Question: We have to yearn for the changes that the Creator sends us along the spiritual path. But these changes involve unpleasant feelings, how can we want them?

Answer: When a person’s ears get clogged, he has to listen more carefully, “Has anyone said anything? Did I understand correctly?” This is the inner effort to hear the one who turns to you.

We have to feel the same about the Creator. Something happens every minute: someone is looking at me, someone is talking to me, something happens in the world; inside me, I have had different thoughts, I have had different desires, different problems come up… All this is the Creator’s language. He is the one who sends me these messages.

Let’s take a certain object, for example, that is being bitten on all sides by particles in the air, by atoms. I am also constantly under the influence of the Creator. I only have to increase my sensitivity, and then through my “skin” I will actually start to discover Him; I will decipher his “conversation” and understand how and what He does.

It is all about my inner sensitivity. Even if I grow tired of paying endless attention to everything that happens, I have to ask for such sensitivity. It comes thanks to the mutual exercises I do with the friends, and with their help, I discover that at any given moment I am given different opportunities to have a dialog with the Creator. If I don’t miss them, then there is no room for thoughts, everything turns into feelings, and the feelings don’t go back and forth between us, but rather become common feelings…

We have to apply simple, direct psychology here and as little “accounting” as possible: eventually it is the Creator turning to me through different “garments.”
[102482]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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At any given moment the Creator kneads a person like dough, and the question is to what extent a person feels that and is ready to feel it and to accept the Creator’s ceaseless work on him.

There are different periods, since on every level we have to go through all the discernments: the still nature, the vegetative, the animate, and the “speaking.” And there is a certain time that we are asleep. This doesn’t depend on us, but is rather part of the general work on all of creation that also includes us. We feel only a small part of what is happening with us, so there are many periods in which we are unconscious of what we go through.

First we have to yearn to acknowledge that there is none beside Him. Second, you have to nullify yourself and try to be objective. An “objective perspective” is looking through a “lens” and not through your own eyes; it is looking through some independent tool that is external to my subjective sight and that can enlarge or minimize different details and sharpen the focus artificially, regardless of my feelings and preferences. This is called a subjective perspective that photographs the situation like a camera.

We have to feel many inner subtleties and discernments in order to become such a camera lens. What do I want to photograph by using my camera? I want to photograph the Creator! So what kind of camera do I need for that?

My desire to receive is a photographic film in a camera on which I take a picture. This desire has to be independent of me and under full restriction, free of my subjective approach, of my attitude. I have to rise above it, and then it will reflect the true picture and not the picture that I have made and retouched Adobe Photoshop. This is the first phase of the work.

Everything depends on how sensitive I can be with regard to all the figures and the relations the Creator displays before me, which are constantly changing, to what extent I am ready to start a dialogue with Him according to what is happening to me and to detach from myself as much as I can. This is very difficult, since to detach from myself actually means that I carefully examine myself in order to constantly see what ties me to my ego.

To the extent that I do this kind of work, I can identify the Creator’s image more clearly. To the extent that I neutralize myself at any given moment, I allow the Creator to imprint Himself in me, to be revealed in my photographic film, on the layer that is sensitive to the Light.

This sensitivity depends on the “silver coating,” the material used in photography, and it depends on how much I cover and conceal myself. Then internally, the Creator’s image in its opposite form can appear in my matter, like a negative.

I can receive such a coating only if I subdue myself before the environment. I have no such coat, no Masach (screen), behind which I can hide my ego; I have nothing to cover myself with. The only chance is to place myself under the care of the environment, like a baby who wants to hide in his mother’s arms.

But a baby does it instinctively because of his ego, the desire to do good for himself, whereas we have to do a great deal of work against our ego in order to annul it, to subdue myself before the teacher, the group, the study, and the dissemination. This will provide us with the coat.
[102477]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, Shamati #15

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How can we be taught what bestowal is? In order to do that nature has planted a desire to enjoy in us through which we learn about bestowal by its oppositeness, by its opposite attribute.

Our desire to enjoy receives certain impressions that evoke different responses in it and imprint different holes, cracks, pits, and dimples in our desire. Thanks to that, the desire begins to feel to some extent that these impressions are different in size and character, and that there is a certain connection between them that we don’t understand.

We suddenly discover that our desire to enjoy is versatile, multi-layered, and very complex, and accordingly it receives different complex impressions. Thus we learn about our nature. The more we know about it, the more we attain the opposite attribute, the opposite nature. After all, all our study is based on the clash between two opposite attributes: receiving and bestowal.

It says, “And they shall have no other Gods before Me,” which means that by studying precisely about these “other Gods,” we study about the Creator and can form His image in us. Otherwise, He has no image and no form allowing us to somehow imagine what it is, who He is, and how to discover Him.

How can we discover that which is impossible to discover? Only by negative impressions that are perceived negatively in the desire to enjoy can we gradually build an opposite attitude so we begin to imagine what the attribute of bestowal is. We cannot attain it any other way: not by using our imagination, not by our feelings, or by any action on our part that can be directly adapted to Him.

