Baal HaSulam, “The Love of the Creator and the Love of the Created Being”: By that the creature develops in the degrees of the above sublimity until one loses any form of self-love and self-reception. In that state, one’s every attribute is either to bestow or to receive in order to bestow. Our sages said about that, ‘The Mitzvot were only given in order to cleanse people with,’ and then one cleaves to one’s root, as it says, ‘and to cleave onto Him.’

Why are we here in this world, the worst of all possible worlds, at the step below which there is nothing? Only for one reason, to learn to bestow and go through all the stages on the way until we reach full adaptation to the Creator, which is called “to cleave onto Him.”

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us. It corrects the evil inclination that was initially given to us and which develops in us. This means that we have to learn how to correctly use the method which has the Light that Reforms and learn to do the right actions in order to provoke this Light, since it corrects us and thus we advance.

Actually these are all the actions we have to perform, actions of bestowal by which we always provoke the greatest Light that Reforms upon ourselves. It already knows which desire needs to be corrected and what the phases of correction are. We don’t have to do its job since in the meantime we cannot even speak about it. Let it correct us since it is its business and we just have to give it a chance. This is what it depends on, and giving it a chance is our responsibility.

So there is nothing else we can do but actions by which we bring contentment to the other and help him. Why? This is the commandment of the upper. I don’t care about the other at all and I don’t want to get to know him; I don’t feel him at all. But there is an upper force and it obliges me to do so and explains to me that it is by such actions that I can bring it contentment. Thus I turn to the other.

It is therefore clear that if I help the other without the intention of bringing the Creator contentment, these are false actions that lead me to the opposite result, to destruction. It is because the Creator has created everything for so that we will reach Him. The nice urges to do something for the sake of humanity, like communism in Russia or the Kibbutzim movement, only lead to destruction.

I have to fulfill the principle of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” in all my actions. “Israel” is me, the “Torah” is the right connection between me and all of humanity starting from the people who are closest to me to the most distant, the connection that the Light that Reforms has established. The Creator is what is revealed as what encompasses this network.

The fulfillment is in the relations between people. The Light that Reforms carries it out and I evoke it, and everything is in order to allow the Creator to be revealed, since this is what brings Him contentment. So we mustn’t avoid the general, humanity, and especially the group, my group of ten…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Meaning of Conception and Birth”

The Book of Zohar — Introduction

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, Selected Excerpts

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Question: How can women feel the collective descent and unity? I don’t feel any descents; I come to the group with great happiness and devote myself to it. So where is my spiritual development?

Answer: There is something unique among women in comparison to men. It is not required of them to overcome their natural barrier between them. But in the spiritual work, they must be like the men.

Nobody requires them to, nobody demands of them the same method of connection as it is with the men. But inwardly, they are ready for this and must work on it especially between them.

And afterwards, both a particular detachment, ascent is created, and the sensation that you are a woman and this is a man disappears, when this outer envelope disappears, and becomes unimportant, then on one hand, what will remain is the physical world, and on the other hand, the spiritual world; both of them will be precisely differentiated: this being our beastly nature and that the soul, then they will be able to work like the men.

But until that moment there is a difference between men and women and therefore, we need to rise and desire spiritual attainment separately. Certainly we need to help each other in everything, but if we begin to work together, then we only become confused. We confuse images from the physical world and spiritual work and the outcome is very bad.

Therefore, in no way must we intersect in a serious way. Mutual help, supporting the center, dissemination, everything else is done together, except for spiritual work. Sometimes even the workshops can be jointly arranged. But in general, connection needs to be differentiated according to gender.

You understand and feel this yourselves that you can easily become confused. Moreover the women get more confused than the men. A man understands what he needs whereas a woman confuses spirituality with materialism, for her it is as if it is the same thing. And this is not at all so. She is simply lying to herself without understanding and feeling this.

When you pass through the Machsom and really begin to feel the upper world, you will then understand how much this would have been a mistake. But until then, no. And therefore with us everything is strictly divided into masculine and feminine parts.

Don’t interfere with the men, this is the first condition. Second, learn among yourselves. Nobody calls upon you to hug. Do everything that is beneficial for your connection.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day One” 7/12/13, Lesson 2

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Question: The emptiness that we must find within us and fill, is this work with the ego?

Answer: Certainly. Emptiness is an egoistic desire that appears in me which I want to fill. These could be simple physical desires and they could be spiritual desires. With the spiritual desires this is slightly more complicated since I can never fulfill them by myself. And even the physical desires, basically, are only relatively fulfilled.

The idea is that I need to realize the spiritual desires that appear in me in someone else, to fulfill him, which is to say to transform “minus” into “plus.” A Kli is a very great negative desire or minus. I make a Tzimtzum (restriction) on it, the Masach (Screen), then the Ohr Hozer (Reflected Light), and in spite of this inner negative desire, I place someone else’s fulfillment above my desire. It follows that I transform the place where I feel emptiness into a mechanism for the fulfillment of the other or of the Creator, which in fact is the same thing.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day One” 7/12/13, Lesson 2

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Question: Should we look for deficiencies and emptiness in the group?

