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Posted on January 1st, 2025
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 35
Does Constant Control Destroy Joy?
Joy arises when, in every moment, we see, through deliberate and purposeful self-criticism, where we stand. Whether or not we can correct the situation is less important than feeling and perceiving our current state. These impressions serve as markers showing that we go through states and progress.
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A miracle is an incomprehensible connection between an action and a result where my action suddenly causes an incredible but great result. That is why it is said, “I labored and found!”
We must exert efforts in our studies and try to find everything that is said within ourselves, but what we find is entirely unpredictable, even though we talk about it and expect it.
But once we find it, we are amazed at how far we were from imagining it correctly! So we call it a miracle.
What is this oil vessel I need to light? I have to find these inner forms inside myself. Oil is my desire to enjoy, and I have to understand how to light it, that is, create a wick in it that comes out through my efforts.
The wick is my resistance to using my desire in a direct form to receive for myself. I want to use it in the likeness of light!
And so I bring a wick out from it into which a little of my desire to enjoy is included. As much as I can liken it to the light and annul my egoism, I am ready to use it for the benefit of others.
But how much am I willing to give? It is just a thin wick. I constantly check to make sure I am not doing this for myself. Every time it seems that I have achieved this, but it turns out that I have not, and so it goes on and on.
I discover more new egoistic interests in myself. This is how I ascertain all of them until finally a wick is created in me, a thin line (Kav Dak) of my desires, emanating from me to the Creator.
This wick resembles the light at its upper end its quality; therefore it lights up. Darkness flares up like light.
If I can imagine such a state inside myself, in my desires and my properties, then I am already in it!
It means that Hanukkah, the festival of light, has come to me! A small candle lit up in me, inside my huge egoistic desire; a tiny part of it began to glow with bestowal.
My soul is the part of the desire to enjoy with the light in it that can shine there. For now it is very small.
Then we continue to correct our vast desire until it all turns into light. To find all these properties in ourselves is our work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/9, Writings of Rabash Letter No. 43 (1958)
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A person must understand whether descents even exist. The fact that the Creator raises and lowers us is His work.
Our task is to correctly perceive the Creator’s work and strive for maximum connection with Him at every moment in every state we experience.
Then, we will begin to feel the purpose behind His actions. After all, this is His work, and why it is called “Avodat Hashem” (the work of the Creator). Thus, my role is solely to maintain the awareness that everything comes from the Creator and that within this lies a profound purpose that I must attain.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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Question: In which group is it easier to work, a physical or virtual one? I have both a virtual ten and a physical one. In my virtual ten, I do not know people personally, and their personal qualities do not bother me. It is easier for me to communicate with them spiritually than in a physical ten because a person’s physical qualities distract me from spiritual work.
Answer: A physical and virtual group are different things.
In a physical group, I perceive my friends as physical beings. This often creates a sense of rejection or regulates our relationships based on the perception of their physical traits. In a virtual group, I perceive my friends less as physical entities, which makes it easier to establish what can be called supra-material connections. Which is better for spiritual development?
First of all, it is excellent that you are analyzing how your perception of a physical group differs from a virtual one. You are correct that a virtual ten is more abstract and does not hinder your efforts to connect. However, this approach is flawed; it is an escape from egoism. Instead of challenging your ego, you are lulling it to sleep.
What you like seeing in others from a distance, you see; what you do not like, you avoid. But this will change. Over time, you will realize that if there is an opportunity to move from a virtual ten to a physical one, you should take it for more intense and conscious spiritual advancement.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”
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Question: Can the article “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator” be used for dissemination? After all, it says that with the revelation of the Creator’s face, a person will have income and a peaceful life.
Answer: Yes, it can be used.
Question: There is an evil inclination, which is the concealment of the Creator’s face, and a good inclination, which is the disclosure of the Creator’s face. This is inherent in the human system. These two qualities can be conscious or unconscious: a person lives, and depending on their actions and thoughts, everything can change either for better or worse.
If a Kabbalist’s life is clothed with such difficulties, is that a tool in the Creator’s hands, where the struggle is underway to transform a person from wicked to righteous?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Why, even with the disclosure of the Creator’s face, does a person still see flaws in others such as dishonesty and suffering? Will it be like this until the final correction (Gmar Tikkun)?
Answer: This does not depend on the person but on the Creator in the way He organizes the person’s perception of the world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator – 2”
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Question: In the world group, there are people who have been studying for many years, and there are newcomers just joining the group. Does this mean that some third force above our level is needed to help us unite?
Answer: A spiritual force above our level acts upon us to the extent that we are capable of realizing it.
The Creator eagerly awaits the opportunity to draw us closer to Him. However, for this to happen, we must unite. The higher we aim to ascend, the more united we must be. One depends on the other.
If, according to the timeline of history, we are meant to already be united, but have not yet achieved this, the light from our future state of unity shines back onto our current lagging state. However, it shines from its reverse side, and we experience suffering.
