Question: Are there degrees during the period of preparation or is it one degree in total, and only by entering the spiritual world, will we begin to ascend the 125 degrees?

Answer: Even on the zero degree from which we start, we go through different stages. Every degree consists of ten Sefirot, no more and no less. And each Sefira has its own ten Sefirot and so on to infinity.

There is no such condition which is completely solid and does not include all the elements, the entire reality. There is only one picture of the universe but it is seen in a different resolution as if on the map with a different scale.

For example, we are going to the convention in St. Petersburg. If you look at the map of Russia, the city is just a point. But if you get closer and increase the scale, then this point turns into a big city. You get closer and see all the streets, even every building, etc.

Thus, our current state seems to us just a point. But in reality it includes the entire universe. Everything depends on the scale in which we view it and see all the details in it. The revelation of all the details is the ascent of the 125 degrees.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash 

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We must not forget that a person alone cannot reach the feeling of greatness of the Creator and this means the greatness of the goal, because the goal is to adhere to the Creator by which we bring Him contentment. Our final correction is in this adherence, the final destination station, the entire goal of creation.

The Creator created the desire to enjoy, but we are in illusion now thinking that we are created to enjoy receiving. We are in this deception and that is why every time we get some pleasure, it immediately disappears. We need to understand this contradiction that we need precisely the desire to bestow because the goal of creation is to enjoy bestowal.

“To bring pleasure to the created being” means to bring them to the state in which they will receive pleasure from bestowal and not egoistical giving for the sake of receiving, and not even giving for the sake of giving, but receiving for the sake of bestowal. That is, we have to use our desires, all our abilities in order to bestow.

It turns out that any change in our nature is possible only under the condition that we nourish ourselves from some external source of inspiration, importance, desire, attraction, and push towards a spiritual goal from which we derive all the power advancing us to correction. All this energy comes from the environment. A person is able to do something only if he is influenced by the environment. And if there is no such influence, he will not succeed.

There are moments when a person is given an awakening from above and then he is able to turn to the environment. But in most cases, he himself cannot turn, and the environment must take care of conveying the importance of the goal and inspiration to everyone. Only then will we be able to advance in the right direction.

Therefore, there is no more important task than building the right environment. It is written, “Would that they left me and kept my Torah, for the radiance within it would return them to good.” The Light comes only when we are connected between each other. That is why the building of the environment is the main condition.

There is no point in waiting for a true spiritual revelation from above if it does not come out of our own efforts to unite with humans such as us. We need to understand and remember the fact that everything that happens in our relations with the external world, from us to it and from it to us, to everyone, and to us together, comes only through our connection.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13

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It all depends on our efforts. We have reached such a level that we are able to prepare ourselves by the path of Light with accelerating time and by helping each other, as is said, “Help a fellow man.” But this requires unity, inner mutual demonstration, total inspiration, and passion.

Everyone should try to be impressed by others, even artificially. You are watching a lesson and it does not touch you today. But make even artificial attempts to cling to what is said there and this will happen. Thus, we achieve a common desire.

The path of Light means that I received the ready desire from friends because my soul is in them, and I, myself, have only the point in the heart of my soul, everything else is egoism. I do not have to use it all but to be constantly above it. This is called faith above reason when I am in the group instead of my mind and egoism, and I absorb all their desires and fulfill them.

Today, we can talk about these deep things because you have been in good preparation for a week. There is the desire to reach the spiritual vessel, even if it’s not very clarified, but I feel that your efforts give me the opportunity to reveal some details of preparation, connection. Thus, we will advance, we still have time before the convention.

These remaining days are the most important, not the convention itself. You will later understand what it means “to eat what has been saved for a long time,” that is, to be nourished by what you have revealed during the preparation. As egoists, we think now we’ll reach the spiritual world and get everything there. But we will come to the revelation of the feeling to what extent we were in the perfect state before, although it seemed flawed to us. Exactly as The Book of Zohar describes this, “The holy Zohar also spoke about it, saying that one who is rewarded with repentance, the holy Divinity appears to him like a soft-hearted mother who hasn’t seen her son for many days, while they made great efforts and experienced ordeals in order to see each other, because of which they both were in great dangers.” (Baal HaSulam, Letter 25). Then, time disappears and all the states come into one because what we reveal is that we initially were in the most perfect state.

