We live in the first generation of people who wake up to discover the meaning of life and to understand why they live. In the previous generations, we used to live like animals. We had only egoism, the desire to enjoy, that constantly pushed us forward, and through it we tried to fill ourselves in an endless race from one pleasure to another. However, we were never satisfied because pleasure is opposite to one’s desire to receive, like the two poles in an electric circuit that are opposite to each other.

As soon as the Light touches the vessel desiring to enter it, annihilation, a “short circuit” immediately occurs, and they nullify each other. Every time we want to enjoy something, it is enough to just touch the pleasure, and it disappears. We sense the taste of food, but it goes away. We see something beautiful, but the charm dissipates. Positive feelings do not remain with us, and we are not able to accumulate or add them to our “piggy bank” from day to day.

In the end, we see that our generation is in despair. People have nothing to fill themselves with; they do not feel flavor or pleasure. They use drugs to escape and they calm themselves with medications and antidepressants. Why?

Our egoistic desire that was growing throughout history has stopped its development. For thousands of years, it was gaining strength, and it seemed to us that we would continue to find greater pleasures in new desires. The feeling of pleasure is the feeling of life. But today, our desire to receive has become completely satiated, and we have fallen into despair from helplessness, not seeing any possibility to move somewhere else.

This is a special time, a special condition, and that is why Baal HaSulam writes that he is glad to be born in the era when it is possible to divulge the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why is this possible? “Kabbalah” means reception in Hebrew. It teaches us how to attain wisdom, to become filled with infinite pleasure, not feeling the pleasure disappear and our dying as all pleasures vanish. The wisdom of Kabbalah leads us to endless pleasure which means eternal life.

Moreover, Kabbalah brings us to a degree where we become the masters of our lives. Along with the over-satiated desire to receive, the “point in the heart” (•) is revealed in a person, which is an additional property, the desire to bestow.

The plus and the minus, the desire to bestow and the desire for pleasures exist in the same person, and he acquires the freedom of choice. Now he has two forces, and by developing them one against the other, he begins to control them, that is, to control himself. He decides which path to take and what measure of desire to use.

Thus, he is evolving in three lines: He makes the middle line from the right and left lines. In fact, this middle line is called a “human” (Adam) because he did it; he formed his inner essence, and as a result, it belongs to him. Before that, in all our reincarnations we developed similarly to animals, pushed by our egoistic desire, and received more pleasures according to its orders.

Today, we cannot control our desires yet because we only have a small point in the heart. We get together and study the wisdom of Kabbalah which explains how to develop this point so that we’ll have two big desires. Then, we will no longer be governed from Above by the force of egoism; instead, we will hold two forces in our hands and will be able to rise above this life.
[44844]
From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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Question: Are the mother’s love for her children and the love between husband and wife egoistic?

Answer: This love is not considered egoistic. All our desires are divided into the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels (1,2,3,4). The desires of the animate level that arise in a person are similar to the desires of animals, only they are more developed. These include the mother’s desires in relation to her child or the desires that appear between spouses.

The mother’s instinctive attitude to her children is not egoistic. Nature forces a human being (a mother) to behave in this way to satisfy the desire of another person (child). On the other hand, the ego is the desire to enjoy at the expense of a fellow human being, that is, it’s when I want to feel good at someone else’s expense. Even the fact that someone is in a bad situation can give me pleasure.

This kind of pleasures could be divided into many levels. For example, I can get pleasure from turning the other into my slave. Also, pleasure exists in the possibility of harming him, humiliating him, and causing him suffering. Pleasures from the exploitation of others, rather than from a natural desire to enjoy, is considered egoistic.

My desire to get pleasure from tasty food, from communicating with my children, or from something in life that does not harm anybody is not considered egoism. Egoistic actions are aimed at using others for personal gain.

We reveal our true (spiritual) ego at the “human” level when we come to the group. Then, we start feeling a special hostility to each other and put a wall between ourselves.

