It is very important to prepare yourself for the lesson. From the moment a person wakes up, washes himself, has a cup of coffee, gets dressed and comes to the place of study, he must constantly think about why he does all this. He will then come to the lesson with the right attitude and will begin to study.

To study means to sit with friends and check to what extent I am connected with them. If I am already at the stage of Rabbi Shimon, then I will feel hatred and rejection toward my friends. This is how the possibility of correction is revealed to me from above. I come not indifferent, but with a warm heart, either for or against connection.

Accordingly, it is determined whether I need the Torah or not, in the Light that returns to the source, which connects me with others. In our unity, we reveal all the letters of the Torah, all the properties of bestowal, so that later, according to these properties, we will reveal the Creator. Studying is an aid, but the main thing is the connection between us.¹

The articles help us organize ourselves correctly, and The Study of the Ten Sefirot draws the reforming Light to us. However, in its study lurks another danger: beginning to study for the sake of gaining knowledge, not for the sake of the Torah, that is, the Light of correction. Maybe you want to know how many angels there are in heaven and what their names are? It is very important that “wisdom does not exceed your deeds,” that is, actions of bestowal. It is necessary to study for the sake of bestowal, otherwise you will distance yourself from the Creator and cultivate your pride.

While studying the articles that talk about the person’s path to the Creator, it is not so difficult to keep in the same direction with the text. But in this way we attract less reforming Light because we do not study the actions of the Creator. Whereas The Study of the Ten Sefirot, The Tree of Life, and The Book of Zohar contain very great Light. Not all parts of the Torah contain the same amount of reforming Light.

However, it is necessary to understand that a person cannot only study or read articles all the time. It is necessary to combine both. However, drawing the Light is of primary importance. If it were possible to draw the Light by jumping up ten times, we would jump. We need a means to draw the Light. Therefore, we see that the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed precisely in the form that allows it to become such a means for the current generation.²

The Light that returns to the source transfers the power of bestowal to us. We do not feel the Light itself, but only the result of its action. It is impossible to feel the Light itself, just like we do not feel electricity, but only the consequences of its work. The result of the action of the reforming Light is my desire to bestow. I do not want to be inside myself; I want to exist in others, in the Creator.³

People can do anything when they’re in a religious ecstasy: jump over fires and even burn themselves, and all this is for what purpose? Kabbalah says that there is the upper system that we can awaken by studying. We study the actions of the system, its work. And while reading, I want the system to work on my correction. I am not asking to make it worse for someone or better for myself. I ask that I become good inside, not that I feel good.

I can then bestow to others. That is, I will be able to pass the force that has now come to me and corrects me through myself to others and become a transmitter.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/19, Lesson on the Topic “The Right Way To Study The Wisdom Of Kabbalah”1 Minute 22:15
2 Minute 27:30
3 Minute 49:55
4 Minute 1:10:15

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Rabash, The Social Writings, the article “The Agenda of the Assembly 2”: When one exerts, he should make certain that it is not without reward. It is as we say in the prayer, “And came unto Zion,” “Lest we touch in vain.”Rather, when one goes to an assembly, he should acquire nourishments there so that when he goes home he will be able to see if he has something to put in the Kelim. Then he will have the nourishments to feed himself until the next meeting.

The fact is that the forces that a person can allegedly pull out of himself and from the surrounding nature by his own efforts, are not a spiritual result. A spiritual result can be obtained only when a person in a group, in connection with his friends, achieves a common desire with them, and from there draws strength that enables him to advance.

It turns out that all his spiritual work takes place at the expense of the power that he absorbs at the assemblies of friends—from assembly to assembly.

Question: It is written: “when one exerts, he should make certain that it is not without reward.” Should a person take care that he is paid for the effort that he makes?

Answer: Can it be that he works for free, that is, without visible, tangible results? Then he will be unable to understand whether he works or not.

There are people who are ready to do everything and somehow do not think about a reward. They believe that this speaks of their spirituality, although in fact it speaks of their levity. You need be very clear about what efforts you make, what you strive for, and what result you expect.

Question: That is, when we say, “like an ox under the yoke and a donkey carrying the load,” this does not mean that a person simply decided, “I invest and don’t think about a reward; I just follow this track”?

