Let’s speak about the Jewish people in first person.

We have to rise to the common basis that connects us; we cannot keep the mutual connection among us like other nations; we need the connecting force, which means the upper Light. The people of Israel cannot exist without the Creator that is revealed among them. In the past, the moment the upper force disappeared, we were shattered and dispersed all over the world and ceased to be a nation, since a “nation” is a collective vessel.

As for nations in general, the evolution period “shuffled all the cards.” There is no longer an accurate division; there are no clear roots. So any person who wants to join and to participate in the fulfillment of the principle of “Love thy friend as thyself” belongs to the category of “Israel,” which means that he yearns for the Creator (Yashar—El, straight to the Creator). All the others belong to humanity in general.

Today after this general mix when the world has become a “salad,” only the upper Light differentiates between us. Like a magnet, it draws upwards individuals who belong to Galgata ve Eynaim from the masses. The others remain below, in AHP. It is the Light that reveals the vessels and then we have to work in these parts.

So in order to fix among us the connection that is typical of a nation, we have to be on a spiritual height. Otherwise, without the Light, this connection will simply be impossible. It isn’t by chance that Baal HaSulam speaks about the special education that we need, in the newspaper HaUma (The Nation). Other nations don’t need such a thing.

So we have to connect into a group that works in order to become one whole “as one man in one heart.” This is the condition for the existence of the people of Israel. We cannot keep this connection on the corporeal level, on the basis of our common history and geography. On the contrary, it’s been ages that the history and geography no longer connect us. The only thing that can unite us and bring us to mutual love and connection is the Light that Reforms. It isn’t just any connection but a spiritual connection.

We are simply not made for corporeal connection, since we don’t belong to AHP but to Galgalta ve Eynaim. We cannot be like other nations; we don’t have the forces needed for that, we don’t have the matching inner attribute. We cannot take an example from them. The only option is to correct ourselves.

This is because we live by opposite laws: When the shattering is among us, we fall into unfounded hatred instead of brotherly love. There is no such thing among the nations of the world. We, however, feel repulsion towards one another. If it weren’t for the hatred that we feel from our neighbors and from the whole world, we would keep ourselves as far apart as possible from one another. We wouldn’t get married and we wouldn’t want any colleagues. The shattering force would operate among us

Only the general hatred towards us brings us together, like nuts in a sack, like a herd that still has hope to be saved. Otherwise we would be ready to dissolve, to assimilate in a distant place where we could live a good and comfortable life.

So we cannot compare ourselves to other nations. After all, they were not on a spiritual level; they were not shattered two thousand years ago and did not fall to the corporeal level. It is a false hope that we will unite like all the others and become a nation. What we call the “State of Israel” exists only temporarily, in order to enable us to reach true connection. Otherwise, there is no reason for its existence.

Everything that seemingly connects us today comes from the outside and will easily fall apart. Give people a chance and they will easily settle somewhere else. They may have some sentiments, but there is no connection. This is because we have not corrected the shattering, so there is no way we can connect. We need a special education, but instead we are descending lower and lower…
[85424]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
A Wasted Foundation
When The Whole World Demands
Friends, Don’t Hold The Line!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Israel, Unity - No Comments →

Question: How can it be explained that the crisis is a consequence of our corrupt relations in the group?

Answer: There are two systems: the outer and the inner one. For simplicity we can define the outer system as the “Creator” and the inner, meaning us, as “creation.” The Creator is acting upon us and we are developing under the pressure of various factors. However, afterwards comes the time when we have to react with responses showing the Creator that we want to advance.

And here is where the problem occurs. Today we have to demonstrate our maturity and desire to join the Creator. Our “childhood” has ended. In reality the childhood ended back in the 15th century, at the time of Ari. Since then we are required to react to the influencing factors as adults, in a special way. We have to start growing independently until the inner sphere expands in its scale and properties to the size of the outer sphere. However, we are behind the schedule.

[85241]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
How Do We Protect Ourselves From Nature?
Who I Am Is Who I Will Be
The Desired Instead Of The Actual

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

Question: Do we have to be humiliated before we reach connection?

Answer: We are low with regards to our ego, but not with regards to the goal and the Creator.

Question: But still, why do we develop by suffering?

Answer: How else? If we feel good, we won’t move forward. On the contrary, such feelings block our way. This is because “goodness” is pleasure and fulfillment, and if I am content, I don’t move. This is the natural reaction of my egoistic desire. On the other hand, when I feel bad and it hurts, I immediately look for a way out.

A person is a feeling element. Pleasure prevents him from any action; it prevents movement for an unlimited time. If a person feels good, he won’t move, if you “prick” him by sufferings or even by lack of fulfillment, he will immediately begin to look around searching for a new source of pleasure. If the dissatisfaction exceeds the threshold, a person begins to move.

