Question: What will happen when we connect? How will it work?

Answer: It is a connection that is created above the feeling of separation, since we achieve it by ourselves and this achievement is based on the contrast between two opposite states. Above the resistance between them, we discover our achievement.

It is like a resistor in an electric circuit that resists the connection between two points by creating a resistance between them. However, if we connect this network to two poles, we create a potential difference, and then by this resistance we can clarify what the difference is: By clarifying the gap and the relations between them we can understand what is on one pole and what is on the other. All this is clarified by the resistor, by the resisting force.

The system of life is built on this basis—on the connection of opposite particles. These particles connect into atoms and the atoms into molecules and everything connects on the basis of opposites, a plus with a minus.

Different materials are created thanks to the different connections between the positive and negative particles. Such internal opposite qualities are typical of every material, of all the elements on the periodic table. Later this connection between the plus and the minus becomes increasingly varied and complex. Different qualities appear in it, which turn these creations into living cells.

It isn’t a static system anymore in which the plus and the minus are connected in a stable relationship to one another, but a system in which this relationship begins to change and thus the element of life is created.

The lower can already exist not simply adhering to the upper the way it was in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), or separated from Him, like after the descent of the worlds to this world, but also in starting to perform independent movements with regard to the upper. This is already a change from the level of the still level of nature into the level of the vegetative and then into the animate level and finally into the level of the speaking. This is how the ascent up the levels occurs.

This is how life is created in this world and this is also what happens in the spiritual world as a person advances and annuls the partition that separates him from the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/12, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: During the work in the integral group, we found a text that was arranged in a special way. It described what a group is and what “we” is, all the levels, etc. It is amazing that around this text there began a creation of some kind of field, to be specific, some kind of shared feeling. What is your opinion of the work with the text?

Answer: I think that this is the most important thing! When a group assembles, a text should always be presented to it.

These texts can be repeated. With time, the group goes through all kinds of states, and each time even the previous text will be grasped differently, in a new way. Since, after all, we all change, and thus the entire group is different each time, and it will discover within its combination, all kinds of aspects of unity, connection, integration, etc.

This is creative work. The people in the group will feel the direction they were brought to and attracted to, yesterday and today. According to the situation of each one of them, they will feel a general, shared desire, an over-all attribute of mutual attraction, bestowal and love, an ascending of the ego which usually separates people, which positions each one in a certain relation to others. And here they must rise above this state in spite of their ego.

Question: During one and a half hours we were able to go through only two paragraphs of the article, because it’s actually possible to hold a one-hour discussion on each word.

Answer: That’s really so. Suddenly one word invites a full variety of sensations! This happens since it is specifically this shared field, which creates an unusual abundance of variation.

Question: What do you think? Is it worthwhile in the beginning to read the entire article and then to divide it into paragraphs and discuss them?

Answer: No. There is no need to load people with this information, since it is sensory, mental, and it will be difficult for people to deal with this bulk.

Whereas, if they listen to one or two sentences in a relaxed manner, then suddenly they begin to see in the text: ‘’How do we implement it? What is it for? Why? For what reason?’’ And even if some phrases that you haven’t read yet, explain previous ones, it’s not important if you get stuck in them, since in this way you will understand the importance more, by getting confused in presenting them.
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From a Talk on Integral Upbringing 3/4/12

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From Baal HaSulam’s letter (No. 52): Call upon Him while He is near. Know that the fact that you are calling upon the Creator means that He is near. It means that now you have an opportunity; if you pay attention, you will feel that the Creator is near you, and this is the sign of the Creator’s nearness.

If a desire emerges in a person, it means that the Creator passed it to him. Desires can be felt as gratitude, requests, complaints, or dissatisfactions. Whatever a person feels, it always comes from the Creator. One has to realize that he is not generating his desires on his own. The words that a person uses to address the Creator internally in his heart are also sent to him by the Creator. One never performs any independent actions. The Light elicits desires and fully defines their reaction towards It.

One thinks that the Creator answers one’s prayers; however, it’s only a reaction of the Light to a newly made desire with which one works in order to trigger the Light’s reaction. So, it goes step by step according to the plan of creation; it’s a process that we all have to go through.

The only thing that a person has to do on top of everything that happens to him is to realize and admit that he has been involved in the Creator’s work, in a process that the Light performs on him and on his vessel/desire. A person’s role in the process is to understand that it’s the Creator who makes those actions upon him. Man has to accept everything that is going on with him, reconcile with it, and start wishing to be involved in the process to the extent that he prepares for everything that will happen to him next. Then, it will mean that he is in cohesion with the Creator.
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From a Lesson on 8/23/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: In the process of integral education, can we organize some joint activities for men and women such as on the holidays, for example?

Answer: I think that a society that aspires toward integration will discover a greater separation between the sexes. We see that nature doesn’t agree with any intermingling.

