Everything that happens is for our benefit. All the concealments, judgments, and problems arising show us those places in which we need to put efforts at this time, at this step, in order to advance. Therefore, first of all, we should try to obtain a correct view of the entire reality.

Everything that we see in front of us are our own faults, our inner world, that result in this picture of the world. That is why we see only negative around us. If you want to use every revelation correctly, you must rise above every state by faith above reason to try to see a perfect picture, the world of Infinity, through this earthly reality that is visible to our eyes.

If you cancel your negative attitude towards reality and approach it positively, then instead of the picture that you see now, you will see the Light clothed in desires.

The main thing is to justify the states through which you pass, understanding that they are given to you so that you would overcome them and decide that they are sent by the Creator with the best intentions so that, through them, you would change your attitude. Nothing needs to be changed but the attitude. A change in attitude, that is, intention, changes the whole reality.
[101953]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/13

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Question: We often speak about the other; what is the desire to receive of the other?

Answer: All of reality that you can imagine is all about the other; in other words, it is everything that is outside the “self.” We should understand that the “self” is merely a spark and that’s all. Everything else is restricted and unimportant. You may eat, drink, and enjoy life, but only in order to sustain yourself. Everything is determined by one’s intention.

You must see yourself as a spark. Everything else is the animal level and you should provide what it needs, but all your attention should be aimed outwards, towards what is external to the spark. There, outside yourself, is your desire, your spiritual vessel, everything that you can only imagine: all of the still nature, the vegetative, the animal and the speaking levels.

You can manage automatically with the first three levels of your external desires (the still, vegetative, and animate levels) since there is no resistance on their part. But we have trouble with human nature since, in it, you see yourself, your essence, what you are. It’s like the atlas of your inner spiritual anatomy with all its components. Everything is in there, and still, it’s your desire, and so you should work with it.

It doesn’t mean that you have to correct others. Simply by worrying about them, you discover that they belong to you. This is why we disseminate. It’s as if you want to reach the others, to pass on the method of correction to them, but in order to get close to them you have to understand and to feel that it is your own “self.” Then, by really feeling yourself in them, you begin to understand what is written in the books of Kabbalists.
[101866]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 25

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Balak,” Item 331, Lesson 16

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 10, Item 32, Lesson 13

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 5: Therefore, common sense dictates that we grasp the opposite of what appears to be on the surface, and decide that we are truly noble and worthy creatures, of immeasurable importance, actually worthy of the Worker who had made us.

Question: How does this go along with what Rabash once said to you: “Now you are a rag like I am?”

Answer: There are many discernments and elements in the term “rag”: I am incapable of anything, I am dependent on the Creator, and I am happy about having discovered this fact. By that I see the beginning and the end of my actions, and in every action I have to make efforts in order to attain the concept of a “rag,” and then adhere to the Creator and by that obligate Him to do something.

So the state of a “rag” comes after all the exertion, according to the principle “I have exerted myself and I have found.” It’s the final stage and it’s a very important level in which I understand better that I have nothing, that I am totally “squeezed,” powerless, lacking energy and motivation which I must receive from the Light.

I can’t fulfill the correction, I can’t accumulate the necessary discernments, but I can attain the necessary desire to exert myself that I get from the environment. I could stay on the “animal” level forever, if the Creator did not let me rise to a higher level about which Baal HaSulam writes.
[101781]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How can we reach an equivalence of form with the teacher, meaning to share his perspective and to acquire his values?

Answer: It all depends on how well you understand what is said by the teacher because you can’t understand his perspective in any case. It isn’t about an external equivalence of form, but about a person who annuls himself and acquires the vessel of the other, in this case of his teacher. To the extent that the student connects to the desires of the teacher, he can advance.

He uses the wholeness that the teacher has, since the teacher’s state is certainly more whole than the state of the student, and the teacher is on at least a level higher than the student. So the student can receive the Light of Hassadim by adhering to the teacher, which will help him rise higher above himself in faith above reason, to be incorporated in the group, and to see the study in the Light of bestowal. By adhering to the teacher, the student receives spiritual vessels by which he can already start feeling internal actions, spirituality.
[101767]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/13, Shamati #25

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Question: How can we prepare the right “vessels” internally so that we will be able to hear what the upper says?

