Baal HaSulam, Letter 25: It says in The Zohar that the Holy Shechina is revealed to a person who is awarded with repentance, like a loving mother who hasn’t seen her son for a long time, and they made many efforts to see one another, and for that reason they encountered great dangers, and finally they have reached this long awaited freedom and were awarded to see one another and then the mother falls on his neck and kisses and comforts him and speaks to him all day and all night, telling him about her longings and the dangers she had encountered on the way until that day, and how she had always been with him, and had not left him, but suffered with him everywhere he had been, but he could not see that.

Judging by what Kabbalists tell us, the Creator, the Shechina, makes great efforts for us, for the souls, by helping us wake up and to gradually come closer by climbing the spiritual ladder so that eventually we will be incorporated in the Shechina and connect to it. In fact, there aren’t any changes in reality. All the changes are only in our understanding, in our perception, until we discover the good and stable upper Providence that doesn’t leave us for one moment and that never changes.

Eventually a person attains that all of reality is in absolute rest. Everything that is born in his feelings is the revelation of the vessels that have to be corrected. All the changes are only the appearance of the corrupt vessels, one by one. The feeling of the created being in the vessels that are not corrected is what depicts the picture of the corrupt world for him, and of the bad Providence, meaning that which is not eternal and is incomplete.

But if the created being advances correctly, he understands that he has to build external support for himself in the form of the group and a teacher, as it says: “Make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend, and judge every person to the scale of merit.” This environment constantly influences him and evokes him. It will shake a person and not let him forget that everything that happens at any given moment is the revelation and the fulfillment of new Reshimot (spiritual genes) through which a person sees the world, and he has to correct these Reshimot.

The environment will help him to not forget and that he will constantly be reinforced by it. So “he who chooses a better environment” according to the Reshimot that can be revealed in him in order to be corrected, will not forget for one moment the goal of his life. He has to discover the right attitude and then he will be able to advance to correction until he embraces the Creator.

The meeting place between a person and the Creator is called the Holy Shechina. The created being prepares the desires, his vessels, according to which the Creator is revealed. Thus we attain adhesion which is the goal of creation.
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From the Preparation the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13

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Question: Some people are more sensitive to certain actions and others are less sensitive. How do you recommend working with the declaration of mutual guarantee so that it is actually imprinted on everyone’s heart, so that everyone lives by this document and together we made addition to it?

Answer: The fact is that it is impossible to do all the time. But even a simple impulsive influence on a person, when you create this possibility in him and he inevitably rises above his egoism to the extent to which he begins to receive from you a sense of security, absence of any problems and worries, it pushes him out of our world. After all, we feel the whole world in the property of anxiety and constant worries because our ego forces us to think and act in this way.

That is why even a spontaneous influence on each other, which creates a feeling of mutual guarantee in a person even for a short period of time, gradually cultivates in him such a drive to rise above himself that he really starts to seek how to make it permanent. Thus, it becomes a means of our progress.

I hope that as a result of our efforts at the convention in the desert we will reach at least this specific letting go of our world. Then people will have the taste of exiting from our world, and they will begin to act in a more goal-oriented way.

Question: How can I use this at the morning lessons, workshops, meetings of friends, and shared meals for the preparation to the convention?

Answer: You need to act in the same direction: Constantly do these exercises, hoping that through my aspiration, my inner effort, I will influence the friends to feel my concern about them and get rid of their egoism. After all, there is absolutely no need to wait for any special event; you can go back to it every day and every hour, and in the end we will succeed.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

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Question from women: Why have you decided to organize a women’s convention for the first time in history? How have we deserved it?

Answer: This is due to the fact that above all we men need your support and your pressure. It’s not the first time I’ve talked about this, but now we all miss it very much: both men and women. As the head of the world group, I am very interested in a serious women’s group that will unite and give men overall strength, a common desire, that will be organized correctly and put pressure on them. It’s very important for me. Help me cope with men!

Question: What should be the result of the women’s convention? In what state should men be in after it?

Answer: After the women’s convention, men should feel that they are obliged to carry out the women’s will. We learn this in Kabbalah. Women’s desires/Aviut rise to the men’s desires, and the men realize them. That is how things work in nature.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

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Baal HaSulam, “Body and Soul”: And they depict the body as an electronic machine with wires that stretch from the body to the brain, and operate by encounters with external things.

Also, they send their sensations of pain or pleasure to the brain, and the brain instructs the organ what to do.

Question: Is everything the body feels, is all our life actually like a “movie” that is being projected to it?

Answer: There are two approaches that are integrated here, the subjective and the objective. On the whole, if you already see, if you perceive a certain picture of the world, you cannot erase it and say that it is your imagination. It may be your imagination, but this “imagination” is our life and we have to accept it as a fact.

Question: So where is the truth?

