Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot” Item 7: Now you will understand their words that Divinity in the lower ones is a high need…It is like a great king who had a son when he was already old, and he was very fond of him. Hence, from the day of his birth he thought favorable thoughts about him, collected all the books and the finest scholars in the land, and built schools for him.

He gathered the finest builders in the land and built palaces of pleasure for him, collected all the musicians and the singers and built him concert halls. He assembled the best chefs and bakers in the land and served him every delicacy in the world, and so on and so forth.

Alas, the boy grew up to be a fool with no wish for knowledge. He was also blind and could not see or feel the beauty of the buildings, and he was deaf and could not hear the singers. Sadly, he was diabetic, and was permitted to eat only coarse-flour bread, arising contempt and wrath.

Now you can understand their words about the verse, “I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.” The Sanhedrin (98) interpreted, “Not rewarded—in its time; rewarded—I will hasten it.”

Thus, there are two ways to attain the above-mentioned goal: through their own attention, which is called a “Path of Repentance.” If they are awarded that, then “I will hasten it” will be applied to them. This means that there is no set time for it, but when they are awarded, the correction ends, of course.

If they are not awarded the attention, there is another way, called “Path of Suffering.” As the Sanhedrin said (97), “I place upon them a king such as Haman, and they will repent against their will,” meaning in its time, for in that there is a set time.

In our case the King controls every state. The son is born with certain attributes and abilities in certain internal and external conditions, according to the initial thought of the upper that is meant to bring him to the ultimate goal. He has to attain the right vessel according to his emotional and mental development and to get to know his Father in order to be like Him according to the plan that the King has prepared with absolute love and care for his beloved only son.

There is no doubt that we will attain this goal but in order to attain it we have to develop our vessels and it has to be voluntary. We will surely want it since the goal obligates us to acquire a desire and a yearning for it. The only question is how we attain the desire and whether it will be by blows, having no choice and being driven by pleasures or pain, or by trying to establish an environment and to attain the right deficiency by ourselves despite the fact that we feel pleasures or sufferings.

It’s a deficiency without a deficiency and so our work is done “above reason,” above the mind and the emotions that control us now. We have to constantly yearn for this supernatural state which is above our nature. We can do that only with the support of the environment and the group that should impress us with more sublime values that are closer to the spiritual goal. Thus we approach the goal step by step.

Everything depends only on the right environment, and so a person who chooses a better environment each time is praised, which means that he advances by the path of “I will hasten it,” by himself, of his own will, and thus hastens time and spares himself the blows, and this is good in his eyes and in the eyes of the Creator. If he doesn’t, then the opposite happens and his whole development is only by hastening the blows. We have to advance in either case but it will be without a feeling of delight not on part of the Creator and not on the part of the created being, but by prolonging time.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/13

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Question: How do we connect the worlds and the souls?

Answer: The entire creation is like a cabinet designed for books. And we put books into it. This cabinet is called a “book shelf.” This structure must be composed of ten Sefirot. And every still, vegetative, animate and “speaking” must fill these “shelves,” these ten Sefirot. The levels of the still, the vegetative, and the animate fill these “shelves” according to their structure and are called a “world” with regard to the person.

Does the person identify with this structure, the “bookshelf” itself? No. He only feels the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. He doesn’t see the inner structure of the world that must be arranged according to the HaVaYaH, he only sees what fills it. I see the books but not the shelves. The shelves are a structure that come and are extended from above. If I begin to fill these shelves in the right way, then I discover that there is a particular order here. And before then I didn’t discover this.

The same thing happens with us in our world. We evolve and discover all kinds of phenomena. Suddenly, it is discovered that musical notes must be arranged in a particular order, that even colors are arranged in a unique order, also sound waves are arranged with particular wavelengths, and so with everything. For every unknown phenomenon that I investigate, I begin to discover in it a particular, unique order, unique laws. I discover how this phenomenon fills the original HaVaYaH, the shelves. But I don’t discover these shelves from the start.

Imagine a person who doesn’t understand anything about music even thousands of years before the development of listening to music and the creation of musical instruments and musical compositions. He begins to compose a tune. He doesn’t know what this is, he simply begins to play it in a natural way.

It is the same thing with languages. From where could I know that the Hebrew language is composed of 22 letters and another five final letters and that its structures need to be arranged in a form like this? I don’t know this. However, I exist within nature so I develop the language from it, I fill the shelves. Then the shelves are themselves called a “world.” The HaVaYaH was prepared for us; it extends from above to below. And with our efforts, we need to fill these “shelves” from below to above with books that we write. This is called our need to write the book of Torah on the board of our hearts, on the desire.

Question: Are the “worlds” something alive and changing?

Answer: No. This is a permanent structure, 125 levels.

Question: And the souls?

Answer: The souls also don’t exist; we need to cause the formation of the souls. There are 125 empty shelves and there are shattered sparks, vessels, Kelim. You need to organize and fill all of this.

