Today there will be a Unity Evening in Beer Sheva, Israel; with every meeting such as this we ascend one step higher. Even if the event is not very big in size, it always adds to the previous one.

We do not feel how our efforts accumulate, but the same thing happens in our earthly development when we have to carry out many actions in order to make a visible growth spurt. It’s just like the escape from Egypt: It happens unexpectedly, hurriedly, and in darkness.

That is why today’s event is so important. Without a doubt every subsequent event is deeper since it is supported by all the previous states. Therefore, it ascends higher than all of them. If we unite all of our previous states together, then every subsequent state will be bigger than the rest, and it doesn’t matter if we feel it or not. The action is not evaluated according to our sensation.

Let’s hope that we are already sufficiently prepared so that after the event we will be able to overcome the descent like an old man who walks hunched over, always checking in advance to see if he has dropped something.

In the same way, we now have to decide that we are ascending and never falling again! “One only ascends in spirituality and never descends.” We have to be ready to overcome all of the weakness that will be revealed to us after the meeting and unity, and the way to do so is by faith above reason. Let’s strengthen our connection so that afterward we will feel the same state of unity as during the meeting.

The state we attain at the meeting should not disappear! We will inevitably feel empty because we will ascend to a certain state of unity and afterward we will part and fall even lower than before. Now the only question is: What am I doing with this descent? The most important and valuable thing is the negative addition we receive because with its help we are able to ascend slightly higher.

This addition of egoism gives us an opportunity to ascend above it by “faith” – the quality of bestowal, which is above knowledge and sensation. The force to overcome the descent comes from Above if we ask for it together.

Only the “Stimulator” system can help us accomplish this because there we continue our unity after the Unity Evening in order to express ourselves there as greatly as possible.

With every meeting we will accumulate more and more drops of unity until “Penny by penny we will collect a great capital.” We don’t know how much we have collected there until it suddenly reaches the necessary sum in order to “pay” for the entrance into the Upper World. This always happens unexpectedly and hurriedly, like the exodus from Egypt. We cannot know about it ahead of time.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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On one side we have the World of Infinity which is absolute pleasure in all regards: attainment, understanding, feeling, eternity, and perfection. And on the other, we have this world where a deficiency has to be felt in everything.

However, in order to give us an opportunity to exist in it somehow, a concealment of the World of Infinity is performed. In this world we feel the deficiency in a form that is not so tragic despite the fact that infinite abundance is concealed from us. The World of Infinity seemingly decreases itself, one degree after another, creating five levels (five worlds) of concealment on itself. We are situated below all these worlds and thus don’t feel how much we actually lack.

Yet to the extent that we develop, we grow and rise in our egoism. Gradually the Light is revealed to us more and more thereby causing us to experience a greater and greater deficiency and evil. Therefore, if we don’t make ourselves similar to the Light, we will continue to feel worse and worse. It is no surprise that the modern world experiences such cataclysms. After all, the growing ego is making us more and more opposite to the Light.

The difference (Delta) between the desire and the Light becomes more tangible, and as a result, we suffer more. If there was no concealment of all these worlds, we would be unable to tolerate ourselves altogether since we would perceive ourselves in relation to the Light of Infinity. The disparity between us would be so great that it would be impossible to tolerate such a horrible sensation.

Maybe you have already experienced this sensation, and if not, one day you will since everyone needs to go through it once in his lifetime. It is called the “illumination of Malchut,” a feeling of absolute pitch darkness in front of you, something terribly frightening. This is the revelation of the Delta (difference) between the point of our world and Infinity, allowing us to feel this horrible darkness just slightly.

However, all 125 degrees of concealment which separate us from Infinity are created precisely in order to allow us to tolerate our state. Behind all these screens of concealment we feel confident, like a baby next to its mother, unable to do anything on his own yet feeling protected by her. Similarly, we feel protected by all these screens of concealment; otherwise, we would be unable to tolerate the pressure of the Upper Light.