Answer: There is no truth. Everything is relative with regard to a person. There are seven billion people on earth and each one has his own truth. After all, we don’t have an absolute scale according to which we can measure the truth. We are all hanging in space, just like earth, just like the whole universe; who knows where he is “hanging?” You are alive now, but in a moment you may be dead, and who is controlling this? In whose hands are the strings?

In our current state, when there are no basic standards, we cannot measure things accurately. We have established many systems and measuring units, which are relative: the Greenwich meridian, a kilogram, a meter, a watt, an ohm, but these are relative units for comparative measurements. They only confirm the fact that actually there is nothing we can hold on to and that we cannot actually measure anything.

We don’t know what the truth is, and we agree on a certain framework of nominal comparisons since we need a common language in order to lead a normal life. Otherwise, how would we be able to keep the connection between us and to live off one another? So there is no truth. No one needs it. If people discover something that is absolute, I would have to accept it as a fact, and I prefer my own “truth.” It is true that we can reach absolute values, but our ego doesn’t let us do that, and so we are immersed in relativity and instability.

We have to get used to this state and to accept it, to accept it as a fact. It is normal to show that I have changed with regard to yesterday. A person who advances understands that nothing is certain and stable. If what was good yesterday also seems good today, it means that I am “still,” not even on the “vegetative” level, but on the level of “still nature.” On the “speaking” level, however, I see “an opposite world” each day. After all, every level is opposite from the one that preceded it.

On the spiritual path, I don’t simply add new things to what already exists; I am transforming each time and there is nothing to be ashamed of. There is no need to be an “indestructible rock”; we are all constantly changing, which is good. Only small children who are constantly restless and uneasy can grow.

Well, we cannot determine that anything is absolute, and so we have to believe that “a judge only has what his eyes can see,” and to accept this picture as real. There is only one truth—that there is nothing stable, and that everything changes with regard to a person.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12, “Body and Soul”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 55

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“The Peace“

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We read so much from different Kabbalistic sources, we see ourselves and the world in different potential situations, and it seems that correction is a very complex and difficult thing which is practically impossible.

That’s the way it seems until a person understands that all he has to do is to check for and to identify the corruptions as much as he can and ask for their correction. We don’t have to think about how they will be corrected since we can never understand and even imagine what state will come instead of the corrupt state. We only have to want to correct each and every state.

Our problem is only in what we mean by the concept correction. Suppose I have a car and I see different malfunctions in it: There is flat tire, a problem in a piston, or in some other part. My request should be not about fixing the car, but about using it. Then I will discover that it is fixed.

We have to correct our intention and not the action. This is what we forget, because we want to see the corrected state. But things can be corrected only according to how we can and want to use it correctly, in the right direction, in the right action. Otherwise…the car is on the edge of a cliff, and I have to say in which direction I want to drive it. It will remain out of order unless I choose the right direction, because we “rise in Holiness and not lower in Holiness.” That’s the only way!

It is very important to know this: We don’t correct the action but the intention. This is a totally different level of perception; it is as if I choose different glasses in order to look at life, in the derivative. If this is how I begin to see things, then the correction itself is not difficult any more and is not a problem at all, since it isn’t my responsibility. I only have to choose how to use correctly what is being corrected. It says: “make you desire His desire”; if my intentions in using this part of the desire are absolutely identical to the Creator’s intentions, then it is corrected immediately; the Light completes everything.

To a certain extent this is a wonder. Look at it this way and it will help you differentiate between the action and the intention, since this is a mistake that constantly drags us to actions and constantly takes us to a plane that is totally irrelevant for us, to a corporeal plane and not to the “human” level. The “human” level is similar to the Creator, and if it is similar, then the Host and I are at the table and the table is only the reason for being connected to one another. The main thing is the intention, the relations between us and not all the delicacies on the table.

So don’t look at the world as something that is difficult to correct. On the contrary, sensitivity in identifying what needs to be corrected, that must be corrected on my part, is the whole problem.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/01/13, The Zohar

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Question: If a person reaches a certain level of correction, does it affect the rest of the world?

Answer: Of course, every person’s correction affects everyone since we are all in the same system. So there is the concept of “birthright,” which helps us advance. How can the concept of “birthright” help us and what is it? Is it some historical documents kept in an archive? Of course not.

It is about the correction of the desires. The great Kabbalists, the sages of the Talmud, made a special correction after which we don’t have to through physical penance in order to exit our ego. It is enough to make efforts studying Kabbalah. If I study in a group and want to connect to others in order to discover the Creator in the connection between us and by that bring Him contentment, it is enough for my advancement. I don’t have to torment my body, to beat myself and to be thrown to the ground.

Before the correction of the sages of the Talmud, a person had to torment his body if he wanted to reach a spiritual revelation. According to nature’s laws we had to humiliate our physical body and to torment it so that it would want to come out of its skin. Kabbalists in the past made corrections so that we wouldn’t have to use such methods.

