Question: How can I see the current situation as unbearable in order to yearn for the next state?

Answer: You need the Light for that. Don’t we sometimes feel that we cannot stand ourselves? Don’t we torture ourselves when we see that we are wasting our lives by using everyone for our own benefit? Don’t we condemn ourselves for wanting to rest and for looking down on everyone?

However, we cannot bring all these feelings together. The problem is that a person thinks that he can do something by himself. A person is successful and is very lucky if he understands that without the Light, he can do nothing.

A person should not search himself, but, on the contrary, he should say, as it is written, “Go and tell the craftsman that made me.” Let the Light correct you; this is the only option.

The Creator wants to evoke you and spur you on to contact Him by every bad feeling he sends you. This is the reason He created evil: so that we will use the Torah, the Light, as a “spice,” as a means for correction.

So any bad thing that happens to you gives you a chance to turn to the Creator. However, if you don’t turn to Him, if you look for help elsewhere, this is called “other gods,” as if it weren’t Him who sent you these troubles.

This is where the group comes in, in creating a consolidated perspective, a clear understanding that everything we receive is from the Creator. The moment we feel a flaw or a defect, we must turn to Him. If this is the general approach, then I will certainly not forget this.

We forget these simple facts in our spiritual work because we don’t make sure that it should be the common, general protocol, the general atmosphere in the group. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t waste our time.

Question: However, I turn to the Creator not so that He will solve my corporeal problems, but so that He will help me demand a greater connection since the connection is the solution.

Answer: Yes, the solution is indeed in the connection among us. The Creator sends you a problem in such a way and on such a level that you will identify it as a problem.

If he sent you a problem in its true form, as lack of bestowal upon the friends or lack of love, then at that moment you wouldn’t feel sorry about it. So, instead, he presents it differently to you.

You didn’t exert yourself as you should have in working on the connection among us, and this corruption is depicted to you as a totally different external problem such as a flat tire, for example. You come out in the morning and see that you have a flat tire, so you curse life and the Creator, and change the tire with the spare tire if you have one.

Thus, the real problem takes on a different form that enables you to feel sorrow and pain. Now, besides the necessary external actions, your work is to understand that the Creator has called you since you are not connected to the friends and do not reveal the Light. Otherwise, what do you need troubles for?

Question: So, how can I turn to the Creator now? After all, the Creator is a force, the law of nature; it is useless to pray to Him and to ask from Him.

Answer: “Praying” doesn’t mean to ask something from Him the way we see it. By praying, I discover a deficiency within me and a need for the Light so that it will come and influence me. Praying means to discover a deficiency that is aimed at correction, at the right filling, by the force of bestowal, by the Light. It is the attribute of bestowal by which I want to be filled. This is called praying.

However, I never discover such a deficiency. Instead, I feel that I lack something. How is it possible to turn the egoistic deficiency, the fact that I lack something, into a deficiency for the attribute of bestowal? This is our internal work called “God’s work.” When, together, with the friends, I switch from a corporeal deficiency for my self-benefit to a spiritual deficiency for the attribute of bestowal, I summon the Light that Reforms, and my desire is fulfilled.
[81454]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How can I empower the environment so that it can make me feel the importance of the goal?

Answer: If you see the environment as important, it will convey the importance of the goal back to you. Don’t pay attention to how this environment behaves. What you see is irrelevant since you don’t see anything in its true form.

You must simply, constantly, invest in your environment as if it swallows everything. Your job is to make the environment feel that the goal is important, that the Creator is important, the spiritual path and the studying are important. In response, you may see that they all disrespect one another and that they disrespect you since this is also something the Creator has arranged for you.

You must understand that you are working vis-à-vis the Creator who is depicted to you in the form of the society. The Creator may present the environment to you as totally corrupt, but this doesn’t matter. You still must make efforts and bestow upon it in one direction.

