Question: It is written that the righteous lament lacking suffering in their lives since it is pain that expands the vessel of perception.

Answer: It is not about the suffering of the ego when a person, looking back on the life he has lived, feels bad about missed opportunities: “There I missed the opportunity to get rich, here to make love, and here to take a break!” and so on, so that in his old age he would be reproaching and chewing at himself. This is a terrible state!

Spiritually, there is no such thing, since we discern where in my life I was unable to exert extra effort for the sake of connection with others, for the sake of their and my correction, for the sake of rising over our egoism onto a higher level, the human degree.

But this isn’t suffering because to the extent that I am experiencing it right now, I immediately correct it.

Question: Then what do the righteous mean by “suffering”?

Answer: They worry about missed opportunities and instantly fulfill them.

After all, they still experience desires. Conversely, they sort of pick up where they left some “unfinished business” in life. For example, at present I wish to see my students in a perfect state. This is my greatest wish, and it is already implementing the rest.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 3/11/12

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Question: What happens to the individuality of each one during the unity of the world group? Is there any importance to our attributes when the Creator separates us, connects us, or requires some kind of effort from us? Or do they not make any difference?

Answer: Imagine that once there was a body and it broke into small parts. How is it possible now, from all these parts, to create the same body?

Each one of us is responsible for a certain part of this general body that is called Adam HaRishon (the first human). I am a small part of his liver, and you are a small part of his lungs, and someone else is a small part of this heart, etc.

So how can we change our foundation? It is impossible!

Therefore each one needs to remain with one’s initial attributes. He retains his character with all his innate attributes. It’s all his. It is precisely thanks to this individuality that he expresses himself.

However, this entire wonderful picture is comprised specifically from opposites, from the differences of each one of us who is completely opposite from his friend. And so they all can connect themselves and in this connection to attain this compound, like a general body that will be perfect specifically thanks to each one complementing the other. Under no circumstances do they need to be identical.

Only one thing is needed from a person, that is to connect with others in bestowal to all of the others! By following this condition, each one realizes himself in an individual manner towards the others. And from this comes forth one, huge, integral Kli (vessel/desire) which is complete.
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From a Virtual Lesson 11/11/12

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There are special times and periods in spirituality, “happy moments” so to speak, which we can’t predict or bring back. They come occasionally, every once in awhile and don’t depend upon us, but on the relations between Zeir Anpin and Malchut of Atzilut.

Imagine two cylinders, one inside the other. In each of them there is a little slot and in the middle there is a lamp. When the two cylinders turn, their slots sometimes coincide and then a beam of light emerges through the slots and can be seen on the outside.

 It’s the same with Zeir Anpin and Malchut who cooperate in special situations and sometimes “shimmer” for a person. This is called a “time of good will.” It comes from Above and to every individual in his own special manner, since we are all different and we all belong to different parts of the general system, going through different internal and external states.

To sum up, as a result of the shattering of the vessels, the connections between us are excellent and confused, and so there are many different conditions. But at a certain point there comes a “good time” to a person and then it’s very important that he seizes it and fulfills it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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If we stayed at the still, vegetative, or animate level of nature, we would follow all the laws of nature instinctively. But there are desires on a higher level within us and in them we don’t feel an obligation to act in a certain way. Things become unclear.

This is felt especially in our times. Throughout history men in society rose according to the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature; we developed gradually, in stages, not thinking about who or what we are, or where we’re headed. We were pushed forward by different urges and they all brought us to one simple clarification: How do we make the most of the current state? In other words a person keeps the laws of nature in a more or less organized way relative to animals because of conditions that are much more complicated. Accordingly, there are wise men who know how to take advantage of these conditions for the benefit of their ego and others have to “settle for less.”

But today we are losing the ability to advance this way. I would like to advance as I used to, to choose what’s best for me, but these attempts never succeed. It’s as if another element has appeared in my perspective which is concealed for the time being, as if someone who is invisible constantly puts sticks in my wheels. I want to fix the financial system, the economy, education, the family, but nothing works out. I’m very logical, I have scientific data, I have experts and advisors, but I can’t arrive at anything. So, what’s going on?

