Baal HaSulam, Shamati #52, “A Transgression Does Not Put Out a Mitzva”: I had heard another parable that he had told of two friends, one of which became a king and the other became very poor, and he had heard that his friend became a king. The poor went to his friend the king, and told him of his bad state.

The king gave him a letter to the minister of the treasury that for two hours he would receive as much money as he wanted. The poor came to the treasury with a small box and entered and filled that small box with money.

When he came out, the minister kicked the box and all the money fell to the floor. It continued similarly time and time again, and the poor man was crying, “Why are you doing this to me?” Finally, he said, all the money that you took throughout this whole time is yours and you will take it all. You did not have the receptacles to take enough money from the treasury, and this is why that trick was played on you.

We have to be ready for the situation that the moment we fill our “box,” it will immediately be emptied. However, it’s not so that we continue to mechanically fill it and to take more and more from the treasury.

The ego feels how the box is being emptied again and again, and it itself starts training us to perceive this as something normal. And then we begin to ask why it happens this way, what’s the meaning of it, and we don’t agree with this.

We go through the same states again and again, while the Light acts upon this uncompromising repetition, and we begin to understand that we don’t need to worry about the full box, but about the work itself. The opportunity to transfer the King’s treasure from place to place gives us fulfillment, and thus we attain bestowal, “Lishma.”

We shouldn’t aim at and focus on the fulfillment that is pleasant and important to us today, but constantly think about what will be important tomorrow. We need to do that immediately, and then we will be similar to that same old man who walks bent over and is searching, as if he has lost something. He is constantly afraid of losing the importance of the goal and tries to clarify what this goal is exactly.

The goal isn’t about pleasant sensations. Pleasant sensations are needed so that I can rise above them and demand a different filling—to feel the importance of the One I am working for and to remain in concealment. I demand the revelation of the greatness of the Creator only in order to supply to myself the fuel for the work. As it is said: “Wisdom (Hochma) is for the humble” and “The reward for a commandment is a commandment.” This is what a person has to aspire to so that he is allowed to rise above one deed to the next deed, which has no relation whatsoever to the pleasure that he received.

It is as if I prepared some action by myself, executed it by myself, and received good results. And now I need to thank the Creator for executing everything from beginning to end. After all, now I understand that everything happened because He gave me desire, fuel, direction, intellect, and all the rest. He is the One who arranged everything, and I did nothing at all.

Thus I need to make a sacrifice (Kurban), to bring another part of me closer (Karov) to bestowal. I have to sacrifice the pleasure that I received thanks to “someone else’s” work and the money (Kesef) that wasn’t mine either, meaning a screen, covering (Kisuf) in this world. The Creator gave me all of that and He also gave me fulfillment. And I want to rise above all of this and to work not for this fulfillment, but for the sake of His greatness.

In this way we don’t lose the level we obtained and don’t descend. Now we determine an even higher goal for ourselves, like that old man who searches in case he has lost something.

And we indeed have lost something. For a small moment we felt how good and pleasant it is to be in unity, and now we have to rise above this pleasant feeling to the importance of the goal. And this same pleasant feeling we want to pass on to the Creator so as to bring him contentment.

It follows that this entire process he went through, all the refreshments that the guest received from the host, he now wants to return them so as not to receive them for himself. This is already a state that in some way becomes pure bestowal, “Lishma.” And this is already the correct attitude.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/2012, Shamati #52

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Question: Why do we need to transfer the King’s treasure from place to place?

Answer: Due to the fact that you have to carry the cup full of gold coins from one place to another, each time you attain His greatness, and through that, you bring Him pleasure.

He doesn’t need to have his treasure transferred anywhere, and He does not need your work. His pleasure is in having you understand Him, feel Him, and become similar to Him, and that you grow through that. By this you bring Him joy.

And your pleasure is in fulfilling His desire: You ascend, grow, and do everything that He wants. And you do this not in order to receive a pleasant and attractive reward that you earned along this entire path, but in order to bring pleasure to the Creator.

We need to feel this point in which we replace His attitude toward us with our attitude toward Him. This is the point where we meet Him. There is one and there’s the other, and in between is the place of our meeting, where we transform one into another: He bestows to us, and we to Him. And it is here that the point of the Masach (screen) is, the point of our connection.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/12, Shamati #52

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Question: How can we and all of humanity learn about the inseparable network that connects us?

