Until we reach the force of unity in which we reside in the center of the sphere of all the worlds, in the world of Infinity, and from where we withdrew from each other and descended into our external world, the same very source, the Creator, affects us with good and evil and entangles us from every direction, as it is written: “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.”

What does “behind and before” mean? Baal HaSulam explains that “You hem me in behind and before” means that it’s both when the Creator is revealed and concealed. After all, He is the only one who rules, and everybody will attain it. And then the notion of time and the feeling of past, present, and future will disappear. If there is only one force at work, nothing changes and everything is at absolute rest.

The attainment comes gradually, in correspondence with how we unify with this single force, the Creator. Besides, we don’t lose control of reality and turn into nothingness, but rather become like Him. We, together with Him, become the same exact magnificent, governing, singular force. And neither of us cancels the other: The Creator doesn’t nullify the created being, nor does the latter nullify the Creator. Moving forward and closer to Him, I don’t nullify myself. Instead, it is my ego that gets cancelled, while I rise like the Creator and come to adhesion with Him in all His perfection.

Then, I discover that I have been governed by this one force all the time, but it was simply hiding from me on purpose so that I would acquire it on my own and become as autonomous and magnificent as this singular force, the Creator. As I keep building myself in equivalence to Him, the Creator appears before me as an equal, magnificent partner and thereby we merge.

Every time when I gain autonomy, by transcending my ego in uniting with the group, I find the Creator within us, and thereby we unify together.
[42419]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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The degrees of our connection, of how much tighter we bond with each other, are the spiritual ladder of rungs, the ladder of the worlds. We bond in the minimal degree, overcome the minimal thickness of our desire (Aviut Shoresh), and thereby attain the Creator only at the level of the Light of Nefesh.

When we unify in a greater degree, we attain Him as the Light of Ruach, followed by the Light of Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. Thus we pass forth from the world of Assiya to the world of Yetzira, followed by the worlds of Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and finally reach the world of Infinity where our unity has no borders and everything is linked as one whole.

Until then, this unique force keeps working among us, confusing us, and nurturing us in all possible ways so that we would develop a need to unify among ourselves and merge with it. However, this force acts from “behind the scenes.” That’s how we play with children since we want them to “brainstorm” and use all their skill to do something independently. We know that only when a child exerts personal effort does he gain wisdom and understanding of life. In this, we are the same.

On the other hand, children have a tremendous natural yearning and desire to grow; they are always ready to act and learn about the world, while we are lazy and unable to make ourselves exert the necessary effort. And this is where the external force, the force of the group (and never the force of the Creator!) can do it, as it is written: “They helped everyone his friend.”
[42422]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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In our spiritual work we cannot do anything ourselves because we don’t know how to identify the unified force and relate it to many situations in our life. What should we attune ourselves to? Simply saying that the Creator is everywhere doesn’t help.

This is why we are given the group, and if we unite together, we discover this unified force called “there is none else besides Him” between us. The Creator deliberately split the creature He had made into a multitude of parts so that they would reassemble once more into a single thought, a single desire. Then, in this common desire, they will reveal the unified force that exists only in the connection they have formed, in unity and adhesion with them.

By uniting together into one desire, we don’t attain this force outside of us, but reveal ourselves and this force together as one whole. Indeed, there is no Light without a vessel (Kli), there is no Creator without the creature. The closer we bond together, the more we reveal the Creator within our unity.

In other words, our unification is the Creator. That is what it was at the start of creation, after which we dispersed and descended to this world in the form of small egoistic creatures.

Therefore, by uniting together we are building the Creator. We are creating Him independently, which is why He is called the Creator (in Hebrew Bo-Reh or “come and see”). There is no other place where we can build Him, discern Him, unite and achieve adhesion with Him, but only within our unification in the group. And all of humanity will need to connect together in the same way.
[42427]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Shamati #113 “The Eighteenth Prayer”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Mishpatim (Ordinances), ‘The Grandfather,’” Item 331
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 10
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Lesson About the Israeli Nation
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Daily Advice for the Week

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Question: We are looking at the words that are written by Kabbalists and signify a spiritual root. But how can we create an association in our corporeal sensory organs between the words we are accustomed to and the upper reality?

