The Babylonian Talmud, Treatise Taanit 7: He who engages in the Torah for its sake, the Torah becomes the potion of life for him, and he who engages in the Torah not for its sake, it becomes the potion of death for him.

If there is such great danger concealed in the Torah, perhaps it’s better not to engage in it? After all, if you study correctly, you “rise to heaven,” and if you don’t, “you sink into the ground,” into the abyss.

The problem is that if you don’t study correctly, the Light concealed in the Torah puts you into states that are opposite from the truth, but you don’t even notice that. The Torah doesn’t bring you death, but rather “the potion of death,” when you don’t feel that you are dead. You can study the Torah day and night, memorize page after page by heart, and at the same time be dead, meaning not understand that this is totally opposite from the goal for which the Torah was given.

The Torah was given to us so that we will reach the love of others. It says: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice because the Light in it reforms.” What does it mean that it reforms? It’s the “great law of the Torah”—”love thy friend as thyself,” or in other words, the general goal of everything that we do according to the Torah.

In every precept we perform, in every detail, we must advance towards the love of others. Only through the love of others will we reach the final goal, the love of the Creator and adhesion with Him, according to the equivalence of form between a person and the Creator.

Therefore, before the study, we have to prepare ourselves and keep all the necessary conditions so that the study of the Torah will bring us the desired goal: adhesion, that is, the correction of our intentions from egoistic to altruistic. This work is clarified only in the group, where we can check ourselves practically.

Each time we will discover hate among us and will get a chance to rise above it towards love. To do that, we need to organize ourselves correctly: We want to connect in order to reach adhesion and to discover the Creator in it, thereby bringing Him contentment. It’s possible to discover the Creator only in our collective vessel of bestowal. It’s necessary that we prepare ourselves for the lesson in this way so that we’ll approach the study correctly.

Question: If the potion of death doesn’t let me feel that I am dead, does the potion of life enable me to feel death?

Answer: I feel that I am living from the “potion.” It isn’t an ordinary existence anymore. In the intention of in order to bestow, above my nature, I attain life. The potion has the effect of making me lie to my egoistic desire and not to myself. On the other hand, the potion of death drowns me in the lie, which I don’t notice, and then I see myself as “righteous,” although I haven’t even entered the rank of “wicked.”

Question: How can the wisdom of Kabbalah save a person from the potion of death?

Answer: It can do it by the Light that Reforms. If you arrange all the conditions for yourself correctly, if you enter the group and disseminate, which is an inseparable part of the preparation these days, and if you participate in everything that the group experiences in order to reveal the connection, then you are preparing correctly for the study, and your intention during the study is not to read yet another paragraph, but to receive the Light that Reforms. It isn’t by chance that Baal HaSulam wrote in “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 18: “…that while practicing Torah, they did not set their minds and hearts to draw the Light in the Torah….”

Everything is solved by the preparation. The right study is the study that you have prepared yourself for correctly. Then you read the text correctly, with the right intention, in the right group, with all the necessary conditions. And what do you get from the study? You get the chance to work and to rise: the feeling of hate and rejection of the friends….
[72543]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: How do you relate to the missile attacks in the south of Israel?

Answer: During the operation “Peace for the Galilee,” my teacher, Rabash, was very worried about the situation. He listened to the news every hour, and when he was asked why, he replied that he was worried about his children.

This is an example for us—we also need to worry in this way. A person needs to feel that all the people in the world are inseparable parts of him. Then he will worry about them just as he worries about himself, being in concealment and not feeling the oneness of the world within him.

One should not wish for anyone’s death, even for the death of one’s bitter enemies. We want them to become corrected and in general, we wish only good for everyone, and especially to the citizens who find themselves on the firing line. Of course, one shouldn’t allow anyone to take his life away, and thus in the Torah there is a law: For the sake of self defense, it is preferable to kill before being killed. But this is on condition that it’s really necessary and there is no other choice. In this situation, death serves as a correction. However, if you are able to correct the person during this reincarnation, do it.

In addition, we must remember our friends in the South of Israel. Together with them we pass through the process of our and the world’s correction. We must be with them in mind and soul.

Before the lesson, I watch the news in order to know about events that took place in the previous hours. We all need to be connected to this. We hope that all of this will be included into the framework of correction. If we exert effort faster, the states that come upon us by the path of suffering will invert to the path of the Torah. Then everything will be arranged in the best possible way, and we will acquire life without limits, in the entire world. We are able to initiate it, and there is no doubt that the Light can do this.