Everything takes place only due to some special force, the Light that operates in different states and evokes different responses in us. Our work is to attribute everything to the one upper force as we determine that there is none else beside Him. This, however, encounters great resistance on the part of our desire to enjoy, which until then thought that there is none else beside itself and now has to settle for this. One annuls the other, which means that an argument begins: Who will rule?

Both of these claims nullify one another: it is either Him or me! This conflict is the basis of all our states. We shouldn’t be afraid to stand between these two opposing sides and to deal with the two insoluble dominions, to endure it, to accept, and to surrender, but to attain and justify, to understand and resemble the force of bestowal. If a person doesn’t escape this clarification, but can work under the conditions of this split, the conflicting opinions and the feelings, if he doesn’t count on his animal mind and doesn’t escape from the battlefield, he receives a new mind and feelings from Above. In that case he acquires a form that is similar to the Creator.

Until then, it is impossible to understand what bestowal is. When a person finally attains it, it is called the Creator’s help, a finding. A person who accepts all the forms of work that are given to him and who lowers his head, not following his own mind, which seems to understand everything and determine everything, then he succeeds. The main thing is, as it says not to believe in yourself until your dying day, which means the death of your ego. After that you already acquire faith.
[102425]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, Shamati #15

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Question: Why does it say that if one performs a Mitzva, it protects and saves him and whereas the Torah protects and saves a person when he deals with it and when he doesn’t? Why is there such a division in the correction?

Answer: The Torah is called the Light that surrounds a person on the spiritual path. Even when the Inner Light that used to fill his vessel on the current level disappears, there is still the illumination of the Surrounding Light, which sustains a person. After all, if there is no Light that shines for a person, he ceases to exist. All of life is sustained only by the Light.

When a person doesn’t perform a Mitzva, meaning that he hasn’t discover a certain Light—the Light of Hassadim or the Light of Hochma—there is still a general illumination called “Torah” thanks to the state he has attained. This is the general plan of creation that is before a person and shining for him. He understands this, but at present, he is not dealing with a certain item in it with a specific correction.

These Mitzvot are a person’s actions according to the specific Reshimot (spiritual genes) that are revealed to him in which the Inner Light, the Surrounding Light, and the spiritual Partzuf take part. It is working on a certain self-correction. Therefore, there are 613 Mitzvot that include all the Torah. The Light of Ein Sof (Infinity) is called the Torah, the Light that will be revealed at the end of correction.

Torah is a system of desires (vessels), Lights, Reshimot, and different relations between the point in the heart and the Creator. This whole system that is meant to bring the point in the heart to adhesion with the Creator is called Torah.

Mitzva is a concrete step that we have to take on our way to attaining the goal.
[102408]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/13, Shamati #6

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Question: How can I move from “me” to “we?” What is the meaning of justifying the Creator only when a person is happy not because he is successful but because his friend is successful?

Answer: The point is that you should adhere to the friend and through him feel reality. How can I check my devotion to my friends? It is according to how happy I feel when they are happy and how sad I feel when they are sad, bringing myself into the group only in order to help them reach the good state.

Here I begin to discover to what extent I actually want the opposite: what fire of hatred and envy is revealed in me towards them, and to what extent I cannot want anything good for them because I like this separated state.

There is a great deal of work I have to do here so that these examinations will bring me to the right conclusion: I have nothing but the friends among which I live!

If my friend has a problem, I work with it as if it were an obstacle standing between me and the Creator. It makes no difference. I will be able to annul myself there, my “I,” and on the other hand, will feel great with respect to the friends, meaning that I want to do everything so that that they will feel good, like a good mother.
[102406]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/13, Shamati #6

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #53 “The Matter of Limitation“

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Balak,” Item 470, Lesson 23

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 10, Item 42, Lesson 19

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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On Sunday, I gave a lesson about the European convention. I think it was a very good lesson; I am really pleased with myself. I spoke from the heart about the importance of the convention, about the need for such a meeting especially in Europe—at the current epicenter of the global crisis, in the modern Babylon where the greatest risk of mutual hatred has been created.

I ask everyone who considers himself my student to listen to the Sunday lesson. It is not only for the Europeans. After all, at the convention, we want to achieve greater correction. If we achieve some unity in Europe, it will affect the whole continent.

You see yourself how our initiatives permeate “underground” and spread everywhere through the invisible “root system.” Join us at the European convention, support, strengthen us from everywhere, and a good echo will spread around the world.

In general, every convention is very important, but this one is special because it will take place where the world’s problems are concentrated, and there we can realize global correction.
[102485]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: It is known that while a man does not become a father himself, he cannot understand what it means. Even the numerous examples in front of him will not help, until he assumes father’s duties and feels responsibility, caring, and loving. We also study the future states theoretically, not understanding what it is in reality to be responsible for the lower degree…

Answer: Absolutely. However, we were given the possibility to realize it. First of all, a person annuls himself before the teacher, group, studies, the world, and the Creator. Being in your environment, check how far you are able to advance in this direction. By this, you will prepare yourself for more qualitative self-annulment.