All the suffering we feel in our time stems from the delay in our spiritual development. This suffering comes from the light, from the Creator, solely because we are not advancing toward Him at the required pace. Therefore, we must accelerate our progress, and we will see an entirely different life.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”
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Question: What does the “right line” mean for us who are studying Kabbalah? We do not have a sense of the Creator or a sense of bestowal, and very often we find ourselves in a dead-end situation where what we think is bestowal turns out to be strong reception.
Answer: That is true. In fact, it will always be like this because progress goes step by step. What was previously your right step turns into the left, and with the help of the left, you attain the right again.
If before you thought that connecting with a friend through some specific action was an act of bestowal, now you realize that, in fact, it stemmed from your egoism. But at that time, you did not see it that way.
In spirituality, we grow just like children do. A child also believes they are playing at being an adult. There is nothing humiliating about this; on the contrary, it is something to consider. This is how everyone grows.
You see it in newcomers, how they get confused, do not know what is what, and do not even understand where they are. This is natural. But when the field of forces that govern our world is revealed to you, you will be amazed at how blind you were before!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”
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Question: What does it mean to believe that all states come from the Creator, and how do we come to such faith?
Answer: How do we come to the belief that all states come from the Creator? It is only in the gradual realization that there is none else besides Him.
This happens under the influence of the upper light on us. After all, besides the fact that this light controls everything—inanimate, vegetative, animate nature, and humans—it also wants the element it controls, meaning a person, to feel it.
This is already a new, very special attitude of the Creator toward man. That is, the Creator begins to draw him toward Himself, which arouses in him a sense of Himself. Such attraction can be two-sided.
On one hand the Creator draws a person to Himself; on the other hand He begins to arouse in him all sorts of thoughts, disturbances, and interferences. It is like we are hearing a normal speech broadcast while experiencing some interference on the line. The Creator does the same. He is a master at these things, and we need to work with that.
As a rule the Creator awakens a connection with us and at the same time something negative, that is, all kinds of confusion. Let us say you are looking at me now, listening, trying to grasp my words, and at the same time you are imagining your pillow, which you are falling on. But these disruptions are necessary because that is how you strengthen the connection.
What to do? Ask the Creator. Do not try to cheer yourself up: “Now I am going to do something, drink a cup of coffee, somehow warm up, make myself angry!”. There is no need to wake up your donkey; you need to ask the Creator, “The fact that You give me thoughts about You—thank You! The fact that You give me the desire to sleep instead of listening to the lesson—thank You! And I also want to thank You for awakening me now and making me even more directed to You.” This is the very best!
You have all the conditions for you to start working on feedback. That is how it is done—very simply.
That is, it is preferable not to make any of your own efforts. There should be only one effort—to turn to the Creator in all situations in life until it becomes clear that there is none else besides Him, that only He is before you.
And your own efforts? There are no efforts. Who are you to perform any spiritual actions, to make any decisions? There can be nothing like that in a person—only an appeal to the Creator!
That is why, it is said: “God grant that you pray from morning to evening.” I prayed, that is, I turned to the Creator, I was in an internal dialogue with Him all the time.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “There Is None Else Besides Him”
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A person receives a complete need and desire for the Creator to help him since he sees that otherwise he is lost; not only is he not progressing in the work, he even sees that he regresses. That is, he lacks the strength (Baal HaSulam, Shamati, 1, “There Is None Else Beside Him“).
When I begin to understand that the whole picture of the world comes from the Creator, and that He gave me only a tiny micro-desire to reveal Him, I realize that I am unable to act. That is, the small desire itself is me, but I cannot control my thoughts or strength with this desire and thus explore it.
Therefore to properly direct a person to the Creator, a person keeps losing Him. Although he finds the Creator as the source of his worldview, in the end, the Creator is concealed. Attempts fail, and the person seemingly falls.
Here, the group that can help me is especially important. Since I am in a state of connection with my own kind, I can rely on them. I fell, they rose, one of them fell, I pull him along, and so on. Everyone pulls a friend out of the river of selfishness, which takes him somewhere to the side.
That is why it is said, “Those who trust in the Creator renew their strength.” That is, those who see that there is nothing else in the world besides the Creator, and that they can only grasp the Creator through the group, otherwise He will not be revealed, they renew their strength at every moment. It turns out that the fall itself, especially if it occurs in a group, is the reason for the rise.
If it is not me, then it is my friend; if it is not my friend, then it is me. In this way, we can constantly rise.
If a person is alone and in descent, this state can last for many months, until the Creator sends him the force of ascension. We know this for ourselves. This condition sometimes stretches for several weeks, and I cannot do anything about it; I cannot pull myself out of this swamp.
That is how I can determine if I am in the right group. If I am in the right environment, I should not feel like falling because our correct interactions in the group always revive us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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