The collective desire in the group is attained only with regard to a common goal. The factor that forces us to connect is the Creator, the common point that connects us. Also, we shouldn’t forget about the rest of the world. We cannot advance in our work if we do not think and worry about those who need our help, and meanwhile suffer in this world.

We have to help them; we must hurry and raise them higher and higher each time. It is like navigating ships through a set of locks on the Panama Canal. A ship is brought into a set of locks where the water is at a certain level. Then the gates are locked and the lock is filled with water, lifting the ship to a higher level that matches the next set of locks. Afterwards the ship passes to another set of locks, again the gate is locked, the ship rises, and moves on. This is how we have to guide the nations of the world through all the “sets of locks” to the upper world. First we have to connect to people, to find the common points, “to open the door for them,” to bring them closer to us, and to draw them into our system, which means to lock the dam. Then with this level of the water, we begin to raise them up to the next level. Subsequently, they will be able to move on to the following “set of locks,” to study in the next course, and so we will gradually lead them from one world into the next.
[81809]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/12, “MatanTorah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Man forgets that he is always standing before the Light, the Creator, the good Who does good without any limitations. And all the limitations, obstacles, interferences, distance, and concealment exist in man himself. All he needs to do is remove this cover, destroy the obstacle, and it will disappear. All the disturbances that exist within man are the consequence of laziness and pride that are being placed as an obstacle before him by his ruined egoistic desire. We need to understand that if the upper Light fills everything, then all the disturbances only come from us.

If a person really comes to desire ridding himself of disturbances through the environment (meaning the teacher, books, friends, the group, and all the work that comes with it), this means that he really cancels it. This is because his efforts turn into a screen and the Reflected Light. The disturbance was caused by the absence of the screen and Reflected Light, and appeared in man as the result of the breaking. Each of our states come from the breaking because there is nothing in us other than a broken egoistic desire that paints a warped picture of different images and forms, sensations, opinions, thoughts, and desires for us in our ruined qualities; we call all these things “this world.”

Bu the moment that we wish to overcome this breaking, we understand that we’re experiencing all this within our ruined desire, which needs to be turned inside out. We don’t need anything other than this desire to turn everything the other way around. It’s a demand called prayer, an appeal, a cry, regarding which is written: “My children have defeated me,” because they have forced the Creator to change this deformed sensation and vision for the true one.

And as soon as we incline towards correction, we incline our entire world towards justification, and it inverts. We think that the Creator does it, but we actually do it with our own hands. The Light is always at absolute rest and is always ready to help us do something. Everything depends on whether we will be able to evoke it and obligate it to do this.

This is why we need to say: “No one will help me but me!” Because everything is in the person’s hands: the spiritual spark, the corrected desire, and the environment that needs to be organized so it represents a system of proper values, a scale of priorities. And with all this, a person will be able to advance and demand correction from the Light, the source, which will become revealed the moment the person really desires it.

On one hand, it’s written that the Creator does everything. But on the other hand, it’s written that everything depends upon the person. And in reality, everything is done by the upper Light, the upper force, but only at the person’s request. Even when we suffer today and seem to want to rid ourselves of suffering, in reality, we don’t want to be free of it. If we really wanted that, we would have ended all the suffering a long time ago.

In other words, the Light, the Creator, does all the actions, but man makes the decision regarding these actions. It’s written, “He labored and found,” it doesn’t happen any other way. This is why it’s necessary to understand that all the tools are known and the place of analysis is clear. It’s also necessary to analyze one’s intention, the direction of one’s thought, and the goal. And when a person makes the right analyses, uses his environment and all the tools given to him the right way, then the upper Light is ready to do this action the moment this desire appears in man.
[81750]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 34”

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Question: Does stubborn persistence on the path help overcome all the obstacles in the work?

Answer: It isn’t just stubborn perseverance that’s required of us, but also persistent clarifications. My task isn’t to simply endure like a concrete block, unyielding to any changes and standing on my previously formed opinions and understanding. Naturally, this is not the path of advancement. The Creator wants us to be developing, to analyze our states each time, and to reach more and more qualitative, internal clarifications.