Answer: In order to hear the upper you have to connect. Malchut of Atzilut is called Knesset Israel (the assembly of Israel) since it assembles all those who yearn “straight to the Creator”-Yashar-El (Israel).

Then they all connect in Malchut of Atzilut and then Malchut of Atzilut raises a prayer (MAN) up to Zeir Anpin, and together rises as with a big brother to father and mother (upper AA). This is what happens in all the levels until the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

So the connection with the upper is only possible if I am connected with those who are equal to me. First we have to create an “assembly,” a connection, a gathering of friends. The main thing is to annul yourself at least before one person, and by that you are ready for the connection with the other.

The term “upper” exists only inside us. Who is a teacher—“rav” (great in Hebrew)? He exists only in the center of the group. If you think about a teacher outside the center of the group, he is not called “rav” but simply a teacher, a scientist, or a wise man. He doesn’t become a guide.

A guide is someone who shows you the way. It is someone who is in the center of the group and who says, “You all have to connect around this center.”
[101764]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/13, Shamati #25

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“: This environment will help him obtain the greatness of his rav through love of friends who appreciate the rav.

Question: How does the love of friends help attain the greatness of the rav?

Answer: The term “rav” includes the Creator, and in general everything that helps a person rise to the next level. The friends are those who help a person not in rising to the next level, but rather in the recognition of the greatness of that level. A person doesn’t see himself on the next level, but with the help of the group and thanks to the influence of the friends, he begins to imagine the greatness of the next level.

We use the “fuel” of the group, although no one has attained the highest level yet. The general spirit and general atmosphere are enough because it is our nature: A person appreciates what his environment values and considers it to be important. It’s according to this principle that we grow.

Question: So why should I love the friends, isn’t it enough to simply appreciate them?

Answer: Love of friends is already the fulfillment. And the first step I should take is accepting the path and the goal, and agree to accept the system and the idea of the upper force to which we connect and attain. Then how can I raise these values above myself? Through the support of the environment that will help me feel the greatness of the goal.

The “environment” is the Kabbalah books, the friends, and the teacher. Together they lead me to the Creator. This means that all these factors must constantly be important to me, above my self-importance. Only then will I be able to advance.

Question: But still, in ordinary life the environment influences us even if we don’t think positively about it…

Answer: True, whether we like it or not, the environment influences us by using our ego, our desire to receive which is always ready to enjoy. It is simply shown different types of pleasure; it perceives them like bait and swallows them.

On the other hand, I am not attracted to the goals that the group presents. On the contrary, because of them I have to give up things and to aspire to receive pleasure from bestowal, which I don’t really understand. I don’t understand it to such an extent that I even feel repulsed by it. The whole way is made of concessions, of self-annulment, of annulment before the group, although nothing in me is attracted to anything like that.

So it turns out that I don’t like the group and teacher’s message about the Creator. There has to be mutual work on the part of the individual and on the part of the group. The friends have to work together so that everyone will feel that these things are obligatory and desirable, so that every person will see how essential and important he or she is and that the general enthusiasm will flood his consciousness and his soul.

If we don’t create a kind of “brainwash” here, we will simply not be able to advance. External impressions will not help us here and neither will nice words or the friends’ actions. Internally, a person will still reject the idea of bestowal if it isn’t reinforced by the group’s serious attitude where everyone is ready to invest in it and to spur one another on.

People who hold on to their externality spin around the goal, around the system for decades. Some of them become Hassidim, some become involved in dry studying, and others deal with dissemination, but they don’t implement the method in the correct efficient way.

All this happens when the environment is not strong enough to sweep a person towards the goal. After all, by that we fight our nature, our desire to receive, which we have to neutralize and to even draw towards bestowal. This is extremely difficult, but this is the key. If we succeed, we will break through to the upper dimension, and if not, then as we say “we will retire”…
[101637]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: In his letter No. 29, Baal HaSulam writes that “prohibition is the same as permission, since the key that is good for locking is also good for unlocking.” What kind of “key” does he mean?

Answer: The key is the Light of Hassadim, the intention to bestow. On one hand, we can lock ourselves with this key and thus bar the Light from entering our egoistic desires. On the other hand, we can open ourselves for the Light that dresses in the intention to bestow. Under this condition, the Light is allowed to enter the desire to receive. Bina refuses to receive; therefore, Bina is against the Light of Hochma. How does it open itself for the Light of Hochma after restriction occurs? It turns itself into a “garment for the Light,” into a condition. We are ready to receive treats from the Host’s table under the condition that He allows us to think about Him, rather than our stomachs.