A new dominion is revealed here, a new law that has been unknown until now. We have to learn it, but it’s obscure and incomprehensible. What’s more, that which is gradually being revealed about this law is something that we don’t want to accept. We want to carry on like before and to succeed in everything that we do, and instead we have to agree to a condition that will turn our egoistic nature around. The condition is that we are connected and that if we make a decision it has to be in everyone’s favor. Here we stop, not knowing what to do, throwing our hands up in despair.

This is the state we are in today, like slaves in Egypt who “have a new king,” we feel that there is a new dominion. Previously the ego helped us advance in spite of obstacles; we conquered nature and space, we took care of ourselves in different ways and suddenly we despair of everything. It has been several years now that we don’t find the old goals attractive anymore. Why? Because our instincts tell us: There will be no compensation for our egoistic desire here.

It’s as if I am going to make a million dollars now, but there is man with a gun in my way. “You are going to make a million,” he tells me. “But you will leave yourself only a thousand and bring all the rest of the money to me.”

I have to make an effort worth a million dollars and I only receive a small part “to cover expenses.” But my desire doesn’t provide me with enough fuel for this work. So what can we do?

It’s either fear that will force me to do it or I need to see that the man with the gun is my best friend, my dearest friend, my closest friend. Then I’ll be ready to receive only a thousand dollars to cover my basic needs and I will gladly leave him all the rest. What’s more, I will thank him, since without his gun I would have continued to take for myself. Thus I reach something new and am happy to give you what I have made, since by that I get closer to you and to the new goals that are revealed to me.

How much does a person have to go through until he reaches the recognition of this state…?
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A person goes through many stages of unconscious development like we have been through throughout history. But in the meantime it isn’t the human in us that has developed. The human in us has to be born now, out of labor pains! A new form of existence called “man” is going to develop from the animate level.

All our previous history was only the preparation for the development of real human life. Now the human species has to develop in all of humanity, which includes the Israeli nation in it. The human level is called a desire to connect with others, an inclination to connect with others, an intention.

At first it can be an egoistic inclination that results from my feeling bad and knowing that a connection with others can improve my situation and save me. This is the state we are in now in Israel. The pressure that we are feeling lately and have always felt because of wars was created only to push us and to force us so that the human will be born, it is like labor contractions that push the baby out.

All this happens so that we will exit ourselves towards others, and because this development is already above the level of still nature, the vegetative and the animate, an additional component is necessary here: understanding, recognition, and self-participation. The embryo that is about to be born from us now helps itself come out of its mother’s womb, out of its egoistic nature.

Thanks to its understanding and recognition and different assisting actions, this baby is incorporated in the general system so it can use it. The system begins to help it and this help is called the Light that Reforms.

I perform actions on my levels of development: the still, vegetative, and animate nature; I work in the group. And while I operate egoistically, it makes no difference. If I do it in order to be born and even in order to escape sufferings, these actions help me in the birth process, pushing me forward with the contractions. Then it will be an easy birth since I open the passage out by myself!

As long as we are in the desire to receive, as if within a womb, we feel good: We have developed, yearned for different achievements, fought, conquered, made profits and everything was great. But this passage is the egoistic state that precedes the future state, the birth canal, which is an extremely narrow place, as we know from the corporeal world.

It is a very dangerous passage, very difficult, involving great sufferings and pressure. But we can expand the birth canal by the Light of Hassadim, by yearning for an opening, for connection. This means that we draw the Light of Hassadim to this place, thanks to which the canal expands, and we come out easily, like a baby with the water. We can help ourselves this way even with the help of our previous egoistic desires if we only understand that we have to be born.

So we have to understand that the same problems we have experienced lately as a result of the shelling on the outside and the economic difficulties that will soon be revealed on the inside, all these troubles, like labor pains, are meant to give birth to the human in us. First the Israeli nation has to do it and then everyone else.

