Question: If there is none else but the Creator and I do not exist, then how can I ask Him to become like Him?

Answer: You ask the Creator to become like Him precisely because you do not exist and for now it is all Him. Consequently, you will also reveal the point of your “I.” You only have one independent point, the point in the heart, which He gave you to begin building your independence with it.

Your independence is precisely in your requesting the Creator to make you similar to Him. When you begin to ask, demand to become like Him, possess His powers, then everything that you receive from Him will be on your account. After all, you gathered this desire and realized it. This will be your "I." And all your corporal desires and properties do not count at all, as if they never existed.

Question cont.: But in order to ask the Upper One for help, I must know who He is. How do I build the image of the Creator, which I must turn to, within me?

Answer: The image of the Creator is built with your questions, requests, and contradictions. This form is opposite to the Creator, and His image gradually becomes revealed in it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, The Zohar

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Question: Since after the Convention, while reading The Book of Zohar, I feel as if I have fallen into a black hole. What should I do?

Answer: You should try to climb out of it! Be like a frog that dabbles in the milk it fell into and whips it with its legs until the milk becomes cheese. Then the frog is able to jump out.

There is no other choice. It is written: “Whatever is in your power, do it!”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, The Zohar

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Kabbalah TV Channel 66’s Kabbalah for Beginners, “Israel, The Torah, and the Creator are One”
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If on our path spiritual fulfillment would become available to us as everybody is asking, it would block our desire for spirituality. This is the greatest obstacle on the path.

Hence, I am given a wall that blocks my way. I stand before it, anticipating the wonders awaiting me on the other side. Yet, if such a wall has been revealed to me, it means I am already equipped with a force of resistance so that I wouldn’t quit advancing, but rather would break through this wall.

Even though I cannot accomplish it in one blow and must apply a few more strikes until I break it, the wall will keep cracking and will finally crumble. But I already have the necessary breaking force, the power of attack, or I wouldn’t be shown it.

If we now see the wall standing before us, the wall we have within, in our hearts, it is a sign of our ability to break through it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t show since “obstacles are not placed in front of the blind.” I thought we were able to overcome it, and this is why we made a step toward unity.

Now, we just have to unite thanks to studying and the rest of the work that we do and gradually collect, crumb to crumb, all our efforts in one collective breaking force. We need to do it in order to probably discover again that this force is insufficient to break through, and we have to unite even more.

And thus again and again we will gather more strength and increase pressure until the wall falls. That is the stage of the exodus from Egypt, the very end. This is why it brings joy.

The problem is that right now everyone experiences this wall on their own. Meanwhile, we have to feel that this wall is common for all, and to the extent that we do, we will feel that the force that we are trying to employ to break through this wall is collective as well. In that case, it would be not one person but the group standing against it.

It is similar to fleeing from Egypt: one night, one Pharaoh, one threat, same plagues for all Israel unified as one man with one heart. Nobody is counted separately from the others, and everybody unites together. This is how the group must feel. In that case, despite the frightening height of the wall, we will still overpower it.

That is because when people unite, they discover that they lack the Creator’s presence among them, and without Him, we cannot do! He will become the very force of this breakthrough that will ruin the wall.

Pharaoh himself will assist us. After all, it is he who is chasing Israel out of Egypt and then follows and guides them, as The Zohar describes. A person keeps trying to go back, whereas Pharaoh throws them all out of Egypt as he is a faithful assistant of the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: What should I do if I am constantly finding new flaws in myself while being on this path, as if I am running a lengthy marathon?

Answer: Think of it as a sign of advancement! There are criminals who take pride in their transgressions, and we should learn from them and be proud that we managed to discover these flaws within ourselves, that we are indeed criminals! If I find that I am such in order to assist my advancement toward the goal, I have to rejoice in it.

It is similar to being a scientist who is studying himself and keeps discovering how much is yet unknown and what enormous field of work lies ahead of him. So, he is glad that he has an opportunity to advance and a place to work and explore. We should view it as work in the internal laboratory.

You work as a scientist who is making discoveries and corrections, and you are moving into Infinity, unaware of the final destination point, constantly discovering something new. Treat this process constructively and creatively for you are building new worlds while you are uncovering and reconstructing them from the broken parts!

Do you wish to quickly earn a little money and retire?! Such folks don’t get to know spirituality for it is not meant for this sort. We have to be persistent as true heroes are. A hero isn’t the one who beats another to a pulp but the one who breaks his own ego. It happens specifically by overcoming all unpleasant states thereby finding an opportunity to spiritually evolve and become a human.

I understand that it is frightening for it is written that Moses feared Pharaoh greatly. He fled from Egypt and was afraid to return there until he reached the degree of Bina when the Creator revealed Himself to Moses in the “burning bush.”

