Question: How can I increase my awareness of the fact that there is none else besides Him, and at the same time not turn it into mysticism?

Answer: Only by the environment! If a person is withdrawn, he doesn’t see the right picture. Only the environment can reset him and direct him to the right perception so that he’ll see every revelation as a sign from Above but not become a mystic who sees signs of mysticism everywhere.

It’s about “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator” that connect at one point so that they give me the right direction. I connect everything to one path on which I want to reach adhesion with the Creator, and according to it, I clarify everything that takes place inside me and around me according to the level of importance in their relation to adhesion. Everything has to end in adhesion, which means in the Creator.

There is only one way to check if this is right: Does my action go through the group and lead to a greater connection in which I hope to discover the Creator. It has to be incorporated in this system accurately and clearly, like the last piece that is missing in a jigsaw puzzle that makes the picture whole and infinite once it’s in its place.

There is nothing but the Light and a vessel. We are the vessel and the Creator is the Light. This Light comes to us through a kind of a filter, which is this whole world, different forms and manners. But in fact, it’s all the Creator’s actions and influences.

I perceive everything you are saying to me now as the Creator’s attitude towards me, who thus wants to evoke me and to add something to me. “There is none else besides Him” means that the Creator operates through everyone. It seems to me that they exist in this world, and so I have to treat them from this point of view; for this reason, we reach the love of the Creator through the love of the created beings.

But through the group you have a different account compared to the rest of the world. It is because the Creator presents His friendly attitude through the group, while through the world He usually presents the negative attitude. These two attitudes direct you to the goal. Through the group, you get sympathy, support and understanding. By the group you acquire another force; it’s as if the Creator is with you.

A group is part of the Creator that is always with you; while the world is part of the Creator that seems to be against you. Eventually, however, all this has to unite into one whole.
[96876]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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When people were closer to nature, they felt nature in such a form that looks almost mystical to us. But actually real phenomena of nature were revealed to them. For example, tribes in the Amazon feel the forest much better than we do; they smell its scents from miles away; they read signs and traces, and they can decipher all kinds of sounds.

After all, they don’t have anything else. A man lives in it; his life depends on it, and that’s why he increasingly develops his connection with the environment. According to the flight of the birds, according to the blowing of the wind, he knows many things. He connects together all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and perceives it as one.

But we are the opposite. We shield ourselves from the environment. We close doors and windows just not to see the urban cacophony and not to hear the noise of the cars. As a result, we are blocking our vessels of perception. We are isolating ourselves from life and from the universe.

Question: But people often confuse between closeness to nature and something supernatural.

Answer: All of these are feelings, sensations, that we can develop in ourselves. There are people that can hold your hand and tell who you are and what your plans are. There are those that can predict the future; they read thoughts. These are natural sensations that we lost in the path of the development of civilization, and they are not some kind of “extrasensory perception.” Nature installed in man much sharper senses than the current feelings. And it leaves no doubt that there are no miracles.
[96789]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/12, “Body and Soul” 

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Question: Can the Creator interfere in the action of the laws of nature?

Answer: He Himself determined these immutable laws. “He gave a law and it can not be surpassed,” and therefore, actually everything was done because “The end of the action is incorporated in the initial thought.” The final state is already contained in the moment He decided to create the creation. And only for us this perfection still needs to be revealed, in all the negatives and all the positives. It is revealed only in our perceptions and actually nothing is changing except this revelation in us.

And therefore the laws are determined as all the stages in the path. We are going through all of them, but are able to move in different rates or different beats and to feel different tastes: bitter or sweet. In this is the whole difference: I can progress in a sweet and fast way or in a bitter and long path. The stages are predetermined, but on the sweet path they are changing quickly and in the bitter path they are lengthening. It depends on our attitude, in our effort. In principle, the world was created for this, that we will change our attitude toward the progress, in order for us to transfer from the long and bitter path to the sweet and fast path, according to the manner we are rising above the ego.

And here is where the whole problem lies. After all, I want what seems to my ego as sweet and fast. But instead of this, I choose the opposite, bestowal, that is desirable in the eyes of the Creator. I agree with Him, with His long and bitter way, and then this way suddenly becomes sweet and quick. “Click,” and everything thing changes.
[96759]
From 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/12, “The Peace”

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Preparation to the Lesson

“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 130, Lesson 33

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Naso,” Item 347, Lesson 17

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, “Ohr Pnimi,” Item 17, Lesson 11

“Body and Soul“

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Question: What are the components of the force that affects the unity of friends?

