Question: If a person loses his wallet with all his money and documents in it, it is only a corporeal problem and he has to order another ID according to this world’s laws. Internally I try to remember that there is none else besides Him and that it comes from the same force, but how is that related to the work with the group, so everything will go through it? How does my lost wallet relate to the center of the group and my connection with the friends?

Answer: I try to constantly be in the center of the group, with the environment and with the whole world, and I try to bring everything that happens to me in my corporeal life through the center of the group where I am internally together with the Creator. Eventually, I also begin to see spirituality in all these corporeal actions.

I see that in all the corporeal actions I actually encounter angels, which means forces, that help me in different ways: they oblige me to lose a wallet or to find it, etc. I see and understand that all these actions direct me to something else, to something new. Thanks to the lost wallet I reach certain people, talk to them, and perform different actions with them, and perhaps establish connections with them that are actually a great correction that I had to make.

If I constantly adhere to the right intention doing whatever is necessary in this case, which is “not to be condemned and not to be praised,” it is a necessity and I am obliged to fulfill it in every corporeal action, and by that I raise all my corporeal actions to holiness. Then I see that these aren’t corporeal actions at all. I perform them with my hands and my feet, but who has managed my hands and my feet? The spiritual force!

Did I do it by myself? No. First I thought that I performed the actions, but it turns out that the Creator performed them. In such an adhesion, I disappear on the one hand, but on the other hand, it is the outcome of all my efforts.
[135149]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
What Is Seen In The Next Photograph?
The Center Of The Group Is A Place For Solving All Problems
Two States

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

Preparation for the Lesson

Workshop

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “On the Night of the Bride,” Item 127

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 49

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 14

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

Question: When does a person attain faith in the Creator, which is evidence that he is on the true path?

Answer: Faith must always be renewed on every new level. Faith is bestowal, the level of Bina, Hafetz Hesed, bestowal for the sake of bestowal, making it possible to rise above our desire to receive. This is what is called faith in the Creator.

I raise myself above my desire to receive, above the Tzimtzum, to the level of Bina, to bestowing in order to bestow. That is how I direct myself completely towards the Creator.

In the meantime, I cannot use a desire to bestow; I cannot sit at the table of the host and enjoy all the tastes, feeling that I enjoy him. I carry out my preliminary corrections, rise above the Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet phases of Aviut by wanting to be above my desire, and direct myself only towards the Creator.

I look only at Him. Seductive smells rise from the table, but I look at the Creator. Even though I feel how tasty the tastes are, the Creator is more important to me.

I don’t forcefully stop myself because I am ashamed to take from the table. The Creator simply becomes so important to me that I need to choose between Him and the dish. This is called levels of faith.

I prefer to aim towards the Creator instead of aiming towards the dish. This decision is made in the 4 phases of Ohr Yashar (Direct Light), Bina.
[135499]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/14, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
What Do You Prefer?
If There Is No Joy It Means There Is No Faith
When The Creator Testifies

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

Psalm 95:1-2: “O come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout for joy unto Him with psalms.”

In each and every generation, meaning in each and every state, it is necessary to get up again, to take heart and to continue advancing towards the higher power. Despite the despair that is felt in the receiving Kelim, we must discover in our correction, in the power of bestowal, that the Creator is good and benevolent.

And the moment we advance on the left, which in the meantime is called heaviness of heart by us, we feel bad and immediately sink into this feeling. Instead we must rise above it specifically thanks to this unpleasant emotion in the desire to receive, the lack of elevation, the lack of spirit, the lack of energy and importance of the goal.

But instead, we fall under the control of despair, fatigue, and concealment, and we submit to this enemy, our desire to receive. It weakens, subdues, and topples us so that we are not ready to move out from this place and are humiliated. Here we must get up, as King David says in this Psalm. King David is Malchut that rises up solely and only because it gathers all of its parts.

So we must organize an environment for ourselves that will support us during a time of weakness, just as we buy an insurance plan in case of some damage that we cannot cover by ourselves.

There could suddenly be an auto accident and I would need to pay $10,000 for auto repairs. Where will I get this sum? But if all of us together gather $30 a month, because an accident like this doesn’t happen to everyone, then we would have money to pay for the repair if something like this happens to one of us.

The same thing is also relevant to spiritual advancement. And we have not just the fact that we collected from all the friends in the group. Everyone falls during his particular time, so it is not merely the total accumulated by the friends, but much more. For at that moment, this is gathered and strengthened.

But we don’t use this; on the contrary, we bring each other down. When we see that a friend is weakened, we must elevate him, as King David writes: “O come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation”. The ascent begins from this.

But if a reservoir of forces is not prepared in a group, it has no chance of advancing by the way of “I will hasten it” (Achishena).
[135512]
From the preparation for Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/14

Related Material:
Under The Protection Of Wings
From Where Will My Help Come?
First Steps

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

Question: What can be done if after we have checked the needs and the deficiencies of the friends, we see that we cannot help them, we don’t know how to fulfill their needs?

Answer: So we pray, we ask for help.

Question: How does one turn in the right way with a request, with a prayer, so that it will bring the Light that Reforms?

Answer: For that you must enter into the friend’s problem as if it were your problem.

Question: But I cannot change myself.

Answer: Right, only the friends can change you. In the spiritual path, a person sees how weak he is. In the spiritual path I discover that I have “no hands.” I have no way of helping myself and I am completely at the mercy of my environment. If the friends want it, I will advance; if they don’t want it, I will not advance.

So we reach true Arvut. To advance, I require a connection with friends. So I am ready to give them everything.