In nature, there exists a precise subordination, a hierarchy, a separation in accordance with functions and the way that men and women realize themselves. It’s precisely the correct alignment of these two opposites that will create and give birth to a new, harmonious society.
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From a Talk on Integral Education 3/4/12

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 76

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt “Aharei-Mot,” Lesson 10

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8, Item 8, Lesson 4

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“Introduction to the Book, The Tree of Life”

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There is an awakening from Above and an awakening from below. Everyone can be awakened from below in any state. For example, on Friday afternoon I can be in a state of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and two hours later in Pesach (Passover), or just in an ordinary weekday. This is what we call the spiritual levels and here everything depends on a person.

In addition, there are phenomena that are part of the general order when there is an illumination from Above that comes in order to arrange the worlds. This is an awakening from Above that influences everyone.

The difference between the general and the particular form is in the intensity of the awakening. If a person operates on his own, he corrects himself and eventually reaches his individual end of correction, by leaving the general “stony heart” uncorrected. On the other hand, the general corrections are much wider and more intensive; it’s a totally different thing. This is also the difference between an individual and a group, since it’s in a group that we discover the upper force and all the individual levels are transcended in the relations with the friends.

In the article “The Discernment of a Wife and Sons in the Torah,” in The Rungs of the Ladder, Rabash says: Good days implies the ascents of the worlds, as each one rises a level, and rises a bit above the state it is in. This means that everyone who is part of the worlds rises together with the worlds. However, whoever is not on the ladder of the spiritual levels climbs them, since they require self-annulment. If you can annul yourself, then everything that happens in the worlds will happen with you and by your self-annulment you are included in the spiritual processes.

Rabash continues: And this is the time when everyone checks the cause for which he takes upon himself the yoke of Heaven. Why should I annul myself in order to ascend with the worlds? What will I gain from that? If I had already known the answer I may have not ascended. What do I actually get? Love of others? Concern for others? General connection? Do I really need all this?

A person should check whether it’s worthwhile to pay for this by such great efforts and exertion, giving up all his previous life and annulling himself. Malchut annuls itself before Bina, which means that the desire to receive is annulled before the desire to bestow.

This question is also relevant today, before Rosh Hashanah, (the New Year). Usually people wish one another a good year. So how do I imagine what a good year is? This is exactly what I have to check. A year is a change, the next level, an ascent. What changes would I want in the new year? A raise in my salary? Or something else?

A person should check for what he should annul himself. Time after time we discover to what extent we can bear self-annulment in order to reach the level of others, and to serve others devotedly. Before you attribute nice words to the Creator and praise Him, you should relate to all of humanity. The basic condition is: from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator. Otherwise nothing works; first you have to prepare the vessels, and your vessels are humanity. Then the Creator is revealed to you there, according to your equivalence to Him. When you treat people correctly, He reveals His attitude to you. This is where you will meet in mutual vessels.

Question: Does this mean that I have to wish humanity a good year?

Answer: Myself, “I want a good year and it will be good if I adhere to the Good and the Benevolent.” How can I adhere to Him? I can do this in my attitude to everyone, by wishing them the best. Then the Creator will help me with that and there I will meet Him, which means the attribute of bestowal. No matter what I think, this is the Creator, I will dwell only in the attribute of bestowal and receive only the one force of love, and this is called “correction.”

Question: What is self-annulment?

Answer: Now you have desires, intentions, and different inclinations and you annul them in order to adhere to the Creator, Who is absolute love. You can’t be totally in bestowal if you don’t annul yourself in some sense.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/12, Customs of Rosh Hashanah

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, #168, “The Customs of Israel”: The customs of Israel are so important, that it is safe to say that they give more spirituality to a person than the Mitzvot themselves. This is so although breaking a custom does not yield punishment, and breaking a judgment does yield punishment. Still, concerning the benefit, meaning producing fear of heaven, the customs yield more spirituality, since the great ones who established the customs arranged it so that spirituality would shine through them.

There is a great problem as for the corporeal actions that are aimed at love and connection; actions which Rabash describes in his articles about the society. We mustn’t think lightly of them and thus we perform everything relatively.

A “custom” is a condition, a law, which I can’t perform on the spiritual level at the moment and so I keep it only in corporeality. I bring the friends contentment and try to fulfill the desires of the friends, to connect them, and to connect to them in order to bring them contentment. I constantly fulfill different actions that belong to the commandment of “Love thy friend,” to connection and to mutual guarantee. Indeed, neither I nor the friends have reached a spiritual fulfillment yet; it isn’t the fulfillment of the “commandments” yet, not the drawing of the Light that Reforms that connects, that awakens, and fills us. In the meantime we are on the level of preparation and all our actions are on the level of “customs.”

So we study, work in the group, carry out the advice of the Kabbalists, and it doesn’t matter whether we understand them or not. They attached special help from Above to their advice—the Light that Reforms. So, even though our intention is egoistic (Lo Lishma – Not for Her Name) from Lo Lishma we arrive at the altruistic intention of Lishma (For Her Name).

Everything that helps you reach correction in the meantime is used with the intention of in order to receive, which means with egoistic intentions, is called a “custom.” You operate in order to connect and even if you don’t want to connect, even if you are looking for self-benefit, the Light comes and brings you a different intention, which you couldn’t even have asked for. You didn’t even think about it, but it happens—you suddenly begin to appreciate the attributes of bestowal and love.