The Light would be perceived as darkness! It is the so-called “Pulsa DeNura,” the blow of Light, when the Light is greater than the Kli is able to accept. It is a very unpleasant sensation since we constantly need to be in balance with regard to all the influences, the good and the bad ones. Even if goodness is given in abundance, if it exceeds the capability of our Kli, we are unable to tolerate it. We know that everyone prefers warm weather to cold weather, but when it is too warm, it also is not good, and it is no better than the freezing cold.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/10, Shamati #34

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The symbol of our upcoming convention is unity, connection, mutual guarantee, and unification of the whole of humanity around the Upper Force which we reveal among us. It will bring us to equality, serenity, peace, and eternity. Through this we cancel death! The angel of death is born from the hatred that separates us. And if instead we draw the spiritual force, the force of bestowal, we merit eternal life. Precisely the hatred between us cancels life and leads us to death. It kills our bodies and gives us a sensation of this world.

This world is a reflection of the egoistic connection between us. However, everyone has to bring himself and the whole world to a different form of connection, when instead of this world we sense a spiritual connection called Assiya, Beria, Yetzira, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the World of Infinity. All the worlds are forms of connection between us; nothing else changes! We will live in our bodies just like now, only our attitudes will change and give us a sensation of a new reality. We’ll feel that we exist in the World of Infinity and cease to feel our bodies since our whole world will ascend to Infinity.

Different relationships and connections between people (from the most threatening to more neutral and benevolent ones) give rise to a spectrum of colors and shades around us. They range from the deepest black to continuously lighter and wonderful colors, such as sky blue and ultimately completely white.

Imagine all of humanity today armed with guns and knives against each other, where each wishes to guard himself from the others with a fortress and to have his cup full there, independent from everyone. And now imagine the complete opposite of that: A completely open world with no boundaries where I and the other are like one whole, and all the people of the world are my children, my neighbors, friends; we are a single organism.

We will begin to feel that without the others, we are losing ourselves. We are starting to learn this from nature bit by bit as we reveal that everyone is connected and interdependent. For the time being, we are reaching this conclusion due to necessity. Later we’ll realize being connected to others is actually good. After all, precisely due to this connection (if we turn it into a correct one) we’ll rise above this world toward perfection and eternity.

I will be grateful that this connection exists since it specifically allows me to change myself and my perception of reality and to enter a different, spiritual, and eternal dimension.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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We need to prepare for the convention in November 2010 ahead of time. Both long-time and new students need to think about how to use the strength that we will receive from the preparation for the convention and the convention itself. After all, the real work begins particularly after such meetings when, in response to the force that we receive, we uncover new empty spaces for work.

They are like waves. The preparation for the meeting proceeds on an ascent, and the convention itself is a steep flight upward. However, after the convention we begin to descend. We then need to come out of it into a new and more meaningful ascent than the one we experienced previously. That is, our task is to turn the descent into an ascent.

Therefore, we should start to think about the preparation for the convention, the convention itself, the descent after it, and how we will properly use that descent to begin the preparation for the next meeting. In this manner, this process will continue like breathing in our body: expansion and then compression, expansion and compression, and so on. It is exactly the way all our organs, such as the lungs, the heart, the kidneys, and so on, work. After all, every living organism lives by absorbing and excreting (see Baal HaSulam’s “Contraction and Expansion” [Hitkabtsut ve Hitrachvut]).

Thus, we need to prepare ourselves right now for the few days of the Congress, taking into account this whole process and looking at it as continuous waves, one after another, that are becoming bigger and bigger. This will continue until they sweep over the whole world, and the world will come together to a great meeting: unification.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, A Lesson On Current Events

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The only opportunity to be in connection with the Upper Force that corrects us is by reading The Zohar. Certainly, the other books also help in this regard, but The Zohar has the greatest force to connect us.

If we could keep the right intention for a longer period of time, we would read The Zohar more often. As a matter of fact, we are still unable to maintain the right intention for more than 45 minutes. For the duration of these 45 minutes, however, we must concentrate on exactly what we desire from it and how we imagine our future state described by The Zohar. It is very important.

