Question: What success do you anticipate from the convention?

Answer: I expect us to feel the first form of man, clothing us, that is, the Creator revealed in our unity. But let it be a clear revelation, not something vague, when everyone felt just the beginning of a new state as it was felt at the convention in the desert and even before it.

This must be realized practically so that we feel the movement inside, the spirit dwelling in us, and the changing actions of the Light.

If the Light does not move, we do not feel it, and we do not have the breath of life. There has to be Ruach (spirit, wind) or changes, but not the degree of Nefesh that remains motionless. What we felt before was the first still degree. And now we need Ruach, the small changes within that give us a feeling of life.

After all, we, the created beings, feel only changes from a state to a state, and through this contrast we check and understand each property. Our perception works on the basis of contrast, it needs movement so that one is different from the other. Hence, let us hope that we will feel the breath of life. The creature is born from it, but not from Nefesh.

Nefesh is like a drop of semen, which came from the father. But when it begins to grow, it acquires its own existence. If there is a new movement in it, beside that initial drop of semen, it is already a new life, a new body. It belongs to the fetus, not to the father. These are the tangible changes that we are waiting to happen in us—only they are felt like life.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2012, “Introduction to TES“

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Our only goal is to discover the upper Light, the only force that rules the world. After all, everything else is only the means. Besides this, there is no problem in our existence because every given moment and every situation in our life is defined by our contradiction to the Light. And so we should relate to everything as the means to discover the Light.

Some states are more efficient and some are less. In any case, everything depends on whether I can accept the Light correctly and use it.

Now we are facing a special state: connection above many obstacles and differences between the parts of our collective spiritual vessel. This was made possible as a result of many great efforts and the hard work of our European division, as well as of our friends from these countries, who have gathered together.

No state in the world is more tense, where as a result of the crisis and everything that is going on these days, the discrepancies and differences between the components of the collective vessel are so great and the internal states of each part are so intense. But at the same time, we have made many efforts in preparing for this convention, where representatives of nations and countries that are so different and have so many internal conflicts and different accounts with one another gather to connect.

There is actually “Mt. Sinai” here—a mountain of mutual hate, distance, lack of understanding, and the inability to accept one another. After all, every one is a representative of a separate part that acts against another. And we want to connect above all that. We have a special opportunity that doesn’t exist anywhere else, not in any other event. Nowhere is there such tension like in the collective vessel that will gather at the European convention.

Therefore, we should pay special attention to that. From all these differences, we should constantly feel that we connect above them and want to reveal the inner hatred, the inner breach among us, and contradictions. They all remain, and we understand, feel, and don’t blur them. They are turbulent inside like a boiling stew on the stove. We cover it with a lid and don’t let it explode or get cold. On the contrary, we constantly want to keep this fire burning so that it will turn into a flame of love.

This is one of the feelings we should have in the coming European convention. Although compared to the size of the convention in Israel there will be perhaps 20% of the capacity of the collective vessel, looking at the quality, which in spirituality determines the power of the vessel, it will be stronger and greater than everything we had in the past. Both the distance and the events taking place in the continent make this a very special situation.

Therefore, we really hope that as a result of our efforts, above all the differences, the lack of understanding and the distance, we will be able to connect. We now have the opportunity to rise above all the differences, “to lock” ourselves above them, and then according to the differences between the peoples and the cultures—and between us who are connected to one another—we will feel the power of the vessel, in which there will be enough room to discover the Light.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/2012, The Zohar

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Question: It is said: “There is no righteous man on earth that does only good and makes no transgressions.” What stops a person from living in accordance to this principle?

Answer: This is due to the lack of confidence, or in other words the absence of the Light of Hassadim. This is precisely what we need to obtain.

For example, I am on the first degree and need to reach the second degree. The Light of Hassadim is the difference between the two degrees. I don’t have this Light and there isn’t anyone who can give it to me. My only option is to include myself in the environment and obtain the Light of Hassadim from it. After all, the environment is the quality of Вina.

Upon obtaining this Light I elevate to the second degree and obtain a realization: the Light of OM (Ohr Makif) comes and fills Hassadim.

This is how I obtain both the Light and the vessel.

Everything depends upon the extent to which a person lowers himself before the correct environment.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Baal HaSulam’s “The Last Generation” begins with a fable about a group of friends who are lost and wandering in the desert, suffering from hunger and thirst. One of them finds a settlement where the best things are and he remembers his unfortunate friends that he has been separated from. He doesn’t know where they are. What does he do? He begins to yell loudly and blow the horn. Maybe his hungry and miserable friends will hear him, and will also come to the settlement and be filled with good things.