If we keep thinking of the Creator while we continue receiving pleasures, if we feel Him and understand that He enjoys us, then our sensations become a million times bigger than those that we get from direct self-indulgence. We multiply the pleasure because we understand the significance of the Host and feel love for Him. And that is how we become ready to accept the treats.

So, Bina blocks only a small amount of the Light (Nefesh de Nefesh) that it could have received directly in the desire to receive. It opens itself to the Light of NRNHY, the infinite Light of the Creator. This implies that the key that locks the door also unlocks it. As it is said: “Open a tiny space the size of an eye of a needle for Me and I will open gates through which carts and chariots enter.”

We can’t receive directly more than a thin ray of Light that supports life in all of us and revives the entire world. The intention to bestow multiplies a tiny live spark and expands it to the size of the Creator if we strive to bestow to Him.

We “use” the Creator as a magnifying glass and amplify a thin ray that formed all of creation, all of matter. We increase both the matter and the pleasure proportionately to the greatness of the Creator in our eyes. This opportunity is granted to us by a “tool” that is called “the intention to bestow.”

It is called “bestowal,” but due to it we receive the opportunity and acquire the ability to increase our desire to receive that was shaped by the Creator “out of nothing.” It’s similar to a tiny grain of sand, a tip of the needle that we can multiply proportionately to the Creator’s “scale” so that it can be filled with the Light that is as powerful as the Creator Himself.

It happens because we begin working in bestowal “on the tip of a needle,” on a “tiny grain of sand” of a desire to receive that was created by Him. We receive one gram of delight and simply cannot “fit” more into this small desire that is as little as a grain of sand. However, if we manage to expand it for the sake of bestowal, it is crucially important for whose sake we do it. Thus, we multiply our desire and the delight proportionately to the scale of His love for us, as an infant who smiles at his mother and thus causes huge joy in her.

It’s the “patent” we use, a miraculous opportunity granted to us by the Creator. We use its power and the strength of His love for us by expanding ourselves with its help. Otherwise, we would be the lowest creatures in the world. All other levels of nature (inanimate, vegetative, and animate) fulfill themselves directly, whereas by the mere fact that we are born as people, we go through all prior levels (inanimate, vegetative, and animate) and there is only one thing left for us: a point in the heart that is completely empty of any fulfillment.

Because we are so unhappy, a tiny spark awakens in us. It’s a desire to receive pleasure at the speaking level that now still remains empty in us. If we fail to receive the Creator’s power and won’t take “advantage” of His love and His kind attitude toward us by using it to “magnify” ourselves by this quality, we’ll be left with a scanty and hollow desire. Even death is better than such kind of life…

Luckily, we are given a chance to receive the power of the Creator if we treat each other in a correct way. That’s why the shattering and all other kinds of preparations from Above happened, so that people can feel a need to love or at least realize the necessity to unite.
[101404]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Letter 29”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 55, Lesson 2

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Balak,” Item 310, Lesson 15

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 10, Item 29, Lesson 12

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 10, Lesson 6

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Question: Sometimes I am amazed by my own thoughts, where do they come from?

Answer: From the Creator.

Question: But when I think about my thoughts, it also comes from Him. So where am I actually?

Answer: I have to attribute everything to Him, all to one source, to the Light that pours from Above and evokes the Reshimot below. The meeting between the Light and the Reshimot is what created the reality I am in. From this develops my sense of reality.

There are five levels of development in me and I want to attain my source, my Creator, which means that I have reached the fifth level. Then I want to attain what I am made of: the “Light” and the Reshimot.

In other words I ask about the meaning of life: Where does life come from? What for and how?

Usually this question comes as a result of unpleasant feelings, when I feel bad. In that case Kabbalists tell us that a person cannot understand and do anything by himself. First I have to gather and to build a system in which I will operate—both from the perspective of the Reshimot and from the perspective of the Light.

In this system, there is me and the other, and this allows me to evoke the Reshimot and the Light in him. Then I begin to resemble the Creator, as it says, “We shall know You from Your actions.”

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