In order to do that, we need group work: to annul yourself, to raise the friends in your eyes, to spur them and yourself. Yes, you want to gain something by these actions, after all, you benefit by such actions since this is the only way to draw the Light.

It’s a simple law: The Light comes only to the desire that is similar to it in its properties. True, you haven’t reached an equivalence of form yet, but you have the corporeal body and this is what it was created for, so that with it you will support the friends and tell them how much you love them and how important the Creator is, and give them examples of bestowal and of self-annulment. With the help of our bodies we connect to one another. Although all our actions in the group are in order to receive, they are the type of actions Kabbalists have prepared especially in order to attain true connection.

My intentions are the opposite, malicious, I intend to use the upper world and the Creator for my own benefit, but the actions I perform are right and thanks to them, thanks to the mechanism Kabbalists have created, I can correct myself. Otherwise, how could I exit the shattering? Here the “customs” are necessary, the right action that lead to the right intentions.

Kabbalists have performed special corrections in order to insert the Light that Reforms into the customs after the “shattering.” The Light can’t pour into the “vessels” that are below, beyond the “shattering line,” within the desire to receive. Still it’s possible to raise the vessels that are beginning to wake up. Thus we begin to work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/12, Customs of Rosh Hashanah

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The best states of all are when a person needs a connection with the Creator. A connection can only occur when he needs the help of the Creator. And he should want this help not for himself; otherwise, it would have been an egoistic desire. But precisely above his desire, the yearning to do good, he can build relations with others and begin to take care of them, help them to be corrected, act in their direction.

Thus a person will change caring for himself to caring for others to such an extent that he will ask the Creator to help him realize this care, to correct his friends and thus bring pleasure to the Creator.

This is the building of the whole system of relationship within a person in the direction of the other, in the direction of the Creator. It does not exist naturally, and it will never emerge in a person by itself. A person has to build it above the egoistic desire that is revealed before him.

This work is called the work of Israel, of a person who strives straight to the Creator, who starts to work on the basis of the first desire revealed in him, and who gradually turns all his desires towards the Creator. This is the work of Moses who turns to the Pharaoh demanding he release Israel from slavery, and the work of the Pharaoh on the people of Israel and Moses so that they feel how they need the Creator’s help.

A person should find out that the main work in his heart concerning the Creator and the Pharaoh is aimed to bring the people out of slavery, that is, to purify all the desires, the entire world. The entire world are parts of the human soul, and a person’s duty is to free this whole world from the power of the egoistic Pharaoh.

Through studies, the group, and many clarifications, he needs to turn his personal, selfish desire to attain the spiritual work, to reveal the Creator to the correct desire to bestow. If he gets an awakening every time, this is the sign that the Creator wants him and his duty is to fulfill this desire!

If a person does not use the received awakening once, twice, or the third time, then he is left alone for some time, perhaps until the end of this life or even for several life cycles, until finally, he is given a chance from Above to become awakened.

That is why we must be very wary of losing even a moment, a desire, a gift from Above, because no one knows when it is manifested again. The problem is that 99% of the people who get an awakening from Above simply do not pay attention at it and do not realize it. They treat this unique chance presented from Above as something ordinary in this world that it will not disappear and can wait until tomorrow, a few hours or a few days, another time.

They do not look at themselves from aside in order to relate to this awakening in a spiritual way and not in a material one, and do not begin to work on the entire common vessel, on connection with others, on dissemination of this knowledge, and correction of the world. That is, they do not start acting to reveal the Creator, the only thing that we lack in this world, the panacea for all our problems.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the essence of the phrase “the one who prays for his friends receives first”? It’s a very confusing statement for me because asking the Creator to change my desire is still a prayer for my own benefit, since I already know that I will be the one who receives before others. It’s something that really bothers me.

Answer: It shows that you don’t pray for your friend yet. “The one praying for his neighbor receives first” implies that the one who prays doesn’t think of himself at all, nor does he concentrate on who receives first. Yes, he does receive before others, since the Light has to transcend through him to his friends. How else?

He simply rises to a level at which he prays for his friend without any thought about himself. There is nothing about one’s “self,” nor does one pray to improve his personal matters. All one wishes is to fulfill his friend’s appeal. He doesn’t have a desire of his own of any kind whatsoever!

In this case, one really receives before others because he conveys the Light to his friends. We have covered this material. Our souls are present in the worlds of Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. We have multiple questions and requests. If we raise them to Malchut of the world of Assiya, then Malchut raises them even higher, to Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut; the one who raises MAN brings up a request of his friends who are supposedly still staying “below.” Then, he becomes the first to receive the Light from Above. The Light goes through him first, and then it transcends through Malchut to other souls.

Question: So, it means that in order to obtain such a desire I first have to appeal to the Creator and ask Him to give it to me, to make it completely free of egoism, without even a drop of selfishness, right?

Answer: Certainly! In this case, it will be a prayer that precedes another prayer. Otherwise it’s just another egoistic loop, nothing more than that.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Lesson 5

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