You need to divide your desire into “Mocha,” “Atzamot,” “Gidin,” “Bassar,” and “Or” (marrow, bones, tendons, flesh and skin). You need to “slaughter” yourself, to remove the “Or” (skin) from yourself, to separate its inner layer (parchment) from the outside and begin to write on the parchment, the inside of the outer “Or” (skin) being the inner part of our “Or” (skin). And to write the Torah there, but not on the external part itself, rather on the inner part of the external part. And by writing this, you begin to fill all these shelves from the first words, “In the beginning God created…” to “Israel” at the end. With this you fill all 125 levels.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/13, The Zohar

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I recommend the workshops, joint discussions, and practical exercises for married couples. Start with the question: “What does, ‘one is included in the other’ mean from the aspect of judgment and from the aspect of mercy?”

Judgment means to act for the good of my ego and mercy means to act for the good of my wife’s ego. My task now is to clarify what the “middle line” means, where I constantly try to maintain a balance between judgment and mercy. That is, I try to bestow to my wife as much as possible but I do this in order to get a good example from her, to receive a good reaction, meaning a good relationship from her side.

If I am concerned only about myself this is called the “left line.” And if I take into account my wife’s ego and am ready to fulfill all she asks of me, this is called the “right line.” In other words, the left line is judgment and the right line is mercy.

The left line or judgment is all of the demands that I present to my partner and want her to fulfill. The right line or mercy is all of my wife’s demands regarding me. Therefore, it is clear that judgment and mercy, the right line and the left line, contradict each other.

And when will they stop fighting each other and be able to receive complete fulfillment? This is possible if one becomes the servant of the other. That is, with a unilateral decision where I get my wife to be my servant and beat her so she will obey me or she does so to me.

But there is an opportunity for both of us to fulfill each other in a perfected form, very many times greater than through the servitude of the partner. For this it is necessary that each one include the ego of the other. It makes sense that we need to work only on the connection between us. And then the more that I can fulfill the ego of my wife and she can fill my ego, the more we fill ourselves.

How not to lose the balance? In order to do this we need to hold ourselves in a shared feeling of connection between us, at a particular point of balance, as if we situate ourselves on the tip of a needle. We require a point of connection like this, a drop of unity, that requires reciprocity so as not to go overboard and out of balance.

Here we require a shared feeling called “coupling” in which both are joined with a single desire for mutual bestowal for the sake of a reciprocal connection. We grasp the ego of each as a means where through its fulfillment we build the connection between us. And then the shared point that connects us is called a “screen.”

Both of us are connected together with a mutual desire to fulfill each other and we try not to lose the balance by feeling ourselves as a single whole all the time. And this feeling is renewed and strengthened in us all the time: New thoughts and feelings are always appearing in us, moving us forward. We never just walk in place.
[110511]
From KabTV’s “A New Life #46” 8/1/12

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Article 12”

The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Donkey Driver,” Item 116, Lesson 40

Preparation to St. Petersburg Convention, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” Lesson 1

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Question: Are there degrees during the period of preparation or is it one degree in total, and only by entering the spiritual world, will we begin to ascend the 125 degrees?

Answer: Even on the zero degree from which we start, we go through different stages. Every degree consists of ten Sefirot, no more and no less. And each Sefira has its own ten Sefirot and so on to infinity.

There is no such condition which is completely solid and does not include all the elements, the entire reality. There is only one picture of the universe but it is seen in a different resolution as if on the map with a different scale.

For example, we are going to the convention in St. Petersburg. If you look at the map of Russia, the city is just a point. But if you get closer and increase the scale, then this point turns into a big city. You get closer and see all the streets, even every building, etc.

Thus, our current state seems to us just a point. But in reality it includes the entire universe. Everything depends on the scale in which we view it and see all the details in it. The revelation of all the details is the ascent of the 125 degrees.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash 

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We must not forget that a person alone cannot reach the feeling of greatness of the Creator and this means the greatness of the goal, because the goal is to adhere to the Creator by which we bring Him contentment. Our final correction is in this adherence, the final destination station, the entire goal of creation.

The Creator created the desire to enjoy, but we are in illusion now thinking that we are created to enjoy receiving. We are in this deception and that is why every time we get some pleasure, it immediately disappears. We need to understand this contradiction that we need precisely the desire to bestow because the goal of creation is to enjoy bestowal.

“To bring pleasure to the created being” means to bring them to the state in which they will receive pleasure from bestowal and not egoistical giving for the sake of receiving, and not even giving for the sake of giving, but receiving for the sake of bestowal. That is, we have to use our desires, all our abilities in order to bestow.

It turns out that any change in our nature is possible only under the condition that we nourish ourselves from some external source of inspiration, importance, desire, attraction, and push towards a spiritual goal from which we derive all the power advancing us to correction. All this energy comes from the environment. A person is able to do something only if he is influenced by the environment. And if there is no such influence, he will not succeed.

