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.
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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.
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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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Question: Can one remain in the sensation of the material world and attain spirituality at the same time?

Answer: A person who attains spirituality does not lose anything in his sensations. On the contrary, he feels this world much more as a source and motive to enjoy.

The spiritual world means that you attain the reason why you are alive. Then this entire life in the reality that you feel in your body, called “this world” is also worth it.

The spiritual world is the Creator. By collecting your previously dispersed and broken attitude to others into one, relating to them as to one whole which is yours and dear to you, you begin to reveal the Creator within that attitude.

Through this entire world, like through a focusing lens, I focus all of my attitude to it – in love, unity, and connection, and in this point of focus I find the Creator.

It’s as if many rays (forms of my attitude) enter this lens (the group, humanity), come out of it, and focus on one point (the Creator).

Therefore, nothing disappears, but on the contrary – I use this entire world. Without it there is nothing for me to do. Until the full correction (Gmar Tikkun) I have to be in this world, and if I didn’t finish the correction, I have to return to the same reality, to its observation.

What does “this reality” mean? I return to the same qualities of perception, to the same desires that I did not finish correcting. And then I once again see a certain reality, feeling this world the same as now or maybe somewhat different. But I have to see reality in the intention to enjoy, in my flawed receiving desires, which I still retain, until I correct all of them. Then this reality disappears because it becomes unified.

Look from aside at this entire reality, which appears before us, and at the spiritual reality. We have to see the will to enjoy and how much we feel in it – for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal. According to this, we are in one reality or another. And our life cycles are like a change of Partzuf, one after another.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, The Zohar

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Question: Sometimes we go through very unusual, powerful states. It’s good if you’re in the group, next to the teacher and friends, but what should a person do in this case if he studies alone at home, virtually?

Answer: It is written that “The Creator heals all broken hearts.” I am not the master of your states. Rather, the Light that comes to a person precisely considers his level, state, personality, the root of his soul, and all parameters. We are unable to calculate all of this and to say how this should all be in every case.

But if we do everything that is necessary, then our progress will always be optimal. A person is influenced from above in a way that was precisely calculated according to millions of parameters in order to elevate him from the current state to the next one.

It is not your concern to assess and check all of this. You cannot understand it – all of this is seen only from attaining the general system from above downwards. When you rise to the World of Atzilut, to its uppermost part (GAR) and connect with Partzufim Aba ve Ima (the upper Father and Mother), which are very high levels, then you begin to see how the plan of creation works. This is the greatest pleasure of all possible ones.

This is called the illumination of the Shechina – the sensation of how the goal of creation, the upper mind, the upper force, the plan of creation, which is all Love, fills all of Malchut of the world of Infinity and brings it to correction in all of its details. This is a person’s absolutely perfect state.

But don’t be afraid that the states a person goes through in the meantime can bring him any harm. They are, in fact, phases of the soul’s healing. It’s like a person who was sick for a long time and suddenly feels a sudden improvement and becomes healthier. Suddenly his sensations sharpen, his eyes open, and he gains forces inside, and thus the illness gradually passes. That is how we gradually get better…
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, Shamati

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The Zohar tells of how the upper Light operates and bestows on us and builds from all of our attributes something that is similar to the Creator: not of our flesh, but from our inner essence that is called, “mind” and “heart,” from all of our thoughts and desires that constitute the person’s “I.”

I don’t know what He needs to do with them. In the meantime, all my desires and thoughts are involved with what I see before me in order to benefit myself. This is the way the ego, which stands behind them, operates.

And the Light that arrives during the reading of The Book of Zohar doesn’t leave me anything from the previous thoughts and desires, but begins gradually to give me other values, yet at the level of the state that I am in. And then later, it begins to detach me from the present reality, as each time He performs some changes in me. On occasions, I rise above this reality and then on other occasions, I again sink within it even more.

Thus, through all kinds of exercises and changes, He helps me stop being dependent on this reality, until eventually it isn’t important to me if I am in it or completely separated from it. And I can use all these forms just for the sake of one goal. Even if I were given all the King’s treasures, and even if I am a poor person living in the forest without even a shirt, it isn’t important because I am dependent only on the intention, something more exalted than my state. I agree with it and want it, above everything that can appear in my vessel (Kli) of reception, both in thoughts and desires.

