At yesterday’s seminar we had a general, collective opportunity in all the groups all over the world to rise above our heavy sensation. We were pinned down by this heaviness and it was difficult for us to connect and rise in our mind and heart.

We felt that we couldn’t do it. We were missing the necessary intensity of feeling and clarity of thinking, and that is a wonderful state for our work, which we have to enter for one moment in order to feel it. Yet we must know in advance that we are now experiencing this heavy sensation and will discern it in order to immediately rise above it.

Thus, I am experiencing these sensations that pass through my mind and heart: dullness of feeling, dimness of thought and consciousness, and now I rise above all of this. I don’t care what I now feel; above it I want to build a completely new state which is not based on my animate, earthly mind and feelings, but is related to the higher state, spirituality, bestowal.

This means that I will receive completely new instruments of perception and desire, which are above me and completely do not depend on me. I use other’s desires, not my own, but thoughts that are foreign to me, meaning those that belong to others, so that through them I will bestow to the Creator and to them. Then I don’t have any problems since I am not closed inside of myself, but I rise above my egoistic perception.

This heavy feeling came precisely in order to show us whether or not we can rise and fill the world with Light, whether we can give something to humanity. The sensation suited the topic of the seminar precisely. It was a complete package; everything was arranged perfectly from above.

Our groups should have connected together as much as possible, above this entire sensation of heaviness, and thought about our influence on the world according to the topic of the seminar.

Women found a wonderful answer to the question of how we should give to the world and how the world should connect to us, through the example of a mother who breastfeeds her baby. This is a very precise example because is reflects the transition from the round Sefirot (Igulim) to straight desires (Yosher).

That is, we rise above our desires and thoughts and find a new vessel thanks to our unity. When every person comes out of himself and becomes included in others, he comes out of his thoughts and sensations and acquires new desires and reason in which he is not limited by anything at all. This is the form in which we advance.

But some people get immersed in their sensation of bitterness and darkness and suffer because of it instead of turning it upside down and transforming it to Light through their work, ascending above the darkness. A person should ask: why does he prefer to suffer? Does he really love suffering so much? This is stupid and results from our pride, our inability to rise above ourselves.

Or maybe you don’t understand that your spiritual vessel is not inside of you, but above you? And that all of these difficult sensations in the heart and mind are meant to help you ascend. The general force of the group must awaken you and help you do this, so why aren’t you using it? And the teacher tells you that you have to ascend. Don’t you understand that, or don’t you hear it?

But in any case, this is a good study. This heaviness is simply a gift from above, corresponding precisely to the chosen seminar topic. This is how we are being shown how easily we could rise above it, but we weren’t able to. And all of it is due to insufficient value of the environment, lack of importance, and the need to rise above this sensation.

This only shows that the quality of bestowal to which I ascend is less important to me than the sensation in my own stomach. First of all I want to feel good myself, and only then am I ready to ascend higher. Look at how egoistic this condition is.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #121, “She Is Like Merchant Ships”

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Item 43, Lesson 119

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Chapter 2, Part 2, Item 6, Lesson 11

“The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” (Starting with: “How is it different”), Item 27, Lesson 10

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Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Thus, because of the above necessity, the Torah was given specifically to the Israeli nation, solely to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for it was inconceivable that any stranger would take part in it. Because of that, the Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over.

It isn’t just about one of the nations that was suddenly given the Torah. The “Israeli nation” is a collection of people who left ancient Babylon. They connected under the leadership of Abraham who taught them to connect through ties of love above hatred. Of course, they didn’t want that, just like all the other Babylonians, but they accepted Abraham’s method. Thanks to the “spark” that is concealed in them, they understood that it is actually a method of correction and that the egoistic nature, the hatred, was given so that we will unite above it and build a group in which there will be these two discernments, one opposite the other: hatred below and love above. Thus they arrived at “Mt. Sinai,” at the state in which we reveal the upper force.

When they connected, they began to work through the connection according to Abraham’s method and then Isaac’s, and then Jacob’s, which means in “three lines.” In this process they received a growing “hardening of the heart” and in their work they went through the phases of HBD, HGT, NHY, including the exile in Egypt. This means that they felt the difficult internal states and overcame them by rising above their ego and reaching the necessity for adhesion. The ego separated them extremely, and they still tried to hold on, as much as they could, by at least keeping their inclination for connection.

Eventually, the necessary tension among them was created—on one hand, the ego that erupted in the form of the “ten plagues of Egypt” and the inaccessible “Pharaoh” on the inside, and on the other hand, the recognition of the necessity of the connection, which they built above them. They were even ready to go to the desert without any reward, just to have a chance to serve the Creator. This is what they demanded from Pharaoh when Moses gave him the Creator’s message: “Let my people go, so that they shall serve me.”

Then they reached the state in which they could receive the Torah, which means the Light that Reforms. There was enough tension between the ego that was revealed and the pressure aimed at connection. They were given the condition—to become “one man with one heart,” to “love thy friend as thyself,” and they accepted it by saying: “We shall do and we shall hear.” Then the revelation of Light that Reforms began, which means that they received the Torah.

