Question: Why does the Creator want to bring a person to an understanding and awareness that we are not able to reach the goal ourselves? If I knew this when I began to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, I would not continue!

Answer: You can attain the goal, but you need help! In regular life did you know how to get along without help when you were an infant, a little child, or when you arrived in a new place?

A person cannot do anything by himself: other people give birth to him, teach him, and bury him. A person is not able to help himself and, even more so, to change his inner nature.

Question: So why does the Creator abuse me so much by sending me troubles?

Answer: The Creator gives you these exercises so that ultimately you will turn to Him and so that this turning will be for equivalence of form, for adherence, equivalence with Him. And instead, you are turning to the Creator and asking Him to give you success in this world: health, money, respect, and as much as possible, and, in addition, for the next world. And you complain that you don’t get all of this. This is to teach you not to be so materially egoistic but to be a man, Adam, resembling the Creator. You need to be scrubbed and polished many times until you understand what you must ask for. The main thing is that you must ask with the understanding and awareness that you don’t need anything more than to be like the Creator and separated from yourself.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is the “summation of all the parts” that makes it possible to reach spirituality?

Answer: The summation of all the parts indicates that you love everything: the still, vegetative, animate, and human as a single whole in which there is no difference. You love them as the Creator relates to them, as the good and benevolent.

The Creator says: “It is difficult for us to get along with each other because you are the opposite of Me. Come let’s learn how to love each other through a third someone.” And so now you have this whole world.

Initially you hate this world and reject it. You have no need for it and you are ready to give it up. Nothing matters to you, including people near and far. But to the degree that your attitude towards everyone changes and you begin to approach them and love them, you will be able to measure your attitude towards the Creator.

And then in order to reach love of the people, you need the Creator. This is because you have no love for them, but only hatred! It is good that the friends don’t know how you truly relate to them. So you begin to turn to the Creator and ask for help because you cannot tolerate such an attitude.

And so you need more and more from the Creator for the sake of the friends. And then you also begin to gradually pay attention to the Creator: how to turn to Him, how much I need Him, how He can help, how merciful and understanding He is. You already begin to connect with Him; you become partners.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How is love for our neighbor realized? If a person needs money, how can I help him?

Answer: The world is full of needy people who are dying of starvation. However, I am incapable of correcting the world directly. My task is to bring it closer to the Creator. This is precisely the general approach we should have with regard to the problems of humanity.

In fact, the world does not need money or bread; it needs the Upper Light, which will fill and organize everything. It will treat all ills. I can only, through my inclusion in the group, bring the Light closer to the world. Together with the group, I can aspire to the Light, reveal the need for it to be corrected, and the correction will flow through us to everyone. This is what I am working on.

On the other hand, if I try to help Africa or another region in need, this will not do anything. Today, we see this after all the efforts of philanthropists or other “benefactors.” Only the Light will help the world.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How is a person’s work, which attributes everything to the principle, there is none else beside Him, linked to a group?

Answer: All of the work is with intention. It is not important what I do: sell watermelons or give a class somewhere. At that moment I have some kind of intention of what I want to accomplish with this activity. For the Shevirah (breaking of the vessel) was intentional and the destruction was intentionally concealed.

The desires, activities, events, and circumstances are not important in and of themselves. Rather, what is important is with what intention I am including in that circumstance, in that picture from the film. What do I want from the picture of the world that is now revealed in me and what do I do with my attitude towards the present state?

The states arrive by themselves; I don’t determine nor choose them. It is as if I pass from one picture to another in a film, one after another, and the question is only what I want from all of this. Here is all of my work. I cannot change these pictures, but my intention determines what I will see in those pictures through which I must pass;  peace or war, jealousy or hatred, or everything good and pleasurable.

All of this depends only on my intention, since  through that I change each picture in the film, the entire film and the entire picture of reality from end to end. I must return this picture to the Creator at all times, since all that comes to me in the form of the world, through adhering to Him.

To support this I have a group that is operating worldwide. I want the whole world to connect to the same idea and everyone to adhere to the Creator. This is what I am trying to attain at each and every moment.

And it makes no difference what actions are required for this. It could be that I am working as a mechanic in a garage, but this is not important. What is important is my intention through which I gather and connect all moments for correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, Thou Hast Hemmed Me in Behind and Before: Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before, meaning the revelation and concealment of the face of the Creator. This is because indeed, “His kingdom ruleth over all,” and everything will return to its root because there is no place vacant of Him. But the difference is in present tense or future tense.

Because who connects the two worlds, discovers His clothing in the present: everything that is done is a clothing for the revelation of divinity. And this is deemed the present tense, meaning that now, too, he comes out in royal clothes and evidently shows that the rider is not subordinate to the horse.

The Creator doesn’t disappear in His clothing, which is all of reality, the whole world.

