Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: …by nature, the power to work is not equal with each and every person. One person in the society labors in one hour of work, due to his weakness, much more than his friend who works two hours or more.

And there is also a psychological matter here, because he who is very lazy by nature exhausts himself in one hour more than his friend in two hours or more. And according to the perspective of the evident truth, we should not compel one part of society to labor more than the other part for the fulfillment of the needs of their lives. In fact, the naturally strong and nimble in society benefit from the labor of others and exploit them maliciously against the attribute of truth, because they labor very little compared to the weak and the lazy in society.

Can we evaluate people from the angle of truth or in accordance with the category of veracity? By itself, it is a wonderful and true category. It attests to a very simple thing: One deserves as much as one gives, meaning that everyone must be valued correctly and justly based on one’s contribution to the general structure. It is a law of nature. We can design numerous other regulations, but in reality it is exactly so.

Our rewards equal our efforts, although exertions should not be assessed through absolute numbers. Rather, they must be calculated by using relative specific measures. For example, it is extremely hard for me to lift a ten-kilogram weight and carry it for ten kilometers. However, for another person, it would be just an easy stroll. He won’t even notice this weight. I would need to rest for a couple of hours to replenish the energy I lost and eat something nourishing, whereas the other person wouldn’t be tired at all. On the contrary, he would feel much better than before.

Hence, it means that we simply cannot use the category of truth and do not have any criteria to make accurate calculations here. So, is it possible to lead a truthful life in our society?

You won’t find this problem in inanimate, vegetative or animate nature. There, everything exists in accordance with the attribute of truth, although we don’t notice it since we do not comprehend the entire picture. Each species occupies a niche of its own. All are connected; all are driven by natural instincts. Therefore, everything is correct.

We don’t know what it means to be governed by veracity since, at the speaking level, nature lets us go, releases the reins, abandons us, and allows us to establish relationships with it on our own—not as individuals, but rather as a society. Integration and social relationships are, in fact, the major problems we are facing at this time.

Previously, when humanity was still at a primitive stage of formation, the world was as one flock, as one family. Thus, it didn’t require any particular clarifications. At that time, everyone’s share was defined by a family, a tribal sense of community, and corresponded to the laws of nature.

However, when liaisons among humans lost its family basis and transitioned into a professional services exchange field—when people stopped being just parts of their families, tribes, clans, and villages, when they began to develop on their own—the problem emerged. After all, now people compare themselves to others and tend to give their neighbors as little as they can and, at the same time, receive as much as possible. We and the people around us are no longer a unified system. This explains why we have no clue as to how to get along with each other. The category of truth among us is vague, and that’s why we don’t sense or understand each other.

“I worked on your boot for a whole week,” the cobbler says.

How do I know if he is lying to me or if it really takes that guy so much time and effort to mend my shoe? Perhaps, is he simply unprofessional? A month ago, in another shop, it took them only one day to repair a mate to the same boot, and they charged me pennies. Now, I am paying four times more and had to wait an entire week!

To make a long story short, when we go beyond the boundaries of natural communities, we deal with unresolved problems. We are unable to stick to the category of truth and need additional criteria to support it. After all, if it falls it would cause chaos in society. That’s why we make “crutches”: various social programs, national insurance, hospital and pension funds, free education, and so forth. We don’t rely on our ability to implement the category of truth into life since we know that people will do nothing about it. Instead, our countries take over to compensate for it, and allow us to stay aloft and float not too far from unattainable shores that we cannot yet reach.

We have no ability to reach the shore since we traded family ties for commercial relationships that are built on the principles of mutual lies. Our society is in a huge conflict with this category: the attribute of truth. By not obeying it, we suffer and don’t know what to do next. By obeying it, we still acknowledge that there is something false in it.

This situation instigates an eternal confrontation between the masses and the elites. According to the category of truth, everyone is equal, and yet, the elites take away a huge portion of the wealth, leaving the masses poor. All rotates around the original problem.

Is there a way out? Can we establish genuine criteria? For that, we must feel others as we feel ourselves. The category of truth simply cannot be grounded on anything less than that. We must sense how intense other people’s exertions are and compare them with our own efforts. This comparison will let us replenish our relationships.