Answer: There is nothing praiseworthy in this approach. A person by nature cannot help but think about a reward. In this case, he should think about how to achieve the revelation of the Creator, that is, the revelation of the properties of bestowal and love in himself.

Question: Is this the intention that a person must go with to the assembly of friends?

Answer: Indeed. Otherwise, what is the meaning of his existence? Each of us must reach the highest state.

Question: And what do I give from myself to my friends?

Answer: You give them your participation, your strength, your spirit, and they give you theirs. In this way, when everyone is recharging from everyone, it turns out to be a very serious feeding of the whole ten, and everyone can do the work for the ten. This is how the goal is reached.
[239056]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/27/18

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Question: What does it mean to exit myself? Does this mean that I should observe my own behavior and thoughts as if from the outside?

Answer: Getting out of myself means exiting your egoism, finding my spiritual self by disengaging from my physical self. We feel the entire physical world within our egoism. The spiritual world is felt through the property of bestowal. Exiting the property of reception and entering the property of bestowal is called “sensing a new world,” a state that exists, but we could not see it before. It reveals itself because you change your point of view.
[237957]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/5/18

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 3 “Love of Friends – 1” (1984)

Talmud Eser Sefirot,  Vol. 6, Part 16, Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words, Item 274

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Title “Appellations Alien to the Human Spirit”

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Psalm: “Creator, You lay my hand on a good fate, saying “Take this for yourself.'” All a person can do is yearn for the Creator, through the unity with the group—to the property of bestowal. And later on he will discover that the Creator has laid a quiet narrow path for him …
… amid the collective hard life.

Everyone should do his best to give the group a spirit of life, hope, and energy to keep working from a new start every time: a person was disappointed with his advancement in the spiritual work, but now the friends gave him the strength and faith to overcome all obstacles ….
…. and achieve perfection.

The #Torah is given to illuminate darkness. It performs two actions:
1. Its light reforms a person toward equivalence with the Creator, which removes the concealment and reveals the property of bestowal.
2. Allows you to perform acts of bestowal and reveals the Torah’s secrets:
…. how to attain the Creator and the state “Torah-Israel-Creator are one.”

As soon as those possessing the “point of yearning for the Creator” are united into one group, all of humanity will strive after them. Because they can be guarantors and leaders of all mankind. Therefore, its correction and closeness depend only on those who are striving for Him.

#EU is destroying Europe! The solution is to leave the EU that is bringing Europe down. It is a curse for Europe—a gathering of egoists. Europe doesn’t want to pay for defense although it is dependent on other countries and #Russia.
Trump wants to quickly move away from the sinking EU so as not to let it pull America along.

It’s impossible for a person to get himself up. But, if, with his desire to rise, he chooses a good environment and cancels himself before it—the environment lifts him up. The more he cancels himself and yearns toward the environment, the faster the Creator reveals himself in it.

If one finds himself in a group that “in general” strives toward the Creator, then his progress depends on his desire to receive from the Creator the force of bestowal through the group.
But this desire he receives from the group as well, from the envy and jealousy to their success in their relationship with each other and their closeness to the Creator.
From Twitter, 1/13/19

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Medium published my new article “Addictions: Discover the Drug of Life”

We are all addicted. Society is organized in such a way that at any given moment in our lives, we become addicted to something: things we are used to do or consume from childhood, certain food, a way of thinking or behaving and different forms of entertainment, to name a few. In short, we become addicted to any pattern learned at home during our upbringing or developed throughout our lives from the environment. All these conditions construct what we are and what we are prone to, defining our tendency to potential addictions, including deadly ones. If that is the case, how can a person be liberated from a harmful dependency?

Harvard Medical School defines addiction as a “loss of control over indulging in a substance or performing an action or behavior, and continued craving for it despite negative consequences.” In fact, those adverse results are affecting a whole generation. The opioid epidemic, for instance, causes 155 deaths every day in the United States. Although dramatic and worrisome, it is only the peak of the iceberg. An estimated 40 million Americans ages 12 and older abuse or are addicted to nicotine, alcohol or other kind of drugs, surpassing the number of people with heart problems, diabetes or cancer.

