All the pressures that we feel, the little pushes that advance the creation along the time axis forcing it to develop gradually, and the terrible afflictions that it goes through, all stem from the love of the Creator who wants to advance us and who operates only considering the goal. The Creator’s Providence is a purposeful Providence, and doesn’t take into account different events and states that we go through.

It is impossible to say that the Creator, the force of love and bestowal, doesn’t care how we feel. First, He feels it Himself, and much more than we do according to His level. The inadaptability, the lack of equivalence of form of the created being to the Creator, is felt as great sorrow on the upper levels.

We, however, feel only the faint resonances of this pain to the extent that we can feel it only on our account. Just as bestowal increases the feeling of pleasure by 620 times, so are the sufferings felt in the upper 620 times more strongly than we feel it. This is actually an infinite difference.

The Creator is an upper level compared to us and so our inadaptability, our deficiency, is felt in it sharply. To the extent that the future perfection is revealed in the upper level, we can see our deficiency in the current state, our helplessness, our suffering, and our inability to justify the Creator who operates for our sake as the good and the benevolent only out of love. Yet because of our corruptions, we don’t understand this goodness and so we don’t advance.

It is only a psychological problem of determining that everything we feel now is healing us and bringing us to adhesion. Then all the problems are solved, the darkness becomes the light of faith, and the bitterness becomes sweet. We don’t need anything else! In fact, nothing changes but the way we determine the state we are already in: It is like is says: “And you shall eat that which is ancient.”

Now we are in the Light of the Infinite, in the eternal word, in the fixed state. All the concealments are only in us, in our perception, in our understanding, in our inner attainment. We only have to change our attitude inside and to prefer bestowal to receiving, and we will feel that we are moving into the eternal and perfect world to the same extent. We will realize that our world was imaginary. So we actually don’t have to do anything but correct our perception of reality.

Question: How can I determine that everything that happens to me leads me to adhesion?

Answer: In order to do that, I have to accept the mind of the environment instead of my own mind. An environment is a group, a teacher, and books that have to perform such a change in me that a new state will be revealed in me; a state called the Creator.
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From the Preparation to the Lesson 12/22/13

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Can I pray for myself if I really want to advance in spirituality? Of course not. How can I be sure that I am asking for power, for a change of mood, for a change of the real state so it will be for bestowal, for the Creator?

Only by asking for the group can I be sure and check myself as in the words of the song: “for my brothers and friends I shall speak peace of you.” This means that I am asking for the group, for the friends, and by that I hope to reach the right request and to delight the Creator.

This is the right order: from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator. Through the love of the created beings I can see and be sure that I am aiming correctly and that I am not confused and or lying to myself. So through the love of the created beings, I have to focus myself on the love of the Creator. It is impossible to reach the Creator without the level of transition of the love of the created beings. This is why the shattering occurred and our shattered world was created.

Otherwise, we could never bestow upon the Creator since He is concealed from us. If He were revealed, we would run to Him like a thief who runs before the crowd, crying out “Catch the thief!” I would yearn for Him as the source of pleasures and I would want to connect to Him for my own benefit. But because He is concealed, I have nowhere to run and I don’t even know who the Creator is.

This is the reason for the shattering of the vessels, and from the whole shattered world I was given a small part called my group. If I practice correctly in the group, trying to connect to it like with the Creator, then I can always check myself and do what needs to be done. Eventually I reach the stage of implementation, the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah and its practical addition, which is integral education.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can we learn to make use of the changing states towards the group: getting colder – getting warmer, love – hate?

Answer: It is possible only through workshops, round tables, and integral education. This is the only way a person can feel that he has a field where he can work on himself just like in the spiritual world. We have to stabilize a field where a person can work on himself when he stands before the group, so that he will see that he can actually work in it with his desires, his feelings, his thoughts, with all his actions, with everything that he has. He is actually incorporated in the spiritual work with his whole body, with all his attributes, fulfilling them as if with his own hands.