If we could measure how much each of us has received from nature—how healthy one is, how capable of doing various types of work—and what the real outcome of our efforts is exactly, then, possibly, we would distribute resources in a more correct way. However, in reality, our calculations always are wrong, and we never will distribute wealth fairly, honestly, and correctly because of the Creator’s interference. He deliberately spoils everything so that we come to Him since He is the truth!

Subsequently, the problem is not a just or merit-based distribution, but rather our altruistic intention to bestow. Any calculations are right only on the condition that we act solely to establish a connection with the Creator. Only then can we distribute things in accordance with the category of truth.

This explains why the “socialist experiment” failed in Russia. Its organizers did not hold the key: a connection with the Upper Light. Although they were given a chance, in the end, the upper governance turned it into a negative example.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: This is the key to understand the weakness of world-reformers throughout the generations. They regarded man as a machine that is not operating properly and needs mending, meaning to remove the corrupted parts and replace them with good ones…

But because the Creator meticulously watches over all the elements in His Creation, not letting anyone destroy a single thing in His Domain but only reform it and make it useful and good, all the reformers of the above-mentioned kind will vanish from the face of the earth, and evil inclinations will not vanish. They live on and count the degrees that they must still traverse until they complete their ripening.

Each time, world-reformers repeatedly commit a big mistake by trying to act independently, without seeking the help of the Light. As a result, everyone suffers, including them.

The world crisis started five years ago and these bright people constantly invent recipes for how to fight it. Psychologists, politicians, economists, and financial specialists, everyone participates in this noble task, and all of them are confident that they are doing the right thing. These world-reformers are sitting everywhere. They discuss things in governments, teach children at schools, and try to improve family relations. Where do they get the self-assurance that they are capable of changing things for the better?

We must move with the Light. In the morning, leaving the house, we should say, “If not for me, then who,” as if there were no upper force and that the day ahead of us depends exclusively on us. In the evening, when we come back home, we must say, “Only because of the upper force did I manage to do what I have achieved today.”

In our desire to correct the world, do we really act in a way that the Creator and the creation complement each other? Do we provide their fitting together? Do we orient all our efforts toward opening the pathway for the Light that will correct everything?

Question: This approach seems totally mystical. Can we suggest that people stay at home and do nothing, just asking the Light to descend and correct them? Are you serious?

Answer: You are right. That’s why it is said, “If not me, then who?” Let’s say that my car broke down. Should I invite friends to pray in the garage? Should I resolve any problem this way? Of course not.

On the other hand, how can we achieve a genuine correction instead of faking it? We see that without spiritual actions, our exertions only make this world a worse place instead of making it better. Yes, we still can find solutions for many problems, but we don’t realize that each detail is a part of the entire system. One way or another, everything that is not corrected by the Light will not work. It only exposes and demonstrates the egoism that is hidden in our attitude and obligates us to correct our outlook. Only when we can cope with it will we elicit correction, but in a new and true way.

Question: How can we explain this to others within the framework of integral education?

Answer: Beyond anything else, integral education is a part of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We are talking about various levels of the same teaching that explains the methodology of the world correction with the help of the Light that Reforms. We open the pathway for the Light, and It corrects us and the entire society. The goal always remains the same: to establish a good connection among us, to reach unanimity and harmony that correspond to the Light. Then, the Light will descend and correct us.

You can give the Light various names: the power of the group, collective intelligence, the vigor of integral unity. The essence remains the same. We are equal, we are together as one man in one heart, and the Surrounding Light influences all of us no matter if we teach others the methodology of integral education or just study it.

We totally were dissapointed in this world and found the wisdom of Kabbalah. However, other people also deal with the same problems. They also want to live better lives. The beautiful words that we use only mask a common, general aspiration to happiness.

Question: Does it mean that the definition of happiness varies? For us, happiness means one thing. For others, it signifies something else.

