We can find many excuses for ourselves, but if we face the laws of nature, then we must comply with it. The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about absolute laws. The Kabbalists explain to us how the system of reality is structured. And we think that they aren’t rigid laws, but are something that changes according to our desire: the relations between people, the connection between man and nature, destiny, luck, and various events of yesterday or tomorrow.

All of these illusions come from the lack of knowledge of the system, from the lack of understanding that it is defined in an exact system and it is not in our power to change it. There is nothing to do. It is that way and only that way! We even treat science as if we can somehow get around it. This comes from the lack of feeling that you are connected with the system by thousands of threads, billions of nerve fibers.

Imagine that coming from you are an endless amount of threads that connect you with all of reality, and all of them are especially sensitive, like exposed nerves. Everyone knows what an unbearable pain it is when you suddenly touch an exposed nerve from an aching tooth. All of us have felt this once. And from you are millions and billions of exposed nerves that connect you with others. All of us are wrapped in these thin white fibers, as if immersed in gel.

Imagine how sensitive you are to everything that happens in any place, anywhere. You depend on everyone and they, in turn, are dependent on you. We are tightly connected through these thin, nerve fibers, completely in everything. No matter what happens, your question is if this touches your nerve or not.

We are now detached from this understanding, but slowly we get closer to it through suffering. The drill between us doesn’t directly touch our nerve. It only drills a hole in the tooth and sometimes causes a certain pain, which we are able to bear. And sometimes we even manage to escape from the dentist, refusing treatment, what will be, will be.

And here it is not possible to give anesthesia and get rid of the pain, since the pain is the measure of the problem. The pain points to the place of the problem; you can fix it: go to the doctor and take medicine. In this case, if you are able to cure a physical disease, then it is allowed for you to use anesthesia. But it is not possible to give spiritual anesthesia since you have to correct its reason. And for this, you must discover the system of connections.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: On one hand, it is written: “There is none else besides Him,” but on the other, a person wonders: “If there is none else besides the Creator, if everything depends on Him, then what can I do?…”

Answer: “There is none else besides Him” means that everything comes from the Creator so that I reveal it for real and stay with Him in adhesion. He leaves me space to do my work, He does not block me from every angle, but rather gives me an opportunity to become like Him.

But in every other regard, it is true that “there is none else besides Him.” I should not think that there is anyone else near me. Seeing the multitude of factors that influence me, I must understand that essentially, all these factors are just He alone.

Sometimes I feel positivity coming from Him, and sometimes negativity; besides, these pluses and minuses can take various forms. But at the end I tell myself: “No, He is always one big positive, and He only influences me through pluses of various kinds. Meanwhile, I sometimes perceive them as pluses and sometimes as minuses. Thus, I must change myself so everything would become a plus to me.” Then, He and I will be equal, and this state will be called adhesion.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 24

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Shlah Leha,” Item 252, Lesson 24

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol 3, Part 9, Question 159, Lesson 34

“A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” (Line: “Analysis,” Starting with: “And since The Zohar appeared,”) Lesson 8

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Rabash, “What is a Cup of Blessing Should be Full in the Work”: But before the Yenika (suckling) there is the phase of Ibur (gestation), which means that the upper corrects him. This can be when a person is like an embryo in his mother’s womb, as the embryo annuls himself before the mother and has no mind of his own, but as the sages say, “An embryo is part of his mother and eats what his mother eats,” and has no entity of his own to ask any questions, but he doesn’t rise as a name. This is called that he is mute and has no mouth to ask questions.

This is the time when a person can go above reason with his eyes closed, and believe in the faith of the sages and go to the end. This is called Ibur, that he has no mouth, Ibur means (TES, part 8) “the level of Malchut which is the more restricted smallness called Ibur, which stems from Evra and Dinin, as it says “and the Lord became impregnated for you.”

And the matter of Evra and Dinin should be explained, since the body resists the work that a person should go above reason with his eyes closed, and so a person must constantly overcome, which is called “wrath, rage and trouble,” since it is hard work to constantly advance by overcoming and to annul one’s self before the upper, so that the upper will do whatever it wants with a person. This is called Ibur, which is the more restricted smallness.