To the extent that we want to become closer to each other, to study together, to have common meals, and unite in order to reach the property of bestowal, to that extent we feel an even greater hatred towards one another, aversion, and reluctance to connect. Our ego manifests at this particular moment. It is not present in common people; only those who want to connect to reach spirituality have it. These people find out that they cannot do anything with it. Why? It is so that they later develop a need for the upper force.

Where does this force come from? It is present initially in a perfect system and disappears (becomes concealed) after (as a result of) its breaking. This force exists but hides inside. If I try to unite with my friends and will not be able to, my level of egoism will be revealed to me more and more (to a certain extent). It will be my first spiritual degree, the first 1/125th of the total ascent.

I am working on this for months, until I reach the state which I will not be able to overcome myself. Then, I will develop the need for the Light which used to fill us and now is hidden inside, and I will want it to come, to become revealed, and to connect us together.

This requirement frees the first spiritual degree for me: I, my friend, and the upper Light between us. Afterward, my goal will be to reach the next degree, where the ego will grow even more and hatred that I didn’t know existed will break out.

I will be irritated and repelled by small things in my friend. Together, we will have to work hard and will ascend to the second of 125 degrees, and in this way until the end of correction.
[44827]
From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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Question: You give many examples from science when we speak about Kabbalah. There was a famous inventor in Italy named Guglielmo Marconi who perfected the first radio receiver, improving its sensitivity to such an extent that it allowed for a connection at a great distance. So, do we need to improve the sensitivity of our soul the same way to develop a connection with others? Is faith the very same antenna that ensures our connection with the Creator?

Answer: Guglielmo Marconi was a great scientist, and he had many secrets. He only revealed a small part of his discoveries to us. He discovered waves we do not yet know about, which readily envelope our globe and even completely penetrate it. He was a unique genius.

When we come “outside” of ourselves, we begin to perceive the general energy field which fills the entire space between us. This field is God, the Creator. To perceive it means to attain the Creator, the upper force that connects all the souls. Then, we, together, and He, this upper force, the thought called “the Thought of Creation,” become like one whole. This is why man is called Adam, from the word Dome (similar to the Creator).

We reach a state where we simply join Him, meaning exist in Him being aware of and comprehending it. This force that we join is called the power of faith.

Faith is the Sefira of Bina (from the word “Havana” or understanding). In other words, “believing” does not mean closing your eyes and moving like a blind person, relying on something someone said. Not at all! Faith is based on the force of bestowal. When I am able to change the channel of my inner “radio receiver,” I tune to the same wave, and the information I receive from it is called faith.
[44663]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: What does Kabbalah say about original sin, and what does this lapse from virtue mean?

Answer: Kabbalah asserts that the entire tale of Adam and Eve and their lapse from virtue is an allegory. It refers to the events that took place in the upper Sefirot before the creation of this reality: our universe and us inside it.

There is no “sin” in any of this. We call it so because we fell from the spiritual degree on which we were initially created to our current degree, this world, across the entire 125 degrees. This is called the “sin,” but it was not our doing. It happened in our root.

Later, when we developed over thousands of years at the level of this world, this also was not our doing. We have developed unconsciously this entire time, without knowing how and where we developed. Egoism pushed us forward.

However, now is the first time in history that we have come to our freedom of choice. Either we will develop consciously and correct ourselves because we see and feel a benefit and purpose in it, or very big problems will come which will force us to do so through enormous suffering. In other words, at this point, we stand at the crossroads. We can choose the path of suffering or the path of attaining the entire reality. Naturally, there is a huge difference between these two directions.

In any case, we must attain the complete correction of the world before the expiration of the 6,000 years which began with the first man, Adam. So, we have approximately the next 230 years. In other words, all of us must complete the correction and every person must acquire a soul. Then all these souls connect into one common soul and rise to the next degree.