It speaks about the special books that we found that explain the laws of nature that can teach the way to our lost generation that is wandering in the desert.

Nowadays, it is being discovered that humanity is really lost and doesn’t have any guide to lead them. There is great danger that because we have lost our way, that out of desperation we could begin terrible wars, as has already happened in the past. Thus, it is so important to understand that there exists both a book and a group of people who are able to lead humanity towards a good goal.

It is interesting that this book doesn’t contain instructions that explain how to strengthen ourselves on this path that we travel from below upward. It doesn’t give any explanation that will help us understand what we should do and what we will receive for each step we take, like an instruction manual for some kind of machine does where we don’t need to think much but just execute orders.

On the contrary, the book is written “from above to below,” from the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) to this world. It describes the upper system, and it isn’t clear what we need this for. Wouldn’t it have been preferable to write about us, about man, about Adam HaRishon and everything that happened to him? But the moment one begins to talk about him, the explanations become vague and are quickly ended.

Where are the clear instructions, where is the agreement for my broken soul: places where it fell to and where I need to search for my broken pieces? How should I collect them and assemble them back together? How should I check that I haven’t made a mistake? Why isn’t there anything written about this?

If we need to bring the world to correction, then why isn’t it possible to go towards it in a logical, deliberate way, where we examine our steps, one by one, according to the clear instructions that are uncovered before me? But instead of describing all the steps from below upward, how to execute them, and how to examine them, it is just the opposite. I am told how the upper worlds descended from above to below.

I want to know how the first man broke, where the broken pieces of my soul are located, how I can see them, collect them, connect them, glue them together, and check if I did it correctly. We have no instructions for this. We don’t know where the material is that we need to work with, meaning, where to find it and what we should do with it.

Why was it done this way? The issue is that we would like to advance in spirituality exactly like in corporeality, with the same tools. I want to examine everything, to understand everything, to read the instructions in the book and execute them. This is possible if I operate on my level and work with both feelings and intellect, with my desires and attributes.

However, if I need to rise to the next level, a completely different approach is needed. To begin with, I need to recognize the evil of my present state and the future good of the next level, meaning its properties and everything that happens in it. This is despite not understanding its good. On the contrary, I discover it is opposite from everything that I have now, against all my attributes and values.

In this way we need to prepare ourselves: to consciously scorn, the present level as compared to the greatness of the next level and to choose its properties instead of ours. We need to reach the recognition of the evil of our desire to receive to the maximum, and to appreciate the attribute of bestowal as much as possible, even though it doesn’t seem that important to me via my present Kelim (desires), in my current perception. I can appreciate it only through the Kelim of the society.

Thus, I need to yearn for the Reforming Light that arrives from the third level. I work towards my next upper level, which for me is called the Creator, and want to receive more Light from the upper level, the level above me. Since there, when Malchut (Kingdom) raises MAN (Mayin Nukvin, female waters) to Zeir Anpin (small face), then it raises it even higher, to Aba ve Ima (AVI, Father and Mother), the source of Light. And we also should work this way.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/12, “The Last Generation”

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All of creation is a desire to receive that seems to be divided into four levels: the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking. We have to connect all of them and to bring them to adhesion with the upper force that created these desires. The adhesion is attained by equivalence of form, by changing the manner in which we use our desire. We can’t change the intention in the desire on the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, or animate because they’re not developed enough. It can only be done on the level of the speaking.

When a person develops, he reaches a state in which he feels that he must correct his matter, his desires. He simply doesn’t see any other way out of the crisis he’s in: the personal crisis, the general crisis, or both of them together, which is a result of the development of the desire. He reaches full recognition of evil and then he understands that it isn’t in his power to change his own nature and that he needs external help, “treatment.”

Among the people there is the group that attains this from the study and that must explain this to the whole world. Without the group, humanity would advance towards the recognition of the evil of its ego without being able to correct it, through terrible suffering.

The hard part is in revealing the upper force and in understanding that only it can help us. We see how hard it is to recognize in difficult situations that all the evil comes from the Creator and that the correction can only come from Him and that “There is none else besides Him”; only He brings us the suffering and only He can bring us the good. We’ll be able to reach the good only if we know Him and ask for His help only for a particular purpose.