We have to prepare such a framework for our friends in the global group to work in and to teach them how to do so, and then the whole world. This method has to be so clear and evident to a person that he will understand that it is enough to make one step into it, which means to connect with the integral education group just once, and that is all he has to do! He will already be caught it in, like in a positive trap, as if taken by Noah into his ark together with everyone else. Then Noah closes the door and he is protected inside.

From this moment onward, the environment begins to operate on him and influence him; it explains, defends, and resolves all his questions and doubts. He is already inside it and cannot come out. Thus, we have to build the system of integral education in the form of a positive trap since actually there is nowhere a person can escape to. Integral education is called “Noah’s Ark.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Concerning Above Reason”

Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 7, Item 74

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 2

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Baal HaSulam, Article, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: We can see that all the interpretations of The Book of Zohar before ours did not clarify as much as ten percent of the difficult places in The Zohar. And in the little they did clarify, their words are almost as vague as the words of The Zohar itself.

As Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” in paragraph 155, the books of Kabbalah were written for those who already had spiritual attainment or wanted to acquire attainment. For these people, these books are like a means for advancement; it is possible to attract the Light that Reforms with them.

So why do the interpretations and explanations matter to us? Why did Baal HaSulam write the Sulam commentary to The Book of Zohar?

The Sulam commentary helps us to rise to the text of The Book of Zohar in order to use it and get the Light that Reforms from there. First it is necessary to approach, to come close, to rise to this book, and then you derive benefit from it and enjoyment from it and receive the correcting Light that Reforms from it. After that I rise again, come close to it, and again receive the Light that Reforms from it. And that is how it is throughout the 125 levels.

This is to say, there are 125 levels in The Book of Zohar, and the Sulam commentary also has 125 levels that make it possible for me to rise to the level of The Book of Zohar and to use it according to its mission, to attract the Light that Reforms and correct myself. It is as if I am climbing up a ladder in a library to going from tier to tier getting a new edition of the same book each time.

Consequently, the Sulam commentary is not just an explanation for the book. Hence the name because “Sulam” means ladder. Therefore by involvement with The Book of Zohar and this commentary together, I can use the language of Kabbalah and the language of Midrash, “the language of the branches,” that make it possible for me to come close to the text and to yearn to activate what he describes there and attain what is latent there.

I don’t imagine a Garden of Eden with souls floating there, rather I know that it is talking about my inner world, about how I am linked to a group, how I describe to myself the picture of the spiritual state that comes into being within my desire to receive through rejection and reduction of the reflected Light.

Therefore the book must prepare us for the correct comprehension of what they wrote. And from the start it was clear that The Book of Zohar not only had to be hidden until our day but also it had to receive an addition that would make it possible for our generation to use it in order to take the Light that Reforms out from it.

Without the Sulam commentary we would not have the possibility of taking the Light that Reforms out from this book. And in fact, for a thousand years after the discovery of The Book of Zohar, we could not truly use it until the time arrived to submit it to the people. And so Baal HaSulam came and gave his commentary to it, which is used as a “ladder” through which we have the possibility of rising to every level of the 125 levels of spiritual attainment.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: If everything depends on our desire and work, and not on the Creator, why do we ask Him to help us connect?

Answer: We try to attain additional desires for connection, we make an effort, we search. And when we turn to the Creator, this says that we activate yet one more deficiency, and then the Light acts on us with this additional deficiency. This is even though the Light itself is constant, like constant voltage in an outlet.

If I have a socket with a voltage of 220 volts, then I can connect devices of various resistances and intensity there; so accordingly a different current will flow in them, more or less: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida, according to the desire that I connect to it. It is as if I have an electric stove and I turn the knob, change the intensity of the heat: 1, 2, 3, and every time I activate a new spiral in which a new light is revealed: 1 – small, 2 – greater, 3 – even greater. The “voltage” of the light is constant, but the “intensity of the current,” this is to say, my “NRNHY” depends upon the strength of my resistance.

