Question: What effort and awakening do we lack in order to help people break the barriers?

Answer: They must know that the goal is not achieved by shouts and riots in the streets. Instead, we must learn what connection is.

Connection is not a simple thing. Enthusiastic calls will not help here. A person must examine himself, reveal, and bring out within him the forces that repel the connection and that help it.

The method of connection is actually the method for a person’s inner correction. I don’t want to connect with others because this is how I am built from within. I can talk about this, praise the unity in the world, and organize general love days, but actually, we are all egoists, and no one has the power to truly connect with others. It is not that he does not want to, but is simply incapable.

Therefore, we need to become familiar with this and begin to change ourselves. The correction of the world is correction of each one. We need to change the person. Moreover, each one needs to change himself and not the others, and to help another person means to pass on the method and support in his first steps that he is capable of actualizing. I can give him an example of the extent to which it is important for me so that he also will be imbued with this importance.

We need to act solely according to the principles of mutuality. We are different from all the rest in that we say that it is possible to reach connection and unity, that it is possible to rise above the crisis.

We are capable of this. We have the method of connection that is based on a person’s correction. The entire Torah is intended for this, as it is written, “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice for it because the Light in it reforms”.

This is how a person becomes better. We use this method that enables us to attract the Light through the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah and work in the group.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/12, “Body and Soul”

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In his article “Body and Soul,” Baal HaSulam explains a very common confusion about body and soul. The topic concerns everyone. What am “I” in this realm? What will happen to me after I die?

Animals do not worry about such things. They never have thoughts like that since they do not sense time outside their nature, nor do they ever rise above their nature, whereas on top of human sensations of life, there is an additional feeling of detachment that causes questions. What happens outside of this life?

In fact, we belong to eternity, and to the degree of our personal connectedness with eternality, we raise different kinds of questions. Our quest varies in intensity and strength, but everyone deals with these questions one way or another.

As a result of this quest, people have come up with multiple theories and concepts. There are several thousand religions, beliefs, customs, and so on that Baal HaSulam divides into the following categories:

• Some think that there is no soul whatsoever and that a body is a machine, a sack of chemical combinations, and that it is driven by electric impulses.
• Others think of a body as something that possesses a soul that enters a body at the time of birth and exits it at death.
• Some think that, even though a soul does exist, still a body can live without it. We know how to attach bodily parts that were torn apart and learned to implant new organs, sometimes even artificial ones. In the future, we possibly will create our own bodies from a set of body parts.

To make a long story short, people are very confused about this issue. Is there a soul or not? Is it inside or outside a body? No one knows the precise answer, nor does anyone have any scientific explanation of this matter.

Therefore, people chose theories according to their tastes. Numerous hypotheses were created during the last century that brought a lot of money to their authors. However, so far, none of those theories provide a true answer to the question since they do not disclose the topic in full.

Here, the wisdom of Kabbalah steps in. It divulges reality to its full capacity: the Creator, the soul, and so on—in other words, everything! Nothing is hidden from us here.

That’s why Kabbalah is called a “secret wisdom.” It studies things that are concealed from us and makes them obvious to those who study this science. Of course, one must invest lots of effort, but he will be rewarded according to his exertion. It’s a place where veracity can be discovered, although we should remember that revelation in Kabbalah is conditioned by internal changes of a student.

The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t deal with external activities such as rituals, amulets, or secret ceremonies. In a very accurate and clear way, it demands a person to change internally.

The demand is very rigid. Being controlled by our desires to receive, we always think to take care of ourselves. This makes us “egoistic animals.” Think about it, check it out, realize your evil inclination, and transform it into its opposite: the intention for the sake of bestowal. There is a special power that implements the correction when we work in the group.

One way or the other, the implementation of Kabbalah principles should be very clear and easy for everyone who wants to know them. The problem is, let’s say, in being lazy. Hence, there are not too many people who have managed to reveal the truth so far.