Answer: When you say that, for you, the bliss is in bestowal, it’s just words. Your desires keep you where you are. You simply tolerate a message that is disgusting to your egoism. We must pass the message about bestowal and unity further on, although we should be doing it in a much milder form. We should make it look like we are sharing the methodology of establishing good relationships with others that later will allow everyone to succeed.

In fact, the main obstacle on our way to happiness is happiness itself. There are no external monsters that prevent us from being happy. The monster is inside us. That’s why we keep talking about establishing a good and kind attitude toward each other. This is a universal remedy. It doesn’t depend on the level of our demands. By uniting our interests, goals, and general problems, by sharing a common worldview, each acquires something that one wants irrespective of what names they use to identify their unity.

So, we offer them a unified and effective solution.

Later, when they achieve unity, people will experience new psychological phenomena. They will sense internal energy and the power of their interconnection. They will have a better feeling of each other. Fine threads between them will grow stronger, the air will become thicker, clear responses to various actions and thoughts will appear, and everyone will begin working with the entire system, regardless of whether they realize it or not. Even now, we attempt to use this structure correctly. However, when we unite, this system finally will acquire realistic features and will surface from the fog.

In the end, does it really matter what exactly made people unite? The reasons that will make unity acquire a new enhanced value in everyone’s eyes will vary. What matters is that unity will become much more important than anything else. Behind multiple threads and powers, people will recognize a single force of love and bestowal. Each of us can name it differently: health, family values, wellbeing, and so forth. In fact, all these words are the names of the Creator.

Question: So, does it mean that the Creator is a reaction or an inspiration that we feel when we are connected with others?

Answer: Yes, you could say so. All that we feel within a desire is called the Creator.

Question: Do I retain this inspiration constantly?

Answer: When you advance, you find out that the general network and the force that is hidden in it are not connected with the tool that brought you to it. The instrument that pushed you to pursue the goal is illusory and deceptive.

Question: Can we compare it with electricity that we cannot identify directly, but rather, detect it because we see its effects if we are trained to do so? Otherwise, the electric circuit exists only potentially.

Answer: Yes, it is true. Today, people do not allow an electric current to flow and that’s why they don’t see it.
[109784]
From the 4^th part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Meaning of Conception and Birth”

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 9

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”: “Here comes Hillel’s statement to the foreigner who came before him and asked to be converted, as it says in the Gemarah, When he came before Hillel, to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot Hillel replied, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah while the rest is commentary; go and learn it.”

Kabbalistic terms and concepts are different from those commonly used. A “non-Jew” is one who acts for himself. A person who is not a “Jew,” “Jewish” (Yehudi), and is referred to as “non-Jewish” or the “nations of the world” is someone who does not seek unity (Yehud). The category “Israel” (ישראל) includes only those who aim “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El – ישר – אל), to bestowal, who aim towards loving others as they love themselves, towards unification, solidarity, oneness, guarantee, and all the rest that characterizes our community and cohesion. After all, it is love for others which enables us to reach the love of the Creator.

If a person wants to rise to the rung of bestowal, the level of love for others, because it will bring him adhesion with the Creator, it means he wants to be a Jew, to turn his desire to receive for self-gratification into a desire to receive in order to bestow. Thus, everything is quite simple: To become a Jew means to correct your egoism. That is what the method requires of us. And Hillel summarized it in a few words: “Do not do to others what you don’t wish to be done to you.” It is also said that the conversant first approached another sage, Shammai, with a request to teach him to love others as he loved himself. But Shammai rejected him, because one cannot immediately “leap” to the rung of love for others. In this case, Shammai represents the left line, the Light of Hochma, the properties of judgment, whereas Hillel represents the right line, the Light of Hassadim, the property of mercy.

This implies that the principle of “do not do to others as you don’t wish to be done to you” means bestowal in order to bestow, or mercy. However, mercy contains at least two facets: prohibition and obligation.