Question: But this is still not real—theoretical self-annulment. Just as one listens to advice on healthy living until the disease forces him to follow doctors’ suggestions.

Answer: That is why our method contains several parts. The world has an influence on you; you join the group that studies with the teacher by special books written by sages. Here you are affected by a range of factors and, in addition, you have to feel that the upper force is behind this, and there is nothing except it. And then, according to these manifestations, you see how to annul yourself before them.

Besides, they explain to you that in reality the “external” picture is woven of your internal parts of perception: You have to join one of them and reject the other one.

In a word, you are given a field of work and everything depends on whether you accept this or not. You cannot isolate yourself from everyone, “What is a teacher for me? Everything is clear without him. Why do I need friends? I have my own head. I can understand the books myself better than others. I don’t owe anything to the world, it can burn…”

On the other hand, if you feel that you need all this, that this is the projection of your soul, you have to get closer to these parts, include them in yourself according to the principle, “I dwell among my own people,” then the picture appears in a different light. Thus, you increase your sensitivity, go towards change, and save a lot of time. Moreover, your attitude towards change is transformed; now you desire it.

This is preparation, a mandatory stage before the transition from theory to practice.
[102441]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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We constantly go through opposite states since basically there is a desire to receive with all its egoistic attitude, understanding, and feeling. The Creator’s desire, however, is a desire to bestow, and it is opposite from our desire.

We don’t know what this opposite attribute means for us; we don’t know it. We only feel how it operates on us even if we don’t know what it is and who it is. We still have to clarify this. This is why this world was created in which instead of the Creator we are surrounded by different forms and creatures that seemingly influence us instead of Him.

We have to show understanding towards them; that it isn’t them who operate on us, but rather the upper force who is behind all of that turning to us through different people or through different events in life. I have to accept these actions and these influences as essential, in order to mold me, like dough, and to create the right form that is ready to be baked.

If I accept these things and try to find the powers to cope with the Creator’s work on me, I begin to know Him through this work, and His hands that hug me like dough.

Thus I go through two phases: First I agree and am ready that He should perform all the necessary work on me. I feel the strong pressure of His hands on me, like on a piece of dough, until He molds me correctly, in the form of bestowal, the level of Bina“, to bestow in order to bestow.”

I am ready for anything, as long as the Creator shapes me in this from. It is very hard for me, since as He works on me, He applies strong pressure. Then I want to go on, even to the state of to receive in order to bestow, in order to ascend and to rise like yeast. This means that the desire to receive itself already participates in this motion and yearns for the form that the Creator shapes him into. Thus we attain an equivalence of form with the Creator. To bestow in order to bestow is called “Matzah,” and to receive in order to bestow is called “Hametz” (leavened food), the real bread that in its corrected form joins the Creator’s form that is imprinted in the created being.

But first all our work is to accept all the forms that come to us that imprint the attribute of bestowal in us and to accept them as desirable. In order to do that, we should use the help of the environment as much as we can and all the means that were given to us in order to prepare ourselves for the receiving the Creator’s bestowal, His work on a person.

It may seem to a person that he does that, but if he doesn’t use the external support that is meant especially for that, then it is only an illusion that he is advancing towards accepting the upper forms, but in fact, he is not ready yet to become a spiritual embryo.
[102422]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, Shamati #15

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As it is sung in the song “Sing for Him, Chant to Him…joyful are those that seek the Creator.” All our work depends on it; are we capable of being in self-scrutiny, criticism, and unpleasant inner discernments so that, by ourselves, in our forces, we reveal the evil even before we stumble into it through compulsion, “in its time“? It is necessary to reveal it before that, in “hastening time”: pulling ourselves into connection, even though it is against our nature, revealing the evil, and finding a cure before the blow.

Because in the cure, there is part of the poison, part of the snake, so it cannot be pleasant. And if we are capable of finding the cure ahead of time, then we progress as workers of the Creator, by requesting of Him.

Therefore one doesn’t need to be afraid of the revealation of evil or of the wicked being revealed. The main thing is to see this revelation correctly. Until all the evil and flaws are reveled to the end, we will not come to the good; we will reveal it only together with the correct preparation to reveal the illness in order to correct it.

Because there is no doubt that all the “wicked” already exist. If a thought, a desire, and an urge come to a man, it is a sign that it was already in him before. But if we reveal it by preparing ourselves correctly, then we open this “Pandora’s Box” and we quickly and easily correct all the sins; this is called the short and pleasant path. But if we are not ready for such a revelation and do not want it, then we will go in a long, difficult painful path until it will finally be revealed.

It is impossible to prevent the pain completely, but it needs to be a pain of healing as in a man who goes for surgery, treatment for a wound, or gets dental care. It is not pleasant, but we agree to it; therefore, everything depends on preparation. And if a correct preparation is made, then the group, the community, and the world groups are ready to see the revelation of evil, and then “Joyful are those that seek the Creator,” and we will have what to sing to Him about.
[101327]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13

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