On the development level of the still nature, by being motionless, he doesn’t fill himself and only develops new desires, until the sufferings grow and oblige him to move to the level of the animate. The plant knows how to open up to the sun and to absorb nutrients, to breathe, and it seems to be calm, but once again there is something missing and even more than before. This obliges him to move and to exhibit greater activity in order to enjoy.

This is how our desire to receive is created: It is enough to feel pleasure or pain and by balancing them it undoubtedly reaches the goal. Nothing else is required from it. This process depends on the size of the desire and on its uniqueness and its diversity. Suppose, I am a great egoist; the egoistic fulfillment overcomes me and conceals me under a load that weighs thousands of tons. I can’t do anything other than to enjoy. In order to come out of this situation, I need to receive thousands of tons of sufferings and one kilo more, which means to totally empty my vessel and add some more negativity to it. Only then will I move from my place.

Thus two opposites meet: The more advanced I am the greater my desire. It hangs over me thus demanding greater work and curbing the process, so we have no choice. The desire responds only to pleasure or to pain and so we have to go through them.

But what is the use of these falls? Give me pleasure, and I will immediately freeze in my place, give me some deficiency, and I begin to move. It can be compared to an engine that runs on AC power: if you connect a constant current to it, it will stop. This is because the consistency doesn’t fill the deficiencies and the fulfillment in an alternating order of being emptied of your fillings. So what is required of me if the response of my desire was given to me from the start? How can I break out of this closed circuit?

This is why the mind develops by the desire as a separate parallel system. It accumulates information in its archive, identifies the causes and the goals, and evaluates the phases that it has been through and weighs the future states. Today, in the last the spiritual phase of our development, the cognitive element is the important one. Until now we have been pushed forward by our feelings and now the time has come to develop in our awareness.So our connection brings everyone wisdom by enabling us to exchange data and by providing great experience and a deep understanding. Thus we can avoid many troubles since the current state demands that we develop very quickly, and in several decades, if not before attaining the end of correction. So just imagine what afflictions we will have to go through.

So, the key to our development is education, understanding and recognition, and in activities that make a person feel and understand that feeling. A qualitative development is required here. On the whole, it’s very important for us to disseminate this wisdom; this is the uniqueness of our generation.
[85098]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
To Suffer In Order To Live
Man Does Not Give Up
How Do We Protect Ourselves From Nature?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Group Work, Integral Upbringing, Kabbalah Dissemination - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

[media 1]

[media 2]

Shamati #69 “First Will Be the Correction of the World“ 

[media 3]

[media 4]

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 155

[media 5]

[media 6]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, Chapter 8, Item 8, Lesson 20

[media 7]

[media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Nation,” (Starting with: “There is a pre-condition”), Lesson 6 

[media 9]

[media 10]

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Nation”: The only hope is to establish a thoroughly new national education for ourselves, to discover and ignite once more the natural national love that have been dimmed within us.

Question: What should we do with the part of the nation of Israel that is not ready to listen to us, that don’t want to have anything to do with us?

Answer: We should try to reach them from another angle and then from another one, in different innovative ways. We have no choice since they are like your own child. There is nothing you can do: He has been born and he is tied to you in unbreakable ties. So whether you want to or not, you carry your load and try to do everything in your power, looking for a remedy for every illness that he may have.

Besides, we should understand that it is a replica of us; it is our vessel and not something foreign to us. We cannot discard the world, reality, or any part of it.

People refuse to listen to us and it is perfectly natural. It is worse when they want to, since then they mean something that is totally different from what we mean. We should be more creative with the “fans,” in order to turn them in the right direction. If a person just rejects us then this may be the simplest case.

One way or the other, we shouldn’t give up and leave. The easiest thing to do is to say: “Let them suffer.” But these are your parts, your self that is spread throughout humanity, but you only feel a tiny part of it, 80 kilos of your weight and nothing more than that. Gradually you will discover additional new parts of yourself. So just imagine what pain you would feel if you found out the truth; would it be possible to dump people then?

Question: So what can we do? It is as if we are bumping into a wall unable to penetrate it…

Answer: We are not trying enough. If we tried enough there wouldn’t be such problems. It all depends on us. A person judges himself and the whole world to the scale of merit. Try to exert yourself in the group, in connection. Try to do your best there, and then go out to the external circles.
[85322]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
You Want To Involve The People? Then Educate Them!
Connection—Above All The Differences
The Group, The Nation, The World

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Group Work, Integral Upbringing, Kabbalah Dissemination - No Comments →

We have to establish systems that constantly waken the group. If it says that the difference between a person who advances in his own pace and a person who advances like a beast that is forced from the outside is in the fact that a person hastens the pace of his advancement, (a couple of pulses every moment that he processes to the extent that he advances, the number of steps that he makes a minute), then we only have to spur ourselves in every possible way.

