All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing—the Creator wants to bring us closer, and all these preventions bring us only nearing, since without them we would have no possibility of approaching Him [the Creator]. This is so because, by nature, there is no greater distance [than us from the Creator], as we are made of pure matter while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us [between him and the Creator. And let him not think that this abyss has only appeared now. Absolutely not! It was there, and only now is it revealing itself to him.] And any prevention one overcomes, [it – only in connection] brings the way closer for that person.

(This is so because one grows accustomed to moving on a line of growing farther. Hence, whenever one feels that he is distant, it does not induce any change in the process, since he knew in advance that he is moving on a line of growing farther, since this is the truth, that there are not enough words to describe the distance between us and the Creator) (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 172, “The Matter of Preventions and Delays“).

Initially, we need to accept the condition that we are extremely, polarly, maximally distant from the Creator, and that every new state of ours—whatever it may be, according to a module, in absolute value—is always closer to the Creator, although it seems to us to be further away. After all, I reveal my true state and then correct it—left step, right step, and so on.

We see that only the environment can help a person to hold on and not to stray away from this path. How, when feeling worse, can he convince himself that in reality he is now closer to the Creator? Everything  inside them tells them they are further away and worse. They curse and condemns themselves.

But in fact, what has been revealed to him is simply what was there before, only he saw it now in order to correct it and thereby draw closer to the group and unite with them despite other calculations.

Therefore we need the habit of walking at an increasing distance. After all, if we become great specialists on our path, then every little twist and every small obstacle will appear as big to us.

When we are small, we do not see these obstacles, we do not notice them, and it seems to us that they do not exist at all. And then every small deviation, every minimal change, will be felt as a huge barrier. This is the difference between a specialist and an ordinary person.

Therefore as we approach the Creator, we will repel each other more, and hate each other more, like the students of Rabbi Shimon.

We will not want to get closer; we will begin to condemn the ten, to believe what we feel and see: “How can I be around these people?! They used to be different! I need to get away from them!” And so on. Only mutual help, mutual support, mutual guarantee can save us.

How many friends we have had along the way who fell off our “wagon”! Is it a pity? Of course, they will come back. But we need to think about how every time, with each step, to create such a ten, such a Kli (vessel), that no one would fall from it.
[255013]
From the Congress in Moldova 9/8/19, Lesson 7 “The Matter of Preventions and Delays”

Related Material:
Approach the Creator
Reaction to Signs of the Creator’s Closeness
Close to the Ideal of Bestowal

Filed under: Conventions, Events, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Work with Faith Above Reason” (9.6.2020)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 4

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

3rd part of the Lesson — Conversations of a Kabbalist with His Students During the Day

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

4th part of the Lesson — The Book of Zohar, “Beresheet – 1, ‘Taamim, Nekudot (Points), and Otiot (Letters)'”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Just as we expect actors in the theatre to do their best to make our imagination think that their acting is real, we expect our interpreters of religion to be able to touch our hearts so deeply that we will perceive the faith of religion as the actual reality (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation).

Kabbalists should be closer to people and approach them so that their words would speak to the human heart and the heart would understand them. There is still a lot of work to be done here because the egoistic human heart is used to being receptive only to certain cliches. People are far from what we are saying. It is incomprehensible, alien, and repulsive to them.

There is a vast gap between the science of Kabbalah and the modern, crude human consciousness, especially regarding the perception of reality, freewill, and the realization of mutual love, that is, things the mind does not agree with. After all, we should perceive as an existing reality, not our material world that we see through the five animal senses, but a completely different dimension.

We must understand that people are unaware of this. They cannot see or feel what we Kabbalists see and feel. Here we encounter our own weakness. We cannot blame people for not understanding us. We need to blame ourselves for not understanding people.

Comment: Why does Baal HaSulam make a clear comparison with artists?

My Response: Parents play with their children in the same way. What does being an artist mean? This is a person who stands at a higher level than others must regress and act at a lower level for the viewer to feel it as reality.