This pressure will grow and we shouldn’t wait and make any calculations based on political talks. The pressure will grow until we agree to participate in our birth.

There is nothing but these two forces; if we want to come out of the birth canal quickly and easily, we have to expand it by Hassadim, and to spread the connection and love among everyone. Now we are in the delivery room, in a crisis (the word “crisis”—“Mashber” refers to the birth stones that women used to give birth on in the past.)
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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There are many levels of understanding and attainment of the system in which a person is in mutual cooperation with the upper force. It is very hard to discover this path of suffering that is called “400 years of exile,” which are unbearable. If the two forces, receiving and bestowal, the Creator and the created being, frontally collide, the created being will have to go through this whole path again starting from the four phases of the direct Light, the whole process of development. This is a horrible path.

But we are in a system that operates according to a certain upper plan in which there is already the final outcome, the starting point, and the final state. All the Kabbalists that operated throughout all the generations and all the books that they wrote are incorporated in this system. There are people who have attained the Creator living in concealment among us in this world who are working to bring humanity closer to these ideas.

All this brings us to what is called Derech Eretz (the way of Earth) something that is between the path of suffering and the path of the Light, which allows us freewill. If we were to advance only by the stick, we would have no way to develop our mind. We would be busy only trying to avoid the next blow that may come on one side or the other.

But if we receive all this through the system in which there are both judgment and mercy, the combination of these two forces allows us to develop. Like a baby whose parents develop him, so do we receive help in our spiritual development. Imagine what would come out of a baby who developed without the help of his parents. Even if he could survive, what problems and sufferings would he have to go through; the most he could attain would be a simple animal existence, to somehow live and die.

This is a life of an animal. A man’s life is based on receiving support from the previous generations, as each of them develops and completes the one that preceded it. Human desires develop from one generation to another.

So today we find ourselves in a state where on the one hand no one wants to receive the wisdom of Kabbalah and doesn’t understand what he needs it for. No one knows this wisdom and imagines some kind of mysticism and miracles instead. Different groups have different attitudes toward the wisdom of Kabbalah, people who are religious or nonreligious, who belong to the Israeli nation or to other nations.

The most stubborn ones are those who already assume that they are dealing with the Torah and don’t need anything else. They consider themselves to be perfect as they study the Talmud and observe the Mitzvot. We can somehow approach a nonreligious person and explain things, since he feels that this corporeal life has no meaning and that he wants to reveal the upper world, the system that manages life.

But in fact, no one feels a real need for the wisdom of Kabbalah, including those in whom the point in the heart has been revealed, and they suddenly light up and want to know about it and come to study. The desire that they have in the meantime is simply a desire to acquire something new and not to change their nature to the opposite form. Such a desire isn’t natural for a person and it simply doesn’t exist. Because between any person in this world and the true science of Kabbalah there is an iron wall, which must be broken.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

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Question: Inner efforts cause pain. Can we say that this pain comes instead of the suffering that comes directly from nature in the form of hurricanes and other natural disasters?

Answer: On the whole the answer is yes. Instead of rebuilding the homes that were destroyed by the hurricane and receiving more terrible blows, we can move on to internal work and make mental efforts. The efforts should be qualitative, although nature obligates us to move to quantitative efforts.

There difference between quality and quantity is enormous. We know this from the laws of the pyramid, which is divided into four levels: the still nature (s), the vegetative (v), the animate (a) and the human (h). On the level of the human we make purposeful efforts.

But other people are on the lowest level. Think about the efforts they have to make to the full width of the pyramid’s base! What a great area the desire covers, how many tons of concrete and iron, how many hours to waste, how many diseases to go through, and what a great lack to be felt!

We are above that level and can change the difficulties and sufferings of billions of people for many years with one click on a button.

But don’t think that pushing the button is easier than a thousand years of hard labor. It isn’t by chance that the people of Israel cried out in the desert and were willing to return to the hard labor in Egypt, to work for Pharaoh, only to avoid pushing the button.

