Why does the unified force of nature, which we call the Creator who created us, develop us in such a peculiar way, by keeping us completely lost in our thoughts and desires? Why and for what purpose did He give us the deceitful illusion of this reality and continues to tangle us up so that we, like little children, keep running back and forth looking for pleasures, trying to grab more and more? What do we attain in all this mess?

Specifically by trying to recognize one causative force, one source, in this confusion, we make ourselves similar to this force. Out of 613 desires, 613 thoughts, and a numberless variety of predicaments, we build ourselves as one whole.

Therefore, the whole purpose of our spiritual work is to reach unity, mutual guarantee, become “as one man with one heart,” and unify into one desire, one spiritual vessel. We are doing it all in order to bring ourselves closer to adhesion with the single, unified force, the Creator, when all of us, as one whole, and the Creator merge together.

Baal HaSulam writes about it in his well-known article, “There Is None Else Besides Him:” It is written, “there is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what man sees, that there are things in the world that deny the Higher Household, the reason is that this is His will [to show Himself to us in such split condition, as if there is He and the forces against Him].

Because of this, we are given an opportunity to gain power over and recreate ourselves, while overcoming the confusion that makes us doubt the one force, the Creator, and trying to constantly find only Him in the image presented to us. This is what our work entails.
[42433]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is the physics of the integral world. What this integral world is all about, we don’t know. We attain only a tiny piece of it which we are able to perceive through the sensory organs of our physical world, similarly to all other animals.

On the other hand, unlike them, we have a more capable mind, greater desire, and hence we fit into the world a little bit better than regular beasts, while trying to take the most advantage of it. Yet, our sensory perception as based on our five sensory organs: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch is much worse than theirs. They are quite better at sensing nature than we are.

Only our mind and ego are more advanced, and that is why we are greater than beasts and are more cruel and perverted. We can take advantage of this world that they are also aware of. However, in any case, we are able to perceive but a small part of reality.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us our entire existence, the attainment of authentic reality. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the major difference between our limited perception of this tiny piece of reality and the ability to see a broader reality, as if to soar out of this narrow cage of our closed little world to the enormous and beautiful outer world, lies in knowing how not to make ourselves dependent on all kinds of changes, forces, and acts, but rather perceive one single force.

As soon as we start pulling this infinite number of forces, actions, chances, and thoughts, all of this surrounding mess, into one unified force more and more, it signifies that we are climbing the ladder of the worlds, until we reach the world of Infinity where there is, indeed, only one force and where all thoughts, desires, perceptions, predicaments, and actions, absolutely everything that was so confusing to me before, become unified. That’s when we attain that “there is none else besides Him,” this singular force, the Creator.
[42437]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question from Moscow: What does it mean to desire to unite? And what does unity feel like?

Answer: Apparently these questions are coming from our Moscow group in anticipation of the upcoming convention in Moscow. What does it mean to unite? Why? Why are we holding this convention? The question is correct.

Why should we unite? To be frank, this is impossible to explain. If a person has a Reshimo (informational gene) that remained in him from the unity he once experienced while being in the common desire, where he once revealed the Creator and then lost this sensation, and now this Reshimo is awakening again, then he desires to return to this state. “I want it!”

For example, some people like eating frogs. Well, what can you do…. I don’t have this desire, but to them it is a heavenly delight. That is exactly how the desire for spirituality emerges. It awakens—and that’s all. What can you do?… One person starts feeling a desire for frogs, and another—for spirituality. This desire awakens from the inside and it does not depend on us.

Why would someone start feeling a desire to eat frogs? It’s because he once tasted it and felt a pleasant taste, got used it, received the corresponding upbringing—and now he desires this.

But another person was in spirituality at some point and a Reshimo has remained in him, and now it awakens. That is why it is impossible to explain what unity feels like to people who don’t have a Reshimo from the spiritual state. But it is possible to show them that it’s worth it to unite with one another because that way we will come out of the general crisis, and therefore, it’s worth it for them to join those who are setting out to correct the world’s current state. After all, they will also benefit from this.

This is what we have to tell people. They don’t understand what spirituality means, or the Creator, adhesion, unity, the feeling of perfection, eternity, harmony with nature, the upper spheres…. This is meaningless to them so they will tell you, “Leave me alone! Just give me something in this life—peace, safety, good health. I don’t need anything else!” Every person speaks based on his desire.

When you are speaking to that kind of person, you have to show him that he also won’t be able to fulfill his desire unless he goes together with everyone toward unification because this is what the global, integral nature demands. We have evidence to rely on and ways to explain this to him. Therefore, you tell him that the world requires unity because this is what nature demands. You have to speak to a person on his level instead of telling him about the Creator and spirituality. Due to having no other way, he will also join in. But every person has to be addressed according to his or her desire.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/11, The Zohar

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Until we reach the force of unity in which we reside in the center of the sphere of all the worlds, in the world of Infinity, and from where we withdrew from each other and descended into our external world, the same very source, the Creator, affects us with good and evil and entangles us from every direction, as it is written: “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.”