Rabash says that if someone shouts that your house is on fire, you won’t sit still and nod your head lethargically, you won’t continue your nap a couple of minutes longer, you will jump up and run in order to save yourself.

This situation doesn’t seem real to us, of course. Why? Because it depends on the environment. If the environment is calm, then even if I want to wake up, I come here and fall asleep. What can I do? I can’t resist this atmosphere.

So spurring a person totally depends on the environment. If a person is not forced, he will advance the usual way, “in its time.” All our correction is in hastening time. The states are predetermined for each one and cannot be changed. The change takes place thanks to a person’s preparation. Every state is a revelation of the Reshimot (reminiscences). If the Reshimo is revealed and I want to fulfill it and turn it into a certain level, I have to be prepared for it. If I am not prepared, the Reshimo comes and only lowers me and draws me further away. So the next time I will have to make two steps, and the time after that three steps, and thus I find myself each time further away and in greater delay.

This applies to the whole world, since there is no account with other people. If they haven’t received an awakening to spirituality, the “point in the heart,” the ability to hasten their development, how can they respond; what should they be awakened for? This is why the general illumination influences them—the crisis appears and there are different problems and troubles in every nation and in every part of humanity, just like in every individual’s private life. This, however, isn’t called “Divine Providence.” Divine Providence is when there is a relationship between a person and the Creator.
[85313]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Hastening Time
The Heart In Which We All Melt
How To Measure Spiritual Acceleration

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work - 1 Comment →

The desire to receive cannot change anything except its intention. Imagine that your arms and legs are tied, what can you do? Nothing depends on you except your intention, similarly there is no other way the desire to receive can act.

It only knows how to receive, so let it receive and do the only thing it can do. The point is that sometimes it receives with the intention for itself and sometimes it closes itself and refuses to receive.

But how can I refuse to receive if my mouth is constantly open? How can I close myself? Only by my intention! If I don’t consider what I receive as receiving since it doesn’t bring me pleasure, it isn’t considered receiving any more.

Although I really want this filling, I don’t enjoy it since the desire was given to me by nature, but I don’t enjoy by the power of my recognition. The action of my desire to receive is to change the attitude to itself, to decide how to work with the desire.

To the extent that the Light influences me by allowing me to rise above my desire, I decide what to do with it: to restrict my desire or to allow myself to receive a little in order to enjoy. But what should I enjoy for? I may decide to enjoy for myself or for bestowal. It may be a necessary act of receiving which is not condemned or praised.

It all depends on what I enjoy for: in order to bring pleasure to the host, to the Creator, or in order to bring pleasure to myself. It may be that we both need to receive pleasure. If we connect like two loving friends, we enjoy the fact that we give to one another, which means the fillings or the connection between us.

We can have many such thoughts and decisions, but they are all related to the intention. I cannot change anything more than that: my mouth is open, my arms are tied—this is what my desire to receive looks like. Everything is solved only in “faith above reason,” in our thoughts. It is only about the actions that are below the Masach (screen).

Only my attitude to what happens to me counts, and it is the only thing that matters. I correct my attitude to what is going on until it becomes exactly like the Creator’s. This means that we have reached full adhesion with Him.

By that you will feel how important our intention is. Only our intention belongs to the level of the speaking. We measure our level according to the power of our intention.
[85163]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
Intention Is The Complete Action Plan
Intention: What’s Important Is The Result
A Human Is Defined By His Intention

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Development means constantly limiting the desire, which is inevitable. Even the most advanced educational approaches that do not use punishments still limit children but in other ways. An embryo in his mother’s womb also develops by limitations. All of nature is based on this principle, and if we kept it in our development, we would certainly avoid troubles and sorrow.

But we followed the opposite path and removed all the obstacles: Free your ego, abuse others as much as you can, abuse the whole world for your own interests. A person sees himself as great when he manages to steal millions and is respected for it. We have totally distorted our way by giving up any form of restraint. Our desires are not limited by anything and we can also see that on TV, in modern cultural and educational forms. Judging by what is happening with children and the youth, we are cultivating a generation that grows by beastly models and not human models of behavior and thinking. What kind of models does advertising present?

We see the outcomes: Without limiting ourselves, we reach collapse and sufferings, and we begin to understand that we have to change. This is what awaits us since we are not really suffering yet.