In our world a child takes examples from adults, wanting to become similar to them in everything he sees. Nothing else is important to him. He has no understanding, attainment, or anything else and just repeats the examples that the adults demonstrate to him.

In a similar way, we should desire to feel the reality that The Zohar tells us about and imagine that everything is the connection among us. The Zohar constantly describes the connection between us: Zeir Anpin, Malchut, the three lines, limitations, and so on. We reveal all of this among us since our shared desires is the only “place” where revelation can happen. Therefore, we don’t need anything except for a shared, strong desire for the Light to come and reveal the connection among us. All these phenomena that we read about in The Zohar are to be found there.

The action itself is quite simple, but it is not easy to accomplish. It takes time to achieve a state in which I sit in front of a book, imagine that it is talking about the connection among us, and in it, I reveal all these words and actions. Everything is in the connection among us; this is where the Creator is revealed.

It is quite difficult to combine all this, but when you achieve it, the desire to reveal the connection among everyone becomes the only link with the Upper Force. And you have no other means except for the holy Book of Zohar which describes the states that you will reveal.

Then, like a baby that strives to be like an adult, you desire revelation and aspire to it with all your might.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/10, The Zohar

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

Who Is a Kabbalist?

However, Kabbalists who attain [in their sensations and mind] the upper [higher than the attainments within the five physical senses] degrees, attain everything [the whole universe] in its full measure [including the part concealed from people] and merit complete attainment of these levels within, which [and this attainment specifically] is called a “soul.”
– Baal HaSulam, “The Secret of Conception Is Birth”

Each who receives abundance from the Creator takes pride in the Creator’s garlands [fruit of creation]. And he who has merited in the hour of action [self-correction] to feel that the Creator, too, takes pride in him, finding him ready [in his similarity to the Creator] to receive the abundance [the Light of love and bestowal], is called a Kabbalist [he who receives the goodness prepared by the Creator].
– Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham, Igrot (Letters),  Letter 46

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “True Prayer is in our True Deficiency”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 63
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 42, Lesson 17
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 17, Lesson 15
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Any spiritual occurrence in us requires time and development since our egoism is constantly growing in magnitude and quality. Hence, we should think and talk about the emptiness we felt after the recent Mega-Congress.

It is essential to understand why this feeling was given to us! We don’t need to sit and dread our empty existence and lack of strength and desire. This state wasn’t given to us in vain. It is a revelation of new, empty space in us where we have to build the property of Bina. It is a new quality being revealed in us, emerging as a new stage in the four stages of Direct Light.

Spiritual bestowal that used to exist between us has now gone and triggered a new spiritual state. Now we have to discern: What is this new space that emerged within us? We must not let it dissipate; we ought to keep it and start working with it! There isn’t a way to attain bestowal other than to base it on the newly born, empty desire.

An empty space revealed within us and between us is the place where the Creator is revealed (under Zeir Anpin). Now we can fill this space with our intention for bestowal (Hassadim, the property of Bina) and find Him there!

If we fill this empty space with the Light of Hassadim, the Creator will reveal Himself in it like in a photograph dipped into a tub filled with film developer. He is there, in this space; we just need to find Him. If we keep striving to feel Him all together, then we will eventually uncover him. However, we cannot do anything alone. The Creator doesn’t reveal Himself individually, but only through mutual efforts.

We have discovered this empty space together and it belongs to us all even though we may feel that we undergo this state individually. However, it emerged from a collective action, and now we have to work on it together as well. This is what is called “practical Kabbalah.”

These waves that wash over all of us at the same time are a sign of tremendous spiritual progress. It means that the World Kli has come to life like one body that takes collective actions. In this body, new empty spaces are revealed wherein the collective soul will emerge. The time for this is so close!

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabblah Lesson 8/17/10, “The Matter of Fear and Happiness”

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