Question: How can we understand that there are different forms of connections between us? How can the connection between us change?

Answer: Imagine that you suddenly discover that the person sitting next to you, whom you hardly know and whose name you don’t even remember, is your brother. Your mother sends you a letter saying: “I have seen the two of you sitting together and I am overwhelmed. How can it be that my two sons have suddenly met! I had no idea what had become of him. He was kidnapped when he was a small child and here he is all of a sudden right next to you, what joy!”

You suddenly discover that you are brothers and your relations totally change. This is what we try to understand. You suddenly discover that the other is not just next to you but inside you and it has nothing to do with blood ties or that you have the same mother or father, but it is directly because of you. Adhesion is the state when another person becomes more important to you than yourself. If the part called the other is separated from you, you die. So you cannot agree to that! Your life is worthless without connection.

This is the only thing the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about: about the lack of connection and about connecting. There is nothing but that. We have a desire to receive, which we do not understand, and we learn about it by the Light that fills it from the shattering to correction, which means by connection. There are no other actions but that. If we speak about the perception of colors, music, or sounds, we only feel them as movement: either distant or close to one another.

We don’t feel those who are distant or near, we don’t attain the essence, we only feel the change. Every instrument is built according to this principle. We can resemble one another in different attributes, on different levels, in different manners. We don’t know the essence of the desire to receive, which is something from nothing. What is more, we don’t know what a desire to bestow is, something from something. We exist in a state of changing relations between us, and this is the only thing we perceive.

If the desire to receive and the desire to bestow were not moving mutually one towards the other, then we wouldn’t feel anything in our desire to receive and would cease to exist. Everything depends on the changes in our relationships, whether we feel greater love or lesser love. This is what we actually feel. We are not in the actual attributes of the desire to receive and the desire to bestow but in a derivative that determines the change in our relationship. This means that by perceiving only the changes, we don’t measure the speed but rather the acceleration.

If we move in a constant speed, we don’t feel anything and it is as if we stand in the same place (according to the principle of relativity in mechanics). Only if there is a change in velocity, which means that we accelerate, do we begin to feel it. It turns out that we live in this derivative and that we will never know the real essence, the something from nothing and the something from something, because we are the outcome of the meeting between the two.
[122080]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/13, The Zohar

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Question: What is the connection between my constant yearning to return to the center of the group and the war to see the true picture of reality?

Answer: The war is specifically made about this. If you wake up in the morning and see that you need to direct yourself towards the center of the group, this says that you are on the right path. If time after time you catch yourself unconsciously departing from this state and bring yourself back, this is a sign you are going in the right direction.

Question: What picture and what feeling appear in the center of the group?

Answer: In the center of the group the feeling appears that there is nobody; there is only one desire, not many, in which all of reality is felt.

And then you discover that today’s reality is not true, but only a simulation like on a computer screen. To the degree that your vision is corrected, you begin to see that there is nothing true in this world, there are no real forces. This is like a distorted copy of the spiritual world that shows us what we have ruined and points us in the right direction so that we can eventually enter the true world.

It is as if there is a life that you don’t see, but they show you a performance about it in a theater. And in this presentation you discover how much your view was mistaken and how you can correct yourself in order to see the true life.
[122050]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/01/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What can a person do if he is constantly distracted by strange thoughts and cannot concentrate while reading The Zohar?

Answer: A person should try to live with the states we read about. This is called “wanting to know what one studies,” which means to connect to the material and to attain it. Knowledge means connection.

It doesn’t matter what we study, whether it’s “round and straight vessels (Igulim and Yosher) ” or “midnight when the violin of David plays,” when we read a certain article we should want to be in the same state the Kabbalists speak about. We should identify with what we read, and feel it. It’s as if a friend is telling you about his life and you really want to understand him and to share his feelings by absorbing his words in order to reach his feelings through them. Through the words you can reach the inner impression and share the same feelings.

This is what we need to feel when we read. So it turns out that we develop the habit that allows us to penetrate the Kabbalistic text the moment we hear it and we can immediately penetrate it, as if jumping into water. The Torah is water, Hassadim. Once we are in the water, we begin to activate all our senses by clarifying what is going on. It’s as if we are in a sea trying to look around, to feel the atmosphere, and to understand the situation.

