Question: How can I, as an individual organ of the general soul, feel the harm that I am causing the whole body by my corruption? How can I feel the sufferings of the general soul?

Answer: You will feel it according to how much you feel the sorrow of the general soul. You should feel the harm; try to be incorporated in society and to connect to it. Then you will feel what it suffers from, its illness, and you will attribute all this harm to yourself.

The feeling of cooperation is all the result of the connection: both the collective joy and the collective sorrow, the commitment towards society and the freedom from it. It all depends on a person, and on how much he exerts himself in order to attain his state and his feeling.

It is said that one should feel sorry for the sorrow of the Shechina. We see how humanity suffers. Can we help it?

Kabbalists say that the Creator wants to be revealed within the created beings, that is, He too seems to be suffering because others suffer. His suffering is completely unlike ours.

Imagine a family that has a mentally retarded child. How much does the child suffer? Sometimes he doesn’t even feel that he is sick and that he is different in anyway from the other children. We too, are living a peaceful life at the moment, not worrying about anything. We think that everything is fine, and we are surprised when we are told about a crisis and different problems.

People protest: “What is all the noise about and what are these claims that people are suffering? No one suffers; everything is fine. Don’t disturb us and let us enjoy life!” But this kind of life is like the life of a retarded child who isn’t aware of his condition. He plays with something and is happy. To others his condition is physically apparent, but the child is happy, he doesn’t suffer. Those who are near them suffer.

This is because they know his condition, how ill the child is, and how much he is lacking in life. Everyone who sees him suffers. This is the “sorrow of the Shechina,” which sees us like that retarded child.

But if he begins to improve, to get better, to understand and to feel more, then as he adds knowledge, he adds pain. He begins to feel problems and pressures; he sees that not everyone wants to be friends with him. First he felt the whole world as good and he was all right, he lived as if in a dream.

Now, the more he wakes up, the more strongly he feels the different states and his dependence on others. Only now does he understand where he really is. It turns out that this whole world is full of worries and problems and that you have to get along with people and to be careful of different dangers.

But the parents are happy! Why are they happy? After all, the child isn’t happier. True, he isn’t happy yet, but he has begun to live!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, Shamati #1

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Baal HaSulam, "Inheritance of the Land": And so Abraham wondered, “How will I know that I will inherit it?” meaning how will I know that the Children of Israel will receive such a great reward, since where will they get such big vessels that will be worthy of this wonderful receiving, and to this the Lord answered him, “Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years, and then they will have great exertion in the Torah and the Mitzvot….” This is the case for those who deal with the Torah, but those that deal with the fillings of this world and are not ready to deal with the Torah, how will they receive these vessels? Indeed the answer is that this is what is said in the Midrash, that Israel are not redeemed until they are united…."

So we see that we must connect with the world that provides us its deficiencies because we don’t have enough deficiencies of our own. In the same way we received the desires of the Egyptians in the time of the Exodus from Egypt.

Let’s see how things developed. After the exodus from Babel we went down to Egypt, we were there for 210 years and we went to Mt. Sinai. Then there was a series of ascents and descents until we arrived at the Land of Israel and built the first Temple. Then we fell from that degree and built the second Temple.

Thus we ended the work of the Egyptian exile. We corrected the whole legacy of 210 years in Egypt, all the evil inclination, with the help of the Torah, meaning the method of Kabbalah, which we received on Mt. Sinai.

After having fulfilled this level, we fell, we have been through two thousand years of exile, and now we have to ascend again. It is said about our state that: “The children of Israel were exiled only to add the souls of the gentiles to them," which is all the Babylonians. In the past, Abraham took a small vessel of Israel out of Babel, and now all of Babel have to reach correction. Here, in exile, we meet the Babylonians, we are mutually incorporated in them and together with them rise to correction, as one body that has a "head" and a "body." The head is the point in the heart (*), and the body is what we call "the nations of the world (NW in the drawing)."

Thus we reach mutual correction. The body cannot manage without the head, and the head cannot manage without the body.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/12, Baal HaSulam, “The Inheritance of the Land”

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Question: What does a group that enters spirituality look like?

Answer: On the outside there are no special signs. Everyone seems like ordinary people. Inside will be everything we read about in the Kabbalah books. You will see the same faces, but you will treat them differently.

You will feel the internal network of connections among you. This is what creates the place where the spiritual world is revealed. It is as if you’ve received a flashlight, you turn it on, and in that light you begin to see stones, trees, animals, and people: a whole world.

This shining flashlight is your good attitude towards all the others, the mutual guarantee that you feel towards them. In the mutual guarantee that stems from you, you begin to discover the upper system and to see that in it, right there before you, there are trees, animals and people, which you didn’t see before.

But all the inanimate objects, plants, animals and people are not corporeal like in our world, but are spiritual. This is the picture that is revealed to you. They are the same familiar faces, but you discover the internal connection among them.

