Question: On one hand, we should be committed to mutual guarantee, and on the other hand, a person’s heart is evil from his youth and the evil inclination grows every year.

Answer: There should be a system that corrects the evil inclination and turns it into a good inclination. But instead, there is another system that increases and enlarges the evil inclination even more and gives it different forms. It appreciates people who know how to steal and how to take advantage of others in an even more sophisticated manner.

In addition to the evil inclination that pushes me from behind, there is another system of advertising that pulls me ahead by different evil pleasures.

Question: I have no doubt that the idea of mutual guarantee is right and I would really want it to be fulfilled in the society I live and raise my children in. The only doubt is whether there is a chance that it will work out since it is completely opposite from the way our evolution is directed.

Answer: The idea of mutual guarantee can succeed either by great afflictions and problems in the world that will leave a person no choice (and we see that this can happen if the world follows the path of natural evolution, the path of in its time). Or we can still manage to put the world on the right path, to the path of the Light.

There is no doubt, however, that our state has to end in some final way. Everyone understands that the finish line is near and that the world is about to explode. We see that daily events throughout the world are leading towards a bad direction. No one even waits for anything good anymore. When we turn on the radio or the TV we don’t expect any good news.

There are only two options: the path of the Light or the path of suffering. We can sit idly by like a fool who sits with his arms crossed eating his own flesh. But people who have received the urge towards the goal are called Israel, Yashar El (straight to the Creator), and want to discover the Upper Light.  This obliges them to reveal this Light to others (this is important).

Therefore, the method of the correction of human society by connection is revealed to people because connection includes the upper force or the Light that Reforms. People will receive an explanation about the Light that Reforms and they won’t mind as long as you make them feel that it is possible and worthwhile.

There is no other choice because this is already a social trend, the world already understands this subconsciously and is ready to accept it. This is because people see that otherwise we simply destroy one another. It is enough to see what is happening in the Ukraine or in Syria.

Question: Will we be able to tell them about games and about the wisdom of Kabbalah in such a disastrous situation?

Answer: Of course, it is done precisely in this reality. If they don’t use this method today, they will be killed tomorrow. The disasters are already lining up ready to operate on us from Above, like parachutists who jump off a plane one by one.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When a person begins to study, he needs to go through all of the stages and to rise and fall so that he will feel how they influence him. One must begin to work and to deal with it. It is not possible to shout out all the time: “Why have you forsaken me, why am I helpless again, in despair and in darkness?”

These states come from Above, and it is specifically with them, that I progress, provided I go through them correctly. I must receive a feeling of rising, awakening, strength, and support from the group and must work correctly against the darkness, i.e., to transform the darkness into light.

This darkness is good, since to the extent that there is darkness, I receive freewill. I can be free! And if the Light illuminates me, then I surely am within His bestowal. The Light is higher than me. It comes, influences me, disables me, and I become anything that He wishes.

I am like a puppet on a string that plays and jumps as long as my strings are pulled, which is by the Light. The darkness symbolizes that the master has let go of my strings and I fall without any motion. I can receive awakening from the surroundings and play like that, as if I am being operated by the master.

But I will play that on my own. And of course I will receive strength from the group, but only to the extent that I invest my strength, and then I will begin to live. That is already me who is operating myself, similar to the way the Creator operates me.

One time He is operating me and one time it is me on my own. In the darkness, it is specifically me, and in the Light, it is not me but Him. This is the way I work, until the night becomes day and so that it will be me and not the Creator. I rise only to bestowal and it isn’t important what influences me, the light or the darkness.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/14, The Book of Zohar

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The word “Klal” (collective/rule) indicates a sum of details that, when put together, form the above collective. Thus, when he says about the Mitzva, “love thy friend as thyself,” that it is a great Klal in the Torah, we must understand that the rest of the 612 Mitzvot (precepts) in the Torah, with all their interpretations, are no more and no less than the sum of the details inserted and contained in that single Mitzva (singular for Mitzvot), “love thy friend as thyself. (Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah” –  “The Giving of the Torah”).