It’s very good that the friends join the lesson from the shelters. Rabash and myself did the same thing during the Gulf War.

And in general, we are in favor of a cease fire, in favor of ending all the conflicts in the world, in favor of destruction of all weapons, and in favor of man’s correction. This is mutual guarantee. Since we have become, against our will, guarantors of each other in a system that ties us together, the time has come to open our eyes and feel it in action. There is no other choice: We have to feel that we are each other’s guarantors.

However, when the mutual, inner connection appears before a person, he goes into shock. It turns out that it is all me: my parents, my children, my friends, strangers, and those I hate. It is such a huge variety of so many relations, and all of them are me, one Partzuf, the 10 Sefirot.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Shamati #19 “What Is the Creator Hates the Bodies in the Work,” (Start with: “One must know that during the work,” To: “This matter is implied in the Citron”) 
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Correction of the Lower World from the Upper World,” Item 297, Lesson 82
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7, Item 14, Lesson 6
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A person doesn’t care whether he receives or bestows, but rather how he feels about it. If I feel good, I am ready to bring you a present every day, every moment. The main thing is that it brings me pleasure.

The problem is not giving the present, but feeling pleasure in this. The moment I feel that bestowal fills me, I will give you whatever you want. I don’t think about whether to give or not to give, but about how to derive pleasure from it.

There isn’t much room for philosophy here because we are merely the desire to enjoy, and so we can do anything if it brings us fulfillment. The question is how to perform actions without receiving any fulfillment?

This is why we were given the desire to fill ourselves egoistically so that above it, we will build our attitude to the form of fulfillment. I have to check myself: How do I enjoy? This means that I grab myself by the throat and now decide how I should enjoy: this way or the other. Until then, I strangle myself and don’t allow myself to receive anything.

Then I become independent. I am free with regards to the filling, and am able to stop myself from receiving fulfillment or, on the contrary, to fill myself. This makes me similar to the Creator because He is the master both of the desire and the fulfillment, and so I also become the master and have control over the two.

We don’t understand how we can strangle ourselves with our own hands and how free we are once we reach that! It is such a high status that only in it am I called “Human.”

Until then there is only an automatic calculation in me and nothing more than that. It is like wanting to stop smoking because it is unhealthy. It all depends on what is more important to me.
[72564]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/2012, TES

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Question: What should I do with the hate towards the friends that I reveal on the spiritual path?

Answer: Learn from the authors of The Book of Zohar. Gathering together in order to “engage in the Torah,” that is, discover the Creator, they felt hatred towards one another first. This was the result of the great work of connection they did previously. Each time a new state, a new desire to receive, a new Reshimo (the informational gene), was revealed to them—and everyone felt it as corrupt: “I hate the others and I love myself, I want everything for myself.”

This is the right preparation: the revelation of new conditions that I have to correct now. First I discover the corruption and then I work on the correction, for which I need the Torah. It says: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice.” When the evil inclination is revealed, I can turn to the Torah for help.

If you don’t discover the evil from the start, you don’t reach the Torah either. In this case you don’t learn the method of correction, but theory. The “Torah” is the Light that Reforms that you draw from the writings of Kabbalists to the extent that you discover the evil within you and suffer because you don’t want it. This is because you yearn for bestowal, and the evil that is revealed to you disturbs you by not letting you reach it. It’s not that it brings you misfortunes or bad luck in this life; it prevents you from reaching bestowal in particular.

So the preparation for the lesson is the most important thing, as Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 17. This is how one should approach the study. Wherever people study you can check: Do they reach the recognition of evil? Do they not just beat themselves on the chest and confess, but truly discover the evil in them?

A person doesn’t discover this with regard to his neighbors, colleagues, or family members, but only in relation to the friends, when he hates them instead of loving them. He tries to connect with them with all his heart, with all his might, but he cannot. Instead, he feels how hateful and repelling just the thought of it is.

There is no greater rejection and disapproval—after all, it is as if you are being forced to love. It comes to very difficult sensations. And it is then that you should engage in the Torah, that is, the method of correction.
[72541]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: What can we say to a person who is sitting in the shelter today under the missile attack in the southern part of Israel?

Answer: That he should join the dissemination of our message because this is the only means by which the world will become a better place. Through our message it will receive the “Light,” that is, the force of correction. There is no other way and no other action that will draw the upper reforming force. The wisdom of Kabbalah is based on drawing the Light that Reforms.

