Question: The upper Partzufim dress one on top of the other like the rungs of a ladder where there is always an upper and a lower. Does the same structure exist in the group, or is everyone equal there?

Answer: In the group we dress one on top of the other in a certain order, and eventually we all form a circle. We don’t need to think about it. It’s a predetermined structure that cannot change. Only the connections between us change: in what intensity does each one connect with the others. But we can’t change the order of who connects to whom or the whole network that is formed with the fall of the souls after the shattering. Its structure is determined from Malchut of Ein Sof.

We don’t change anything in reality! We only open or close the flow of the abundance of the Light, because after the first restriction, it depends on our intentions. But the structure of the system never changes. Even when we say that that certain spiritual Partzufim rise or descend, connect to one another and then separate, we are only referring to the passing of the abundance of the Light and not to the way that they are arranged in relation to one another in the general structure.

It’s like an iron structure in which certain connections can be broken, but it’s impossible to change the structure itself because it’s all built according to the ladder of the spiritual levels that spread from the top down. Even during the shattering the accurate order, which determines how the sparks (the Lights and the vessels) were divided, was kept. Just as before the shattering, the height was determined by the intention of bestowal, so after the shattering it’s determined by the intention for my self, according to an accurate egoistic order. This means that not only is everyone important, but he is absolutely essential!

In the group there are “upper” and “lower”: each one is both upper and lower compared to others, and together they all form a circle. Everyone is connected to one bundle by the intention of bestowal, although no one is equal to another. Perhaps by this you will be able to understand how different each one is from the others, and if there is something inside him that doesn’t exist in anyone else, and in this he is the head for everyone, it’s impossible to replace or to destroy a single attribute, because then there would be no wholeness.
[67365]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: If a person goes down the wrong path, say, plunges into alcoholism, then as a rule he either hits rock bottom, or destroys himself, or some inner transformation takes place. Essentially, the entire humanity is going down this path right now. Our task in the integral education courses is to provide a person with a tool that would keep him from destroying himself, from breaking his life into pieces. Can a turning point occur in the middle of the process and not in its end?

Answer: One of man’s qualities is empathy. If we show someone who is setting out on a vicious path (say, of drug abuse) another individual whose life hangs by a thread due to these very drugs, I think it will have a strong impact on him, regardless of whether or not he wants to quit.

If we take people through a hospital’s cancer ward, they will see what smoking does. Personally, I smoke, quite moderately, in my opinion, but nevertheless I do. So I know for myself that had I walked through such places in my time, it would have affected me strongly. And if I found myself in an environment that disdains smoking and expresses its contempt towards smokers, I would naturally have a sensation that would force me to realize the vice of this action.

That is why everything depends on the extent to which I can absorb from my environment the missing quantity of the realization of evil that I’m lacking in order to break from the transitional state, where I am still receiving pleasure and still haven’t fully destroyed myself.

For that I need a serious environment, community, group, or a class in which I study. We know that if the public opinion of a group of people follows a certain trend or adheres to some special principles, everyone is involuntarily obliged to follow that. The herd instinct is inherent in people because a person evaluates himself or herself only relative to others. One cannot allow oneself to be better or worse than the rest. What matters to people is their importance in the eyes of society, but whether this importance is positive or negative makes no difference to them. Therefore, if we create a certain social standard, all people will be obliged to obey it—this is how we are created.
[66418]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: How do we prepare for the convention in the desert as it says, by “cancelling ourselves completely.”

Answer: First, you have to figure out what it means, “to eliminate oneself.” Does it mean to stop existing? What will happen afterwards?

“I”: This is my reason, emotions, mind, and heart. If I am deprived of them, only my corporeal body would remain. So, what’s next? My intellect and emotions do not depend on me either. This is the way I was born and brought up; I was carved into some form: Is this me? Is this what I really am? What can I eliminate here? Where is the “I” that I am rejecting?

If you don’t sense that you have anything to cancel, but if you are working through the group to cling to the Creator (as it is written: “from love of creatures to love of the Creator”), and if you discover rejection and hatred, then you know what to eliminate. This is what we call “I,” the revealing of its true essence, resistance, and unwillingness to connect with others.

It is the force of shattering that hides in me, the same Reshimo, the information that descended to me after the shattering occurred. Formerly, I used to be connected with others; now I detect my former connection and make sure that it still exists. Depending on whether I feel connection with others or not and whether I still possess a desire to connect or not, I start to elucidate my broken Reshimot (informational genes).

My discovery that I am in opposition to others is the first revelation of the Pharaoh. However, if I don’t apply effort I’ll never discern it. Maybe I haven’t come to Egypt yet, or I am already there but my “seven years of abundance” are not over yet? So, I still enjoy common meals, assemblies of friends, pleasant surroundings, and spending time with my loving friends.