Clearly, we have the same fear. But if you are in the group, there is no evil that may rise in front of you and be worth fearing longer than an instant. At first, I get scared when I unfold something unpleasant that I didn’t expect to find in myself.

But if I am connected with the environment, then in an instant, I realize that it is a spring board which helps me to leap forth toward the goal. Alternatively, if you don’t view the evil as purposeful and instead start digging into it and “eat” yourself, it means that you don’t have a connection with the external force, the group.

You see this journey as a lengthy tiring marathon? But that’s what your life is given to you for! You are in this world to begin and finish your correction.

Don’t think that you can get everything done in a year or two, after which you will rest in your spiritual retirement and enjoy the illumination of Shechina. Indeed, it is written that the righteous live in the joyous presence of Shechina, but they are able to do so because they are constantly engaged in spiritual work, raising such powerful Reflected Light, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), that Shechina can tirelessly shine on their “heads,” their intentions.

They work restlessly, as it is written that “the righteous don’t rest in this world or the next one.” What rest can there be if you desire to bestow? There is no greater punishment than being unable to bestow, which is similar to the pain of the mother who cannot feed her child.

Bestowal is the greatest reward. So, do not seek rest.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Opposition of the Study of the Wisdom of Kabbalah

As long as orthodoxy insists on saying, “No! Only Gemarah and Mishnah, no legends, no ethics, no Kabbalah, and no research,” it dwindles itself. All the means it uses to protect itself, without taking the true potion of life, the Light of the Torah in its internals, beyond the tangible and obvious—the revealed in the Torah and Mitzvot—are utterly incapable of leading to its goal in all the generations, and especially in our generation, unless accompanied by expanding the many spiritual roots [in order to achieve the goal].
– Rav Kook, Igrot (Letters), Vol. 2, 232-233
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All everybody talks about nowadays is finding “alternatives”: alternative energy, food, education, another planet to live on, and so on. Everyday we observe that our egoistic approach to this world and society has “expired” and has already demonstrated its complete failure and downfall.

In spite of individual egoism (“consumer society”) we have gradually arrived at the understanding that the whole world is globally interconnected. We also realize that we are not yet well adjusted to it and have no knowledge of where to go further. The world is mutually dependent and thus forces us to connect through common interests and be considerate towards each other. Hence, we gradually begin to regard our habitual egoism as the enemy.

The exploration of ways to get out of our ego leads us to methodologies of “reduction” of our egoism; they simply return us back to previous levels of development. All such methods are based on suppression of or diminishing the ego.

Conversely, the human ego continues to grow. Its suppression goes against nature, and that’s why we won’t be able to diminish it. Such an approach is totally unnatural, and I don’t see how supporters of alternative medicine could accept it.

This is where a genuine alternative to all egoistic world sciences steps in, the wisdom of Kabbalah. As we reveal that egoism is truly the reason for all the evil that currently exists in this world, Kabbalah offers a method of its correction and the construction of a whole new world. Kabbalah represents a real alternative since it shows how to build an altruistic world instead of an egoistic one.

In any case, in the integral and global world, we have to start observing the laws of connection between us and establish balance between humans and nature. We have to become completely united in the system called “love thy neighbor.”

Kabbalah studies the entire system of the universe and explains that by self-correction we manage to cure ourselves and make the whole of nature (still, vegetative, and animate) healthy. We can eliminate all problems and illnesses because affliction and diseases are triggered by our imbalance with Nature.

We are absolutely egoistic by nature, and thus do not possess any freedom of choice and/or any other modes of behavior. Therefore, we entirely conform to the laws of nature. A person can obtain freedom only by rising above the oppressive domination of our egoism. This becomes available to us only by re-shaping our environment because for our egoism, the opinion of our environment is more important than our own.

That’s why Kabbalah suggests creating a society in which we have to “pretend” that we are already in bestowal and love. We understand that it is just a game, but it can still compel us to act so on the surface, as if we have already achieved this state.

These efforts will instigate the hidden natural power that holds all parts of Nature in balance (the life force of any organism), and this energy will alter our egoistic intention into that of bestowal and love. This is how we can reach complete connection of all parts of Nature: people, society, nature, and its Upper Force. Nature pushes us toward this state, and we are empowered to reach it consciously and easily.
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We have done a great job! In the upcoming days, weeks, and months, it will become clear to us what a substantial leap we have made. Never before have we raised such questions and spoke so openly about unification that has been the theme of the recent convention. For the very first time, we have tapped upon the essence of our correction, the wisdom of Kabbalah, and our soul.

It has been a truly radical change, and we will never be the same as before. Now we are mutually connected, but we must keep working at it harder and harder, until we get to see that the Creator is filling us more and more by the minute and that all cosmos, including this world, is permeated with the Upper Light, and we are dwelling in it.