It becomes a habit: The moment I hear the words of the Torah, I immediately enter the Light, the water, and try to understand what is going on there. It’s as if I enter a dark room or dark water in which I can see nothing. Then it’s very important for me to understand what is happening; it’s a habit that we should develop with regard to the Torah.

If I actually implement this approach, I will always be searching, expecting that this state will influence me now and be revealed to me. The state will be revealed because it did not exist and then it suddenly appears. It already exists, but I can’t see it or identify it yet. When I change internally, the state will be revealed. There is no revelation that is external to me but only internal. A new sense awakens in me and then I reveal it.

A person should constantly expect this, especially during the lesson. It says: “It would be good to pray the whole day,” but at least, it’s necessary to turn every lesson into a prayer.
[122137]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/13, The Zohar

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #219 “Devotion“

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “Beresheet,” Item 655

Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit, “Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 3, Item 23

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence“

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Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”: I am glad that I have been born in such a generation when it is permitted to disclose the wisdom of truth.

Adam was the first to reveal the essence of the general reality that we live in is a kind of a “bubble,” we feel this life only within ourselves, without any serious purpose. This lies above the aspects of “animal” existence that demands to be born, live, and die again and again.

We also add to this our fantasies about afterlife, a very bitter mistake on our part, a big mistake of humanity that expects something else from the current level. As a result, it’s difficult to describe all the limitations of man, all the confusion in which he is immersed.

Nevertheless, since Adam and onward, a part of humanity began to reveal the truth. And the truth is that it’s possible to open our current limited sensations together with the mind that is behind them. It’s possible to unlock the door leading outside of our world, which is “depicted” by the perception of the five senses. In addition to them, you can find five new spiritual senses, acting on the opposite force, driven not by egoism but by altruism.

However, it was revealed only to a small part of humanity. The process goes on and humanity is gradually getting closer to this discovery, to an understanding that everyone must rise to a higher spiritual level during his life here. This is how the teaching of Kabbalah defines its purpose: The revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world.

The stages of human development progress slowly. As Baal HaSulam writes that they required billions of years to develop the universe, hundreds of thousand years to develop the “material human being,” and thousands of years to develop the “spiritual human being,” who originates from Adam. Five thousand seven hundred years have passed since his time until the moment when an opportunity emerged to explain what is happening to everyone and attract people to ascend to the degree of the Human Being (Adam), meaning similar (Domeh) to the Creator.

And that is why Baal HaSulam is very glad that from his time and onward it is allowed to disclose this knowledge. We have developed enough at the current level and can proceed with the development at the human degree.

A special moment has arrived, unprecedented in history. The process came from the world of Infinity through all the worlds, through the breaking and preliminary stages, and then through all the twists and turns in our world to finally come to this point.

We must realize the importance of the period in which we live, and even more, the importance of the awakening that each person received. This requires a responsible and serious approach from us. There is no more important moment in the history of all the worlds, and our world in particular.
[122260]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The whole point is how we awaken. The main thing is connection in different circumstances, the constant additions of coming together in different states and especially during a descent. These states are a real treasure in potential.

During an ascent, when I feel impressed, I operate on the fuel that I am given. The Light that comes from above shines on me and I hop on this wave and ride it for a while. But during a descent, even a small effort is worth a great deal.

On the whole, you should try to see that you develop and are continuously advancing. It’s like the iron parts that hold on the wheels of old locomotives that constantly move backward and forward over and over again. This is also a person’s spiritual work, even when he falls backward, he still advances forward.

So if we can consolidate our forces during a descent, it will help us see things more clearly than during an ascent. The reason is that in the dark I illuminate the corporeal nature that I am immersed in now, and it’s from this Aviut (thickness) that I reach a revelation. It’s extremely worthwhile. Even if I see that I can barely succeed and even with a fall a moment later, I still attain a great deal.
[122075]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/03/13, Writings of Rabash

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The vessels of bestowal are also the desire to receive, but it doesn’t receive yet in order to bestow. Suppose I am a guest sitting in front of the Host. When I see how nicely He treats me in the upper layer of the desire too, I am ready to treat Him the same way. His bestowal that is focused on me brings me to the correct response.

At the same time I am under His domination. He is so wonderful, good, and benevolent that this bestowal alone already corrects me and I am ready to bestow upon Him in response.

