Question: Sometimes we say that our world is hell. What is the difference between the concept of “hell” in the spiritual and earthly interpretation?

Answer: In Kabbalah, the feeling of the burning fire of hatred for others is called hell. It is the feeling of alienation from friends and the Creator that is manifested in Malchut (in the desire); according to our spiritual root, it is felt like fire.

Now, it is not felt like that: “I don’t want to look at him and don’t want to talk to him; I don’t like him, thus, I reject him.” That is, today we do not have this state when we dislike or hate. Hell is a feeling of hatred that arises on the spiritual level.

But a more profound sense of hell is a state of disconnection from the Creator. This is the largest penalty, but not with respect to our current level.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/23/12

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Rabash, “What is Thou Shall not Add and Thou Shall not Detract in the Work”: We should understand that when a person wants to begin the work of Holiness, he must first know what it is about. This means whom he wants to serve. This means that he must first estimate how important the King that he wants to serve as a slave is, which means that he will be as “slaves serving the Rav not in order to get a reward.” But who is the one who gives him the desire to serve the King without any reward. Only the greatness and the importance of the King fuel him to want to work without any reward. So all his work is to depict the importance of the King to himself, and to thank Him, for having given him a desire and a thought to take some part in spirituality.

The importance of the Creator is the only reason that can commit us to the real work. There are many kinds of awakenings, but they all come and work on the part of our ego. Only if we get an inspiration to work and are impressed by the Creator’s greatness, does this motivation come on the part of bestowal. The greatness of the upper obligates us to bestow and helps us to attain bestowal.

We have to divide it accurately into two. All the other types of awakenings, even those that come from the group, from the friends, all eventually influence our ego and evoke us egoistically: through envy, lust, and honor, which are on the part of the desire to receive.

It’s only the Creator’s greatness, which we ask Him to reveal to us, that motivates us. We don’t want His filling. We only want to be impressed by His height and to see His greatness. This really draws a person.

We know that without a push from behind and being drawn forward, we can’t move. Since we are naturally lazy, we don’t want anything but absolute rest. This is how the desire to enjoy is built. Only to the extent that we see a certain pleasure ahead, can we move from our place according to the pleasure that we imagine. Therefore, we want our desire to receive to move by being drawn by the Creator’s greatness, the King’s greatness, then we will undoubtedly advance correctly.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12

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Nothing in the spiritual world is valued by its quantity, and so the smallest detail is as important as the greatest detail. Everything depends only on how things are valued in a person’s heart. We always see the same reality before us. The extent that it’s revealed to us (whether more or less) depends upon our perception, to what extent we can develop and refine our spiritual vessels and make them precise and delicate, so that they can detect the smallest discernments.

Reality itself, however, never changes. It’s said, “There is no partiality in spirituality.” Therefore, great and small only seem that way to me according to the scale of whether I am looking at it through my near-sighted eyes or whether I am wearing glasses, or using binoculars, or even a telescope. This means that everything depends upon my vessels of perception, on the desires, and to what extent I enlarge and correct them.

Everything depends on my scale. So it makes no difference whether it’s a small or a great thing: If I focus on the right goal, if I only worry about attaining the feeling of the Creator’s greatness that leads me forward, if I constantly develop it and respect it, by not letting myself disrespect it or forgetting it, then by that I will necessarily advance in the right direction towards the goal.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/12

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Question: What is the use of making an effort trying to hasten one’s correction if one’s path is predetermined: all the corrections he has to go through and all his mistakes and transgressions?

Answer: If you don’t make an effort then you will never go through these mistakes and corrections. Suppose you are in the 3^rd grade and have to go into 4^th grade, but you don’t want to study so you are not allowed to go on to the 4^th grade! What happens then? You will be punished and everyone will treat you badly: your parents, the teachers, and the school administration. You will remain in 3^rd grade for another year until you complete all your assignments and are ready to go on to the next grade.

Have you gained anything by your laziness? So why do you ask about the benefit of your effort? You can’t go on to the next phase unless you complete the previous phase because the vessel isn’t prepared for it. How can you feel it, how can the next level be fulfilled in you?