And then vice versa: I no longer want anything for myself and don’t think about my advancement. Instead, I think about having the opportunity to support them, to help them. This is true Arvut.
[135167]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Guaranteeing The Welfare Of The Friend
To Guarantee The Friend’s Life
What’s Important Is You Are Alive And Well

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spirituality - No Comments →

Traditionally, people sang melodies written by Kabbalists, in sad minor keys. But we must understand that every Kabbalistic melody is above the Tzimtzum, meaning above concern for oneself.

All the melodies are directed towards the Creator with a yearning to adhere to Him with bestowal and love, to give Him contentment, and to resemble Him in one’s relationships to other people. They don’t express regret about the hardships and suffering, or complaints about the difficulty of life, as is commonly understood in religions.

Concerns like these and the general sorrow of a person are not mentioned in the wisdom of Kabbalah and in the books of Kabbalah. This is because the Kabbalists are in a state that is beyond the Machsom, in the borders of the spiritual world; therefore, they take no account of themselves but only the Creator.

And if they are sorry, then it is only because they cannot achieve more devotion and self-sacrifice for the Creator. All thoughts, desires, and expectations are directed outside of a person, and this should be felt in the melody. This song is an outburst and enthusiastic outpouring of the soul.

If we sing a melody by Baal HaSulam, we must imagine his state and try to be as close to it as possible. Otherwise, we associate this melody with our physical state, to our crying and requests: “Give, give, give!” We transform the sacred into the profane.
[135435]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/14

Related Material:
Melodies Of Love
Changing a Kabbalistic Melody
About The Music Of Nature

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

Preparation for the Lesson

Workshop

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 14

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Question: I have to ask for equivalence of form with the Creator, but how can I imagine this?

Answer: Equivalence of form means equal. This means that internally you are totally different from someone else, but to a third party it seems that you behave in exactly the same manner; there is equivalence of form in the relationship between you according to someone on the outside.

This is only in form. You have different desires, different thoughts; everything is different, but you stabilize yourselves in an equivalent form.

If I just resemble someone, it isn’t considered being equivalent to him. If I am exactly like him, then we cannot communicate with one another: We both like meat and hate fish, so there is nothing we can give one another.

I have to give him what I have and he has to give me what he has. There has to be some correspondence here, like between a male and a female who are included in each other. Then there is compatibility according to the one who bestows and the one who receives.

I reach equivalence of form with the Creator by wanting to receive whatever He wants to give me. Since I bestow unto Him, we both bestow unto one another, but I am in contact with Him by receiving from Him. I am like a female with regard to Him and He is Zeir Anpin.

If my receiving is only for Him, it is like bestowal. As it says, if the bride gives a present to the groom, it’s important, it is as if she receives from him.

It turns out that equivalence of form is a very complicated concept. I have to want to receive from the Creator everything that He wants to give me in my desire, and He wants to give me the world of Infinity, the Infinite Light. But according to my intention, it should be the opposite, I have to want to give just as much as He does.

Our actions are different: I receive and He gives, but according to our intention, it is the opposite, I am actually the one who gives and He enjoys. Thus I save the situation since otherwise I cannot delight Him. There is no chance of delighting Him, only this way.

Only under the condition that I accept all that He has, like a cow bursting with milk wanting to please Him, can He enjoy.
[135289]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Not To Be Nameless, But To Be Called After The Creator
Personal Participation Required
I Give By Receiving Everything

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: How does the Creator help me on the way? If He leaves me hanging in the air all the time, how can I advance?

Answer: The Creator doesn’t leave you suspended in the air. He arranges all of your existence, all of your life. The Light stands before the vessel, and the gap between them, which confuses you, is gradually revealed. And if at the same time, you try to say that there is none else beside Him, then it connects the Light with the vessel.

It’s only that this connection is not yet felt in you as success, as attainment. You still have not brought the Light and the vessel to such a state where this will be revealed, as if a lamp that should turn on when the voltage reaches 220 volts. However, in the meantime, you provide only 50 volts, so it doesn’t turn on. Apparently the voltage is not strong enough.
[135328]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
A Vessel For The Light Of Life
The Return To The Source
Asking For Correction Of Our Own Freewill

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

Question: If I haven’t found a dissemination task that is suitable for me, is it possible to be busy with “internal dissemination” instead of that in the meantime, which means holding intention?

Answer: No, that is not a substitute. We do not know what our intention is. The intentions are built in us by the Light that bestows. A person has no connection or control of his intention.

My intentions are determined by my present situation. I am not able to create an intention within me according to my desire. I cannot sit and attempt not to think of a white elephant, and then force myself to think about a green alligator without being distracted.

All of my intentions are a result of the state that I am in. I can’t turn a knob to turn an intention on or off, to change an intention from one to another. That is impossible.

I must work with the environment, disseminate, study, and because of my energy, efforts, and investment, the Light that Reforms will come and change my intention. I am not in control of my intention, I can only, through my efforts and prayers, invite a response for my desire to change, which will come back to me like a boomerang, and the upper Light will change me.

I am not able to build it myself; it’s like giving birth to myself. It is only possible to influence it so that it will happen. But that influence is my entire work. How am I able to awaken the Light so that it will produce the correct intention within me?

My prayer, my MAN (Mayin Nukvin– female waters) is up to my expectations. So I need to have contact with the group, mutual work, envy, lust, and honor in relation to the friends, and admiration for what they value and what they do not. In this way I acquire at least some kind of deficiency for bestowal, even though they are egoistic in the meantime, Lo Lishma (not for Her Name).

But I cannot change my inner self by myself, to direct myself to certain thoughts and intentions. I have no such control panel with which I could calibrate myself correctly.
[132092]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/14, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

Related Material:
The Purity Of Intention
Intention Is The Complete Action Plan
Living In Intention Instead Of Desire

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