A person’s work with the group is meant to sustain the connection with the friends even if he draws away from them physically, when he goes to work or when he goes home. I should not break away from them even when I am in difficult states, not only in fatigue or indifference, but even when I feel hate and repulsion.

The Upper Light plays with me while I have to divide myself into two parts. The first part is all I feel since all these feelings come from the Light into my desire. The second half determines what I should do, it controls me.

It is as if I have two roles. The first role is to feel the states that the Light brings me as deeply as I can. The second role is to control my feeling and to understand where it comes from, what causes it and how I should change it in order to advance to the desired state.

I have to be an expert inspector, examining, clarifying, and checking myself to direct myself to the goal. Later these two discernments merge and thus become the body (Guf) and the head (Rosh) of the spiritual Partzuf. The head determines what happens in the body and how it should function but only if this part, my expert, has control over the other part, over the desire.

In the meantime I try to exist in these two roles and to constantly see myself from the side, thus clarifying what the Light does with me, how I change, how I should change, and how I should react to each and every state.

I constantly assess myself from this control system. I change by becoming more independent of my feeling, of the discernments in my desire. I try to do my best not to identify with the desire and to rise above it. This means that my “head” is above the “body.”

This is the function of the second phase along the way of our spiritual advancement. I expect to reach a state in which I feel that all the desires and inclinations that are created in me by the Light are good, although I don’t feel them that way and don’t see that they are valuable since everything is broken. But they are good and beneficial to my advancement and are essential along the way: I have to gradually correct them one by one, to collect them to the one goal, to adhesion to the Creator, since these are parts of my soul.

So I examine myself like an assessor who sees all the corruptions in me and am glad about it since only by correcting them can I advance. If I discover greater corruptions, it’s a sign that I am advancing well since I have revealed such great deficiencies I should do something about . This means that on the one hand, this problem can occupy all my thoughts and all my heart. I find myself in a terrible situation and don’t know what to do about it. The problems are so great that my head explodes because of the horrible tension.

But on the other hand, I should know that this whole state was sent to me by the Creator so that I will solve all these problems only in the connection with Him and with the goal. The solution to the problem begins when the goal becomes more important than the problem.

If this is how I see these two approaches, then I don’t care about what happens to me: My goal is to be corrected and to resemble the Creator in bestowal, love, and adhesion which are more important to me than my personal state. Thus I solve every state. If I place myself above the state, it usually doesn’t need a solution anymore. I see that I don’t need anything else, “everything is resolved in the thought.” With regard to our state, it means that every state is less important than our mutual guarantee, since mutual guarantee is the goal that we have to reach in the connection between us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop 

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the The Book of Zohar“

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”: How could it be that transitory, wasteful actions would extend from the eternal? And we see that, indeed, we have already been extended as is fitting for His Eternalness—eternal and perfect beings. And our eternalness necessitates that the Klipa of the body, which was given to us only for work, will be transitory and wasteful. For if it remained in eternity we would remain forever separated from the Life of Lives.

We have said before (Item 13), that this form of our body, which is the will to receive for ourselves alone, is not at all present in the eternal thought of creation, for there we are in the form of the third state. Yet, it is obligatory in the second state, to allow us to correct it.

And we must not ponder the state of other beings in the world but man, since man is the center of Creation, as will be written below (Item 39). And all other creatures do not have any value of their own but to the extent that they help man achieve his perfection. Hence, they rise and fall with him without any consideration of themselves.

Our present condition, which looks so bad and low, is given to us deliberately so that we would detect perfection from it. “The advantage of light is known from the darkness.”

Moreover, all the other creatures are included in this analysis together. Indeed, the reality that we see outside is actually a projection of our inner properties. I have all the four stages of “material” desire, but I detect only the fourth, the human degree.

This also applies to our world. If we identify all the correct forms of relationships between us in humanity, it will be enough to correct the previous levels: still, vegetative, and animate. By correcting itself, the fourth level also corrects the previous ones that are included in it.

After all, other creatures have no freewill. They are automatically included in the human being during his correction. Therefore, if it were corrected, for example, ten percent, then all the surrounding nature would be corrected to the same extent.

So, our real concern is not the environment, not the climate, not pollution, but just our own corrected attitude to each other. To the extent we correct this attitude, in the same measure natural disasters abate and environmental problems subside.