This is the long process of learning how to advance; it’s very difficult to reach Him and to pay for it by suffering. Therefore, a group of people was chosen from all of humanity who can wake up and advance towards this attainment of their own will and to look for the answer to the question “What is the point of my life?” when they are not pushed by suffering on the beastly level but on the “human” level. From Adam HaRishon (the first man) such people appeared in the world. They need to pass on the Torah, the “instruction,” the method for correcting the ego, to all of humanity according to the necessity that each of them feels.

This is what has happened throughout history with anyone who thought about the meaning of life; today this epidemic is spreading to all of humanity, and everyone will begin to ask: “What is the meaning of our lives?” Although this question has two sides, the special ones ask, “What is the meaning of my life if I don’t know the purpose of creation and its source? If I don’t attain it, then my life will be worse than death.” The rest of humanity asks about the meaning of life as it sees that it suffers and we are slipping lower and lower. A person always checks himself relative to others, to the previous day, and to what is expected the next day.

So eventually everyone will reach the need to correct their nature. But this is only possible with the help of the upper force, with the help of the Reforming Light called the “Torah.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/12, Shamati #6

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot,” Item 115: That such a person, who is still short of one commandment, will regard himself as half unworthy and half worthy. Meaning, one should imagine that the time when he was granted repentance was in the middle of his years….

Thus, in the first half of his years he is unworthy, and in the second half of his years, he is worthy.

Question: If a person wants to complete the whole process in this lifetime, how should he make an effort in the work?

Answer: During the preparation period a person hates everyone. Then the transgressions become mistakes and he connects with everyone. But this isn’t a complete correction yet. He is still in a state of Hafetz Hesed. Eventually, on the next level a person connects until he is in adhesion.

So the whole process is aimed at unity, and a person can reach the greatest unity from the greatest separation.

Every change is called a “reincarnation.” A person can live for 80 years without even starting to change and not go through one reincarnation. A new car, a new apartment—these things have nothing to do with reincarnation. The beastly body lives and dies, and this has nothing to do with reincarnation either.

On the other hand, everyone can end the process in one lifetime. Whether a person will do it is another question. It depends on him—he needs to want to end it. There is nothing else in creation except for the desire. If a person’s individual desire is small, he should find ways to increase it; he should find assistance in the wisdom of Kabbalah and in the Light that’s in it. There are no other options.

Some people come to us once a week, some come only on holidays, some come everyday, others come here in the morning and in the evening, and yet others try to spend the whole day doing what’s important. There are people who spend the whole day here because it is convenient and it feels safe, they feel like an embryo in the womb. Others want to fight their ego. It all depends on a person’s intention and on how he uses the means at his disposal.

Question: What does it mean “the middle years”?

Answer: It is the symbolic age of 40, that is, the stage in which a person ends his correction in Bina. Bina is called a blocked “Mem” (ם), whose numerical value is 40. Only after this level is it possible to move to receiving in order to bestow.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 116: One who is granted the commandment of love by repentance from love, through it he is rewarded with turning his sins to merits.

Overall, there are four degrees on our way. At the bottom there is the broken desire to receive, meaning the broken AHP. This is called “sins” or “transgressions.” On the next level there is the broken desire to bestow, meaning the broken Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE). This is called “mistakes.”

Above that there is the Machsom (barrier). Above it, there is the corrected desire to bestow, GE. This is the level of Bina, “an incomplete righteous” who performs 612 commandments, which is the state of “Hafetz Hesed (HH)” or Lishma. Finally we reach the level of “one commandment,” 613th commandment—love. This is already the corrected desire to receive.

After crossing the Machsom, the mistakes turn into commandments and the transgressions turn into mistakes. By rising to the level of love, the remaining mistakes turn into commandments in the corrected AHP, and the commandments rise from the third degree to GE.

Thus the “transgressions” are the desires to receive in order to bestow, which were broken and turned into the desires to receive in order to receive, the shattered, corrupt AHP. While the broken GE are “mistakes.”

When we try to picture all that, the main thing is not to exit the framework of the ten Sefirot. If we are going to be confused, then at least it should be within clear boundaries and not in the space of imagination.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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A person should be constantly careful because at any moment, as the sages say, he can tip the scale not only in his favor but also in favor of the whole world. But this doesn’t mean that we can’t make mistakes. Today we go through the phase of preparation and of course we may make mistakes.

If you make efforts and make mistakes, it is normal. During the preparation period a person doesn’t correct anything yet, but only prepares his desires for correction. This is also what we teach children. We don’t demand any real work from them, which they are unable to do yet. We don’t assess them according to the results, but according to what they have learned. For example, if we give a child a toy and he takes it apart and breaks it, it is natural for him, and although the toy is broken he still learned something from it. He may discover that there is nothing inside it, or that there is a spring; the child has learned something and this is the main gain.