It’s impossible to go on to the next spiritual level because of “favoritism.” It’s possible in our world, but not in spirituality. It’s because you don’t have vessels to feel, and you need to develop them by yourself, by the ascents and descents, by being confused and encountering problems, by making wrong decisions, by trying to break through by different nonsense, like a child who learns something.

Otherwise you will not advance. These are the laws of nature, so there will be no tolerance here and no forgiveness. Being tolerant is for someone who makes a mistake because he doesn’t know. This is acceptable only among people, but we are under a clear deterministic process in which every step is predetermined.

It’s impossible to go on to the next stage without completing the previous one first, until you are impressed by it, and acquire knowledge and feeling; until it’s engraved in your memory and you are ready to advance with this experience, until you have put together a vessel in which you now feel all the phenomena. Only then can you move forward.

In our world things don’t happen this way; here people find different detours since they don’t understand their states at all. When the Light comes and illuminates our state, we will understand the reasons why it happens this way and for what reason, the benefit in it, and how to relate to it correctly. Until then we act blindly according to our animal instincts.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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In the News (from Reuters): “Europe and the United States are set to launch trade talks early next year to deepen the world’s largest trading relationship, EU and U.S. officials say, potentially unleashing billions of euros of new transatlantic business.

“Together, the bloc and the United States account for about half the world’s economic output and nearly a third of world trade. But a debt crisis in Europe and elusive American growth are pushing both sides to consider knocking down the final barriers to trade.”

My Comment: Market consolidation to help global integration may, in a more peaceful way, facilitate the recognition of the need for a universal global integration.
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Question: What is the difference between a person who overcomes the evil that is revealed in him through his efforts and the person who doesn’t make efforts in order to overcome and waits until the suffering accumulates to the extent that in the end it will force him to move from his place?

Answer: By a person making his own efforts, he saves himself from suffering and saves time. The sufferings that were spared multiplied by the time he saved gives a huge advantage according to the intensity of the suffering that he avoided. And with all of that, one needs to multiply by another factor included in this formula, the Creator. Through this state He gives you the opportunity for contact with Him, but you degrade the opportunity and don’t go toward the connection.

All of these opportunities that you degraded and didn’t realize accumulate with you as additional Aviut (coarseness/thickness) and as punishment since you didn’t want to pay attention to the fact that it was a call that came from the Creator. Rather, you turned it into a regular problem, which came from relatives or from a friend that insulted you.

You didn’t see that the Creator sent His messenger to you, and according to your level, you should have recognized it. So what do you suggest to do with yourself in this situation? We are forced to give another few blows, pinches, so that you will feel that it isn’t by accident that all these people are surrounding you, but everything comes from the Creator since there is none else besides Him.

It’s because you are in a state of unconsciousness and don’t feel it. You need to be brought back to consciousness so that you will be able to rise to the next level. Each level, except your relationship, includes the relationship with the Creator: “Israel, the Torah and the Creator are One.” But if you don’t pay attention that everything is connected to the Creator, that from the beginning everything came from Him and in the end will return to Him, then you will not complete your clarification.

Thus, you need to see the entire world as angels—whether good or bad, meaning with pleasant sensations and unpleasant sensations—directing you towards the right path. They can be relatives or your children, those who touch your heart, or they can be total strangers, or it can be some event in the world.

No matter what form it comes to you—via your wife, your children, your friends, the police, your manager at work, health problems, the weather, or the news—you must accept it as different manifestations of the Creator. It is He who stands before you and asks: “Well, when are you coming to Me? I so want to embrace you! Come climb my mountain already!” However, you turn your back on Him and look down at your feet. You don’t pay attention that the entire world is the language of the Creator who is talking to you.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: How can I increase my awareness of the fact that there is none else besides Him, and at the same time not turn it into mysticism?

Answer: Only by the environment! If a person is withdrawn, he doesn’t see the right picture. Only the environment can reset him and direct him to the right perception so that he’ll see every revelation as a sign from Above but not become a mystic who sees signs of mysticism everywhere.