A Kabbalist, just like an artist, must talk about everything correctly, and use examples so that others understand how this method is implemented.

Usually people come to us looking for us to lift them up, rather than for us to come down to their level. And if we go out to the masses, we must understand that 90% of people on Earth, if not more, are incapable of mastering the methodology.

Therefore we must explain it to them at their level so they will join us like a small one clings to the great, and thus ensure that they are going in the right direction.

Question: Aside from acting for the general masses, should we, first of all, act for each other?

Answer: Of course, in order to be more connected with each other, each of us, by absorbing the properties of others, would become integrally assembled.

Question: Then why do we need an outer circle of people who follow us like a child holding onto his father’s little finger?

Answer: The fact is, we exist for them. The Creator wants them to become closer to Him. And we are the intermediate link, His messengers and His workers. That is why we are called the workers of the Creator. And they are the address He wants to send Himself to; He wishes them to adhere to Him because of us.

Question: After we fill them, does anything remain of us as transmitters?

Answer: Nothing, zero, and we are very pleased with this.

Question: Why do transmitters have to be actors?

Answer: Acting is a descent from the level of the Creator, to which you are attached on the one hand, to the lower level of people on the other hand, and the transformation of this through yourself. You have to take the role of the Creator, play Him in such a way—with His methodology, management system, and everything else—and gradually lower the levels so that everything is clear to the little ones.

Question: What if I lack acting skills and cannot act?

Answer: You can! Many scientists, including Kabbalists, have been thinking about the future of humanity. They thought about how to convey their thoughts to the masses, and wrote clever things. But no one understood anything!

And some of them wrote novels. They were not just writers, but great philosophers and teachers who expressed their thoughts in an artistic form. Those who wanted to convey their philosophy of life in an accessible way presented it in the form of a literary work because it is more accessible to the masses who associate with the characters of their novels.

This is the only way people perceive and absorb everything; otherwise, they cannot. If you start telling them the same thing in scientific terms, everything immediately dries up.

Question: So our art, as Kabbalists, is to evoke people’s empathy?

Answer: Absolutely. You organize all kinds of seminars, and this gradually brings them to a new state.

Question: Can every culture and nation organize something suitable for them?

Answer: Naturally. In its own way, national in form, Kabbalistic in content.
[213032]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation,” 7/3/17

Related Material:
The Time When Kabbalah Is Revealed
Open The Books Of Wisdom
To Change Human Nature

Filed under: Dissemination, Society | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Those righteous that have been rewarded with wholeness, raising MAN for that sublime coupling, no longer have any reception for themselves. Also, the MAN that they raised was to bestow, and not to receive.

Hence, with the good deeds and the MAN, they correct the screen for the Nukva and qualify her for this great coupling where the qualification itself is reflected light that rises from the screen of the Nukva and above, since anything that rises from below upwards is bestowal and repelling of reception for oneself. At that time, the coupling by striking with the upper light takes place, and the upper light dresses in a garment of the rising reflected light (Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 1, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” You Are in Partnership with Me, Item 63).

Question: What does it mean to raise the reflected light in our work with our friends in the group?

Answer: In our case, an ascent from below upward means that we awaken to greater connection between us, and wish that the force of mutual bestowal would reign among us, which will bring contentment to our Creator. It is like children who stop quarreling in order to make their mother happy.

To raise the reflected light means to elevate the value of the quality of bestowal in which we want to live, to become included in bestowal, and to correspond to it. It is as if we pour liquid onto a sponge and want it to be completely absorbed, to penetrate every pore.

In the same way, we want to absorb the quality of bestowal so that it enters all our capillaries and cells, all our atoms, and saturates our entire being so deeply that even the electrons begin to spin in the opposite direction. Bestowal must fully enter our mind, our heart, our sensations, our perception of the world and its analysis—all our decisions.