• As for prohibition, I must constantly discern my actions: Would I suffer if this were done to me? And if yes, then I will definitely not do it to another.
• On the other hand, if I see that I could win with the help of others, should I myself offer such help to them? It turns out that the principle of “do not do to others what you would not want done to you,” in fact, obliges me to start working for the good of others, to switch all my actions to bestowal. Otherwise, I am depriving another of a chance to receive something good. And it doesn’t matter that I don’t produce this good and don’t generate it from my desire, according to the principle “love others as you love yourself.” In this case, I do not accumulate the force of bestowal in order to give it away to others. But if I see that I can prevent the “shortfall” in others, I am obliged to prevent it, and this is also due to the principle of “do not do to others what you don’t wish to be done to you.”

Thus, guarding others from harm and helping them to do good, I begin moving towards real acts of bestowal. Hillel’s principle teaches me to think and even act in this direction, but so far, not on my own initiative. I play the role of a positive factor (+) before a negative factor (-) of others. My “plus” can enter his “minus,” but only if there is a special contact “block” in the middle. This “block” depends on me: It is I who “approves” (OK) his inclusion.

So, how do I give an “OK”? To do so, I am still not acting from my desire but I am already bending myself toward positive, stimulating responses. It is as if I’m giving a “go-ahead” by which the other receives good from above. Thus, Hillel’s principle teaches me how to act in order to bestow, but, so far, passively. I am not supposed to perform corrections in my receiving desire yet.

Here is an example: Yesterday you lost a paycheck in the street and I found it and brought it to you. In this way, I have not done to you what I don’t wish to be done to me. But can it be considered a true act of bestowal? After all, I contributed to your receiving the amount written on the check.

Indeed, Hillel’s principle implies not only preventing others from trouble but also promoting their good, but the help derives not from my corrected desire that turned into a “generator of good” and knows how to distribute it to others. I have not transformed yet but just helped abundance to pass from its source to the “consumer,” to the destination. It was I who set this mechanism (V) in motion, who “opened the faucet.”

Therefore, my role here is not to deliver the abundance but in approving its delivery, the “transaction.” That is what I determine whether the “faucet” will open or not.

Question: How do I open this “faucet” in my ten?

Answer: By participating. I call on all the Light that Reforms. And it manifests in my guarantee.

Question: The action itself is clear, but how do I mentally accept it? After all, I’m always full of discontent.

Answer: In thought, I’m already good to another because I wish the same attitude to come from them. I think well of them, but still do not feel that it hurts me in any way; it doesn’t step on my ego since I am not working with it and don’t engage it.

Of course, I feel envy, hatred, and am driven by passions and vanity. To approve good for others is against my ego. On the contrary, I would like everyone to have less than me.

However, it does not hurt nor diminish my “fixed assets,” and therefore, I am willing to agree for another to receive what he is entitled to. After all, no one is threatening my property and to take away what is mine.

On the other hand, if I am working not just from mercy but with the intention to bestow, I am taking something away from myself and giving to the other. It is not subject to Hillel’s principle; here, we are talking about the “withdrawal from my account” according to the principle “love others as you love yourself.” Wanting to “gobble up” the whole world, I offer this world to others “on a golden platter,” canceling my self-interest, my acquisitions.

Today, all of humanity finds itself in the position of a non-Jew who approached Hillel. Whether it likes it or not, it has no other way out but to switch to the principle of “do not do to others what you don’t wish to be done to you.” We are facing this rule of Hillel’s before the intermediate stage, without which we cannot attain true love of others. “Do not do to others what you don’t wish to be done to you”; in this phrase lies our entire correction.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We are already starting to get acquainted with the states of spiritual work, although it is difficult to agree with them and get used to them. Every time we find it difficult to justify them because spiritual states come as if a person is born again. All of a sudden something happens to him and he no longer recognizes himself, is not familiar with the world in which he exists, does not understand his reactions, the influences that prevent or help him, enemies and friends.

A person gets confused. He wants to learn this new inner reality in which he finds himself, but cannot. It’s as if he got a new internal program and thus is not familiar with himself and with the world. All the reactions become new and completely unknown. Having found himself in a new world, he loses the previous conviction, the old attitude to everything.

We need to get used to this! However, it’s impossible to get used to it because every time you get into a completely new state. And the further a person advances, the more different the states are, alternating one after the other. Despite the increasing rate of change, the states themselves are becoming more contrasted and separated from each other.