Thus, Baal HaSulam gives us the key to correction of not just humanity, but of the whole world, including the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Do you want to appease the Earth so that it provides you with everything in the best form: food, water, and air? Do you want to feel a sense of comfort and calm, where nothing pressures you, threatens you, where there is a lovely cloud around you, caring and friendly? Then correct yourself and don’t be diverted by anything else. A person should not be distracted by the universe, which is a copy of his flaws, but remember that all “external” flaws depend on him and are given to him, so that based on them, he verifies and identifies perfection.

Then he will see what was said: “We were like in a dream.” In other words, everything that we experience now and will experience on the following degrees of the spiritual ladder to the final correction is a “dream,” artificially given to us from Above in the form of the corrupted world, so that by its means, studying the system from flaws to correction, we know the Creator, according to the principle, “By Your actions we will know You.” From knowing Him, as a consequence, we will be able to adhere to Him in perfection, which is the goal of creation, the goal of all the worlds, of their creation, the breaking and correction.
[125156]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There is a force in The Book of Zohar we can use. But in order to discover the inner potential of this book, we have to be on its level to some extent. So how does this mechanism work? In legends and fairy tales the hero finds a secret chest that he opens with a big heavy key. Which key will open the secret of The Zohar for us? What is the key that fits every lock? It’s the equivalence of form. This is the key that we put into the keyhole. It’s only by the equivalence of form that we can open The Book of Zohar. This is the basic key rule.

Later, of course, we need the group and the connection with the friends, etc. in order to reach an equivalence of form with this book. Thus, we open The Zohar and read it according to our equivalence of form, according to the love and hate that are in contrast to one another.

This means that it isn’t that simple to really open the book. If we open the book it doesn’t mean that the book really opens up before us yet. It all depends on what happens between us. If we are connected, we are also connected to the book and then to the same degree we can attain it and feel the group of Rabbi Shimon, the ten friends, the ten Sefirot. It isn’t about people but about their essence, about the quality that is in the desire. Thus we begin to know them, are attracted to them, and a bit of each of them is revealed in us.

We have enough power. By annulling our ego and in the connection above it, we establish a connection that helps us discover what is written in The Zohar. We establish the foundations, the infrastructure, a common place, since the spiritual spot can only be collective. Here we become equal to the first level of the revelation of The Book of Zohar, in the intensity of our connection above the interruptions, according to the law of the equivalence of form.

In order to do that we will gather at the February convention and we make great efforts and pay a lot of money while giving up many other things in order to reach this general gathering. All this effort should bring us to an ascent and to connection. This is how it was arranged from Above: If we use the means that have been prepared for us, we reach the desirable outcome.
[125040]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/14,, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Question: Every time I feel comfortable, I am thrown somewhere like on a swing: to a good state or to a bad state. How can I find the middle line in the movements from left to right?

Answer: We are thrown to and fro from the balance point since it’s the only place we can advance from. If I want to adhere to the group, to the teacher, to the books, to the goal, then I realize myself.

The center is usually opposite from my desire and my mind. The balance point is always above the left and the right line, in the middle line. It’s faith above reason, above what the heart and mind tell me. So what can I hold on to so that I won’t count on chance? The only thing that can guide me is what the group, the teacher, and the books obligate me to do.

We should only make sure that we understand and that we’ve heard the right advice. We feel so confident that the teacher meant what we think and we actually argue about that with one another. Everyone hears something different, so how can I be sure that what I have heard is right?

If I annul myself in order to adhere to the group, I begin to hear the right advice. The greater and higher a person is, the more he should humble himself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, Shamati #72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

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The influence of the group must be so strong that “it doesn’t let me sleep.” That is, that I will never be able to forget about the importance of connection; rather, I will feel that this thought is stuck in my mind and heart, a permanent backdrop.

It is absolutely possible to attain this. No one can complain that this does not work. If he thinks so, he is simply lying to himself. For this, we only require work and time.

If the person places himself under the influence of the group and is under its healing power, he cannot become detached, as if he is drawn by a magnet or some kind of wave that holds him in its field. He becomes linked to an environment that he chose himself at one stage. However, after the choice is made, he enters under the influence of the environment, the friends, appreciates the same values, and thinks the same way as everyone, for, if the group is important to him, he will accept all of its opinions, even those that he didn’t value, didn’t love, and didn’t think were good and beautiful before.

