Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” Go and ask a botanist how many phases the fruit undergoes from the time it becomes visible until it is completely ripe.

The problem is that I don’t see the purpose on my way to it; I don’t feel what the end of correction will be like. It isn’t by chance that it says, “Why don’t you show a fool a work that is half done?” In the middle of the way I cannot see the end.

It is clear to me that I am a fool since I don’t see the final wholeness, but what can I do about it? What can be demanded of me at this point? My life isn’t going well corporeally or spiritually, everything goes wrong in my life so why should I justify the Creator all of a sudden?

Wise people may know that the apple is destined to ripen, but I don’t see anything; it is bitter and that’s it.

This means that I need “the faith in sages,” the faith in those who have already been through this path; I have to adhere to a wise person, a teacher, to such an extent so that I can use his wholeness, only then will I be able to justify the creation and the Creator. But until then, I don’t hear what they say to me. Without the feeling of wholeness that is acquired from the upper, which means from the group and the teacher, I will always be a chip of wood floating in the sea, being thrown from side to side by the waves.

Question: But still, examples like the apple or the worm in the radish give us some clue?

Answer: They calm you down and help us quiet our conscience: “All this is not in vain; it cannot be that nature will not allow the apple to ripen. It means that all our sufferings will pay off…”

It is true, but this is already religion. People are fed these “conclusions” in order to calm them down: “Wait, soon you will reach Heaven…”

We see it differently: I want to attain wholeness now, and it is possible only by adhesion to the group and the teacher. I need the final result now since otherwise I will not make one step forward.

However, if I cannot use this means, I will not be able to advance. In Shamati, article 25, it says: Instead, there is only one counsel then, to cling to his teacher and to the books. This is called “From the mouth of books and from the mouth of authors.” Only by cleaving to them can he change his mind and will for the better. However, witty arguments will not help him change his mind, but only the remedy of Dvekut (adhesion), for this is a wondrous cure, as the Dvekut reforms him.

In other words, all the concepts upon which he builds his building, saying one must always follow in the path of the Creator, is founded in the Dvekut with his teacher. Thus, if he loses the foundation, then all the concepts are powerless, since they will now be lacking the foundation.

Hence, one must not rely on one’s own mind, but cleave once more to books and authors, for only that can help him, and no wit and intellect, as they are lifeless.
[101644]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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We advance from concealment to revelation and discover what already exists. “There is nothing new under the sun,” there is nothing that was not created and nothing just suddenly appears out of nowhere, except for the revelations which we constantly add by our efforts according to our advancement. We open wider the picture that already exists and discover more and more of it.

It is as if it were dark and I gradually turn on the light by slowly twisting the dimmer knob. It gets brighter and brighter and I can see better and understand all the details in the picture.

It isn’t a simple light, but the light of the mind, the light of our feelings. It allows me to penetrate this picture and to discover it, to connect more strongly to it, and to influence it. I discover the system that connects to me. I suddenly see that I am in it, incorporated in it, and not simply observing it from the outside like an independent researcher. I live in it!

We discover that all of the upper world already exists; this is all our work: to discover the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) as the fixed, eternal, true state. Everything else is only its concealments that we have to get rid of by rising above them. All the concealments are necessary, only so that we will be able to gradually, from one level to another, adjust ourselves to the world of Ein Sof.
[101689]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot 

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Question: What is the concealment made of?

Answer: The concealment was made of our corrupt feelings and mind. It is as if I am trying to understand something but do not succeed. I make efforts, “breaking my head”, trying to approach it from one direction and from another direction, but I cannot understand this. I find different points to hold on to, but I cannot penetrate it so that it will make sense to me. The reason for that is lack of connection, which means lack of vessels of perception.

It is like a puzzle that has to be put together so that each bulge will perfectly match the designated dent. It is the same thing here, I lack the right dents in my deficiency so that the part of the puzzle will enter me and connect with me. And then I will understand, realize and feel, and the picture will suddenly be revealed to me.

I remember that when I was Rabash’s student, I came complaining indignantly to him that the concealment lasts for so long. But the concealment stems from lack of equivalence, from lack of compatibility between your inner attributes and deficiencies and the world that has to enter you. For the time being, your deficiency cannot perceive this form, so what can be done here? You are like a child who is trying forcefully to put a cube through a round hole. But the child does not understand that he will not succeed and so he keeps on pushing the cube and crying.

We too don’t understand the need for compatibility here, and that it is attained by observation and by efforts. It is hard and we see how a kid cannot stand this situation. It is the same with us as the reason is always incompatibility, lack of equivalence. Whole and perfect pictures come from Above, but we have to become compatible to them.

So every event in your life, every situation that is not felt as totally perfect, like the Creator’s image, indicates a lack of vessels of perception, some kind of your incompatibility with the upper.