The state that occurred only a day or two ago can be very different from the one today, and the person feels terribly confused and loses stability in the world, as if he completely disappears. His states become increasingly opposite and the speed with which they replace each other is growing. With every change in state there comes a time when a person does not understand what is happening, even though he already has great previous experience.

When a new state comes, it’s so different from the previous one that it erases everything that was in the past. A person in the next state is not familiar with anything, and thus he does not understand what is happening to him; it’s as if this happens for the first time. And in fact, this state does occur for the first time as a new information gene (Reshimo), a new reality is revealed.

It’s impossible to explain this to strangers because they will not understand. They do not understand how this person can suddenly know nothing and become confused. How is it possible that a great Kabbalist suddenly cannot solve, understand, and feel even such simple things that are available to an ordinary person? But this is our life, and so we gain, degree by degree, the spiritual ladder.

The main thing is to love these states and to be aware that they increasingly bring us closer to an understanding of the Creator, to His likeness. There is no better state than when a person feels confusion, darkness, helplessness, knowing that in the vessels with which he will soon be able to work, he will find the quality of bestowal, meaning, a more correct attitude to the state is revealed.

In fact, it’s in this way that concealment is taken from him. Once in my childhood I read a story about horses transporting carts underground in coalmines. They never went up and therefore were not used to sunlight. So, when they were old and no longer able to work, before emerging from the mine, a few bags were put on their heads. On the surface, the bags were gradually removed: first one, and after awhile, another, so the horse would become used to the light gradually.

Here we are in the same situation. Each time when our state changes, it’s as if another bag is removed. And it will continue until we get accustomed to the real Light.

If a person understands that the work is done on him so that he would become accustomed to the Light and could see the Creator and His actions in his world, then he accepts this work with gratitude. He understands that this work in the twilight, in the dark, is very valuable because it creates the new tools of perception in him for the discovery of the true spiritual world. All this work is called carrying out a commandment, and if a person is happy about this, this is called the joy of commandment.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/13

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Question: How can we create a supportive atmosphere in the global group that will enable each one to feel that he belongs to the whole?

Answer: First, the friends must understand that they cannot advance without an environment. These are not just nice words that you can hear wherever collective efforts are needed. No, it is about surviving or perishing.

From the spiritual perspective, I am a zero. I open a spiritual account only if I am incorporated in the group and receive the vitality of the friends through them. There is no other way. The group is the umbilical cord that ties you with the Partzuf AVI within the level of the Creator.

Question: What if a friend is repulsed by the group?

Answer: It is the natural work of the ego. It is revealed precisely when we want to get closer to one another and we encounter repulsion. Repulsion from the desire to get closer is called ego.

However, when we don’t try to get closer, the ego is not revealed. The feeling of repulsion in this world only is called ego, but, in fact, it isn’t the ego that we must correct since it isn’t against the Creator. It isn’t revealed to me against the real connection.

The real ego is the force that stands in my way of connecting with the friends. I want it, but the Creator trips me and says, “No, I will not give it to you. Here, I demand a special action from you that is called faith above reason, a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. If you want to overcome your ego, go ahead. You must demand the Light that Reforms in order to do so.”

Then, having no choice, I cry out. Thus, the Creator forces me to turn to Him in order to receive the Light, in order to think about the attribute of bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: …he who alters even a single law harms and damages the purposeful aim that the Creator has set, and will therefore be punished by nature … it is best for us to meet halfway and accept the words of the Kabbalists that HaTeva (the nature) has the same numerical value (in Hebrew) as Elokim (God)—eighty-six. Then, I will be able to call the laws of God “nature’s Mitzvot (commandments),” or vice-versa, for they are one and the same…

Question: Lately, I took a course on “watchful driving.” Among other things, I was told about traffic signs that alert drivers of nearby railway tracks. If one ignores them, one can get hit by a train. However, there are no traffic signs on our roads of life, and we get “hit by trains” more than once. It’s about the laws of providence that we are supposed to sense inside us. Studying them requires time. Until we learn them, we will be hit by many “trains.” Why didn’t nature place visible signs so that we could use them and explain their meaning to others?