Outside, nothing changes; there is a power station full of infinite energy there. Connect to it anything you want! From the world of Infinity to our world, the voltage is graded according to the levels, like in our world, where there can be different voltages: 380 volts, 220 volts, 110 volts, 24 volts, 12 volts.

A scale of voltages goes out like this but at every level the voltage is constant, and everything depends on this, how you connect to it: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida. You finish this level, you have used all the divisions of the switch on your “stove,” and now you can move to a new “stove.” But there are no changes in the outlet; it gives you everything that you need.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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We are now revealing the broken world. In other words, in our world we have descended nearly to the very bottom of the application of our egoism. If even one deeper layer were revealed, we would not get out of it. After all, there are truly horrific conditions awaiting us in which we lose the human form.

It is said in the Prophets that this is possible if we follow the path of time, and everything occurs in its time. In general, the Tanakh (the Torah, Prophets, and Writings) describe the path which awaits us if we do not “cooperate,” if we do not adhere to its guidelines. In particular, the Prophets write about terrible, unspeakable disasters.

Baal HaSulam also indicates that in the worst case, we would become a global village filled with weapons of mass destruction.

What is the essence of the fall that we are experiencing today? In fact, it brings us closer to this darkness which needs the greatest Light for correction.

But how can light and dark be combined?

For this we need the group, the teacher, and the sources in the center of course. However, there is still something missing.

Here, the Sulam (Ladder) commentary to The Book of Zohar comes to our rescue. It provides the group, everyone who wants this, with the connection to the Light. It describes our inner state along with the external one, which is described in The Zohar. As a result, we can connect the two worlds with each other: the internal parts of perception with the external images. This allows us to cling closer to the text, not forgetting that it ties us with spirituality, and explains what is inside of us. Gradually, this understanding is manifested inside a person.

That means that we cannot do without either The Book of Zohar or the Sulam commentary because together they connect us with the greatest Light which corrects the entire human egoism.

In reality, The Zohar is capable of much more. In our world, in the depth our egoism, we do not show the spiritual desire, just the “animal” desire. By ascending the spiritual degrees, we reveal increasingly deeper desires each time. This world is in the middle point of all the worlds, and in order to rise, we must first descend. So, The Zohar is intended for those high degrees that are preceded by descents. And this world is just a grain of sand in comparison with them.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: And since the degree of the authors of The Zohar is at the full level of the 125 degrees, they cannot be attained prior to the days of the Messiah. It follows that there will be no common attainment with the authors of The Zohar in the generations preceding the days of the Messiah. Hence, The Zohar could not be revealed in the generations before the generation of the Messiah.

That explains why Kabbalists hid The Book of Zohar. After all, there was no need in it for all the generations before ours. To give them this book would be like giving school children or even students the materials at the level of Nobel laureates. This would only confuse people. For example, if we tried to teach children the theory of relativity or other complex concepts, they would not be able to digest it and perhaps it could even damage their minds.

A person gradually acquires the essential means to approach difficult materials. It’s not easy. Some frontiers of science are available only to a few people in the world to understand, and not all of them are also able to work with the material, meaning to develop it further. Not everyone’s mind can withstand it.

Therefore, people should not be given an unripe fruit, or rather the fruit for which they are not yet ripe. Everything needs to be learned gradually. It’s said: “Don’t put a stumbling block before a blind person” because he will fall. Give him a chance to develop in stages.

The authors of The Zohar knew what they were doing. They were on the spiritual level inherited from the Temple, on the degree of love for the other as for oneself, and due to love, they attained the Creator concealed in it. They describe their attainment in The Book of Zohar, explain how they are organized between themselves, and they reveal the Creator in accordance with it.