So, do not forget that your desire is in the other, in the collective vessel. Now, everyone is getting ready for the convention and if you are integrated with them and want to receive a desire, hopes, and inspiration  from them, then it’s in this way that you discover your true spiritual vessel. You need to look inside yourself less, if possible do not look there at all, and take your emptiness as salty appetizers or spicy seasoning and become included in the friend right away. He contains all the main courses, fulfillment, both the vessels and the Light. And I have only additions that incite my appetite from my inner emptiness.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Shamati #117

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Question: If I understood correctly, we are corrected by first seeing something in “faith above reason” and then by the Light that Reforms which makes it part of our reason.

Answer: Attaining the real state in the corrected perception is called attainment “within reason.” First I see the level that is above and which I cannot reach and fulfill inside me, but I can adhere to it by a means called “faith above reason,” to receive it above my reason, above my attributes.

I am on a certain level and want to ascend to the next state to my future self, whichever way I want to imagine it, and so I pray for it and ask. But in this future, upper state, I need to imagine the group, the teacher, the goal, everyone on an upper level and myself here below.

When I adhere to them this way, I totally yearn to be there like a child who dreams of being a grownup. So from the upper level, the first illumination, called the Light that Reforms, comes to me. This is what happens since there are always two Reshimot (spiritual genes) in us: Reshimo of Hitlabshut (from the future Light) and Reshimo of Aviut (thickness) (from the current desire). The determination of the Light is always on a higher level, for example, four/three.

The Reshimo of Aviut is called “reason,” and the Reshimo of Hitlabshut is called “above reason.” This is how the levels of the ladder are arranged. We are in the system and its laws operate on us as we study the wisdom of Kabbalah. In the meantime we cannot feel their influence on us, but we live in it. From the moment a person begins to study, he already operates within the upper system and he needs to feel the meaning behind every word.

The ascent up the ladder is an ascent “above reason” and entering “within reason,” and then again ascending above reason, etc. We need two things in order to advance this way and to not get stuck on the way: self annulment and loyalty to the upper. There is nothing but that. These are the two major guiding signs; I can ascend if I want to annul myself and raise the upper.

But there is no rope that ties me to the upper. I create this connection by myself by annulling myself and adhering to Him. It seems to me that the upper operates in a totally unreasonable way and I seem to blame Him for many sins. Different states are presented to us from above since we are so opposite from spirituality and cannot see the truth, but I have to annul my opinion and adhere to the upper unconditionally.

This is very difficult and we can only count on luck and on our good fate here and not on our reason. The moment you decide that you have to follow your reason, you remain on your level and don’t move anymore. You have already broken the connection, fell off the rope that pulled you upwards, lost the direction and the ability to advance. Your reason immediately throws you off to the corporeal level and you are not a developing human being anymore but have fallen out of the system.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/03/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can a created being nullify his shame before the Creator?

Answer: These are the same corrections that we perform in the worlds of BYA when we raise them to Atzilut. Atzilut (from the Hebrew root meaning “with Him”- “Itzlo”) is the place of the love of the Creator and the worlds of BYA are the place where the created being exists.

All the clarifications of the outcomes of the shattering are only clarifications of love. Without the shattering we wouldn’t be able to understand this love. It became possible only because the shattering has revealed the hate, the shattered desires that prevent us from getting along with the Creator. We want to mutually respond to His love in “faith above reason.”

Imagine that I am willing to give everything that I have as long as I can express my love in response to your love. I don’t want any give and take accounts between us: “You are for me and I am for you,” but only mutual love that is above any gain; this is called a perfect pairing.

This is the reason for the spreading of the worlds from the top down and for our ascent from the bottom up. In fact there is no up or down in the upper worlds. “From the top down” means the mechanical preparation of pairings in which the Masach (screen) and the Returning Light participate in Zivug de Haka’a (coupling of striking). But from the “bottom up” it is only accounts of love and not about the quantity and quality of the Light, which means not about the filling but about its derivatives, what I receive beyond all the presents.