There are moments when a person is given an awakening from above and then he is able to turn to the environment. But in most cases, he himself cannot turn, and the environment must take care of conveying the importance of the goal and inspiration to everyone. Only then will we be able to advance in the right direction.

Therefore, there is no more important task than building the right environment. It is written, “Would that they left me and kept my Torah, for the radiance within it would return them to good.” The Light comes only when we are connected between each other. That is why the building of the environment is the main condition.

There is no point in waiting for a true spiritual revelation from above if it does not come out of our own efforts to unite with humans such as us. We need to understand and remember the fact that everything that happens in our relations with the external world, from us to it and from it to us, to everyone, and to us together, comes only through our connection.
[111157]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13

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It all depends on our efforts. We have reached such a level that we are able to prepare ourselves by the path of Light with accelerating time and by helping each other, as is said, “Help a fellow man.” But this requires unity, inner mutual demonstration, total inspiration, and passion.

Everyone should try to be impressed by others, even artificially. You are watching a lesson and it does not touch you today. But make even artificial attempts to cling to what is said there and this will happen. Thus, we achieve a common desire.

The path of Light means that I received the ready desire from friends because my soul is in them, and I, myself, have only the point in the heart of my soul, everything else is egoism. I do not have to use it all but to be constantly above it. This is called faith above reason when I am in the group instead of my mind and egoism, and I absorb all their desires and fulfill them.

Today, we can talk about these deep things because you have been in good preparation for a week. There is the desire to reach the spiritual vessel, even if it’s not very clarified, but I feel that your efforts give me the opportunity to reveal some details of preparation, connection. Thus, we will advance, we still have time before the convention.

These remaining days are the most important, not the convention itself. You will later understand what it means “to eat what has been saved for a long time,” that is, to be nourished by what you have revealed during the preparation. As egoists, we think now we’ll reach the spiritual world and get everything there. But we will come to the revelation of the feeling to what extent we were in the perfect state before, although it seemed flawed to us. Exactly as The Book of Zohar describes this, “The holy Zohar also spoke about it, saying that one who is rewarded with repentance, the holy Divinity appears to him like a soft-hearted mother who hasn’t seen her son for many days, while they made great efforts and experienced ordeals in order to see each other, because of which they both were in great dangers.” (Baal HaSulam, Letter 25). Then, time disappears and all the states come into one because what we reveal is that we initially were in the most perfect state.

So, do not forget that your desire is in the other, in the collective vessel. Now, everyone is getting ready for the convention and if you are integrated with them and want to receive a desire, hopes, and inspiration  from them, then it’s in this way that you discover your true spiritual vessel. You need to look inside yourself less, if possible do not look there at all, and take your emptiness as salty appetizers or spicy seasoning and become included in the friend right away. He contains all the main courses, fulfillment, both the vessels and the Light. And I have only additions that incite my appetite from my inner emptiness.
[111141]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Shamati #117

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Question: You said that you can talk for ten hours and not get tired. How can we make sure that we do not get tired and do not fall asleep during the lesson?

Answer: It depends on importance! If this is important to me, then I will not fall asleep. So, you constantly need to excite yourself. Importance is taken on purpose from above, or rather egoism is raised, and that is why it is “jammed.” And we need to raise it again in our eyes. This depends on the environment.

It is not a problem to stay awake in class after a good rest. The problem is to raise oneself in spite of fatigue. This is very important! One needs to work on this.

The friends around you also have to charge the atmosphere. Now, I am saying familiar words that you have heard many times before. Do you see anything new in them? If not, then it is a problem. A person should not remain indifferent to the fact that he does not feel novelty. It depends only on him. And the words are all the same. We must be angry with ourselves!
[111117]
From the Preparation to the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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Opinion (Nikita S. Mikhalkov, Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers’ Union): “The president of the International Moscow Film Festival Nikita Mikhalkov explained why most of the festival are characterized by gloom and despair and summed up the results of the 35^th film festival.

“Gloomy movies are a reflection of the global trend; a movie from any major festival triggers ‘the desire to put a bullet in the forehead of oneself or one’s neighbor.’ We are in a state of severe human crisis. Just a conflict between two persons, which are in abundance in literature and were many in movie, is not enough. We need to be scared through 3D. People have developed a habit of an internal disaster; the death of the screen has stopped worrying. ‘We have lost respect for life, for people, and this very crisis if born out of this,’ Mikhalkov suggests.”

My Comment: But the question arises, why doesn’t art make people interested in a new world? It is because the artists do not see a way out of the crisis. However, they do not want to hear about the need to correct people. I hope that the fall of art will bring them to the need to accept Integral Education as a necessity and that they will base their artwork on it for the mass audience. After all, art is a means of educating people.
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