This means that the entire Torah is given in order to attain the general rule of loving our neighbors as ourselves. The rest that is written in the Torah except this one concept “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is just a clarification of this rule.

Everything is included in this one rule. That’s why when we forget this rule, no spiritual path is possible for us, nor are we connected with the spiritual process or continue pursuing the spiritual goals any longer. If we attempt encompassing this principle, we can even stop checking the level we are at or trying to find out where we actually are.

The whole Torah was given to us and is meant to help us to attain connection that is called love in our lives. There are two ways of doing it: One is by following a long road full of affliction that represents the natural developmental way, and the other is a pleasant shortcut that is ensured by the Torah. One way or the other,  the entire humanity, from the very beginning to the very end, is engaged in advancement that leads us to loving our neighbors.

If we understand and acknowledge that we are now just practicing and playing games, we follow a relatively easy and comfortable way of reaching the goal. Still, we’ll have to go through some troubles and problems, resolve and explore them so that we get a better feeling of their essence and origin. We will have to resolve various situations in our minds and sensations because this process lets us to better understand and feel things.

In order to make this path easier and more pleasant for us, there is the Torah with the help of which we reach the state of loving our neighbors. From this phase on, we eventually will come to loving the Creator. However, there is nothing we can achieve by just following the path of suffering. Everything depends on the awakening on our side.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why do I have to be beaten and shattered so that I will reach connection if the shattering already happened once?

Answer: When a person is not satisfied and falls, these are small inner shatterings. Every day he feels disappointed and then rises again. It is written: “A righteous will fall and rise a thousand times.” These are inner clarifications that are absolutely necessary.

So this work is not suitable for the public because it is impossible to tell just anyone about it and to offer it to those who don’t have the spiritual goal illuminating before them. It also stops illuminating for us sometimes. Today people look a bit tired and foggy, not burning like they were yesterday. Tomorrow they will feel the inspiration again. This is how we advance.

Your current problems are not called shattering. The shattering of the vessels already happened in the past and its shards fell downward. Above, they were totally connected, but then they fell further down and were shattered more and more until finally they were completely shattered and mixed.

When we ascend from the bottom up, we have to go through all the states in the opposite direction, 5-4-3-2-1-0, and each time leap from one level to the next, from one energetic level to another just like electrons inside an atom. It’s like a pendulum in a clock that constantly moves from side to side, tick-tock, tick-tock, forward and backward, right and left, day and night. We have to go through these cycles when we cut the action that we performed and start a new action as if from the start but on a higher level.

We don’t know these upper levels since we are in exile. This is what Pharaoh swallows, as it is written: “He swallowed an army and vomited it,” which means that he doesn’t show us that we advance. We acquire more sensitive feelings and reason, more opportunities, and advance in Lo Lishma (not for her sake), but we are not shown our ascent from one level to another.

Many times we have to leap from one level to the next as we climb this ladder, and each time to shatter our yesterday and start the day anew when we cross the Machsom (barrier) and begin to ascend the real spiritual levels. In the upper worlds it will be the same and even worse.

Question: So why do we dream so much about crossing the Machsom if there are the same levels there until the end of correction?

Answer: We dream about ascending to the upper world because there we can be in vessels of bestowal and actually bestow upon one another and by that unto the Creator. By our bestowal upon one another, we establish the basis for the revelations of the Creator. We don’t bestow directly unto the Creator, but we reach the love of the Creator from the love of the created beings.

We create a platform between us, a place where the Creator will be revealed according to our equivalence of form. The Upper Light will reside in the desire that is full of mutual cooperation and the concern of all its parts for one another.

Question: Will it be easier for me to overcome all the crises beyond the Machsom?