Our only work is to establish the feeling of love for the Creator in us. But we discover the total opposite of love in all our desires, which means hatred. But this is already a revelation of love since we discover its oppositeness, which is already a great achievement.

The shattering allows us to understand what love is! A person who has not experienced shattering doesn’t know how to love and doesn’t know how to hate and actually doesn’t feel anything. The shattering brings us to a very acute state; it forces us to clarify things very accurately with regard to love. We don’t measure the temperature, blood pressure, or the weight of the Light and the size of the vessel; we only measure the love that depends on certain conditions or doesn’t depend on anything.

This is the outcome of the shattering, which gives us such incredible opportunities. Thus, it becomes very clear why it was necessary for the descent of the worlds to be from the top down until this world.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: We must know that the above-mentioned law of development, which is spread over the whole of reality, is guaranteed to return all evil to good and useful acts through the power of the Government of Heaven Above, meaning without asking permission from the people who inhabit the earth. However, the Creator placed knowledge and authority in the hands of man and permitted him to accept the above-mentioned law of development under his own authority and government, and handed him the ability to hasten the process of development as he wishes, freely and completely independent of the boundaries of time.

Representatives of the still, vegetative, and animate nature are unable to change the law of development, but we can do this, we can “take it into our own hands,” i.e., use it for acceleration. We have the ability to slightly change its action, to get out from under the total control of nature with its indispensable imperatives to get involved with the management through our efforts. Due to this, our development will continue, firstly, faster and secondly, in a more pleasant way.

As a rule, the force that develops us is cruel. It is called the “press” or “roller” of development and it leads us forward only by suffering. Our desire is drawn to pleasure and ideally strives for bliss which requires no actions. Fulfilling the desire, pleasure “paralyzes” it, immobilizes it; we see this sometimes in young children. Filled to the top, I become still, freeze, feeling no need for any movement. That is why we need troubles and suffering that will spur us to move us from the spot and develop us further, to force us to move faster.

As a consequence, the force of development appears to us as bad, negative, and we run from it to where we can see the positive, the good. Moreover, we always run in the direction opposite from where we got the blow. Thus, we “automatically” pass the still, vegetative, and animate stages of development, as well as their equivalents on the human degree, not knowing and not feeling that we are driven by the law that can be used.

But in the end, we find the “human in ourselves” who wants and can effect what is happening. He looks for means of self-development, the advancement of self. He finds out what his purpose is, what he lives for; he asks questions about the meaning of life with the purpose to find the force of development, to learn the law of development and use it for his benefit, i.e., for the realization of the goal.

As for our relations with other people, as well as the still, vegetative, and animate nature, we must bring them benefit as well based on our development, meaning to include them in the good development that we will reach.

Not everyone is able to accelerate the process. The majority simply follow their nature. We are talking about development and development is always contrary to our nature, always goes with efforts, through force, under pressure, with pain. It is always opposed to the egoistic desire, which only wants to enjoy the current state.

Thus, if Israel are rewarded and take the law of development that their bad attributes must go through in order to invert them into good ones, they will bring it under their own government. In other words, they will set their minds and hearts to correct all the bad attributes in them and turn them into good ones by themselves. Then, “I will hasten it,” meaning they will be completely freed from the chains of time.

There is a point on the path from which the person receives an impulse, the realized need for development. He wants to know why and for what he lives on the Earth and then he comes to the means that is called the “wisdom of Kabbalah.” This means allows him to develop himself without being dependent on the limitations of time by the path of acceleration.

If a person, for whatever reason is lazy, shies away from this opportunity, then his path lies somewhere in the middle between time and acceleration.

That is why we must strengthen the group and always make calculations between them: to what extent is acceleration in our hands? Ideally, we should fully control it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” “Letter 56“

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Donkey Driver,” Item 112, Lesson 39

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” Lesson 2

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Question: Why do we need a timetable that we are accustomed to? After all, it isn’t so good when the work becomes a habit and doesn’t require any efforts.