Answer: According to your desire to attain spirituality and your intention, you somewhat correspond to the Light. And in the degree of this correspondence, it starts affecting you, your desire and intention, from afar. It is what we call the “Surrounding Light,” the Light that Reforms.

It illuminates you from a distance since it still cannot come in contact with your desire and intentions, which are not as pure as the Light just yet. But there is still some connection between them since you are striving upward even from your low state.

And the intention emerges if you are connected in a smallest degree with the environment and receive from it the same desire and aspiration to unify together. Only in the degree of mutual inclusion of such intentions, which we are working toward while reading Kabbalistic texts, will you merit an illumination that will begin to affect you.

If you connect your desires and intentions with the others, who aspire to the same unity during the lessons, you draw the Surrounding Light. Now ask yourself: How often do you think about and desire it while you are studying? Otherwise, years will pass by, and you won’t see any results.
[42491]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/8/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: When I see my despicable egoism yet again, how can I not despair and simply succumb to it, thinking that it will never end?

Answer: A person must go through such states. Every time we reach a new spiritual degree, we undergo all of these states yet again, and it is absolutely necessary to come to total despair. But it’s only needed so that we clarify all of the states and pass through them. Every state builds the one that will follow it.

A person must lose faith in his or her personal power! And also, he must lose hope to receive help from Above. One has to go through all this: At each new degree, one relives the entire life anew, meaning that he undergoes all states.

The key is to prepare all the necessary tools for work, studies, and participation in dissemination and the life of the group. If a person adjusts this whole mechanism so that it works like a wind up clock, he won’t fall. I need to build a framework that will hold me as best it can.

I have to feel shameful about breaking this framework. The most powerful tool is the shame: at home, before the wife and children. How can it be that I won’t go to the lesson and won’t participate in a certain project? Let my pride prevent me from acting so.

When we experience a descent, we fall to the lowest, animate level of our “donkey” (Hamor or donkey comes from the word Homer or matter, desire). And I must prepare the kind of defense for myself that would make me feel ashamed even at the lowest degree, where I probably shouldn’t be feeling any shame or care about anything whatsoever. But I should still feel ashamed even at this degree.

The most powerful feeling a person may have is shame before his or her children. They know that parents will always forgive them and accept them just the way they are, and even the wife. But where the children are concerned, they are the ones who make us feel ashamed most—after all, they are our upper degree.

Hence, we should strive to prepare for ourselves conditions that prevent us from abandoning this path no matter what, that do not allow me to justify one claim of my egoism, try as I might…
[42328]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/2011, Shamati No. 56

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To reveal the first spiritual degree, we must reveal our unity, “one, unique, and unified,” at least in the smallest degree. The degree of our unity defines the level of our first spiritual degree.

The Lights of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida (the five spiritual degrees) are characterized by a sum of particular details and the power of their unity, despite the fact that they are all in contradiction with one another. It is the only factor that determines the revelation of the upper Light. If we can find unity in the smallest degree, the weakest Light of Nefesh will become revealed as well.

However, why does the Light suddenly become more powerful and is called Ruach? It is because despite the changes and the movement of all interconnected parts, they can still remain balanced and tied. It is as if we keep the boat afloat, while it’s being tossed by waves in a storming sea, and make sure that it keeps stable.

At the first degree of unity, mutual transformations are not yet revealed. Everyone stays in some kind of stationary condition, just as one is, and we seek how to connect with each other. At the second degree, the same unity remains, but every part begins to transform; the cogwheels of the common mechanism as if start spinning relative to each other. And if we stick together despite all these changes and are able to unite, we reveal the Light of Ruach.

These are very limited changes nonetheless: While “staying grounded,” just like a plant, each of us, in our own place, sees the transformation of our individual properties. It is still the same Light of unification but at a higher (“vegetative”) degree. It is followed by a third degree, Neshama (“the animate” degree), where we start moving freely relative to each other, but still reveal unity, “one, unique, and unified,” among ourselves.

This means that the Light we experience in spirituality always depends on the power of our unity, despite any transformation that may be occurring within each of us individually and all of us together. It keeps growing, until we finally reach the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), while we are experiencing all sorts of changes preventing us from unification in relation to one, single Light, but regardless of this, we are still able to unite.

This is what we call the one, unified spiritual vessel (Echad, Yachid) that receives one Light: Yechida.
[42331]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/2011, Shamati No. 56

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