It is impossible to imagine how much everything will change. Sometimes a person changes drastically under the influence of certain events, but here we are talking about a much greater transformation. We want this quality to enter us and take full control over us in every respect, even if I am not aware that I am under a new authority, like a drunk who has lost his egoistic reasoning.
[126275]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Explaining Ohr Hozer
The World On The Scale Of Justification
Soaring On The Wings Of Bestowal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: What should we do when in doubt? Who or what should we look up to in our generation?

Answer: We must look up to exactly what is between us.

There is a large group that attends classes, listens to, and studies the works of Baal HaSulam. Therefore, we must act in such a way as to try to bring everyone willing together.

Then we will be able to feel the meaning of the words of Baal HaSulam who asks five basic questions and answers them himself.
[349692]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

Related Material:
What Can You Hold Onto On The Path?
Thought Concentration
What Can We Rely on along the Path?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

In the entire general system of reality there are only two: the Creator and creation, the upper light and the desire that He created inside Himself as a black point that He develops. This point developed to a state where it began to feel itself as existing independently, that is, as a human being living in this world and left to his own devices.

It stopped noticing that it is inside the upper light that governs it, advances it, and constantly works on it. This black point, the human being of this world, has no idea that its entire existence: everything it does, says, thinks, feels, decides is dictated by the light, the upper force. We are in such concealment.

And all our work is in revealing this upper force and realizing that it acts inside us and leaves us no freedom in anything except for one thing: to wish that it would return and take power over us, as it actually does, only without our awareness.

Therefore, there are two worlds: the lower world in which we are supposedly left to ourselves and the upper world where we reveal that everything comes only from above, from the light, from the Creator. The main thing in this work is to determine the place of our freedom of choice, where we truly can, through concealment and revelation, find our freedom between them. Only in it do we truly exist as creation.

And outside of it, we are under the full control of the Creator, either unconsciously or with awareness of it. But somewhere there in the middle between one and the other there is a special point in which we can establish our independence. It can be found only by trying to walk with faith above reason. Then, gradually, the importance of the Creator is revealed, which is above the importance of the human being.

This is revealed from above, and a person begins, at least sometimes, to feel that the Creator is more important than himself, and he is ready to invest his entire life, all his strength, in Him. This feeling comes and disappears, and reappears. Such work is called faith above reason, bestowing above the force of reception. Before that everything was based on the desire to receive pleasure, which was revealed within a person.

It is called “the old and foolish king,” but it also constantly grows along with the force of faith, in opposition to it, in order to create an opportunity for a person between these two forces to establish his or her independence as a middle line. There, in the middle, in the middle line, the Creator and creation meet.

The realization of this work is possible only within the group, within the ten. Therefore, the attainment of mutual guarantee and unification around Mount Sinai is a necessary prerequisite for receiving the force of faith from above.
[227673]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/18, “Work with Faith Above Reason”

Related Material:
To Stand Before The Creator And Become Like Him
Why Does The Creator Need Me?
Winning The Contest With The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: What is the connection between egoism one works against with asceticism and egoism revealed when trying to connect among people?

Answer: It is the goal. A person who works within his egoism, wants to stay in it and feel all that is in store for him for the future. While the one who does not try to get out of his ego, remains entrenched in his selfish desires.

Question: Baal HaSulam frequently uses the term “happy life” in The Introduction to TES. What is happiness in the highest Kabbalistic understanding?

Answer: Happiness is when you desire something and can realize it.

Question: How can we make our meeting with the Creator such that it fills our whole life?

Answer: It  is not easy. Try to prepare for this meeting. Read something about it, about how to open your heart before gathering with your friends, and you will succeed.
[349752]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

Related Material:
Questions about Spiritual Work—270
Questions about Spiritual Work—269
Questions about Spiritual Work—268

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Work with Faith Above Reason” (9.5.2020)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot“

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

3rd part of the Lesson — The Book of Zohar, “Beresheet – 1, ‘The Brightness of the Firmament'”

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →