Degel Machane Efraim, “BeShalach” (written more than two centuries ago by Rabbi Moshe Haim Efraim from Sudilkov, by the student and grandson of Baal Shem Tov)

God’s servant should be incorporated in all the created beings, and so he has to connect to all the souls and to be incorporated in them and they should be incorporated in him. So you should leave yourself only what is needed for the connection of the Shechina (Divinity).

In order to do so, there should be a multitude of people who are connected, as it is written: “Connection of the righteous is good for them and good for the world.” Since the Light of the Shechina (Divinity) will be revealed more if there is a multitude of people who serve the Creator.

According to the sages, “the righteous are the same before the Shechina (Divinity), like a candle before a flame,” so according to the multitude of candles, the Light of the flame will grow since it is the Shechina (Divinity). Therefore one should be incorporated in all the people and in all the created beings, and they should all ascend to their root in order to correct the Shechina (Divinity).

The correction is actually in having more and more people who have learned just a little and who join the same great connection, called the Holy Divinity, in which the Creator can reveal Himself to the created beings. Therefore it is said: “The King’s glory is in the multitude,” and a force that is strong in quantity should appear, just like in previous generations a force that was strong in quality appeared and was operated by great Kabbalists.

They were on a very high spiritual level, but they were few as they had to draw and to convey the Light that reforms from Above down to our generation. We receive it through them, but the manner of correction in our times is totally different. If we want to reach at least the beginning of correction, we have to connect all the candles, and thus reach the Light that can illuminate in our vessels.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/14, Conversation about Importance of Dissemination

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Question: If each of us had a measuring tool, we could measure where we are. How can I know if I am doing everything the right way?

Answer: If you had such a measuring tool, you wouldn’t need to correct anything. I have to constantly think how to do the right thing every moment along the spiritual path, what the Reshimot (reminiscences) Yahsar El (straight to the Creator) that I have received demand from me. Then I have to refine myself and to sharpen my sensitivity, my accuracy, in order to find out what the Creator wants of me and how I can fulfill it in the group, in dissemination, with myself, in the study, in the connection with the friends, the teacher, etc.

I constantly clarify things. This is the work we have to do. If I received everything readymade I would be a total righteous, an angel. It is actually by the difficult clarification in which I have to ask for the Creator’s help every step of the way in order to correct myself, that I reach connection with Him. Otherwise I wouldn’t reach that. I have to exert myself to a certain degree since the exertion is my vessel. Only by the exertion do I begin to differentiate between things that are concealed from me now.

We are born into this world with an instinct and a desire to develop, and so little children run around all the time doing something and thus develop. If we behaved like children with regard to the spiritual goal we would advance very quickly.

All we have to do is to exert ourselves. This exertion has to be right and not where our ego is dragging us to. We need a group so that the pride in the goal, the pride in belonging to it, and the pride in the mission that I have received from Above has to be greater than my self-love. This is what a person should develop. This is the key formula that is fulfilled only in the group, it is like team spirit, pride in the unit.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/14

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Question: Why is it said: “Be honest with the Lord?”

Answer: Honesty is perceived as naivety in our world on a level that is not related to spirituality but is opposite from it. An honest person is a simple naïve person who isn’t very clever and who lives just as he has been taught.

But in spirituality “naive” means perfect since it stems from one’s attainment and clarification, from one contact with the upper force, from one’s revelation. Then he is in a state of wholeness. It is about receiving desires that are correct and to reach a state of a naïve person. This is a very high level and it isn’t simple at all.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat “Bereshit-1,” “Let Us Make Man,” Item 163

Writing of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 11   

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Question: What does overcoming above reason mean?

Answer: Above reason means above my current state, above how I feel and understand in my simple mind. Suddenly something unpleasant happens and I feel totally confused and cannot accept it in any way, and it simply cuts me off from reality.

I must first relate to it from the perspective called Beit Shammai that is accepted in the Talmud. It’s like an evaluator who writes a report about the current state listing all the facts, as if I assess a “bride exactly like she is.” I assess the state I am in: This is how I feel, and this is what I understand, and I have to be in this feeling and realization until they change.

There is another approach called Beit Hillel, and there is a dispute between the two. From the perspective of Beit Hillel, you should accept your state as the end of correction: “Everything is good and nice and is sent by the Creator; it is simply ideal.” This is the state I should reach, without annulling the assessment of Beit Shammai, which means that I don’t annul the real state. The state remains, and above it I establish the second real state.

When I reach a state that is compatible to Beit Hillel, I feel that it’s good in my new vessels and I understand and feel in my new vessels of perception that this is the real world of Ein Sof (Infinity). It isn’t that I just received some small illumination and agree and annul myself, but that I actually feel wholeness in my new vessels. The more changes, the more ascents and descents there are below, the higher above them I can build my new vessels in the opposite manner.

It works like an electric circuit that conveys positive and negative phases of alternating current to direct current. Therefore I need to work on two levels. On one level I work with what my body feels and what my mind understands, and above that, above my natural vessel, I establish a new vessel in which I need to see that “the bride is pretty and modest.”

If I build my new vessel correctly and perceive the bride correctly, I discover that the groom lands into my vessel (“groom” and “land” in Hebrew have the same root Hebrew). Thus we reach the coupling called “the groom’s meal” according to the name of the filling.

When I attain this state I can see that I was also at the groom’s meal before! But my vessels were not ready and so I didn’t feel the taste of being in the King’s palace but of some wretched hut in corporeality. Instead of the delicacies and the table set with plates of gold and silver, the wonderful music and the delicious scents of the King’s meal, I felt a bitter taste with my corrupt senses. In fact, I wasn’t in this world in the first place but in the world of Ein Sof, and it’s only because of my corruption that I saw this world instead.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/14

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Question: It seems that the action required of the created being in the dialogue with the Creator is only a prayer.

Answer: In this state we reach a real cry, not just a prayer. This is how strongly we feel the burning need for the removal of the concealment, and there are two states here.

In the first state I discover how I hate the concealment, from my personal egoistic perspective. I really hate this concealment and only want and hope that it would disappear, rot, and cease to exist. There is no greater joy for me than to discover that it has disappeared, burned, and been destroyed.

This state is meant to teach me and to show me the full measure of my hatred towards the concealment. Now I need to reach that, although I suddenly lose interest, but I hate it only because by removing it, I delight the Creator.

Can I reach the same burning hatred towards concealment because it stands in my way of delighting the Creator? I already have something to compare it to, my personal egoistic hatred. Now I need to apply the same impression with regard to the Creator: Can I hate this obstacle so much, although it’s not a hindrance for me but for Him because it doesn’t let me delight Him? And it’s certainly not in order to receive a reward, but in order to bestow.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/14

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Section 8: Therefore, come and see how grateful we should be to our teachers, who impart us their sacred Lights and dedicate their souls to do good to our souls. They stand in the middle between the path of harsh torments and the path of repentance.

They save us from the netherworld, which is harder than death, and accustom us to reach the heavenly pleasures, the sublime gentleness and the pleasantness that is our share, ready and waiting for us from the very beginning, as we have said above. Each of them operates in his generation, according to the power of the Light of his Torah and sanctity.

It is difficult to describe what would have been if the Kabbalists had not prepared and given us the wisdom of Kabbalah with all of the preparations and corrections that they made in the higher system, whose essence we wouldn’t even know yet if they had not written all the books for us. It is like a baby born in today’s world in a hospital with all the latest medical equipment.

A multitude of instruments monitor his health and the health of his mother, so the birth process is much easier than it was a hundred years ago. What wonderful food and treatment has been created for him, everything possible. And after that, he goes to kindergarten, elementary school, and university, and is educated. The world took the trouble for thousands of years to give a person born today all of the best for his development.

But the infant who is born doesn’t understand and is not aware of this. That is also how we seem to the Kabbalists who prepared the correction of the systems of worlds for us and who through their correction raised Lights in it from below to above to the highest level. It is just like a newborn baby gets all of the services in a safe, secure world that is ready to accept him and to give him the best of everything.

It is yet to be revealed to us what great and powerful systems the Kabbalists prepared for us to help us be born in the spiritual world. And they also wrote books for us through which we can study and awaken ourselves. Everything has been done thanks to these great Tzadikim (righteous). Without them we would not be able to go out to the spiritual world.

Adam HaRishon and Abraham could do this themselves since they were very refined souls. Therefore they could discover the Creator without preliminary work in a group and suffering, but only thanks to the refined souls that worked within them. But in our state, with our dense ego, at the end of six thousand years, we cannot approach spirituality without their help.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation for the Lesson

Workshop

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat “Bereshit-1,” “Let Us Make Man,” Item 159   

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 10

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If I see negative things outside myself, it means that I have to correct myself and then I will not see anything that is bad or negative. A friend who has troubles will seem very successful to me.

In the article “The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation,” Baal HaSulam says that we see the friends as losers, ill, unsuccessful, etc. But the moment we correct ourselves, we will see that they are healthy, rich, and successful. This means that I actually have to correct myself.

But there is another way to help them become healthy, rich, and successful. I correct things by approaching the friends and correcting myself directly in them, and then I see that they are successful.

The right correction is actually my inner correction. By correcting the friends and thus seeing that they are successful is an indirect, alternative correction, not a direct correction.

A direct correction is correcting my relationship with the Creator and seeing that the whole world is repaired and corrected. The whole world is my vessel, and if I identify any deficiencies in it, then this means that the problem is in me because everything is already in a corrected state.

The world didn’t undergo the shattering. I am the only one who is shattered; the part that identifies the corruptions is the one who has undergone the shattering. Everything else is whole. I only need to correct myself, and then I will see that the whole world is in the Garden of Eden, in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

But we have been given an easy way to correct ourselves by mutual inclusion: I come to the world and help correct it by taking the shattered parts in the world and raising them as MAN, as a prayer. The world is the lower level, I am the intermediate level, and the Creator is the upper level, which means that I perform the priests’ work. This, however, isn’t a direct correction, but an indirect one by mutual inclusion and consistent actions.

Question: It turns out that I will see the outcome of the correction only after I correct myself internally?

Answer: Of course! Otherwise how can you say: “I see”? You cannot see the correction if you don’t correct yourself. The only question is whether you operate directly towards the Creator or in an alternative, indirect way.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/14

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Question: What is the correct way to pray when I see that a friend has a problem and I want to ask on his behalf?

Answer: It says: “He who prays for his friend is rewarded first.” Indeed I don’t need to pray for the friend because he only seems ill to me.

Yet I cannot perceive this corruption as my own, and I am not close enough to the friend to feel his pain and his illness as my own. So I pray for him as if he is external to me.

Therefore, “He who prays for his friend is rewarded first,” because I am actually the one who is ill if I see a sick friend. And that’s why I need to be healed, and not the friend who only seems ill.

Correcting myself means, seeing all of creation the way it is in the eyes of the Creator: seeing the whole world from the perspective of a person who is fully corrected in his desire to receive, which means that all his vessels are in order to bestow.
[130091]
From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/14

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