When speaking of actualizing the wisdom of Kabbalah, we should take into consideration that our current Gilgul (life cycle) is far from being the first. We have gone through multiple cycles, and nobody knows exactly how many each of us has. It will be revealed to us farther down the road, but frankly, there isn’t much use in reviewing our past incarnations since all of them were at the still, vegetative, or animate levels of the evolution of the will to enjoy.

Based on this, our evolution went on. First, we existed at the still level of development, followed by the vegetative one when we experienced reality like plants do. Further on, each of us evolved at the animate level, perceiving reality similarly to animals.

Thus, we have gone through several lifetimes until, as written in the ARI’s The Tree of Life and Baal HaSulam’s The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 3, from the animate level, through the apes (an intermediate level between beast and man), we have finally come to the human level in this world. Humans are also an animate species, but much more advanced than beasts.

At the speaking level of this world, we, too, have undergone many lifetimes until we have reached our present condition. Now, in this incarnation, we are doing a special type of work in order to ascend to a completely new degree and experience a new, spiritual reality: the Creator’s reality.

During any transition from degree to degree and state to state, there are intermediate stages. As the ARI describes, between the still and vegetative levels, there are corals which combine both the still and vegetative characteristics. Between the vegetative and animate levels, there is an intermediate creature, a tiny animal called the “dog of the field” that lives in the ground and feeds off the land like a plant, but whose body acts as a beast. Between an animal and a human, there is the ape, a mammal with rudimentary human characteristics.

At present, we are in transition from a human of this world, who lives just like all the other seven billion people, and something spiritual. We don’t quite know yet what this “spiritual” means, but we are in between.

For the first time, in these transitions that we have undergone from the degrees of still to vegetative, from vegetative to animate, and from animate to speaking (human), unaware of what has been happening to us and living like all people in this world, we now have to make the transition consciously, fully participating in it. It is we who decide whether it will or will not take place, and in what manner. It is only our will that can make it happen.

This evolution is up to us. This transition is extremely unique and unlike any other because it is we who cultivate a human in us, a human identical to the Creator.

Therefore, for the first time in our history, in our entire evolution, the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed to us. It is destined to accompany us as an instructional manual, a prime directive, a code of laws, a science, with the help of which we will complete this transition. After all, if we don’t clarify it for ourselves, don’t wish for and don’t study it, we won’t be able to make it.

This is why we are named “Jews” (“Ivrim,” from the Hebrew word “Laavor,” to cross over) since we are crossing over from the state of human of this world to the level of a spiritual human, similar to Adam HaRishon, or the image of the First Man. Eons ago, he seemed to have broken into fragments, and now we have to re-assemble him anew, his male and female parts.

All of this has to be implemented in our collective work. We have all the necessary tools for it, but it is up to us to clarify it all, to learn what we lack in order to become this Human, and actualize it.
[31444]
From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

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When I came to study to Rabash, I was 33. I was a strong and successful person; I had a family, house, and successful business. I asked him, “Now I am going to invest all my life into you. I will be next to you until the very end because otherwise it is impossible to learn anything. I am ready to go for it, but how can I be sure that I am in the right place?”

Rabash replied that I had every right to ask this question. However, I have to choose what teacher I want to cling to by myself. Nobody should interfere or influence my decision. He said: “Go and check out other places!”

But after you make your decision and choose your place, you should cast away any doubt about it and not swing from side to side in the middle of the path. You cannot be under any other influence but your teacher’s.

In other words, if you become my student, you are obliged to receive only my spirit and not to listen to anybody else. After all, you are going to develop and it is forbidden for a person to listen to other opinions during his growth.
[31423]
From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

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Question: What should we do with the people who study the material independently and come with established, self-imposed “axioms” with which they confuse other students?

Answer: The group should isolate itself in its Kabbalistic center like an embryo in the mother’s womb. A developing soul needs to be protected. It must be surrounded with love and care like an embryo or a baby, by building a nurturing atmosphere around it, similar to “Noah’s ark.”