Answer: Definitely, if we had traffic signs on our path, we would observe the traffic rules, or at least we would acknowledge that we violate the laws of providence. However, there are no signs and we don’t know what to expect. Why is it set up this way? Why is it that, only after going through multiple accidents, we eventually begin observing the rules?

To begin with, let me ask you a counter question: What makes you think that, in this world, we act differently? Here is an example: We vote for a law that prohibits talking on a cell phone when driving. When we violate this law, we lose driving privileges for three months. Why? It is because professionals in this field know that speaking on the phone while driving leads to multiple accidents and tragedies.

So, we can trace a similar pattern here. Our affliction grows until we reach a critical point. Only then do we create some sort of defense.

Previously, bridges were erected without parapets. Later, it was realized that people tend to fall from bridges. So, they began to build guardrails. It’s always like that. Any action of ours is elicited by pure necessity. Guardrails did not bring us pleasure. So, they were invented solely because of distresses that were caused by their absence on bridges and only after the necessity to build them became obvious.

Egoism pushes us to receive pleasure. Preventive and prophylactic measures do not fill us with delight. We want to cross the road where we feel like it. We choose to take something that doesn’t belong to us, we do not care that this action of ours is called “stealing.” This attitude results in having a multiplicity of various social systems: judicial, law enforcement, and so forth. In general, all of them are meant to temper our primordial egoism.

Today, a new developmental stage has begun. We must become acquainted with the Creator. How? If we continue feeling good, we never will begin a relationship with Him since experiencing pleasant sensations never pushes us forward. All we want is to enhance the good states we are in. Do we care from whom and why we receive pleasure? It’s enough for us to sense them. Nothing else bothers us since all we do is fulfill ourselves here and now.

However, as soon as we reveal the evil and realize that we cannot escape from it, we begin asking questions, and only afterward do we begin building guardrails or stepping on the brakes or doing something else to protect ourselves from trouble.

An egoistic desire to receive pleasure is our nature. This desire manifests itself diversely. It doesn’t allow us to protect or secure ourselves without giving us a visible reason for doing so. However, when it comes to receiving maximum pleasure, it doesn’t mind insuring us. Our attempts not to harm our neighbors still sit outside of this paradigm. They have nothing to do with bestowal as of yet, nor are they included in our initial plans. The delight we get is an enticement, a bribe. It shields our eyes and pushes us away from a correct way of thinking without even letting us realize it.

So, all of our assertions regarding the traffic signs are unfair. Your statement is correct only if you are not oriented toward the goal: attaining the Creator. It’s true only if we don’t study the system that He made for us so that we familiarize ourselves with the master who created it.

We must figure out exactly what He does with the help of the system He created and the ways He governs this system. It’s as if we swallow this system and let it settle inside us. Then, we begin following its laws. It continues working in us, but, from this point on, we watch it happen, analyze it, and control it.

This is what our free choice is about. By controlling the system, we constantly self-check if our actions correspond to what He would do. As it is written, “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.” This is the way we familiarize ourselves with the Creator and try to be similar to Him and even exceed Him a little. We run forward and try to predict His actions. By acting so, we learn both the back and the front side.

In general, all that we need for our self-correction will come to us in due time. The entire system is not only precise, but it’s absolute. It sends ideal portions to each and every one under all possible circumstances. If we received one gram less, we would feel it as an affliction that is not originated by love. If we received one gram more, this supplement wouldn’t come from love either, since it would deprive us of the freedom of choice.

We cannot justify His governance yet, but we need not justify it at the time. We should not try to be righteous as of yet. It is said that those who share other people’s affliction console them. Thus, they justify the Creator for their sufferings. After we finish our path, we’ll justify everything.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 08.28.13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace”

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We should clearly understand one thing: our success completely depends on the Creator and nobody else besides Him. “We are not the ones who will finish the job, but it’s not up to us to refuse it.” We must act applying maximum energy and at the same time staying confident that the result is solely in the Creator’s hands. We already know it very well. It has been proven dozens of times. We realize that we are playing a game the results of which are known beforehand, that everything comes from Him and that He is the One Who organizes everything with a divine “cunningness,” and that there is nothing at all we can do about it.