This is a difficult situation, since a person is not used to such an attitude. To annul one’s self completely is even more difficult than simply lowering himself, and being in smallness. We already have the preparations for smallness by nature, but the state of an Ubar (embryo), which means the transition (same root in Hebrew) from one world to another with regards to using our desires, the inner discernments, is a very difficult process.

Here we are required to totally annul ourselves in faith above reason in order to rise above all the discernments and the desires that are evoked in us. It isn’t a passive state as it may seem. A person has to participate in it and to make his greatest efforts in order to overcome the obstacles he encounters. Otherwise it will be impossible to annul the previous level.

He is called an embryo since he cannot work with the discernments and the intention of in order to bestow yet, and so he annuls himself before the bestowal of the upper and allows the upper to do whatever it does with him by accepting everything as good, blessed, in full consent, understanding and delight. In that case he is called a spiritual embryo.

From this we should understand how we should prepare ourselves and the group in order to enter the state of an embryo in the spiritual world. We have already talked quite a lot about this, and now we should try to fulfill this.

It is a state in which a person feels pressure, the Dinim that he encounters. He doesn’t understand why this happens in the world around him and what the world’s attitude towards this whole process is, but eventually he sees how the whole world begins to enter the state of Ibur in preparation for the new birth.

It is because the whole world is in a person and so a person sees how the whole world, all these discernments, enter the state of Ibur. To the extent that he annuls his previous attitude to everything that happens, he discovers that the whole world around him becomes the reality of the spiritual embryo. When he annuls himself, he sees that the Creator operates in everything around him.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13

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Question: How does the Creator allow me to make mistakes? Doesn’t He want me to advance faster?

Answer: The Creator must open all the treasures of the Light for you. These treasures can be opened only by the depth of the desire that is attained in the dark. You have to feel your desires and to enter them. But if you really enter them and sink into them, there is no way you will be able to come out of them.

So the Creator’s work is to give you the vessels of receiving in their real form, completely separated from the Light. But if you remain totally disconnected, you will never be able to exit the abyss of your desire.

But if you are not immersed in them and are not included in these vessels of receiving that are totally opposite from the Creator, you will not be able to attain Him and will not be able to stand before Him as an independent entity.

Therefore, at every step of the way, you are left to stumble and fall slightly, and to go wrong a little. This “little” bit can be very severe, and at each stage there are very hard trials. But all this depends on how you were supposed to receive them according to the plan of creation.

If we could have received the whole Torah as we should have from Abraham onward (if we can say so in retrospect), then there would be no evil in the world. The whole world would advance in the best, most wonderful way towards correction.

The question is whether we could manage without the destruction of the First and Second Temples and without the four exiles at the end of which we are now. I don’t know how it could happen otherwise…perhaps all the corrections could take place in spiritual discernments.

We shouldn’t think about that now. Our job is to unite all the conditions that we were given—the Creator’s attributes and the created being’s attributes by the system of the Torah, and then we will reach correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can I avoid making mistakes and diversions along the way if I have to totally annul myself?

Answer: To annul myself doesn’t mean to totally erase myself. Self-annulment means that although I have the greatest egoistic desire, I am ready to work without any reward for my desire to receive, without any compensation for my ego.

I have pride, lust, envy, etc.; I would like to be like the King! I come to the palace and offer my devoted help. I can really do any kind of work in the palace, arranging and fixing everything. There isn’t a job that I cannot do!

Instead I am told: “Great! The king has a farm far away from here, on the border of his kingdom. Go there and wash the floor. It will take you twenty years to get there. You will wash the floor and then come back and report to us; that will take you another twenty years. So your whole life will go by, but never mind, you will at least do something for the King. We, his ministers, give you this mission. We will not even tell Him about it, why should we bother Him with such trifles? It is enough for you to know that you are doing this job for Him. At the moment we have no other available job.”

You gladly take this job and dedicate your whole life to washing the floor in some distant place about which the King will never know and his ministers have long forgotten about the mission that you were given.

This example shows us a little of what self-annulment means. It means that you don’t annul your desire to receive; you annul your demands. We cannot annul the thickness, the thickness is not refined; it only ascends or descends according to the Creator’s plan with regard to everyone individually or to everyone together. But it is not refined; it is only revealed or concealed.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Lately we have been speaking a lot about self-annulment. And this is no accident; I hope that we really are approaching it. Even though the ego is propelling us, we need to be directed to adhesion.