The other direction is your receiving from them, which is meant only to teach you how you should improve yourself and, despite everything, impress them with the greatness and the importance of the goal. Leave all the calculations of how much you can get from them. All such accountings are egoistic. If you begin to think about how they offend you and how they treat you, it is all ego.

You should see the group in such a way that you don’t care about anything that is in regard to you. No matter how they respond to you, you only need to give in return, just as you treat little children and wait until they grow up.
[81451]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How did the system of the pure worlds of ABYA come into being?

Answer: After the world of Infinity shattered, the correction was made, and as a result, the worlds of ABYA appeared from the broken state. This system was corrected by the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), in other words, by the Light that Reforms.

Then the four levels were corrected: from level zero up to the third one, but not the fourth phase, the “stony heart.” It is impossible to correct it, and it did become the reason for the breakage. So what can be done?

In order to fully reveal this phase, we need an additional special system called Adam. This is the forth level of the fourth phase, which will reveal and correct itself. As we build this system, it joins the pure worlds of ABYA. At that point Adam is starting to receive the Light through them. Its breakage divides the worlds into the pure and impure ones.

There are no worlds by themselves. Their two systems exist only in the perception of Adam who exists in between them. In other words, the systems of the worlds are formed between you and the Creator when you want to reach Him. They reflect your defects, your obstacles on the path. The purity and impurity are tied to you and don’t exist in and of themselves.
[81528]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How can we possibly demand help in order to overcome concealment if at this time, as if we are dead, we do not sense any desires?

Answer: Concealment is given to make you scream for help. In concealment, “the righteous will follow the Creator’s path, and the sinners will fall on them.” Besides going through concealment, one can experience many other problems of a much worse nature.

Concealment indicates powerlessness and bad moods; it’s a state at which one doesn’t know who to ask for help and doesn’t possess the correct thoughts or desires. It’s as if one is wandering in complete darkness and all of a sudden hits a wall.

We have to acknowledge that this is the actual place for the work we are supposed to do. If one remembers that he is in concealment, it means that he can eventually rise from it. This is how a point of internal shattering reveals itself. It is only about the psychological barrier that you have to overcome, although it feels as if you cannot find energy to cope with it.

In fact, you can do it. If you conquer yourself and overcome your psychological barrier from within, and manage to open a book, you’ll see that the Creator deliberately “plotted” this state for you, since from this point you’ll reach a new understanding and will make another step ahead. Our entire advancement consists of points like this.
[80616]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/5/12, Shamati #25

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 208, “Labor”: The efforts that one makes are but preparations for achieving devotion. Hence, one should grow accustomed in devotion, since no degree can be achieved without devotion, as this is the only tool that qualifies one to be rewarded with all the degrees.

In order to ascend a new step of the ladder, one must apply effort. Only after one applies effort does he attain a new level, but how does this happen?

At the present stage, one possesses a number of qualities, but the next step involves a higher level of qualities. How can we acquire them? We should plead for the Light that Reforms to affect us, to correct us, and thus leads us to rise.

All our efforts are meant to awaken the Light. How do we do that? We elicit the Light only by trying to simulate the higher step, although we are totally unable to do that since it is hidden from us. How can we become somewhat similar to it? For that, we have to follow several instructions defined by Kabbalists.

Our next step is in fact a greater effort to bestow as opposed to the current phase. It means that we have to invest determination into unity with friends, annul ourselves in relation to the group, and try to feel to the best of our abilities that there is none else besides Him in all our problems, issues, impediments, and hindrances. Everything is sent to me by the Creator, including the interferences that conceal His oneness and hide His unlimited power over the whole universe. We have to connect everything that happens to Him; our efforts should be directed to regard the group as a mechanism through which He reveals Himself to us.

Our determination has to reach a point where we feel that our efforts cannot grow any stronger; this is when we surrender ourselves to a higher state so that it can govern us. We still do not have the correct sensation, nor do we understand our next spiritual step; all we do is simply entrust ourselves to the next step by directing all efforts solely towards attaining it.