The wisdom of Kabbalah states that there is no soul that dwells in the body. There is a vessel of the soul that also is called the “body of the soul,” a desire to receive that is totally oriented toward bestowal. It is a corrected vessel for the soul, that is, for the Light that fills it according to the law of similarity of properties and which is called the “Light of the soul.”

Thus, if a person transforms himself into a vessel that receives the Light, then the Light enters him. Afterward, one obtains a soul that belongs to him and that reflects the level of the desires with which he has worked.

There are five levels of the Light of the soul: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. In general, a person must attain a big, common soul and recognize his spiritual attainment in everything around him.

As for material values, they disappear, cease to exist, since material sensors are imaginary. They were given to us temporarily so that we escape this reality and exit to spirituality.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/12, “Body and Soul”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 11

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt “VaYikahel (And Moses Assembled),” (Starting with: “Afterwards, through Man), Item 131, Lesson 4

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8, Item 4, Lesson 2

Topic of Lesson: Customs of Rosh Hashanah 

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Question: How can we reach the hearts of people if they aren’t ready to listen to us?

Answer: There is no problem in reaching another person’s heart. After all the strings that mutually connect us are stretched among us all and they are at your disposal, go ahead; influence this system from the inside. No one in the world except those who have the point in the heart have such a powerful access to the internal network that connects people.

We are all mutually connected; the whole world is wandering within the collective feelings and thoughts, but on the “animal” level. As for the forces that change reality, none of the seven billion reaches that; they are all under supervision.

You can operate actively in the internal network that connects everyone if you want to do it correctly by helping its advancement, its development, and its revelation to people. Then you can connect to this network and add your desire to it, your prayer. Go ahead, you have the chance; after all, you have received a point in the heart just like our friends throughout the world.

We are all connected to this internal network and through it we assist its positive development. We pull the world ourselves a bit more strongly forward so that it will not advance as a result of negative urges. If we assist the natural force called the “Creator” advance the world, we change the negative pulses from behind to positive ones that pull the world forward. Kabbalists call this “to judge oneself and the world to the scale of merit.” Eventually the painful stabs in the back change into a pleasant adventure on the way forward.

Question: This means that it isn’t about the words I say to someone. Does it work even if a person doesn’t listen, if I have the right intention?

Answer: Of course. You don’t have to hear with your ears at all. We do have to awaken people by external means, but the true and most powerful dissemination is undoubtedly through the internal network. If we kept the internal connection among us, the world would be different.

The question is: What efforts do we have to make in order to increase our internal connection and what efforts should be made to increase the external connection.

If we could truly invest all our powers effectively in the internal connection, we should do that. But we cannot and so we also work on the external connection that helps us unite and operate mutually.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/12, “Peace in the World”

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Question: How can I hold on to the right intention?

Answer: Make efforts with regards to the group, the study, the friends, and the whole world in order to constantly keep the intention. Your intention is like a prisoner that you must constantly guard so that he won’t run away, or like a baby for whom you constantly care.

It takes great efforts. But if you look at the world as an intended outcome by understanding which intentions go into the spiritual account, which do not, then there is hardly anything left of this world.

This is what it looks like from spirituality. It seems that so many things take place on this corporeal planet, so many events, and so many people are active on it, but this is all only to make a person feel despair and confusion by this chase and to recognize that the world is operated by intentions and not by apparent physical actions.

Intention is the desirable outcome of an action or for whom I perform a certain action. But if it’s about an intention, we don’t refer to a simple physical action anymore, but take into account the quality of the action, its internal direction, who it’s aimed at and in whose favor. The immediate intention ties you to the quality of the actions.

The action can be just a desire. I can now sit quietly on the couch with a cigarette and a glass of beer but perform very complicated work internally, by yearning to collect all my thoughts and desires that are now going in different directions and revolving in a closed circle and to focus them in the right direction.

If you look at a person through such a filter, you’ll see what state he is really in. Then you’ll see that he is performing spiritual work. But if you look at the action itself, at how he sits on the couch with a cigarette and a beer, you may think that he is just a bum wasting his time in vain.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/12, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: Different parts of a general mechanism can cause different damage when they are not functioning properly. What parts are critical to society?