When the seven years of abundance are over, problems, troubles, arguments, and disagreements emerge, but a person realizes that this is given to him on purpose and he doesn’t try to run away from them. He tries hard to overcome his detachment, hatred, and contempt towards his surroundings.

At this point (if the person doesn’t abandon the path,) he starts realizing the importance of such conditions and understands that there is no choice and it is the way it should be.

Now, he finds himself directly across from Pharaoh. It is all about internal work that cannot normally be traced from outside. It’s a whole period of effort and realization of the fact that there is nothing he can do about it because it is the Creator who reveals the force of shattering to him; as it is said: “Let’s approach Pharaoh, since I hardened his heart.”

The Creator shows a person how weak he is and his to love his neighbor.  At this time, a person is ready to do anything to achieve brotherly love. He is ready to go through all “ten Egyptian plagues”, to cross the Red Sea (Yam Sof – Final Sea), and to accept mutual connection and responsibility in order to bring closer the power of the reforming Light called Torah for the sake of self-correction and attainment of love of the created beings, because by doing so he will eventually attain the love of the Creator.

Can you imagine, how much support and care one has to get from his environment and from Above so he doesn’t run way with his egoism that is getting stronger and always pursues him? He has to understand that “the Creator made one against the other”: There is either “a stick or a serpent” (bestowal or egoism) and there is nothing in between—one or the other.
[66932]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, Shamati #59

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We have to go through a long process of clarification. From the beginning of creation to its completion, all we do is clarify how we can be pleased relative to the giving force, the source, the Creator.

We go through some of our clarifications unconsciously, without our sensations and understanding, as a preparation to the states that will follow and will require our understanding and feelings. This is in the same way a small child grows or any other development happens. You have to go through several steps and all kinds of calculations and remain in them for quite some time until you start sensing that there is a new level of sensitivity, comprehension, and clarification, and you ascend to a next level.

Later, the novelty of a new step as if is erased and slips from our memory: We get used to it, and as we know a habit dulls the flavor. Over and over again, unconsciously we try to break through and move ahead as much as we can until new sensations arise and we arrive at new conclusions.

The major discernment is who will rule over us: the Creator or Pharaoh, the staff or the serpent? Obviously, on the surface each of us is ready to rise to the level of the other bestowing nature. But how do we get there?

That’s where the struggle between the Pharaoh and Moses or Aaron within a human being takes place. It happens within a person. The dispute is over for whom do I strive? When I am told that no matter how hard a person tries, it won’t help, why should I bother trying?

On the other hand, it is said “No one can help me except myself” and “I have labored and found!”  The problem is that a person is unable to realize that changes have to be of an internal nature and have to occur from within. Only due to inner changes does a person enable himself to make a new round of calculations.

Any change totally depends on the mercy from Above: it will either happen or not. But we still have to continue working, and our job is to find mercy in the Creator’s eyes that gave us this support.

In fact, it really proves the phrase: “I labored and found!” That is, our request is not a request per se, but rather a test of the intensity of our work that is split half and half.  One half is completed by us, which makes the Light, the other half, comes from Above and makes the correction.

The staff must not be dropped to the ground because it will turn into serpent, which means that we shouldn’t give up on our knowledge; on the contrary, we have to hold it up high. “Faith above reason” stands for the work that we perform with our intellect to the best of our capacity letting the Light manifest and correct us.
[66935]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, Shamati #59

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Question: How is it possible to use that same point of unity that we obtained at the convention in December during The Zohar lessons in ?

Answer: That point of unity that we obtained has already disappeared, hidden itself, and was erased from our feeling. And we shouldn’t be sorry about that. We shouldn’t try to hold on to it by force. We only need to bring the warmth and enthusiasm of that spiritual uplifting since after all, we need to feel a secure basis. We can’t hang in the air.

The time has come to worry about a new point of unity. To connect does not mean hugging and holding hands. Unity is determined by the measure that I am able to detach from myself. In the connection with others, there is no need for anything from me; otherwise, there won’t be even a trace of real connection in it. I can’t connect with others. In the connection only the ” anti-me” needs to participate, when I convert myself as opposed to getting rid of everything I have in mind and feeling, from everything that I know.

Thus, first and foremost, I need to annul my “I,” and then the Light that reforms works on me, and with what is left, I attach to the states formed by my friends. Hence, together we discover the unity between us if we find our points within the hearts, within the ego, with the help of the Light that reforms that inverts them from the posterior of sanctity to the face of sanctity; if we connect with each other, then this connection is already worthy of adherence with the righteous, with the high souls.

We discover our connection with them and are ready to entrust ourselves to them so that they will take care of us. Since now we come in contact with them. Before that there was no contact. They simply spoke to us from afar. And then we will see how the writers of The Zohar, Rabash, and Baal HaSulam care for us and raise us.
[66795]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, The Zohar

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Writings of Rabash “The Need for Love of Friends”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let Us Make Man,” Item 159, Lesson 44
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 11, Lesson 8
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 54, Lesson 28
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