This is the essence of the decision a person has to make, and so our world will not disappear until the end of correction.

By pushing that button you have to be aware and to realize what is happening, you cannot just click it and be surprised by the outcomes; in spirituality you push the button only after knowing all the actions you go through. In other words the form of redemption is already in the exile.

You have to imagine the process; otherwise you have no choice, because choosing means that you understand the future and that you choose it.

Qualitatively this work is more difficult than the ordinary work. So even though they could do it, they cried out: “Let’s go back! Let’s switch this work with the previous kind of work!”

Question: Why do Kabbalists say that the path of the Torah is easier than the path of sufferings?

Answer: You are trying to weigh two different things with the same scale: a quantum of Light with billions of tons of rocks. Can they be compared? The inner energy of the Light is a billion times greater than the physical weight of the rocks. But these things are incomparable in your egoistic perception, in your imaginary senses. First we have to change our scale of values. It is written: “A righteous is the foundation of the world.” His power and value are much greater than that of all of humanity. Without him people cannot do anything, they don’t exist in spirituality at all. So you cannot weigh the two types of efforts by the same instrument.

Question: Will everyone have to push that button eventually?

Answer: No, not even all the children of Israel, which means all those who yearn straight to the Creator. Everyone participates in pushing the button, but it is hard to say who will have the leading role in the future.

On the one hand, a person cannot advance without a leader. In every generation there must be someone who pulls forward and leads others. On the other hand, there may be something similar to the Sanhedrin, a group of people who are ready and able to find the general force that will lead the people by the connection among them. I don’t think that anyone can provide a clear prognosis, but it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that we are advancing. What is necessary is what will happen. The lack of knowledge in this case is not a problem.

One way or the other, everyone will participate in the process and until the end of correction, until the last click, we will all be in the pyramid. Only the Light of the end of correction will turn the line into a circle. The levels of the spiritual ladder don’t change, and only when all of Malchut enters the correction and reaches Keter and becomes equal to it, do all the forms disappear, except for the circle.

Question: Is that button the love of others?

Answer: Yes, but through the love of others, we yearn for the love of the Creator—we must remember that.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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• Without the right intention, the Light can’t enter a desire and it remains in its filth. Only the intention purifies the desire’s “body” and allows the Light to enter it.

The intention emerges when the body realizes the impurity it is in, desires unity with the Creator, and makes actions to attract the Light that Reforms. Then the Light of the Torah corrects the desire with the intention for bestowal, and then dresses into it.

First one must reveal one’s egoistic intention. This is also an attainment. Then a person needs the Light in order to change his intention to bestowal.

Question: Is this intention formed by the right environment?

Answer: No, the intention is formed by the Light, while the environment supports this process so a person comes to demand correction from the Light.

Question: So that means only prayer will help one achieve this?

Answer: Yes, prayer, request, or demand aimed at the source, in other words—a need.

Prayer, MAN, is a need, an unfulfilled desire that comes from Nukva that is included in Bina. That’s where the name MAN comes from—Mey Nukvin, literally, “female waters.” Bina creates Nukva, the female quality from the desire to bestow, while Nukva desires to become similar to Bina from its receiving desire. These are the two stages: First, when breaking, Bina becomes included in Nukva, meaning Malchut, and then when Malchut is corrected, it becomes included in Bina.

Question: Then why are all of these physical actions we make in this world necessary?

Answer: Without them I can’t provide for my existence. But if I add the right intention to my animate desire to live and fulfill myself, then I allow it to become corrected. I aim all of my life at correction.

Question: Is it possible to add the intention to every action?

Answer: Yes, even to the “coarsest” one. By virtue of the intention, any action becomes spiritual. Any desire can be corrected, even the most insignificant, the lowest, and stupidest one. The Light will issue a “ validity certificate” to every desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/12, “Matan Torah”

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Question: How can we get over the state of heaviness and fatigue that we find ourselves in lately which makes us fall asleep during the lessons? How can we wake up together and get out f this state as one global group by supporting one another?

