From Baal HaSulam’s Letter No. 38: But the most important is the labor, to wish to toil in His work. This is because the ordinary work does not count at all, but only the bits that are beyond the ordinary, which are called “labor.” It is like a person who needs a pound of bread for satiation—his whole meal is not considered a satiating meal, except for the last bit of the pound. That bit, for all its smallness, makes the meal satiating. Similarly, from each work, the Creator draws only the surplus beyond the ordinary, and they will become the Kelim (vessels) for the reception of the Upper Light. You should realize this very well!

We don’t notice that every action of ours is divided into HaVaYaH, into four phases: the entire process, any and every fragment of it, every single movement, even the smallest one.

Eventually, a person gets to realize that he is incapable of anything on his own and that only the upper Light can act and only the Creator is able to perform the action. The Creator reveals Himself and starts acting only to the extent that a person clears the room for Him, for the state that is called “None else besides Him.” If a person doesn’t come to this kind of result, it means that he hasn’t concluded his action.

Our work is to blow away the concealment and allow the space for the King, so that He rules over everything. It happens only at the end of each effort, and by that a person sees that it is the only thing he needs to learn.

Hence, it means that a person hasn’t come to the end of his exertion, nor has he achieved the goal, since he failed to clear the room for the Creator and implore Him to reveal Himself in the point of his utmost exertion, which one tries to resolve on one’s own.

It’s important to develop sensitivity and a “touch” in order to tell whether we have managed to complete our actions each time, that is, whether we have compelled the Creator to reveal Himself to us even more and whether we succeeded to make a little more room for Him—for the property of bestowal that takes over certain qualities of ours.
[84449]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/12

Related Material:
Rejecting Our Present Selves
The Simple Law Of Mutual Guarantee
Why Do I Labor And What Do I Find?

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

Question: Presently, few people are attracted to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Should we expect awakening of new points in the heart as we continue to disseminate?

Answer: I have no precise answer to this question. I don’t want to determine things that were not written by the Kabbalists.

You should understand that some are strong by their quantity, others by their quality. It is said: “You are the few among the nations.” Even in the future there will be not very many people as friends in the groups throughout the world, nor will there be lots of supporters, the broader circles that are not oriented to the wisdom of Kabbalah since they don’t completely feel the same way we do, but who are close to us, who listen to us and follow us.

Our strength is not in numbers, but in the height, in understanding, recognition and connection with Godliness. Through us, as through the zigzag of the lightening, various recommendations, programs, event plans for broad auditoriums will come down from heaven to earth. Then, probably because there is no other choice, or because people will start believing us, or due to some other reasons, they will get used to and accept our message.

As Baal HaSulam said, if there is at least one who can see in the head of the column of blind people, they should follow him with complete confidence that they will eventually reach the goal. I don’t think that there will be serious changes here. We provide lectures, set up roundtables, open campuses; however, we do this not because we want to draw people into our organization. On the contrary, we have to work in “their territory” and transfer a general, common method of correction to them, rather than deliver to them our specifics.

“Screens,” “Lights,” “Vessels,” “Partzufim,” and “Restrictions” are not for them. People need to know about unity, which will ease their material life.

This is our message to the audience. We shouldn’t “inject” Kabbalah and “high matters” into them. We have to speak with people at “eye level,” according to the “pulse of their heart,” about something that worries them, about their “deficiencies” like the upbringing of children and other everyday problems. We should slightly accentuate their desires and show them that there is a tool that will “calm them down”—our methodology.
[84543]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
You Cannot Avoid The Obstacles
According To The Laws Of The Bubble
Different Goals, Same Direction

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Society - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #16 “What Is the Day of the Lord and the Night of the Lord in the Work“

Workshop

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

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 68: Do not be surprised that one person’s actions bring elevation or decline to the whole world, for it is an unbending law that the general and the particular are as equal as two peas in a pod. And all that applies in the general, applies in the particular, as well. Moreover, the parts make what is found in the whole, for the general can appear only after the appearance of the parts in it, according to the quantity and quality of the parts. Evidently, the value of an act of a part elevates or declines the entire whole.