You can lie on the couch all day long and in the evening you’ll receive your salary as if you worked all day. However, we are obligated to accept the upper governance and work all day long. The same applies to our external dissemination. These two lines teach us the way that the spiritual realm is built: out of contradictory properties that look totally incompatible to our brain. It’s fine for now! Later, we’ll be given a different kind of mind.

Let’s hope that with each day we’ll need the Creator more and more. At the same time, we have to be cautious of weakening the other side of the coin and make sure that our own contribution in the process also has to expand day after day. Without it, we won’t have a need for the Creator. These two lines do not cancel or annul each other. If we manage to act so, we’ll accelerate creation of the first spiritual vessel.

We should apply our efforts as if we were “an ox under a yoke or a donkey to the load,” meaning that we should run faster and use our energy mechanically. As to our intentions, we should clearly realize that in every action of ours, the Creator is both in front of us and behind us, and that He “embraces us from the front and the back,” and that we work only together with Him.

Later, we’ll figure out that He works inside us also . Then, where are we in this picture? This is the point at which we start attaining a transcendent power, the spirit that dresses into everything around us. We understand that “There is none else besides Him” and that there is also a tiny point from which we look around and see that “There is none else besides Him.”

This particular point has nothing in it at all: It has neither volume nor width. It’s just a point that emerged “out of nothing” (Yesh Mi Ayin); it’s a point from which we observe that “There is none else besides Him.” Finally, we get to realize that the Light, the desires, and all states that we’ve been in throughout all of history, and in everything, there exists only one force, the Upper Force. “The Creator is the first and He is the last.” There is no other revelation that is greater than this one.

However, when we say that “There is none else besides Him,” it doesn’t mean that we don’t exist, since in order to make this statement, somebody has to be present in all places, in each and every property, in each of His actions, and then from that point, we have to decide (being on the opposite side) that in fact “There is none else besides Him.” By doing so, we completely merge with Him, meaning that we achieve cohesion and become equal to Him in all our actions, thoughts, programs, connections, etc.

It’s our duty to test everything there is in the Creator in order to comprehend that everything is about Him and finally arrive to a conclusion that ““There is none else besides Him.” All we have left is this one black point out of which we look around, but it’s a peculiar point from which the entire universe can be observed, from edge to edge, in all directions and ranges: the entire Malchut of the world of infinity.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/13, “Group and Distribution”

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Each and every action of ours should contain a vibrant appeal to the Creator. Any material activity that is not accompanied by intentions like: “Why am I doing this? Who am I interacting with together (with Him)? Why am I doing what I am doing (in order to reveal Him)?” Any action of ours that is not associated with clarifying these questions is completely useless.

If one prioritizes material actions and success above spiritual activities and attainment, one descends to the “ground” level instead of committing a spiritual deed. It’s a shame to waste time on such things. Our existence is not meant for it.

Does it mean that you approach others to tell them how wonderful it is to be together? Is it really your goal to organize a kibbutz or a collective farm? Not at all! You want to talk with them about unity and about an exceptional force that each of us contains inside because (from this point on, you should continue the dialog internally, in your thoughts) the power of unity will allow us to reveal the Creator in order to please Him.

You are obligated to continue this formula to the very end. We have to start with the Creator and conclude with the Creator. The Creator has to be in the beginning of our thoughts and He must be at the end; in the middle, there is our material world. It’s as if you start from state 1 of the world of infinity, go all the way down, from top to bottom, to this world, to state 2, and then return back to state 3, to the world of infinity at the end of correction.

Each of our actions is an implementation of the entire chain: from the world of infinity in the beginning of creation to the world of infinity at the end of creation. Repeat it to yourself as a mantra; it’s important that you do it until your heart begins feeling it. It’s as if you try to start up a dead engine; you try as many times as needed until it starts working.