While students have not yet reached spiritual revelation and don’t quite understand what they are doing and where they are going, they get tossed from side to side, from state to state because each time new systems are formed within us. And while we are constructing ourselves, we continue going through unstable states; hence, we cannot be under the influence of several factors, but only one.

Baal HaSulam writes in “A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar” that if a student doesn’t cleave to the teacher, like an embryo clings to the mother, and doesn’t adhere to the upper one, then he doesn’t advance. This law rules in the spiritual world as well as the material one while we are in the preparation stage and work with our egoistic desires.

If a student doesn’t conform, nothing will help. He may be very smart and have outstanding abilities, but he won’t reach spiritual attainment. Hence, the sages said: “A thousand [disciples] enter the class, but only one comes out to the Light.” And the only reason for this is negligence, reluctance to accurately follow the spirit of the teacher, the person that passes spirituality to you.

I myself don’t need this in the least; you know how I loathe any kind of worship. But a student has to develop such an attitude. At the very beginning of the path, one has to make up his mind, according to the principle: “A person learns where his heart desires.” So how can you allow someone to enter your center, your home, and confuse you? I would never allow it.

We still cannot determine who is right and wrong, everything is relative. And if you wish to advance spiritually, don’t trust anyone; you must choose the source you want to drink from on your own. Everyone must unilaterally select a teacher who will answer his questions and meet his expectations, and who is qualified to guide him or her on the path of spiritual growth.
[31428]
From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

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Question: Will any person who dropped in at the Kabbalah convention feel joy?

Answer: We are inviting everybody. Anyone may come and join us. There are people who have been participating in this process for 15 years; they have reached higher levels already. However, there are those who will be new to this, and, perhaps, they don’t even realize why they came.

I am very happy for them and envy them. They can, so to speak, “find their world in the blink of an eye.” They can come and join the others, similar to how a child who was born in the 21st century receives everything that our civilization has prepared for him in the last twenty centuries, ready-made to enjoy. Why is this so? It’s because he was born just now and it is his right.

The same goes for people who find themselves at the convention for the first time. They don’t understand anything, but since we had prepared the entire infrastructure for them, laid all the necessary conditions, and established a connection between us, they connect to us like newborns, having no idea what is going on, but receiving all the benefits nonetheless.

This is why I am happy for them and envy them. I had to exert tremendous effort, sweat, and suffer until I achieved something, and I see how easy it is for a new person to enter this process and understand it. Where does such understanding come from? It comes out of thin air, just because he connects with the others.
[25632]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Happiness” 10/28/10

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It is very difficult to connect the two worlds together. How can we establish such a connection between us in this world that will help us to reform our soul?

Today, through our unification, we put Kabbalah into practice. Generally, Kabbalah is known for invoking spirits, amulets, or manipulating some hidden forces. But in reality, practical Kabbalah is our collective attempt to increase the value of unity between people in order to achieve revelation of the Creator, the force of bestowal between us.

We are all egoists, and none of us has the power of bestowal; yet, we wish for it to descend onto us and fill the space between us, which is presently full of resentment and hatred. We were born this way; we didn’t have a chance to choose our nature. It is written in the Torah: “The inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.”

Hence, when we start to unite in the smallest degree, not for some other reason but to find the Creator, the universal force of oneness, then we are implementing the wisdom of Kabbalah. This action is beneficial for the transformation of souls.

One can learn all the texts by heart and be successful in everything, but it won’t help. Until a person starts taking serious actions by bonding with the others despite the reluctance and resentment, he won’t understand how evil the inclination of his heart is.

The Book of Zohar describes the friends of Rabbi Shimon, who represented the ten initial Sefirot of the upper system in the head of Arich Anpin, at the exalted degrees of the very foundation of the world. In their own words, before they undertake studying, before they start revealing the Light, they hate, resent, and can’t look at each other. They are appalled by all of it. And yet, they sit around the book because they know that this power of hate has come to them from Above.

They are given The Book of Zohar to be employed as the means of unification above hate and rejection, as it is written: “Love covers all sins.” Love isn’t supposed to annihilate transgression, but rather to rise above it, that is, to be so powerful as to overrule hate.