In spirituality, power is not determined by quantity, not by amplifying the “volume.” Greater power always means higher quality. In spirituality, there are no quantitative changes in a force, but only changes in quality.

Every higher degree is above not because it’s simply more powerful. There are three stages: embryo, nurturing, and maturity (Ibur, Yenika, Mochin), and each contains 10 Sefirot. How are they different from one another? In this world, we clearly see that a tiny baby first grows into a big child and then fully grows and becomes an adult. But in spirituality, everything is determined by the measure of understanding, the quality of clarifications.

At first, a person doesn’t know or feel anything and isn’t capable of discerning and clarifying anything. But at least he annuls himself; this is called the still level, NHY (the lower part of the Partzuf: (Netzach, Hod, Yesod). And after, in every state he is already able to remain in bestowal (Hafetz Hesed) – HGT (the middle part of the Partzuf: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet). When he unites with the higher reason, with the upper force above him, this is called HBD (the upper part of the Partzuf: Hochma, Bina, Daat).

All of these are qualitative clarifications and not mere stubbornness. Stubbornness is required for using every moment correctly.
[81747]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why is it that we prefer to stay within the suffering and don’t want to escape it, as if we even enjoy it?

Answer: We enjoy our suffering. The whole world enjoys suffering because there is a very simple way to escape it and attain a wonderful state of goodness, which is even impossible to describe. But people prefer to suffer.

Our desire to receive is responsible for this; it likes to suffer. All of our pleasure comes from overcoming the suffering. It is really masochism. All of our pleasures, from the smallest to the greatest, of all kinds, come only from suffering. We enjoy having been able to avoid suffering a little bit, rising above it, but in any case, it is all rooted in suffering. This is the nature of the desire to receive.

In order to enjoy, we need a deficiency and then after, to fulfill it. In our case, the deficiency is the lack of fulfillment, death. And a little above death is already considered pleasure, but nonetheless, it is still associated with death. Pleasure, is when there is a little more than the state of death.

However, spiritual pleasure is different, there is pleasure from bestowal there. Thus, even the lowest, basic level already gives strength and symbolizes life, since I don’t feel deficiency in anything. I don’t personally need anything for myself. I am in the state of Bina, “Hafetz Hesed (Desire for Bestowal),” like a monk who lives in the forest and doesn’t even feel the need for a shirt.

And above this state, I feel even more life, even more bestowal, even more freedom. While at the same time, in our desire to receive, we feel only death and suffering and can’t escape it. Without this, the ego can’t feel pleasure. We must always add a little “salt and pepper” to the food to spice it up.
[81744]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “According to What Is Explained About Love Thy Friend as Thyself” 

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 132

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 64, Lesson 22

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 20, Lesson 8

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Question: In what way is the congress in the North different from the one we had in the Arava desert?

Answer: We already spoke about it yesterday in the workshop when we spoke about how our feelings change as a result of the workshops and our attitude towards them. We saw that each time the beginning is more difficult—it is harder to come to the workshop—but the entrance and the connection come more quickly and our impression grows and becomes clearer and more stable.

It is the same when it comes to congresses, since a congress is a kind of a workshop, but more complex since it is made of more parts, and we have to relate to it accordingly.

Of course, it is harder to get ready for the coming congress and to the impression we should receive from it compared to the Arava convention, in which we felt as if we were leaving Egypt and coming closer to Mt. Sinai. There was something of the legend there, a kind of an adventure. Today we are facing routine work: We are coming to a new place, we fix what is necessary, we have lectures…the previous impression is missing, it has been changed to a “standard procedure,” into routine.

This is good since this is how nature provides us with a more mature attitude so that we will try to penetrate our feelings and to be impressed by more profound things.

