The Zohar, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 311: The Creator is destined to revive all those kings that have afflicted Israel and Jerusalem: Hadrian, Lupinus, Nebuchadnezzar, Sennacherib, and all the other kings in the world. He will give them dominion as in the beginning, and the rest of the nations will gather with them and they will wage war on Jerusalem.

And the Creator will avenge them openly around Jerusalem, as it is written, “And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem.” … And this is written for the time when the Messiah comes; this song is an eternal song.

This is not talking about times, but about Surrounding Lights that come to us, giving us the sensation of time. Therefore, everything we will reveal in the future, in greater Aviut (thickness, coarseness) of desire, are heavier parts of Malchut such as Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, and others that become revealed at the very end of all the corrections.

That is why it is called the “time” when the Messiah (redemption from egoism) comes, the time of the general correction, the result of all the corrections. This correction takes place by the Surrounding Lights (Ohr Makif) and Kelim (desires, Lev HaEven) that were impossible to correct until this time, and now they are corrected.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, The Zohar

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I constantly imagine the net of our interconnection. It disappears, but I continue to weave it in my consciousness again and again until it settles in my head, becoming part of my life.

Then I live in this persistent sensation, constantly illuminated by our unity. After that I desire not only to observe it from outside, but to step inside, so my world will become the global system of interconnection among all people. Thus, observation becomes replaced by participation; I penetrate deeper and start to experience myself inside of the friends.

Then begins the opposition from foreign thoughts, desires, and actions. I sort them and use them to see where I am still uncorrected, unconnected. They show me the qualities that lack a connection, enabling me to correct my flaws.

This gives me more strength, more feeling and reason, more details in the picture of the world, and thus I advance. The most important thing is to depict a single net to your mental vision. This is enough. The rest will come by itself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, Writings of Rabash

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “The Creator and Israel Went Into Exile”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 332
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 14
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Exile and Redemption,” Lesson 2
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Question: Should I perceive the Convention as a reflection of the corrected system of souls?

Answer: Of course! If I plan to come to the Convention, then I am about to become part of a system that is completely corrected compared to me.

It doesn’t matter that some of the people attending will be total beginners who just started studying the science of Kabbalah, or even people who just want to start getting familiar with it, who are confused and don’t understand anything yet. The Creator has brought them here and therefore I have to perceive them in relation to me as being just as corrected as the Creator.

If I see them as uncorrected, stupid, and not understanding anything, then I have to see all of this reflected inside myself. This applies to everyone with the exception of people who are clearly opposed to the goal; they must be distanced and they’ll be dealt with at the End of Correction (Gmar Tikkun).
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, The Zohar

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Question: Why is it that every time I think about unity between us, some force pushes me away from it?

Answer: This is “help against you.” There are two forces leading a person toward the goal. One acts in the direction of unity and the other against. By being between them, a person has freedom of will to choose the right environment and with its help (influence) to choose the path toward the goal instead of the opposite path.

Accordingly, both forces help him from both sides. One force pushes him into the group while the other pushes him out of the group (the environment) so that he is always at the equilibrium between these two forces.

He thinks that he is being pushed away from unity, but that’s not so. He receives the force to overcome exactly proportionate to the opportunity to be strengthened in his environment that he received prior.

A person is never driven to failure from Above, as it is written, “One is only elevated in acquiring the quality of bestowal, and never stopped.” Even if there is an obstacle placed before a person now, prior to that it is ensured that a person will be able to overcome it with his free choice.

It’s the same as how we raise children. We consciously and deliberately give them exercises that are more difficult so they will become smarter and stronger.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, The Zohar

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The spark called “Isra-El” becomes revealed in a person through the fact that he comes to Kabbalah. Otherwise, what force would bring him there? Every person who studies has this spark; otherwise he wouldn’t study.

We are all swimming in the field of the Upper Force, the force of the desire to receive or the desire to bestow, from one end to the other end, finding a suitable point of balance at every moment. It’s as if every person is inside an electromagnetic field as a charged particle that reacts to the field’s influence. If the field changes, it transfers a person from one place to another, like a particle.

That is how you came to Kabbalah. A desire awakened inside you that belongs to this sum of people, and you joined them. That is why you are called “Isra-El” (straight to the Creator) according to this spark. This desire for bestowal cannot rest until you realize it. You won’t be able to keep living in your inner exile anymore!

7,000 people are about to gather at the Convention; some of them live in Israel and some are from all over the world. However, every one of them is in exile from the spiritual world! Like one spiritual nation of “Isra-El,” they are all united by the spark that does not belong to the material world. For now it exists in spirituality only as a point, but according to its goal these people are already called “the Creator’s nation” by virtue of their future state.

When all these people come together and connect their spark together, each of them contributes his small force and then every person receives the force from everyone, helping him to enter the spiritual world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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The “desert” I enter when I exit egoistic bondage is the group. To be in mutual bestowal and feel pleasure from the fact that you bestow to everybody is a true “desert” and “bread of affliction” (Matzot, unleavened bread) for me.

If I could receive egoistic pleasure from bestowal, I would gladly give in order to receive. But I cannot give “in order to bestow,” without any personal benefit. I am unable to act this way; I cannot move a finger “on the fuel of bestowal.” I don’t receive any sustenance from this, so how can an engine work without fuel, without electricity?

Egoistic reception gives me enormous energy of all kinds, calories, joules, watts, but bestowal gives nothing. I move my hand to receive, but as soon as I discover that it is bestowal, I freeze and can’t move further. At that moment when, amidst the action, I find out that it is aimed at bestowal, I freeze, motionless, and cannot do a thing. You can scream to me, “Come on! Do it! Just one more step!” but I can’t take it.

Therefore, we are unable to see the beauty of the spiritual world and start desiring it from our Egypt. Only the group imbues us with the paramount importance of spirituality; it deceives our ego making it believe that it will feel good in spirituality.

Since we are internally connected and influence each other, I accept this lie just like I used to accept the lies of the corporeal world that promised me pleasures, manipulating my pride, lust, and ambition. I suddenly start desiring spirituality so strongly that I am ready to abandon all my egoistic possessions, the “blossoming cities of Pithom and Ramses” filled with pots of fish and meat and flee to the desert with one sack of flour on my back.

Hence, all our work lies in convincing each other that the spiritual world is the best thing that can be out there. This is so even if in relation to our current egoistic desires, spirituality is an absolute desert and bread of affliction.

So, don’t despair in the states of descent since they are authentic states that are supposed to come before the breakthrough. On one hand, I realistically evaluate the situation and realize that I don’t wish to bestow; I hate and resent it. Yet, it is so important that I want to reach it no matter what and see life without spirituality as worse than death. This attitude in me is generated by the society.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/10, “This is for Judah”

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Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Kenes-Springboard”
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