If we were as flexible as babies who can be easily directed to develop in the right way, if we responded to what is going on with the same speed, with the same readiness they do, then everything would be just fine. We could see that the Creator is the perfect educator and we wouldn’t come to Him with any complaints.

But in order to do that, we have to respond correctly to His educations and to be sensitive. Kabbalists tell us how we can acquire this attitude; they say we should connect and be “good kids,” we should be sociable, kind, and responsible for one another, to create mutual guarantee, etc.

Clearly, children don’t want to listen to anyone. They only want to go in every direction. But the grownups impose discipline on them and so does the Creator, although He hasn’t started to treat us seriously yet. One way or the other, the same laws penetrate through all the worlds, but the point is that we have to learn from nature and not invent artificial limitations.

This refers to the educators of children too. Nature shows us how, when, and in what way to limit them according to the stages of development. Actually nothing depends on us, we only carry things out. If we studied well the laws of creation and children’s’ nature, we would know exactly how to act in every phase, now and in the future. Ideally, an educator carries out nature’s orders. He never invents anything new but only implements its plan. This is his obligation: to gradually, day by day, bring the little person’s nature to match the upper nature.
[85095]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Need To Follow The Laws Of Nature
Major Rules Of Equivalence With Nature
Love Is Not Leniency

Filed under: Children, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Integral Upbringing, Mutual Guarantee - No Comments →

From Letters of Rabash (No.16): It is known that it is impossible to see a small object and it is easier to see a large object. Hence, when a person commits a few lies, he cannot see the truth—that he is walking on a false path. Rather, he says that he is walking on the path of truth. But there is no greater lie than that. And the reason is that he does not have enough lies to see his true state.

But when a person has acquired many lies, the lies grow in him to the extent that he can see them if he wishes. Thus, now that he sees the lies—that he is walking on a false path—he sees his true state. In other words, he sees the truth in his soul and how to turn to the right path.

It follows that this point, which is a point of truth—that he is treading a false path—is the medium between truth and falsehood. This is the bridge that connects truth and falsehood. This point is also the end of the lie and from here on begins the path of truth.

We constantly strive for goodness, truth, and bestowal. However, when our efforts reach a certain degree, we feel exactly the opposite. We reveal that we exist in the lie: We don’t bestow and don’t wish for bestowal, but we care only about ourselves.

However, the realization of this deceptive state means the revelation of the truth! Although it’s not pleasant and a person doesn’t know what to do, if despite everything he once again strives for bestowal considering it to be good, if he is thirsty for the truth since truth is bestowal, then once again he finds himself even in greater deception. But this is truth! It’s true that he exists in the lie. So it continues until the lie becomes so huge that it becomes unbearable to stay in it. Then he screams in such a way that salvation comes to him.

There is the state by itself and there is a realization of one’s state. The closer our states come to be true states the more polarized they become.
[84915]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12

Related Material:
Truth Will Grow Forth From The Ground
Choosing The Sweet Bitterness Of Truth
The Taste Of Truth

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

From Rabash’s Letter No. 13: One must always make efforts that the descent won’t become an obstacle for a long time and last for too long, but to immediately strengthen, trust in the Creator, and pray from the depth of his heart. That is, if you fell to the bottom of a deep well, pray to the Creator. 

But from where should we take the strength during the descent so as to ask for help from the Creator? It’s here that we need the support of the society since man has no strength of his own. Otherwise, it wasn’t a descent if he had the strength to pray. On the contrary, it was the best situation for him.

A descent is not when a person feels that he has entered an unpleasant state, into darkness, but when he has separated from the Creator. Any state where he has separated from the Creator is bad. If he feels a connection with the Creator, it’s good without any connection to the situation that he encountered, whether it was pleasant or not.

However, if he feels separated from the Creator, how can he turn to Him? Thus he needs the influence from the side, from the environment that will support him. And if a person has disconnected from the Creator, doesn’t feel the importance of spirituality, is ready to degrade it, just waste his time, if he doesn’t have the strength to rise above the descent to prayer, but rather he agrees to remain “dead,” then at some level he needs to use the desires of the friends.

It’s similar to the father of a family who is tired, not healthy, but he has no other choice: He must get up and go to work to make a living for his children. It’s the same way for a person who uses the desires of the group and awakens to prayer.

And if there is no such connection to the group and he’s not able to receive desires from it, then he agrees with the situation of being “dead” and continues to lie down as he is doing. Everything depends on the connection to the group, as it is written: “It isn’t the prisoner who releases himself from prison.” One needs others to save him.
[85006]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/12

Related Material:
How Can We Fight Heaviness?
Disturbances Can Be Different
The Response To The Plea

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - 1 Comment →