However, others still could not work in this way because then they were entering a period of two thousand years of exile. That is why the Kabbalists hid The Zohar until the present day. But nowadays, this book is revealed to everyone.
[123697]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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In general, a person eats himself up over his past and present, not realizing that everything was already predetermined from the start and everything had to happen. The two principles: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” and “There is none else besides Him” must be integrated and not just alternate one after the other like a day of work and night of resting.

Every time you need to integrate these two principles before each effort and also after it. After the fleeting moment it’s absorbed in the world of Infinity and it’s forbidden to take anything into account concerning it. All the accounting is now only with the Creator.

Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before,” that if a minister doesn’t do the right actions with a letter, then the Creator brings it down and puts another letter in its place. We still don’t understand exactly how this works, but we need to understand unambiguously that we shouldn’t be sorry about the past and the present! We only need to be in fear of the future: Will I be able to prepare myself for the discovery of the next Reshimo in order to satisfy the Creator?

The past and the present are completely under the control of “There is none else besides Him” and so I have nothing to clarify except my relationship to what was done. This is the one thing that we need to do. We don’t change the reality itself, the reality is changed regarding my relationship to it. Everything depends on my angle of viewing a particular object; however, the object itself is unchanged. Only my comprehension is changed. Is my comprehension egoistic or altruistic? And from this each and every thing in reality is changed.

I change my senses. Those ten Sefirot are revealed but everything depends on this: Is my desire equipped and shielded with a “screen” against the egoistic pleasure? This completely changes the entire picture.

If I think that what happened in some way depended on me and that I myself chose how to behave, it follows that there is one other authority besides the Creator: my own self. So does it follow that I myself determined how everything is supposed to happen?

If I sit and eat myself up over what I could have done yesterday and didn’t do, or I am sorry that I didn’t come today to the lesson, then it follows that I determined my actions myself and decided not to come. This is to say, that besides the Creator there is another force that is acting in reality: my own self. About this the Creator says: “I and he cannot dwell in the same abode.” If I want to dwell together with the Creator in one dwelling, I must absolutely nullify myself. Then I will be together with Him.

Therefore, about the entire past that happened up until a moment ago, I must say that everything came from the Creator and so it had to be. For that is how the Creator thought and arranged everything from the start, and I must be thankful for this, as for a very great prize, about all the failures and the things that I did that were not okay. For this, the Creator now obligates me to sit and be sorry about everything that was done, so that I will say that everything was done according to the desire of the Creator with the goal of teaching me to behave otherwise in the future.
[123536]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/13

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of the Zohar”: Throughout the generations, those who ascended and were rewarded with Dvekut were few, as our sages wrote about the verse, “I have found one person in a thousand; a thousand enter the room and one comes to the Light,” meaning to Dvekut and attainment.

Thus, in our days, in the generation of the Messiah, every thousand people who enter can come out to the Light, to attainment. Of course, this takes great effort since otherwise we will not have spiritual vessels. However, from above there are no limitations anymore and everyone can receive the support of many people along the way who yearn for the same thing.

Besides, the world is deteriorating and is heading toward an abyss and annihilation, which also provides reasons that justify the spiritual process in our eyes. Even the ego itself agrees to and supports it, hoping to make a great profit.

So the door to the spiritual dimension is really open for everyone in the generation of the Messiah. It is because the Reshimot (reminiscences) that are revealed in us are so corrupt that we are totally opposite from the spiritual world and are at the most distant point from it. So there are no more limitations here, everyone who sets off along this path is promised from above that “if you make an effort, you will receive.”

Before even great efforts were not a guarantee for success. A person could have made great efforts and still not attained anything, but someone else could have entered thanks to his help. However, his contribution was preserved. Thus the system has not reached the final stages of correction.

On the other hand, the time of the final state has come. We are correcting such a deep layer of the system that the previous accounts are nullified. Everyone who makes an effort will receive the reward in his hands, in the spiritual vessel.
[123604]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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