Answer: The approach is simple: I am the critical part because all the others are absolutely corrected. There is nothing to think about—only with this point of view can you see the correct picture.

The general system works; it has everything necessary and moves in the right direction. However, “everyone judges according to one’s own flaw,” and as a result, I see an uncorrected world. And I see it not just on television, but in my feelings: The salary is not enough, there is an overdraft in the bank account, health is deteriorating, relationships with people are getting worse, the appliances at home break down…. In short, I feel that I am in a broken world.

I have to say to myself: “This is all because I ‘spin’ incorrectly, meaning I interact incorrectly with other ‘cogwheels.’ The problem is not in politicians and tycoons but only in me.” There is no sense in looking for other problems in the system, attempting to fix other people’s desires and properties. Everything is perfect. The problem is me myself.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/10/12, “Peace in the World”

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Question: Quite often during our discussions in the integral education groups, we slip into the usual, ordinary state. We begin to compliment one another and so on. How should we escape from such states so that we will not waste our time?

Answer: There has to be a clear plan in front of everyone or a big screen with the text, and you should know that you must flow along its path as if you were in a little, common boat. Imagine that we are in the huge sea and this text is our guide.

Together, we read the same article and its study is a certain step forward on our part. The article is divided into parts or sub-steps. We read one or two sentences and discuss what they say and how they help us unite, rise, and correctly use everything that exists within us. At the same time, the text itself must direct us and give us clues as to what we should do. Essentially, it should play the role of a teacher.
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From a Talk on Integral Upbringing 3/2/12

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Question: How can I not cause harm by my actions if in the meantime I don’t have the right intention to bestow and I operate with the wrong intention?

Answer: The main thing is that you are making an effort in order to reach the right intention. Suppose a small child wants to please his mom and serve her a plate, but he breaks it on the way. His intention was good, right? This means that he did a good deed even though the plate was broken! No one looks at the plate, everyone looks at his intention. How should we know why it was broken and what we should learn from this?

We look at our desires and think that the Creator judges us by them. It isn’t so at all. He judges us by our intentions. It was predetermined that you would break the plate. This isn’t a problem at all because it was clear from the start that you couldn’t perform this action correctly. The main thing is that you work on your intention.

Only the intentions go through the spiritual filter, while the actions themselves, which means the change in the desires and their fulfillment, remain on the other side of the Masach (screen). Only the intentions count! I made so many efforts; I performed a thousand different actions, but only my intentions went through the filter. On the side where I am it doesn’t matter that I work like mad. Only my intentions will be projected on the Masach.

Therefore, we don’t understand what is happening. We did so much, and where are the results? But we have to check whether these actions were accompanied by the right intention or not. You may have not had an intention, which means that you haven’t done anything.

This is what remains when a person’s life ends. There are seven billion people in the world, but how many right intentions go through the filter and are included in the spiritual account? Zero. Therefore it says, “I have come and there is no one.” A human being is called an “intention,” and not the physical actions. The spiritual filter cleans whatever goes through it and leaves only the intention. A clean beautiful picture is formed, as if nothing happens in this world.

Never mind if you don’t know how to reach the right intention at the moment. The main thing is the effort that you made, that you tried to hold on to it under conditions that were not up to you. It may have been predetermined that you would fail. After all, you are not alone; you have to be incorporated in the general network in which there are different conditions. This means that the results don’t depend on you, but only the efforts.

Therefore, whoever sees our reality through the right intention begins to see the world in a totally different way. He gets closer to the picture of the spiritual world; the world becomes only intentions. All the requests are about the intentions, the actions according to the intentions and the connection; everything is done in the intentions. Everything is measured only by the intentions, meaning how strong and pure they are or how much dirt they contain. The intention is a result of the action, from its lowest level or from its result, and there is nothing in the action itself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/12, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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