If we follow the conscious path as we attain the universe and do the work ourselves, we will be able to complete this correction in several years, here and now! If not, we will still advance, but in the bad way, which will not last more than 230 years.

This is determined by the spiritual structure of the six upper Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, and Yesod. This is why we must attain correction over the course of 6,000 years.
[44665]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: Can you explain the connection between a person, his or her soul, and the Creator? Are you saying that a person does not have a soul until he develops it?

Answer: Every person has a point of the soul, similar to a drop of semen. We need the strength to develop it. Just as a drop of semen attaches itself to the uterus, receives nutrition from the mother, and begins to grow, we also need to attach ourselves to society and cancel ourselves in relation to a suitable group, as if it were the mother’s womb.

If I were to cancel myself, I would not be a foreign body within the group, just like a drop of semen is not being perceived as something foreign. This is why the body does not reject it, and the embryo can grow.

Similarly, I cancel myself before the group and receive its strength. Then, my spiritual point, the beginning of my soul, begins to grow. In its growth, it follows exactly the same stages as an embryo inside a mother. This is explained across thousands of pages in Kabbalistic books. These stages of our soul are named accordingly, such as “conception, nursing, and maturing” (Ibur, Yenika, and Mochin).

If a person does not begin this process, in other words, if he does not reveal the upper dimension which exists outside of him one way or another through his connection with others, then his body dies, and this point of the soul merely remains a point. Once again, it clothes in a body and accompanies him, giving him the opportunity to grow.

However, when a person attains even the smallest, the first spiritual degree, he already feels that he belongs to another dimension, a spiritual and eternal one. It is eternal because it exists above our corporeal, beastly egoism that pertains to our body. Then, the body can die and decompose; the person no longer associates himself or herself with it, but rather with the spiritual state he has attained.

We must attain at least the very first degree. Then it becomes much easier to advance because the person begins to see the steps he needs to take.
[44669]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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The crisis we are experiencing today is an indication of our lack of unity with one another. In essence, the crisis is letting us see that we are total egoists and individualists who are living in a global world. And this is the entire problem. Nature is revealing the world’s globality to us, but our egoistic nature is completely opposite to it.
This difference or abyss between the two is felt by us as a crisis. This is why we feel pain and confusion in everything we do, and it is the reason we are plagued by diseases and misfortunes. This comes from the lack of similarity between our egoistic desire and the upper Light.

Therefore, we have to see the current crisis as the initial point of humanity’s ascent to the special state from which it once descended, according to the program contained in the informational particle that was born by the Light. We were born here in our universe and now we are returning to that perfect state.

The part of humanity in which the point in the heart has surfaced is developing with the help of two forces. All we need are the right conditions: the group, studies, and teacher. The second part of humanity is going through a developmental process and reaching a state of crisis that is becoming unbearable. That is when a question arises: What does “unbearable” mean?

The sensation of horrible suffering can bring humanity to wars, annihilation, and all sorts of problems. This is exactly what is happening: A part of the population is forgetting about everything through drugs, others engage in terrorism, and others yet are not worried by anything—they have completely sunk in theft. Egoism is breaking out in every direction. Because of the lack of inner fulfillment people feel, they don’t know what to do with themselves.

These negative phenomena are exposing the entire extent of the despair and hopelessness that humanity feels today. And people aren’t guilty of this. They feel enormous inner pressure, which is causing explosions of violence. So what can be done to relieve their situation?

We have already talked about the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah. This is the salvation. If we spread the knowledge of the science of Kabbalah before people’s ego breaks out to the surface, then we will save the world from great troubles. Therefore, everything depends on the people with a point in the heart.

Nothing depends on the world and we shouldn’t wait for any actions to be done by other people who don’t have a point in the heart. They don’t have the positive force that is able to supplement their egos. They are just carriers of a huge egoistic desire, and only give us an addition of their dissatisfaction and pain.