But although it seemingly appears (to a person) that the horse leads the rider.

We are confused with regard to the Creator’s clothing to such an extent that we are distracted by everything that happens, which conceals the upper force from us and confuses us so much that it seems that the rider is subordinate to the horse.

The truth is that the horse is provoked to any movement only by the sensation of the rider’s bridle and headstall. And this is called “the construction of the stature of divinity,” and it is also called “face-to-face.”

If we discover the reason, the active force, the thought of creation, and how it directs each of us and all of us together, we can thus clarify and discover the rider, that there is none else besides Him, the first cause and the first source.

We then realize that the clothing by which the Creator conceals Himself, is actually so that we will discover Him behind them, learn to understand His language, and realize why He is concealed behind everything that happens.

It is actually by such concealment     that we reach His revelation. Otherwise we would not feel anything in the simple white Light, even if we perceived its white shade. It is actually by these concealments, by such games where the Creator is concealed, that we begin to learn His nature, His character, by comparing Him to ourselves, which means to the opposite form. The opposite form is revealed as clothing, as the concealment that separates us, but if we try to reveal the Creator and ask Him to help us reveal Him correctly and adhere to Him, if we are ready to change, the concealment will turn into a revelation.

The same forms of concealment will turn into opposite forms and will help us in the revelation. Without them, we could not taste, distinguish, see, or feel the Creator, because our nature is opposite from Him. Therefore, there is the need for an adaptor between the Creator and the egoistic force or shell, which is us and which later turns to Holiness.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Bible, “Psalms” 139: “For the conductor. Of David, a song.” O Lord, You have searched me out, and You know. You know my sitting and my rising; You understand how to attach me from afar. My going about and my lying down You encompassed, and You are accustomed to all my ways. For there is no word on my tongue; behold, O Lord, You know it all. From the rear and front You encompassed me, and You placed Your pressure upon me.

A psalm is an expression of a person’s constant agreement at any moment, at any state, to follow the principle of There is none else besides Him. This means acknowledging the fact that He is the only one who manages everything and there is nothing in a person except for one point of disconnection from the Creator. Everything else comes from the upper force, from the Creator.

However, a person sees reality through this disconnection, through this breaking point. All of a person’s work is to try as hard as he can to constantly identify that There is none else besides Him every time he sees the world through this breaking point. Although it doesn’t seem that way, he constantly tries to reconnect Malchut and Zeir Anpin, which means to discover that the Creator is the one who manages everything.

Thus the breaking point is gradually corrected time after time, until it reaches a point that it is totally healed, which means that it ceases to exist, and a person reaches complete adhesion with the Creator.

This psalm tells us about our work, which is constantly trying to reach the real causes through the concealments. This means to discover what happens to us, in us, and around us, and that it all comes from the Creator who constantly stabilizes the state in us called our world, our life.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14

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In our world, there is a very strange phenomenon: man, who develops from generation to generation. He develops his mind, and thus changes his environment.

But the mind itself develops due to the environment and so it cannot ascend higher than the attainment of the environment and how to make better use of it. This is what makes man so different from other animals. He uses nature and the environment a bit more than other animals, and that’s all. The animals’ desire is limited and definite, and it doesn’t grow from one generation to the next but is only filled by simple things: food, sex, family. That’s all an animal has.

People also enjoy the same pleasures, but they also enjoy wealth, domination, and knowledge. This makes human beings much more active but also worse and more egoistic than animals. It is because the power of the ego is unlimited when it comes to these human pleasures; a person wants to swallow the whole world, and thus ruins it. He ruins his environment to such an extent that it becomes more and more difficult to survive in this world ,which is supposed to be for the benefit of man.

After all, man has intellect so that he can arrange a better and more comfortable environment. But there is something here that ruins all this: our egoistic desire.

If we look and assess our life from this perspective, it is better not to be born at all and not to be doomed to such afflictions. Baal HaSulam says in the article “Peace in the World” that if a person calculated and weighed all the pleasures in life and all the sufferings, he would prefer not to be born at all.

But there is a purpose for being in this world. It is only for this purpose that all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and especially man exist. It determines our character and all the inner and environmental conditions. All this is meant for our spiritual development.

Our spiritual development is the ascent from our current state to the spiritual world, which means unity, bestowal, and the love of others. But it is defined with respect to us, and in fact, spirituality is called the Creator, the Light, the One who bestows and loves.

We discover all that as the Creator’s nature and we call it spirituality. Our nature, on the other hand, is called corporeality since it stems from the matter of the desire to receive; whereas the Creator’s nature stems from the Light, from the force of bestowal and love and so it is called spirituality. It is based on the wind in contrast to the rain.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 46

Workshop

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

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 9

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The whole world is arranged so as to help us to reach spirituality. We pass through incarnations from generation to generation in order to reach the time of realization and spirituality.