Answer: In order to do that we tighten our connection with the people, with the world. This recognition will pass on to them through us. Knowing the general system means knowing the connection among all its parts, and this connection is attained by devoting one’s self to dissemination.

We have to understand the masses: their nature, their character, and their demands and from that to adapt our approach to them. Internally we have to act as grownups playing with children, with the clear intention and knowledge of what we want to achieve by this game.

Question: Do we have to teach people the laws of the integral system in addition to the importance of good mutual relations with others?

Answer: This is called education, and by this an educator differs from a teacher. A teacher presents facts, formulas, graphs, etc.; he teaches the students the results of research. On the other hand, an educator treats the students more cunningly, in a two-faced manner. An educator has two parts, two identities, one that descends to the level of the student in order to connect with him, while the other identity has a clear intention, knowing what he wants to bring the student to. The educator himself is the third identity, and no one knows its level. This means that the role of an educator is on one hand, to see the level of the student, and on the other hand, to know the level to which he can raise the student and to connect the two levels, to teach the student how to move on from one level to another, and to spur him to do so.

An educator has a special role and he needs special preparation to stand in front of an audience. He should know what to give and what to hide, how to play and how to put on different masks, how to sometimes pretend that he doesn’t understand and sometimes to appear strange, cunning, etc., by that you enable the student to go through different states with regard to you, to the material, to the Creator, and to the world. A “student” is someone who is willing to maturely accept all these forms from the educator, knowing that it is all in his favor. On the other hand, a teacher simply teaches students different laws.

About the network that connects us all, of course we explain its laws. We explain the world in which we live, the global crisis that stems from the fact that nature is global, and so there is mutual connection and interdependence among all its parts, and that man is the reason for all that is happening because he is not connected to nature, and that in order to solve the crisis we have to unite. All this, of course, is part of our program.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/12, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 32
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Zohar for All – Passover “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “A Land For A Household,” Item 160
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Writings of the Ari “Shaar HaKavanot”
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 30
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Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 66
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Question: How can I begin to feel the point in the heart and what is that desire?

Answer: In our world, there are many people who are drawn to the truth. This person will not rest until he attains the source of life, its program, and goal, something higher than mere material existence.

A person can be prosperous in his material life or not; this is not important. The main thing that concerns him and does not let him rest is a lack of understanding what he lives for, but not in what form. What is the point of our life in general?

If a person asks himself this question, this is a sign that the point in the heart, that is, a special desire, awakens in him. The heart is called the entire egoistic desire of a person. And one of the desires which concerns a person, is the question about the essence of life. He must find an answer and satisfy this desire, to fill it with knowledge.

And knowledge is the link to the source of life, to its goal. A person is drawn to this fulfillment, and this inner yearning leads him to a place in this world, which is closest to the answer. There, he becomes included in studying and begins to understand from what he hears that there is no problem in learning at a university and getting the usual knowledge about this life to understand what happens in it. But why it happens is not taught at the university, and for this, it is necessary to obtain new additional qualities.

If a person wants to know the source of life and its goal, he must obtain knowledge that is above this earthly existence. But neither his heart nor his mind has the prerequisites for assimilating this knowledge. This information exists in the world, but he is not able to absorb it while he is at the animal level of development. He needs to rise to the human degree in order to develop the sense organ of perception of the source of life.

This requires special conditions, a new birth and development, which has no source, no roots in our world. But due to a special methodology called the science of Kabbalah, he learns how to receive (Lekabel) this information and feeling, to connect with the source of life, its goal. In essence, this is the same point, in which the upper force is manifested, but it is called the source of life relative to a human being, and the purpose of life relative to his efforts, his aspirations.

It is necessary to provide a person with suitable development, and that is why, there are teachers, places of study, and the methodology, which is passed from generation to generation and developed to match him. Thus, a person becomes acquainted with the method of Kabbalah, is given a teacher and books, and develops if this special point has awakened in him.

And until this point has been awakened, it is not allowed to reveal the science of Kabbalah to a person because he will perceive it as something abstract and unreal. But nowadays, when the world has entered the general crisis as a result of development that lasted for millennia, and people are suffering, the science of Kabbalah is revealed in the aspect of the so-called mutual guarantee. From the entire science, talking about attaining the source of life, just a small part is taken, one action without the intention, which is called mutual guarantee. People study how they can unite in order to reach a better life in this world.