We have an enormous desire for pleasure within us, which is completely egoistic and boiling over, and so it remains. And above it, we cover all hate with love.
[31359]
From Lesson 1, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/30/10

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At Kabbalah conventions, during Unity Days, and at other such gatherings, we do very serious work, and it affects us every time. If we spend the three days correctly, then during the lessons you will begin to understand and feel much more than now.

Such unifying events elevate a person since he becomes saturated with spiritual forces while participating in them. We receive them solely by way of unification and will never find them within or obtain them directly from Above. We gain the strength to ascend solely from the environment. The more tuned-in and immersed I am, the greater our collective benefit is.

From a person’s initial desire, from the “point in the heart,” he appeals to the group, gains additional desire from it, and employs it to raise MAN, the plea for correction. Then, in response, he receives the force of bestowal, which in essence is his soul.

Every one of us has only a seed of a soul, the point in the heart. Later on, we must face our evil inclination, our mutual hate and resentment. My evil inclination resists unification with people who are willing to come with me to the Creator, to the purpose of creation.

There was a time when we were all linked as one whole, until the breaking occurred, cutting us off from each other. True hate emerges precisely between us, not in each of us separately. I don’t need to dread the character I was born with or my inclinations. It is all nonsense. What matters is that while striving to unite with the friends, I discover that I don’t wish to do so and am appalled by it.

I get to see the whole mountain of hate, Mount Sinai. I transform it with the Light that Reforms; in other words, I receive the Torah and merit “the land of Israel,” the spiritual desire aimed directly to the Creator. Finally, I get to know Him and reveal spirituality.
[31356]
From Lesson 1, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/30/10

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We along with the entire world are undergoing a special state. The time when the wisdom of Kabbalah gets revealed is critical for the history of mankind.

During gatherings such as Kabbalah conventions, we desire correction of our soul, and nobody thinks about the rest of the world. And yet, let us ponder for a moment that we affect the fate of the world with our actions. I can sign this claim.

We wish and are trying to unite, thereby shifting the world to the scale of merit since the world, in itself, is a formless, lifeless matter which has no power. And we reside a few rungs above it, at the human level (Adam) that yearns to become similar (Dome) to the Creator. Therefore, the fate of the world lies in our hands.

This is why it is worthwhile to spend money to come to such Kabbalah conventions and place oneself in the environment unlike his home. This consideration is also necessary; after all, a person receives the right to affect the entire world and his own destiny.

At the first glance, what are we, really? And still, the Creator picked specifically these people, having given them an opportunity and a desire to come here [the Kabbalah Convention in the Arava Desert] in order to unite. It isn’t easy; hence, I have respect for every attendee whom the Creator chose and endowed with the strength. Likewise, I respect him for his desire and willingness to come and contribute. Every person present here is great and unique. And this is the way we should view each other.

We must value this special opportunity to affect our own destiny and the fate of the world. And it doesn’t matter that we ourselves barely recognize the profound meaning of the moment. Even though our desire is simple and naïve, it still reforms the world.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that you use this time to the fullest so that everyone could open his heart and wish to bond with the others. After all, this meeting brought very special people together. Let’s give it our best.
[31349]
From Lesson 1, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/30/10

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We begin to work with each other, and everyone wants to feel the others close, connected. Start to examine and analyze: How long can we go on like this? Can you keep thinking of the others this way for a while? A minute? Two minutes? Or maybe even five or ten minutes? It is already quite long. Usually, it ends in a second.

And it’s good. It is called guarantee. Everyone almost instantly forgets that he must bond with the others and see them as great, and that’s an opportunity to immediately remember to do it again.

If, in our thought, we are concerned with everyone, wishing that nobody forgets it, we will remember indeed. A person will feel how the others pressure him with their thoughts. Desires in the hearts of the others will affect everyone.

Baal HaSulam wrote a very special, profound article about mutual guarantee. After all, it is the condition for receiving the Torah, the Light. We support everybody so that nobody forgets about unity, which isn’t dancing in embrace, but rather the inner unity of hearts. If we care about one another, we will definitely not forget about it, constantly returning to it in our thoughts. Thereby, we will accomplish great work.