We say that in the Arava we attained the level of Shoresh (the root level) of our vessel. The fire burned in us and we felt like heroes looking forward to an adventure. Now we’ve moved on level one or two, the desire is also “thicker,” and our attitude should be more serious. There is no room here for the “airy” euphoria, to the childish impression anymore; we should search for all this inside, in the depths of our feeling and understanding. That’s what’s important.

Today we must attain the connection under difficult conditions, without the first impression, with a desire that is thicker. We have to be thankful for having received a thicker desire. Apparently we’ve managed to do something in the past and now we should attain a much stronger impression than before that isn’t childish but much more mature.
[81971]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/02/12, “Questions About the Congress of Consolidation in North Israel”

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Question: How should a woman, studying Kabbalah, maintain a balance between the material and spiritual life, and is it necessary? Should she simply turn away from everything material and aspire just to spirituality?

Answer: I don’t understand why it applies to women. Why doesn’t this apply to any person? First of all, it doesn’t matter whether it is a man or a woman.

In no case we should turn away from the material life. Kabbalah is not in favor of monkhood or seclusion. We must think about this world, about the essentials for living, this is stated in Kabbalah. A person should provide himself with everything he needs, rather than hope that “maybe someone will help.” He needs to have his place and normal, reasonable income. It is a must! And we have to take care of this first of all, instead of relying on others, waiting for help.
[81942]
From a Talk During the Meal in Toronto 6/19/12

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Question: Yesterday in the workshop I felt inspired by the hopes of all the friends about the coming convention that will take place in a few days in the northern part of Israel. In the next few days, we will try to keep the motto “knocking with repentance!” Today, however, I feel that I am in a completely opposite state, and that I don’t have the demand I had yesterday. I feel as if the carpet has been pulled from under my feet.

Answer: I think that such changes shouldn’t occur from one day to the next but from one moment to the next. A moment ago I was so adhered to the goal, and I yearned for it with such intensity and energy and a moment later it is totally the opposite, as if it had never happened.

What is going on? What is this wonder? To what extent do our desires change? There is no problem here; this is the creation. We are like a TV screen on which we are shown what we see and we don’t see what we are not shown. I am not the one who projects the film, and whatever is projected is not up to me.

The question is how can I become the one who projects the film if I want to see and not the one I am being shown? I don’t want to be in the life I am being shown in this movie. I want another movie!

Question: But can I project this movie, how can I prepare myself correctly from this moment onwards?

Answer: The problem is that I can change my feeling towards the movie that I am being shown only if I reach its real form. I am constantly being sent new Reshimot (reminiscences), signals, new pictures, which constantly come to me from Ein Sof (Infinity). It is a very long way, and in the meantime, I respond to them like an animal yearning for good feelings and escaping the bad ones.

If I don’t want to advance like an animal, like the pictures and the feelings that come to me in which I am in this three-dimensional space that determines my life, if I want to advance quickly and smoothly, I have to identify with the One who projects the movie to me. I have to connect to Him, to His plan, to agree with the process, to agree with what He sends me, and to understand that what he sends me and what I see are two opposites.

There is, for example, a picture that you can see in black and white or in white and black, negative and positive. Here too, I have to change my perception, but for us it isn’t just black and white, but forms that are opposite in many different properties of perception. I have to want to perceive the picture in the way the One who sends it sees it. The picture comes to the three-dimensional screen I am in, and I can’t feel it the way He depicts it, the way He sends it to me. He sends me a picture that is filled with goodness and delight, since He is good and benevolent, while I see it as the absolute opposite in my perception, my desires, and my thoughts.

In order to see it in its real form, I have to change my perception, my attributes, and my desires to the opposite. This is possible. I have another connection with Him besides this picture, and through the picture, I can connect with Him.

If I take this picture, as a whole, the whole world, everything that is before me, and want to connect it all and to attribute it to the One who projects this movie, I connect with Him and can demand that He changes my attributes.