Answer: Don’t you know what the friends want? They don’t need to say anything because it is clear to you that they want the revelation of the attribute of bestowal, the attribute of love among them. Thus, they will begin to feel everything else, all of creation, and the Creator that fills everything. This is why you are their friend.

You only correct and adapt your intentions, your desires, and your yearnings so they will be more similar to the Light. Then everything will work out and you will succeed in everything.

Question: But if the friends don’t speak about their desires, there is a kind of emptiness, a silence…

Answer: This happens because you don’t feel them, you don’t feel how much they want spirituality.

We have just heard some comments from the women. It is indeed different from what the men say. They all feel how much they long for spirituality, how much they want and yearn for it. Perhaps they didn’t speak very accurately, but this inaccuracy will be corrected until the end of correction, until the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). On the whole it was amazing!

What don’t you understand? No one in this world has the desires that I feel here in each of you. Everyone else in this world, except for the desires of our global group, is on the animate level.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day One” 7/12/13, Lesson 2

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We must equally yearn for Israel, the Torah, and the Creator, so they will emerge into one whole. It is as if there is an equilateral triangle: Israel, the Torah, and the Creator and you yearn to be in the center of this triangle.

Israel is a person who yearns for the Creator. The Torah is the means by which we reach connection, the unity in the group. The Creator is revealed in the group. If these three components are equally important to us and are connected into one concept, we can advance.

These three components will constantly draw further apart and we have to try and connect them into one concept again, and to work in this way. If we don’t want the state that was attained in the convention to ever come to an end, we have to connect these three components and bring the upper force into this connection that will hold the whole convention together.

Of course, we will feel how this feeling cools down and fades a moment later. We will have to make sure that we connect and feel warmth, and repeat this time after time. It is the feeling of detachment and of cooling that is a sign of the expansion of the vessels and of our advancement.

Everything is measured according to the importance of the Creator, we can learn about His importance only realizing without Him, we cannot connect. Without our connection we cannot even come close to a spiritual state. We must understand that the descent and the detachment that we feel now is a space, a place that the Creator gives us into which we must bring Him. Then all our hopes and expectations will be filled.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/13

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Question: We have completed the campus courses and have begun the work in the group. I see the deficiency of my friends, but there is still no feeling of resistance. Why? Is it because we aren’t trying enough to connect?

Answer: Very true! You have answered your question. If you don’t long for unity, then you won’t feel the rejection. What reason is there to reveal to you the negative broken attributes in you if you don’t have any preparation for this?

First of all, the group is not cohesive in the correct way. Secondly, it seems that there is still no understanding of how important this unity is. Thus, what is happening to you now are still not those attributes that need correction, even though there might be some weakness and rejection.

Question: How is it possible to enhance this work in order to really feel the rejection through which we can work in a more intense way?

Answer: Execute our instructions. There is nothing else.

It can be that you carry out all the activities, take part in the workshops, study, gather together, but do it in a formal way, without yearning for a connection with each other. This means that subconsciously you are guarding yourselves from cooperation that is more internal and close knit.

Here at the convention there are people who are not able to overcome this obstacle, are not able to “expose” their hearts. Expose it, remove the outer covering and discover it. Don’t be afraid of this!

You are afraid they will stab it and cause something very sensitive and unpleasant. Don’t be afraid! Cautiously, with fear, try to expose it. It can’t be any other way if we want to become one heart. We need to remove and pull off this outer covering from each of the hearts.
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From the Convention in St. Petersburg 7/12/13, Lesson 2

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The Torah, “Exodus,” “Mishpatim,“ 21:23 – 21:25: But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

People perceive everything that the Torah writes about, linearly and egoistically. The Torah speaks exclusively of unity among people and about establishing a general integral image that is called Adam (similar to the Creator).

Every single person, with no exception, participates in creating this image (Adam). Whether we want it or not, all of us are involved in crafting this giant. Our involvement should correspond to the instruction called the Torah (derived from Ora’ah, which translates as “the instruction”). It describes the ways of self-correction that happen when we make mistakes. As in any instruction, there is a chapter on possible errors and the ways of fixing them.

This explains why the above-mentioned misfortunes with eyes, hands, feet and other injuries are all about the liaisons among people that exist at the level of ten Sefirot. They must replenish any defects they caused since “misfortune” means an unintentional damage.

When in a downfall, if one intentionally, egoistically, and malevolently harms or inhibits a general integral system or damages a collective process of correction, then other laws come into force.

Question: What is meant by, “to give life for life, eye for eye?”

Answer: It is about the levels of correction—Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama—that we are obligated to replenish.

The world perceives the entire Torah at a corporeal level. Various beliefs, teachings, and dogmas have originated from the Torah. This has continued for thousands of years.

If we are talking about the earthly implication of the Torah, it is said that there are “no slaves, nor masters.” Everyone is absolutely equal before the law. It describes a society that has never existed yet. Corruption resolves any issues in this world. Pay enough money and do whatever you want.

If you read “The Laws of Kings” by Rambam, you’ll see that there were lots of restrictions that were imposed on kings as compared to a few limitations for commoners. In other words, according to the Torah, everyone is equal.
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From KabTV’s “Mysteries of the Eternal Book” 5/20/13

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