Question: You always warn us not to look back, like Lot’s wife who looked back at Sodom and turned into a pillar of salt. So when we are filled with great inspiration after a congress or a dissemination event, does it mean we should not recall it, but instead strive forward to the next degree?

Answer: Not looking back means not wanting to remain in a previous state. But it does not mean that a person should cut himself off from the past as if it does not exist. One must learn from yesterday in order to continue today in a better state.

A person should not want to be in the state of yesterday, but in the state of tomorrow. That is what it means, “to not look back.”

But this has nothing to do with Sodom. Sodom is when one truly wishes to return to a previous degree, which has already been revealed as a corrupt state. One cannot return to it anymore.

If I have decided that my previous state was corrupt and unsuitable for correction, for advancing toward the goal, toward bestowal, then I have no choice: I must finish with it and move forward.

There are people who look back, return, and wish to remain in past states, to be “small.” This contradicts development, and we are forbidden to do so.

The means for this is the group. If I try, even a little, to integrate into the group, then I will always receive my future state from it, regardless of the state of the group or of myself. Therefore, we always have the possibility to move forward and not backward.
[11701]
From Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/10 on The Book of Zohar

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