Thus they became a nation. Now they had a collective infrastructure that united them: the Light united them. Without the Light, there is no connection among them, which means that there is no nation. Therefore, Baal HaSulam says that Israel in exile is not a nation but “a bag of nuts.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: My exertion belongs to corporeal life and not to spiritual life. How can I ask the Light to change that?

Answer: Our desires change if we yearn for connection; we reach bestowal, and through bestowal, we reach the revelation of the Creator in order to bring Him contentment since it is He who wants to be revealed to us and not that we want to reveal Him by ourselves out of curiosity. It’s only possible to change something in us when the Light changes us. All the work is done through the Light; all the changes in us are performed from Above according to our request. But in order to reach the Light, to come in contact with it, to pass on our request and our deficiency to it so that it will be accepted, we have to operate through the group. In order to do that, our deficiency must be dressed in the intention to bestow.

We shouldn’t try to change or limit our desires forcefully; nothing will help except a prayer, a demand for the Light that Reforms. We have to put all our heart into this prayer. You won’t be more spiritual if you stop eating, breathing, or enjoying life; you won’t change your attributes by that.

The point is not to change mechanical actions that are performed by the arms or legs and not to use high language, but to change our inner attributes, which only the Light that created them can do. Therefore, we only have to know how to demand these changes! This is possible only if we get together and build a collective desire in the group through which we can turn to the Light with a demand.

The demand that is formed within this collective desire is the one that will be accepted. After all, the Light is in absolute rest, and to the extent that we reach an equivalence of form with It, we summon its action. It depends on the intensity by which we demand it in the group.

This force is abundant, but everything depends on us, the users. The user must include many foreign and strange desires of the friends in the group, which until now weren’t connected by anything. However, they are ready to connect in order to attain the upper one and so their attempts to connect are perceived as a demand from the upper one to connect them.

It turns out that our only request is in connection, and thanks to the connection all our attributes will be corrected. You can’t decide to be a little more generous or more of a saver. You don’t understand which attributes you need. Ask for one thing only—to connect with the friends into one collective desire so that all your attributes will be corrected in this connection. This is the only thing you can ask for and this is the only request that is answered and for which there is a correction.
[80166]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/08/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is a reincarnation?

Answer: I am in the desire to receive and discover the shattered Reshimot (reminiscences), which means I feel that my connection with the environment and the Creator are shattered. So I make efforts to connect with the environment in order to become a suitable vessel for the Creator, for the Light.

Suppose by working above my shattered desire, I asked and attained the influence of the Light that corrected my connection with the shattered vessels that are near me, and we connected and attained a greater compatibility to the Light. Now the vessel that has been corrected by me is filled with the Light of Nefesh. Thus I have fulfilled the shattered desire that was revealed to me. This means that I have lived one lifetime and have performed a correction.

Now the next level is revealed to me. The previous desire dies, I don’t need it anymore. The Light that comes out of the previous spiritual Partzuf and is revealed in the next Reshimo is greater and more advanced. This means that it’s even more shattered! But with the experience I have from the previous life, I already know how to correct it. Therefore, I continue to advance and to correct myself.

I have to connect the shattered vessels that are even more opposite from one another and I have to ask the Light to connect us. Thus one life passes after another until I reach my complete correction. At that time, the shattered Reshimot cease to be evoked and revealed since I have corrected the whole shattering, meaning that I have been through all my lives. These lives have nothing to do with our corporeal body that lives like an animal. It’s only similar to an animal since our life symbolizes the advancement of the desire to receive.

In contrast to inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, we are special animals in which the desire to receive constantly changes and eventually reaches a dead end, which we feel today. We suddenly realize that it isn’t a life and that we don’t understand where we are headed. The sufferings oblige us to start asking about the meaning of life, about its purpose and root. In the desire that develops on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, there is already a beginning of a new yearning that obliges us to ask about what there is on the level above me.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/08/12, Writings of Rabash

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When we aspire directly to the Creator, we study Torah. In other words, we study the actions of the Light, which corrects us.

With regard to that it is said, “From Your actions I will know You.” When we study the Creator’s actions, we begin to understand and attain Him. As a result we come to adhesion with Him.

To study Torah means to study that what the Light is doing within us. Ultimately, when a person reads, he should feel right away as the Light performs changes within him. A transformation comes out from every word, from every letter. After all, these letters, these symbols of spiritual properties, are built by Kabbalists.

When a person reads them, he can see how within they act and correct him from receiving to bestowal. With every word, the person notices changes within himself. This is the way he reveals the actions of the Creator and from these actions the Creator Himself becomes revealed to him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, The Zohar

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Question: How can we fight a feeling of heaviness?

Answer: When a person feels heaviness from the sensation of darkness, obstacles, disturbances on the path, and suffering, everything depends on how much he can awaken himself and in every obstacle coming in any form see its spiritual meaning, spiritual details, so as to pray specifically about them.