From the perception of reality we know that the world that I see is me and that my spiritual vessel is divided, shattered, and distant from me in my senses and my recognition and is spread in different directions. There is no world, it is all me. If I collect its parts and bring them closer to one another on all levels: the still nature, the vegetative, the animate and the speaking; if I connect them into one general integral system in which they are connected in whole mutuality, then their mutual connection, the mutual interdependence, the mutual incorporation, enables me to discover to the same extent the force that connects and that keeps them alive, and the currents that flow between these organs.

A doctor who implants an organ attaches different organs to a body and they connect to the general systems. In the same way I too, to the extent that I create new connections, feel the upper force that flows between my parts and which brings them life. I begin to feel who the Creator is by the vitality of the body, according to the principle of “from your actions we shall know you.” He is revealed gradually in my corrected body, until I am totally corrected and reach full adhesion with Him.

By correcting myself with regards to the whole world, I summon the general correction of the world of course. Since eventually I and the world are the same.

The question is why shouldn’t all the others just wait if I already correct the world? Why should we all connect and participate in the process?

The point is that everything depends only on the mutual incorporation of the vessels (the desires) that help each other, as it says: “Every man shall help his brother.” I connect with others and others connect with me and we all connect with the Kabbalists from previous generations and with those who have not reached the desire to be corrected and to connect yet. If we actively care for everyone, if we act with regards to the upper and the lower, if we are equal, as it should be among friends, then everyone corrects his own whole world.

You cannot correct what I correct and what you correct another cannot correct. But this doesn’t annul the main principle according to which by correcting himself a person corrects the whole world. Everyone has his own world and by connecting to others I pass the Light to them through me, like a blood vessel, in different possible ways and in different connection systems. No one will do it for me.

On the contrary, if a person corrects the world, it obliges him and brings him to correction. Thus, widespread dissemination helps us correct ourselves according to the same reason: A person and the world are the same thing. So you shouldn’t leave the corrections of the world as a whole. Baal HaSulam says that the more a person advances, the greater and higher he is, and his concern for the world is also greater and wider. First it is the family, then the town then the state, and eventually he embraces the whole world and it is impossible to avoid that.
[84928]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
On The Way To Infinite Adhesion
In The Resonance of Feelings
A Lecture For Oneself

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Dissemination, Mutual Guarantee, Unity - No Comments →

Question: How can I better understand that the world depends on me, and how can the group feel that everything depends on it?

Answer: The easiest way is to remember that there is no world outside myself. It is only because of the shattering that I imagine that everything around me is not me. As Baal HaSulam says, there is only one soul in the world. In the real state of Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) we are all connected and there are no barriers between us. No one is isolated, we are in perfect mutual connection and everyone feels only the others and not himself. This is the real picture and we have to reach it independently since today we see it in its opposite form.

In the last, fourth phase of the Direct Light the created being feels that the Creator loves him and that He does everything for him in absolute love without any self-calculations. On the other hand, the created being feels the opposite feeling of the self that is accompanied by such great impatience and suffering that he is ready to do anything in order not to feel that.

After the restriction the created being discovers that he can attain the same thing and reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. Then he decides to find a place where he can be independent. He has detached himself from Malchut of Ein Sof, but has not become independent yet and has continued his search—how to break free of the Light and still acquire its power in order to change himself and become like it.

Then comes the descent from phase one to phase two until our current level. Today only the spark is evoked in us, some vague knowledge, and from this moment it is only by our exertion that we can attain the two forces: the desire to receive and desire to bestow so that they will dwell in us. Then we will be able to manage ourselves and bring ourselves to the initial adhesion by ourselves.