Thus I respond to the Light in the vessels of GE that are focused on bestowal in order to bestow. They also have a certain Aviut (thickness) but generally speaking I don’t object to the Host. When I absorb His love for me, I cannot harm Him in my desire to receive anymore. It’s hard to understand this since we would be ready to harm Him in a similar situation, because if He loves me, this love makes Him vulnerable and so I can annoy Him.

But we are speaking about the level of truth here: If I see that a person helps me from the bottom of his heart—even though it’s not easy and requires great effort—I establish the same attitude towards him in me. I don’t work in order to bestow like he does yet, but at least I “Don’t do unto your friend what is hated by you.”

Thus, although it’s only the upper layers of Aviut, I work with all its vessels, desires, engaging them just enough not to use their thicker Aviut. I use it only on the condition that I feel His attitude towards me as great love. In the meantime, I can respond only by belonging to Him and not more than that.

It’s about the animate level. I am like a dog at the feet of his master. I work with all my desires, but only in order to adhere to Him. I am inferior to Him.

This isn’t easy. Thanks to this, He can do what He wants with me. Here dedication, devotion, and a level of faith, bestowal, are required, but not more. I annul myself, “Use me as You wish, I am a tool in Your hands.”

But I still cannot operate myself on the human level; it is against my nature to be like Him. This is the next level that AHP connects to, to receive in order to bestow, not only the redemption from the desire but also in it.

In the meantime, however, I annul myself, and it’s this state which symbolizes Chanukah. I follow the Creator despite everything. It’s clear that I am fighting a war, I am killing my enemies, but only those who reject spirituality; “Live,” they say, “Don’t belong to the Light, don’t connect to bestowal.”

Question: I don’t understand what this has to do with the spiritual work.

Answer: Try to focus yourself so that you will not feel hatred towards anyone and so that you will not want to succeed at the expense of anyone. You will agree that everyone should feel good. Even if you don’t contribute anything, you aren’t disturbing. Try to reach this attitude above your desire to receive.

Imagine that we find a treasure worth billions of dollars. Now let’s split it evenly among everyone, including the two of us. Perhaps you agree now, but what if it’s already in your bank account? Believe me that it will hurt to relinquish every penny, this is our nature. So it isn’t easy to reach the level of to bestow in order to bestow. It takes forty years in the desert and eventually the miracle that is accumulated in small portions, time after time, happens.
[122062]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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There is full abundance in the world, but we can’t manage to arrange it for life; like a family that has material prosperity but such a bad relationship with each other that it’s impossible to live together. Then there is no choice and people either get divorced, or like in our case, the only thing we can do is to connect. We cannot draw away from one another or get divorced because nature still forces us to attain mutual connection.

This is where the war against the Greeks breaks out, the war of how to continue: either in reason or above reason, which means by using the forces of receiving or the forces of bestowal. We see that it’s impossible to live operating with the forces of receiving. Even if nothing is lacking in the world, our life will become unbearable because of the terrible relations between us. Even if we create wonderful conditions, there is still the problem of the hatred and repulsion felt between us, and so nothing will help and we will ruin our lives until it becomes unbearable.

Thus, we reach the recognition of evil in human nature and understand that we only need to correct ourselves from hatred to love. Otherwise there is no chance of existing. The sooner we identify this only option, the better off we will be. Instead of sufferings and troubles that taint the existence of our big family, of all of humanity, we can reach a wonderful corrected life.

This is where the war erupts, each for himself and everyone for everyone else, in an attempt to help everyone leave the hatred and reach love. We feel that it isn’t in our power and that we need another partner here, which is called the upper force.

What’s more, in this process we begin to understand that it’s all predetermined. The problem isn’t that we have to simply make peace between us and forget the hatred we felt before. Everything is done on purpose with this intention in this way so that we will not be able to take a step away from separation, from the ego, from the hate we feel, towards connection, love, and bestowal by ourselves. Then we will need the help of the upper force and to connect to it so that we are adhered to it. Thus we discover the upper force, the only force that operates in reality.

This whole process is possible only by getting closer to the upper force that manages all of reality, that shows it in our minds, and changes reality if we turn to it with this request. Get closer to it and become increasingly more dependent on it. This is how we are incorporated in our root.