One needs to imagine correct spiritual properties opposite the material properties that become revealed now. After all, everything that seems evil to me is various manifestations of evil that become revealed within me, my ego, my desires. I hate one person, I envy the other, the third irritates me—I perform all these evaluations, both positive and negative, only relative to myself.

But can I now turn all these details over and begin to collect all of them into a single opposite field of relationships, desires, and thoughts? And then from their confrontation I will understand how I can turn to the Creator, to the Light, so that it will give me faith, the force of bestowal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/2012, Shamati #113

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter #8 

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Item 43, Lesson 118

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Chapter 2, Part 2, Item 6, “Ohr Pnimi,” Item 1, Lesson 10

“The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Item 26, Lesson 9

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We should always try to remember that everything that happens to us is not blind fate, but rather comes from the Creator, and there is none else besides Him. If I suddenly remember the Creator, it isn’t by chance either, but it is because this is what the Creator wants, and so He reminds me of that. Therefore, I should be thankful that I am given the feeling of the special treatment that is given to me from Above, and I should respond accordingly. This means that the Creator has brought me near Him.

This approximation can be felt as good or as bad. The feeling is in the desire to receive, and if it is a good feeling, I have to work above it and try to do something for the Creator’s benefit.

A good feeling is a problem since our desire to receive feels pleasure in it and is filled with pride. I enjoy or am simply in a good mood for having filled my desire with respect, control, and knowledge. In such conditions it is hard for me to know why I am suddenly drawn to the Creator: perhaps it is because my desire to receive feels good now and it pushes me forward so that the Creator will fill my pride, my desire for control and respect.

It is much easier to attribute myself to the Creator when I don’t feel fulfillment, but rather feel darkness. Then I don’t receive any compensation in my desire to receive. In such cases, even if I make the slightest effort and want to adhere to the Creator without receiving any pleasure for it, I will already be above my desire to receive, which didn’t receive any reward.

It turns out that weak people should be led through the darkness so that from the darkness it will be easier for them to rise and advance in “faith above reason.” Since they don’t receive anything within reason, everything is in the dark. This is how a person is allowed to grow.

However, great people are given the hardening of the heart; they are tried by experiencing success in money, respect, knowledge, and control. Then a person feels the Light, meaning the filling in all these desires, but he has to rise above it and to adhere to the Creator, not for the reward in his desire to receive. This is very hard work.

It says: “call Him when He is near.” But near what, is it near my desire to receive or near my ability to rise above it?

Perhaps the Creator is sending me an unpleasant feeling, but by that wants to bring me closer and to help me reach Him above my desire to receive. By giving me different fillings in my corporeal egoistic desire, He doesn’t become closer to me. On the contrary, He draws away. He may be closer to me if despite all the egoistic temptations I adhere to Him more strongly.

Everything is evaluated with regard to a person who checks and measures his states. The main thing is how he interprets all the states and rises above them by justifying the Creator who wants to bring him closer to Him. If a person understands that, then no matter what comes along, he receives any state as the most optimal state to get closer to the Creator. Thus they become close to one another.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/07/12, Shamati #241

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We are under the control of concealment, which means that we don’t feel the One operating and managing us, the One awakening our thoughts and desires. Thus we feel as if we ourselves are operating from within our thoughts and desires.

This means that if I did something and succeeded, then that’s my success. If I didn’t succeed, then it’s my fault or from within my ego, I begin to blame my destiny, or my surroundings.

The concealment is given to us to overcome it and to discover the One who is operating us and not just operating us, but operating us kindly. This means the concealment has several shades, and we need to discover the force that operates us. Thus if we want freedom of choice in our efforts, exertion, and actions being ours, it is possible only if we act towards the disclosure of the Creator.

And we perform the rest of the actions because that’s the way the Creator directs us. And it is only in relation to His disclosure that He leaves us some open space since He awaits this from us and wants to be disclosed as the one and only force that is good and does good.

Thus everything that takes place in life, both bad and good, all kinds of situations that occur, the person receives as correct and helpful towards the disclosure of the Creator. And then he sees that he has the ability to act at every moment.

And even more than that, while he feels that he is detached from the Creator, actually he is the closest to Him. It is then that he feels a need to reveal the Creator.

Why is a person given the feeling that he is lacking adhesion to the Creator? This is since he is weak and can’t awaken by himself but needs awakening. And when the Creator awakens him, it is called that the person becomes close to Him.

It needs to be understood and clear to a person when he receives some kind of situation and responds to it that there is none else besides Him, and all that is in a person and his world was sent to him from above. And his role is only to find the deficiency for the disclosure of the root of everything that happens, the reasons for everything. This means to discover the upper force, the Creator, the Keter (Crown).

This kind of prayer and demand must always be in a person so that he will discover the reason for each state that comes to him
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/05/12, Shamati #25

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