We have to process this enormous desire, tune into it, and together with it, aspire to unity. We have to continue studying and, in response, increase dissemination with a special emphasis on the need to unite among us. We are the ones who have to unite our common broken desire into one—our common spiritual vessel. Even though it is broken, it contains parts that are interconnected, despite them having completely different qualities of desire. Therefore, if all others will join these interconnected desires, they will also become included in this connection.

That is how one part of humanity actively builds a connection among one another, while the other part of humanity participates in this process passively.
[45046]
From the 2nd lesson at the Madrid Convention, 6/4/11

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Question: In the wisdom of Kabbalah, you talk about man’s ego, about unity with everyone, and about us needing to reach balance with nature. But how does this relate to the connection with God (Elohim)?

Answer: In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we talk about nature. According to Gematria (the numerical value of the word), “nature” and “Elohim” are the same thing. That is, if we talk about the upper force, nature, God, or the Creator, whatever you want to call Him, everything around us is just a manifestation of that force.

If we talk about the upper force, then what is the difference in how we call it: “Elohim” or “nature”? There is the upper force (really the upper!) which gives birth to and rules over everything, and we want to know how to connect with it, how to reveal it, and to understand it.

Thus, if I exit myself, my ego, and begin to reveal the reality outside me, above my ego, this is called the understanding, realization, and revelation of the Creator. Naturally, all this happens within me and only relative to me.

Gradually, I organize my desire, my spiritual structure, meaning the property of bestowal and love towards others: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod,and Malchut. According to this structure, I know the connections between them and thus reveal the Creator.

Elohim is also called the “Creator” (Boreh), from the Hebrew words “come” (Bo) and “see” (Reh) because we have to “see” Him, reach the state in which we understand Him, as if seeing firsthand. We are created by Him for this purpose.
[44882]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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People in whom the point in the heart has awakened strive forward for unification. Granted, when they are just beginning to study, they do not think about connection; they do not have this need yet. But the science of Kabbalah teaches that namely in the connection between each other can we rise spiritually and cross the Machsom, the spiritual barrier, to the revival of the property of bestowal within us.

We have to unite above the Machsom. From the Machsom itself until the state in which we all attain complete unity, from 0 to 100 percent, we have to ascend 125 spiritual degrees of unity.

The entire path from the moment when we come to the group, begin to study, and try to connect is called the preparation period. Kabbalists say that this period may last from three to five years and may be longer because it is very important preparation: Without it, people do not understand at all where they are heading.

A person has to prepare himself or herself for the sensation of the spiritual world, create the correct environment for oneself, start sensing it, and advance together with it. In other words, he or she must understand the need for unity with others.

We have to unite again, having returned to the state in which we used to be in the world of Infinity, where we were united and filled with the upper Light. But to accomplish this, we have to tame our egoistic desire, and this is not easy and might take years….
[44890]
From Lesson 2, Convention in Madrid, 6/3/2011

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Baal HaSulam said that he was glad to be born in the generation when it was possible to divulge the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah teaches us how to combine the two forces of bestowal and reception into one, how to add them to each other so their sum (Σ) becomes a “human.”

This is really a science, a wisdom. This is not easy; it is difficult. We are used to going with the flow, and suddenly another force appears, taking us somewhere. Where to?

The integration of two forces leads to a unique result. In our world that we see and feel, there are forms of the still, vegetative, and animate natures. We belong to the animate level and have not yet achieved anything higher. The human level that we begin to discover within ourselves is a spiritual degree opening a new world in front of us.

In nature, one level gives life to another. Animals feed on plants, and plants take strength from the still nature. However, the still level does not know what it means to grow, develop, live, consume and excrete, and to feel the environment. The vegetative level, in turn, does not understand what it means to be an animal, move, bear offspring, and stay in the pack, not to speak of the subtleties of existence for “developed animals,” people who live very complicated lives.

A lower degree is not able to understand a higher one; it is a completely different world. For the time being, we exist at the animate degree and are ruled by our desires. We do not understand what the human degree is. It is impossible to show or demonstrate it, just as an animal cannot demonstrate its view of the world to a plant.