All these battles are divided into two major wars: The war over the vessels of bestowal and then the war over the vessels of receiving in order to bestow. The first war is called the Maccabean war. It’s in order to get rid of the current perception of reality and to move to the real perception of reality that allows us to see the spiritual world. Therefore we are only allowed to see the light of the Chanukah candles and not to use them. After the victory of the Maccabees, a second war breaks out in order to fulfill the desires to receive in order to bestow.

So Chanukah symbolizes the end of the first part of our work. The truth is that it is the most difficult half. Therefore, this holiday isn’t mentioned directly anywhere in the Bible but is only referred to by hints because it is the holiday of the Light, of bestowal. It’s impossible to express this correctly in our corporeal language and to describe this war clearly.
[122054]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/01/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: But as we have seen, it is a simple thing, and should be observed by each and every one of us. For although everyone has “his own source,” the forces are revealed openly only through the environment one is in. …

And so our sages warned, “Make for yourself a Rav, and buy for yourself a friend.” And there is also the choice of books, as we have mentioned, for only in that is one rebuked or praised—in his choice of environment. But once he has chosen the environment, he is at its hands as clay in the hands of the potter.

The possibility to choose the right environment is given only to those people who have the point in the heart. Indeed, they now have to develop to the degree of the human being (Adam), similar (Domeh) to the Creator. It is the people in whom this point has been awakened, the root of their soul, that receive the impulse to enter the correct environment. Then they have to decide for themselves whether they will do it or not.

This is the free choice between the desire to receive and the point, the “rudiment” of the desire to bestow, not it itself, but its opposite side. I can choose when I have these two “poles.” How? I strengthen myself in the correct environment. By this, I want to reinforce one factor as opposed to another.

But if I do not have the second point, if I am just the desire to receive, then it does not influence my “choice.” In this case, I pursue self-interest like a dog that sniffs something on the street; that’s all.

Question: But at the same time within the framework of integral education, we suggest that people create a better environment for themselves.

Answer: True, to create a better environment for their desire to receive, but not for the point in the heart. So that a person knows it is possible to improve his life in a common circle, in unity.

However, everyone has the point in the heart; it is inherent in every desire at this or that depth. It is said, “They will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.” That is why in organizing, gathering people, and bringing the Light that Reforms to them, we force the awakening of this point so that it begins to “surface.” And once a person, undergoes the integral method, he tells us that he wants to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why? He does not know himself; he just suddenly wants to.

Anyway, integral groups are not a Kabbalistic environment because they do not have the left line. We take care of them as one of our dependents, teaching them good relationships, sympathy, and unity but without internal disturbances from the side of egoism that “feels” what is coming. We speak about a more serious work in our environment.
[122183]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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People are moving away from trappings and feigned manners. Once aristocrats walked the streets in tail coats and top hats, automatically holding themselves in strict decorum, performing adopted  rituals .

Today, however, people are becoming more liberated of the rigid frameworks: They dress simply, speak plainly, the media are less formal, children are more relaxed in their behavior with their parents, more people wear sandals and sneakers, etc.

In short, we are drawing away from the external form as it is clear now that this isn’t what makes a person.

People are not ashamed of what was considered social taboos in the past. Non-traditional sexual inclinations, for example, over which people used to kill themselves in the past, are openly declared today without any feelings of shame. People don’t feel they need to hide their natural tendencies anymore, and society accepts everyone. Everyone receives innate attributes to which he adds what he has received from the environment.

Thus, we gradually approach the question of: “So who am I really? If everything that I am is inherited, then I am actually nothing, a kind of a robot with a built in program instead of a real individual.”

This question isn’t asked explicitly yet, but humanity is getting closer to this and soon it will be ready to actually ask it. When the superficiality comes to an end, we will want to identify what it is that makes a person a human being.

Then we will discover that there is nothing but the point in the heart and that even this point doesn’t give us the right to be called a human being yet. It is only a drop of spiritual semen that we have to bring into the group, which means to bring one’s self into the womb. The more strongly I adhere to the group, the more I adhere to the womb, and then according to my efforts I am fed and receive blood, oxygen, etc. Then this drop becomes a spiritual embryo.

The main thing is that this whole process is carried out by the group. This is where one is nourished, and the more the embryo is adhered to it, the more spiritual force it receives to grow.
[121566]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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