Our forefathers belonged to the Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, and Daat (HBD). Then came the sages of the Talmud who belonged to Hessed, Gevura, Tifferet (HGT) and so they are called the “sons.” The period of the sages of the Talmud lasted until the destruction of the second Temple. These Kabbalists corrected the part of creation that belonged to their desire. Therefore, the Light already dressed in the same vessels and became closer to us!

We belong to the last Sefirot: Netzach, Hod, Yesod (NHY). Every period: HBD, HGT, and NHY lasts two thousand years and today we’ve reached the year 5773, which means we’ve nearly reached the end of the 6000 years of correction.

First the Surrounding Light reached only the most external circle—HBD. But the fathers have brought it closer by their corrections and it has reached the Sefirot of HGT. The sages of the Talmud brought the Surrounding Light even closer to NHY, and then Kabbalists who lived during the last exile passed on the Light even closer to us. This means that the Kabbalists of the past have prepared for us the corrections which we can now use. It is one general system.

By our corrections, we are preparing the infrastructure for the next generation. This help is not only in the books and video clips that we produce; what’s important is that we are preparing a system full of Light for the next generations and are bringing the Light even closer! Thanks to this, the whole world is waking and it isn’t because of some articles or clips on the Internet.

Everything wakes from below, through the general system of souls. So the more united we are, wanting the Light to be revealed in the connection among us, the closer we bring the Light to all of humanity.

By this we can understand the connection between all the souls, in all the generations. Thanks to each correction, the Light gradually gets closer to desires that are thicker and more internal. As long as we haven’t corrected ourselves, there will be parts of the desire in the world that will not be able to wake up.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Many times someone has seemed to be a great man, but as I got closer to him and got to know him I discovered there was nothing there. When will the disappointments end and when will we really discover greatness?

Answer: Greatness is only discovered in the Creator. We have to work in an opposite manner towards the group, the teacher, and the Creator; we have to build their greatness by ourselves. The closer you get to them, the smaller, humbler and lower they will seem to you. They will not allow you to hold on to them and to appreciate them.

It says, “Wherever you discover His greatness, this is where you discover His modesty.” It is very hard to hold on to a feeling of greatness in spirituality.

Therefore, religions use external attributes in order to raise importance, and every rabbi or priest presents themselves as great and important before the people. This is necessary in order to attract people, since they are impressed by external appearance. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, however, it is the opposite; here everything is determined by the internality. So sometimes the study, the group, the friends, and the teacher present themselves as not being special in any way. Then a person has to overcome the disrespect and try to raise their importance on a more internal level, by himself.

We don’t even act like the great group from Kotzk, who purposefully showed each other lightheadedness and disrespect of spirituality in order to allow for more work.

We have to work on the greatness of the friend, the teacher, and the Creator, although each time we feel that they are smaller. So we have to value these moments dearly, just like during the workshops when we have a chance to be impressed by the mind and feelings of the friends when we don’t even expect it. It is because we are used to humiliating everyone by seeing ourselves as the greatest of all.

The fact that I value myself more than everyone is instinctive. Suddenly I discover that the friends are greater than I, and this shakes me in some sense. First it only shakes me egoistically, but then I begin to value them and to envy them, and then I tie it to the goal and use it in order to advance.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What does it mean to be impressed by the Creator?

Answer: To be impressed by the greatness of the Creator means to be impressed by His creation since we are not able to grasp Him Himself. It is “from Your actions we will know You.”

You are impressed by everything that you discover within you and surrounding you, in all of reality, that in the meantime you don’t connect to yourself and don’t feel that it is you yourself. You are shown only your inner world in a kind of external mirror so that you will study it better. We need to thank the Creator that He gives us the opportunity to see our inner pictures from the outside, and in this way can learn to know ourselves.

If you don’t connect together with the friends, the teacher, and the Creator, then, for certain, you are degrading them. It occurs automatically. If the importance of the Rav, the group, each of the friends, and the Creator aren’t completely equal for you, as something above you, given to you so that you understand yourself and the reality in which you exist, then it turns out that you degrade them.

You can’t just value the Creator. It isn’t the Creator if you don’t connect Him to the teacher, the group, the studies, and to all the components of this concept, the “Creator.” The main thing is to connect all the factors together; otherwise, it is impossible to talk about anything that is real and concrete.

“There is none else beside Him” signifies that all the rest, except for the single point inside me through which I am able to research the reality, is the Creator. And “the point of breakage” of mine that is separated from me was given to me so that by using this breakage, this special act of the Creator, I will get to know myself and Him.

We are both separated by the attribute of severance, purposefully created by the Creator. And only this one point doesn’t belong to the Creator, so that I will invert it into a point of adhesion.

And when I begin to work on this point of separation between us, it suddenly turns into five worlds, a black abyss that I constantly try to skip over. To skip, means to connect above this abyss that separates between us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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