Answer: Beyond the Machsom I will really be able to bestow unto the Creator. I don’t even calculate what is easier and what is more difficult, I only calculate whether I can bestow unto the Creator. To cross the Machsom means to attain the attribute of bestowal and to actually delight the Creator. I don’t need anything more than that! I don’t take my hardships into account, but only the opportunity to bestow unto Him. Our goal is to delight the Creator, if I have such an opportunity, it means beyond the Machsom, and so I want to be there.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1]

[media 2]

Workshop

[media 3]

[media 4]

Shamati #53 “The Matter Of Limitation”

[media 5]

[media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “On the Night of the Bride,” Item 138

[media 7]

[media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 58

[media 9]

[media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee” 

[media 11]

[media 12]

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Question: What do the four properties of mercy, charity, truth and peace mean in terms of our attitude to the group and to the world in general?

Answer: The Inner Light in the first nine Sefirot is called mercy. How can we visualize it? Our intentions to treat our neighbors humanely represent the first nine Sefirot.

When acting inside these properties, we become similar to the Creator in a certain way. Mercy is similar to bestowal, the quality of Bina. Hessed (the property of Abraham) is the first prerequisite to it.

Charity (alms) is Malchut. Let’s say, our will to receive is more or less ready to adhere to bestowal. To the degree our will to receive (Malchut) supports the first nine Sefirot and is ready to accept their illumination, it obtains the alms.

Our will to receive just cannot achieve anything on its own. As a result of buying the first nine Sefirot and influencing them, it receives the “backlight.” Malchut obtains the first nine Sefirot from her neighbors. Each one of us has egoism of his or her own; we understand what others want and we use their desires. We fill their desires with the help of our own egoism.

Let’s say, I am Malchut; your desires are my first nine Sefirot. I work with them and fulfill them. What I fill them with is called mercy.  By allowing me to act in this way, my Malchut receives illumination. This “backlight” is called charity.

Truth means that after completing any action, we clearly understand that our work is just a deception and that there is no truth in it whatsoever. We keep recognizing this fact over and over again. In other words, truth always unveils the general Light called the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) to the souls.

Eventually, the general light should become a part of the first nine Sefirot and Malchut. It shows the true state we are in and the extent to which we have to be corrected. When the truth illuminates, I feel very bad, even though it doesn’t shine in its final, eternal stage, but is only a bit higher than my current level as the Surrounding Light that I have to pull inside myself.

It illuminates the darkness of my corrupt desires. This explains why the truth is so tough for us in this material world. Nobody wants to admit or hear it.

Peace that shows us that we are not able of doing anything at all shows up last. We are trying to achieve completely unreal things! All our actions (charity and mercy that we exercise with others and ourselves) are nice and wonderful, but they do not allow us to merge with the Creator. They cause no peace! Only disagreements!

So, truth and peace bring us to an understanding that all we can do is shout. There is no alternative since we are asking for something that is beyond our nature. We don’t know what that is, but we have no other options except this plea. This is how we are correct ourselves.

It’s very important to keep in mind that all these things imply interactions between us and from these actions we reveal the spiritual vessel. the Higher world, a new reality. Now physicists acknowledge that other dimensions and cosmoses, “included and linked universes” in which we dwell in a different form exist and depend solely on the levels of the human cognition.

We explore cognitive modifications and strive to learn to reveal a new type of cognition. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is about. This process is not connected with our corporeal body whatsoever, nor is it linked to the inanimate, vegetative, or animate levels.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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From Rabash’s Article “The Duty to Convey the Story of Exodus from Egypt”: The Book of Zohar explains why one shouldn’t eat matzah during the year, but only during Pesach. It is similar to the king who appointed one of his subjects to be a minister and on the day of his appointment dressed him in luxurious clothes.

Later, the subject took off these beautiful clothes. He was wearing them only for one day when he took a position of a Minister to celebrate the event. Afterward, every year he commemorated his appointment and dressed in his festive, solemn clothes. This example explains why we eat matzah only during Pesach to honor the exodus from Egypt.”