It’s about “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator” that connect at one point so that they give me the right direction. I connect everything to one path on which I want to reach adhesion with the Creator, and according to it, I clarify everything that takes place inside me and around me according to the level of importance in their relation to adhesion. Everything has to end in adhesion, which means in the Creator.

There is only one way to check if this is right: Does my action go through the group and lead to a greater connection in which I hope to discover the Creator. It has to be incorporated in this system accurately and clearly, like the last piece that is missing in a jigsaw puzzle that makes the picture whole and infinite once it’s in its place.

There is nothing but the Light and a vessel. We are the vessel and the Creator is the Light. This Light comes to us through a kind of a filter, which is this whole world, different forms and manners. But in fact, it’s all the Creator’s actions and influences.

I perceive everything you are saying to me now as the Creator’s attitude towards me, who thus wants to evoke me and to add something to me. “There is none else besides Him” means that the Creator operates through everyone. It seems to me that they exist in this world, and so I have to treat them from this point of view; for this reason, we reach the love of the Creator through the love of the created beings.

But through the group you have a different account compared to the rest of the world. It is because the Creator presents His friendly attitude through the group, while through the world He usually presents the negative attitude. These two attitudes direct you to the goal. Through the group, you get sympathy, support and understanding. By the group you acquire another force; it’s as if the Creator is with you.

A group is part of the Creator that is always with you; while the world is part of the Creator that seems to be against you. Eventually, however, all this has to unite into one whole.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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When people were closer to nature, they felt nature in such a form that looks almost mystical to us. But actually real phenomena of nature were revealed to them. For example, tribes in the Amazon feel the forest much better than we do; they smell its scents from miles away; they read signs and traces, and they can decipher all kinds of sounds.

After all, they don’t have anything else. A man lives in it; his life depends on it, and that’s why he increasingly develops his connection with the environment. According to the flight of the birds, according to the blowing of the wind, he knows many things. He connects together all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and perceives it as one.

But we are the opposite. We shield ourselves from the environment. We close doors and windows just not to see the urban cacophony and not to hear the noise of the cars. As a result, we are blocking our vessels of perception. We are isolating ourselves from life and from the universe.

Question: But people often confuse between closeness to nature and something supernatural.

Answer: All of these are feelings, sensations, that we can develop in ourselves. There are people that can hold your hand and tell who you are and what your plans are. There are those that can predict the future; they read thoughts. These are natural sensations that we lost in the path of the development of civilization, and they are not some kind of “extrasensory perception.” Nature installed in man much sharper senses than the current feelings. And it leaves no doubt that there are no miracles.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/12, “Body and Soul” 

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Question: Can the Creator interfere in the action of the laws of nature?

Answer: He Himself determined these immutable laws. “He gave a law and it can not be surpassed,” and therefore, actually everything was done because “The end of the action is incorporated in the initial thought.” The final state is already contained in the moment He decided to create the creation. And only for us this perfection still needs to be revealed, in all the negatives and all the positives. It is revealed only in our perceptions and actually nothing is changing except this revelation in us.

And therefore the laws are determined as all the stages in the path. We are going through all of them, but are able to move in different rates or different beats and to feel different tastes: bitter or sweet. In this is the whole difference: I can progress in a sweet and fast way or in a bitter and long path. The stages are predetermined, but on the sweet path they are changing quickly and in the bitter path they are lengthening. It depends on our attitude, in our effort. In principle, the world was created for this, that we will change our attitude toward the progress, in order for us to transfer from the long and bitter path to the sweet and fast path, according to the manner we are rising above the ego.

And here is where the whole problem lies. After all, I want what seems to my ego as sweet and fast. But instead of this, I choose the opposite, bestowal, that is desirable in the eyes of the Creator. I agree with Him, with His long and bitter way, and then this way suddenly becomes sweet and quick. “Click,” and everything thing changes.
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From 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/12, “The Peace”

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