All of the worlds where we are bonded, mutually intertwined like a grid-net, are starting to clearly emerge. We will come to that!

There is the time of giving and the time of receiving. Giving from Above exists and has to manifest itself; all we need is just a little bit more sensitivity to feel that the Creator is filling the world, the air between us, and the entire reality. A bit more subtlety, enthusiasm, receptivity, and openness toward the others, and we shall see that we are living the revelation.

I think everyone will begin to feel that it is possible, that it isn’t some fantasy. Rather, it becomes true thanks to our individual efforts in seeking and finding the Creator.

Try to bring out your inner empathy. What is faith? Faith is a sensation of bestowal. The book Faith and Hope says that “faith is a subtle predisposition, the attribute of a delicate and sensitive soul.” It is what we need: a subtle inclination of an empathic soul.

We must get to feel that this Upper Force truly dwells among us. It is as if we are trying to see something and when we finally manage to get a glimpse of it, we become convinced that it exists and are surprised at how we couldn’t see it until now. If you withdraw your glance yet again and lose focus, it becomes harder for you to find it next time, but at least now you know that it is real.

The difficulty lies in getting to see it for the first time. We have to adjust our vision or, rather, our heart a bit.
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From Lesson 8, World Kabbalah Congress 2010, 11/11/10

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The Surrounding Lights (Ohr Makif) and circular Kelim (Kelim de Igulim) are the means we use to advance and move from state to state in the spiritual space. What differentiates the circular Kelim (desires, vessels) is that they are deprived of the screen (Masach) and do not perform Zivug de Hakaa (coupling while striking) to the measure of their similarity to the Light. Only the screen brings this similarity, connection, to the vessel, thanks to which the Kli (vessel) defines what direction to take on its own.

However, for the time being, a circular Kli does not have a screen that would arrange its desires in a line, from above downward, to the extent of their similarity to the property of bestowal. And yet, the screen-less vessels also live, move, and transform under the influence of the Surrounding Lights.

As a matter of fact, how would we keep advancing from our world through the entire preparation period toward the Machsom and the entrance to the spiritual reality unless the Surrounding Lights were affecting us? What devices would we use? After all, we do not have a screen. Does it mean we would be left at the mercy of the natural flow of events and fate?

On the other hand, if the Kelim still gravitate to the screen and if their point in the heart awakens and gives them the first impulse to correction, to the truth, they become subject to the effect of the Surrounding Lights. These Lights perform according to the efforts of the Kli, its desires and demands no matter how silly they are. In a similar manner, children do not yet know how exactly to evolve but keep growing and developing nonetheless. All of this occurs due to the impact of the Surrounding Lights.

I was led to the group, and I do what looks good in the view of my friends. Having no understanding or power, I still don’t grasp completely what is going on but feel that it is important to me.

Until a person enters the spiritual world, he does not know whether he is dead or alive, how he lives and what nourishes him. We have no idea what the real status quo is until we have come to know the Creator in the smallest degree.

Hence, we are guided by the Surrounding Lights. We attract them and wish for them to affect us. In the dark, without the screen, the intention for bestowal, in the egoistic intention Lo Lishma that inevitably derives from their breaking, we still gravitate toward Lishma, bestowal. Afraid and unwilling, we nevertheless do not ignore it anymore.

Hence, in such situation, we get affected by the Lights that are related not to a line but a circle: the environment comprised of the friends in which we do our work.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

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Question: During the parts of the lesson when we study The Zohar and TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot), I experience tremendous difficulty understanding anything. What is the correct approach to the content so that it would help me strengthen the bond between us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam and Rabash wrote articles, letters, and other similar texts. In addition, Baal HaSulam wrote a commentary on The Book of Zohar, The Study of Ten Sefirot (TES), “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” and the book Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot, all of which are the primary sources we get nourished by.

I drew a dividing line between them for the following reason. We use the above mentioned books as an instrument to draw the Light (Segula). And we read all the other works not only to draw the Light but to also understand the content. In the first case, understanding plays a supplementary role, whereas in the second it is in the lead.

The Book of Zohar doesn’t leave anything for the mind to cling to. At times, it explains something or provides a hint, although we don’t especially need it. In the end, we need a method called “the Torah” since the Light it conceals reforms us. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how much you understand. It’s not the wise one who learns. Intelligence doesn’t play a role here.

Some people write down every word, which is good for as long as it helps them connect to the source emotionally, in the desire. But if everything is determined by the mind, it isn’t worth it. We are not in the university, and from studies alone you will learn nothing unless you obtain a desire to bestow, connection with others, and love. Only this will allow you to feel the material since man is a desire, a vessel of sensation and perception.

Mind is powerless in itself; it is a mere means to direct and strengthen the desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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