Each spiritual root has a corporeal branch. The entire universe represents a single will to receive, “something out of nothing.” Besides it, nothing has ever been created. The Light impacts the matter and leaves its imprint on it.

Only because of its imprint and due to the four stages of HaVaYaH can we explore the Light. If we manage to change our desire, we will attain the Light that created the matter and left its imprint on it.

Exiting from the egoistic forces (Klipot) is just one of the stages that lead us to the attainment of the Light. If we manage to achieve this stage, we will detach from our nature that was made out of nothing and begin connecting with the imprint of the Light that is present inside the desire. We will learn what the Light is, what It does, how did It create everything, and what happened to all fragments of the Creation long before this world and man emerged.

In other words, we rise to our root and learn that there was a special point called the “exodus from Egypt” in the program of creation of the desire and in the Light’s impact on it. The desire stops sensing only itself and is no longer confined to its nature; it goes out and begins feeling the Light, its origin, the Root.

From this moment on, the desire has already established a mutual connection with the Light and they begin acting as partners. The upper root that allows us to approach it and work together with it is very important since it is the point where a Man (Adam)—(Domeh) the one who is similar to the Creator—appears. It’s like a birth! That’s why the exodus from Egypt is called a spiritual birth of every individual soul. This explains why we honor this state.

There is a correlation of the spiritual root of the material branch that is imprinted in the categories named world, year, and soul. This world was made as a projection of the spiritual world, that’s why for each spiritual action or event, there is a corresponding material branch in this world. This is why we celebrate the entire spiritual process that we go through in the branches; it is called a yearly cycle.

All our traditions are a material reflection of spiritual actions that we hope to attain and implement. Exiting from the will to receive and attaining the very first sign of the similarity with the Light, i.e., spiritual birth, is called the exodus from Egypt. It is the initial step for all of us. This month is called the first among all other months. It denotes the beginning of the spiritual growth of a human being.

By all means, we advance for many years before arriving to a sensation called Egypt and realizing that it’s impossible for us to stay at this level. Although this state is very hard to reach since for that we have to experience more pressure, undergo unpleasant sensations, acknowledge that we are unable to exercise self-control, and divulge our slavish dependence on our egoistic nature.

The fact that we live in this material world is of great help to us. It’s a spiritual state in which we completely depend on the will to receive, and thus have no connection with the Light. This step allows us to experience material sensations. It seems to us that we live in the materiality, at the last level of sensations that manifest inside the will to receive.

Due to materiality, we can organize our lives in a way that we get a chance to exit from it and begin sensing spirituality.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/14, Writings of Rabash

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From Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 15: Yet, we must thoroughly understand the sublimity of that man, made by the hands of the Creator. Also, his wife, to whom the Creator has administered greater intelligence than him, as they have written (Nidah 45) in the interpretation to the verse, “And the Lord made the rib. Thus, how did they fail and become as fools, not knowing to beware of the serpent’s slyness?”

A vessel that was split into the first nine Sefirot (Adam) and Malchut (Hava – Eve) brings up numerous questions. It’s not clear how this vessel intended to receive for the sake of bestowal if they lacked the will to receive. How could they possibly try the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge?

Before anything else, they were supposed to reveal their will to receive, investigate it, and only then start using it. How could this entire story happen? Their sin looks vague.

In this world, we go through reincarnations, generation after generation, for thousands of years to learn something, to acknowledge our insignificance, powerlessness, limitations, inability to see what’s ahead of us, and our incapability to correctly analyze the path behind us or understand the present. We are flawed in absolutely everything!

For how long should we study before we make correct decisions? We cannot reach this stage on our own; rather, we can achieve it solely due to the Kabbalists who structured our learning process and our desire to join them and learn from them.

These conditions derive from Adam and Eve’s approach to the sin (tasting the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.) At that moment in time, the sin was activated. For thousands of years, we ponder what happened. We do it until we get corrected. We should apply the damage that was once revealed in our roots to ourselves in order to clarify and mend it.