Many years ago I saw a movie about a diamond theft. The robbers sprayed a special spray and in this mist they began to see the laser beams that activate the alarm if someone crossed the room.

So it is as if you are also spraying a special spray around you, like a cloud of emotional attitude, of sharing, of a sense of connection and mutual guarantee, and in it you discover the laser beams that connect us to one another and see how they pass and tie everyone.

You discover this relationship, and see how it operates and manages everything. You understand what really motivates everyone.

Now, you see that everyone is moving, but you don’t understand which forces are moving them. Then you suddenly begin to feel, both physically and internally, how a hand enters the puppet and begins to move it from one place to another. This is revealing the governance and upper Providence.

Accordingly you learn how to adapt yourself to the system of this Providence, just as the movement of a good horse is adapted to the desires of the rider.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/12, Shamati #174

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We all are the consequences of the shattering of the first man’s (Adam HaRishon) huge desire. Adam HaRishon remained in the state of total perfection even though he was comprised of numerous desires and each of them wanted for itself. Desires always “think” of themselves; and yet the fact that the ultimate force ruled over them allowed the whole structure to stay within a condition that is called the world of Infinity. It maintained total adhesion with and stayed under the absolute authority of the power of bestowal and love.

It is similar to the sensation that we often feel when we are sitting and singing with our friends in a great mood, and hoping that this sensation of warmth and mutual love will last forever.

Of course, this is far from a spiritual sensation, but it gives us an idea of how the common soul felt before it was shattered. Then, some external force broke in and destroyed this sensation.

Where did this force come from in the first place? It was revealed within us; we never sensed it before and didn’t even suspect that it existed. All of a sudden we sensed hatred! It was always hiding within us and suddenly showed itself against our will.

The strength of hatred that hit us was so huge that each of us simply ran away from the beautiful assembly and thus ruined the connections among us. We all started to view it as something dirty and disgusting. We couldn’t tolerate staying within it any longer. This is how we happened to end up in this world and continue to live in it now.

Since then, this world kept developing under the guidance of the force of hatred. Throughout history, and to this day, we have been using the power of the shattering over and over again. But only today are we starting to realize that we have already reached the final implementation of hatred into our lives and that it doesn’t lead us anywhere anymore. Our hope to achieve the good life with its help has vanished.

The time of correction has come since we already understand that using the power of hatred and separation can only ruin our lives. So, our duty is to do something about it!
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, The Zohar

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For thousands years we have continued to build various systems of connection between us that are supposed to let us survive without killing each other and bring us to compromise: I give to you, you give to me, this is mine, and this is yours. This is how we try to help each other.

According to various forms of connection and detachment among us, we consider some nations and civilizations to be closer or farther from each other. There are numerous conditions that either connect us or keep us isolated. This is how the force of shattering divided us. It worked like a centrifuge that separated and kicked us far away from one another.

But it is written: “Go and earn from each other.” So, we feel that we will gain more if we unite. We gather in cities and build various systems in order to provide everybody with water, electricity, and to create a suitable infrastructure; we also built factories and industries. All of this is for our common benefit.

The evil egoistic force that prevails among us does more than just separate us from one another; it works cunningly and pretends to be beneficial and useful.

We continued developing in this mode until eventually we reached a point at which we have to come to a decision to not use this power any longer for the sake of our fulfillment since it inevitably lead us to collapse and will trigger crisis in all spheres of our existence: education, family, finances, etc.

The question is: How can we can we correct the evil power that emerged from within us when we were still connected as one soul and that shattered our connection? How can I fix it?

Sages, the Kabbalists, explain that we cannot conquer this force directly by grabbing the serpent’s tail. It crawled between us and spread its poison within our united soul and penetrated into our desires in every possible way. There is not even the tiniest desire or a set of desires within our egoistic entity that were not poisoned by the evil. [Read more →]

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There is a rule: “if you leave Me one day I shall leave you for two.” This is similar to the rule of “to reveal a portion and conceal two”… it is a preliminary condition for the creation of the vessel.

A person is intentionally given the option to fail, which is called “if you leave Me one day,” and then he has to work to correct himself for two days. This means that he leaves the level he was on, falls, and sins. But he falls to an even lower level: not to the egoistic level that is the inverse of the level of bestowal he had reached, but to an even lower level. Not to minus one (-1), but to minus two (-2), and then he has to ascend to the second level, to plus two (+2).

When he finally arrives to +2, he falls to -3, and then he has to rise to +3. We progress in this way; all these actions benefit our advancement. When we fall, we have to work twice as hard.

The main thing is not to lose the persistence, not to stand still because you see that you are not getting any reward. Each time we need to find greater reward that is more and more detached from corporeal life. We should learn to measure the reward in relation to the common good: to what extent can I work and the others receive.