Answer: Of course a habit frees us of making an effort, but it saves us when we fall and puts us back on track. Then we continue to make efforts in order to acquire the next level.

I move in a form of a minus and during a descent I reach the lowest point in which I lose everything, it’s the zero point, zero life. I cannot exit it by my own powers. In mechanics the movement continues thanks to the force of acceleration and in electronics we use capacitors, conduction coils, by which we accumulate energy that we can use later.

When I descend during the work, I charge a certain capacitor, and when it’s charged I can use it and ascend. There are such cars today that operate on both fuel and electricity. When I drive on fuel, I fill a battery, and then I can use it and drive without fuel.

So when I descend, I have to make sure in advance that I will be able to exit the lowest point. If I don’t prepare myself, I will be stuck there and that’s it. I will have no power to continue my advancement. We prepare ourselves in different ways in order to exit this state, we prepare in the group, but eventually we don’t see that anything helps since I am totally dead and don’t respond to anything and don’t see or hear anything.

In that case only the habit that has become a second nature helps me. I have prepared it in advance, like a capacitor that was charged. This habit is already imprinted in me and is part of my nature and by it I can rise from the descent and carry on.
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From the Talk About the Preparation for the Convention in St. Petersburg 6/26/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155: Therefore we must ask, why then, did the Kabbalists obligate each person to study the wisdom of Kabbalah? Indeed, there is a great thing in it, worthy of being publicized: There is a wonderful, invaluable remedy to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.

Many ask why we should study. Not everyone is attracted to the study and most people don’t even like to study. It’s especially difficult when you have to study the same thing every day not seeing the spiritual world before you, not feeling this material. All this is true but we study in order to draw the Surrounding Light upon ourselves.

It’s the only means that has been prepared for us by the sages in the time of the Talmud, who gave us the power of the Torah instead of sufferings so that we will be able to correct our ego, the evil inclination. Thanks to this we gradually weaken the powers of our ego, time and time again, through ascents and descents, by discovering additional layers each time and neutralizing its powers.

Thus, we advance thanks to the right preparation until we correct a certain part of our nature which is ready to accept the Surrounding Light that already arrives as an inner Light, thanks to the Zivug de Haka’a (mating of beating) and the right intention, the Light spreads into the spiritual vessels. A vessel in the spiritual world is the intention of in order to bestow, the Light of Hassadim. Thus we already begin to receive the Light.

Kabbalists wrote books for one another, which means for people who understand the spiritual meaning and who can use these texts in order to draw the inner Light, so that they will discover the connection between the corrected souls of people who lived in different generations and in different periods and thereby bring more Light, the awakening to all the corrected desires. They also thought about us, about those who yearn to discover the upper Light in order to bestow but who cannot do so in the meantime because of lack of the right intention and organization. If a person can exert himself with the right, pure intention, and yearn to understand what he doesn’t understand at the moment, he evokes upon himself the influence of the Surrounding Light.

There is no need for the right intention and the right overcoming, the restrictions of the ego, a Masach (screen), and the Returning Light in order to bestow this way since the Surrounding Light responds to every slight awakening of a person to bestowal. So Kabbalists give us the advice to connect among ourselves first. We receive a shattered vessel and we first have to work on connecting it, on attaining mutual guarantee, self annulment, on being incorporated in one another, and on awakening, strengthening, and supporting one another without falling or escaping from this work that doesn’t seem to lead to any results.

To the extent that we perform the simplest physical actions we evoke upon ourselves the Surrounding Light. It’s because the spiritual worlds and the corporeal worlds do not exist separately, and there is only one reality. So we constantly evoke the Surrounding Light in every action that we do instinctively or on purpose whether it’s on the level of the animate for improving my health or on a higher level with an intention.

We live only thanks to the Surrounding Light. Even the worlds of the still, the vegetative, and the animate live thanks to the Surrounding Light, which automatically becomes the inner force of vitality that provides matter with the energy to exist. But a person lives only thanks to the Surrounding Light, which he evokes by his desires. So everything depends on the preparation.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Shamati #72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light“

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Donkey Driver,” Item 106, Lesson 38

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” Lesson 1

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