A New World, New Addictions

Tech dependency can also have an impact on how we function, developing symptoms similar to substance abuse. Gaming addiction, for instance, has been classified as a mental health condition by the World Health Organization. In addition, 50% of young people admit cell phone addiction while Americans in general spend an average of 5 hours a day browsing, according to recent studies.

Regardless the source of dependency, the common denominator is the yearning for detachment, even temporary, from troubles, pressures, competition and other negative influences from the surrounding circles we might be exposed to: family, school, work and society.

Pursuing an alternative reality is a consequence of human nature. We are made from an insatiable desire to enjoy that constantly grows and renews itself, leaving us empty when it is unfulfilled, leading us to various addictions to fill the void. As those cravings transform into a habit, one constantly needs larger doses, entering a vicious circle. This is an unsuccessful way of coping.

Why do people resist calling these examples addictions? It is because they are so immersed in a certain way of living that it seems natural, but when they lose control of their lives they try to get out of the trap and find it extremely difficult, if not impossible. It is at this point when a person descends to a vegetative level, suppressing the internal desire for a higherpurpose in life — unique to the human level, the most developed in nature — instead of filling it.

Looking for the Drug of Joy

People lack the elixir of life, the drug of happiness. Therefore, we face not a drug problem, but an emptiness problem. If our nature is a desire to receive, and this desire is not provided, it transforms into a negative escape mechanism.

A person is a result of the environment. Therefore, it is important to see it as the overriding factor for human change. Such transformation is possible by isolating the individual from the surroundings that triggered the addiction and replacing them with positive support circles that will help the person reshape the previous dangerous habits into positive ones. It is the equivalent of setting up a new program that will need to complement and bring more satisfaction to the person than the artificial sensation obtained through substance abuse or any other kind of unhealthy dependency.

Our Relations Rehab

I am referring to a comprehensive treatment that needs to target an underlying multifaceted problem. That is to say, we have to create new conditions according to every person’s cultural and social background and needs. In some cases, it will possibly require a rehab medical plan but it should always include the remedy to all our troubles, the drug of life, which is based on positive connection among people. A positive social environment can rehabilitate us and help us to evolve to a higher level of existence.

Such a new level of positive social connections is what evolution is pushing us to attain. In order to realize such connections, we first need to educate about and promote the idea that only through warm, safe and supportive connections, human society can achieve the kind of satisfaction it is constantly craving for. Then, we will be aware of the fact that the only dependency we need to be hooked on is realizing our interdependence in a positive way.

That is the way nature has created us, humans, as part of an integral and interrelated system that should work harmoniously and balanced through mutual care and consideration. By realizing and implementing such relations, we can enter into balance with nature and discover a much greater kind of fulfillment as a result.

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Question: What is wrong with wanting to “bend” the whole world to suit myself if the world is full of malice and vices?

Answer: I understand that you would like to change our world. But if you do this by breaking it, you will only get some of your smaller broken worlds.

You have to change yourself and then, instead of today’s world, which appears to you in your egoistic properties, you will discover another, better, altruistic world. To change the world is to change your properties, and then you will see it differently.

You need to understand that we exist in our desire. Changing your desires from the lowest state to the state of complete bestowal and love, that is, the world of Infinity, we can move back and forth along the ladder of the spiritual worlds. It all depends on our properties.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/26/18

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New Life #127 – The Essence of Communication, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

All of our problems stem from the wrong type of communication between us as couples, in families, at work, and in the world at large. Communicating with others in mutual bestowal reveals enormous energy and a whole new world in the resulting connection between us. Each of us has to implement all of our skills in order to satisfy the deficiencies of others so that we reach absolute and correct communication and fulfillment both individually and collectively. The more distant we are and still manage to fully communicate, the greater the pleasure we feel. In fact, oppositeness is the precondition for communication and there is no opportunity for communication between similar parties. Just as a mother treats her baby, we need to have a new intention to feel the deficiencies of others as they actually are and fill them. We can only achieve this goal in an environment with others who are aiming toward the same thing. By acquiring and satisfying the desires of others in this way, above our differences, we feel great pleasure and become one again.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #127 – The Essence Of Communication, Part 2,” 1/15/13

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 2 “Concerning Love of Friends ” (1984)

Talmud Eser Sefirot,  Vol. 6, Part 16, Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words, Item 270

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Title “Conveyance from a Wise Kabbalist to an Understanding Receiver”

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