Therefore, today, the science of Kabbalah is used, by people with a point in the heart and without it, as the method of connection for the sake of a better life and for correcting the crisis.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/12, Shamati #190

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Question: If everything that we see is actually within us, why do other people around us see the same thing?

Answer: It only seems that way, but actually it is all inside you. We cannot correct this distorted perception until we feel the spiritual world ourselves. Einstein also wanted to create a formula that would explain the order of creation, but he did not succeed. It is impossible to do that in our corporeal world.

Imagine a bug that crawls on the ground and feels the world in two dimensions: only by its length and width. You will never be able to explain to it what height means, it isn’t made for that since it is missing the third axis in its brain. We have three axes and time, and there is nothing other than that. This is why we cannot understand the world in the spiritual dimension.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2012, “The Gate of Intentions”

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Question: If I study over the Internet, does the Light that Reforms affect me?

Answer: Even in our corporal world there are neutrino particles that pass freely through matter, hardly losing any speed.

The upper Light is at absolute rest everywhere. There are no barriers for this phenomenon in our world; it is above its nature. Therefore, if we want to summon the Light to operate on us, we have to change so that it can feel us, in other words, we have to be similar to it in our properties. This is the extent to which we get incorporated into the Light and receive the results of its action upon us. For this reason our work is directed at being more and more similar to the Light.

The Light itself is formless, while our vessel, our desire, has to take on the attribute that is similar to the Light. The desire to receive is made up of many layers and degrees, and hence advances towards similarity to the Light step by step. Our goal is to constantly, from degree to degree, become increasingly similar to the Light. After all, the purpose of creation is to attain full similarity to the Light. This is where the name “Kabbalah” comes from, meaning to receive (in Hebrew). It teaches us how to receive, to absorb all the attributes of the Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/2012, Shamati #190

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Question: How can I strengthen my connection with the friends in a virtual group?

Answer: It’s not easy. After all, a person responds to what he perceives in five senses. This is how we are built on the “animate” level: We react to those who are close to us, who are in the field of our vision and hearing, and whom we can reach for and touch.

There is a reason why business people spend so much time travelling. Can’t they reach agreement remotely? All necessary conditions exist for that. Why does it make a difference with whom you maintain business relationships? It could be someone from China, Taiwan, South America, or Europe—most important is nevertheless profit. Yet still, business people need full-fledged meetings, not only virtual contacts and correspondence. Thus, a natural need for real contact roots in man. He has to “feel on skin” whatever is important to him.

It’s not the case with us, but we too have to meet each other and get imbued with sensations, impressions from these meetings. This is why we hold conventions.

It’s like a scientist who can lock himself up in his laboratory and carry out experiments, forgetting about the external world. But once in a few months he has to fly out somewhere to meet other scientists and communicate with them. To have a full picture, he needs a physical sensation, no matter what research he is engaged in.

Similarly, we can be separated by a distance, but on the other hand, having an opportunity, we have to invest efforts into unification. This makes our path a lot easier. And for this reason, if a person hasn’t been at a convention yet, he simply must come. Otherwise he won’t receive the needed impressions for subsequent advancement.

Regarding those who were at conventions already, who have difficulties coming, who for whatever reason have no opportunity, these people, having previous impressions, can stay with a local group and participate in our gathering there.

But if a person cannot come either to the convention or to a local group, then he needs to organize for himself the best possible conditions at home and stay there, imagining to himself that he is wholly with us. This also works.

In any case, regardless of where a person is, it’s desirable to always aim at unity. After the shattering of the vessels we get corrected only through unification. Surely, we don’t really want it, we are not drawn to it at all since by nature we are a result of the shattering of that very property that unites us into one whole. However, if a person wants to reach the purpose of creation and reveal the truth, he needs to rise above his nature. He has to dwell above this life so as to come to the spiritual one.

I repeat, for those who have never attended a convention yet, it’s simply your duty to. I cannot advise you on how to make it happen, however, as it is said, do whatever is in your power to do. It’s necessary to come to a convention at least once, if such an opportunity actually exists.