Due to this level of self-sacrifice and complete devotion, a person receives a soul from the higher level. Our efforts have to be directed to realizing that there is none besides Him; we have to strive to reveal Him and His oneness through bestowal and unity in the group. Let the upper govern our senses and intellect without any disparagement on our behalf.

This state comes to us gradually, step-by-step, to the degree that we elicit the Light that Reforms by attaining more similarity with the higher level. Similarly a fetus turns to its mother, allowing her to nurture it. Step by step, she augments his desires (in our realm it bears the form of supplementing its flesh), but his “job” is to refuse new desires by completely entrusting himself to her.

Over and over again, he merges with the upper one and admits that there is none else besides Him, the One who is good and does good, in spite of all the problems, difficulties, and obstacles that the new “flesh” (desires) awaken in him

The fetus “attaches” all of its parts as well as the whole world that surrounds him in his mother’s womb to the upper force, and eventually reaches the level of devotion and self-annihilation, which is called “nine months of conception” after which he is born into this world. The process of birth is excruciating; it is accompanied by tremendous labor pains (“birth contractions” – tzirim) under very constrained (tzar) conditions that cause incredible afflictions (tzarot). Through enormous pressure that originates both by the upper force and the fetus itself, the fetus transcends the narrow passage, and is born into the world of the Light. During the process of birth, the child has to completely “bow his head,” flip upside down. Then, when the process of birth is over, he lifts his head up again.

All of this is a result of our efforts. We have to realize that we will never attain the next step on our own; therefore, our task is to elicit the Light that Reforms so that it produces essential changes in us and, as a consequence, prepares us for the next step.

So, our work is to make actions that effectively elicit the Light that Reforms. Now, we are talking about our unity. By investing efforts into connection between us, we raise its importance with the help of the Light. At the same time, the Light demonstrates to us that we are not yet able to unite. The force that inspires us to bond conflicts with predicaments that prevent us from attaining unity, recognizing that there is none else besides Him. We still continue to think: “if not me, then who?”

This is how we approach the critical point that allows us “to be born anew” at each next level.
[77472]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/10/12 in America, Shamati #208

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Question: When one is looking at what is happening in the world it is hard to draw conclusions about the roots of anti-Semitism, about the role of the people of Israel and their task that they are not fulfilling. Does it turn out that we should address all accusations only to ourselves or to those who already study the Wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Accusations are directed precisely at us. We are obliged to bring the nation of Israel and the nations of the world to the understanding of what is happening. We are facing the manifestation of nature that is intended to initiate the correction of the entire world. As we see it today the world requires correction. This is why we have to explain to people how today’s problems are connected with the hatred toward Jews. All of these can already be revealed and corrected.

Today the nations are still not making the differentiation, but in the end, certainly, all accusations will be turned solely at us, at the worldwide Bnei Baruch association. After all, we are the source of the connection, the point of connection between the Creator and the creatures. We are the “bottleneck,” which does not pass the Light to the world. This is why we will be guilty in the eyes of the people. Subconsciously everyone will feel this way. In their view we will become the ultimate “sinners,” the “Pharaoh” enslaving them.

This is the property of the flipped pyramid.
[79831]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/5/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #36 “What Are the Three Bodies in a Man“

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 128

Preface to The Book of Zohar, Item 34, Lesson 22

Writings of Rabash “They Helped Everyone His Friend”

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Question: How should we direct our “Prayer for the Many” before the convention in the North so that it will personally influence each one of us so that we will feel the importance of the group and for the world?

Answer: Conventions of this kind are very beneficial. I saw it also according to the groups I visited lately. We need to maintain the intention of bestowal for all of our friends all over the world. It is very influential and advances them significantly.

Each time, I happily discover that the gap between the groups shrinks more and more. It is especially now as the groups opened to meet the general public, when we support the unity of the congresses, and especially with the workshops, the groups feel a very, big change. The distances between us disappear, all gradually become one group, and this causes great happiness.