Before the Light, the Creator who created this state provided our full adhesion. Now on the way to Malchut of Ein Sof, I climb the levels of adhesion by my own efforts, by my self recognition, by my self feeling. I determine my state and thus attain infinite adhesion which I feel 620 times more strongly than before because I have done this work by myself; I understood by myself; I felt; I have acquired; I have earned it. This will be the final third state.

I follow this path by attaching to myself all the parts that seem like strangers, that are hateful, distant and opposite from me. I attach them to the absolute love among us and by that return from our world to the word of Ein Sof.

Today we don’t hate the external world, but we are indifferent to it. Later on, however, we will discover such sources of hatred that are called a “shell” against the Holiness, against bestowal. We will encounter things that we cannot even look at, that we will find hard to hear. Imagine that someone destroys something that is important and dear to you and now by rising above that feeling you have to love him and thank him. Is that possible?

Compared to those terrible states it is as if we are in a “kindergarten” today. We are not “playing” with the real discernments yet…

So before the correction, everything is revealed in its opposite form. Therefore the world, which today simply seems distant and detached from us is actually the parts of the general vessel, of the one soul.
[84925]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
I Am One With This World
From Multiplicity To Unity
Constructing The Lego Of The Soul’s Shards

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, World - No Comments →

Question: By disseminating the message of unity in the world, we bring the force of the Light. What is the best way to conduct the Light to a person? How can we feel him?

Answer: The Light flows from desire to desire. Words are not so effective because they are something external. By words, we touch a man with the rigid mechanism of standard perception: He was accustomed to different opinions; he can resist because of his pride; he does not agree with you because of his own feelings, regardless of the benefits that he could get.

No matter what we try to convey to people, it is desirable to clothe it in the least possible number of layers. And language is a very “dense” kind of clothing. After all, the words must pass through the person’s mind, constrained by too many factors.

The best way is to send our message is emotionally, sharing the feeling of the addressee, imbued with his enthusiasm, because the desire does not think, but feels. We must pull together our desire with his desire, resonate with his feelings, and then you will radiate on the person what you want. And your desire contains the Light that Reforms.

If you send a message through the rational system, it remains external and difficult to digest. This is a sure path to failure. People usually are not inspired by the fruits of reason. There are plenty of clever people in the world: Today, you convinced me of something, and tomorrow I will be able to convince you.

On the other hand, the emotional response is stored as “records” (Reshimo), and even after ten years a person can return to it. Even a random thought is enough, and he will remember the scene, the situation that he once experienced. Knowledge and thoughts become forgotten, but feelings always remain.

It is very important: No matter what audience we may address, even including scientists, we should carry the feeling that would produce a response. We turn to the desire, to human needs, and try to give an answer to what he lacks, to give a solution to his problems, or at least a hope for a solution.

This requires roundtable discussions, workshops, and collaborative activities that carry a nice feeling, as if we invite people to have a good time: “Let’s do it, and you will cheer up. You will see that not all is bad in life, that it has another side. ”

It is like a drug that Kabbalists call the “elixir of life.” It does not intoxicate, does not disconnect from reality, but helps one to overcome it, and this is its difference from real drugs. Due to positive emotions and inspiration, people start to appreciate unity and continue on the path.

The same applies to children, even the little ones. They should know that if they play together nicely, they will get a prize. Unity does not rouse their positive feelings yet, and that is why we give them candies or gifts, for which they should stick together. They will be ten-times more friendly to each other in anticipation of the prize, and then the habit becomes the second nature. After all, they have already learned to play many games together and already adopted a common form. By the way, adults follow the same path: They come with their families, have a good time, and smile at each other; these are their “candy” that help them get accustomed to act together. Meanwhile, news of unity “translates” in their hearts.

A good attitude heals many wounds. 90% of the ills in our lives can be cured just by a good attitude, not adding anything beyond this. Show your compassion to a person, and you will reduce his pain by half. Show that you care about him, and you will take half of the remaining pain. This is our psychology because together we are in a common system. That is why such an attitude will certainly cause a response. Give a gift to a person, and he will look at you differently. He has no choice in this.