Answer: The total sum of the spiritual force is made up of our aspirations for the next higher state. Each one individually has no spiritual force, but if we annul ourselves relative to others and begin to connect between ourselves, our connection forms the field, the network, in which the Creator is manifested.

Each of us is just a point, not even a vector. A vector appears when we mutually connect with each other.

The force that unites us is the upper Light, the manifestation of the Creator.

There is nothing but the Creator and what He has created—our egoistic desires. The manifestations of the Creator in relation to us are called the Light, and they have the other side, the direct side, Hassadim, Hochma, various NRNHY, fractions of the Light, its modifications.

By trying to unite among ourselves to reveal the properties of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love, we draw, according to our efforts, His closeness to us, not by His command and desire, but by ours!

The law, similar to the effect of a magnetic field, functions here: I strive to connect with my friend, wish that the Creator is revealed between us, and thus I bring about the attraction of the Creator towards us. This is an absolute law, and nothing depends on Him; He does not decide anything. He establishes one law, and this law is carried out because the law of nature or the Creator is one and the same. That is why, as soon as we strive to get closer to each other, our closeness with the Creator appears immediately. This desire gradually brings us closer, revealing a mutual force between us, as if feeding it.

Similarly, a child’s development occurs in our world; he makes an effort and receives energy and knowledge; he puts effort again, and again gains energy with new knowledge. Thus, we get a regular flow to the extent of our mutual movement towards each other and in overcoming egoistic interferences.

The Creator purposefully created egoism in us, which is constantly growing and changing in us in various forms, shapes, kinds, not only in size but also in quality. Moreover, He does all this in such cunning ways that we forget that everything comes from Him and begin to assign this to our friends, ourselves, our environment. But in reality, He spins all this.

It all depends only on our reaction to discover that it is Him, not forgetting about this, supporting each other, and constantly trying to get closer to each other.
[96867]
From a Virtual Lesson 12/23/12

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Question: What is the relationship between efforts to unite and the reaction of the Creator to them? What does He do more, help or place obstacles?

Answer: The stronger we are, the more He helps us by preventing.

After all, if you are stronger, you deserve bigger and qualitatively different obstacles, not simply quantitative interferences, as, for example, before you could jump 20 inches high, and now you have to jump 7 feet. No.

In the spiritual world, levels grow qualitatively. There, you have to solve different tasks. And that confuses you because you are used to particular manifestations of the Creator, to a certain kind of obstacles, and suddenly they are completely different.
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From a Virtual Lesson 12/23/12

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Question: How can we hold love, which is sometimes manifested between us? How do we prevent falling into egoism?

Answer: It is possible to hold love only by mutual guarantee. To do this, you can organize a kind of duty.

In the 16^th century in Padua, Italy, there was a great Kabbalistic group of Ramchal from which notes and diaries of spiritual work remain. The members of the group wrote a schedule for themselves: Suppose now, for a few hours, I support everyone, think of everyone, then you, then he does, and so on, because in our daily lives, everyone has to work, give time to his family or some other activities where he cannot be in the right thoughts about the group. A person has to sleep, to rest, etc. That is why they agreed to keep themselves in the right intention in this way 24 hours a day.

We can do it even more easily because we can arrange a similar relay around the globe, passing it according to time zones; now, the group in this time zone holds the intention, then the next one, and so on. The ocean is not a barrier for us because all the groups of the world will constantly take care of everyone and raise MAN. I am ready to participate in this with everyone. Let’s make it so that each group could be on watch.
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From a Virtual Lesson 12/23/12

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The Creator has set immutable laws. If we don’t know how to use them correctly, we feel bad, and if we know, we feel good.

The main point here is to understand that the laws of nature don’t change in all its levels. If this seems to us the opposite, it is because the conditions are changing and the same laws are revealed to us in a different way.

In space, for example, gravity “suddenly” disappears. Have the laws changed? No. If you return to the initial conditions you will discover them again.

Question: But if the Creator has already created us and set clear laws; why do we have to change? Why do we have to work for Him?

Answer: Under the current conditions, you work in order to profit for your own benefit and not for Him.

Question: But we still study the wisdom of Kabbalah. So why is our path full of thorns? It seems as if there is nowhere we can step.