I have to make efforts that the reforming Light will bring me closer to this attitude in which I will receive more and more fuel to work for the benefit of all the others and not my own. This is how my advancement is measured.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18/12, Shamati #108

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A person goes a long way until he finds out exactly what his work is. He reaches the study by looking for a meaning in life, in the search for an egoistic fulfillment. He stays with the same initial intention for quite a while until finally he begins to hear that it is absolutely forbidden, meaning “impossible,” to fill these egoistic desires. So what can he do?

They say that it is only possible to enjoy when in equivalence of form with the Creator. Do you want to enjoy? Learn from Him how to enjoy bestowal, but not bestowal as you see it, not bestowal from personal egoistic satisfaction. True bestowal gives pleasure to the Creator; this is the only thing you can enjoy.

This means that there is double incongruence: We have to change both our desires and our intentions—the place where the pleasure is felt. When a person moves on to these new desires, which he doesn’t understand at all, he is told: Here you are, now enjoy. This is totally different from what he imagines today in his present egoistic state. He must change his perception several times.

Going through this, he can only hold onto the group, the environment. After all, every time he advances a little, he feels that he is even more a like a child, even more confused and that he loses more of his power. This is so different from the ordinary, familiar way we advance— getting more, understanding more, and feeling more—that a person cannot bear such “progress” which seems to be headed in the opposite direction.

He doesn’t understand how it is possible to work and to feel a growing emptiness and lack of understanding, simply a state of death, of total helplessness when there is no light at the end of the tunnel—pitch darkness, the Red Sea (Final Sea – Yam Sof in Hebrew). Is all that called advancement?

A person feels totally lost, but if he continues despite everything, he begins to discover that without going thorough these states, it is impossible to reach the real desires: to receive in order to bestow. There is nothing left of the previous state, not the feeling, not the understanding, not the previous approach, not the intention or purpose of ordinary advancement. Everything seems totally new and so different from his previous experience that it is simply impossible to see it from afar.

The only thing that can help him here is to organize support around him and become incorporated in activities, studies, group work, and dissemination, so that he will develop gradually, like a child who plays and at the same time grows. Thus, step-by-step, he will gradually advance towards the state in which he can bear the spiritual idea.

He begins to understand that there are many spiritual and mystical methods in the world, but here he comes across a method that will bring him to a new reality by changing his perception. And only then will he understand what was happening to him.

Therefore, it is impossible to explain this to everyone. This is why it says: “A thousand enter the room and one comes out to teach.” After all, if a person’s soul is ready to attain the truth at any cost, it keeps him on track.

If he is really ready for that, then the environment can help him go through these phases quickly, and while still in this life to attain the world of truth!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, Writings of Rabash

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The spiritual vessels, the desires, can be “straight” and “round.” There is a similar division in our world too. The desire of the group is “straight,” because we work with it, assess and weigh it trying to reach equivalence with the upper Light.

All the other desires in the world, which are represented by other people, are “round” because they are not related to the “line,” (the limitation by the Masach, screen, and the work that is directed by the Light), and they simply want fulfillment.

Now a growing emptiness will be revealed in them. If we do our best to connect to one line, and on the other hand, we join the world as a circle, then people will feel how they receive a filling from the “pipe” that is formed by us. Then they will be drawn to us, will adhere to us like leeches, because they will feel that here is the source of life.

But in order to avoid a situation in which we would have the fulfillment that they couldn’t have which would result in their being filled with hate, the system of integral education must be opened to them immediately in order to explain to a person how to attain the fulfillment.

The Light cannot pass from us to others just like that. We must build a network of the right connections, and an education system is necessary for that. There won’t be any contact between us any other way.

It only seems as if the integral education is meant to simply connect people to one another. On the inside, however, it is the connection of the “pipe” that passes the Light into the “circle.”

In our group we are all equal, there are no differences between us, and we make up the same vessel into which the upper Light comes. But our vessel is in the form of a pipe; we work with the Masach and the Reforming Light. We try to adapt ourselves to the Light, to resemble the Light, and the desire and the intention to bestow is a kind of channel for the Light, a kind of a pipe, we become when we connect with the friends.

The external world is a “circle.” In order to create a connection among us through which the external world will begin to receive the inner fulfillment from us, there must be a certain degree of equivalence and we need an adaptor, a connector between us and them, so that we can connect.

This is possible only by education that we will provide the world with so that people will know how to connect the “circle” to the “straight line” in this world. Then, through this pipe, the method of the fulfillment will begin to seep, and the world will begin to organize itself to receive this fulfillment.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, Shamati #36

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In the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” Baal HaSualm explains that the part of our brain responsible for our perception of reality is built like a photographic machine through which I see the world divided. I feel myself as a kind of body and see everything else that exists as outside of me. So all of reality is divided into two parts.