Our huge work throughout many thousands of years is a challenging process of realization of the truth that states that there is nothing we can do except plead for the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) to raise us above our nature. It’s a cumulative process that takes tremendous amounts of energy and affliction. The latter is meant to cover and compensate for the damage and make up for the lack that wasn’t sufficient at the time of the calculation.

They were sure that they were acting for the sake of bestowal, but in fact they were acting egoistically. One criterion was missing in their understanding, and so their actions went one hundred percent wrong. It’s an invisible difference that was hidden from them, the one that we gradually keep unveiling until we reach final correction (Gmar Tikkun).

In fact, the only thing that we have to clarify is the difference between what we understand in our current state compared to the way the Creator regards the same thing from His level. For that, we have to transition from “something out of nothing” (Yesh mi Ain) to “something out of something” (Yesh mi Yesh).

The element that was initially created, when “something out of something” created “something out of nothing,” is exactly what we actually learn during the entire developmental process. “Something out of nothing” has to step over the abyss between the creation and the Creator and merge with Him.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How do we reach a request that the Creator will control our desire for pleasure?

Answer: In fact, it is possible to reach this only through work with your environment. Before Abraham, the process of true correction had not yet begun, rather the shattering continued. The twenty generations from Adam until Noah and from Noah to Abraham were designed for revealing the evil. From the times of Abraham and on, the revelation of evil also continued, but this was evil in relation to connection.

There is no other method. The soul of Adam HaRishon was shattered into many parts that were scattered in thousands of directions, and their entire correction is in their connection. So only our inability to be connected in the face of all the attempts to do this is called evil. The power that opposes unity is called the evil inclination. If we feel that the correction of the world depends upon this, it follows that this is the only thing for which it is necessary to yearn.

We are already behind schedule by just about one century since the first Aliyah to the land of Israel; in that period this problem began to appear. All of the troubles of the first settlers and all of the wars were caused by the fact that the first pioneers of the Bilu movement who immigrated to the land of Israel called themselves by the first letters of the song of the prophet Isaiah: (Isaiah 2:5) “Beit Yaakov Lechu Venilcha” (“O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk”), but they cut off the end of the sentence, “in the Light of the Creator.”

That is, they intended to establish a common Kibbutz in the nation of Israel and this was the reason for all of their failures. It was necessary only to add the Light of the Creator to this, as the prophets wrote.

The essence of Passover is connection in the readiness to become a people. Beginning from Babylon, the desire for pleasure grew in one family. Ultimately its ego rose up so much that it separated between them and transformed them into strangers to each other; Pharaoh entered and lodged between them, as well as the Egyptians and the evil inclination.

Even though they discovered the evil inclination between them, nevertheless they wanted to connect; yet they were not ready. This means that the Pharaoh dominated them; the Egyptians subjugated them and didn’t allow them to unite. In spite of all this, they yearned for connection with all their strength and so they understood that they had to break away from this condition, to rise above the Egyptians that were among them, from the forces of separation.

The reception of the power to rise above their separation is called the Exodus from Egypt. If we in our world group accept the power of unity that will connect us, then this will be called the Exodus from Egypt. Everything is measured only according to the level of connection that the power of the Creator is said to give to us.

When the Light arrives, that is, its power is revealed in us, this means that the Creator is helping us and we are getting the possibility to connect. The right form of connection that we attain is comprehended by us as the revelation of the Creator to the creatures. According to this form, we feel the Light.

Indeed, the Light is something that we want very much and is now revealed in our desire for pleasure because according to our yearning for unity, we acquire its form. This means that the Creator is preparing His revelation that will bring us from exile to redemption.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Shamati 41

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Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1]

[media 2]

Workshop

[media 3]

[media 4]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “On the Night of the Bride,” Item 138

[media 5]

[media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 56

[media 7]

[media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee” 

[media 9]

[media 10]

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →