Question: How do we feel that the Light is working on us, by sorting the Reshimot in us?

Answer: In order to achieve a state where the Light sorts out our Reshimot (spiritual information data), a person must be ready for it. In reality, I do not discern my Reshimot; the Light does. It isn’t I who decides, but the latter. I am willing to accept its decision and ask the Light to do it for me. This occurs as a result of the most powerful breaking.

We have to undergo the breaking in order to agree with everything that the Upper One discerns in us for our own good.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: What is Reshimo (reminiscence)?

Answer: A Reshimo is what has already happened, a previous spiritual state, since nothing disappears in spirituality. The previous states that emerge in every detail but don’t manifest in life due to the lack of the screen which serves as the means of their realization are called “Reshimot.”

Suppose yesterday I was in some state, and today I am reliving it. In spirituality, this state emerges in me in its every minute detail, as if I am living it right now. It is totally, 100% clear to me what is occurring, and nothing is lost; I simply cannot realize it due to lack of the screen. This is called “Reshimo.”

It is not a recollection of the past as in the corporeal world when I remember something “vaguely.” A Reshimo is when I don’t doubt anything; everything is revealed as in the present except for its realization.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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No movement that attempts to unify people without the wisdom of Kabbalah has a chance to succeed. Only this wisdom supplies you with the connection to the Upper Light by describing the actions it performs. When you read about these actions and desire to realize them within yourself, you start to constantly change. There is no other means.

People can assemble in various groups, but let’s first ask: What is their goal and the means to achieve it? Do they think that they are able to change human nature themselves? If yes, where will they get the stamina to do so if we are all egoists? If not, it won’t go any further than talking.

There are people who enjoy giving as their nature dictates, “egoistic altruists.” And they don’t understand that they act from within their ego because they don’t have a second nature, the spark from Above. They are really willing to give it all away.

In the time of my youth, when I lived in Leningrad (St. Petersburg, Russia), I had a conversation with an old woman who used to be a revolutionary. She told me how she used to give bread out to the soldiers who were leaving for war. She was starving but didn’t allow herself a thought of taking a crumb of that bread.

People are willing to give up their lives because our ego is above the animate level. The ego resides at the speaking (human) level, while the life of the body remains at the animate. And if a person feels that his “self” is hurt, he ignores his body. If he sees that the animate body is trying to overtake the human in him, he destroys this beast. There is no altruism in this.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Question: There are movements that gather up to two thousand people in their meetings that also make appeals to love and unite, mentioning not one word of Kabbalah. Is such unification possible without employing the sources?

Answer: Don’t you see that they are not succeeding? Perhaps, two to three thousand can get together like that. A great disaster may also force people to unite. But true unification can occur only with the help of the Upper Light, the force we don’t possess. Or, we may do so if presented with enormous egoistic benefit, such as fear of invasion or tremendous reward.

Yet, such unity is temporary. As soon as the cause that created it dissolves, the connection immediately dissipates. Therefore, unity cannot be achieved.

There have always been various “altruistic” organizations. Baal HaSulam writes that there are 10% natural altruists in the world who wish to unite, but it is completely egoistic. If examined internally, behind all the talking about unity, you will see solid egoism. We have many examples of that: Communist Russia that is now approaching fascism and Israel’s Kibbutzim.

Any attempts to create unity without employing the Light that Reforms will fail. Left without a choice, they will be forced to employ dictatorship and violent force; otherwise, such a system won’t be able to endure.

We constantly face a dilemma: We either reform the nature of man or compel him to unify by force. And any forced compliance, a Nazi regime, will inevitably lead to war. Baal HaSulam wrote about this even when he was still alive. And Russia won’t have a choice but to continue developing according to the same script. Correction becomes possible only on one condition: if people employ the wisdom of Kabbalah.

If we don’t reform ourselves and unite by way of the Light, we will be unified in a different manner: The world will be overtaken by fascist regimes. After all, Nazism is another form of unification, though it is unity of one group against the other.

People will feel that they have to unite, that unity brings salvation and ascent, and that is right. But they won’t be able to ascend and save themselves without the outside force which will be hate of somebody else. Otherwise, they won’t have a reason to unite! To do so, they need a visible, hated foe who will unite them together against it.

This is how the ego works or it doesn’t feel the necessity to unite. Therefore, society starts leaning toward Nazism and fascism. If the world leaders do not accept the method of correction by the Light and reveal the source, putting their citizens “at the desks” to study it, then very quickly they will have to deal with a Nazi regime that will immediately lead to war.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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You need to get used to the fact that if you begin to scrutinize anything, you always find two opposing attributes inside that, nevertheless, are united. It’s a kind of “splitting.”

If you’re working with an egoistic desire, then everything works out nicely: 1 + 1 = 2. But if you combine the desire to receive with the intention to bestow, they are opposite and cannot unite. In other words, 1 + 1= 3! The third is the Creator. You have to get used to that paradox and accept it as natural; it’s a norm for us.

We are witnesses to such a “paradox” in human society. On the one hand, everyone does everything possible to separate himself from the others, but on the other, people are looking for contact with each other.

It has turned into a mania. There was a case where an entire mobile communication system broke down, people were left without cellular phones, and they just started going crazy. How can it be that everyone wants to be alone, and on the other hand, can’t do without communication with other people?

The fact is that a person wants to be alone for a short while, so that no one will interfere. But together with that people tend to live together: in one big city, in one mass culture. They tend to imitate each other and to do everything the same way as the others. Therefore, one does not negate the other.

A person needs his corner where he can hide, like a bee each in its personal cell. But as soon as one receives such “independence,” he has to feel that he exists among everybody else.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Question: What is true love and is it really possible?