Moreover, a person who has integrated the two forces, the point in the heart and the heart, the desire for pleasure and the desire to bestow, and ascended to the human degree of development cannot convey his sensation to those who have not yet reached it. It is possible to say one thing: He feels beyond all the limitations of the corporeal body because he rose to a different level. He exists in connection with all the previous levels and is nourished by them; however, he himself is on his degree.

So will we, having ascended to the human level (let us hope, as soon as possible), preserve the connection with this world, with all forms of life in it. However, in addition, we will have completely different sensations and intentions. We will feel eternity and perfection on the first spiritual degree.

Our entire problem is that we want to receive the pleasure, the upper Light, while it cannot exist in us, and it immediately disappears due to a “short circuit” when the plus and the minus cancel each other. Thus, we have to work correctly in the third line between these two forces.

We create a correct combination: We put a kind of “resistance” (R) in the middle, through which the plus and the minus operate properly. This gives us the results of their work, and we get force from them. In the language of Kabbalah, the resistance between the point in the heart and egoism is called a “screen” (Masach). Namely in this place we receive and sense a new life at the human degree, Adam.

Then, we become free from death. Every time I want to receive the Light, I cannot adapt myself to it. Pleasure with desire disappears, and I taste a bit of death. I have nothing else to enjoy, and I fall into despair. I do not want anything and retreat. In the end, a person “dries out” because of this work, and he sees that he is not successful. He begins to “fade.” The animate, vegetative, and still natures gradually decrease in him until the person dies.

However, if we understand how to unite the force of bestowal and the force of reception correctly within ourselves, the plus and the minus, we will attain a sense of life at the human degree, an eternal and perfect life.
[44836]
From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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Question: Today we will be holding a convention to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. But when I imagine what will happen there, I don’t want to go. Does that mean I have to rise above reason?

Answer: People will dance there, but you don’t like to dance. There will be delicious food there, but you won’t like it. There will be many children there, and you are not too excited about that. It turns out that there really is no reason for you to go.

Or you can imagine the situation differently: What do I care about the food, the movements people make with their bodies, the songs, the screaming children, and all the people who are there? All of this is the external form of the desire that is being awakened by the Creator. He puts people together who wish to come closer to Him. Out of the entire Malchut of the world of Infinity, He has gathered a group of separate desires in order to unite them in the future. That is why He now gives them this necessity. They don’t even know why things turned out that way. Every person has his own reasons for coming and every person imagines why he is there differently. But I came there in order to join the Creator’s desire, which is hidden inside of them.

You can sit quietly in the corner and constantly try to keep an intention of being connected with their desire. I don’t look for their inner urges, but precisely for the desire that the Creator awakens in them. This is what I need. This need is my soul. After all, I have just the point in the heart and I have to attach these desires to myself, which will give me the volume of the spiritual vessel. Then I will be able to advance.

However, if I don’t make a connection with them, then where will I get the desire, where will I find my soul? Into what will I receive the revelation of the Creator? By myself I don’t and won’t have anything besides the initial point. So should I not go to the convention? Should I let the opportunity go by?

Question: Can’t I watch the broadcast on TV and join in people’s desire that way? Is it really necessary to be physically present?

Answer: This depends on what makes it easier for me to be permeated by their desire and its outburst, and on how many efforts I will make for it. Maybe if I watch it from home, I will receive 50 pounds of desire from them, but if I go there, then even while sitting in the corner, I will experience such great repulsion that I will barely acquire 2 pounds. However, if I prepare ahead of time, and if I start dancing together with them even though I absolutely hate doing anything like that, if I hold the intention inside—why am I doing this?—then it will be very beneficial.

We all work above the desire even though we don’t talk about this all the time. All spiritual work is done above the desire, so the mind will rule over the heart.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/11, Writings of Rabash

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