At the time of adhesion with the upper, I see myself as a part of some machine and I need to connect to it with each cell, each organ, every part of my “body” so as to integrate exactly into the work of this machine.

I don’t have a “head,” meaning, self-understanding; I need to annul all my thoughts, all my calculations, and all my desires. My only pleasure, my singular intention, and my singular desire are directed at how to integrate with this machine. Let everything pass through me, but I do not participate in it to begin with. I do everything as if I do not exist. They will activate me 100%, not only will they tell me what to do, but they will also activate me; this is called self-annulment.

After that comes disagreement, criticism, bad impulses, clarification, disappointments, complaints…and together with all this, I need to annul myself all the time to participate in the work of this machine. I find myself in it “outstretched and open to it as if I do not exist, and even though the desire and the mind begin to work inside me, I, with all this, still continue to annul myself. That’s how the fetus grows inside the womb: The Light of Ein Sof passes through me, but I take it only in the Behinat Nefesh.

The fetus annuls himself in the level of Nefesh, in the level of still, in Aviut Shoresh, the root level of the desire. Precisely because of that, all the Lights of NRNHY de Nefesh can pass through me. All his work in Mocha and Liba, mind and heart, in Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) and AHP, in all his participation with Partzuf Ima, with Bina, is by him annulling himself. No matter how many thoughts and desires will pass through him, no matter how much he will be confused, no matter what obstacles will stand in his way, he continues to annul himself, and by that he is able to be part of the “body” of Ima (mother), to be inside her.

The fetus does not activate itself in any way even though all its parts are growing. They grow and work in annulment. The mother does everything through the umbilical cord, and the fetus completely annuls itself; each part of the fetus works only in annulment. Otherwise, he is not ready to be born; he could not become a complete newborn. He still doesn’t have the form of “man.” Therefore, he must finish his work of annulment toward the upper.

He moves, his heart, his lungs, and all the rest of his parts are working properly, but only in annulment. We don’t understand this, we think that this is simply a small man and that everything works in a regular way, but the whole form of the work is in annulment towards the upper. Otherwise birth is in danger.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: What symbolizes the correction in three lines?

Answer: Correction in three lines is the ability to differentiate the influence of the Light, the desire to bestow (right line), from the influence of the desire to receive (left line), and the ability to be in the middle between them, in order to couple them and connect them together in the middle line.

If a person works in above reason in order to connect his vessels of reception with the force of bestowal that exists in him, this means that he is the middle line, in his middle point and is doing corrections in three lines.

In this case, he does not use his real Malchut, but only Malchut that rises to Yesod. It means that he scrutinizes the vessels, which will be in the correct connection and participation of Malchut and Bina. Correction in three lines is possible only after the second restriction (Tzimtzum Bet) when it is clear to us that Malchut is not capable of receiving any Light in herself, but only under the condition that she rises to the level of Bina. (Rising in spirituality symbolizes correction.)

At the time that Malchut rises to Bina, they partially connect. Malchut clarifies which of its qualities it can use in order to be in contact with the Light, with the Keter.

In order to be similar to Keter and to be bestowing like the Keter, it must connect with Bina and become similar to her, the same as Bina. At the time of Bina expanding from top to bottom, she wanted to be similar to Keter with all the depth of her coarseness (Aviut). A correct joining between Malchut and Bina brings Malchut to the calculation in the middle line.

It cannot be a prayer (MAN) without correction of three lines. However, the upper receives our prayer the first time when we request the first contact and are ready to turn into a spiritual fetus that annuls and restricts itself completely. Meanwhile, we don’t have correction of three lines. But later we start the period of the “three days of the absorption of semen” in which the three lines: right, left, and middle are created. From here onward begins the development of these three lines.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“: Hence, those with attainment can compose books and put their attainments to writing in intimations and allegories. They will be understood by all who have been rewarded with the degrees that the books describe, and they will have common attainment with them. But those who have not been rewarded with the full measure of the degree as the authors will not be able to understand their intimations. It is even more so with those who have not been rewarded with any attainment; they will not understand a thing about them, as they have no common attainments.