What does “behind and before” mean? Baal HaSulam explains that “You hem me in behind and before” means that it’s both when the Creator is revealed and concealed. After all, He is the only one who rules, and everybody will attain it. And then the notion of time and the feeling of past, present, and future will disappear. If there is only one force at work, nothing changes and everything is at absolute rest.

The attainment comes gradually, in correspondence with how we unify with this single force, the Creator. Besides, we don’t lose control of reality and turn into nothingness, but rather become like Him. We, together with Him, become the same exact magnificent, governing, singular force. And neither of us cancels the other: The Creator doesn’t nullify the created being, nor does the latter nullify the Creator. Moving forward and closer to Him, I don’t nullify myself. Instead, it is my ego that gets cancelled, while I rise like the Creator and come to adhesion with Him in all His perfection.

Then, I discover that I have been governed by this one force all the time, but it was simply hiding from me on purpose so that I would acquire it on my own and become as autonomous and magnificent as this singular force, the Creator. As I keep building myself in equivalence to Him, the Creator appears before me as an equal, magnificent partner and thereby we merge.

Every time when I gain autonomy, by transcending my ego in uniting with the group, I find the Creator within us, and thereby we unify together.
[42419]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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The degrees of our connection, of how much tighter we bond with each other, are the spiritual ladder of rungs, the ladder of the worlds. We bond in the minimal degree, overcome the minimal thickness of our desire (Aviut Shoresh), and thereby attain the Creator only at the level of the Light of Nefesh.

When we unify in a greater degree, we attain Him as the Light of Ruach, followed by the Light of Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. Thus we pass forth from the world of Assiya to the world of Yetzira, followed by the worlds of Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and finally reach the world of Infinity where our unity has no borders and everything is linked as one whole.

Until then, this unique force keeps working among us, confusing us, and nurturing us in all possible ways so that we would develop a need to unify among ourselves and merge with it. However, this force acts from “behind the scenes.” That’s how we play with children since we want them to “brainstorm” and use all their skill to do something independently. We know that only when a child exerts personal effort does he gain wisdom and understanding of life. In this, we are the same.

On the other hand, children have a tremendous natural yearning and desire to grow; they are always ready to act and learn about the world, while we are lazy and unable to make ourselves exert the necessary effort. And this is where the external force, the force of the group (and never the force of the Creator!) can do it, as it is written: “They helped everyone his friend.”
[42422]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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In our spiritual work we cannot do anything ourselves because we don’t know how to identify the unified force and relate it to many situations in our life. What should we attune ourselves to? Simply saying that the Creator is everywhere doesn’t help.

This is why we are given the group, and if we unite together, we discover this unified force called “there is none else besides Him” between us. The Creator deliberately split the creature He had made into a multitude of parts so that they would reassemble once more into a single thought, a single desire. Then, in this common desire, they will reveal the unified force that exists only in the connection they have formed, in unity and adhesion with them.

By uniting together into one desire, we don’t attain this force outside of us, but reveal ourselves and this force together as one whole. Indeed, there is no Light without a vessel (Kli), there is no Creator without the creature. The closer we bond together, the more we reveal the Creator within our unity.

In other words, our unification is the Creator. That is what it was at the start of creation, after which we dispersed and descended to this world in the form of small egoistic creatures.

Therefore, by uniting together we are building the Creator. We are creating Him independently, which is why He is called the Creator (in Hebrew Bo-Reh or “come and see”). There is no other place where we can build Him, discern Him, unite and achieve adhesion with Him, but only within our unification in the group. And all of humanity will need to connect together in the same way.
[42427]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: I feel that when I started studying Kabbalah, I could hear the Creator’s voice more clearly. And now, I feel my receptivity has decreased.

Answer: That is because the Creator wants to tune you to Himself even better and demonstrates to you that you are not attuned to Him well enough. And you should search so that the most exalted feeling that you have experienced so far would constantly be alive in you. You must, regardless of the obstacles, constantly tune to that previous feeling, while it will be new nonetheless.

In the beginning of creation, in our first state of existence (1), we felt only the Light of “Nefesh,” the smallest Light. And then, we descended into our world, into the broken state (2), and are now ascending from our world back to the third state (3).

The third state is the same as the first one, although we feel the Light of “Yechida” in it, which is 620 times greater than the initial one that we used to have in the first state. It is the Light of NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida).