We see from our lives that if we love and appreciate someone, we begin to accept and copy his behavior because we appreciate him as higher than us and we depend upon him.

Therefore, the ego doesn’t become a disturbance for us, and if we have not succeeded, the reason for this is that we have not invested enough energy in strengthening the group. We have not utilized envy. The teacher also learns from his students, as it is said, “I learned much from my teachers, even more from my friends, and even more from my students.” Therefore, you can learn from everyone that you teach.

The moment that we feel some kind of inner resistance, we need to accept this as the “left line” against which the “right line” is awakened. The society will stand against this disturbance and then we will see that this is not a disturbance, but rather an opportunity to connect the two lines and build the “middle line” between them in order to advance even further toward a portrayal of the Creator.

We are trying to connect the broken parts of the soul as if we were connecting gears. However, we don’t want them to be pressed onto each other and compelled to rotate as happens in a regular society. We want them to begin to turn in a synchronized manner through helping each other, avoiding pressure by any one of them on another. All of them must turn in full agreement and harmony. That is, each one feels himself as completely free, without any pressure, because the Light turns and moves everyone together.

When the Creator is revealed, no pressure of one on another remains in any direction and all are driven by means of the Light. This is as it is written, “And the third party will come and reconcile them with each other.”

Revealing the evil inclination within himself, he can check whether he is able to pass to the right correction immediately. If he immediately accepts this discovery of ego as a help, as something good and useful, “a helpmate against him,” then he immediately can work with this and build the “middle line,” and the middle line is already the discovery of the Creator, and then the work becomes so easy for a person, without any friction, that he feels as if he is simply floating in air.

However, it is impossible to remain in a state like this because oscillations come all the time, right and left, and the person balances between them in the middle line, which is called the line of accommodation, equivalence of form.
[124511]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/14, Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop 

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “VaYikahel” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the The Book of Zohar“

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

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“: To understand these questions and inquiries, the only approach is to examine the end of the act, that is, the purpose of Creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end. And it is clear that there is no act without a purpose, for only the insane can act purposelessly.

A person never acts purposelessly. If a person doesn’t think, why he should exert himself; it is a sign of mental disorder or that it is a child who is driven by the plan of his natural development, although we cannot detect that by the actual actions. When a person builds a house in order to live in it, everything is clear to us. But we must understand that we cannot always see the clear outcome of an action. If we don’t see the outcome, it means that it is a certain disorder that does not exist in nature.

We will speak about why there are such defects in the world, but for now let’s agree that they bring about unplanned actions.

I know that there are those who cast over their backs the burden of Torah and Mitzvot (plural for Mitzva), saying the Creator has created the whole of reality, then, left it alone, that because of the worthlessness of the creatures it is not fitting for the Exalted Creator to watch over their mean little ways.

In other words, there are people who don’t think that we have to correct our desire to receive by the Mitzvot, as it says “I have created the evil inclination I have created the Torah as a spice for it.” So the Torah is the Light that Reforms, the means of correction in which there is a special force.

Our desire is divided into 613 parts and they are all corrupt; “a person’s inclination is evil from his youth.” We have to correct the evil inclination with the help of the Light that Reforms called the Torah. So, people who assume that this is not true are called those who cast over their backs the burden of the Torah and the Mitzvot. They want to live their ordinary life and not correct their nature and reach an equivalence of form with the Creator and adhere to Him. They don’t understand the goal of creation and don’t understand why the evil inclination was created in the first place.

Indeed, without knowledge they have spoken, for it is impossible to comment on our lowliness and nothingness, before we decide that we have created ourselves with all our corrupted and loathsome natures.

The goal of creation is to benefit the created beings. To “benefit” means that the created being becomes similar to the Creator, since He is good and benevolent to a full measure that cannot be underestimated. I cannot do something good to a lesser degree since it would mean that I am not benevolent. So the created being has to reach the level of the Creator, but in order to feel the Creator, he has to remain a created being. So when the created being comes closer to the Creator, he feels how opposite he is from Him. It is only by the contrast between the Light and darkness in a person that he feels the full height of the level of the equivalence of form with the Creator.

This is the reason for the corruption of the world, and this is the reason that we don’t understand or feel the Creator and so we cannot justify this state.