Answer: It is because you have become more sensitive. A small child doesn’t know how to be careful. An ordinary person doesn’t have too many inhibitions. But a clever person already knows the possible outcomes of different actions. So it turns out that you have become more clever and more sensitive. About that, it is said: “He who adds knowledge adds pain.”

You can, of course, lead a simple, modest life without any questions and claims, work in some mechanical job that doesn’t require any mental efforts. But if you want to be “in,” if you want to advance, to develop, you will undoubtedly encounter problems and pressures. There is nothing new here.

Question: But I am an ordinary person, I am not looking for problems. And if there are problems, where is the reward?

Answer: If no pressure were put on you, you wouldn’t be asking about the reward, right? Now you have started to think and you are right.

Well a simple logical answer should be that the “pressure” must be the reward itself. If I make efforts along the spiritual path and to the same extent I receive blows, it means that this is my reward. It really does seem that way, and it requires an unbiased examination, an investigation.

If, for example, I am going through all kinds of tests with different medical instruments: They scan me with different rays and discover numerous problems. There is a phenomenon that is very common among students who study medicine; they discover they suffer from all the diseases they are studying.

So what is the reward for the study? What can we tell them?

– It will pass, everything will be fine.

– What do you mean it’s fine, if it’s time to hop onto the operating table?!

This is the feeling they experience.

Question: But still, will there be some relief along the way?

Answer: It will be when you feel the parental love in the blows. We should understand that the flaws are revealed to us, that’s all. How can we overcome them? How can we see not a problem in them but salvation?

First, it is a good thing that the place of the flaw was revealed to me—after all, the Creator has created the evil inclination.

Now I feel the necessity of the wisdom of Kabbalah as a means of correction. I can use this method only if I am connected to the group, to the study, if I enter the group as deeply as I can.

Then I discover that all the unpleasant “surprises” are revealed only in order to speed up my work. They are like calls to complete the necessary efforts. After all, the incomplete efforts leave a very strong feeling of bitterness.

Baal HaSulam talks about it in Letter 19: “The strong passion that is incomplete leaves great sorrow behind it, to the extent of one’s passion.” In such a case a person has to finish what he has started as fast as he can. Otherwise he is called “a fool who is sitting idly eating his own flesh.” Here the breakthrough is very important and it depends on our unity.
[96762]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/12, “The Peace”

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Writings of Rabash, Volume 2, “What is the Righteous are Evident by the Wicked, in the Work”: In order for a person to advance in the ways of the Lord, and to be awarded that all his actions will be for the sake of Heaven, and he feels that he is in a state of ascent now, and what else can he do. The Creator leads this world by the wicked, which means that the Creator gives him thoughts of the wicked, which means that it is not worthwhile to work for Him, but only for one’s self.

And by that he receives a descent and thinks that he has received a descent not because it was given to him, so that he would advance in the way of the Lord, to be awarded with reason of Holiness. Instead he thinks that he is going backwards because he cannot work individually, but rather needs to work generally. And because from the general, he loses both ways, since he cannot enter the general again, a person feels that he is hanging between Heaven and earth. He feels that he is in a worse position than other people. Then a person can ask from the Creator from the bottom of his heart, and can pray, as it says, “save me oh Lord, for I am miserable, heal me oh Lord for I am frightened, and until when oh Lord.”

This means, until then will I remain in a state in which I feel that I am worse than any other person, and that I have no connection to spirituality. So there is no other choice but that a person should believe in what is written “that You hear the prayer of every mouth,” which means even the worst mouth in the world, that even if it is impossible to be lower and worse in the world, still the Lord hears him.

This is what our sages said, “He who comes to purified, is aided from Above.” The Zohar explains this saying that “he is given a Holy soul.” So it turns out that the Creator gives him thoughts of the wicked so that he will have a place to ask the Creator to help him, since otherwise he remains in the state he was at the beginning of his work, and would stay there all his life.

The problem is that we escape from these unpleasant moments when the Creator brings us to the state of the wicked by letting us see to what extent we are not adapted to the spiritual levels, to the spiritual work, that we are totally opposite from God’s work, and are not ready to reach bestowal, the love of others, the love of friends. We discover that we have no hold of the spiritual world, which means that we cannot exit ourselves towards others, towards the friend or the Creator.

We escape from these discoveries. The Creator opens our eyes a little in every state to see our real state, but He cannot force us, since it would deprive us of our freewill. Each time He brings us to a certain recognition and waits for us to add to it of our own freewill, in order to attain a prayer, a request, and to want the correction ourselves and not according to a verdict from Above.