The convention in the North will begin on Thursday of next week. I very much hope that our friends can get away from work and their other involvements. Nowadays it is not so simple, since it can cause unpleasantness on the side of the employers. I warn you: Don’t put your position at work in danger and don’t leave if there is no possibility to take a vacation.

We will try to have a continuous live broadcast.

As to the preparation, the main thing is the connection. This means a really deep, internal connection between everyone, between all the groups and all the friends so that not one of us will be forgotten. We must prepare for more consolidated and dense activity. From Sunday of next week, we will devote special lessons to this. Be with us, and everything will work out.
[81520]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Everything that we feel is the essence of the desire to receive in which a certain form is revealed. In other words, the desire receives one form or another under the influence of the Light that operates on it. The same desire is the foundation of all the worlds, but there are different forms on different levels.

Everything that we see now is on the lowest level of the desire. A more advanced form appears when the desire takes on the intention of in order to bestow, if the former is replaced by its form to shape the spiritual form. In other respects, there are no differences between various parts in different worlds and in different degrees. Each time, it is simply as if we put on different glasses and thus see the world differently.

The desire remains unchanged and there are 620 sub-desires in it that are all connected in some way. All these degrees come all the way to Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity). Now too, we also see Malchut of Ein Sof, but from our level according to our vessel of perception. This is what is meant by the phrase: “One judges according to his flaws.”

Question: How can we explain this to a person who doesn’t study Kabbalah?

Answer: The desire to receive is matter. An atom consists of particles that are actually energy, or in other words the desire to move. If a particle doesn’t move, it disappears. The particles are actually energy, light. They interact with each other, connecting and creating different connections. The collective desire is formed by this connection, according to the four phases or the four types of nature: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

It is all a desire. It can rise and it can descend, it splits into “plus” and “minus,” but its essence doesn’t change. The images of matter we were used to do not match the scientific concepts, and not only of quantum physics, but also of the fields that deal with the perception of reality. One way or the other, it is clear today that matter is energy. This also has to do with us and with how we perceive ourselves. Of course, not everyone can understand this, but at least they will believe scientific evidence. We perceive many things in life as facts without bothering to check them.

So if all of creation is a desire to receive, we can speak about similarity or differences and closeness or remoteness only in terms of the desire to receive. Equal desires are together. The more they differ, the farther apart they are from each other. Opposite desires are infinitely distant from one another—from adhesion all the way to total oppositeness, and all the other intermediate states are in between. Everything is measured according to the desire.

This means that our work is simple. We have to check the desires and accordingly move forward. Like a psychologist, I look at myself from the side, examining my desires from the outside, checking their parameters: What forms of desires are there in me, to what extent do they control me and to what extent do I control them? According to our current level of understanding, I determined the desired form and equalize it with the current form.

Later I look for a way to move from the current form of desire to the desired from. Kabbalists say that we can do it with the help of the Light that Reforms. This means that I have to determine my current state as undesirable and the future state as good and desired. The distance between the two states causes me great pain and at the same time summons a yearning in me and enables me to exert myself in the group.

Everything is determined by the ratio between the desired and what is. I discover the bitter truth in the current state and yearn for the next state and the upper Light does its job, since it is the Light that should put me through the necessary changes in order to reach the new more advanced forms of desire.

So it is a simple method, although there are many components to it: the group, the teacher, the books, the Creator’s greatness, the studying, the image of reality, the worlds, etc. Eventually, if we attribute all this to externality, I remain in my present state, which I should see as unbearable and the next state as wonderful and that if I don’t attain it, then I’d rather die than live. And where is the Light? It comes through the group, since the next state is the essence of the connection on the new level. These conditions make me act.
[81457]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #145 “What Is Will Give Wisdom Specifically to the Wise“

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 127

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 51, Lesson 18

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 12, Lesson 5

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