That’s what we need to explain and demonstrate to people until they reach for good relations themselves, as young children are attracted to sweets. After all, our desire requires pleasure so let a person enjoy the pleasure of those actions that lead him to the goal. Even if he still does not know about it, but you know.

You want to lead the whole world to the Creator. You treat people with love and understanding. Sometimes you need firmness, but in general, you act gently, and it’s guaranteed to work.
[84922]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 

Related Material:
I Am One With This World
You Cannot Avoid The Obstacles
How Can We Make The Material Easier To Perceive?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Unity - 1 Comment →

The upper can help the lower under the condition that the lower is trying to unite with the upper. But it is impossible to unite alone with the upper because adhesion means that you wish to bring the corrupted vessel of bestowal to Him for Him to correct it, because we are corrupted.

But when do I feel this way?—When I wish to unite with someone and am incapable of it. Then I take this broken vessel and say to the upper: “Correct it!” He corrects it, and then I acquire a whole vessel with a certain degree of bestowal. I perform an action in it—actual connection in a corrected vessel—and then I attain a spiritual degree.

In other words, I had a small broken glass. I asked the upper one to fix it and He corrected it; in other words, He has given me strength to glue this glass together to make it whole. Now I can fill this glass by performing an act of bestowal, and I will fill it. This means that I have reached the level of Nefesh de-Nefesh of the World of Assiya.

And once again I turn to my friends, the group, and once again I analyze my lack of desire to continue to advance, I analyze how broken my vessel is. And once again I ask the upper one to correct it. But I must give Him something to correct. Otherwise, what will I bring to Him, what is my request? I must come and cry about the broken vessel, like a small child comes and cries over a broken cup. And then the upper one will correct it, and once again I fill the corrected vessel with the bestowal I desired and I attain the next spiritual degree, Ruach de-Nefesh of the World of Assiya. In this way I ascend the 125 degrees.
[84899]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
You Broke It, So Now Fix It
Patch Up My Soul!
A Human Is Defined By His Intention

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

The only thing we have to attain is that “there is none else besides Him.” This is attained only by the oppositeness, by what is called “help against.” The Creator sends us different interruptions, which seem to come from different forces, which are strange and opposite to the Creator and by chance. It seems that the interruptions are random: the force of impurity, Pharaoh, this whole world. We think that these foreign sources are the cause of all our problems.

But we have to overcome this feeling and constantly hold on to the thought that we have to reveal the Creator in everything that happens. If we see Him in every incident in this world, we begin to see the source in them, the Creator’s way and His attitude. Thus the Creator teaches us by showing us who He is in very secret cunning ways.

The Creator is playing with us when He conceals and reveals Himself alternately again and again. When He is concealed, we feel this concealment as unpleasant events in this life. But we have to discover that it’s merely a puppet show and that it’s all managed by a great director. Only the puppets seem real: the still, vegetative, and animate nature and the people living in this world. It seems that they are alive and that they can move by themselves, that they have free will and that they act independently. But if we look at this world as a lifeless wrapping and that only the upper force gives it life, we’ll get closer to the revelation of the Creator.

This work isn’t simple and is only possible by overcoming the difficulties. In order to do that we need the support of the friends, the mutual guarantee that doesn’t let a person forget about this work and which constantly keeps him in the thought of “there is none else besides Him.”

When a person feels weakness and despair, he has to understand that these feelings were also sent by the Creator, who is playing with him now. A person must immediately start a dialog with Him and begin the inner clarifications, which are more straightforward as we are facing the Creator directly. All these efforts eventually bring a person to the “gate of tears.” This means that although he is controlled by many other desires, somewhere in their center a desire to overcome himself and reach the love and the fear of the Creator appears for a brief moment. The Creator is revealed among all the foreign thoughts and situations that actually conceal Him.

