist only for the sake of spirituality. You identify yourself entirely with your soul, but your body still needs to be healthy in order to exist in both worlds. The soul can’t really advance if its other half, the body, doesn’t exist in this world. The soul needs the body until the very last step.

People don’t understand that to attain the quality of bestowal, Lishma, one has to draw the Light that returns us to the source of bestowal, to equivalence to the Creator. Afterward, a person is called “angel”, meaning he is openly receiving the Creator’s orders and following them through. He either “hears” or “sees” the Creator. He uncovers the Upper System, his relationship with the Creator in the Light Hassadim or maybe even Hochma. This attainment doesn’t have anything to do with the quantity and quality of knowledge, but only the measure of attainment of the quality of bestowal and love.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 122

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, Shamati #213 “Acknowledging the Desire,” Shamati #211 “As Though Standing Before A King“
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A question I received: How can I direct myself correctly toward the goal?

My Answer: The Creator gave me binoculars through which I can see my destination in the distance and walk toward it. These binoculars are a handful of souls, which I join and through them recognize the goal. I start moving toward the goal with their help.

From all the souls, the Creator selected a group of souls for me. This group of souls is an organ of the collective soul, the organ to which I belong. The Creator not only selected the group of souls, He also led me to connecting with them so that the group of souls could become the unity of the souls that are intended for me. This unity of souls helps me advance. I attain it by connecting into it, and through it, I attain the general system of the single soul.

I am not yet connected with these souls and don’t recognize them. The entire connection is as if under water. Above the water, I see physical bodies like my own since the Creator brought me to a physical group. The Creator gave me an opportunity to begin entering the inner network of souls through my organizing the physical connection with friends, assuming various responsibilities, chores, duties, and the group statute.

In my intrinsic unity with them, “submerging under the water,” I discover that this group is already fully corrected while I am not. I see that through the group, I am given an opportunity to join the corrected system. Through this group, I am given the opportunity to enter a part of the entire system of Adam, of Malchut of Infinity.

I have to reach the attitude of “love thy neighbor as thyself” regarding my friends, while my attitude regarding all the other people in the world should be to “condone every man.” “To love the other” means to unite with the opinion and the will of this group the Creator has led me to.

I can either choose to accept the group that the Creator has brought me to or remain seemingly “free” (but which in reality is precisely following His orders). Herein lies my free will: to move consciously with the group or by force (seemingly free) like all others.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 1 – 1920

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The only effort we are able to make in our spiritual work is “to plug” ourselves into the group and allow it to influence us. The environment possesess such strength that its size isn’t significant. What is important is the extent to which I consider it as my own.

We already see that those who are close to us influence us more than strangers. There are seven billion people on earth, but I don’t feel their influence as much as the impact of my immediate family which may be limited to as few as seven people.

Hence, if a person organizes his life so that his environment inspires him, it influences him, and thereby annuls the “authority” of the rest of humanity over him. The rest of the world as if ceases to exist. As a result, a person acquires strength, spiritual discernments, and big desires. By this he has the means for advancement.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 1 – 1920

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“Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 31, 32:  …The right line keeps to the Hassadim, and wishes to cancel the Ohr Hochma in the left line, and ordain the Ohr Hassadim alone. Conversely, the left line, which keeps to Ohr Hochma, wishes to cancel the Ohr Hassadim in the right line and ordain only the Ohr Hochma. Because of this dispute, neither of them shines, since the Ohr Hassadim in the right line is deficient of Ohr Hochma, like a Guf without a Rosh, and the Ohr Hochma in the left line is complete darkness because Ohr Hochma cannot shine without Hassadim.

And there is no correction to this dispute except through the middle line, created by the lower one that ascends there for MAN, in the form of the middle line. A Zivug from the Upper Light is made… and it compels the left line to unite with the right line.

The two lines, left and right, are prepared for us from Above, but the middle line is for us to prepare. We raise our request (MAN) for the screen, and thereby achieve correction: The left and right lines come together, complementing each other, and reach a compromise. It has to do with one’s freedom of choice. A person connects into the existing mechanical system of the left and right lines, and begets a new quality that did not exist before: the desire to be similar to the Creator.

I use faith above reason, the desire that is totally independent of anything that may happen. I don’t worry about the left or right line, neither about Hassadim, nor Hochma; my only goal is to unite with the Creator. For this reason I do not perceive it as a compromise (one line cannot annul itself before the other), but only as a means to attain unity. This is why a compromise is possible.

It’s similar to approaching two people having a furious argument and being unprepared to change their opinions even slightly. However, I have no intention to unite and reconcile them. I have a more exalted goal: to attain something higher. Yet, I do this by using the power of both these lines.

I set a goal that is above all: to make myself similar to the Creator and merge with Him. In this case the two lines can merge and complement each other because they feel perfection in relation to this goal. Each of them does not attain what it desires; however, its involvement in attaining this goal calms it down.

The middle line shines for them. It is small compared to them, but it attains the Creator’s perfection. This is a higher perfection than what they could attain on their own because this perfection comes from merging with the Creator.

From the 2nd Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/20, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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