Of course, we should provide additional explanations, but on the whole, we should understand that the masses will approach spirituality quite easily. They won’t feel any ups and downs and will have no difficult questions. Unlike us, they don’t have a “plus” and a “minus,” but only a “minus,” emptiness, which is filled by unity. Eventually, they will agree to connect in order to fill themselves.

Thus they can spare themselves of many unpleasant situations on the path and achieve in ten lessons of study what you did in the course of ten years. When you look at their group, you will wonder: “For fifteen years I learned to hate the friends, whereas they love each other after several lessons.”

This is what you will see. After all, you are performing corrections and they are not. They simply learned how to receive pleasure correctly, they caught the right direction: “To connect? Then let’s connect, as long as we receive pleasure.” But you, looking at them from the side, will envy them.

We should refer to scientific research and logically convince a person that we must unite. Then a person will understand the reason for everything that happens—our imbalance with nature—and will agree to connect in order to reach equilibrium with it.

I should have a balanced attitude towards the whole world, including the ecology, the family, the friends,and so on. I have to become the one who bestows, meaning, a well-functioning, corrected part of the whole. It is enough that I agree to move in that direction, and the trend will immediately change. Eventually everything will work out. The clouds will clear and we will see the blue sky, so to speak.

Question: So who should a person connect with?

Answer: With the world, but first, with the group. It isn’t enough to love the world while being detached from it, like the celebrities who tell us on TV: “Who loves you more than I do?” This means that we will have to gather people into groups.
[72441]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/2012, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: What should we focus on while reading The Zohar: the Light or the deficiency?

Answer: What can you do with the Light? We only know that there is a great, perfect force in nature that is good and benevolent to the good and to the bad, that is, to those who want to advance according to its laws and those who do not.

We are actually in a field of Light where the attribute of bestowal is. It is similar to the laws of physics that determine the behavior of any force field, such as electromagnetic or gravitational. In order for this field to influence us most effectively, we should keep its conditions and resemble it. Then, it will operate on us most strongly.

Our sensitivity to this field depends on how much we want to correspond to it. All the still, vegetative, and animate nature move naturally toward the Light, whereas man does not. He needs to determine his attitude to the Light by himself each time, as if to turn himself and place himself under the most suitable and effective influence.

Thanks to the fact that a person turns in different angles with regard to the Light, he studies the Light, gets to know his nature, desire, and the order of his development and its form. He understands why he has to turn himself specifically this way. As a result, the attributes and desires are evoked in him that oblige him to look for the appropriate influence concealed in the Light.

By doing all this work, a person studies creation and the forces that operate in it: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. There is nothing else besides that. The mind he attains during this process belongs to the upper level, to the Creator. This is because neither the Light nor the desire belong to the upper level, to Godliness.

The mind of the Host who creates and controls everything is what manages both the Light and the vessel. As a result of a person’s turning his vessel each time relative to the Light, he begins to understand creation and to know the mind that is above the vessel and the Light. This is the chance we were given: to attain the acting mind. It is like looking at a table and by that attaining the mind of the carpenter. This is all our work.
[72434]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/2012, The Zohar

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Our correction consists of acquiring a “head.” This is the entire difference between the initial Malchut of the world of Infinity from which all the worlds have expanded, and the Malchut of the world of Infinity in its final, third, state to which we return as we complete the correction.

The entire difference is in this head because Malchut of the world of Infinity is completely filled with the Light both in the first and the third state—only the mind is added. A simple desire, which existed before, now operates with intention and makes a calculation about how much it can receive for the sake of bestowal, how much it can give for the sake of bestowal, and whether to not receive at all or to receive egoistically.

From the Creator’s authority all these decisions are passed on to the creature, to man himself. Then, a person acquires an opportunity to please the Creator in the same way that the Creator pleases him, like a guest who accepts the host’s treats. For this reason, he attains the same position, the same degree, as the Creator.

We need to work on our intention on this path, but sometimes it is necessary to separate from the Light, the Creator, the Host, so that His greatness and absolute power that spreads to the entire universe will remain hidden from us, allowing us to keep our independence. Even when I feel free, like a child left home alone by his parents, I still try to behave well, as if the Host were always with me.

And this is despite the fact that my nature constantly resists, conceals the Host from me, and leads in the opposite direction. Everything is made the way it is so that I imagine the Creator before me and thus, study and reveal Him.

This is why our world is called the revelation in concealment, “Megillat Esther (scrolls of Esther).” We begin this work the very first time we begin to feel the desire to understand the meaning of life. From that moment, I remain confused and unable to understand who I am and why I exist, where I am going.