Thus, with the help of the world, by arranging it correctly according to this method, I connect with the Creator, and He performs this change in me. Then I see that the picture changes, and I understand what I have to do. The main thing is to accept this change for the first time. From now on you already know how to proceed, you have a way; you have the right approach. Let’s hope that we will be able to fulfill this first action.
[81813]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/01/12, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” item 15: When you examine the above three states, you will find that one completely necessitates the other in a way that, if one were to be cancelled, the others would be cancelled, too.

If, for example, the third state—the conversion of the form of reception to the form of bestowal—had not materialized, it is certain that the first state in Ein Sof would never have been able to emerge.

It is because the perfection materialized there only because the future third state was already there, as though it is in the present. And all the perfection that was pictured there in that state is like a reflection from the future into the present. But if the future could be cancelled, there would not be any present. Thus, the third state necessitates the existence of the first.

The whole plan, including the initial part, the middle part, and the final part couldn’t exist without the future form. It is said: “The end of the action in is the initial thought,” which is true according to every plan and every action—the future form is mandatory and in itself determines all the details.

The beginning is only the point of the created being, which is separate from the Creator. In the future form, the created being should be like the Creator, when he rises to the level of Adam, the “human” level, stemming from the word Domeh (similar.) This determines the process: to get from the beginning to the end, we must start our development from the end to the beginning. That means that “the end result of an action lies in the initial thought.” An “action” is already the end, the final and complete form, from which we know how to approach things. It is the only way the spiritual work takes place.

In our world we assume that we operate differently, but it isn’t so. It simply seems that way since half of our actions and thoughts are concealed. It seems that something new is going on, that I am doing something, but in fact I don’t see what is going on behind the scenes where everything is arranged for me, where the future form determines the current form from which it is supposed to stem.

It seems as if I go through some process of development and that I can affect it according to my desire and my plan and to obey the desire of those around me. In the meantime, I simply don’t see that everything is predetermined and programmed.

The future form determines everything there is and everything that there will be, and only our attitude affects the feeling, the manner according to which we accept what is happening.

So we don’t need to think about the actions themselves at all. Our intention is the action. Our attitude towards what is going on is the one new element we can add on our part according to the principle of “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.” The Creator holds everything in His hands and all the created being has to do is to change his perception of reality as he accepts it as good, in equivalence of form, or in the form of suffering.

Question: How can it be that although the final phase already exists we still have to make our own independent efforts?

Answer: Our independent efforts are necessary only so that we will want to format new internal values for the new perception. If you waste your energy in order to change the world, it only means that you are foolish. You don’t need to change the world in the present but to contact the future. Animals do it instinctively, and man developed this ability when he climbed down from the tree.

After all, it is impossible to advance without knowing the future. Ancient pagan beliefs were intended only to connect to the future. Today we simply don’t understand them and that actually the customs, the dances, the rituals, and even the martial arts were designed not in order to harm someone but only to “lock” the future upon ourselves.

Man has always faced the problem of contacting the future and of feeling it. If I shoot an arrow from a bow, for example, I only have to capture the moment in which I actually hit the target, feel the future moment in which the arrow already reaches the target. That’s enough. This is called “living the future,” being in contact with it. Then by that feeling I can arrange my actions on my way to it.

But we have not been developing in this direction for quite a while since the growing ego has deprived us of the natural perception that was in our basis and we lost contact with it.

If I don’t know the future form and don’t connect to it, I don’t act; it is a sign that my desire isn’t clarified yet. So there is nothing to cry about—I have to aim all my actions towards the connection with the future.

Our future is the attribute of bestowal and I have to express it by different means. When it is clear to me how I have determined my future form, I ask for its correction and then I discover it.

Accordingly, now too, if I imagine the group correctly, it shows me the future in which I am totally connected to it in all my attributes. This is my first spiritual level. On the next level I will be given a greater egoistic desire, I will draw away from the friends again, I will begin to disrespect and hate them even more in order to reunite with them after I overcome these interruptions. This process continues until we become like Rabbi Shimon’s students, united above the burning furnace of hatred.
[81819]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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