Being in a state of Katnut (smallness) on a certain level is already considered having one foot on this next level. There will come a time when you will grow and be in a state of greatness. That is, you are already called by the name of that great level. There is a big difference between being a cub and a baby, a small human being.

In a state of smallness there is self-annulment and concession—you consciously limit yourself. In our world, a small child doesn’t know what vessels he will have when he grows up. In the meantime, he plays with toys, with a toy car. My little grandchild’s dream is to be a garbage truck driver since he sees this big nice truck that makes so much noise; he doesn’t know what his next level will be yet, or what he will want when he grows up.

In spirituality, when you are in a state of smallness you don’t know the level itself, but you already know your vessels since you have to perform a restriction on them. It’s because a state of smallness is part of the whole level, and you have to restrict your AHP. You don’t know what it means to be great on this level yet since you have not attained it, but you already imagine what it will be like; you understand its vessels, and this gives you the strength to perform a restriction and limit yourself.

You annul yourself before the upper one, which means that you are ready to give up everything you have now and to remain in “faith above reason,” in order to resemble the upper one in the future. You do it for the sake of the future! Here a connection is formed between the two levels: Being in a state of smallness, you dress your GE onto the AHP of the upper one. You want to be like the AHP of the upper one and so you restrict your own AHP, your vessels of reception, and for this you need a great power of overcoming.

A state of smallness is not just a childhood that is free of worries, when you don’t need to “break your head” over anything, but actually a state that demands great courage and overcoming. You have to feel whole in every state: You don’t use your AHP, but these vessels are familiar to you and you know where you are going. Otherwise your work wouldn’t be whole and you would not be able to annul yourself.

You see the upper one and you understand that it’s possible to adhere to Him now, like a child to a grown up, at first even just as a single point from which the adhesion begins. You give up everything you had. The Ibur (conception) begins from the three days of the assimilation of the semen; which symbolize your annulling yourself in all the three lines.

First, in the left line, you remain adhered to the upper one to the extent that your ego is revealed to you although you discover there that you don’t agree with it in any way! After having done that and having adhered to the upper one, things become more difficult: The Light comes and wants to fill you with all the pleasures and to give you the whole world from one end to the other. But you refuse to accept all that and want only to be in adhesion with the upper one! This is the right line.

Then comes the middle line, and so this whole time is called the “three days of the assimilation of the semen.” That is, you have both the attainment of the Creator and His recognition, everything that you want within Him. However, you don’t want to receive anything: neither the attainment nor the understanding. You only want adhesion with the upper one, and you desire not to receive any self-benefit from this adhesion, nothing at all, ever! This is called the third day of the assimilation of the semen, after which the embryo begins to develop.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/13, TES

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 25

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The Book of Zohar – Introduction “The Rose,”  “Mirrors of the Sulam,” Item 4, Lesson 6

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Lesson 8

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Question: How do we know that we have attained the state of the spiritual Ibur (conception)?

Answer: I suggest that you do the following: In spite of everything that happens, try to awaken yourself with the help of the environment, keep the same daily schedule, annul yourself, and accept that all the problems come from Above in order to help you annul yourself before the upper force, through the group.

The sign of the correct self-annulment is joy. Don’t ask for anything else, only to remain in this state in order to advance by the annulment of the ego. This already means that I am in state of Ibur.

I don’t care what I get from it. The only thing I want and what is important for me is to remain as strongly adhered as possible—that is, in the lowest point of annulment, in the smallest state. And because I want to see and feel different spiritual phenomena, I still have to work on myself. In other words, I have to annul my ego to the zero level, and this is called adhesion with the upper one.

Then I increasingly annul myself beyond that point and adhere more strongly, although my ego awakens. Thus the nine months of pregnancy go by. The most difficult part is the first three days of the absorption of the semen. Most of the problems occur at this phase, both in spiritual life and in corporeal life.

Even problems like miscarriages, which occur in the more advanced stages of pregnancy, happen because of different malfunctions and defects that occurred in the first three days of the absorption of the semen.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/13, Writings of Rabash

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Opinion (Alexei Chulichkov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences): “The form of our notions about the world is constantly changing. Speculative ancient models of the Universe were replaced with the medieval idea of the divine creation of the world. In modern times, there emerged a new method of understanding Nature, which created the illusion that human reason is omnipotent.

“However on a scale that is much different from what a person is used to, in the world of atomic or cosmic phenomena, our mind cannot grasp the observed because at the heart of the observed reality there is an invisible quantum reality, which becomes visible to the extent of interaction between the observed and the observer. The study of quantum reality has led to the realization of a unified picture of the world and its relationship with human consciousness.

“We are in the process of rethinking the world and human being, of forming a new vision of reality – everything that exists (human, society, and nature) is a single system, a single unit.”

My Comment: It is encouraging to read what Kabbalah has been saying for thousands of years. Based on the realization of a new picture of the world, there is a need to bring society to being one general kind, to the similarity of the whole system. This is the subject of the method of “Integral Upbringing.” After all, only in the balanced system will we be able to feel that we exist in an eternal perfect state.
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Question: What is the difference between The Book of Zohar and its “Introduction,” which we started studying?

Answer: In the “Introduction,” there is an extensive and prominent commentary for people who want to get to know The Book of Zohar, even if they have not begun to attain it yet. In any case, this “Introduction” advances a person. If he studies it, he will later be able to continue and study The Book of Zohar, although The Book of Zohar is much more difficult than the “Introduction.”

There are greater auxiliary forces in the “Introduction.” The “Introduction” is built so that a person who studies it softens and takes on a form that is suitable for delving into the depth of The Book of Zohar. A person’s image becomes adaptable to The Book of Zohar. It is because everything requires preparation and the “Introduction” provides us with it.