If a person attains something, then according to his understanding he can imagine and clarify, at least a little, what Kabbalists on other levels feel. But of course, a person who has not been through the levels that the books speak about cannot understand what they are like. Of course, if a person is only in this world and has not acquired any spiritual attainment on any level, he will certainly not be able to imagine correctly anything that is said in Kabbalah books.

Question: Can we say that two people who are in the same spiritual world attain the same level of annulment?

Answer: But each one does only in his own way and according to his specific measure.

Question: So in what way is their annulment equal and in what way are they different?

Answer: Suppose I started studying in a university together with my clever talented friend; he is clever and I am not so clever, and so we are each required to make different efforts. He, along with his study, manages to have fun and to look for work; everything is easy for him, while poor me, I have to sweat over my books from morning to night and don’t see the light of day. Eventually we both graduate: He has a diploma and I have a diploma. This is what usually happens in our world.

But in spirituality it’s different; the whole point is the efforts a person makes. I feel the level that I acquire to the full depth of NRNHY, while he attains the minimal level of Nefesh. Therefore it says, “The reward is according to one’s sorrow.” The sorrow in this case is a person’s exertion. This is the way the opposite value between Lights and vessels is arranged.

Question: So what does it mean to be in the same world with someone?

Answer: We are on the same level, but the depth, the recognition, the understanding, the reasons, and the outcomes are different for each of us. On every level there are the Lights of NRNHY, the Sefirot KHB-ZON, the levels of the still nature, the vegetative, the animate and the speaking. A cat lives in our world just like us, but what does it understand compared to us? It’s the same in spirituality: What will a desire on the level of a “cat” understand and feel?

Question: If two people worry about one another and each one does his best, how can their effort be compatible?

Answer: Each one’s specific personal force doesn’t change, just like stem cells. It is rather the efforts and the exertion that change: to what extent each one has made efforts and is incorporated in everyone. If I am incorporated in everyone at my root point, at the end of correction I attain what you attain and we are totally adhered. But each of us can reach this adhesion from this root point.

Thus we differ in the initial “root” point in which there is no thickness (no “thickness” of the desire), but only the difference, the root, the posterior of Nefesh of Kedusha. We take everything else from the whole general vessel, eventually, we become equal in our attainment, in our understanding, in everything, but each one still sees it from his initial point. We remain different, the root disparity that comes from the Creator remains, and from it we begin to see and to discover His richness and variedness.

Question: The picture at the end of correction is clear, but what happens along the way?

Answer: All the friends are in the same world, but each one thinks and understands differently. Each one has his own abilities and skills: one is more talented in music or in painting, another writes books, and another makes movies, and still another only knows how to fix a flat tire. It’s the same in spirituality: At the end of correction there are no differences, but in the intermediate levels during the ascent, everyone attains the world in his own way, of course.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: In what vessel does a person discover spirituality?

Answer: In the Returning Light, which means in bestowal, when he worries about the other more than about himself, when the other is more important to him than he is.

Question: What does a person have to annul in order to acquire the spiritual vessel?

Answer: Thoughts about himself. How can I, who can only think about myself, switch to a state in which I will totally change myself for the good of others? Where can I get such a desire? Where can I find the powers to make such an effort?

Here the Light that Reforms helps me. It’s called the “miracle of the exodus from Egypt:” I take my feelings (heart) and mind out of the control of my desire, of the caring for myself and put them into the other. Of course, I can’t do this by myself. A prisoner can’t release himself from prison, and you can’t pull yourself by the hair out of a swamp. After all, the desire and worrying about myself are all that I have.

But the Light comes and takes this concern out of the desire and puts it into someone else. Then I begin to care about him like a mother worries about her baby. After all, the same thing happens with her, but on an egoistic level: It’s as if she is hypnotized in her concern for her baby, looking at him all the time and worrying about him. If we didn’t know about such processes in this world we might think that she had lost her mind.

This is also the work of the Light, but a mother is not required to ask to be able to love her baby, she is simply given this love from Above. In our case, however, it’s different. A person is given a choice, “Do you want to remain on the “animal” level? Go ahead. But if you want to rise to the spiritual level, then you need to activate this force.”

You need to constantly improve, become wiser, and, in short, you need to acquire the Creator’s mind in order to activate Him. This is the difference between the two levels—the fact that you activate Him. It’s about this that it says: “My sons have defeated me.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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