Answer: This is the point of the exodus from Egypt, about which we have spoken so much, the point of the receiving of the Torah, the turning point, the birth. We know that a birth is accompanied by labor pains and that it is a dangerous state. At the moment of birth itself we feel the snake’s bite, the discovery of the heart of stone, because there is no other way we can be born.

The exodus from Egypt is called a “spiritual birth.” During that time the evil inclination has to be revealed and these are very dangerous states that keep us under great pressure, since otherwise we will not agree to escape from Egypt.

All these states are not so clear to a person yet. Imagine that it is a good state from which we break through to the spiritual world, to the upper world, that from this state we are born and ascend above the Machsom (barrier), above the border to the upper world. Therefore, it is the most tense state, the most dangerous state that can ever be in a person’s life. This is the state of his birth!

We always see a birth as a miracle, and to the last moment we are not sure whether it will go smoothly, although we have such modern medical equipment and we know about the process. Still, we never know what might happen and it is a very critical point.

The uniqueness of this point is that a person is under terrible pressure, and terrible fear. All his previous life has ended or is about to end. He doesn’t see his future life yet and doesn’t understand it, and it isn’t clear what it symbolizes, since in order to reach it he has to create an opening to the new world.

A person doesn’t understand how he can exist, since he has to “close what is open and open what is blocked,” just as it happens during the corporeal birth.

If we only yearn for the spiritual birth, we have to imagine this state in a very realistic way, as close to our understanding and feeling as possible, to the extent that we are ready to approach this state and to prepare ourselves to it.

The more we prepare ourselves for this state, the more we will advance towards it. This means that we need strong minds, physical strength, and good organization of all activities that enable us to go through the most difficult state that can ever be. All the roads back are blocked and there is nowhere to go ahead! Just like the escape from Egypt, when your path is suddenly blocked by the Red Sea and from behind Pharaoh’s troops are catching up with you and there is nowhere to hide.

There are different allegorical descriptions of the state of the spiritual birth and they all refer to pressure, difficulty, and threat. We have to approach them by ourselves and not to wait for some force to drag us or to push us in this direction. Otherwise we become lax and only look for how to best manage in order to stall. But we have to bring ourselves into these seemingly dangerous states.

If I understand and am conscious of what I do, I understand that it is only dangerous for my ego. It is pressing and unpleasant, but I approach it knowingly and evoke and summon the labor pains, the feeling of suffering, by myself. It turns out that it is another kind of pain, a sweet one.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Today people already understand that things will only be getting worse in the world. But Kabbalah is still far from the masses. How can we cover this distance? And why is it there?

Answer: It is there in order to provide us and mankind with an opportunity to make an effort. This separation allows us and the external society to do mutual work in regard to one another. The distance was created with a purpose, for you to invest your knowledge, comprehension, understanding and to think about what is getting in the way of continuing the natural process.

Once apes descended from the trees and with time became primitive people. This was followed by the era of slavery, the Middle Ages, and the period of capitalism. And today, when this development has concluded in a collapse, people could come to the realization of the need for good unity. So why does development not continue automatically?

Because then the human would never appear. It would be the same primate that came down from the trees, driven by its egoism. We do not realize that we are completely under the control of our self-love. If I were shown the system in which we all exist, I would see that I do not do anything on my own. In this situation, the creature will not emerge. Take anyone through the filter of independence, and nothing will be left of him – nothing but the upper force, which was there initially.

“How do you make a human?”: That is the question. A human can be made only by providing him with darkness, a little knowledge, and a little strength to give him an opportunity to find a way to prevail over his nature and build something opposite to him out of the darkness without much knowledge or understanding. Then he will want to take the necessary parts from the Creator, and submit himself willingly to the environment, which will obligate him to do it. And he will be able to acquire a supernatural form through this mutual work, a form that is above his nature. And this form is called a “Human” (Adam), a form that he has created without the use of the Reshimot (informational genes), which were left in him from the times he was a primate.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/19/12, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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