And besides, it’s very important to prepare for the meeting. Visit our site www.kabbalah.info and press on the convention banner to get familiar with the preparation material.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/2012, Shamati #190

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Question: What are you expecting from your trip to South America and the upcoming convention in Brazil?

Answer: I look forward to this trip with excitement since it gives me an opportunity to achieve some results in the mission to which I have dedicated my life. But on the other hand, this result doesn’t depend on me, which is why I’m simultaneously inspired by this opportunity and cautious in my expectations.

And naturally, the outcome of the convention depends not only on those who’ll come to Brazil, but on all of our friends from around the world—you all understand this very well. And this is why I think that we need to conduct a very serious preparation, which is extremely important to each of us individually and to all of us together.

Let’s really prepare ourselves in a way Rabash describes in his articles “The Need for the Gathering of Friends” and “Preparation for the Gathering of Friends.” Preparation for a gathering includes clarifying why I need these friends, what they give to me and I to them. Even before I come to the meeting, I must clarify the purpose of creation and how it can be attained so that this convention, that is, the unification in which everyone is equal, becomes a means of achieving the desired goal.

I am glad that people understand this better and better, and I believe that through these conventions we will be able to leap to the next degree. All of it depends on our preparation. This is what we lacked before the European convention in Lithuania, where we didn’t have such joint preparation.

There was only participation of the whole world in the convention, the kind that I feel now as well. But it’s only participation; for now I don’t yet sense a real preparation, even though we know that it determines everything. Right now, we need to conduct a massive preparation, which is even more important than whatever will happen later at the convention.

At the time of the convention, all kinds of obstacles could come up, such as interruptions in the Internet broadcast or whatever else. But at that point it’s no longer important because the action itself doesn’t depend on us, we are charged only with its preparation. We should never forget about this!

Your preparation doesn’t depend on anyone other than yourself since it happens as if in concealment. It has not revealed itself yet, hasn’t been realized in action. It is said that the thoughts of a person are not accessible to the impure force, it knows only of his actions. And this is why we can freely prepare together, correspond, and share our plans. And it is very important. The action itself could even appear as entirely unsuccessful, but the result won’t depend on the action itself at all but on the preparation for it.

We are concerned with the way the action itself turns out because we’re still small in spirituality, and we use the impressions we receive to determine the “success” or “failure” of a convention. But in reality, everything is determined by the preparation, and this is why the main emphasis right now should be made specifically on it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress”

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The upper Light is at absolute rest, which means that I shouldn’t hope that there’ll be changes on its end and need to change only myself, my desires. And even though it is said that the Lights agitate the desires, there is only just one Light. The Light is divided into five beams in correspondence to the desire being divided into five parts, and thus the desire senses the single Light as if there are five different Lights. The vessel changes and therefore it feels as if the Light agitates it.

And if everything depends on the desire, it means that the entire success is determined by its preparation. Depending on how the desire prepares itself, meaning whether or not it will be ready for the action, for its meeting with the Light, so it will be! This is why preparation determines the entire outcome of an action.

And we don’t know what the action will be. Perhaps it will be an even deeper fall into Egypt or one of the Egyptian plagues?! Or perhaps it will be the crossing of the Red Sea, which is not a very pleasant adventure either, or the escape from the Pharaoh’s army, or even receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. All these situations can hardly be called pleasant pastimes—they all pass in trepidation, fear, hate, and great strain. But preparation determines whether or not we will be able to overcome all this.

Therefore, right now we need not think about the way the convention itself will go, but only about how we can prepare ourselves for the action of unification. And the degree that will be revealed to us within this unity will show us where we are: Perhaps we are still in Egypt, or we are about to exit it, or maybe we are already beyond its borders.

Everything depends only on the preparation of our desires (vessels, instruments), while the Light is at constant rest. Depending on how we prepare ourselves to correspond to the Light, we will receive its influence accordingly, that is, we will sense how we are acquiring its form.

You will see that there are no obstacles to preparation; it is always blessed and leads to advancement. While the action itself is a meeting with the Light, and it can lead to completely opposite results from what we were expecting. The result will always be for our benefit, but it can appear to us as a blow, like, for example, the plagues of Egypt, which signified the stages of advancement towards a spiritual birth. And we can go through them in the blink of an eye, one after another, in the duration of a single convention….
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress” 

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