Answer: By design, we are so unique and complex that we cannot truly love a spouse, our parents and children, people around us, humanity, or the Creator unless it is all tied into a single whole!

We are developing in such fashion that our nature won’t let us love only one particular individual. A person thinks that he loves his children, wife, and maybe some other people, but in the end, he isn’t succeeding with any of them. He sees that something constantly breaks, crushes, and he runs into walls, with all of his desire to love. But why is it so?

The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals this secret to us by saying that love can be only absolutely perfect and general. If you don’t love all, you won’t be allowed to feel love for any individual. This means that you must love everything there is: the Creator, humanity, the world, those who are close and dear, and those who are distant, all as one whole. This is the only way to achieve love. Otherwise, it is impossible. I am sorry I have to tell you this, but it’s true.

Besides, we think that love is something very exalted, something heavenly. In truth, love is a beast; it is something very simple: the act of unification of “flesh with flesh.” But if we wish to raise this beast that lives among us and is called “love,” then we have to feed it with something called “mutual concessions.”

I yield to you, thereby feeding our love, and it gets “thicker.” Then you yield to me, and our love grows. Since we are all egoists, concessions are the only action that can help us cultivate love.

We have to learn to concede! There are only two principles to love: the first one is to build love on concessions, and the second is that love can be only all-inclusive, and then each individual love will also come true.
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From Talk with Arkadi Duchin 12/22/10

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, 2, “What is the Extent of Repentance”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Vision of Rabbi Hiya,” Item 56, Lesson 3
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 32, Lesson 19
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Peace in the World,” Lesson 5
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What makes a person suddenly give up and no longer resist suffering? It is the result of the informational genes (Reshimot, “reminiscences”) implanted inside him. An animal will never experience this since it lives mechanically, always fighting for its life until the end and never feeling despair the same way man does throughout his journey in life.

An animal will fight tooth and nail or flee for its life but will never succumb to pain. Since man has the “human” informational genes, he will give up, let it be, and will not act as a machine that is simply programmed to enjoy, not suffer. This peak point of desperation, when a person stops fighting for his life and accepts whatever will follow, defines the entire human psychology.

In truth, all our internal Reshimot are the consequence of the breaking of the soul, and even the tiniest, smallest Reshimo has some connection with the Upper One, the Creator, who broke us from this spiritual level of bestowal. Therefore, some qualities emerge within us unconsciously as we suddenly stop thinking that we may gain something good by receiving, and we begin to think about bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/10, “Peace in the World”

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Question: How can suffering suddenly bring a person to bestowal?

Answer: Indeed, from a corporeal, "commonsense" point of view it’s impossible to attain bestowal in this way. If a person feels bad, then he only thinks about how to improve his situation, to try to fix the problem directly, to fill the void.

That’s how human psychology works: If I feel bad or something is missing, I turn to a doctor for medicine, try to make more money, steal something, or do anything to fill the void. But after all these attempts and a number of blows, I begin to ask: "When will it end?"

A person falls into despair, depression, or starts using drugs, all that only to somehow numb his pain because he sees that nothing he does can help him. So how is it possible to make the transition to bestowal? To that end we have preparations on the corporeal level as well as spiritual genes.

On the corporeal level a person starts thinking about giving because he sees that there’s no other choice. He is ready to give to others so that they will give to him as well, so we will all feel good; otherwise, we would just devour each other like wild beasts.

That’s a simple selfish calculation at the level of our world, and it’s possible specifically because we are not at the animate degree; rather, we possess dangerous weapons that enable each of us to destroy everyone. It eventually brings us to an inevitable conclusion that our salvation lies only in bestowal. Many understand that by now, and only a madman would wish for the next war.

But aside from the corporeal reason that makes us understand that giving may be useful, our Reshimot (spiritual genes, records) from the breaking are awakening within us, from the easiest ones to the increasingly coarse ones. They make us feel that we are moving in the wrong direction and bring disappointment in our development.

Those who are progressing under the pressure of corporeal and spiritual Reshimot begin to come closer. It turns out that Kabbalists who engage their own spiritual development and people leading a normal, corporeal life but are beginning to ask about life’s meaning are coming closer to each other. Although the latter have no point in the heart, they are nevertheless asking very similar questions.

The opinion of the masses is gradually approaching the opinion of Kabbalists. There’s still a wall that separates them, but ordinary people are coming closer and closer in search of an answer, although they are not yet asking how to correct themselves. There will be a time when they will come and ask: "What should we do?" And then you’ll have to be prepared to show them how to achieve perfection.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/10, "The Peace"

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Question: If fruit needs time to ripen, then maybe man doesn’t need to do anything at the moment but wait until he matures, just like fruit?

Answer: Humanity has already finished its evolution at the still, vegetative, and animate levels. And in the last 5770 years we have been developing the “human” level in us, starting with Adam, the first “man.”

In these 5770 years, we have also been undergoing the still, vegetative, animate, and human degrees within man. Until then, we had lived as animals, but Adam was the first to start the evolution of the human part within us, in this beast we call a “human being.”

Adam HaRishon (the First Man) was a person who discovered spirituality, that is, the “human” within himself that is similar in properties to the Creator. Since that time, all of us have existed at the human degree of development, and that’s where all the “human” problems began. Therefore, it’s not worth waiting until everything gets worked out because it won’t, and we will only continue to fall lower and lower.

The human within us is everything that goes beyond the animate level of existence. A beast needs only food, sex, family, and shelter, and so does the animate body of man. But when a person starts using his ego, instead of his natural animate instincts, this refers to the human part within us, which we have to harmonize. And this is the only part that has free will.

Where is this human within us? Right now it is only a beast.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, "The Freedom"

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