First, be thankful for the feeling of deficiency; it is already a revelation. You don’t need to calm and to silence this feeling, but rather work with it purposefully. Rejoice that the evils are being revealed and start correcting them.
[101686]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 55

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Balak,” Item 298, Lesson 14

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 10, Item 29, Lesson 11

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Lesson 5

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Question: How should I work on my inner states? Accept them? Rise above them? Ask for something? Demand?

Answer: It depends on your level.

We gradually begin to enjoy the fact that we can be above our states. It isn’t masochism or blind detachment; we are aware of our feelings, we calculate things, and at the same time detach ourselves from them. It is the next stage in creating the Masach (screen): A person tries to be detached from good and evil and to really be objective and independent of the feeling of his body.

Question: How can we hold on to this level, allowing the pleasant and the unpleasant feeling do their work in the vessel, and at the same time observe this from the outside?

Answer: In the Book of Proverbs, it says, “Acquire truth and don’t sell it.” We cannot discern this externally. There are many layers in a person’s calculations and it is impossible to remain at one point all the time until the upper Light makes it “stable.”

But if a person makes efforts and tries, he really wants this to happen. First he is given a feeling that he can “hold on to this standard.” Then, of course, he is sent a feeling of failure and powerlessness. Then it turns out that he cannot even think about it, and then he holds on to this thought, but cannot fulfill it. This is how the four phases typical of this process develop.

But in any case, in the whole scale of feelings, from maximal negativity to maximal positivity, I have to try to hold myself at this point and focus on the goal. No matter what happens, it makes no difference to me. Although the feelings can tear me apart, I rely on one thing only and “lock” myself on the goal.

All this is possible only at “the center of the group“. It isn’t beyond the horizon nor above the clouds; it is only in the center of the group that I find and discover the spiritual world. By working with the group, I begin to discover that I am not surrounded by coincidental faces but by special people who were chosen from Above. Together they make up a whole network, and if I am incorporated in the group, if I am ready and assist it with all my powers, then I am included in Malchut, in the Shechina.

In addition, I get to know the force that sustains it and that is revealed in it, and I want to identify with that force. I influence the friends from below and it influences me from Above, and there, in the group, we finally meet in order to unite. Then it turns out that the group is our common “baby”….
[101634]
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: How are the two types of work we have to do connected: the internal and external vessels and desires?

Answer: Different opportunities come along occasionally and you should understand that your inner vessels are in the “center of the group” and everything that you feel internally has nothing to do with spirituality. Spirituality begins at the point where you want to break off from your “self” and to be incorporated in the group and lose yourself there by fulfilling only what is in the mind and heart of the friends.

Question: On one hand, a person lowers his head, and on the other hand, the group influences him, so where do we fail?

Answer: We don’t understand that spirituality is actually hidden in the connection between us. It is not quite clear to what extent so that we would yearn only for the “center of the group” where the Creator is and also the created being, the spiritual worlds, the Shechina, and everything there can be. We are learning how to relate to this central point correctly.

But we have to act and, in the meantime, our actions are not intensive enough. All the friends have to understand that it is only in the center of the group that we build our collective feeling and mind. Ibur (gestation) is associated with three elements: the Light, the sparks, and the vessels. It is only by connecting them that we reach a substantial “volume” in which something already happens even if it is on the initial primitive level of an “amoeba.” We need at least this for the spiritual start.

On the whole, it is about a long process that lasts until the end of correction. It all exists in the connection between us to the extent that the group attaches new people to it.

Even now we already have all sorts people in our global group. If they start to connect, then a kind of a mini model of the end of correction is formed in a qualitative sense, which contains all the possible details of perception, representatives of all the nations, all the streams, everything there is. If we could connect, we could form a nucleus, a beginning of the correction of all of humanity and of all of reality in general, of all the worlds. In this unity there would be all the “seventy nations of the world,” and then we would also bring all the nations in the external world to unity. We would complete the correction for them by collecting all their attributes, which means that we would effectively accomplish our mission and everyone else would join on their own. After all, if we have already corrected ourselves together with the attributes of the world that have been part of us for ages, it is done.

This is what we are required to do, and it is all “the center of the group.”

Question: What prevents us from taking a step towards this connection and to focus on it?

Answer: I can prepare a thousand reminders for myself about the fact that the center of reality is the center of the group. It won’t help. It is because my egoistic desire negates and erases this. There must be a stronger influence of the environment’s opinion that constantly pressures me and by that obligates me to think and worry only about that.

Question: Under what conditions is this bestowal fulfilled?

Answer: We need to make efforts; we need to attack; there has to be the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. Perhaps we are missing one of these elements. A person himself cannot perform an altruistic action and only the Light can bring him closer to that. This means that we need the source of the Light; we need to summon it and obligate it. And this requires the “prayer of many“.
[101631]
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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Fate changes very much as we advance. Each one is given his or her own difficulties, but you should not envy others. There are such internal problems that are not visible from the outside and it may seem that a person has all the best, that his life is successful, and that he has never had any problems with money. However, we do not know what internal or external obstacles, invisible to the external eye, he overcomes. No one gets favors in this.