Each time you do it using your material desire, which as of now doesn’t have anything in common with any kind of spiritual activity. You repeat it, as a child who doesn’t understand the meaning of words, until you start understanding. The Light impacts desires, clarifies and connects them until one begins feeling what one reiterates. Out of my own experience, I know that it works, although it requires lots of time.

However, there is nothing we can do about it, since the time, in fact, is just a chain of changes that we experience in our desires. Each time we go through a new correction. It’s a blessing that we have received a job that requires assistance of the upper force. Even if we artificially proclaim that we need the upper force, we can be assured that various troubles and enemies will not force us to understand how much we need the upper force.

We are the ones who define what route: the path of Light or the path of suffering. This is a very concrete choice: We either go one way or the other. The Creator wants us to connect with Him. If we obligate ourselves to do that with the help of a group and by keeping in mind the importance of the goal, then we’ll choose a positive and concise way. If not, then the “help against us” appears. At this time, we feel it on our skin. This is wonderful, since it’s help from above; it’s already a revelation of the upper governance.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/13

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Our work is to discover the higher force. And not for the sake of assuring us through confidence, some basis for our lives, but in order to please the Creator. And this is the opposite of the confidence that we seek in our world, which is that we feel ourselves secure in our ego, that we have power, knowledge, full barns, health, as masters of the country and world.

But the confidence in spiritual work is not focused on me because there is nothing in me that attains a higher level. I need to discover the Upper Light, to discover the Upper Light in the clothing of confidence; this means being in a state opposite that which is considered secure in our world.

The confidence is in the abandonment of my desires to receive. And the more that I rise above them and depend on what is higher, the more I receive of the Light of confidence. Separation from the present state and integration with what is higher, making it possible for me to do this, gives me a sensation of confidence.

This happens precisely when a person feels lost and is not ready to do anything on his own. Everything that I had before: Some kind of understanding, attainment, emotion, connection with friends, with the Creator, all the various forms of support on the way, all this disappears. I feel that I have lost everything and I have nothing to rely on. I have no other choice but to be freed from all my unfulfilled egoistic desires.

In the beginning I am lost and don’t know what to do with myself. I am concerned that I don’t feel the usual confidence in knowledge, in the intellect; everything disappears. The Baal Shem Tov passed through states like these when he forgot the alphabet, all his knowledge was erased, like a nursing infant.

We must understand that if a state like this is given to us, it is a great help from above, when all of my egoistic confidence is erased, all my material foundation. And then I fall into concealment of the face of the Creator, as was said about Moses: (Psalms 30:8) “You concealed your face and I was terrified.” After all, I don’t know what I rely on. And it’s specifically then that I feel an opposite point, a new confidence based on the dependence that is higher.

This is dependence on the conditions of the “Tzimtzum,” the “Screen,” on all of my receptive Kelim in which I don’t want to receive any illumination. I will be satisfied with only a little in order to sustain life in my beastly body, beyond this I don’t want to get any illumination within my ego, even minimally, so I will not feel the confidence of the “landlords.”

I want to be completely dependent on what is higher, like a fetus in his mother. What is higher will do what He wants with me now; I myself don’t seem to exist! I absolutely nullify myself, as if I don’t take up any space.

If I have succeeded a number of times in realizing this, then illumination will reach me, giving me a feeling of confidence in my dependence upon what is higher. The upper provides me with this confidence, like an adult does with a child that snuggles up to him.

In the beginning I adhere inwardly to what is above, like a fetus in his mother’s womb, because I have no possibility of holding onto Him myself. I only nullify myself, and the rest of the work is entrusted into the hands of what is above.

The more that I grew, more and more bad qualities, desires to receive, were developed in me. I need to overcome them in myself in order to grasp what is higher even more strongly and to feel my dependence on Him. This is just the way a child holds onto his mother.

That is how we must see ourselves adhering to the upper all the time. In a state of maturity, I adhere to Him so much that even though all of my desires are foreign and opposite to Him, I carry out actions through which I try to be like the upper and not be detached from Him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/09/13, Shamati #72, “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

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