The entire purpose of our world, everything that happens in it, the nature we receive and develop through time,  is also directed only towards this. All the personal and collective troubles and problems that appear at every moment are designed to push us towards spirituality.

But how do we reach this? It is impossible to reach this through troubles only. First of all, it is necessary to define precisely what corporeality is and what spirituality is, because people are mistaken about this. Corporeality is called yearning for personal benefit, and spirituality is called yearning for the benefit of others, including the Creator. This definition must always be in front of me in a simple, clear and concrete form.

We are not ready to act for the good of others, and this is done intentionally so that we will yearn for help. This means that we want to go out of our desire  of in order to receive, and we want to reach in order to bestow. This is not because in order to receive is bad and in order to bestow is good. Otherwise we would simply be exchanging one egoistic goal for another, and both would be corporeal.

We need to want spirituality because it is a great, unique, and higher characteristic with which we feel a special reverent attitude. We want spirituality because in and of itself it suddenly became important to us. There is some kind of grace in this called the “grace of the sacred.”

We don’t look for spirituality for benefit and profit, since this profit gradually disappears. Through some kind of action from Above we begin to be changed and to feel that spirituality is important to us and that there is some kind of attractive force within it. We want to be found in bestowal, not in order to be released from problems, but out of respect for this characteristic.

So why is this way so difficult? Why don’t we attain bestowal? Why isn’t this characteristic given immediately and completely, rather than it being necessary to go towards this for a long time and receiving only a little each time? Why do we get squeezed and scraped  so much? All this is so that at every stage of the way, we always require help and must turn to communicate with the Creator.

Just as in the beginning we exchange corporeality for spirituality, so afterward, we exchange spirituality for the Creator. This is because attaining spirituality is so important to me, but contact with the Creator is so important to us. And this is truly the reason for the long path and the reality in which we are found.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Every person must reach a life of bestowal. The force then enables us to do this is called the Torah or the Light. The Light operates on our desire, that doesn’t want to change, especially qualitatively, not quantitatively. After all, the most important thing is to constantly improve the quality, penetrating more and more deeply, focusing ourselves more and more on the benefit of others, and then instead of others, on the benefit of the Creator.

The changes have to be qualitative, and they take place by the Light that Reforms, which is called the Torah. The Light operates on the desire that realizes it doesn’t want bestowal. But I take a special position by ascending above the desire, and I see that it constantly pulls me downward.

I, on the other hand, ask the Upper Light, the Torah, the Light that Reforms, the upper force, to help me not drown in my own ego, which constantly tries to get a hold of me and pull me in different directions. One time it pulls me towards one external engagement and another time towards another, constantly distracting me so that I forget about the Creator.

I have to find out who is sending me these impediments, who is the enemy that constantly confuses me, the pest, the adversary that hides in the flood water and tries to drown me. But suddenly I discover that this adversary is the Creator. He is the one hiding under this mask playing with me so that I will ask and demand His help. He causes me harm by His posterior so that I will want to see His face.

This is the only way I work, and then I begin to realize that there is only one force, the Creator, who turns either with His face or His posterior to me, and it is with Him that I actually communicate. If I detach myself from the Creator, I engage with His posterior, and if I connect to Him, I am in contact with His face.

There is nothing other than that. The group, humanity, everything that happens, is the mechanism of my connection with the Creator.

The main thing is to feel our connection with the Creator and the way His presence, the Light of His face, helps us reconnect to Him. After all, this is the only thing we should work on. The next moment, He will harden our heart some more with His posterior and we will have to clarify this state again. Ultimately, thanks to our mutual guarantee and these reminders, we will remember that we have to turn to the Creator and to hold on to Him since only in Him will our hearts rejoice.

This is how we advance and this path is called the path of the Light, the path of the Torah. Learning from our experience as we advance along this path is called studying the Torah. We learn how the Light, called the Torah, comes to us and how, according to our request, it pulls us out of our state time after time.

Thus we learn by our ascents and descents, like it says: “The Torah will come from Zion (stemming from the root word ‘Yetsi’ah’ –  ‘exit’ in Hebrew).” It is actually from the exits, from the descents, that the Torah comes, since thanks to them we can rediscover the strongest Light and go through all the books of the Torah.

The method of attaining bestowal, the attribute of the Creator, and merging with Him is the fulfillment of loving others like yourself. It is enough to keep away all the problems in the connection with the Creator. After all, initially there was one vessel that was filled with one Light.

The Light and the vessel were united, but this state was shattered. If we put all the parts of the shattered vessel together again with the help of the Light, we will attain the Light that filled us and which kept us together once again. Then we will become one vessel again in which the one Light, the one Creator, will reside. So our correction is about loving others like ourselves, and thanks to this, we reach the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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