Each second, everyone keeps forgetting and remembering over and over again. Together, we will complete many acts, by entering this connection and stepping out of it again, in order to return to it again. And every time, while doing so, we actualize the Reshimot (spiritual records) that remained in us after the breaking of the souls.

Finally, after a few such actions, we arrive to the Light. It is written: “The Torah will go forth from Zion.” In other words, we receive it thanks to these departures (Yetziot) from oneness, each time resisting them and rushing back in.

So, let us think about our unity, about nobody abandoning these thoughts, about everyone here being a magnificent and unique individual. He was chosen by the Creator; hence, I honor this upper part, the Creator’s part, in him. Thereby, while assisting each other from within, we gradually arrange ourselves into one common Kli (vessel), a single soul.

When this Kli comprised from multiple parts bonds in the minimal required degree, we will immediately feel the Creator’s, the Upper Light’s, presence in it. Let’s hope that we will reach this state today or tomorrow, or, at the latest, the day after tomorrow.

In fact, it happens when you least expect it, and even the instant before a person doesn’t see it coming. It can, indeed, occur after the efforts we have just described.
[31344]
From Lesson 1, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/30/10

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Question: How do we unify with each other?

Answer: I have a desire to reach some exalted purpose, to ascend to the upper world toward the Creator, the root of my soul, to something unknown. Every person has this longing for attaining the root, the purpose of his or her life. It has been planted in everyone, but in one person it emerges in the present incarnation (Gilgul), in another it manifested in the previous one, and in the third it will awaken in a future lifetime.

My root resides in the Creator from where I descended down to this world. And now, finally, you and I have started to aspire upward. The root of the soul, the point in the heart, awakened in both of us.

Neither you nor I can achieve anything with our points in the heart. But we will if we unify them, if you attach my point in the heart to yours and I do the same with mine. How do we do that? We have to strive to connect in our hearts. Unity per se will come from Above, by way of the Light that Reforms; but in order for that to occur, you have to collect the spiritual desires of all the people sitting here.

You acquire them by asking for it. Everything is driven by desire since it is the matter of creation. I wish and long for their desires aimed to the Creator to be mine. I want one great desire comprised of all individual desires to appear within me.

Start thinking about it and you will see how much closer you feel to people, not physically, but internally. You will start feeling what their hearts desire, and your own spiritual desire from a point will grow to a sphere, a “globe,” a “vessel.”

Finally, in this pieced together desire, you will feel a spiritual current, spiritual life. Hence, demand: “I want your desires! Do you need mine? I am willing, take it. But first let’s make a group where everyone wants to connect his heart with the hearts of the friends.”
[31341]
From Lesson 1, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/30/10

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Question: How can we increase our enthusiasm so that it doesn’t end, so that the Light doesn’t depart?

Answer: Experience is the mother of wisdom. Let me tell you based on my own experience: You will undergo various states, wishing to keep the Light at all costs.

And then you will start pondering: “What is the Light? Is it when I feel good or when I think about others? After all, these states can differ, can’t they? Is there Light when I understand everything or when I feel in the dark? In fact, darkness is relative to the Light from which I am so distant. I feel a big distance between us as darkness, but in truth, it is the Light that makes me feel that I am not Him.”

Many impressions will wash over you to bring you to a new stage in the end. You will feel that it doesn’t matter what states you are going through: the Light and the darkness, ecstasy and dread, when you are frozen, torn out of life, and then suddenly feel an abrupt ascent, when you are about to soar without wings, and there is a piercing clarity, when everything comes before your eyes as on an X-ray screen, only to be replaced with you suddenly falling prostrate and forgetting the names of your family.

This way, you gradually discover that you don’t care what states you experience. The only thing that matters is: “Can I use the current state to bestow, to align myself with the vector leading me outside of myself?”

This is the degree everything will change to. Let’s hope we are nearing that time.
[31335]
From Lesson 1, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/30/10

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