You don’t even punish a ten-year-old for things that a grown-up may go to jail for. During the phase of preparation a person is not expected to reach any real results. The main thing is to prepare oneself for correction and to advance, even by the corruptions that you summon and discover. This is the principle of learning. This is why traditional teaching in our schools and universities is futile; a person is not allowed to make mistakes. Good grades and high achievements are expected of him and he doesn’t think about the essence of the material, about how to put together the materials that are presented to him ready made. No, he has to get a grade and all the rest doesn’t interest him.

So it isn’t a preparation for something greater any more. The education system produces people who don’t know how to think.

Actually in the preparation phase, in the process of learning, one thing should be expected from a person: to absorb as many good and bad things as possible, to constantly rise and fall. His level of preparations should be assessed and not how much he knows. It doesn’t matter if he breaks something on the way. A person counting on a lucrative profession is not a master of anything. A real master works only for the “sake of art.” The pay doesn’t interest him. A person who really wants to become an expert in a certain field should only connect with the material he will work with, study it, and penetrate it. In order to do this, he has to break the raw materials and sink into this breaking himself, into the depth of the raw material.

This is a totally different method of teaching and educating, a method that is opposite from the current method. There are no grades, because during the preparation there is nothing to give grades for. There is also no reward for the future results because otherwise a person desires the reward.

In the world, however, people prefer something that promises a reward. In the last 30-40 years people have become very limited and cannot find solutions even to small crises. This is because they don’t have a creative approach to learning. The person was not built from the shattering so that he can really be complex and multifaceted.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: The current education system is limited. It produces professionals but not creative people or artists that can analyze and solve global problems. How can the situation be changed?

Answer: This can be done only on the basis of the wisdom of Kabbalah. There is no other way. After the shattering has been revealed in the last decades, humanity can only be corrected by the Reforming Light, and no experts or artists can help here. Today the crisis is so deep inside the desire to receive, that only the Reforming Light can correct the situation.

The previous crises were on the development levels of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and they pushed and drew us from the front, to the current crisis that is global and comprehensive, on the level of the speaking. This level cannot be corrected by continuing to develop on the egoistic plane, but only by the Reforming Light that will raise us upwards to the next level. There is nowhere we can develop any more. We must rise.

Only we can teach humanity this; no pedagogical education will help here; we are talking about a different kind of education and training, one that allows people to open up the integral world for people.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: Today the issue of cancelling grades is becoming relevant and there is much talk about it because people understand that grades cause harm and make our kids technocrats.

Answer: Like in any crisis, the damage is evident, but no one knows how to correct the situation. Eventually, one damage will be covered by another: Grades will be cancelled, but new frameworks will be built and then we won’t even have what we had before. Currently, if we consider the lack of understanding of the real reasons for what is going on, more is not necessarily better. All these additions are not adapted to nature. If we just give more freedom to kids, it will not add anything. Without integral learning, that is adapted to nature, no good will come out of these changes.

Question: But the experts are right, they say that we’ve changed and the world is now mutually connected, and we should work in groups, cooperate, develop children’s creativity, their creative thinking, their ability to study and research things, and to develop the human being in them; how is that different?

Answer: In Kabbalistic terms this is called a “shell.” It means that it is impurity. Experts are suggesting that we use the potential of becoming equal to the Creator in order to gain personally. The moment they approach this, they will encounter many crises that will be worse than the pervious situation. Such tendencies can be compared to “the connection of the evil” that is bad for them and bad for the world.

If the goal is not the union with the Creator, then the result will be the same as in Russia, where the attempts to reach unity led to the opposite results. Eventually, this will also bring us to the desired solution, but it will be a long and difficult road. They can try new ways, cancel exams and have kids sit in a circle, but one way or the other if they don’t get a teaching kit from us but act according to their egoistic understanding with no connection to the Creator, the results will be negative. Eventually such criminals will come out of schools that compared to them, today’s graduates will seem like angels.

The whole idea is using the Godly principle, the spiritual principle for personal benefit. If we bring the world our method, it will be totally different. Then the Rambam’s principle, according to which we should develop the “women and children” gradually until they acquire knowledge, will be enacted because the right method will lead them forward. But if they decide to use their own forces, they are expected to fail after a while.

It is true that experts have begun to penetrate the essence of the problem lately and to express wonderful ideas. But there is no choice: If people don’t have the right intention, then they are all doomed.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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