The first thing I need to do here is to calm down and understand that every moment, I am in the best state for advancement. There is an entire system of Partzufim, worlds, Sefirot, and Reshimot (spiritual genes) operating above, and this entire mechanism is only intended to help me. All the worlds are only created for man to constantly provide him with the best state for advancement toward the goal of creation, his perfect state.

The one who accepts this a priori already has a different attitude toward everything that happens to him. Then, he stops complaining and seeing problems everywhere, disagreeing with his states, and everything that happens to him and the world. This only testified to his foolishness and nearsightedness. Now, he begins to search for how, according to what formula, with what attitude, he will be able to derive the maximum benefit from every state for the attainment of the goal.

There are certain conditions set ahead of time that I do not understand because I am unfamiliar with the entire system. This is why we need to accept as given every current state where I have ended up with my desires and thoughts, my heart and mind, and direct it toward the attainment of the goal.

The goal is adhesion with the Creator, the attainment of similarity to Him. This is why I need to try to imagine the Creator in every state and become like Him, take my example from Him like a guest from the host. As it is written: “I to my Beloved, and my Beloved to me.”

One who understands his state, accepts it as given, and correctly directs himself so that “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” advances this way. Then, he finds a mentor, books, the group, and the goal. All this is before him; all the roads are open.

This is a gradual, step-by-step process that ends with a great miracle. We can see the end of all the corrections in it because all corrections are intended for revealing the “stony heart,” the point that separates us from the Creator, called “existence from absence.” We are “absence,” while He exists. We want to overcome this difference, which is called the attainment of adhesion.

However, we discover that it is an abyss that cannot be stepped over, just as one born a woman cannot become a man, and one born black cannot become white or red. We cannot change the qualities we have received from nature.

The biggest difference of all the possible differences is the one between “existence” and “absence.” We reveal this difference in the form of the stony heart, which is corrected through a miracle called Purim.
[72342]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What can a person do while reading The Book of Zohar in order to stay in contact with the group throughout the day?

Answer: You receive some medicine in the morning, an injection. Suppose I have high blood pressure. I take a pill in the morning so that I will feel good the entire day. The pill does its job because it works on the same level: the still, the vegetative, and the animate.

On the other hand, our spiritual development depends on our efforts. My healing depends on my participation. Why? It is because thanks to the healing, from the animate level I attain the level of man.

So, it isn’t enough to get a “pill” in the morning, for example, half an hour before reading The Book of Zohar, when I am very enthusiastic and moved to tears by the strong emotions. It isn’t enough. I have to organize a daily schedule so that I will be under this influence all the other 23.5 hours.

In our world, the pill has an effect on me for 23.5 hours if I suck on it for half an hour. Gradually, as the digestive juices are extracted, the pill releases all the substances it contains so that they are absorbed by the body for several hours.

We have to do the same. However, a person cannot do that because he is constantly on his level, while here, he has to be between two. Two levels, as it says in The Zohar, are the letters of the upper “Hey” and the lower “Hey.” The upper “Hey” is Bina that operates on me, and I am Malchut, the lower “Hey.” What should be between us? It is the Creator.

So, I have to place the Creator before me, which means that all the awakenings that my Malchut feels, my desire, as a result of receiving half an hour of “infusion,” all its potential preparation for correction, all must be revealed practically during the 23.5 hours. I have to assist it by trying not to detach myself from the goal of “Israel (one who yearns for the Creator), the Torah (the Light that Reforms), and the Creator are one.” For that, I received the injection.

Of course, I can only do it with the help of the group where we are in one thought and thus influence one another. There is no other choice. A person cannot do it by himself. Even if he writes himself a thousand memos and puts them everywhere, he won’t see them. Even if he takes a servant to remind him, he won’t hear him.

It is possible only in the form that is above him, when the force that obliges him to hear, that is, to establish a connection between the two letters of “Hey,” comes to him. You can do that only in the group.

Therefore, mutual guarantee is expressed when you are in this activity, in absorbing the medicine that is already within you. If you swallow it and don’t use it, it is as if you received poison from a snake because every medicine is poison. It isn’t by chance that the symbol of medicine is a snake coiling around a cup of poison.

If you don’t use this means correctly, it becomes the potion of death. Then you will discover it through suffering and not by the Light. This is mechanics, and it must operate this way. There is nothing but the laws of nature here.

This is the root of all the mistakes people make throughout their lives and throughout human history. You could write entire novels about it, but humanity already has no time to read them….
[72163]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2012, The Zohar

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Preparation to the Lesson
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Bad Mixtures,” Item 292, Lesson 81
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