A person has to do his best to see the Creator’s force in every imaginary form of life, which seems real and independent to him, and to understand why the Creator did this. In order to do so, he has to examine what is going on and to discover all this. After all, the Creator has only one intention: to be revealed to a person.

Thanks to these efforts, a person learns about the nature of the Creator’s attitude towards him, as he knows Him from His actions. The Creator hides through concealment and it’s as if He is playing with a person in order to teach him how he should also conceal and reveal himself. When the Creator is revealed, a person has to conceal himself so that he wouldn’t think that he has reached this revelation by himself. So he has to cover himself with a Masach (screen).

When the Creator is concealed a person has to yearn to discover Him. Thus in the mutual work as each takes a step forward and then a step backwards, it’s as if they are dancing a tango together, as they create concealment and revelation, once on the side of the Creator and once on the side of the created being; they build a stable Masach between them.

A person’s ego is hidden behind the Masach while he, the desires in his heart, rise above the ego, above the Masach and are revealed before the Creator. Then the Creator can also be revealed in the same way before a person.

The moment this happens, the gates of tears open up, after a person understands this game, accepts it, and is happy as he sees the great importance of the One with whom he is in contact. Then a person can accept all the events in life gladly, no matter how difficult they are and how confusing they may be. After all, it is thanks to them that he manages to build up a great account of all his efforts, penny by penny.
[84841]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/3/12

Related Material:
Forward Toward Concealment
The Protective Shield Of Concealment
The Last Gate

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - 2 Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me in Behind and Before:” Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before, meaning the revelation and concealment of the face of the Creator. This is because indeed, “His kingdom ruleth over all,” and everything will return to its root because there is no place vacant of Him.
A person has an opportunity to be in connection with the upper force, with the Light that advances us, either directly according to the likeness to Him, or in the opposite form according to the discrepancy, and, of course, both these approaches can be combined in some way. It is not necessarily one direction or the opposite to it, that is, either zero or 180 degrees, but we are always under the influence of the Light, and we have no freedom of choice in this. The Light always affects us. What depends on us is only to choose whether His face is turned toward us or the opposite side is.

Kabbalists tell us about this because we are able to influence this. After all, there are plenty of very important systems operating in the spiritual worlds about which they do not say a word to us because we cannot establish any communication with them. These systems affect us only from one side, and that is why nothing is told about them.

Of all the great systems, Kabbalists reveal to us a small fragment through which we can change our destiny. They do not tell us anything about the part where we can do nothing with ourselves.

That is why, if Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator embraces us behind and before, this means that we do have the opportunity to feel the Creator, not on the opposite side, but to reveal His face, and it will change our destiny the entire 180 degrees. To do this, all the time we need to seek the revelation of Shechina—the power of love and bestowal that we are trying to reveal according to the similarity of our properties to It.

However, the opposite side is disclosed when we act according to our own conditions, our egoistic properties. If, in all these situations, we are not trying to achieve congruence with upper management, to reveal His face, then His opposite side is revealed to us.

This determines how we will feel upper management. If the opposite side is turned to us, then in the dark, we think that we are able to do something ourselves. We believe that we operate and manage ourselves, but, for some reason, we do not succeed.

When upper management is turned toward us, we reveal the other side: that the Creator acts in everything. We discover this if we are not going to change anything except ourselves. We want to turn ourselves toward the Creator.

However, finding that He acts in everything, we also reveal that He is kind and does good and that is why we are pleased to see that all our actions come from Him. This is the essence of open management that is always good. Hidden control is always felt as pain and suffering.
[84761]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
To Tango With The Creator
The Goal Of The Group
The Whole World Is The Creator’s Face

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

Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #39 “And They Sewed Fig-Leaves“ 

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 151

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, Chapter 6, Item 3, (Ohr Pnimi, Item 4) Lesson 15

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 71, Lesson 25

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