All this is true, but we have to study the reason for that. The world is built that way on purpose so that we will correct it by ourselves. The world is actually the general corrupt desire to receive. So we were given the Torah, not the book of the Torah but the Upper spiritual force, the Light that Reforms, that we can draw upon our ego, upon all the corruptions in us, and thus fulfill the correction until we are not “those who cast over their backs the burden of the Torah and the Mitzvot.”

“But while we decide that the Creator, who is utterly perfect, is the One who created and designed our bodies with all their admirable and contemptible attributes, surely there can never emerge an imperfect act under the hand of the perfect worker, as each act testifies to its performer. And what fault is it of a bad garment, if some no-good tailor has made it?”

So we cannot have any complaints about the created being, since if there is a Creator, all your complaints should be to Him.

This is why we said that the creation was initially corrupt so that we will correct it by ourselves and on the way collect all the parts of the puzzle so that we will feel that He is the good and the benevolent leading us to eternity and wholeness.

Such as this we find in “Masechet Taanit,” 20: “A tale about Rabbi Elazar who came across a very ugly man.”

Rabbi Elazar, the son of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, felt inside him the revelation of the most terrible ugly man. He felt that he was totally filled with all the possible negative attributes a person could have. It is a very high level. Since “the Creator has created them in contrast to one another,” and “he who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater.” This means that Rabbi Shimon was ready to accept the revelation of all the evil in him in the ugliest possible forms.

He said to him: “How ugly this man is.” The man replied: “Go and tell the craftsman that made me, ‘How ugly is this vessel you have made.’” Hence, those who claim that because of our lowliness and nothingness, it is not fitting for Him to watch over us, and therefore He has left us, do nothing but display their ignorance. Try to imagine, if you were to meet some man who would create creatures, precisely so they would suffer and agonize their whole lives as we do, and not only that, but cast them behind his back, not wanting even to look after them, to help them a little. How contemptible and low you would regard him! Can such a thing be thought of Him?

Has the Creator created everything only so the created being will suffer? Of course not. Imperfect actions cannot be derived from the perfect One who acts.
[123988]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Concealment of the face becomes a Kli for discovering the Creator. Without this period of preparation the person would have nothing with which to feel this discovery. It is impossible to discover the Creator just because you want it now. How can you have a desire if you don’t go through the stages of search, clarification, pressure, and helplessness while attempting to discover the Creator; meaning to discover the characteristic of bestowal and love, which you want to acquire but cannot.

It is impossible without a search like this, and the main thing is that you must be in an environment that directs you toward the goal all the time. And even though you still aren’t connecting yourself to the right goal, don’t see it, and are confused, yet you are constantly, incessantly searching for it. And so the way begins to be stabilized more and more; it’s stabilized from many ways and paths and contracted more and more into one way. Ultimately the goal begins to be clearer, begins to reveal it’s imperative. Thus you reach a state where there is a goal in front of you; there is a clear mission. The higher goal becomes clearer, and so does your goal. You are already working from an agreement to approach it, to discover, and realize it.

It’s impossible to get along without this stage because specifically through this we assemble the Kli for feeling the Creator, the Kli for feeling spirituality. There are 125 steps on this way and every step includes very many ways, states, ascents and descents, infinite integrations of Sefirot within each other.

We don’t feel the changes that are taking place in us that much now even though, together with this, we are passing through a multitude of states. Like a little child who plays and runs after his parents, he doesn’t see and doesn’t feel that there is a big world around him with a multitude of activities and events where something is happening all the time. He lives in his own little world.

So we are also in some kind of Klipa that hides the true reality from us. But when we gather experience, meaning that we learn to do actions that are directed more and more towards the goal, according to the possibilities that are summoned for us from a higher supervision, then more and more we expand our horizons, meaning that we expand our absorptive Kli, and then we begin to feel a wider world with all of the systems that are in it.

This is the way maturation occurs in material life, and it is precisely the same in spiritual life as well. Only in spiritual life, the expansion depends on our ability and readiness to tolerate bestowal, Lishma, that is, the ability to act not for my own sake, but for the sake of all. And afterward, from this “for the sake of all” we pass to “for the sake of the Creator,” as it is said: “From love of the creation to love of the Creator.” Thus we pass through the stages of development.
[125074]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop “Unity”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “VaYikahel” 

Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 9, Item 103

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the The Book of Zohar“

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