This, of course, is a lie and there is no such division. But the point is that there is a Creator and a created being, and the created being should attain the Creator as a result of his development. Attaining the Creator is possible only by observing Him from the outside, and so the created being has to feel that he exists separately from the Creator, standing opposite to Him.

Then by comparing the two opposites, the created being checks and understands the inverse attributes, realizes that he is opposite to the Creator, realizes that he is evil and that he needs correction to become similar to the Creator and to reach adhesion with Him. Thus he raises the level of “human” in him.

In order to allow a person to assess all these attributes, understand, get to know, clarify, and correct his perception—reality is divided into two so that it seems to a person that he and the external world exist separately.

This, of course, isn’t even close to the truth. The assumption that a person exists and the Creator is outside Him, outside the world of Ein Sof, is also not true. But such a feeling is necessary so that we will add our exertion to building our vessel and attaining the understanding and revelation. Then it will be a “human” who built all this out of his free will.

It is like giving a child challenging games and puzzles so that he will work and thanks to that grow, understand, see, try, make efforts, and build himself. The same happens to us with the dual perception that makes us sense ourselves and outside of us, the world.

All our work is to make efforts to connect the two parts into one whole picture called “there is none else besides Him” and “Israel, the Torah and the Creator are one.” This means to sense myself and the external world as one, and to understand that first I have to care about the external world and only then care about myself. After all, I will have to provide only what is necessary for the existence of my beastly body, and I have to try and see all the rest, all the external world, as most precious, my soul.

Then I will reveal that the external world is also me. It is because I treated it as something opposite to me that I hated, rejected and tried to stay away from it, that enabled me to learn about myself, about my nature, and about the “evil inclination.” I had a chance to fight all its fine attributes, the unperceivable, the coarse, and cruel attributes and by that to attain the Creator.

After all, in every incidence of hate towards the external world, there is a need for the Creator’s help in some way. So my rejection of the external world and my decision to connect to it, the power I receive for that from the Creator, and the unity I attain, all bring me to adhesion with the Creator.

So it turns out that there are actions of connection with the external world and there is the acceptance of this world, the feeling of unity or the Creator. By the creation of this division of me and the external world and the “neutral zone” (“Klipat Noga“) between us, I get help from the Creator—a state that is already partially prepared to attain the connection with Him because of this false perception.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, Shamati #36

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The group is part of the external world for me, but I can’t work with the whole world at once to get a response from everyone and measure myself in relation to the world. The world cannot support me along my path because it doesn’t have the same goal I do. It has all kinds of different goals and doesn’t know where it is headed.

So I find a group, a part of this external world that I can connect and work with to clarify things. Indeed, on one hand it is foreign, a part that is external to me, but it is close to me according to its goal, perception, and studies. So it is worthwhile for me to connect to the group in order to get power and support from it. I see that with them it will be easier for me to advance.

Eventually I begin to understand that this isn’t a group of people, but they are the very parts of my soul that I need to collect and add to myself. Or perhaps to the contrary: I need to exit myself and to find myself within them rather than in my present “self.”

Then, together with the group, we want to expand our relationship with the whole world into a wider circle. This circle does not share the same goal; it has different aspirations. This is my more external part.

The parts of my soul called “root,” “soul,” “body,” “attire” and “hall.” “Root, soul and body” are the internal part, which I feel as myself, the “attire” is an external part but it is adhered to a person, and the “hall” is the more external part.

And so I play with the group as the external part that is closest to me, that is ready to join the same purpose. I don’t see it as a group of people but rather as my desires that are only dressed up in these masks that make faces at me. But I understand that I must connect to them because it is there that I attain the goal. If I exit my ego and become incorporated in them, there I will find the attribute of bestowal.

But we can’t just work among ourselves on our connection. We need to work together on something external. This external thing is the world. But here too, my desires seem to oppose me; these are my seven billion different desires that are showing me that they don’t belong to me. My ego separates me from them and blinds me, confuses me, and obliges me to perceive them as foreign and opposed to me.

I must work with the world, but it is much more difficult than working with the group. After all, at least I have something in common with the group: a goal, studies, and common processes. In the group it is as if I am in a kindergarten, in comfortable conditions that constantly help me exit myself.

But the external world has no conditions that help me: There everyone is against me. The only thing that ties us together is a collective problem, although it seems to us that we are headed towards different goals. The world by running away from pain eventually has no choice, it will reach the same goal that I see as good and desirable. So I should relate to all the circles around me—the group and the rest of the world—as to myself. They are only presented to me by the Creator in this opposite form so that each time I will learn to work with a more external circle. I perceive the inner circle, and together with it I begin to work on the more external circles.

We cannot worry only about one another. Like a young couple: How long can you look at one another before you get to know each other and become used to one another? Then they need to have a child so that they will both take care of him!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/12, Shamati #36

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