Why is it so? It is due to the fact that we have attuned ourselves in spite of the obstacles! On the way from the first state to the third one, we were given numerous obstacles of all sorts, but regardless of them, we have attuned ourselves to the same Light of “Nefesh” that was in the beginning. The Light doesn’t change.

I have raised my receptivity and become a vibrating string instead of a thick metal pipe that I used to be at the start. I have become more subtle, sensitive, sensuous, and receptive.

As a result, in the first state that I used to exist in, I experience, not the Light of “Nefesh” that used to fill me at the still level when I didn’t feel anything, but rather I discover myself as equal to the Creator, that is, I reveal the great Light of “Yechida.” Why is it so? Just because I tuned myself to it. This is the process we undergo.
[41981]
From the Virtual Lesson in Russian, Fundamentals of Kabbalah 4/21/2011

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 34 “The Profit of a Land”: Every form points to another [opposite spiritual] form. Thus, all the descents where one feels that he has come to separation [from the others and within them, from unification with the Creator] are an opportunity to discern between something and its opposite.

In other words, one should learn the benefits of the ascents from the descents. Otherwise, one would be unable to appreciate the importance of being brought near from Above, and the ascents that he is given…[as it is said:] “As far as Light excelleth darkness.”

After all, only from separation can we appreciate unity between us and esteem the attainment of our unity as the attainment of the Creator, of the upper force. We have to try to give the correct definitions: Separation between us is a descent, while unity between us is an ascent. Separation, meaning a state of descent should bring us the sensation of the absence of Light, whereas an ascent should be felt as the presence of the upper Light, the Light of bestowal and love.

We have to correctly interpret the spiritual properties, the spiritual definitions. Then we will gradually get used to them and will begin to see the upper spiritual value in the words so hateful for us today: “unity,” “love,” and “adhesion.”

Only then can one assess and regard the matter of adhesion, by which the delight and pleasure in the Thought of Creation can be acquired, being “His desire to do good to His creations.”
[41832]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “The Torah Is Called the Middle Line”: One must have faith that there is “None else beside Him,” meaning that only the Creator compels him to do righteous deeds. But since he has not yet merited knowing that he is compelled by the Creator, the Creator clothes in other people [who as though exist outside of a person] and carries out these deeds with their help.

We think that we are surrounded by lots of people, that they influence us in a variety of ways, and that we must react to them. But if we begin to relate to them (“them” meaning the group of people studying Kabbalah, and not the whole outside world) as the Creator’s manifestation, His presence between us, His presentation to us, then as we unite in the group, we begin to study and attain Him.

One must have faith that behind the human images stands the Creator and carries out all the deeds in people.
[41847]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Education is a special topic. It is interesting that people almost did not think about education over the course of human history. A little person grew among the grown-ups and learned from them. Parents did not need to take special classes to learn how to raise their children. Like animals, we practiced regular and natural education.

Kindergartens and schools appeared during the industrialization period, when people started working in factories, and mothers also had to start working. Until then, most children grew naturally at home.

In reality, nothing is more important than education. No wonder we are now experiencing a crisis in this area. People never thought that they needed to follow a certain system in education and that the growing generation requires a sensible approach. Take us: Who teaches us? What criteria do they follow, which method, which program? Instead of receiving education in schools, we receive knowledge.

Overall, schools appeared when a need arose to bring peasants to the cities, so they needed to be taught elementary grammar and arithmetic in order to work with simple industrial machines. People needed to be taught to read and understand manuals. This was the beginning of the two hundred year old institution of school for the masses.

We envision general education as the continuation of the ancient human wisdom. However, essentially, people only began to rise above the animate level in the nineteenth to twentieth century.

People never gave a serious thought to proper education. What should a person become when he or she grows up? Do we turn him into a Human? These questions are ignored even now. We send a child to math, physics, or computer specialized schools, without thinking of the individual this person will become. Who cares about the individual? What matters is to find a good job in our “bourgeois” life.

Moreover, this is happening because humanity has not come to a consensus, a common opinion of what it means “to be a human.” We tell the child: “Be good to others so they will enjoy dealing with you.” This is what out education mostly comes down to.

The problem is that society does not demand a connection between people. And today, once we have come to a general crisis, the crisis of education especially stands out. This is because the young generation is new souls with new demands of the new world. We call them the “Indigo children,” stuff them with Ritalin, and think that they do not understand us. In reality, we are the ones who do not understand them; we are the ones lagging behind life. We were not taught to understand these children.

They demand development at a new level. Similarly, a person whose point in the heart awakens ceases to understand other people who live a regular, “corporeal” life. And our children also look at us and do not understand: “What are you living for? We do not want your life, we are not willing to live like you and are incapable of it.”

If we want to find a connection with them, we need to introduce a new kind of education. And even though we fall short of this role, being the transitional stage before the new generation, we still need to complete this stage to the end.
[40961]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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