I studied it with Rabash, and he said that the “Introduction” includes the whole Book of Zohar. We will discover what this means in the future.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/13, The Book of Zohar, Introduction “The Rose”

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Question: Why does an egoistic connection between friends arouse the influence of the upper Light, while our other egoistic efforts are not able to attract it? What is the trick here?

Answer: The Creator brings a person to a group, as it is written: “The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fortune and says, ‘Choose it.’”And what do you choose? You choose the environment. You hope that it will influence you, even just a little, to the degree that you are ready to bend yourself before it.

Here, the question arises: Why and for what do you bend yourself? If we are honest, it is in order to make a good profit. They tell you that if you lower your head before the friends, you may win a big prize. Essentially, this is pure ego.

The group before which you bow is in no way better than you. All the friends are the same egoists, but this doesn’t matter because each one wants to lower his head to the others so that through brotherly love with a massive “promotion,” you will receive some kind of pleasure.

So, the Light comes to you because, as it is said, in order to fulfill the commandments, we don’t need intention. So, even if your intention is egoistic, you receive the Light that Reforms anyway.

You might ask, “How does this happen?” I would put the question differently. If it were not for this mechanism, how could you change at all?

There is a parable about two angels who asked the Creator: “Why did you give the method of correction to humans and not to us?” The Creator answered: “Do you have an evil inclination? And humans do.” It follows that you must be within the evil inclination and quite consciously seek self-benefit, saying: “Even were the world to burn, most important is that I feel good myself, even if I am left alone.”

However, at some moment, the spark of a new desire is awakened in you, directed straight to the Creator, and even though you imagine Him as the source of egoistic pleasures and an eternal and perfect life for yourself, it is enough if you enter a group of people like you. After all, it is specifically the Creator who brought you together; it is specifically He who is gave you the means to learn and to connect.

More than this, the Kabbalists stand above us and organize everything that the group will need, like a perfect teacher. They are concerned for us, and the Light reaches us specifically through them. You will see this yet.

That is how the method of Kabbalah works: Good deeds don’t require the right intentions and, thanks to them, when you still have nothing, you can reach the first level.

An approach like this directs the person the right way, protects him from lying to himself, and makes it possible to look forward to a true, mutual connection. This is no lie. Everything is based upon laws, not on concepts, beliefs, or customs. We are in a realistic system. With time, we will be able to describe it using a precise, adequate language.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 96, “What Is Waste of Barn and Winery, in the Work”: The basis upon which He built the order of the work was in the lowest manner, and all of it was above reason. Only one who is a real fool can be so low as to proceed without any basis on which to establish one’s faith, literally with no support.

Additionally, he accepts this work with great joy, as though he had had real knowledge and vision on which to establish the certainty of faith. And to that exact measure of above reason, to that very measure as though he had reason. Hence, if he persists in this path, he can never fall. Rather, he can always be in gladness, by believing that he is serving a great King.

We have to descend from the height of our ego, our confidence that we know and understand everything, that we have everything under control. It should be to such an extent that we come to the recognition of total hopelessness, absolute zero, 100% lowliness. To the extent that our previous knowledge was great, to that extent we are now going against our reason and are happy about it, feeling sure that it is the right thing.

We don’t want to count on anything that comes from our desire to receive. It is because everything that comes from it is undoubtedly a lie, no matter how true and real it may seem.

Of course it is possible to descend so low and ascend to faith only by the Light that Reforms, but we don’t have any power to do that since we have nothing but our ego. We can only check ourselves by the joy that we feel when we return to the same problems, the same mistakes, understanding better each time to what extent we have to be in a state of lowliness.

All this has to be in faith above reason: the extent to which I am able to I disregard my mind. I accept my mind, but only in order to work above it and advance accordingly. It is impossible to acquire the attributes of bestowal without passing the zero point of self-lowliness.

It is the same point that is called an embryo (Ibur), conception. This level constantly appears before us each time, with new conditions and new depth of desire (Aviut). We descend to “zero,” and we have to justify our past, which is called to bestow in order to bestow, and then justify the past for the others, called to receive in order to bestow. This means that first we correct the mistakes, and then we turn the mistakes into merits.

But when we change them to merits, we bring them to lowliness since it is only the Creator who does and determines everything. So the structure that we build is based on this point of lowliness, on the state of the embryo that grows and increasingly annuls itself.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/13

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Opinion (Angela Merkel, German chancellor): “Countries in the eurozone must accept that Europe “has the last word” and need to work together more closely if the continent is to avoid going into decline, German chancellor Angela Merkel has warned.

“In the latest signal that Germany backs stricter Europe-wide controls over national budgets, the chancellor said that eurozone members had to be prepared to surrender authority to European institutions.

“Speaking at an event hosted by Deutsche Bank in Berlin alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Mrs Merkel said: ‘We seem to find common solutions when we are staring over the abyss. But as soon as the pressure eases, people say they want to go their own way.’

“’We need to be ready to accept that Europe has the last word in certain areas. Otherwise we won’t be able to continue to build Europe.’

“She said: ‘We don’t always need to give up national practices, but we need to be compatible. It is chaos right now. We need to be prepared to break with the past in order to leap forward. I’m ready to do this.”

My Comment: The “patching” of the union is starting, and only in making macroeconomic decisions and resolving acute crises. But this is the beginning, and then the crisis will point to the need for further unification. This is how the EU elite will learn, like stubborn children, although common sense says that the union should begin with the strengthening of its foundation: a united culture and a united effort towards good and equal unification of nations.

This is achieved by gradual integral education and upbringing. Nature demands us to change precisely our egoistic nature, requires us to become its integral part and resemble it. The crisis is no more than the external manifestation of our egoistic relationships.
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