The more internal the correction, the more qualitative it is, and, thus, it is more powerful in its strength than correction by external problems. It is similar to a worker who needs to labor an entire week to earn the same amount a specialist can earn for a day or even an hour of work. It depends on the root of the soul.

We are engaged in the most important work. It is low, dirty work to correct the world at its most insignificant degree where it is now, and this work is the most special and honorable. We need to feel this, understand it, and give thanks.

We work on our own vessel. All the problems that become revealed to us are the means for correcting the broken unity. Every day I repeat that dissemination is necessary for your own good; that it is your own vessel and you aren’t doing anyone any favors. The Creator does not need your work. You, yourselves, need it first. Otherwise, in what vessels will you get revelation?

However, if a person is stuck inside the breaking and wants to perceive the world from there—not correcting himself—then he is like a child who does not want to grow but demands to be given at the age of two the same things that grownups have. This means that he is delayed in his development and does not use the opportunities that he gets.
[101557]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 42

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Balak,” Item 268, Lesson 13

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 10, “Ohr Pnimi,” Item 26, Lesson 10

Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 5, Lesson 4

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Rabash, “The Torah is One Holy Name”: Therefore, when the evil inclination brings a person alien thoughts, then it is the right time to take these thoughts and to raise them “above reason.”

And a person can do that regarding anything his heart desires, and he should not say that now he is repulsed by the work, but rather that he was given desires and thoughts from Above, so that he will be able to bring them into Holiness. So he is actually being brought closer from Above, and therefore he was sent this kind of work.

And about this it was said: “Straight are the ways of the Lord, the righteous will follow them and the sinners will fail in them,” which means that if a person is rewarded, he can ascend by that and if he isn’t (rewarded), he descends by that spiritually.

It turns out that there isn’t a moment in our lives when the Light is not revealed to us by revealing an additional thickness in us in different manners. It summons in us different feelings and thoughts that are evoked in the mind and heart, and we have to respond.

This additional desire can lead to a bad mood or to an egoistic ascent; it can lead to thoughts that are closer to spirituality or further away from it, to criticism of the environment, and to everything that is related to the spiritual path. All this happens, of course, only by the revelation of the new Reshimot (spiritual genes). If a person is in the right environment and adhered to the teacher, the books and the group, to all the efforts that stabilize his path, then he will not forget this. Then he will not miss any opportunity that is given to him and will constantly respond.

The response itself may seem to be good and successful or not very good and successful; it makes no difference. What’s important is that he fulfills the current moment, the given Reshimo and moves on.

But if a person doesn’t hold on to the teacher, the Torah, and the group, then he has no chance to fulfill that moment, and so life passes without a purpose. He thinks that he is advancing, but in fact he is simply accumulating wisdom. This means that he doesn’t advance in fulfilling the new Reshimot but only in developing his egoistic mind. We have to be very careful of that since a person cannot see the exact border between advancing in fulfilling the new Reshimot and the development of his egoistic mind.

Therefore, it says, “Straight are the ways of the Lord.” If a person relates to this correctly, then he will go through them like a “righteous.” If he doesn’t, then he will descend and leave the spiritual path. The main thing is to check whether you can attribute every moment to the fulfillment of the goal, which means to attain the attribute of bestowal above reason.
[101571]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 3, Inquiry No. 5: The matter of the rising of the dead: Since the body is so contemptible, that immediately at birth it is doomed to perish and to be buried. Moreover, The Zohar said that before the body rots entirely, the soul cannot ascend to its place in the Garden of Eden, while there are still remnants of it. Therefore, why must it return and rise at the revival of the dead? Could the Creator not delight the souls without it?

Indeed, why should “the body” be revived? What about the soul? Will it come down from Heaven again?

Even more bewildering is what our sages said, that the dead are destined to rise with their flaws, so that they will not be mistaken for another, and after that He will cure their flaws.

Nothing remains of the body after it rots. So why does it have to revived? What difference does it make if someone says something?

We must understand why God should mind that they would not be mistaken for another, that for that He would recreate their flaws and then would have to cure it.

“A body,” which means the desire to receive, has always been holy and has always been in adhesion. The whole round we make is necessary only in order to rise higher towards the Creator so that we will feel all the 125 degrees, so that we will have the fineness and the sensitivity and will clarify and sharpen our perception in feeling the Creator, and will rise from the level of the created being to the level of the Creator by ourselves.

Therefore, the desire to receive has to go through this whole cycle and at the end of correction to come back and acquire all the flaws. Then we will be able to compare what it was at the beginning of creation and what it has become at the end of creation after it has been through all the levels and has rotted.

All this is fulfilled by our work at the end of which, after the “rising of the dead,” we acquire a new discernment of the desire and by it can adhere to the Creator.
[101567]
From the 4^th part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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