Therefore, it says, “he who comes to be purified is aided from Above!” We have to come on our own and not because a desire for correction was inserted into us from Above, and in response to which the correcting force comes from Above. Not everything can come from Above; our own exertion is also required, a vessel that belongs to us.

But instead of adding our exertion after having been awakened by the Creator who has brought us to the beginning of the recognition of evil, to the state of the wicked, we are frightened by the revelation and try to hide it, to sweeten it, and to cover it from ourselves, while we have to develop this feeling by ourselves and attain the unbearable state. It is unbearable not because it is unpleasant; I would even agree to remain in this state if I could attain bestowal by it.

Here we usually escape, and cover up the state, and so we don’t reach the true prayer that could help us open our eyes. The Creator awakens us, He provides us with all the necessary conditions, the whole package that is needed in order to attain the goal. But we don’t want to connect all these components in order to fulfill it. In order to do that, we have to be connected, to evoke one another, to support, to encourage, to give each other confidence, but for the time being this is lacking.
[96751]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/12

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Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: When we first receive the present, we still do not refer to the giver of the gift as one who loves us, all the more so if the giver of the present is important and the receiver is not equal to him.

However, the repetitive giving and the perseverance will make even the most important person seem like a true, equal lover. This is because the law of love does not apply between great and small, as two real lovers must feel equal.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes about love, but where is this love? There are only sufferings and disasters everywhere. Only a few days ago 26 people were killed in a school in the US…

Answer: Has anyone promised you that such things won’t happen in our world? Everything that you see here is taking place inside your egoistic desire. Rise to another desire, rise to the next level, and you will see that everything is different. You will rise to the second floor.

Now you see reality through your ego, which by definition cannot be anything good. Although I sometimes feel something positive, it is in fact bad too, but in the meantime I don’t identify it and accept it as good. We are all in a desire to receive, which is not even real, but “animal.” So, in fact there can be nothing good in our world.

So what do you expect? That things will proceed differently? We are immersed in an ego that is opposite from the Light and therefore there can only be disasters here.

But in order to allow you to rest in between them so that you will at least be able to relax, to calm your nerves, notice the details, and perceive something, then in this world, the lowest level, man lives literally by mercy and not only in pain, despite his nature.

Why? Because he has another destiny, a goal. If it weren’t for the destiny and the future goal, our world would be immersed in the darkness of endless sufferings and pain from morning to night, day after day. This is the nature of the egoistic intention which is opposite from the Light.

A slight illumination still penetrates this world, but only in order to allow us to exist here for a while and to start rising. In every other sense, the Light and the desire to receive are totally opposite from one another. It is to such an extent that we cannot even imagine.

If there were really great sufferings here, we would have no chance to rise above them and to at least think about something. In the meantime, we are being held above an ocean of pain, but if we don’t use the time we were given correctly, the Lights will disappear and we will fall into great sufferings that will “launder” us well, until we cry out for help. Then we will be given a break, and we will be examined to see whether the “shaking” was enough or not.

By the way, with regard to the Jewish people, one “shaking” is usually not enough. Go out to the street and talk to people, they feel that everything is fine. They have already forgotten about the missiles and have not learned anything from last fall.

Question: What about us, those who study Kabbalah?

Answer: You are twice as stubborn. All the others at least don’t know what it is about, but you are truly stubborn. What have you done with what you have heard during the lessons?

Our problem is the shattering. Our correction is the connection. What have you done for the unity of all of creation? First, do you help our friends all over the world to connect? Do you help them be a greater, more special force that wants to rise above the ego and connect the whole world in order to build a place for the revelation of the Creator and to bring Him contentment? When He is revealed, He enjoys more and more, and then we too enjoy what we have done for Him. This is called an equivalence of form. So what else should you know? Only to work for unity and connection, for mutual guarantee, for the integral education.

But you come to the lesson, listen, and then go your way. In this case, the ordinary person on the street is a greater righteous than you. Since he doesn’t disrespect what is important, he simply doesn’t know about it. Much less is demanded of him than of you.

We have to be really fearful. Time passes and there is much more that we can do. We really must feel responsible not for ourselves but for the group, for the world. After all, the disrespect is a result of everyone thinking only about himself and being resigned to fate in advance. Don’t think about what will happen to you; think about the fact that you are responsible for everyone. Then you will have a different attitude. In the meantime we don’t feel the responsibility that chokes us and motivates us. The ego is destroying us…
[96711]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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