If I arrived at such a state, thanks to the exercises, that is the work of God on me, and from this moment onward, I begin to see what the The Book of Zohar speaks about.

We hope that with each day and with each moment, we will enter such a state where the Light reaches us, the upper force, which will begin to change us and to raise us above all the desires and thoughts so that we will begin to be dependent on the Giver that bestows upon us.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, The Zohar

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Question: Modern economy is based on the waste of resources. If we begin to save, many people will be unemployed. Will this be a right step towards the goal?

Answer: First, I don’t think we should call these people “unemployed.” We are in a new era now in which we are experiencing a change in the evolutionary paradigm. Today we have to see what is happening as a return or an ascent to the world that should exist in this way according to nature.

In this world we only live in bodies and everything besides the body’s basic necessities should be aimed at the correction of the soul. Accordingly, the concern for corporeal needs should amount to living a normal, comfortable life and not more than that. Of course, there is no need to return to the caves. A person needs a place to live, heating, food, a health system, security and everything that is related to desires like: food, sex, and family. Yet we should understand that all this is only the essential corporeal basis for the primary mission. The body exists so that we can develop the soul.

We turn to the whole world: The poverty line should become the baseline above which we should raise everyone. What for? So a person will be freed from worrying about their daily bread and will start dealing with the development of the soul. Anything beyond the necessities no longer applies to our world anymore, only the correction of the soul.

This should be our approach, although it’s still impossible to explain it in these words. If we approach things this way, we won’t produce surpluses, but will focus all the forces and the extra resources above necessity at integral education, meaning the system of correction. Accordingly, we place culture, education and science at the service of the development of the soul. After all, there is nothing else to live for in this world. We will finish with the soul and this world will disappear.

We should understand that the technology we develop should also provide us with free time for the main goal and not for entertainment and pampering. Ages ago, prehistoric man used to hunt for two or three hours a day. Only later, the growing ego brought certain people to control others and force them to work all day.

So we have to return to our natural state. Therefore, we mustn’t call people who don’t work in the traditional sense “unemployed.” They are not slackers, they were simply freed to deal with the main thing, they are returning to normal life. They can be employed for a few hours a day, and all the rest of the time they need to be working in the human field, above the beastly level, in a place that a person learns to be human.

We need the integral study in order to understand how to connect to one another. Thus we’ll reach a state of balance with nature and be rid of all troubles no matter what they are, whether in ecology or finances. Everything will calm down thanks to the balance.
[65844]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/12, “The Freedom”

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We can see the Creator as good and benevolent only through the environment. Without a group you simply make yourself some kind of doll or idol that has nothing to do with reality. Actually the “good and benevolent” is the force that fills the network of mutual connections among us. It doesn’t exist anywhere else.

“Creator” (Boreh) means “come and see” (“Bo – Reh”). Where should I come to the corrected network among us? There we discover the Lights of NRNHY and their generalization called the Creator.

Thus, the force that fills our corrected mutual relationships is revealed as good and benevolent.

Question: In our conventions, under the strong influence of the environment, we seem to feel the good and the benevolent, but we don’t reach revelation?

Answer: In order to reach revelation we need a whole vessel. We try to discover the attribute of bestowal, so that it will be above us to some extent. This state doesn’t have to be perfect, but it must be stabilized. We really need to want this to happen. In the meantime we lack the pressure, the feeling of necessity.

It could also be that when we gather and connect, we enjoy it and that takes the flavor out of the quality. You eat, dance and hug the friends and you feel good and it could be that it doesn’t leave any room for a question, for a demand. But the joy and the demand must go hand in hand. It all depends on the preparation.

Question: So what actually is the “good and benevolent?”

Answer: It is when I discover in the vessels of receiving and in the vessels of bestowal that the Creator has created everything in His honor. Then I can receive all the goodness and enjoy it, and we aim everything at bestowing pleasure onto Him.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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